diplomacy

Britain's Starmer hails 'good progress' after meeting China's Xi

BY ISABEL KUA AND MARIE HEUCLIN

  • "We did have a respectful discussion about that," Starmer said, adding that he and Chinese leaders also talked about the treatment of Uyghurs.
  • Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer hailed "really good progress" on issues including visa-free travel and tariffs during talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday.
  • "We did have a respectful discussion about that," Starmer said, adding that he and Chinese leaders also talked about the treatment of Uyghurs.
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer hailed "really good progress" on issues including visa-free travel and tariffs during talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday.
Starmer's visit to China is the first by a British premier since 2018 and follows a slew of Western leaders seeking a rapprochement with Beijing recently, pivoting from an increasingly unpredictable United States.
Xi and Starmer met at the opulent Great Hall of the People and both stressed the need for closer relations in order to face geopolitical headwinds.
Starmer told Xi that China is a "vital player on the global stage" and that they needed to "build a more sophisticated relationship where we identify opportunities to collaborate".
The Chinese leader also stressed the need for stronger ties with a "long-term view" in the context of what he called a "complex" international situation.
Cooperation, he said, would unlock a "new chapter" in their relations.
Starmer, who is in China until Saturday, later told reporters that the bilateral relationship was in "a strong place", with progress made on issues such as whisky tariffs.
He signed a series of cooperation agreements after meeting Premier Li Qiang, with Downing Street announcing Beijing had agreed to visa-free travel for British passport holders visiting China for under 30 days.
That brings Britain in line with about 50 other countries allowed visa-free access, including France, Germany, Australia and Japan, and follows a similar agreement made between China and Canada this month.
The agreements also included cooperation on targeting supply chains used by migrant smugglers, as well as on British exports to China, health and strengthening a UK-China trade commission.
The issue of irregular migrants is highly sensitive for Starmer, who has promised to crack down on people smugglers and stem a wave of arrivals that has fuelled rising support for the far right.
Li hinted that "China and the UK can restart their golden era", enjoyed by the two countries a decade ago.
"China and the UK have successively resumed dialogue and exchanges in multiple fields... This fully demonstrates that China and the UK are adhering to development and cooperation," Li told Starmer.
The British leader in turn reiterated his commitment to "find ways to work together in a manner which is fit for these times".
Starmer will also travel to economic powerhouse Shanghai on Friday before making a brief stop in Japan to meet Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

Economic cooperation

Beijingers told AFP that Starmer's trip, as well as recent visits by other Western leaders, showed increased desire for economic cooperation with China.
Resident Xie Yu, who lived in London as a graduate student, said European economies have been hit hard by Trump's tariffs and were "struggling".
Xie said he hoped more Chinese would have the chance to study abroad as he did.
"Exchanges between young people can help be a foundation for overall ties between the two countries in the future."
Relations between China and the UK deteriorated from 2020 when Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong and cracked down on pro-democracy activists in the former British colony.
Nevertheless, China -- the world's second-largest economy -- remains Britain's third-largest trading partner.
Starmer is accompanied by around 60 business leaders as well as cultural representatives, as his centre-left Labour government looks to fulfil its primary goal of boosting UK economic growth.
British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced during the visit it would invest $15 billion in China through 2030.
"China... has become a critical contributor to scientific innovation, advanced manufacturing, and global public health," AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot said in a statement.

Thorny issues

Challenges to the bilateral relationship remain.
Starmer told reporters that he had also discussed with Xi the case of Hong Kong pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai, 78, who is facing years in prison after being found guilty of collusion charges in December.
"We did have a respectful discussion about that," Starmer said, adding that he and Chinese leaders also talked about the treatment of Uyghurs.
Beijing has been accused of detaining more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims since 2017.
Alleged spying and cyber attacks, and China's perceived support for Russia's war in Ukraine, have also strained ties.
The visit by Starmer, who took the helm in 2024, follows finance minister Rachel Reeves's trip to Beijing last year.
Starmer's trip comes as Britain faces a rift with its closest ally, the United States, following Trump's bid to seize Greenland and his brief threat of tariffs against Britain and other NATO allies.
mya-isk/dhw/pbt/ane

tourism

US scrutiny of visitors' social media could hammer tourism: trade group

  • Under the new rules, the collection of social media data including use history from the past five years would become a "mandatory" part of ESTA applications.
  • A US plan to step up scrutiny of foreign visitors' social media use threatens to cut tourist spending by up to $15.7 billion this year as people decide to stay away, an industry group said Thursday.
  • Under the new rules, the collection of social media data including use history from the past five years would become a "mandatory" part of ESTA applications.
A US plan to step up scrutiny of foreign visitors' social media use threatens to cut tourist spending by up to $15.7 billion this year as people decide to stay away, an industry group said Thursday.
A survey of potential travellers to the United States from visa-exempt countries found that 34 percent said they were "somewhat or much less likely to visit the US in the next two to three years" if the policy goes into effect, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
It estimated that could lead to 4.7 million fewer international arrivals this year, a 24 percent drop from average levels, and potentially reduce US tourism sector jobs by 157,000.
The US proposal laid out in December would apply to visitors from 42 countries, including Britain, France, Australia and Japan, who do not need a visa to enter the United States.
Currently, those travellers need apply only for a waiver known as the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).
Under the new rules, the collection of social media data including use history from the past five years would become a "mandatory" part of ESTA applications.
Applicants would also have to complete other "high-value data fields" including phone numbers from the last five years, email addresses from the past decade, personal details of family members and biometric information.
The WTTC, made up of leading travel firms, said most respondents in its survey said the proposed requirements "would make the US feel less welcoming and less attractive for both leisure and business travel".
"Security at the US border is vital but the planned policy changes will damage job creation," the council's president Gloria Guevara said in a statement.
It had already warned last May that an immigration crackdown by US President Donald Trump's administration, with masked agents fanning out across cities in controversial patrols, could result in a loss of $12.5 billion in foreign tourism revenue in 2025.
In 2024, the tourism sector contributed $2.6 trillion to the US economy and supported more than 20 million jobs. It also generated over $585 billion in tax revenues, or almost seven percent of the total.
kap/js/yad

fashion

Phan Huy: the fashion prodigy putting Vietnam on the map

BY ADAM PLOWRIGHT

  • The last Phan Huy collection, which was shown off-calendar in Paris last July, included references to everyday rural Vietnamese life from fans, fishing nets, straw bundles to banana leaves.
  • Phan Huy has had a thrilling -- but quite stressful -- journey to making history at Paris Haute Couture Week on Thursday where he will become the youngest and the first Vietnamese designer to present a collection on the official calendar. 
  • The last Phan Huy collection, which was shown off-calendar in Paris last July, included references to everyday rural Vietnamese life from fans, fishing nets, straw bundles to banana leaves.
Phan Huy has had a thrilling -- but quite stressful -- journey to making history at Paris Haute Couture Week on Thursday where he will become the youngest and the first Vietnamese designer to present a collection on the official calendar. 
The early part of his week was spent anxiously waiting for his designs to arrive in France from Vietnam after they were held up in customs.
"I was very nervous," the soft-spoken 27-year-old told AFP on Tuesday just hours after his elaborate hand-made dresses were finally released, meaning he could begin fitting the models.
"We had a paperwork issue," his co-founder and brand chief executive Steven Doan, 40, explained. 
The delays have complicated an already daunting task for the duo who have been catapulted into Paris Haute Couture Week and the fashion stratosphere, which some designers spend a lifetime hoping to enter.
They created the label less than three years ago, but have been fast-tracked into a field that includes corporate giants like Chanel, Dior or Armani, which have billions in annual sales.
Phan and Doan have more limited resources and prepared to unveil their designs on Thursday at 1230 GMT in a cramped basement apartment in western Paris.
"The first collection completely sold out and from that we reinvested," Doan explained. "We were very lucky that we've received a lot of orders from customers around the world, not just in Vietnam."

'A dream'

The origins of the brand go back to Phan's final collection at the Ho Chi Minh City University which became a viral sensation, drawing attention from local celebrities including singers My Tam and Ho Ngoc Ha.
"It was a dream because I was a young student," said Phan, who only turned 27 this week.
Doan, a former model and a stylist in London, also reached out from his then-home in the British capital to suggest they work together.
"I was really struck by Huy's talent. In Vietnam there's a level of designing that is very similar and then when you see a different collection, it really stands out," Doan said. 
While he grew up in the coastal city of Nha Trang, Phan hails from a village in the central Quang Tri province.
Phan credits his first interest in fabrics to his parents' curtain shop, where material was always abundant.
He would transform some of it into doll dresses.
"I was into fashion and clothing when I was six years old. I was always very picky with my own outfits," he explained.

'Fashion as well'

The invitation to Paris Haute Couture Week came from France's FHCM fashion federation, which is the guardian of the country's highly protected Fashion Weeks and a key tastemaker.
Alongside the permanent French couture houses, the federation invites guest designers from around the world who have both the skill and commitment to handmade craft that form the basis of the business.
Phan Huy will take his place alongside other designers such as Rami Al Ali from Syria, Imane Ayissi from Cameroon and Hong Kong-born Robert Wun who have brought diversity and freshness to the programme. 
"I'm very happy and very proud because I can represent and bring the culture and creativity of Vietnam to the world," Phan said.
Doan stressed that their home country is known as a global manufacturing hub that produces mass-market clothes for Western brands.
"We want to prove that we can do fashion as well," he said.
The last Phan Huy collection, which was shown off-calendar in Paris last July, included references to everyday rural Vietnamese life from fans, fishing nets, straw bundles to banana leaves.
This upcoming Spring/Summer 2026 season has been inspired by Vietnam's former ruling Nguyen dynasty, notably Emperor Khai Dinh and the last empress consort, Nam Phuong, who both lived under colonial French rule.
"I want to be inspired by people like Empress consort Nam Phuong, King Khai Dinh, with their fashion style and the interaction between the West and the East," explained Phan.
adp/rh/ceg/jm

disabled

Chinese quadriplegic runs farm with just one finger

BY LUDOVIC EHRET

  • "To click, I use a flex sensor attached to my toe," said Li from his home in Shiping village, near the southwestern city of Chongqing.
  • Quadriplegic and bedridden in a prefabricated home, 36-year-old Li Xia can only move one finger and one toe -- yet he runs a high-tech farm in southwestern China using sensors, cameras and a computer.
  • "To click, I use a flex sensor attached to my toe," said Li from his home in Shiping village, near the southwestern city of Chongqing.
Quadriplegic and bedridden in a prefabricated home, 36-year-old Li Xia can only move one finger and one toe -- yet he runs a high-tech farm in southwestern China using sensors, cameras and a computer.
Li, who suffers from a genetic degenerative condition that progressively weakens muscles, relies on a ventilator permanently connected to his windpipe to breathe, but grows celery with the help of his 62-year-old mother.
From his bed, he operates four greenhouses that lie 10 metres (33 feet) away via a programme he created and a computer screen hanging above him on an adjustable arm.
"Through this microcomputer and the programme I developed, and a mobile app, I can monitor various data points from the farm, such as temperature, humidity, nutrient solution concentration, and pH levels," Li told AFP.
"With the cameras, I can see if the water pump is working or if the fans are running."
With the one finger he is able to move, he controls the on-screen cursor using a trackball.
"To click, I use a flex sensor attached to my toe," said Li from his home in Shiping village, near the southwestern city of Chongqing.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), which he suffers from, is an incurable genetic disease that affects almost exclusively males, at a rate of one in 5,000 births.
Over the years, it causes muscles to weaken, increasing the risk of falls, before paralysis sets in, affecting cardiac activity and breathing.
Until the early 2000s, boys with the condition rarely lived beyond their teens. But with comprehensive care, survival into the 30s and even 40s is possible.
Li, who was once able to get around in a wheelchair, experienced a sudden medical crisis in 2020 when he was 30 years old. He fell into a coma, became incontinent and quadriplegic.
"I was devastated," he said.
"But after a few months, I pulled myself together and looked for things that made sense."

A way forward

He discovered hydroponics, an innovative cultivation technique where vegetables are grown not in soil, but in a solution of water enriched with essential nutrients.
Partially automated, it requires little manual labour, allows for crops to be precisely controlled and ensures good yields.
"I grew up in the countryside, so I've always been in contact with seeds, soil and vegetables," he said.
"I also love digital technologies and programming. I realised I could combine the two."
Li taught himself computer programming and learned how to design a circuit board.
His case is in many ways similar to others with severe neuromotor disorders, such as British physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who was confined to a wheelchair and could only communicate through a voice synthesiser.
Or Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was paralysed after a stroke and authored his 1997 book "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" by blinking his left eye, the only movement he could still control.
For the farm tasks involving manual labour, Li is reliant on his mother Wu Dimei.
"She is my arms and legs, and I am her brain," he said.

'Quite happy'

Li explains what needs to be done and supervises her work in the greenhouses via a video link to his smartphone.
Wu operates tools, measures out fertiliser, installs equipment and connects cables.
In addition to farm work, she provides for her son day and night, including cooking and cleaning the ventilation tube in his windpipe.
"I don't have time to rest," Wu told AFP.
Even with the help of her daughter, who regularly helps bathe her brother, Wu only sleeps three to five hours a night.
"But it's worth it," said Wu, who is divorced. "It may not seem like it, but our family is quite happy."
They mainly rely on the income of Li's sister, who works, and their mother's pension.
Li said he saw the high-tech farm as a "niche" with "great prospects", and hoped to provide his family with a livelihood.
"If I succeed, it would allow me to fulfil a dream, but also to earn money and improve our living conditions," he said.
They moved to a prefabricated portable home in 2022, and his celery is now sold to a local supermarket chain.
"We're not making a profit yet," said Li, who embarked on his venture in 2022.
"But my dream is to expand this farm, turn it into a successful business, produce more and earn more.
"My motivation is to see our vegetables grow, be harvested, sold and end up on people's plates."
ehl/lal/dhw/abs/mjw

technology

Online platforms offer filtering to fight AI slop

BY THOMAS URBAIN

  • — Machine made — However, online bulletin board Pinterest saw fit late last year to begin allowing users to filter out some AI-generated content.
  • As "AI slop" floods the internet, efforts are mounting to stem an online deluge of shoddy images and videos made using increasingly advanced tech tools.
  • — Machine made — However, online bulletin board Pinterest saw fit late last year to begin allowing users to filter out some AI-generated content.
As "AI slop" floods the internet, efforts are mounting to stem an online deluge of shoddy images and videos made using increasingly advanced tech tools.
Easily accessible generative artificial intelligence tools, such as Google's Veo and OpenAI's Sora, enable the creation of realistic imagery using just a few descriptive words.
Images of cats painting, celebrities in compromising situations, and cartoon characters endorsing products are among the AI-generated detritus proliferating on social networks and video-sharing platforms. 
"The rise of AI has raised concerns about low-quality content — also known as AI slop," YouTube chief executive Neal Mohan said of the irksome phenomenon.
Such content is "cheap, bland and mass-produced," Swiss engineer Yves, who declined to give his last name, told AFP, echoing discussions on social media website Reddit.
Brands like Equinox gyms and Almond Breeze almond milk have played off AI slop frustration in recent ad campaigns, offering themselves as authentic, real alternatives.
Meanwhile, Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella has urged people to move beyond the debate over whether AI creations are slop or sophistication to embracing the technology as a way to amplify creativity and productivity.
Microsoft is among the tech giants investing heavily in AI.
"At its core, the criticism of AI slop is the criticism of some individual's creative expression," argued Bob Doyle, a YouTube personality specializing in AI-driven media creation.
"You may think it's useless, but to them it's the beginning of an idea; a seed."
— Machine made —
However, online bulletin board Pinterest saw fit late last year to begin allowing users to filter out some AI-generated content.
Pinterest told AFP that it added the filter after hearing from people who wanted to see fewer synthetic images.
TikTok introduced a similar filter on its globally popular video platform late last year.
YouTube, along with Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook, also offers ways to reduce the amount of synthetic imagery their users encounter, but gives no clear-cut filter.
Major social media platforms had previously focused primarily on labeling AI-created videos so viewers would not mistake them for showing real scenes, but ample synthetic content seemed to avoid the labels.
Some smaller tech players, such as streaming platform Coda Music, have introduced measures such as having users report AI creations.
Once confirmed, accounts get labeled as AI artists so listeners know what they are getting, according to Coda founder and chief executive Randy Fusee.
"There has been a lot of participation in the identification of AI artists so far," Fusee told AFP.
"By and large, (Coda users) just don't want AI music."
Coda, which reports having some 2,500 users, offers the option of completely blocking AI content from suggested playlists.
Cara, a social network for artists and designers with more than a million users, relies on a combination of algorithms and human moderation to filter AI-generated content.
"People want the human connection," said Cara founder Jingna Zhang.
"I could like a child's drawing because I'm charmed by it, as opposed to (something made by) a machine with no intention."
tu-gc/arp/iv/dw 

ceremony

Anglican church's first female leader confirmed at London service

  • Globally, the church estimates there are around 85 million Anglican followers in more than 165 countries. mp/jj/tw
  • Former nurse Sarah Mullally was officially confirmed Wednesday as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury and the first woman to head the Church of England, the mother church of the 85-million-strong global Anglican communion.
  • Globally, the church estimates there are around 85 million Anglican followers in more than 165 countries. mp/jj/tw
Former nurse Sarah Mullally was officially confirmed Wednesday as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury and the first woman to head the Church of England, the mother church of the 85-million-strong global Anglican communion.
At a historic service at London's St Paul's Cathedral, Mullally, 63, legally took up the position ahead of her formal installation -- or enthronement -- at Canterbury Cathedral on March 25.
Mullally will begin her public ministry and full programme of public engagements after that date, according to the church.
A heckler briefly interrupted proceedings and was escorted from the cathedral, although it was not immediately clear what the person said.
Her appointment has caused a backlash among some conservative members of the Anglican communion, particularly in Africa, with The Church of Uganda describing it last October as "sad news".
Conservative churches have been at odds for years with more liberal Western counterparts, particularly over women priests and LGBTQ issues.
Ahead of the service, Mullally had spoken of her hopes to lead with "calmness, consistency and compassion", in what she described as "times of division and uncertainty for our fractured world".
"It is an extraordinary and humbling privilege to have been called to be the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury," she said in a statement.
Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, who is second in rank in the Anglican hierarchy, said he hoped that as she took the "baton" the church would learn from its "past failings" and become "simpler, humbler and bolder".

'Hope'

Mullally was named in October as the successor to Justin Welby, who announced he would be stepping down last January amid fallout over an abuse scandal.
He resigned after a report found the Church of England had covered up a 1970s serial abuse case and that Welby had failed to report the abuses to authorities when they came to his attention in 2013.
According to the independent probe, John Smyth, a lawyer who organised evangelical summer camps in the 1970s and 1980s, was responsible for the abuse of as many as 130 boys and young men.
The Church of England became Britain's state establishment church following King Henry VIII's split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s.
The British monarch is its supreme governor, while the Archbishop of Canterbury is seen as the spiritual leader of Anglicans worldwide.
Mullally, who is married with two children, worked in Britain's state-run National Health Service for more than three decades, rising to become chief nursing officer for England in 1999.
Ordained a priest in 2002, she became the first female Bishop of London in 2018, only four years after the church began allowing women bishops following years of bitter factional wrangling.
Mullally has reportedly described herself as a feminist and called the decision to finally allow priests to bless same-sex couples in 2023 as "a moment of hope for the church", although she recognised that differences remained.
She said in an interview with some UK media Wednesday that she was committed to speaking out against misogyny where she sees it.
There were an estimated one million regular Anglican worshippers in Britain in 2024.
Globally, the church estimates there are around 85 million Anglican followers in more than 165 countries.
mp/jj/tw

patent

Brazil declares acai a national fruit to ward off 'biopiracy'

BY FRAN BLANDY

  • Cases like these drove the law declaring acai a national fruit, first introduced in 2011 and signed earlier this month.
  • Brazil has declared the acai berry a national fruit, a move to stamp its ownership on the popular "superfood" as concerns grow about foreign companies staking claims to the Amazon's biological riches.
  • Cases like these drove the law declaring acai a national fruit, first introduced in 2011 and signed earlier this month.
Brazil has declared the acai berry a national fruit, a move to stamp its ownership on the popular "superfood" as concerns grow about foreign companies staking claims to the Amazon's biological riches.
Acai has been a savory staple in the Amazon for centuries, eaten as a thick paste alongside fish and manioc flour.
The dark purple berry went global in the early 2000s after it was reinvented as a sweet sorbet, often topped with granola and fruit, and marketed for its antioxidant-rich properties.
Acai's active ingredients piqued the interest of food and cosmetic companies worldwide.
In one case cited in parliamentary debates, a Japanese company trademarked the use of the name acai in 2003. It took Brazil four years to cancel the registration.
Cases like these drove the law declaring acai a national fruit, first introduced in 2011 and signed earlier this month.
Brazil's agriculture ministry told AFP the measure helps showcase acai as a "genuinely Brazilian product" that generates income for thousands of Amazonian families.
However, experts say the law is largely symbolic and aimed at highlighting the challenge of growing international interest in a wide range of fruits native to the Amazon.
Brazil is one of several countries increasingly concerned about so-called "biopiracy," the use of genetic resources without permission or benefit-sharing.
The law "helps prioritize the issue on the public agenda," said Bruno Kato, founder of Horta da Terra, a company that develops and markets Amazonian ingredients.

'Enormous' risk

Sheila de Souza Correa de Melo, an intellectual property analyst at Brazil's Agricultural Research Corporation, Embrapa, who works in the Amazon, told AFP the law was "primarily symbolic and culturally affirming."
Brazil is one of the most biodiverse nations in the world, and a wide range of fruits with unique properties are at "enormous" risk of being used in new products developed and patented abroad, said de Melo.
Kato cited the "emblematic" case of the creamy fruit, cupuacu, which is related to cocoa and used in desserts and cosmetics.
Cupuacu was registered as a trademark by another Japanese company in the late 1990s, which demanded the payment of $10,000 in royalties for any product mentioning "cupuacu" on the label.
It took two decades to overturn the trademark.
Several patents have been filed abroad for specifically developed uses of acai's active ingredients in food and cosmetics, said de Melo.

'Clear rules'

Ana Costa, vice president of sustainability at Brazilian eco-conscious cosmetics giant Natura -- known for its use of Amazonian ingredients such as acai -- told AFP that the law showed the need for "clear rules that guarantee the fair sharing of benefits."
Brazil is a signatory to the 2014 Nagoya Protocol, an international treaty on sharing benefits from genetic resources.
The treaty has run into a major loophole as genetic data has become digitized, and researchers can now merely download a DNA sequence and use it to develop medicine or cosmetics, without physically collecting plants or seeds.
De Melo said the main challenge for Brazil was that raw materials such as acai pulp were often exported to countries which then carry out the research needed to create high-value products.
She said Brazil should focus on investing in research and technological development in the Amazon to generate wealth locally.
fb/sla/mjw

children

Will the EU ban social media for children in 2026?

BY RAZIYE AKKOC

  • The European Parliament has already called for a social media ban on under-16s -- with Malaysia, Norway and New Zealand also planning similar restrictions.
  • As France moves one step closer to banning social media for children, the European Union is seriously considering whether it's time for the bloc to follow suit.
  • The European Parliament has already called for a social media ban on under-16s -- with Malaysia, Norway and New Zealand also planning similar restrictions.
As France moves one step closer to banning social media for children, the European Union is seriously considering whether it's time for the bloc to follow suit.
Pressure has been rising since Australia's social media ban for under-16s entered into force, and Brussels is keeping a close eye on how successful it proves, with the ban already facing legal challenges.
France had been spearheading a months-long push for similar EU action alongside member states including Denmark, Greece and Spain -- before deciding to strike out on its own.
Its lower house of parliament this week passed a bill that would ban social media use by under-15s, which still needs Senate approval to become law.
At EU level, tough rules already regulate the digital space, with multiple probes ongoing into the impact on children of platforms including Instagram and TikTok.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has advocated going further with a minimum age limit, but first wants to hear from experts on what approach the 27-nation bloc should take.

'All doors open'

Promised by the end of 2025, a consultative panel on social media use promised by von der Leyen is now expected to be set up "early" this year.
Its objective? To advise the president on what the EU's next steps should be to further protect children online, commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said.
"We're leaving all doors open. We will get feedback, and then we will take potential future decisions in this regard," Regnier said on Tuesday.
The European Parliament has already called for a social media ban on under-16s -- with Malaysia, Norway and New Zealand also planning similar restrictions.
France isn't alone in opting not to wait for EU-level action.
Denmark last year said it would ban access to social media for minors under 15.
Both countries are among five EU states currently testing an age-verification app they hope will prevent children accessing harmful content online.
Commission spokesman Regnier said that tool, which is to be rolled out by the end of the year, would be a way for Brussels to enforce compliance with whatever rules are adopted at national level, in France or elsewhere.

EU vows to 'close cases'

While the EU has yet to ban children from social media, its content law known as the Digital Services Act (DSA) gives regulators the power to force companies to modify their platforms to better protect minors online.
For example, the DSA bans targeted advertising to children.
The EU can "use the DSA to impact the way that children interact with social media", Paul Oliver Richter, affiliate fellow at the Bruegel think tank said.
In February and May 2024 respectively, the EU launched probes into TikTok, and Meta's Facebook and Instagram, over fears the platforms may not be doing enough to address negative impacts on young people.
In both investigations, the EU expressed fears over the so-called "rabbit hole" effect -- which occurs when users are fed related content based on an algorithm, in some cases leading to more extreme content.
Nearly two years on, the EU has yet to wrap up the probes, although one official says regulators hope to deliver preliminary findings in the first half of the year.
EU spokesman Regnier has insisted "work is heavily ongoing".
Without referring to any specific probes, he said that "for certain investigations, we need more time", but added: "We will close these cases."
raz/ec/cc/ceg

politics

Celebrities call for action against US immigration raids

  • Below are some of the appeals for action by celebrities expressing their discontent with President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown: - Pedro Pascal - The Chilean-American actor shared a series of posts on his Instagram, calling for a national strike to protest the killings and demanding more transparency from the federal government on the actions of ICE agents. 
  • Celebrities from movie stars to pop singers are speaking up with calls to action against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids after two Americans were shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis.
  • Below are some of the appeals for action by celebrities expressing their discontent with President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown: - Pedro Pascal - The Chilean-American actor shared a series of posts on his Instagram, calling for a national strike to protest the killings and demanding more transparency from the federal government on the actions of ICE agents. 
Celebrities from movie stars to pop singers are speaking up with calls to action against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids after two Americans were shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis.
From red-carpet premieres to social media, the usually politics-averse celebrity crowd have been swept up in the fray after the shooting death of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, on Saturday. 
Below are some of the appeals for action by celebrities expressing their discontent with President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown:

Pedro Pascal

The Chilean-American actor shared a series of posts on his Instagram, calling for a national strike to protest the killings and demanding more transparency from the federal government on the actions of ICE agents. 
"Truth is a line of demarcation between a democratic government and authoritarian regime," Pascal wrote, as he paid tribute to Pretti and another US citizen killed in Minneapolis this month, 37-year-old Renee Good. 
"The American people deserve to know what happened," he added.

Jamie Lee Curtis

Oscar-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis also joined the call for national protests against ICE raids. 
"THESE WERE AMERICANS! SHOT BY OUR GOVERNMENT!" she wrote in a post on Sunday accompanied by drawings of Pretti's and Good's faces. 
On Tuesday, she shared a photo of Minneapolis and captioned it: "I BELIEVE IN US!"
- Martha Stewart - 
The businesswoman behind a domestic goods empire took to her Instagram to speak out after she was encouraged by her 14-year-old granddaughter, she said. 
"I am disheartened and sad each and every day... that we are told immigrants, which most of us are or descended from are unwelcome," wrote the 84-year-old Stewart. 
She also expressed discontent that "we cannot show our frustration in peaceful demonstrations and that we can be attacked and even killed by Federal troops."

Katy Perry

The "Firework" singer posted on her Instagram story to urge her American followers to call their elected representatives in the US Senate, urging them to pressure ICE through budget oversight. 
"Turn anger into action," the 41-year-old singer wrote.

Kerry Washington

The "Scandal" actress posted a video to her 7.6 million Instagram followers explaining step-by-step how to call their elected representatives and demand funding be blocked for ICE. 
"You are not powerless over what's happening in Minnesota," she said. There is something you can do about it right now." 
Washington then demonstrated calling her representative's office in California on camera.

Billie Eilish

The 24-year-old singer-songwriter called out other celebrities to speak on Pretti's death. 
"Hey my fellow celebrities u gonna speak up?" the nine-time Grammy winner wrote in an Instagram story post.
Eilish has since shared posts denouncing tactics used by ICE during their immigration raids. 
pr/cr/jgc/mlm

conflict

Russian strikes in Ukraine kill 12, target passenger train

  • Deadly strikes on energy infrastructure that have left many Ukrainians without power in freezing temperatures have continued since Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in the United Arab Emirates last week for US-brokered talks aimed at ending the conflict.
  • Russian forces in Ukraine killed 12 people and struck energy infrastructure and a passenger train overnight on Tuesday, authorities said, days after negotiators from both sides held direct talks aimed at ending nearly four years of war.
  • Deadly strikes on energy infrastructure that have left many Ukrainians without power in freezing temperatures have continued since Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in the United Arab Emirates last week for US-brokered talks aimed at ending the conflict.
Russian forces in Ukraine killed 12 people and struck energy infrastructure and a passenger train overnight on Tuesday, authorities said, days after negotiators from both sides held direct talks aimed at ending nearly four years of war.
In northeastern Kharkiv region, a drone hit a carriage of a train transporting nearly 200 passengers, killing at least five people, Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko posted on X. 
"There is not and cannot be any military justification for killing civilians in a train carriage," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram.
Prosecutors posted images of the smouldering carriage on social media, which regional emergency services later said had been extinguished.
A barrage of more than 50 Russian drones killed three people and wounded more than 30 in the southern city of Odesa, regional officials said.
The Black Sea city key for Ukrainian exports has been routinely pummelled by Russian forces.
Regional governor Oleg Kiper said a woman, 39 weeks pregnant, and two girls were among the wounded.
An AFP journalist at the scene saw the collapsed facade of a residential building and rescue workers searching the rubble for victims.
Zelensky said the bombardment undermined peace efforts and urged allies to step up pressure on Moscow to end the war.
"Every such Russian strike erodes the diplomacy that is still ongoing and undermines the efforts of partners who are helping to end this war," he wrote on social media.
Deadly strikes on energy infrastructure that have left many Ukrainians without power in freezing temperatures have continued since Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in the United Arab Emirates last week for US-brokered talks aimed at ending the conflict.
The next round is expected to take place on February 1, according to Zelensky.

Millions without power

Ukrainian private energy firm DTEK said Russian forces had inflicted "enormous" damage on one of its facilities in the Odesa region overnight.
Kiper said dozens of residential buildings, a church, kindergarten and schools had been damaged in the attacks.
A married couple aged 45 and 48 were killed in Sloviansk in the eastern Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claims to have annexed. Their 20-year-old son survived the attack, local prosecutors said.
In the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, a 58-year-old man was killed in a drone attack. A 72-year-old was killed in her home by Russian shelling in the southern Kherson region.
Russian drone and missile attacks have knocked out power, lighting and heat to millions of Ukrainians across the country.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 165 attack drones overnight, and officials said an infrastructure facility in the western Lviv region was hit.
State gas company Naftogaz said the attack had left one of its facilities on fire in western Ukraine, describing it as the fifth attack of its kind this month.
Russian forces are slowly advancing across the front. The Russian defence ministry announced on Tuesday it had captured two more villages in the Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions.
bur-jbr-fv-blb/tw/gv/ceg/mjw

research

How to assess microplastics in our bodies? Scientists have a plan

BY DANIEL LAWLER

  • No one disputes that these mostly invisible pieces of plastic are ubiquitous throughout the environment -- they have been found everywhere from the tops of mountains to the bottom of oceans.
  • How many tiny pieces of plastic are currently inside your body?
  • No one disputes that these mostly invisible pieces of plastic are ubiquitous throughout the environment -- they have been found everywhere from the tops of mountains to the bottom of oceans.
How many tiny pieces of plastic are currently inside your body?
A series of headline-grabbing studies in the last few years have claimed to have found microplastics throughout human bodies -- inside blood, organs and even brains.
However, some of this research has recently come under stinging criticism from scientists.
Some have warned that the studies could not rule out contamination from plastic inside laboratories, or that certain techniques could be confusing human tissue with plastic.
Seeking a solution to this escalating dispute, 30 scientists from 20 research institutions across the world proposed a new framework on Tuesday for evaluating microplastic research.
The proposal, inspired by how forensic science weighs evidence found at crime scenes, offers researchers a consistent way to communicate how confident they are that microplastic has actually been detected.
No one disputes that these mostly invisible pieces of plastic are ubiquitous throughout the environment -- they have been found everywhere from the tops of mountains to the bottom of oceans.
It is also "very likely" that we are regularly ingesting microplastics from air and food, Imperial College London researcher Leon Barron told AFP.
But there is simply not enough evidence yet to say whether they are bad for our health, added the senior author of the new proposal.

Inside our brains?

Microplastics -- and even smaller nanoplastics -- are very difficult to detect.
Yet some research in this new and rapidly expanding field has claimed to have found particles in "less-plausible" areas of the human body, Barron explained.
For example, a study published in Nature Medicine early last year announced it had detected relatively large particles inside the brains of recently deceased people.
Some scientists were sceptical because this would require the particles to cross the powerful defences of the blood-brain barrier.
Experts have also pointed out that the technique used in this study and several others, which is called pyrolysis-GC-MS, can confuse fat with polyethylene, which is commonly used in plastic packaging. 
In February 2025, CNN reported that the study's senior author, Matthew Campen of the University of New Mexico, had said the amount of plastic found in a brain sample was equivalent to a plastic spoon.
However Campen told AFP on Tuesday that "the concept of a 'plastic spoon' is a media invention".
"The biggest issue was extrapolation of a single sample of the brain to the entire brain, which we are now establishing was a meaningful overestimation," he added.
He also welcomed the "groundswell of interest" in the subject and said he looked forward to research that "will provide greater confidence and accuracy in micro- and nanoplastics measurements".
Other research has been disparaged for not using proper quality-control measures.
Without these measures, "it is impossible to know whether detected plastics originate from the tissue itself or from containers, chemicals, laboratory equipment or plastic particles present in the air," researcher Dusan Materic told AFP.
This would mean the results are "simply not scientific", said the expert at Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany.

Inspired by forensic science

The new framework proposal, published in the journal Environment & Health, calls for researchers to use several different techniques when looking for microplastics to rule out any potential false positives.
Barron compared the proposal to a framework once agreed among forensic scientists about how to evaluate fibres found in clothes during a criminal investigation.
The idea is to bring "all of the different labs doing this type of work into an aligned language" that expresses how confident they are that they detected microplastic, he said.
The idea is already "starting to gain momentum", he added.
The proposal requires scientists and journal articles to be transparent about their research, release all the raw data and include quality-control measures.
"To be clear, microplastics are a problem," Barron emphasised.
All the research conducted thus far has been carried out in good faith, he said, adding that these are relatively normal growing pains for a new scientific field.
But precision is important -- to determine whether microplastics are harmful for our health, researchers need to know just how much of them is in our bodies.
If the ongoing scientific debate "derails that effort to try and understand if they're bad for us, that's not helpful", he said.
Campen said that rather than a debate, "what we are seeing is the scientific method."
"The challenges of detecting and quantifying nanoplastics -- shards of plastic the size of viruses -- demand intense attention, innovation, as well as scrutiny," he added.
dl/cc

addiction

TikTok settles hours before landmark social media addiction trial

BY GLENN CHAPMAN

  • TikTok's settlement joins Snapchat, which last week confirmed that it made a deal to avoid the trial brought by K.G.M. The terms were not disclosed.
  • Video sharing app TikTok has made an eleventh-hour deal to avoid a landmark US trial accusing it, along with Meta and YouTube, of addicting young people to social media, lawyers said on Tuesday.
  • TikTok's settlement joins Snapchat, which last week confirmed that it made a deal to avoid the trial brought by K.G.M. The terms were not disclosed.
Video sharing app TikTok has made an eleventh-hour deal to avoid a landmark US trial accusing it, along with Meta and YouTube, of addicting young people to social media, lawyers said on Tuesday.
The deal was made as jury selection was to begin in a Los Angeles court that could establish a legal precedent on whether social media companies deliberately designed their platforms to addict children.
The case being heard in the California state court is being called a "bellwether" proceeding because its outcome could set the tone for a tidal wave of similar litigation across the United States.
The remaining defendants in the suit are Alphabet and Meta, the tech titans behind YouTube and Instagram.
Meta co-founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is slated to be called as a witness during the trial.
"The parties are pleased to have reached an amicable resolution of this dispute," the Social Media Victims Law Center said, noting that the terms of the settlement with TikTok are confidential.
The case focuses on allegations that a 19-year-old woman identified by the initials K.G.M. suffered severe mental harm because she was addicted to social media.
After joining YouTube at age six, Instagram at 11, Snapchat at 13, and TikTok at 14, the Californian claims to have developed an addiction to the sites that contributed to her depression, anxiety, body image issues and that stoked suicidal thoughts.
Social media firms are accused in hundreds of lawsuits of addicting young users to content that has led to depression, eating disorders, psychiatric hospitalization and even suicide.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs are explicitly borrowing strategies used in the 1990s and 2000s against the tobacco industry, which faced a similar onslaught of lawsuits arguing that companies sold a harmful product.
The trial before Judge Carolyn Kuhl is expected to start next week after a jury is selected.

'Significant victory'

"This is the first time that a social media company has ever had to face a jury for harming kids," Social Media Victims Law Center founder Matthew Bergman, whose team is involved in more than 1,000 such cases, told AFP.
The center is a legal organization dedicated to holding social media companies accountable for harms allegedly caused to young people online.
"The fact that now K.G.M. and her family get to stand in a courtroom equal to the largest, most powerful and wealthy companies in the world is, in and of itself, a very significant victory," Bergman said.
Internet titans have argued that they are shielded by Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act, which frees them of responsibility for what social media users post.
However, this case argues those firms are culpable for business models designed to hold people's attention and to promote content that winds up harming their mental health.
"The allegations in these complaints are simply not true," said Jose Castaneda, a YouTube spokesperson.
"Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work," he added.
Meta has also rejected the allegations.
TikTok's settlement joins Snapchat, which last week confirmed that it made a deal to avoid the trial brought by K.G.M. The terms were not disclosed.
The companies face two other similar trials in the same court scheduled for later this year.
Lawsuits, including some brought by school districts, accusing social media platforms of practices endangering young users are also making their way through federal court in Northern California and state courts across the country.
gc-arp/msp

military

US sued over deadly missile strikes on alleged drug boats

  • President Donald Trump alleged at the time that "six male narcoterrorists" were killed in a boat allegedly ferrying drugs from Venezuela to the United States.
  • Relatives of two Trinidadian men killed last year in a US military strike on a boat allegedly carrying drugs filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Tuesday against the US government.
  • President Donald Trump alleged at the time that "six male narcoterrorists" were killed in a boat allegedly ferrying drugs from Venezuela to the United States.
Relatives of two Trinidadian men killed last year in a US military strike on a boat allegedly carrying drugs filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Tuesday against the US government.
It is the first such case to be brought against the Trump administration over the three dozen missile strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, which have left at least 125 people dead since September.
The suit, filed in a federal court in Massachusetts, is being brought by the families of Chad Joseph, 26, and Rishi Samaroo, 41, who were among six people killed in an October 14 strike in the Caribbean.
President Donald Trump alleged at the time that "six male narcoterrorists" were killed in a boat allegedly ferrying drugs from Venezuela to the United States.
Washington has yet to release any evidence supporting its claims that the targeted boats have links to drug cartels designated by Trump as terrorist organizations.
"The United States' unlawful killings of persons at sea including Mr Joseph and Mr Samaroo constitute wrongful deaths and extrajudicial killings," the complaint says. "These premeditated and intentional killings lack any plausible legal justification.
"Thus, they were simply murders, ordered by individuals at the highest levels of government and obeyed by military officers in the chain of command."
The case is being brought under the Death on the High Seas Act, which allows for redress for wrongful deaths at sea, and the Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreigners to file suit in US courts for rights violations.
Plaintiffs in the case are Lenore Burnley, Joseph's mother, and Sallycar Korasingh, Samaroo's sister, and they are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR).
The family members are seeking punitive damages, the amount of which would be determined at trial.
"These are lawless killings in cold blood; killings for sport and killings for theater," CCR legal director Baher Azmy said.
The suit is "a critical step in ensuring accountability, while the individuals responsible may ultimately be answerable criminally for murder and war crimes," Azmy added.

'Must be held accountable'

In a statement, Korasingh said her brother, who had spent 15 years in prison for participation in a homicide, "was a hardworking man who paid his debt to society and was just trying to get back on his feet again."
"If the US government believed Rishi had done anything wrong, it should have arrested, charged, and detained him, not murdered him," she said.
According to the complaint, neither man was affiliated with drug cartels and they were simply hitching a ride back to Trinidad from Venezuela, where they had been engaged in fishing and farm work.
In December, the family of a Colombian man killed in another strike lodged a complaint with the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
The family of Alejandro Carranza Medina, 42, who was killed on September 15, rejected assertions there were drugs on his vessel and said he was a fisherman doing his job on the open sea.
The complaint accuses the United States of violating Carranza's right to life and to due process.
The IACHR is a quasi-judicial body of the Organization of American States, created to promote and protect human rights in the region.
cl/des

music

Amy Winehouse's friends 'took advantage' of father, UK court told

  • The court heard earlier that the two women sold 150 objects that had belonged to Winehouse.
  • Two friends of late British singer Amy Winehouse who sold items belonging to the star worth around £730,000 ($970,000) "took advantage" of her father's forgetfulness, a lawyer said Tuesday at London's High Court.
  • The court heard earlier that the two women sold 150 objects that had belonged to Winehouse.
Two friends of late British singer Amy Winehouse who sold items belonging to the star worth around £730,000 ($970,000) "took advantage" of her father's forgetfulness, a lawyer said Tuesday at London's High Court.
The singer's former stylist Naomi Parry and her friend Catriona Gourlay sold dozens of items, including a black Armani bag and dresses Winehouse wore on her last tour in June 2011.
Both deny acting dishonestly and say the items had been given or lent to them by the singer, even if there was no proof.
Amy's father, Mitch Winehouse, has brought a UK lawsuit against the pair, alleging they did not have the right to sell the items, which were sold between November 2021 and May 2023.
Henry Legge, representing for Winehouse, said it was claimed in an email to the late singer's father and his ex-wife Janis that the sale involved just a "few things", a description the lawyer said was "grossly misleading".
The court heard earlier that the two women sold 150 objects that had belonged to Winehouse.
Parry realised that Mitch Winehouse was in her words "lazy" about keeping tabs on such matters, Legge said.
"It is clear that they took advantage of his (Mitch Winehouse's) forgetfulness," he added.
The lawyer also hit back at suggestions he said came from the defendants' side that Mitch Winehouse was in some way "venal" or dishonest, and that the lawsuit was "motivated by that".
He described it as one of a number of "cheap shots".

'Gifts'

British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse, who enjoyed meteoric global success, died in July 2011 from alcohol poisoning, aged just 27.
She was a distinctive figure with her beehive hairdo, heavy black eye makeup, multiple tattoos and smoky voice.
She shot to international fame with her Grammy Award-winning 2006 album "Back to Black", which included the track "Rehab", charting her battle with addiction.
According to court documents, her father believed that any sums collected from the sales organised by Los Angeles-based Julien's Auctions would be due to him.
The auctioneers had also been told that a third of the proceeds would be donated to the Amy Winehouse Foundation -- a charity set up in the singer's name working with young people to foster hope and self-reliance.
However, Winehouse's team have accused the women of failing to donate the share of proceeds to the foundation.
Parry's lawyer Beth Grossman, rejecting the accusations, said she and Gourlay had different relationships with Amy.
Yet their accounts of the singer's "generosity" and how the items came to be in their possession were "very similar".
Ted Loveday, lawyer for Gourlay, argued at an earlier hearing that demanding proof of loaning or gifting was unrealistic in the circumstances.
"If a 19-year-old gives a scarf or a pair of earrings to their friends, no one signs a contract," he said.
A judgment in the case will be given at a later date.
har/aks/phz

children

French lawmakers pass bill banning social media for under-15s

BY LUCIE AUBOURG

  • On Monday, nine child protection associations urged lawmakers to "hold platforms accountable", not "ban" children from social media.
  • French lawmakers have passed a bill that would ban social media use by under-15s, a move championed by President Emmanuel Macron as a way to protect children from excessive screen time.
  • On Monday, nine child protection associations urged lawmakers to "hold platforms accountable", not "ban" children from social media.
French lawmakers have passed a bill that would ban social media use by under-15s, a move championed by President Emmanuel Macron as a way to protect children from excessive screen time.
The lower house, the National Assembly, adopted the text by a vote of 130 to 21 in a lengthy overnight session from Monday to Tuesday.
It will now go to the Senate, France's upper house, ahead of becoming law.
Macron, on X, hailed the vote as a "major step" to protect French children and teenagers.
The legislation, which also provides for a ban on mobile phones in high schools, would make France the second country to take such a step following Australia's ban for under-16s in December.
As social media has grown, so has concern that too much screen time and addictive algorithms are harming child development and contributing to mental health problems.
"The emotions of our children and teenagers are not for sale or to be manipulated, either by American platforms or Chinese algorithms," Macron said in a video broadcast on Saturday.
Authorities want the measures to be enforced from the start of the 2026 school year, in September, for new accounts.
Former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who leads Macron's Renaissance party in the lower house, said he hoped the Senate would pass the bill by mid-February so that the ban could come into force on September 1.
He added that "social media platforms will then have until December 31 to deactivate existing accounts" that do not comply with the age limit.
While backing France's right to impose such a ban, the European Commission on Tuesday said that any enforcement would lie with the EU, provided the bill conforms to the bloc's laws.
Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told reporters it would ultimately be up to the EU to ensure that platforms implement adequate age-verification tools to help any ban become a reality.
- 'Destiny of our country' - 
In addition to combatting the impact of screens and social media on the mental health of young adolescents, Attal stressed that the measure would counter "a number of powers that, through social media platforms, want to colonise minds". 
"France can be a pioneer in Europe in a month: we can change the lives of our young people and our families, and perhaps also change the destiny of our country in terms of independence," he said.
France's public health watchdog ANSES said this month that social media such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram had several detrimental effects on adolescents, particularly girls, though it was not the sole reason for their declining mental health.
The risks listed include cyberbullying and exposure to violent content.
The legislation stipulates that "access to an online social networking service provided by an online platform is prohibited for minors under the age of 15".
The draft bill excludes online encyclopedias and educational platforms.
An effective age verification system would have to come into force for the ban to become reality. Work on such a system is underway at the European level.
An MP in the hard-left France Unbowed party, Arnaud Saint-Martin, criticised the ban as "a form of digital paternalism" and an "overly simplistic" response to the negative impacts of technology.
On Monday, nine child protection associations urged lawmakers to "hold platforms accountable", not "ban" children from social media.
Macron, though, has publicly backed the ban, along with prohibiting pupils having mobile phones in high schools.
In 2018, France banned children from using mobile phones in colleges, the schools attended between the ages of 11 and 15.
Former prime minister Elisabeth Borne expressed reservations about the measure on Monday.
"It's more complicated than that," she told broadcaster France 2. "We first need to make sure that the ban is properly enforced in middle schools."
la-lum-as/ekf/giv/rmb

influencer

American influencer shares 'another' Africa on tour

  • Subscribers to his channel have soaked up his African tour, with some black Americans posting emotional videos of their own saying IShowSpeed had opened their eyes to a completely different vision of the continent, far from TV cliches of endless poverty and violence.
  • IShowSpeed, a 21-year-old African American influencer, has raced a cheetah, leapt with Maasai warriors and drawn huge crowds in a month-long tour of Africa that has also busted cliches about the continent.
  • Subscribers to his channel have soaked up his African tour, with some black Americans posting emotional videos of their own saying IShowSpeed had opened their eyes to a completely different vision of the continent, far from TV cliches of endless poverty and violence.
IShowSpeed, a 21-year-old African American influencer, has raced a cheetah, leapt with Maasai warriors and drawn huge crowds in a month-long tour of Africa that has also busted cliches about the continent.
The YouTube and Twitch star's tour, which started on December 29, has taken him to 20 countries, showing his tens of millions of followers a different side of Africa as he visited a diamond mine in Botswana, discovered Ethiopia's rich cuisine and attended the Africa Cup of Nations football final in Morocco.
IShowSpeed -- born in Cincinnati, Ohio as Darren Jason Watkins Jr. -- is one of the most-followed influencers on the planet.
He hit 50 million YouTube subscribers this month, Rolling Stone magazine named him the Most Influential Creator of 2025 and Forbes estimates his net worth at $20 million.
Subscribers to his channel have soaked up his African tour, with some black Americans posting emotional videos of their own saying IShowSpeed had opened their eyes to a completely different vision of the continent, far from TV cliches of endless poverty and violence.
"He shows another Africa, an Africa on the move, modernising, eager to achieve great things. He goes to places with modern infrastructure," Qemal Affagnon from Internet Sans Frontieres (Internet without Borders) told AFP.
"At a time when the US executive can sometimes portray Africa in rather pejorative terms, he offers a different narrative. It’s something that has clearly resonated with his American audience," the social media expert said.
In Lagos, Nigeria's megacity of around 20 million inhabitants, the influencer celebrated his birthday as well as hitting 50 million subscribers on YouTube. 
In Angola's capital Luanda, he marvelled at the warmth of the reaction to his visit.
"I love the love in Africa. The energy here is crazy," he enthused. On stops in Kenya and Addis Ababa, he was smitten by the architecture.
He has, however, been careful not to broach the subject of politics during his visits, especially in countries reputed to be autocratic.
Living up to his nickname "Speed", he has applied the same formula as on other trips around the world -- being filmed live by his teams as he dashes around at a frantic pace, alternating cultural discoveries, interactions with vendors or street artists with various antics.

True image

The tour has netted him nearly four million new YouTube subscribers in a month. His broadcast from the final of the Africa Cup of Nations has already racked up 15 million views.
His popularity is not contained to YouTube -- he also has 45 million subscribers on Instagram and 47 million on TikTok.
For his fans, he is not setting out to present himself as the saviour of Africa but to show its true image.
"To be the first streamer from America to tour the entire Africa, it's something historical," Nigerian YouTuber Stephen Oluwafisayomi, 24, known as Stevosky, said.
"It's a very big edge he just unlocked in the streaming industry," he added.
The publicity may appeal to some governments keen to attract new visitors.
"There are countries that are currently reaching out to certain communities of people of African descent and it can serve as a link between these two worlds," Affagnon said.

Live from the pyramids

In Nairobi, he met Tourism Minister Rebecca Miano and received a warm welcome via a video message from President William Ruto, while in Egypt he received permission to film live inside the Great Pyramid of Giza.
IShowSpeed started out like many streamers by filming himself playing video games.
But the avid football, and in particular Cristiano Ronaldo fan was not content to just remain in his gaming chair and has previously travelled in Asia, Europe and South America.
He has won several top streaming awards in recent years. 
In 2023, he became eligible to return to Twitch following a two-year ban from the platform for "sexual coercion or intimidation".
In Africa, where he's donned the national football team's shirt in each country he has visited, he has at times also been targeted, either by over-enthusiastic fans or by hostile members of the public.
He had to break off a live broadcast in Algeria because football supporters were throwing bottles at him in a stadium during a match.
As his Africa tour draws to a close this week, the streamer plans to take a DNA test which he hopes will reveal his origins on the continent.
While in Liberia he met somebody with the same surname as him whose ancestors had left Ohio, IShowSpeed's home region. "He's really my ancestor," the YouTube star quipped.
bur-pid/bam/jhb-kjm/cw

migration

Spain to regularise 500,000 undocumented migrants

  • The plan will be passed through a decree that will not need approval in parliament, where the Socialist-led coalition lacks a majority.
  • Spain's left-wing government approved Tuesday a plan to regularise around 500,000 undocumented migrants by decree, the country's latest break with harsher policies elsewhere in Europe.
  • The plan will be passed through a decree that will not need approval in parliament, where the Socialist-led coalition lacks a majority.
Spain's left-wing government approved Tuesday a plan to regularise around 500,000 undocumented migrants by decree, the country's latest break with harsher policies elsewhere in Europe.
Migration Minister Elma Saiz the beneficiaries would be able to work "in any sector, in any part of the country", and extolled "the positive impact" of migration.
"We are talking about estimations, probably more or less the figures may be around half a million people," she told public broadcaster RTVE.
Saiz said at a news conference after Tuesday's cabinet meeting that "we are strengthening a migration model based on human rights, integration, coexistence, and compatible with economic growth and social cohesion".
The measure will affect those living in Spain for at least five months and who applied for international protection before December 31, 2025.
Applicants must have a clean criminal record. The regularisation will also apply to their children who already live in Spain.
The application period is expected to open in April and continue until the end of June.
The plan will be passed through a decree that will not need approval in parliament, where the Socialist-led coalition lacks a majority.
The conservative and far-right opposition lashed out at the government, saying the regularisation would encourage more illegal immigration. 
Alberto Nunez Feijoo, head of the Popular Party, the main right-wing opposition group, wrote on X that the "ludicrous" plan would "overwhelm our public services".
"In Socialist Spain, illegality is rewarded," he said, vowing to change migration policy "from top to bottom" if he took power.

 'Social justice'

The Spanish Catholic Church was among the organisations praising the move, commending "an act of social justice and recognition".
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says Spain needs migration to fill workforce gaps and counteract an ageing population that could imperil pensions and the welfare state.
Sanchez has said migration accounted for 80 percent of Spain's dynamic economic growth in the last six years.
Official data released Tuesday showed that 52,500 of the 76,200 people who pushed up employment numbers in the final quarter of last year were foreigners, contributing to the lowest jobless figure since 2008.
Spain's more open stance contrasts with a trend that has seen governments toughen migration policies under pressure from far-right parties that have gained ground across the European Union.
Around 840,000 undocumented migrants lived in Spain at the beginning of January 2025, most of them Latin American, according to the Funcas think-tank. 
Spain is one of Europe's main gateways for irregular migrants fleeing poverty, conflict and persecution, with tens of thousands of mostly sub-Saharan African arrivals landing in the Canary Islands archipelago off northwestern Africa.
According to the latest figures published by the National Statistics Institute, more than seven million foreigners live in Spain out of a total population of 49.4 million people.
bur-imm/js

politics

Minneapolis mayor says 'some' US immigration agents to leave city

BY ROBERTO SCHMIDT WITH SEBASTIAN SMITH IN WASHINGTON

  • Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a post on social media platform X that "some federal agents" will begin leaving the city, but did not provide specifics of how many.
  • Some federal immigration agents will leave Minneapolis Tuesday, the city's mayor said, as US President Donald Trump struck a conciliatory note after nationwide outrage over the killings of two American citizens.
  • Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a post on social media platform X that "some federal agents" will begin leaving the city, but did not provide specifics of how many.
Some federal immigration agents will leave Minneapolis Tuesday, the city's mayor said, as US President Donald Trump struck a conciliatory note after nationwide outrage over the killings of two American citizens.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a post on social media platform X that "some federal agents" will begin leaving the city, but did not provide specifics of how many.
"I will continue pushing for the rest involved in this operation to go," Frey added.
Frey said he spoke with Trump on Monday, adding: "The president agreed the present situation can't continue."
The White House was scrambling as video of the latest shooting went viral, prompting street protests, criticism from former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and, increasingly, from within Trump's Republican Party.
In a marked change of tone, Trump said he had sent his top border enforcer Tom Homan -- whom the president described as "tough but fair" -- to Minneapolis on Monday.
Homan "will report directly to me," Trump wrote on his TruthSocial platform.
Homan's appointment came as US media reported that controversial Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino will be leaving Minneapolis, though the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has vehemently denied he has been "relieved of his duties," DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted on X.
McLaughlin added that Bovino "is a key part of the President's team and a great American."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said "nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed."
She also expressed sorrow over the death of Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse who was gunned down on Saturday at point blank range by immigration officers, while protesting in Minneapolis.
Earlier, the White House and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem portrayed Pretti's killing as an act of self-defense, initially claiming -- against all evidence -- that he approached agents brandishing a handgun, intent on a "massacre."
The New York Times reported that Trump held an almost two-hour meeting Monday evening with Noem, who has favored aggressive immigration raids.

'Huge relief'

At a demonstration in Minneapolis on Monday, locals expressed relief that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were leaving.
"It's a vindication to some degree. We have a lot of fear around what kind of violence and reprisals might come as they leave," protester Kyle Wagner told AFP.
"Our neighborhoods and communities have been brutalized by them, so any decrease in the numbers and the severity is just a huge relief to the community that's been suffering for months now."
Jasmine Nelson, who was also at the demonstration, said she was inspired by locals coming together to protest the killings.
"It's really beautiful to see everyone get together like this and fight against these injustices," she said.
Trump said he had sent his top border enforcer Tom Homan to Minneapolis on Monday, saying that he "will report directly to me."

DHS denies Bovino ouster

Despite his recent moves, there was no sign Trump was retreating from the broader, hardline policy of sending heavily armed, masked and unidentified ICE agents into Democratic-run cities.
There remain "hundreds of thousands" of "the worst illegal aliens" left to deport, Leavitt said.
Campaigning against illegal immigration helped Trump get elected in 2024, but daily videos of violent masked agents, and multiple reports of people being targeted despite flimsy evidence, have sent Trump's approval ratings plummeting.
Minneapolis has become ground zero in the turmoil -- with huge rallies to protest an ICE agent's killing of protester Renee Good January 7 still going ahead on Friday despite freezing conditions.
Like Pretti, Good, a 37-year-old mother of three and US citizen, was shot at close range.

Race against shutdown

Opening a new front in the crisis, a federal judge in Minneapolis heard arguments on Monday about  whether the deployment of federal officers violates the state of Minnesota's sovereignty.
In a separate hearing, a judge was considering a request to force federal officials to preserve evidence in the killing of Pretti, saying she would rule quickly.
Pressure is also mounting in Congress, where Democrats are threatening to hold up funding for the US government unless immigration enforcement agencies are reformed.
Monday's shift in White House messaging came as Republicans -- who rarely criticize their 79-year-old party leader in public -- began to express alarm, including House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer and Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Republican Chris Madel sent shockwaves when he dropped out of the running for Minnesota's upcoming governor race to replace Walz, saying he could not remain a member of a party inflicting "retribution on the citizens of our state."
bur-sms/cms/mtp

panda

Japan's beloved last pandas leave for China as ties fray

  • "If you talk about (Chinese) politics, the timing of sending pandas is what counts," and pandas could return to Japan if bilateral ties warm, Ienaga said.
  • Hundreds gathered to say farewell to two popular pandas departing Tokyo for China on Tuesday, leaving Japan without any of the beloved bears for the first time in 50 years as ties between the Asian neighbours fray.
  • "If you talk about (Chinese) politics, the timing of sending pandas is what counts," and pandas could return to Japan if bilateral ties warm, Ienaga said.
Hundreds gathered to say farewell to two popular pandas departing Tokyo for China on Tuesday, leaving Japan without any of the beloved bears for the first time in 50 years as ties between the Asian neighbours fray.
Panda twins Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao were transported by truck out of Ueno Zoological Gardens, their birthplace, disappointing many Japanese fans who have grown attached to the furry four-year-olds.
"I've been coming to watch them since they were born," Nene Hashino, a woman in her 40s wearing a panda-themed jacket and clutching a bear stuffed toy, told AFP.
"It feels like my own children are going somewhere far away. It's sad."
The pandas' abrupt return was announced last month during a diplomatic spat that began when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hinted that Tokyo could intervene militarily in the event of an attack on Taiwan.
Her comment provoked the ire of Beijing, which regards the island as its own territory.
The distinctive black-and-white animals, loaned out as part of China's "panda diplomacy" programme, have symbolised friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since they normalised ties in 1972.
Their repatriation comes a month before their loan period expires in February, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which operates Ueno Zoo.
"According to the relevant agreement between China and Japan, the giant pandas who were living in Japan, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, today began their return trip to China," said Guo Jiakun, China's foreign ministry spokesman.
"As always, we welcome the Japanese public to come see giant pandas in China."
Japan has reportedly been seeking the loan of a new pair of pandas.
However, a weekend poll by the liberal Asahi Shimbun newspaper showed that 70 percent of those surveyed do not think the government should negotiate with China on the lease of new pandas, while 26 percent would like them to.
On Sunday, Ueno Zoo invited some 4,400 lucky winners of an online lottery to see the pandas for the last time.

'Part of my heart'

Well-wishers wearing panda-themed clothes, hats and badges waited for hours on the streets lining the zoo two days later to say their final goodbyes.
They called out to the animals as the windowless truck left the gates.
"It's so sad," said Daisaku Hirota, a 37-year-old shop worker who said he tried to visit the pandas as often as he could on his days off.
"I lost one part of my heart," he said.
Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao were delivered in 2021 by their mother Shin Shin, who arrived in 2011 and was returned to China in 2024 because of declining health.
Since late last year, China has discouraged its nationals from travelling to Japan, citing deteriorating public security and criminal acts against Chinese nationals in the country.
Beijing is reportedly also choking off exports to Japan of rare-earth products crucial for making everything from electric cars to missiles.
However, China routinely removes pandas from foreign countries and the latest move may not be politically motivated, said Masaki Ienaga, a professor at Tokyo Woman's Christian University and an expert in East Asian international relations.
"If you talk about (Chinese) politics, the timing of sending pandas is what counts," and pandas could return to Japan if bilateral ties warm, Ienaga said.
Other countries use animals as tools of diplomacy, including Thailand with its elephants and Australia with its koalas, he added.
"But pandas are special," Ienaga said.
"They have strong customer-drawing power, and... they can earn money."
kh-amk/aph/ane/ami

panda

Japan's beloved last pandas leave for China as ties fray

  • "If you talk about (Chinese) politics, the timing of sending pandas is what counts," and pandas could return to Japan if bilateral ties warm, he said.
  • Two popular pandas are set to leave Tokyo for China Tuesday, leaving Japan without any of the beloved bears for the first time in 50 years as ties between the Asian neighbours fray.
  • "If you talk about (Chinese) politics, the timing of sending pandas is what counts," and pandas could return to Japan if bilateral ties warm, he said.
Two popular pandas are set to leave Tokyo for China Tuesday, leaving Japan without any of the beloved bears for the first time in 50 years as ties between the Asian neighbours fray.
Panda twins Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao are due to be transported by truck out of Ueno Zoological Gardens, their birthplace, disappointing many Japanese fans who have grown attached to the furry four-year-olds.
"Although I can't see them, I came to share the same air with them and to say, 'Hope you'll be OK,'" one woman visiting the zoo told public broadcaster NHK.
The pandas' abrupt return was announced last month during a diplomatic spat that began when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hinted that Tokyo could intervene militarily in the event of an attack on Taiwan.
Her comment provoked the ire of Beijing, which regards the island as its own territory.
The distinctive black-and-white animals, loaned out as part of China's "panda diplomacy", have symbolised friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since they normalised diplomatic ties in 1972.
Their repatriation comes a month before their loan period expires in February, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which operates Ueno Zoo.
Japan has reportedly been seeking the loan of a new pair of pandas.
However, a weekend poll by the liberal Asahi Shimbun newspaper showed that 70 percent of those surveyed do not think the government should negotiate with China on the lease of new pandas, while 26 percent would like them to.
On Sunday, Ueno Zoo invited some 4,400 lucky winners of an online lottery to see the pandas for the last time.
Passionate fans without tickets still turned out at the park, sporting panda-themed shirts, bags and dolls to demonstrate their love of the animals.
China has discouraged its nationals from travelling to Japan, citing deteriorating public security and criminal acts against Chinese nationals in the country.
Beijing is reportedly also choking off exports to Japan of rare-earth products crucial for making everything from electric cars to missiles.
However, China routinely removes pandas from foreign countries and the latest move may not be politically motivated, said Masaki Ienaga, a professor at Tokyo Woman's Christian University and an expert in East Asian international relations.
"If you talk about (Chinese) politics, the timing of sending pandas is what counts," and pandas could return to Japan if bilateral ties warm, he said.
Other countries use animals as tools of diplomacy, including Thailand with its elephants and Australia with its koalas, he added.
"But pandas are special," he said. "They have strong customer-drawing power, and... they can earn money."
kh/aph/mjw