Global Edition

More than 50,000 missing after Venezuela quakes, death toll soars

Global Edition

More than 50,000 missing after Venezuela quakes, death toll soars

BY BRIAN CONTRERAS WITH LETICIA PINEDA IN CARACAS

  • "We've got over 50,000 people missing, over 500 people dead, so a massive job to go through the rubble," he told AFP. Rescuers used heavy machinery, but also their bare hands, in a race to claw out people caught under rubble in the worst-hit earthquake zone, north of the capital Caracas.
  • More than 50,000 people were missing Friday after twin earthquakes in Venezuela, the United Nations' aid chief told AFP as international rescue teams and sniffer dogs arrived to join a desperate search for survivors.
  • "We've got over 50,000 people missing, over 500 people dead, so a massive job to go through the rubble," he told AFP. Rescuers used heavy machinery, but also their bare hands, in a race to claw out people caught under rubble in the worst-hit earthquake zone, north of the capital Caracas.
More than 50,000 people were missing Friday after twin earthquakes in Venezuela, the United Nations' aid chief told AFP as international rescue teams and sniffer dogs arrived to join a desperate search for survivors.
Interim president Delcy Rodriguez said the death toll was now at 589, a number that is likely to "rise significantly," according to UN aid chief Tom Fletcher. 
"We've got over 50,000 people missing, over 500 people dead, so a massive job to go through the rubble," he told AFP.
Rescuers used heavy machinery, but also their bare hands, in a race to claw out people caught under rubble in the worst-hit earthquake zone, north of the capital Caracas.
At one of the flattened buildings, AFP saw workers using sledgehammers to break the debris and calling for "absolute silence" to detect cries from survivors.
Oil-rich Venezuela is facing its worst natural disaster in more than a century after more than a decade of economic collapse hollowed out hospitals and public services, driving millions to leave the country.
The country is still in a fragile transition six months after the United States ousted leader Nicolas Maduro.
Rescue efforts have been slow with desperate calls for more heavy machinery as families stand by helpless to pull out loved ones they could hear alive in the rubble.
"It is a lot of rock, and with bare hands it is impossible," said Amparo del Giudice, scrabbling through rubble in search of her son.
Two earthquakes, measured at magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, hit northern Venezuela within less than a minute of each other on Wednesday night, sending hundreds of buildings tumbling.

Help arrives

National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said Thursday that more than 200 people were confirmed trapped alive.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said search and rescue teams from at least 17 countries were being mobilized to help find survivors.
Spanish, Salvadoran, Swiss, Colombian, and Mexican rescue teams were already on the ground.
A senior US military official landed in Caracas to oversee Washington's relief efforts.
The United States said it was deploying two warships, transport planes and helicopters and mobilizing $150 million in aid. Washington has also suspended economic sanctions on Venezuela that could have hindered rescue operations for four months.
"Even before the earthquakes, millions of people across Venezuela were facing food insecurity, collapsing health services, protection risks, and limited access to basic services," the UN and other aid agencies said in a statement Friday.
"The international community must not allow this emergency to deepen into a larger human tragedy".
Earthquakes of similar magnitude claimed more than 200,000 lives in Haiti in January 2010 and 73,000 lives in Kashmir in October 2005.

'Authorities useless'

The dead included nine Portuguese nationals, four Spaniards, two Brazilians, two Chinese nationals and one Italian-Venezuelan.
Fifty-six Portuguese citizens and 120 Spaniards were missing or otherwise unaccounted for, according to their respective governments.
Satellite photographs of La Guaira -- the worst hit area north of Caracas -- showed one crumpled residential complex after another.
AFP reporters witnessed residents looting a local supermarket in the city on Thursday.
"This isn't the time for looting, it's time to enforce the law," said Argenis Mendez, a local resident who lamented the lack of help.
"The authorities are useless; useless because the military should be here with all the heavy machinery they have," he added.
Venezuela's northern coast sits on a boundary between the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates, but has not experienced a significant quake since 1997, when 73 people died. Another quake in 1967 killed 236 people.
Wednesday's 7.5-magnitude earthquake was the most powerful since October 29, 1900, when a 7.7-magnitude tremor struck offshore.
This week's quake was felt in neighboring Colombia, where residents in Bogota evacuated buildings as a precaution.
Tremors were also reported in several cities in northern Brazil, according to the country's seismic monitoring network.
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heatwave

Latest developments in Europe's heatwave

  • Toddler dies in France A toddler died in hospital after being found in a hot car during a severe heatwave in the French city of Marseille, health services said, in the latest such death nationwide this week.
  • Here are the latest developments in Europe's heatwave.
  • Toddler dies in France A toddler died in hospital after being found in a hot car during a severe heatwave in the French city of Marseille, health services said, in the latest such death nationwide this week.
Here are the latest developments in Europe's heatwave.
Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming driven by humans burning fossil fuels, and warn they are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.
Toddler dies in France
A toddler died in hospital after being found in a hot car during a severe heatwave in the French city of Marseille, health services said, in the latest such death nationwide this week.
German heat record
Germany saw temperatures break 40C at several locations in the country, according to preliminary weather service data, breaking the previous recorded high of 39.6C for the month of June.
36.9C in UK
The UK broke the record for its highest ever June temperature for the third day in a row, the Met Office weather agency said, recording 36.9C in Wattisham, Suffolk, in southeast England.
Records 'shattered'
The heatwave has "shattered numerous temperature records" and is having "major impacts on human health, on ecosystems, on agriculture, on labour productivity," the spokeswoman for the UN's World Meteorological Organization, Clare Nullis, told a news conference.
Front heads for Balkans
The heatwave moving from Western Europe was set to bring very high temperatures to the Balkans. forecasters said.
Temperatures of up to 39 degrees were forecast in parts of Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Montenegro.
Dutch festival cancelled
Organisers have cancelled the four-day techno music festival  Defqon.1 in Biddinghuizen in the central Netherlands, scheduled to start on Thursday, its director Sander Bijlstra told the ANP news agency.
The Lago Lago electronic music festival in Stroombroek meanwhile said it would restrict alcohol sales.
Poland fire warning
Heat combined with record-low May rainfall have significantly increased the risk of fires in forests and national parks in Poland, officials warned.
A spokesman for Poland's long-distance rail operator, PKP Intercity, told AFP the heatwave was expected to affect traffic, with overhead power lines sagging and rails deforming. 
Battle re-enactment scrapped
Organisers in Belgium said they had cancelled this weekend's reenactment of Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo because of the heatwave.
Cash for schools
More than 130 million euros have been allocated to fund cooling systems and renovation works in French schools and nurseries, state-owned utility EDF and several lenders said.
Germany faces extreme heat
Germany's weather service warned that the intense heat would spread over the weekend across the whole of the country.
"In many places—from the southwest and west through the centre to the east—extreme heat is also expected," said the service.
The service's map of Germany was almost completely dark purple, signifying extreme heat warnings.
Pride parade cancelled
Organisers of Paris pride cancelled festivities in the sweltering French capital this weekend after Paris police said they would otherwise ban the parties.
Hospitals in the greater Paris region have been overwhelmed trying to keep up with soaring heat-related emergencies and issues.
150 mn to face 35C+ Friday
At least 150 million people in Europe will roast in temperatures of 35C and above on Friday, according to an AFP analysis.
French drowning toll rises
At least 55 people have drowned in France since the heatwave began, the sports minister said Friday, warning the death toll could rise further.
Many of the deaths were young people swimming in unauthorised areas to escape the searing heat.
Climate change blamed
Human-caused climate change is "unequivocally" responsible for the intensity of a record-breaking heatwave scorching Europe, scientists said Friday. 
It would have been "virtually impossible" for such exceptional temperatures to occur in June 50 years ago, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists said.
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UN

Dozens of international teams rushing to Venezuela: UN

BY ROBIN MILLARD

  • So far, a total of 25 teams -- 17 national urban search and rescue teams, with the rest emergency medical response teams -- were being deployed, with a total of 1,000 rescue personnel, said Laerke.
  • International search and rescue teams from at least 17 countries are being scrambled to Venezuela to help look for survivors of  devastating twin earthquakes, the United Nations said Friday.
  • So far, a total of 25 teams -- 17 national urban search and rescue teams, with the rest emergency medical response teams -- were being deployed, with a total of 1,000 rescue personnel, said Laerke.
International search and rescue teams from at least 17 countries are being scrambled to Venezuela to help look for survivors of  devastating twin earthquakes, the United Nations said Friday.
Getting those teams to the scene is the "top priority", the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said.
"Earthquakes are one of the most devastating things that can happen to any country," spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.
"But what we are seeing right now is also an international mobilisation at its very best. The entire humanitarian system is moving very fast, and at scale."
The 7.5- and 7.2-magnitude earthquakes on Wednesday are known to have killed at least 589 people.
So far, a total of 25 teams -- 17 national urban search and rescue teams, with the rest emergency medical response teams -- were being deployed, with a total of 1,000 rescue personnel, said Laerke.
Teams from Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Italy, Mexico, Switzerland and the United States were already in Venezuela, he said.
Teams from Britain, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Jordan, the Netherlands, Qatar and Spain among others are also being mobilised.

Rescue still the priority

UN and other humanitarian agencies insisted Friday that the international community "must not allow this emergency to deepen into a larger human tragedy" in fragile Venezuela.
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee -- a forum of United Nations and non-UN humanitarian organisation chiefs -- called for "rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access" to those affected.
The World Health Organization said the immediate needs included mass casualty management and trauma care, particularly in areas with collapsed buildings.
"The overriding priority is to rescue as many people as possible while urgently providing life-saving health care to the injured," said Ciro Ugarte, emergencies director for PAHO, the UN health agency's Americas regional branch.
"The first 72 hours are critical to saving lives," he said, speaking from Washington.
"Hospitals are managing injuries such as broken bones and head injuries, but also we are seeing burns and other injuries that result from building collapse," he said.
The number of deaths and injuries would "significantly increase" in the coming hours and days, he warned.
Ugarte said the earthquakes had hit a fragile health system, but more than 15 health ministries in the region had pledged support and were ready to deploy teams.
He said PAHO experts were mapping the affected health facilities. They had identified more than 90 hospitals exposed to shaking intensities beyond six and seven on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale.
"We are prioritising those facilities, including the assessment of the structural safety, emergency department capacities, operating theatres, inpatient beds, blood supply, and oxygen," he said.

People 'terrified': Red Cross

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the world's largest humanitarian network, said the first 17 tonnes of humanitarian aid was leaving from the IFRC's logistics hub in Panama.
It includes kitchen sets, hygiene kits, mosquito nets, tents and blankets.
The IFRC has released two million Swiss francs ($2.5 million) from its Disaster Response Emergency Fund, and launched an appeal for 50 million Swiss francs to help the Venezuelan Red Cross assist 300,000 people.
"After two nights, people are still terrified to re-enter what were their homes," said Loyce Pace, the IFRC's Americas regional director, speaking from Panama.
She said Red Cross societies had programmes for restoring family links with the diaspora, and would be working to help people trace loved ones.
The UN refugee agency meanwhile voiced concerns about the impact on returnees to Venezuela, who it said were already facing many challenges to reintegrate.
UNHCR spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh said a temporary accomodation centre, hosting around 140 recent returnees from the United States, had collapsed.
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heatwave

Europe heatwave swamps hospitals, halts parties

BY AFP BUREAUS IN EUROPE

  • - 'Saturation point' - At least 150 million people in Europe were expected to experience temperatures above 35C on Friday, according to AFP calculations based on forecasts.
  • Street parties and music festivals were cancelled and alcohol sales limited in parts of western Europe on Friday, as a deadly heatwave choking 150 million people with temperatures above 35C was forecast to shift eastwards.
  • - 'Saturation point' - At least 150 million people in Europe were expected to experience temperatures above 35C on Friday, according to AFP calculations based on forecasts.
Street parties and music festivals were cancelled and alcohol sales limited in parts of western Europe on Friday, as a deadly heatwave choking 150 million people with temperatures above 35C was forecast to shift eastwards.
Health authorities in Britain and France warned hospitals were struggling with the heat and a surge in emergency calls.
Germany meanwhile saw temperatures break 40C at several locations in the country on Friday, according to preliminary weather service data, breaking the previous recorded high of 39.6C for the month of June.
Five different weather stations saw readings over 40 degrees, including 40.9C in the western city of Saarbruecken, according to preliminary data, the German Weather Service (DWD) told AFP.
Spain has reported scores of heat-related deaths and France has said dozens have drowned, along with several infants who have died in hot cars.
While the heat eased slightly on Friday in some parts of western Europe, countries further east are warning the worst is yet to come.
The Czech Republic and Hungary were on red alert for the weekend, with temperatures of up to 40C forecast.
Balkans countries were also bracing for a tough few days.
Scientists have shown that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming driven by humans burning fossil fuels -- and are set to become more frequent, longer and more intense.

Heat dome

"I do just want to stick my face in the ice bucket," said Will Evans, 37, who runs a street-food outlet in London.
"It's been slow, slow all week. We rely a lot on office worker lunches, so with them staying home, it's quieter for us."
The authorities across Europe have been recommending people work from home when they can.
The hot weather was down to a "heat dome" of trapped air from north Africa, said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Climate scientist Friederike Otto, co-founder of World Weather Attribution (WWA), told reporters the weather pattern itself was "not particularly unusual". 
"But the temperatures are -- or at least they used to be, without human-induced climate change," he said.

'Saturation point'

At least 150 million people in Europe were expected to experience temperatures above 35C on Friday, according to AFP calculations based on forecasts.
Maximum temperatures were forecast to exceed 30C for more than 420 million people across Europe, excluding Turkey -- around 70 percent of the population.
London Ambulance Service said Wednesday's extreme heat had led to the highest number of life-threatening emergency calls in a day.
France saw a fourfold increase in heat-related hospital visits and a surge of cardiac arrests, the health ministry said.
"We are reaching a saturation point in hospital facilities," Paris police chief Patrice Faure said, announcing a rare ban on evening alcohol sales in Paris over the weekend.
Organisers of the Pride March in Paris said they had postponed the event, scheduled for Saturday afternoon, one of many events called off in Europe.

Heatwave heads east

A storm broke the heat overnight in France's western region of Brittany, bringing some respite on Friday.
"I've come back to life. We can breathe at last," said local woman Aurelie Sauvager, 47.
But much of the Netherlands remained under red alert, with authorities advising people to travel only if necessary and most schools closed.
Organisers cancelled the four-day techno music festival Defqon.1 in the central Netherlands.
Slovakia forecast temperatures up to 36C. Swimming pools in Bratislava announced extended opening hours and authorities deployed tanker trucks of drinking water.
Hungary's Prime Minister Peter Magyar said authorities were preparing millions of bags of drinking water for possible public distribution and urging residents to conserve water.
While eastern Europeans were not planning to cancel events -- Budapest's Pride March will be going ahead, along with a massive political rally in Serbia -- locals were not so keen on the idea of leaving their homes.
Majlinda, 41, rushed was rushing through Kosovo's capital Pristina stocking up on medicine before the weekend, shielding herself from the sun with an umbrella.
"I want to stock up on everything I need so I don't have to go out tomorrow or the day after," she told AFP.
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heatwave

Europe heatwave shattering temperature records: UN

  • Nullis added: "It's possible that at the end of summer, we can look back and say, yes, it was a record-breaking heatwave; but it's still very much in progress."
  • Europe's heatwave has smashed several temperature records, the UN's weather and climate agency said Friday, adding that it would determine the full impact once the phenomenon has ended.
  • Nullis added: "It's possible that at the end of summer, we can look back and say, yes, it was a record-breaking heatwave; but it's still very much in progress."
Europe's heatwave has smashed several temperature records, the UN's weather and climate agency said Friday, adding that it would determine the full impact once the phenomenon has ended.
The World Meteorological Organization said the heat levels currently being experienced across the continent would be more typical of late July and August.
"A widespread intense late June heatwave in Europe... has shattered numerous temperature records," WMO spokeswoman Clare Nullis told a press conference in Geneva.
"It's having major impacts on human health, on ecosystems, on agriculture, on labour productivity, and it's accompanied in some areas, in particular France, by worsening drought and the risk of wildfires, as well as localised storms.
"We're supporting coordinated heat health action plans to try to save lives -- as always, that's the top priority -- and to inform decisions to minimise economic damage and the very real disruption that we're seeing."
The deadly European heatwave was forecast to shift east on Friday, choking 150 million people with temperatures of 35C.
Nullis said the heat was expected to increasingly shift from western Europe towards central Europe and the Balkans by the end of the month.
"We need to get used to it, unfortunately," she said.

Hot air funnel

John Kennedy, the WMO's climate information chief, said that as there was no specific definition of a heatwave, it was therefore hard to describe one as record-breaking across the board.
"We can say locally that records have been broken," he said.
"This is a record-breaking heatwave in many ways -- but not in every single way."
Nullis added: "It's possible that at the end of summer, we can look back and say, yes, it was a record-breaking heatwave; but it's still very much in progress."
Kennedy said several factors have to come together for temperatures to reach record extremes.
He said high pressure over Europe was funnelling hot air north from northern Africa, with the weather system hindering cloud formation.
"These kinds of blocks can stay in place for days or even weeks, and the persistence of the block means that the heat can build, day upon day -- and, crucially, the impact night upon night," he said, when the body should be cooling down.
Kennedy added that Europe had warmed by around 2C in the 50 years since the 1976 major heatwave, with "high confidence there is a human contribution to that observed warming".
"Heat waves like this are what we expect to see in a changing climate," he said.
"Extreme heat will occur more frequently, for longer duration and with greater intensity as global warming continues."
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immigration

UN demands probes into US ICE custody deaths

  • "I call for prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigations into all deaths in ICE custody," UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement, which also called for "prompt action to prevent further loss of life".
  • The United Nations on Friday demanded independent investigations into dozens of deaths in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody since last year -- and swift action to prevent more people from dying.
  • "I call for prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigations into all deaths in ICE custody," UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement, which also called for "prompt action to prevent further loss of life".
The United Nations on Friday demanded independent investigations into dozens of deaths in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody since last year -- and swift action to prevent more people from dying.
At least 52 deaths have been reported in ICE holding facilities since the start of 2025, when US President Donald Trump returned to office and launched a crackdown on immigrants, the UN human rights office said.
During the first five months of the year, 18 people died in ICE detention, with another death reported in June, the office said, while 33 deaths were registered in 2025.
That compares to 11 in 2024, the UN rights office said.
"I call for prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigations into all deaths in ICE custody," UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement, which also called for "prompt action to prevent further loss of life".
Turk said the lack of transparency and clarity surrounding the circumstances of the deaths undermines accountability.
"Those responsible for violations of the law must be held to account, and the rights of the victims' families to truth, justice and reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence must be upheld," he said.
Trump has made combating illegal immigration a top priority of his second term, with authorities rounding up thousands of people and expanding detention centres.
A joint report by Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights said Thursday that the rate of people dying in ICE custody has reached its highest level in over a decade amid Trump's crackdown.

'Dehumanisation and criminalisation'

Turk said the deaths occurred in the context of a broad expansion of the US immigration detention system.
ICE currently holds more than 60,000 individuals compared to approximately 40,000 in early 2025, Turk's office said, citing official data, adding that there were plans to increase the capacity up to 90,000 people by the end of 2026.
Turk's office said detainees included entire families with children, while there are frequent reports of inhumane conditions of detention and treatment, and concerning allegations on the use of force.
Five of the officially reported deaths this year were classified as suicides.
"All these factors exacerbate vulnerability and raise serious concerns as to whether some of these deaths in ICE custody could have been prevented," said Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights.
He said immigration detention should be a measure of last resort, and alternatives should be prioritised.
Regardless of their immigration status or that of their parents, children should not be subjected to immigration detention, he insisted.
Turk also strongly denounced the "continued dehumanisation and criminalisation" of migrants and refugees.
Nobody should be sent back to a place where they could face serious human rights violations or other irreversible harm, he added.
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conflict

Lukashenko will always be threat to Ukraine: Belarus opposition leader

BY OLA CICHOWLAS

  • Lukashenko -- in power since 1994 -- allowed Moscow to launch its 2022 Ukraine invasion through Belarus but has denied plans for direct involvement in the war.  
  • Belarus will be a threat to Ukraine for as long as President Alexander Lukashenko is in power and relies on the Kremlin, the country's exiled opposition leader told AFP.  Ukraine has for months warned Belarus against being dragged further into the war, highlighting increased attacks by Russia on northern Ukraine and alleging military preparations had been detected on the Belarusian side of the border.
  • Lukashenko -- in power since 1994 -- allowed Moscow to launch its 2022 Ukraine invasion through Belarus but has denied plans for direct involvement in the war.  
Belarus will be a threat to Ukraine for as long as President Alexander Lukashenko is in power and relies on the Kremlin, the country's exiled opposition leader told AFP. 
Ukraine has for months warned Belarus against being dragged further into the war, highlighting increased attacks by Russia on northern Ukraine and alleging military preparations had been detected on the Belarusian side of the border.
Lukashenko -- in power since 1994 -- allowed Moscow to launch its 2022 Ukraine invasion through Belarus but has denied plans for direct involvement in the war.  
"As long as Lukashenko earns on the blood of Ukrainians by helping the Russian war machine, he will always be a danger for Ukraine," Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya told AFP.
In an interview on the sidelines of a conference on Ukrainian reconstruction in the Polish city of Gdansk, she said Lukashenko was "just as guilty" as President Vladimir Putin for Europe's worst conflict since WWII.
Lukashenko's Belarus is economically and politically reliant on the Kremlin and hosts some of Moscow's nuclear weapons on its territory.
Tikhanovskaya challenged Lukashenko in the 2020 election, with her defeat triggering mass protests and a brutal crackdown by the security services on her supporters.

No 'illusions'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this week Belarus had switched off signal repeaters that help guide Russian attack drones following a threat from Kyiv.
And Lukashenko appeared to try to reduce the tensions, saying in a televised meeting with officials that he had met a Ukrainian representative in Minsk and that Belarus would not be dragged into the war.
Tikhanovskaya said that while Lukashenko "took a step back", he would not have been able to without a green light from the Kremlin.
"If they were switched off it means that Russia agreed," she said, saying he could not have acted against Moscow. 
"He would never do that, let's not have any illusions," said Tikhanovskaya, who recently returned from a trip to Kyiv.
The opposition leader also said she hoped US-led negotiations to free more political prisoners from Belarus will continue. 
Hundreds have been released under negotiations urged by US President Donald Trump and in exchange for sanctions relief.
But the Viasna rights group counts 852 political prisoners still behind bars Belarus.  
Tikhanovskaya said the true number is likely higher since "some people are afraid and do not give the information that their relatives are in prison for political cases".
She was especially worried about mothers in prison, as well as older and sick political prisoners. 
In Gdansk, she also met Poland's ex-president Lech Walesa, who led the 1980s Solidarity movement that provoked the downfall of the Communist regime in Warsaw. 
Tikhanovskaya said the pair discussed how to be "prepared" for a change in Belarus as the "moment could be unexpected". 
Tikhanovskaya has spent years fostering Western support for a democratic Belarus. 
"No war and no revolution can be won if you don't have allies," she said.
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Europe

European heatwave's unlikely accomplice: an ocean 'cold blob'

BY LAURENT THOMET

  • Another paper published in 2023 ran computer simulations -- with and without the cold blob -- to see if the anomaly had an influence on European heatwaves.
  • The heatwave battering Europe may have an unlikely partner-in-crime: a patch of cold ocean water south of Iceland and Greenland that can influence weather patterns over the continent.
  • Another paper published in 2023 ran computer simulations -- with and without the cold blob -- to see if the anomaly had an influence on European heatwaves.
The heatwave battering Europe may have an unlikely partner-in-crime: a patch of cold ocean water south of Iceland and Greenland that can influence weather patterns over the continent.
Often called the "cold blob", this swath of water in the North Atlantic has bucked the global warming trend, cooling even as the planet's temperatures rise due to human-induced climate change.
A recent study reinforced concerns that it could signal a weakening of a key Atlantic Ocean current system that helps regulate the planet's climate.
A shutdown of this conveyor belt of ocean currents, known as Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), could potentially lead to harsher winters in northern Europe in the future, scientists say.
But researchers have also explored the cold blob's connection to heatwaves in Europe, finding that extreme hot spells have coincided with periods when these waters west of Britain were unusually cold.
"A cold Atlantic doesn't necessarily mean a colder Europe," Gerard McCarthy, oceanographer at Ireland's Maynooth University, told AFP.
"That cold isn't a kind of a get-out-of-jail-free card in terms of global warming. Some of the hot extremes can actually be exacerbated by this cold blob in the Atlantic," McCarthy said.

Heat dome

Greenhouse gas emissions are the main driver of climate change, which has made heatwaves more frequent and intense.
But several factors have made Europe the planet's fastest-warming continent, including changes in atmospheric circulation and melting ice.
Studies suggest the cold blob influences atmospheric circulation by altering the path and speed of the jet stream that flows west to east across the continent.
When cooler and warmer waters meet, the sharp contrast changes the air above, making the jet stream wavier and slower, according to researchers.
These changes can create conditions for high-pressure systems that park over Europe, such as the "heat dome" searing the continent this week.
Marilena Oltmanns, an ocean and climate physicist, pointed to recent data showing a strong cold anomaly currently present in the subpolar North Atlantic, creating a front that "acts like a guide" for the winds and the jet stream.
"The jet stream ... bends northward and flows northward around Europe instead of crossing it. As a result, a heat dome emerges over Europe," Oltmanns told AFP.
Oltmanns, a professor at the University of Bremen in Germany, led a 2024 study showing that the melting of Greenland ice pours freshwater into the ocean, creating colder surface waters in the North Atlantic.
"The chain of events, starting from the meltwater and the North Atlantic cold blob, then leading to changes in the ocean and atmospheric circulations, makes Europe heat up more quickly than other parts of the world in summer," she told AFP.
A 2016 study suggested that cold Atlantic anomalies were a "common precursor" to major heatwaves that had hit Europe since the 1980s.
Another paper published in 2023 ran computer simulations -- with and without the cold blob -- to see if the anomaly had an influence on European heatwaves.
"With this cold anomaly, we have longer and more intense heatwaves in Europe," that study's lead author Sabine Bischof, researcher at Germany's GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, told AFP.

'Very worried'

While worldwide sea surface temperatures have increased by 1C on average since 1900, the cold blob region has cooled by up to 0.9C, according to a 2019 study.
Research published last month sought to settle a scientific debate over whether the loss of heat from the sea surface or a weakening AMOC were behind the cold blob.
"We find that this famous 'cold blob' in the northern Atlantic is caused by ocean currents bringing less heat into this region, and not by more heat lost through the sea surface there," the study's lead author, Stefan Rahmstorf, told AFP.
The AMOC carries warm tropical waters to the Northern Hemisphere, where they cool, become denser and sink before returning southward at depth.
Scientists broadly agree the AMOC is weakening with warming, but debate persists over how fast it could slow and whether a collapse is possible this century.
Rahmstorf, head of Earth system analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, used to be sceptical about the risk of an AMOC shutdown.
But he now gives it an over 50 percent chance of happening.
A shutdown would have dire consequences: tougher European winters, droughts in South Asia and parts of Africa, and higher sea levels around the North Atlantic.
"I am very worried," Rahmstorf said. "The consequences of an AMOC shutdown would be massive in many parts of the world."
lt/np/giv

finances

How the British royal family is funded, and where the money goes

BY MARTIN POLLARD

  • In 2025-2026 the Sovereign Grant rose to £132.1 million, up from £86.3 million in the four previous tax years.
  • King Charles III became the first UK monarch in history to reveal how much he has paid in taxes since acceding to the throne in 2022 - some £30 million ($39.6 million).
  • In 2025-2026 the Sovereign Grant rose to £132.1 million, up from £86.3 million in the four previous tax years.
King Charles III became the first UK monarch in history to reveal how much he has paid in taxes since acceding to the throne in 2022 - some £30 million ($39.6 million).
Buckingham Palace, which released the king's documents on Thursday, said the move was part of its "commitment to transparency" as royal finances come under increasing public scrutiny.
Here AFP looks at where the British royal family gets its money, from the Sovereign Grant to private income worth tens of millions more.

What is the Sovereign Grant?

The Sovereign Grant is the annual payment allocated by the UK Treasury to cover the monarch's official duties. 
It is also for the running and upkeep of official royal residences, staff support, official travel and hosting official events such as annual garden parties and investitures.
In 2025-2026 the Sovereign Grant rose to £132.1 million, up from £86.3 million in the four previous tax years.
Half of the 2025-2026 funds, some £67.5 million, were "allocated to the preservation and protection of the occupied royal palaces, some of the nation's most iconic heritage buildings," Buckingham Palace said.
The costs for the king's staff came to $33.7 million, and a flight he took with Queen Camilla to Rome in 2025 cost a hefty £126,946.
The grant does not cover all royal expenses. Security costs, for example, are funded separately.

How is it calculated?

Introduced in 2012, the Sovereign Grant replaced the centuries-old Civil List system, which was seen as overly complex.
It is a single payment tied to profits from the property management company known as the Crown Estate, which are sent directly to the public purse.
It was set at 12 percent of the Crown Estate profits from two years earlier which have surged mainly due to a windfall from leasing seabed rights to offshore wind developers.
The Sovereign Grant for 2026-2027 will increase to £137.9 million to include the last large tranche of £40.3 million for a 10-year restoration project of Buckingham Palace.
Buckingham Palace confirmed, however, Thursday that for the five years between 2027-2032 the grant will be reset to £99.9 million each year.
The Sovereign Grant is not taxed because it is public money used for official duties.

What is the Crown Estate?

The Crown Estate manages a vast property portfolio, now worth £16.7 billion, that includes prime London real estate, rural land, coastal holdings, the Windsor Estate and seabed rights around England, Wales and Northern Ireland. 
It is an independent, commercial business that operates separately to the government and the royal household.
The estate is not the monarch's private property and cannot be sold. 
In the year ending March 2025, it made £1.1 billion in net profits. But that fell to £487 million in the tax year to this March, due mainly to slumping fees from offshore wind projects.

What about private income?

The king received in 2025-2026 some £25.2  million in private income from the Duchy of Lancaster, while the Prince of Wales received £21.6  million from the Duchy of Cornwall. 
These two historic estates are the main sources of private income for the monarch and the heir.
They are large, diversified portfolios of land, property, and investments managed like modern businesses. 
They earn money by leasing farmland, managing commercial and residential real estate, and holding financial assets.
Both estates are held in trust for future generations and cannot be sold outright. 
Their profits fund personal expenses and some official duties, separate from taxpayer-funded support like the Sovereign Grant.
Both the king and William are under no legal obligation to pay taxes on their private income, but do so voluntarily following the example set by the late queen Elizabeth II.

Personal wealth

Individual members of the royal family also have personal wealth, mostly from personal investment portfolios and legacies.
The king owns both Balmoral and Sandringham Estates, which were inherited from his mother, Elizabeth.
Unlike for most commoners, assets passed directly from one monarch to the next are exempt from inheritance tax under a long-standing government agreement.
mp/jkb/cw

conflict

Russia-annexed Crimea declares 'emergency' amid Ukraine strikes

  • Russian air defences shot down 660 Ukrainian drones overnight, including over the capital Moscow and the annexed Crimea, its defence ministry said Friday, one of the highest figures since the start of the conflict.
  • Authorities in Russian-annexed Crimea on Friday declared an "emergency situation" in a bid to ease the fallout from increasing Ukrainian aerial attacks on the peninsula.
  • Russian air defences shot down 660 Ukrainian drones overnight, including over the capital Moscow and the annexed Crimea, its defence ministry said Friday, one of the highest figures since the start of the conflict.
Authorities in Russian-annexed Crimea on Friday declared an "emergency situation" in a bid to ease the fallout from increasing Ukrainian aerial attacks on the peninsula.
The announcement comes amid fuel shortages and power cuts triggered by the Ukrainian attacks on logistics chains and oil facilities across Crimea, the rest of Russian-occupied Ukraine and southern Russia.
"A decision has been made... to sign decrees declaring a regional-level emergency situation in the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol," the Moscow-installed governor Sergey Aksyonov said in a post on Telegram.
The emergency situation would allow for a "rapid resolution of tasks related to ensuring the stable operation of all sectors", Aksyonov said in the post. 
Kyiv has stepped up its air attacks that it calls fair retribution for Russia's near-daily barrages on Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure since Moscow launched its offensive in February 2022.
Russian air defences shot down 660 Ukrainian drones overnight, including over the capital Moscow and the annexed Crimea, its defence ministry said Friday, one of the highest figures since the start of the conflict.
Ukraine mostly targets Russian oil processing and export facilities in a bid to deprive the Kremlin of a source of revenue crucial for financing Moscow's war effort.
Last week, Kyiv's attack caused a major fire at a refinery in the southeast of Moscow, shrouding the suburbs in plumes of thick black smoke.

'Closing the beach season'

Aksyonov had a day earlier acknowledged that Crimea "is going through a challenging time" and that "the fuel situation is the most difficult."
"I cannot say exactly how long it will take, nor can I publicly disclose the specific action plan. However, we are taking action," he said in the statement.
He also conceded that the Russian army were unable to fully protect the peninsula.
"Unfortunately ... there are no air defense systems in the world that are absolutely perfect in terms of security and effectiveness."
Speaking to AFP by phone, a Moscow resident holidaying in Feodosia on Crimea's southeastern coast said earlier this week that "everyone is afraid: locals and visitors alike."
"We were afraid we'd never wake up again, we prayed all night," she recounted following a recent overnight attack.
"The sky was like Star Wars," she said.
Despite the ongoing war that has killed tens of thousands and ravaged swaths of Ukraine, Crimea has been a popular holiday destination for Russians.
On Monday, Ukraine's defence ministry said the strikes by its forces were "closing the beach season in Crimea."
Listing successful strikes, including on oil depots, gas compressor stations and air defence systems, it said on social media that "the forecast for tourists is unfavorable."
Russia seized and annexed Crimea in 2014, though the vast majority of countries -- including many of Moscow's allies -- do not recognise the move.
The Black Sea territory holds special importance to President Vladimir Putin, who hailed the annexation as a historic victory and has poured resources into the peninsula since 2014.
Ukraine says Crimea is an inalienable part of its territory and will never formally cede it.
bur/giv

Europe

In the heat, Ivorians don't think twice about using aircon

BY SOULé DIA

  • On the other side of the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, which has endured more than a week of extreme temperatures, air conditioning's reputation is worse, and its usefulness far from accepted everywhere.
  • As Europe seeks ways to cool down in punishing temperatures, there's no way that Alexandre Anoh is going to sleep without air conditioning in Abidjan's stifling heat.
  • On the other side of the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, which has endured more than a week of extreme temperatures, air conditioning's reputation is worse, and its usefulness far from accepted everywhere.
As Europe seeks ways to cool down in punishing temperatures, there's no way that Alexandre Anoh is going to sleep without air conditioning in Abidjan's stifling heat.
Like many Ivorians, he considers air conditioning a must and sees no downside to it, as people across western Europe question its usefulness.
Like many African countries, Ivory Coast, with its tropical climate, generally experiences high temperatures for nearly eight months of the year, forcing many people to resort to air conditioning for comfort.
In rapidly expanding Abidjan, which is home to more than six million people, air conditioning units are everywhere, from offices and hospitals to shops.
Across the economic capital, condensers are hung high on the walls of buildings and hum incessantly.
From the wealthiest households to the more modest, everyone wants their own unit.
Several people told AFP that they did not see any downside to using air conditioning, despite concerns about greenhouse gas emissions.
"We have to have it because it feels good," said Anoh, a 48-year-old banker. "I turn mine on all the time because I can't sleep without it. It's become a habit."
Inside, the temperature is 23C while outside the thermometer read 30C on Wednesday.

'Vital'

Severin Clin, a self-styled entrepreneur, said air conditioning was a "vital" issue because heat can be deadly.
"Why deprive yourself of it when you can afford it?" he asked.
Experts are divided on the environmental impact of air conditioning.
According to Annual Reviews, a science information NGP, in 2021 air conditioning and refrigeration services were responsible for more than 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
But Africa, which experiences long periods of heat, is the least-polluting continent on the plane, with less than four percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.
On the other side of the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, which has endured more than a week of extreme temperatures, air conditioning's reputation is worse, and its usefulness far from accepted everywhere.
The unprecedented heatwave, where temperatures have topped 40C in some areas, has revived debate on the subject, as the extreme heat is expected to become more frequent, last longer and intensify with climate change.
In France, where dozens of people have drowned while trying to cool off, far-right leader Marine Le Pen has promised "a massive air conditioning plan" if she becomes president next year.
Appi N'Goran, 30, doesn't understand the debate going on in Europe.
"They should use air conditioning like they use heating when it's winter because it's indispensable and can save lives in a heatwave," she said.

Success

According to a report from the International Energy Agency, access to effective air conditioning saved at least 190,000 lives across the world between 2019 and 2023.
Heat-related deaths among people aged 65 and over increased by 61 percent, reaching about 300,000.
Environmentalist Souleymane Cisse said having air conditioning "is no longer a matter of living standards".
The average price of air conditioning ranges between 100,000 and 150,000 CFA francs ($174-260) in Ivory Coast -- up to twice the minimum wage.
But in a number of African countries, access to it is still reserved for a certain social class, said Ablaye Seck, an energy efficiency expert in Senegal.
But many don't know about its impact on the environment.
"Very few people have any idea about the consequences of air conditioning," he said.
Seck also advocates for more airy buildings using local materials so air conditioning is used less in the future, to protect the planet and ease the strain on electricity grids, which are often severely tested during periods of intense heat.
In April, Ivory Coast had to endure several weeks of disruption in electricity distribution because of strong demand linked to high temperatures.
sjd/bam/cpy/phz/cw

defense

New Zealand internal report warns of Chinese military forays in Pacific

BY BEN STRANG

  • "More broadly we anticipate that Chinese actions, such as the PLA-N task group that transited the Tasman Sea in February and China's launch of an inter-continental ballistic missile into the Pacific in September 2024, will be a persistent feature of our strategic environment."
  • Chinese ballistic missile tests and naval forays will become a "persistent" feature of the Pacific as Beijing expands its security presence, New Zealand officials said in an internal document obtained by AFP. The warning was issued in a December 2025 report by New Zealand's Defence Force and Ministry of Foreign Affairs while they were monitoring a People's Liberation Army navy (PLA-N) flotilla in the Philippine Sea.
  • "More broadly we anticipate that Chinese actions, such as the PLA-N task group that transited the Tasman Sea in February and China's launch of an inter-continental ballistic missile into the Pacific in September 2024, will be a persistent feature of our strategic environment."
Chinese ballistic missile tests and naval forays will become a "persistent" feature of the Pacific as Beijing expands its security presence, New Zealand officials said in an internal document obtained by AFP.
The warning was issued in a December 2025 report by New Zealand's Defence Force and Ministry of Foreign Affairs while they were monitoring a People's Liberation Army navy (PLA-N) flotilla in the Philippine Sea.
"New Zealand officials are in close contact with Australian counterparts and maintaining situational awareness of these vessels," said the document obtained by AFP under freedom of information laws.
"More broadly we anticipate that Chinese actions, such as the PLA-N task group that transited the Tasman Sea in February and China's launch of an inter-continental ballistic missile into the Pacific in September 2024, will be a persistent feature of our strategic environment."
The 15-page report was sent to New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his ministers for defence, foreign affairs and intelligence.
China has directed billions of dollars into defence in recent years, a trend that has unnerved some governments despite Beijing insisting its aims are peaceful.
Beijing's foreign ministry said on Friday that it was "not aware" of the document obtained by AFP, when asked about it at a news conference.
"China's military development is for the purpose of safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests, and is not directed against any country," ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters.

'Incremental expansion'

The navy in particular has expanded rapidly as Chinese leaders seek to grow their country's reach in the Pacific, where the United States has long been the predominant military power.
Wellington's concerns over Chinese military movements had already been heightened by the February 2025 deployment of three Chinese warships to the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand.
Most of the report given to AFP was redacted, citing privacy, national security and confidentiality concerns.
But in the remaining sections, officials said China's February 2025 deployment to the Tasman Sea was conducted in accordance with international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
"This included the manner in which the task group notified its intentions to conduct live fire exercises, which we consider did not align with international best practice and caused several commercial airlines to change route," the report said.
Beijing's December deployment to the Philippine Sea "was consistent with China's incremental expansion of its maritime security presence in the South Pacific over the past decade", it said.
"Beijing has deployed a broad range of naval vessels to the region, including but not limited to hospital ships, large amphibious vessels in support of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, and outer space event support ships."
Space support ships are designed to track rocket launches, satellites and intercontinental missile activity.
New Zealand's Defence Force did not identify the type of one of the naval vessels deployed by China to the South Pacific, saying it would "be likely to prejudice the security or defence of New Zealand".
It declined to release details on how New Zealand would respond, for the same reason.
"In all scenarios, New Zealand's response would be in accordance with international law," the defence force said.
bes-isk/dhw/ami

diplomacy

Mexico's Sheinbaum and Spanish king use World Cup to mend diplomatic rift

BY ANNA CUENCA

  • On Thursday, the king visited Sheinbaum in Mexico City while en route to Guadalajara, where Spain will play against Uruguay in the group phase of the World Cup.
  • Against a backdrop of World Cup good vibes, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Spanish King Felipe VI on Thursday eased diplomatic tensions following Mexico's demand for an apology over the colonial-era conquest.
  • On Thursday, the king visited Sheinbaum in Mexico City while en route to Guadalajara, where Spain will play against Uruguay in the group phase of the World Cup.
Against a backdrop of World Cup good vibes, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Spanish King Felipe VI on Thursday eased diplomatic tensions following Mexico's demand for an apology over the colonial-era conquest.
Diplomacy between the two countries chilled in 2019 when Sheinbaum's political mentor, then-president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, wrote a letter to the Spanish crown requesting the recognition of "crimes" committed in the 16th century.
Felipe VI never responded, and the Spanish foreign minister defended the history shared by both countries, rejecting the idea of an apology.
The move was the opening salvo to years of diplomatic tensions.
On Thursday, the king visited Sheinbaum in Mexico City while en route to Guadalajara, where Spain will play against Uruguay in the group phase of the World Cup.
The king and the president were photographed shaking hands warmly, and chatted about football and expressed solidarity with Venezuela after two powerful earthquakes killed at least 235 people.
Writing on X after the meeting, Sheinbaum said: "We discussed the importance of Indigenous peoples throughout history and the ties between Mexico and Spain. We agreed to strengthen bilateral relations for the benefit of our nations."
Her government announced on Thursday that Mexico and Spain will organize exhibitions and cultural activities that highlight "Spanish exile in Mexico and Mexico's Indigenous cultures."
The Spanish Royal House said after the visit that it "comes in the context of intensification of relations between the two countries."

'Mistaken' strategy

Back in 2024, Sheinbaum did not invite the king to her inauguration. Spain then declined to send a representative to the ceremony.
But both parties have taken positive steps over the past year to organize Felipe's official trip and "reinforce the closeness and affinity that tie both people together," according to the Spanish Royal House.
Behind the warming relations lay the soft power of sports and culture.
Last March, while visiting an exhibition in Madrid about Indigenous women in Mexico, the king publicly admitted that there was "a lot of abuse" during the colonial conquest.
It soon emerged that Sheinbaum had invited him to attend the World Cup that Mexico is co-hosting with the United States and Canada. He accepted, in what was the first step to "heal wounds," the Mexican political commentator Pablo Majluf told AFP.
The analyst criticized the "mistaken" strategy of former president Lopez Obrador and the desire to show that "what they wanted was achieved, which was getting the king to recognize the posture of Mexico."
Nonetheless, "the two countries are profoundly tied culturally, historically, and economically, meaning the closeness is positive," he said.
In early June, dozens of Spanish and Mexican businessmen joined Spanish Minister of Economy Carlos Cuerpo for a meeting in Mexico City, where they sought to discuss doubling bilateral commerce by 2030.

 Allies against Trump

Traveling alongside Felipe VI is Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Manuel Albares and Minister of Education Milagros Tolon.
The public handshake between Sheinbaum and Felipe was seen as sealing the reconciliation, which started when Albares recognized at the same exhibition in Madrid the "pain and injustice" inflicted upon "the originary people" of the Americas.
Spain had previously granted numerous awards to Mexican personalities and institutions -- interpreted as subtle winks towards a potential reconciliation.
The accolades included the granting of the Cervantes Prize to the writer Gonzalo Celorio and the Princess of Asturias Award for Concord to Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology.
In April, Sheinbaum traveled to Barcelona at the invitation of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to participate in a summit of leftist leaders to discuss the aggressive policies of US President Donald Trump.
It was her first visit to Europe as president, and "an error" in the opinion of the analyst Majluf, because it put her in the category of Trump's enemies alongside Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
acc/jpo/hol/ami

theatre

Wole Soyinka university theatre: a talent factory for Nigeria and beyond

BY KADIATOU SAKHO

  • Named after former University of Ibadan student Wole Soyinka, the first African to be awarded the Nobel prize in literature, the theatre continues to pump out talent seven decades after its 1955 founding, drawing audiences from across the country and the continent.
  • The actors, seasoned veterans as well as young amateurs, go through their lines and movements one last time before the curtain rises at the Wole Soyinka Theatre at the University of Ibadan, in southwest Nigeria.
  • Named after former University of Ibadan student Wole Soyinka, the first African to be awarded the Nobel prize in literature, the theatre continues to pump out talent seven decades after its 1955 founding, drawing audiences from across the country and the continent.
The actors, seasoned veterans as well as young amateurs, go through their lines and movements one last time before the curtain rises at the Wole Soyinka Theatre at the University of Ibadan, in southwest Nigeria.
Adebayo Israel was always passionate about theatre "but this is where I gained my confidence on stage", the 21-year-old student told AFP, warming up his voice ahead of that night's production of "Medaaye".
Israel is the latest in a long line of actors to make their way through the theatre, which has become something of a proving ground for talent in the west African country.
Named after former University of Ibadan student Wole Soyinka, the first African to be awarded the Nobel prize in literature, the theatre continues to pump out talent seven decades after its 1955 founding, drawing audiences from across the country and the continent.
"This particular department, this university, has produced actors and academics to develop the departments of theatre in every university in Nigeria," instructor Tunde Awosanmi told AFP.
Awosanmi also served as the stage director for "Medaaye", an African adaptation of the Greek tragedy "Medea" by Euripides.
For two and a half hours on a recent evening, the dialogue alternated between English, Yoruba and Pidgin, punctuated by songs and traditional dancing and accompanied by musicians seated among the public in the front row.
In the audience was the "Medaaye" playwright Femi Osofisan, the first African to receive the prestigious Thalia Prize, in 2016.

'Pool of talent'

Osofisan, who was there for a week of events celebrating his 80th birthday, knows the venue well -- he studied and taught at Ibadan's theatre department.
Ibadan-trained talent has also been known to spill over into the country's raucous, fast-paced film industry, known as Nollywood, which is said to produce around 200 films per month.
Both professional actors and students perform together. 
Alumni of the Ibadan stage include playwright and actor Akinwumi Isola, actress Martha Ehinome and actor Gabriel Afolayan.
For Iyanuoluwa Ajibike, 30, the theatre's strength comes from its melting-pot atmosphere.
"It's a pool of talent because different people with different skills meet," the actor and producer told AFP.
"We have actors, directors, the costumers, the make-up artists, light technicians, choreographers, the sound designers. That's a draw for students, as well.
"I've learnt a little bit of costume, make-up, dance and the others," said Oreoluwa Tayo, a 22-year-old actor who hopes to venture into the management and business aspect of theatre production.

'Costs remain a hurdle'

While the theatre has become a pillar of the city of Ibadan, it is also known to draw audiences from across the country.
Esther Adelana, 29, a public relations practitioner based in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, more than 650 kilometres from Ibadan, came all the way to watch the performance.
For her, the theatre epitomises "African culture in all its intelligence and excellence".
The theatre has also helped boost the local arts scene.
"The theatre makes me feel even more alive," said Ejirooghene Asagba, who found her footing at the Wole Soyinka Theatre before producing "Water", Tobi Marho's one-man show, at the local venue New Culture Studios.
Asagba has appeared in the 2024 film "Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti", a biopic about the mother of famed Afrobeat artist Fela Kuti, as well as in the police series "Crime and Justice Lagos".
But it was on the Wole Soyinka stage that she found particularly memorable roles in productions that dealt with a plethora of African stories beyond Nigeria.
"It is important to tell Nigerian stories but also African stories because we often share the same challenges, whether they are political, social, economic or cultural," she said.
"The audience loved these plays. Spectators came from neighbouring French-speaking countries and I received many messages."
Her dream, she said, would be to tour Nigeria -- and the continent -- though for now "costs remain a hurdle."
ks/nro/sn/gil

LaGuaira

Venezuelan mother digs with bare hands for missing son

BY MARGIONI BERMÚDEZ

  • "It is a lot of rock, and with bare hands it is impossible," she said, sitting not far from where she thought her son was trapped.
  • Amparo del Giudice dug with her bare hands at a huge mound of concrete in search of her son, trapped under rubble after Venezuela's strongest earthquake since 1900.
  • "It is a lot of rock, and with bare hands it is impossible," she said, sitting not far from where she thought her son was trapped.
Amparo del Giudice dug with her bare hands at a huge mound of concrete in search of her son, trapped under rubble after Venezuela's strongest earthquake since 1900.
Hers was one of many individual tragedies unfolding after quakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 hit in quick succession in northern Venezuela on Wednesday evening, with La Guaira among the worst-affected regions.
On Thursday night the death toll stood at 235, with around 4,300 people injured.
As time passed and no government help appeared, del Giudice became exasperated and flailed at the rubble.
"It is a lot of rock, and with bare hands it is impossible," she said, sitting not far from where she thought her son was trapped.
Her grandson Alessandro, 23, donned a volunteer firefighter's helmet and joined in the search for his missing father.
"He is in there," he said, sobbing as he looked at the remains of what was once a building.
In happier times, La Guaira, a town of around 25,000, was where people from the capital Caracas would visit to enjoy the Caribbean.
Its many tall buildings with swimming pools have been severely damaged by the tremors.
Interim president Delcy Rodriguez visited the region on Thursday and declared it a disaster area.
AFP observed looting in the community.
Ruined buildings and shell-shocked faces were everywhere.
Clouds of dust still floated in the air outside luxury seaside condos now reduced to piles of metal, glass and concrete.
The coastal highway was broken apart in several spots, and many buildings along the coast were unlivable or gone entirely.
Two five-star hotels also collapsed.
Rescue teams and volunteers climbed heaps of ruins that used to be buildings as tall as 15 stories, screaming out the names of the missing.
Some of the damaged buildings groaned with each new rumble of the earth, as Venezuela endured more aftershocks.
"Perez family, alive," was written on the wall of one house that looked as if it had been tossed like a toy.
mbj/lp/dw/hol/mjw

heatwave

Climate change to blame for intensity of Europe heatwave: scientists

BY NICK PERRY

  • "Climate change is unequivocally to blame."
  • Human-caused climate change is "unequivocally" responsible for the intensity of a record-breaking heatwave scorching Europe, scientists said Friday.
  • "Climate change is unequivocally to blame."
Human-caused climate change is "unequivocally" responsible for the intensity of a record-breaking heatwave scorching Europe, scientists said Friday.
It would have been "virtually impossible" for such exceptional temperatures to occur in June fifty years ago, the World Weather Attribution group of scientists said.
A similar heatwave would have been 3.5C cooler during the day in June 1976, concluded the study by scientists from Europe, the United States and the United Kingdom.
But the world is hotter today and "the chance of a heatwave like this has changed immensely", said the study's lead author Theodore Keeping from Imperial College London. 
"This event would not have been possible in June without climate change," Keeping told reporters.
The planet has warmed about 1.4C above pre-industrial times, driven by the burning of coal, oil and gas.
Scientists agree this is making extreme weather events like heatwaves more frequent and intense, and that limiting warming is vital to avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.
Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent and tens of millions of people have sweltered this week in temperatures that broke records in some countries.
"The weather pattern itself is not particularly unusual, but the temperatures are -- or at least they used to be, without human-induced climate change," Friederike Otto, the co-founder of World Weather Attribution from Imperial College London, told reporters.
- 'Unpleasant and dangerous' - 
As the heatwave is still unfolding, scientists used observed and forecast temperatures to compare this heatwave against how it might have behaved in the cooler climates of 2003 and 1976.
Even compared to 2003 -- when tens of thousands of people died in a major European heatwave -- the current episode was notably extreme, the authors said.
A similar heatwave in June 2003 would have been about 2C cooler, the study said. 
"In 2003... daytime heat like this would still have been very rare", while overnight temperatures would have been more than a hundred times less likely. 
"Our analysis here shows that intense heat is increasing rapidly even in living memory, with such events tens to hundreds of times more likely since only 2003 and virtually impossible just 50 years ago," said the study.
"Climate change is unequivocally to blame."
The El Nino weather pattern -- a natural warming climate phase -- had "no role in driving the heat", the authors said.
Otto also singled out the threat of "heat stress" posed by the combination of high temperatures and humidity.
Heat stress occurs when the body's natural cooling systems are overwhelmed, causing symptoms ranging from dizziness and headaches to organ failure and death. 
Of the nearly 850 cities in Europe analysed in the study, some 45 percent had broken -- or were expected to break -- their all-time heat stress records in June, the study said.
This made the heatwave "particularly unpleasant and dangerous", Otto said. 
This episode is the second of the year for Europe after an early-season heatwave in May brought temperatures more typical of high summer to central and western parts of the continent.
World Weather Attribution said the rapid phase out of fossil fuels was "critical if we are to avoid even higher temperatures and their consequences in the future".
np-jmi/lt/rh

US

'Very strong' nuclear verification needed in Iran after war: IAEA head

  • "I think the objective of this (recent US-Iran preliminary) agreement is to ensure that there is no development of nuclear weapons in Iran.
  • "Very strong" verification is needed in Iran following the Middle East conflict to ensure that it does not develop nuclear weapons, the UN atomic watchdog chief said on Friday.
  • "I think the objective of this (recent US-Iran preliminary) agreement is to ensure that there is no development of nuclear weapons in Iran.
"Very strong" verification is needed in Iran following the Middle East conflict to ensure that it does not develop nuclear weapons, the UN atomic watchdog chief said on Friday.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi's remarks come as the United States and Iran negotiate a broader agreement to end the war, with Tehran's nuclear programme a key sticking point.
"I think the objective of this (recent US-Iran preliminary) agreement is to ensure that there is no development of nuclear weapons in Iran. The government of Iran has declared quite clearly that this is not their intention," Grossi told reporters in Japan.
"But of course intentions are not enough. We have to have a very strong verification system in place... as soon as is practicable," the IAEA chief said.
Grossi said the watchdog had also "barely initiated" talks with Iran following its preliminary agreement with the United States about what to do with Tehran's uranium stockpile.
"Initial conversations have taken place... We expect this work to pick up soon," Grossi said.
Before the conflict, the IAEA estimated that Iran had 440 kilograms (970 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60 percent.
That is close to the 90 percent needed to make a bomb and well above the 3.67-percent limit set by a now-defunct 2015 agreement with Iran. 
Iran suspended cooperation with the IAEA after Israel and the United States launched a previous wave of attacks in June 2025, and its inspectors have not seen the material since.
Under the terms of the preliminary agreement between Tehran and Washington, this stockpile is meant to be "downblended" under IAEA supervision.
Grossi said the "widespread impression" was that the stockpile remains where it was before June 2025 near Iran's Isfahan facility.
However, that facility was bombed and Iran said that it does not plan to allow the IAEA to inspect sites that were attacked.
Grossi also said on Friday that an alternative to diluting could be shipping the enriched uranium out of Iran.
"The memorandum of understanding, as you may have noted, includes the possibility of downblending as one alternative," Grossi said.
"It could also be shipped out directly. It would perhaps be more complicated, but there are a few technical alternatives to deal with the material," he said.
Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire an atomic bomb, while remaining adamant about its right to operate a full-scale civilian nuclear programme.
Before the 12-day war in 2025, Iran as a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty -- unlike Israel, which is widely assumed to have atomic weapons -- allowed the IAEA to inspect its nuclear sites under its safeguards deal with the Vienna-based body.
Iran agreed a landmark nuclear deal with six big powers in 2015 limiting its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, but US President Donald Trump walked away from the agreement during his first term. 
stu/pbt

Global Edition

Red rocks yield coveted minerals in DR Congo

BY CLAIRE DOYEN

  • The deposit, reputed to be the largest in Africa, is one of the Democratic Republic of Congo's hidden treasures -- which are at the centre of a global race for critical minerals.
  • In vast warehouses at the Kamoa copper mine in the southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, mountains of reddish rocks pile up as the machines grind away day and night.
  • The deposit, reputed to be the largest in Africa, is one of the Democratic Republic of Congo's hidden treasures -- which are at the centre of a global race for critical minerals.
In vast warehouses at the Kamoa copper mine in the southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, mountains of reddish rocks pile up as the machines grind away day and night.
The deposit, reputed to be the largest in Africa, is one of the Democratic Republic of Congo's hidden treasures -- which are at the centre of a global race for critical minerals.
In the ultra-modern installations, thousands of workers churn out the red gold -- coveted by international markets for its exceptionally high copper content.
China has long been mining it, and now the United States is vying for a share in the country's mineral wealth, seeking to challenge Beijing's hold on the strategic resources used to make cars, phones and weapons.
"Kamoa at the moment is one of the largest copper mines in the world" with capacity to produce 300,000 tonnes a year, its managing director Annebel Oosthuizen told AFP.
It is "growing to become the largest copper mine in Africa and probably the fourth largest copper mine in the world", aiming to churn out half a million tonnes from 2028, she added -- "right up there in terms of world capacity".

Mineral riches, poverty

The DRC is one of the poorest countries in the world. 
Of its roughly 100 million inhabitants, nearly two in three live below the poverty line, according to official statistics.
Yet the vast central African nation is also one of the world's biggest sources of critical metals indispensable to global industry.
It is Africa's top copper producer, with 3.4 million tonnes in 2025. 
The ore mined at Kamoa has a copper content of 2.8 percent, four times the global average.
It is also the world's leading producer of cobalt, with 68 percent of world supply.
All this puts it at the heart of Chinese and US economic interests and they actively covet it.
Copper and cobalt are essential for the manufacture of smartphones, computers, cars and batteries.
Copper conducts electricity, while cobalt allows that energy to be stored.
These minerals are also vital to aeronautics, defence and renewable energy.
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), global demand for copper is expected to rise by more than 40 percent by 2040, while demand for cobalt is set to quadruple by 2030.
"In terms of copper stocks available and what will be required, one has to... triple the current copper that's available over the next couple of years" at Kamoa, Oosthuizen told AFP.

US-DRC deal

Kamoa Copper S.A. is a joint venture owned in equal parts by Canada's Ivanhoe Mines and China's Zijin Mining, with the Congolese state holding a 20-percent minority stake.
China has invested massively in the country for nearly 20 years and is estimated to account for 70 percent of mining activity, according to the Congolese chamber of mines.
But in December, Kinshasa accepted a strategic partnership agreement with Washington -- part of a peace accord for the DRC, which has been plagued by conflict for more than 30 years.
The accord has so far failed to end the fighting in the violence-stricken east of the country but an initial list of 25 mining sites has been submitted to Washington for potential investment or exploitation licences.
In February, Swiss commodities giant Glencore signed a memorandum of understanding with the US-led Orion Critical Mineral Consortium to grant the latter a potential 40-percent stake in the Swiss conglomerate's mining assets in the DRC.
"This will allow the United States to benefit from production coming out of the DRC through Glencore," Marie-Chantal Kaninda, president of Glencore DRC, told AFP.

Chinese interests

Kolwezi, the closest town to the Kamoa site, is encircled by a dozen giant industrial mines.
They have earned it the nicknames "Copper capital" and "World cobalt capital".
Along the neatly paved road linking the city centre to the small, pristine local airport, many shops bear signs in Chinese characters.
English is widely spoken in local hotels and restaurants catering to a foreign business clientele.
"I was born and raised in Kolwezi. I've always seen mines and Chinese people here," said 26-year-old taxi driver Kevin Mwarabu.
Now DRC officials have indicated they are content to do business with both the big powers.
The country's subsoil remains largely under-explored. 
Even so, the mining sector "drives the entire Congolese economy", said Economy Minister Daniel Mukoko.
The US–China rivalry in the global race for strategic minerals "is not our war", said Eric Kalala, head of the state-owned General Cobalt Company (EGC), which holds a monopoly over the marketing of non-industrial cobalt production in the country.
"There is room for everyone," he said at the Katanga Business Meeting in Kolwezi in May.
"The DRC covers 2.4 million square kilometres (0.9 million square miles) and across all that land there is exploration to be done."
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weather

'Unbearable': tracking heat in one of New Delhi's poorest areas

BY UZMI ATHAR

  • "I prefer staying outside after work, because inside the house there is no relief," said 45-year-old Devi, who lives in the cramped lanes of Delhi's Sundar Nagri district.
  • Durga Devi finds no relief after a day working in New Delhi's sweltering summer, because her poorly ventilated home radiates trapped heat, leaving her bedroom as hot as 45 degrees at night.
  • "I prefer staying outside after work, because inside the house there is no relief," said 45-year-old Devi, who lives in the cramped lanes of Delhi's Sundar Nagri district.
Durga Devi finds no relief after a day working in New Delhi's sweltering summer, because her poorly ventilated home radiates trapped heat, leaving her bedroom as hot as 45 degrees at night.
Campaigners are now documenting conditions in this densely packed area of India's capital, home to some of the country's poorest people, hoping to push policymakers to better protect vulnerable communities.
"I prefer staying outside after work, because inside the house there is no relief," said 45-year-old Devi, who lives in the cramped lanes of Delhi's Sundar Nagri district.
She spends eight hours a day working in a factory without a fan, only to return at dusk to stifling heat at home.
The one-room house -- like many in this part of the sprawling megacity of 30 million people -- has concrete walls, low roofs and poor ventilation, which combine to trap heat during the day and keep the space oppressively hot throughout the night.
Devi's son Abhishek has been keeping a heat diary and tracking temperatures inside the home and around the neighbourhood using a thermal camera, part of an initiative supported by Greenpeace India that includes 20 families in the area.
"I want to show how high the temperature goes here, and what it is like to live in this condition," said Abhishek, a 21-year-old student.
His findings reveal temperatures well above those recorded by official meteorological stations.
Devi said she had recorded temperatures as high as 45C on her bedroom wall at night. During the day, the concrete road outside registered a blistering 60C.
When AFP visited, the camera recorded the room temperature at 32C, while the kitchen wall was hotter, at 37C.

'No place to recover'

"Heat doesn't end when the temperature outside falls," said Deepali Tonk, who has helped organise the project for Greenpeace India.
"For many families, the struggle continues inside homes that retain heat and offer no place to recover," she said.
"By documenting these experiences, we hope to support legal efforts to ensure vulnerable communities are better protected in these months."
Campaigners are gathering data and testimonies until July, and plan to file a legal case seeking stronger heat protections and a more effective action plan.
India has heat action plans that vary from state to state, and are often limited to measures such as heat alerts, changes in school and work timings, water distribution and temporary cooling spaces.
But they rarely offer long-term measures to address housing quality, urban heat retention, and protections for informal workers.
Officials would "come and count how many fans or rooms we have", said Arshi Qureshi, a 19-year-old student who has been measuring heat in the one-room home she shares with eight family members.
"But we are not just numbers. We are individuals living through this."
Summer heat in India, the world's most populous nation, can be brutal, and climate change is making extreme heat more common.
During a May 2024 heatwave, Delhi matched its previous record high of 49.2C, first recorded in 2022.
Night-time temperatures are also rising. Last month, the India Meteorological Department recorded a minimum temperature of 31.9C, the city's highest May night-time temperature in 14 years.

'We need change'

The government releases limited statistics on heat-related deaths, with cases where heat contributes indirectly, such as heart attacks, often not counted.
In May, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley suggested India may be significantly undercounting heat-related deaths.
The researchers, drawing on data from 10 cities that tracked rises in mortality with temperature increase, estimated that a single day of extreme heat causes approximately 3,400 excess deaths nationally. A five-day heatwave causes nearly 30,000 deaths, they said.
"We have been very interested in quantifying the size of the problem, because what you cannot measure, you cannot manage," Ashok Gadgil, co-author of the research paper, told AFP.
The study illustrated the need for more localised action plans.
Annual monsoon rains are now sweeping north, with early storms tempering the blistering heat -- but also sending humidity shooting up.
Back in Sundar Nagri, vegetable seller Raja said his rooftop room has been unbearable since May.
"I couldn't concentrate at all," said the 21-year-old who is studying political science while preparing for government examinations.
To cool the air, he hangs a wet sack in front of a fan.
On the hottest days, his mother Madhuri Devi said she repeatedly vomited while cooking over the stove.
"We need change -- year after year, the summer is getting unbearable," said her son.
"We hope our experiences will help make a plan that could better protect us."
uzm/pjm/ami/abs

society

Viral bullying videos test Bhutan's digital transition

BY DECHEN WANGDI

  • Filmed by classmates as others looked on, the videos showed secondary school girls slapping and punching another student to the ground.
  • In the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, which has long limited outside influence, viral videos of school bullying have triggered debate over social media's erosion of traditional values.
  • Filmed by classmates as others looked on, the videos showed secondary school girls slapping and punching another student to the ground.
In the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, which has long limited outside influence, viral videos of school bullying have triggered debate over social media's erosion of traditional values.
Footage of fighting pupils circulated across Facebook, X, Reddit and Telegram in early June, sparking outrage and probes by police and education authorities.
Filmed by classmates as others looked on, the videos showed secondary school girls slapping and punching another student to the ground.
Bhutan carefully controls tourism and foreign access, and only introduced television and the internet in 1999 under a cautious modernisation programme designed to protect its distinct culture.
At the same time, social media has become increasingly popular, acting as a bridge to the outside world for the population of around 800,000.
For many, this month's incident felt at odds with Bhutan's self-cultivated image as a peaceful Buddhist nation that has sought to prioritise social wellbeing over material growth through its "Gross National Happiness" philosophy.
The school, Lungtenzampa Middle Secondary School in the capital Thimphu, said the situation was being treated with "the utmost seriousness".
Students have been suspended and the videos taken down after the incident, which has raised broader questions about youth behaviour, digital responsibility, misinformation and how technology shapes society.

'Disturbing'

Bhutan's National Commission for Women and Children urged the public not to share the footage, warning that it "may cause further harm, trauma, stigmatisation, and victimisation of the children concerned".
For Sangay Dema, a 32-year-old who found the video on her feed, it was deeply upsetting.
"As a mother myself, I couldn't even fall asleep at night and images kept flashing in my memory," she said. "It was that disturbing."
Bhutan has an overall internet penetration rate of 88 percent, and 485,000 social media user identities, according to analytics site DataReportal.
There has been no indication that the nation -- where more than half the population is under 28 -- is considering banning young teens from social platforms, a move taken by an increasing number of governments.
"Social media has democratised access to information, civic participation and opportunities for youth," said Tandin Wangmo, head of the Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy, a rights group.
"But it also has the potential to amplify outrage, public shaming and hate speech," she told AFP. "Everybody is a judge."
Dorji Gyeltshen, a 24-year-old content creator who saw the footage on Telegram, said that children with access to phones and tablets can be easily influenced.
"The content we consume has a significant impact on our lives," Gyeltshen said.

'Becoming bullies themselves'

Bhutan has embraced technology -- including hydropower-backed cryptocurrency mining -- as it seeks to create jobs and curb the migration of its young people to countries such as Australia.
Yet its digital transformation has also brought new social challenges.
Children in Bhutan "face new challenges as the traditional layers of protection offered by families and communities are weakened" amid rapid modernisation, economic development and increasing urbanisation, according to the UN children's fund.
Six out of 10 children in Bhutan have experienced some form of physical violence, Unicef says, using data from a 2016 government study.
"A lot of what we see now is not new behaviour, but things that were once hidden behind closed doors," said company employee Srijana Giri, 31.
"The kind of online culture I would like to see in Bhutan is one where adults actually behave like adults -- not acting like judges or gods trying to punish others, while becoming bullies themselves in the process," she said.
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