conflict

Settler attack on West Bank village injures Israeli forces, drawing rare rebuke

BY ZAIN JAAFAR WITH LOUIS BAUDOIN-LAARMAN IN RAMALLAH

The raid, and attacks on other West Bank villages on Tuesday, came amid mounting international criticism of settler violence, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplayed last week.

More than 100 Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank early Tuesday, drawing condemnation from the US and from the Israeli government after they injured three members of the security forces.
The raid, and attacks on other West Bank villages on Tuesday, came amid mounting international criticism of settler violence, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplayed last week.

More than 100 Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank early Tuesday, drawing condemnation from the US and from the Israeli government after they injured three members of the security forces.

The raid, and attacks on other West Bank villages on Tuesday, came amid mounting international criticism of settler violence, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplayed last week.

Settlers stormed the village of Jalud in the northern West Bank as the military attempted to accompany a Palestinian family back to their home after they had been displaced by settler attacks two months earlier.

The Israeli military said "more than 100 Israeli rioters" were in the area overnight and soldiers and border police tried to disperse them.

"As a result of the clashes, three Israel Border Police officers were lightly injured," it said in a statement.

One person was arrested and two minors were taken in for questioning, police said.

The military said the settlers had blocked roads, set tyres on fire and thrown rocks at security forces, also setting fire to Palestinian buildings and vehicles in the village.

It added that the attack had prevented the return of the family, who had been displaced "following several incidents of (Israeli) nationalist crime against them".

'No justification'

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and has been accelerating settlement expansion there. Some 500,000 Israeli settlers live among three million Palestinians.

Netanyahu condemned the attack, which he blamed on "a small group of rioters".

Their actions "cause great harm to that community and interfere with our forces as they carry out their mission", he said.

President Isaac Herzog, who holds a largely ceremonial role, called the attack "a moral stain, an assault on the rule of law and our most fundamental values". Such criticism from Israeli official is rare for attacks in which the victims are Palestinian.

The US State Department told AFP that "we condemn criminal violence by any party in the West Bank and support appropriate investigations, legal accountability, and judicial processes for those responsible".

Settler attacks against Palestinians including beatings, vandalism and arson averaged six a day in the first half of the year, according to the United Nations.

Recent weeks have also seen high-profile attacks against Israelis in the West Bank, including the shooting dead of a settler by a Palestinian.

Israel has voiced outrage and imposed diplomatic repercussions on several Western countries that imposed sanctions against products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

Rising settler ambitions

Mahmoud al-Toubasi, a member of the family seeking to return to Jalud, told AFP that he and his relatives had left the house more than two months ago, and that it had been occupied by settlers until the attack on Tuesday.

"My wife, my son and I went to the house in the car, accompanied by an army vehicle in front of us and another behind us," he said.

Settlers attacked the group upon their arrival at the house and were pushed back by soldiers with pepper spray, he added.

"We were not physically injured, but we suffered some choking from the pepper spray," Toubasi said.

In a separate attack on Tuesday, dozens of settlers from hilltop outposts raided the Palestinian village of Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, residents told AFP.

An AFP journalist saw at least five burnt-out cars as a result.

In a separate incident in the town of Beitunia near Ramallah, dozens of settlers came to hold a prayer for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot using loudspeakers, Mayor Ribhi Dawla told AFP.

"This gathering is a dangerous precedent," he said. "There are ambitions for settlements in the area, they placed a caravan in the western part of the town and installed an iron gate."

In another incident on Tuesday evening, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported that its crews were "treating three people who were assaulted and beaten by settlers in the Jamala area near Ramallah" and taking them to hospital.

Violence has increased in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, with Israeli soldiers or settlers killing at least 1,111 Palestinians in that period, including both militants and civilians, per an AFP tally based on data from the Palestinian health ministry.

Israeli figures show at least 49 Israelis, including civilians and security personnel, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations during the same period.

bur-if-lba-glp/dcp

vote

UN to hold fourth informal poll of secretary-general candidates

Several of the candidates are known to have met with world leaders during the UN's signature diplomatic event at New York headquarters last week.

The UN Security Council met Tuesday to gauge for a fourth time support for a packed field of contenders to lead the world organization, fresh from making their pitch to world leaders who will decide their fate.
Several of the candidates are known to have met with world leaders during the UN's signature diplomatic event at New York headquarters last week.

The UN Security Council met Tuesday to gauge for a fourth time support for a packed field of contenders to lead the world organization, fresh from making their pitch to world leaders who will decide their fate.

After the first three rounds of informal straw polls, Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica held a narrow lead over the other six candidates vying to follow Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Several of the candidates are known to have met with world leaders during the UN's signature diplomatic event at New York headquarters last week.

Rumors have persisted that a compromise candidate could be parachuted into the process at the behest of the powerful five veto-wielding Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Guyanese ex-foreign minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett narrowly led the second round of the secret process to pick the next UN chief.

Other candidates include Argentina's Rafael Grossi, the current head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Macky Sall of Senegal, Ecuador's Ivonne A-Baki, Ecuador's Maria Fernanda Espinosa and Uganda's Olara Otunnu.

The outgoing secretary-general, Antonio Guterres of Portugal, ends his second five-year term on December 31, 2026.

Even if a candidate earns the required nine votes from the 15 available in the Security Council, they must also avoid a veto by the five major powers, which are deeply divided.

Once a candidate clears those bars, their name will go to the General Assembly of all UN members for confirmation.

The Security Council straw poll was devised in the early 1980s in an attempt to break a deadlock between two candidates shut down by vetoes.

The informal mechanism has persisted, in various forms, despite criticism from countries opposed to the opaque process.

Each of the 15 Security Council members must anonymously assign each candidate one of three labels: "encourage," "discourage," or "no opinion."

But after an unspecified number of votes, the ballots of the Council's five permanent members will have a different color, making it possible to identify potential vetoes, without knowing which country blackballed any given candidate.

It is tradition that the UN's top job should rotate between different regions.

Under that premise, the role should go to a candidate from Latin America this time. There are many candidates from the region, though Sall and Otunnu hail from Africa.

gw/ksb

police

UN Security Council extends Haiti anti-gang force by 6 months

First authorized by the Security Council last year, the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) had been expected to ramp up between April and October to 5,500 personnel and 50 civilian staff, although it remains short of that goal.

The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday approved a six-month extension of the mandate for a gang suppression force deployed to combat violent criminal syndicates ravaging Haiti.
First authorized by the Security Council last year, the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) had been expected to ramp up between April and October to 5,500 personnel and 50 civilian staff, although it remains short of that goal.

The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday approved a six-month extension of the mandate for a gang suppression force deployed to combat violent criminal syndicates ravaging Haiti.

First authorized by the Security Council last year, the Gang Suppression Force (GSF) had been expected to ramp up between April and October to 5,500 personnel and 50 civilian staff, although it remains short of that goal.

Haiti has been overwhelmed by deadly gang violence in recent years, with swaths of the Caribbean country controlled by heavily armed groups that local authorities have been powerless to subdue.

The Council voted 12-0 in favor, with three abstentions, to extend the force until March 31, 2027.

"The entire effort... is designed around the ultimate objective that Haitians themselves take back control of their own security and their own future, and this cannot and will not become an endless mission," said US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz. The US co-sponsored the resolution.

Russia, China and Pakistan abstained.

Haiti is preparing to hold its first elections in a decade, as well as a constitutional referendum, on December 13.

The resolution adopted Tuesday emphasized "the importance of ensuring security conditions conducive to holding free and fair elections."

Fire fight

Haiti said the extension was "an important step forward in continuing efforts to restore security in Haiti," according to Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime's office.

The GSF replaced the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission, which was seen as under-equipped and underfunded.

It was intended to be more robust, but as of July comprised fewer than 1,000 personnel, from Chad, Mongolia, Jamaica, Guatemala, El Salvador and Sri Lanka.

Gangs have been using ever more sophisticated tactics and weaponry to target Haitian authorities, and have extensively recruited children.

Tuesday's resolution noted "with grave concern the significant proportion of gang members who are children, as a result of systematic recruitment efforts, including coercive and forced tactics, which deliberately target the most vulnerable communities."

Waltz added, "the Haitian people, they defeated Napoleon, some of the greatest militaries in the world. They have fought natural disasters, they have recovered from earthquakes and hurricanes. Together with them, we can take back the second-oldest republic in our hemisphere."

The vote came as the force continued to face off against the heavily armed gangs.

Late Monday, GSF members came under fire from armed men during a patrol in the Artibonite region, the force said on X.

The personnel returned fire and killed three gunmen, while others fled, the force said, adding that none of its members were injured.

The force remained in the area for several hours before returning to their base, after which gang members attacked civilians in the area, it said.

gw-str/des

protests

Clashes between French teens, police as school blockades intensify

BY MARINE DO-VALE

Bus shelters and advertising billboards were vandalised, with bottles, paving stones and other missiles hurled at police, who responded by firing tear gas.

French teenagers on Tuesday set fire to rubbish bins and threw projectiles at police who responded with batons and tear gas, with hundreds detained across the country over the blockades and protests demanding better conditions at schools.
Bus shelters and advertising billboards were vandalised, with bottles, paving stones and other missiles hurled at police, who responded by firing tear gas.

French teenagers on Tuesday set fire to rubbish bins and threw projectiles at police who responded with batons and tear gas, with hundreds detained across the country over the blockades and protests demanding better conditions at schools.

The movement in the lycees, attended by students aged 15 to 18 for their final years of secondary education in France, has angered the government.

Since last week, students have staged protests outside hundreds of schools over grievances including timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers as well as overheated classrooms during this year's heatwaves.

The protests started in the Ile-de-France region around Paris but have now spread to other cities nationwide.

According to the education ministry, 400 schools were affected by protests or disruptions on Tuesday, out of some 3,700 across the country.

Some 40 were blockaded and 44 faced attempted blockades. Ten people, both students and staff, were wounded and hundreds, most of them minors, were detained.

"440 were detained across national territory," Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on BFMTV. "We don't have the final tally yet, but I'm told two thirds led to police custody."

Education Minister Edouard Geffray condemned the violence.

"Legal proceedings have been initiated against these actions. This violence is unspeakable," Geffray posted to X.

"To legitimise it or ... call for an expansion of the blockades is to endanger both our students and public officials. It is irresponsible."

In one school in the Paris suburbs, teachers formed a line around protesting students in a bid to protect them from the police.

Masked pupils gathered outside the Lycee Cesar Baggio in Lille, in northern France, setting bins on fire, an AFP photographer reported.

Bus shelters and advertising billboards were vandalised, with bottles, paving stones and other missiles hurled at police, who responded by firing tear gas.

In the western city of Nantes, teens piled up dozens of bins to prevent entry to the Lycee Gabriel Guist'hau, while in Paris there was an uneasy standoff between 30 students and a contingent of police at the Arago school.

Similar clashes were also reported in cities including Marseille in the south, Bordeaux in the west and Lyon in the southeast.

Mayor defends protests

Around 80 students gathered outside the Lamartine school in Paris, brandishing slogans complaining of getting "More hours of lessons than sleep".

There were tense scenes at the Lycee Brequigny in the northwestern city of Rennes -- Brittany's largest high school -- where around a hundred students hurled projectiles at the building, an AFP video journalist said.

The actions came as unions planned a day of nationwide demonstrations and strikes over the budget of Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron.

Union marches took place in Paris and other cities, with around one in 10 teachers striking nationwide and thousands of members of the fire services staging an angry protest in Paris.

Some 300,000 people took part in marches across the country, according to unions, including 30,000 in Paris, according to police estimates.

Lecornu said on Monday any escalation of demonstrations at high schools would be "irresponsible" and lashed out at the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, who he accused of encouraging the protests.

In the low-income Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, the district's LFI mayor Bally Bagayoko joined a protest of hundreds of students at the Lycee Paul-Eluard.

Leading students in a rendition of the national anthem, he described the protests as "completely legitimate" and complained that low-income areas received less resources than higher-income ones.

When a crowd formed, police with anti-riot shields struck the students and an AFP journalist with batons.

"We, the children of the suburbs, are abandoned and neglected," said 16-year-old Victoire, a student at the school, denouncing conditions at the establishment as "unsanitary".

bur/yad/ach

Bardella

France's Le Pen defiant after top ally hit by antisemitism claims

BY LUCILE MALANDAIN, SAMI ACEF AND STUART WILLIAMS

"We are seeing the beginnings of a total war, an attempt to destabilise the presidential campaign," Bardella, flanked by Le Pen, told party deputies, saying he believed the allegations were an operation prepared "for several months".

French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Tuesday hit back at allegations of antisemitism against her de facto number two Jordan Bardella, which have punctured her buoyant campaign at a time she is riding high in the polls.
"We are seeing the beginnings of a total war, an attempt to destabilise the presidential campaign," Bardella, flanked by Le Pen, told party deputies, saying he believed the allegations were an operation prepared "for several months".

French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Tuesday hit back at allegations of antisemitism against her de facto number two Jordan Bardella, which have punctured her buoyant campaign at a time she is riding high in the polls.

Le Pen, who is aiming to win the Elysee at her fourth attempt next year in a far-right breakthrough that would send a shockwave across Europe, lambasted the Mediapart website that published the claims and said Bardella has her "total confidence".

Bardella, who has vehemently denied making the comments disparaging Jewish people dating back to 2013, when he was a teen, said the report marked the start of a "total war" to derail Le Pen's campaign and said he was taking legal action against Mediapart.

"We are seeing the beginnings of a total war, an attempt to destabilise the presidential campaign," Bardella, flanked by Le Pen, told party deputies, saying he believed the allegations were an operation prepared "for several months".

The 31-year-old is the leader of Le Pen's National Rally (RN) party and is tipped to be premier if she wins the presidency. A savvy user of social media, he has helped the RN make inroads among the youth vote.

Le Pen vowed the RN would "counterattack" and warned "our opponents will do absolutely anything -- including the most disgusting things -- to try to derail this momentum" ahead of the 2027 election for a successor to centrist President Emmanuel Macron.

Mediapart's editorial co-director Lenaig Bredoux said Bardella's "total war" remarks demonstrate "the staggering violence of this far right that claims to be respectable".

"These attacks are nothing new. The National Rally regularly bans media outlets from its events, attacks newspapers, and targets local reporters," she wrote on the Mediapart website.

'Do absolutely anything'

A poll published Monday suggested that Le Pen would easily lead the first round of voting in the elections next year, and would defeat any challenger in the second round run-off to win the Elysee.

She is planning to stand despite a conviction for a fake jobs scam in the European Parliament, a case Le Pen also says was falsified by opponents.

The party scored a notable political breakthrough at the weekend by winning enough seats in the French Senate -- which is chosen by elected local officials -- to form a parliamentary group in the upper house for the first time.

Responding to suggestions the allegations could have come from individuals expelled from the RN in a purge of extremists, Bardella said: "Either Mediapart orchestrated this, or Mediapart itself was tricked by powerful figures behind the scenes with an interest in destabilising the presidential campaign."

'No PR agency will change that'

Mediapart's investigation is built on comments in private chats allegedly written by Bardella in the summer of 2013 when he was 17 or 18 years old.

Mediapart maintains it authenticated the comments. It did not specify where the messages had been written, nor did it publish screenshots.

According to the report, Bardella wrote, among other comments, in a chat: "The Jew has to dominate other peoples, crush them, and rob them; a Zionist is necessarily a Jew, and fundamentally so."

Bardella has been a key player in Le Pen's project of "de-demonisation" to make the RN into an electable force and to expunge the legacy of her late father Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded and led what was then the National Front (FN) and repeatedly made antisemitic remarks.

In Israel, the minister for diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, defended Bardella.

Posting on X, he said the French politician was "one of the clearest voices in Europe against Hamas" and had spoken against antisemitism while in Jerusalem.

Chikli also attacked Mediapart and accused it of "character assassination".

Bardella made an unprecedented visit to Israel in 2025, the first by a French far-right leader.

Critics, however, said the controversy showed the movement had not changed since the heyday of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who sensationally reached the run-off of the 2002 presidential elections.

"The far right will always remain the far right," said centre-left presidential contender Raphael Glucksmann, who next month will take part in a primary run by the Socialists.

"No PR agency, no facelift will change that. Let us never forget that they all joined a party founded by fanatical antisemites and avowed racists," he added.

bur-pdw/dcp

film

Tom Cruise trades stunts for satire as toxic tycoon 'Digger'

BY ANTOINE GUY

"I think that like Leonardo DiCaprio, I think he's concerned about climate change and the environment," Hamrah, author of "Last Week in End Times Cinema" and critic at n+1 magazine, told AFP. Might it also be a role that gives Cruise a shot at an elusive Oscar for best actor, with his memorable 10-minute monologue in the middle of the film one of its strongest moments?

Tom Cruise has taken on one of his riskiest roles in decades, tackling the politics of climate change and corporate greed in new film "Digger" which was savaged by some critics on Tuesday.
"I think that like Leonardo DiCaprio, I think he's concerned about climate change and the environment," Hamrah, author of "Last Week in End Times Cinema" and critic at n+1 magazine, told AFP. Might it also be a role that gives Cruise a shot at an elusive Oscar for best actor, with his memorable 10-minute monologue in the middle of the film one of its strongest moments?

Tom Cruise has taken on one of his riskiest roles in decades, tackling the politics of climate change and corporate greed in new film "Digger" which was savaged by some critics on Tuesday.

Backed by a reported budget of $130 million and an advertising blitz, the dark comedy from multi-Oscar-winning Mexican auteur Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu hits screens from Wednesday.

Taking a break from his usual action movie roles, Cruise is barely recognisable as a mining and oil magnate facing an environmental crisis -- with the original screenplay seeing him wrestle with his own conscience and critics of his wealth and business.

"It is the culmination of all my skills," Cruise, 64, told GQ magazine earlier this month. "It's the most challenging character ever."

After the premiere in London on September 22, initial reaction online was mixed, suggesting the melodramatic performances and Inarritu's acidic parodying of the billionaire class and climate change campaigning were likely to divide audiences.

Full reviews published on Tuesday trended negative, with the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes giving it a low 53 percent rating overall.

"Rather than being a crowd-pleasing prestige picture, it's a love-it-or-hate-it folly – and there probably will be more people in the 'hate it' camp than the 'love it' one," noted the BBC in a review that gave it four out of five stars.

Other critics praised Cruise's acting as "a head-spinning performance for the ages" (Deadline), but Hollywood industry magazines Variety and The Hollywood Reporter scorched the project as "a ponderous absurdist lecture" and "a shallow satire".

"Digger is basically what happens when you put two outsize egos together with nobody holding the reins to keep their most self-indulgent impulses in check," The Hollywood Reporter review stated, referring to Inarritu and Cruise.

'Serious' role

Cruise has spent most of this century doing action movies, above all as Ethan Hunt in the eight-film "Mission: Impossible" series as well as in the Top Gun sequel "Top Gun: Maverick", or the "Jack Reacher" films.

He will appear in another sequel, a "Days of Thunder" follow-up, later this year.

For film critic and author A.S Hamrah, who has written extensively about Cruise's body of work, the last roles that harnessed the full range of his skills date back to the 1990s.

"I think Tom Cruise is looking back on his career and realising he's ageing and that, on the one hand, he still has to do things like 'Top Gun II' and 'Days of Thunder II', but on the other he hasn't really been in any serious film since 1999," he told AFP.

That was the year of "Magnolia" by Paul Thomas Anderson, as well as "Eyes Wide Shut" by Stanley Kubrick in which Cruise acted opposite Nicole Kidman, his ex-wife.

"I also think he's also probably thinking now that there's people he has not worked with that he would like to work with, and probably Inarritu is one of them," Hamrah added, referring to the acclaimed director of "Amores Perros" and "The Revenant".

Awards season player?

Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at cinema ticket seller Fandango and the founder of consultancy Box Office Theory, told AFP that Cruise's decades in Hollywood demonstrated he is willing to head outside his comfort zone at times.

"Younger audiences may associate him with being a risky stunt performer and actor, but he's always prepared to go outside the box," he said, referring to his roles in movies such as "Vanilla Sky" (2001) or "Jerry Maguire" (1996).

"We have to put Digger in a separate category from the typical Tom Cruise blockbuster. It's something all of its own," he added.

One interesting ponderable is the extent to which Cruise may personally embrace the political messages of "Digger": about our unsustainable lifestyles, virtue-signalling consumer behaviour and hypocritical politicians.

"I think that like Leonardo DiCaprio, I think he's concerned about climate change and the environment," Hamrah, author of "Last Week in End Times Cinema" and critic at n+1 magazine, told AFP.

Might it also be a role that gives Cruise a shot at an elusive Oscar for best actor, with his memorable 10-minute monologue in the middle of the film one of its strongest moments?

"It could be an awards season player," Robbins said.

adp-agu/yad

vote

Brazil's Lula turns to Bad Bunny tune to criticise Trump ahead of polls

Lula has made sovereignty a key plank of his campaign, amid pressure from US President Donald Trump, a Bolsonaro ally who has backed several right-wing candidates in Latin American elections.

With elections just days away, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's campaign adapted a song by Latin music powerhouse Bad Bunny to assert the country's sovereignty in the face of pressure from the United States.
Lula has made sovereignty a key plank of his campaign, amid pressure from US President Donald Trump, a Bolsonaro ally who has backed several right-wing candidates in Latin American elections.

With elections just days away, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's campaign adapted a song by Latin music powerhouse Bad Bunny to assert the country's sovereignty in the face of pressure from the United States.

"They want to take the river, and the beach too. They want the rare earth minerals," goes the reworked Portuguese version of "Lo que le paso a Hawaii" (What Happened to Hawaii) by Bad Bunny, posted by Lula on his social media accounts.

Brazilians will vote in a nail-biting first-round presidential election on Sunday, pitting Lula, 80, against right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.

Lula has made sovereignty a key plank of his campaign, amid pressure from US President Donald Trump, a Bolsonaro ally who has backed several right-wing candidates in Latin American elections.

Washington has slapped punitive tariffs on Brazil and has expressed keen interest in its massive reserves of critical minerals.

With nearly seven million views on social media, the campaign jingle inspired by the Puerto Rican star calls on people not to "let go of the Brazilian flag."

It also features an image of Trump holding a rope around Bolsonaro's neck like a leash and ends with Lula's gravelly voice declaring: "Brazil has only one owner: the Brazilian people."

Flavio Bolsonaro's campaign has often featured United States flags and images of Trump.

Bad Bunny's song addresses the loss of local control through the impact of tourism, gentrification and displacement -- using Hawaii as a cautionary tale for Puerto Ricans.

The singer included the tune in his setlist at the Super Bowl halftime show in February, described by Trump as "an affront to the Greatness of America."

A source from Lula's Workers' Party, requesting anonymity, said Bad Bunny had not granted rights for the song's use. The artist's press office did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

"Bad Bunny is an artist who recognizes our worth... he stood on the world's biggest stage to reaffirm that we are all America," said Warlen Pereira, a 30-year-old accountant, during a Lula campaign event in Sao Paulo.

Lula has warned Trump against "meddling" in his country's elections and last week told the UN General Assembly that "Brazil does not belong in anyone's backyard."

Trump has not openly endorsed Flavio Bolsonaro, whom he hosted at the White House earlier this year.

das/app/mel/fb/pnb

religion

Brazil's patron saint pulled into latest election scrap

In recent days, leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has referred to rumors on social media claiming that his rival Flavio Bolsonaro planned to strip the country's beloved patron saint, Our Lady of Aparecida, of her title if elected.

Brazil's patron saint has become a political flashpoint as the predominantly Catholic country's leading presidential candidates make a last-ditch effort to court religious voters.
In recent days, leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has referred to rumors on social media claiming that his rival Flavio Bolsonaro planned to strip the country's beloved patron saint, Our Lady of Aparecida, of her title if elected.

Brazil's patron saint has become a political flashpoint as the predominantly Catholic country's leading presidential candidates make a last-ditch effort to court religious voters.

Only a tiny portion of Brazilians remain undecided ahead of a first-round election on Sunday in the deeply polarized nation.

In recent days, leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has referred to rumors on social media claiming that his rival Flavio Bolsonaro planned to strip the country's beloved patron saint, Our Lady of Aparecida, of her title if elected.

"As long as I am president... no one is going to disrespect Our Lady of Aparecida," Lula, who is seeking a fourth nonconsecutive term, said at a rally on Monday.

Evangelicals, a booming denomination in Brazil with growing political power and ties to the Bolsonaros, do not recognize the saint as an object of worship.

Bolsonaro, 45, who has frequently invoked religion on the campaign trail, has denied the accusations.

"Everyone knows that I respect religions. All of them!" the right-wing senator said, accusing the government of spreading "fake news."

The controversy began after media reports that figures in the Catholic Church were concerned about the future status of the saint, who is depicted in Brazil as a black woman.

Left-wing social media users then dug up an abandoned 2007 bill, initially proposed by a Bolsonaro-aligned lawmaker, to demote the patron saint.

Rumors about Bolsonaro's alleged current intentions proliferated online.

Brazil, known for its Christ the Redeemer statue looming over Rio de Janeiro, hosts the world's second-largest Christian population after the United States, according to the Pew Research Center.

Catholics mostly intend to vote for Lula, polls show, while Bolsonaro depends on the evangelical population for support.

Lula currently has 48 percent of Catholic voting intentions on Sunday compared with 29 percent for Bolsonaro, according to a Quaest institute survey.

Evangelical voting intentions go in the reverse direction, with 46 percent for Bolsonaro and 27 percent for Lula.

Lula holds a slight overall lead in polls for Sunday's first round of voting, although he is tied with Bolsonaro for a likely second round on October 25.

Catholics believe that in 1717, three fishermen watched in wonder as their nets spilled over with fish after they rescued a wooden statue of Our Lady of Aparecida from the river.

ffb/app/mvl/cc/fb/pnb

women

Paris Eiffel Tower says chief to step down after uproar over removing women staff

BY JULIETTE COLLEN

Patrick Branco Ruivo, who has been director general of the Paris landmark since 2018, would leave his job at the end of the year after an internal probe revealed that "operational flaws and shortcomings" in organising the visit led to the "unacceptable" removal of women staff, the company SETE said in a statement.

The operating company that runs the Eiffel Tower said Tuesday its chief would step down at the end of this year in the wake of a controversy over the removal of women staff during a visit by a Hindu religious group.
Patrick Branco Ruivo, who has been director general of the Paris landmark since 2018, would leave his job at the end of the year after an internal probe revealed that "operational flaws and shortcomings" in organising the visit led to the "unacceptable" removal of women staff, the company SETE said in a statement.

The operating company that runs the Eiffel Tower said Tuesday its chief would step down at the end of this year in the wake of a controversy over the removal of women staff during a visit by a Hindu religious group.

Patrick Branco Ruivo, who has been director general of the Paris landmark since 2018, would leave his job at the end of the year after an internal probe revealed that "operational flaws and shortcomings" in organising the visit led to the "unacceptable" removal of women staff, the company SETE said in a statement.

The removal of women staff during a visit by the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) spiritual movement on September 5 prompted a staff walkout and the closure of the monument for a day, as well as an outcry across political spectrum in France which prizes secularism and gender equality.

At the time, SETE acknowledged the Hindu delegation had requested the visit be organised so as to limit "interactions with women" and said that "these conditions should not have been accepted".

"The coming months will allow us to prepare for the leadership transition under the best possible conditions," said Ariel Weil, SETE's board chairman.

'Female employees sidelined'

He said he was demanding the creation of a "dedicated protocol department" and the implementation of a new set of measures and training programs to promote gender equality.

The Eiffel Tower, which is owned by the city of Paris, says it receives nearly seven million people a year.

The Socialist mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Gregoire, had lambasted the move to remove women staff as an "absurd, unjust and unacceptable decision" and ordered two separate probes.

The mayor Tuesday "acknowledged Patrick Branco Ruivo's responsible decision" and commended "his commitment to the Eiffel Tower and SETE" since his appointment in late 2018, a person close to him told AFP, asking not to be named,

"It is now imperative to prepare for the leadership transition under the best possible conditions and to fully learn from the situation so that such unacceptable incidents cannot happen again," the person added.

The BAPS spiritual movement, close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling conservative Hindu nationalist party, has apologised for "any pain or inconvenience caused" by the incident.

BAPS had opened its first major temple near Paris the same weekend.

Eiffel Tower staff said in a statement they were given instructions that led to "female employees being sidelined, replaced and made invisible because of their sex" during the visit by the delegation.

"Some were asked to leave their posts and withdraw to other areas. In some posts they were replaced by men. And all female employees were instructed not to go through or cross certain areas while the delegation was present."

sjw/yad

women

Paris Eiffel Tower says chief to step down after uproar over removing women staff

Patrick Branco Ruivo, who has been director general of the Paris landmark since 2018, would leave his job at the end of the year after an internal probe revealed that "operational flaws and shortcomings" in organising the visit led to the "unacceptable" removal of women staff, the company SETE said in a statement.

The operating company that runs the Eiffel Tower said Tuesday its chief would step down at the end of this year in the wake of a controversy over the removal of women staff during a visit by a Hindu religious group.
Patrick Branco Ruivo, who has been director general of the Paris landmark since 2018, would leave his job at the end of the year after an internal probe revealed that "operational flaws and shortcomings" in organising the visit led to the "unacceptable" removal of women staff, the company SETE said in a statement.

The operating company that runs the Eiffel Tower said Tuesday its chief would step down at the end of this year in the wake of a controversy over the removal of women staff during a visit by a Hindu religious group.

Patrick Branco Ruivo, who has been director general of the Paris landmark since 2018, would leave his job at the end of the year after an internal probe revealed that "operational flaws and shortcomings" in organising the visit led to the "unacceptable" removal of women staff, the company SETE said in a statement.

The mayor of Paris has also ordered separate investigations over the removal of women staff during a visit by the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) spiritual movement on September 5 which prompted a staff walkout and the closure of the monument for a day.

At the time, SETE acknowledged the Hindu delegation had requested the visit be organised so as to limit "interactions with women" and said that "these conditions should not have been accepted".

"The coming months will allow us to prepare for the leadership transition under the best possible conditions," said Ariel Weil, SETE's board chairman.

He said he was demanding the creation of a "dedicated protocol department" and the implementation of a new set of measures and training programs to promote gender equality.

The Eiffel Tower says it receives nearly seven million people a year.

The BAPS spiritual movement, close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling conservative Hindu nationalist party, has apologised for "any pain or inconvenience caused" by the incident.

BAPS had opened its first major temple near Paris the same weekend.

sjw/cw

forum

African leaders to gather in Egypt for business summit

Friday's forum is expected to bring together more than 20 heads of state and government representatives in the Mediterranean city of Alamein, alongside business leaders, bankers and development institutions.

African leaders will meet in Egypt on Friday for a business summit that Cairo hopes will bolster its clout across the continent.
Friday's forum is expected to bring together more than 20 heads of state and government representatives in the Mediterranean city of Alamein, alongside business leaders, bankers and development institutions.

African leaders will meet in Egypt on Friday for a business summit that Cairo hopes will bolster its clout across the continent.

The inaugural three-day Alamein Africa Forum is part of Egypt's push to reassert itself in a continent where China and Gulf states, particularly the United Arab Emirates, have emerged as major players.

After long focusing on the Middle East and the Mediterranean, Egypt is keen to rebuild its influence within Africa.

It has also sought to rally backing in its long-running dispute with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which it sees as a threat to its vital share of Nile waters.

Friday's forum is expected to bring together more than 20 heads of state and government representatives in the Mediterranean city of Alamein, alongside business leaders, bankers and development institutions.

"This is an African platform," Egypt's deputy foreign minister for African affairs Mohamed Abu Bakr Saleh told AFP.

"A country in East Africa should be able to sign an agreement with a country in West, North or southern Africa through this platform."

Saleh said the forum would become a biennial event under an African Union mandate, focusing on infrastructure, trade, agriculture, healthcare, mining, technology and renewable energy.

Officials estimate Egyptian investments across Africa at around $14 billion. Among Egypt's flagship ventures is Tanzania's $3 billion Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project, built by a consortium led by Egyptian companies.

'Vast resources'

Yet trade within Africa remains limited, totalling just $192 billion in 2023 and only accounting for around 15 percent of the continent's total trade, compared with more than 55 percent in Asia and over 70 percent in Europe.

Africa also attracted about $70 billion in foreign direct investment in 2025, a fraction of the roughly $1.6 trillion invested globally, according to the UN.

"Africa possesses vast resources, but they are still not being exploited to the level we would like to see," Saleh said.

The gathering also takes place against the backdrop of an unresolved dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over the $5 billion GERD, Africa's largest hydroelectric project.

Ethiopia says the dam, inaugurated last year, is vital for economic growth, while Egypt says it could threaten Nile water supplies without a binding operating agreement.

More than a decade of negotiations have failed to yield a settlement.

"Our position on Egypt's water security has not changed and will not change," Saleh said. "It is an existential issue for Egypt."

maf/dcp/ser

conflict

Estonia slams Russian 'sabotage' after arson attack on defence company

The European Union said it stood with Estonia calling the arson attack "reckless", and would not be put off supporting Ukraine.

EU and NATO leaders on Tuesday rallied in support of Estonia and Ukraine after Tallinn accused Russia of "sabotage" in an August arson attack on a drone manufacturer, a claim the Kremlin immediately rejected.
The European Union said it stood with Estonia calling the arson attack "reckless", and would not be put off supporting Ukraine.

EU and NATO leaders on Tuesday rallied in support of Estonia and Ukraine after Tallinn accused Russia of "sabotage" in an August arson attack on a drone manufacturer, a claim the Kremlin immediately rejected.

"Russia continues its reckless campaign of hostile actions against NATO allies. It is trying to weaken our resolve and stop our support for Ukraine," NATO chief Mark Rutte said.

He added: "But Russia is failing. It is failing on the battlefield in Ukraine and it is failing to undermine our unity and support for Ukraine."

Estonia's foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, said an investigation into the August 15 arson attack against the defence company Milrem Robotics, which makes ground drones used in Ukraine, determined that Moscow was responsible.

"We can conclude with certainty that the arson attack... was an act of sabotage ordered by the special services of the Russian Federation," he said on X.

He said the perpetrators had been arrested, and Russia's ambassador had been summoned.

Tsahkna said that "this act of sabotage is part of Russia's broader campaign across Europe, aimed at intimidating us and weakening our support for Ukraine".

On the night of August 15, a fire broke out in a building used by Milrem Robotics in the Estonian capital, Tallinn.

Authorities responded immediately and nobody was harmed, according to a statement from the Estonian government.

In the following days, three suspects -- two of whom were confirmed to be Latvian -- were detained in Latvia, and this month were handed over to Estonia.

Kremlin denial

The Kremlin swiftly dismissed Estonia's accusation as "baseless" and with "absolutely no relation to reality".

"We cannot and will not take such statements seriously," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow in response to an AFP question.

Estonia has repeatedly accused Russia of hybrid provocations since the beginning of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Along with its neighbours, Latvia and Lithuania, the country has ramped up defence investment and remains a staunch ally of Kyiv.

The European Union said it stood with Estonia calling the arson attack "reckless", and would not be put off supporting Ukraine.

"Moscow is trying to scare Europe into winding down its support for Ukraine. This will not happen," European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand said.

French President Emmanuel Macron also called the arson attack a "dangerous escalation" by Russia, and another in a "multiplication of these hostile acts".

"Russia needs to know that it will not overcome our unity or our determination to continue supporting Ukraine," Macron said on X.

"Russia's fingerprints are all over" the Estonia attack, Lithuanian foreign minister Kestutis Budrys wrote on X, adding that Moscow's "hostile activities do not stop at Ukraine's borders".

Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics added that "more support for Ukraine ... will be needed and must be provided".

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called the attribution of the attack "extremely serious" and "directed against Europe as a whole".

British ambassador to Estonia Jo Lomas likewise condemned the attacks, adding "they will not weaken our resolve or our support for Ukraine".

ks/rmb

US

Yemen health system at 'breaking point': WHO

"Yemen's latest escalation is pushing an already fragile health system towards breaking point," warned Annette Heinzelmann, WHO's emergency director for the eastern Mediterranean region.

The escalating fighting in Yemen is pushing the country's health system to "breaking point", the World Health Organization said Tuesday, warning that diseases like cholera were already circulating widely.
"Yemen's latest escalation is pushing an already fragile health system towards breaking point," warned Annette Heinzelmann, WHO's emergency director for the eastern Mediterranean region.

The escalating fighting in Yemen is pushing the country's health system to "breaking point", the World Health Organization said Tuesday, warning that diseases like cholera were already circulating widely.

A renewed ground campaign waged by the Iran-backed Houthis against Yemen's Saudi-backed government forces has left hundreds dead and is deepening the country's humanitarian crisis, with at least 145,000 people displaced this month alone, United Nations figures show.

And the country's health system -- already weakened by over a decade of civil war -- is on the brink.

"Yemen's latest escalation is pushing an already fragile health system towards breaking point," warned Annette Heinzelmann, WHO's emergency director for the eastern Mediterranean region.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva via video link from Cairo, she highlighted how insecurity, damaged infrastructure, displacement of health workers, shortages of medicines and medical supplies and limited access to swathes of Yemen's west coast were preventing many from receiving the services they need.

"Nine health facilities or assets have now been damaged, put out of service, closed or directly attacked" in the hard-hit areas of Taiz, Lahj and Hodeidah, Heinzelmann said.

At the same time, "comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care has been suspended in two hospitals in Marib and Ras Al-Arah because staff and operating capacity have been redirected to trauma care for the incoming wounded," she pointed out.

Even before the latest escalation, only around 60 percent of Yemen's health facilities were fully functional, Heinzelmann added.

And the country had been facing high malnutrition and outbreaks of diseases like cholera "already circulating on a large scale", she said.

Since the start of this year, Yemen has tallied nearly 8,000 suspected cholera cases, including 22 deaths, and more than 9,600 dengue cases, including 37 people who had died, according to the WHO.

And "measles is particularly concerning, with more than 22,000 suspected cases and 128 deaths reported this year", Heinzelmann said.

Now, amidst severe overcrowding in some areas, unsanitary conditions and limited healthcare access, the WHO is bracing for more and bigger disease outbreaks.

"When we see population movements, people living in really... an overcrowded setting with limited access to water and safe sanitation, these are factors which can support a wider spread of cholera," Heinzelmann said.

The UN health agency said it had delivered nearly 60 tonnes of medical supplies to 40 facilities across 10 Yemen governorates.

"But several lifesaving supply lines in WHO's Aden warehouse are already at zero stock, including trauma kits and essential medicines," Heinzelmann said, appealing for more funding.

WHO had so far secured only $2 million of the $9 million it needed for its response, she said.

nl/rjm/pdw

conflict

NATO, EU allies rally to Estonia after 'sabotage' blamed on Russia

The European Union said it stood with Estonia calling the arson attack "reckless", and would not be put off supporting Ukraine.

EU and NATO leaders on Tuesday rallied in support of Estonia and Ukraine after Tallinn accused Russia of "sabotage" in an August arson attack on a drone manufacturer, a claim the Kremlin immediately rejected.
The European Union said it stood with Estonia calling the arson attack "reckless", and would not be put off supporting Ukraine.