EV

Samsung battery plant turns toxic for Orban's re-election campaign

BY ANDRAS ROSTOVANYI

  • Telex reported that a 2023 intelligence report by the Hungarian security services found that Samsung has been exposing workers to cancer-inducing chemicals far above legal limits, did nothing to end the problem and deliberately tried to conceal it.
  • On the outskirts of the town of God, not far from Budapest, white smoke rises from a Samsung electric vehicle battery factory accused of exposing workers to cancer-causing chemicals, with Hungary's government under attack for failing to shut it down.
  • Telex reported that a 2023 intelligence report by the Hungarian security services found that Samsung has been exposing workers to cancer-inducing chemicals far above legal limits, did nothing to end the problem and deliberately tried to conceal it.
On the outskirts of the town of God, not far from Budapest, white smoke rises from a Samsung electric vehicle battery factory accused of exposing workers to cancer-causing chemicals, with Hungary's government under attack for failing to shut it down.
The allegations revealed by Hungarian news site Telex last month come at a sensitive time for nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban as he faces an unprecedented challenge to his 16 years in power in elections next month.
While Orban and Samsung have dismissed the allegations, opposition leader Peter Magyar, whose party has been polling ahead of Orban's since last year, has said it underlines the corruption he pledges to fight.
The South Korean industrial giant established its battery plant in 2017, and it now sprawls over 50 hectares (123 acres) on the outskirts of God.
With Orban promoting Hungary as a global hub for electric vehicle manufacturing, the factory has received generous subsidies of more than half a billion euros in taxpayers' money to build and expand the facility.
Telex reported that a 2023 intelligence report by the Hungarian security services found that Samsung has been exposing workers to cancer-inducing chemicals far above legal limits, did nothing to end the problem and deliberately tried to conceal it.
The government chose not to seek the plant's closure, Telex claimed, despite concerns among some ministers about the "unacceptable political risk".
Instead it gave Samsung a few months to resolve the problems, it added.
Citing internal documents, the news site said the issues were still not completely solved.
But Samsung insisted last month that the factory "complies with all environmental and occupational safety regulations and operates transparently."
The plant and others like it, including one by China's CATL, have repeatedly seen protests over environmental concerns.

Toxic solvent

When AFP visited God last week, several locals said they were worried about the factory, while others said they trusted the government.
"They keep expanding it... it became huge, and we don't know what is going on inside," pensioner Erika Nemeth, 67, told AFP, complaining about falling property prices.
Another resident, Beata Peimli, said she believed the factory would be shut down if there were problems.
"Such a large factory is probably monitored extensively," said the 45-year-old.
The local council is seeking to calm nerves.
"All accredited tests to date carried out by the local government... have not detected any contamination," acting spokesman Peter David Balogh told AFP. 
But local environmentalist group God-ERT -- founded in 2020 to monitor the battery plant -- is sceptical.
Tests it commissioned detected N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) in local wells. The toxic solvent frequently used in battery manufacturing is highly dangerous to pregnant women.
The plant -- which until 2023 did not need an environmental permit to run -- has repeatedly faced fines for occupational, industrial safety and environmental violations.
Samsung has violated "all kinds of regulations", including "deficiencies in environmental protection" and "occupational safety", said Zsuzsanna Bodnar, a local journalist from investigative outlet Atlatszo and a founding member of God-ERT.
Both God-ERT and Atlatszo have faced probes from authorities over their funding, though neither has been sanctioned.

'Fake issue'

Orban has dismissed the latest claims as a "fake issue" ahead of the April 12 general election, insisting Hungary has "the strictest environmental regulations in place, and our authorities enforce these regulations".
Neither Samsung nor the government responded to AFP's inquiries for comments.
Opposition leader Magyar, who held a rally in God on Thursday, has pledged to review all battery factory licences if his party wins the election.
Magyar's party could win support locally, according to Szabolcs Pek, an analyst at Iranytu Institute think tank.
"But this won't be the issue that brings down the system," he added.
ros/kym/jza/cw/fg

Sports

Mignoni returns as Toulon coach after mid-season 'breakdown'

BY LUCAS BERLOTTO

  • Mignoni added, however, that "I'm still a coach and I'll always be on the pitch.
  • Pierre Mignoni, who has resumed his post as Toulon coach after a sudden mid-season pause, said Friday he had suffered a "breakdown" and had learned that coaching could kill.
  • Mignoni added, however, that "I'm still a coach and I'll always be on the pitch.
Pierre Mignoni, who has resumed his post as Toulon coach after a sudden mid-season pause, said Friday he had suffered a "breakdown" and had learned that coaching could kill.
"My body gave out on me," said Mignoni about his decision to step aside following a loss to Clermont in the French Top 14 on February 14.
"I experienced what you might call a breakdown, a work overload. I felt it coming on, but you always have this feeling of being a superhuman. You're always taking care of others and not much of yourself," said the 49-year-old former France scrum-half who has been in charge at Toulon since 2022. 
"It's a fabulous job; you don't count the hours and you tell yourself it'll be alright. But it's not so much the workload on the field that's heavy, it's the mental load. And at one point, it really hit me hard. It wasn't the defeat that put me in this state; it was the final straw, and my body gave out."
Mignoni said Pierre Dantin, the club's 'high-performance consultant' told him to take a break.
"I'm someone who doesn't sleep a lot, about five or six hours a night, but I slept for five days straight. I felt like my head weighed 20 kilos and I couldn't walk anymore. It took me a week to walk again, to walk around my garden. 
"The doctor even thought I'd had a stroke. I had a brain MRI after my five days of sleep to rule that out."
Mignoni said he felt "much better, otherwise I wouldn't have come back".
"But," he added, "I don't want to go through that again."
He said he was going to change the way he worked and delegated.
"I used to get up at 5am to be in the office by 5:20am, until 6 or 8pm, sometimes 10pm. Now I'm going to forbid myself from getting up at 5am. I've already pushed it back an hour."
Mignoni added, however, that "I'm still a coach and I'll always be on the pitch. I simply need to work better with my staff". 

'I have to be careful'

He said he had considered his future but the club president supported him.
"I asked myself if I had the strength and the desire to continue. Bernard Lemaitre immediately told me that it was unthinkable for him that I would leave.
"He wanted me to take a break, even three months if necessary. Accepting that your coach takes a break is very rare."
He said he recovered "step by step".
"I only started seeing people again last week. Before that, I didn't want to be seen. It's not a question of shame," he said.
"I was happy to be back, a little emotional," he said. "But I have to be careful, I'm still being monitored.
"I've been having a great time, I feel fresher. I took three weeks off, I'd never done that before, not even during my holidays. The players seemed happy to see me again, a little emotional, which is nice. 
"I'm not Superman, even though I didn't think I was. Six months ago I said that if I had to die on the sidelines, I didn't care. I thought it could never happen. Now I know it can.
"How many times has my wife told me to stop?" he asked. "I told her not to worry."
lbe/stt/pb/lp/ea

disease

South Africa's livestock farmers reel from foot-and-mouth disaster

BY CLéMENT VARANGES

  • The blow comes as farmers in the Eastern Cape recover from months of severe drought.
  • Pointing at a calf lying motionless in a green field in South Africa's Eastern Cape province, farmer Igsahn Felix let out a heavy sigh.
  • The blow comes as farmers in the Eastern Cape recover from months of severe drought.
Pointing at a calf lying motionless in a green field in South Africa's Eastern Cape province, farmer Igsahn Felix let out a heavy sigh. "That one is not going to make it," he said.
Home to more than two head of cattle per person, the province is the beating heart of South Africa's livestock industry.
But its endless expanses have been swept by panic since an outbreak of highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease, which was declared a national disaster in February. 
The government in January rolled out a 10-year drive to vaccinate nearly 20 million cattle against the highly contagious and sometimes deadly viral infection. 
But farmers like Felix, who is based near the town of Humansdorp, accused the government of allowing the crisis to escalate until it had gone too far.
Nearly 1,000 outbreaks have been reported in South Africa, affecting all of nine provinces. The disease has also been reported in neighbouring Botswana, Eswatini and Zimbabwe in recent months.
On the side of a dirt road near Felix's farm, a large signpost warned ominously: "Foot-and-mouth disease control area".
Every passing vehicle had to be sprayed with a chemical solution to stop the spread of the virus, which can remain up to six months in cow dung.
Of the 245 animals belonging to the farmers' cooperative of which Felix is a member, 128 have fallen ill and 14 did not survive.
Foot-and-mouth causes fever and blisters near the hoof and in the mouth that prevent animals from feeding, as seen in the emaciated survivors.
For several weeks the area, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the town of Gqeberha, formerly called Port Elizabeth, has been under a quarantine prohibiting any sale or slaughter of meat.

High costs

Felix's group of 22 subsistence farmers earn about 540,000 rands (over $32,000) in a normal year. Their losses from foot-and-mouth have already cost them 180,000 rands.
"If we were vaccinated early enough, the disease wouldn't have been here and we would have not lost that much money," Felix told AFP.
Adding to the costs was the expensive fodder that farmers had to buy while their herds were unable to graze in the open fields.
Except for the state-sponsored vaccinations, farmers have to carry the financial burden of the outbreak themselves, said cattle breeder Doane Kaizer, who has about 60 cows.
"Sanitisation has a cost too," he said. "I am sure the government can do more. Things need to step up a bit."
The outbreak has led South African beef to be banned in Zambia and China, a key importer.
It was also the reason given by agriculture minister John Steenhuisen in February when he announced he would not seek re-election as leader of the second-largest party, the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA).
"My next chapter must be to eradicate this devastating disease from our shores once and for all," said Steenhuisen, whose handling of the crisis has been sharply criticised.
The outbreak put Steenhuisen -- and his party, which draws significant support from farmers -- in "a weak position", said political analyst Susan Booysen, with local government elections later this year.
"He might even lose his cabinet status," she said. 

Vaccination drive

South Africa lost its status as a foot-and-mouth-free country in 2019, with outbreaks from 2021 spreading across the country. 
It finally received 2.5 million imported vaccine doses in late February for the virus strains currently spreading.
"This is going to be our test because this vaccine has never been used in this country before," said veterinarian Anthony Davis, a member of a dedicated government vaccination task force.
Humansdorp already suffered heavy losses during the previous foot-and-mouth crisis in 2024, which cost between five and seven million rand (around $300,000 to $420,000) for every 1,000 dairy cows, said Rufus Dreyer, one of the farmers severely affected.
The blow comes as farmers in the Eastern Cape recover from months of severe drought.
There are fears the virus will spread to the country's third-largest dairy, Woodlands Dairy, also located in Humansdorp.
The dairy employs more than 1,000 people and the economic impact of an outbreak would be "huge", warned deputy mayor Timothy Jantjes.
With the easily spread virus even carried by the wind, the Eastern Cape -- which has over four million head of cattle, more than any other province -- was holding its breath.
clv/jcb/br/sbk

infertility

'We're not wombs': Japan women seek rights to sterilisation

BY TOMOHIRO OSAKI

  • That's because few want to speak out in a society where "the myth persists that women are incomplete without motherhood", lawyer Kameishi said.
  • When Kazane Kajiya voluntarily sterilised herself in the United States aged 27, she essentially "flipped the middle finger" at Japan's patriarchal society that had long pushed her towards motherhood.
  • That's because few want to speak out in a society where "the myth persists that women are incomplete without motherhood", lawyer Kameishi said.
When Kazane Kajiya voluntarily sterilised herself in the United States aged 27, she essentially "flipped the middle finger" at Japan's patriarchal society that had long pushed her towards motherhood.
In the rapidly ageing country desperate to boost its falling birth rates, women seeking to make themselves infertile were assumed "not even to exist", Kajiya, who has never wanted children, told AFP.
She and four other women are now challenging the constitutionality of Japan's decades-old "maternity protection" law, one of the world's most restrictive barriers to sterilisation.
A verdict in their landmark lawsuit dubbed "maternity is not my body's purpose" is due next week.
Under the law, a woman must have multiple children with her health at risk, or face life-threatening danger from pregnancy, to qualify for sterilisation. Even then, spousal consent is required.
This bans physicians from operating on healthy, childless women like Kajiya, now 29, who flew to the US to have her fallopian tubes removed in what she described as a minimally invasive procedure.
It was her "ultimate no" to being treated as a "future incubator".
To her, the law signals the government is "dead-set against giving freedom to end reproductive capacity to women who haven't fulfilled their 'duties' to bear multiple children for the sake of the nation".
Growing up, she was told her uterine lining represented the "bed for a baby" and that period pain was preparation for labour. 
"I felt like I had been shoved onto a train bound for motherhood," she recalled.
By having the surgery, "I smashed the windows, and hurled myself out of that train.
"We're not wombs, we're humans."

Japan as an 'outlier' 

A holdover from a wartime era where women were considered resources for population growth, the law effectively "manages all fertile women as potential maternal bodies", Michiko Kameishi, lead lawyer for the case, told AFP. 
Its spousal consent requirement suggests "women are not seen as independent beings capable of self-determination".
The lawyer aims to establish women have constitutionally guaranteed rights to bodily freedom, placing sterilisation on par with plastic surgery or tattooing.
Kajiya once wondered if discomfort with being female explained her feelings but dismissed that "because I hate beards and like pretty clothes", she said. She even came to terms with menstruation.
What she truly loathes, she concluded, is her biological capacity to reproduce.
That innate aversion to fertility, the pressure on women to give birth and the desire for safe, effective contraception have united the plaintiffs. 
Among modern democracies, Japan is an outlier on sterilisation access.
The lawsuit cites a 2002 study by EngenderHealth, a global NGO focused on sexual and reproductive health, that says more than 70 countries -- including many industrialised economies -- explicitly permitted the procedure as a method of contraception.
Japan was among eight countries that forbade or severely restricted it.
In Japan, condoms -- a male-controlled method -- is the most popular form of birth control.
Just 0.5 percent of women choose sterilisation and 2.7 percent use the contraceptive pill, seen as costly, according to one survey.
Contraceptive injections and implants remain unavailable.
And while men's vasectomies similarly require spousal consent, enforcement tends to be laxer with urology clinics openly touting the procedure, campaigners say.
The government, meanwhile, has defended the current system as protecting women from "future regret". 
Given the "irreversible" nature of sterilisation, existing restrictions "help guarantee those considering surgery rights to self-determination over whether they want to have children", the government said in a document filed with Tokyo District Court.

Myths, guilt

These restrictions have historically sparked little debate even among feminists who have strenuously opposed Japan's spousal consent requirement for abortions.
That's because few want to speak out in a society where "the myth persists that women are incomplete without motherhood", lawyer Kameishi said.
"Merely being childless makes them feel a bit guilty, so how could they speak openly about their desire to proactively remove their reproductive potential?"
Another plaintiff raising her voice is 26-year-old Rena Sato.
As an aromantic and asexual person, Sato -- a pseudonym she uses in the lawsuit -- categorically rules out marriage and childbirth. 
"To me, the act of bringing a life out of my body is strongly linked to heterosexual romance, so this function of fertility has no place in my sexuality," she told AFP.
Her only possibility of pregnancy is therefore through rape, she said.
"If I'm forced to maintain my fertility, it'd be tantamount to the state telling me to accept the risk of sexual violence while alive."
Now married to a partner who respects her choice to be child-free, Kajiya has no regrets about getting sterilised.
But she sometimes wonders whether Japan pushed her to an extreme.
"Had I been born in a country where women have the same rights to bodily autonomy as men, and where no one assumes I will become a mother," she said, "I might've not let incisions be made to my body."
tmo/aph/abs

autism

Trump administration does about face on autism treatment

  • But on Tuesday the Food and Drug Administration backed off, citing insufficient evidence that it works for the condition.
  • The Trump administration did an about-face Tuesday on an autism treatment it had promoted with great fanfare.
  • But on Tuesday the Food and Drug Administration backed off, citing insufficient evidence that it works for the condition.
The Trump administration did an about-face Tuesday on an autism treatment it had promoted with great fanfare.
It had said back in September it would approve use of a drug called leucovorin -- synthetic vitamin B9 -- to treat the disorder. 
But on Tuesday the Food and Drug Administration backed off, citing insufficient evidence that it works for the condition.
The initial announcement came from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who for decades has spread debunked claims that vaccines cause autism.
Kennedy touted leucovorin, usually used to alleviate chemotherapy side effects, as an "exciting therapy" that could help children with autism, a disorder whose symptoms vary widely across a spectrum.
"This gives hope to the many parents with autistic children that it may be possible to improve their lives," President Donald Trump said in September at a press conference.
At the event he gave sweeping, unsubstantiated advice on autism, such as insisting that pregnant women should "tough it out" and avoid Tylenol over an unproven link to autism -- statements slammed by scientists.
Studies on a small number of patients have suggested that taking leucovorin can help ease some communication or personal-relations problems linked to autism, but experts say this issue needs more study.
On Tuesday the FDA said it was in fact approving use of leucovorin for a rare condition called cerebral folate deficiency but not for autism. 
The Trump administration's touting of it for autism ran the risk of raising false hopes, dozens of autism specialists said at the time in a joint letter.
"We don't have sufficient data to say that we could establish efficacy for autism more broadly," an FDA official told NBC News.
"It'll be up to patients to talk with their physicians to see if that might be right for them," said the official, whose name was not given.
cha/dw/md

Health

Huge numbers at imminent risk from S.Sudan army offensive: MSF

  • MSF says its facilities in South Sudan have been attacked 12 times in the past year, forcing the closure of three hospitals. 
  • Hundreds of thousands of people are at imminent risk from a government offensive in a South Sudan town, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Monday, after NGOs were ordered to evacuate. 
  • MSF says its facilities in South Sudan have been attacked 12 times in the past year, forcing the closure of three hospitals. 
Hundreds of thousands of people are at imminent risk from a government offensive in a South Sudan town, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Monday, after NGOs were ordered to evacuate. 
MSF said it pulled out of Akobo in Jonglei state on Saturday and its facilities were looted, a day after the army ordered foreign agencies to leave. 
Jonglei has been the focus of clashes between government and opposition forces since December, displacing at least 280,000 people, as a power-sharing agreement between President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival Riek Machar has broken down. 
The United Nations told AFP it had not complied with the order to leave.
"Our peacekeepers are maintaining their presence in Akobo and continuing to carry out their mandated responsibilities," said Priyanka Chowdhury, spokesperson for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. 
Akobo residents now face an "impossible choice" between fleeing "without protection or remain at risk of being killed", said MSF in a statement.
They include 17,000 people who had only just been displaced by fighting nearby, it said.
AFP visited Akobo hospital last month and found it in a desperate state -- a ramshackle collection of buildings, most without doors or windows, with only one overwhelmed surgeon.
"The consequences for people are devastating," said Christophe Garnier, MSF head of mission. "Families are being forced to abandon their homes repeatedly, with no safe alternatives."
Many residents have already fled across the nearby border with Ethiopia. 
MSF says its facilities in South Sudan have been attacked 12 times in the past year, forcing the closure of three hospitals. 
"We had made it clear that we intend to conduct offensive operations in Akobo and the surrounding areas," army spokesman Lul Ruai Koang told AFP, blaming opposition forces for looting the hospital.
"Now that the period we announced has passed (72 hours), it is up to the commanders leading our troops to decide the next course of action," he said. 
South Sudan gained independence in 2011 but soon descended into civil war between Kiir and Machar's forces. A 2018 power-sharing deal brought relative peace but has unravelled over the past year.
As the country tips back into civil war, massive corruption means the little healthcare that exists is almost entirely through foreign NGOs. 
er/kjm

conflict

Dead on arrival: South Sudan's devastated health system

BY ROSE TROUP BUCHANAN

  • Riek Gai Kok is the governor of Jonglei state, where conflict has once again exploded between government and opposition parties.
  • South Sudan's healthcare system has been so crippled by years of corruption that when a state governor experienced high blood pressure recently, he had to fly to Kenya for treatment.
  • Riek Gai Kok is the governor of Jonglei state, where conflict has once again exploded between government and opposition parties.
South Sudan's healthcare system has been so crippled by years of corruption that when a state governor experienced high blood pressure recently, he had to fly to Kenya for treatment.
Riek Gai Kok is the governor of Jonglei state, where conflict has once again exploded between government and opposition parties.
His trip to Nairobi was recounted by humanitarians as yet another example of how South Sudan's elite, ranked the most corrupt in the world by Transparency International, have allowed services in the country to collapse.
As the country tips back into civil war between rival parties, what little healthcare exists is almost entirely through foreign donors, with more than 80 percent provided by NGOs like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
In a hospital in the capital Juba, a soldier told AFP he was amazed to have been airlifted to hospital since most wounded are left to die.
"[When] I was shot, I thought I was dead," said Ajuong Deng, 33, wounded in the leg.
But it was the ICRC that rescued him -- not the army or the government -- treating him at their facility within the Juba Military Hospital where the NGO gives staff what it euphemistically calls "incentives" because it is not officially allowed to pay them.
"If we don't pay them then no one stays here," said one worker, speaking anonymously.
Government pay, normally just $10-50 monthly, has not arrived for months.
"This is not what we're supposed to be doing," said one senior humanitarian. 

Cycle of violence

In the Juba hospital, wounded lay on the floor in blood-stained bandages. A man shot in the neck struggled to breathe.
The clinicians fear these men will soon be sucked back into the country's multiple cycles of violence: the war between the government and opposition, currently raging to the north, or between various ethnic militias and cattle raiders that plague rural areas.
"I have actually had one patient who came back four times," said Angeth Jervas Majok, the ICRC's head physiotherapist. "On the fifth time, unfortunately we lost him."
With only 300 kilometres of paved roads, many impassable during rainy seasons, wounds often grow infected before they reach a doctor, so amputations are common.
Yet they are stigmatised: "There is a belief that (amputees) are not a human being anymore," said Majok. "A lot of patients cannot go back home."
The government will not say how many soldiers have died as fighting has ramped up in the past year. 
The UN says more than 5,100 civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced, and warns South Sudan is on the verge of "all-out civil war". The last one in the 2010s killed 400,000 people.

'Difficulties'

While much of east Africa has seen improving health outcomes, South Sudan is going the other way despite receiving $1.4 billion in foreign aid in 2024, the largest amount globally as a share of GDP.
Life expectancy is 58, according to the World Bank, unimproved since independence in 2011. Maternal mortality is 1,223 per 100,000 births, compared to 197 globally. Unicef says one in 10 children do not reach their fifth birthday.
South Sudan's oil revenues have exceeded $25 billion since 2011, yet only one percent of this year's budget was allocated to health and the UN has said that "vast amounts never reach the sector, let alone the population" in a country where 92 percent live beneath the poverty line. 
On top of all that, South Sudan is among the most dangerous places in the world to be a health worker. MSF facilities have been attacked 11 times in the past year. The ICRC surgical unit in Juba has blast doors, and stores biscuits and water next to medical equipment in case of a siege.
The US has warned it will pull funding if governance does not improve, and NGOs are pulling back as donations fall and patience runs thin with South Sudan's leaders.
The ICRC told AFP it planned to "draw down progressively" in one facility, while attempting to reinforce local capacity.
Information Minister Ateny Wek Ateny admitted to AFP there were liquidity "difficulties" but said the government was working on it.
He rejected Transparency International's latest report, saying: "I don't know what criteria they have used to rank South Sudan as the most corrupt country in the world."
rbu/er/rh

Global Edition

Thousands march for women's rights and against Mideast war

  • - 'No to war'- Spanish protesters were denouncing both violence against women and the war in the Middle East sparked by last weekend's US-Israeli strikes.
  • Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in cities across the world Sunday to mark International Women's Day and denounce the war in the Middle East.
  • - 'No to war'- Spanish protesters were denouncing both violence against women and the war in the Middle East sparked by last weekend's US-Israeli strikes.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in cities across the world Sunday to mark International Women's Day and denounce the war in the Middle East.
From Rio in Brazil, Caracas in Venezuela and cities across France, Spain, Turkey and other European countries, demonstrators marched to demand women's rights across a range of issues.
Thousands marched in cities across Spain to protest gender-based violence and call for an end to the war in the Middle East.
Rape survivor Gisele Pelicot led a women's rights march in Paris, one of 150 demonstrations in French cities.
"We won't give up," Pelicot, 73, told the crowd as she joined thousands in the French capital marching for women's rights, economic equality and an end to sexual violence.
Pelicot became a global symbol in the fight after she waived her right to anonymity during the 2024 trial of her ex-husband and dozens of strangers who raped her while she was unconscious.

'No to war'

Spanish protesters were denouncing both violence against women and the war in the Middle East sparked by last weekend's US-Israeli strikes.
Demonstrations took place in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Granada, Bilbao, and San Sebastian, among other cities.
Madrid hosted two demonstrations in the centre of the Spanish capital -- one for transgender rights and the other for the legalisation and regulation of prostitution.
Slogans written on placards at the protests included "No to war" and "Anti-fascist feminists against imperialist war".
Alexa Rubio, a 30-year-old Mexican living in Spain, cited pay and harassment as some of the most urgent issues.
"And in my country, gender-based violence, because women are being killed for being women," she told AFP.
Yolanda Diaz, Spain's second deputy prime minister, spoke out against the war in the Middle East at a Madrid rally.
"We proclaim ourselves in defence of peace, in defence of the Iranian people, in defence of Iranian women," she said, referring to the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Pedro Sanchez, Spain's socialist prime minister, has drawn the ire of the US administration for opposing the war and refusing the use of Spain's military bases for strikes against Iran.

Women defy Istanbul ban

Thousands of women marched through Istanbul, defying a ban on demonstrations.
Demonstrators packed the streets of Cihangir district, some carrying parasols garlanded in fairy lights, others waving a sea of colourful banners.
There were cheers, dancing and purple flares at the end as organisers read out a statement of support for women affected by the Middle East war.
Earlier Sunday, several thousand women had gathered on the Asian side of Istanbul, and demonstrations took place in nine other cities across Turkey, organisers said.
In Latin America, women marched in cities in Brazil, Chile and Mexico and other countries.
"When one woman advances, we all advance," said Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in a speech.
In a message posted on X to mark the day, French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the women of Iran.
"Their courage commands respect and reminds the world that freedom can never be silenced."
burs-ekf/jj/rlp

US

Tehran plunged into darkness by smoke from burning oil

  • Four oil depots and a petroleum logistics site in and around Tehran were hit.
  • Residents of Tehran woke up on Sunday morning to find it was still dark outside, an apocalyptic sight created by thick black smoke billowing from oil depots hit by Israeli strikes.
  • Four oil depots and a petroleum logistics site in and around Tehran were hit.
Residents of Tehran woke up on Sunday morning to find it was still dark outside, an apocalyptic sight created by thick black smoke billowing from oil depots hit by Israeli strikes.
With the Sun blotted out, disoriented people in the Iranian capital had to turn on their lights to see through the gloom. 
"I thought my alarm clock was broken," a driver in his fifties told AFP on condition of anonymity.
By 10:30 am local time (0700 GMT), cars still needed their headlights to drive along Valiasr Street, a main thoroughfare that runs north-south through the city.
Black smoke from the burning fuel depots mingled in the sky with heavy grey rain clouds, compounding the murky atmosphere.
The smoke spread across the sprawling city, normally home to more than 10 million people.
The fuel depot strikes are the first time Iranian oil infrastructure has been targeted during the nine-day war. 
The fighting began when the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran last weekend and has since engulfed the Middle East.
Israel's military confirmed it had struck "fuel storage facilities in Tehran" that it said were used "to operate military infrastructure".
Four oil depots and a petroleum logistics site in and around Tehran were hit. Local authorities said six people were killed and 20 wounded at one of the sites. AFP could not independently verify these numbers.
At one of the depots, the oil was still smouldering on Sunday.
Flames were flaring up and crackling more than 12 hours after the strikes, an AFP reporter witnessed.
Israel also attacked fuel depots in Tehran during a 12-day war last June.

Toxic fumes

On the streets of Tehran, security forces directed traffic while wearing special coats and masks to protect themselves.
Authorities warned that the noxious fumes can cause breathing problems and irritate eyes, urging residents to stay indoors. 
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said that "significant quantities of toxic hydrocarbons, sulfur and nitrogen oxides" were released into the air.
The windows of nearby buildings were blown out by the force of the explosions. 
Dozens of kilometres away from the fuel depots, residents swept their balconies, which were covered by a mix of rain and puddles of fuel.
Tehran's governor Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian said on Sunday morning that fuel distribution in the Iranian capital has been "temporarily interrupted".
"The problem is being resolved," he added.
For now, each vehicle in Tehran is limited to 20 litres of fuel.
On Sunday morning, there were long lines at petrol stations, with AFP counting around 40 cars queuing at one.
Sunday is the first day back to work in Iran after a week-long holiday was declared following the death of supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli air strikes last weekend.
During the 12-day war last June, around six million residents left Tehran, according to local media.
However this time around, the majority have stayed. The United Nations estimated on Tuesday that around 100,000 people had fled the capital.
In the first days after the new war broke out, Tehran had resembled a ghost town.
But this is no longer the case, with more pedestrians and cars now venturing onto the streets.
On Sunday, roughly half the shops in Tehran were open -- even in the darkness.
bur/dl/axn

demographics

Young Chinese parents tighten belts as childcare costs rise

BY MARY YANG

  • The government has also promoted the image of "the ideal Chinese family that is centred around heterosexual marriages" as it tries to boost birth rates, said Zhou, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.
  • New mother Zhang Xiaofei wanted to be financially secure before having a baby, wary of high childcare costs that have been softened only a little by Chinese government cash incentives to boost record-low births.
  • The government has also promoted the image of "the ideal Chinese family that is centred around heterosexual marriages" as it tries to boost birth rates, said Zhou, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.
New mother Zhang Xiaofei wanted to be financially secure before having a baby, wary of high childcare costs that have been softened only a little by Chinese government cash incentives to boost record-low births.
The world's second-most populous country is threatened with a demographic crisis after its birth rate halved over the past decade -- all while people rapidly age out of the workforce.
Beijing has made "building a childbirth-friendly society" a priority over the next five years, China's Premier Li Qiang said on Thursday as lawmakers gathered in the Great Hall of the People for their annual political conclave.
The government introduced a raft of financial incentives last year,including free pre-school education and annual subsidies of 3,600 yuan ($500) for each child born.
However, young Chinese say the measures do little to alleviate financial stress.
Zhang, 32, and her husband Zhu Yunfei, both manicurists, decided to save before having a child.
"We discussed it before. The two of us were aligned in wanting to (focus on) work first because our families' (financial) conditions aren't that good," she told AFP while on maternity leave in Hebei province.
"If we were to have a child, we would want to give them the very best life," she said, cradling her three-week-old daughter.

'Doesn't mean anything'

The new childcare subsidies have cost the government more than 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion), China's national health director told reporters on Saturday.
They were announced shortly after Zhang and Zhu learned they would be parents.
"We thought our kid was too lucky," Zhu, 36, said.
However, the handout -- roughly 1.5 percent of their pooled annual income -- doesn't come close to covering a year's worth of baby formula.
"People joke that it's like giving you a five-yuan voucher towards a Rolls-Royce," he told AFP. 
Zhu scours second-hand platforms for deals on diapers, while Zhang plans to return to work after her daughter turns one month old.
In Henan, soon-to-be father Li plans to take up a second job once his daughter is born.
To save money, he and his wife made a five-hour round trip to neighbouring Hubei province, where he said hospitals offer free prenatal genetic screening.
Li, using a pseudonym for fear of repercussions, was reluctant to have children and said he was indifferent to the incentives.
"This bit of cash doesn't mean anything," the 35-year-old told AFP.

Incompatible with careers

Social demographer Yun Zhou warned that subsidies "often do not lead to any meaningful rebound in fertility".
The government has also promoted the image of "the ideal Chinese family that is centred around heterosexual marriages" as it tries to boost birth rates, said Zhou, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.
"For young Chinese women, especially young highly educated Chinese women, there is also this inherent concern about the pervasive gender-based discriminations in the labour market that is front and centre on their mind."
In 2023, the government banned employers from withholding advancement based on marriage, pregnancy, or parental status, as well as the practice of including pregnancy tests as part of pre-employment physical exams.
However, some women still "feel like childbearing and having successful careers and having a life as a whole is fundamentally incompatible", Zhou said.
Lawmakers this week proposed measures such as extra cash for families with three children and lowering the legal marriage age from 22 for men and 20 for women to encourage earlier childbearing.
Chinese social media users slammed such proposals as "nonsense".
Being a parent in China is "very difficult", Yuan Limei, a 30-year-old mother of two, told AFP.
"There are all kinds of expenses. Everything requires money," she said, pushing her six-year-old on a swing in Beijing.
"And with kids, there's no way for you to work."
Yuan's oldest child is 10 but she does not plan on having a third.
"A kid is much harder to raise than a dog or cat," she laughed.
New father Zhu noted that, while subsidies have little impact in big cities like Beijing, they can make a dent in smaller villages.
"In the city, 3,600 yuan is hardly anything and can't even buy a baby pram, but in some rural areas it's not a small sum," he said.
mya/dhw/pbt