pollution

Chinese villagers struggle for heat as gas subsidies fade

BY MARY YANG

  • In 2017, Beijing mandated that dozens of northern areas wind down the use of coal-fired stoves in favour of electric and natural gas-powered systems.
  • Almost a decade after China began curbing coal burning to stop thick winter smog, villagers in northern Hebei province are struggling to afford their heating bills with most gas subsidies now phased out.
  • In 2017, Beijing mandated that dozens of northern areas wind down the use of coal-fired stoves in favour of electric and natural gas-powered systems.
Almost a decade after China began curbing coal burning to stop thick winter smog, villagers in northern Hebei province are struggling to afford their heating bills with most gas subsidies now phased out.
In 2017, Beijing mandated that dozens of northern areas wind down the use of coal-fired stoves in favour of electric and natural gas-powered systems.
China's central government allocated funds to refit stoves, but subsidies faded after three years and additional aid has drastically declined, local media reported this week.
In Xushui, a district in Hebei roughly 100 kilometres (62 miles) outside Beijing, villagers told AFP they avoided turning on the heating because it drained their incomes.
"Regular folks can't afford it... Spending 1,000 yuan ($143) per month on heat -- no one can stand that," a resident in his 60s told AFP at a farmers' market.
"Everyone likes that (the air) is clean. There's not one person that doesn't like it," he said, asking not to be named for fear of "trouble".
"But... the cost of clean (air) is high," he added.
On the clear, sunny day AFP visited, the warmest temperature was just under six degrees Celsius, with lows of minus seven.
Restaurant worker Yin Chunlan said that her elderly in-laws need to pay up to 7,000 yuan per year to heat their six-room village home.
Yin, 48, lives in an apartment in town and says her annual bill is a third of that.
"But it's not the same in the village," she told AFP.
"They have to set their heating much higher, and the temperature still isn't as warm, so it wastes gas and wastes money."
Yin's in-laws often pile on extra blankets to stay warm.
"When I see it, it's quite pitiful," said Yin, wiping away a tear. "Nothing can be done."
In one village, a woman in her 70s wore a green padded jacket underneath an apron as she crossed her outdoor courtyard.
Heating in her home is not turned on during the daytime, she said, showing AFP the system's switchboard mounted above her stove displaying "off".
The woman, who did not give her name, said the dial could reach 60C. When asked if the temperature inside could feel as warm, she laughed.

Articles taken down

Reports that villagers in Hebei were layering up under quilts to avoid costly heating peppered Chinese social media in the first week of the new year.
An article by Farmers' Daily reshared in state media CCTV's opinion section said in rural Hebei natural gas costs up to 3.4 yuan per cubic metre compared to 2.6 yuan in rural areas of Beijing.
Villagers told AFP they felt the huge price gap was unfair.
But the original article was quickly taken down, with republications, including the CCTV article, inaccessible days later.
China's Ministry of Finance said in 2021 a total of 13.2 billion yuan in funds had been distributed for clean heating across Hebei.
But subsidies to support the installation of new systems and for gas bills, which had lasted three years, would not be renewed, it said in a letter.
The move came around the same time that international gas prices were driven up by Russia's war in Ukraine. Last year, Chinese authorities reported national gas consumption growth had slowed.
The ministry, responding to a local proposal to increase financial support for provincial pollution control, said special funds would be arranged for additional subsidies in rural areas, but gave no details of the rollout.
A local Xushui government platform said in 2017 that some households would be eligible to receive 300 yuan in gas subsidies.
For villager Zhang Yanjun, that amount hardly made a dent in his bill of several thousand yuan per season.
The 55-year-old labourer said he had already spent more than 5,000 yuan on heating his home since October. 
"If you give 300 or 200 yuan or something, it's the same as if you gave no subsidies at all," he said.
mya/dhw/ceg/mjw

drones

North Korea accuses South of another drone incursion

BY HIEUN SHIN

  • Located northwest of Seoul, Ganghwa County is one of the closest South Korean territories to North Korea.
  • North Korea accused the South on Saturday of flying another spy drone over its territory this month, a claim that Seoul denied.
  • Located northwest of Seoul, Ganghwa County is one of the closest South Korean territories to North Korea.
North Korea accused the South on Saturday of flying another spy drone over its territory this month, a claim that Seoul denied.
The North Korean military tracked a drone "moving northwards" over the South Korean border county of Ganghwa in early January before shooting it down near the North Korean city of Kaesong, a spokesperson said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"Surveillance equipment was installed" on the drone and analysis of the wreckage showed it had stored footage of the North's "important targets" including border areas, the spokesperson said.
Photos of the alleged drone released by KCNA showed the wreckage of a winged craft lying on the ground next to a collection of grey and blue components it said included cameras.
South Korea said it had no record of the flight, and Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back said the drone in the photos was "not a model operated by our military".
The office of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said a national security meeting would be held on Saturday to discuss the matter.
Located northwest of Seoul, Ganghwa County is one of the closest South Korean territories to North Korea.
KCNA also released aerial images of Kaesong that it said were taken by the drone.
They were "clear evidence" that the aircraft had "intruded into (our) airspace for the purpose of surveillance and reconnaissance", Pyongyang's military spokesperson said.
They added that the incursion was similar to one in September when the South flew drones near its border city of Paju.
Seoul would be forced to "pay a dear price for their unpardonable hysteria" if such flights continued, the spokesperson said.
South Korea is already investigating alleged drone flights over the North in late 2024 ordered by then-President Yoon Suk Yeol. Seoul's military has not confirmed those flights.
Prosecutors have indicted Yoon on charges that he acted illegally in ordering them, hoping to provoke a response from Pyongyang and use it as a pretext for his short-lived bid to impose martial law.

Cheap, commercial drone

Flight-path data showed the latest drone was flying in square patterns over Kaesong before it was shot down, KCNA said.
But experts said the cheap, commercially available model was unlikely to have come from Seoul's armed forces.
"The South Korean military already has drones capable of transmitting high-resolution live feeds," said Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
"Using an outdated drone that requires physical retrieval of a memory card, simply to film factory rooftops clearly visible on satellite imagery, does not hold up from a military planning perspective."
hs/mjw

conflict

Kyiv mayor calls for temporary evacuation over heating outages

BY DARIA ANDRIIEVSKA

  • Klitschko said the situation was "very difficult" and called on "residents of the capital who have the opportunity to temporarily leave the city for places with alternative sources of power and heat to do so".
  • Mass heating outages caused by Russian strikes on Kyiv are set to last into the weekend, as the capital's mayor called on residents to temporarily leave the city with sub-zero temperatures expected to fall even lower.
  • Klitschko said the situation was "very difficult" and called on "residents of the capital who have the opportunity to temporarily leave the city for places with alternative sources of power and heat to do so".
Mass heating outages caused by Russian strikes on Kyiv are set to last into the weekend, as the capital's mayor called on residents to temporarily leave the city with sub-zero temperatures expected to fall even lower.
A massive missile and drone attack on Kyiv killed four and ripped open apartment blocks. Moscow also fired its feared Oreshnik ballistic missile at western Ukraine, drawing condemnation from Europe.
The barrage came hours after Moscow rejected a plan by Kyiv and its Western allies to deploy peacekeeping forces to Ukraine should a ceasefire be reached.
"Moscow is trying to use cold weather as a tool of terror," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a meeting in Kyiv with British Defence Secretary John Healey.
He said 20 residential buildings in Kyiv had been damaged, including the Qatari embassy, in one of the largest attacks on the capital for months.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the raid, saying attacks on civilian infrastructure are against international law and "unacceptable, unjustifiable, and must stop immediately," according to his spokesman. 
Qatar expressed "deep regret" over the embassy hit and said that none of its staff there had been harmed.
Russia denied targeting the area around the mission and claimed it was damaged by a Ukrainian air defence missile. 

'Very difficult' situation

The Russian barrage left around half of all apartment blocks in the capital, some 6,000 buildings, without heating, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said.
Temperatures are set to fall to -15C on Saturday.
Officials said they were hopeful some heating could be restored on Friday night.
"In some areas where the damage is more complex, additional time is needed," Ukraine's Restoration Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said. 
Klitschko said the situation was "very difficult" and called on "residents of the capital who have the opportunity to temporarily leave the city for places with alternative sources of power and heat to do so".
In his regular nightly address, Zelensky urged officials not to "run away from problems, but solve them, especially when there are resources for this, as in Kyiv".
City authorities said they had set up 1,200 warming centres. 
In one of the centres, AFP saw people warming up with tea and charging devices, while parts of the city were plunged into darkness. 
Lilia came to one of the centres to warm up and do some work after spending the whole night in a bomb shelter. 
The 60-year-old school musician was soon to return to her cold home, as there was still "no electricity, no heating, nothing yet has been restored", she told AFP. 

Russia fires rarely-used missile

A medic who died at a building that was struck in a repeat attack was among the four killed, officials said. Another 26 were wounded.
Nina, 70, who lives in one of the buildings hit, told AFP she was angry that the world was talking about a possible deal to end the conflict at a time when Russia was launching such deadly barrages.
"Where is Europe, where is America? It doesn't hurt them the same way," she said.
Russia has shown no sign of slowing down its ground offensive or aerial bombardments.
Moscow's defence ministry said it had fired the Oreshnik ballistic missile on "strategic targets" -- only the second time the new weapon, which the Kremlin says is impossible to stop, is known to have been used.
Ukrainian authorities said a ballistic missile travelling "at about 13,000 kilometres (8,000 miles) per hour" had struck an "infrastructure facility" near the western city of Lviv.
Residents of Rudno, on the outskirts of Lviv, told AFP they heard explosions at night, and some reported gas outages.
"We experienced such fear and uncertainty. Because the temperature is 18-20 degrees below zero, and there is no gas here. And people have small children, families... How can they live without heating?" said Slava, a 70-year-old woman.

'Escalatory and unacceptable'

The Oreshnik is an intermediate-range ballistic missile that can be equipped with both nuclear and conventional warheads. 
France, Germany and Britain condemned Moscow's "escalatory and unacceptable" use of Oreshnik, a UK government spokeswoman said after a call between leaders of the three countries.
Across the border in Russia's Belgorod, the governor said more than half a million people were without power or heating after a Ukrainian attack targeted the region's utilities. 
Despite intense diplomatic efforts led by US President Donald Trump, a deal to end the fighting remains elusive.
Moscow baulked this week after European leaders and US envoys announced post-war guarantees for Ukraine would include a US-led monitoring mechanism and a multinational force.
Key territorial issues are also unresolved as Russia insists on getting full control of Ukraine's Donbas region, part of which is still controlled by Kyiv.
Tens of thousands have been killed since it invaded in February 2022, millions forced to flee their homes and much of eastern and southern Ukraine decimated.
bur-asy/cc

technology

Musk's Grok under fire over sexualized images despite new limits

BY ANUJ CHOPRA

  • The fabricated images still appeared to float around X -- and spread to other tech platforms -- on Friday despite the new restriction.
  • European officials and tech campaigners on Friday slammed Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok after its controversial image creation feature was restricted to paying subscribers, saying the change failed to address concerns about sexualized deepfakes.
  • The fabricated images still appeared to float around X -- and spread to other tech platforms -- on Friday despite the new restriction.
European officials and tech campaigners on Friday slammed Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok after its controversial image creation feature was restricted to paying subscribers, saying the change failed to address concerns about sexualized deepfakes.
Grok has faced global backlash after it emerged the feature allowed users to sexualize images of women and children using simple text prompts such as "put her in a bikini" or "remove her clothes."
Grok appeared to deflect the criticism with a new monetization policy, posting on the platform X late Thursday that image generation and editing were now "limited to paying subscribers," alongside a link to a premium subscription.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office joined the chorus of critics, condemning the move as an affront to victims and "not a solution."
"That simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service," a Downing Street spokesperson said.
"It's insulting the victims of misogyny and sexual violence." 
EU digital affairs spokesman Thomas Regnier said "this doesn't change our fundamental issue, paid subscription or non-paid subscription. We don't want to see such images. It's as simple as that."
"What we're asking platforms to do is to make sure that their design, that their systems do not allow the generation of such illegal content," he told reporters.
The European Commission, which acts as the EU's digital watchdog, has ordered X to retain all internal documents and data related to Grok until the end of 2026 in response to the uproar.

'Safety gaps'

Grok, developed by Musk's startup xAI and integrated into X, announced the move after Wednesday's fatal shooting in Minneapolis by an immigration agent, which triggered a wave of AI deepfakes.
Some X users used Grok to digitally undress an old photo of the victim, as well as a new photo of her body slumped over after the shooting, generating AI images showing her in a bikini.
Another woman wrongly identified as the victim was also subjected to similar manipulation.
The fabricated images still appeared to float around X -- and spread to other tech platforms -- on Friday despite the new restriction.
There was no immediate comment from X on the Minneapolis deepfakes. 
When reached by AFP for comment by email, xAI replied with a terse, automated response: "Legacy Media Lies."
"Restricting Grok's image-generation tools to paying subscribers may help limit scale and curb some misuse, but it doesn't fully address the safety gaps that allowed nonconsensual and sexualized content to emerge," said Cliff Steinhauer, from the nonprofit National Cybersecurity Alliance.
"Access restrictions alone aren't a comprehensive safeguard, as motivated bad actors may still find ways around them, and meaningful user protection ultimately needs to be grounded in how these tools are designed and governed."
France, Malaysia and India have also previously pushed back against the use of Grok to alter women and children's photos, after a flood of user complaints, announcing investigations or calling on Musk's company for swift takedowns of the explicit images.
Britain's communications regulator Ofcom announced earlier this week that it had made "urgent contact with X and xAI" over the Grok feature, warning that it could open an investigation depending on their response.
On Friday, an Ofcom spokesperson said the regulator had "received a response" and was now "undertaking an expedited assessment as a matter of urgency."
Last week, in response to a post about the explicit images, Musk said that anyone using Grok to "make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content."
But he appeared to make light of the controversy in a separate post, adding laughing emojis as he reshared to his 232 million followers on X a post featuring a toaster wrapped in a bikini. 
"Grok can put a bikini on everything," the original post said.
burs-lga-raz-ac/aha

internet

German trial starts of 'White Tiger' online predator

BY EDOUARD MERLO

  • The 21-year-old German-Iranian defendant was attacked on Thursday by other detainees shouting "White Tiger" while he was being transferred for the trial, his lawyer Christiane Yueksel told reporters outside the courtroom in Hamburg.
  • A German juvenile court started the so-called "White Tiger" trial Friday in which a man is accused of multiple sadistic online crimes including coercing a 13-year-old to take his own life.
  • The 21-year-old German-Iranian defendant was attacked on Thursday by other detainees shouting "White Tiger" while he was being transferred for the trial, his lawyer Christiane Yueksel told reporters outside the courtroom in Hamburg.
A German juvenile court started the so-called "White Tiger" trial Friday in which a man is accused of multiple sadistic online crimes including coercing a 13-year-old to take his own life.
The 21-year-old German-Iranian defendant was attacked on Thursday by other detainees shouting "White Tiger" while he was being transferred for the trial, his lawyer Christiane Yueksel told reporters outside the courtroom in Hamburg.
The defendant has been only partially identified as Shahriar J., in line with German privacy rules.
The case shines a spotlight on the dark world of sadistic online exploitation, where predators seek out vulnerable youths and manipulate them to commit acts of self-harm, violence against themselves or animals, or to kill themselves.
Shahriar J. is accused of having driven a 13-year-old transgender youth living near the US city of Seattle to suicide in January 2022, which the youth live-streamed.
The accused, a student operating from his parental home in a wealthy Hamburg suburb, allegedly used the pseudonym "White Tiger" as part of an online network of abusers known as "764".
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has labelled the group an international child exploitation enterprise and a "network of nihilistic violent extremists" and also made a number of arrests.

Grooming and coercion

Shahriar J. allegedly victimised more than 30 children in hundreds of cases from January 2021 onwards, when the suspect was 16 years old -- the reason he is being tried in a juvenile court behind closed doors.
The "764" network is named after the Texas zip code of its founder, a teenager who was arrested and jailed in 2023, news weekly Der Spiegel and other media have reported.
Users of the forum shared ultra-violent "gore" content and child sexual abuse material, as well as exchanging tips on luring victims into producing sexually explicit and degrading material and then using it to blackmail them.
Court spokeswoman Marayke Frantzen said that if found guilty Shahriar J. could face up anything from six months to 10 years in a young offenders' institution.
Other investigations against the same online network are ongoing, said Frantzen, adding that the current trial "could serve as a precedent".
Yueksel said the charges against her client were "experimental" and "not provable".
The user called "White Tiger" allegedly found vulnerable children and adolescents in online chats or gaming forums, then developed a bond to groom them.
He is accused of having encouraged them to produce pornographic content, then using that material to coerce and extort them, among other allegations.

Delayed reaction?

The suspect was arrested in a police raid on his parents' home on June 17, 2025 and he has been held in pre-trial detention since.
Authorities said at the time that they had identified eight victims aged between 11 and 15 from Britain, Canada, Germany and the United States.
Prosecutors have levelled 204 criminal charges against him, including one of murder and five of attempted murder.
The case has sparked horrified reactions and raised tough questions about whether the German authorities should have acted sooner.
Weekly newspaper Die Zeit reported that the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had alerted German authorities in 2021 to a Hamburg-based predator called "White Tiger".
Police reportedly questioned the suspect at the time, but dropped the case after he admitted to possessing pornographic material on minors.
An FBI investigator has told Der Spiegel that he had shared the identity of "White Tiger" with German law enforcement in February 2023, more than two years before the suspect's eventual arrest.
The city-state of Hamburg has blamed the time-consuming task of searching through the "large number of data storage devices" seized and the fact that the victims and other perpetrators "mostly live abroad and have sometimes concealed their identities".
The Hamburg regional court has scheduled an initial 82 days of hearings until December 17, 2026.
bur-fz/jsk/fec/jj

Grok

Grok limits AI image editing to paid users after nudes backlash

  • "That simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service," a Downing Street spokesperson said.
  • Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok has turned off its image creation feature for non-paying users following backlash over its use to create sexualized deepfakes of women and children.
  • "That simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service," a Downing Street spokesperson said.
Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok has turned off its image creation feature for non-paying users following backlash over its use to create sexualized deepfakes of women and children.
Musk has been threatened with fines, and several countries have pushed back publicly against the tool that allowed users to alter online images to remove the subjects' clothes.
Replying to users Friday on Musk's social media platform X, Grok posted: "Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers. You can subscribe to unlock these features."
The change means many of the tool's users can no longer generate or edit images using the AI. Paying customers must give the platform their credit card information and personal details.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office called the move to limit access to paying subscribers "insulting" to victims and "not a solution."
"That simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service," a Downing Street spokesperson said.
"It's insulting the victims of misogyny and sexual violence." 
The EU executive, which previously described the photos of undressed women and children as unlawful, said it had "taken note of the recent changes."
But EU digital affairs spokesman Thomas Regnier told reporters "this doesn't change our fundamental issue, paid subscription or non-paid subscription. We don't want to see such images. It's as simple as that."
"What we're asking platforms to do is to make sure that their design, that their systems do not allow the generation of such illegal content," he added.
The European Commission has ordered X to retain all internal documents and data related to Grok until the end of 2026 in response to the nudes uproar.
France, Malaysia and India have also criticized Musk's platform over the issue. 
"Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content," Musk wrote on X last week in response to a post about the explicit images.
X's official "Safety" account subsequently said it addresses illegal content on X "by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary."
bur-lga-raz/ec/rmb

lifestyle

Ex-delivery driver gives voice to China's precarious gig workers

BY ADRIEN SIMORRE

  • - 'Lack humanity' - But it was his account of working as a delivery driver in Beijing that moved readers.
  • A few years ago, Hu Anyan was speeding through the streets of Beijing on a three-wheel motorbike loaded with packages, one of millions of delivery drivers working for China's online retail giants.
  • - 'Lack humanity' - But it was his account of working as a delivery driver in Beijing that moved readers.
A few years ago, Hu Anyan was speeding through the streets of Beijing on a three-wheel motorbike loaded with packages, one of millions of delivery drivers working for China's online retail giants.
The 46-year-old is now a best-selling author after recounting his experiences in his book "I Deliver Parcels in Beijing".
Around two million copies have been sold since its release in 2023 across more than 20 countries. An English translation was released in October, with a French version due this month.
The simple autobiographical account gives a voice and face to the swarms of anonymous gig workers who weave through China's bustling cities day and night to deliver online orders, which account for a third of retail sales.
But as a delivery driver, Hu said he "always believed (he) was trash".
"It was through writing that I built recognition of my own worth," he told AFP near the flat he rents in Chengdu.
His story reflects China's evolution. His parents worked their entire lives in state-owned enterprises. He entered a much more flexible job market in 1999 after a decade of reforms following the Cultural Revolution.
"Before, technical schools guaranteed a job after graduation, but that was no longer the case for my generation," he said.
After a string of unstable jobs, Hu, like many, joined the gig economy in 2017.
He worked 12 hours a night in a huge parcel sorting centre in Guangdong, with a 30-minute break each shift and four days off per month.
"I was a walking corpse with blurred vision and a wavering consciousness," said Hu, who would drink alcohol to sleep during the day.

'Lack humanity'

But it was his account of working as a delivery driver in Beijing that moved readers.
At the time, Hu had no health insurance and no fixed salary. He calculated that at two yuan ($0.29) per delivery, he had to deliver a parcel every four minutes to earn a living. If his pace slowed, he would receive a call from from a company employee.
"She would say: 'You still have 60 parcels to deliver and you have 30 minutes left. What's going on? Do you want to continue working here or not?'" he told AFP.
"These rules lack humanity and rationality, and they oppress us every day."
Laid off after his employer went bankrupt, Hu recounted his experience on social media platform Douban "without any particular goal", while juggling odd jobs. A young publisher encouraged him to turn his posts into a book.
The voices of delivery drivers are rare in China, where the state strictly controls worker representation and public expression.
Delivery driver Chen Guojiang, who called online for workers' rights, was imprisoned for several months in 2021, according to media reports and NGOs. He has since disappeared from social media.
Hu's book passed the censors, with a few adaptations, sticking to social commentary and refraining from criticism.
But it has resonated like "very few other works" with a generation facing job insecurity and increasing competition in the labour market, said academic Huang Ke, who wrote a thesis on China's delivery drivers.

'How everyone survives'

"The number of graduates is increasing, but job opportunities are not keeping pace," he told AFP.
Following the book's release, one Douban user said he understood the irritability of some delivery drivers: "You can't expect someone to be kind and gentle when they find themselves in an environment of insecurity and exploitation."
Faced with growing social awareness, authorities have introduced measures in recent years to improve the lives of delivery drivers.
But most of China's 80 million gig workers have "no real access to labour law protections because of their ambiguous employment status," said Ou Lin, a law professor at Britain's Lancaster University.
Now financially secure, Hu is inundated with requests for proofreading and advice from aspiring writers.
"If I hadn't published this book, it's quite possible that I would still be delivering orders today," he said. "That's how everyone survives."
Hu said he would be happy if his book helped improve the situation of delivery drivers, but "from a social movement perspective, literature is not very effective".
He wants to believe that, at the very least, "customers now say thank you more" to delivery drivers.
aas/lal/dhw/cms/abs

environment

Rare gorilla twins born in conflict-hit DR Congo nature park

  • Eight other mountain gorilla births were registered in Virunga in 2025, according to park spokesman Bienvenu Bwende. mbb-cld/sbk/jhb
  • An endangered mountain gorilla has given birth to twins in the Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, whose remarkable biodiversity has long been threatened by the region's litany of conflicts.
  • Eight other mountain gorilla births were registered in Virunga in 2025, according to park spokesman Bienvenu Bwende. mbb-cld/sbk/jhb
An endangered mountain gorilla has given birth to twins in the Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, whose remarkable biodiversity has long been threatened by the region's litany of conflicts.
Fewer than one percent of mountain gorilla pregnancies result in twins, according to scientists, with the DRC recording a previous case in 2020, also in the UNESCO-listed Virunga reserve.
"The two newborns are both male," park official Methode Uhoze told AFP by phone on Thursday.
"Despite the challenges, life triumphs," the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, which manages the DRC's national parks, said on social media, posting a photo of the mother with the two minuscule babies in her arms.
According to wardens, a team of trackers spotted the twins on Saturday, with monitoring and protection measures in force to increase their chances of survival.
The Virunga park, which was inaugurated in 1925, holds the distinction of being Africa's oldest nature reserve.
Stretching across 7,800 square kilometres (around 3,000 square miles) near the borders with Rwanda and Uganda, the reserve includes territory controlled by the M23 militia.
The M23 has seized swathes of the Congolese east with Rwanda's backing, and has expanded its influence in the region in recent months.
Virunga's forests are also believed to have been used as a hideout by fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State jihadist group.
Just over 1,000 mountain gorillas are estimated to live in the wild.
According to the reserve's authorities, the Virunga park was home to 350 of the great apes in 2021.
Eight other mountain gorilla births were registered in Virunga in 2025, according to park spokesman Bienvenu Bwende.
mbb-cld/sbk/jhb

shooting

After Minneapolis shooting, AI fabrications of victim and shooter

BY BILL MCCARTHY AND ANUJ CHOPRA

  • The victim of Wednesday's shooting, identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, was hit at point-blank range as she apparently tried to drive away from masked agents who were crowding around her Honda SUV. AFP found dozens of posts across social media platforms, primarily the Elon Musk-owned X, in which users shared AI-generated images purporting to "unmask" the agent from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
  • Hours after a fatal shooting in Minneapolis by an immigration agent, AI deepfakes of the victim and the shooter flooded online platforms, underscoring the growing prevalence of what experts call "hallucinated" content after major news events.
  • The victim of Wednesday's shooting, identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, was hit at point-blank range as she apparently tried to drive away from masked agents who were crowding around her Honda SUV. AFP found dozens of posts across social media platforms, primarily the Elon Musk-owned X, in which users shared AI-generated images purporting to "unmask" the agent from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
Hours after a fatal shooting in Minneapolis by an immigration agent, AI deepfakes of the victim and the shooter flooded online platforms, underscoring the growing prevalence of what experts call "hallucinated" content after major news events.
The victim of Wednesday's shooting, identified as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, was hit at point-blank range as she apparently tried to drive away from masked agents who were crowding around her Honda SUV.
AFP found dozens of posts across social media platforms, primarily the Elon Musk-owned X, in which users shared AI-generated images purporting to "unmask" the agent from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
"We need his name," Claude Taylor, who heads the anti-Trump political action committee Mad Dog, wrote in a post on X featuring the AI images. The post racked up more than 1.3 million views.
Taylor later claimed he deleted the post after he "learned it was AI," but it was still visible to online users.
An authentic clip of the shooting, replayed by multiple media outlets, does not show any of the ICE agents with their masks off.
Many of the fabrications were created using Grok, the AI tool developed by Musk's startup xAI, which has faced heavy criticism over a new "edit" feature that has unleashed a wave of sexually explicit imagery.
Some X users used Grok to digitally undress an old photo of Good smiling, as well as a new photo of her body slumped over after the shooting, generating AI images showing her in a bikini.
Another woman wrongly identified as the victim was also subjected to similar manipulation.

 'New reality'

Another X user posted the image of a masked officer and prompted the chatbot: "Hey @grok remove this person's face mask." Grok promptly generated a hyper-realistic image of the man without a mask.
There was no immediate comment from X. When reached by AFP, xAI replied with a terse, automated response: "Legacy Media Lies."
Disinformation watchdog NewsGuard identified four AI-generated falsehoods about the shooting, which collectively amassed 4.24 million views across X, Instagram, Threads, and TikTok.
The viral fabrications illustrate a new digital reality in which self-proclaimed internet sleuths use widely available generative AI tools to create hyper-realistic visuals and then amplify them across social media platforms that have largely scaled back content moderation.
"Given the accessibility of advanced AI tools, it is now standard practice for actors on the internet to 'add to the story' of breaking news in ways that do not correspond to what is actually happening, often in politically partisan ways," Walter Scheirer, from the University of Notre Dame, told AFP.
"A new development has been the use of AI to 'fill in the blanks' of a story, for instance, the use of AI to 'reveal' the face of the ICE officer. This is hallucinated information." 
AI tools are also increasingly used to "dehumanize victims" in the aftermath of a crisis event, Scheirer said.
One AI image portrayed the woman mistaken for Good as a water fountain, with water pouring out of a hole in her neck.
Another depicted her lying on a road, her neck under the knee of a masked agent, in a scene reminiscent of the 2020 police killing of a Black man named George Floyd in Minneapolis, which sparked nationwide racial justice protests.
AI fabrications, often amplified by partisan actors, have fueled alternate realities around recent news events, including the US capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and last year's assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The AI distortions are "problematic" and are adding to the "growing pollution of our information ecosystem," Hany Farid, co-founder of GetReal Security and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, told AFP.
"I fear that this is our new reality," he added.
ac-bmc/msp

dogs

Rare genius dogs learn vocabulary by eavesdropping: study

BY MAGGY DONALDSON

  • Wynne gave the example of the dog Chaser, who had a phenomenal vocabulary of more than a 1,000 words -- and who also had a phenomenal capacity for training and play that isn't representative of the species.
  • There's a few special words that will perk the ears of many a dog -- hungry, park, and of course T-R-E-A-T. But a choice group of gifted canines appear to have remarkable capacity for learning human vocabulary, to the point that they acquire language by eavesdropping the way young toddlers do.
  • Wynne gave the example of the dog Chaser, who had a phenomenal vocabulary of more than a 1,000 words -- and who also had a phenomenal capacity for training and play that isn't representative of the species.
There's a few special words that will perk the ears of many a dog -- hungry, park, and of course T-R-E-A-T.
But a choice group of gifted canines appear to have remarkable capacity for learning human vocabulary, to the point that they acquire language by eavesdropping the way young toddlers do.
That's according to a new study published Thursday in the journal Science, which shows that some "gifted word learner" dogs already known capable of learning toy names through training and play can also pick up words simply by overhearing people speak to each other.
Cognitive researcher Shany Dror of the Veterinary University of Vienna's Clever Dog Lab has spent years running a "Genius Dog Challenge" that recruits canines who've demonstrated particular ability to learn language through social interactions.
In her research she noticed that some dogs seemed to be listening in on their owners: "They would tell me stories, like we were talking about ordering a pizza, and then the dog came into the living room with the toy named pizza," Dror told AFP.
So she and a team out of Hungary's Eotvos Lorand University set out to test whether their group of particularly intelligent dogs could create the association of a new word to a new object without being directly taught the connection.
And in a new development they found the gifted dogs could learn new toy names just as well from overheard speech as they did when directly addressed, proving it by later retrieving the toys.
These dogs are considered outliers: Dror said her team has been searching for some seven years for dogs who know toy names, and have found about 45.
Yet she said the findings offer some clues about the "complex machinery needed for social learning, to see if it exists in an animal that does not have language."
"We found that it does exist," Dror said. "This gives us a kind of hint to the fact that before humans developed language, they first had this very complex cognitive ability to learn from others."

Canine savants?

Clive Wynne, a canine behaviorist at Arizona State University, called the study "very nicely done," but cautioned that the animals studied were "deeply exceptional" and that people shouldn't expect genius qualities from their family pets.
But how do these intelligent pups become so smart?
"One obvious possibility is that these dogs are true canine savants," said Wynne. 
"But another possibility is that it's not their cognition that's exceptional, it's their motivational system -- that they have motivational systems that can be activated and yet never fill up."
Wynne gave the example of the dog Chaser, who had a phenomenal vocabulary of more than a 1,000 words -- and who also had a phenomenal capacity for training and play that isn't representative of the species.
Chaser was a Border Collie, a working dog breed Dror said is among the top dog types among gifted word learners.
But she said they have seen a "surprising" range of breeds represented including a Shih Tzu, a Pekingese, Yorkshires along with mixed breeds including a rescue.
Even though "typical" dogs aren't likely to learn from overheard speech, Dror emphasized that dogs in general still "are really good at understanding human communicative cues."
"Even if our dogs do not know the names of objects, I think we can still pay more attention to how we are conducting ourselves when we're interacting with our dogs," Drof said, "with the underlying thought that maybe our dogs are learning something from this."
mdo/ia

social

Viral 'Chinese Trump' wins laughs on both sides of Pacific

BY LUDOVIC EHRET

  • Another imperative is to "stay tuned" to news on Trump, who is "a goldmine of funny material", according to Chen, who said he also draws inspiration from American impressionists of the president.
  • Outstretching his hands in a signature Donald Trump pose, impersonator Ryan Chen mimics the US president's voice and gestures with such accuracy that he has become a social media phenomenon with his funny videos.
  • Another imperative is to "stay tuned" to news on Trump, who is "a goldmine of funny material", according to Chen, who said he also draws inspiration from American impressionists of the president.
Outstretching his hands in a signature Donald Trump pose, impersonator Ryan Chen mimics the US president's voice and gestures with such accuracy that he has become a social media phenomenon with his funny videos.
The 42-year-old from southwest China does not engage in political satire -- a minefield in the country that can lead to account suspension -- but has amassed millions of followers across Instagram, TikTok and Chinese platforms.
"Trump is an endless well that never runs dry, because he draws more online traffic than anyone else on the planet," Chen told AFP in his hometown of Chongqing that itself has gone viral over its labyrinthine cityscape and spicy food.
During his videos, which are in English with Chinese subtitles, Chen lightheartedly presents Chinese cuisine, customs, cultural differences, jokes with foreigners and dances to Village People's "YMCA", one of Trump's trademark stage songs.
And all his clips are peppered with Trump's unmistakable mannerisms and buzzwords like "tremendous" and "amazing".
"I'm not into politics, but I think he is a very good entertainer," said Chen of the American president, whom he followed when Trump hosted the reality TV show "The Apprentice".
"If I imitate him, it's not to make fun of him. It's to get attention," he told AFP in a white cowboy hat.
"With that attention, I can boost my career, as well as promote China and my hometown."

'Like a neighbour'

Chen stumbled across his online fame by chance, only taking off in 2025 with Trump's return to the White House.
The fan of "Friends" and "The Big Bang Theory" -- who had never visited the United States before this year -- started making online videos to teach English as a "back-up plan" from his job in architecture, a sector hit hard by the property crisis in China.
He had moderate success, but his videos only went viral after a friend challenged him to imitate Trump.
His appearance in April on a livestream by IShowSpeed, an American YouTuber with over 47 million subscribers who was visiting China at the time, further boosted his visibility.
Chen said Trump has become such a big part of his life he now feels a certain familiarity with him, "like a next-door neighbour". 
He sees himself as a "bridge" between international internet users eager to discover urban China, its "lively" atmosphere, and Chinese people keen to understand foreign humour and cultures.
The impersonator now has more than a million followers on Instagram, almost as many on TikTok, and more than 2.5 million on Chinese platforms, and is recognised on the streets.
Chen, who learned English by watching his favourite American series, said his secret is to sound like a "native speaker".
Another imperative is to "stay tuned" to news on Trump, who is "a goldmine of funny material", according to Chen, who said he also draws inspiration from American impressionists of the president.

'Try our hotpot'

The impersonator, whose real name is Chen Rui, said he is now able to make a living from his work through promotion, events and corporate parties.
"My main source of income is advertising," he said, with brands for cars, digital products, games or milk hiring him for their campaigns. 
In a sign his work has not upset the Trump administration, Chen announced in a video he had obtained a visa for the United States, which he is currently visiting for the first time.
And with Trump set to visit China this year, Chen called on the president to travel to Chongqing and "try our hotpot", which is famously spicy.
While a meeting between the real Trump and his Chinese impersonator would "probably be cool", Chen said he has no "burning desire" to do so because it would quickly become a diplomatic affair.
"I'm just a comedian," he said. "I have no political aspirations."
ehl/je/dhw/abs

Bondi

Australia to hold royal commission inquiry into Bondi Beach shooting

  • Royal commissions hold public hearings and can sometimes run for years.
  • Australia will hold a royal commission inquiry into the mass shooting that killed 15 people at Bondi Beach, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday, as he faced public demands for answers.
  • Royal commissions hold public hearings and can sometimes run for years.
Australia will hold a royal commission inquiry into the mass shooting that killed 15 people at Bondi Beach, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday, as he faced public demands for answers.
"I've repeatedly said that our government's priority is to promote unity and social cohesion. And this is what Australia needs to heal," he told reporters.
Sajid Akram and his son Naveed allegedly targeted Jews attending a Hannukah celebration near the beach in an ISIS-inspired attack on December 14, the nation's worst mass shooting for 30 years.
The federal royal commission -- the highest level of government inquiry -- will probe everything from intelligence failures to the prevalence of antisemitism in Australia.
Victims' families, business leaders, sports stars and eminent scientists have put their names to open letters urging a sweeping investigation into the attack.
Albanese repeatedly brushed off these demands, saying he was focused on "urgent action", but mounting public pressure led him to relent.
"What we've done is listen, and we've concluded that where we have landed today is an appropriate way forward for national unity," Albanese said.
Royal commissions hold public hearings and can sometimes run for years.
The Bondi Beach shooting inquiry will be led by Virginia Bell, a widely respected former High Court judge.
Alleged gunman Sajid Akram, 50, was shot and killed by police during the assault.
An Indian national, he entered Australia on a visa in 1998.
His 24-year-old son Naveed, an Australian-born citizen who remains in prison, has been charged with terrorism and 15 murders.
The mass shooting has sparked national soul-searching about antisemitism, anger over the failure to shield Jewish Australians from harm, and promises to stiffen gun laws.
Police and intelligence agencies are facing difficult questions about whether they could have acted earlier.
Naveed Akram was flagged by Australia's intelligence agency in 2019 but he slipped off the radar after it decided that he posed no imminent threat.
The prime minister said a review into the security services' response, which is due to report in April, will now be incorporated into the work of the royal commission.
Victims' families penned an open letter in December urging Albanese to "immediately establish a Commonwealth Royal Commission into the rapid rise of antisemitism in Australia".
"We demand answers and solutions," they wrote. 

Rising antisemitism

"We need to know why clear warning signs were ignored, how antisemitic hatred and Islamic extremism were allowed to dangerously grow unchecked, and what changes must be made to protect all Australians going forward."
The government's special envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, said anti-Jewish prejudice had been seeping through Australia for years.
"I think it's important the government has listened to all who have advocated for such a commission," she said.
"It does reflect the seriousness of the growth in antisemitism and its impact on our country and on our democracy."
The Akram duo travelled to the southern Philippines in the weeks before the shooting, fueling suspicions they may be linked to Islamist extremists in the region.
Evidence so far suggested they had acted alone, police said.
"There is no evidence to suggest these alleged offenders were part of a broader terrorist cell, or were directed by others to carry out the attack," Australian Federal Police commissioner Krissy Barrett said in December.
Australia is cracking down on gun ownership and hate speech in the wake of the attack.
The government in December announced a sweeping buyback scheme to "get guns off our streets".
It is the largest gun buyback since 1996, when Australia tightened firearms laws in the wake of a mass shooting that killed 35 people at Port Arthur.
sft/djw/fox

weightloss

Study shows how fast kilos return after ending weight-loss drugs

BY DANIEL LAWLER

  • This meant that people taking the drugs regained their weight four times faster.
  • When people stop taking the new generation of weight-loss drugs they pile back on the kilos four times faster than they would after ending diet and exercise regimes, new research found Thursday.
  • This meant that people taking the drugs regained their weight four times faster.
When people stop taking the new generation of weight-loss drugs they pile back on the kilos four times faster than they would after ending diet and exercise regimes, new research found Thursday.
But this was mostly because they lost so much weight in the first place, according to the British researchers who conducted the largest and most up-to-date review of the subject.
A new generation of appetite-suppressing, injectable drugs called GLP-1 agonists have become immensely popular in the last few years, transforming the treatment for obesity and diabetes in many countries.
They have been found to help people lose between 15-20 percent of their body weight.
"This all appears to be a good news story," said Susan Jebb, a public health nutrition scientist at Oxford university and co-author of a new BMJ study.
However, recent data has suggested that "around half of people discontinue these medications within a year," she told a press conference. 
This might be because of common side effects such as nausea or the price -- these drugs can cost over $1,000 a month in the US.
So the researchers reviewed 37 studies looking at ceasing different weight-loss drugs, finding that participants regained around 0.4 kilograms a month. 
Six of the clinical trials involved semaglutide -- the ingredient used in Novo Nordisk's brands Ozempic and Wegovy -- and tirzepatide used for Eli Lilly's Mounjaro and Zepbound.
While taking these two drugs, the trial participants lost an average of nearly 15 kilograms. 
However after stopping the medication, they regained 10 kilograms within a year, which was the longest follow-up period available for these relatively new drugs.
The researchers projected that the participants would return to their original weight in 18 months.
Measurements of heart health, including blood pressure and cholesterol levels, also returned to their original levels after 1.4 years.
People who were instead put on programmes that included diet and exercise -- but not drugs -- lost significantly less weight. However it took an average of four years for them to regain their lost kilos.
This meant that people taking the drugs regained their weight four times faster.

'Starting point, not a cure'

"Greater weight loss tends to result in faster weight regain," lead study author Sam West of Oxford University explained.
But separate analysis showed that weight gain was "consistently faster after medication, regardless of the amount of weight lost in the first place," he added.
This could be because people who have learned to eat more healthily and exercise more often continue to do so even as they regain weight. 
Jebb emphasised that GLP-1 drugs "are a really valuable tool in obesity treatment -- but obesity is a chronic relapsing condition."
"One would expect that these treatments need to be continued for life, just in the same way as blood pressure medication," Jebb said.
If this was the case, it would impact how national health systems judge whether these drugs are cost-effective, the researchers emphasised.
"This new data makes it clear they are a starting point, not a cure," said Garron Dodd, a metabolic neuroscience researcher at the University of Melbourne not involved in the study.
"Sustainable treatment will likely require combination approaches, longer-term strategies, and therapies that reshape how the brain interprets energy balance, not just how much people eat," he said.
dl/jh

film

Mourners pay tribute to Brigitte Bardot at Saint-Tropez funeral

BY FANNY CARRIER AND JEAN-FRANCOIS GUYOT WITH ADAM PLOWRIGHT IN PARIS

  • Hundreds of people, many with their pets, gathered to watch the ceremony on a giant screen in front of the yacht-filled Saint-Tropez marina, which the blonde star of "And God Created Woman" made famous. 
  • Well-wishers lined the streets in Brigitte Bardot's hometown of Saint-Tropez on Wednesday for the funeral of the French screen icon, who was buried in a seaside cemetery after dying last month of cancer.
  • Hundreds of people, many with their pets, gathered to watch the ceremony on a giant screen in front of the yacht-filled Saint-Tropez marina, which the blonde star of "And God Created Woman" made famous. 
Well-wishers lined the streets in Brigitte Bardot's hometown of Saint-Tropez on Wednesday for the funeral of the French screen icon, who was buried in a seaside cemetery after dying last month of cancer.
A day of commemorations for the renowned animal rights activist began with a Catholic service at the Notre-Dame de l'Assomption church, where her unusual wicker coffin was welcomed by her long-estranged son.
Hundreds of people, many with their pets, gathered to watch the ceremony on a giant screen in front of the yacht-filled Saint-Tropez marina, which the blonde star of "And God Created Woman" made famous. 
A white hearse then carried the reclusive legend of the late 1950s and 60s to her family's Mediterranean seaside grave, where the casket was buried in pale winter sunshine at a private ceremony.
"What I remember most is what she did for animals, she had a real sensitivity," Sandrine, a school assistant who had travelled several hours to pay her respects, told AFP.
She admitted that Bardot, who died in late December aged 91, had "a small streak of racism too, but it wasn't malicious -- she wasn't just that".
The 60-year-old from the Pyrenees mountains said she had expected a larger public turnout, suggesting some had stayed away because of criticism of Bardot's political views and convictions for inciting racial hatred.

'No frills' event

Bardot's best-known associations -- to the heyday of the New Wave French film industry, animal rights campaigning, and far-right politics -- were all represented at Friday's church service.
A host of fellow campaigners against animal cruelty and the son of late film star Jean-Paul Belmondo attended, as did French far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen.
Paul Watson, the Canadian founder of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling charity, was among the 400 invitees for what organisers promised would be a "no frills" event.  
"Brigitte was my friend for 50 years," he told AFP, adding that he had attended "to recognise her incredible contribution to protecting animals around the world, especially her work on stopping the Canadian seal hunt".
He and others filed into the church past a photo of a smiling Bardot with one of her dogs, while a well-known image of her cuddling a baby seal was placed near the pulpit and on the front of the service booklet. 
Bardot gave up her film career at the height of her fame in 1973, settling in Saint-Tropez where she campaigned vigorously against bull-fighting, hunting, seal slaughter and horsemeat consumption -- all of which were referenced on Wednesday.  
A public commemoration in a park rounded out a day of tributes and remembrance for a woman considered both a symbol of Saint-Tropez -- whose jetset image she grew to detest -- as well as the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

Cancer battle

On the eve of the commemorations, Bardot's fourth and final husband, far-fight former political adviser Bernard d'Ormale, revealed the cause of her death.
Bardot had undergone two operations for an unspecified cancer before the disease "took her", d'Ormale told the Paris Match magazine in an interview about their life together. 
D'Ormale was seated in the front row on Wednesday alongside Bardot's only child, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, who attended with his children and grandchildren. 
Charrier, 65, was brought up by his father, film director Jacques Charrier, and lives in Oslo.
Bardot had compared pregnancy to carrying a "tumour that fed on me" and called parenthood a "misery", living most of her life with no contact with her son. 
They drew closer in the final years of her life and he laid a wreath with a simple message -- "To Mother" -- and sobbed during Wednesday's service.

Divisive

The lack of a state commemoration for Bardot, one of France's best-known celebrities, as well as the mixed public reaction to her death, reflect her divisive character and much-debated legacy.
Most observers agree that she was a cinema legend who came to embody the swinging '60s in France and a form of women's emancipation through her acting and daring, unconventional persona.
But after she was convicted five times for racist hate speech, particularly against Muslims, left-wing figures have offered only muted tributes -- and sometimes none at all.
President Emmanuel Macron's office offered to organise a national homage similar to one staged for fellow New Wave hero Belmondo in 2021, but the idea was snubbed by Bardot's family.
Macron did not attend on Wednesday but sent a wreath.
fcc-jfg-adp/sbk

science

Overseas scholars drawn to China's scientific clout, funding

BY JING XUAN TENG

  • Four of the top five leading research institutions in natural and health sciences in 2025 were Chinese, according to an index by the journal Nature. 
  • China's government has long made efforts to tempt top scientists from abroad, but researchers say its institutions themselves are increasingly attracting talent thanks to their generous funding and growing prestige.
  • Four of the top five leading research institutions in natural and health sciences in 2025 were Chinese, according to an index by the journal Nature. 
China's government has long made efforts to tempt top scientists from abroad, but researchers say its institutions themselves are increasingly attracting talent thanks to their generous funding and growing prestige.
State-backed initiatives like the Thousand Talents Plan have dangled fast-tracked hiring and bountiful grants to lure overseas experts in strategically important fields, as China and the United States vie for technological supremacy.
But academics told AFP the country is becoming a popular destination even among those not targeted by Beijing, especially at the start of their careers.
"You hear about these amazing advanced labs and the government providing money for things like AI and quantum research," said Mejed Jebali, an artificial intelligence PhD candidate from Tunisia at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
"The scale of the research and how fast things get built is really amazing."
China's official enticements have typically targeted eminent researchers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields that could help Beijing achieve its goal of becoming the global leader in technology and innovation.
There is no official database of foreign or returnee scientists moving to China, but at least 20 prominent STEM experts have done so in the past year, according to university and personal announcements reviewed by AFP.
They included cancer expert Feng Gensheng, who left a tenured University of California role for Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, and German medical scientist Roland Eils, now part-time at Shanghai's Fudan University.
"It appears that a significantly greater number of overseas scientists -- particularly those of Chinese origin -- have returned to work in China compared with around 10 years ago," said Futao Huang, a professor at Japan's Hiroshima University.

More funding, resources, support

Academics cited access to rapidly developing industries in China's massive market as a draw.
Lingling Zhang, who joined the China Europe International Business School after two decades in the United States, told AFP she was drawn to more "pragmatic" research.
She said career considerations drove her decision more than the specific prospect of moving back to China.
"I actually have great access to a large number of entrepreneurs and business people," she said.
The pace of industrial development means more opportunities for "academically grounded but application-oriented research", said a materials scientist who moved to China from a European university, who asked to remain anonymous. 
"The quality of papers produced by top Chinese institutions today is in no way inferior to that of leading US or European universities, and in some areas is highly competitive or even leading," he said.
China's reputation for academic prowess in many fields has become undeniable. Four of the top five leading research institutions in natural and health sciences in 2025 were Chinese, according to an index by the journal Nature. 
That is a change from the past, when US and European institutions held sway.
"I wouldn't have done it 15 years ago," said Jason Chapman, a world expert on insect migration, on his recent long-term secondment to Nanjing Agricultural University. 
But in the last five years, "the funding, resources and support" available -- far more than overseas -- changed the calculus.

Cultural divide

For academics of Chinese descent working in the United States, there are push factors, Hiroshima University's Huang said.
"The tightening of research security regulations, visa scrutiny, and political sensitivities in the United States has created uncertainty."
A 2023 study found that following a 2018 Trump administration policy to investigate potential Chinese spies in research, departures of China-born, US-based scientists increased by 75 percent.
But challenges remain for those who relocate to China.
Huang pointed to concerns over academic freedom and autonomy, and "geopolitical uncertainties that influence international perception and mobility decisions".
China tightly controls the flow of sensitive information -- for example, a European natural scientist told AFP he could not collaborate with Chinese institutes linked with military research due to the potential political sensitivity.
Markku Larjavaara, a Finnish forestry expert who until recently worked at Peking University, said he did not feel that censorship was a major issue in his field.
But he grew uncomfortable with Beijing's political climate after Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, due to China's close relationship with Moscow.
Interviewees also described having to overcome cultural differences.
The materials scientist said it took time to adjust to a Chinese academic environment that emphasised personal relationships and social interaction, compared to a Western environment "where processes tend to be more impersonal and rule-based".
Still, "for young faculty who are motivated to build a research programme and make tangible progress, returning (or moving) to China is a very reasonable -- and in many cases attractive -- option", he said.
tjx/reb/je/ceg/mjw

immigration

Vietnamese caught in Japan's illegal worker crackdown

BY TOMOHIRO OSAKI

  • He considers his internship a success, despite his "extremely dirty" task of sandblasting rust off ships, a job he says few Japanese on site were saddled with.
  • For a decade, Vietnamese worker Minh did tough jobs like sandblasting ships and welding steel, helping address rapidly ageing Japan's dire labour needs.
  • He considers his internship a success, despite his "extremely dirty" task of sandblasting rust off ships, a job he says few Japanese on site were saddled with.
For a decade, Vietnamese worker Minh did tough jobs like sandblasting ships and welding steel, helping address rapidly ageing Japan's dire labour needs.
But now, having overstayed his visa, he is in the crosshairs of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's promised crackdown on illegal workers.
Minh, a pseudonym used to protect his identity, came to Japan in 2015 under its Technical Intern Training Program (TITP), which is billed as a way for foreign workers to learn skills to take back to developing countries.
But critics say it also helps Japan get cheap workers who are vulnerable to debt and exploitation, with some of them deserting their jobs and falling into crime.
"A lot of Japanese people look only at the surface -- that foreigners committed crimes," Minh, a former TITP intern living near Tokyo, told AFP.
"They don't think about the root cause of it: how and why these foreigners got to that point."
Of the roughly 450,000 technical interns in Japan as of June, just under half were from Vietnam and worked across agriculture, construction and food processing.
Many arrive heavily indebted with recruitment and brokerage fees -- including Minh, who intended to work to pay off the $7,500 he owed and send money to his family.
But with opportunities scarce back home at the end of his three years, finding a welding job as an undocumented labourer proved much simpler.
"Without foreign workers like us, there is no way Japan's economy can function," the 30-year-old said.

'Extremely dirty'

Immigration levels in Japan remain low compared with other rich economies.
But with an ageing population, one of the world's lowest birth rates and labour shortages across industries, the number of foreign workers has hit record levels.
That, along with dwindling salaries in real terms
and higher living costs, has seen resentment towards foreign workers swell.
"Anger at (Japanese people's) own financial struggles is taken out on foreigners," Jiho Yoshimizu, head of a Tokyo-based non-profit supporting Vietnamese nationals, told AFP.
Since taking office, Takaichi has vowed action, promising a policy package later this month that will reportedly include stricter visa management.
The proportion of crimes committed by non-Japanese is low; 5.5 percent of the roughly 190,000 people arrested in 2024 for penal code offences were foreigners, according to police.
Separate police data shows that among foreigners arrested in 2024 -- excluding those with permanent residency and others -- Vietnamese topped the list at over 30 percent, including for theft.  
The figures are partly explained by surging numbers of Vietnamese -- up ninefold from a decade ago -- who now make up a quarter of Japan's 2.3-million-strong foreign workforce and are the biggest contingent.
Overstaying his visa aside, Minh says he has never been involved in crime.
He considers his internship a success, despite his "extremely dirty" task of sandblasting rust off ships, a job he says few Japanese on site were saddled with.
Yoshimizu said that "some technical interns are stuck in conditions that they just have to flee".
Though most employers are conscientious, common complaints include low wages, sub-par housing and sexual harassment, she added.
Under the rules of the scheme, interns are usually forced to stay with their employers, even if they are unhappy. 
Japan's immigration agency says around 6,500 trainees disappeared from their workplaces last year.

Prejudice

Absconders may turn to Facebook communities dubbed "Bodoi" -- a vernacular term for "soldiers" -- to look for black marketjobs, or sometimes they are illegally hired through brokers by labour-hungry businesses, Yoshimizu said. 
"Those who find these unofficial gigs can get by, but those who don't can be driven into committing crimes like selling drugs," she added.   
The government plans to transition TITP into a new system in 2027, with more flexibility for job transfers but imposing stricter requirements on Japanese language skills.
Still, it remains unclear whether the programme will continue to attract high-quality candidates.
The yen's weakness has devalued remittances sent home and there is increasing competition from labour markets such as South Korea, denting Japan's reputation among Vietnamese, immigration expert Jotaro Kato told AFP.
Japan's programme is increasingly reliant on Vietnamese applicants "with less motivation and educational qualifications than before", the Meiji Gakuin University associate professor said.
Vietnamese nun Thich Tam Tri -- whose temple north of Tokyo offers shelter to her compatriots in trouble -- said some interns make poor choices, falling into debt through gambling or ill-advised ventures into Bitcoin.
But "technical interns contribute greatly to Japanese society", she said.
It "pains me to see how one bad headline can easily prejudice Japanese people against them". 
In July, a Vietnamese trainee was arrested for robbing and murdering a Japanese woman in her 40s.
"That's why we have to do as many good deeds as possible to normalise this image of us, and regain the trust of Japanese people." 
tmo/aph/ane/stu/dan/cms

leisure

Nostalgia and new fans as Tamagotchi turns 30

BY KATIE FORSTER

  • The digital pets, which need attending to when they are hungry, sick or have defecated on the virtual floor, grow up as users care for them -- but can die if they are neglected.
  • Japan's Tamagotchi toys were a 1990s playground craze and the virtual pets that demand food and attention are still a hit among retro-loving Gen Z and nostalgic parents.
  • The digital pets, which need attending to when they are hungry, sick or have defecated on the virtual floor, grow up as users care for them -- but can die if they are neglected.
Japan's Tamagotchi toys were a 1990s playground craze and the virtual pets that demand food and attention are still a hit among retro-loving Gen Z and nostalgic parents.
More than 100 million of the pocket-sized plastic eggs have been sold worldwide since their debut, manufacturer Bandai Namco says.
The company is showing off the Tamagotchi's evolution from bouncing black-and-white pixelated characters to colour screens and wifi connectivity at a special 30th anniversary exhibition that opens in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Swinging from keychains, the Tamagotchi -- whose name is a portmanteau of the Japanese words for "egg" and "watch" -- has become a popular fashion accessory among young people in recent years, according to Bandai.
Sales of Tamagotchi merchandise, not including video games, rose around sevenfold in five years from 2019, it says.
Rafaela Miranda Freire, a 15-year-old Brazilian tourist visiting Tokyo's Harajuku shopping district with her mother, told AFP she didn't own a Tamagotchi but liked the idea.
"It's really nostalgic and cute. Like some 2000s cute aesthetic," she said, admitting that some people her age "just don't like it or think it's childish".
But old-school toys can be a healthy alternative to social media, Freire said.
"It's good. You just get off the phone and appreciate the small things in life."

Top toy

Last year British retailer Hamleys ranked the Tamagotchi in its list of the top 100 toys of all time, alongside the likes of Lego and the Rubik's Cube.
The digital pets, which need attending to when they are hungry, sick or have defecated on the virtual floor, grow up as users care for them -- but can die if they are neglected.
Entering the exhibition through a giant white egg, visitors can view various photo-friendly displays and a history room where they can play with some of the dozens of different models released over the years.
Nearly half of all Tamagotchi unit sales were in Japan, with 33 percent in the Americas but just two percent in other Asia-Pacific countries, Bandai Namco says.
Harajuku shopper Yumeho Akita, 25, told AFP she had good memories of raising her Tamagotchi for several months during her childhood.
"I really wanted one, and I finally got one, so I cherished it and raised the character very carefully," she recalled.
And some parents say they want their children to experience the same.
US screenwriter Justin Piasecki, on holiday in Japan, told AFP he had recently bought Tamagotchis for Christmas for his two daughters, aged four and six.
"They basically have a computer science degree in Tamagotchi at this point," the 41-year-old told AFP. "I thought I would need to show them how to do it, but now they're showing me."
kaf-tmo/aph/cms

AI

From music to mind reading: AI startups bet on earbuds

BY THOMAS URBAIN

  • That's the opportunity for our earbuds," explained Shawn Ma, CEO of Viaim, whose devices are compatible with all brands, including iPhones in China.
  • AI companies are on the hunt to design the ideal device to deliver AI's superpowers, and some new enterprises are convinced that headphones or earbuds are the way.
  • That's the opportunity for our earbuds," explained Shawn Ma, CEO of Viaim, whose devices are compatible with all brands, including iPhones in China.
AI companies are on the hunt to design the ideal device to deliver AI's superpowers, and some new enterprises are convinced that headphones or earbuds are the way.
Startups have for a while tried to beef up headphones beyond their basic functions, like listening to music and making phone calls.
Nearly a decade ago, tech startups Waverly Labs and Mymanu added real-time translation to that list, and Google quickly followed suit, creating a voice-activated AI assistant in 2020.
Riding the AI wave, other tech industry leaders Samsung and Apple have also entered the fray, with noise cancellation now almost a product standard.
Startups, many of which are attending this week's CES consumer electronics extravaganza in Las Vegas, are now trying to refine this technology and apply it to specific uses.
Such is the case with OSO, which wants to take the concept of a professional assistant further.
Its earbuds will record meetings and retrieve conversation elements on demand using everyday language.
Viaim, a competitor, offers similar services and intends to focus on interoperability in a world controlled by major smartphone manufacturers that impose their own platforms.
"If you use a different brand of cell phone, it doesn't have any AI functions at all. That's the opportunity for our earbuds," explained Shawn Ma, CEO of Viaim, whose devices are compatible with all brands, including iPhones in China.
Timekettle, meanwhile, is enjoying success in a completely different context, with "90 percent of its sales coming from schools," according to Brian Shircliffe, head of US sales for the Chinese company.
Many schools equip their non-English-speaking students with the devices so they can follow lessons without the need for a translator.

Reading minds

As for whether earbuds can replace smart glasses, connected speakers, or even smartphones as the dominant physical extension of generative AI, remains unanswered.
For now, any AI functionality "is really dependent on the phone that it's connected to," said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight.
"Earbuds are certainly a more accessible entry for AI than smart glasses," said Avi Greengart, president of Techsponential, a consultancy.
"They're a lot less expensive, they're a product most smartphone users are buying anyway, and they don't require a prescription."
However, "people generally don't wear them all the time," unlike glasses, "and they can only interact with voice, so you'll need to be in an environment where talking is acceptable," the analyst cautioned, adding that the lack of a camera limits the device's potential.
Some won't be constrained by the shortcoming, notably Naqi Logix, whose Neural Earbuds are equipped with ultra-sensitive sensors that detect tiny movements.
Thanks to these sensors, a quadriplegic user can control their wheelchair or surf the internet simply by looking at their computer screen.
Operations manager Sandeep Arya sees great potential for these innovations, "because people would like to be able to interact with their environment in a more discreet, subtle way," without having to call out to Siri on their smartphone, Alexa on their speaker, or Meta on their glasses.
Arya envisions the technology going further, thanks to improved sensors capable of deciphering facial movements that a chatbot can use to find the right tone and words according to mood.
Neurable, another startup whose MW75 Neuro LT headset measures brain activity, dreams of using its equipment to enable communication through thought, without gestures or words.
"It's remarkable," says Ben Wood of these breakthroughs, "but it's still a niche market for now." 
Until further notice, "the hundreds of millions of headphones that have been sold will remain focused on listening."
tu/arp/jgc

winter

Six dead in weather accidents as cold snap grips Europe

  • In Britain, temperatures plunged to -12.5C overnight Monday-Tuesday in Norfolk, eastern England, while temperatures below -10C across the Netherlands brought trains to a standstill on Tuesday morning. 
  • Freezing temperatures plunged swathes of Europe into a second day of travel chaos on Tuesday, with six people dying in weather-related accidents during the continent's bitterest cold snap this winter so far. 
  • In Britain, temperatures plunged to -12.5C overnight Monday-Tuesday in Norfolk, eastern England, while temperatures below -10C across the Netherlands brought trains to a standstill on Tuesday morning. 
Freezing temperatures plunged swathes of Europe into a second day of travel chaos on Tuesday, with six people dying in weather-related accidents during the continent's bitterest cold snap this winter so far. 
Since the mercury dropped on Monday, five people have died in France and one woman in Bosnia as heavy snow and rain sparked floods and power outages across the Balkans. 
Paris's two main airports, Roissy-Charles de Gaulle and Orly, were to cancel many flights early Wednesday to allow ground crews to clear snow from runways and de-ice planes.
Forty percent of morning flights at Charles de Gaulle were to be scrapped, and 25 percent at Orly.
In Britain, temperatures plunged to -12.5C overnight Monday-Tuesday in Norfolk, eastern England, while temperatures below -10C across the Netherlands brought trains to a standstill on Tuesday morning. 
"Last night was the coldest night of the winter so far," Britain's Met Office said, with nearly all of the United Kingdom on alert for snow and ice and more snowfall expected. 
With the chill making roads perilous, three people died in accidents linked to black ice in southwestern France on Monday morning, authorities said, while a taxi driver died in hospital on Monday night after his vehicle veered off the road and plunged into the Marne river in the Paris region.
His passenger was still being treated for hypothermia, according to a police source. Another driver died east of Paris on Monday after colliding with a heavy goods vehicle.
Melanie Coligneaux, a pastry chef, said that she left her home in Beny-Bocage in northwestern France at 5:00 am (0400 GMT) to avoid the worst of the snow-day traffic. 
"The roads are bad, so we don't want to damage the car or even have an accident," the 30-year-old told AFP. 
Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, the Netherlands' main flight hub, meanwhile saw a second day of weather-driven cancellations Tuesday, with at least 600 flights grounded and travellers facing huge queues at the airline counters.
Dutch airline KLM, which is responsible for removing ice from most aircraft at Schiphol, warned that it had nearly run out of de-icing fluid, blaming the "extreme" weather conditions and supply delays. 
Trains from the Dutch national railway operator NS only began rolling again after 10:00 am (0900 GMT), with services limited afterwards. 
But planes got off the ground again from Liverpool in northwest England and Aberdeen in northeast Scotland, after the cold had forced both airports to close on Monday. 

'Like climbing Mont Blanc'

After nearly 40 centimetres (16 inches) fell in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo at the weekend, a woman died in hospital after being hit by a tree that collapsed under the weight of the snow on Monday, according to the police.
Dozens of villages across neighbouring Serbia were left without power in the wake of the snowfall, while downpours caused several rivers to overflow in Bosnia and forced the evacuation of dozens of homes in Albania.
More than 300 schools were shut in Scotland Tuesday, the national BBC broadcaster reported, with Scottish train services also severely disrupted. 
"Tuesday will bring more severe snow and ice to the north of Scotland -- and with it, continued travel disruption and risks to people and communities," Scottish transport minister Fiona Hyslop warned late on Monday.
Christopher Sallent, a resident of Saint-Jean-des-Essartiers in France's Normandy, said his children also had to stay at home as the school buses were not running.
"It's difficult, we have to adapt. When will the school buses start running again? We don't know... We have to keep them at home and keep them occupied," the 33-year-old told AFPTV.
Several smaller French airports were closed on Tuesday, according to the transport ministry.
In the French capital, Monday's snowfall had settled overnight across much of Paris's pavements, with pedestrians forced to navigate treacherously icy streets. 
Tour guide Valeria Pitchouguina said the sight of Paris snowed under was "truly extraordinary", but the ice was complicating efforts to shepherd her groups up the steep steps to the picture-postcard district of Montmartre. 
"When it's like that and snowy and icy, it's something else, it's less like climbing Montmartre and more like climbing Mont Blanc," Pitchouguina told AFPTV. 
Hungary meanwhile also braced for a second day of fresh snowfall Tuesday, with some roads and railways already impassable, especially in the northeast.
Construction and Transport Minister Janos Lazar urged Hungarians to only head out "if absolutely necessary".
burs-ljv-sbk/yad

Tarr

Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr dies aged 70

BY ANDRAS ROSTOVANYI

  • He started filmmaking as an amateur at the age of 16 with a camera his father gifted to him.
  • Legendary Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr, known for his long takes, monochromatic movies and depictions of desolate landscapes on the silver screen, died on Tuesday at the age of 70.
  • He started filmmaking as an amateur at the age of 16 with a camera his father gifted to him.
Legendary Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr, known for his long takes, monochromatic movies and depictions of desolate landscapes on the silver screen, died on Tuesday at the age of 70.
Hungary's national news agency MTI reported his death citing a statement director Bence Fliegauf made on behalf of the family.
"It is with deep sorrow that we announce that film director Bela Tarr passed away early this morning after a long and serious illness" local news site Telex quoted the statement as saying.
Tarr was best known for the movie "Satantango” (1994), a seven-hour epic about the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and its material and spiritual decline.
It was adopted from one of Nobel laureate writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai's best known novels, with whom he frequently collaborated.
Tarr "created colours by making them disappear, because in his great films he tried to speak as the sinner who nevertheless, with all his sins, must still be loved" Krasznahorkai said last year in a speech after receiving his Nobel prize. 
- 'Done everything' - 
Bela Tarr was born in the southern Hungarian university town of Pecs in 1955.
He started filmmaking as an amateur at the age of 16 with a camera his father gifted to him.
Tarr then joined Hungary's leading experimental film studio Bela Balazs Studio, which enabled him to make his first feature film, "Family Nest", in 1977. 
He made the first Hungarian independent feature film, "Damnation", which was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1988.
The film was co-written Krasznahorkai, marking the start of their long collaboration and friendship.
Tarr, who was often called "the Hungarian Tarkovsky", also directed a version of "Macbeth" in 1982, "Werckmeister Harmonies" in 2000, and "The Man from London" in 2007.
After completing his last feature film, "The Turin Horse" in 2011, Tarr announced his retirement, although he still did two short movies, in 2017 and 2019.
In recent years, Tarr devoted himself to educating a new generation of directors, teaching at multiple film academies in Hungary, Germany and France.
"I had done everything I wanted to" he told Hungarian weekly HVG in a 2019 interview. 
A passionate smoker, Tarr jokingly speculated in the interview whether the Hungarian state or a cigarette making company would pay for his funeral.
His last public appearance was smoking in a music video released last November.

The 'freest man'

Tarr was a well-known critic of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, calling the nationalist leader the "shame of Hungary" in a 2016 interview. He also criticised US President Donald Trump and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the same piece.
Last year, he read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the opening of LGBTQ Pride month in Budapest, following Orban's efforts to ban the Pride march in the name of "child protection".
Budapest mayor Gergely Karacsony paid tribute to Tarr in a Facebook post.
"The freest man I know died" he said, hailing the late director for his love of human dignity and focusing on what was essential.
"Thank you for everything, and all the best in the hereafter," he added.
ros/rmb