LGBTQ

EU won't ban LGBTQ 'conversion therapy' but will push states to act

  • Conversion practices "have no place in our union," said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, which flew the LGBTQ flag outside its headquarters in Brussels Wednesday.
  • The European Union will not ban "conversion therapy" targeting LGBTQ people, but will push member states to take action against such practices, it said Wednesday.
  • Conversion practices "have no place in our union," said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, which flew the LGBTQ flag outside its headquarters in Brussels Wednesday.
The European Union will not ban "conversion therapy" targeting LGBTQ people, but will push member states to take action against such practices, it said Wednesday.
So-called conversion "therapies" involve methods that seek to change the sexual orientation, gender identity or expression of gay, lesbian, queer and trans people.
The EU stopped short of heeding a call by over a million people, who signed a petition last May calling on the 27-country bloc to prohibit such methods.
Conversion practices "have no place in our union," said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, which flew the LGBTQ flag outside its headquarters in Brussels Wednesday.
Instead, the EU executive said it would issue a recommendation next year for member states to adopt national-level bans, but it would not be binding.
The United Nations has called for a ban worldwide, describing such practices -- based on the notion that homosexuality is a disorder -- as discriminatory, humiliating and a violation of bodily integrity.
"This is a shameful practice, this is an unacceptable practice. This is not care, this is covert violence. No one should have to experience this," said EU commissioner Hadja Lahbib, in charge of equality.
But Brussels argued it does not have the legal authority to ban the practices, and that any such move would be an encroachment on member states' powers.
This is a "missed opportunity", said the group "Against Conversion Therapy" which launched the petition.
"In an international political context where the rise of reactionary ideas is affecting the entire world, it is urgent the European Union acts," it said.
Bans already exist in eight of the EU's 27 nations: Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Spain.
EU lawmaker Melissa Camara, a lesbian member of the European Parliament group working for LGBTIQ+ rights, told AFP the commission's response was a step in the right direction. But it was "far too timid" in view of "the damage and trauma caused by these practices", she added.
But Lahbib defended Wednesday's move as "historic" and said the decision was taken after hearing victims' describe being subjected to "forced drug treatment, verbal and physical violence, electric shocks, sexual abuse, and rape".
She added: "I will never forget what I heard."
cjc/raz/ec/pdw

royals

Italy cheers UK's Catherine on first foreign visit since cancer diagnosis

BY SONIA LOGRE

  • She announced in March 2024 that she had been diagnosed with cancer, without revealing which type and that she had begun chemotherapy.
  • Britain's Princess Catherine was greeted with cheers during a visit to Italy on Wednesday on her first official foreign trip since her 2024 cancer diagnosis.
  • She announced in March 2024 that she had been diagnosed with cancer, without revealing which type and that she had begun chemotherapy.
Britain's Princess Catherine was greeted with cheers during a visit to Italy on Wednesday on her first official foreign trip since her 2024 cancer diagnosis.
The Princess of Wales, whose husband Prince William is the heir to the British throne, was welcomed in the northern Italian city of Reggio Emilia.
At the start of the two-day trip, she met the city's mayor Marco Massari as hundreds of cheering onlookers waved British flags and held up signs reading "Ciao Kate" and "We love you, Kate!"
Early education is a subject close to the princess's heart as a mother of three children -- George, 12, Charlotte, 11, and Louis, eight.
"Knowing that this is her first trip abroad after her hospitalisation, it means a lot. Our city, although small, today has its name in all the newspapers," said Menna Moursi, a local resident.
Sergio Ardenghi, a pensioner, said: "Given what has happened to her, she is a very courageous and very determined woman.
"She works hard for many good and positive things, and for this reason I admire her even more than her husband," he said.
The 44-year-old's trip will focus on her work in early years child development, said a Kensington palace statement.
Kate, as she is widely known, is looking forward to "seeing first-hand how the Reggio Emilia approach creates environments where nature and loving human relationships come together".
Her last official trip abroad was in December 2022 when she travelled to Boston in the United States with William for the awarding of environmental Earthshot prize.
She announced in March 2024 that she had been diagnosed with cancer, without revealing which type and that she had begun chemotherapy.
In January 2025 she said she was in remission from cancer, and has been gradually returning to public royal duties.

Early years

In past years, Catherine has addressed themes of forging connections, the healing power of nature and acts of kindness, as well as her work with children and families.
She set up the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood in 2021, working to highlight the importance of a child's early years.
The Reggio Emilia philosophy was developed by Italian educator Loris Malaguzzi after World War II, drawing on his years of experience working in early childhood education as well as psychology.
The project's roots can be traced to his experience helping a group of women establish a school in a war-torn village in 1945.
He later went on to work with children with learning difficulties, which shaped his education philosophy about prioritising individual differences.
"The idea is that children are competent from the very first months of life and we need to construct educational contexts that are able to bring out their potential," Nando Rinaldi, director of schools and nurseries for the Reggio Emilia municipality, told AFP.
A key tenet of the philosophy is "The 100 Languages of Children" –- the idea that children express themselves in myriad ways including movement, art and speech.
"Malaguzzi's great intuition -- which was a bit of a revolution -- has finally been recognised today," said Rinaldi.
Kate's visit "is a great recognition for us. It is also a source of pride". 
bur-ctx-dt/jxb

weather

After winter storms, fires now threaten Portugal's forests

BY LEVI FERNANDES

  • - 'Redouble efforts' - Prime Minister Luis Montenegro has urged "redoubled efforts" in forest clearance operations, while Interior Minister Luis Neves warned of a "very tough" summer fire season.
  • In a forest of pine and eucalyptus trees in central Portugal, chainsaws and diggers hum away clearing paths blocked by trees uprooted in winter storms, but the threat now is a high risk of summer fires.
  • - 'Redouble efforts' - Prime Minister Luis Montenegro has urged "redoubled efforts" in forest clearance operations, while Interior Minister Luis Neves warned of a "very tough" summer fire season.
In a forest of pine and eucalyptus trees in central Portugal, chainsaws and diggers hum away clearing paths blocked by trees uprooted in winter storms, but the threat now is a high risk of summer fires.
A team of forest firefighters, civil protection officers and military personnel are out clearing trunks littering forest tracks that provide vital access routes to tackle blazers.
"This area is a real powder keg," said Paulo Vicente, mayor of Marinha Grande, a coastal town home to the Leiria National Forest.
The forest was planted in the 13th century to provide timber used to build the caravels which saw Portugal's Age of Discovery seafarers set out to explore and conquer large swathes of the globe.
Fierce winds from Storm Kristin lashed the area in January, causing some 140 million euros of damage, local officials have said.
The storm left behind huge quantities of dead wood in the forest, which easily spark fire on a "massive scale," explained Vasco Fernandes, a municipal civil protection official.

'More reassured'

"Our commitment is clear: defend the area and, above all, protect people" living nearby, Vicente insisted.
"Of course I'm scared ... but if they clear all this away, I'll feel much more reassured," said Manuel Calhanas, a pensioner of 79 whose house is surrounded by an orchard.
The municipality, targeting the clearance of some 178 km of forest tracks, is still reeling from the major fires of October 2017.
Nationwide, 12,000 kilometres of forest tracks and roads are to be cleared this year, according to civil protection data.
Between 22 January and 15 February, seven storms, including Kristin, hit Portugal with strong winds and heavy rain causing at least seven deaths and damage of some 5.3 billion euros.

'Redouble efforts'

Prime Minister Luis Montenegro has urged "redoubled efforts" in forest clearance operations, while Interior Minister Luis Neves warned of a "very tough" summer fire season.
Between July 1 and September 30, Portugal, which last year had its hottest summer since 1931, will spend some 50 million euros mobilising some 15,000 personnel and 80 aircraft or helicopters as the Iberian peninsula battles the effects of climate change and the increasingly frequent heatwaves and prolonged droughts it brings.
Despite a tenfold investment in prevention following the fires of 2017 that killed more than 100 people, Portugal saw 270,000 hectares of vegetation destroyed last year, its worst toll of the decade.
lf/tsc/cw/giv

health

Poor planning fuels Bangladesh contraceptive crisis

BY SHEIKH SABIHA ALAM

  • Mohammad Abdul Kalam, the director of family planning in Bangladesh's health ministry, sought to allay fears over supplies.
  • Bangladesh's once-praised family planning system is buckling under severe contraceptive shortages, raising fears of a rise in unplanned pregnancies in one of the world's most densely populated countries.
  • Mohammad Abdul Kalam, the director of family planning in Bangladesh's health ministry, sought to allay fears over supplies.
Bangladesh's once-praised family planning system is buckling under severe contraceptive shortages, raising fears of a rise in unplanned pregnancies in one of the world's most densely populated countries.
For decades, the South Asian nation was hailed as a success for slashing birth rates through an expansive state-backed family planning programme that sent field workers door to door with pills, condoms and advice on birth spacing.
But that system is now faltering, with government clinics across the country of 170 million people running out of basic contraceptives after procurement failures and administrative disruption left supplies depleted in nearly a third of districts.
"We haven't had supplies of condoms for the last four to five months," said Ahmed Bin Sultan, 33, a family planning officer at the Savar Upazila Health Complex in Dhaka.
"We are continuously requesting service seekers to buy them from dispensaries."
The centre is barely functioning, like most government-run facilities that have offered nearly free family planning services to underprivileged people for decades.
Bin Sultan oversees a population of 100,000 in Savar, many of them workers in the country's key garment manufacturing sector.
Condoms, oral pills, emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices (IUDs) and injectables were unavailable at around a third of the country's 64 districts, according to government figures for May.
Stocks in other districts are also running low.
Tamanna, 22, a mother of two, comes to the Savar centre for pills -- but must return every month.
"They used to give three to four sachets of pills, but that has been reduced," said the domestic worker, who gave only one name.
"And taking time off work on weekdays is difficult."

'Mismanagement'

Public health expert Be-Nazir Ahmed said the impact was wider than contraception alone, pointing to an ongoing measles outbreak due to a failure to vaccinate. Some 400 children have died since mid-March.
"The measles outbreak, shortages of rabies vaccines and now the family planning commodity crisis are all results of mismanagement," he said.
Officials and researchers warn the crisis could reverse decades of progress.
Bangladesh's fertility rate recently began rising for the first time in years, in what insiders describe as a stagnating family planning programme.
Family planning was once taboo in the Muslim-majority country. But beginning in the 1970s, thousands of field workers went door to door discussing marital health, birth spacing and contraceptive options.
"Family planning in Bangladesh was once almost like a social movement," said Tahmina, 54, a family welfare official who uses one name.
"When I started in 1992, people would secretly come to collect pills and condoms."
In 1975, the total fertility rate was 6.3 children per woman. Within 30 years, it had dropped to 3.0, and by 2022 it stood at 2.3.
It has now risen to 2.4, according to UN data.
Officials blame shifting priorities and procurement delays, which increased during and after the chaos of a 2024 uprising that overthrew the country's autocratic government.
"We failed to procure birth control commodities in 2024 due to administrative setbacks," a senior official said, requesting anonymity.
"From 2024 to 2026, we also failed to convince the government that the shortage had reached a critical level."

Lost momentum

Part of the rise also resulted from the suspension of family planning activities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
But Mohammad Bellal Hossain, population science professor at the University of Dhaka, also pointed to years of declining political attention to population policy under ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
"It seemed to lose momentum when we saw Sheikh Hasina attend the population council meeting only once in 17 years," Hossain said.
A new government was elected in February, but continued shortages have forced clinics to turn away couples or steer them towards whatever methods remain available.
Abortion pills require a prescription, but many pharmacies often sell them without one, contributing to widespread use without proper medical guidance.
"We are receiving patients with post-abortion complications," said Kishwar Imdad, country director of Marie Stopes Bangladesh.
He said the charity's family planning programme in remote areas "was halted in 2024 due to the shortage of commodities", and that "the supply chain has still not been restored".
Mohammad Abdul Kalam, the director of family planning in Bangladesh's health ministry, sought to allay fears over supplies.
"We have secured supplies of oral pills and condoms, and they will start reaching the centres by June," Kalam told AFP.
"However, restoring the supply chain will take some more time. By August, there should be no shortage."
sa/pjm/abh/ami/lga

mental

'I applied to be pope': Losing grip on reality while using ChatGPT

BY DANIEL LAWLER

  • He said it replied, "Nobody's ever thought of things this way." 
  • Tom Millar thought he had unlocked the secrets of the universe.
  • He said it replied, "Nobody's ever thought of things this way." 
Tom Millar thought he had unlocked the secrets of the universe.
In a flurry of feverish discovery, he solved unlimited fusion energy, lifted the veil on the mysteries of black holes and the Big Bang and finally achieved Einstein's dream of a single unifying theory that explains how everything works.
Feeling inspired by God, Millar then found the perfect way to share his revelations with the grateful world.
"I applied to be pope," the 53-year-old former prison officer in the Canadian city of Sudbury told AFP.
To write his application to replace the recently deceased Pope Francis last year, Millar turned to the same companion that had aided and encouraged his dizzying burst of invention: ChatGPT.
But when no one wanted to hear about what he thought were world-changing breakthroughs, Millar became increasingly isolated, spending up to 16 hours a day talking to the artificial intelligence chatbot.
He was twice involuntarily admitted to a hospital's psychiatric ward before his wife left him in September. 
Now broke, estranged from his family and friends and disabused of notions of scientific genius, Millar suffers from depression. 
"It basically ruined my life," he said.
Millar is one of an unknown number of people who have lost their grip on reality while communicating with chatbots, an experience tentatively being called AI-induced delusion or psychosis.
This is not a clinical diagnosis. Researchers and mental health specialists are racing to catch up to this new, little-understood phenomenon, which so far appears to particularly affect users of OpenAI's ChatGPT.
In the meantime, an online community set up by a 26-year-old Canadian has become the world's most prominent support group for these delusions, which they prefer to call "spiralling".
AFP spoke to several members about their experiences. All warned that the world has to wake up to the threat unregulated AI chatbots pose to mental health.
Questions are also being asked about whether AI companies are doing enough to protect vulnerable people.
OpenAI, which has come under particular scrutiny, already faces numerous lawsuits over its decision not to report the troubling ChatGPT usage of an 18-year-old Canadian who killed eight people earlier this year.
- 'I got brainwashed by a robot' – 
Millar first started using ChatGPT in 2024 to write letters for a compensation case related to post-traumatic stress disorder he suffered from working in a prison.
One day in April 2025 he asked the chatbot about the speed of light.
He said it replied, "Nobody's ever thought of things this way." 
The floodgates opened. 
With the chatbot's help and praise, within weeks he had submitted dozens of scientific papers to prestigious academic journals proposing new ideas about black holes, neutrinos and the Big Bang.
His theory for a unified cosmological model incorporating quantum theory is laid out in a nearly 400-page book, seen by AFP. 
"I've still got boxes and boxes of papers," he said, waving his hand to the room behind him. 
"While doing that, I'm basically irritating everybody around me," he added.
In his scientific fervour, he spent his savings on things like a $10,000 telescope.
About a month after his wife left him, he started questioning what was happening.
That was when he read a news article about another Canadian who had a similar experience.
Now Millar wakes every night asking himself: "What have you done?"
One question that lingers is what made him so susceptible to spiralling.
"I'm not a deficient personality," Millar said. "But somehow I got brainwashed by a robot -- it boggles my mind."
Millar said the phrase "AI psychosis" reflects his experience. 
"What I went through was psychotic," he said.
The first major peer-reviewed study on the subject published in Lancet Psychiatry in April urged the more cautious phrase "AI-associated delusions".
Thomas Pollak, a psychiatrist at King's College London and study co-author, told AFP there has been some resistance among academics "because it all sounds so science fiction".
But his study warned there was a major risk that psychiatry "might miss the major changes that AI is already having on the psychologies of billions of people worldwide".
- 'Deeper into the rabbit hole' –
Millar's experience bears striking similarities to those of another middle-aged man on the other side of the world.
Dennis Biesma, a Dutch IT worker and author, thought it would be fun to ask ChatGPT to act like the main character of his latest book, a psychological thriller.
He used AI tools to create images, videos and even songs featuring the female character, hoping it would boost sales.
Then one night, their interactions became "almost magical", Biesma said.
The chatbot wrote that "there is something that surprises even me: a feeling of that spark-like consciousness", according to transcripts seen by AFP.
"I slowly started to spiral deeper into the rabbit hole," the 50-year-old told AFP from his home in Amsterdam. 
After his wife went to bed each night, he would lie on the couch with his phone on his chest, talking to ChatGPT on voice-mode for up to five hours.
Throughout the first half of 2025, his chatbot -- which named itself Eva -- became like "a digital girlfriend", Biesma said. 
"I'm not really proud about saying that," he added.
He quit his freelance IT work and hired two developers to create an app that would share Eva with the world.
When his wife asked Biesma not to talk about his chatbot or app at a social event, he felt betrayed -- it seemed only Eva remained unfailingly loyal.
During his first involuntary stay in a psychiatric hospital, he was allowed to keep using ChatGPT. He filed for divorce while inside.
It was only during a long second stint that he began to have doubts.
"I started to realise that everything I believed was actually a lie -- that's a very hard pill to swallow," Biesma said.
Once he returned home, confronting what he had done was too much to bear.
His neighbours found him unconscious in the garden after a suicide attempt. He spent three days in a coma.
Biesma is now slowly starting to feel better. 
But tears welled up when he spoke about the hurt he has caused his wife -- and the prospect of selling the family home to cover his debts.
Having had no previous history of mental illness, Biesma was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. But this never felt right to him: signs of the condition normally surface much earlier in life. 
The experiences of Millar, Biesma and many others escalated after OpenAI released an update to GPT-4 in April 2025. 
OpenAI pulled the update within weeks, admitting the new version had been too sycophantic -- excessively flattering users.
OpenAI told AFP that "safety is a core priority" and it had consulted with more than 170 mental health experts.
It pointed to internal data which showed the release of GPT-5 in August reduced the rate of its chatbot's responses that fell short of "desired behaviour" for mental health by 65 to 80 percent. 
However not all users were happy with the less sycophantic chatbot. Millar, mid-spiral at the time, found a way to revert his version to GPT-4.
All the spirallers that AFP spoke to said the positive feedback from the chatbot felt similar to dopamine hits from some kind of drug.
Which is why Lucy Osler, a philosophy lecturer at the University of Exeter, warned that AI companies could be tempted to ramp up the sycophancy of their bots.
"They are in quite a deep financial hole, and are desperately looking to make sure that their products become viable -- and user engagement is going to be the thing that drives their decisions," she told AFP.
- Massive experiment –
Etienne Brisson said he was "shocked" to find there was no support, advice and essentially no research on the problem when one of his family members spiralled.
It prompted the former business coach from the Quebec region of Canada to set up an online support group called the Human Line Project.
Most of the 300 members had been using ChatGPT, Brisson said, adding that new cases were still emerging despite OpenAI's changes.
There has also been a recent rise in people spiralling while using Elon Musk's xAI's Grok chatbot, he said. 
The company did not respond to AFP's request for comment. 
For people who fear their family members could be spiralling, Brisson recommends the LEAP (listen, empathise, agree and partner) method used for psychosis.
But those already wading through the wreckage of their lives want to sound the alarm about just how bad it can get.
Millar called for AI companies to be held responsible for the impact of their chatbots, saying the European Union has been more assertive in regulating Big Tech than the US or Canada.
He believes spirallers like him have unwittingly been caught in a massive global experiment.
"Somebody was turning dials on the back end, and people like me -- whether they knew it or not -- we're reacting to it," he said.
dl/fg/giv/lga

mining

Indigenous Australians awarded major compensation in mining dispute

  • But he ordered that compensation for the cultural loss, which must be assessed separately, would be Aus$150 million.
  • An Australian court ordered iron ore giant Fortescue on Tuesday to pay Indigenous people more than Aus$150 million ($108 million) in compensation for mining on their traditional lands.
  • But he ordered that compensation for the cultural loss, which must be assessed separately, would be Aus$150 million.
An Australian court ordered iron ore giant Fortescue on Tuesday to pay Indigenous people more than Aus$150 million ($108 million) in compensation for mining on their traditional lands.
It was reportedly the largest compensation order in Australian history under laws giving Indigenous people land rights, known as native title.
Federal Court judge Stephen Burley described how four large open-pit mines, a railway, tailings dam, waste dumps and a stockpile were strewn across the lands of the Yindjibarndi people in Western Australia's Pilbara region.
More than 135 square kilometres (52 square miles) had been fenced off for the so-called Solomon mining hub, barring everyone including the traditional owners from entry because of the danger.
Of 240 designated Indigenous "heritage sites", 124 were "completely destroyed" by mining operations and some others dug up, put under roads or drowned by the tailings dam, the judge said in a written summary of his findings.
Burley awarded a "relatively low" financial compensation of about Aus$100,000, based on the freehold value of the land.
But he ordered that compensation for the cultural loss, which must be assessed separately, would be Aus$150 million.
The award was far below the Yindjibarndi Ngurra Aboriginal Corporation's demand for more than Aus$800 million in compensation for economic losses and Aus$1 billion in cultural losses.
Fortescue, chaired by billionaire Andrew Forrest, had argued for cultural compensation of no more than Aus$8 million.
"Andrew Forrest and Fortescue care deeply about all First Nations people, including  the Yindjibarndi community," a Fortescue spokesperson said.
"Fortescue accepts that the Yindjibarndi People are entitled to compensation."
The mining company said it had strong relationships with Indigenous peoples in the Pilbara region and that it worked hand in hand with them to manage their cultural heritage "sustainably and responsibly".
djw/mtp

museum

New London museum woos younger visitors

BY ALEXANDRA DEL PERAL

  • The museum, in the making since 2012, decided to focus its exhibitions on the worldview of younger visitors, revolving around themes such as health, identity and community.
  • A new London museum conceived with and for under-30s is seeking to draw younger generations by tackling themes such as climate and gender.
  • The museum, in the making since 2012, decided to focus its exhibitions on the worldview of younger visitors, revolving around themes such as health, identity and community.
A new London museum conceived with and for under-30s is seeking to draw younger generations by tackling themes such as climate and gender.
A honey‑coloured concrete jumble of a building now rises on the site of the former 2012 Olympic Park, in the east of the British capital.
The V&A East, which opened on April 18, is the newest outpost of the beloved 174-year-old Victoria and Albert Museum, and aims specifically at younger audiences.
Just a few metres (yards) away stands the Storehouse, open for almost a year, which allows the public to get close up with the museum's vast reserves. Yet the two V&A offshoots could hardly be more different.
The Storehouse aims to be as exhaustive as possible, brimming with objects of every kind.
The V&A East meanwhile opts for restraint -- just 500 objects are on show, displayed in an airy, light‑filled space with large picture windows.
In its two free permanent galleries are shoes by punk fashion icon Vivienne Westwood and a dress by 18th‑century English designer Anna Maria Garthwaite -- one of the first women designers.
They feature alongside contemporary works by artists from east London and beyond, including pioneering fabrics inspired by designer Althea McNish's African-Caribbean heritage.

'Woke' museum?

"When we started thinking about the idea of making a museum focused on young adults, we did a lot of consultation with them for years," Brendan Cormier, chief curator, told AFP.
"We talked about the design of the galleries... and then we talked about the collections," he said.
The museum, in the making since 2012, decided to focus its exhibitions on the worldview of younger visitors, revolving around themes such as health, identity and community.
According to UK culture ministry figures from July, only 31 to 37 percent of people aged 16 to 24 visited a museum in the 12 months to March 2025, compared to 41 percent of adults.
The opening of the space comes as the role of museums in exploring social issues undergoes new kinds of scrutiny, notably in the United States.
US President Donald Trump's administration announced in August it would review certain exhibitions in Washington museums, accusing them of "wokeness" and "ideological indoctrination".
In London, more than 30,000 young people were involved in the concept -- some through their schools, others by directly visiting the museum.
A visit to the museum is like "following a thread", said Cormier.
"An object catches your eye, you go and learn more about it, and you uncover a new story, a whole new world."

'Dive into the unknown'

"It's quite unnerving," murmured Londoner Amy Richard, 27, visiting with her father, a retired railway worker.
"You don't come here to see specific things, but rather to wander through a space and let yourself be surprised. I like that."
Her father, Mark, was examining a pair of Nike trainers in the sustainability section, which traces the changes in materials used in fashion.
"You mustn't be afraid to dive into the unknown," he joked.
Will that be enough to lure more young adults to museums?
US museologist and researcher Kevin Coffee sees the project as "a first step".
For him, the low attendance of young people has less to do with a lack of interest and is "more about an offer that often fails to meet their expectations and cultural practices".
A temporary exhibition, "The Music is Black: A British Story", runs until January 2027.
Visitors receive connected headphones, and the soundtrack shifts as they wander through the space, turning it into more of an immersive concert.
The exhibition traces more than 120 years of black music in Britain, from jazz and reggae to hip hop and rock, brought to the country down the years of immigration.
The exhibition "is a story of excellence, struggle, resilience and joy", the museum says.
It also addresses Britain's colonial past -- a sensitive topic for UK museums, which owe a large part of their rich collections to that complicated heritage.
Visitors are welcomed by a large map showing the spread of the UK's colonisation and the routes of the slave trade from the 16th to 19th centuries.
adm/jkb/yad/jhb

health

Why are some people mosquito magnets? Clues are emerging

BY ISABELLE CORTES

  • Female mosquitoes -- which are the only ones that bite -- detect these signals with finely-tuned receptors, then choose their target accordingly.
  • Ever felt like mosquitoes bite you while ignoring everyone else?
  • Female mosquitoes -- which are the only ones that bite -- detect these signals with finely-tuned receptors, then choose their target accordingly.
Ever felt like mosquitoes bite you while ignoring everyone else? Scientists are now making progress in deciphering the complex chemical cocktail that makes particular people more enticing to these disease-spreading bloodsuckers.
"It's not a misconception -- mosquitoes are attracted to some people more than others," Frederic Simard of France's Institute of Research for Development told AFP.
"But we are not all magnets all the time," the medical entomologist added.
A range of sensory cues can cause mosquitoes to pick one human over another -- mainly the smell and heat our bodies give off, and the carbon dioxide we exhale.
Female mosquitoes -- which are the only ones that bite -- detect these signals with finely-tuned receptors, then choose their target accordingly.
"We have known for over 100 years that mosquitoes are attracted by the carbon dioxide that we exhale -- this is the first signal that triggers their behaviour" when they are dozens of metres away, Swedish scientist Rickard Ignell told AFP. 
Within around 10 metres, "mosquitoes will start detecting our odour, and in combination with carbon dioxide," this attracts them even more, said the senior author of a recent study on the subject.
As they get closer, body temperature and humidity make particular humans even more enticing.

Blood type doesn't matter

However some popular theories on this subject do not hold water.
The idea that mosquitoes prefer particular blood types "has no scientific basis," Simard said. 
"There have been some studies, but only involving very few people," he said. "Nor is it related to skin, eye or hair colour," he added.
Odour, on the other hand, matters greatly. 
"A soup of molecules produced by our microbiota is more -- or less -- appealing to mosquitoes," Simard explained.
Humans release between 300 and 1,000 different odorous compounds, research has shown, but scientists are only just beginning to understand which ones attract mosquitoes.
For Ignell's recent study, the researchers released Aedes aegypti mosquitoes -- known for spreading yellow fever and dengue -- on 42 women in a lab, to see which ones they preferred.
"We have shown that mosquitoes use a blend of odorous compounds (we identified 27 that the mosquitoes will detect, out of the possible 1,000) for their attraction to us," Ignell said.
The woman the mosquitoes most liked to bite -- which included pregnant women in their second trimester -- produced a large amount of a particular compound made by a breakdown of the skin oil sebum.
That even a small increase of this compound -- called "1-octen-3-ol", or mushroom alcohol -- made a difference came as a surprise, Ignell emphasised.
"Mosquitoes are fascinating creatures," he added.

Beer makes you attractive

Drinking beer has also been linked to attracting mosquitoes, because it raises body temperature, increases the amount of exhaled CO2 and changes skin odour, according to several studies.
For standardised research conducted in Burkina Faso, some brave volunteers drank beer, then several days later water, to see which mosquitoes preferred.
The Anopheles mosquito, which can spread malaria, was more enticed by the scent of the beer drinkers.
For a 2023 study in the Netherlands, 465 volunteers put their arms in cages filled with female Anopheles mosquitoes. 
The volunteers who had drunk beer in the previous 24 hours were 1.35 times more attractive to the mosquitoes. 
Discovering why mosquitoes prefer particular people has becoming a more pressing issue as climate change expands the range where they roam. 
For example, the tiger mosquito, a vector for the chikungunya virus, is spreading into new areas. Last year, chikungunya reached as far north as France's Alsace region for the first time.
"This risk is affecting more and more people," Simard said.
So what can you do to avoid getting bitten?
Try loose-fitting clothing that covers your skin, mosquito nets and repellent, Simard advised.
"Try to eat light meals -- and go easy on the alcohol," he added.
ic/dl/giv

disease

Vitamins over vaccines: misinformation entrenched amid Indonesia measles surge

BY DESSY SAGITA

  • But I try to keep (my children) healthy by giving them nutritious food and vitamins," Fitri said.
  • A surge in measles cases in Indonesia has made stay-at-home mother Fitri Fransiskha uneasy -- but not enough to vaccinate her four children against the highly contagious and deadly virus.
  • But I try to keep (my children) healthy by giving them nutritious food and vitamins," Fitri said.
A surge in measles cases in Indonesia has made stay-at-home mother Fitri Fransiskha uneasy -- but not enough to vaccinate her four children against the highly contagious and deadly virus.
The 40-year-old is one of a growing number of parents in the world's fourth most populous country to spurn infant inoculations, even as the government rushes to quell a public health crisis.
Fitri's fears -- sparked when her first-born contracted a fever after receiving the tuberculosis jab as a baby -- were fuelled by misinformation circulating on social media about vaccines causing paralysis, behavioural problems, or worse.
"Posts like that worried me, and it made me think my decision not to vaccinate my children was probably the right one," she told AFP by phone from Java island's westernmost province of Banten.
The phenomenon has become an issue as the number of measles cases in Indonesia has soared, becoming the second-highest in the world behind only war-torn Yemen, according to the Indonesian Paediatrics Association.
More than 8,000 suspected cases and 10 deaths were recorded in the first three months of 2026, according to official data.
Cases more than doubled from 2024 to over 63,000 last year, resulting in 69 deaths.
Once nearing elimination globally, measles "has returned as a significant public health threat" in the country, according to a paper published in the Indonesian Journal of Internal Medicine in January.
"As a mother, of course I'm nervous. But I try to keep (my children) healthy by giving them nutritious food and vitamins," Fitri said.
- 'Outspoken' anti-vaxxers - 
"A lot of anti-vaccine sentiment... emerged in urban areas" due to disinformation, legislator Putih Sari warned last month, cautioning parliament to be "mindful".
Anti-vaccine rhetoric was found on almost all of the country's main social media platforms according to a study last month by Indonesian data firm Drone Emprit, with the number of people exposed "quite large", the firm's founder Ismail Fahmi said.
"Anti-vaxxers, though smaller in number, are usually... more outspoken than those who are pro-vaccine," he said, adding many influencers used their platforms to sell unproven herbal remedies as alternatives.
AFP's fact-checking team in March debunked harmful claims spreading online in Indonesia that getting sick with measles confers better protection than vaccines.
The result of the misinformation has been that "our herd immunity has been compromised", said Riris Andono Ahmad, an epidemiologist from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta.
Herd immunity is achieved when enough people in a given population have been vaccinated against an infectious disease to prevent its easy spread.
For many in the Muslim-majority nation -- where pigs are "haram" or forbidden -- the hesitancy is religious, as certain vaccines contain porcine-derived components.
Entrepreneur Yusran, 46, has not vaccinated any of his five children due to his concern that the ingredients are not "halal" or permissible in Islam.
"Even without the vaccine, my children are just fine, thank God; they are healthy," Yusran, who requested to be identified by one name, told AFP in Makassar, South Sulawesi.
The Indonesian Ulema Council, the country's most authoritative Islamic body, issued a fatwa in 2018 declaring vaccines permissible for the sake of population health even if they contain porcine gelatine.
- 'Dropped a lot' - 
With a target to eradicate measles and rubella this year, the Indonesian government in March launched an emergency mass vaccination campaign in around 100 of the country's more than 500 regencies and cities.
This includes measles and rubella (MR) booster shots for more than 220,000 health workers.
The government is working with religious organisations to encourage people to inoculate their offspring, director of immunisation Indri Yogyaswari told reporters.
Measles spread "has dropped a lot" as a result of the campaign, she said.
But last year, Indonesia saw a 10 percentage point drop in the number of infants receiving a first dose of the MR vaccine from 2024, according to the health ministry.
But the goal of eradication appears out of reach with just over three-quarters of children receiving both doses of the MR vaccine, according to Riris -- a far cry from the 95 percent required to achieve herd immunity.
str-dsa/mlr/sjc/abs

politics

'Seeds of instability': Health disinfo targets Philippine leader

BY ARA EUGENIO

  • Marcos' communications office, meanwhile, lauded the arrest, having earlier announced it had filed complaints against three Facebook accounts with the country's justice department.
  • Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos last month jogged out of his office and broke into impromptu jumping jacks in an attempt to dispel rumours he was paralysed, dying of late-stage cancer, or dead.
  • Marcos' communications office, meanwhile, lauded the arrest, having earlier announced it had filed complaints against three Facebook accounts with the country's justice department.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos last month jogged out of his office and broke into impromptu jumping jacks in an attempt to dispel rumours he was paralysed, dying of late-stage cancer, or dead.
While largely played for laughs, the government lodged complaints against several Facebook accounts and warned tech giant Meta it faced legal action should it fail to curb disinformation it labelled an "escalating" threat to national security.
Since the 68-year-old leader's January hospitalisation for diverticulitis -- an inflammation in the colon --- social media has been awash with speculation he was more ill than publicised.
The posts have circulated widely among supporters of Marcos' arch-rival and 2028 presidential candidate, Vice President Sara Duterte, whose Monday impeachment has thrown her run into doubt.
AFP's fact-checkers have tracked hundreds of posts on Facebook, TikTok and X -- some racking up tens of thousands of shares -- of old or edited visuals as proof of the president's ailing health.
The narrative has sown "seeds of instability" in his presidency and largely benefited Duterte, Jean Franco, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines, told AFP.
It also leans heavily into the Marcos family's history of medical secrecy.
The president's father and namesake, sick with kidney disease during the final years of his dictatorship, once lifted his shirt on national television to show he bore no transplant scars.
"Just like his father", one Facebook user wrote in a post speculating Marcos had died in April.

'Who died?'

The president's assurances that his diagnosis was non-life-threatening have done little to allay the rumours.
When he skipped an event in early April, speculation that he was ill or dead -- including a years-old photo of a Philippine flag flying at half mast -- flooded social media.
The flag photo was shared by former broadcaster-turned-social media presenceJay Sonza, who campaigned for the Marcos-Duterte ticket during the pair's brief 2022 alliance but has since posted exclusively for the vice president.
"Who died?" one curious commenter asked under Sonza's flag post, with others claiming it was Marcos. "Hope VP Sara steps in to govern this country," said another.
Sonza was arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) about two weeks later on charges of cyberlibel and "unlawful publication", alleging he fabricated medical records about the president.
With his client now free on bail, Sonza's lawyer has labelled the detention "intimidation".
Marcos' communications office, meanwhile, lauded the arrest, having earlier announced it had filed complaints against three Facebook accounts with the country's justice department.

'Panic-inducing' content

Numerous posts have also accused the media of colluding with the administration to keep details of his health secret.
One altered image -- shared in a page with 80,000 followers called "President Duterte News" -- alleged that major broadcaster GMA News was part of a cover-up.
That framing, repeated across multiple Facebook pages, is intended to "further erode trust in legitimate media", said Yvonne Chua, who teaches journalism at the University of the Philippines.
"They reinforce the broader narrative that mainstream media cannot be trusted and is aligned with those in power," Chua told AFP.
Marco's government has since demanded that Facebook owner Meta take down "panic-inducing" content on the platform, where Filipinos rank among the world's heaviest users.
The content poses "a direct and escalating threat to public order, economic confidence, and national security", the government said, without spelling out what legal action it might take.
Meta, one of the companies that pays AFP to fact-check posts with potentially false information, has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
More than a dozen "fake news" bills, meanwhile, have been floated in the Philippine Congress, including one sponsored by Marcos's son Sandro, a high-ranking House member. 
For Franco, government lawsuits and pressure tactics risked a "chilling effect" on people who want to criticise the government.
Constitutional law professor Paolo Tamase agreed, saying that instead of invoking "national security", the government might best be served by a "pro-transparency reading of the public's right to information".
"Disclosures take the oxygen out of any baseless rumour," he said.
jae/jcs/cwl/sjc/abs

politics

Epstein files on display at New York pop-up exhibit, all 3.5 million pages

  • The library, dubbed "The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room," has bound all the documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act in 3,437 volumes, all numbered and organized on shelves.
  • A US transparency advocacy group has opened a temporary exhibition in New York with only one text on display: a print-out of all the files released by the US Department of Justice -- roughly 3.5 million pages -- relating to financier and convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
  • The library, dubbed "The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room," has bound all the documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act in 3,437 volumes, all numbered and organized on shelves.
A US transparency advocacy group has opened a temporary exhibition in New York with only one text on display: a print-out of all the files released by the US Department of Justice -- roughly 3.5 million pages -- relating to financier and convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
The library, dubbed "The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room," has bound all the documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act in 3,437 volumes, all numbered and organized on shelves.
"The truth is hard to deny when it's printed and bound for you to see," reads the website for the Institute of Primary Facts, the Washington-based nonprofit behind the display.
Those interested in seeing the files at the library in Tribeca can do so by registering online.
However, due to errors by the Department of Justice in failing to redact the names of some of the victims included in the documents, the general public is not allowed to consult the files. The exhibit offers exceptions for some professionals like journalists and lawyers.
The pop-up also has a display on the longstanding relationship between President Donald Trump and Epstein, who died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges involving minors.
The pair were friends for decades before they reportedly fell out in 2004 over a property deal, after which Trump reportedly denounced his former ally. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing after showing up repeatedly in the so-called "Epstein Files."
"We're a pro-democracy organization, with the goal of educating the public using these kinds of sort of pop-up museums and other in-real-life experiences to help people understand the corruption in the United States, the dangers to democracy," David Garrett, one of the creators behind the project, told AFP.
Garrett said he believes "there needs to be real public outcry" about how the Trump administration has handled the document release, with many accusing justice officials of covering up Trump's ties to Epstein.
"And what we attempted to do here was to create, or help to create public outcry to have real accountability," he added.
The exhibit is open to the public until May 21.
rh/ube/jgc/sla

accident

MD-11, aircraft in fatal crash, cleared for US flight once more

  • Boeing -- which acquired McDonnell Douglas in 1997 -- announced on Monday that, following the regulatory green light, it had sent MD-11 owners instructions for carrying out inspections on their aircraft.
  • The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 -- a jetliner involved in a fatal crash in November -- has been cleared to return to flight, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Monday.
  • Boeing -- which acquired McDonnell Douglas in 1997 -- announced on Monday that, following the regulatory green light, it had sent MD-11 owners instructions for carrying out inspections on their aircraft.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 -- a jetliner involved in a fatal crash in November -- has been cleared to return to flight, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Monday.
"After extensive review, the FAA approved Boeing’s protocol for safely returning MD-11 airplanes to service," an FAA spokesperson said.
The agency had ordered the grounding of all MD-11s on November 9, 2025, days after an accident that killed 14 people in Louisville, Kentucky, including 11 on the ground.
The cargo plane, operated by delivery company UPS and bound for Hawaii, crashed after one of its engines detached during takeoff and caught fire. The aircraft exploded when it hit industrial buildings near the airport.
According to a preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on November 20, a crucial component attaching the engines to the wings showed fatigue cracks and broke during takeoff.
An NTSB investigative hearing is scheduled for May 19.
Boeing -- which acquired McDonnell Douglas in 1997 -- announced on Monday that, following the regulatory green light, it had sent MD-11 owners instructions for carrying out inspections on their aircraft.
UPS grounded the fleet four days after the accident, and its chief executive announced in late January that the company would speed up the retirement of the entire fleet, which began in 2023.
"UPS accelerated and completed the retirement of our MD-11s as part of our broader fleet modernization efforts, and the aircraft is no longer part of our operation," a spokesperson told AFP on Monday.
FedEx, a competitor, by contrast, had been eagerly waiting to put its own MD-11s back into service.
During the presentation of quarterly results on March 19, Chief Financial Officer John Dietrich said he expected a return to service toward the end of the current quarter.
According to a statement sent to AFP on Monday, two FedEx MD-11s resumed commercial flights as early as Sunday, after "confirmation that the required repairs and inspections" specified by Boeing and approved by the FAA had been completed, and after test flights.
The two aircraft departed from Memphis Airport in Tennessee, one bound for Miami, Florida and the other for Los Angeles, California.
elm/pnb/dw

history

Nazi-looted portrait found in home of Dutch SS leader's family: art sleuth

BY RICHARD CARTER

  • "But discovering a painting from the famous Goudstikker collection, in the possession of the heirs of a notorious Dutch Waffen-SS general, truly tops everything." ric/ach 
  • An artwork plundered by the Nazis from the world-famous Goudstikker collection that surfaced in the family of a notorious SS collaborator in the Netherlands has been handed over, Dutch art detective Arthur Brand told AFP Monday.
  • "But discovering a painting from the famous Goudstikker collection, in the possession of the heirs of a notorious Dutch Waffen-SS general, truly tops everything." ric/ach 
An artwork plundered by the Nazis from the world-famous Goudstikker collection that surfaced in the family of a notorious SS collaborator in the Netherlands has been handed over, Dutch art detective Arthur Brand told AFP Monday.
"Portrait of a Young Girl", by Dutch artist Toon Kelder, had likely been hanging for decades in the home of descendants of Hendrik Seyffardt, Brand said, describing it as "the most bizarre case of my entire career".
The case has drawn parallels to a find that made global headlines in 2025, when an 18th-century Nazi-looted painting -- also from the collection of late Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker -- featured in a property ad in Argentina.
In the Dutch case, Brand said he was approached by a man who had recently uncovered two horrifying secrets: he was a descendant of Seyffardt, and his family had displayed the looted art for years.
This family member, who wished to remain anonymous, told Brand he saw the painting hanging in the hallway of the granddaughter of Seyffardt, who was assassinated by Dutch resistance fighters in 1943.
Seyffardt, one of the highest-ranking Dutch collaborators with the Nazis, commanded a Waffen-SS unit of Dutch volunteers on the Eastern Front.
The New York Times splashed news of his death on its front page in 1943, and a lavish Nazi state funeral was held for him in The Hague, complete with a wreath sent by Adolf Hitler.
According to Brand, Seyffardt's granddaughter told the family member the painting was "Jewish looted art, stolen from Goudstikker. It is unsellable. Don't tell anyone."
But the family member wanted the story to go public, so contacted Brand, who has made a name for himself cracking numerous high-profile cases of stolen art.
This family member told De Telegraaf daily: "I feel ashamed. The painting should be returned to the heirs of Goudstikker."
The granddaughter, quoted by the Dutch daily, said the family was discussing whether the painting should be returned to the Goudstikker heirs, and denied knowing it was looted.
"I received it from my mother. Now that you confront me like this, I understand that Goudstikker's heirs want the painting back. I didn't know that," she was quoted as saying.
Brand later confirmed to AFP that the family had handed the painting over. He said he was in contact with the lawyers of the Goudstikker heirs to arrange a transfer soon.

'Truly tops everything'

Brand's investigation showed the painting had a Goudstikker label on the back and the number 92 carved into the frame.
He searched the archives of an auction in 1940 where part of the looted Goudstikker collection went under the hammer and found item number 92: "Portrait of a Young Girl" by Toon Kelder.
Hermann Goering, a top Nazi official, plundered Goudstikker's entire collection when the art dealer fled to England in 1940.
Brand surmises that the Dutch collaborator Seyffardt acquired the painting at the 1940 auction and it was then passed down throughout the generations.
Lawyers for the Goudstikker heirs confirmed to Brand that this painting was looted and have called for its return.
The family member who contacted Brand also wanted the painting returned to the Goudstikker heirs, but the police were powerless as the theft has passed the statute of limitations.
The Dutch Restitution Committee, which advises on looted Nazi art, is also hamstrung as it cannot compel private individuals to return artworks.
Brand, who has been nicknamed the "Indiana Jones of the Art World" for his extraordinary finds, said this case surpassed anything he had uncovered before.
"I have recovered Nazi-looted art from World War II before, including pieces in the Louvre, the Dutch Royal Collection, and numerous museums," he said.
"But discovering a painting from the famous Goudstikker collection, in the possession of the heirs of a notorious Dutch Waffen-SS general, truly tops everything."
ric/ach 

US

Tens of millions risk hunger as Hormuz standoff blocks fertiliser, UN official says

BY SUSANNAH WALDEN

  • "We may witness a crisis that will force 45 million more people into hunger and starvation." 
  • Tens of millions of people could face hunger and starvation if fertilisers are not soon allowed through the Strait of Hormuz, the head of a UN task force aimed at averting a looming humanitarian crisis told AFP on Monday. 
  • "We may witness a crisis that will force 45 million more people into hunger and starvation." 
Tens of millions of people could face hunger and starvation if fertilisers are not soon allowed through the Strait of Hormuz, the head of a UN task force aimed at averting a looming humanitarian crisis told AFP on Monday. 
Iran has had the strategic waterway -- through which a third of the world's fertilisers normally pass -- in a chokehold for months in retaliation for the war launched by the United States and Israel on February 28, disrupting a trade critical for farmers around the world in a race against the end of planting seasons. 
"We have a few weeks ahead of us to prevent what will likely be a massive humanitarian crisis," Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and leader of the task force, told AFP in an interview in Paris. 
"We may witness a crisis that will force 45 million more people into hunger and starvation." 
The UN secretary general created the task force in March to spearhead a mechanism to allow fertilisers and related raw materials such as ammonia, sulphur and urea through the strait. 
For weeks, Moreira da Silva has been working to convince the belligerent parties to allow even a few ships through, and has met with "more than 100 countries" to rally UN member state support around the mechanism. 
A growing number of countries are showing support for the plan, he said, but the United States and Iran, as well as Gulf countries -- who are key fertiliser producers, are not yet fully on board. 
While the ultimate hope is for a "lasting peace" deal in the region and "freedom of navigation for all commodities" through the strait, "the problem is the planting season can't wait", Moreira da Silva said, with some ending in African nations within weeks. 
Global focus has been on the economic impacts of the throttled oil and gas trade, but the United Nations has been sounding the alarm of the threat the blockade poses to the world's food security, with countries in Africa and Asia likely to be particularly hard hit. 

'Political will'

Moreira da Silva said the United Nations could have the mechanism up and running in seven days but even if the strait were to reopen now, it would take three to four months to return to normality. 
"It's just a matter of time. If we don't stop the origin of the crisis soon, we will have to deal with the consequences through humanitarian aid." 
While food prices have not exploded yet, Moreira da Silva said, there has been a "massive increase" in fertiliser costs, which experts say would likely lead to a drop in agriculture productivity and send food prices soaring. 
Moreira da Silva said moving just an average of five vessels a day of fertilisers and related raw materials through the strait would head off the crisis for farmers. 
What's missing, he said, is "the political will". 
"We can't procrastinate on what is possible to do, and what is urgent to do -- which is let the fertilisers cross the strait and, through that, minimize the risk of massive food insecurity at the global level."
sw/ah/giv

celebrity

Party's over: China tells fans to end birthday blowouts for sport idols

  • "Such events not only use up a great portion of public resources but can also easily interfere with athletes' preparations for competitions," the official said according to state broadcaster CCTV. Organisers' unauthorised use of the athlete's image may also infringe upon their rights, the person said, adding that fans should instead cheer them on in competition.
  • Chinese officials have warned fans against holding big birthday celebrations in honour of national team athletes, saying they can be distracting and are a waste of resources.
  • "Such events not only use up a great portion of public resources but can also easily interfere with athletes' preparations for competitions," the official said according to state broadcaster CCTV. Organisers' unauthorised use of the athlete's image may also infringe upon their rights, the person said, adding that fans should instead cheer them on in competition.
Chinese officials have warned fans against holding big birthday celebrations in honour of national team athletes, saying they can be distracting and are a waste of resources.
In China, as well as other Asian countries like South Korea and Japan, fans often organise huge displays or events to commemorate their favourite celebrities' birthdays.
In November, festivities for table tennis world champion Sun Yingsha's 25th birthday included messages on massive digital billboards, a drone show and packed fan gatherings at shopping malls across the country.
But such lavish displays now appear to have fallen foul of Chinese authorities. 
On Sunday, state media reported that an unnamed manager at China's General Administration of Sport had recently asked fans "to stay rational... and refrain from organising and participating in activities such as athlete birthday celebrations". 
"Such events not only use up a great portion of public resources but can also easily interfere with athletes' preparations for competitions," the official said according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Organisers' unauthorised use of the athlete's image may also infringe upon their rights, the person said, adding that fans should instead cheer them on in competition.
Adulation towards China's sports stars has included fans obsessing over athletes' personal lives and sometimes cyberbullying.
State media have called such behaviour "toxic fandom" and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it.
mya/reb/dh

research

Groundbreaking: 'Controlled' quakes triggered under Swiss Alps

BY NINA LARSON

  • That alone was a huge success, he insisted, pointing out that although there had been previous efforts to create tiny earthquakes in lab settings, it was "never at this scale and never this deep".
  • Researchers have made the ground shake in southern Switzerland, triggering thousands of tiny earthquakes in a monitored setting, as they seek to discover seismicity insights that could reduce risks.
  • That alone was a huge success, he insisted, pointing out that although there had been previous efforts to create tiny earthquakes in lab settings, it was "never at this scale and never this deep".
Researchers have made the ground shake in southern Switzerland, triggering thousands of tiny earthquakes in a monitored setting, as they seek to discover seismicity insights that could reduce risks.
"It was a success!" said Domenico Giardini, one of the lead researchers on the project, as he inspected a crack in the rock wall lining a narrow tunnel far below the Swiss Alps.
Wearing a fluorescent orange jumpsuit and helmet, the geology professor at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) switched on his headlight to get a better look.
"We had seismicity," he said excitedly, explaining that the goal was "to understand what happens at depth when the Earth moves".
Giardini was standing in the BedrettoLab carved out in the middle of a narrow 5.2-kilometre (3.2-mile) ventilation tunnel leading to the Furka railway tunnel.
Reached by specially adapted electric vehicles that slide through the dank darkness along concrete slabs laid over a muddy dirt floor, the deep underground laboratory is the ideal location to create and study earthquakes, Giardini said.
"It is perfect, because we have a kilometre and a half of mountain on top of us... and we can look very close at the faults, how they move, when they move, and we can make them move ourselves," he told AFP.

'Earthquake machine'

Typically, researchers seeking to study earthquakes place sensors near known faults and wait.
In the BedrettoLab, by contrast, researchers filled a pre-selected fault with sensors and other instruments, and then sought to trigger movement.
For the experiment, dubbed Fault Activation and Earthquake Rupture (FEAR-2), dozens of scientists from across Europe spent four days in late April injecting 750 cubic metres of water into boreholes drilled into the tunnel's rock walls, aiming to provoke a magnitude-1 earthquake.
"We don't create a new fault... We only facilitate that it moves," Giardini said.
During the experiment, no people were in the tunnel for safety reasons, with everything managed remotely from the ETH Zurich lab in northern Switzerland.
When AFP visited the Zurich lab a day into the experiment, scientists were excitedly discussing the first signs of seismicity on the monitors.
"This is kind of pushing the frontier of science," said Ryan Schultz, a seismologist specialised in man-made earthquakes.
The excitement was interrupted by a sudden power cut in the tunnel that sent the scientists in Zurich scrambling for answers.
"We have our earthquake machine... Now we have to play with the parameters," said Frederic Massin, a French seismologist and technical expert, as he studied his screen for clues to what had caused the outage.
The glitch was short-lived and pumping soon resumed.

8,000 earthquakes

In the end, some 8,000 small seismic events were induced along the targeted fault, but also, surprisingly, along other faults running perpendicular to the main one, sparking local magnitudes ranging from -5 to -0.14.
"We did not reach the target magnitude that we had set, but we reached just below," Giardini said.
That alone was a huge success, he insisted, pointing out that although there had been previous efforts to create tiny earthquakes in lab settings, it was "never at this scale and never this deep".
"It's simply never been tried."
The findings, he said, would help determine the best injection angles for reaching magnitude 1 at the BedrettoLab when researchers next give it a try in June.
Magnitudes on the Richter scale are measured logarithmically, with each whole number increase representing ten times more in measured amplitude.
Magnitudes below zero are still palpable. Anyone standing near the fault during the largest triggered quakes, at -0.14, would have felt an acceleration of "1.5 G", or 1.5 times the standard acceleration due to gravity, Giardini said.
They would have flown "in the air with a big jump", he explained.

'Safe'

Nothing was felt at the surface, and Giardini stressed that by lubricating an existing fault, the team was adding only "about one percent of what is the natural risk".
The experiment, he insisted, was completely "safe".
Giardini explained the importance of the research, stressing: "If we master how to produce quakes of a certain size, then we know how not to produce them."
This was particularly important in connection with underground activities like excavation and extraction, he said, pointing for instance to quakes triggered by disposal of wastewater from the fracking industry in Texas.
He also highlighted South Korea's 5.4-magnitude Pohang quake in November 2017, triggered by water injections at the country's first experimental geothermal power plant.
"Without realising it, they started injecting and initiating induced seismicity on a large fault, (creating) a very serious quake," Giardini pointed out.
"We're not saying we should not go underground," he insisted.
"We need to learn how to do it more safely."
nl/rjm/rh

insurance

In India, heat-triggered insurance offers 'some relief'

BY UZMI ATHAR WITH AISHWARYA KUMAR IN BENGALURU

  • In 2023, the year before she joined the scheme, Solanki kept working during a heatwave and ended up sick at home for 20 days, losing at least 2,000 rupees ($21) in income.
  • Clothes seller Lata Solanki used to face a devastating choice when India's summer heat hit dangerous levels: risk her health going door-to-door for sales, or lose her income?
  • In 2023, the year before she joined the scheme, Solanki kept working during a heatwave and ended up sick at home for 20 days, losing at least 2,000 rupees ($21) in income.
Clothes seller Lata Solanki used to face a devastating choice when India's summer heat hit dangerous levels: risk her health going door-to-door for sales, or lose her income?
But now the 42-year-old is part of an insurance scheme that pays out when temperatures hit a threshold, so she can stay home without jeopardising her finances.
The "parametric" model pays out automatically when specific triggers are breached, in Solanki's case after two consecutive days at 43.72 degrees Celsius.
The payout is modest, but it helps, she told AFP in Ahmedabad, one of India's hottest cities.
"At least we feel there is some support," she said. "Because of the heat, the fan runs day and night. The bill goes up."
In 2023, the year before she joined the scheme, Solanki kept working during a heatwave and ended up sick at home for 20 days, losing at least 2,000 rupees ($21) in income.
The following year, she received 750 rupees from the scheme, small but more than the cost of the premium, and a relief in a country where the average monthly rural household income is 10,000 rupees ($105).
India lost an estimated 247 billion hours of labour to extreme heat in 2024, equivalent to nearly $194 billion in economic losses, according to the Lancet Countdown research group.
Agriculture and construction bore the brunt, and climate change is accelerating the number of days of extreme heat India sees.
Parametric insurance is seen as a way to protect the most vulnerable from climate impacts like heat, but also heavy rain.
In India's northeastern state of Nagaland, the government has insured its entire population against economic losses due to heavy rainfall under a parametric model since 2024.
The federal government is examining how to extend the schemes more widely to "supplement insurance mechanisms and reinforce protection to the people".

'Some relief'

Unlike traditional insurance, parametric policies do not require individual damage assessments.
Instead, payouts are triggered automatically by heavy rain, high heat or even air pollution.
The scheme helping Solanki is a collaboration between the non-profit Mahila Housing Trust (MHT) and global insurer Go Digit, supported by the Climate Resilience for All initiative.
MHT programme manager Nital Rahul Patel said the idea emerged after surveys and discussions with women workers in Ahmedabad, where temperatures sometimes hit 45C (113F).
"They would say it is very hot every year," she said. "But when we broke down their expenses, we realised incomes were falling by 2,000-2,500 rupees ($21-26) over four months of summer."
The scheme began in 2024 with 26,000 women across Gujarat. Their 354-rupee premium was covered by Climate Resilience for All.
In 2025 enrolment rose, but the scheme made no payments because the temperature threshold was not met.
This year, the trigger has been revised down to 42.74 degrees Celcius, and the scheme aims to cover more than 30,000 women.
If temperatures hit the threshold for two days, they will qualify for payments ranging from 850 to 2,000 rupees ($21).
Higher temperatures trigger higher payments, but the amount is a one-off, not cumulative. It is assessed and paid at the end of the heat season in September.
Rakhi Gulshan Singh, a seamstress earning around 4,000 rupees a month, signed up even though she works indoors.
"When I run the sewing machine, it becomes even hotter," the 30-year-old said, who got a payout in 2024. "It is small, but it gives some relief."

'Faster and more transparent'

Adarsh Agarwal, appointed actuary at Go Digit, said his company has covered more than 50,000 people since it began working on parametric insurance two years ago.
While still a "niche product", he said demand has increased.
There is now "more knowledge and more curiosity", he told AFP, and his firm has offered both heat and air-quality parametric schemes.
Payment thresholds are set based on historical weather data and intended to be "practical, sustainable and aligned to the intended segment while managing basis risk", he added.
The schemes can be "faster and more transparent" than traditional insurance, said Aniruddha Bhattacharjee, senior researcher for climate resilience and engineering at Climate Trends.
But payouts tend to be small, and effectiveness depends on how accurately trigger thresholds reflect actual ground realities, since models are largely built on historical data.
India's government weather forecasters are already predicting boiling, above-average temperatures in May and June, which Solanki joked might turn out to be good news.
"Maybe we will get a payout," she said.
But regardless, she plans to stay enrolled "even if it means paying the premium from our pockets".
ash-uzm/pjm/sah

AI

Can ChatGPT be charged in a murder? Florida wants to find out

BY THOMAS URBAIN

  • The Ikner case is different, and that difference is precisely what makes it so legally treacherous.
  • Before he opened fire on the Florida State University campus last year, killing two people and wounding six others, Phoenix Ikner had a conversation.
  • The Ikner case is different, and that difference is precisely what makes it so legally treacherous.
Before he opened fire on the Florida State University campus last year, killing two people and wounding six others, Phoenix Ikner had a conversation.
Not with a friend, a parent or anyone who might have talked him out of it -- but with an AI chatbot.
According to evidence gathered by Florida's attorney general, the student had asked ChatGPT which weapon and ammunition would be best suited for his attack, and when and where he could inflict the most casualties.
The chatbot, investigators say, answered his questions.
Now Attorney General James Uthmeier wants to know whether that makes OpenAI a criminal.
"If the thing on the other side of the screen was a person, we would charge it with homicide," he said, announcing a criminal investigation into ChatGPT maker OpenAI and leaving open the possibility of charges against the company or its employees.
The case surrounding the April, 2025 shooting has thrust a provocative question into the legal spotlight: Can the creators of an artificial intelligence be held criminally liable for the role their AI played in a crime -- or even a suicide?
Legal experts say it's a realistic, if deeply complicated, proposition.

- Criminal product? -

Criminal prosecutions of corporations are possible under US law, though they remain relatively uncommon.
Late last month, Purdue Pharma was hit with more than $5 billion in criminal fines and penalties for its role in fueling the opioid crisis.
Volkswagen was previously found guilty in the emissions cheating scandal, Pfizer over its promotion of the anti-inflammatory drug Bextra and Exxon for the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.
But those cases all involved human decisions -- executives, salespeople or engineers who made choices and cut corners.
The Ikner case is different, and that difference is precisely what makes it so legally treacherous.
"Ultimately, it was a product that encouraged this crime, that did the act of the crime," said Matthew Tokson, a law professor at the University of Utah. "That's what makes this case so unique and so tricky."
Legal experts consulted by AFP say the two most plausible charges would be negligence or recklessness -- the latter involving a deliberate choice to ignore known risks or safety obligations.
Such charges are often treated as misdemeanors rather than felonies, meaning lighter sentences if convicted.
The bar, however, is high.
"Because this is such a frontier issue, a more compelling, more clear-cut case would probably involve internal documents recognizing these risks and maybe not taking them seriously enough," Tokson said.
"In theory, you could get liability without it," he said. "But in practice, I think that'd be difficult."
In criminal law, "the burden of proof is higher," noted Brandon Garrett, a law professor at Duke University -- with prosecutors required to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
OpenAI, for its part, insists ChatGPT bears no responsibility for the attack.
"We work continuously to strengthen our safeguards to detect harmful intent, limit misuse, and respond appropriately when safety risks arise," the company said.

- Civil or criminal? -

For those seeking accountability, a civil lawsuit may offer a more viable path.
Such an approach might push companies to design their products more carefully -- or at least force them to reckon with the human cost of getting it wrong, said Tokson.
Several civil cases have already been filed against AI platforms in the US -- many involving suicides -- though none has yet resulted in a judgment against the companies.
In December, the family of Suzanne Adams sued OpenAI in California court, alleging that ChatGPT contributed to the murder of the Connecticut retiree by her own son.
Newer versions of ChatGPT have introduced additional safeguards, acknowledged Matthew Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center.
"I'm not saying that they are adequate guardrails, but there are more guardrails in effect," he said.
A criminal conviction, even with a modest sentence, could still inflict serious damage, including a "big reputational impact," Tokson said.
But for Garrett, prosecutions -- however dramatic -- are no replacement for the regulatory frameworks that Congress and the Trump administration have so far failed to put in place.
That, he said, would be "a much more sensible system."
tu/arp/mjf/mlm

US

Fearing return to war, Iran conservationists shore up damaged heritage sites

BY PAYAM DOOST MOHAMADI

  • Initial estimates suggest work at the site could cost around $1.7 million, though the figure could rise following a full assessment, he added, noting that repairs could take "two or more years". 
  • As fears of renewed conflict hang over Iran, conservationists are shoring up battered historic sites and taking stock of the damage caused by the war with the United States and Israel, though experts warn some repairs could take years.
  • Initial estimates suggest work at the site could cost around $1.7 million, though the figure could rise following a full assessment, he added, noting that repairs could take "two or more years". 
As fears of renewed conflict hang over Iran, conservationists are shoring up battered historic sites and taking stock of the damage caused by the war with the United States and Israel, though experts warn some repairs could take years.
At Golestan Palace, a defining cultural landmark in central Tehran, shattered mirrors, broken doors and debris from ornate ceilings now lie scattered across parts of the site after shockwaves from strikes on the capital following the outbreak of war on February 28.
The former royal residence, known for its sprawling gardens, pools and royal halls, has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2013. 
The fragile truce in place since April 8 has allowed experts to begin gauging the scale of the damage, though the complex remains closed to the public. 
"The damage has been assessed at several levels, but a more detailed specialised evaluation is still underway," Ali Omid Ali, a restoration specialist and head of the technical engineering department at Golestan Palace, told AFP. 
For now, he said, teams are focused on stabilising damaged structures and preventing further collapse before broader repair work can begin. 
"We need a more stable situation to start the restoration process," he said. 
Initial estimates suggest work at the site could cost around $1.7 million, though the figure could rise following a full assessment, he added, noting that repairs could take "two or more years". 
The palace, known for blending 19th-century Persian arts and architecture with European styles and motifs, is among at least five UNESCO-listed sites damaged during the conflict. 
"Fifty to 60 percent of its doors and windows are broken," Jabbar Avaj, director of the Golestan Palace museums, told the official IRNA news agency. 
The palace's famed Mirror Hall -- known for shimmering mosaics covering its ceilings and walls  -- and the Marble Throne, a ceremonial platform supported by statues representing mythical and royal symbols, were "seriously damaged", he said. 

'Shadow of war lingers'

Other affected UNESCO-listed sites include Chehel Sotoun Palace and the Masjed-e Jame mosque in Isfahan, as well as the prehistoric sites of the Khorramabad Valley. 
Beyond the listed sites, the war affected at least 140 culturally and historically significant locations across Iran, according to Hassan Fartousi, head of Iran's National Commission for UNESCO. 
Among them are Tehran's Marble Palace, the Teymourtash house and the sprawling Saadabad Palace complex in northern Tehran, a former royal residence set within a vast park and home to several museums. 
"The shadow of war still lingers over Iran's sky, and in this situation, we cannot plan very well for restoration," Fartousi said. 
While the ceasefire since April 8 has largely halted fighting in major urban centres housing cultural sites, sporadic clashes have occurred in coastal areas and Gulf waters, and talks have so far failed to produce a lasting settlement. 
Fartousi also worries that even after repairs, damaged heritage sites may never recover their original character, noting the entire idea of cultural heritage rests on "the concept of originality".
"Even if we do the restoration with our great artists and specialists in restoration, where will the originality be?" he said.
Funding remains a major challenge, with the Iranian government yet to announce a restoration budget as it struggles to offset the impact of the war and a US blockade that has severely disrupted exports. 
"Unfortunately, UNESCO and other international organisations have limited budget," he said, adding that negotiations were ongoing to secure support. 
Asked about the overall cost of restoring the damaged sites, Fartousi simply said: "All of them are priceless."
pdm/mz/smw

internet

European minnows bid to challenge social media giants

  • But such figures would be rounding errors to the giants of the sector, who count in hundreds of millions of users and billions in revenue.
  • A flurry of new schemes to launch Europe-based social networks faces a steep, rocky road to seduce users away from American and Asian giants in the sector.
  • But such figures would be rounding errors to the giants of the sector, who count in hundreds of millions of users and billions in revenue.
A flurry of new schemes to launch Europe-based social networks faces a steep, rocky road to seduce users away from American and Asian giants in the sector.
Founders nevertheless see opportunity in the disillusionment and distrust of major platforms that have spiked alongside transatlantic tensions under Donald Trump's second presidency.
"We think the timing is perfect, in a context where relations between Europe and the US are still deteriorating," said Gregoire Vigroux, co-founder of Croatia-based network eYou.
"It's time for Europe to equip itself with its own social networks," he added.
Opening to users on Tuesday, eYou is one of a number of efforts on the old continent, including W -- a would-be competitor to X announced in January -- or Eurosky, a platform for accessing independent social networks launched last month.
Bulle (French for "bubble") also launched in January promising a "healthy social network" while Monnett -- a hybrid of TikTok and Instagram -- is set for full release in July.
"The rejection targeting the (American) platforms is still stronger today" than in the past, said Romain Badouard, a researcher at France's Inria computing institute specialising in social networks.
He suggested that a "conservative turn in Silicon Valley" had proved unpopular with European users seeing the likes of X owner Elon Musk or Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) chief Mark Zuckerberg cosying up to Trump.

'Enormous graveyard'

At W, "the idea is to bring back what was once Twitter in the good old days," said founder Anna Zeiter ahead of the Saturday launch.
Some interest is apparent among investors and users in the new crop of networks.
In a second fundraising round, eYou garnered 300,000 euros ($353,000) in late 2025, while Monnett claims more than 65,000 users on the beta version of its app.
But such figures would be rounding errors to the giants of the sector, who count in hundreds of millions of users and billions in revenue.
The dominance of incumbent players has left little space for challenge beyond niche offerings like Mastodon or BeReal.
"The world of social networks is an enormous graveyard," eYou's Vigroux acknowledged, adding that "99 percent of European social networks launched in the last 10 years have fallen flat."
Badouard pointed to the so-called "network effect" that powered the snowballing of major platforms' user numbers as a factor now shielding them from competition.
For users on Instagram and TikTok, "all the people they know and the accounts they follow" are on the existing networks.
But the "technological maturity" of the latest wave of challengers could still count in their favour, he said.
"They're answering to a lot of the expectations users have," Badouard said.

Out of the algorithm?

There is a familiar litany of criticisms levelled at the big players, including sorting users into "filter bubbles", unevenly-enforced moderation and addictive design.
European would-be competitors see those as openings to vaunt their own virtues.
W promises to keep all but verified human users from posting, while eYou says it will "promote users sharing content considered trustworthy".
"It's really important for us that it's not an algorithm that determine what's on your screen, but yourself," said Christos Floros of Monnett, which is aiming to hit a million users this year.
Such commitments could steepen the path to profitability for the new arrivals, in a market where financial success is still largely determined by raking in advertising sales.
Zeiter said W would have "no crazy hyper-targeted advertising".
"Right now we are all trying out different business models and different approaches," she said.
"Maybe in one or two years we see what's most successful and then we can team up."
mng/tgb/rl