fbl

780 arrested, deadly road accident in riotous PSG victory celebrations across France

US

Iran truce on the rocks as Israel presses into Lebanon

BY AFP TEAMS IN TEHRAN, WASHINGTON, BEIRUT, JERUSALEM

  • The US naval blockade on Iran's ports and the escalation in Lebanon were "clear evidence of US non-compliance with the ceasefire", Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf posted on X. Late Monday afternoon, Tasnim reported that "the Iranian negotiating team is suspending dialogues and exchange of texts through mediators", blaming Israel's actions in Lebanon.
  • Negotiations to end the Mideast war appeared in deep trouble on Monday, as Iranian news agency Tasnim reported Tehran had suspended dialogue with mediators in protest against Israel's expanding Lebanon offensive. 
  • The US naval blockade on Iran's ports and the escalation in Lebanon were "clear evidence of US non-compliance with the ceasefire", Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf posted on X. Late Monday afternoon, Tasnim reported that "the Iranian negotiating team is suspending dialogues and exchange of texts through mediators", blaming Israel's actions in Lebanon.
Negotiations to end the Mideast war appeared in deep trouble on Monday, as Iranian news agency Tasnim reported Tehran had suspended dialogue with mediators in protest against Israel's expanding Lebanon offensive. 
Iran's move came hours after it again exchanged strikes with US forces despite a weeks-long ceasefire.
Weeks of indirect talks marked by stark threats and several waves of air strikes have so far failed to agree an end to the war or the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the key shipping channel for Gulf oil and gas.
The latest exchange of fire coincided with Israel expanding its offensive into Lebanon, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to push deeper into the country and instructing the military to strike "terror targets" in a southern district of Beirut.
Israel's Arabic-language spokesman posted on X that residents of Dahiyeh should evacuate "to preserve their safety".
The United States has backed its ally's operations in Lebanon against the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, while still trying to come to an agreement with Iran to end the war it launched in late February with strikes on Tehran, and to reopen Hormuz and impose controls on Iran's nuclear programme.
But Iran again said Monday it had not yet reopened any nuclear negotiations and insisted that Israel must halt its offensive in Lebanon before any wider deal to end the war can be agreed.
The US naval blockade on Iran's ports and the escalation in Lebanon were "clear evidence of US non-compliance with the ceasefire", Iran's chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf posted on X.
Late Monday afternoon, Tasnim reported that "the Iranian negotiating team is suspending dialogues and exchange of texts through mediators", blaming Israel's actions in Lebanon.
Tasnim said any resumption in talks was dependent on Israel ending its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon and "complete withdrawal from the areas occupied by the Zionists in Lebanon".
The report said Iran would continue to block the Strait of Hormuz and "activate other fronts, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait" at the entrance of the Red Sea.

'Essential conditions'

"We know when it is necessary to act on nuclear matters," foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told a weekly news briefing.
"No negotiations have taken place on the details of the nuclear file. At this stage, our priority is ending the war." 
"We insist that a ceasefire in Lebanon is an essential condition for any deal aimed at ending the war," Baqaei said, adding: "The United States is also violating the ceasefire, including this morning."
The US military said it had carried out "self-defence strikes" on Iranian radar and drone control sites over the weekend -- its third such wave in just over a week -- after a US MQ-1 drone was downed.
Shortly afterwards, Iran's Revolutionary Guards told state media they had targeted an airbase used by the US military from which the attack originated.
The Guards did not identify the country said to be hosting the base, but the Kuwaiti military said its air defence had intercepted "hostile missile and drone attacks".

Sticking points

Iran was already in talks with the United States about its nuclear programme in February, when the US and Israel launched air and missile strikes that wiped out much of the Islamic republic's senior leadership and plunged the Middle East into war.
While Tehran has long insisted that its nuclear programme is for purely civilian ends, the United States and its Western allies suspect it aims to develop an atomic weapon.
Late Sunday, Trump posted on social media that the deal under discussion "states, very clearly, that Iran will not have a Nuclear Weapon".
Iran has said it needs the release of $12 billion in frozen assets before engaging in substantive talks on its nuclear programme, and dismissed earlier Trump comments suggesting that its stockpile of enriched uranium would be destroyed.

Lebanon front

A truce in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah formally began on April 17 but has never been observed, with both sides accusing each other of violating it. 
Israel has pursued a ground offensive into southern Lebanon, raising its flag over a medieval castle that served as a base during its two-decade occupation of the country in the 1980s and 1990s.
Netanyahu called the retaking of the Beaufort stronghold "a dramatic shift" and vowed to continue the fight against Hezbollah, with strikes and incursions ever deeper into Lebanon. 
The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting Monday on the widening Israeli offensive, diplomatic sources told AFP.
bur/dcp/srm

US

Israel orders strikes on south Beirut ahead of UN meeting

BY LAURE AL KHOURY WITH ALICE CHANCELLOR IN JERUSALEM

  • Beirut's southern suburbs and their surroundings have been struck twice since April 8, when huge Israeli attacks across Lebanon killed hundreds in minutes.
  • Israel said Monday it would once again target Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold mostly spared heavy attacks since April, as it stages its deepest incursion into Lebanon in two decades.
  • Beirut's southern suburbs and their surroundings have been struck twice since April 8, when huge Israeli attacks across Lebanon killed hundreds in minutes.
Israel said Monday it would once again target Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold mostly spared heavy attacks since April, as it stages its deepest incursion into Lebanon in two decades.
The UN Security Council is expected to hold an emergency meeting later Monday on Israel expanding its operations in Lebanon, and the European Union called on Israel to "stop its military escalation".
Iran, in stalled negotiations on an end to its wider war with the United States, said a Lebanon ceasefire remains a key condition for any deal.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said they had ordered strikes on Beirut's usually densely populated southern suburbs.
"In light of the repeated violations of the ceasefire in Lebanon by the terrorist organisation Hezbollah and the attacks on our cities and citizens", Netanyahu and Katz "instructed the IDF to strike terror targets in the Dahiyeh district of Beirut", a joint statement said.
Katz said separately there would be "no calm in Beirut" if Hezbollah attacks continued, vowing to establish a military-controlled zone in the area of south Lebanon's Litani River.
The Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesman Colonel Avichay Adraee, posting on X, urged Dahiyeh residents to evacuate "to preserve their safety".
AFP journalists saw hundreds of families fleeing the southern suburbs, some on foot or on motorbikes, others in cars packed with belongings.
Hours later, a correspondent said shops were closed and the area's streets were largely deserted.
Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets towards Israel in retaliation for the US-Israeli killing of Iran's supreme leader.
A truce to halt the fighting in Lebanon began on April 17, but has never been observed. Both Israel and Hezbollah accuse each other daily of violating the ceasefire, justifying their attacks by the other's alleged breaches.

'Vicious aggression'

South Beirut resident Hadi, 24, said he had hoped for some stability during the truce.
"That feeling did not last long... Our fears intensified this morning after I received a series of messages about orders to bomb the southern suburbs, which caused widespread panic, and we immediately left the area," he told AFP by phone.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei told a weekly press briefing that "a ceasefire in Lebanon is an essential condition for any deal aimed at ending the war" with the US.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said his country was facing "a vicious and reprehensible Israeli aggression", with the two nations set to hold a fourth round of US-hosted talks on Tuesday and Wednesday.
He called the talks "the only solution to stop the war with the least possible damage".
Beirut's southern suburbs and their surroundings have been struck twice since April 8, when huge Israeli attacks across Lebanon killed hundreds in minutes.
Israel's military on Monday also issued evacuation warnings for more than a dozen south Lebanon locations.
A day earlier, Israeli troops seized Beaufort castle, which commands sweeping views of south Lebanon, as the military expands its ground operations.
Israeli forces used the castle as a base during their previous two-decade occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in 2000.

Evacuation orders

Hezbollah said its fighters were now in a "battle of attrition" against Israeli forces near the castle, saying the fortress was "empty of any military presence" when soldiers entered.
The group also said it fired a missile fired at Tiberias, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) inside Israel and attacked Israeli forces inside Lebanon.
Katz said Israel planned to "to turn the Litani area into a zone under IDF security control, free of weapons and terrorists". 
French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country requested the UN Security Council meeting, said Sunday that "nothing justifies the major escalation under way in south Lebanon".
A senior US official told AFP on Sunday that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with Aoun and Netanyahu about the ongoing diplomatic negotiations and had said Hezbollah must be the first to cease attacks.
Military delegations from Lebanon and Israel held talks in Washington on Friday ahead of the negotiations this week.
"The United States proposed a clear sequence: Hezbollah must stop all attacks on Israel. In return, Israel would refrain from escalation in Beirut," said the official, requesting anonymity. 
Lebanon says Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,412 people since March 2.
Israel says 25 soldiers and one civilian contractor have been killed over the same period.
lk/nad/lg/srm

trial

Two Syrians deny civil war torture accusations in Austria trial

BY JULIA ZAPPEI AND BLAISE GAUQUELIN

  • Both pleaded not guilty.
  • An ex-Syrian general and a former senior Syrian police officer pleaded not guilty on Monday to torturing opponents of ousted president Bashar al-Assad as their trial started in Vienna.
  • Both pleaded not guilty.
An ex-Syrian general and a former senior Syrian police officer pleaded not guilty on Monday to torturing opponents of ousted president Bashar al-Assad as their trial started in Vienna.
The two face charges including torture, aggravated coercion, sexual coercion and inflicting serious bodily harm. Prosecutors accused them of "having, on numerous occasions, ordered or failed to oppose the mistreatment of members of a protest movement".
Brigadier General Khaled al-Halabi, 63, a former Syrian intelligence officer who has been in pre-trial detention since 2024, and Lieutenant Colonel Musab Abu Rukbah, a 54-year-old former police chief, are said to have committed the crimes in the city of Raqa between April 2011 and March 2013.
Both pleaded not guilty.
Several similar cases relating to crimes committed during the Syrian civil war have been tried in other countries, including Germany, France and Sweden.
Halabi -- a Druze, who fled Raqa in 2013, just before the Islamic State group overran the city -- denied that torture took place while he was in command.
"There were no instructions" from the government to use violence, he told the court through a translator as masked, armed police stood watch.
He added his unit just took down the personal details of those held and did not conduct any investigations.
Abu Rukbah did not testify. His lawyer, Philipp Wolm, said there was no evidence against him.

'Standardised torture methods'

The prosecution said Halabi got "direct instructions" from the Damascus government and violence was used "systematically" with "standardised torture methods," including beatings and being hosed down.
The two Syrians applied for asylum in Austria in 2015.
At the time of Halabi's indictment, activists considered him the highest-ranking Syrian official responsible for abuses present in Europe.
He is charged with torture, aggravated coercion, sexual coercion, as well as multiple counts of serious bodily harm. Abu Rukbah is accused of serious bodily harm, aggravated coercion and sexual coercion. Both face up to 10 years in prison.
"Twenty-one individuals detained in prisons were tortured and abused as part of the crackdown on a civilian protest movement," Austrian prosecutors said in their statement deny civahead of the trial.
The 10-year statute of limitations that would ordinarily apply was lifted, the indictment said.
International treaties including the United Nations Convention Against Torture and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court meant prosecutors were obliged to bring charges, it said.
Austrian law provides for the jurisdiction of local courts over certain offences committed abroad. 

Alleged victims to testify

The Vienna court has jurisdiction because the defendants reside there. The trial is scheduled to last until June 30 with alleged victims residing in Syria and Europe  expected to testify.
Anwar al-Bunni, a Syrian lawyer based in Germany who himself spent five years in Syrian prisons and was present for Monday's trial opening, said the general should have faced additional charges.
He called the trial "important" but told AFP: "I don't know really why they don't charge him with crimes against humanity".
Senior Austrian officials suspected of having protected the former brigadier general were acquitted in 2023. 
Prosecutors had accused them of helping him obtain protection in the Alpine country, referencing an agreement allegedly concluded in May 2015 with the Israeli Mossad intelligence.
Mossad is said to have brought the Syrian military officer to Austria from France, where he was at the time, according to local media.
When asked in court, Halabi said relatives helped him.  
In 2016, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), a group that gathers evidence for alleged war criminals, informed Vienna of Halabi's alleged crimes.
According to Austrian news agency APA, the agreement with Mossad, code-named "White Milk", had been overseen by Martin Weiss, then head of the Austrian intelligence service (BVT).
Weiss is on the run in Dubai and wanted for supposed links to fugitive Austrian spy, Jan Marsalek, who is suspected of being protected by Moscow.
bg-jza/tw

computers

Nvidia PC chip hailed as 'game changer' in race for AI device

BY KATIE FORSTER

  • Lian Jye Su, a chief analyst at Omdia, told AFP that "legacy" laptop chip makers were now facing a challenge from Nvidia laptops optimised for AI. "Both Intel and AMD are ready hardware-wise, but the question is software -- and creating the right type of device that can match consumer expectations," he said.
  • Laptop chipmakers such as Intel and AMD should be worried about their new rival Nvidia, experts say, after the US hardware titan announced Monday a push into the personal computer market.
  • Lian Jye Su, a chief analyst at Omdia, told AFP that "legacy" laptop chip makers were now facing a challenge from Nvidia laptops optimised for AI. "Both Intel and AMD are ready hardware-wise, but the question is software -- and creating the right type of device that can match consumer expectations," he said.
Laptop chipmakers such as Intel and AMD should be worried about their new rival Nvidia, experts say, after the US hardware titan announced Monday a push into the personal computer market.
But despite Nvidia boss Jensen Huang's assertion that homes will soon contain AI supercomputers, the race is still on to develop an ubiquitous, one-size-fits-all intelligent device.
Huang vowed to "reinvent the PC" with Nvidia's powerful chip for Windows machines, calling it "as big of a deal as the reinvention of the phone into what we now know as the smartphone".
Lian Jye Su, a chief analyst at Omdia, told AFP that "legacy" laptop chip makers were now facing a challenge from Nvidia laptops optimised for AI.
"Both Intel and AMD are ready hardware-wise, but the question is software -- and creating the right type of device that can match consumer expectations," he said.
Nvidia is the world's most valuable company thanks to a construction boom of AI data centres packed with its advanced chips.
Zhibin Xiao, CEO of the US company ZFlow AI, said in Taipei -- where major industry show Computex takes place this week -- that Nvidia bringing its AI prowess to laptops was a "game changer".
"There will be more people working on AI agents," and then "once you have developers, then you have more applications, and then people will buy the AI PC as a consumer", he said.
Others gave similar assessments, although Al Benzoni of Aperion Technologies said he would wait before buying one of the new Nvidia-powered Windows PCs, available later this year.
"I wouldn't want to be the first guinea pig," as "it's not so easy to have everything just smooth" like Apple has managed to do with its laptops.

Next big thing

Creating the world's next big gadget -- whether static, handheld, or wearable like earbuds, pendants and brooches -- is something of a holy grail for AI companies.
"It could be PC, but we are also looking at AI glasses," although neither can be seen as a killer device in the industry at this point, Omdia's Su said.
"There was a point where even an AI PC was not a convincing pitch," but the sudden popularity of agent tool OpenClaw has changed that, he added.
Some companies are also betting on smartphones, although attempts to ditch apps for agentic AI have so far run into problems with computing power and gaining permission to access on-device tools run by different firms.
And ChatGPT maker OpenAI is working with renowned industrial designer Jony Ive on a mystery device for interacting with AI, expected to be ready by next year.
Glasses are the top pick for tech influencer Selina Liu, whose "gptsavyy" Instagram account has more than 300,000 followers.
"Because it's really close to what we see and how we talk, how we interact with people," she reasoned.
In Taipei, Qualcomm boss Cristiano Amon also weighed in on the topic on Monday.
"At home, you're going to have agents. They're going to basically update everyone on your activity and your schedule -- all of the things that you need to do at work," he said.
"Today's devices were not designed for those experiences," Amon said.
But what kind of gadget people will use isn't too important, he added, because "the agent isn't tied to the device".
"It actually moves with the user and is there with the user, regardless of the device that you have."
kaf/fox

conflict

France seizes Russia-linked oil tanker with ties to Iranian magnate

BY ANTOINE AGASSE WITH JEREMY MAROT IN PARIS

  • The three other ships France has detained since September on suspicion of belonging to the shadow fleet were allowed to sail after their owners paid fines.
  • France said on Monday it had detained a Russia-linked oil tanker in the Atlantic, with the Kremlin comparing the latest seizure aimed at tackling Moscow's sanctions-busting shadow fleet to "international piracy".
  • The three other ships France has detained since September on suspicion of belonging to the shadow fleet were allowed to sail after their owners paid fines.
France said on Monday it had detained a Russia-linked oil tanker in the Atlantic, with the Kremlin comparing the latest seizure aimed at tackling Moscow's sanctions-busting shadow fleet to "international piracy".
Since September, France has boarded three other ships believed to belong to the shadow fleet, used by Russia to circumvent Western sanctions on its fossil fuel exports imposed over the Kremlin's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. 
The Tagor was detained on Sunday morning in international waters with the help of Britain and other partners, after its Russian captain refused to comply with orders, prosecutors said. 
President Emmanuel Macron posted a video of the seizure, which showed commandos rappelling from a helicopter onto the ship.
"We consider these acts illegal. They border on international piracy," said President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.
"Russia is taking measures to ensure the safety of its cargo". 
Suspected of carrying Russian or Iranian oil despite international sanctions, the Tagor is linked to petroleum shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, according to open-source database Opensanctions.org.
According to French authorities, the Tagor was on its way from Murmansk in northwestern Russia when it was boarded.
The ship was falsely flying a Cameroonian flag and was heading toward Limbe, a seaside city in the west of the African country, said a spokesperson for France's Atlantic maritime prefecture.
Shadow fleet vessels frequently change the flags they fly, a practice known as flag-hopping, or use invalid registrations in an attempt to escape tracking.
"It is unacceptable for ships to circumvent international sanctions, violate the law of the sea, and fund the war that Russia has been waging against Ukraine for more than four years," Macron said on X.

'Stepping up response'

The UK ministry of defence said a British helicopter had "provided tracking and monitoring in support of the French operation to board the tanker Tagor". 
"We are stepping up our response to shadow vessels -- to choke off the funds that fuel Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine," a ministry spokesperson said.
The Atlantic maritime prefecture said the interception had taken place more than 400 nautical miles (740 kilometres) west of Brittany.
"The examination of the documents confirmed doubts about the irregularity of the flag being flown," the prefecture said.
The ship, which had 23 crew members, was "being escorted by the French navy to an anchorage point for further checks", the prefecture said.
When asked about the tanker's ties to Shamkhani, officials declined to comment.
Shamkhani is the son of security official Ali Shamkhani, who was an adviser to the former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, both of whom were killed on February 28, the first day of the US-Israeli attacks that started the Middle East war.
- Boarding 'proved necessary' - 
The Russian embassy in France said it had requested information about the makeup of the crew.
"No notifications have been provided by the French side regarding actions taken against this vessel," the embassy said. 
The tanker, which is under EU and US sanctions, has flown the flags of Madagascar, the Marshall Islands and Panama.
Prosecutors said that "taking control of the vessel proved necessary".
The prosecutor's office in the northwestern city of Brest said a criminal investigation had been opened over failure to prove a vessel's nationality, absence of a flag and refusal to comply.
"It is a vessel that was known and tracked," Guillaume Le Rasle, spokesman for the Atlantic maritime prefecture, told AFP.
"The objective of the diversion is to verify the validity of its flag," he added.
The three other ships France has detained since September on suspicion of belonging to the shadow fleet were allowed to sail after their owners paid fines.
In April, France announced a plan to double penalties for ships that fail to fly a flag or refuse to comply.
Several Western countries have imposed sanctions on hundreds of vessels in Russia's shadow fleet over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Nearly 600 ships suspected of belonging to the fleet are subject to European Union sanctions.
jmt-aro-aag-as-ah/rl

conflict

Russia fired record 8,150 drones at Ukraine in May: AFP analysis

  • Russia launched 8,150 long-range drones in May, according to a compilation of daily air force reports, up to 24 percent on the number fired in April.
  • Russia fired a record number of long-range drones at Ukraine in May, an AFP analysis of Ukrainian air force data showed Monday, as Kyiv appealled to allies for air defence support.
  • Russia launched 8,150 long-range drones in May, according to a compilation of daily air force reports, up to 24 percent on the number fired in April.
Russia fired a record number of long-range drones at Ukraine in May, an AFP analysis of Ukrainian air force data showed Monday, as Kyiv appealled to allies for air defence support.
Russia launched 8,150 long-range drones in May, according to a compilation of daily air force reports, up to 24 percent on the number fired in April.
Kyiv has developed a robust network of air defence systems across the country that is capable of downing most drones, but it still relies on Western allies to down Russian missiles.
The new record barrage comes after a three-day truce last month raised hopes for broader peace efforts but Kyiv and Moscow accused each other of violations and stepped up their long-range attacks.
Russia also fired 211 missiles in May, among the highest monthly figures, at a time when Kyiv called on the United States for urgent help with supplies of ammunition for its Patriot anti-missile systems.
Russia lauched one of its worst attacks on the capital in months in May, when a missile slammed into a residential building, as part of a barrage that killed two dozen people.
Moscow last month also deployed its nuclear-capable ballistic missile -- dubbed Oreshnik -- for only the third time of the invasion.
Kyiv intercepted about 91 percent of all incoming drones and missiles in May, according to air force data.
That points to how Ukraine has pioneered systems to intercept long-range drones but remains heavily reliant on Western allies to counter missiles.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly warned that stocks of anti-missile systems and ammunition are running low.
President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed directly to US President Donald Trump last month for help downing Russian missiles. 
The deficits have been exacerbated by the war in the Middle East, which saw US allies expend huge quantities of air defence ammunition protecting sites in the Gulf.
Trump re-entered the White House last year vowing to quickly end the Ukraine war, but talks stalled as the Moscow and Kyiv remain at odds over Russia's territorial demands.
Diplomatic efforts further derailed after Washington's attention turned to the US-Israeli war on Iran that erupted on February 28.
bur-brw/jbr/oc/tw 

vote

Peru's presidential candidates clash on crime, 'political mafia'

  • "Today, politics, co-opted by the political mafia and by corruption, is preventing us from defending the lives of Peruvians," Sanchez said.
  • Peru's right-wing presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori promised on Sunday to crack down on crime, while leftist Roberto Sanchez vowed to tackle the "political mafia," in the final debate before the country's June 7 runoff election.
  • "Today, politics, co-opted by the political mafia and by corruption, is preventing us from defending the lives of Peruvians," Sanchez said.
Peru's right-wing presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori promised on Sunday to crack down on crime, while leftist Roberto Sanchez vowed to tackle the "political mafia," in the final debate before the country's June 7 runoff election.
The two candidates, who are neck and neck in the polls, are competing for power against a backdrop of profound political instability -- with Peru having cycled through eight presidents since 2016 -- and a deepening security crisis linked to organized crime.
The daughter of late former president Alberto Fujimori promised to deploy the military to support the police, dismantle extortion networks, and deport foreign criminals who are in the country illegally.
"From day one we will act with great force ... we are going to fight crime," said Fujimori, who is seeking the presidency for the fourth consecutive time.
"I will be the one to take the lead in combating criminals," the 51-year-old added.
Sanchez, a 57-year-old congressman and former minister, said that the fight against crime begins with "restoring democracy" and strengthening the justice system.
He proposed setting up an investigative police force to tackle insecurity and corruption.
"Today, politics, co-opted by the political mafia and by corruption, is preventing us from defending the lives of Peruvians," Sanchez said.
According to an Ipsos poll published on Sunday, Fujimori leads with 38 percent of the vote, compared to 35 percent for Sanchez. 
Fujimori won the first round of voting on April 12 with 17.1 percent of the vote, followed by Sanchez with 12 percent, according to the National Jury of Elections (JNE).
The next president will take office on July 28, taking over from interim president Jose Maria Balcazar.
cm/mis/lb/lkd/pnb

manufacturing

Huge state subsidies give China unfair edge over foreign rivals: OECD

  • Between 2005 and 2024, it added, "Chinese firms received on average three to eight times more government support than firms based in the OECD, a conservative estimate."
  • Chinese companies in 15 key industrial sectors received vastly more state support than their international competitors between 2005 and 2024, according to an OECD report released on Monday.
  • Between 2005 and 2024, it added, "Chinese firms received on average three to eight times more government support than firms based in the OECD, a conservative estimate."
Chinese companies in 15 key industrial sectors received vastly more state support than their international competitors between 2005 and 2024, according to an OECD report released on Monday.
The 15 sectors received $108 billion in 2024 alone, according to data compiled by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in its Manufacturing Groups and Industrial Corporations (MAGIC) database.
Between 2005 and 2024, it added, "Chinese firms received on average three to eight times more government support than firms based in the OECD, a conservative estimate."
"These subsidies were also considerably higher than the support received by firms based in non-OECD economies such as Brazil, India and Indonesia."
The Paris-based organisation of 38 member countries said its "conservative" estimate was based on disclosures by the biggest companies in the 15 sectors, which underpin entire segments of the global economy.
It considers direct subsidies, tax breaks and favourable loans from banks and public financial institutions -- at times below their base lending rates -- to be public support.
"For Chinese firms, almost 60 percent of their global market share gains can be explained by the subsidies they received," the OECD said.
Chinese firms have carved out huge market shares over 20 years in sectors such as solar panels, shipbuilding and steel, not because they are better than their US or European competitors but because of their unparallelled state support, it added.

Effect of subsidies

With subsidies, they have more financial leeway to invest in new production sites, more time to reach profitability and greater support against economic headwinds, according to the report.
This has led to overcapacity in some sectors, pushing down global prices to the detriment of other international players.
"Just like doping in sports, the risk is that subsidies help less productive players win unfairly at the expense of better, more innovative and more efficient ones," the OECD's Secretary-General Mathias Cormann told a press conference.
"Subsidies increased market share but that did not lead to significant gains in productivity or profitability," Cormann added. 
"Firms won market share not by being more efficient or more innovative but by being more heavily subsidised."
The OECD looked at aerospace and defence; aluminium; car manufacturing; cement; chemicals; fertilisers; glass and ceramics; heavy machinery; semiconductors; shipbuilding; photovoltaic panels; steel; telecommunications equipment; rolling stock; and wind turbines.
Worldwide state support in these sectors reached its highest level since the 2008 financial crisis in 2023-24, amounting on average to 1.3 percent of companies' revenues in 2024.
The OECD noted that the peak observed in 2009 coincided with a severe global recession, which was not the case in 2023-24.
That "indicates the recent increase in industrial subsidies to be more structural", it added.
cda/uh/js/gil

flood

Philippine senator arrested in flood control scandal

  • Several construction firm owners, government officials and politicians have been accused of pocketing funds from the projects, but this is the first time a sitting lawmaker was arrested over the scandal.
  • Philippine police arrested a lawmaker on Monday over a multi-billion dollar graft scandal, making him the highest-ranking government official held in the case that caused mass protests in the country. 
  • Several construction firm owners, government officials and politicians have been accused of pocketing funds from the projects, but this is the first time a sitting lawmaker was arrested over the scandal.
Philippine police arrested a lawmaker on Monday over a multi-billion dollar graft scandal, making him the highest-ranking government official held in the case that caused mass protests in the country. 
Senator Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada's detention came nearly a year after revelations over massive corruption in flood control projects -- a matter with serious consequences in a country pummelled every year by major typhoons.
Several construction firm owners, government officials and politicians have been accused of pocketing funds from the projects, but this is the first time a sitting lawmaker was arrested over the scandal.
Estrada rejected the charges against him as "nonsense" and a ploy to get him to switch sides in a bitterly divided Senate.
A special anti-graft court ordered his arrest Monday, days after Estrada, son of former Philippine president Joseph Estrada, was charged with plunder, defined in the Philippines as large-scale corruption.
Graft has long been a problem in the Philippines but the flood control case has stood out due to the sums involved.
A government prosecutor accused him of inserting flood control project allocations in the 2025 national budget that allowed him to amass a kickback of over 573 million pesos ($9.2 million).
Plunder is punishable by life imprisonment and defendants are not entitled to bail.
Estrada's co-defendants include former Department of Public Works and Highways secretary Manuel Bonoan, as well as local engineering officials.
In a brief statement to the press before surrendering to police at the senate premises, Estrada described the charges as part of an attempt to blackmail him.
"There were many offers to drop the charges against me, but I did not entertain them," he said. "What is at stake here is the independence of the senate," he said without elaborating.
Estrada is a member of a group of 13 senators who took control of the 24-member Senate in May, ahead of the trial of their ally, impeached Vice President Sara Duterte, next month.
One other member of that group, Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, the chief enforcer of the deadly drug war of the vice president's father, ex-president Rodrigo Duterte, went into hiding last month after the International Criminal Court ordered his arrest.
Both Dela Rosa and the elder Duterte are accused of the crime against humanity of murder. The former president was arrested last year and handed over to the Netherlands-based tribunal.
Dela Rosa and Estrada's absence from the Senate would prevent them from sitting as judges to the Senate trial of the younger Duterte, accused of graft, hiding unexplained wealth, and plotting to have former ally President Ferdinand Marcos assassinated.
Estrada was charged in 2014 with plundering millions of dollars meant for government development projects, but the court acquitted him a decade later.
cgm/pam/jm
 

economy

Australia economy minister says 'legitimate' fears driving rise of far-right

  • "I think people have legitimate concerns about where they fit in the economy," Treasurer Jim Chalmers said when asked what was driving that.
  • Australia's economy minister said Monday that "legitimate" concerns were driving a rise in support for the far right after a bombshell opinion poll showed the populist One Nation is now the country's most popular party.
  • "I think people have legitimate concerns about where they fit in the economy," Treasurer Jim Chalmers said when asked what was driving that.
Australia's economy minister said Monday that "legitimate" concerns were driving a rise in support for the far right after a bombshell opinion poll showed the populist One Nation is now the country's most popular party.
For decades a fringe outfit led by provocateur Pauline Hanson, polling released over the weekend by the Australian Financial Review showed One Nation has overtaken the ruling Labor Party in support.
"I think people have legitimate concerns about where they fit in the economy," Treasurer Jim Chalmers said when asked what was driving that.
"People are responding to legitimate pressures and legitimate concerns and anxieties they have."
The polling put One Nation on 31 percent to Labor's 28 percent in primary voting under Australia's preferential voting system.
The poll was taken from a sample of 1,005 voters and conducted by the Redbridge Group and Accent Research.
It comes as Labor has pushed a controversial housing tax reform aimed at bringing down property prices in Australia -- some of the world's highest.
The reform reins in tax breaks for landlords and for people selling their properties.
It has sparked condemnation from small business groups and investors who accuse Canberra of penalising wealth creators.
The government has defended the changes as seeking to overturn "intergenerational inequality" and help young people buy a home.
"We want to make sure Australia doesn't become like other countries, where people have this sense they are disconnected from our economy and disregarded from our society," Chalmers said on Monday.
The rise of One Nation, which advocates for swingeing immigration cuts and campaigns against "radical Islam", has thrown into question a long-held notion that Australia's voting system insulated it from the global rise of populist parties.
Last month the party won its first lower house election battle in the seat of Farrer, a large inland agricultural and mining electorate in New South Wales, beating the traditional conservative parties.
Hanson has long drawn condemnation for racist remarks targeting Muslims and other minorities.
On Monday she told ABC Radio Brisbane she believed she was ready to serve as Australia's prime minister.
"Would I be able to do the job? I believe that I could. I do believe I have the ability, but it's another year and a half outside of an election."
Commentators have linked One Nation's spike in the polls to dissatisfaction with the government's latest budget, making it hard to judge its chances in the next general election, which must be held by May 2028.
oho/djw/fox

Nvidia

Nvidia launches Windows laptop chip for AI era

BY KATIE FORSTER AND JOY CHIANG

  • It is not the first time Nvidia chips have powered Windows devices -- a range of tablets did so in the early 2010s.
  • Nvidia unveiled a powerful laptop chip for Windows machines on Monday, staking its claim in the market for next-generation consumer PCs integrated with artificial intelligence.
  • It is not the first time Nvidia chips have powered Windows devices -- a range of tablets did so in the early 2010s.
Nvidia unveiled a powerful laptop chip for Windows machines on Monday, staking its claim in the market for next-generation consumer PCs integrated with artificial intelligence.
The US hardware titan's move challenges the likes of Apple, Intel and AMD in the PC domain, although the new devices will likely carry a hefty price tag.
It also represents an attempt by Nvidia -- which the AI boom has made the world's most valuable company -- to diversify into the consumer market, even as it reaps record profits from selling data centre processors to global tech giants.
"Microsoft and Nvidia are going to reinvent the PC," Nvidia's chief executive Jensen Huang said in Taipei as he launched the RTX Spark chip ahead of Computex, a major technology show.
"If you want to run digital biology, no problem. If you want to do seismic processing, no problem. You want astrophysics, no problem," Huang added, calling it "an incredible computer".
It is "as big of a deal as the reinvention of the phone into what we now know as the smartphone", he said.
RTX Spark-powered laptops and desktops, made by the likes of Dell and Lenovo, will be available this autumn, Nvidia said.
It is not the first time Nvidia chips have powered Windows devices -- a range of tablets did so in the early 2010s.
But the new PCs are positioned as tools that can easily run AI services such as agents, which can carry out tasks for users.
 

'Existential threat'

 
Nvidia is best known for its GPUs, specialised chips originally designed to render gaming graphics at high speed, which have more recently become the engine for chatbots and other AI tools.
As governments and companies pour hundreds of billions of dollars into AI infrastructure, the company's value has topped $5 trillion, more than the gross domestic product of Japan or India.
Monday's announcement instead focuses on a new CPU, or central processing unit, which acts like the brain of a personal computer.
"Nvidia is bypassing the traditional PC supply chain to build an end-to-end hardware monopoly," said Stephen Wu, a former AI software engineer and founder of the Carthage Capital investment fund.
Wu told AFP that the development, long awaited in the industry, represents an "existential threat" to current laptop chip designs, with Intel and AMD "the immediate casualties".
It is also a strategic attempt by Nvidia to get programmers to build new tech products on their hardware, which will boost demand for data centre GPUs, he said.
But with a memory chip shortage pushing up the cost of consumer electronics, "the biggest question... may not be how powerful the next wave of PC hardware is, but whether buyers can still afford it," PC World magazine senior editor Alaina Yee wrote last week.
 

Jobs debate

 
Huang showcased Nvidia's upcoming Vera Rubin chip platform on stage Monday, saying that a rush to so-called agentic AI is driving up the already overwhelming demand for computing power.
He also called concerns that AI will decimate jobs worldwide "complete nonsense".
"The number of software engineers is actually increasing," he said. "Useful AI has arrived. AI is now a profit generator. AI is now a GDP generator."
Huang did not however address the thorny issue of his months-long campaign to sell chips in China that can train and run AI systems.
Washington in December eased national security export restrictions to China of a cutting-edge Nvidia model, the H200 chip.
But there have been no signs of orders from Chinese tech companies as Beijing ramps up domestic chip development, in a bid to challenge US dominance in the sector.
kaf-joy/jm

energy

In Finland, radioactive spent nuclear fuel soon to be buried underground

BY ANNA KORKMAN

  • Above ground, the spent nuclear fuel will be encapsulated in highly corrosion-resistent copper canisters. 
  • The elevator display reads "433", the number of metres below ground.
  • Above ground, the spent nuclear fuel will be encapsulated in highly corrosion-resistent copper canisters. 
The elevator display reads "433", the number of metres below ground. The doors slide open, revealing the entrance to what is expected to be the world's first permanent repository for radioactive spent nuclear fuel.
Blasted into 1.9 billion-year-old stable bedrock in Eurajoki, southwest Finland, the geological repository for spent nuclear waste -- dubbed Onkalo which means "cave" in Finnish -- is nearly ready to start operations.
Countries have been wrestling with what to do with dangerous nuclear by-products since the first plants were built in the 1950s. Currently, most of it is in temporary storage. 
Final repositories are being built in other countries, including neighbouring Sweden and France, but Finland is expected to be first to open an underground storage solution.
The Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) is due to give approval in its final assessment in June, after which an operating licence can be granted. 
"We hope we can start the operation either at the end of this year or most probably at the beginning of next year," said Philippe Bordarier, chief executive of nuclear operator Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO).
His voice echoed in the damp tunnel where the spent nuclear fuel will be buried in holes drilled into the bedrock, where it will remain harmfully radioactive for thousands of years.
The waste currently cooled in water pools at an interim storage site, at the nearby Olkiluoto power plant next to the Baltic Sea, will be first to be deposited, Bordarier said.  
With space for 6,500 tons of uranium, Onkalo is aimed at providing permanent storage for spent fuel from Finland's five nuclear reactors -- three of them located in Olkiluoto.
Nuclear waste management company Posiva began building the site in 2004, with the cost now estimated at one billion euros ($1.16 billion). 
 

'Forever'

Spent fuel is planned to be deposited in Onkalo's massive network of tunnels for 100 years but operations may be extended if new nuclear reactors are built. 
Subsequently, the vault will be sealed to provide safe storage for at least 100,000 years. 
"Basically, it needs to be safe forever," noted Lauri Parviainen, a Posiva chemist who showed reporters around the facilities.
The fuel will be highly radioactive for "tens of thousands of years", he said.
After 100,000 years, they will be "about the same level as the uranium ore of which the fuel is made."  
Above ground, the spent nuclear fuel will be encapsulated in highly corrosion-resistent copper canisters. 
The canisters will be lowered into holes drilled in the tunnels, before the holes are filled with bentonite clay to seal them, Parviainen explained. 
"So if the bentonite stays in place, we are safe," he said.
Once each 300-metre-long disposal tunnel is filled, it will be sealed with a steel-reinforced concrete plug.

Long-term risks

Jarkko Kyllonen, an expert on nuclear safety at Finland's nuclear regulator STUK, has assessed risk scenarios for the Onkalo project stretching up to a million years into the future. 
Considering the "hazard potential of the waste, the first 10,000 years are very important for keeping the capsules intact," he told AFP. 
The main long-term risks are corrosion of the copper canisters or earthquakes during future ice ages, which could potentially damage the capsules and cause radioactive fuel to leak, Kyllonen said. 
But the results of various risk assessments conducted over the years have been "positive". 
While France's plans for a similar underground nuclear tomb have met with strong opposition, Onkalo has received broader backing in Finland.
There was some opposition locally when the plans were first introduced in the 1970s, but "people have gotten used to it and they trust the assessments made by STUK", Matti Kojo, social sciences professor at Lut University, told AFP.
"At the moment, support for nuclear power is at a historically high level in Finland," he noted.  
The Finnish Association for Nature Conservation remains critical of the project, however, insisting that nuclear waste poses a long-term, serious risk. 
"No one can guarantee the safety of Onkalo for thousands of years," director Tapani Veistola told AFP in an e-mail.
- Finland's nuclear push - 
Under Finnish law, nuclear waste produced in Finland has to be deposited in the country, Climate and Environment Minister Sari Multala told AFP.
"Before the legal change in 1994, the spent nuclear fuel was exported to, for example, Russia," she said.  
Increasing nuclear power in Finland has been a priority for the right-wing government, and the country is considering building so-called small modular reactors (SMRs). 
How the spent nuclear fuel from future SMRs would be managed "has not been decided yet," Multala said. An assessment should be completed by March next year, she added. 
ank/po/tw

US

UN to meet on Lebanon after Israel takes Beaufort castle

  • Diplomatic sources told AFP that the United Nations Security Council would hold an emergency meeting Monday over Israel's expansion of its offensive in the country.
  • The UN Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting Monday on the fighting in Lebanon after Israel's military took over the medieval castle of Beaufort in Lebanese territory, diplomatic sources told AFP.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to push deeper into Lebanon and called Sunday's operation a "dramatic shift" in the campaign against Hezbollah.
  • Diplomatic sources told AFP that the United Nations Security Council would hold an emergency meeting Monday over Israel's expansion of its offensive in the country.
The UN Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting Monday on the fighting in Lebanon after Israel's military took over the medieval castle of Beaufort in Lebanese territory, diplomatic sources told AFP. 
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to push deeper into Lebanon and called Sunday's operation a "dramatic shift" in the campaign against Hezbollah.
A truce to halt the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began on April 17, but has never been observed. Both sides accuse each other daily of violating the ceasefire and justify their attacks by the other's alleged breaches.
Diplomatic sources told AFP that the United Nations Security Council would hold an emergency meeting Monday over Israel's expansion of its offensive in the country.
The meeting was requested by France, whose President Emmanuel Macron said "nothing justifies the major escalation under way in south Lebanon", calling for an end to fighting.
Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets towards Israel in retaliation for the US-Israeli killing of Iran's supreme leader.
Israel hit Lebanon over the weekend, with eight people killed in a strike on Deir Zahrani in southern Lebanon on Sunday including three women, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
The Iran-backed militant group, meanwhile, said it targeted Israeli forces near the fortress as well as army positions and infrastructure in Shlomi and Nahariya in northern Israel, while air raid sirens blared in the Acre area.
A senior US official told AFP on Sunday that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the ongoing diplomatic negotiations and asserted that Hezbollah must be the first to cease its attacks.
"To advance those talks, the United States proposed a clear sequence: Hezbollah must stop all attacks on Israel. In return, Israel would refrain from escalation in Beirut," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, about the conversations between the three leaders. 
Military delegations from Lebanon and Israel held security talks in Washington on Friday and more US-brokered negotiations are planned next week.
In a video statement released after the military took Beaufort, Netanyahu said "we have returned united, determined and stronger than ever".
"Now my directive is to deepen and expand our hold in places that were under Hezbollah's control. The capture of Beaufort is a dramatic stage and a dramatic shift in the policy we are leading."
Israeli forces used the Beaufort castle, also known as Qalaat al-Chakif, as a base during their previous two-decade occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in 2000.
Shelling was audible and smoke rose from the surrounding area as AFP saw the Israeli flag above the castle.
 

'Impossible to return home

 
In a shelter for the displaced in Sidon, southern Lebanon's largest city, Zeinab Fakih, from Nabatieh, told AFP "we are afraid".
"It is impossible for us to return to our home, because the city is in great destruction," she said, adding that the arrival of Israeli forces at the castle was "tragic".
The push to Beaufort came as the Israeli military issued a sweeping evacuation order to areas south of the Zahrani River, north of the Litani and around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the border.
An Israeli strike near a hospital in Tyre wounded 13 staffers, the Lebanese health ministry said.
A few thousand people remain in Tyre's small old city, spared from Israeli evacuation warnings, some sleeping in their cars.
In Sidon, an AFP photographer saw civil defence teams from the Tyre region reach the city after Israel's military called them to evacuate.
Ali Safieddine, civil defence head in Tyre city, said they have "temporarily relocated to Sidon".
The Israeli army said a Hezbollah explosive drone killed one of its soldiers Saturday, bringing to 25 the number of Israeli military deaths in Lebanon since early March.
It added that "since the start of the ceasefire, 900 Hezbollah terrorists have been eliminated".
Lebanon's health ministry says Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,412 people since early March.
burs-lkd/jm

Global Edition

Trump fan, leftist through to Colombia presidential runoff

BY ALBA SANTANA

  • During a speech Sunday he was flanked by vice presidential candidate Aida Quilcue, who was briefly kidnapped by guerrillas during the campaign. 
  • Colombia's first-round presidential vote Sunday triggered a runoff between a pro-Trump showman and a leftist philosopher-turned-senator, after a security-dominated campaign that has been the most violent in over a decade.
  • During a speech Sunday he was flanked by vice presidential candidate Aida Quilcue, who was briefly kidnapped by guerrillas during the campaign. 
Colombia's first-round presidential vote Sunday triggered a runoff between a pro-Trump showman and a leftist philosopher-turned-senator, after a security-dominated campaign that has been the most violent in over a decade.
Colombia's electoral authority said right-wing hopeful Abelardo de la Espriella won 44 percent of the vote, beating leftist favorite Ivan Cepeda with 41 percent and a string of other candidates who trailed far behind.
It was a stronger-than-expected showing for 47-year-old De la Espriella -- a pro‑Trump lawyer, singer and clothier who calls himself "The Tiger" and has billed himself as a political norm-smashing outsider.
"I will kill myself for Colombia if I need to," he said in an empassioned victory address while decked in a Colombia football jersey.
The campaign was marred by car bombs, drone attacks and the assassination of a leading presidential candidate and dozens of local political leaders.
Cepeda, who had been expected to top the vote, questioned the accuracy of initial results, but stopped short of claiming the election was rigged.
He vowed to defeat the "fascist extreme right" in the June 21 second round, linking his rival to mafiosos and plutocrats.
During a speech Sunday he was flanked by vice presidential candidate Aida Quilcue, who was briefly kidnapped by guerrillas during the campaign. 

War and peace

Campaigning from behind bulletproof glass, De la Espriella has vowed a "shock plan" to bombard armed groups, echoing the iron-fist rhetoric that has swept the right to power across Latin America.
"We'll start immediately with the bombing of narco-terrorist camps," he told AFP in an interview during the campaign.
That message appears to have resonated. 
While Colombia has thrived in the decade since a landmark peace accord with FARC guerrillas, pockets of the country are still under the grip of armed groups vying for control of cocaine routes, illegal gold mining and extortion.
Cepeda has vowed to continue efforts to negotiate peace with such armed groups -- part of outgoing President Gustavo Petro's strategy of "total peace,." 
Critics say the policy has given criminal groups free rein, fueling violence and record cocaine exports. 
"This government really strengthened armed groups by being so soft," said Catalina Devia, a 42‑year‑old advertising executive and mother of two who voted for De la Espriella.
"Many Colombians are thinking about emigrating," she said.
Cepeda, 63, is the son of a leftist senator killed by right‑wing paramilitaries.
He is backed by Colombia's first ever leftist president, who is constitutionally barred from reelection, and draws support from voters who credit the government with helping the poor. 
Supporters point to higher minimum wages, increased education spending and land transfers to poor communities. 
There was disappointment among Cepeda supporters that he came in second. 
"It leaves a bad taste," said 42-year-old cafe worker Andres Alba. "It's not anger, but it does leave a bad taste."
Gloria Terranova, a 59-year-old coffee shop owner, said she held out hope that Cepeda might still win the presidency despite finishing second in the first round.
"Right now we are at radical extremes: one side wants peace, the other wants war," she said.
But some voters expressed unease with the stark and polarized choice they now face.
"My vote is not guided by what I want, but what I fear the most," said Julian, a 37‑year‑old project manager. "I'm going to vote for the less worse candidate."
Despite worsening violence in rebel‑held areas, election day itself passed calmly.
Authorities deployed more than 400,000 police and soldiers nationwide to protect polling stations. 
bur-arb/jgc

film

Hollywood honors Marilyn Monroe, 100 years after her birth

BY PAULA RAMON

  • Later in the week, on June 4, Julien's Auctions will put nearly 200 pieces of Monroe memorabilia under the hammer as part of its special "100 Years of Marilyn" sale.
  • Marilyn Monroe's hometown of Hollywood kicks off Monday a series of special events marking the 100th anniversary of the movie icon's birth.
  • Later in the week, on June 4, Julien's Auctions will put nearly 200 pieces of Monroe memorabilia under the hammer as part of its special "100 Years of Marilyn" sale.
Marilyn Monroe's hometown of Hollywood kicks off Monday a series of special events marking the 100th anniversary of the movie icon's birth.
At the historic Chinese Theatre, where Monroe's handprints are immortalized alongside "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953) co-star Jane Russell, fans plan to sing "Happy Birthday" -- echoing her famed sultry serenade to president John F. Kennedy.
One hundred roses and a cake will be placed at the site, a symbol of Hollywood's golden age and a popular tourist hotspot.
Tributes to Tinseltown's legendary daughter began on Sunday, with the Academy Museum opening "Marilyn Monroe: Hollywood Icon," an exhibit celebrating her film career and life cut short.
After shooting to superstardom in the 1950s, the actress and model died of an overdose at her Brentwood home in August 1962, aged 36.
The Academy Museum will host special screenings of her prolific filmography throughout the month, including "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950), "Niagara" (1953), "The Seven Year Itch" (1955), "Some Like It Hot" (1959), and "The Misfits" (1961).
The exhibit, which runs until February 2027, includes hundreds of original pieces, some rarely on display -- such as Monroe's famed pink dress worn during her iconic performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
Later in the week, on June 4, Julien's Auctions will put nearly 200 pieces of Monroe memorabilia under the hammer as part of its special "100 Years of Marilyn" sale.
The items include unpublished photographs, a script with notes from her final production, the unfinished short film "Something's Got to Give," and personal items such as handwritten recipes and her Elizabeth Arden lipstick.

Image maker

Born in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926, Monroe had an unstable childhood spent between orphanages and foster homes. She married for the first time at age 16.
She had her first brush with show business in 1944, while working in a factory, when a photographer arrived to capture photos of women working on production lines during World War II.
Launching into the world of modeling soon after, she divorced her husband and made a history-defining decision: dyeing her brown hair platinum blonde.
She landed her first contract with Fox, and by the age of 30 had established herself as a global star.
Behind the scenes, Monroe founded her own production company, attended the prestigious Actors Studio in New York, and even defied the studios.
In the 1950s, while under contract with 20th Century Fox, she refused to act in the adaptation of the musical "The Girl in Pink Tights," deeming the script mediocre and her salary -- three times less than that of co-star Frank Sinatra -- unfair.
More than half a century before the #MeToo movement shook the global entertainment industry, Monroe denounced the Hollywood "wolves" preying on female talent.
pr/des/md

banking

Outgoing chair Powell delivers defense of Fed independence

  • The former Fed chair received the John F. Kennedy Profile In Courage Award "for protecting the independence of the Federal Reserve," the foundation said. 
  • Outgoing US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell on Sunday delivered a staunch defense of the need for the central bank to maintain independence and credibility, as it comes under assault from President Donald Trump.
  • The former Fed chair received the John F. Kennedy Profile In Courage Award "for protecting the independence of the Federal Reserve," the foundation said. 
Outgoing US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell on Sunday delivered a staunch defense of the need for the central bank to maintain independence and credibility, as it comes under assault from President Donald Trump.
"Like many other institutions, the Fed has been undergoing a stress test," he said as he accepted an award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. 
"If any administration finds a way to remove Fed officials over policy differences, then future administrations will do so as well," Powell said, in a barely veiled reference to the Trump administration's attempt to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook. 
"The public would lose faith that the central bank will make decisions based only on what's best for all Americans."
In his second term in power, Trump has frequently criticized and insulted Powell, alleging he was too slow to lower interest rates.
Trump's Justice Department went so far as to pursue criminal charges against the Fed chair over a building renovation project. The probe was eventually dropped to smooth the path towards Powell's successor being confirmed by the Senate.
Separately, Trump also sought to remove Cook over mortgage fraud allegations. The Supreme Court is due to rule on the legality of the move. 
"Our credibility has been built and sustained over many decades, and we have a duty to safeguard that priceless asset for our fellow citizens and for generations to come," said Powell.
The former Fed chair received the John F. Kennedy Profile In Courage Award "for protecting the independence of the Federal Reserve," the foundation said. 
Powell stepped down as chair at the end of his term earlier this month, and has been succeeded by Trump nominee Kevin Warsh. 
In an unusual move for outgoing Fed chiefs, Powell chose to remain on the board for the remainder of his term as a governor, which ends in 2028. He did so citing threats to the Fed's independence, and promised to keep a "low profile."
Trump has welcomed Warsh's taking over the Fed -- after a protracted and divisive Senate confirmation process -- and hosted a lavish ceremony at the White House for his swearing-in.
"The renewal and change is good, and I think we are going to see a new sheriff in town," said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday.
Also given the award on Sunday were "The People of the Twin Cities of Minnesota," in recognition of "risking their lives to protect their neighbors and immigrant community members from an unprecedented federal law enforcement operation," the foundation said.
Trump ordered a massive surge of immigration enforcement operations in the "twin cities" of St Paul and Minneapolis earlier this year, resulting in widespread demonstrations and the killings of at least two US citizen protesters and one migrant.
aha/sla/dw

Global Edition

Trump acolyte, leftist icon: Who will be Colombia's next leader?

BY DAVID SALAZAR

  • 'The Tiger' - Abelardo de la Espriella, 47, is a millionaire lawyer and businessman who said he entered politics to prevent Colombia from being "destroyed" by the left.
  • A right-wing millionaire lawyer who vows an iron fist on narco gangs and a leftist philosopher-turned-senator have made it through to a June 21 runoff to see who will be Colombia's next president.
  • 'The Tiger' - Abelardo de la Espriella, 47, is a millionaire lawyer and businessman who said he entered politics to prevent Colombia from being "destroyed" by the left.
A right-wing millionaire lawyer who vows an iron fist on narco gangs and a leftist philosopher-turned-senator have made it through to a June 21 runoff to see who will be Colombia's next president.
'The Tiger' -
Abelardo de la Espriella, 47, is a millionaire lawyer and businessman who said he entered politics to prevent Colombia from being "destroyed" by the left.
He holds US President Donald Trump, Argentina's Javier Milei and El Salvador's Nayib Bukele in high esteem. 
Sporting impeccable suits and, more recently, a bulletproof vest, his legal career saw him defend prominent Colombian figures including drug traffickers and soccer stars.
Before launching his presidential bid, De la Espriella lived in Florence, Italy, where he dabbled in opera, jetted around in private planes and promoted his rum and wine businesses.
To combat drug cartels in Colombia, the world's biggest cocaine producer, De la Espriella proposes a military alliance with the United States and Israel and the construction of mega-prisons, while also defending the right to carry weapons.
"Any criminal who does not surrender will be taken down as the law allows," he told AFP in an interview in February. 
Branding himself "The Tiger," the candidate has a penchant for swearing and is known for his hot temper.
He called for the Colombian left to be "gutted," but later toned down his language.
He has also made remarks considered homophobic and sexist and frequently refers to his "balls." 

Survivor

Ivan Cepeda first appeared in public in 1994, in his early 30s, next to the corpse of his father, a communist senator who was assassinated by paramilitaries.
Standing in front of a bullet-riddled truck, his call for justice was televised.
"Let this crime not go unpunished," Cepeda told reporters in a measured tone, during a period of persecution that saw more than 5,700 leftist leaders killed.
The 63-year-old has previously lived in exile in the former Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Cuba and France.
Returning to Colombia, he advocated for armed conflict victims and played a key role in the historic 2016 peace accord, which led to the disarmament of the rebel army FARC -- formerly the country's largest armed group.
His adversaries accuse him of having ties to FARC and reproach him for having devised outgoing President Gustavo Petro's "total peace" plan.
"I have survived genocide, stigmatization and relentless persecution. And here I am, still standing," he said during the campaign.
Typically wearing a traditional Caribbean shirt, Cepeda forgoes a tie, which he considers a symbol of oligarchy.
The senator led the investigation into former president Uribe's ties with paramilitaries before it went to court, where Uribe became the first Colombian leader to be convicted of a crime last year.
Although a judge later overturned the ruling, the incident established Cepeda as the right-wing leader's main political enemy and an icon of the left.
das/lv/arb/mjf

Global Edition

Malta's Labour party wins historic fourth term amid Mideast crisis

BY ELLA IDE

  • Labour won 52 percent of the votes, while PN pocketed 45 percent, according to Malta's Electoral Commission.
  • Malta's Labour party won an unprecedented fourth term Sunday in a victory for outgoing Prime Minister Robert Abela, who had called a snap election in light of geopolitical uncertainties.
  • Labour won 52 percent of the votes, while PN pocketed 45 percent, according to Malta's Electoral Commission.
Malta's Labour party won an unprecedented fourth term Sunday in a victory for outgoing Prime Minister Robert Abela, who had called a snap election in light of geopolitical uncertainties.
Fireworks were set off across the tiny Mediterranean island and ecstatic Labour supporters dressed in the party's red chanted "four times!" after officials in the Counting House in Naxxar said preliminary results gave the election to the governing party.
"Today we have written a page in history, together," Abela told cheering crowds from the balcony of the party headquarters, as supporters chanted "Robert is our leader, Hallelujah!"
The 48-year-old had sent the country to vote a year early, saying the government needed a fresh mandate in order to shield the tiny, import-reliant island from the Middle East crisis.
While Malta's economy grew 4.0 percent last year, there are concerns the conflict could have an impact on tourism due to spiralling aviation fuel costs and drive up inflation.
Abela campaigned on Labour's economic record since 2013, pledging stability in a period of uncertainty.
"I've voted Labour since I was a little girl, I'm thrilled," 73-year-old Margaret Camilleri told AFP, as Labour supporters drove past on a truck with speakers blaring the Queen song "We are the Champions".
Abela's main rival was Nationalist Party (PN) candidate Alex Borg, a 30-year-old lawyer and former "Mr World Malta" beauty pageant winner, who had urged the Maltese to vote for change.
Labour won 52 percent of the votes, while PN pocketed 45 percent, according to Malta's Electoral Commission.
Abela has led Malta since 2020, when his predecessor quit following a political crisis over the assassination in 2017 of reporter Daphne Caruana Galizia, who exposed corruption at the highest level in the country.
According to a 2025 Council of Europe report, Malta remains significantly behind in the fight against corruption -- but the issue was not a hot topic on the campaign trail.

Population boom

Malta's economic performance trumped other concerns.
Located off the coast of Sicily, Malta is the smallest and most densely populated country in the European Union, with around 550,000 people living in 316 square kilometres (122 square miles).
The island has a thriving economy based largely on tourism, online gaming and financial services, and one of the lowest unemployment rates in the EU.
But despite a low birth rate the population has grown nearly 30 percent over a decade, driven largely by immigrants.
That has fuelled a construction boom, filling the skyline with cranes, creating traffic bottlenecks and putting a strain on key services.
Heritage groups have denounced environmental degradation and risks to UNESCO world heritage sites in the former British colony.
The country has very few natural resources and imports much of its energy, leaving it exposed to external shocks.
Labour heavily subsidises energy bills and pledged to continue doing so.
Malta is also on the front line of climate change and at risk of desertification and drought, but neither main party made the issue its priority.
There is a green party, the ADPD, but no third party has held even a seat in Malta's parliament since before independence in 1964.
ide/phz

health

Africa CDC says over 1,100 suspected Ebola cases in DR Congo and Uganda

  • More than 1,100 suspected cases were still being investigated, he wrote in the editorial.
  • More than 1,100 people were suspected of having contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Uganda, the head of the African Union's health agency said on Sunday in a commentary for the Financial Times.
  • More than 1,100 suspected cases were still being investigated, he wrote in the editorial.
More than 1,100 people were suspected of having contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring Uganda, the head of the African Union's health agency said on Sunday in a commentary for the Financial Times.
Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention director general Jean Kaseya said there were 263 confirmed cases in both countries as of Saturday, with 43 confirmed deaths.
More than 1,100 suspected cases were still being investigated, he wrote in the editorial. On Thursday, the Africa CDC said there had been 246 suspected deaths from the virus.
"We must move at the speed of the epidemic," added Kaseya, criticising Africa's dependence on outside financial support. 
The health ministers of the DR Congo, Uganda and South Sudan recently adopted a $319-million response plan to the outbreak.
"That momentum must now expand across the continent," Kaseya said, calling the latest Ebola outbreak a "serious test" for the Africa CDC and the African Union.
"This outbreak will not be the last," he added.
The outbreak was declared on May 15 in Ituri, in the northeast DR Congo, which is home to more than 100 million people and is one of the poorest countries in the world.
The virus, which can cause a deadly haemorrhagic fever, has been detected in three Congolese provinces as well as in Uganda.
No vaccine or approved treatment is available against the Bundibugyo strain of the virus and efforts to contain its spread rely mainly on preventative measures.
The World Health Organization has triggered an international health alert but the true scale of the outbreak is not yet known.
International health authorities believe that current figures are likely an underestimation.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus continued a visit to Ituri province on Sunday and has pledged support to local communities affected by the outbreak.
"You are not alone in this. We are here, we are with you and we will see this through together," he said after arriving on Saturday.
jcp/phz/tw

fbl

780 arrested, deadly road accident in riotous PSG victory celebrations across France

  • The 780 arrests was a 32 percent increase compared to the celebrations of PSG's Champions League win last year, the minister noted. 
  • French authorities announced Sunday that 780 people were arrested across the country when overnight  celebrations of Paris Saint-Germain's Champions League victory over Arsenal were marred by violent clashes, and a road accident that killed a young man. 
  • The 780 arrests was a 32 percent increase compared to the celebrations of PSG's Champions League win last year, the minister noted. 
French authorities announced Sunday that 780 people were arrested across the country when overnight  celebrations of Paris Saint-Germain's Champions League victory over Arsenal were marred by violent clashes, and a road accident that killed a young man. 
Thousands of people poured into the streets of Paris for the match and to revel in PSG's triumph in the final held in the Hungarian capital Budapest late Saturday.
But some mobs clashed with police, around 22,000 of whom were deployed across France after unrest last year when PSG also won the competition.
Highlighting an increased use of fireworks directed at law enforcement, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said in a press briefing 57 security forces were injured and that there had been "219 participants injured in France, including eight seriously".
The Paris public prosecutor's office announced the death of a young man in his twenties after he crashed head-on into concrete blocks on a Paris ring road exit ramp on his motocross bike. 
Another young man was seriously injured in a knife attack in Paris allegedly over a robbery, the prosecutor's office added. 
Nunez said a small number of thefts and lootings had taken place in around fifteen cities across the country and incidents of violence were recorded in 71 municipalities. 
The 780 arrests was a 32 percent increase compared to the celebrations of PSG's Champions League win last year, the minister noted. 

Victory parade

Around 100,000 people are expected to gather for a parade including the players on Sunday afternoon on the Champs-de-Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower, before being received at the Elysee Palace by President Emmanuel Macron. 
Nunez promised "a strong law enforcement response" during the players' return celebrations and fines for "obstructing traffic" in the event of any intrusion onto the Paris ring road. 
The district mayor of Paris's 8th arrondissement -- home to the famed Champs-Elysees where 20,000 people converged after PSG's victory -- called for "zero gatherings" on the iconic avenue as the only way to avoid further violence. 
On Saturday night, the "Champs-Elysees avenue and its surroundings ceased to be a place of celebration and became an arena of urban guerrilla warfare", the town hall said in a statement.
"Since it has become impossible to celebrate a match without descending into riots, the only common sense response is a new doctrine: 'zero gatherings'," it demanded.
Nunez dismissed the idea saying it would "tie up almost half of the security deployment". Nearly 6,000 police and gendarmes have been deployed for security during the celebrations on Sunday. 
sm-hdu/sw/