diplomacy

'Your success is our success,' Rubio tells Orban ahead of Hungary polls

diplomacy

France's Macron eyes fighter jet deal in India

BY VALéRIE LEROUX

  • Macron will then travel to New Delhi for an artificial intelligence summit on Wednesday and Thursday.
  • French President Emmanuel Macron begins a three-day visit to India on Tuesday, with talks focused on artificial intelligence cooperation and a potential multibillion dollar Dassault Rafale fighter jet deal.
  • Macron will then travel to New Delhi for an artificial intelligence summit on Wednesday and Thursday.
French President Emmanuel Macron begins a three-day visit to India on Tuesday, with talks focused on artificial intelligence cooperation and a potential multibillion dollar Dassault Rafale fighter jet deal.
France is seeking to expand its military partnership with New Delhi, with discussions expected on a potential contract for 114 additional French fighter jets.
Macron and his wife Brigitte arrived around midnight on Monday in Mumbai, India's financial capital, for his fourth visit to India since taking office in 2017.
He is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi later on Tuesday.
Macron will then travel to New Delhi for an artificial intelligence summit on Wednesday and Thursday.
The visit follows New Delhi's confirmation last week that it intends to place a major order for Rafale jets, as well as the signing of a landmark free trade agreement between India and the European Union in January.

'Contract of the century'

New Delhi has sought over the past decade to reduce its dependence on Russia, its traditional main supplier of military equipment, turning to other countries while also pushing for more domestic production.
An Indian defence ministry statement last week said the proposed purchase of Rafale jets had been cleared -- with "the majority" of them to be manufactured in India. 
The statement did not specify the exact number of jets New Delhi would purchase, but a New Delhi defence ministry source said that 114 was likely.
Christophe Jaffrelot, an India specialist at Sciences Po Center for International Studies in Paris, described the potential €30 billion ($35 billion) deal for 114 Rafales as the "contract of the century" and a potential "crowning achievement" for bilateral ties.
If finalised, the jets would add to the 36 Rafales India purchased for its air force in 2016 and 26 it has ordered for its navy.
Negotiations over the additional aircraft still need to be concluded with manufacturer Dassault Aviation, but the French presidency has voiced optimism that what it calls a "historic" agreement could be reached.

'Good chemistry'

Modi and Macron will also inaugurate on Tuesday India's first helicopter final assembly line via videoconference from Mumbai, a joint venture between India's Tata Group and Airbus.
The facility in Vemagal, in the southern state of Karnataka near the tech hub of Bengaluru, will manufacture the Airbus H125, the company's best-selling single-engine helicopter.
France has emerged as one of India's most important defence and economic partners in the last decade.
"Through this visit, we seek to further strengthen cooperation" with India, and to "diversify" France's economic and trade partnerships, Macron's office said.
India, the world's most populous country with 1.4 billion people, is on track to become the fourth-largest economy globally.
This week's talks are also expected to address global economic uncertainty triggered by tariff policies under US President Donald Trump, as well as China's influence in the region.
Modi’s office said discussions would focus on "cementing the strategic partnership and further diversifying it into new and emerging areas".
Bilateral trade between France and India, driven largely by defence and aerospace -- India's commercial fleet includes a substantial number of Airbus aircraft -- stands at around €15 billion ($18 billion) annually.
French foreign direct investment in India totals nearly €13 billion ($15 billion).
The two leaders will also be keen to nurture close personal ties.
"There is apparently a good chemistry, a good personal rapport," Jaffrelot said.
One sensitive issue remains Ukraine: India has not condemned Russia's 2022 invasion and has continued buying oil from Moscow. 
US President Donald Trump has said India had committed to halting the purchases, though that has not been formally confirmed by New Delhi.
"If the Indians stop buying Russian oil, they won't be blamed for abstaining at the UN," Jaffrelot added.
vl/pjm/ceg/msp/ksb

politics

Russian poisonings aim to kill -- and send a message

BY SIMON VALMARY

  • In 2006, the Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko was killed by polonium poison in London.
  • Polonium, Novichok and now dart frog poison: the finding that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed with a rare toxin has revived the spectre of Moscow's use of poisons against opponents -- a hallmark of its secret services, according to experts.
  • In 2006, the Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko was killed by polonium poison in London.
Polonium, Novichok and now dart frog poison: the finding that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed with a rare toxin has revived the spectre of Moscow's use of poisons against opponents -- a hallmark of its secret services, according to experts.
 The neurotoxin epibatidine, found in Ecuadoran frogs, was identified in laboratory analyses of samples from Navalny's body, the British, Swedish, French, German and Dutch governments said in a joint statement released on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.
"Only the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin," said Britain's Foreign Office, with the joint statement pointing to Russia as the prime suspect.
The Kremlin on Monday rejected what it called the "biased and baseless" accusation it assassinated Navalny, a staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin who died on February 16, 2024, while serving a 19-year sentence in a Russian Arctic prison colony.
But the allegations echo other cases of opponents being poisoned in connection -- proven or suspected -- with Russian agents.
In 2006, the Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko was killed by polonium poison in London. Ukrainian politician Viktor Yushchenko, campaigning against a Russian-backed candidate for the presidency, was disfigured by dioxin in 2004. And the nerve agent Novichok was used in the attempted poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018.
"We should remain cautious, but this hypothesis is all the more plausible given that Navalny had already been the target of an assassination attempt (in 2020) on a plane involving underwear soaked with an organophosphate nerve agent, Novichok, which is manufactured only in Russia," said Olivier Lepick, a fellow at the Foundation for Strategic Research specialising in chemical weapons.

Toxin 'never been used'

"To my knowledge, epibatidine has never been used for assassinations," Lepick added.
Until now, the substance was mainly known for its effect on animals that try to attack Ecuadoran poison dart frogs.
"It's a powerful neurotoxin that first hyperstimulates the nervous system in an extremely violent way and then shuts it down. So you'll convulse and then become paralysed, especially in terms of breathing," said Jerome Langrand, director of the Paris poison control centre.
But to the scientist, using this substance to poison Navalny is "quite unsettling".
"One wonders, why choose this particular poison? If it was to conceal a poisoning, it's not the best substance. Or is it meant to spread an atmosphere of fear, to reinforce an image of power and danger with the message: 'We can poison anywhere and with anything'?" he said.

Russian 'calling card'

For many experts, the use of poison bears a Russian signature.
"It's something specific to the Soviet services. In the 1920s, Lenin created a poison laboratory called 'Kamera' ('chamber' in Russian), Lab X. This laboratory grew significantly under Stalin, and then under his successors Khrushchev and Brezhnev... It was this laboratory that produced Novichok," said Andrei Kozovoi, professor of Russian history at the University of Lille.
"The Russians don't have a monopoly on it, but there is a dimension of systematisation, with considerable resources put in place a very long time ago -- the creation of the poison laboratory, which developed without any restrictions," he added.
Even if a poisoning can fail -- some targets survived, such as Yushchenko and Skripal -- it also serves to send a message, and acted as "a calling card" left by the Russian services, according to Kozovoi.
"Poison is associated in the collective imagination and in psychology with a terrible, agonising death. The use of chemical substances or poisons carries an explicit intention to terrorise the target and, in cases such as Litvinenko, Skripal or Navalny, to warn anyone who might be tempted to betray Mother Russia or become an opponent," said Lepick.
"A neurotoxin, a radioactive substance, or a toxic substance is much more frightening than an explosive or being shot to death."
sva/dab/sw/jhb

conflict

'How long?': Day Three of hunger strike for Venezuelan political prisoners' release

BY PATRICK FORT

  • The doctor, Arreaza, said he had been denied permission to go inside to check on the prisoners, and it was not clear whether any of them were also on hunger strike.
  • With dark circles under their eyes and feeling weak but angry, about a dozen female relatives of Venezuelan political prisoners staged day three of a hunger strike Monday demanding their loved ones' immediate release.
  • The doctor, Arreaza, said he had been denied permission to go inside to check on the prisoners, and it was not clear whether any of them were also on hunger strike.
With dark circles under their eyes and feeling weak but angry, about a dozen female relatives of Venezuelan political prisoners staged day three of a hunger strike Monday demanding their loved ones' immediate release.
Reclining on mattresses outside the "Zona 7" prison in Caracas, some are starting to doubt if the interim regime left over after Nicolas Maduro's ouster in a US military strike last month intends to keep its word on freeing hundreds of government detractors.
Inside Zona 7, about 60 inmates remain, along with hundreds more countrywide for whose release family members have been clamoring for weeks.
The Foro Penal rights NGO says 444 political prisoners have been freed since Maduro's toppling. More than 600 remain behind bars.
"How long? How long are they going to leave us like this?" asked Evelin Quiaro, 46, lying feebly on her back with a small bottle of electrolyte water within reach. She hadn't eaten solid food in over two days.
Quiaro's son has been imprisoned since November, accused of taking part in a bomb attack Maduro's security services claim to have foiled. 
He is one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, Venezuelans jailed in recent years over plots, real or imagined, to overthrow the regime.
Five days after Maduro's toppling on January 3, an interim government led by Delcy Rodriguez -- formerly his vice president -- vowed under pressure from Washington to free all political prisoners.
But Rodriguez and the rest of what remains of the regime are staunch Maduro acolytes, and some Venezuelans distrust their intentions.
"We’ve been here for a very long time, since January 8 for most of us, sleeping under tents, living here in an inhuman way. We’re at our limit," Quiaro told AFP.
Venezuela's congress is considering a law that is meant to grant amnesty to political detainees, but several postponements -- the most recent last Thursday -- prompted the hunger strike.

'This is not a game!'

Rafael Arreaza, a prominent Venezuelan doctor volunteering help to the "Zona 7" families, says fasting is dangerous, especially in the kinds of conditions in which the hunger strikers find themselves: out in the open, breathing in dust and pollution.
"Immunity drops and health complications can occur very easily," he told AFP.
Quiaro said she was, indeed, already starting to feel weak.
But, she added: "It’s worth it, it will always be worth it! This has to have an effect. This is not a game!"
Another of the protesters, Narwin Gil, stopped a policeman from entering the prison with his lunchbox.
"You can’t go in with food. If they (the prisoners) aren’t eating, neither are you,” she shouted. The officer did not insist, and turned back.
The doctor, Arreaza, said he had been denied permission to go inside to check on the prisoners, and it was not clear whether any of them were also on hunger strike.
Maria Escalona, 41, whose husband has been detained since September, also spoke from a mattress outside the prison.
"My little ones (eight and nine) are suffering because they’re not with their father. It’s stressful, it’s worrying. We’re already exhausted by this hunger strike," she said.
Congress is not due to sit again before Thursday, and it is not known when the amnesty bill will next come up for discussion.
pgf/mlr/dw

killing

France opens murder probe as killing of far-right activist stokes tensions

  • The government has already blamed rhetoric from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party for fuelling the violence that led to Deranque's death.
  • French authorities have opened a murder probe into the death of a far-right activist last week, a public prosecutor said Monday, in a killing the government has blamed partly on the hard left.  
  • The government has already blamed rhetoric from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party for fuelling the violence that led to Deranque's death.
French authorities have opened a murder probe into the death of a far-right activist last week, a public prosecutor said Monday, in a killing the government has blamed partly on the hard left.  
Quentin Deranque, 23, died after sustaining a severe brain injury when he was attacked Thursday by "at least six" people on the sidelines of a far-right protest against a left-wing politician speaking at a university in Lyon, the western city's prosecutor Thierry Dran said at a press conference Monday. 
No arrests had yet been made and authorities were working to identify the masked and hooded suspects in the killing, which is being investigated as an "intentional homicide" and "aggravated assault", he added. 
The incident has fuelled tension between France's far right and hard left ahead of municipal elections in March and the 2027 presidential race, in which the far-right National Rally party (RN) is seen as having its best chance yet at winning the top job.
The government has already blamed rhetoric from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party for fuelling the violence that led to Deranque's death.
An anti-immigration collective called Nemesis, who say they fight violence against Western women, said Deranque had been at the protest to protect its members.
Nemesis has blamed the killing on the Jeune Garde (Young Guard), an anti-fascist youth group co-founded by an LFI lawmaker before he was elected to parliament.
The group -- which was dissolved in June -- denied any links to the "tragic events".
Government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon accused the LFI Monday of having "encouraged a climate of violence for years".
"There is therefore -- in light of the political climate and the climate of violence -- a moral responsibility on the part of LFI" for the attack on Thursday, she told broadcaster BFMTV. 

'Pitched battle'

According to a source close to the probe into the Lyon killing, there was "a pitched battle between members of the far left and the far right".
A video broadcast by TF1 television of the alleged attack shows a dozen people hitting three others lying on the ground, two of whom manage to escape. 
A witness told AFP "people were hitting each other with iron bars".
LFI's veteran leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, a three-time presidential candidate widely expected to run again next year, has denied his party were to blame.
LFI lawmaker Raphael Arnault, who co-founded the Jeune Garde group, has said he was horrified by the death.
One of Arnault's assistants has been banned from parliament after several witnesses mentioned him in the investigation into the fatal beating, its speaker Yael Braun-Pivet said on Monday.
On the far right, the presidential hopeful from the RN, three-time contender Marine Le Pen, has condemned the "barbarians responsible for this lynching".

No more 'alliance'

Opinion polls put the far right in the lead for the presidency in 2027, when President Emmanuel Macron will have to step down after the maximum two consecutive terms in office.
Le Pen is hoping to vie for the post despite a graft conviction.
She has said she will decide whether to run after an appeal court ruling in July, when she could hand over to her lieutenant Jordan Bardella.
A poll of 1,000 people published on Sunday placed Bardella as the preferred candidate in the 2027 vote, ahead of Le Pen in second place.
The left, including LFI, allied against the far right after Macron called for snap parliamentary elections in 2024.
But the plan backfired, with Macron losing even more of his majority and the RN becoming the biggest party in the lower house.
Raphael Glucksmann, a centre-left member of European parliament, on Monday rejected another such broad leftist alliance.
"It's unthinkable that, on the left, we would continue to harbour the slightest doubt about a possible electoral alliance with LFI," he told the RTL broadcaster.
burs-ah-sw/as

diplomacy

Iran says US 'more realistic' on nuclear issue, as Guards begin drills in Hormuz Strait

  • "A cautious assessment is that, from the discussions that have taken place in Muscat to date, at least what we have been told is that the US position on the Iranian nuclear issue has moved towards a more realistic one," said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, the official IRNA news agency reported.
  • Iran said on Monday that the United States's position on Iran's nuclear programme "has moved towards a more realistic one", a day ahead of a second round of US-Iranian talks in Geneva.
  • "A cautious assessment is that, from the discussions that have taken place in Muscat to date, at least what we have been told is that the US position on the Iranian nuclear issue has moved towards a more realistic one," said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Iran said on Monday that the United States's position on Iran's nuclear programme "has moved towards a more realistic one", a day ahead of a second round of US-Iranian talks in Geneva.
Tehran's foreign minister arrived in Geneva for the new round of indirect negotiations with the US, as the Revolutionary Guards began military drills in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for oil and gas.
The two sides recently resumed indirect talks, mediated by Oman, after US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened military action against Iran over a deadly crackdown on protesters last month.
A previous attempt at negotiations collapsed when Israel launched surprise strikes on Iran, beginning a 12-day war that Washington briefly joined to bomb Iranian nuclear sites.
"A cautious assessment is that, from the discussions that have taken place in Muscat to date, at least what we have been told is that the US position on the Iranian nuclear issue has moved towards a more realistic one," said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, the official IRNA news agency reported.
According to Tehran, talks mediated by Oman will be held on Tuesday in Switzerland. 
Washington has previously pushed for other topics to be discussed including Iran's ballistic missiles and support for armed groups in the region.
The war games being conducted by the Guards, the ideological arm of the military, aim to prepare it for "potential security and military threats" in the strait, Iranian state TV said.
Iranian politicians have repeatedly threatened to block the strait, a strategic waterway through which about 20 percent of global oil passes, as both sides ramp up pressure with talks set to resume.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday "we're hopeful there's a deal".
"The president always prefers peaceful outcomes and negotiated outcomes to things."
Meanwhile, Iran's top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, wrote on X that he was meeting in Geneva with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, "for deep technical discussion".
Grossi later confirmed the meeting on X, calling the conversation with Araghchi "in-depth" ahead of Tuesday's "important negotiations".

Protest crackdown

Araghchi is also set to hold talks with his Swiss and Omani counterparts as well as other international officials, Iran's foreign ministry said.
"I am in Geneva with real ideas to achieve a fair and equitable deal. What is not on the table: submission before threats," Araghchi added on X.
Washington has dispatched Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, the White House confirmed on Sunday.
The latest talks follow repeated threats from Trump of military action against Tehran, first over Iran's deadly crackdown on anti-government protests, and then more recently over the country's nuclear programme.
The West fears the programme is aimed at making a bomb, which Tehran denies.
On Friday, Trump said a change of government in Iran would be the "best thing that could happen", as he sent a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East to ratchet up military pressure.
His remarks came before demonstrations outside Iran against its clerical authorities swept a number of cities including in the US over the weekend.
Iranians inside the country have also defied the deadly crackdown on protests last month and continued to shout slogans against the authorities from their windows.

'Viable' deal

Iran's deputy foreign minister told the BBC that Tehran would consider compromises on its uranium stockpile if Washington lifts sanctions that have crippled the country's economy. 
"If we see the sincerity on their (American) part, I am sure we will be on a road to have an agreement," said Majid Takht-Ravanchi. 
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that any deal must involve the removal of all enriched uranium from Iran as well as Tehran's ability to enrich more.
The whereabouts of Iran's stockpile of around 400 kilogrammes of uranium enriched to 60 percent remains unknown, with inspectors having last seen it in June.
bur-lb/jsa/ris/dcp

Israel

'Tehran' TV series producer Dana Eden found dead in Athens

BY MARINA RAFENBERG

  • The 52-year-old Israeli national's body was found Sunday night at a hotel near Syntagma Square, in the heart of the Greek capital, the force said.
  • TV producer Dana Eden, who co-created the hit Israeli spy thriller series "Tehran", has been found dead in a hotel room in Athens, Greek police told AFP on Monday.
  • The 52-year-old Israeli national's body was found Sunday night at a hotel near Syntagma Square, in the heart of the Greek capital, the force said.
TV producer Dana Eden, who co-created the hit Israeli spy thriller series "Tehran", has been found dead in a hotel room in Athens, Greek police told AFP on Monday.
The 52-year-old Israeli national's body was found Sunday night at a hotel near Syntagma Square, in the heart of the Greek capital, the force said.
"An autopsy has been ordered, the surveillance cameras have been reviewed, and everything seems to indicate it was a suicide," a police spokesperson said.
Eden had arrived in Athens on February 4 for the shooting of the fourth season of the Emmy-winning series, broadcast internationally on Apple TV.
"This is a moment of profound pain for the family, friends, and colleagues," her company, Donna and Shula Productions, said in a statement.
The firm said rumours suggesting her death was the result of a criminal act or connected to her nationality were "incorrect and unfounded".
We ask that Dana's dignity and the privacy of her loved ones be respected," the statement said.
The first three seasons of "Tehran", which focused on a Mossad agent working undercover in the Iranian capital, were filmed in Athens.
Shooting of the fourth season was delayed after the attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent bombardments of Gaza.
The show has become one of the most internationally sold Israeli productions, and won the Emmy Award for Best Drama Series in 2021.

Giant bet

In 2023, Eden and co-producer Shula Spiegel told the podcast "Outside the Frame" how they had made a giant bet on "Tehran".
Drawn to Athens after Eden took a family vacation there and decided it would make a good stand-in for the Iranian capital, the pair applied for and won Greek government funding aimed at drawing international TV and film productions to the country.
But then the coronavirus pandemic hit, delaying on-site production -- and their funding -- by months.
"I mortgaged my house to produce 'Tehran' and complete the filming," Eden told the podcast, saying she and Spiegel were "both crazy", "irresponsibly optimistic" and took "insane risks".
But the bet paid off when the pair signed with Apple TV in what she said was "a deal on a scale unheard of for an Israeli series until then".
The series, which stars Niv Sultan, has also featured the likes of actors Glenn Close and Hugh Laurie.
Israeli Culture Minister Miki Zohar posted on social media that Eden was "one of the most prominent and influential producers in the Israeli television industry".
burs-jxb/jhb

AI

AI chatbots to face UK safety rules after outcry over Grok

  • "The government will move fast to shut a legal loophole and force all AI chatbot providers to abide by illegal content duties in the Online Safety Act or face the consequences of breaking the law," he said.
  • The UK government said Monday that it would include AI chatbots in online safety laws, closing a loophole exposed after Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok was used to create sexualised deepfakes.
  • "The government will move fast to shut a legal loophole and force all AI chatbot providers to abide by illegal content duties in the Online Safety Act or face the consequences of breaking the law," he said.
The UK government said Monday that it would include AI chatbots in online safety laws, closing a loophole exposed after Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok was used to create sexualised deepfakes.
Providers of chatbots will be responsible for preventing them from generating illegal or harmful content, extending rules that currently apply only to content shared between users on social media.
It follows an international backlash against Grok for letting people create and share sexualised pictures of women and children using simple text prompts.
"The new measures announced today include crackdown on vile illegal content created by AI," Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement ahead of a speech on the matter Monday.
"The government will move fast to shut a legal loophole and force all AI chatbot providers to abide by illegal content duties in the Online Safety Act or face the consequences of breaking the law," he said.
Under the Online Safety Act, which entered force in July, platforms hosting potentially harmful content are required to implement strict age verification through tools such as facial imagery or credit card checks.
It is also illegal for sites to create or share non-consensual intimate images, or child sexual abuse material, including sexual deepfakes created with AI.
In January, Britain's media regulator Ofcom opened a probe into the social media platform X, which hosts Grok, for failing to meet its safety obligations. 
The country's data watchdog has launched a wider investigation into Musk's X and xAI -- which developed the Grok AI tool -- to see whether the companies complied with personal data law when it came to Grok's generation of sexualised deepfakes.
Ofcom has noted that not all AI chatbots are regulated under the Online Safety Act, including those which "only allow people to interact with the chatbot itself and no other users".
"Technology moves on so quickly that the legislation struggles to keep up, which is why, for AI bots... we need to take the necessary measures," Starmer said.
His Labour government is ramping up efforts to protect children online, having launched a consultation on a social media ban for those under the age of 16, while considering measures to limit features like infinite scrolling on social media.
In January 2025, Starmer pledged to ease red tape to attract billions of pounds of AI investment and help Britain become an "AI superpower".
ajb/bcp/js

diplomacy

'Your success is our success,' Rubio tells Orban ahead of Hungary polls

BY LEON BRUNEAU

  • - Conciliatory tone - Rubio arrived in Budapest on Sunday for the talks on Monday, before flying back to Washington.
  • US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed Viktor Orban's leadership during a visit to Budapest on Monday, ahead of elections threatening the nationalist prime minister's hold on power.
  • - Conciliatory tone - Rubio arrived in Budapest on Sunday for the talks on Monday, before flying back to Washington.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed Viktor Orban's leadership during a visit to Budapest on Monday, ahead of elections threatening the nationalist prime minister's hold on power.
Rubio's visit is the final stage of a whirlwind trip to Europe that also saw him address the Munich Security Conference and visit another right-wing ally, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico.
US President Donald Trump has made no secret of his high regard for Orban, saying in a social media post on Friday that the prime minister had produced "phenomenal" results in Hungary.
But Orban, 62, has a fight on his hands for the April 12 legislative elections in Hungary. Polls suggest his Fidesz party is trailing opposition leader Peter Magyar's TISZA.
"I can say to you with confidence that President Trump is deeply committed to your success because your success is our success," Rubio said during a joint press conference with Orban after their meeting.
"The president has an extraordinarily close relationship to the prime minister, he does, and it has had tangible benefits," he said.

'Don't be afraid'

Orban said the government "will be created after the election in Hungary based on the intention of the Hungarians." 
"Sometimes I lose, sometimes I win," said Orban, who returned to power in 2010.
"So don't be afraid what will be if we are not winning because it's regularly happened here," he added.
In a speech on Saturday, Orban insisted he would keep up his fight against "pseudo-civil organisations, bought journalists, judges, politicians" -- echoing similar Trump tirades in the United States.
He also took aim at the "oppressive machinery of Brussels", another jibe at the European Union's leadership, with whom he has long been at loggerheads on a host of issues.
Orban is in the firing line of the EU's leadership for what they say is his silencing of critical voices in the judiciary, academia, the media and civil society. They also accuse him of going after minorities.
Adding to tension with the EU is the close relationship he has maintained with Russia's President Vladimir Putin -- another thing he has in common with Trump.
European Commission spokesperson, Paula Pinho, told reporters at a press briefing that it was "up to the United States government to decide whom, when, and how they support -- or not".

Conciliatory tone

Rubio arrived in Budapest on Sunday for the talks on Monday, before flying back to Washington.
The decision to visit Fico and Orban, two nationalist leaders close to both Trump and Putin -- and out of step with the EU consensus -- sends a clear diplomatic message.
In his speech on Saturday to the Munich Security Conference, Rubio called on Europe to join Trump in his fight to defend Western civilisation from the threat of mass immigration.
He tried, too, to reassure European leaders over the US position on NATO, and on Greenland -- with mixed success.
But if his main message was that Europe should get behind the vision of the US president, in Bratislava on Sunday he stressed: "We're not asking Europe to be a vassal of the United States.
"We want to be your partner. We want to work with Europe. We want to work with our allies."
Orban is one of several leaders to have announced he will travel to Washington this week for the inaugural meeting of Trump's controversial "Board of Peace" -- which critics see as an instrument designed to undermine the UN Security Council.
Orban became a hero to many Trump supporters for his hostility to migration during the Syrian refugee crisis a decade ago. He has made several visits to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Energy was also on the agenda in Monday's talks, just as it was in Slovakia. 
When Orban visited the White House in 2025, Trump granted Hungary an exemption from sanctions imposed on Russian oil and gas imports over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
burs-jza/st

film

African diaspora's plural identities on screen in Berlin

BY ANTOINE GUY

  • According to festival director Tricia Tuttle, "belonging, and the experience of living between worlds" is a key theme on this year's programme and it is particularly present in two films in the festival's official competition.
  • Two films at this year's Berlin Film Festival follow members of the African diaspora telling stories by retracing the paths of their ancestors.
  • According to festival director Tricia Tuttle, "belonging, and the experience of living between worlds" is a key theme on this year's programme and it is particularly present in two films in the festival's official competition.
Two films at this year's Berlin Film Festival follow members of the African diaspora telling stories by retracing the paths of their ancestors.
According to festival director Tricia Tuttle, "belonging, and the experience of living between worlds" is a key theme on this year's programme and it is particularly present in two films in the festival's official competition.
"In a Whisper" by Tunisian director Leyla Bouzid and "Dao" by Franco-Senegalese filmmaker Alain Gomis each tackle the subject of dual identity in their own way.
"Dao" depicts two interlaced events: a wedding near Paris and a funeral ceremony in Guinea-Bissau.
The film moves between the two in a sweeping, polyphonic narrative blending performances by professional and amateur actors, portraying a multifaceted Franco-African community refreshingly free from stereotypes.
Shot over 20 days (10 in France and 10 in Guinea-Bissau), the film adopts an experimental approach, even including screen tests and casting interviews to unveil the characters.
- Scattered families - 
As a child, Gomis was deeply affected by the funeral ceremony held for his father in his village in Guinea-Bissau, the very place he chose to shoot the African portion of his film. 
Later, "I attended a wedding and thought that those two experiences really spoke to each other, and that they also said something about these families that are somewhat scattered," Gomis told AFP in an interview. 
The film presents a swath of characters from the diaspora rarely represented in French cinema, centered on Gloria, the mother of the bride in France and the daughter of the deceased in Africa. 
For Gomis, addressing the question of dual identity means dealing with "different ways of talking about the same thing at heart".
"Committing to someone through marriage, or facing grief are experiences we share across the planet," he said. 
"So having two readings of these moments is, I think tremendously enriching." 
- 'Not at home anywhere' - 
For "In a Whisper", Bouzid also delved into her own family history, filming in her late grandmother's house in the Tunisian city of Sousse.
"The desire to make the film came from wanting to film this house where I spent all my summers, a house that, to me, is very charismatic, cinematic," Bouzid told AFP, adding that the film was "very strongly inspired" by her grandmother.
Bouzid grew up in Tunisia but moved to France at the age of 18 and now lives between the two countries.
Her story follows Lilia, a Tunisian living in Paris, who returns to Tunisia for her uncle's funeral. 
The viewer learns early on that she is in a relationship with another woman which she has to hide from her family in Tunisia, where same-sex relationships are illegal.
As she spends more time with her family, she gradually lifts the veil on her uncle's life and learns more about what led to his death. 
While the "female characters are inspired by figures in my family, the story is fictional", said Bouzid.
The film portrays the difficulty Lilia has in reconciling her sexual orientation with her cultural and familial roots.
"At the heart of the film is a mixed couple, a French woman and a Tunisian woman," said Bouzid. 
Lilia "is never completely at home anywhere, and that's something that interests me greatly," she went on.
"It's also a film about the transmission of generational trauma across three generations in a family, and how taboos, unspoken things and secrets travel." 
agu/pyv/jsk/rlp

Global Edition

India hosts AI summit as safety concerns grow

BY KATIE FORSTER

  • The Delhi summit has the loose themes of "people, progress, planet" -- dubbed three "sutras".
  • A global artificial intelligence summit kicked off in New Delhi on Monday with big issues on the agenda, from job disruption to child safety, although some attendees warned the broad focus could make concrete commitments from world leaders less likely.
  • The Delhi summit has the loose themes of "people, progress, planet" -- dubbed three "sutras".
A global artificial intelligence summit kicked off in New Delhi on Monday with big issues on the agenda, from job disruption to child safety, although some attendees warned the broad focus could make concrete commitments from world leaders less likely.
While frenzied demand for generative AI has turbocharged profits for many tech companies, anxiety is growing over the risks that it poses to society and the environment.
The five-day AI Impact Summit aims to declare a "shared roadmap for global AI governance and collaboration".
It is the fourth annual gathering addressing the problems and opportunities posed by AI, after previous international meetings in Paris, Seoul and Britain's wartime code-breaking hub Bletchley.
Touted as the biggest edition yet, the Indian government is expecting tens of thousands of visitors from across the sector.
That includes 20 national leaders and 45 ministerial-level delegations, who will rub shoulders with tech CEOs including Sam Altman of OpenAI and Google's Sundar Pichai.
"The AI Impact Summit will enrich global discourse on diverse aspects of AI, such as innovation, collaboration, responsible use and more," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X.
It is "further proof that our country is progressing rapidly in the field of science and technology," and "shows the capability of our country's youth", added Modi, who will inaugurate the event later on Monday.
At the busy conference site, panels and roundtables were held on topics ranging from how AI can make India's treacherous roads safer to how South Asian women are engaging with the technology.

Three 'sutras'

But whether Modi and the likes of France's Emmanuel Macron and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will take meaningful steps to hold AI giants accountable is in doubt, said Amba Kak, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute.
"Even the much-touted industry voluntary commitments made at these events have largely been narrow 'self regulatory' frameworks that position AI companies to continue to grade their own homework," she told AFP.
The Bletchley gathering in 2023 was called the AI Safety Summit, but the meetings' names have changed as they have grown in size and scope.
At last year's AI Action Summit in Paris, dozens of nations signed a statement calling for efforts to regulate AI tech to make it "open" and "ethical".
The United States did not sign, with Vice President JD Vance warning that "excessive regulation... could kill a transformative sector just as it's taking off".
The Delhi summit has the loose themes of "people, progress, planet" -- dubbed three "sutras". AI safety remains a priority, including the dangers of misinformation such as deepfakes.
"There is real scope for change" although it might not happen fast enough to prevent harm to minors, said AI Asia Pacific Institute director Kelly Forbes, whose organisation is researching how Australia and other countries are requiring platforms to confront the issue.

AI for 'the many'

Organisers highlight this year's AI summit as the first hosted by a developing country.
"The summit will shape a shared vision for AI that truly serves the many, not just the few," India's IT ministry has said.
Last year India leapt to third place -- overtaking South Korea and Japan -- in an annual global ranking of AI competitiveness calculated by Stanford University researchers.
But despite plans for large-scale infrastructure and grand ambitions for innovation, experts say the country has a long way to go before it can rival the United States and China.
Globally, AI could threaten jobs in industries from software development and factory work to filmmaking, with India's large customer service and tech support sectors particularly vulnerable.
Shares in the country's outsourcing firms have plunged in recent days, partly due to advances in AI assistant tools.
Asked about Indian call centres, startup co-founder Peush Bery told AFP at the summit that AI voice tools "will definitely remove that job" within a few years, but that society would evolve to cope.
"New jobs come up, new fields come up," such as working with data to ensure AI tools can recognise many different accents, Bery said.
kaf/mtp

election

Kyrgyzstan president fires ministers, consolidates power ahead of election

  • On Monday he removed his transport, environment and emergency situations ministers, all former allies, the presidential administration said in a statement.
  • Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov fired three ministers Monday seen as close to the dismissed former head of his security services, as he clears the political decks ahead of elections.
  • On Monday he removed his transport, environment and emergency situations ministers, all former allies, the presidential administration said in a statement.
Kyrgyzstan's President Sadyr Japarov fired three ministers Monday seen as close to the dismissed former head of his security services, as he clears the political decks ahead of elections.
Once seen as a hope for democracy and openness in the otherwise highly authoritarian region of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan has been marked by political instability and three revolutions in the three decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Japarov consolidated power and marginalised opponents after coming to power after the latest revolt in 2020, and is gearing up for a presidential election next year in which he is the overwhelming front-runner.
On Monday he removed his transport, environment and emergency situations ministers, all former allies, the presidential administration said in a statement.
It follows the surprise removal last week of his ex-spy chief, Kamchybek Tashiev -- with whom Japarov had essentially ruled the country in a power tandem.
In an interview to state media, Japarov said he was acting to thwart the chances of a "coup" in the traditionally restive ex-Soviet state.
He alleged several officials close to the ousted Tashiev were plotting to steer Kyrgyzstan "off the right path" and fuel discord between rival political and geographic factions in a country where regional affiliation is strong.
Japarov, from the north, and Tashiev, from the south, governed as a duo -- an unofficial solution to address the delicate balance between northern and southern Kyrgyzstan, separated by immense mountains and with strong local identities.
Rights groups have accused Japarov of authoritarian tendencies in his almost six years in power, as he seeks to assert his control and cast himself as a bringer of stability.
bk/jc/cad/fg

Global Edition

Nepal launches campaigns for first post-uprising polls

BY ANUP OJHA WITH PAAVAN MATHEMA IN KATHMANDU

  • Both Oli and Shah kicked off campaigning in Jhapa on Monday, wooing voters to their cause.
  • Nepali candidates launched campaigning on Monday for next month's parliamentary elections, the first since deadly anti-corruption protests toppled the previous government in 2025.
  • Both Oli and Shah kicked off campaigning in Jhapa on Monday, wooing voters to their cause.
Nepali candidates launched campaigning on Monday for next month's parliamentary elections, the first since deadly anti-corruption protests toppled the previous government in 2025.
In the key battleground of Jhapa-5 -- a constituency in Nepal's eastern plains with the world's highest peaks on the horizon -- a head-to-head political fight dominating the campaign was already heating up.
The ousted former prime minister's bid to return to power  -- 73-year-old Marxist leader KP Sharma Oli -- is being challenged on his home turf by a rapper-turned-mayor casting himself as a symbol of youth-driven political change, 35-year-old Balendra Shah.
Both Oli and Shah kicked off campaigning in Jhapa on Monday, wooing voters to their cause.
"KP Oli is a need of this nation," 66-year-old Jhapa resident Hima Karki told AFP, one of 163,000 voters in the constituency, a mix of towns and farming settlements. "He is the saviour of the nation, and his victory from here is certain."
Others were more doubtful of Oli's return to power.
"Only the youth can bring change," said Chhabi Khatiwoda, 33, a Jhapa resident who has switched his support from Oli to Shah, who has joined the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), the fourth biggest in the last parliament.
"It is high time we all became politically aware and work for new Nepal." 
The youth-led protests in September were triggered by a brief social media ban, but were fuelled by anger at economic stagnation and an ageing elite seen as out of touch.
Over two days in September, 77 people were killed, scores were injured, hundreds of buildings set on fire -- including parliament, courts and a Hilton hotel -- and Oli was ousted.
It was the Himalayan nation's worst violence since a decade-long civil war ended in 2006.
"This election will draw the future of the country," Sushila Karki, who is serving as interim prime minister until the March 5 vote, said ahead of the start of campaigning.

Young and old

Two weeks of campaigns will see a host of new, younger candidates promise to offer change, challenging veteran politicians who say they provide stability and security.
"Today is the first day," Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane told AFP, but said that the active participation of parties was "a good signal of a positive environment for the election".
Shah, who first gained national attention through Nepal's underground hip-hop scene, releasing songs that railed against corruption and inequality, cultivated a devoted following on social media
But Oli-loyalist Hima Karki said the election battle would not be won online. 
"Others may win on social media but we will win in the real election," he said.
Also in the race is Nepali Congress, the country’s oldest party.
It was once part of Oli's coalition government, but has elected a new leader since the uprising -- 49‑year‑old Gagan Thapa.
And, at the other end of the spectrum from Gen Z politics, supporters of the ex‑king Gyanendra Shah, 78 -- deposed in 2008, ending 240 years of monarchy -- will also campaign.
The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), which draws support from royalist nostalgia and frustration with mainstream politics, rallied thousands in Kathmandu on Friday as the ex-king drove through the streets waving from his car.

'Way out'

Nearly 19 million people have registered to vote, including 800,000 taking part for the first time.
They will elect members to the 275-seat House of Representatives, the lower house, with 165 via a direct vote and 110 through proportional representation.
More than 3,400 candidates are competing in the direct vote, 30 percent aged under 40.
Campaign banners and party flags are already being strung up in towns, with a string of rallies planned as candidates seek to woo voters.
"This election is being conducted in a special condition," former chief justice Karki said, as she oversaw polling preparations last week. "This has to give the country a way out."
The Election Commission has said it is ready to hold the polls as planned despite concerns over weather conditions, as many high-altitude areas may be snowbound that early in the year.
The vote is being held unusually early in the year, due to an accelerated election schedule brought on by the September unrest.
Extra security forces have been drafted to ensure calm, with around 300,000 officers and temporary election police deployed.
pm/pjm/mtp

climate

Greenland's west coast posts warmest January on record

  • On the warmest day in Nuuk in January, the mercury rose to a balmy 11.3C. From the southern tip of Greenland up the west coast -- a distance of over 2,000 kilometres (1,243 miles) -– the temperature in January set monthly records, DMI said.
  • Greenland's capital Nuuk registered its warmest ever January -- beating a record that stood for 109 years -- as temperatures soared across the Arctic island's west coast, the Danish Meteorological Institute said Monday.
  • On the warmest day in Nuuk in January, the mercury rose to a balmy 11.3C. From the southern tip of Greenland up the west coast -- a distance of over 2,000 kilometres (1,243 miles) -– the temperature in January set monthly records, DMI said.
Greenland's capital Nuuk registered its warmest ever January -- beating a record that stood for 109 years -- as temperatures soared across the Arctic island's west coast, the Danish Meteorological Institute said Monday.
While Europe and North America experienced a cold snap in January, Nuuk registered an average monthly temperature of 0.1C (32 Fahrenheit), a whopping 7.8C above the average for the month of January over the last three decades.
That is 1.4 degrees above the previous record for Nuuk from 1917.
On the warmest day in Nuuk in January, the mercury rose to a balmy 11.3C.
From the southern tip of Greenland up the west coast -- a distance of over 2,000 kilometres (1,243 miles) -– the temperature in January set monthly records, DMI said.
In Ilulissat in Disko Bay, the January average was -1.6C, 1.3 degrees warmer than the previous record from 1929 and 11 degrees warmer than normal for January, DMI said.
Warmer air occasionally sweeps over Greenland, bringing milder temperatures for a day or two, but such an extended heat record across such a large area is "a clear indication that something is changing", DMI climate researcher Martin Olesen said.
"We know and can clearly see that global warming is well underway, which, as expected, leads to more records at the warm end of the temperature scale and gradually fewer records at the low end," he said.
The Arctic region is on the frontline of global warming, heating up four times faster than the rest of the planet since 1979, according to a 2022 study in scientific journal Nature.
po/fg

Global Edition

Nepal 'addicted' to the trade in its own people

BY ANUP OJHA

  • "He went to seek happiness for his children and his family, and now his body has returned in a coffin.
  • Rudra Bahadur Kami returned to Nepal through a back door of Kathmandu airport in a battered coffin after working for more than a decade in Saudi Arabia to feed his family back home.
  • "He went to seek happiness for his children and his family, and now his body has returned in a coffin.
Rudra Bahadur Kami returned to Nepal through a back door of Kathmandu airport in a battered coffin after working for more than a decade in Saudi Arabia to feed his family back home.
His eldest son, Lalit Bishowkarma, 21, was there to sign the papers. The death certificate said he died of a heart attack. He was 43.
Baggage handlers loaded the box onto the bed of a truck like a piece of lost luggage. There was no time for ceremony. Two more lorries were queued up behind.
Every day the bodies of three or four migrant workers are handed back to their families at the airport, the final transaction in a well-oiled system -- overseen by the state -- that helps keep Nepal's economy afloat.
"He went to seek happiness for his children and his family, and now his body has returned in a coffin. It's unbearable," his son said.
Officially around 2.5 million Nepalis work abroad -- 7.5 percent of the population. Most toil on the building sites of the Gulf and Saudi Arabia or in hotels and factories there, while others work in India and Malaysia.
The money they send back represents more than a third of the country's GDP, according to the World Bank.
Most migrants are young, driven abroad by the chronic unemployment in South Asia's poorest country that helped spark the Gen Z uprising that toppled 73-year-old prime minister KP Sharma Oli's government of "the old" in September.

 Getting loans to leave

Just beyond the Chitwan National Park, home of some of the last Bengal tigers, the southern town of Madi embodies Nepal's deep dependence on the export of its people.
Dipak Magar, 39, is proud of the small house he has built on a bend of a rutted road. The cube of concrete blocks topped with corrugated iron sheets cost him three years of sweat and sacrifice in a Saudi Arabian marble factory.
"I earned 700,000 Nepali rupees ($4,800), which was spent building this house," he said.
The father-of-four was rushing to plaster the outside walls before returning to work in Riyadh, leaving his family and the snow-capped Himalayas on the horizon behind yet again.
"I need to feed my family and provide education for my children," he told AFP. "It feels sad to leave my family, but there is no job here."
One of his brothers also works in Saudi Arabia, another in Romania.
"We haven't enough land to feed all the family," said his father, Dhana Bahadur Magar, 60.
It was the same story across the road, where Juna Gautam's two daughters have gone to Japan. "Even though they are educated, there are no job opportunities here."
Like many others, they went heavily into debt to pay the employment agencies that got them their jobs there, she said.
Local councillor Birendra Bahadur Bhandar said 1,500 young people -- in a district of some 50,000 souls -- were working abroad.

Migration on industrial scale

It is no better elsewhere. Nepal's steep mountain valleys are emptying of their young.
Young Nepali men have long left to fight for the British Army -- the famous Gurkhas -- a tradition that goes back to the late 19th century.
But the trickle of migration became a torrent during the 10 years of the Maoist insurgency that ended in 2006.
The young fled to the cities to escape the fighting and they found "this refuge in foreign employment", recalled Nilambar Badal of the National Network for Safe Migration (NNSM).
But the scale of the exodus has become industrial over the last decade as Nepal's agriculture and tourism industries have stagnated.
In 2016, the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) -- the government agency that oversees migrant workers -- granted 287,519 permits to work abroad. Last year, it issued nearly three times more.
Badal estimates that "almost half of (Nepali) households are receiving remittances" -- money earned abroad.
Migrant worker groups say the government has become "addicted" to the money to keep the economy going.
Rather than developing local industry, it promotes "foreign employment", Badal insisted. "They are expecting people to go out and send the money back so that they can run the country.
"We are a remittance-dependent economy," he added.

'Corrupt' system

Former labour minister Sarita Giri went further, saying the government was at the heart of a "rotten and corrupt" system "exploiting migrant workers and their families".
She claimed the government's own licensed agency system that sends people abroad was a "mafia", bought off with money paid "to political parties through government officials. That is why this problem has not been solved... The system is so well-protected.
"The main player to blame is the government," she said.
A 2007 law was meant to regulate the 1,000 or so employment agencies -- known as "manpowers". But critics say would-be migrant workers are being made to pay 30 to 40 times the official service charge.
Many are forced into debt to pay the hundreds of dollars for visas, permits and travel organised by the agencies.
And the jobs they end up doing are often far from what they are promised.

 Slept on floor

Sanjib Ghoraisaine left for Qatar last year thinking that he would be cleaning the pool of a five-star hotel. He found himself working as a domestic servant being paid half of what he was told and sleeping on a floor.
"I paid 200,000 rupees ($1,350) hoping for a monthly salary of $356, and I had to take out a loan that I took six months to pay off."
It was only when he "threatened to kill myself that my employer agreed to let me leave", Ghoraisaine said, "and I had to pay for my return".
His Nepali agent refused to reimburse him, offering to send him elsewhere for free. But after not hearing back for a month, Ghoraisaine complained to the DoFE.

Dying for work

Some 14,843 Nepalis lost their lives abroad between 2008 and 2025 -- 1,544 last year alone -- official figures show.
Few were recorded as workplace deaths. The official death toll of foreign construction workers in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was similarly small. While local authorities said less than 40 died, NGOs insisted several thousand migrant workers -- many from Nepal -- perished in deplorable conditions in the extreme heat, often from heart attacks.
Employment agencies deny they are at fault for the abuses, blaming the government for lack of enforcement.
"If you look at the complaints lodged with the Department of Foreign Employment, only five percent are due to faults of recruitment agencies, while the remaining complaints come from individuals who travel on their own initiative," said Dhana Maya Sinjali, of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies.
"Just making rules and policies is not enough, DoFE should also monitor them," she said.
But NGOs say many agencies flout the rules, taking advantage of people desperate to work abroad.

Rogue agencies

Several migrants also told AFP they got work abroad through completely illegal agencies.
Kul Prasad Karki, of the Pravasi Nepal NGO, said "unofficial agents operate in violation of all government policies, rules and regulations. These problems occur frequently".
Karki, who worked in Saudi Arabia for 10 years himself, said even the certified companies do not play by the rules: "Only 10 percent of manpower agencies claim that they conduct ethical recruitment practices", with the rest demanding "perks" from their clients.
Human rights lawyer Barun Ghimire said no agency has ever been convicted of breaking the rules.
"The law was implemented to regulate the businesses of foreign employment. It does not talk about the rights of migrant workers and the obligation of government to ensure those rights."
Nepal's Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security said it was focused on "safeguarding migrant workers' interests". But spokesman Pitambar Ghimire admitted that "our only shortcoming is proper implementation".

Election promises

With Nepalis due to go to the polls in elections on March 5, many candidates are promising change.
Balendra Shah, the former mayor of the capital Kathmandu, who is seen by many as the next prime minister, said jobs, training and attracting investment will be his priorities.
"We can encourage those who left the country out of necessity to return," the 35-year-old said, even if "we cannot bring all Nepalis back on the second day" of a new administration.
And reversing Nepal's dependence on money transfers from abroad may take an awful lot longer. Monthly remittances broke the 200 billion-rupee barrier -- $1.4 billion -- for the first time just after September's "revolution".
Ironically, Nepalis abroad -- on whom the country depends -- will not be able to have their say on March 5.
Despite a supreme court decision, the electoral commission has still not organised postal voting for them.
Dipak Magar -- who is already back in Saudi Arabia -- expects nothing from a new government, even one inspired by the Gen Z rebellion.
"Whoever wins, no one ever does something for us," he said.
str-pa/fg/jhb/gv

theft

Australian museum recovers Egyptian artefacts after break-in

  • "Police will allege the man was found in possession of the last missing artefact, the wooden cat sculpture," they said.
  • Australian police have recovered a trove of stolen Egyptian artefacts and charged a 52-year-old man with a nighttime smash-and-grab at a museum.
  • "Police will allege the man was found in possession of the last missing artefact, the wooden cat sculpture," they said.
Australian police have recovered a trove of stolen Egyptian artefacts and charged a 52-year-old man with a nighttime smash-and-grab at a museum.
The man was accused of breaking a window and making off with the priceless treasures in the early hours of Friday from the Abbey Museum of Art and Archeology in the Queensland town of Caboolture.
Police said they found all the stolen goods -- except for a wooden cat sculpture -- with only minor damage when they searched a car the following day at a ferry terminal south of the museum.
They arrested the suspect on the same evening.
"Police will allege the man was found in possession of the last missing artefact, the wooden cat sculpture," they said.
The man, named by local media as Miguel Simon Mungarrieta Monsalve, was charged with various counts including breaking and entering, and three counts of wilful damage.
In court on Monday, a prosecutor said the man stole a mummy mask, a collar, a piece of jewellery and the wooden cat while also causing "irreparable damage" to other items, according to public broadcaster ABC.
The suspect told police that he believed the museum had links to the Catholic Church, the prosecutor was quoted as telling the court.
The museum said it was "relieved and grateful" to get the artefacts back, but they could not go back on display immediately.
"Each piece must first undergo professional assessment and conservation to protect its long-term future."
djw/oho/mtp

Bondi

Accused Bondi killer Naveed Akram appears in court by video link

  • He appeared in a Sydney court for about five minutes via video link from prison, according to a statement from the court and local media.
  • Accused Bondi Beach killer Naveed Akram appeared in an Australian court via video link Monday, in his first public hearing since the nation's worst mass shooting in nearly three decades.
  • He appeared in a Sydney court for about five minutes via video link from prison, according to a statement from the court and local media.
Accused Bondi Beach killer Naveed Akram appeared in an Australian court via video link Monday, in his first public hearing since the nation's worst mass shooting in nearly three decades.
Akram and his father, Sajid, allegedly attacked a Hanukkah celebration in December. Sajid was shot and killed by police during the attack.
Akram has been charged with terrorism, 15 counts of murder, dozens of counts of causing wounds to a person with intent to kill and planting explosives.
He appeared in a Sydney court for about five minutes via video link from prison, according to a statement from the court and local media.
The timeline of evidence was also discussed, the court said.
Akram wore a green jersey during the hearing, which dealt mostly with technical matters such as suppressing the identification of some victims, local media said.
He reportedly spoke only one word -- "yeah" -- when asked by the judge whether he had heard a discussion about the extension of suppression orders.
Akram will next appear in court on March 9.
Speaking outside the court, Akram's lawyer Ben Archbold said his client was being held in "very onerous conditions", national broadcaster ABC said.
He also said it was too early to say whether Akram would plead guilty.
The mass shooting sparked national soul-searching about antisemitism, anger over the failure to shield Jewish Australians from harm and promises to stiffen gun laws.
Among the victims of December's attack were an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, a couple who confronted one of the gunmen and a 10-year-old girl, Matilda, who was described at her funeral as a "ray of sunshine".

'Tactical' training

Police and intelligence agencies are also facing difficult questions about whether they could have acted earlier.
Naveed Akram was flagged by Australia's intelligence agency in 2019, but he slipped off the radar after it decided that he posed no imminent threat.
Police documents released following the attack said the two had carried out "firearms training" in what was believed to be the New South Wales countryside prior to the shooting.
They said the suspects "meticulously planned" the attack for months, releasing pictures showing them firing shotguns and moving in what they described as a "tactical manner".
The pair also recorded a video in October railing against "Zionists" while sitting in front of a flag of the Islamic State jihadist group and detailing their motivations for the attack, police said.
And they made a nighttime reconnaissance trip to Bondi Beach just days before the killings, documents showed.
And a few weeks before the Bondi Beach attack, the pair returned to Sydney from a four-week trip to the southern Philippines.
oho/mtp

labour

'Pure extortion': foreign workers face violence and exploitation in Croatia

BY LAJLA VESELICA

  • He was also expected to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
  • When DD left his home in India for Croatia last year, he expected his food delivery work to be hard, with long hours and low pay.
  • He was also expected to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
When DD left his home in India for Croatia last year, he expected his food delivery work to be hard, with long hours and low pay. He did not expect to be spat at in the street.
Twice last year the 27-year-old from Chandigarh was abused by groups of young people while working. Some spat at him, others shouted at him to "go back to your own country" as they tried to steal his delivery bag.
For the young foreign worker, one of the tens of thousands drawn to the EU nation every year, it was a rough welcome -- but one he said is increasingly common among his colleagues.
As Croatia struggles with growing staff shortages, particularly in its key tourism sector, experts warn its badly needed foreign workers are left vulnerable to violence and exploitation.
"I just came to work and live peacefully," DD, who asked to be referred to only by his initials, told AFP.
"We are not stealing jobs."
Croatia has one of the five fastest-declining populations in the European Union, losing nearly 400,000 people over the past decade, according to the World Bank.
The shortages have driven a steady rise in the number of workers arriving from Asia -- particularly since Croatia joined Europe's passport-free Schengen zone in 2023.
Last year, four out of 10 work and residency permits were issued to Nepalis, Filipinos, Indians and Bangladeshis, mostly in the tourism, catering and construction industries.
It is a dramatic change for a largely conservative society with extremely limited experience of immigration from outside Europe.
According to the last census, more than 90 percent of Croatia's 3.8 million people are ethnic Croats, while about 80 percent are Roman Catholic.

Broken jaws, cracked ribs

In WhatsApp groups used by DD's fellow delivery riders, many share stories of almost weekly attacks, with the worst reporting broken jaws and cracked ribs.
While national crime data does not break down rates by victims' nationality, the number of crimes against Nepali nationals rose sharply in 2024, outpacing the roughly 50-percent growth of its diaspora in Croatia.
Comparable increases were recorded among Indian, Filipino and Bangladeshi nationals.
But food delivery company Wolt said many attacks on its delivery riders, which are committed mainly by opportunistic young people, went unreported.
Most foreign workers arrive through private agencies or employers that usually offer little support, according to unions.
Some employers also offer overcrowded and unsafe housing at hefty rates.
Delivery rider Hasan, who did not give his surname for fear of losing his job, said he had been charged 270 euros ($319) a month for an "unliveable" room shared with five other men.
Breaches of arbitrary rules, such as a visitor ban, could attract hefty "fines" from his previous employer, who leased him the room.
"It's pure extortion," said the 27-year-old from India.
He was also expected to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
"You are like their slaves."

Hardening attitudes

As migrant numbers grow, public attitudes appear to be hardening.
An Institute for Migration Research (IMR) survey found that more than 60 percent of Croatians were dissatisfied with the presence of foreign workers, up from 46 percent a year earlier.
Fears over a potential rise in crime rates, impacts on local wages, job losses and cultural differences were among the top complaints of those surveyed.
"When people feel their livelihoods are threatened, support for radical positions is more likely," sociologist Ivan Balabanic said.
Some right-wing politicians have seized on the issue to push anti-immigrant rhetoric and portray foreign workers as part of a plot to "replace" European populations.
The conservative government, which has condemned the violence against foreign workers, recently moved to improve protections but also to require language tests for long-term workers.
DD said most Croatians were "generally friendly", but without the ability to speak the local language, he had struggled to fit in.
Balabanic said politicians needed to stop treating the issue as "taboo" and discuss the need for foreign workers candidly.
"This is our reality and must be acknowledged as such."
ljv/al/fg/jhb/lb

SKorea

Kim unveils homes for kin of N. Korean troops killed aiding Russia: KCNA

  • One photo shows Kim speaking with what appeared to be the family members of a fallen soldier on a sofa, his daughter standing behind them.
  • North Korean leader Kim Jong Un touted a newly built street of flats for families of soldiers killed supporting Russia's war against Ukraine, state media reported Monday, with photos showing him accompanied by his daughter.
  • One photo shows Kim speaking with what appeared to be the family members of a fallen soldier on a sofa, his daughter standing behind them.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un touted a newly built street of flats for families of soldiers killed supporting Russia's war against Ukraine, state media reported Monday, with photos showing him accompanied by his daughter.
North Korea has deployed thousands of troops to fight for Russia, according to South Korean and Western intelligence agencies, and Seoul has estimated that around 2,000 have been killed.
Analysts say North Korea is receiving financial aid, military technology and food and energy supplies from Russia in return.
"The new street has been built thanks to the ardent desire of our motherland that wishes that... its excellent sons, who defended the most sacred things by sacrificing their most valuable things, will live forever," Kim said in a speech released by the official Korean Central News Agency.
The report on Monday did not mention Russia, but Kim last week pledged to "unconditionally support" all of Russian President Vladimir Putin's policies and decisions.
"Before their death, the heroic martyrs must have pictured in their mind's eye their dear families living in the ever-prospering country," he added.
Photos released by KCNA show Kim touring the new homes built for the families on Saeppyol Street, alongside his teenage daughter Ju Ae, widely viewed as his heir apparent.
Seoul's spy agency said last week she had now been clearly "designated as a successor", citing her participation in high-profile events with her father.
One photo shows Kim speaking with what appeared to be the family members of a fallen soldier on a sofa, his daughter standing behind them.
Other photos show families checking the utilities in their new flats.
The rollout comes ahead of Pyongyang's biggest political event on the calendar -- the party congress -- scheduled to take place later this month, although the exact date has not been announced.
Attention is on which foreign and domestic policy directions Kim will declare to set the country's course, as well as whether Ju Ae will be given any official party titles.
The timing of the street inauguration is a "highly calculated political move to justify its soldier deployment" ahead of the party congress, Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP.
"It visualises the state providing concrete compensation to the families of fallen soldiers... as a symbolic showcase," he said.
kjk/abs

politics

What to know as South Korea ex-president Yoon faces insurrection verdict

BY KANG JIN-KYU

  • - South Korea retains the death penalty but has not carried out an execution since 1997, leaving dozens to languish on death row.
  • South Korea's disgraced former president Yoon Suk Yeol could be banished to death row on February 19 when he fronts court over his disastrous bid to impose martial law.
  • - South Korea retains the death penalty but has not carried out an execution since 1997, leaving dozens to languish on death row.
South Korea's disgraced former president Yoon Suk Yeol could be banished to death row on February 19 when he fronts court over his disastrous bid to impose martial law.
Seoul's Central District Court will rule on insurrection charges against the 65-year-old, delivering a verdict that will be broadcast live across the nation.
AFP takes a look at what lies ahead for Yoon, as well as the punishments already dished out to his associates. 

Insurrection

Yoon triggered the crisis in December 2024 when he announced the suspension of civilian government on live TV, sending troops to parliament to enforce his declaration of martial law.
His bid to impose military rule lasted around six hours before opposition lawmakers flooded the National Assembly and voted it down in an emergency session.
Yoon was subsequently impeached and removed from office in April last year.
He has been charged with a litany of crimes ranging from insurrection to obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors have sought the death penalty on the insurrection charges, accusing Yoon of suspending democracy to satisfy his "lust for power".
Yoon has consistently denied wrongdoing, saying he acted to defeat a "legislative dictatorship" run by opposition lawmakers who frequently derailed his attempts to govern.

Sentenced to death?

South Korea retains the death penalty but has not carried out an execution since 1997, leaving dozens to languish on death row.
The minimum sentence for insurrection is life imprisonment, which attorney Yoo Jung-hoon said was the most likely outcome for Yoon.
Judges can, in rare cases, apply "discretionary mitigation" to impose a lighter sentence.
But attorney Yoo said Yoon's lack of a guilty plea or remorse makes that unlikely.
An acquittal was also "highly unlikely" given ample evidence, he added. 

Could Yoon walk free?

No. Even if acquitted for insurrection, Yoon would remain in prison under a five-year sentence imposed last month for obstructing justice and other crimes linked to the martial law crisis.
Yoon faces eight separate trials, including a charge his administration sent drones into North Korea to provoke a backlash and create the pretext for declaring military rule.
He is also being tried for false testimony in the martial law case against former prime minister Han Duck-soo, who served under him.

Who else is on trial?

Former prime minister Han was convicted last month for his role in the scandal and sentenced to 23 years in prison -- eight years more than prosecutors had sought.
Ex-interior minister Lee Sang-min has been sentenced to seven years in prison, while former spy chief Cho Tae-yong is standing trial on charges including dereliction of duty and perjury. 
Yoon's insurrection ruling will "serve as an important barometer" for related cases, attorney Yoo said.

Ex-first lady

Yoon's wife Kim Keon Hee was in January jailed for bribery in a separate case unrelated to the martial law takeover.
Seoul's Central District Court sentenced her to 20 months in prison after finding she accepted lavish gifts from the cult-like Unification Church, including a Chanel bag and a Graff necklace.
Prosecutors, who had sought 15 years, have appealed.
While in office, Yoon vetoed three opposition-backed bills to investigate Kim, the last in November 2024.
He declared martial law a week later.
kjk/cdl/sft/abs

Global Edition

Art and the deal: market slump pushes galleries to the Gulf

BY CALLUM PATON AND JACQUELINE PENNEY

  • The gas-rich country's museums authority has in the past reported an annual budget of roughly $1 billion a year to spend on art.
  • With global sales mired in a slump, art dealers have turned to buyers in the oil-rich Gulf, where culture sector spending is on the rise.
  • The gas-rich country's museums authority has in the past reported an annual budget of roughly $1 billion a year to spend on art.
With global sales mired in a slump, art dealers have turned to buyers in the oil-rich Gulf, where culture sector spending is on the rise.
Art Basel, which runs elite fairs in Miami, Hong Kong, Paris and Switzerland, held its Gulf debut in Qatar earlier this month.
"The second you land here, you see the ambition. It's basically the future," Andisheh Avini, a senior director at New York-based Gagosian Gallery, told AFP at the Doha fair. 
"We see a lot of potential in this region and in Qatar," Avini said, explaining it was "extremely important" for galleries to be exploring new consumer and collector bases.
"That's why we're here. And with patience and a long view, I think this is going to be a great hub," he added.
A 2025 report on the global art market by Art Basel and the Swiss bank UBS showed sales fell across traditional centres in Europe and North America in the previous year.
Economic volatility and geopolitical tensions have weighed on demand, meaning global art market sales reached an estimated $57.5 billion in 2024 -- a 12 percent year-on-year decline, the report said.
"The value of sales has ratcheted down for the past two years now, and I do think we're at a bit of a turning point in terms of confidence and activity in the market," Art Basel's chief executive Noah Horowitz told AFP in Doha.  
'Time was right'
"Looking at developments in the global art world, we felt the time was right to enter the (Middle East, North Africa and South Asia) region," he added.
Gulf states have poured billions into museums and cultural development to diversify their economies away from oil and gas and boost tourism. 
In 2021, Abu Dhabi, home to the only foreign branch of the Louvre, announced a five-year plan for $6 billion in investments in its culture and creative industries.  
Doha has established the National Museum of Qatar and the Museum of Islamic Art. The gas-rich country's museums authority has in the past reported an annual budget of roughly $1 billion a year to spend on art.
Last year, Saudi Arabia announced that cultural investments in the Kingdom have exceeded $21.6 billion since 2016.
Gagosian had selected early works by Bulgarian artist Christo to feature at Art Basel Qatar.
Best known for large-scale works with his French partner Jeanne-Claude, like the wrapping of Paris's Arc de Triomphe in 2021, Berlin's Reichstag in 1995 and Pont Neuf in 1985, the Doha fair exhibited smaller wrapped sculptures.
Avini said the works had sparked curiosity from an "interesting mix" of individuals and potential buyers.
"Of course, you have the Qataris. You're meeting other dealers, for instance, from Saudi and other parts of the region," he said.
Among the Christo works were "Wrapped Oil Barrels", created between 1958–61 shortly after the artist fled communist Bulgaria for Paris.

'Turn of the cycle'

The barrels -- bound tightly with rope, their fabric skins stiffened and darkened with lacquer -- inevitably recall the Gulf's vast hydrocarbon wealth.
But Vladimir Yavachev, Christo's nephew and now director for the artists' estate following their deaths, said the barrels were not developed with "any connotation to the oil industry or criticism".
"He really liked the proportion of this very simple, everyday object," Yavachev said. "It was really about the aesthetics of the piece," he added.
Horowitz said there had been an "evolution that we've seen through the growth of the market in Asia and here now in the Middle East". 
"With each turn of the cycle in our industry... we've seen new audiences come to the table and new content," he added.
Hazem Harb, a Palestinian artist living between the UAE and Italy, praised Art Basel Qatar for its range of "international artists, so many concepts, so many subjects".
Among Harb's works at the fair were piles of old keys reminiscent  of those carried during the "Nakba" in 1948, when around 760,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes. 
Next to them was a pile of newer keys -- 3D-printed replicas of the key to Harb's own apartment in Gaza, destroyed in the recent war. 
In the Gulf and beyond, Harb said he thought there was a "revolution" happening in Arab art "from Cairo to Beirut to Baghdad to Kuwait... there is a new era, about culture, about art".
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