Armenia

US vice president Vance on peace bid in Azerbaijan after Armenia visit

conflict

Ukraine will only hold elections after ceasefire, Zelensky says

  • "We will move to elections when all the necessary security guarantees are in place," Zelensky told reporters, including AFP journalists, in a voice note. 
  • Ukraine will only hold elections once it has security guarantees in place and a ceasefire with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday, pushing back at suggestions he was planning to stage fresh ballots under US pressure.
  • "We will move to elections when all the necessary security guarantees are in place," Zelensky told reporters, including AFP journalists, in a voice note. 
Ukraine will only hold elections once it has security guarantees in place and a ceasefire with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday, pushing back at suggestions he was planning to stage fresh ballots under US pressure.
Elections in Ukraine have been effectively suspended since Russia invaded in 2022 due to martial law.
"We will move to elections when all the necessary security guarantees are in place," Zelensky told reporters, including AFP journalists, in a voice note. 
"I have said it's very simple to do: establish a ceasefire, and there will be elections," he added.
If Russia also agrees, it may be possible to "end hostilities by summer", Zelensky said.
The Financial Times reported earlier that Ukraine was mulling the possibility of holding a presidential election within the next three months, after facing pressure from Washington. 
The report also suggested the election announcement could be made as early as February 24, the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion. 
Zelensky later said in an X post that this would be "an utterly stupid idea to use such a date to talk about politics".
He also wrote that Washington proposed holding another round of talks on ending the war next week, to which Ukraine agreed. But, according to Zelensky, "Russia is hesitating" and has not yet responded to the offer. 
Zelensky has repeatedly said Ukraine can hold elections after a peace deal with Russia is signed, but has recently signalled willingness for a speedy vote as part of a US plan to end the war.
He has also said any deal that involves ceding territory to Moscow should be put to a referendum.
Zelensky, a former comedian who played a fictionalised president on Ukrainian TV before running for office, was elected in 2019 for a five-year term.
Russia has repeatedly tried to question Zelensky's legitimacy post-2024, when that term would have expired.
There are a number of practical obstacles to holding a ballot, such as security during any campaign and vote, and what to do with the millions of Ukrainian refugees forced abroad.
Polling shows little appetite among the Ukrainian public for a ballot during the war.
bur-cad-asy/cc

conflict

The obstacles to holding war-time elections in Ukraine

  • Zelensky has repeatedly said Ukraine can hold elections after a peace deal with Russia is signed, and has recently signalled willingness for a speedy vote as part of a US plan to end the war.
  • Throughout Russia's four-year invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin -- and more recently the White House -- have said Ukraine must hold elections as part of any peace deal.
  • Zelensky has repeatedly said Ukraine can hold elections after a peace deal with Russia is signed, and has recently signalled willingness for a speedy vote as part of a US plan to end the war.
Throughout Russia's four-year invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin -- and more recently the White House -- have said Ukraine must hold elections as part of any peace deal.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that Ukraine will only hold elections once it has security guarantees in place and a ceasefire with Russia.
The Financial Times, citing anonymous sources, had earlier reported that Kyiv was mulling the possibility of staging a presidential election within the next three months.
AFP looks at the obstacles that would need to be cleared for Ukraine to hold a war-time vote.

Martial law

Ukraine imposed martial law when Russian forces swept over the border in February 2022, and military rule prohibits holding elections.
Zelensky has repeatedly said Ukraine can hold elections after a peace deal with Russia is signed, and has recently signalled willingness for a speedy vote as part of a US plan to end the war.
"We will move to elections when all the necessary security guarantees are in place," he told reporters, including AFP journalists, in a voice note on Wednesday.
"Establish a ceasefire, and there will be elections," he said, adding that if Russia agrees, it may be possible to "end hostilities by summer".
Kyiv last year launched a working group of politicians and military officials to examine how elections could be held after martial law is lifted.
"I do not want Ukraine to be in any kind of weak position -- for anyone to be able to use the absence of elections as an argument against Ukraine," Zelensky told reporters -- including from AFP -- in December.
"And that is why I am definitely in favour of holding elections," he added.
He has also said any deal that involves ceding territory to Moscow should be put to a referendum.
A senior lawmaker from Zelensky's party told AFP on Wednesday that despite the moves, the political consensus in Ukraine was that "neither a referendum nor elections can be held under martial law".

Voting under attack

Ukrainian officials routinely cite the ongoing fighting as a huge hurdle to holding any vote. 
Towns and cities near the sprawling front line are bombed daily by Russian forces, killing civilians.
Millions of Ukrainians have fled abroad since Russia invaded, and millions more are living under Russian occupation.
It is also unclear how hundreds of thousands of soldiers could vote from the front.
"Elections in the occupied territories are completely impossible," said political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko.
"Even after the end of the war, they are impossible," he added, noting that staging a vote in Moscow-held areas would contradict Ukrainian law.
Only 10 percent of Ukrainians support holding an election before a ceasefire, polling late last year by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) found. 

What say US, Russia

The Kremlin, which set out to topple Zelensky and his government in early 2022, has said that the 48-year-old Ukrainian leader is illegitimate since his five-year term expired in 2024.
Moscow has said it could cease fire during any voting in Ukraine, but only if Ukrainians living in Russia and Russian-controlled areas are allowed to vote.
US President Donald Trump has stipulated that Ukraine hold elections as part of the deal he is trying to broker.
In December, Trump -- Ukraine's most important but unpredictable ally -- accused Kyiv of leveraging the ongoing fighting to avoid holding a ballot. 

Candidates

Zelensky is seen by analysts as hopeful for a second term, though last year said he would be ready to step down after a peace deal.
"If we finish the war with the Russians, yes, I am ready," not to run in the next election, he told the Axios news outlet in a video interview, adding: "It's not my goal, elections."
His approval ratings have gradually dipped from unprecedented levels at the beginning of the invasion nearly four years ago.
Some 59 percent of Ukrainians said they trusted the 48-year-old former comedian, the late 2025 KIIS poll found.
Though another poll on voting intentions found Zelensky was neck-and-neck with popular ex-army chief Valery Zaluzhny -- who he fired in 2024 -- and could lose to him in the second round.
Zelensky has also faced accusations he and now-dismissed chief aide Andriy Yermak centralised too much power during the war and sidelined opponents, like Zaluzhny, who is now Ukraine's ambassador to Britain.
Fesenko said several others could run, including former President Petro Poroshenko and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko -- though their chances appear slim -- as well as popular military officials.
bur-brw-jbr/jc/cc/gv

diplomacy

Trump tells Israel's Netanyahu Iran talks must continue

BY DANNY KEMP

  • Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Wednesday that Tehran would "not yield to excessive demands" on its nuclear program.
  • US President Donald Trump told Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House Wednesday that talks with Iran must continue, rebuffing the Israeli prime minister's push for a tougher stance against Tehran.
  • Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Wednesday that Tehran would "not yield to excessive demands" on its nuclear program.
US President Donald Trump told Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House Wednesday that talks with Iran must continue, rebuffing the Israeli prime minister's push for a tougher stance against Tehran.
"There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated," Trump said on social media after their three-hour meeting.
"If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference. If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be," said Trump, adding a reminder of last year's US strikes against Iran's nuclear program.
Seeking to push for the Islamic republic's ballistic missile program to be included in any deal, Netanyahu had rushed to Washington for his seventh meeting with Trump since the US leader returned to power.
Netanyahu's office said that during the talks with Trump the Israeli premier had "insisted on the security needs of the state of Israel in relation to the negotiations" on Iran. 
Trump has hinted at US military action against Iran following Tehran's deadly crackdown on protesters, but at the same time Washington and Tehran restarted talks last week with a meeting in Oman.
Talks had been suspended after the US strikes on Iran's atomic sites during Israel's 12-day war with Iran last July.

What does Netanyahu want?

The White House meeting was held behind closed doors, with Netanyahu slipping in via a side entrance without receiving the traditional honor guard. Trump and Netanyahu were seen shaking hands in a photograph released by the Israeli premier's office.
Netanyahu said as he left for Washington his talks would "first and foremost" be about the Iran negotiations, while adding they would also discuss Gaza and other regional issues.
"I will present to the president our views regarding the principles for the negotiations," he said in a video statement. Netanyahu's office said he would highlight Iran's missile arsenal.
Israel's concerns came to a head during their unprecedented war last year, during which Iran launched waves of ballistic missiles and other projectiles at Israeli territory, striking both military and civilian areas.

What does Trump think?

While boosting hopes of a nuclear deal, Trump has also been dialing up the threat of possible US military action against Iran.
He warned in an interview with Axios news outlet Tuesday that he was "thinking" of sending a second aircraft carrier strike group to the region.
"Either we will make a deal or we will have to do something very tough like last time," Trump said. "We have an armada that is heading there and another one might be going."

What does Iran say?

So far, Iran has rejected expanding its talks with the United States beyond the issue of its nuclear program, though Washington also wants Tehran's ballistic missile program and its support for regional militant groups on the table.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Wednesday that Tehran would "not yield to excessive demands" on its nuclear program.
But he insisted his country was not "not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons."

'Board of Peace' and West Bank

Netanyahu's visit will also include other issues, from Gaza to the West Bank.
He officially signed on as a member of Trump's "Board of Peace" during a meeting earlier Wednesday with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Israeli PM's office said.
The group was originally meant to oversee the Gaza ceasefire but Trump is now positioning it as a possible rival to the United Nations.
The meeting also came amid growing international outrage over Israeli measures to tighten control of the occupied West Bank by allowing settlers to buy land directly from Palestinian owners.
burs-dk/mlm

Espriella

Colombia election favorite vows US-backed strikes on narco camps

BY LINA VANEGAS

  • "We'll start immediately with the bombing of narco-terrorist camps and with fumigation," the 47-year-old told AFP in Bogota.
  • Colombia's right-wing presidential front-runner told AFP Wednesday that he wants US backing for a bombing campaign against cocaine-producing armed groups during his first 90 days in office.
  • "We'll start immediately with the bombing of narco-terrorist camps and with fumigation," the 47-year-old told AFP in Bogota.
Colombia's right-wing presidential front-runner told AFP Wednesday that he wants US backing for a bombing campaign against cocaine-producing armed groups during his first 90 days in office.
Abelardo de la Espriella vowed a "shock plan" to resume airstrikes on jungle camps and to poison coca crops with US aircraft -- a dramatic shift from the policies of outgoing leftist President Gustavo Petro.
"We'll start immediately with the bombing of narco-terrorist camps and with fumigation," the 47-year-old told AFP in Bogota.
"Any criminal who does not surrender will be taken down as the law allows," he said, framing his campaign for the May vote as a rescue mission for a country he says is sliding into chaos.
After spells as a singer, clothier, wine merchant and defense lawyer for the rich and famous, De la Espriella said he entered politics to serve his homeland.
"I have the character, the temperament, the drive, the passion and -- pardon the Spanish -- the balls to do what Colombia needs," he said.
Branding himself "The Tiger," he is betting Colombia will become the latest Latin American country to swing to the right.
Once clean shaven, he now sports a closely cropped beard like that of a political hero, El Salvador's popular hard-line President Nayib Bukele.
There are early signs de la Espriella's pitch may be working. Polls show him running slightly ahead of leftist rival Ivan Cepeda in a tight race.

Strategic shift

A de la Espriella victory would put the military back at the center of the fight with armed groups and risks reigniting a decades-old conflict.
For the last four years, Colombia has been governed by its first-ever leftist government.
Petro, a former guerrilla who can serve only one four-year term, has tried to avoid war with armed groups who control swaths of the country, instead seeking peace deals.
The policy has brought mixed results. Sporadic ceasefires have helped quell violence, but the power and territory of many armed groups has grown. 
Colombia now has record levels of cocaine production, according to UN data -- much more than the heyday of Pablo Escobar's Medellin Cartel or the Cali Cartel of the 1990s.

Easy, tiger

De la Espriella said his 90‑day plan needs US support to bolster troops with new weapons, artificial intelligence and drones.
"This cannot be done without a strategic alliance with the United States and the State of Israel, with US aircraft," he said, nodding to previous involvement by Colombia's Mideast ally in security matters.
Despite his hard-line rhetoric, and past links with right-wing armed paramilitary figures, de la Espriella said it was "absurd" to call him far right.
"Someone who is far right does not believe in democracy or in the separation of powers," he said. 
"I'm going to respect the constitution," he added. "I'm a democrat."
"There will be no reelection. I am coming to serve my four-year term and then return to growing grapes and olives."
And despite his claim to be a political outsider, he admits to a close relationship with conservative kingmaker and former president Alvaro Uribe.
The former leader has been a friend of his father for half a century -- a relationship he says he "inherited."
"We talk almost every day," he told AFP. "I value him greatly, I admire him, I respect him, and wherever I am I will always honor his legacy and his person."
arb/acb

pandemic

WHO urges US to share Covid origins intel

BY ROBIN MILLARD

  • Therefore, several months ago, the UN health agency wrote to senior officials in the United States, urging them to "share any intelligence information that they have", he told a press conference on Wednesday.
  • The World Health Organization on Wednesday urged Washington to share any intelligence it may be withholding on the Covid-19 pandemic's origins, despite the United States quitting the WHO. The global catastrophe killed an estimated 20 million people, according to the UN health agency, while shredding economies, crippling health systems and turning people's lives upside-down.
  • Therefore, several months ago, the UN health agency wrote to senior officials in the United States, urging them to "share any intelligence information that they have", he told a press conference on Wednesday.
The World Health Organization on Wednesday urged Washington to share any intelligence it may be withholding on the Covid-19 pandemic's origins, despite the United States quitting the WHO.
The global catastrophe killed an estimated 20 million people, according to the UN health agency, while shredding economies, crippling health systems and turning people's lives upside-down.
The first cases were detected in Wuhan in China in late 2019, and understanding where the SARS-CoV-2 virus came from is seen as key to preventing future pandemics.
On his first day back in office in January 2025, US President Donald Trump handed the WHO his country's one-year withdrawal notice, which cited "the organisation's mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic".
Trump's administration has officially embraced the theory that the virus leaked from a virology laboratory in Wuhan.
But the WHO said Washington did not hand over any Covid origins intelligence before marching out the organisation's door.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recalled that some countries have publicly said "they have intelligence about the origins -- especially the US".
Therefore, several months ago, the UN health agency wrote to senior officials in the United States, urging them to "share any intelligence information that they have", he told a press conference on Wednesday.
"We haven't received any information," Tedros lamented.
"We hope they will share, because we haven't still concluded the Covid origins," and "knowing what happened could help us to prevent the next" pandemic.
The WHO's investigations have proved inconclusive, pending further evidence, with all hypotheses still on the table.
Tedros asked any government which had intelligence on the Covid-19 pandemic's origins to share the information so that the WHO will be able to reach a conclusion.

Critical information 'obstructed'

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's epidemic and pandemic threat management chief, said: "We continue to follow up with all governments that have said that they have intelligence reports, the US included.
"We don't have those reports to date," she said, other than those in the public domain.
As the US notice countdown expired on January 22, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the WHO had "obstructed the timely and accurate sharing of critical information that could have saved American lives".
They also claimed the WHO had "tarnished and trashed everything that America has done for it".
"The reverse is true," the WHO said in reply.
The WHO constitution does not include a withdrawal clause.
But the United States reserved the right to withdraw when it joined the WHO in 1948 -- on condition of giving one year's notice and meeting its financial obligations in full for that fiscal year.
The notice period has now expired but Washington has still not paid its 2024 or 2025 dues, owing around $260 million, according to data published by the WHO.
rjm/nl/rlp

media

Instagram CEO denies addiction claims in landmark US trial

BY BENJAMIN LEGENDRE

  • Meta -- the parent company of Instagram and Facebook -- and Google-owned YouTube are defendants in the blockbuster trial, which could set a legal precedent regarding whether social media giants deliberately designed their platforms to be addictive to children.
  • Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri on Wednesday rejected the notion that users could be clinically addicted to social media, as he testified in a landmark California trial over whether his company knowingly hooked children on its platform for profit.
  • Meta -- the parent company of Instagram and Facebook -- and Google-owned YouTube are defendants in the blockbuster trial, which could set a legal precedent regarding whether social media giants deliberately designed their platforms to be addictive to children.
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri on Wednesday rejected the notion that users could be clinically addicted to social media, as he testified in a landmark California trial over whether his company knowingly hooked children on its platform for profit.
Meta -- the parent company of Instagram and Facebook -- and Google-owned YouTube are defendants in the blockbuster trial, which could set a legal precedent regarding whether social media giants deliberately designed their platforms to be addictive to children.
"I think it's important to differentiate between clinical addiction and problematic use," Mosseri said as he was grilled by plaintiff attorney Mark Lanier.
"I'm sure I said that I've been addicted to a Netflix show when I binged it really late one night, but I don't think it's the same thing as clinical addiction," he added.
Addiction is at the heart of the civil trial, which centers on allegations that a 20-year-old woman, identified as Kaley G.M., suffered severe mental harm after becoming addicted to social media as a young child.
She started using YouTube at six and joined Instagram at 11, before moving on to Snapchat and TikTok two or three years later.
Mosseri was the first major Silicon Valley figure to appear before the jury to defend himself against accusations that Instagram functions as little more than a dopamine "slot machine" for vulnerable young people.
In front of the jury of six men and women, Mosseri also pushed back against the idea that Meta was motivated by a "move fast and break things" ethos that valued profit over safety.
"Protecting minors over the long run is even good for the business and for profit," he said.
Mosseri's testimony precedes the highly anticipated appearance of his boss, Mark Zuckerberg, currently scheduled for February 18, with YouTube CEO Neil Mohan the following day.
In opening remarks this week, plaintiffs' attorney Lanier told the jury that YouTube and Meta both engineer addiction in young people's brains to gain users and profits.
Meta and Google "don't only build apps; they build traps," Lanier said.
Meta's attorney said that the suffering encountered by the plaintiff was due to her family context and could not be attributed to her use of Instagram or other social media.
The attorney for YouTube insisted that the video platform was neither intentionally addictive nor technically social media.
YouTube is selling "the ability to watch something essentially for free on your computer, on your phone, on your iPad," the attorney insisted, comparing the service to Netflix or traditional TV.

'Gateway drug'

Stanford University School of Medicine professor Anna Lembke, the first witness called by the plaintiffs, testified Tuesday that she views social media, broadly speaking, as a drug.
She also said young people's brains were underdeveloped, which is why they "often take risks that they shouldn't," comparing YouTube to a gateway drug for kids.
The trial is currently scheduled to run until March 20.
Social media firms face more than a thousand lawsuits accusing them of leading young users to become addicted to content and suffer from depression, eating disorders, psychiatric hospitalization, and even suicide.
Kaley G.M.'s case is being treated as a bellwether proceeding whose outcome could set the tone for a wave of similar litigation across the United States.
Two further test trials are planned in Los Angeles between now and the summer, while a nationwide lawsuit will be heard by a federal judge in Oakland, California.
In New Mexico, a separate lawsuit accusing Meta of prioritizing profit over protecting minors from sexual predators began on Monday.
arp/des

economy

EU leaders push rival fixes to reverse bloc's 'decline'

BY FRANCESCO FONTEMAGGI WITH RAZIYE AKKOC IN BRUSSELS

  • She told business leaders in Antwerp that these deals will open new export markets and secure the supply of critical minerals, essential for electronic goods such as batteries, and needed for the EU's green transition.
  • EU leaders told industry executives on Wednesday they were committed to transforming the bloc's lagging economy into a global powerhouse able to confront US and Chinese competition.
  • She told business leaders in Antwerp that these deals will open new export markets and secure the supply of critical minerals, essential for electronic goods such as batteries, and needed for the EU's green transition.
EU leaders told industry executives on Wednesday they were committed to transforming the bloc's lagging economy into a global powerhouse able to confront US and Chinese competition.
But leaders offered diverging recipes for tackling Europe's challenges, as they descended on the Belgian port city of Antwerp for what has become an annual meeting of EU business and politics.
The Antwerp summit was the first of two days of crunch talks in Belgium involving EU leaders. All 27 will meet at a Belgian castle east of Brussels on Thursday to thrash out ideas on how to rescue the moribund European economy.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen kicked off the event with a vow that Europe is "fighting for our place in the new global economy".
French President Emmanuel Macron went further, telling business leaders making Europe an "independent power" was the "only" solution to head off economic challenges from China and the United States.
Macron was headed into the talks ready to fight for more joint EU debt, which he said was the "only way" to compete on an economic level with rivals -- and for France's push for the European Union to favour domestic over foreign firms.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz agreed it was "high time for Europe to act" and that after 25 years of "decline" it needed "bold decisions".
But he was lukewarm on Macron's "Buy European" push and avoided the topic of joint debt altogether -- setting his sights instead on the need to slash EU "red tape".

'Tear down barriers'

Revving up Europe's economy has taken on greater urgency in the face of geopolitical shocks, from US President Donald Trump's threats and tariffs upending global trade to his push to seize Greenland from Denmark.
Addressing EU lawmakers in Strasbourg earlier Wednesday, von der Leyen outlined key steps to bridging the gap with China and the United States.
The EU must "tear down the barriers that prevent us from being a true global giant", she said.
A key issue identified by the EU is the fact that European companies face difficulties accessing capital to scale up, unlike their American counterparts.
To tackle this, Plan A would be to advance together as 27 states, but von der Leyen said some member states could go ahead in a smaller group.
"I want it by 27 but if it is necessary to speed up the whole process, we will go by enhanced cooperation," von der Leyen said.
She also pointed to the importance of signing trade deals that would diversify the EU's trading partners at a time when the United States under President Donald Trump has a different outlook and hiked tariffs.
She told business leaders in Antwerp that these deals will open new export markets and secure the supply of critical minerals, essential for electronic goods such as batteries, and needed for the EU's green transition.

'Buy European' push

One of the biggest -- and most debated -- proposals for boosting the EU's economy is to favour European firms over foreign rivals in "strategic" fields, which von der Leyen has expressed support for.
"We will introduce specific EU content requirements for strategic sectors," she said. 
Macron said it would "preserve" European jobs but Merz said Europe should only use such rules for "critical strategic sectors" and as a "last resort".
France has been spearheading the push, but some EU nations like Sweden are wary of veering into protectionism and warn Brussels against going too far.
The EU executive will also next month propose the 28th regime, also known as "EU Inc", a voluntary set of rules for businesses that would apply across the European Union and would not be linked to any particular country.
Brussels argues this would make it easier for companies to work across the EU, since the fragmented market is often blamed for the weakness of the economy.
The commission is also engaged in a massive effort to cut red tape for firms, which complain EU rules make it harder to do business -- drawing accusations from critics that Brussels is watering down key legislation on climate in particular.
Germany's Merz said he "strongly" supported a 28th regime and went further in calling for the EU to "systematically review the whole set of existing" laws and "deregulate every sector".
fff-raz/ec/rlp

fraud

French court to rule on July 7 in Marine Le Pen appeal trial

  • At the end of Wednesday's proceedings, the court's president said it will deliver the ruling on July 7 in the early afternoon.
  • A Paris appeals court said Wednesday it will rule on July 7 in a fraud case against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, in what is expected to be a pivotal moment for French politics.
  • At the end of Wednesday's proceedings, the court's president said it will deliver the ruling on July 7 in the early afternoon.
A Paris appeals court said Wednesday it will rule on July 7 in a fraud case against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, in what is expected to be a pivotal moment for French politics.
A lower court last year handed the 57-year-old veteran politician a five-year ban from public office over a fake jobs scam at the European parliament, dashing her presidential ambitions.
If the appeals court upholds last year's bombshell ruling, the three-time presidential candidate would be banned from running in 2027, widely seen as her best chance at the top job.
At the end of Wednesday's proceedings, the court's president said it will deliver the ruling on July 7 in the early afternoon.
"The sooner, the better, I feel," Le Pen told reporters after the hearing.
Le Pen made it to the second round in the 2017 and 2022 presidential polls, losing to President Emmanuel Macron both times. But he cannot run again next year after hitting the limit of two consecutive terms in office.
Le Pen has said she will decide whether to run for president after the ruling in the appeal trial, and has indicated that her lieutenant -- 30-year-old Jordan Bardella, who heads her National Rally (RN) party -- could be the selected candidate instead.
A poll in November predicted that, should he run, Bardella would win the second round of the 2027 elections, no matter who stands against him.
Prosecutors last week demanded the court maintain a five-year ban and a four-year prison term with three years suspended for Le Pen in the case against her and other members of her anti-immigration RN party.
She had in the first trial received a four-year prison sentence, with two years suspended.
pab/ekf/ah/rmb

Epstein

Norway's ex-diplomat seen as key cog in Epstein affair

BY PIERRE-HENRY DESHAYES

  • The nearly three million documents released by US authorities have illuminated deeper ties than previously known between members of Norway's elite and Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
  • Norway's former high-profile diplomat Terje Rod-Larsen helped Jeffrey Epstein weave his web of dignitaries, acting as a go-between for the convicted sex offender in exchange for rewards, media has reported.
  • The nearly three million documents released by US authorities have illuminated deeper ties than previously known between members of Norway's elite and Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
Norway's former high-profile diplomat Terje Rod-Larsen helped Jeffrey Epstein weave his web of dignitaries, acting as a go-between for the convicted sex offender in exchange for rewards, media has reported.
Along with his wife Mona Juul, another diplomat now caught up in the turmoil following the latest release of millions of documents from the investigation relating to Epstein, Rod-Larsen rose to fame as one of the architects of the secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords in the 1990s.
A sociologist by training, he held various roles at the United Nations: assistant secretary-general, special coordinator in the Occupied Territories, then special envoy for the Middle East.
The now 78-year-old Norwegian ended his career at the International Peace Institute (IPI).
It was in the 2010s, while heading the New York-based think tank, that he developed what appears to have been a close relationship with Epstein, who had already been convicted in 2008 for soliciting a minor.

'Super-diplomat'

A mere mention in the files does not imply wrongdoing. The nearly three million documents released by US authorities have illuminated deeper ties than previously known between members of Norway's elite and Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
Harald Stanghelle, a political commentator for newspaper Aftenposten, believes that in Rod-Larsen's case, "the super-diplomat was not merely a pawn in Epstein's game but a spider at the centre of the web".
"If you look at all the most important Norwegian political figures named in the Epstein documents, he is the key figure: no one came into contact with Epstein without going through Rod-Larsen," he told AFP.
"He comes across as someone funnelling people to Epstein," Stanghelle said.
Norwegian police have opened investigations into "aggravated corruption" against former prime minister Thorbjorn Jagland over his dealings with Epstein -- who had dubbed him "the Nobel big shot" -- while he was chair of the Nobel Committee and secretary general of the Council of Europe.
Also named in the files are World Economic Forum CEO and former foreign minister Borge Brende, and another former premier Kjell Magne Bondevik.

'Impossible to ignore'

To explain the relatively large number of Norwegians tainted by the Epstein affair, "it is completely impossible to ignore Rod-Larsen, a person who established lasting contacts with Epstein from at least 2010", Halvard Leira, a political scientist at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), said.
According to Stanghelle, Rod-Larsen, while at the helm of the IPI between 2005 and 2020, also opened doors to international heavyweights for Epstein.
"In return, Rod-Larsen also benefited from Epstein's address book in a world where contacts are valuable for wielding influence, and from his financial generosity," the commentator said.
Rod-Larsen revitalised the IPI, notably thanks to donations from Epstein, but resigned from the organisation in 2020 after the donations were revealed.
Emails and documents unearthed by newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv, show that Epstein ordered that $250,000 be paid to Rod-Larsen in 2015, for reasons that remain unknown.
Shipowner Morits Skaugen also told newspaper VG that Epstein personally intervened in 2018 to push him to sell Rod-Larsen and his wife a large apartment in an affluent district of Oslo,  calling it a "threat". 
The price was 14 million kroner ($1.5 million), just "half" of its market value, Skaugen said.
Epstein also left $10 million in his will to the couple's two children, according to Norwegian media.

Investigation

"Rod-Larsen has previously expressed regret for his association with Epstein and has clearly distanced himself from Epstein's actions," Rod-Larsen's lawyer, John Christian Elden, stressed last week.
"His health condition makes it impossible for Rod-Larsen to give interviews or respond directly to media inquiries," he added, noting that his client was seriously ill after suffering several recent strokes.
Norwegian police announced on Monday that they had opened an investigation into Juul and Rod-Larsen, for suspected "aggravated corruption" and "complicity in aggravated corruption" respectively.
Already suspended pending a foreign ministry probe, Juul has also resigned from her post as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq.
phy/jll/cc

Global Edition

Deadly mass shooting in Canada: What we know

  • - Mass shootings in Canada - Other major mass shootings in Canada include a December 6, 1989 attack when a 25-year-old man claiming to be "anti-feminist" burst into a Montreal school and opened fire exclusively on women.
  • Canada was reeling after a mass shooting targeting a school in a remote mining town, with nine people gunned down in one of the deadliest attacks in the country's history.
  • - Mass shootings in Canada - Other major mass shootings in Canada include a December 6, 1989 attack when a 25-year-old man claiming to be "anti-feminist" burst into a Montreal school and opened fire exclusively on women.
Canada was reeling after a mass shooting targeting a school in a remote mining town, with nine people gunned down in one of the deadliest attacks in the country's history.
Information is patchy, partly because of the remoteness of the location in western Canada, but here is what we know so far:

What happened?

On Tuesday, police in the British Columbia town of Tumbler Ridge received a report of an active shooter.
Officers entered the town's school and found six dead. The presumed shooter was also found with what is believed to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
One victim died on the way to a hospital and two were airlifted with serious or life-threatening injuries. About 25 others were treated for injuries at a nearby medical center.
Officers found two bodies at a second location that they said was a home linked to the school attack, with searches ongoing at other residences.

The shooter

Little is known about the shooter and authorities have been tight-lipped about their identity and possible motives.
Preliminary information from an initial emergency alert suggested the shooter might have been a "female in a dress with brown hair."

The location

The district of Tumbler Ridge, 730 miles (1170 kilometers) north of Vancouver, has a population of 2,700, according to the local authority. Many residents work in the mining, quarrying and hydrocarbon industries.
The area is also home to a UNESCO Global Geopark, recognized for its international geological significance.
Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, where the shooting took place, has 175 students from grades seven to 12, according to the local government.
Images after the shooting showed students being led out of the school with their hands up, under the watch of armed officers.

Mass shootings in Canada

Other major mass shootings in Canada include a December 6, 1989 attack when a 25-year-old man claiming to be "anti-feminist" burst into a Montreal school and opened fire exclusively on women.
He killed 13 female students and a secretary before taking his own life.
In April 2020, a man disguised as a police officer and driving a fake police car went on a shooting and arson rampage in eastern Canada's Nova Scotia.
He killed 22 people following a violent dispute with his partner, and was shot dead by police after a sprawling 12-hour manhunt.

More shootings

While mass killings are less frequent in Canada than in the United States, statistics show a steady increase in violent gun crimes. 
Canada recorded 36.9 incidents of firearm-related violent crime per 100,000 people in 2023. That's 22 percent higher compared to 2018 and 55 percent higher than 2013.
In 2020, Canada banned 1,500 models of assault weapons in response to that year's Nova Scotia killings.
bur-gw/acb

Greenland

NATO launches 'Arctic Sentry' mission after Greenland crisis

  • Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said that NATO countries back having a "permanent presence" in the Arctic, including around Greenland, as part of efforts to step up security.
  • NATO on Wednesday said it had launched a new mission to bolster security in the Arctic, in a move to assuage US President Donald Trump after he backed off claims on Greenland.
  • Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said that NATO countries back having a "permanent presence" in the Arctic, including around Greenland, as part of efforts to step up security.
NATO on Wednesday said it had launched a new mission to bolster security in the Arctic, in a move to assuage US President Donald Trump after he backed off claims on Greenland.
"Arctic Sentry underscores the alliance's commitment to safeguard its members and maintain stability in one of the world's most strategically significant and environmentally challenging areas," said US General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
NATO said the "multi-domain activity" would initially pull together work already being carried out by alliance members in the region such as upcoming exercises by Norway and Denmark.
Denmark's defence minister said his country would contribute "substantially" to the newly-launched NATO mission, and Germany said it would send an initial four eurofighter jets to take part. 
Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometre (833-mile) border with Russia, hailed the NATO initiative as strengthening security in the Arctic.
But it remained unclear whether many additional military capabilities would be deployed to the region under the new mission. 
"What is really new about it is that for the first time now, we will bring everything we do in the Arctic together under one command," NATO chief Mark Rutte said ahead of a meeting of alliance defence ministers.  
"We will also be able to assess what gaps there are, which we have to fill and of course we will fill them."
Trump's threats against Greenland last month -- which he based on an alleged threat by Russia and China in the Arctic -- plunged the transatlantic alliance into its deepest crisis in years.

Trump's 'framework'

The unpredictable US leader backed off his vow to take control of Denmark's autonomous Arctic territory after saying he had struck a "framework" deal with Rutte to ensure greater American influence.
"The two leaders agreed that NATO should collectively take more responsibility for the defence of the region considering Russia's military activity and China's growing interest there," NATO said in a statement.
Denmark and Greenland have meanwhile kicked off talks with the US over the territory and are expected to renegotiate a 1951 treaty governing American troop deployments on the island.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said that NATO countries back having a "permanent presence" in the Arctic, including around Greenland, as part of efforts to step up security.
The launch of Arctic Sentry comes after NATO last year deployed emergency missions in the Baltic Sea and along its eastern flank to try to shore up protection against Moscow.
del/ec/cc

Epstein

US lawmakers grill attorney general over Epstein file release

  • Bondi, during her opening statement to the House committee, defended the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files.
  • US lawmakers grilled US Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday over the Justice Department's slow release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and the redactions made to the documents about the convicted sex offender.
  • Bondi, during her opening statement to the House committee, defended the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files.
US lawmakers grilled US Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday over the Justice Department's slow release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and the redactions made to the documents about the convicted sex offender.
"You're running a massive Epstein cover-up right out of the Department of Justice," said Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.
"You've been ordered by subpoena and by Congress to turn over six million documents, photographs and videos in the Epstein files, but you've turned over only three million," Raskin said.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA), passed overwhelmingly by Congress in November, compelled the Justice Department to release all of the documents in its possession related to the disgraced financier within 30 days.
It required the redaction of the names or any other personally identifiable information about Epstein's victims, who numbered more than 1,000 according to the FBI.
But the powerful figures -- including politicians like President Donald Trump and multiple business tycoons -- who were friendly with Epstein could not be shielded, the law stated.
No records can be "withheld, delayed, or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary."
Raskin said that the names of "abusers, enablers, accomplices and co-conspirators" of Epstein have nevertheless been redacted, "apparently to spare them embarrassment and disgrace, which is the exact opposite of what the law ordered you to do."
"Even worse, you shockingly failed to redact many of the victims' names," he added.
Bondi, during her opening statement to the House committee, defended the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files.
"More than 500 attorneys and reviewers spent thousands of hours painstakingly reviewing millions of pages to comply with Congress's law," she said.
"We've released more than three million pages, including 180,000 images, to the public while doing our very best in the timeframe allotted by the legislation to protect victims," she said.
Epstein, who had ties to top business executives, politicians, celebrities and academics, was found dead in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking minor girls. His death was ruled a suicide.
Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former girlfriend, is the only person behind bars in connection with Epstein.
Maxwell, 64, was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking underage girls to Epstein and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Trump fought for months to prevent release of the vast trove of documents about Epstein -- a longtime former friend -- but a rebellion among Republicans forced him to sign off on the law mandating release of all the records.
The move reflected intense political pressure to address what many Americans, including Trump's own supporters, have long suspected to be a cover-up to protect rich and powerful men in Epstein's orbit.
cl/sms

demonstration

Johannesburg residents 'desperate' as taps run dry

BY JULIE BOURDIN

  • Down the road from Wednesday's protest, a pre-primary school had already taken matters into its own hands by investing about 15,000 rand ($944) in a water tank.
  • Sitting in the middle of a Johannesburg road as traffic snaked around her, Susan Jobson banged empty bottles to protest the water cuts that have upended her life for nearly three weeks.
  • Down the road from Wednesday's protest, a pre-primary school had already taken matters into its own hands by investing about 15,000 rand ($944) in a water tank.
Sitting in the middle of a Johannesburg road as traffic snaked around her, Susan Jobson banged empty bottles to protest the water cuts that have upended her life for nearly three weeks.
The 63-year-old, who struggles to walk and lives alone in a small cottage, said she joined a demonstration Wednesday by residents of the city's upmarket Melville suburb because the lack of water had left her "completely desperate".
"I'm not walking that well, which means it's difficult to get water," she told AFP, while more than 100 protesters chanted next to her and passing motorists honked in support.
"It's difficult to fill up the toilet, washing doesn't get done, and I've got to make plans around food," she said.
Several parts of South Africa's economic capital -- from wealthy areas to the poorer ones -- have been gripped by weeks-long water shortages as decades of infrastructural decay and lack of maintenance push the system to the brink.
In other areas of the country, including the southern city of Cape Town, shortages due to prolonged droughts were last week declared a national disaster.
This meant restrictions could be imposed to avoid a dreaded "Day Zero", when the taps run dry.
But in Johannesburg, residents are "living a Day Zero every single day", despite full dams and heavy rains in the past months, said Ferrial Adam, executive director of advocacy group WaterCAN.

'National disaster'

Around 30 percent of the city's water supply is lost to leaks, Adam said, and municipal plans to repair infrastructure and install new reservoirs have been slow to come to fruition.
In some other regions, such as the touristy coastal town of Knysna, this rose to 50 percent, she said.
"Our municipalities across the country are failing, both in supply of water and sanitation," said Adam, who wanted the government to step in and declare the crisis a national disaster.
"If declaring it a national disaster is the one way we can get all politicians, national government, provincial government, local government, to actually focus on water and sanitation, then that is what needs to happen," she told AFP.
Under mounting pressure after months of water protests across the city, mayor Dada Morero rejected claims that Johannesburg as a whole faced a "Day Zero" and defended municipal efforts to "push and balance the water distribution".
Morero is from the African National Congress (ANC), which has come under fire for mismanagement since it took power in 1994. Anger over failures in the supply of basic services was in part responsible for support plunging to 40 percent in the 2024 national elections.
The party is expected to take another bashing over the same complaints at local government elections due later this year.
Hoping to portray a hands-on approach to the crisis that would win over voters, the second-largest party in South Africa's ruling coalition, the Democratic Alliance, said Wednesday it would take legal action to compel the city to deliver water.
Down the road from Wednesday's protest, a pre-primary school had already taken matters into its own hands by investing about 15,000 rand ($944) in a water tank.
But even that reserve had run dry after 23 days without municipal supply, principal Arifa Banday told AFP, and the school now had to rely on deliveries from private water trucks.
"We try as best as possible to keep going, especially because we're in charge of caring for so many little ones," she said, as parents dropped their toddlers off in the leafy playground.
Protester Simon Banda said the lack of support for affected residents was a "tragedy".
"We don't expect them to produce miracles. There's supposed to be a water truck almost at every corner, but there is nothing like that," he told AFP. "That, to me, is unforgivable."
jcb/br/kjm

rights

'Outrage' as LGBTQ Pride flag removed from Stonewall monument

BY GREGORY WALTON

  • New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was "outraged" by the removal of the rainbow pride flag from the monument.
  • The removal of an LGBTQ rainbow pride flag from the United States' most prominent gay monument after new rules issued by the Trump administration sparked an outcry and a noisy protest on Tuesday.
  • New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was "outraged" by the removal of the rainbow pride flag from the monument.
The removal of an LGBTQ rainbow pride flag from the United States' most prominent gay monument after new rules issued by the Trump administration sparked an outcry and a noisy protest on Tuesday.
The removal of a large rainbow flag from the Stonewall National Monument in New York followed a January 21 memo from the federally run National Park Service responsible for the heritage site.
It banned the flying of flags other than the US national banner and the Department of the Interior's colors, with limited exceptions.  
About 100 noisy demonstrators, many draped in LGBTQ flags, gathered in a park opposite Stonewall in downtown Manhattan with attendees decrying the move as a "slap in the face" for the community.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was "outraged" by the removal of the rainbow pride flag from the monument.
"New York is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, and no act of erasure will ever change, or silence, that history," he wrote on X.
The Stonewall national monument memorializes the eponymous Stonewall Uprising of 1969, when LGBTQ New Yorkers rose up against discriminatory policies and oppression.
A police raid of the small Greenwich Village gay bar ignited six days of rioting that birthed the modern US gay rights movement, later extended to transgender and non-binary people, who do not identify as male or female.

'Unconscionable behavior'

Trump regularly criticized transgender people and what he termed "gender ideology extremism" while on the campaign trail, and days after returning to office he signed an executive order declaring only two official genders in the United States, male and female. 
A month later, the National Park Service scrubbed references to transgender and queer people from the website of the monument, with other government departments implementing similar purges.
"To have somebody take down something that is so meaningful to us and to our community outside a historic site like that is basically a slap in the face," said trans community organizer Jade Runk, 37, who used cable ties to fasten LGBTQ flags to railings in Christopher Park opposite Stonewall.
"It's a message saying 'we don't want you to exist'."
The area around the Stonewall monument, including the adjacent, privately run Stonewall Inn, is still adorned with many bright LGBTQ flags, as well as banners representing the trans community.
New York state Governor Kathy Hochul said that she would "not let this administration roll back the rights we fought so hard for."
The National Park Service did not respond to an AFP request for comment.
LGBTQ campaign group GLAAD said "attempts to censor and diminish visibility are tactics that LGBTQ Americans overcame decades ago, and we will continue to defeat."
Gay history archivist Alek Douglas, 29, told AFP that "we've seen this movie before." 
"It's just unconscionable behavior from an autocratic government to erase a minority," said Douglas, holding up a rainbow flag from a 1994 pride march signed by the banner's original designer, Gilbert Baker.
Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal told local media he would reraise the flag at the site on Thursday.
One protester angrily shouted "Let's do it now. What are we waiting for?"
gw-ph/md/acb

Epstein

Daniel Siad, the modelling scout with close ties to Epstein

BY LUCA MATTEUCCI AND BERTRAND PINON, WITH LAETITIA COMMANAY IN LONDON

  • - Girls' ages frequently mentioned - A Swedish former model, Ebba Karlsson, filed a complaint in France on Tuesday accusing Siad of rape and human trafficking after recognising him in a photo from the Epstein files.
  • Hundreds of emails containing photographs of young women from around the world suggest modelling scout Daniel Siad may have been a significant recruiter for convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to public documents reviewed by AFP. Siad, the subject of a rape complaint in France, claimed on X that he is blameless, but appears in more than 1,000 documents in the latest batch of declassified files from the Epstein case published by the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
  • - Girls' ages frequently mentioned - A Swedish former model, Ebba Karlsson, filed a complaint in France on Tuesday accusing Siad of rape and human trafficking after recognising him in a photo from the Epstein files.
Hundreds of emails containing photographs of young women from around the world suggest modelling scout Daniel Siad may have been a significant recruiter for convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to public documents reviewed by AFP.
Siad, the subject of a rape complaint in France, claimed on X that he is blameless, but appears in more than 1,000 documents in the latest batch of declassified files from the Epstein case published by the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
They include exchanges between him and Epstein, which often revolve around women and are interspersed with apparent requests for money.
"In This busyness I feel like a fisherman some time I cache quick, some time no fish," Siad wrote to Epstein in 2014 about women he had identified.
AFP has been unable to reach Siad since Monday, when he was first named in the French media in connection with the sprawling Epstein case.
Speaking to France's national broadcaster France TV, Siad -- who holds a Swedish passport, according to the documents, and said on X that he is from Algeria and born French -- claimed Epstein had "used (his) trust", adding he was not "in a position to know that this man was dangerous".
"I have nothing to blame myself for," he said in a video posted on X and relayed by BFMTV.
In the video, he denies any ties with Epstein's crimes and presents himself as "from Kabylia (in Algeria), born French, and a Swedish citizen".

Girls' ages frequently mentioned

A Swedish former model, Ebba Karlsson, filed a complaint in France on Tuesday accusing Siad of rape and human trafficking after recognising him in a photo from the Epstein files.
She says she was lured by Siad under the pretext of a career opportunity, before finding herself trapped in southern France in 1990 at the age of 20, AFP learned from a source close to the case.
Karlsson told BFMTV she had received death threats from the talent scout.
The earliest emails contained in the documents released by the DOJ date back to 2009, a year after Epstein was convicted in Florida of procuring a child for prostitution.
Epstein and Siad exchanged messages until 2019, shortly before the financier's arrest and subsequent suicide in jail while facing charges of trafficking underage girls for sex.
In his correspondence with Epstein, Siad referred to young women and teenage girls he had found, often in Eastern Europe or Scandinavia, and attached photographs.
The girls' ages are frequently mentioned.
A June 2009 email from Siad to Epstein with seven photos attached read: "I just found an amizinng One she is 20 years old but she looks younger from Latvia."
Siad referred to "at least five" potential recruits aged "16 and 17" and a 15-year-old French girl, in a July 2014 message.
Siad appears to have also worked in the early 2010s for a Thai foundation created by Mom Luang Rajadarasri Jayankura, who presents herself as a descendant of Thailand's royal family.
The DOJ documents show he sought Epstein's help to register the organisation as a non-profit in the United States.

Bank transfers

The documents reviewed by AFP indicate Epstein regularly transferred money to Siad, including payments of several thousand euros.
In 2018, Epstein forwarded Siad's bank details to his accountant Richard Kahn with the note: "5 year loan for 25k dollars".
In July 2010, Siad suggested Epstein join him in Ibiza to meet a scout named Tigran, who was interested in doing business with the disgraced financier, according to emails.
Tigran "has the most incredible top models on stand by", read an email from Siad, with the subject line "Hello from Ibiza".
The documents also reveal links between Siad and former French modelling agency executive Jean-Luc Brunel, who was accused of sexual abuse by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre.
Brunel was found dead in detention in 2022.
Correspondence released by US courts in late January suggested Brunel had identified Siad as a recruiter of girls and women for Epstein.
Stan Pottinger, a lawyer for several Epstein victims, sent a 2016 message to a New York district prosecutor, detailing information received from Brunel.
"Yesterday I spoke of Daniel Siad, whom Jean Luc Brunel describes as a 'scout' or recruiter of girls and/or women for J. Epstein," Pottinger wrote.
The mere mention of a person's name in the Epstein files does not in itself imply wrongdoing.
lmc-lam-bpi/ys/jwp/jhb

diplomacy

WTO must reform, 'status quo is not an option': chief

BY NINA LARSON

  • "Multilateral organisations like us need to change to be fit for purpose, need to reform for the times," she told the UN correspondents' association ACANU. "I don't think the status quo is an option."
  • At a time of growing geopolitical tensions, the World Trade Organization must urgently reform itself, its chief said Wednesday, warning that "the status quo is not an option".
  • "Multilateral organisations like us need to change to be fit for purpose, need to reform for the times," she told the UN correspondents' association ACANU. "I don't think the status quo is an option."
At a time of growing geopolitical tensions, the World Trade Organization must urgently reform itself, its chief said Wednesday, warning that "the status quo is not an option".
The WTO, which regulates large swathes of global trade, has been facing increasing pressure to overhaul systems and structures considered by many as outdated and unable to keep pace with a rapidly changing world.
Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the organisation was "at an inflection point" at a time when "questions are being raised about whether multilateral organisations are still relevant".
"Multilateral organisations like us need to change to be fit for purpose, need to reform for the times," she told the UN correspondents' association ACANU.
"I don't think the status quo is an option."
Speaking at the WTO's Geneva headquarters, Okonjo-Iweala said that "the world is moving so fast", citing the speed at which artificial intelligence and quantum technologies are moving.
"If your organisation doesn't adapt, then you'll be left behind," she said.

'Chaos'

The WTO faced structural and geopolitical obstacles long before US President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year and set about dramatically ratcheting up global trade tensions.
The WTO has, among other things, long been handicapped by a rule requiring full consensus among members, meaning decisions are few and far between, while its dispute settlement system has been crippled by the United States.
Reform will be at the heart of the WTO's ministerial meeting in Cameroon next month.
Norway's ambassador to the WTO Petter Olberg, who is facilitating talks on revamping the global trade body, told AFP in a recent interview that the organisation needed to "reform or die".
Okonjo-Iweala said such a fate had to be avoided at all costs.
"This organisation provides stability and predictability," she said, hailing that "in spite of all the knocks, it is still the bedrock for so much of world trade".
"If we don't have this system, what does it mean? I'll be very honest with you: there'll be chaos," she said.
"It means a business will send goods somewhere without the knowledge of how those goods will be valued when it arrives at customs... you wouldn't know how your goods will be valued before you're tariffed.
"You'll be confronted when your goods arrive with rules that you were never aware of," she said.

Path forward

The WTO was created in 1995 and is based on a trading system established shortly after World War II.
The need for a revamp has been discussed for years, but the discussions have intensified since Trump returned to power, snubbing agreed trade rules and wielding huge tariffs against foes and friends alike.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, Okonjo-Iweala noted that the trade agreements announced by the Trump administration had not been notified to the WTO, as required to ensure they conform with the organisation's rules.
This has raised concern that the deals could potentially violate the WTO's "most-favoured nation" (MFN) principle, which aims to extend any trade advantage granted to one trading partner to all others, in a bid to avoid discrimination.
The United States itself indicated to the WTO last December that it considers the principle "unsuitable for this era".
Asked whether she was concerned about discussions around the future of such a central WTO principle, Okonjo-Iweala said that "one should never be afraid to engage on the issues of the day".
She noted that "72 percent of global merchandise trade is still on MFN", speaking to "the strength and the resilience of the organisation and the principles on which it was founded".
She added that the aim of the ministerial meeting in Cameroon was to agree on a path forward for negotiations on reforms.
"We are not expecting ministers to come down and solve the problems. We're expecting them to come down and endorse a programme of work," she said.
nl/rjm/js

conflict

Three Ukrainian toddlers, father, killed in Russian drone attack

  • The pregnant mother of the family was discharged from hospital later on Wednesday, he said.
  • A Russian drone strike on a house in northeastern Ukraine killed three toddlers and their father and wounded their pregnant mother, officials said Wednesday. 
  • The pregnant mother of the family was discharged from hospital later on Wednesday, he said.
A Russian drone strike on a house in northeastern Ukraine killed three toddlers and their father and wounded their pregnant mother, officials said Wednesday. 
Twin boys aged one and a two-year-old girl were killed in the attack late Tuesday night on the family's house in the city of Bogodukhiv, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the border with Russia.
It triggered an outpouring of anger and grief.
"This is deliberate terror against civilians, against families, against children. Russia is consciously killing our future," said Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
Local prosecutors said the family had been trapped inside after the attack. Video posted by the emergency services showed a bright red flame and grey smoke billowing over the collapsed roof of a house.
"As a result of the strike, the house was completely destroyed and caught fire, and the family was trapped under the rubble," prosecutors said in a statement posted on Telegram.
The children's mother, who is eight months pregnant, survived, but sustained "a traumatic brain injury, acoustic barotrauma, and thermal burns", prosecutors said.
Their grandmother was also wounded in the attack and had been hospitalised, Bogodukhiv mayor Volodymyr Biely said in a statement. 
The head of the Velyka Rogozianka community in Kharkiv, where the family is originally from, told AFP that they had only just moved to the town to be nearer to relatives several days earlier.
The killed father served in the Ukrainian army for several months, starting in spring 2024.
He was discharged after his leg was blown off by a mine, the official, Anatoliy Yeliseiev said.
He added that the couple had only formally registered their marriage last week.
The pregnant mother of the family was discharged from hospital later on Wednesday, he said.
"The shock has passed," Yeliseiev told AFP, referring to her condition, adding: "I don't know how she survived."

Undermining negotiations

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack showed Russia was not serious about ending the four-year war, unleashed by Moscow's invasion in February 2022.
"Each such Russian strike undermines trust in everything being done diplomatically to end this war and, time and again, proves that only strong pressure on Russia and clear security guarantees for Ukraine are the real key to stopping the killings," he said on social media.
He also said Russia had hit a hospital in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia in a separate drone attack.
Moscow denies targeting Ukrainian civilians, even as thousands have been killed since it invaded.
Under US pressure, the two sides have opened talks on trying to broker a deal to end the war.
But their positions appear far apart with Moscow demanding sweeping territorial and political concessions from Ukraine that Kyiv rejects as tantamount to capitulation.
bur-jc-jbr/jc/jxb

AI

Actor behind Albania's AI 'minister' wants her face back

  • "It's an exploitation of my identity and my personal data," the 57-year-old actress told AFP. According to Bisha, she had originally signed a contract authorising the use of her image until the end of 2025 to represent a virtual assistant on an online government services portal.
  • An actor whose face was used by Albania's government for an AI chatbot that it promoted to be a "minister" told AFP on Wednesday that she had launched a legal fight to stop the use of her image and accused the government of "exploitation".
  • "It's an exploitation of my identity and my personal data," the 57-year-old actress told AFP. According to Bisha, she had originally signed a contract authorising the use of her image until the end of 2025 to represent a virtual assistant on an online government services portal.
An actor whose face was used by Albania's government for an AI chatbot that it promoted to be a "minister" told AFP on Wednesday that she had launched a legal fight to stop the use of her image and accused the government of "exploitation".
Prime Minister Edi Rama announced in September that an AI system, dubbed Diella, would oversee a new public tenders portfolio as a "minister" that he pledged would cut corruption.
The move drew criticism from the opposition and experts who questioned the system's accountability and transparency.
Well-known Albanian actor Anila Bisha, whose face and voice were used to create Diella's avatar, said she had not approved her identity for use in that way.
Bisha said she filed a petition with the administrative court earlier this week requesting the suspension of the use of her image.
"It's an exploitation of my identity and my personal data," the 57-year-old actress told AFP.
According to Bisha, she had originally signed a contract authorising the use of her image until the end of 2025 to represent a virtual assistant on an online government services portal.
But after Rama's government announced that Diella would become a minister, a video featuring a computer-generated version of her addressed parliament. 
In the video, purportedly made with AI, the "minister" appeared as a woman dressed in a traditional Albanian outfit and said it was "not here to replace people".
Bisha also discovered that the National Agency for Information Society, which developed the AI, filed a patent on her image and voice without informing her -- a move that she says affected her ability to work.
Despite reaching out to authorities in the hope of negotiating a solution, she received no reply and decided to take legal action.
Diella, which means "sun" in Albanian, is responsible for all decisions relating to public procurement tenders -- in a move that Rama promised would make the process "corruption-free".
bme-cbo/al/jxb

accident

Spanish PM vows justice, defends rail safety after deadly accidents

BY ROBIN BJALON

  • Spain's rail system "is not perfect, but it is safe", he added, vowing to take all necessary measures to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
  • Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez vowed Wednesday that justice would be done following two train accidents that claimed 47 lives last month, and insisted the country's rail system "is safe".
  • Spain's rail system "is not perfect, but it is safe", he added, vowing to take all necessary measures to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez vowed Wednesday that justice would be done following two train accidents that claimed 47 lives last month, and insisted the country's rail system "is safe".
The back-to-back disasters in January shocked the country and raised doubts about the safety of train travel in Spain, which boasts one of the world's most extensive high-speed rail networks.
"The entire state is doing -- and will continue to do -- everything possible to support the injured and the victims' families, clarify the causes of the accident, and, if necessary, ensure justice is done," Sanchez told parliament.
Spain's rail system "is not perfect, but it is safe", he added, vowing to take all necessary measures to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
Shock hit the rail sector after a collision between two high-speed trains in the southern region of Andalusia on January 18 resulted in the death of 46 people -- one of Europe's deadliest such disasters this century.
Two days later, a commuter train in the Barcelona region ploughed into the rubble of a collapsed wall following heavy rain, killing the driver and injuring dozens.
The government reached a deal with railway unions on Monday to invest 1.8 billion euros ($2.1 billion) to improve maintenance, create 3,650 jobs, and strengthen public rail safety.
The agreement prompted unions to call off a three-day strike.
The conservative opposition has called for Sanchez's resignation, blaming the accidents on underinvestment in maintenance and understaffing.
Popular Party (PP) chief Alberto Nunez Feijoo accused the government in parliament of having "played Russian roulette with our safety".
He said the accident in Andalusia was "preventable, not an unforeseeable catastrophe" and blasted the government for not apologising and "taking responsibility".
The head of far-right Vox, Santiago Abascal,  called it "a crime and not just an accident".
"A crime that will weigh on your consciences and for which I hope you will answer before the courts," he added.

'Much to improve'

A preliminary report suggested the track may have been cracked before the catastrophe in Andalusia.
Concerns over Spain’s rail network come as Sanchez faces several corruption scandals in his inner circle that have weakened his fragile minority coalition.
His Socialists suffered a heavy defeat in a regional election in Aragon on Sunday, following their worst-ever regional result in their former stronghold, Extremadura, in December.
In both elections the PP came on top while Vox made huge gains.
Private operators began running passenger trains in Spain in 2021 following the liberalisation of the rail sector, ending Renfe's decades-long monopoly. 
Since then, passenger numbers on some routes have grown noticeably, but the unions say investment in maintenance has not kept up.
But Sanchez said his government had nearly tripled investment in railway infrastructure since it came to power in 2018.
He accused the previous PP government of underinvestment in the national rail network which he said carries over 12 million passengers each week.
"There is still work to be done, without a doubt, and much to improve," Sanchez told lawmakers.
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aviation

European airlines warn of 'severe disruption' from new border checks

  • "Failing immediate action to provide sufficient flexibility, severe disruptions over the peak summer months are a real prospect, with queues potentially reaching four hours or more," stated a joint letter by the European arm of the Airports Council International (ACI), Airlines for Europe (A4E) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA). 
  • European airlines warned Wednesday that the new entry system for travellers into the Schengen open-borders zone will cause "severe disruption" over peak summer months, and called for action to resolve "critical issues" behind already existing delays. 
  • "Failing immediate action to provide sufficient flexibility, severe disruptions over the peak summer months are a real prospect, with queues potentially reaching four hours or more," stated a joint letter by the European arm of the Airports Council International (ACI), Airlines for Europe (A4E) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA). 
European airlines warned Wednesday that the new entry system for travellers into the Schengen open-borders zone will cause "severe disruption" over peak summer months, and called for action to resolve "critical issues" behind already existing delays. 
The new Entry/Exit System (EES), in place since October, aims to replace stamps on passports and secure better information-sharing between the bloc's 27 states with automated photographs and fingerprints for non-EU nationals.
"Failing immediate action to provide sufficient flexibility, severe disruptions over the peak summer months are a real prospect, with queues potentially reaching four hours or more," stated a joint letter by the European arm of the Airports Council International (ACI), Airlines for Europe (A4E) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA). 
The three organisations said they wrote to Magnus Brunner, European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, to highlight "persistent excessive waiting times of up to two hours at airport border control" despite only a phased rollout since October. 
The goal of the EES is for authorities to better detect anyone overstaying in the Schengen area, or people who have been refused entry.
But the airline groups pointed to "chronic border control understaffing" as well as "unresolved technology issues" pertaining to automation.
The groups called on the commissioner to confirm whether Schengen members would have the option to partially or fully suspend the EES until October in order to allow flexibility over the summer months. 
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