US

US strikes Iran after Hormuz attacks, Tehran threatens response

  • Maritime traffic had tentatively resumed after Washington and Tehran signed the memorandum last month, but Iran has insisted there will be no return to pre-war arrangements, under which vessels could pass freely through the strait.
  • US forces launched strikes on Iran on Tuesday after three commercial vessels were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, the US military said, sharply escalating a confrontation that has already shaken efforts to end the Middle East war.
  • Maritime traffic had tentatively resumed after Washington and Tehran signed the memorandum last month, but Iran has insisted there will be no return to pre-war arrangements, under which vessels could pass freely through the strait.
US forces launched strikes on Iran on Tuesday after three commercial vessels were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, the US military said, sharply escalating a confrontation that has already shaken efforts to end the Middle East war.
US Central Command said the "powerful" strikes were in response to Iranian attacks on ships transiting the vital waterway and would "impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping."
Iranian state media reported numerous explosions around the strait, including six on the island of Qeshm, seven in the city of Sirik and more in the major port city of Bandar Abbas.
Iran's foreign ministry accused the United States of repeatedly violating the memorandum of understanding agreed between the two sides and threatened retaliation.
"Iran is issuing a serious warning about the consequences of America's breach of the treaty, and will take decisive measures to protect its interests and national security," the ministry said in a statement carried by official media.
The strikes came shortly after Washington revoked a temporary sanctions waiver for Iranian oil, raising pressure on Tehran as it negotiates with the US over a final settlement to the conflict.
The US Treasury Department canceled a license announced in June that had allowed Iran to produce, sell and deliver crude oil and related products through August 21.
"Iran's actions in the Strait were wholly unacceptable to the United States and will be met with consequences," a US official told AFP.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US-Iran memorandum of understanding was "entirely performance-based," warning that Tehran would see benefits only if it showed "good behavior."
But US negotiators were continuing to work "in good faith towards a final deal," the official said.
British maritime security agency UKMTO said an "unknown projectile" hit a tanker overnight, causing a fire, before two more vessels were struck, at least one by a drone.
All three vessels were struck close to Oman, which had proposed a temporary transit corridor hugging its coastline -- an initiative opposed by Iran as it seeks to impose fees on ships using the narrow waterway.
Qatar said one of the vessels was its LNG tanker Al-Rekayyat and blamed Iran, denouncing an "unacceptable" attack on international maritime navigation.
Doha later summoned Iran's deputy ambassador to lodge a complaint, demanding an explanation and urging Tehran to "immediately cease any practices undermining regional security."
"We hold Iran fully legally responsible for this attack and for any resulting damages or repercussions," Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari wrote on X.
Iran voiced "dismay" over Qatar's accusations in a statement carried by state news agency IRNA, calling the claims "unacceptable."

Hormuz dispute

The attacks, which ended more than a week of relative calm, revived concerns over freedom of navigation after Iran lifted its blockade of the vital waterway following a fragile ceasefire with the US.
Oil prices rose by more than two percent as the renewed attacks reignited worries over global energy supplies and cast doubt on the durability of the US-Iran agreement.
"We are now in a sensitive period where potential alternatives to an Iranian toll or fee system are being explored," Andreas Krieg, a security expert at King's College London, told AFP.
"Iran is sending a clear signal that no alternative will be accepted."
Krieg said tankers trying to diverge through the Omani maritime corridor without registering with Iran would be punished, and called the attacks a "clear violation" of the ceasefire agreement and international law.
Maritime traffic had tentatively resumed after Washington and Tehran signed the memorandum last month, but Iran has insisted there will be no return to pre-war arrangements, under which vessels could pass freely through the strait.
Under the 14-point US-Iran memorandum, Iran and Oman, which border Hormuz, must hold talks "to define the future administration and maritime services" in the waterway with other Gulf states.
Qatar had previously refused to mediate under Iranian fire as Tehran launched an unprecedented aerial bombardment against Gulf states in retaliation for the US-Israeli strikes.
But Doha has since taken a more active role, hosting indirect talks between Iran and the US last week.
burs-ft/msp

lawsuit

Canada province preparing lawsuit against OpenAI over school shooting

BY BEN SIMON

  • British Columbia said Tuesday it was preparing a separate case, in coordination with the families, and had retained lawyers both in Canada and California.
  • British Columbia said Tuesday it was preparing a lawsuit against OpenAI over the company's failure to report violent ChatGPT activity by the person who committed a mass school shooting in the western Canadian province.
  • British Columbia said Tuesday it was preparing a separate case, in coordination with the families, and had retained lawyers both in Canada and California.
British Columbia said Tuesday it was preparing a lawsuit against OpenAI over the company's failure to report violent ChatGPT activity by the person who committed a mass school shooting in the western Canadian province.
OpenAI had banned an account linked to Jesse Van Rootselaar in June 2025, months before the 18-year-old transgender woman killed eight people at her home and a school in the tiny mining town of Tumbler Ridge.
Canadian families impacted by the February shooting have already filed lawsuits against the US tech giant in a California court.
British Columbia said Tuesday it was preparing a separate case, in coordination with the families, and had retained lawyers both in Canada and California.
Provincial Attorney General Niki Sharma told reporters BC wanted to "hold OpenAI and its decision-makers accountable for their failure to notify law enforcement of the violent prompts made on its ChatGPT platform by the perpetrator prior to the tragedy in Tumbler Ridge."
"British Columbia has never shied away from taking on powerful corporations when their actions cause harm to people and communities," she added.
She cautioned the legal process will "take time," but said funds derived from a lawsuit would help Tumbler Ridge rebuild, including supporting the construction of a new school. 
The province wants to use the courts to "ensure that British Columbians are not left bearing the costs of corporate wrongdoings." 
Asked for comment on the province's legal plans, OpenAI said it has "already strengthened our safeguards, including improving how ChatGPT responds to signs of distress."
"We have a zero-tolerance policy for using our tools to assist in committing violence," a company spokesperson added in a statement. 

Sam Altman apology

In April, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman apologized to residents of Tumbler Ridge, saying in a public letter that he was "deeply sorry that we did not alert law enforcement to the account that was banned in June."
OpenAI has said that it did not report Van Rootselaar's account at the time of the suspension because it saw no evidence of an imminent attack. 
But it has also said that under updated security guidelines imposed after June 2025, the account would have been reported to police. 
Lawyers for the families suing the company in a US federal court in California have alleged that OpenAI chose to stay silent about Van Rootselaar's account because "reporting one case would mean reporting thousands."
Their lawsuit also claims that when an account is shut down for dangerous behavior, OpenAI instructs the individual on how to resume usage, including tips on how to circumvent the 30-day suspension period.
The chief AI officer at Ontario's Western Univerity, Mark Daley, told AFP Tuesday that "Tumbler Ridge shows what happens when one private company knows about an imminent threat that no police force can see and decides not to act."
"The lesson isn't that OpenAI is uniquely bad. It's that no single company, however well-intentioned, should be the only one holding that kind of knowledge," he said. 
Van Rootselaar killed her mother and brother at the family's home before heading to the local secondary school, where she shot dead five children and a teacher.
She died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after police entered the building.
bs/jgc

Spain

Cardinal tipped to be pope accused of molesting several women

BY ANOUK RIONDET

  • However, he questioned "the relevance" of maintaining Lopez "in his office" in an October document, which was sent to Papal Nuncio Alfred Xuereb last month with a complaint from another alleged victim who said the cardinal sexually assaulted her several times, the woman told AFP. The Catholic Church has been dogged by child abuse by paedophile priests for decades, with Pope Francis -- who vowed to tackle the "culture of abuse" -- criticised for not doing enough to stop cover-ups. 
  • A Catholic cardinal touted as one of the favourites to replace Pope Francis said he was "stepping back" from office Tuesday after an AFP investigation revealed at least five women had accused him of sexual assault.
  • However, he questioned "the relevance" of maintaining Lopez "in his office" in an October document, which was sent to Papal Nuncio Alfred Xuereb last month with a complaint from another alleged victim who said the cardinal sexually assaulted her several times, the woman told AFP. The Catholic Church has been dogged by child abuse by paedophile priests for decades, with Pope Francis -- who vowed to tackle the "culture of abuse" -- criticised for not doing enough to stop cover-ups. 
A Catholic cardinal touted as one of the favourites to replace Pope Francis said he was "stepping back" from office Tuesday after an AFP investigation revealed at least five women had accused him of sexual assault.
Spanish-born Cristobal Lopez Romero, 74, the Archbishop of Rabat in Morocco, denies wrongdoing.
One woman who said he molested her made a written complaint about the cardinal in May to the Vatican embassy in Morocco, which AFP has seen.
She accused him of "particularly insistent and prolonged hugs" and "an attempt at physical intimacy that could be likened to an attempt" to kiss her, which she said she "barely managed" to avoid.
A church source in the archdiocese said at least five accounts describing similar incidents have been brought to its attention.
Lopez admitted he had been "accused of inappropriate behaviour towards adult women. This situation has led the Church to open a preliminary investigation," he added in a written reply to AFP.
"I have committed neither assault nor violence nor sexual harassment," he insisted.

Jovial 'street priest'

But the archdiocese source condemned "a culture of complicity and silence" among those around the cardinal, accusing them of helping to protect him.
The source told AFP that "close associates" who have known the cardinal for years reported similar behaviour when he was a missionary in South America.
Lopez was known as a jovial "street priest" working with the poor and later became a leader of his missionary Salesian order in Paraguay, Bolivia and in Spain.
After the death of Pope Francis in April last year, Lopez had been hailed by some Vatican watchers and "not a few of his fellow cardinals", according to the influential Catholic website Crux, as "a potential Successor of Peter".
The National Catholic Review said his "personal biography of bridge-building cultures and continents" could make him "a compelling contender for the church's top job".
But he pulled out of the conclave to replace Francis last year just four days before the voting, saying he had "absolutely no ambition" to be pope, and "if I am elected, I will flee to Sicily." 
The cardinal's deputy, Vicar General Marc Helfer, told AFP that the Church's internal bodies should be allowed to conduct their investigation before Lopez's shock statement on Tuesday.
"We do not know whether (the reported acts) really amount to sexual assault," he said. "We are not covering up for anyone," he insisted.
However, he questioned "the relevance" of maintaining Lopez "in his office" in an October document, which was sent to Papal Nuncio Alfred Xuereb last month with a complaint from another alleged victim who said the cardinal sexually assaulted her several times, the woman told AFP.
The Catholic Church has been dogged by child abuse by paedophile priests for decades, with Pope Francis -- who vowed to tackle the "culture of abuse" -- criticised for not doing enough to stop cover-ups. 
Marie Collins, an Irish victim he appointed to the Vatican commission to tackle the problem, resigned after three years in 2017 claiming senior clerics were still putting "other concerns" before the safety of children and vulnerable adults.

Letters told of sexual abuse  

Nadia Debbache, a Moroccan lawyer specialising in sexual violence, said the acts the cardinal is accused of could amount to "aggravated sexual harassment and aggravated sexual assault... the aggravating factor being the abuse of authority by their alleged perpetrator."
Although no criminal complaints have as yet been made in Morocco, the courts there impose heavier sentences in such crimes when they are committed by a person in a position of authority, according to Debbache. 
They can also punish failure to report a crime or attempted crime, the lawyer added.
Another source who requested anonymity sent AFP four letters addressed to the nunciature and to the Vatican's doctrinal office referring to allegations of "sexual abuse by clergy, including by Father Cristobal himself."
The source said Lopez had recently requested the appointment of an eventual successor, suggesting he was contemplating a transition before his mandatory retirement at the age of 75, in 2027.
But Nuncio Xuereb said that would be "normal practice" given his age.
He told AFP that "the presumption of innocence must be preserved... until the facts are established by the competent authorities."
anr/cmk/iba/dp/fg/jfx

earthquake

How rescuers carried out 180-hour 'miracle' amid Venezuela's ruins

BY PAULA RAMON

  • "One hundred percent the most challenging in my career," said Meyers, from the US team Florida Task Force 2, which joined dozens of international missions in Venezuela to search for survivors.
  • In two decades as a rescuer, Kevin Meyers had never faced an operation as challenging as helping to free a man trapped under 160 tons of concrete and bricks after the double earthquake in Venezuela.
  • "One hundred percent the most challenging in my career," said Meyers, from the US team Florida Task Force 2, which joined dozens of international missions in Venezuela to search for survivors.
In two decades as a rescuer, Kevin Meyers had never faced an operation as challenging as helping to free a man trapped under 160 tons of concrete and bricks after the double earthquake in Venezuela.
The rescue of Hernan Gil, who survived 183 hours buried after the June 24 disaster, became a symbol of hope to the South American nation now mourning at least 3,535 dead and thousands more missing.
But it also left a lasting mark on the dozens of rescuers who worked for nearly four days to extract Gil, a security guard, alive from the rubble of a building in La Guaira, a state neighboring Caracas and the one most affected by the earthquakes.
"One hundred percent the most challenging in my career," said Meyers, from the US team Florida Task Force 2, which joined dozens of international missions in Venezuela to search for survivors.
"There have been technical rescues that I've been on in my career that use a portion of the skills that were used today, but this one kind of put it all together."
"It was an extremely complex operation," agreed Víctor Torres of the Chilean Fire Department's USAR team, who described the operation as one of the most difficult in the unit's 175-year history.
Rescuers from the United States, Chile, Portugal, El Salvador, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Venezuela shared angst, and finally joy, when Gil emerged from his confinement around 9:00 a.m. on July 2nd.
 

Signs of Life

 
Gil was on duty in the basement of the Sol Marino Garden Residences in Catia La Mar, on the Venezuelan coast, when at 6:04 p.m. on that Wednesday, the earth shook and swallowed him.
While he cried out for help and tried to pray to stay calm as the aftershocks continued, rescuers outside were trying to locate him.
Two days after the earthquakes, Chilean rescuers inspected the area and returned with radar equipment after gathering the accounts of neighbors.
Three readings showed signs of life.
On June 29, when another tremor cornered Gil even further, teams from El Salvador and Costa Rica entered through a parking lot connected to the area where they believed Gil was. They started digging a first tunnel.
Through a second tunnel dug by the Chileans, in the early morning of June 30, they heard Gil's voice faintly.
"They were calling me and telling me to stay quiet, to listen for the knocking and tell them" where I heard it, Gil recounted.
With his responses, Torres pinpointed the location and was able to touch Gil's fingers. "It was a very emotional moment," the rescuer recalled.
Through that hole, they passed a hydration tube and a mini-camera to monitor him.
But the rescue would suffer another setback.
 

 "Sky's the limit"

 
The Chilean plan became unfeasible due to the high risk of collapse if they continued digging. With the collaboration of teams from Los Angeles and Florida, they decided to try another approach.
The tension mounted as the rescuers dug tirelessly.
"I felt the pressure from the engineers: the more horizontally the tunnel advanced, the more unstable it became," recounted Torres, who participated in the rescue of 33 miners in Chile in 2010.
"It was a moment that in emergencies we call 'go or no go,' you either go or you stay," he said.
They stayed. And Gil's wife, Gusbimar Gonzalez, who had been watching over the rescue operation the whole time, was able to embrace her husband again. "Those were the longest eight days of my life," she told AFP.
But just when Gil's rescue seemed imminent, the rescuers hit yet another snag: the security guard's legs were stuck in a chair.
Torres and Eric DeArmas, from Florida Task Force 2, looked at each other. They knew Gil would have to make one last effort.
"He pushed a little bit. He turned toward us and we grabbed his arms, and we began to lift them up," DeArmas said.
Gil felt like he was going to faint.
DeArmas, usually so composed, couldn't hold back his tears.
"It was just overwhelming relief and happiness and joy for him, you know, and yeah, I broke down a little bit. I even gave him a kiss on his head," DeArmas recounted with a smile.
"I think we all learned a little bit of something in our own way," Meyers said. "Me, personally, I learned that the sky's the limit."
pr/lp/ad/pma/dw 
 

fraud

France's Le Pen says still running for president

BY ALEXANDRE MARCHAND, PAUL AUBRIAT, SUSANNAH WALDEN AND ALICE HACKMAN

  • - Trying 'to trip her up' - A lower court in March last year had initially sentenced her to a five-year ban from public office, quashing her ambitions to succeed outgoing centrist President Emmanuel Macron in next year's polls.
  • French far-right chief Marine Le Pen Tuesday said she was still standing for president next year, after an appeals court confirmed her embezzlement conviction but paved the way for her to run with a shorter ban from office.
  • - Trying 'to trip her up' - A lower court in March last year had initially sentenced her to a five-year ban from public office, quashing her ambitions to succeed outgoing centrist President Emmanuel Macron in next year's polls.
French far-right chief Marine Le Pen Tuesday said she was still standing for president next year, after an appeals court confirmed her embezzlement conviction but paved the way for her to run with a shorter ban from office.
"This evening, I am a candidate in the presidential election," she said, ending uncertainty over whether she would run for the top job for the fourth time in elections viewed as her party's best ever chance to win the presidency.
The Paris appeals court earlier on Tuesday upheld a guilty verdict against the three-time presidential hopeful from the anti-immigration National Rally (RN) over a fake jobs scam at the European Parliament that diverted more than 2.8 million euros (more than $3 million) in EU funds.
It banned her from office for 15 months and sentenced her to one year under house arrest to be served with an electronic tag, throwing into doubt whether she would be able to campaign unhindered.
But the 57-year-old veteran politician on the evening news said she would appeal that decision with the country's highest court, which would automatically suspend that decision.
"The appeal to the court of cassation suspends the effects of the judgement, so I will campaign without an electronic ankle bracelet," she said on the evening news.
Le Pen said she would run alongside her 30-year-old lieutenant, Jordan Bardella, who she hopes will become prime minister if she is elected.
"Bardella and I will very soon be launching this presidential campaign," she said.

Trying 'to trip her up'

A lower court in March last year had initially sentenced her to a five-year ban from public office, quashing her ambitions to succeed outgoing centrist President Emmanuel Macron in next year's polls.
Backdated to March 2025, the new 15-month ban from office expired this year, clearing the way for Le Pen to run in polls set for April and May 2027.
But it was not immediately certain if she would run after she said last week she would withdraw if wearing a tag prevented her from campaigning and pass the torch to Bardella.
Under France's house arrest system, a magistrate can approve times at which someone with an ankle tag can leave their home, and pre-approve outings nationwide.
Macron, visiting Syria on Tuesday, said he would not comment on a court decision.
In the northern town of Henin-Beaumont, an RN stronghold, 57-year-old plasterer Pierre Pagniez said he expected Le Pen to run.
"They need to stop trying to trip her up," he said, adding he preferred the three-time presidential candidate to the much less experienced Bardella.
Socialist party leader Olivier Faure was among leftists who said Le Pen should not run next year, as any candidate should be "exemplary".
"Le Pen, now, is alone with her conscience," he said.

'Witch hunt'

Recent opinion polls have largely suggested the far right will lead in the first round of next year's vote, but are divided on the outcome of the second round run-off.
Many have shown slightly better results for Bardella than Le Pen, but their adversaries have inferred the veteran politician would be a fiercer opponent.
An opinion poll of more than 1,700 registered voters in May suggested Le Pen could win the runoffs next year if she competes.
Other polls have, however, suggested former centrist prime minister Edouard Philippe -- who is also courting right-wing voters -- could win a second round against the far right.
The first trial found Le Pen -- along with 24 former European lawmakers, assistants and accountants, as well as the party itself -- guilty of operating a system from 2004 to 2016 to use European Parliament funds to employ RN staff in France.
Le Pen claimed her party was the victim of a "witch hunt".
Le Pen, the party and 10 others appealed.
During the appeal trial, she denied that the RN had a system to embezzle European Parliament funds, and has said her party acted in "complete good faith".
But prosecutors allege that after she took over the party leadership in 2011 she "professionalised" a system to divert EU funds that was first introduced haphazardly by her late father, party co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen.
burs-ah/sw/

Farage

UK hard-right leader Farage resigns as MP to force snap vote in finances row

BY PETER HUTCHISON

  • Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said her party would only field a "candidate in the real by-election, which will follow the standards investigation into Nigel Farage's fishy finances".
  • British anti-immigrant politician Nigel Farage announced Tuesday he would resign as a member of parliament to run in a snap by-election, in a high-stakes gamble following intense scrutiny over his finances.
  • Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said her party would only field a "candidate in the real by-election, which will follow the standards investigation into Nigel Farage's fishy finances".
British anti-immigrant politician Nigel Farage announced Tuesday he would resign as a member of parliament to run in a snap by-election, in a high-stakes gamble following intense scrutiny over his finances.
The unusual move comes as Farage, whose Reform UK party leads national opinion polls, faces mounting pressure over the non-disclosure of gifts, including allegedly from a convicted fraudster.
"I've decided that the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions," Farage said in a televised address, referring to the southeast England constituency he has represented for two years.
"This will be a people versus the establishment by-election," he added, confirming he would be putting his name forward to stand.
Parliament's anti-sleaze watchdog has been investigating the hard-right firebrand and long-time anti-European Union campaigner over the non-disclosure of a £5 million ($6.6 million) donation from Thailand-based crypto-currency billionaire Christopher Harborne.
Farage's resignation means the probe will be suspended until after the by-election.
But Labour and the Conservative parties both said late Tuesday that they would not field candidates in a by-election, UK media reported.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: "Nigel Farage is engulfed in a sleaze scandal and he's desperately trying to change the subject.
"It's pathetic, and the Labour Party is not going to indulge it."
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said her party would only field a "candidate in the real by-election, which will follow the standards investigation into Nigel Farage's fishy finances".
Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, is also facing calls to investigate allegations that George Cottrell, convicted of wire fraud in the United States, paid for security and staff for Farage shortly before he became a member of parliament.
Farage, who helped persuade Britons to vote to leave the EU during a divisive referendum in 2016, was elected an MP on his eighth attempt during the July 2024 general election.
Reform, which advocates mass deportations of illegal migrants and the scrapping of net zero energy targets, has since led the ruling Labour party in opinion polls.
Fears among Labour MPs that Reform could win the next nationwide vote, expected in 2029, ultimately led them to force Prime Minister Keir Starmer to announce his resignation last month.
New MPs are supposed to register any money they received in the 12 months before their election unless it cannot be "reasonably" seen as linked to political activities.
Farage has insisted he did not need to declare the money from Harborne because it was a personal gift to pay for his own security.

'Political tool'

Cottrell, a 32-year-old crypto entrepreneur from an aristocratic family, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the United States in 2017 and was jailed for eight months.
Labour and the centrist Liberal Democrats had asked Greenberg to probe the latest allegations.
"I have done nothing wrong. I have not broken the law in any way at all," Farage said, claiming that parliamentary standards were "now being used as a political tool".
A spokesperson for Andy Burnham, widely expected to become Labour's new leader and therefore prime minister later this month, branded Farage's move "a gimmick designed to distract from serious allegations about Farage's funders".
"Ultimately all it does is buy him time," Tim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, told AFP.
"He'll probably make it back into parliament but at that point the investigation will start up again. So he can run, but he can't hide."
Clacton is a seaside town in Essex which voted heavily in favour of Brexit. Farage won the seat with a majority of 8,405, and his party has offered to cover the cost of the by-election.
Rupert Lowe, leader of the far-right rival party Restore Britain who is backed by US tech tycoon Elon Musk, also said his party would not participate in an "unnecessary sham" election.
By-elections usually take place between 25 and 35 days following a resignation.
pdh/jkb/rlp

court

Beleaguered Prince Harry loses lawsuit against UK tabloid

BY HELEN ROWE AND PETER HUTCHISON

  • The trip, to mark the one-year countdown to next year's Invictus Games, was meant to be his first family trip back to the UK in four years.
  • Prince Harry on Tuesday lost his high-profile case against the Daily Mail's publisher for alleged unlawful information gathering in yet another blow to the estranged royal as he begins a fraught five-day trip back to the UK. A written judgement by London's High Court published following an 11-week trial earlier this year said the "claimants failed to prove their pleaded allegations... the claims are therefore dismissed".
  • The trip, to mark the one-year countdown to next year's Invictus Games, was meant to be his first family trip back to the UK in four years.
Prince Harry on Tuesday lost his high-profile case against the Daily Mail's publisher for alleged unlawful information gathering in yet another blow to the estranged royal as he begins a fraught five-day trip back to the UK.
A written judgement by London's High Court published following an 11-week trial earlier this year said the "claimants failed to prove their pleaded allegations... the claims are therefore dismissed".
The ruling was delivered as Harry attended an event in the capital, with Associated Newspapers calling it an "overwhelming victory" and a "magnificent vindication of the Daily Mail's journalism".
It said the court's dismissal of "every single one of the 97 allegations made by the claimants" showed Judge Matthew Nicklin had "accepted the honesty of our journalists' evidence on how they sourced their stories".
Allegations that bugs had been placed in people's cars and homes, calls listened to and bank accounts illicitly accessed had been "lurid" and "preposterous" with "no credible evidence" ever presented, Associated said in a statement.
"The reputations of our decent and hard-working journalists were terribly impugned, and today they have been exonerated," it added.
Prince Harry said the ruling was a "complete and obvious whitewash" but was "not altogether unexpected", in a joint statement with Doreen Lawrence, whose son was murdered in a 1993 racist attack.
"The lengths to which the court has gone to exonerate the Mail is as shocking as it is totally unwarranted," said the youngest son of King Charles III.
The ruling came shortly after Harry arrived at a central London event for the Invictus Games, launched for wounded veterans in 2014.
At the same time, his estranged brother, heir to the throne Prince William, was also in the city, visiting the London Welsh School to promote next month's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Harry will now face another court hearing on July 29-30 which could see him and the six other complainants ordered to pay substantial legal costs.
Associated said it had spent £50 million ($66 million) "defending ourselves against this egregious litigation".
"We will look to resolve outstanding issues, including the recovery of the costs we have incurred," it added.
The prince gave emotional testimony during the proceedings in which several high-profile figures, including singer Elton John and actor Elizabeth Hurley, accused the tabloid publisher of invading their privacy.
The case, the third and final one brought by the Duke of Sussex in his acrimonious legal battle with British tabloids, has further strained relations with the royal family.
 

'Security woes'

 
Harry, 41, has also been involved in other legal spats, including over his police protection in Britain following his dramatic departure from frontline royal duties six years ago.
The prince, now living in California, arrived in Britain on Monday for a five-day visit expected to go ahead mostly without his wife and children after the family was refused police protection.
The trip, to mark the one-year countdown to next year's Invictus Games, was meant to be his first family trip back to the UK in four years.
But a source close to the Duke of Sussex told AFP that Harry's wife Meghan, son Archie and daughter Lilibet would not accompany him on the London leg of the trip after the family was refused a security detail.
Arrangements for the rest of the trip were still under consideration, the source said, leaving it unclear whether the whole family would visit but stay outside the capital.
It was also unclear whether the prince would meet his father during the trip.
He is last understood to have met Charles, who is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer, at the monarch's London residence Clarence House in September 2025.
Harry and Meghan left Britain for North America in 2020 amid a bitter feud with his family, which worsened as Harry published his tell-all memoir "Spare".
The prince has since said he wishes to reconcile with his father.
Last year, Harry said he felt unable to bring his family to Britain after losing a court case to have his security restored during visits home.
Harry has long blamed the media for the death of his mother Princess Diana, who was killed in a Paris car crash in 1997 while trying to shake off the paparazzi.
pdh-har-aks/yad

Turkey

Turkish delight: Trump revels in Erdogan's lavish welcome

BY DANNY KEMP

  • In a theatrical touch, around two dozen soldiers wearing historic-style suits of armour, pointed helmets and what appeared to be fake beards and moustaches stood outside the palace itself.
  • From Ottoman warriors in suits of armour to a marble palace and fighter jets, US President Donald Trump got the kind of welcome he loves in Turkey on Tuesday.
  • In a theatrical touch, around two dozen soldiers wearing historic-style suits of armour, pointed helmets and what appeared to be fake beards and moustaches stood outside the palace itself.
From Ottoman warriors in suits of armour to a marble palace and fighter jets, US President Donald Trump got the kind of welcome he loves in Turkey on Tuesday.
World leaders seeking to woo the unpredictable Trump have learned that nothing impresses the 80-year-old more than an arrival fit for a king.
And Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan knows it better than most.
The two ageing leaders share a taste for both lavish presidential architecture and an autocratic style of government, and their bromance was on full display when Trump arrived in Ankara for a NATO summit.
"You've been a great leader," a clearly satisfied Trump told reporters as he sat beside Erdogan after his arrival at the sprawling Bestepe Presidential Compound in the capital.
"We've had a very special relationship."
Erdogan even personally met Trump at the airport -- with the 72-year-old on several occasions holding the US leader under the arm after he disembarked his new Air Force One plane.
The jet itself illustrates how allies have used flattery and envy to keep Trump onside.
Qatar's royal family controversially gifted the retrofitted plane to the United States last year, after Trump complained about the embarrassing state of the older US aircraft that transport the president.

'White Palace'

In Ankara, Turkish riders on horseback flanked Trump's limousine as it drove through the hushed streets to the presidential palace where an honour guard in red and blue uniforms greeted him.
Trump stood to attention as the "Star Spangled Banner" played and even attempted a greeting in Turkish -- before Turkish fighter jets streaked overhead trailing red, white and blue smoke.
In a theatrical touch, around two dozen soldiers wearing historic-style suits of armour, pointed helmets and what appeared to be fake beards and moustaches stood outside the palace itself.
Popularly known as the "White Palace", the vast complex cost around $615 million when it was built in 2014, and draws its architectural inspiration from Turkey's Ottoman and Seljuk heritage.
The cost prompted critics to lambast it as the latest excess of Erdogan, whom they accused of authoritarian leanings.
But its soaring atriums decorated with onyx and green marble could hardly be better calculated to induce jealousy in Trump, who frequently raves about the opulent dwellings of other foreign leaders.
In his second term in office, the former real estate billionaire has appeared increasingly obsessed with turning Washington into his own vision of an imperial capital.
Trump demolished an entire wing of the White House to build a massive $400 million ballroom, is planning a giant triumphal arch dubbed the "Arc de Trump" and has launched a huge drive to renovate the city's monuments.

'Very happy'

The Turkish leader's opulent welcome was meanwhile part of a pattern used by leaders seeking to weaponise Trump's love of palatial splendour.
French President Emmanuel Macron hosted Trump for dinner at Versailles after a G7 summit last month, with the US president calling the palace of the Sun King Louis XIV "the real deal".
Chinese President Xi Jinping gave Trump a grand ceremonial welcome at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in May, followed by a trip to the Temple of Heaven and tea at the Communist Party's exclusive Zhongnanhai compound.
Britain's King Charles III laid on a state visit for Trump at Windsor Castle in September 2025 complete with yet another flyover and lashings of pomp and ceremony.
Earlier this week, Trump was still talking about the castle, describing it as the "longest building I've ever seen".
And in May 2025 Trump sounded more than a little envious of his Arab hosts as he praised the marble of Qatar's royal palace as "perfecto" and marvelled at Saudi Arabia's architecture.
Back in Turkey, Trump seemed particularly touched by what he said was having a "building named after me" at Ankara airport.
"I'm very happy about that," said Trump -- whose attempt to add his own name to the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center in Washington was recently overturned by a court.
dk/del/rlp

defense

Trump berates NATO, praises Erdogan as summit starts

BY HAZEL WARD

  • NATO officials are hoping Trump's strong relationship with the Turkish leader could help smooth over the bad blood caused by the Iran war.
  • US President Donald Trump praised his "chemistry" with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he arrived in Ankara for a NATO summit Tuesday, while hitting out at European allies for their response to his war in Iran.
  • NATO officials are hoping Trump's strong relationship with the Turkish leader could help smooth over the bad blood caused by the Iran war.
US President Donald Trump praised his "chemistry" with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he arrived in Ankara for a NATO summit Tuesday, while hitting out at European allies for their response to his war in Iran.
Trump was greeted personally by Erdogan on the tarmac as he descended from Air Force One, before being escorted through the empty streets of the Turkish capital by a guard of riders on white horses.
The summit comes at a fraught time for the 77-year-old transatlantic alliance, as Trump has lashed out at allies and Washington steps back from Europe.
"I was very disappointed with NATO," Trump said, sitting next to Erdogan at the Turkish leader's vast presidential palace.
"Frankly, if it (the summit) weren't held in Turkey, where my friend happens to be a very strong leader, a very strong person, it's possible that I wouldn't have attended."
NATO officials are hoping Trump's strong relationship with the Turkish leader could help smooth over the bad blood caused by the Iran war.
"It's a chemistry that works between us," Trump said.
In a potentially major boost for Erdogan, Trump said Washington would consider selling F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, after booting it out of the programme in 2019 over Ankara's purchase of a Russian system.
Turkey has long sought to resolve the question of its readmittance to the F35 programme and the lifting of US sanctions that have soured ties and hampered Turkish defence projects -- and has looked to Trump's visit to break the deadlock.
"Mr Trump has also personally given us his word on this matter," Erdogan said.

'Testing'

European leaders are aiming to avoid a bust-up with the mercurial US leader that could deal a further blow to NATO's credibility, after Trump repeatedly cast doubt on Washington's commitment to protecting its allies.
But ahead of their main session on Wednesday, the US president was clearly still smarting over the restrictions some allies placed on US forces using bases at the start of the Iran conflict.
"I was testing to see whether or not they'd be there, because I've long said that we helped them," he said.
"Italy turned us down, and Germany turned us down, and France turned us down."
Trump also risked reopening another old wound with NATO when he reiterated his stance that Greenland "should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark". 
In a bid to prove to Trump that they are making good on a pledge last year to ramp up defence-related spending to five percent of GDP, NATO allies unveiled tens of billions in news arms contracts ahead of his arrival.
NATO chief Mark Rutte has insisted European countries are "delivering" by bolstering military budgets and moving to take more responsibility for the defence of their continent in the face of Russia.
"These are billions that are invested in our security, boosting our economies and supporting hundreds of thousands of new jobs," Rutte said at a glitzy industry forum.
The alliance released its latest spending figures for 2026 showing that core defence spending by Europe and Canada was set to rise 11 percent this year to $634 billion.
European leaders hope to keep Trump as engaged as possible with NATO, while appreciating that Washington is stepping back from the continent to focus on other global challenges.  
"We are building a more European NATO so that it can remain transatlantic," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz posted online. 

Zelensky makes pitch

While NATO wanted to focus Trump's attention on its surging defence budgets, the stalled US efforts to try to halt the war in Ukraine also rose back up the agenda.
Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of the NATO gathering and is expected to meet Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky on the summit sidelines on Wednesday.
"I think they both want to make a deal," Trump said.
"It's too bad it took so long, but I think something's going to come out."
Europe and Canada are set to pledge to keep military support flowing to Ukraine to the tune of 70 billion euros a year in both 2026 and 2027 at the summit. 
Zelensky urged NATO to step up help for the country's air defences as it struggles with shortages of crucial interceptors to shoot down Russian missiles.
"Please let more determination and more decisions for air defence be one of the key outcomes of this NATO summit," he said.
The Ukrainian leader also made a new pitch for Kyiv to become a member of the alliance, despite Trump previously shutting the door.
"Do you really believe it would be right to leave outside NATO, a country and a people with this level of defensive capability?" Zelensky said
del/pdw

justice

Mexico probing if US violated sovereignty in 2024 drug lord capture

  • Zambada was arrested in the United States in July 2024 alongside Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is also imprisoned.
  • Mexico said Tuesday it is investigating whether its sovereignty was violated by the United States in the 2024 capture of drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, in the latest flareup of diplomatic tensions over Washington's war on cartels.
  • Zambada was arrested in the United States in July 2024 alongside Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is also imprisoned.
Mexico said Tuesday it is investigating whether its sovereignty was violated by the United States in the 2024 capture of drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, in the latest flareup of diplomatic tensions over Washington's war on cartels.
The inquiry comes after the FBI displayed in an exhibition the plane used to bring most-wanted Zambada, co-founder of the notorious Sinaloa cartel, to the United States.
"If one of the US agencies participated in this operation, they would be violating international treaties and the (Mexican) constitution," President Claudia Sheinbaum said at her daily press conference.
Zambada was arrested in the United States in July 2024 alongside Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is also imprisoned.
When Guzman Lopez pled guilty to US narcotrafficking charges last December, he admitted to having kidnapped Zambada to bring him to the United States -- a betrayal meant to win favor with US authorities.
The US Embassy in Mexico said in 2024 that no US agency had participated in the operation, Mexican government secretary Rosa Icela Rodriguez told the morning news conference.
"The versions are contradictory. Someone lied," she said.
The war between factions of the Sinaloa cartel unleashed after the arrest of Zambada has left thousands dead and disappeared.
Trump has repeatedly said that drug cartels control Mexico, warning he will use boots on the ground south of the border if Sheinbaum doesn't crack down on criminal gangs.
Sheinbaum has downplayed the threats, emphasizing that Mexican soldiers use US intelligence to track down narcotraffickers - as with the killing of cartel boss Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera in a raid in February. 
In April, two CIA agents died in unclear circumstances during an anti-drug operation alongside soldiers and state police in the border state of Chihuahua - without apparent authorization from Mexico's federal government.
Sheinbaum's administration opened an investigation, still ongoing, into whether the presence of the agents represented a violation of national security laws, creating fresh diplomatic friction.
Days later, the US Justice Department indicted the then-governor of Sinaloa, Ruben Rocha Moya, as well as nine other current and former officials, on drug charges. 
Rocha Moya is a member of Sheinbaum's ruling left-leaning Morena party - and a close ally of her mentor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Sheinbaum responded to the indictments by requesting the US provide "irrefutable" evidence against Rocha Moya before potentially extraditing him.
In May, a CNN investigation alleged that CIA operatives used a car bomb to carry out a "targeted assassination" in March of a mid-level cartel operative outside Mexico City.
The CIA and Sheinbaum denied the story. "Imagine how big the lie is if the CIA itself needs to come out and dismiss" the story, the left-leaning leader said.
ai/jpo/ksb

diplomacy

Macron says Syria must not be destabilised after bombs wound 18

BY FRANCESCO FONTEMAGGI

  • - Civil society - Before arriving at the presidential palace, Macron held a meeting Tuesday morning with civil society representatives at the Four Seasons Hotel. 
  • French President Emmanuel Macron warned on Tuesday that Syria must not be destabilised after twin bomb attacks near the Damascus hotel where he spent the night, during a landmark state visit to a country emerging from years of civil war.
  • - Civil society - Before arriving at the presidential palace, Macron held a meeting Tuesday morning with civil society representatives at the Four Seasons Hotel. 
French President Emmanuel Macron warned on Tuesday that Syria must not be destabilised after twin bomb attacks near the Damascus hotel where he spent the night, during a landmark state visit to a country emerging from years of civil war.
The attacks cast a shadow over the first trip of a European Union head of state since Bashar al-Assad was toppled in late 2024, as President Ahmed al-Sharaa tries to rebuild the country's image after more than a decade of conflict.
The two leaders vowed to step up economic and diplomatic ties with new ambassadors to be installed in each country.
In a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart, Macron said we must "not let ourselves be destabilised" by such attacks, before which he had already left for the presidential palace in the heart of the Syrian capital, and reiterated Paris' support for the country.
Sharaa saluted Macron's "courage" for carrying on with his visit despite the bombings.
An AFP team saw Macron arrive for a meeting with Sharaa, while other journalists heard at least one blast echo through Damascus before seeing a plume of smoke rising near the hotel, where security forces closed a road and ambulances rushed to the scene.
Syria's interior ministry said one bomb had been placed inside a car parked on the side of a road, while the second was planted in a garbage container.
It said they exploded "while preparations were underway" to dismantle them.
Syria state media said the blasts wounded 18 people, including four police officers.
An AFP photographer near Syria's tourism ministry, opposite the hotel, saw windows damaged by one of the explosions, amid a heavy security presence.

Economic forum

France's Elysee Palace said Macron would continue his trip until his expected departure on Tuesday evening, when he travels to Ankara for a NATO summit and holds talks there the following day with Turkey's president.
The explosions are the second in the Syrian capital since Thursday, when 10 people were killed in a bombing in a Damascus cafe.
The French president had postponed announcing the date of his visit until his plane landed on Monday, for security reasons.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said that Macron's visit marked a "pivotal point" in the two countries' relations, vowing to continue to "confront terrorism in all its forms".
Sharaa also announced "our agreement to begin the process of exchanging resident ambassadors between Damascus and Paris as soon as possible, signalling the return of diplomatic relations to their normal state".
The blasts came moments before Syrian state television announced Macron's arrival at the palace.
The visit included an economic forum during which the two sides signed 15 bilateral agreements in several sectors, including civil aviation, health, banking, water infrastructure and roads, although French investors remain cautious about the situation.
"After the Strait of Hormuz crisis, the world realises the value of a safe and stable corridor," Sharaa said at the forum.
"Here the importance is highlighted of the geography of Syria, which today has regained its vital role as an indispensable link in the global corridors market."
Macron was accompanied by several economic players including Rodolphe Saade, chief executive of maritime transport giant CMA CGM, and TotalEnergies head Patrick Pouyanne.
Before the Damascus blasts, Pouyanne said that "the security situation still doesn't allow us to operate, but I think it is a positive initiative to come here, to Damascus".

Civil society

Before arriving at the presidential palace, Macron held a meeting Tuesday morning with civil society representatives at the Four Seasons Hotel. 
The French leader had said on X that "nothing can smother the aspiration of Syrian women and men to live in a fully sovereign, safe, pluralistic and united Syria".
While Sharaa has repeatedly vowed to protect minorities, sectarian violence in the Alawite-majority coast in March 2025 and clashes in Druze majority Sweida in July that year killed thousands of people.
The last French president to visit Syria was Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009, before Assad brutally crushed pro-democracy protests in 2011, sparking a conflict that killed more than half a million people and devastated the country's infrastructure and industry.
In May 2025, Macron hosted Sharaa in France on his first official visit to a European country, a move that preceded the Syrian leader's trip to Washington last year to meet US President Donald Trump.
at-mam/lar/nad/jfx/amj

flood

Death toll from China storms rises to 17, hundreds injured

BY ISABEL KUA

  • Xi said on Tuesday that rescuers should "go all out" in organising emergency operations, CCTV reported.
  • The death toll from devastating storms in parts of China rose to 17 on Tuesday, with hundreds more injured and tens of thousands evacuated, state media reported, as President Xi Jinping urged "all out" rescue efforts.
  • Xi said on Tuesday that rescuers should "go all out" in organising emergency operations, CCTV reported.
The death toll from devastating storms in parts of China rose to 17 on Tuesday, with hundreds more injured and tens of thousands evacuated, state media reported, as President Xi Jinping urged "all out" rescue efforts.
Dramatic video shared by state broadcaster CCTV showed a torrent of muddy water rushing past the crumbled concrete walls of a reservoir dam that had burst in the southern region of Guangxi, the worst-hit area.
Rescue workers wearing life vests searched for missing people in inflatable boats, state media footage showed, while authorities erected emergency shelters to house those displaced.
Intense rain and severe flooding from Typhoon Maysak killed at least six people in Guangxi, where authorities raised the flood control emergency response to its highest level in the regional capital, Nanning.
At least 130,000 people were evacuated but 11 are still missing, regional officials told a news conference, adding that the rain has damaged nearly 13,000 acres of agricultural land.
CCTV said 40 rivers and waterways in Guangxi were overflowing.
Videos of villagers knee-deep in floodwater frantically trying to catch snakes swimming in a flooded Guangxi town went viral on social media, with a related hashtag racking up more than 180 million views.
Around 800 to 900 snakes escaped on Monday morning after a breeding farm was washed away, Wu Zhi, the head of a local village committee, told state-owned media Red Star News.
 

'Intense winds'

 
Thunderstorms and gale-force winds killed another 11 people and injured 331 in the central province of Hubei, and tornadoes were reported elsewhere late on Monday, state news agency Xinhua said.
One person is missing in Hubei, Xinhua said, adding that 4,800 houses were damaged and 22 more had collapsed.
A man surnamed Wang told local media that his brother-in-law, surnamed Zhang, had been "sucked out" of his home in Hubei's Huanggang city by the strong winds, and was found unconscious outside his apartment complex, breathing only faintly.
"Wall cabinets, sofas, coffee tables, dining tables and chairs vanished in an instant. It was as if the entire building had been hollowed out," Wang told the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald.
Xi said on Tuesday that rescuers should "go all out" in organising emergency operations, CCTV reported.
Natural disasters are common across China, particularly in the summer when some regions experience intense rainfall while others bake in scorching heat.
Parts of Guangxi's coastal and eastern regions, as well as southwestern Guangdong, will continue to be hit by heavy rain on Wednesday, Minister of Water Resources Li Guoying said on Tuesday.
Flood peaks "exceeding the warning water level" by more than six metres (20 feet) are expected at the Guigang Hydrological Station in Guangxi on Tuesday evening, Li said.
"Due to the impact of persistent heavy rainfall and the prolonged passage of floodwaters at high levels, the safety of reservoirs and embankments in the affected areas faces a severe test," he said.
 

Landslide

 
Separately, a landslide in China's northwestern Gansu province killed at least five people on Tuesday, Xinhua said.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that rescue teams had located 31 people trapped by the landslide in a village near Gansu's Longnan city, including an unspecified number of dead victims. Two people were still reported missing.
Authorities have set aside 30 million yuan ($4.4 million) in reconstruction funds following the landslide.
Scientists warn the intensity and frequency of global extreme weather events will increase as the planet continues to heat up because of fossil fuel emissions.
China is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, but it is also a global renewable energy powerhouse that aims to make its massive economy carbon-neutral by 2060.
At least 22 people were killed in China in May after heavy rains lashed its central and southern regions, with some places "hit by record-breaking rainfall", state media reported. 
isk/dhw/ami/yad

Guam

Thousands without power in US Pacific islands after super typhoon

BY SIMON STURDEE AND SUE HAN KIM

  • Saipan and Tinian, the two main islands of the Northern Marianas home to around 40,000 people, also lost power as did parts of nearby Guam, a separate US territory home to major military bases.
  • Tens of thousands of people were without power Tuesday on Guam and the Northern Marianas after a super typhoon tore through the US Pacific territories, with no deaths reported.
  • Saipan and Tinian, the two main islands of the Northern Marianas home to around 40,000 people, also lost power as did parts of nearby Guam, a separate US territory home to major military bases.
Tens of thousands of people were without power Tuesday on Guam and the Northern Marianas after a super typhoon tore through the US Pacific territories, with no deaths reported.
The small island of Rota was the worst affected after a direct hit from Super Typhoon Bavi with winds up to 180 miles (290 kilometers) per hour on Monday, bringing down trees and power lines and knocking out water supplies.
Rota's Mayor Aubry Hocog said she had been told that two people sustained non-fatal injuries but that "there were no deaths confirmed."
Hocog said that over "50 percent of our island has undergone damages, and it could be more," adding that it could take "two to three months" to fully restore power supply.
"There is still a very long line of our people lining up to get water. (Utilities company) CUC is rationing the water up to 25 gallons (95 litres) per household just so we can be sure to have enough for everybody," she added.
Rota resident Masum Dhali, 24, said that "many homes have suffered severe damage, with countless roofs completely torn off."
"Across the island, there is no electricity, no running water, and no mobile network service," Dhali told AFP via Facebook, adding that "numerous water pipelines have been broken, and many power poles have fallen, leaving the entire island without essential services."
Local media showed a long line of cars on Rota -- home to some 1,500 people -- queueing to get drinking water as temperatures hit a hot and humid 85F (29C).
Saipan and Tinian, the two main islands of the Northern Marianas home to around 40,000 people, also lost power as did parts of nearby Guam, a separate US territory home to major military bases.
On Guam, less than 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Rota, fallen trees, bits of streetlamps and rocks were strewn over the roads late Monday and AFP saw at least one car flipped on its side.
With the exception of Rota, the damage in the region of around 210,000 people was less severe than after Sinkalu, a super typhoon that hit in April.

'Nowhere else to go'

Guam resident Marie and her partner, who were clearing up the debris with an excavator, had to move out of their house after Sinlaku and were living in a van when Bavi struck.
"All of our stuff (in the van) got wet from this typhoon now, so we ended up coming here to our car because we have nowhere else to go," 37-year-old Marie told AFP.
Handyman Bob Benavente said at a seaside park where rocks had been washed ashore by the storm surge that some rainwater leaked into his house but that he and his neighbors had not suffered major damage.
"Everybody goes out and gets gas, water, all the supplies (before storms arrive)... Everyone's used to it here. It's part of the island lifestyle," the 61-year-old told AFP.
Oceans experienced their hottest June on record and could set fresh highs in the months ahead, the European Union's Copernicus Marine Service said last week.
Warmer oceans help tropical storms to intensify and add more moisture, which can fall as heavy rain.
Adding to the mix is the return this year of El Nino, a natural climate phenomenon that warms Pacific surface temperatures and typically occurs every two to seven years.
Its effects can include drought across parts of the Amazon, Indonesia and Australia, disrupted monsoons in India, and more tropical storms and typhoons in the Pacific.
Charles "Chip" Guard, 80, a meteorologist who for years worked for the National Weather Service in Guam, remembers 11 super typhoons in the Pacific in 1997.
"That was very strong El Nino year. This is a strong El Nino year, but you know the season's only just started and we already had a couple," Guard told AFP.
str-dhc-stu/ami

energy

Cuba slowly gets power back after third nationwide blackout in six months

BY RIGOBERTO DIAZ

  • - Without power - Power outages have been a feature of life for years in Cuba, where the electricity generation system, composed mainly of dilapidated Soviet-era plants, is in shambles.
  • Cubans were gradually getting power back on Tuesday after the third nationwide power outage since the start of the year, causing mounting despair in the face of an energy collapse precipitated by a US fuel blockade.
  • - Without power - Power outages have been a feature of life for years in Cuba, where the electricity generation system, composed mainly of dilapidated Soviet-era plants, is in shambles.
Cubans were gradually getting power back on Tuesday after the third nationwide power outage since the start of the year, causing mounting despair in the face of an energy collapse precipitated by a US fuel blockade.
The communist island was already struggling to keep the lights on before US President Donald Trump cut off its oil supplies in January, depleting the dwindling supply of fuel for its power plants.
Union Electrica (UNE), the state electricity company, announced a "total disconnection" to the entire island at midday Monday, leaving the communist country's 9.6 million inhabitants without power while not providing a reason. 
It said early Tuesday that power was restored to over 30 percent of the capital, including 43 medical centers and nine water distribution installations.
The blackout marks the eighth on the island since late 2024.
The lack of fuel "undoubtedly complicates the restoration process," Lazaro Guerra, director of electricity at the Ministry of Energy and Mines, said on state television late Monday without giving a timeline for repairs.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel blamed US sanctions policy against the island.
"While the US attempts to trigger social unrest through strangulation by blocking fuel access to Cuba, the UNE is mobilizing to reverse the collapse of the National Electric System," the president said.
"The work being done by electrical workers amidst a genocidal energy blockade is heroic," he added.
This latest blackout comes as the state imposes increasingly draconian power cuts across the country -- over 30 hours at a stretch in parts of Havana and over 70 hours in some rural areas -- in an increasingly desperate attempt to conserve fuel.
"Living like this is agony," said Meyboll Font, a 51-year-old self-employed social media community manager.
Font said that her Havana neighborhood has been surviving on just "three or four hours of power a day" but that the blackout was worse because "you never know when it (electricity) will return."
"We have no WiFi, no electricity, we can't work," said a young software programmer working for a tourism start-up in another neighborhood.

Without power

Power outages have been a feature of life for years in Cuba, where the electricity generation system, composed mainly of dilapidated Soviet-era plants, is in shambles.
The blackouts and power cuts have accelerated since the fuel blockade began, with authorities citing a lack of fuel to run the generators that prop up the national grid.
Since January, Washington has only allowed one oil tanker, from Russia, to dock in Cuba, as part of a pressure campaign aimed at ending more than six decades of communist rule in Havana.
Trump points to the US overthrow of Venezuela's socialist president Nicolas Maduro and installation of a Washington-friendly successor as a potential blueprint for what he would like to achieve in Cuba.
Cuba has repeatedly said its political model is not up for discussion and vowed to resist any invasion militarily.

Making Cuba 'investable'

The US blockade, coupled with a flurry of sanctions on the Cuban state and foreign companies that do business with it, have nudged a country already mired in a generational crisis closer to collapse.
Food, drinking water and medicine are in increasingly short supply, and some surgeries have been put on hold, prompting the United Nations to warn of a humanitarian emergency.
Transport on the island has come to a near standstill.
Last month, the government unveiled a sweeping package of free-market reforms that, if implemented, would dramatically reduce state control over the economy.
The US State Department dismissed the plans as "superficial smoke signals" and said Trump was holding out for "much more substantial economic and political reforms that would make Cuba investable" and grant Cubans political freedom.
The two sides have held several rounds of talks but Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez last week said they had made "no progress" towards ending the impasse.
On Monday, Havana accused Washington of preventing a debate at the United Nations on its oil blockade and sanctions.
rd/jb/cb/pnb/jgc/cms

lifestyle

As South Korean Buddhism woos Gen Z, how hip is too hip?

BY MARIETTE LE ROUX

  • "If Buddhism is consumed merely as a 'good image', its newfound hipness may prove to be little more than a passing trend," said an editorial in the Hyunbulnews newspaper, a Buddhist outlet.
  • In fast-secularising South Korea, Buddhism is regaining popularity thanks to a "hip" trend wooing Gen Z with festivals, fashion, robots and DJs, even as some fear for the fundamentals of the faith.
  • "If Buddhism is consumed merely as a 'good image', its newfound hipness may prove to be little more than a passing trend," said an editorial in the Hyunbulnews newspaper, a Buddhist outlet.
In fast-secularising South Korea, Buddhism is regaining popularity thanks to a "hip" trend wooing Gen Z with festivals, fashion, robots and DJs, even as some fear for the fundamentals of the faith.
Just down the street from a 14th-century Seoul temple where worshippers make offerings and bow at the feet of three giant golden Buddha statues, a store named Buddhz sells statuettes, prayer bead bracelets, hats and t-shirts.
One depicts the Buddha scrolling on a smart phone.
A postcard shows the Buddha blowing a bubble in a relaxed pose with the words: "Blow it. Pop it. Forget it."
"It's a lot more commercialised here than I expected," Canadian tourist Teja Manabotula, 34, told AFP.
Marvin Zhang, a 19-year-old German, said his curiosity about Buddhism was part of the reason for his visit, but seeing the marketing methods targeting his generation, he could understand how it may be "seen as disrespectful".
Either way, the pop culture approach appears to be working.
The Seoul International Buddhist Expo, for example, drew a record 250,000 people this year -- about two-thirds of them Gen Z and half non-religious, according to organisers.
And even as the number of South Koreans who identify as Buddhist has remained static, Buddhism was viewed the most favourably of four belief systems polled in a 2025 "Religion Perception Survey" by Korea Research.
Buddhism-themed tourism is thriving and tens of thousands of locals and foreigners sign up every year for "temple stay" retreats where they eat simple monastic food, do chores and meditate.
Some pair their stays with concerts or events such as the International Expo, where visitors can join prayer sessions and talk to monks, browse among a dizzying array of trinkets on sale, and attend a "Heat Sutra Gong Party" with electronic dance and hip-hop sets.
Sun Min-ji, a 23-year-old South Korean university student and Buddhist, said the religion's hip image has attracted many of her friends.
"I believe there is absolutely nothing wrong with this 'hip' image of Buddhism, as it lowers the barrier to entry and attracts many young people," she told AFP.
But some critics point to the risk of a religion defined by non-attachment to worldly goods becoming tainted by consumerism.
"If Buddhism is consumed merely as a 'good image', its newfound hipness may prove to be little more than a passing trend," said an editorial in the Hyunbulnews newspaper, a Buddhist outlet.

'Adapted form'

The Jogye Order, South Korea's main Buddhist order and a driving force behind the trend, is looking to make religion more "approachable", spokesman Monk Myojang told AFP.
"The way younger generations engage with religion is changing... We've tried to meet them where they are and communicate in a way that resonates with them."
The order faced particular backlash when a humanoid robot "monk" took part in an ordination ceremony in May, pledging to "devote" itself to Buddhism. 
Critics argued this trivialised the monkhood.
While defending the use of the robot as a tool to convey Buddhist teachings, Myojang said the order was mindful of the risks and plans "to establish clearer guidelines about where the boundaries lie".
Comedian-turned-DJ Yoon Seong-ho, who performs under the stage name NewJeansNim in monk robes and mixes electronic music with chants, agrees there is a delicate balance.
His goal, with the order's support, is "to communicate Buddhist values to the public, especially to younger people who may not usually visit temples", the musician told AFP.
The hip, non-preachy image has given Buddhism a cultural boost, but it does not seems to have attracted new believers.
A poll last year found no change in South Koreans' religious affiliations, with 16 percent identifying as Buddhist. 
People with no religion remain in the majority, most of them aged 18 to 29.
Jo Yang-ok, a 78-year-old Buddhist, said she did not object to anything that would bring young people into the fold.
"People of my generation often can't come out to temples anymore because of illness or because they have passed away," she told AFP.
Brian Somers, an assistant professor of Buddhist studies at Seoul's Dongguk University, said religions have always adapted as younger followers replace older ones.
"Hip Buddhism is Buddhism in an adapted form, as long as the teachings are maintained," he said.
mlr-sjh/ami

Congress

Democrats push key US Senate candidate to quit over sex assault claim

  • Collins, a six-term Republican and one of her party's few remaining moderates in Congress, is among the Democrats' top targets.
  • Top Democrats called on scandal-hit US Senate candidate Graham Platner to quit the race on Monday after a sexual assault allegation threatened to derail one of the party's best chances of flipping a Republican-held seat.
  • Collins, a six-term Republican and one of her party's few remaining moderates in Congress, is among the Democrats' top targets.
Top Democrats called on scandal-hit US Senate candidate Graham Platner to quit the race on Monday after a sexual assault allegation threatened to derail one of the party's best chances of flipping a Republican-held seat.
Politico reported that Jenny Racicot, a 41-year-old Maine resident who previously dated Platner -- whose insurgent rise has drawn comparisons to President Donald Trump -- accused him of forcing her to have sex in late 2021.
Platner, a Marine veteran, oysterman and political newcomer who won the state's Democratic primary last month, rejected the allegation.
In a video message posted to X after the report was published, Platner called the allegations "troubling, serious and false."
"Regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful of the political reality it will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins," said, referring to the Republican incumbent.
"Those were the goals when we launched this campaign, and they remain my goals today."
The allegation lands at a perilous moment for Democrats, who view Maine as a central battleground in their effort to regain control of the Senate in November's midterm elections.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) said it would pull funding for the Maine Senate race if Platner remains on the ballot.
"The allegations reported today are incredibly disturbing – violence, abuse and sexual assault are absolutely unacceptable," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and DSCC Chair Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said in a statement.
"Graham Platner needs to immediately withdraw as the Democratic nominee for Senate and allow Maine Democrats the opportunity to choose a new candidate who can defeat Susan Collins."
Collins, a six-term Republican and one of her party's few remaining moderates in Congress, is among the Democrats' top targets.

'Step aside'

The Maine Democratic Party also called on Platner, 41, to withdraw, vowing to "hold every candidate who seeks to represent our state to the highest standard."
Senator Elizabeth Warren, who previously endorsed Platner's bid for the Senate, joined the chorus of Democrats urging him to quit.
"With so much at stake, the best path forward is for Graham Platner to step aside as the Democratic nominee and address these serious allegations outside this Senate race," Warren said in a statement.
Platner's victory in the Democratic primary was hailed by supporters as proof that a blunt anti-establishment message could break through with voters frustrated by cautious, establishment politics.
But his campaign has also alarmed some Democrats who fear his personal baggage could make it harder to defeat Collins in a state where independents and moderate voters often decide elections.
Politico said Racicot alleged that Platner entered her rural Maine home uninvited while deeply intoxicated and forced himself on her.
The latest report follows earlier controversies over old online comments, sexually explicit messages, a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol that Platner later covered up and allegations that he had mistreated women.
Platner has acknowledged past struggles with undiagnosed PTSD and alcohol abuse, but has denied physically harming former partners.
His supporters argue that his flaws are part of a redemption story and that voters are drawn to his authenticity.
ft/des/cms/gox

defense

US leads international concern after China test-fires missile into Pacific

BY SHAUN TANDON

  • - Power struggle in Pacific - New Zealand said that the test took place two hours after China informed Pacific nations of the missile launch, but it was unclear if China gave notice to the United States.
  • The United States voiced alarm Monday over Beijing's nuclear program after China test-fired a purported long-range missile into the Pacific Ocean, the latest move in its rapid military modernization.
  • - Power struggle in Pacific - New Zealand said that the test took place two hours after China informed Pacific nations of the missile launch, but it was unclear if China gave notice to the United States.
The United States voiced alarm Monday over Beijing's nuclear program after China test-fired a purported long-range missile into the Pacific Ocean, the latest move in its rapid military modernization.
Monday's test came two years after China fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the waters near French Polynesia, in what had been the first launch of such a missile over international waters in more than 40 years.
Analysts said that the test demonstrated growing Chinese capacity to strike the mainland of the United States, which sees the Asian power as its top adversary despite a reconciliation drive under President Donald Trump.
"At a time when the United States is working harder than ever to prevent nuclear proliferation, China is doing the opposite," State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.
"Beijing's rapid and opaque nuclear weapons buildup is of great concern to the region and the world," he said in a statement.
The United States in February allowed the expiration of New START, the last major arms control pact with Russia, as it insisted on a new agreement that also includes China.
The overtures have been rebuffed by China, whose nuclear arsenal is much smaller than Russia's but has been rapidly growing.
The State Department urged China to "engage in meaningful arms control discussions and commit to a regularized notification arrangement for all intercontinental-range ballistic missile and space launches."
Taiwan, the self-governing democracy claimed by China, identifed the missile as a JL-2, which US experts say has a range of at least 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles).
Joseph Wu, the secretary general of Taiwan's National Security Council, said that the missile went over the Philippines and accused China of destabilizing the region.
"China just proved itself again to be a bully on the block," he posted on X.
The Philippines, which has clashed repeatedly with China over territory in the disputed South China Sea, slammed the test as a "reckless display of military power."
"This launch serves no peaceful purpose and is a calculated act of taunting and provocation against those who reject China's illegal expansionism and coercive conduct," the country's defense department said in a statement.

Power struggle in Pacific

New Zealand said that the test took place two hours after China informed Pacific nations of the missile launch, but it was unclear if China gave notice to the United States.
Chinese navy spokesperson Wang Xuemeng said in a statement shared on WeChat that the test launch was "a routine arrangement of China's annual military training," and that "relevant countries were informed in advance."
Monitors said that the rocket fired from a nuclear submarine appeared to land near the Solomon Islands, the South Pacific nation that forged a secretive security deal with China in 2022 which a new government is reviewing.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that the Chinese test was "destabilizing to the region."
Japan, which said it was informed in advance of the launch, said it had strongly urged China to reconsider and voiced "serious concerns" over Beijing's growing military activity.
Russia, a Chinese ally, defended Beijing's test-firing as its "sovereign right" and said that China "is not threatening anyone in the world."
Lyle Morris, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said that the missile demonstrated that China had growing options beyond firing from land.
"A test of this length is a major development and would indicate that China is moving toward a significantly more survivable and longer-range sea-based nuclear deterrent capability," he said.
It shows that China's navy "is capable of targeting the continental United States from bastions close to Chinese waters."
The show of Chinese military might came the same day that Australia and Fiji signed a major defense treaty, part of US ally Canberra's efforts to regain the advantage against China following the controversial Solomon Islands treaty.
Analysts, however, doubted a direct connection, saying that such tests are likely planned well in advance.
burs-sct/jgc

deportations

How US is using cash and threats to dump migrants in Africa

BY NICHOLAS ROLL WITH WINIFRED LARTEY IN ACCRA, HILLARY ORINDE IN MBABANE, CAMILLE LAFFONT IN KINSHASA AND SUY SE IN PHNOM PENH

  • "Countries are being pressured with threats of tariffs, visa bans or cuts to assistance," they said.
  • It began with threats of US visa bans on a swathe of African nations.
  • "Countries are being pressured with threats of tariffs, visa bans or cuts to assistance," they said.
It began with threats of US visa bans on a swathe of African nations. Then Washington started to scatter migrants from all over the world to various corners of the continent, often with cash sweeteners for their governments.
Cambodian Pheap Rom, 43, ended up in a notorious high-security prison in tiny Eswatini, which is run with an iron fist by King Mswati III. "I didn't understand why I was being expelled to Africa since I'm Cambodian," he told AFP.  
Others were sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda; others still dropped off the radar after being sent to war-torn South Sudan. 
The United States is using visa bans and restrictions on African countries to strongarm them into taking people from third countries as part of Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration, two former State Department officials told AFP.
Lawyers say deportees have been thrown into a "legal black hole", held without charge in countries where they have no ties and few if any rights.
Even those deported to stable democracies like Ghana have been abused, dumped without papers by security forces in neighbouring Togo.
Two-thirds of the 39 countries hit by the Trump administration's full or partial travel bans are in Africa -- as are nearly half of nations that have struck murky deportation deals with Washington, according to US Senators and NGOs.
Trump's third-country deportations plan is the brainchild of his hardline anti-immigration adviser Stephen Miller and his Homeland Security Council, the ex-State Department officials said.
The White House did not respond to the allegations, with the State Department only telling AFP that "implementing the Trump Administration's immigration policies is a top priority.
"We remain unwavering in our commitment to end illegal and mass immigration and bolster America's border security," it added.

Official 'human trafficking'

The first wave of the mass deportations during Trump's second term concentrated on Central and South America. Asylum seekers were sent to Panama and at least 250 Venezuelans, accused of being gang members -- many on flimsy evidence and without due process -- were sent to El Salvador's gigantic Terrorism Confinement Centre known as CECOT.
Africa has since emerged as a second wave, with Washington wielding the stick of visa bans while offering the carrot of millions of dollars to countries like Equatorial Guinea, according to Democratic Senators.
Eswatini -- Africa's last absolute monarchy -- has agreed to take 160 deportees in exchange for $5.1 million (4.4 million euros), with Rwanda reportedly sealing a similar $7.5-million aid deal for 250 people, according to Human Rights Watch.
"It's like modern-day human trafficking, through official channels," Tin Thanh Nguyen, a US-based lawyer, told AFP.

Deported despite torture fears

Trump's second term has seen a vast expansion of who can be deported as well as a shutting down of legal pathways to the US.
Last month the Supreme Court backed his decision to do away with a 36-year-old rule that has protected 350,000 Haitians from being sent back to their gang-ravaged homeland.
Many of the people shunted onto deportation flights in the middle of the night had legal protections under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) or other safeguards, according to testimonies collected by AFP over the past year.
They were only informed of their expulsion on board the plane, without knowing their destination. Handcuffed and unable to call their lawyers, some were beaten for resisting.
Unlike people with firmer rights, such as asylum, those with torture or "withholding of removal" protections still have an active deportation order hanging over them -- though in the past this often allowed them to legally live and work in the United States.
When 23-year-old Khalid, who said he had fled torture in East Africa, crossed the Mexican border in 2024, a judge welcomed him into the US, wishing him success in his new life as he granted him protection from deportation.
But he was deported without any documents to Equatorial Guinea in January -- which is regularly criticised for human rights abuses -- and is now stuck in a Kafkaesque situation.
The government of the Spanish-speaking Central African petro-state told him he couldn't stay, and at the end of May he was put on a plane back to his home country. But border officials there turned him around because he didn't have travel documents. He's now back in Equatorial Guinea, unable to leave, and unable to request asylum, because it does not exist there, according to the UNHCR.
Another East African in a similar situation was threatening to kill himself, AFP was told.
"They don't know if we're alive or not" and they don't seem to care, Khalid said of the US officials who oversaw his deportation.

American families destroyed

"I don't know any immigration attorneys who were advising their clients who got granted CAT or withholding (of removal), 'Be careful, you could be deported to a third country,'" said Meredyth Yoon, a US immigration lawyer. "It was, 'You won.'"
But the Trump administration is now arguing that since the protections only bar them from being sent to their country of origin, they can still be sent anywhere else -- including to Equatorial Guinea and Ghana, which have then immediately shipped deportees home.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement views those with withholding or CAT protection -- including those granted it for gender-based violence -- as "low hanging fruit", said Alma David, another immigration attorney, whose clients have been scattered to South Sudan, Eswatini, Cameroon and the DR Congo. "It's logistically relatively easy for ICE to deport them to a third country," she added.
Other deportees who have ended up in Africa had been living in the US for decades. Cuban-born plumber Roberto Mosquera -- who has been in Florida since he was a child -- was even a "super Trump supporter", according to his daughter Monica.
He lost his residency after being jailed for shooting a man in the leg in a gang fight when he was a teenager.
But "when Roberto came out (of jail), he changed his life," said Ada, a family friend who spoke to AFP under a pseudonym for fear of US government retaliation. "He got married, had four beautiful little girls. He talks out against gang violence" that got him caught up in the criminal justice system, Ada said.
But neither that, nor his love for Trump, stopped him from being sent to Africa.
ICE picked him up at his annual check-in, and he disappeared for weeks, the government telling his family he had been sent to Cuba, which rarely accepts its nationals. Ada recognised her friend in a photograph posted on X by then US by then Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.
Her department even falsely branded him a "murderer", his daughter told reporters, calling him "one of the worst of the worst".
The plumber was sent to a fearsome maximum-security prison in Eswatini -- formerly known as Swaziland -- where he is still being held without charge a year later. When Mosquera's family saw him during a video call from the jail, he had lost hair and "gotten very thin", Ada said.
For decades the prison has become a byword for repression under King Mswati, who has ruled the small southern African nation for 40 years, routinely used to silence critics and pro-democracy activists.
Rom the Cambodian was also held in the same prison, and said for two months he and fellow deportees "went through misery" -- allowed outdoors for only 15 minutes a day and given one weekly phone call.

US 'washing their hands' of them

Those sent to Ghana were held in secret at a remote military base without charges. Some were dumped in Togo without documents, while others, including a bisexual Gambian man, were sent home, according to US court filings. Gambia criminalises homosexuality, and the man went into hiding.
"Once they're out of US hands, you can do with them whatever you want," one ex-State Department official told AFP of what he saw. "Hands washed. That's how the administration approached it."
For lawyer Yoon, however, Washington is using African countries to carry out deportations it is legally barred from carrying out itself.
"These governments are receiving money from the US for the purpose of processing individuals who are deported there, just to be deported back to their countries -- it's chain refoulement and that is illegal," she told AFP.
In both the DR Congo and Cameroon, US lawyer David said the International Organization for Migration is pressuring deportees to sign up for its "voluntary" programme to be sent home.
"They've got us cornered because they tell us: 'If you don't accept the repatriation programme, you'll be stuck in a mess here in Congo,'" said Colombian Gabriela, 30, who AFP met in April when she was kept in a hotel with other deportees near Kinshasa airport, where "several of (her) friends have taken ill".
"I didn't want to go to Congo. I'm scared," she added.
Reports David has heard from clients in Cameroon are even grimmer: the IOM has refused to facilitate medical care for some detainees, the lawyer said.
But the IOM insisted the "humanitarian assistance to migrants" it provides is "strictly voluntary and based on informed consent."

Visa 'blackmail'

As the Trump administration moved to ban or to tighten visas for foreigners, countries were given metrics to reach to avoid the sanctions, one former State Department official told AFP.
Some were not necessarily controversial: requests to share data on known criminals, encourage people not to overstay their visas, work with the US to receive their own nationals slated for deportation.
But it became clear that the best way to curb the restrictions was to take in third-country nationals, the official said.
"I don't know a single country that managed to move off the list because of stuff they did besides an agreement" to take third-country deportees or asylum seekers who showed up at the US border, the former official said.
Burkina Faso, ruled by a junta hostile to the West, has refused to take in people expelled by the US. 
"Is this a way to put pressure on us? Is this blackmail?" Foreign Affairs Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore asked in October when the US abruptly stopped processing visas at its embassy in the capital Ouagadougou.
"Whatever it is... Burkina Faso is a place of dignity... not a place of expulsion," Traore added. His country was soon hit with a travel ban.
A former Nigerian government official told AFP that when Abuja rebuffed US overtures to take in Venezuelans last year, "we knew there would be consequences". Visa restrictions soon followed.
Yet many African nations were willing to play ball with the US tightening visas worldwide, the two ex-State Department officials said. 
Shortly after Ghana started taking in west African deportees, Washington reversed its visa restrictions and lifted a 15 percent tariff on its cocoa and agricultural exports.
But even doing a deportation deal has not helped Equatorial Guinea escape its travel ban.
- 'Legal black hole' -  
These deals have been shrouded in secrecy with the number of people deported -- and the countries taking them -- not been made public.
At least nine African governments have taken, or have agreed to take, deportees out of the 25 agreements struck across the world, according to an investigation by Senate Democrats.
"Countries are being pressured with threats of tariffs, visa bans or cuts to assistance," they said.
One tally by nonprofit groups said 40 percent of confirmed or alleged deals are with African states -- 14 out of 34 countries.
What is more, the Senate report didn't include Sierra Leone, which took its first deportees in May or the Central African Republic, which took deportees, including from Iran, in June. 
Often lawyers don't know where their clients are even held.
Nguyen told AFP all he knows of his clients sent to South Sudan is that they're at "an undisclosed location" and "guarded by soldiers".
Not all of the deportees had protections preventing them from being sent home -- but were sent to third countries anyway.
Rom, the Cambodian sent to Eswatini in October, served 15 years in a US prison after pleading guilty to attempted murder, after firing a gun during two neighbourhood disputes. 
After serving his time, instead of being deported to Cambodia, he was sent to the southern African nation and locked up without charge for months.
Nguyen suspects the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) didn't even try to send Rom to Cambodia, which has in the past refused deportations from the US. At one point, the DHS publicly insisted he had been sent to Thailand, the country of his birth but where he doesn't hold citizenship, before finally acknowledging he had been flown to Eswatini.
Its most notorious prison has become "a legal black hole", Nguyen said, where deportees face indefinite detention with no access to lawyers, despite an Eswatini supreme court ruling that they were entitled to legal representation.

No let up

The message the Trump administration was sending to countries unwilling to play ball, the lawyer argued, was that "if you don't issue the travel documents, look what I'll do to your nationals." 
ICE did not dispute Nguyen's allegations, and insisted in a statement to AFP that third-country agreements "are essential to the safety of our homeland and the American people."
Rom was finally able to return to Phnom Penh, where AFP was able to speak to him in April.
Even faced with legal pushback, the Trump administration has not backed down.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant who became a symbol of Trump's mass deportations, has been threatened with being sent to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana and Liberia after having been mistakenly deported to El Salvador. Despite a US judge dropping the criminal charges against him in May, he is still at risk of being expelled.
When a US judge ruled one woman's deportation to DR Congo had been illegal because the Congolese government had said it wouldn't be able to provide her adequate medical care, the US claimed it would be too dangerous to bring her back because of the Ebola outbreak there.

Policy of 'xenophobia'

Several third-country deportation programmes were set up, one of the State Department sources told AFP. One targets nationals whose countries wouldn't take them back, one to clear a "backlog" of asylum seekers, and another for those who had been convicted of a crime and were finishing their sentences.
But there was no real "guiding philosophy, it was just xenophobia", the source said.
When a US judge ruled that Benjamin, a Nigerian green card holder married to an American citizen, was entitled to torture protections, he was looking forward to reuniting with his family. 
He had served two years in prison for a fraud conspiracy and was put into deportation proceedings. But a judge ruled he was entitled to protections because of his past involvement in the often dangerous world of Nigerian politics.
Instead he was sent to Ghana.
Benjamin and other deportees were held at a military base outside the capital. Those around him fell sick, exposed to relentless mosquitos.
As the government came under pressure from lawyers seeking their release, he and several others were driven to the border and dumped in Togo without documents where the situation was "terrible", he told AFP in September.
"I did my time for what I did," Benjamin said. But the Trump administration "violated the judge's orders."
Another deportation flight landed in the Ghanaian capital in May.
An AFP reporter wasn't allowed into the heavily guarded Accra hotel where the deportees were reportedly being held. 
Staff said it was fully booked.
But there would be plenty of vacancies if she came back in two days, an employee added.
burs-nro/fg/giv

conflict

Russian strikes kill at least 26 in Kyiv region on eve of NATO summit

  • Russia fired 68 missiles and 351 attack drones, Zelensky said.
  • Russia fired missiles and drones into apartment buildings in Kyiv for the second time in a week Monday, killing at least 26 people on the eve of a crucial NATO summit, Ukrainian authorities said.
  • Russia fired 68 missiles and 351 attack drones, Zelensky said.
Russia fired missiles and drones into apartment buildings in Kyiv for the second time in a week Monday, killing at least 26 people on the eve of a crucial NATO summit, Ukrainian authorities said.
The attack hit just days after another Russian strike killed more than 30 people in the Ukrainian capital. 
President Volodymyr Zelensky decried the "brutal strike", saying that "the Russians' tactics are unchanged: to inflict as much pain and damage as possible on Ukrainians and on Ukraine."  
In the northeastern city of Sumy, Russian drone strikes killed two people on Monday, the Ukrainian regional military administration said.
Zelensky -- expected to hold talks with US counterpart Donald Trump at the NATO summit in Turkey -- pleaded for the alliance to boost Ukraine's air defence against Russia's ballistic missiles.
He said Kyiv was successful in shooting down drones and cruise missiles but had "not enough means of defence" against hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles.
"It is simply absurd that in the modern world, production has still not been organised to the extent that is necessary to protect people from ballistic terror," he said in the aftermath of the strikes.
He said Kyiv expected "decisions" on Ukrainian air defence at the NATO summit in Turkey.
Earlier, NATO chief Mark Rutte said in Ankara: "Allies and NATO partners must continue to ensure Ukraine gets what it needs."
The morning strike punched a crater into a multi-storey apartment block in Kyiv's Podilsky district, ripping its floors in two.
AFP reporters heard more than 10 explosions during a ballistic missile alert at night, with flashes in the sky as the blasts rang out.
Eighteen people were killed in the capital, and another eight in Vyshneve, a town just outside Kyiv, authorities said.
Officials said more than 100 people were wounded in the strikes.
It was the second attack in a week in which Russia deployed ballistic missiles, with Kyiv appealing for allies to send missiles for US-made Patriot air defence systems.
Russia fired 68 missiles and 351 attack drones, Zelensky said.
Two more people were killed in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv said.

'Need to pray'

Emergency employees worked through destroyed apartments and carried out bodies on white sheets.
A woman screamed as rescuers pulled a body from the eighth floor of a building.
"I felt the need to pray," Oleksandr Kolomiyets, 60, told AFP outside the destroyed building in the Podilsky district.
Anna Misko, a 36-year-old who recently returned to Ukraine, said she and her child had survived by a "miracle" as they went down to the ground floor of the building.
Russia "wants to destroy us", she said, adding that "there is no place" that is safe in Ukraine.
Russia's defence ministry said the "massive strike" had targeted what it described as "military-industrial enterprises", fuel and energy facilities in several Ukrainian regions.
Kyiv resident Oleksandr Seleznyov said the war had reached a "new phase".
"I think the Russians want to make Kyiv uninhabitable for civilians."
Around 30 residential buildings in Kyiv were hit, officials said.
In the Kyiv region of Vyshneve, authorities said they evacuated around 500 people after the strikes.  
Zelensky said the situation there was "difficult because of a secondary detonation", demanding that security services clarify what happened. 

Kyiv strikes Siberia refinery

While Kyiv reeled from the attack, the Ukrainian army said it had struck an oil refinery in Russia's Omsk region, around 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles) from Ukraine's border, in one of its deepest hits during the almost four-and-a-half-year war.
Zelensky said Kyiv used "upgraded Fire Point drones" -- Ukrainian long-range drones -- for the strike.
"Siberia is now also within reach of Ukrainian precision," he said. 
Ukraine has struck targets far inside Russia in recent months, triggering national fuel shortages.
Ukraine's general staff said the Omsk refinery was "involved in supplying the Russian occupation army".
The governor of Omsk, which borders Kazakhstan, confirmed the refinery had been hit by drones, saying there were no casualties.
Moscow's army said its forces had shot down more than 500 Ukrainian drones overnight.
US-led attempts to broker an end to the war have gone nowhere.
The White House said Trump would meet Zelensky Wednesday during the NATO summit.
"The president's obviously getting together with him to talk about how we can end the war. That's been a priority of his for a long time," a senior US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official said Trump would "follow up" with Russia's Vladimir Putin.
bur/pdw/abs

missing

Race to recover bodies ahead of Venezuela quake cleanup

BY PATRICK MARKEY

  • On Monday, his team had found another.
  • The international rescue teams are packing up and heavy excavators are clearing rubble left by Venezuela's earthquakes.
  • On Monday, his team had found another.
The international rescue teams are packing up and heavy excavators are clearing rubble left by Venezuela's earthquakes.
But for Raul Alvarado the search goes on.
Watching volunteers pick through the crushed remains of his 12-storey apartment building, Alvarado knows his mother, father and older brother are inside.
Their third-floor apartment now sits at eye level, crushed under piles of concertinaed concrete slabs from the OPP 26 building in coastal Caraballeda, one of the districts hardest hit by the quakes.
Deaths from the June 24 disaster have crept past 3,500, but for families like Alvarado's there is still the race to find the tens of thousands reported missing.
Twelve days after the quakes hit, time is running short. 
Diggers are already clearing parts of the OPP complex, shaking the ruins even as volunteers and families continue to burrow for the bodies of loved ones.
"They were together the three of them, hugging," said Alvarado of the last moment he saw his family. 
He managed to pull himself out of the rubble because he was in a different room.  
"This building was full. My neighbor had five grandchildren, all them are trapped in there."
Stuck in the layers of floors, a microwave, mattresses and crates of beer are the only signs of the building's previous life.
Nearby a large excavator slams its shovel into another building's remains.
The UN has estimated that as many as 50,000 people could be missing in one of Latin America's worst earthquake disasters. The government has yet to give any estimate.
But the OPP complex is only one among the nearly 200 buildings that were destroyed or collapsed when the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes struck. Most of those are in the epicentre, the coastal La Guaira area.
All around Alvarado's building lies destruction. Some apartment blocks are stripped of their facades. Others are fully collapsed, floor slabs stuck together. Others simply disappeared into rubble.
Dozens of families of the missing wait on top of mountains of debris where the OPP buildings once stood. Volunteers and firefighters dig small tunnels through the concrete floors to reach lower apartments.
Some sit under makeshift shelters, others use picks and drills powered by generators. Inside one hole, the body of young girl lays trapped, covered in lime.
Alny Pacheco, a volunteer working at one tunnel, said since the earthquakes they had taken out 12 dead. On Monday, his team had found another.

 Missing online

After the quakes, online registries appeared to help find the missing. One, "Venezuela Earthquake Disappeared" has more than 30,000 names still unaccounted for. Another "Venezuela Looks for You" has registered 25,000 already found, and another 18,100 unaccounted for.
"The high number of people reported missing on online platforms remains horrifyingly credible," Jens Laerke, deputy spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told AFP.
"That does not mean all are under the rubble, but it illustrates the scale of the distress facing families."
National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez has said images from drones, registries and family accounts showed an estimated 30,000 people were in La Guaira. Around 19,800 escaped or had been rescued, he said.
He did not refer to the whereabouts of the other approximately 10,000, or say whether that figure included confirmed deaths.
Professor Katsu Goda, of Western University's earth sciences department in Canada, said a combination of the unusual double quake and the potential vulnerability of reinforced concrete materials may have contributed to the high number of missing.  
The first earthquake would have weakened many structures, while the second shock likely caused additional collapses before occupants could escape. As a result, damage was amplified, he told AFP.
"When reinforced-concrete buildings collapse, they often generate enormous volumes of dense rubble that are extremely difficult and dangerous to search," he said.
"In some cases, progressive or 'pancake' collapses can trap occupants within compressed layers of debris, making rescue operations and victim identification particularly challenging."
The scale of the disaster, as in Haiti in 2010, also meant many people could be classified as missing for a while, he said.
For Daniela Alvarez -- who is looking for her sister, nieces and brother-in-law in an OPP block -- time is running out.
"How can they be looking to demolish everything without knowing if people are still under there?" she said.
"Our families will come out in pieces."
pma/des