shooting

Six killed in German 'family tragedy' shooting: police

BY IBRAHIM OT WITH BRYN STOLE IN BERLIN

  • The six people killed were all adults, among them one who succumbed to their injuries in hospital, while another person was wounded and in stable condition, a police spokesman told AFP.  "A male principal offender and a female companion" were arrested, he said, while a separate police statement mentioned a third suspect being held.
  • A gunman killed six people Monday in a German youth welfare centre for mothers and their children in what police said was a likely "family tragedy", before the male suspect and a female companion were arrested.
  • The six people killed were all adults, among them one who succumbed to their injuries in hospital, while another person was wounded and in stable condition, a police spokesman told AFP.  "A male principal offender and a female companion" were arrested, he said, while a separate police statement mentioned a third suspect being held.
A gunman killed six people Monday in a German youth welfare centre for mothers and their children in what police said was a likely "family tragedy", before the male suspect and a female companion were arrested.
The deadly shooting spree sparked a major police operation in the northern city of Stade, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Hamburg.
The six people killed were all adults, among them one who succumbed to their injuries in hospital, while another person was wounded and in stable condition, a police spokesman told AFP. 
"A male principal offender and a female companion" were arrested, he said, while a separate police statement mentioned a third suspect being held.
The police spokesman told AFP that investigators believed "it is not a case of femicide, nor does it involve a political background or anything of that nature. Rather it is an extended family tragedy."
N24 television cited witnesses as saying that police deployed to the building after an emergency call and spotted two suspects who attempting to flee in a car, leading police to open fire.
One eyewitness told the news site Focus Online that police shouted "stop where you are" at the man and woman attempting to flee, then fired some 10 to 15 rounds at the vehicle.
A separate amateur video clip published by Bild daily showed a police road block stopping a Mercedes passenger car with a blown-out back tyre on a country road nearby. 
Officers with guns are then seen shouting at the two occupants to get out and arresting them as they lie face down on the road.
The day of deadly drama led police to shut down the centre of the city of 50,000 people on the Elbe river in Lower-Saxony state. Police helicopters circled the sky above.

'Chaotic situation'

The shootings took place near a day-care centre and a primary school, said city councillor Carsten Brokelmann, adding that no one there was hurt.
"We are relieved that our staff and the children at the daycare centre and primary school are safe, and I would like to thank the police officers for their efforts in this chaotic situation," he said in a statement.
"At the same time, our deepest sympathies go out to the victims of this terrible act and their families."
Germany has some of Europe's strictest gun laws -- they require anyone under 25 to pass a psychiatric exam before applying for a gun licence -- and mass shootings are relatively rare. 
But they occur from time to time, and Monday's was among the deadliest in recent times.
In February 2020, a far-right extremist shot dead nine people and wounded five others in the central German city of Hanau. 
In March 2023 a disgruntled former Jehovah's Witness member shot dead six people from the group's congregation in Hamburg, before turning the gun on himself.
In May 2022 a 21-year-old gunman opened fire at a secondary school in northern Germany, wounding a female member of staff before being arrested.
bro-sr-bst/fz/tw

conflict

Polish businesses press Warsaw, Kyiv to end political rift

BY OLA CICHOWLAS

  • "The business community is directly against that," Kostrzewa said, noting that Poland's Ukrainian workforce was a "very important part of Poland's economic ecosystem". 
  • When Wojciech Kostrzewa, who represents some of Poland's biggest firms, went on a Polish economic mission to Kyiv last month, he found a "very good" atmosphere and a collaborative spirit with his Ukrainian counterparts.
  • "The business community is directly against that," Kostrzewa said, noting that Poland's Ukrainian workforce was a "very important part of Poland's economic ecosystem". 
When Wojciech Kostrzewa, who represents some of Poland's biggest firms, went on a Polish economic mission to Kyiv last month, he found a "very good" atmosphere and a collaborative spirit with his Ukrainian counterparts.
But a political row erupted just days later over events that took place over 80 years ago.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky infuriated Poles by signing a decree naming a military unit after the UPA, nationalist insurgents during World War II who also took part in massacres against Poles. 
The dispute soon spiralled into the worst between the neighbours and allies since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022 -- culminating in Zelensky skipping the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Gdansk. 
Now Kostrzewa, who heads a business union, is appealing to both sides to set the feuding aside and focus on the economy.  
"It's about building the future and not being busy with the past," the influential entrepreneur told AFP in Poland's Baltic resort of Sopot. 
Kostrzewa was one of several Polish executives who signed an appeal to both governments urging them not to "squander" their close ties.
"The aim was to normalise relations and exclude the economy from this dispute, which should be for historians," he said.
He had hoped the Gdansk conference last week -- where Zelensky's absence loomed large but where officials and business executives from both sides struck deals and mingled -- would be a first step. 
But that hope began to fade over the weekend.  
Warsaw expects Zelensky to reverse his UPA decision, something Kyiv maintains is unacceptable. 
At the Gdansk gathering, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called for "mutual respect" and also "understanding (of) one's own history", an apparent reference to Ukraine.
Zelensky said meanwhile on Sunday that "Nobody will ever again dictate to Ukrainians what heroes we honour." 
 

 Part of Poland's 'ecosystem'

 
Poland is home to some 1.5 million Ukrainians, both refugees who fled Russia's invasion and economic migrants who have lived in the European Union country for years.  
But anti-Ukrainian sentiment has risen in Poland in recent months, now also echoed by the nationalist President Karol Nawrocki and hard-right parties who seek to build on historical differences to boost their support. 
"The business community is directly against that," Kostrzewa said, noting that Poland's Ukrainian workforce was a "very important part of Poland's economic ecosystem". 
Poland is also Ukraine's main trading partner in Europe, and serves as a logistics hub for exports from Ukraine since its airspace has been closed since the war began. 
Around 30,000 Ukrainian-owned companies operate in Poland, most of whom registered after the war erupted, Kostrzewa said. 
"Part of Ukraine's economy is already in the EU thanks to Poland," he said. He also believes that Poland-based Ukrainians could be instrumental in helping Kyiv's bid to join the bloc. 
Despite the current tensions, Poland, which underwent a series of reforms in the 1990s before joining the European Union in 2004, remains a model for Ukraine in private conversations.
"It shows that a country that was bankrupt at the start of the 1990s could -- thanks to reforms and efforts by both the political class and society -- become the 20th (largest) economy in the world," Kostrzewa said.
 

 'We want to help'

 
The Gdansk conference focused on Ukraine's post-war reconstruction, with Polish firms hoping their proximity will help them avoid being overshadowed by Western rivals if and when a war settlement is reached.
Some Polish and Ukrainian businessmen in Gdansk told AFP the clash was exclusively political.
"It's just for the political class," said Ukrainian-born Vitalii Hulakov, who was representing a Polish manufacturer at the event.
But others said it had nonetheless come up in conversations. 
"We're not politicians. We want to help and develop business," said Michal Rzepnikowski, whose company exports Polish prosthetics to Ukraine.
His Endolink firm began transporting humanitarian aid to Ukraine at the start of the war. It then evolved into a business operation, providing medical equipment for hospitals and rehabilitation centres. 
He said clients and providers on both sides of the border usually acknowledge that it was not the time for a historical reckoning while Europe's worst war since WWII drags on.  
"Both sides have reached the conclusion that this is not a priority during the war," Rzepnikowski said.
oc/ks/gil/js/giv

economy

Burnham pledges radical devolution of UK govt if PM

BY DANIEL MATTHEWS, WITH AFP REPORTERS IN LONDON

  • Starmer, who became prime minister in July 2024 after Labour won an election landslide, announced his resignation last Monday.
  • The frontrunner to become Britain's next prime minister, Andy Burnham, vowed in a speech Monday to "bring about the biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen" if he succeeds Keir Starmer.
  • Starmer, who became prime minister in July 2024 after Labour won an election landslide, announced his resignation last Monday.
The frontrunner to become Britain's next prime minister, Andy Burnham, vowed in a speech Monday to "bring about the biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen" if he succeeds Keir Starmer.
Burnham -- currently the only candidate to replace Starmer, who resigned as Labour leader and prime minister earlier this month -- pledged to devolve greater powers to regional mayors, including the northwestern city of Manchester where until recently he was in charge.
"I am going to give Britain the circuit breaker it needs," Burnham told an invited audience in Manchester, pledging to put power "in the hands of the people and places who can use it best".
"We need a new determination to raise living standards of every single person in this land," he added.
"And we must accept that to do that, to fix the economy and the country, we need to change politics and we need to do it now."
Opposition leaders criticised the speech.
"He doesn't have a plan beyond telling mayors to go and sort it out," said Kemi Badenoch, leader of the main opposition Conservatives.
Robert Jenrick of the hard-right Reform UK party, which has led national opinion polls for more than a year, said the British public wanted "radical change now".
"People can't wait 10 years," he told the GB News television station, after Burnham promised "a 10-year mission to raise living standards across the land".

'Streamlined state'

Delivering his speech from a Manchester museum, Burnham described Britain as "one of the most over-centralised countries in the world".
Starmer, who became prime minister in July 2024 after Labour won an election landslide, announced his resignation last Monday. If no challenger comes forward to replace him, Burnham could be prime minister as early as mid-July.
Burnham would inherit a British economy that ruling centre-left Labour vowed to revitalise when it won power in July 2024 after 14 years in opposition.
After a tough 18 months, growth showed signs of picking up until the Middle East war hindered progress and pushed up inflation.
Burnham used his speech to pledge fiscal discipline and to reduce the country's ballooning welfare bill, having already sought to calm markets by committing to the government's current borrowing limits.
He proposed the creation of a "No. 10 North" to coordinate the devolution -- a play on words on the prime minister's address at 10 Downing Street.
"We will create a more streamlined state with a clearer purpose: to power up all parts of the country and put a laser-like focus on growth and regeneration," he said.
"The change will be driven through the prime minister's office in an extended operation, based here in Manchester."
He vowed that office would "oversee the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period".
However, he did not set out how that would be funded, amid squeezed public finances in the United Kingdom.

'Manchesterism'

Coining the phrase "Manchesterism", which he defines as business-friendly socialism, Burnham has railed against trickle-down economics and neo-liberalism.
Among his more defined economic beliefs is greater "public control" over services like transport, water and energy, though he was vague Monday on whether this meant full renationalisation of utilities.
Under Starmer, British railway operators were gradually re-entering public hands.
Burnham has positioned himself as a champion for small businesses and proposed cutting business rates for pubs and music venues.
"I will back our scientists, technologists, entrepreneurs, and creatives, as I have done here (in Manchester), and show how Britain will be the innovation nation of the next decade," he said Monday.
Rain Newton-Smith, head of British employers' lobby group, the CBI, said "business leaders will be encouraged by efforts to use the levers of devolution to spread prosperity across the country".
In the days since Starmer resigned, speculation has been rife about who Burnham will appoint as finance minister.
Rachel Reeves has served as chancellor of the exchequer since Labour returned to power almost two years ago but reportedly faces the axe if Burnham takes office.
bur-st/pdw

heatwave

Europe's deadly heatwave scorches eastern flank, takes aim at Ukraine

  • The heatwave first smothered western Europe last week, sending temperatures to record highs and straining hospitals, transport networks and power grids on a continent where infrastructure was not built to withstand punishing heat and where air conditioning is not widespread.
  • The most severe heatwave ever recorded in Europe roasted central and eastern parts of the continent on Monday as Ukraine's war-ravaged power grid struggled to cope with the shock of scorching heat.
  • The heatwave first smothered western Europe last week, sending temperatures to record highs and straining hospitals, transport networks and power grids on a continent where infrastructure was not built to withstand punishing heat and where air conditioning is not widespread.
The most severe heatwave ever recorded in Europe roasted central and eastern parts of the continent on Monday as Ukraine's war-ravaged power grid struggled to cope with the shock of scorching heat.
The heatwave first smothered western Europe last week, sending temperatures to record highs and straining hospitals, transport networks and power grids on a continent where infrastructure was not built to withstand punishing heat and where air conditioning is not widespread.
More than 1,300 excess deaths were recorded in Europe since June 21, according to the UN health agency, including several small children who died in locked cars and youths who drowned as they sought relief from the infernal temperatures in unsupervised swimming spots.
France reported at least 74 drowning deaths since June 18 and Poland said 17 drowned on Sunday alone.
"I'm doing the same thing as everyone -- trying to stay in the shade and drink a lot of water," Susanne, a Vienna resident, told AFP on a bank of a river near the Austrian capital.
"I just hope that the politicians will understand the situation and will begin to set a course in the right direction," she said.
On Monday, the Balkans braced for temperatures of up to 40C, with firefighters in Bosnia battling blazes sparked during the heat.
At least 130 million people in Europe were expected to swelter through temperatures of more than 35C, down from 190 million on Sunday according to an AFP analysis.
This heatwave is the most severe ever recorded in Europe, and would have been "virtually impossible" this early in the summer without climate change, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists said.
All-time temperature records have been broken in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as for the month of June in the UK and in Switzerland.

New shock for Ukraine

Ukraine's energy network, already pummelled by Russian attacks over more than four years of war, was buckling under the high temperatures on Monday.
In the western Rivne region, authorities introduced emergency power outages to ease pressure on the grid as temperatures passed 36C as of 15:00 (1200 GMT), according to data from the state Hydrometeorological Centre.
The central Khmelnytsky region also announced temporary outages, and five other regions -- from Ivano-Frankivsk in the west to Zaporizhzhia on the front line in the south -- warned households and businesses to be prepared for blackouts on Tuesday.
The state weather service said the country would face "intense heat", with temperatures of 35C-38C expected, though this is some way off the national record of 42C recorded in August 2010.
"The heat is also a serious test for equipment that has been operating under wartime conditions for more than four years and has withstood numerous attacks," Sergii Kovalenko, CEO of the Yasno energy company said over the weekend.
He said that summer was the peak period for repairing the energy network, battered through the winter by repeat Russian attacks, meaning the grid was already "operating at the limit of its capabilities".
- Record temperatures - 
Over the weekend, the heat scorched the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland, with the countries setting new temperature records of 41.9C, 41.7C and 40.5C, respectively.
The Berlin police used water cannons to help residents of the capital cool off for a second day running Sunday -- this time at the Olympia venue where singer Bruno Mars was performing.
With temperatures cooling in France, the national weather service said on Sunday evening it was already anticipating the possibility of another heatwave in July.
The scorching heat has sparked lively discussion in some countries about the merits of air-conditioning, which is used far less in Europe than in some parts of the world.
The EU on Monday refused to be drawn into the increasingly politicised debate, with a Brussels spokeswoman saying the bloc did not have "a particular view or position" on the matter.
burs-pdw/st

conflict

Russia jails veteran who threatened Putin with mutiny

  • A district court in the Voronezh region found Lunin guilty of an administrative offence of displaying "extremist" symbols, the court said on its website -- a ruling that typically carries a days-long jail stint.
  • A Russian army veteran who threatened President Vladimir Putin with mutiny has been convicted of displaying "extremist" symbols and jailed, according to his Telegram account and court documents.
  • A district court in the Voronezh region found Lunin guilty of an administrative offence of displaying "extremist" symbols, the court said on its website -- a ruling that typically carries a days-long jail stint.
A Russian army veteran who threatened President Vladimir Putin with mutiny has been convicted of displaying "extremist" symbols and jailed, according to his Telegram account and court documents.
The court -- which on Monday published limited information confirming the case -- did not give details about what the "extremist" symbols were or his sentence.
Alexander Lunin, 39, volunteered to fight in Ukraine following the start of Moscow's full-scale offensive in 2022.
He served at least part of his service on the front line, before returning to his home in the western Voronezh region, according to media reports.
Last week, he posted videos on Instagram calling for a meeting with Putin, alleging in one that many soldiers were being tortured and abused for refusing "mindless, suicidal orders".
"If I don't come to the Kremlin soon and speak live, right next to you, the army will turn its weapons against the Kremlin," he said.
The video, published on Thursday, racked up millions of views.
Russia has introduced sweeping wartime censorship since launching its Ukraine offensive in 2022, silencing criticism of the government and military leadership.
Direct public criticism of Putin is virtually unheard of.
The Kremlin said Friday it had not yet seen the video but that it appeared to have "strange wording".
A district court in the Voronezh region found Lunin guilty of an administrative offence of displaying "extremist" symbols, the court said on its website -- a ruling that typically carries a days-long jail stint.
The ruling was issued on Saturday, but published on Monday. The court said he had been sentenced but did not specify the punishment.
A post on his Telegram account said he had been jailed for 11 days.
bur/tw

US

Trump says Iran meeting to take place in Qatar

BY BY AFP TEAMS IN TEHRAN, WASHINGTON AND DUBAI

  • Iran's deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi, however, denied reports that technical talks were "planned for this week", state TV reported.
  • US President Donald Trump said Iran has requested a meeting that will be held in Qatar on Tuesday, despite Tehran earlier denying that any technical talks on the deal aimed at ending the Middle East war were planned.
  • Iran's deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi, however, denied reports that technical talks were "planned for this week", state TV reported.
US President Donald Trump said Iran has requested a meeting that will be held in Qatar on Tuesday, despite Tehran earlier denying that any technical talks on the deal aimed at ending the Middle East war were planned.
The announcement came after Iran held its first talks with Oman on managing the Strait of Hormuz since the US-Iran deal was signed, and as Washington and Tehran agreed to halt their attacks, which had strained the agreement.
The exchanges of fire have underscored the fragility of the Pakistan-brokered agreement to stop the war, which sowed havoc across the Middle East and snarled the flow of oil and gas shipments through the vital Hormuz strait.
"IRAN HAS REQUESTED A MEETING. IT WILL TAKE PLACE TOMORROW IN DOHA!" Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on Monday, without specifying the participants.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt later told Fox News that US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner "will be flying to Doha for high-level meetings this week".
A diplomat with knowledge of the talks confirmed to AFP that officials from the US and Iran were due to meet in the Qatari capital to discuss the deal signed earlier this month.
"Technical teams working on the implementation of the MoU are scheduled to meet in Doha in the coming days," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
The diplomat added that "communications channels created to de-escalate any incidents are in place" after the strikes. 
Qatar has played a key role alongside Pakistan in mediating a conclusion to the conflict, with the most recent discussions between Tehran and Washington taking place on June 21 with all four countries in attendance.
Iran's deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi, however, denied reports that technical talks were "planned for this week", state TV reported.
Nevertheless, a US official also told AFP that the negotiations would continue despite the recent strikes.
"Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely" in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the official said in an email.

Hormuz talks

Iran's exercise of control over the strait has sparked repeated flare-ups, the latest of which came early on Sunday when US Central Command said it had attacked 10 Iranian military targets over "continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping".
Iran said it retaliated with strikes against US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain.
The blockade remains a key sticking point in the US negotiations.
Iran and Oman border the strait, through which a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas passed prior to the conflict, and Iran said on Monday they held their first talks since the deal was struck.
"During a trip to Muscat, the first meeting of the Joint Hormuz Committee was held," said Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi on X. "While reviewing the current issues related to the strait, we exchanged views on the future management." 
The strait comprises Omani and Iranian territorial waters, but under customary international law the two cannot generally block passage or charge tolls.
Iran warned on Sunday that any attempt by ships to bypass its preferred route through Hormuz would "increase tensions" in the Middle East.
Iran insists ships transiting the strait pass through a corridor near its own shores, instead of the opposite side of the waterway, hugging the Omani coast.
Traffic slowed over the weekend after a vessel was struck while transiting the waterway on Saturday, with 29 commodity vessels crossing on Saturday and 12 transiting on Sunday, according to data from the maritime tracking firm Kpler. 
Ships continued for several hours to use a southern corridor through Omani waters before traffic appeared to slow, Kpler-owned website MarineTraffic reported.

'Hegemonic dreams'

The published text of the memorandum of understanding says Iran will define the future administration of the strait in dialogue with Oman and the other Gulf States, but "in line" with international law.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they were taking measures to control traffic in the strait and that vessels violating those measures would be dealt with more firmly than before.
Mohammad Mokhber, adviser to Iran's supreme leader, wrote on X that as long as Iran managed the strait, Washington's "hegemonic dreams in the region will not be realised".
Experts said there would likely be more Hormuz incidents.
For Iran, "a drawn-out negotiation accompanied by controlled pressure in the strait can work to its advantage", said HA Hellyer of the Royal United Services Institute, a London think tank.
burs/ser/jfx/dcp

Chavez

Chavez-era housing complex in ruins after Venezuela quakes

BY AHIANA FIGUEROA

  • Built as part of efforts to modernize Venezuela, the buildings now symbolize the country's dire situation after twin quakes on Wednesday left nearly 1,500 people confirmed dead and tens of thousands missing.
  • A residential complex once touted as part of former strongman leader Hugo Chavez's flagship housing program has been left uninhabitable in Venezuela's earthquake disaster.
  • Built as part of efforts to modernize Venezuela, the buildings now symbolize the country's dire situation after twin quakes on Wednesday left nearly 1,500 people confirmed dead and tens of thousands missing.
A residential complex once touted as part of former strongman leader Hugo Chavez's flagship housing program has been left uninhabitable in Venezuela's earthquake disaster.
Built as part of efforts to modernize Venezuela, the buildings now symbolize the country's dire situation after twin quakes on Wednesday left nearly 1,500 people confirmed dead and tens of thousands missing.
"Most of the buildings at the back of the complex have completely collapsed," Jenny Contreras, 28, said.
Contreras, her husband and their four-year-old son have slept on a mattress in the street since the quakes tore into 192 buildings in the Urbanismo Hugo Chavez complex in the Catia La Mar neighborhood of La Guaira.
The 3,400 apartments have been evacuated and Contreras said she was not even able to return to recover belongings.
Large cracks rippled through the buildings, revealing interior construction materials, AFP reporters said. Some were teetering on the verge of collapse and others had already fallen.
Even for buildings that are still standing, the future is bleak.
"The entire development will be condemned. The whole development is going to disappear in the future because all of it is in very bad condition," Contreras said.
Shopkeeper Dayana Lean, 51, said that "zones one and three" of the complex were the hardest hit. 
"Over that way, all of that is already gone. They sank. And there are many dead," she said. 
Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, said on Sunday that temporary camps were being set up for people who had lost their homes.
"At the same time, work begins on planning projects that will allow new homes to be built in a very short time," said Rodriguez, who is facing a massive test as leader after taking over from Nicolas Maduro, ousted in a US military operation in January.
Residents had laid out mattresses, washing machines, wooden furniture, and other salvaged household items.
Lean said she did not want to be sent to a shelter.
"If we're going to be refugees, we'll stay here. We'll look after each other," she said.
afc/lp/lb/lkd/sms/msp

conflict

Pakistan launches deadliest attack on Afghanistan in months

  • Islamabad is mediating between the United States and Iran to end their war in the Middle East, but Pakistan says its battle against militancy at home requires its strikes on Afghanistan.
  • Pakistan launched its deadliest attack on Afghanistan in months, with Islamabad saying on Monday it killed dozens of militants as the Afghan government reported civilian casualties.
  • Islamabad is mediating between the United States and Iran to end their war in the Middle East, but Pakistan says its battle against militancy at home requires its strikes on Afghanistan.
Pakistan launched its deadliest attack on Afghanistan in months, with Islamabad saying on Monday it killed dozens of militants as the Afghan government reported civilian casualties.
The nighttime strikes are the latest flare-up of violence between the neighbours whose relationship has been fraught since 2021, when the Taliban government took power in Kabul, and follow a weeks-long war that erupted in February.
Pakistan's information minister said air and ground operations killed 29 militants and were aimed at a group that it blames for a deadly weekend assault in Karachi, although Afghan authorities have repeatedly denied their territory harbours attackers.
The Taliban government said the airstrikes hit three eastern provinces, killing 36 civilians and wounding 163.
A resident of Paktia province, Adam Khan, said he "cannot put into words the condition of the children I saw at the hospital, or the screams of their parents and siblings".
Those killed in one of the strikes "were innocent civilians, including children, elderly people and women" sleeping in a house, the 63-year-old told AFP.
In neighbouring Paktika province, community leader Amin Mangal told AFP a Pakistani strike on a house killed six people. 
"They were very poor and helpless, had no working man in the household, and were living with the help of charity," Mangal said.
The Pakistani operation along the border is the deadliest since March, when an attack on a drug treatment centre in Kabul killed hundreds according to the United Nations.
Pakistan's information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said the latest offensive targeted Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Diplomats summoned

Hamdullah Fitrat, Afghanistan's deputy government spokesman, said the Paktia site "was bombed for a second time" after residents rushed to rescue people.
Pakistan's military and the prime minister's office did not respond to an AFP request to comment on the allegation.
In the countries' capitals, the foreign ministries summoned each other's diplomats over the attack in Afghanistan's border area and earlier in Pakistan's megacity Karachi.
In Paktia's Tsamkani district, hundreds of mourners gathered before the funeral beds of some of those killed.
Mediation from several countries, including China, has failed to produce a lasting resolution between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Their war earlier this year killed hundreds of Afghans and displaced tens of thousands, according to the UN.
There have been sporadic attacks since a ceasefire reached in March, with Pakistani strikes in June killing 13 people, Afghan officials said.
Islamabad is mediating between the United States and Iran to end their war in the Middle East, but Pakistan says its battle against militancy at home requires its strikes on Afghanistan.
Explosives were detonated and gunmen opened fire inside a Rangers paramilitary camp in Karachi on Saturday in one of the worst militant attacks in Pakistan's most populous city in years.
Authorities said three paramilitary personnel were killed and that they had detained an Afghan involved in the attack.
Pakistan says its forces use "precise targeting" to aim at militant hideouts and weapons stores, especially those of the TTP that has waged a violent campaign against Pakistan for years.
Afghan authorities have repeatedly denied that the country is used by militants and say Pakistani operations have caused a heavy civilian death toll.
The conflict earlier this year saw the two militaries engage in fierce fighting in border areas, along with unprecedented Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan cities, including the capital Kabul and southern Kandahar where the Afghan Taliban's supreme leader is based.
The frontier has been largely closed since cross-border violence broke out in October. 
burs-strs-ash-qb/rsc/ami

Global Edition

Venezuela search teams scramble as hope fades of finding quake survivors

BY MARGIONI BERMUDEZ WITH BRIAN CONTRERAS IN CARACAS

  • Millions more people were feared to lack sanitation and other basic needs after one of Latin America's most devastating earthquake disasters.
  • Hopes were fading Monday of finding survivors more than four days after powerful twin earthquakes struck Venezuela, as residents grow increasingly frustrated with the government's response to the disaster that has killed at least 1,450 people and left tens of thousands unaccounted for.
  • Millions more people were feared to lack sanitation and other basic needs after one of Latin America's most devastating earthquake disasters.
Hopes were fading Monday of finding survivors more than four days after powerful twin earthquakes struck Venezuela, as residents grow increasingly frustrated with the government's response to the disaster that has killed at least 1,450 people and left tens of thousands unaccounted for.
A strong aftershock was felt in the hardest-hit areas of the capital Caracas and La Guaira shortly after 7:00 am (1100 GMT) on Monday, which the US Geological Survey measured at magnitude 4.6, adding to fears for the safety of hundreds of buildings weakened by the tremors.
French and American rescue teams found a man and his teen son alive under the rubble on Sunday in Caraballeda, a town about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Caracas, AFP journalists saw.
The rescue offered a glimmer of hope in an ongoing tragedy that has shaken a country already mired in an economic crisis, but that hope dwindled as the critical 72-hour window for rescuing trapped victims passed.
Millions more people were feared to lack sanitation and other basic needs after one of Latin America's most devastating earthquake disasters.
Some 774 buildings were badly damaged in back-to-back quakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 that struck on Wednesday evening, including 189 buildings that have totally collapsed, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said on Sunday.
AFPTV drone footage from La Guaira showed smoke rising from piles of concrete and debris, where a neighborhood of multistorey buildings once stood. 
In the coastal town of Tucacas, rescuers were digging for people trapped in the pancaked layers and rubble of a collapsed building complex.
Luis Salas, 27, who joined the rescue efforts, told AFP that "the hardest part was when we felt hope in the tunnels we went into -- crawling, clearing debris, working with all our heart, with great faith -- and when we reached our targets, we found them lifeless."
Experts say the first 72 hours after natural disasters define the narrow window for rescuing the living. After that, the search usually becomes one of recovering bodies.
In the Caracas neighborhood of Chacao, Caracas, large electronic screens on a building usually used for advertising were showing the faces of missing people.
Last week, UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said that more than 50,000 people were missing.
On Sunday, Rodriguez said the death toll -- which was still expected to rise -- had reached 1,450 people, with at least 3,150 others injured.

'Can't do it alone'

Even as rescue efforts continued, public anger has mounted in some areas.
Eduardo Cardozo, a volunteer in Tucacas, said it was "frustrating" to know that some victims could have been saved "if they'd been searched for in time."
In La Guaira state's Tanaguarena area, one man urged soldiers to pick up picks and shovels: "The country needs you. Put down your weapon."
Outbreaks of looting have hit La Guaira city, much of which now lies in rubble.
Pharmacies, supermarkets and other businesses were ransacked, said residents, some of whom complained of the slow and meager post-quake aid coming from authorities.
Venezuela's interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, said on Sunday that temporary camps were being set up for people who had lost their homes.
"At the same time, work begins on planning projects that will allow new homes to be built in a very short time," she said.

Economic impact

Rodriguez praised rescuers on Sunday, saying "we have rescued people who are still alive, and therefore these efforts will not be suspended."
"We always hold onto hope."
Cardozo, the Tucacas volunteer, remained hopeful: "We're still here waiting. Let's see if we can get someone else out."
Twenty-four nations have sent 521 tons of supplies, 86 units with dogs trained to locate people trapped beneath the rubble and more than 2,700 search-and-rescue personnel, according to Rodriguez.
US helicopters ferried in aid, and 230 more US military personnel were arriving to help expand airport capacity and reopen a key seaport to boost relief efforts, the US Southern Command said.
The United States -- which captured Venezuela's former president Nicolas Maduro in a military raid on Caracas in January -- had already sent a 250-strong disaster response team.
The UN migration agency said that based on population and damage data, up to 6.76 million people could be affected, and would require shelter, water, sanitation, healthcare and essential relief items.
Venezuela's worst earthquakes in more than a century have come after the oil-rich country endured more than a decade of economic collapse.
The crisis has hollowed out hospitals and public services, driving millions to leave the country.
The United Nations estimated $6.7 billion in physical damage -- equivalent to six percent of Venezuela's GDP.
bur-cc/msp/phz

investment

South Korea to invest nearly $1.2 tn in chips, AI data centres

BY KANG JIN-KYU

  • The government also announced a separate investment of a quadrillion won (around $650 billion) in AI data centres over the next 10 years.
  • South Korea will invest nearly $1.2 trillion -- equivalent to more than two-thirds of its GDP -- in a new chip-building hub and AI data centres over several years, as it seeks to profit from soaring demand while developing previously neglected regions.
  • The government also announced a separate investment of a quadrillion won (around $650 billion) in AI data centres over the next 10 years.
South Korea will invest nearly $1.2 trillion -- equivalent to more than two-thirds of its GDP -- in a new chip-building hub and AI data centres over several years, as it seeks to profit from soaring demand while developing previously neglected regions.
The enormous cash injection comes as Asia's fourth-largest economy rides high on a global AI boom -- with South Korean memory chipmakers emerging as a crucial cog in the fast-moving industry.
"Speed is the only path to survival. We must secure the core elements of artificial intelligence faster than any other nation," President Lee Jae Myung said in Seoul at an event to unveil the public-private collaboration.
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix will make a record investment of 800 trillion won (around $520 billion) in a new semiconductor fabrication hub in the country's southwest, the government said.
Both companies have seen profits and share prices skyrocket in recent months, as frenzied demand for AI infrastructure squeezes the global supply of memory chips.
The government also announced a separate investment of a quadrillion won (around $650 billion) in AI data centres over the next 10 years.
The plans are in line with Lee's agenda for industrial development in regions outside the capital, and Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan said the Samsung-SK hynix project will comprise four fabrication plants.
"We will develop the southwestern region into a second semiconductor production hub," he said.
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix will each build two plants under the 800 trillion won project, according to Kim's presentation slide.

Capacity expansion

"Permit approvals and construction timelines will be dramatically shortened to rapidly expand production capacity," Kim said.
"Through this, we will maintain an overwhelming market leadership and a decisive technological gap in the memory semiconductor sector."
Science Minister Bae Kyung-hoon announced that the country will invest 550 trillion won on AI data centres by 2029.
"By 2035, an additional 10-gigawatt AI data centre will be built, with a total investment exceeding 18.4 gigawatts and 1,000 trillion won."
The new investment is by far South Korea's largest.
The southwestern region of Honam -- a traditional liberal stronghold encompassing Gwangju and the Jeolla provinces -- has long lagged behind the more industrialised southeast.
This disparity dates back to rapid economic development under former president Park Chung-hee in the 1960s and 70s.
But without incentives for companies to voluntarily relocate, the massive investment could backfire, warned Kim Dae-jong, a professor of Business Administration at Sejong University.
This could, in turn, hurt the nation's semiconductor competitiveness.
"It is essential to minimise the financial burden, amounting to hundreds of trillions of won, as well as the time-related risks faced by companies," said Kim.

Renewables

Analysts say there are abundant renewable electricity resources in the southwest, making it possible for companies to meet their commitments to boosting green energy use.
But they caution that building an entirely new semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem away from the existing industrial base around Seoul would require significant time and investment.
"Establishing production lines from scratch could take more than five years," Lee Jong-hwan, a semiconductor engineering professor at Sangmyung University, told AFP.
"The biggest challenge is that most skilled workers and suppliers remain concentrated around the Seoul metropolitan area."
Concerns were also raised about heavy demand for water. President Lee wrote on X on Saturday that "assessments indicate it is possible to supply one million tons of industrial water per day" in the region.
The announcement comes as South Korea debates how the enormous profits generated by the global AI-driven semiconductor boom should be shared more broadly across society.
Kim Yong-beom, the president's chief policy secretary, in May suggested using excess AI-related tax revenue to fund startup support for young people, basic income programmes for rural and fishing communities, and assistance for artists.
The boom has also fuelled worker demands over pay packages, with Samsung averting a major strike in May by agreeing a deal on bonuses with its largest union.
kjk-sjh/mlr/kaf

US

Washington says US, Iran pausing strikes, talks to proceed

BY BY AFP TEAMS IN WASHINGTON, TEHRAN, JERUSALEM, BEIRUT, MANAMA AND KUWAIT CITY

  • Tehran has insisted on Lebanon being part of the wider peace deal for the Middle East war. burs-dcp/hol/jm
  • A US official said Sunday that Washington and Tehran agreed to halt attacks after new tit-for-tat strikes strained their interim deal, with the sides planning to renew talks aimed at ending the Middle East war.
  • Tehran has insisted on Lebanon being part of the wider peace deal for the Middle East war. burs-dcp/hol/jm
A US official said Sunday that Washington and Tehran agreed to halt attacks after new tit-for-tat strikes strained their interim deal, with the sides planning to renew talks aimed at ending the Middle East war.
The exchanges have underscored the fragility of a Pakistan-brokered agreement to end the conflict that has killed thousands and snarled the flow of oil shipments through the vital Strait of Hormuz.
Although a ceasefire took effect in April, sporadic violence has flared up in the Gulf region, with traffic in the strait serving as a regular flashpoint.
"Technical talks are slated to continue on all areas of the MOU," a US official told AFP in an email late Sunday, referring to the memorandum of understanding struck between Washington and Tehran.
"Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely" in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the official added.
Iran has not immediately commented on the US statement, and the US official did not confirm a US media report that talks would resume Tuesday in Qatar.
Tehran has insisted on controlling passage through the vital strait, through which about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas travel in peacetime. It did not have that control before the war.
Iran's top diplomat warned Sunday that any attempt by ships to bypass its preferred route through Hormuz would "increase tensions" in the Middle East.
The strait comprises Omani and Iranian territorial waters, but under customary international law the two cannot generally block passage or charge tolls.
Nevertheless, Iran prevented most ships from using the narrow waterway during the war, granting it enormous economic leverage which it appears reluctant to give up.
Tehran's enforcement of its control has sparked repeated flare-ups with Washington, the latest of which came early Sunday, when US Central Command said it had attacked 10 Iranian military targets over "continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping".
Iran said it retaliated with strikes against US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. Both Kuwait and Bahrain denounced the Iranian attacks.

'Hegemonic dreams'

Iran presently insists ships transiting the strait pass through a corridor near its own shores, though this week dozens of vessels have travelled along the opposite side of the waterway, hugging the Omani coast.
"Any attempt to adopt new or separate arrangements compared to what is underway by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will only lead to more complicated situations and delays in the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and will increase the tensions," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.
The published text of the memorandum says Iran will define the future administration of the strait in dialogue with Oman and the other Gulf States, but "in line" with international law.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they were taking measures to control traffic in the strait and that vessels violating those measures would be dealt with more firmly than before.
Mohammad Mokhber, adviser to Iran's supreme leader, wrote on X that as long as Iran managed the strait, Washington's "hegemonic dreams in the region will not be realised".
Experts said there would likely be more Hormuz incidents.
For Iran, "a drawn-out negotiation accompanied by controlled pressure in the strait can work to its advantage", said HA Hellyer of Royal United Services Institute, a London think tank.
While the tit-for-tat exchanges have largely been without reported casualties, Qatar's interior ministry said one of its citizens was killed aboard a boat by shrapnel from "military operations in the area".

Israel strikes Lebanon

The Israeli army destroyed an extensive tunnel in southern Lebanon on Sunday, with Lebanese state media reporting strikes in the area and Iran-backed Hezbollah saying it reserves the right to respond to those attacks.
"The tunnel, stretching more than 200 metres and reaching a depth of over 25 metres, contained hundreds of weapons as well as several launch shafts intended to target the State of Israel," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement.
In response to the attacks, Hezbollah said it "reiterates that what the enemy has done is a blatant violation of the ceasefire to which it has adhered until now, and that it is monitoring and tracking these violations, and reserves its right to defend its homeland and its people".
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war in early March, when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in support of Iran, and Israel responded with heavy airstrikes and a ground invasion. 
Tehran has insisted on Lebanon being part of the wider peace deal for the Middle East war.
burs-dcp/hol/jm

internet

For sale on Facebook: monkeys, rhino horn and dead pangolins

BY SARA HUSSEIN

  • Some of the content is oblique -- vendors often post images of animals or parts for sale without any price or explanation.
  • The ghostly white creature curled up on a weighing scale is almost unrecognisable in the Facebook post offering it for sale.
  • Some of the content is oblique -- vendors often post images of animals or parts for sale without any price or explanation.
The ghostly white creature curled up on a weighing scale is almost unrecognisable in the Facebook post offering it for sale. Only closer inspection reveals it to be a dead pangolin.
The animal, one of the world's most endangered and trafficked mammals, has been stripped of its scales and is being advertised by a Thai account selling "seasonal wild delicacies".
The post is one of dozens reviewed by AFP that illustrate what conservationists call rampant illegal wildlife trafficking across social media platforms, particularly those belonging to Facebook parent company Meta.
A report by several NGOs released Monday accuses Meta of hosting the world's "largest single known illegal wildlife trade market" and effectively encouraging the trade by sharing advertising revenues with users and allowing them subscription models.
The report follows recent research by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), which warned Facebook is now "the central public infrastructure through which online wildlife trafficking is being concentrated, discovered and scaled".
Meta declined to respond to questions from AFP, and pointed to policies that restrict the sale of endangered species on its platforms.
But conservationists say those policies have done little to prevent Meta's platforms being used for the illegal wildlife trade.
The GI-TOC research found over 20,000 adverts for more than 260,000 wildlife products on social media platforms between April 2024 and March 2026.
Nearly three-quarters were on Facebook, and many remained up even after being reported, said Russell Gray, a data scientist and ecologist who co-authored GI-TOC's April report.
"Even the unredacted accounts and groups we reported on publicly in the report are still live and active," he told AFP.

'Mindboggling'

Conservationists and wildlife experts said that was common.
"I have not once received a response or seen any action taken," said Tom Taylor, chief operating officer of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand.
"Accounts that are openly breaking the law should be closed, and investigations into the criminal activities behind them should be launched."
Conservationists argue Meta is not only failing to remove content that violates its policies, but may effectively be encouraging it by allowing popular accounts to monetise content through advertising revenue and subscription models.
"This content monetisation that Facebook and Instagram push is actually incentivising people to commit illegal acts," said Daniel Stiles, an independent wildlife trafficking investigator.
"The more interaction and engagement they get on their account, the more money they can make," added Stiles, who co-authored the report released Monday by NGOs including Freeland, Education for Nature Vietnam and International Wildlife Trust.
Meta does not make public which accounts are in its content monetisation programmes.
But those enrolled in its subscription programme are publicly identifiable, and include an account apparently in Laos purporting to show poaching of wildlife including pangolins.
"How Meta can allow that is mindboggling," said Stiles.

'Lip service'

Animals and wildlife products are offered across Meta platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, research shows.
But other platforms, including TikTok and Snapchat -- popular because of its disappearing post settings -- are also increasingly used by traffickers.
AFP reviewed examples offering everything from chimpanzees intended as pets to rhino horn for traditional medicine and pangolins for consumption.
Some of the content is oblique -- vendors often post images of animals or parts for sale without any price or explanation. Interested commenters are told to message them directly.
But much of the content is clear, including a public Facebook account offering dead pangolins, monitor lizards and other protected wildlife for consumption in Thailand.
The algorithmic nature of social media platforms means that users who engage with wildlife trafficking accounts are offered up more.
After reviewing just a handful of public accounts advertising illegal wildlife trade, an AFP journalist's Facebook feed began routinely displaying posts selling wildlife and endangered animal parts.
Meta was among 11 tech firms that announced this month they would work to eliminate wildlife trafficking on their sites.
But the company has been a member of the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online since 2018, and the problem has continued to grow, said Steve Galster, founder of Freeland.
He warned the latest announcement risked being "more lip service".
"Until Meta is compelled to rid its platforms of illegal wildlife trade, and prove that it is not profiting from it, the online wildlife trade will only get worse."
sah/ami/tc

conflict

Israelis, Palestinians torn over sacred shrine in city of Hebron

BY LOUIS BAUDOIN-LAARMAN AND YAELLE IFRAH

  • Years later in 1997, Hebron became the territory's only Palestinian city to have an area under direct Israeli military control, named H2, which includes the Cave of the Patriarchs.
  • For Israeli settler Nitzan, Hebron's Old City and its sacred Cave of the Patriarchs shrine are a must-see for all of humanity, but for Palestinian Issa Amro, it has become a symbol of Israel's expanding grip on the city.
  • Years later in 1997, Hebron became the territory's only Palestinian city to have an area under direct Israeli military control, named H2, which includes the Cave of the Patriarchs.
For Israeli settler Nitzan, Hebron's Old City and its sacred Cave of the Patriarchs shrine are a must-see for all of humanity, but for Palestinian Issa Amro, it has become a symbol of Israel's expanding grip on the city.
Holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians and believed to be the burial place of biblical figures including Abraham, the site has long represented the competing claims that define Hebron, the largest city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque, the shrine sits within a heavily controlled area where around 40,000 Palestinians live alongside about 200 Israeli settler families -- but under separate systems of movement and security.
Israeli authorities have installed checkpoints, gates and patrols across key streets in the area, citing security concerns, and Palestinians who do not live in the restricted zone are not allowed to enter freely.
Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently announced that the shrine's administration, including planning and construction powers, would be transferred to Israeli authorities, a significant shift that has alarmed Palestinians but cheered Israeli settlers.
"It's a place that all the humanity should visit to say thanks for Hashem, which is God," Nitzan, a resident of the nearby Kiryat Arba settlement, told AFP.
"We kind of visit our parents here," said the 36-year-old employee of Israeli national parks, declining to give his full name.
But for many Palestinians living in its shadow, the site now symbolises the steady tightening of Israeli control over a city where two communities live in close proximity but inhabit starkly different worlds.
"We feel that we live in a big jail in Hebron: the checkpoints restrict movement so nobody from outside can come to our houses," said Issa Amro, an activist who lives near buildings occupied by settlers.
Over time, many Palestinian shops in the Old City have shut, and the once vibrant thoroughfare flanked by old stone buildings now stands empty.
Amro showed AFP video of men throwing stones at his home's windows, saying they were Israelis who told him they had come to take his house. He is often harassed by settlers and Israeli soldiers, he added.

Historical roots

The Oslo Agreements of the 1990s between Israelis and Palestinians divided the West Bank into areas under each group's respective control.
Years later in 1997, Hebron became the territory's only Palestinian city to have an area under direct Israeli military control, named H2, which includes the Cave of the Patriarchs.
The holy site is also separated into an area for Jews and one for Muslims, each with a separate entrance.
The plaza leading to the entrance used by Jewish visitors is clean and orderly and, until recently, included a restaurant called the "Settlers' Cafe".
"Before, any little construction here used to need the prime minister's involvement," Aaron Marwani, a city councillor in Kiryat Arba, told AFP.
"But little by little, the process got easier," said the 35-year-old lawyer, who has been coming to the Cave of the Patriarchs since childhood.
Israeli parks employee Nitzan doesn't believe coexistence can happen in Hebron and said he favoured greater separation.
"For me it's difficult to live with those neighbours. The Palestinians don't want us here," he said.
Like several Israelis, Nitzan saw the Jewish presence in Hebron as a return to deep historical roots.
The city long had a Jewish community, but the British colonial authorities evacuated it after anti-Jewish violence in 1929, in which Arabs killed nearly 70 Jews.
Some families returned, only to be evacuated again during the 1936 Palestinian uprising and prevented from returning.
More bloodshed occurred in 1994 when Israeli-American settler Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Palestinian Muslims at the site.

'Chinatown in Israel'

Excluding east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, among some three million Palestinians.
Those settlements are illegal under international law.
In Hebron, some Israeli settler representatives say they want the city under full Israeli control.
"We'd like to see the reversal of Oslo and to put this town under Israeli control," said Ishai Fleischer, an Israeli-American, who serves as a spokesman for the settler community in Hebron.
"That doesn't mean that they can't have their own Arab mayor and their own Arab culture but it would be like a Chinatown within the broader Israel."
But Palestinians to whom AFP spoke feared being evicted entirely.
Moatz Abu Snena, director of the Ibrahimi Mosque, said that Smotrich's decision was part of a wider trend.
It is a "gradual takeover of the Ibrahimi Mosque, and also further Judaisation of the place and erasure of its Islamic and religious character", he said.
For Issa Amro, the issue goes beyond the religious site itself.
"It means that we live in our own city under military law while the Israelis live under civilian law," he said.
"It's apartheid, it's more segregation, more theft, more ethnic cleansing."
yif-lba-jd/acc/amj/dcp/ane

RSF

In Sudan's Kordofan, a key city reels as paramilitary offensive looms

BY AFP TEAM IN SUDAN WITH MENNA FAROUK IN CAIRO

  • "We walk long distances for this water and it is undrinkable," the 35-year-old mother of seven told AFP from the camp on the edge of El-Obeid, a key prize in the three-year war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
  • In a displacement camp near El-Obeid in Sudan's southern Kordofan region, Agsam Hamad trudges through searing heat to fetch murky water from a distant well, as paramilitary forces unleash their fiercest assault yet on the strategic city.
  • "We walk long distances for this water and it is undrinkable," the 35-year-old mother of seven told AFP from the camp on the edge of El-Obeid, a key prize in the three-year war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
In a displacement camp near El-Obeid in Sudan's southern Kordofan region, Agsam Hamad trudges through searing heat to fetch murky water from a distant well, as paramilitary forces unleash their fiercest assault yet on the strategic city.
"We walk long distances for this water and it is undrinkable," the 35-year-old mother of seven told AFP from the camp on the edge of El-Obeid, a key prize in the three-year war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
"Our situation is very difficult. We need food and water."
El-Obeid, a city of half a million people that hosts nearly 100,000 refugees displaced by violence elsewhere, has, in recent weeks, faced its most intense RSF attacks yet.
After breaking a prolonged siege in February last year, the army has struggled to stop the RSF from reimposing a blockade through repeated drone strikes targeting the city, its infrastructure and the main highway out.
Recent attacks have hit the main power station and fuel depots, plunged neighbourhoods into darkness and shut down water pumps. 
With taps dry, residents now depend on tanker trucks, wells and a handful of distribution points, they told AFP.
The UN has warned of "substantial" RSF troop movements around the city ahead of a possible ground assault, raising fears of a repeat of the atrocities seen in El-Fasher, the Darfur city which fell to the RSF last October in an attack the UN said bore "the hallmarks of genocide".
Nohad Eltayeb of the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a US-based non-profit, said that over the past month troop movements have been observed roughly 60 kilometres north, south and west of El-Obeid. 
The eastern route to Kosti, about 300 kilometres from the capital Khartoum, remains under army control but is extremely dangerous, she told AFP.
El-Obeid sits at a key crossroads linking army-held areas in central and eastern Sudan, including Khartoum, with RSF-controlled Darfur to the west. 
Analysts say capturing it would consolidate RSF control over western Sudan and potentially open the way for a push towards the capital.
El-Obeid hosts an infantry division, an air base, a key oil pipeline and a major tree gum market.
"Controlling it is about power, land and money," said analyst Kholood Khair.

'Surrounded'

Fighting and tight restrictions have all but cut off access to the city, making independent reporting increasingly difficult.
An AFP journalist captured rare footage at Al-Rahmaniyah camp showing exhausted women shuffling under a punishing sun, jerrycans swaying on their heads after hours spent waiting for water at a distant well.
At the camp, nearly 200 families are crammed into fragile shelters stitched together from straw, torn fabric and sheets of plastic.
Children linger in the narrow shade cast by the huts, some too tired to play, others trailing silently after their mothers.
"We have nothing. No water, food or mattresses," Waseela Mohamed, a 70-year-old grandmother of seven, told AFP.
Aid deliveries that reached the camp weeks ago have dwindled as services across the city are repeatedly hit.
"Humanitarian groups are doing what they can, but the needs are far greater," said a volunteer, who asked not to be named.
Inside El-Obeid, drones buzz almost constantly, said Adam Hussein, using a pseudonym for fear of reprisals.
"We don't know what is really happening.
"Everything is in crisis. Civilians and infrastructure are constantly targeted," he told AFP.
As he spoke, a drone crashed nearby, causing no casualties.
With water prices doubling, food costs rising by up to 300 percent and transport fares also surging, many residents are now effectively "surrounded", said Khair. 
"Many haven't left because they can't afford to or don't know where to go," she told AFP.

Total siege

Mohamed Refaat of the International Organization for Migration warned the city is nearing a total siege, with civilians "soon unable to leave or return".
UN agencies have suspended access as security deteriorates while needs are outpacing pre-positioned supplies, he told AFP.
Without immediate aid, Refaat said conditions could "within weeks" mirror those seen in El-Fasher, where civilians survived on animal feed during 18 months under siege.
The UN says more than 6,000 people were killed in the first three days of its fall.
Western countries have warned of the risk of similar atrocities if El-Obeid falls.
A government source told AFP the army has tried to slow the RSF advance, destroying equipment en route last week. 
A source close to the RSF accused the army of using civilians as "human shields", arguing they should be evacuated.
While the city's demographics differ from El-Fasher, where violence fell on ethnic lines, ACLED's Eltayeb said civilians "could still face looting, sexual violence and attacks on those accused of supporting the army".
str-maf/ris/dc/ane

conflict

Putin acknowledges fuel shortages after Ukraine strikes

  • This part of his interview with Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin was not published by the Kremlin but cited by Russian news agencies.
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that the country was suffering from "a certain shortage" of fuel in an interview published by the Kremlin Sunday, after repeated Ukrainian strikes in their four-year war.
  • This part of his interview with Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin was not published by the Kremlin but cited by Russian news agencies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that the country was suffering from "a certain shortage" of fuel in an interview published by the Kremlin Sunday, after repeated Ukrainian strikes in their four-year war.
Kyiv calls the attacks fair retribution for Russia's near-daily barrages on Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure since its February 2022 offensive.
"As for strikes against critical infrastructure in general, and energy infrastructure in particular, of course these attacks on our infrastructure facilities create problems, that's obvious," said Putin.
"Right now we're observing a certain shortage, but it's not critical."
The main task now, he said, was to increase Russian anti-aircraft defence capacity and to ensure fuel supplies, particularly to Crimea. 
In the interview, Putin also said he was expecting a team of US negotiators to come to Moscow to discuss ending the Ukraine war, once Washington was no longer so preoccupied with Iran and the Middle East conflict.
The authorities in Russian-annexed Crimea on Friday declared an "emergency situation" over fuel shortages and power cuts triggered by Ukrainian attacks on its logistics chains and oil facilities. 
Russia annexed the territory from Ukraine in 2014, a move not recognised by the vast majority of countries.
A few hours earlier, in a speech to the United Russia party congress, Putin had vowed to ensure security and overcome challenges as Ukraine steps up its retaliatory strikes inside Russia.

'We are responding'

"Yes, we see the problems, we are aware of them and are responding to them, but we will certainly ensure the security of both the country and our citizens, as well as the inviolability of Russia's borders," Putin told party members. 
"We will undoubtedly overcome all the challenges facing us today, including terrorist attacks on our territory and infrastructure facilities," he added.
Putin's speech came hours after a Ukrainian drone strike killed one person in Russia's southern Krasnodar region and sparked a fire in a refinery, according to regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the hit part of the "operations that weaken Russia's ability to wage this war".
"The Slavyansk oil refinery in the Krasnodar region was hit –- about 300 kilometres from the frontline. We also reached a refinery in the Yaroslavl region, approximately 700 kilometres from our border," Zelensky said on X Sunday.
Last week, another Ukrainian attack caused a major fire at a refinery southeast of Moscow, shrouding the capital's suburbs in plumes of thick black smoke.

'Ready' for talks

Turning to the possibility of talks to end the war with Ukraine, Putin said that "we expect that after all the events are over, after the active phase on the Iranian track has passed, we will see the arrival of those representatives of the US administration with whom we have already met in Moscow repeatedly."
This part of his interview with Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin was not published by the Kremlin but cited by Russian news agencies. Zarubin also published it on the Telegram platform.
"We are ready to continue negotiations and ready to continue negotiations and discuss all the details," he added.
Putin was responding to a question on the state of Russian-US relations after the G7 summit in France, when US President Donald Trump said Russia should "make a deal with Ukraine".
On Wednesday, Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was doing well in the war against Russia, having previously said he lacked the "cards" to win.
Analysts say Ukraine is increasingly holding up well on the battlefield but its cities are still the target of deadly Russian attacks in a conflict that has now lasted longer than World War I.
bur/jj/gv

looting

Looting, theft in Venezuela's earthquake zone add to tragedy

BY MARGIONI BERMÚDEZ

  • The officials told him they were only checking if people were inside. 
  • Not even the cables inside the small store remained intact.
  • The officials told him they were only checking if people were inside. 
Not even the cables inside the small store remained intact. The earth had barely stopped shaking when the looting and theft began in the area most devastated by Venezuela's double earthquake.
Outbreaks of looting have hit the coastal state of La Guaira -- neighboring Caracas -- much of which is now a vast mountain of rubble after Wednesday's disaster.
In a video circulating on social media, a group of people pass around boxes of appliances from a collapsed store. Other videos appear to show looted boxes perched on car roofs or on top of motorcycles.
Online accusations are also circulating against police and military personnel who critics allege have been stealing from homes or even from the dead.
A branch of a major pharmacy chain was ransacked, as were supermarkets and other businesses, residents say.
Some attribute this situation to so-called disaster opportunism but others point to the hunger and destitution of those who have lost everything in a country already in chronic crisis before the quakes.
"Is it fair that our people are devouring each other?" lamented 71-year-old Maria Esther Bernal, who rented shops to Chinese merchants, all of which were looted. 
"They even took the wiring." 
She said a Chinese man had died in a store next door.
"They were stepping over his body to loot. It was a supermarket," she said. 
Venezuelans have not hidden their anger at the slow and meager aid coming from the authorities after the twin earthquakes that killed at least 1,450 and left tens of thousands more missing.
They are demanding not only rescue efforts in La Guaira but also improved security and assistance with food, water, and medicine.
The government militarized the state and restricted access to those with a safe-conduct pass that must be obtained from the military in Caracas.
"There's nothing here," 72-year-old Zulay de Carvajal tells AFP. 
"They stole everything: our clothes, shoes, utensils, pots, cups, glasses." 
"We found a disaster," said her son, Gregory Carvajal, 37. 
"We were removing bodies, and at that moment, they were looting. People were going crazy, looting, taking everything." 
In another neighborhood of La Guaira, similar looting broke out.
Some have been siphoning fuel from cars; others are impersonating firefighters to take advantage of the disaster. 
There are reports of all kinds of crimes. 
A video circulating on social media shows a man expelling a soldier and another official from his home after finding them scavenging around. 
"They keep taking things, I can't stand it," protests the person recording with their phone. The officials told him they were only checking if people were inside. 
"Get out, get out, they've looted everything." 
La Guaira had already been devastated in 1999 by rains and massive landslides that swept away whole neighborhoods and left more than 10,000 dead.
And at that time, there were also outbreaks of crime, said Marino Alvarado, a former coordinator of the human rights NGO Provea.
"It's not surprising that we can find three situations that also happened during the landslides," he said.
"Crime; two, police abuse, which is now beginning to be denounced; and three, police or military officials also participating in the looting."
After one of the Farmatodo pharmacy chain's branches was looted in La Guaira, the company cleaned the premises with the help of the community. A primary care clinic now operates there.
mbj-jt/nn/cr/pma/pnb

heatwave

Europe swelters as heatwave moves east

  • In France, the highest-level heat alerts were expected to ease on Sunday evening, although millions continued to endure sweltering conditions.
  • Europe's deadly heatwave pushed east Sunday with hundreds of millions still sweltering across the continent despite fleeting relief from overnight storms, notably in France and Belgium.
  • In France, the highest-level heat alerts were expected to ease on Sunday evening, although millions continued to endure sweltering conditions.
Europe's deadly heatwave pushed east Sunday with hundreds of millions still sweltering across the continent despite fleeting relief from overnight storms, notably in France and Belgium.
The heat remained intense across central and eastern Europe, with the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland hit hard as temperatures soared and records fell. At least 191 million Europeans were expected to face temperatures above 35C during the day, according to AFP estimates.
The World Health Organization said it had recorded more than 1,300 excess deaths in Europe since June 21. Overall, some 381 million Europeans were set to see temperatures exceed 30C, according to analysis based on forecasts from the German Meteorological Service and population data.
This heatwave is the most severe ever recorded in Europe, and would have been "virtually impossible" this early in the summer without climate change, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists said.
All-time temperature records have been broken in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as for the month of June in the UK and in Switzerland.

'Not a fiasco'

"Right now 150 million people are living under extreme heat, hundreds have died, schools are shut, grids are buckling," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
"Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, heating at twice the global average," he warned.
Storms brought some respite overnight, particularly in France after several days of temperatures close to 40C. But they also caused damage, as a man died near Brussels when a tree fell on his car, local media reported. 
In France, the highest-level heat alerts were expected to ease on Sunday evening, although millions continued to endure sweltering conditions.
Still marked by the 2003 heatwave -- Europe's worst in centuries, which killed around 15,000 people -- French authorities feared a rising death toll.
The country's national health agency said Sunday it had tallied around 1,000 more deaths than expected from June 24, and warned the figure was likely to increase further.
Many of those fatalities are among those aged 65 and over, it said.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez rejected criticism from opposition deputies over the response, insisting: "This is not a fiasco -- we were prepared."
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has called a special cabinet meeting to discuss how to learn the lessons from the recent heatwaves and to prepare for the possibility of more, his office announced.
French weather agency France-Meteo said on Sunday evening it was already anticipating the possibility of another heatwave in July.

Records tumble

Temperatures soared above 40C in several countries on Sunday as the heatwave shattered records across central and eastern Europe.
Poland recorded a new all-time high of 40.5C in the western town of Slubice, according to the national meteorological institute.
Poland's long-distance rail operator PKP Intercity announced disruption to some of its services, with the public displays at Warsaw's Central train station showing delays of more than four hours. 
Germany set a new national high of 41.7C at Coschen, near the Polish border, surpassing a high set just a day earlier.
The Berlin police used water cannons to help residents of the capital cool off for a second day running Sunday -- this time at the Olympia venue where singer Bruno Mars was performing.
One 32-year-old Berliner, Diane, told AFP she had fainted from the heat once already, despite drinking three litres of water.
The Czech Republic also broke records for a second consecutive day, with 41.1C recorded in Doksany, north of Prague. That was later revised upwards to 41.9C.
France's National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) said rising temperatures were clearly affecting marine life and biodiversity.
Speaking from a beach at Wimereux in northern France, CNRS research director Gregory Beaugrand told AFP the warming of the Channel was disrupting the food chain, as "fish that like cold waters are disappearing".
French paleoclimatologist Jean Jouzel told the Tribune newspaper he feared political attention would quickly shift once the heatwave ends.
Urging people to heed scientific warnings, he said: "People are closing their eyes -- but it is extremely serious."
burs-jj/gv

heatwave

Latest developments in Europe's heatwave

  • Internet users accused the brand of wasting water during the heatwave.
  • Here are the latest developments in Europe's heatwave.
  • Internet users accused the brand of wasting water during the heatwave.
Here are the latest developments in Europe's heatwave.
Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming driven by humans burning fossil fuels, and warn they are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.
New Czech mark
The Czech Republic broke another temperature record, hitting 41.9C at Doksany north of Prague, the meteorological institute CHMI said.
"This is the first time we have ever registered a temperature of 41 degrees in our official weather station network," CHMI added on X.
Poland breaks record 
Poland broke its all-time heat record with temperatures reaching 40.5C in the western town of Slubice, a spokeswoman for the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (IMGW) told AFP.
Germany hits 41.7C
Germany set a new temperature record at 41.7C, according to preliminary data from the German weather service (DWD) told AFP. 
It was recorded at a station in Coschen, near the Polish border,  breaking the previous record of 41.5C set just a day earlier in Drewitz.
WHO logs 1,300 Europe deaths
The World Health Organization said more than 1,300 excess deaths had been recorded in Europe since June 21 in connection with the record-breaking heatwave.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X that heat stress was a "silent killer". He called on European countries to "implement heat health action plans" to help safeguard health in the face of climate change.
Cooling by cannon
The Berlin police used water cannons to help residents of the capital cool off on Saturday and Sunday.
German night breaks record
The temperature in Kubschuetz in the east did not fall below 29.4C during the night, according to the German weather service (DWD), making it the warmest night since records began almost 150 years ago.
191 million facing 35C heat
At least 191 million people are forecast to endure temperatures of at least 35C on Sunday in Europe, with the heat particularly intense in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, according to AFP estimates.
Belgian storm death
One person died in Belgium overnight when a tree fell on his vehicle just outside Brussels, media said, after violent storms hit much of the country.
France tallies 1,000 extra deaths
France's national health agency has tallied around 1,000 more deaths than usual since June 24, warning that the figure will rise further.
Many of the extra fatalities are among those aged 65 and upwards, the agency said, after logging a 40 percent rise in the number of people dying at home.
Fashion row in Paris
A giant artificial wave at the Louis Vuitton show in Paris Men's Fashion Week has been attracting heat-related controversy.
Internet users accused the brand of wasting water during the heatwave. But LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton, insisted the water would be "re-injected into the sewerage system".
Rock festival cancelled
The 30th edition of the Garorock music festival in Marmande just south of Bordeaux was called off Sunday after the prefecture issued a thunderstorm warning. 
Around 100,000 tickets had been sold for the event, which will take a financial hit estimated at more than three million euros.
Pride postponed
Paris Pride was postponed after the police said they would close it down to ease the burden on health services.
Munich Pride, meanwhile, went ahead in sweltering temperatures of around 36C.
burs-rh/jj

bank

BIS warns 'pressure points' putting global economy at risk

BY NATHALIE OLOF-ORS

  • - 'Threatening financial stability' - In all, BIS identified four significant pressure points for the global economy, starting with inflation linked to the Middle East war, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Tehran on February 28.
  • The Bank for International Settlements warned Sunday of multiple "pressure points" in the global economy, from inflation fuelled by the Middle East war to fears of cooling AI investments, threatening financial stability.
  • - 'Threatening financial stability' - In all, BIS identified four significant pressure points for the global economy, starting with inflation linked to the Middle East war, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Tehran on February 28.
The Bank for International Settlements warned Sunday of multiple "pressure points" in the global economy, from inflation fuelled by the Middle East war to fears of cooling AI investments, threatening financial stability.
In its annual report, published Sunday, the BIS -- considered the central bank of central banks -- called on monetary policy makers to "act now", to help safeguard the stability of the global economy.
BIS deputy general manager Andrea Maechler acknowledged the situation was difficult.
"Central banks are already facing a complex situation in a world marked by a great deal of uncertainty," she told AFP in an interview.

'Threatening financial stability'

In all, BIS identified four significant pressure points for the global economy, starting with inflation linked to the Middle East war, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Tehran on February 28.
The resulting closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz -- one of the world's most important energy chokepoints -- has delivered a shock to global energy supplies, hiking costs for everything from plastics to fertilisers.
Also on the BIS list were concerns over the longevity of the artificial intelligence investment boom, which has been buoying global growth and keeping it going through crises like last year's tariff hikes.
BIS warned the surging AI capital expenditure could prove "unsustainable", with the risk of a financial market correction.
And the report highlighted the dangerous combination of persisting financial vulnerabilities and the "exuberant risk appetite" in financial markets, warning the situation "could unwind abruptly".
Higher public debt levels were also an issue for central banks, it said, as they could find themselves torn between making necessary rate-hikes to keep down inflation and fears that doing so would hike debt servicing costs, impacting economic growth.
"Each of these areas of tension is likely to be manageable, but taken together, they risk amplifying one another and threatening financial stability," Maechler warned.
She cautioned that "if tensions were to arise on that front, for example in the event of a change in interest rates or market sentiment, contagion effects could be set in motion".
BIS is also concerned about risks linked to the swelling role of non-bank players like hedge funds in bond markets and in AI investments, and is calling for more oversight over such operations.
There must be "adequate regulation also beyond the banking perimeter", to ensure they can absorb the risks they take, Maechler said.

Preserving independence

BIS is also calling on governments to reduce their debt levels to help preserve central banks' room for manoeuvre in the case of economic shocks.
Maechler, herself a former governing board member at the Swiss National Bank, said it was vital for central banks to "be able to carry out their mandate with complete independence".
This was needed, she said, "to defend this fundamental public good, namely price stability and confidence in money, without which an economy cannot function well".
Maechler highlighted that "central banks know that they may have to make difficult decisions that would not have political support at the time they need to be made".
"For this, they need this independence." 
noo/nl/cw

animal

'High-strung' camels race in Australian outback

BY WILLIAM WEST

  • "You would want a little bit of temper, a little bit of fire in them -- a sort of splashy look in the eye," Woodhouse told AFP. "They want to be wary of you a little bit but not, like, aggressive," she added.
  • Camels with "a bit of fire in them" raced in a remote Australian outback town this weekend at an annual event celebrating the desert beasts first imported in the mid-19th century.
  • "You would want a little bit of temper, a little bit of fire in them -- a sort of splashy look in the eye," Woodhouse told AFP. "They want to be wary of you a little bit but not, like, aggressive," she added.
Camels with "a bit of fire in them" raced in a remote Australian outback town this weekend at an annual event celebrating the desert beasts first imported in the mid-19th century.
Hundreds of spectators descended on Marree, which has a population of 65 and lies nearly 600 kilometres (370 miles) north of the South Australian capital Adelaide, for a 13-race spectacle on Saturday known as the Marree Camel Cup.
More than 10,000 camels were imported into Australia from 1840, many of them released into the wild with the development of railways and then the arrival of motor vehicles in the 1920s.
Now, estimates of the wild camel population range from 300,000 to a million animals.
Trainer Kyrraley Woodhouse, who started camel racing professionally in 2013, said most of her camels had been taken from the wild to run in the Marree event, which drew more than a dozen competitors.
Picking the right animal is key.
"You would want a little bit of temper, a little bit of fire in them -- a sort of splashy look in the eye," Woodhouse told AFP.
"They want to be wary of you a little bit but not, like, aggressive," she added.
"We want something sort of like a racehorse, a little bit high strung, a little bit forward -- something that's got a heart, that's going to run."
This year's Marree Camel Cup winner was Young Gun, ridden by Patrick Dennis.
Muslim cameleers, many from Afghanistan and other parts of Central and South Asia, were brought to Australia in the 1860s to harness the animals for transport in the arid interior, and some of their descendants remain in Marree.
Camels in the outback compete with stock for food, destroy fences, foul waterholes and damage Indigenous cultural sites, authorities say.
Without management, camel populations could double every eight years, South Australia's primary industries department says. Camel numbers are kept in check by mustering, shooting and trapping at water points.
Australia also exports a small number of live camels: 68 so far in 2026 heading to Malaysia and Indonesia.
bur/djw/pbt