diplomacy

Turkey, Azerbaijan leaders vow unity after tensions

BY EMIL GULIYEV

  • Aliyev said the alliance -- "an important factor across a vast geographical area" -- remained unshaken.
  • Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev vowed Sunday that their countries' alliance would remain solid, in a show of unity aimed at overcoming a public rift between the close neighbours.
  • Aliyev said the alliance -- "an important factor across a vast geographical area" -- remained unshaken.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev vowed Sunday that their countries' alliance would remain solid, in a show of unity aimed at overcoming a public rift between the close neighbours.
Tensions flared in September, when Baku revised school uniform regulations to prohibit clothing deemed incompatible with secular education, effectively barring Islamic headscarves in classrooms.
Erdogan's government has dismantled restrictions on hijabs in Turkey.
Azerbaijan's move sparked protests at home and drew criticism from Erdogan's Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP). Presidential adviser Oktay Saral demanded that Azerbaijan reverse the restrictions.
Aliyev's ruling party, Yeni Azerbaijan, denounced the comments as "interference in Azerbaijan's internal affairs".
Baku also declared 31 Turkish nationals, including an opposition lawmaker and party leaders, persona non grata over critical social media posts.  
Erdogan subsequently dismissed Saral, but Aliyev stayed away from an October 30 summit of Turkic leaders in Ankara -- despite a personal invitation from Erdogan. Instead, he sent Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov.
On Sunday, as Azerbaijan marked Victory Day commemorating a 2020 war with Armenia, Erdogan arrived in the country's Fuzuli district, which Baku recaptured from Armenian forces six years ago.
A guard of honour lined up at the airport, where Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, welcomed Erdogan and his wife Emine.
"With the permission of Almighty God, our unity will endure forever," Erdogan told a joint press conference with Aliyev. 
"This unity of hearts, which we describe with the motto 'One Nation, Two States,' is an everlasting torch that draws strength from our shared past and illuminates our future."
Aliyev said the alliance -- "an important factor across a vast geographical area" -- remained unshaken.
"Together, Azerbaijan and Turkey are even stronger," he said, adding that Erdogan's visit "shows the whole world our unity".
"I am confident that this unity will last forever."
 

'Deeper rift'

 
Analysts say the quarrel reflects deeper unease over Baku's diplomatic independence and its close ties to Israel.
"Azerbaijan-Turkey tensions stemmed from the fact that Baku does not see itself as the younger brother in this alliance and insists on relations between equal partners," Elkhan Shahinoglu, head of the Baku-based Atlas Research Centre, told AFP.
"The hijab dispute is a symptom of a deeper rift," Gonul Tol, an analyst at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, wrote on X.
"Tensions have long simmered over a number of issues including Azerbaijan's sovereignty, Ankara's influence in Baku, diverging policies toward Israel, and Turkey's rapprochement with Armenia."
Baku has forged strong military and economic ties with Israel, which supplied Azerbaijan with weapons during its 2020 war with Armenia over the breakaway Karabakh region.
This angered Turkey, which has grown increasingly hostile towards Israel over the Gaza war. Erdogan has accused Israel of "genocide".
Turkey is also seeking to normalise relations with Armenia, whose border it closed in the 1990s in solidarity with Azerbaijan, while linking progress to Armenian-Azerbaijani peace efforts.
November 8 marks Azerbaijan's capture of the city of Shusha in Karabakh during its war with Armenia, a victory achieved with Turkish backing.
The Turkic-speaking allies describe their relationship as "one nation, two states" and, despite the friction, remain closely bound by military and energy ties.
Turkey serves as
a key transit route for Azerbaijani oil and gas exports to Western markets.
An ex-Soviet republic, Azerbaijan is a mainly Shiite Muslim country, but after decades of Soviet rule it emerged as one of the most secular states in the Muslim world.
eg-im/tw

conflict

Russian strikes cut power to hundreds of thousands in Ukraine

  • He also said Russia had launched a drone at Komyshuvakha -- a village in the Zaporizhzhia region where Moscow had hit an aid distribution centre on Monday in one of the deadliest attacks of the war.
  • Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes Sunday, authorities said, while a new drone hit a village humanitarian aid centre attacked this week where rescuers are still digging out bodies. 
  • He also said Russia had launched a drone at Komyshuvakha -- a village in the Zaporizhzhia region where Moscow had hit an aid distribution centre on Monday in one of the deadliest attacks of the war.
Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes Sunday, authorities said, while a new drone hit a village humanitarian aid centre attacked this week where rescuers are still digging out bodies. 
Ukraine is bracing for a harsh new winter of war as Russia ramps up daily aerial barrages, raining down drones and missiles on the power network.
In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, "more than 600,000 residents of the region have been left without power," power company DTEK said on Telegram after a "night attack has damaged important energy facilities".
It said the company was working to restore electricity but the task was "complicated by repeated attacks".
In another strike, a Russian drone hit "a critical infrastructure facility" in the northeastern Kharkiv region, the mayor of Zlatopil city, Mykola Baksheyev, said on social media.
"Nearly 250,000 customers in the Kharkiv region were left without power," Baksheyev said.
Repair works were underway but "the exact time for restoring power supply is still unknown," he added. 
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the night-time strikes had triggered "widespread power outages across the country".
"In the Zhytomyr region alone, 140 apartment buildings were left without heating following a Russian strike," he said, as temperatures in Ukraine already hovered around freezing.
He also said Russia had launched a drone at Komyshuvakha -- a village in the Zaporizhzhia region where Moscow had hit an aid distribution centre on Monday in one of the deadliest attacks of the war.
The death toll has risen to 55 people, Zelensky said. Emergency services previously put it at 50 killed.
"This morning, the Russians attacked Komyshuvakha with an FPV drone, where emergency rescue operations have been underway for seven days ... Unfortunately, more people may still be under the rubble," Zelensky said.
The strikes came a day after Ukraine's energy ministry said a massive attack on energy facilities had plunged residents in five regions into darkness and significantly hampered electricity transmission in Kyiv.
Zelensky has accused Russia of intensifying strikes to put pressure on Kyiv at US-brokered trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Russia has battered Ukraine's energy grid and infrastructure throughout its four-and-a-half-year invasion and Kyiv was now entering another war-time winter.
bur-mmp

crime

Poland calls Krakow shooting rampage 'terrorist' attack

BY DAMIEN SIMONART, WITH MAGDALENA PACIOREK IN WARSAW

  • The National Prosecutor's Office said it had launched a terrorism investigation.
  • Poland on Sunday launched a terrorism probe as mourners brought candles and flowers to Krakow's cordoned-off Main Market Square in tribute to six people killed by a gunman who authorities said was "fascinated by far-right ideologies".
  • The National Prosecutor's Office said it had launched a terrorism investigation.
Poland on Sunday launched a terrorism probe as mourners brought candles and flowers to Krakow's cordoned-off Main Market Square in tribute to six people killed by a gunman who authorities said was "fascinated by far-right ideologies".
The 24-year-old Polish man opened fire at random Saturday in the historic centre of the country's second city, in what Prime Minister Donald Tusk called an act of "terrorism".
A 32-year-old British man and a 51-year-old Austrian woman were among the dead, the Malopolska region's governor Krzysztof Kleczar told reporters. The four others killed were Polish.
Among the 15 wounded were nationals from Germany, Portugal and Russia, an interior ministry spokeswoman said.
Three more bodies were found at the suspect's home in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, around 150 kilometres (95 miles) northeast of Krakow. Police said they were his parents and a sister.
The gunman was wounded in a shootout with police and was in critical condition in hospital.
The National Prosecutor's Office said it had launched a terrorism investigation.
"I'm absolutely devastated," Weronika Filar, 27, a Krakow resident, told AFP on Sunday.
"It's one of the safest places on Earth, genuinely... I did not expect anything like this to happen to us," she said. "Our city will never be the same."
"We've heard of various incidents of this sort happening elsewhere in Europe," Krzysztof Stepien, a 28-year-old part-time city guide told AFP.
"Nothing like this has ever happened here, and I hope it never will again," Stepien said.
Two police officers were wounded as they chased the suspect, who was masked and dressed in military garb, including a bulletproof vest.
The man left his car at an intersection and started shooting at the officers with a semi-automatic rifle, according to police.
 

Officer hailed as hero

 
Social media images showed the two police officers firing at the gunman, with one managing to wound him despite his own injuries.
One police officer was in serious but stable condition, the interior ministry said, as quoted by PAP. 
Police named him as "Jakub Kulik, who without hesitation confronted an armed attacker".
On Sunday, the usually busy site of the attack was sealed off with red-and-white tape.
Most of the souvenir shops, restaurants and cafes remained closed.
Black flags and Poland's flags with black ribbons were seen in the city as Warsaw announced two days of national mourning for the victims from Sunday.
 

Relatives' bodies found

 
The suspect was named in the media as Michal O.
Police said the three bodies found at the gunman's home were those of his parents, a 53-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman, and of his 21-year-old sister.
Police officers were still inspecting the flat of the suspect in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski, an AFP reporter saw.
"Injuries were found on the bodies, which were preliminarily assessed as gunshot wounds... Seven firearms were seized from the flat," police said.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said police had also found weapons in the suspect's car.
According to investigators quoted in the Polish media, Michal O. had no previous criminal record.
He was
a member of a shooting club, along with his father.
Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he was "shocked and saddened by the appalling shooting".
bur-mmp/rmb

Global Edition

Eisenkot given tough task of forming Israeli government over Netanyahu

BY YAELLE IFRAH, GIANLUCA PACCHIANI AND SHAUN TANDON

  • Eisenkot, 66, a political novice who has vowed to bridge Israel's deep polarisation under Netanyahu, was due to meet President Isaac Herzog who will formally give him the mandate to form a government with an initial deadline of 28 days.
  • Israel's former military chief Gadi Eisenkot was set Sunday to be given the tough task of forming a government, giving him weeks to cobble together a coalition to replace Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's longest-serving prime minister.
  • Eisenkot, 66, a political novice who has vowed to bridge Israel's deep polarisation under Netanyahu, was due to meet President Isaac Herzog who will formally give him the mandate to form a government with an initial deadline of 28 days.
Israel's former military chief Gadi Eisenkot was set Sunday to be given the tough task of forming a government, giving him weeks to cobble together a coalition to replace Benjamin Netanyahu, the country's longest-serving prime minister.
Eisenkot, 66, a political novice who has vowed to bridge Israel's deep polarisation under Netanyahu, was due to meet President Isaac Herzog who will formally give him the mandate to form a government with an initial deadline of 28 days.
Eisenkot, born to a family of working-class Moroccan immigrants, would be the first Sephardic prime minister -- a descendant of Jews from the Middle East or North Africa -- in a country long dominated by an Ashkenazi elite with ties to Europe.
Netanyahu, who has been prime minister on and off for nearly two decades and has led war on Gaza, Lebanon and Iran since the October 7, 2023 attacks, lost support in last month's election but no side claimed an outright majority.
In consultations last week with Herzog, Eisenkot received recommendations from parties accounting for 67 lawmakers, against 46 for Netanyahu.
But the vote count included Israeli Arabs, whose seat haul surged to a historic high on anger over Netanyahu's government, which includes far-right firebrands who have openly sought to marginalise the community.

Wooing the ultra-Orthodox

Avigdor Liberman, a former Netanyahu aide turned sharp critic who nonetheless shares his hawkish views, has been adamant against any alliance with Israeli Arabs, descendants of Palestinians who stayed after Israel's creation in 1948.
Taking back one of his signature campaign pledges, Liberman instead voiced an openness to an alliance with ultra-Orthodox Jews, whose almost singular priority is ensuring that they remain exempt from military service.
The exemption for the ultra-Orthodox -- whose two main parties had been aligned with Netanyahu but could push Eisenkot to a majority -- has been a source of growing resentment for many Israelis as reservists fight on multiple tours of duty.
Liberman said Sunday he still backed conscription for all Israelis but that he had to make "difficult decisions" for the higher priority of ousting Netanyahu, who faces corruption charges that could land him in jail if he loses power.
But he remained adamant that he would never ally with Israeli Arabs.
"I will not lend a hand to the establishment of such a government, which in my view will harm security and bring Netanyahu back to power," Liberman wrote on X.
Liberman, whose party at seven votes is the smallest within the opposition bloc, denied speculation he was trying to engineer a deadlock that could result in him becoming prime minister.
Born in Moldova and with a party base originally from Russian-speaking immigrants, Liberman said that commentators' views on his motives had "sometimes a distinctly racist tone".
Naftali Bennett, the second strongest opposition leader after Liberman, has also been outspoken against the ultra-Orthodox community's military exemption and has stayed quiet since Liberman's about-face.

'National emergency'

Eisenkot has called for a "national emergency" government that would remove Netanyahu, calling him "a fundamental threat to the very existence of Israeli democracy".
He has ruled out a unity government with Netanyahu, who has repeatedly called for a broad coalition with himself at the top.
Eisenkot appears to be suggesting that he is willing to start off with a minority government -- relying on outside votes from Israeli-Arab parties -- while still working to find a stable government with majority support.
Assaf Shapira, a political expert at the Israel Democracy Institute, said that Eisenkot would face an especially fragile government if it only has 48 lawmakers, even if others promise to keep it in power.
"To pass laws, you need strong support from other parties," Shapira said, explaining that an Eisenkot minority government would be forced into extensive negotiations on every piece of legislation.
Eisenkot has vowed to repair Israel's international reputation and put an end to rampant violence against Palestinians by extremist West Bank settlers supported by Netanyahu's government. 
He has warned Netanyahu he does not have the mandate for another attack on Iran but has also largely backed his war decisions.
Commanding the military during the 2006 war with Hezbollah, Eisenkot devised the so-called "Dahiya doctrine" that calls for massive force against civilian infrastructure where enemies operate, a policy critics say amounts to a war crime.
In Tel Aviv, Neri Bar-On, who works in educational technology, said he expected Eisenkot to succeed in forming a government.
"But the problems run deeper," he said.
"The country is facing a massive internal conflict; even if he manages to form a government, it won't solve the underlying issues."
yif-anr-sct/rh

US

Yemen's Houthis claim attack on Riyadh financial district, Aramco skyscraper damaged

  • The energy ministry said in a statement that "an administrative building belonging to Saudi Aramco in Riyadh was subjected to an attempted attack today".
  • Yemen's Houthis on Sunday claimed an attack on the financial district of the Saudi capital Riyadh, with eyewitnesses saying they saw damage to a skyscraper belonging to oil giant Aramco.
  • The energy ministry said in a statement that "an administrative building belonging to Saudi Aramco in Riyadh was subjected to an attempted attack today".
Yemen's Houthis on Sunday claimed an attack on the financial district of the Saudi capital Riyadh, with eyewitnesses saying they saw damage to a skyscraper belonging to oil giant Aramco.
Aramco facilities and infrastructure have been repeatedly struck by the Houthis in recent months, with tankers, refineries, storage areas and the company headquarters all targeted by the group. 
"Aramco tower in KAFD has been targeted, that's the sure thing," an eyewitness told AFP, referring to the King Abdullah Financial District. Two other witnesses confirmed seeing damage to the building.
A 2022 truce that had paused fighting in Yemen's long-running conflict fell apart in July, and Saudi Arabia has since traded blows with the Houthis, who have struck Saudi airports, energy infrastructure and military sites.
The Iran-backed Houthis seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa in 2014, with the Saudi-led coalition entering the conflict a year later in support of the government.
"The Yemeni Armed Forces, with the help of Allah Almighty, carried out four qualitative military operations, using a number of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones," the Houthis said in an English-language statement, listing targets including the financial district, Riyadh airport, Aramco oil storage tanks and the eastern Saudi city of Abqaiq.
One eyewitness in the area of the Aramco skyscraper told AFP they saw a projectile strike the building but they were unsure what type of projectile it was.
The King Abdullah Financial District is one of the most visible manifestations of the kingdom's ongoing economic and social reforms drive, with towering glass skyscrapers, high-end retail outlets and green spaces dotting the area.
 

Escalation

 
KAFD is home to some of the kingdom's biggest home-grown companies and blue-chip international firms like Goldman Sachs. 
The headquarters of the kingdom's influential sovereign wealth fund -- the Public Investment Fund -- and the Saudi stock exchange are also located in the heart of the district.   
Targeting the area, which is also home to residential buildings and a large metro station with heavy commuter traffic during the morning rush hour, would mark a major escalation by the Houthis.
"I see this as an attack on the credibility of Vision 2030 as much as on Aramco itself," Andreas Krieg of London-based risk consultancy MENA analytica told AFP, referencing Saudi Arabia's economic diversification plan.
"It raises the political costs of Saudi Arabia's Yemen campaign, strengthens those demanding military escalation and undermines the argument that Riyadh can restore deterrence through airpower. The Houthis are making Saudi Arabia's economic transformation hostage to an increasingly unwinnable war."
Multiple floors of the Aramco tower appeared to have sustained damage, said a witness, with glass shattered and damage to part of the tower's facade visible.
The energy ministry said in a statement that "an administrative building belonging to Saudi Aramco in Riyadh was subjected to an attempted attack today".
"The incident resulted in falling shrapnel that caused minor damage to the building, with no injuries or fatalities reported, thankfully."
AFP was unable to confirm the extent of the damage. 
The kingdom's interior ministry has repeatedly warned residents against filming and publishing images of drones, missiles, air defence interceptors and impact sites.
 

Repeated attacks

 
The attack comes hours after the kingdom's education ministry announced late on Saturday the return of in-person schooling after weeks of remote learning in Riyadh following an earlier wave of strikes.
Coalition spokesperson Turki al-Malki, in a Sunday morning social media post, said that "air defences intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched by the Houthi terrorist militia towards Riyadh", as loud explosions were heard in the Saudi capital.
The kingdom has been pressing its allies for help as it comes under daily fire from the Houthis.
Thousands of Syrian troops are set to deploy to Saudi Arabia and Yemen, with some already on the ground, multiple Yemeni officials told AFP on Saturday.
The United Nations says more than 1,600 people have been killed and more than 300,000 displaced since fighting resumed in impoverished Yemen.
The fragile 2022 truce fell apart after the Houthis allowed an Iranian plane to land in Yemen's capital Sanaa in defiance of Saudi control over Yemeni airspace, setting off a spate of attacks.
Later, the Houthis declared a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and began hitting its ships, territory and oil facilities, before seizing Yemen's entire Red Sea coast in a lightning campaign.
bur/ris/dcp

pope

In Lat Am, Pope urges husbands to respect wives amid femicide crisis

  • Over 3,800 women were killed in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2024 because of their gender, according to the UN's regional economic mission.
  • Pope Leo XIV told men to treat their wives with respect Sunday, as he concluded the first leg of his tour of Latin America, which is plagued by gender-based violence.
  • Over 3,800 women were killed in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2024 because of their gender, according to the UN's regional economic mission.
Pope Leo XIV told men to treat their wives with respect Sunday, as he concluded the first leg of his tour of Latin America, which is plagued by gender-based violence.
"Dear fathers and grandfathers... treat your wives with respect, ask for forgiveness and live with integrity, even when doing so requires sacrifice," the head of the Catholic Church said during a homily in Uruguay.
Over 3,800 women were killed in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2024 because of their gender, according to the UN's regional economic mission.
Over the last five years, the region has recorded nearly 20,000 femicides, most of them committed by the victim's current or former partner.
Leo is on a 12-day tour of the continent where he served as a missionary and a bishop before becoming pope.
He wrapped up the first leg of his visit in largely secular Uruguay with an open-air mass outside a basilica in the south-central city of Florida.
The basilica is home to a shrine linked to Uruguay's fight for independence from Spanish colonial rule.
Thousands of worshippers packed the city's main square for the service, basking in warm sunshine after several days of unusually cold weather triggered by an exceptionally strong El Nino.
"I think it's very important that the Pope came because it strengthens the Church's presence in our country," 22-year-old Ivanna Fisichella, who attended the mass, told AFP.
Evangelina Campero, 57, highlighted "the effort the pope is making" by embarking on a gruelling tour just three weeks after undergoing surgery for lung cancer.
"The message is to give it your all," she said.
The 71-year-old pontiff will later travel to Argentina, where he will meet President Javier Milei, a right-wing libertarian whose austerity policies have drawn sharp criticism from the Catholic Church. 
The high point of his visit is expected to be the third and final leg of his tour, which takes him to Peru.
Leo has a special connection to the Andean country where he spent nearly two decades as a missionary, including eight years as a bishop.
ide-lbc/cb/md

UN

Turkey's COP31 message: electrify, recycle, don't mention coal

BY HAZEL WARD

  •   - 'Weak' climate targets -   Both Turkey and COP31 co-host Australia, which is steering the negotiations, have set targets for reducing heat-trapping emissions, but neither has adopted a national "roadmap" explicitly detailing plans to exit fossil fuels.
  • As the COP31 climate summit approaches, host nation Turkey is putting electrification front and centre, touting its renewables boom while pushing its Zero Waste agenda as a way to reduce methane emissions.
  •   - 'Weak' climate targets -   Both Turkey and COP31 co-host Australia, which is steering the negotiations, have set targets for reducing heat-trapping emissions, but neither has adopted a national "roadmap" explicitly detailing plans to exit fossil fuels.
As the COP31 climate summit approaches, host nation Turkey is putting electrification front and centre, touting its renewables boom while pushing its Zero Waste agenda as a way to reduce methane emissions.
But local environmental campaigners say it sidesteps the "elephant in the room" of Turkey's ongoing reliance on coal and obscures the fact it has effectively become "Europe's dumping ground" for plastic waste.
When the UN summit opens Monday in Antalya, COP31 President Murat Kurum, who is also Turkey's environment minister, will be pushing Ankara's flagship initiative to make electricity account for 35 percent of global energy demand by 2035.
The non-binding "35 by 35" target is key to a 10-point Action Agenda that Turkey says will speed up the shift to renewables while shoring up energy security.
"This year's energy crisis has shocked us ... everyone now understands that energy that you import is energy that you do not control. Electrification is the answer. It protects communities from volatile global markets and cuts emissions," Kurum said on Thursday.
COP31's aim is "to usher in the age of electricity", he said.
 

Renewable energy drive

 
Turkey has made huge advances in renewables infrastructure in recent years, with Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar on Thursday unveiling an ambitious $500-billion roadmap to electrify its economy and expand its installed wind and solar capacity fourfold to 175 gigawatts.
Yet with a third of its electricity derived from coal, no date for phasing it out and plans to expand two existing coal-fired power plants alongside its electrification drive, COP31 will be a test for Turkey's climate leadership, campaigners say.
"What electrification should do is end the dependency on fossil fuels. That should be the ultimate goal," said Emel Turker Alpay, an energy campaigner with Greenpeace Turkey.
She warned the "35 by 35" target did not specify electricity should be generated by clean energy -- the only way to deliver climate benefits.
"The most important thing would be a commitment to no new coal in Turkey and giving a date for starting a just transition away from fossil fuels," she told AFP.
Unlike last year's host Brazil, which put emissions reductions at the heart of its COP agenda, Turkey has largely avoided debate over fossil fuel phase-out, with Bayraktar saying an exit from coal would depend on Turkey ramping up its nuclear power production.
Turkey's first nuclear plant is due to come online by the year's end, with plans to set up two more.
 

'Weak' climate targets

 
Both Turkey and COP31 co-host Australia, which is steering the negotiations, have set targets for reducing heat-trapping emissions, but neither has adopted a national "roadmap" explicitly detailing plans to exit fossil fuels.
Although Turkey has set a net-zero goal of 2053, Climate Action Tracker last month warned its interim targets fell short, with its overall rating still "critically insufficient".
"Turkey ... faces a crisis of contradiction: while calling for accelerated climate action, its own targets are weak and lack the ambition necessary to drive much-needed emissions reductions," it said, urging Ankara to "strengthen" its 2030 and 2035 targets.
Yagiz Eren Abanus of the Centre for Spatial Justice -- one of 17 environmental organisations in the Turkish Climate Network -- said the country's targets needed a radical rethink.
"Turkey is not decreasing greenhouse gases but increasing them," he explained, saying that despite Ankara's pledge to cut projected emissions by 41 percent by 2035, in real terms it allows "a 16-percent increase" from today's levels.
 

Plastic waste

 
Turkey is also championing its Zero Waste Initiative, a high-profile environmental diplomacy campaign led by Emine Erdogan, wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seeking to push international cooperation to reduce methane emissions from waste.
"When you look at the Action Agenda, they want to reduce projected global waste growth by 50 percent by 2035, which is a good thing," said Greenpeace's Alpay.
"But these policies are only focusing on managing waste after it is produced, and not preventing waste at its source. Without stronger commitments to waste prevention and methane reduction, it won't deliver meaningful emission cuts," she told AFP.
Turkey has not endorsed the Global Methane Pledge and is still importing plastic waste, notably from Europe, which is closely linked to emissions.
"The plastics industry is the fossil fuel industry's Trojan horse because when they cannot use the fuels they extracted for energy production, they redirect it into the petrochemical industry," Alpay explained.
"When we limit waste management to recycling, it doesn't mean much for climate change or emissions."
hmw/rlp

vote

New Zealand set for weeks of political wrangling after knife-edge poll

BY BEN STRANG WITH OLIVER HOTHAM IN WELLINGTON

  • This week's knife-edge poll drew intense attention to the country's minor parties, in particular the upstart centrist Opportunity Party.
  • New Zealand faced the prospect Sunday of weeks of political wrangling after a knife-edge election that produced no clear winner but saw record gains for minor parties.
  • This week's knife-edge poll drew intense attention to the country's minor parties, in particular the upstart centrist Opportunity Party.
New Zealand faced the prospect Sunday of weeks of political wrangling after a knife-edge election that produced no clear winner but saw record gains for minor parties.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon declared his right-wing coalition had a mandate to form the country's next government -- while conceding results remained too close to call definitively.
Preliminary results have his National Party winning the most seats, giving them a very slim majority of just two if combined with their coalition partners, the populist NZ First and the libertarian ACT.
"New Zealanders have given us the biggest seats in parliament, 42 seats as it stands today, and a pathway to form a government," Luxon told journalists on Sunday.
"There's no doubt about it. We've got a mandate."
He said his National Party had done well given the war in the Middle East and subsequent global fuel shock that has been widely blamed for New Zealand's economic difficulties.
"What we achieved, I think, was pretty good."
Opposition Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins has joked that while the country had spoken, "it may take us a little bit longer to figure out exactly what it is that you've said".
But the results show he has only a very narrow path to power for his left-wing grouping, which also includes the Green Party and Te Pati Maori, representing the interests of New Zealand's Indigenous community.
 

'Everyone's over politics'

 
Luxon will run a caretaker government until the final votes are announced on November 27.
"I think everyone's over politics, so let's all just have a bit of a break for the next three weeks," he said.
That final tally will include nearly 400,000 so-called "special votes" -- among them around 100,000 cast overseas and by people within New Zealand but outside the local electorate in which they live.
Historically, special votes leaned left, potentially giving the Labour or Green parties an additional one or two seats at the expense of the right-bloc.
This week's knife-edge poll drew intense attention to the country's minor parties, in particular the upstart centrist Opportunity Party.
Under the country's mixed-member proportional representation system, voters must tick two options -- a general party list as well as an individual member to represent their electorate.
Results put Opportunity winning seven seats, potentially giving the party a kingmaker role in the next government.
With 100 percent of the preliminary count done, Luxon's National are on 42 projected seats and Labour on 36, according to the electoral commission.
The Green Party is in third place with 16 seats, while ACT are on 13 and NZ First have 12. Te Pati Maori have five.
 

Cost of living concerns

 
Luxon said Sunday that while it was "unlikely" he would need the Opportunity Party to form a government, he was willing to work with leader Qiulae Wong on issues on which they agree.
"We can work with our current coalition partners to form the government," he said.
"What I've also said, though, is that there is a need for us to go forward in cross-party collaboration in a lot deeper way."
Many Kiwis are struggling to make ends meet -- the price of basic goods remains stubbornly elevated, and unemployment at its highest in more than a decade.
On the streets of Wellington, voters told AFP that those rising costs had been top of their minds when they cast their ballots.
Rahul Jain, a 33-year-old support worker, said he hoped the next government could "bring the cost of living down".
"Everything has gone up, so that's the biggest issue right now."
Mary Scott, a lending operations representative, said she hoped politicians in power would keep ordinary New Zealanders in mind.
"I know we're always going to be impacted by overseas events, but what's happening here?" she said.
"They can actually do a lot with the money they have in the bank, and they can make fair policies for everyone.
"They can make the wealthy pay a bit more."
bes-oho/ami

Global Edition

'Feeling guilty': price hikes a tough sell in Japan despite inflation

BY TOMOHIRO OSAKI

  • Uniqlo's decision to row back on its sock price hike came as it sought to protect its status as a paragon of affordability portrayed in local media.
  • When Japan's "symbol of affordability" Uniqlo decided to increase the price of its basic socks last month, it sparked a backlash before the clothing titan made an immediate U-turn.
  • Uniqlo's decision to row back on its sock price hike came as it sought to protect its status as a paragon of affordability portrayed in local media.
When Japan's "symbol of affordability" Uniqlo decided to increase the price of its basic socks last month, it sparked a backlash before the clothing titan made an immediate U-turn.
That came after Italian-style family restaurant chain Saizeriya issued an almost grovelling apology as it decided to add 20 yen ($0.13) to the price of its trademark Milanese Doria, lamenting its "lack of effort".
The very public angst -- including in one of the world's most recognisable clothing brands -- highlights the struggles Japanese firms face as they battle rising costs in a country where decades of deflation have nurtured a consumer class averse to higher prices.
The Bank of Japan last month declared its two-percent inflation target had been met, after 13 years of ultra-loose monetary policy.
Measures unveiled in 2013 by then-prime minister Shinzo Abe -- and continued by successive governments -- were supposed to end a spiral of deflation that had plagued Japan for decades since the mid-1990s. 
However, it wasn't until 2022 -- when the Ukraine war triggered a global energy shock -- that inflation started flickering back to life in resource-poor Japan.
Then the US-Israel war on Iran saw Tehran choke off the strategic Strait of Hormuz, slashing crude exports from the Middle East and impacting global supply chains, in turn sending company costs soaring.
 

'Sorry for our customers'

 
While firms in most countries have been able to lift prices accordingly -- albeit to expected anger -- those in Japan have to battle an inherent view that hikes are taboo.
Businesses big and small have found themselves hard-pressed to plough ahead with drastic price hikes to avoid alienating customers. 
Decisive increases can be more of a risk for smaller, countryside businesses whose survival often hinges on loyal patronage by regular clients. 
Sachi, 68, a ramen shop owner in western Japan's Okayama region, has been holding off on raising prices despite snowballing costs.
"When I imagine myself suddenly announcing a 200-yen hike, for example, I cannot help but feel guilty and sorry for our customers who have supported us for years," Sachi, who only gave her first name, told AFP during a recent trip to Tokyo.
"So my thinking is, 'I would rather persevere myself'. I think lots of tiny businesses are like that, especially in rural areas."
Uniqlo's decision to row back on its sock price hike came as it sought to protect its status as a paragon of affordability portrayed in local media.
Saizeriya, whose price increases went far beyond Doria to cover almost all menu items, issued a statement some saw as self-flagellating.
The company's president even vowed at a news conference to "look for any excuses to lower prices again", to the amazement of social media users.
Still, the chain kept other items such as wine -- a stunningly cheap 100 yen per glass -- unchanged because "we want it to be enjoyed casually", its public relations office told AFP.
 

'Insanely high'

 
Soaring grocery bills have left Japanese households less room to spend on other purchases, from dining out to clothing, even as these businesses grapple with rising labour and material costs of their own. 
This is despite recent labour ministry statistics showing real wages in Japan have increased year-on-year for eight consecutive months. 
"Food prices are getting insanely high, so I have to increasingly rely on stuff imported from overseas, because homegrown products cost me more," Tokyo office worker Kazuhiko Sato told AFP. 
"I'm also eating out less," he said.
To make matters worse, the Bank of Japan has embarked on a period of interest rate increases to battle inflation, with borrowing costs at a more than 30-year high and likely to go up again. 
Tsutomu Watanabe, the professor at the University of Tokyo's graduate school of economics, said: "Pay raises are still largely insufficient and not benefiting everyone." 
A similar or even higher rate of inflation permeates other Group of Seven economies, but "wage hikes there have been decent enough to keep spending from weakening", he told AFP. 
Therein lies a key difference from Japan, which essentially remains "a convalescent trying to recover from decades of deflation", the economist said.
"The pricing power of companies is still pretty much dictated by consumers" in Japan, he said.
He thinks it will be "another three to four years" before Japanese consumers undergo a mentality shift to accept chronic inflation as the natural result of steep wage increases.
"After 30 years of deflation, transitioning to a different regime inevitably takes some time," he said. 
tmo/dan/abs/tc

justice

Impeached Paraguay leader charged over shock implosion of bank

BY TOMáS VIOLA

  • In a fast-moving sequence of events, Pena was brought before prosecutors on Saturday and charged with "breach of trust and mismanagement for personal gain."
  • Paraguayan prosecutors charged ex-president Santiago Pena and took him into custody Saturday over a banking crisis that saw millions of people cut off from their money, sparking major protests.
  • In a fast-moving sequence of events, Pena was brought before prosecutors on Saturday and charged with "breach of trust and mismanagement for personal gain."
Paraguayan prosecutors charged ex-president Santiago Pena and took him into custody Saturday over a banking crisis that saw millions of people cut off from their money, sparking major protests.
Pena, Paraguay's youngest-ever president at 47, was removed from office by the Senate on Friday, just three days after the collapse of a leading bank with which he had business links.
He had offered to resign but lawmakers impeached him instead, stripping him of the immunity he would have enjoyed had he stepped down.
In a fast-moving sequence of events, Pena was brought before prosecutors on Saturday and charged with "breach of trust and mismanagement for personal gain."
Ueno Bank was a popular online bank that held accounts for nearly half of Paraguay's 6.5 million people, plus more than $800 million in government funds.
Its collapse rocked this small, normally stable country, leading to street protests.
Pena, who came to power in 2023, owned shares in the bank's holding company, Ueno Holding, until he sold them last year.
He is accused of using his influence as president to steer millions in government deposits to Ueno Bank and of hiding or downplaying its financial woes, even though he was warned about questionable loans and solvency issues.
Pena is also accused of a conflict of interest for naming former Ueno Bank director Carlos Carvallo to run Paraguay's Central Bank.
Pena's lawyer Ricardo Preda denied the charges against his client and said that in Paraguay, it is not the president but rather a minister who decides where government money is deposited. 
After a hearing with Pena on Saturday, Judge Hernan Otazu told reporters he had ordered the former president taken into pre-trial custody and held at the same Asuncion facility where he was taken after his removal from office on Friday. 
The judge froze the assets of Pena and Carvallo, who faces the same charges as the former president, plus one of falsifying government documents.
Pena declined to make a statement during the hearing, Otazu said.
The Central Bank said it has started paying out money to Ueno Bank customers caught up in the collapse and that more than 50 percent have recovered their funds.
Giovanni Catolinom, 40, was not one of them. He trembled as he told AFP that funds from his new travel agency -- around $16,000 -- were still trapped in the bank.
"I lost 16 years of work," he said, crying.
Pena was replaced by Vice President Pedro Alliana, who promised not to abandon the depositors, including pensioners, affected by Ueno's demise.
On the streets of Asuncion there was rejoicing over Pena's ouster.
But news that Alliana, who is from the same right-wing Colorado Party as Pena, would take over angered some demonstrators.
"He's from the same team, he knew about it (the trouble at Ueno)," Edson Vazquez told AFP.

US ally

The collapse of Ueno rocked usually stable Paraguay.
Thousands of people took to the streets furiously demanding their money back after the Central Bank took control of Ueno, citing fears for its solvency.
Pena's removal was a further blow for US President Donald Trump's network of allies in South America.
Trump's favorite for Brazilian president, Flavio Bolsonaro, was defeated by left-wing incumbent Lula Inacio Lula da Silva last month.
Alliana will serve out the remainder of Pena's term, which ends in 2028.
str-tev/sa/cb/msp/dw/acb

Singapore

Can't cook or shower: Indonesians take aim at data centres

  • But, as in other countries, anger has been directed at the data centres, warehouse-like facilities that keep apps and artificial intelligence tools running, with water often used to cool their humming servers.
  • Cooking and bathing became difficult when taps ran dry in Batam, an Indonesian island where residents are protesting as data centres spring up to power the global artificial intelligence boom.
  • But, as in other countries, anger has been directed at the data centres, warehouse-like facilities that keep apps and artificial intelligence tools running, with water often used to cool their humming servers.
Cooking and bathing became difficult when taps ran dry in Batam, an Indonesian island where residents are protesting as data centres spring up to power the global artificial intelligence boom.
The area had suffered a "long drought" caused by low rainfall, the local water utility operator told AFP, as a strong El Nino cycle exacerbates dry weather.
But, as in other countries, anger has been directed at the data centres, warehouse-like facilities that keep apps and artificial intelligence tools running, with water often used to cool their humming servers.
Frustration is bubbling over in Indonesia and Malaysia -- especially in regions bordering Singapore that are seen as a prime location for new tech facilities.
At first the main reaction was, "thank God industry is coming" to Batam, 54-year-old tradesman Juniardi Adinda Sembiring Gurukinayan told AFP.
But severe recent outages hitting the municipal water service in some Batam communities meant "sometimes I skipped my shower".
"We cannot eat rice without water. We cannot cook vegetables without water," he said.
At the worst point, dozens of angry residents staged spontaneous protests outside Nongsa Digital Park -- a new cluster of data centres and other amenities, designated a special economic zone.
People in the district believe "that the water shortages... are related to the construction of data centres", Juniardi said.
The drought caused the nearby Nongsa Reservoir to run very low, and supply systems were further disrupted by an electrical fault, said Ginda Alamsyah, a spokesman for water utility operator Air Batam Hilir (ABH).
The tech park receives water from a different source, Duriangkang Reservoir, an industry source told AFP.
 

'Smelly, yellowish'

 
Authorities in late September told developers they must build plants to desalinate seawater for cooling, to avoid straining local resources.
Companies behind operational or planned data centres at Nongsa Digital Park include the Singapore-headquartered BW Digital, DayOne, and Princeton Digital Group.
Another owner, Hong Kong-based Gaw Capital Partners, said it was "aware of the distress and frustration expressed by local residents in Nongsa and surrounding Batam communities" over water shortages.
To ensure sustainable operations, "our data centre facilities must deploy a combination of advanced engineering, efficient architectural designs, and renewable energy sourcing," it said.
That includes using so-called "closed-loop" water systems that reuse resources and so require less fresh liquid.
As residents demanded a return to normal water supply at one protest last month, AFP saw a police officer filling up buckets they had brought to Nongsa Digital Park.
In nearby coastal village Mata Ikan, people had to use seawater to wash after defecating, said demonstrator Rahmat, 52, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.
"The water crisis has been going on for the past year, but it got worse in the last six months," 38-year-old Sulastri said at her home, where supply was out, so she poured water from a plastic bottle to wash dishes.
"Many of us here run small stalls. We used to make ice cubes, but we can't anymore."
The government has been distributing water from tanks driven around, but Sulastri said it was "smelly" and "yellowish".
AFP contacted the local government BP Batam, and Indonesia's ministry for economic affairs, which regulates Nongsa Digital Park, for comment. Neither responded.
Recent disruption to water distribution "was not caused by data centres or AI or investors entering that sector," Amsakar Achmad, Batam mayor and head of BP Batam said in October, according to local media.
The decline in water supply was instead "due to weather and climate factors", he said.
 

Tech boom

 
Data centre capacity in Southeast Asia is projected to triple from 2025 levels by 2030, driven by a tenfold surge in AI use, according to a KPMG report.
This can put pressure on water supplies, but also electricity grids still heavily reliant on planet-warming fossil fuels.
The data centre construction boom in Indonesia and Malaysia began when resource constraints led hyper-connected Singapore to halt new developments between 2019 and 2022.
It has since ramped up, boosting both countries' economies as governments and tech giants pour hundreds of billions of dollars into training and running AI.
Ginda said water provider ABH supports policies to encourage investment and development in Batam, south of Singapore and connected to it by undersea cables.
But he added that water demand must be managed properly, adding that ABH is trying to boost the capacity of Batam's six reservoirs by dredging them, with cloud seeding another option in dry periods.
 

'Inflection point'

 
North of Singapore, Malaysia's Johor region has become "one of the largest emerging AI infrastructure clusters in the world", according to researcher James Chai of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
Just half a decade ago, Johor hosted 10 megawatts of data centre capacity. That has ballooned by a factor of 200 to 2.1 gigawatts today, Chai said.
The environmental cost could be high.
By 2035, data centres are forecast to swallow up one-third of Malaysia's total energy consumption, the deputy prime minister told parliament in July.
The government said at that time it would only approve data centre projects after ensuring sufficient energy and water supply capacity.
Johor residents have protested over dust pollution and flash floods linked to data centre construction, as operators build closer to residential areas.
"Johor is at a critical inflection point," Mohd Fadhil Md Din of Malaysia's University of Technology told AFP.
"It has the potential to become Southeast Asia's leading sustainable data center hub," but only if it manages resources and spatial planning carefully, he said.
 

'We all feel it'

 
Pushback sometimes works.
In Kota Damansara on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, a plot of land intended for a data centre remains empty after local opposition.
The developer withdrew its planning permission application in August, after its neighbours spoke out online, lobbied their MP and gathered more than 9,000 petition signatures.
Jahaidi Harun, 72, had been concerned that the proposed data centre could be noisy and pressure existing infrastructure.
Data centres "use a lot of water," the retiree told AFP, adding that, as in Batam, "if the rain doesn't come for one month, we all feel it".
Following the withdrawal, Malaysia's human resources minister Ramanan Ramakrishnan told local media he wasn't against "development or investment".
But "for large-scale projects that could affect the residents' lives, the people must have a say".
burs-kaf/hmn/tc

crime

Gunman 'fascinated by far-right' kills six in Krakow, Poland

BY SONIA BAKARIC

  • The historic city of Krakow in southern Poland was once the country's capital and attracts millions of tourists every year.
  • Six people were killed and at least 15 wounded on Saturday when a gunman opened fire in the landmark historic centre of Poland's second city of Krakow, in the country's deadliest shooting in decades.
  • The historic city of Krakow in southern Poland was once the country's capital and attracts millions of tourists every year.
Six people were killed and at least 15 wounded on Saturday when a gunman opened fire in the landmark historic centre of Poland's second city of Krakow, in the country's deadliest shooting in decades.
Three bodies -- of two women and a man -- were later found at the suspect's home, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, adding there was "much to suggest that they are members of the (suspect's) immediate family".
Tusk also announced Poland would hold two days of mourning over the shooting that he called an act of "terrorism".
Polish Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said the gunman appeared to be "fascinated by far-right ideologies".
A British national was among the killed, according to Polish police chief, Marek Boron, and five foreigners were among the wounded in hospital, the authorities said.
"Two people who have not yet been identified," Boron said referring to the victims killed.
Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he was "shocked and saddened by the appalling shooting".
"My thoughts are with the families of those who have lost their lives, everyone injured and all those affected by this senseless violence," he wrote on X.
The suspect -- a Polish citizen born in 2002 -- drove a car onto Krakow's Main Market Square and began shooting at random people, said police.
Two officers were wounded as they tried to stop the man, the police said, before shooting the suspect who was later detained and taken to a hospital.
An AFP reporter at the scene saw ambulances and multiple police cars as personnel cordoned off the area -- one of Poland's landmark tourist hotspots popular with locals and foreign visitors.
"Everything suggests that the perpetrator held very, very radical views. A number of weapons were found in the car he was driving," Kierwinski said.
"Everything suggests that he was fascinated by far-right ideologies" and held "ultra-nationalist views," he added.
The man was wearing military-style clothing at the time of the attack, said Kierwinski.
 

Tusk praises 'heroic' police

 
Andrzej Fijolek, spokesman for the chief of police, said the attacker had used a semi-automatic rifle similar to the American AR-15.
The authorities have not yet disclosed the nationalities of all the victims of the attack, Poland's deadliest shooting since the fall of communism in 1989.
"Our highest praise goes to the heroic police officers who risked their lives in the line of duty," Tusk said.
On Saturday evening, AFP reporters saw the usually bustling Main Market Square sealed off, with heavily armed police and forensic investigators inspecting the site of the attack.
Witnesses told AFP they saw people take refuge in shops and restaurants in the surrounding streets.
"I saw a man shooting at people and walking around the square," Annette, a woman in her sixties, told AFP.
"It's a tragedy for Krakow, we've never seen anything like this before," she added.
"I saw one person who was dead... and several others lying a bit farther away, whom people were still trying to resuscitate. They were taking off their clothes, trying to stem the blood with those clothes," said musician Daniel Wolny, 32.
"It's very frightening to think that there are still risks in Europe -- risks of a terrorist nature," Stella, a 22-year-old tourist from Rennes, northwest France, told AFP.
"Krakow has always been an extremely safe city... this is probably the first situation of this kind we can remember in our lifetime," said 33-year-old Gabriel Bogdan, an employee at a bar near the square.
 

'Dramatic events'

 
Deadly shootings are extremely rare in Poland, a European Union and NATO member of 38 million people.
But the country has been on high alert following a series of stabbings in October, which Tusk denounced as a "cult of violence".
Warsaw, a staunch ally of Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, has repeatedly warned of Russian sabotage and hybrid warfare on Polish soil, accusations rejected by Moscow.
Poland is also seeing a sharp rise in the number of firearms licences. In 2025, more than 50,000 new licences were issued, bringing the total to 411,000, according to police figures.
The historic city of Krakow in southern Poland was once the country's capital and attracts millions of tourists every year.
In 2025, it was visited by 16.2 million people.
Poland's conservative-nationalist president Karol Nawrocki said on X he was awaiting "a full explanation of the circumstances surrounding these dramatic events".
"The safety of Poles is an absolute priority," he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered his condolences, saying that "Ukraine stands in solidarity with Poland and the Polish people. People have the right to safety." 
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on X that "Germany stands shoulder to shoulder with Poland as a friend and partner during these difficult times."
The EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, described the shooting as "a tragedy that will be felt far beyond Poland".
bur-mmp/hol/abs

science

Pakistan-built robots serve taste of future to Karachi diners

BY SAMEER MANDHRO

  • For now, the robots are proving a hit with families, who flock to the restaurant to watch the machines in action.
  • Wheeling its way between dining booths at a neon-lit restaurant in Pakistan's Karachi megacity, a robot waitress drops off a fresh pizza to an awaiting family.
  • For now, the robots are proving a hit with families, who flock to the restaurant to watch the machines in action.
Wheeling its way between dining booths at a neon-lit restaurant in Pakistan's Karachi megacity, a robot waitress drops off a fresh pizza to an awaiting family.
While global buzz is growing around agile humanoids made in the United States, China and elsewhere, robotic staff are a rare sight in the South Asian country.
"Welcome to Sicilian. My name is Robia," the waitress says in an electronic voice, looking down at diners through blinking red LED eyes.
Robia and her colleague Jojo are the DIY creations of Pakistani engineer Syed Osama Aziz, who is bringing a sci-fi reboot to Karachi's storied dining scene.
They have spherical white heads and dark visors, similar to a motorcycle helmet, and sport black shawls around their neck in the style of a dupatta worn by women in the region.
Aziz, who also established The Sicilian restaurant, developed the machines using mostly locally manufactured parts, designing their circuit boards and programming them in his own lab.
"The equipment, the things needed to make robots, are not so easily available here, so we had to arrange them," he told AFP.
The duo were developed through his robotics company, Cobot, with help from friends and some electronic components imported from abroad.
In China and other East Asian countries especially, robots are an increasingly common sight, shuttling food to customers in chain restaurants and taking on other jobs from cleaning to greeting hotel guests.
But they remain a novelty in Pakistan, where Aziz's home-grown creations are attracting curious diners.
When they arrive at a table, the customers must either take the food off their serving tray themselves or wait for a human member of staff to assist them.
 

Excited customers

 
Aziz, whose workshop manufacturing the robots is located in Multan in Pakistan's central Punjab province, hopes to make his creations more sophisticated in the future.
"Our plans are to add camera-based processing and image-processing features," he said.
"That means the robot will also recognise you by looking at you, and it will remember what you ordered last time, and accordingly it will be able to give you better suggestions."
For now, the robots are proving a hit with families, who flock to the restaurant to watch the machines in action.
"The best thing about it is that it introduces itself," excited customer Ahmer Zameer told AFP, explaining the robot also "tells you what things you can order".
Children reach out to touch the robots while their parents snap photographs and selfies.
Young customer Sonia Dilosker said she was impressed by the androids' appearance and preferred their approach to serving customers, "because it is a machine and without any emotions".
Restaurant staff say the novelty has brought a surge in customers -- some travelling from across the sprawling port city to meet the robots.
"Our business has grown. People are coming from far away for this. They have seen a robot for the first time here," staff member Hellen told AFP.
"People are excited to see this."
sma/csp/kaf

music

Eurovision brings pop and politics to Asia

BY ALICE RITCHIE

  • The show was first held in 1956 as an experiment by national public broadcasters and became a cultural phenomenon, known for its over-the-top staging, kitsch and eclectic music, and with a large LGBTQ following.
  • Boasting K-pop and Bangladeshi beatboxing, Eurovision stages its first Asia edition this Saturday, bringing the European song contest's unique brand of kitsch and geopolitics to the world's most populous region.
  • The show was first held in 1956 as an experiment by national public broadcasters and became a cultural phenomenon, known for its over-the-top staging, kitsch and eclectic music, and with a large LGBTQ following.
Boasting K-pop and Bangladeshi beatboxing, Eurovision stages its first Asia edition this Saturday, bringing the European song contest's unique brand of kitsch and geopolitics to the world's most populous region.
From Laos to Mongolia and the Philippines, 11 countries are competing in the inaugural Eurovision Song Contest Asia in Bangkok on November 14.
It will be broadcast live on television in participating countries and on YouTube -- but a question remains over whether anyone will be watching.
Eurovision is the world's biggest televised live music event, drawing 131 million viewers in 2026, and over the past 70 years has launched the careers of artists such as ABBA and Celine Dion.
The Asia edition is its first multinational expansion, although a US version was held in 2022 -- and was not repeated.
India, Japan and China are absent from the Bangkok event, while ticket sales have been sluggish.
"Eurovision is very big in Europe and it's very new in Asia," acknowledged executive producer Assaf Blecher.
But he said three years of preparations had fostered a public appetite for the show.
"Suddenly they understood the spirit of Eurovision," he said of those involved, hailing "the music, the extravagance".
"It's a window to other countries, to music, to people, to costumes," he told AFP, adding that he hoped it would be the first of many.
 

Some provocation

 
The finalists have been chosen through national competitions, some of them established stars such as Vietnam's Toc Tien, a favourite to win with her pop-dance track.
South Korea will be represented by K-pop star Junhee, Bangladesh is sending an all-male a cappella beatbox collective, Beatmosphere, while Pratik Himal Rai is rocking it out for Nepal.
The Asia edition comes as Eurovision marks its 70th birthday under a cloud, 2026 viewing figures down 35 million on the year after a boycott by five countries over Israel's participation.
But the contest has always been marked by controversy, from protests in the 1960s over the participation of Franco-ruled Spain to Russia's exclusion over the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The show was first held in 1956 as an experiment by national public broadcasters and became a cultural phenomenon, known for its over-the-top staging, kitsch and eclectic music, and with a large LGBTQ following.
It grew as Europe became more integrated -- although its reach exceeds the continent's borders, with Canada joining next year -- and became as much about the politics as the music.
Votes are gathered by participating country, half from a jury and half from viewers, and no nation can vote for itself -- meaning ballots are often cast based on national relationships.
In the Asia contest, this could see viewers from Cambodia and Thailand, who clashed over their border last year, voting against each other, Blecher noted.
But the entries to Eurovision Asia -- which unlike the original is organised by commercial broadcasters -- are mostly love songs, lamented Dean Vuletic, an author and expert on Eurovision.
He noted as an exception Philippines pop singer Carmelle, whose "Sobra-Sobra" (Too Much) is an upbeat call to female empowerment.
The show is "lacking some provocation or some meaningful messaging that can resonate with international audiences", Vuletic told AFP.
"This is what makes Eurovision in Europe special from other song contests."
 

Budget cuts

 
The show has been hit by production issues, including a reported budget cut of one million dollars, forcing organisers to issue a statement last month insisting it was going ahead.
"There are always issues with budgets," Blecher insisted.
"This is the first year and we're working with some limitations," he said, adding that it would be a "beautiful production".
The performers were due to arrive this weekend in Bangkok ahead of rehearsals for the final show.
Some will sing in their native language, others in English, a choice made by Malaysian star Aina Abdul to reach a wider audience.
For Bhutan's Nyendra, who is performing his folk-pop love song in traditional dress, the show offers a platform well beyond his country of 800,000 inhabitants.
And he could do well, as Eurovision viewers have a habit of supporting the smallest countries, the underdogs.
Blecher says he already has 16 or 17 places interested in a 2027 edition, if all goes well this week.
He cites China, Hong Kong and Taiwan among those interested -- a selection that would certainly put the contest on the geopolitical map.
ar/abs/tc

pope

Pope Leo condemns drug violence, pushes marriage in Uruguay

BY ELLA IDE

  • "Young people, dare to take the step of marrying and starting a family yourselves.
  • Pope Leo XIV on Saturday slammed the deaths of children in areas of wealthy Uruguay gripped by drug violence and urged young people to "dare" to get married, on the second day of his South American tour.
  • "Young people, dare to take the step of marrying and starting a family yourselves.
Pope Leo XIV on Saturday slammed the deaths of children in areas of wealthy Uruguay gripped by drug violence and urged young people to "dare" to get married, on the second day of his South American tour.
Just three weeks after undergoing surgery for lung cancer, the 71-year-old pontiff is on a 12-day tour of the continent where he served nearly two decades as a missionary.
On Saturday, he visited the crime-blighted Montevideo neighborhood of Casavalle.
The murder rate in the impoverished district is four times the national average and residents spoke movingly of the dangers they faced, like commonplace gun violence.
Katherine Silva's voice cracked with emotion as she told the pope about the violence and abuse she had suffered as a child.
After ending up homeless at 15, the young mother said she "went through very dark times" and "nearly died."
"There are children in Uruguay who do not go to school for fear of never returning home," Leo said.
"In a country as rich in resources as this, children should never have to go to bed hungry... Much less should they have to suffer violence to the point of losing their lives," he added.
The murder rate in Uruguay, one of Latin America's safest and wealthiest countries, has risen sharply in recent years due to its growing role in the cocaine trade.

Riddled with bullets

Claudia, a 33-year-old nurse who did not wish to give her surname, described to AFP once seeing a motorcycle pull up in front of her house "and riddle someone with bullets."
"You don't know what to do when your children see a body lying there. It's become very normalized," she said.
As police helicopters flew overhead, locals waved and cheered to welcome the head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, who blessed 12 new low-income houses financed by the Church.
"Being here with you makes me feel at home, and brings back memories of the visits I made to various communities as a missionary," Leo told residents, who 
At a candle-lit prayer vigil on Saturday evening in Montevideo's Centenario stadium, he remarked on the "advance of secularization" in the world's most Catholic continent.
Sharply falling fertility rates in Latin America -- down from nearly six children per woman in the 1950s to 1.8 children in 2024 -- could spell further decline in the Catholic population.
"Young people, dare to take the step of marrying and starting a family yourselves. Don't be afraid of 'forever'"! Leo told the packed 60,000-capacity football venue.
"Having the pope among us is an amazing goal!" Montevideo Archbishop Daniel Sturla told the crowd.
"Pope Leo, we love you so much!" the worshippers chanted.

Mad about mate

Latin America is the world's most Catholic continent but the number of people who define themselves as such has plummeted in the past 30 years, from 80 percent to 55 percent, a Latinobarometro poll showed.
Celebrating mass in the northwesterncity of Paysandu, Leo called on Catholics in largely secular Uruguay to be "bridge builders."
He drew applause by paying homage to the local tradition of sharing a herbal infusion called mate, sipped from a gourd with a metal straw.
"Mate has even made its way to Rome!" he joked.
At the Catholic University of Uruguay, he returned to a key theme of his papacy: the importance of ensuring AI is put at the service of human dignity.
The pope warned of "dehumanization" through the use of AI in education, and urged schools and university to place the "person before the algorithm."
US-born Leo's tour had been in doubt after he was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor, but on the flight from Rome to Montevideo he cheerfully told journalists he was "in fairly good shape."
His tour will take him to Argentina, home of the late Pope Francis, on Sunday and then to Peru, where he served as bishop and which claims the pope as one of its own.
gfe-ide-cb/dw

Global Edition

Israel president taps Eisenkot to form new government

BY SHAUN TANDON

  • President Isaac Herzog said that after consultations with all parties during the week, he would grant Eisenkot the first chance to form a government after the October 27 election, in which neither side secured a majority in a country deeply polarised by Netanyahu's hard-right rule and worn down by three years of war.
  • Israel's president announced on Saturday he would task Gadi Eisenkot with forming the next government following last week's election, in what Netanyahu's rivals see as a first step to remove the country's longest-serving prime minister.
  • President Isaac Herzog said that after consultations with all parties during the week, he would grant Eisenkot the first chance to form a government after the October 27 election, in which neither side secured a majority in a country deeply polarised by Netanyahu's hard-right rule and worn down by three years of war.
Israel's president announced on Saturday he would task Gadi Eisenkot with forming the next government following last week's election, in what Netanyahu's rivals see as a first step to remove the country's longest-serving prime minister.
The opposition bloc led by Eisenkot, a former military chief and political newcomer who has tried to appeal to secular and liberal Israelis, has opened the door to a once improbable alliance with ultra-Orthodox Jews, which could give it the numbers to form a coalition.
President Isaac Herzog said that after consultations with all parties during the week, he would grant Eisenkot the first chance to form a government after the October 27 election, in which neither side secured a majority in a country deeply polarised by Netanyahu's hard-right rule and worn down by three years of war.
The formal appointment would take place in an official ceremony on Sunday at the president's residence in Jerusalem, Herzog's office said.
Eisenkot, who later pledged to "do everything" to form a new government, was recommended by parties representing 67 lawmakers as opposed to 46 for Netanyahu's bloc.
But the recommendations for Eisenkot included members of Israel's Arab minority -- whose seat haul soared in the election on the back of anger against Netanyahu -- and right-leaning segments of the opposition that are against relying on Arab votes.

Unity government

Herzog, originally from Israel's now defunct left-wing Labour Party but who has a non-partisan role and has forged a working relationship with Netanyahu, has signalled that he would like to explore a national unity government that would seek to bring together Jewish Israelis from across the political spectrum.
Pressure for a unity government could build if Netanyahu follows through on threats to resume war on Iran, although US President Donald Trump has not given the green light.
Netanyahu, who has led Israel on and off for nearly two decades and guided its sharply rightward turn in recent years, faces corruption charges and potentially jail if he leaves office. He also faces an arrest warrant over the Gaza war from the International Criminal Court, whose authority he rejects.
Netanyahu has already called for a unity government but the opposition has stood firm on removing him first.
He has attacked opposition leaders for even considering working with Israeli Arabs, descendants of Palestinians who stayed after the creation of Israel in 1948.
The incumbent premier said on Saturday that a potential coalition between opposition parties and Arab lists, which he called Islamists, would "dismantle the State of Israel from within" and urged the formation of a unity government comprising "all the Zionist parties that want to safeguard our state."
In response, Eisenkot's Yashar party urged Netanyahu's allies and members of his Likud party to form a unity government led by Eisenkot and to "publicly announce the dissolution of their alliance with the extremists".
"Now is the time to form a national emergency government," Eisenkot wrote on X in his first reaction to the announcement of his designation. "I will do everything to ensure we are worthy."
Opposition bloc member Avigdor Liberman, a former Netanyahu aide turned fierce critic who nonetheless shares his hawkish views on the Palestinians, has made clear that he will not sit with Eisenkot if he relies on Israeli-Arab votes.
But on Friday, Liberman -- a staunch secularist whose support base initially was Russian-speaking immigrants -- made a U-turn on another group he had shunned and said he was open to discussions on a law that would enshrine an exemption for ultra-Orthodox Jews from mandatory military service.
Liberman and another opposition leader, Naftali Bennett, had made closing the exemption a core campaign promise and had viscerally criticised ultra-Orthodox Jews as burdens on the state, responding to wide resentment by other Israelis at a time when reservists are serving multiple tours in Gaza and Lebanon.
Eisenkot has proposed requiring national service for all Israelis but allowing citizens to choose a civilian option rather than the military, opening the door to integrating the ultra-Orthodox.
On Friday, Eisenkot said it was urgent to replace Netanyahu, calling him a threat to the "very existence of Israeli democracy".
Following his appointment, Eisenkot will have 28 days to come up with the 61 votes needed for a government. If he comes up short, Herzog can provide a 14-day extension before he has to offer the mandate to someone else.
If neither side succeeds, Israel will head to fresh elections. The country held five elections between 2019 and 2022 due to repeated deadlocks.
sct-glp/dcp/phz/acb

US

Iran says forces 'stronger' than at beginning of war

BY AFP TEAMS IN TEHRAN AND WASHINGTON

  • Trump said Iran -- which he stressed has had its economy and military severely damaged over eight months of war -- is eager to end the conflict.
  • Iran said on Saturday its military had grown stronger since the outset of the war with the United States, as mediators including Qatar worked to prevent any return to fighting after months of deadlock in the conflict.
  • Trump said Iran -- which he stressed has had its economy and military severely damaged over eight months of war -- is eager to end the conflict.
Iran said on Saturday its military had grown stronger since the outset of the war with the United States, as mediators including Qatar worked to prevent any return to fighting after months of deadlock in the conflict.
Washington also offered a $20 million reward for information about Tehran's nuclear programme.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Instagram on Saturday that over the past 48 hours he held phone calls with ministers from 12 countries.
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, called Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Friday to discuss efforts to end the war.
Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani applauded colleagues in the US administration for "genuine intentions to find a way to contain the situation and to de-escalate it".
"Thanks also to some wise voices in Tehran, we have prevented that from getting out of control," he said in Oxford on Friday.
Trump said Iran -- which he stressed has had its economy and military severely damaged over eight months of war -- is eager to end the conflict.
"We're dealing with them now. They want to make a deal very badly," he said.
The US leader previously talked up the possibility of resuming heavy strikes on Iran but has since walked back from the idea.
Nevertheless, the US military has conducted occasional limited strikes.
Late on Saturday, the official IRNA news agency reported two explosions on the island of Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz, hours after two earlier explosions were reported and the military said it had shot down a drone over the island.
Washington last attacked Qeshm on Tuesday.
- No 'perfect deal' - 
The Middle East conflict began when the US and Israel attacked Iran in late February.
Tehran has since sought to limit traffic through Hormuz, which normally carries about one-fifth of global oil consumption.
Iranian army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia said the strategic waterway would remain closed until Tehran's demands were met by Washington.
He also said Iran's forces "are on higher alert and are stronger than they were at the beginning of the war".
"They now possess greater motivation, commitment and self-confidence," he added, state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.
"Under the order of the Supreme Leader, the response of the armed forces will be immediate, effective and without geographical limitations."
Revolutionary Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebbi told Fars news agency on Saturday that "the increase in the range of Iran's missiles continues steadily".
He spoke days after Trump's Republican Party suffered heavy losses in midterm elections widely viewed as a referendum on the US leader's turbulent second term.
Ali Vaez, of the International Crisis Group, told AFP that "having suffered electoral defeat and failed to secure military victory, Trump is unlikely to tolerate the trifecta of diplomatic humiliation".
"The midterms have raised the political cost of war, but a lame duck Trump could become a flame duck if Iran denies him a face-saving exit," he added.
"Both sides may be mistaking the other's weakness for a reason to hold out rather than compromise."
Qatar's prime minister said "we cannot... just wait for this moment of a perfect deal" as there would never be one.
He added that priority should be given to addressing the nuclear issue and ensuring freedom of navigation and the security of the Gulf.

Reward offered

Iran's military said in a statement carried by state TV on Saturday that a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz "caught fire and came to a halt after striking a naval mine".
The US had recently said all mines had been cleared from the waterway.
On Friday, the US military said it was offering a $20 million reward "and possible relocation" for information about Iran's nuclear programme.
Rewards for Justice, a State Department programme, was seeking information on topics including "facilities, equipment, and associated personnel, such as those in the scientific community," US Central Command said on X.
Trump has repeatedly said US forces have effectively obliterated Iran's nuclear programme.
"If we didn't hit Iran, you wouldn't have Israel today," he said on Friday.
"If they had nuclear, they would have used nuclear. They would have obliterated the Middle East."
bur-dcp/rh

US

Thousands of Syrian troops to deploy to Yemen, Saudi Arabia: sources to AFP

  • Hundreds of Syrian troops have already been deployed to both sides of the border, according to three separate Yemeni military sources and a defence official, with more to come. 
  • Thousands of Syrian troops are set to deploy to Saudi Arabia and Yemen, with some already on the ground, multiple Yemeni officials told AFP, as Riyadh rallies international help to repel the Houthis and bolster the government in Aden.
  • Hundreds of Syrian troops have already been deployed to both sides of the border, according to three separate Yemeni military sources and a defence official, with more to come. 
Thousands of Syrian troops are set to deploy to Saudi Arabia and Yemen, with some already on the ground, multiple Yemeni officials told AFP, as Riyadh rallies international help to repel the Houthis and bolster the government in Aden.
It came after the two countries signed cooperation agreements this week including a defence deal, with Syria considering joining the recently enacted mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan.
Hundreds of Syrian troops have already been deployed to both sides of the border, according to three separate Yemeni military sources and a defence official, with more to come. 
Later on Saturday, Syria's official SANA news agency cited a diplomatic source who insisted Damascus had not sent troops to Yemen "at this time".
However, a source from the Presidential Leadership Council, Yemen's top governing body, told AFP that Syria would send as many as 3,000 troops to help fend off the Houthis.
The arrangement was greenlit during Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's visit to Riyadh this week, during which the two countries agreed to various deals, according to the PLC source.
"Syria is a long way from Yemen, but shares Ryadh's interest in containing the influence of the Iran-allied axis in the region," said Noah Bonsey of the International Crisis Group.
Later, a high-level Yemeni defence ministry source told AFP that while the first phase would involve around 3,000 troops, with some already in place, as many as 10,000 could eventually be deployed.
Those already stationed on the Yemeni side of the border at the moment are leading drone operations against the Houthis in the area, one of the military officials told AFP.
The kingdom -- a key backer of Syria's post-Assad government in place since late 2024 -- has been pressing allies for help as it comes under daily fire from the Iran-backed group that recently seized swaths of the Red Sea coastline from the Riyadh-backed government.
The Houthis have ramped up attacks on the kingdom in recent weeks, forcing Riyadh airport to close for two weeks after fatal strikes there and threatening Saudi Arabia's vast economic diversification plans.
 

Boots on the ground

According to the Yemeni defence ministry source, technical teams from the Syrian and Saudi defence ministries are currently in Riyadh putting the final touches on arrangements for Syrian forces to take part in operations against the Houthi militias.
Just last week, Syria's top diplomat said publicly that Damascus was considering whether to join the NATO-style Mecca defence alliance that binds Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
The diplomatic source quoted by SANA said the agreement with Riyadh "focuses on training military forces and building their capabilities" and that "coordination visits" to Syria would take place next month.
This cooperation "could potentially develop in the future into a mutual defence agreement or Syria joining the Mecca Alliance," the source said.
The Syrian army is comprised of a patchwork of groups, mostly Islamists including foreign jihadists that overthrew former strongman Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 after more than a decade of civil war.
That conflict devastated Syria's economy and infrastructure and it is relying in particular on wealthy Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia to help fund the vast cost of reconstruction.

Alliances

 
In August, Riyadh, Islamabad and Ankara signed their defence pact in Mecca, Islam's holiest city, which states an attack on one country is to be considered an attack on all three.
Pakistan and Turkey have not announced any attacks on the Iran-backed Houthis.
Egypt's parliament later approved President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's request to allow defensive military support for Saudi Arabia "if requested".
Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron made a surprise visit to Riyadh and said France was sending troops to help shield a key Saudi oil terminal from Houthi attacks.
Also in October, the UK government announced it would deploy British fighter planes to help Saudi Arabia against the attacks.
Since the summer, Yemen has been gripped by renewed fighting after the collapse of a four-year-old truce.
The country has been reeling from war since 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital, with a Saudi-led coalition entering the conflict a year later in support of the government.
str/aya/rh/dcp

protests

Clashes in Paris after new French protests

BY SHAHZAD ABDUL AND STUART WILLIAMS

  • These figures were lower than the previous three weekends of protests but also came after a mass union protest on Thursday that rallied 575,000 people according to the authorities -- 1.6 million according to unions.
  • Thousands of people protested across France Saturday in a new show of anger against the government with clashes erupting between police and some protesters in Paris despite a lower turnout than on previous weeks.
  • These figures were lower than the previous three weekends of protests but also came after a mass union protest on Thursday that rallied 575,000 people according to the authorities -- 1.6 million according to unions.
Thousands of people protested across France Saturday in a new show of anger against the government with clashes erupting between police and some protesters in Paris despite a lower turnout than on previous weeks.
The protests marked the fourth consecutive weekend of demonstrations against the rising cost of living which have erupted as the country heads to presidential elections in five months' time where the far right sees its best chance yet to win power.
A total of 146,000 people took part in demonstrations across France on Saturday, including 46,000 in Paris, the interior ministry said. Unions put the figure at 250,000 protesters nationwide, with 75,000 in the capital.
These figures were lower than the previous three weekends of protests but also came after a mass union protest on Thursday that rallied 575,000 people according to the authorities -- 1.6 million according to unions.
At the end of the protest in Paris, police used tear gas against individuals throwing projectiles and homemade fireworks at the security forces, an AFP correspondent said.
Police said a group of 200 violent individuals attacked officers as they were arresting a man who had set fire to a trash bin in the square.
 

Banned protests thwarted

 
Some 70,000 members of the security forces were deployed Saturday, ready to move in quickly after mass protests on October 17 degenerated into the worst riots seen in France in years.
Unions had staged a march along a traditional route, from the Place de la Republique in central Paris to Place de la Nation in the east of the city where the clashes erupted at the end of the protest.
But the Yellow Vests movement -- a group whose protests shook Emmanuel Macron in the early years of his presidency almost a decade ago -- called for a rival demonstration at the Place de la Concorde in central Paris, a stone's throw from the president's Elysee Palace and the lower house of parliament.
This action has been banned by the authorities, and on Saturday a large police presence prevented protesters from getting close. Some 100 people who arrived were surrounded by police and one of the movement's coordinators, Benjamin Ball, and its spokeswoman, Azelma Sigaux, were among those arrested by police, an AFP reporter said.
In the southeastern city of Lyon, police fired tear gas to disperse several hundred people in the city centre blocking a road during an unauthorised gathering.
 

'This can't go on'

 
The wave of demonstrations was sparked by a movement in late September by high school students angered by conditions at their establishments. These teens, joined by university students, remain at the heart of the protests.
"Today is a date that helps keep the pressure on," said Sabine Kharbach, spokeswoman of the Student Union. "Many young people are mobilising because the government's responses remain unsatisfactory."
The police response has faced criticism for being heavy-handed, with dozens of internal investigations launched into allegations of brutality against demonstrators.
Local businesses are also feeling the pain. "So this can't go on, otherwise I think it will be a disaster before long," said Paris shop manager Jean Emile Moulinier. His store is around the main protest route and he said hardly any customers brave security barricades on protest weekends.
Shop windows of stores in Paris and other cities were again barricaded with wooden shutters and often closed for the day to prevent potential ransacking.
The government is grappling with ways to find solutions but is constrained by France's gigantic debt pile, which is already spooking markets.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu is to meet unions and employer federation representatives on Monday to discuss wages and purchasing power.
But student and teacher groups in France have called for a new strike on Tuesday to keep pressure on the government for more education spending, saying they were "in a position of strength (and) the government in a position of weakness and starting to yield".
Polls indicate that far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is the favourite to win the Elysee in 2027 with her main rival currently not one of Macron's centrist former allies but hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon.
Melenchon, addressing 20,000 at a rally outside Paris Saturday, declared "we are going to win" and "everything must change".
bur-sjw/jj

security

France probes if bomb threats against airlines linked to 'foreign powers'

  • The investigation aims to find "the authors of the emails who disseminated this false information... and to determine any potential links they may have to foreign powers", the office of the Paris prosecutor told AFP. Several such instances concerned flights passing over French territory.
  • French prosecutors have opened a probe into bogus bomb threats targeting dozens of commercial flights in Europe over the past week, notably including whether foreign powers could be involved.
  • The investigation aims to find "the authors of the emails who disseminated this false information... and to determine any potential links they may have to foreign powers", the office of the Paris prosecutor told AFP. Several such instances concerned flights passing over French territory.
French prosecutors have opened a probe into bogus bomb threats targeting dozens of commercial flights in Europe over the past week, notably including whether foreign powers could be involved.
The investigation aims to find "the authors of the emails who disseminated this false information... and to determine any potential links they may have to foreign powers", the office of the Paris prosecutor told AFP.
Several such instances concerned flights passing over French territory. The French government, for its part, has also said that the origin of the threats was being investigated.
Ireland's government said Friday that the hoax bomb claims sent to Irish media outlets were "likely" part of a "co-ordinated campaign of disruption" linked to the threats to airlines.
No explosives were found in any of the incidents so far, and those responsible have not been identified.
Some of the messages came in emails signed "fighters of the Male State", which matches the name of a radical misogynist group in Russia, though AFP has not confirmed any link of it to the messages.
The group's founder, Vladislav Pozdniakov, denied any involvement, saying on social media Friday that the "movement does not exist since 2021".
European countries are closely watching for any Russian interference against economic sectors in Europe and even in daily life as Moscow's war against pro-Western Ukraine grinds towards its fifth anniversary.
cco-sjw/rmb