film

Stars bring glamour to Oscars red carpet

BY SUSAN STUMME

  • - Hockey stars, real and fictional - Shane Hollander has made it to the Academy Awards.
  • Hollywood's best and brightest stars on Sunday hit the red carpet for the 98th Academy Awards, the movie industry's biggest night.
  • - Hockey stars, real and fictional - Shane Hollander has made it to the Academy Awards.
Hollywood's best and brightest stars on Sunday hit the red carpet for the 98th Academy Awards, the movie industry's biggest night.
Here are some of the top looks:

Spring hues

Pops of spring color were a welcome sight on the red carpet.
Jessie Buckley, the favorite to win the best actress Oscar for her portrayal of William Shakespeare's grief-stricken wife in "Hamnet," looked regal in a red Chanel off-the-shoulder bodice and flowing pink ball skirt.
Chase Infiniti, who plays Leonardo DiCaprio's daughter in "One Battle After Another" is not a Oscar nominee -- but she has definitely arrived on the red carpet.
Infiniti oozed glamour in a lilac sleeveless Louis Vuitton dress with a fitted bodice and a cascade of ruffles tumbling from her hip to the floor, creating a long train.
And veteran director Spike Lee brought a splash of color to his ensemble of muted neutrals with a bright purple hat and bow tie. In the past, he has worn the hue to honor Prince.

Black and white

Black and white is a perennial favorite of the stars, and best actress nominee Rose Byrne embraced it, while also adopting the spring trend in a strapless black Dior gown covered in white blooms.
Byrne, nominated for her performance in "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You," told ABC the film was an "examination of parenthood."
Emma Stone, in Byrne's category for "Bugonia," rocked a shimmering white Louis Vuitton floor-length gown with cap sleeves.
And Teyana Taylor, who has ruled the red carpet all awards season, wore a black and white feathered sleeveless Chanel gown with a sheer panel over her toned stomach.

Hockey stars, real and fictional

Shane Hollander has made it to the Academy Awards.
"Heated Rivalry" stars Hudson Williams has been everywhere since the gay hockey love story series went viral -- carrying the Olympic torch in Italy, appearing on "Saturday Night Live" alongside co-star Connor Storrie and now, the Oscars.
Williams rocked an all-black Balenciaga ensemble -- double-breasted suit, shirt and tie -- with a glittering brooch to finish the look.
But the Hollywood hockey star was not the only one at the Dolby Theatre.
Hilary Knight and Hannah Bilka, two of the stars of Team USA's gold medal winning women's ice hockey squad, were ready for their closeup on the Oscars red carpet.
bur-sst/mdo

US

Iran says women's football captain withdraws Australia asylum bid

BY STUART WILLIAMS WITH DAVID WILLIAMS IN SYDNEY

  • Seven members of Iran's visiting football delegation competing in the Women's Asian Cup had sought sanctuary in Australia after they were branded "traitors" at home for refusing to sing the national anthem. 
  • The captain of the Iranian women's football team which played in the Asian Cup in Australia has withdrawn her bid for asylum, state media said Sunday, making her the fifth member of the delegation to change her mind.
  • Seven members of Iran's visiting football delegation competing in the Women's Asian Cup had sought sanctuary in Australia after they were branded "traitors" at home for refusing to sing the national anthem. 
The captain of the Iranian women's football team which played in the Asian Cup in Australia has withdrawn her bid for asylum, state media said Sunday, making her the fifth member of the delegation to change her mind.
A former player and a Persian-language TV channel based outside Iran said the players had been pressured to reverse their stance through threats against families back home. But Iranian authorities have in turn accused Australia of pressuring the players to stay.
Captain Zahra Ghanbari, a striker and the national team's top goalscorer, has withdrawn her asylum application and will now head from Australia to Malaysia and from there fly back to Iran, the state-run IRNA news agency said. 
Three players and one backroom staff member had already in previous days withdrawn their bids for asylum and travelled to Malaysia.
Seven members of Iran's visiting football delegation competing in the Women's Asian Cup had sought sanctuary in Australia after they were branded "traitors" at home for refusing to sing the national anthem. 
The football drama has unfolded against a backdrop of war in the Middle East unleashed by US-Israeli air strikes on Iran, which also followed protests against the clerical system that peaked in January.
Following the captain's reported move to go back on her asylum request, only two of them are now set to remain in Australia. The players returning to Iran were at a hotel in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur awaiting their onward travel.
There was no immediate comment from Australian authorities on Ghanbari's situation.
Last week one player had changed her mind, followed by two players and the one staff member who left Australia on Saturday.
Australia Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said in a statement that day that "three members of the Iranian Women's Football Team made the decision to join the rest of the team on their journey back to Iran". 
He said that after informing Australian officials of their decision "the players were given repeated chances to talk about their options", he said.
The Australian government gave team members the opportunity to seek refuge but players faced "incredibly difficult decisions", the minister said.

'Cruelty and desperation'

But Shiva Amini, a former Iranian national futsal player who now lives in exile, wrote on X that she had heard information that Iran's Football Federation, working with the Revolutionary Guards, "placed intense and systematic pressure on the players' families in Iran".
Amini, who herself left Iran after a controversy involving not wearing the hijab, said that authorities pressured the mother of Ghanbari and added this "shows the level of cruelty and desperation they are willing to use to force these athletes to comply".
Opposition television channel Iran International said it had also received information that the families have been threatened, with Ghanbari's mother summoned by the Guards' intelligence branch at home and her daughter then informed of the interrogation.
Rights groups have repeatedly accused Iranian authorities of pressuring athletes abroad by threatening relatives or with the seizure of property if they defect or make statements against the Islamic republic.
Iranian media reports hailed her move, with IRNA saying she was "returning to the embrace of the homeland" and the Mehr news agency describing it as a "patriotic decision".
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had lauded the bravery of the women, vowing they would be welcomed with open arms.
The Iranian players caught international attention when they fell silent as the national anthem played ahead of a tournament match in Australia, an act viewed as a symbol of defiance against the Islamic republic.
The side in later matches sang the Islamic republic's anthem.
A presenter on Iranian state TV branded the players "wartime traitors", fuelling fears they could face persecution, or worse, if they returned home. 
djw-sjw/jsa

conflict

Deadly Israeli settler violence surges in West Bank during Iran war

BY LOUIS BAUDOIN-LAARMAN

  • Abu Falah sits in an area particularly prone to settler attacks and army violence, with near-daily incidents in neighbouring villages.
  • When Israeli settlers attacked their West Bank village of Abu Falah, Milia Hamayel told her son not to try to fight them off, but the 30-year-old went to defend a friend's land anyway.
  • Abu Falah sits in an area particularly prone to settler attacks and army violence, with near-daily incidents in neighbouring villages.
When Israeli settlers attacked their West Bank village of Abu Falah, Milia Hamayel told her son not to try to fight them off, but the 30-year-old went to defend a friend's land anyway.
"I called him two or three more times and he didn't answer. After that -- may God have mercy on him -- that was it," she told AFP, her lips trembling as she looked at a framed picture of her son, Thaer. 
A little while later Thaer was dead, shot and killed alongside another man from the village, Palestinian authorities said. A third Palestinian man died from suffocation after the Israeli army fired tear gas, they said. 
While the world's attention is focused on the US-Israeli war with Iran, the Israeli-occupied West Bank has experienced a surge in deadly settler violence. 
Since the start of the month, six Palestinians have been shot dead in settler attacks, according to a tally of data from the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said the increase in bloodshed "indicates the intensification of Israel's ethnic cleansing efforts under cover of the war with Iran".
That sentiment was shared by Palestinians on the ground. 
"It seems that when the Iran war began, the settlers saw it as a golden opportunity," Ibrahim Hamayel, a resident of Abu Falah who tried to push back the settlers, told AFP.
Hamayel, who is not related to the man who died, said that the attacks had multiplied since Israel launched its campaign against the Islamic republic on February 28.
The figures appeared to back him up. 
In the 28 months between the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023 and the start of the war with Iran last month, 24 Palestinians were killed by settlers, according to OCHA.
In addition to roughly three million Palestinians, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

'They were all masked'

Abu Falah resident Ibrahim Hamayel told AFP at the scene where the clash unfolded that when the settlers came "they were all masked and some of them were carrying firearms."
He pointed to the spot where one of the men had died that day in an olive tree grove. Blood stained the white limestone rocks, blending in with the West Bank's distinctive reddish soil.
Little stone circles had been laid as impromptu memorials to the men at the site where they died, a little Palestinian flag flapping above one. 
The Israeli military told AFP that troops were sent to Abu Falah, northeast of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, after receiving reports of Palestinians being attacked by Israeli settlers, and "acted to disperse those involved using crowd dispersal measures".
It condemned the violence from Israeli settlers and acknowledged reports of three Palestinian deaths, including one from suffocation but did not specify whether he died from the tear gas used by the military.
Palestinians and Israeli rights groups say that the goal of harassment is to drive Palestinians from the land, one rocky hill at a time.
"Their aim is to implement their plans: displacement, confining Palestinian villages to their built-up areas only", Ibrahim Hamayel told AFP.
The UN says 180 Palestinians have been displaced since the war with Iran started on February 28, and 1,500 since the start of 2026.
"The level of violence in the West Bank is unacceptable," the European Union said in a recent statement, adding that many Palestinian communities "have been attacked, (their) properties damaged and livelihoods destroyed" since the Iran war began.
This comes after settler violence consistently breached record levels since the start of the war in Gaza, with displacement this year already at 90 percent of 2025 levels, per OCHA figures.

'Every day'

Muath Qassam, 32, also went to push back the settlers in Abu Falah, but he was initially unaware of the three deaths that shook his village.
"They hit me with a club on the head. As soon as that happened to me, I lost consciousness and woke up in the hospital", he told AFP from his home five days later, a large bandage on his forehead and yellowing bruises under his eyes.
Abu Falah sits in an area particularly prone to settler attacks and army violence, with near-daily incidents in neighbouring villages.
"Every day there are problems", Qassam said. 
"Every day the settlers establish new outposts. We are not safe from them at all."
lba/del/jd/dcp/jfx

US

'Dubai is safe': UAE pushes to contain fallout from Iran onslaught

  • Dubai-based influencers have showcased support for the government and invoked a sense of national belonging -- hammering home the message that the country was as safe as ever.
  • Dubai is scrambling to preserve its image as a safe haven despite Iran's onslaught, with influencers rallying behind the government's message as authorities crack down on those sharing footage of strikes.
  • Dubai-based influencers have showcased support for the government and invoked a sense of national belonging -- hammering home the message that the country was as safe as ever.
Dubai is scrambling to preserve its image as a safe haven despite Iran's onslaught, with influencers rallying behind the government's message as authorities crack down on those sharing footage of strikes.
For decades, the Gulf was seen as an oasis of safety in a tumultuous Middle East, with the United Arab Emirates branding itself the safest country in the world and boasting of its very low crime rates.
But that image has now been shattered.
Iran has fired over 1,800 missiles and drones at the Emirates, more than any other country targeted by Tehran in the conflict, upending its aura of tranquillity despite its air defence intercepting a vast majority of the projectiles. 
Dubai-based influencers have showcased support for the government and invoked a sense of national belonging -- hammering home the message that the country was as safe as ever.
Kuwaiti-American reality star Ebraheem Alsamadi, known from "Dubai Bling", said in a video that he would stay in the UAE despite US consular advice, calling it "the safest country in the world, and nothing can change that".
"This has been my home for the past 16 years and I'm not going to leave it in 16 seconds... I will stand by this country as it stood by me," he added.
Authorities have also doubled down on their messaging as fears grow that war could do long-term damage to Dubai's reputation and its economy.
Dubai's Instagram account shared an emotional song to its 5.8 million followers that says "Dubai is safe, will always be safe".
Safety had long been inseparable from the city's identity. 
"Those in charge of that strategy are now debating how to evolve it in the face of this obvious insecurity, but for now are deferring to their habits," said Ryan Bohl, a geopolitical analyst at Rane Network.
The UAE is also, he said, "hoping the war will be short enough that people will not associate war with the country. And one of the best ways to do so is to minimise the impact of the conflict on the UAE itself".

Safeguarding reputation

Roughly 90 percent of people living in the UAE are foreigners, a crucial workforce for diversifying the economy away from oil towards tourism and services.
Retaining and attracting foreign talent remains key to that programme.
The tourism sector is acutely susceptible to security issues, but "different tourists from different parts of the world have different risk tolerances," Bohl said.
To combat further fallout, authorities have doubled down on pushing an image of normality during the war.
In the early days of the war, UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan walked with his massive entourage through Dubai Mall.
At flagship tourist sites like Dubai Mall and JBR beach, foot traffic has reduced to a trickle as visitors have fled the country.
Emaar, a major real estate developer that runs famous shopping centres including Dubai Mall, has warned shops and restaurants against closing or operating at reduced hours during the war. 
"Such actions undermine public order, create unnecessary concern and adversely affect the reputation and economic standing of the United Arab Emirates," the company said, in a note sent to the shops seen by AFP.

'Sharing rumours'

Footage of drone strikes and smoke billowing above the city has been shared widely, while fleeing tourists recounted tales of escaping Dubai under fire to international media.
To avert further reputational damage, authorities moved swiftly.
Dubai police warned against "sharing rumours" but also "photographing or sharing security or critical sites".
Other Gulf countries have taken similar measures, with Qatar arresting more than 300 people.
The UAE attorney general ordered the arrest and urgent trial of a number of people for publishing videos of interceptions or "misleading, fabricated content".
The Emirati crackdown has sparked backlash after Western media covered the arrests.
This strategy "will backfire for specific audiences, particularly Westerners and others from democracies who are used to having freedom of expression," said Bohl.
This week, many companies evacuated Dubai's financial district as Iran threatened US and Israel-linked economic targets.
It will be key for the UAE, and especially Dubai, which cannot rely on oil for revenue, to showcase that it is still safe for investments.
"If major investors, particularly in infrastructure, technology, real estate, etcetera, no longer believe that their investments are safe this would have a much more significant impact and the diversification plans of the UAE," he said.
bur/dc/dcp/jfx

insurance

Who covers AI business blunders? Some insurers cautiously step up

BY THOMAS URBAIN

  • Dawson cited a commercial real estate firm that tried to have its AI agent covered as a regular employee but had to revert to a special policy.
  • As more businesses trust artificial intelligence "agents" to independently grow their revenues, some insurance firms are stepping in to cover any mistakes -- while others are steering clear.
  • Dawson cited a commercial real estate firm that tried to have its AI agent covered as a regular employee but had to revert to a special policy.
As more businesses trust artificial intelligence "agents" to independently grow their revenues, some insurance firms are stepping in to cover any mistakes -- while others are steering clear.
"The whole intent of using advanced AI is to substantially replace human assistance and oversight in decisions," said Phil Dawson, head of AI policy and partnerships at the specialist insurer Armilla.
The trend of "agentic AI" has taken off, with bots handling computer tasks by themselves and businesses trimming ranks of human workers as a result.
"That really challenges some of the fundamental logic of existing insurance coverage," Dawson said.
Companies in the AI race are striving to perfect the technology, but they have not eliminated the possibility of errors such as "hallucinations" in which fabricated output is confidently presented.
AI-related liability risks have been largely accounted for implicitly under insurance policies in what is referred to as "silent coverage", analyst Sonal Madhok and law professor Anat Lior said in a research paper published late last year by the brokerage firm Willis Towers Wa000_96CW39Vtson.
However, they argue that the situation is similar to the liability coverage questions raised in the early years of cybercrime.
"We can expect policies to explicitly address AI in the near future, ending the silent coverage era," Lior and Madhok said.
Insurers are already moving beyond their "wait-and-see approach" when it comes to AI mishaps, according to Jonathan Mitchell, head of the financial sector practice at brokerage firm Founder Shield.
Some standard insurance policies now include "absolute AI exclusion" clauses that expressly deny coverage for AI-related mishaps, Mitchell said.
Dawson cited a commercial real estate firm that tried to have its AI agent covered as a regular employee but had to revert to a special policy.

'AI malfunction' protection

Founder Shield incorporates "AI malfunction and hallucination" scenarios specifically into professional services policies covering losses the technology causes clients.
The scope of such policies can be extended, for a price, beyond computer networks to cover real world harm such as AI mistakenly ordering too much inventory for a company.
Armilla tests AI models for vulnerabilities before committing to coverage and assesses whether the client's risk management framework adheres to international standards.
But like other insurers, Armilla can decline to take on certain risks.
For example, it avoids providing coverage for anything related to medical diagnostics or applications focused on mental health.
Munich Re, a global titan that does both insurance and reinsurance, provides coverage for companies that design AI models as well as those that use the technology.
"This risk of a model making errors or hallucinating cannot be fully avoided in any technical way," said Munich Re's head of AI insurance, Michael von Gablenz.
"AI systems, at the end of the day, are statistical models; and any statistical model has uncertainty in it," he said.
The AI risk brings with it great opportunity for insurers, though, with von Gablenz estimating the size of the market could eclipse that of cybersecurity insurance.
The Deloitte Center for Financial Services projects the global AI insurance premium market could grow to as much as $4.8 billion by 2032.
tu-gc/js

Congress

US Republican leaders in spotlight over anti-Muslim rhetoric

BY FRANKIE TAGGART

  • - 'A serious issue' - So far, however, Republican leaders have largely avoided directly condemning the remarks.
  • Republican leaders in the US Congress are facing mounting pressure to respond to anti-Muslim rhetoric after a series of inflammatory remarks and policy proposals reignited debate over Islamophobia in American politics.
  • - 'A serious issue' - So far, however, Republican leaders have largely avoided directly condemning the remarks.
Republican leaders in the US Congress are facing mounting pressure to respond to anti-Muslim rhetoric after a series of inflammatory remarks and policy proposals reignited debate over Islamophobia in American politics.
The latest controversy was sparked by statements from House Republicans including Andy Ogles of Tennessee and Randy Fine of Florida that critics say cross the line from security concerns into hostility toward Muslims as a religious group.
The rhetoric has been emboldened by Donald Trump, say his opponents, pointing to the president's first-term restrictions on entry from several Muslim-majority countries -- a policy widely referred to as a "Muslim ban."
Civil rights groups and Democratic lawmakers argue the move -- along with Trump's past sharing of anti-Muslim propaganda on social media -- helped normalize harsher rhetoric about Islam in American politics. 
Ogles triggered the latest uproar on Monday when he posted on social media that "Muslims don't belong in American society," adding that "pluralism is a lie."
The remarks drew swift condemnation from Democrats and civil rights groups.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations described Ogles as an "anti-Muslim extremist," while Democratic lawmaker Shri Thanedar pointed to constitutional protections for religious freedom and fired back: "Maybe it's YOUR values that don't belong in American society."
But Ogles's remarks were not an isolated incident. 
Fine has written that Americans should be afraid of Islam and previously suggested that if forced to choose between "dogs and Muslims," the choice would not be difficult.
In the Senate, Tommy Tuberville -- who is running to be governor of Alabama -- has posted warnings about Muslims in the United States, including a post that appeared to describe them as being "inside the gates."
The rhetoric has sparked furious exchanges across social media and in Congress, with Arizona congresswoman Yassamin Ansari accusing Fine of "vile racism" and demanding to know whether House Speaker Mike Johnson would take action.

'A serious issue'

So far, however, Republican leaders have largely avoided directly condemning the remarks.
When asked about Ogles's post, Johnson said only that the wording used by some members was "different language than I would use," adding that concerns about the imposition of Islamic law in the United States were "a serious issue."
Critics said the response reflects a broader reluctance to confront the issue, noting that a simple statement rejecting religious bigotry would have been politically easy -- yet none has been issued by House Republican leaders.
Meanwhile, the rhetoric appears to be spreading rather than receding.
An analysis by The Washington Post found that since the start of 2025 nearly 100 Republican members of Congress have posted about Islam or Muslims on social media -- and almost all of the posts were negative.
Two-thirds referenced themes such as radical Islam, Sharia law, extremism or terrorism.
The Post's analysis also found that several lawmakers had called for deporting Muslims or banning Islamic immigration. 
Lawmakers from Texas were among the most prolific posters, with Chip Roy writing more than 100 posts referencing Islam this year, the analysis found.
The social media activity reflects a broader political strategy taking shape within parts of the Republican Party, critics say.
Some commentators argue that anti-Muslim rhetoric is being used to mobilize voters feeling pressured by economic concerns and worried about the ongoing US conflict in Iran.
Civil rights advocates say the rhetoric also mirrors themes pushed by far-right activists outside government, who have called for deporting Muslims or banning Islamic immigration entirely.
The escalation has spilled into legislative proposals. 
Almost 40 Republican lawmakers, including Ogles and Fine, have floated or backed measures banning immigration from Muslim-majority countries.
Supporters say such proposals are aimed at national security. Opponents argue they blur the line between counterterrorism and religious discrimination.
A handful of Republicans have expressed discomfort with the tone of the debate. 
Thom Tillis of North Carolina described Ogles's comments as "ridiculous," while Don Bacon of Nebraska pointed to the Constitution's prohibition on religious tests for public office.
ft/acb

Global Edition

South Sudan models dominate global catwalks but visas a problem

BY ROSE TROUP BUCHANAN

  • All skinny-long limbs and charming attitude, Agou has what it takes for the runway, but politics is standing in the way of her dream. 
  • Heels click on cracked paving stones as fantastically long-limbed men and women practice moves they hope will whisk them away from South Sudan, one of the fashion world's favourite scouting locations.
  • All skinny-long limbs and charming attitude, Agou has what it takes for the runway, but politics is standing in the way of her dream. 
Heels click on cracked paving stones as fantastically long-limbed men and women practice moves they hope will whisk them away from South Sudan, one of the fashion world's favourite scouting locations.
Many hope to follow in the footsteps of their compatriot Awar Odhiang, who went from a refugee camp in Ethiopia to closing Chanel's Paris Fashion Week show last year. 
South Sudan has been mired in conflict, poverty and corruption since its independence in 2011, but the success of its models has been a ray of positivity. 
No less than nine of the top 50 models currently listed on Models.com are originally from the east African country. 
"Paris, Milan, London -- the fashion industry is dominated by South Sudanese boys and girls at the moment," said Doris Sukeji, founder of the Jubalicious modelling agency in the capital Juba. 
"Mostly it's the skin colour. That is how most of the South Sudanese get signed. They are looking for very dark models," she said. 
One of the first to blaze a trail was Alek Wek, scouted in London in the 1990s after her family fled an earlier war. 
It was an image of Wek on her mother's Facebook feed that inspired Yar Agou, 19, now signed with Jubalicious. 
"Damn! I saw her and I thought that is me one day if God is there. I want to make it like her," she told AFP in Juba. 
All skinny-long limbs and charming attitude, Agou has what it takes for the runway, but politics is standing in the way of her dream. 
She was supposed to be working at the recent Milan Fashion Week, but her visa was rejected at the last minute. For now, she is working as a cleaner, hoping there will be more opportunities.

'Heartbroken'

Successful models can earn tens of thousands of dollars in a season, a life-changing amount in South Sudan where 92 percent live under the poverty line.
But Sukeji said seven men and women had been rejected for visas in recent months despite having work sponsors, as the climate against immigrants hardens in the West. 
"You get heartbroken," she said.
Bichar Hoah, 24, raised by a single mother in Kakuma refugee camp in neighbouring Kenya, was recently rejected for a European visa.
"There are some people who discourage us by saying that we tried and failed... (but) I want to represent South Sudan as a model," he said, hoping to change the narrative around his country.

'A chance'

But even those who make it abroad face immense challenges in an industry known for relentless turnover. 
Clients constantly want "new faces," Sukeji said.
There are added challenges in a conservative country like South Sudan. 
As well as physical requirements -- tall but not above 5 foot 11 (1 metre 80) for women -- Sukeji must also contend with families who view modelling as a cover for prostitution.
"I always ask them to give the boy or the girl a chance," she said.
She brings them in for free training, which can take up to three months, taking a 10-percent cut if they get work.
Her trainer, drilling the models with the precision of a military sergeant when AFP visited, said many were like "newborn babies" when they started.
But as the young models gathered on a Juba rooftop to practice their struts, there was hope for a future beyond South Sudan's poverty and ever-present threat of war. 
"One day, really, South Sudan will change," said Agou.
All hope they can emulate the likes of Anyier Anei, who landed international modelling gigs and recently starred in French film "Coutures". 
"Failure is less frightening than having dreams you never try to achieve," Anei told Harper's Bazaar recently. "Even with fear, you have to take that risk."
rbu/er/ach 

environment

In sea-change, UK may abandon homes to coastal erosion

BY AKSHATA KAPOOR

  • As she spoke, a bulldozer was breaking down another residence in the holiday village, which the government has recommended should move back from the coast rather than invest in more defences.
  • In an English seaside village, researchers discuss options for relocating a graveyard threatened with slipping into the sea, or moving back a car park perilously close to a cliff edge.
  • As she spoke, a bulldozer was breaking down another residence in the holiday village, which the government has recommended should move back from the coast rather than invest in more defences.
In an English seaside village, researchers discuss options for relocating a graveyard threatened with slipping into the sea, or moving back a car park perilously close to a cliff edge.
The team from the Coastwise project have been granted over £15 million ($20 million) in government funding to adapt the coastline in North Norfolk, eastern England, to accelerating erosion worsened by climate change.
There is one caveat: it cannot spend that money on traditional coastal defences like sea walls or rock-filled cages known as gabions.
Instead, the team is assessing the best ways to lose at-risk homes to the sea and helping better inform cliffside property purchases.
Some measures it has considered include selective buyouts, government insurance schemes, replacing houses with mobile homes and early warning systems for when people may have to vacate their residences.
"It is quite groundbreaking... different countries are trying different things, but there's nothing quite similar," Robert Goodliffe from Coastwise told AFP.
"It will take a shift in how we think about this," he added.
For decades, the default approach in Britain and elsewhere was to "hold the line" against erosion using human-made defences.
But, with some defences reaching the end of their design life and sea levels rising, the government and coastal experts warn the tide cannot be held back everywhere.
The UK's Environment Agency has determined some communities on the soft, sandy eastern English coast -- among the fastest-eroding in Europe -- will need to conduct a "managed retreat" and move back from the shoreline.
The government is funding pilots like Coastwise, tasked with preparing parts of the coastline that may not be defended in the future.
"When it comes to building a defence there's a process and a system, and a way of applying for funding," explained Sophie Day, a coastal adaptation specialist working on the project.
"But when it comes to losing places, there isn't."

Creeping anxiety

The team hopes measures it assesses in Norfolk, like the logistics and legal complications of exhuming bodies and moving a graveyard, can be applied to other parts of the country.
But some locals feel the government's managed retreat policy is failing communities at imminent risk.
Shelley Cowlin's home of five decades was demolished in January after winter storms lashed the coast of a resort in Suffolk, eastern England.
"On the cliff top, here, lovely, big white house... which gave me a fantastic view," Cowlin, 89, told AFP in Thorpeness, where 10 clifftop properties have been demolished since October.
In January, a wall at the edge of her property was destroyed in a storm, the gabions "floated away" and "the gate was just swinging and all very sad".
"They won't give you any money," she said, criticising the government for the lack of compensation.
As she spoke, a bulldozer was breaking down another residence in the holiday village, which the government has recommended should move back from the coast rather than invest in more defences.
Shelley's son, Simon Carrick Cowlin, described creeping anxiety as neighbouring houses were pulled down.
"When's it my turn? ... A horrible space to be living in," said Simon.
"Any defences that have been put in historically or that will continue to be put in will (only) slow down the erosion, it cannot stop it," said local councillor Katie Graham.
"We do need more money, we do need more support from government. 
This is a very urgent situation," she added.

'Far-sighted'

Thorpeness residents say storms have grown fiercer, as scientists warn climate change will make such extreme weather more intense and frequent.
"In the UK we seem to (be) like: I'll just let the sea take what it wants," said Craig Block, the boatman at Thorpeness' lake.
Local Nicholas Millor said it was a "traumatic time" for the small village with some 130 residents and dozens of holiday homes.
The community had to prepare "for a much more liminal, uncertain kind of future", he said.
"What Thorpeness is going through now is a microcosm, is an example actually of what many, many communities will go through."
But experts insist costly traditional defences will not solve erosion, and that adaptation projects like Coastwise are needed to help communities move away from the coastline.
According to climate adaptation researcher Robert Nicholls, the government's policy is "deliberately experimental" and "translating these ideas elsewhere is a good idea".
"They're trying to learn what can and can't be done.
 They're trying to innovate," said the University of East Anglia professor.
"To me, it seems very rational that you follow the approach that Britain's doing... I think it's quite wise and far-sighted."
aks/jkb/cc

infertility

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

BY TOMOHIRO OSAKI

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

Japan as an 'outlier' 

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

Myths, guilt

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

ski

'Say a prayer and send it': Paralympic alpine skiers tackle fear

BY NEIL FULTON

  • In the standing and sitting categories, many entrants are missing one or more limbs.
  • What does it take to rocket down an icy sheet of Dolomite rock at over 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph) when missing a limb or suffering visual impairment? 
  • In the standing and sitting categories, many entrants are missing one or more limbs.
What does it take to rocket down an icy sheet of Dolomite rock at over 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph) when missing a limb or suffering visual impairment? 
Athletes at the Milan-Cortina Paralympics opened up about the sheer thrill - and challenge - of being elite alpine skiers, offering a glimpse into the speed, precision and fearlessness their sport demands.
Alpine skiing at the Winter Paralympics is divided into three categories. 
Vision impaired competitors follow a guide down the piste, using a radio to communicate. Those who have a complete loss of vision ski in blacked-out goggles. 
In the standing and sitting categories, many entrants are missing one or more limbs.
Athletes can compete in up to five disciplines, with the downhill reaching the greatest speeds.
Meg Gustafson, an American visually impaired skier, said that before a downhill: "I say a little prayer and then I send it."
The 16-year-old is classified as AS4, which means she can detect a squash-ball sized object at a maximum distance of six metres. She likened racing down Cortina's 2,105-metre Olympia delle Tofane piste to "flying".
"It's an indescribable feeling, especially in downhill... It feels like you're flying is the best way I can describe it. And just like being one with the hill."
Her team-mate Allie Johnson called the downhill in the Italian Alps "the scariest thing I've ever done".
"Being scared and doing things scared, that's what it is to me," said the 31-year-old. "It's not being scared, it's doing things even when you're scared."
American Anna Soens crashed early in her Paralympic debut in Cortina -- the first-ever downhill race of her career.
Asked what the experience had taught her, the sitting skier grinned and said: "Land straighter!"

'Race and survive'

Even the most experienced and successful athletes know that their fortunes on the mountain hang on the finest of margins.
"If you don't set the line where you have to, you're (expletive)," said Swedish downhill standing gold medallist Ebba Aarsjoe. 
High-speed crashes can result in terrible injuries for any skier. US skiing legend Lindsey Vonn nearly lost a leg after her fall on the same course in last month's Olympic Games.
Australian Paralympian Michael Milton, who skies on one leg, was tempted out of retirement to compete at the Milan-Cortina Games -- much like Vonn -- and the 52-year-old said the buzz was what drew him back.
"One of the things you come back for is the emotion. It's the pressure. It's the feeling of standing at the start, (soiling) your pants because you're scared of what you're about to ski down, and then having the mental side of things, to be able to overcome that," Milton said.
For Slovakia's Alexandra Rexova, already a double bronze medallist in the women's visual impaired category, the risks are worth taking. 
"Skiing means everything. I'm visually impaired. I'm a disabled person, so it opened new doors for me," the 20-year-old said. 
"I'm glad I can race here, to know many other athletes from other countries and enjoy the time here and race and survive."
nf/pb/mw

conflict

Behind Cambodian border casino, Thai military shows off a scam hub

BY CHAYANIT ITTHIPONGMAETEE

  • Since a fragile truce was agreed in late December, the Thai military has maintained its presence in the area -- despite repeated calls by Cambodia for Thailand to remove its forces from O'Smach and other border zones that were previously controlled by Cambodia.
  • Broken computer monitors in bombed-out offices, scattered fake police uniforms and phoney hundred-dollar bills: these were the vestiges of a frantic escape of suspected cyberscammers fleeing a resort on the Cambodia-Thailand border.
  • Since a fragile truce was agreed in late December, the Thai military has maintained its presence in the area -- despite repeated calls by Cambodia for Thailand to remove its forces from O'Smach and other border zones that were previously controlled by Cambodia.
Broken computer monitors in bombed-out offices, scattered fake police uniforms and phoney hundred-dollar bills: these were the vestiges of a frantic escape of suspected cyberscammers fleeing a resort on the Cambodia-Thailand border.
Southeast Asia has become the epicentre of the multibillion-dollar online scam industry in which hundreds of thousands of fraudsters -- some trafficked, others willing workers -- cheat internet users globally with romance and cryptocurrency investment schemes.
On Thursday, AFP was invited on a Thai military-organised tour of an area of Cambodia's O'Smach which Thai forces captured during border clashes last year.
Thailand says the area had been used as a base of operations by the Cambodian military as well as criminals running transnational scams.
The neighbouring nations engaged in deadly clashes along their disputed frontier for three weeks in December, the latest flare-up in a long-standing border conflict.
Thailand said that month its forces struck several casinos across the border, alleging they were being used as Cambodian weapons storage facilities and firing positions. At least two have been identified by monitors as fronts operating as scam hubs.
"It's by coincidence -- the attack on these facilities was because they were used as military bases by the Cambodian forces," Thai defence ministry spokesman Surasant Kongsiri told reporters on the tour.
When Thai troops advanced their positions, aiming to neutralise the threat from the Cambodian side, they "discovered that the facilities behind the casinos turned out to be scam centres", he said.
Since a fragile truce was agreed in late December, the Thai military has maintained its presence in the area -- despite repeated calls by Cambodia for Thailand to remove its forces from O'Smach and other border zones that were previously controlled by Cambodia.
Cambodian Information Minister Neth Pheaktra accused Thailand of attempting to justify its "de facto annexation" of Cambodian territory "under the pretext of anti-scam operations".
"Such actions represent a dangerous misuse of law enforcement narratives to justify military encroachment," he said in a statement to AFP on Thursday.

Scammer scripts, call lists

The destruction and debris remaining in O'Smach more than two months after the fighting ended indicated a rushed flight by thousands of people.
Journalists were led through offices and bunk-bed-filled dormitories where the tools of the scam trade were left behind: fake Australian, Canadian and Indian law enforcement office backdrops, scam call scripts and stacks of paper with phone numbers of targets from around the world.
The Thai military said around 20,000 alleged scammers who were living there escaped just before the missiles hit.
O'Smach and other casino sites Thailand targeted during the December fighting had potentially thousands of victims of human trafficking inside, an analyst told AFP that month.
The sites visited on Thursday -- accommodations for scammers from Vietnam and Indonesia, and offices for Chinese bosses, according to the Thai military -- were opposite the O'Smach resort and casino, owned by Cambodian senator and businessman Ly Yong Phat.
He was sanctioned by Washington in 2024 over his firm's alleged role in "serious human rights abuses related to the treatment of trafficked workers subjected to forced labor in online scam centers", according to US authorities.
Ly Yong Phat in November denied media reports linking him to cybercime and money laundering networks, calling the accusations "fake and damaging to his reputation" in an interview with a Cambodian news outlet.
Prapas Sornchaidee, of the Thai Air Force, said Cambodia -- which has pledged to stamp out scam operations before May -- should cop to their proliferation and elicit international support to combat them.
"If Cambodia were to acknowledge that these (scam) activities are taking place and that they cannot control them, and coordinate with Thailand and other countries so the problem can be addressed, that would be much better."
ci-sjc-suy/sco/abs

law

China approves 'ethnic unity' law condemned by rights groups

  • While it calls for "strengthening ties" with overseas Chinese communities, it also warns that people outside China who "engage in activities that undermine ethnic unity" or inciting "ethnic separatism" will be held legally liable. bur-pbt/dhw/fox
  • China approved what it called an "ethnic unity" law on Thursday, which rights advocates warn could further marginalise minority groups such as the Uyghurs.
  • While it calls for "strengthening ties" with overseas Chinese communities, it also warns that people outside China who "engage in activities that undermine ethnic unity" or inciting "ethnic separatism" will be held legally liable. bur-pbt/dhw/fox
China approved what it called an "ethnic unity" law on Thursday, which rights advocates warn could further marginalise minority groups such as the Uyghurs.
The law, passed by the National People's Congress, formalises policies to promote Mandarin as the "national common language" in education, official business and public places.
China's government has been accused for decades of pursuing policies to force assimilation across the vast country into the Han majority.
Social cohesion is a key focus of the new "ethnic unity" law, which criminalises engaging in "violent terrorist activities, ethnic separatist activities, or religious extremist activities".
The law aims to "strengthen cohesion" within China, which the legislation argues is undergoing unprecedented social change.
China officially recognises 55 official ethnic minorities within its borders that speak hundreds of languages and dialects.
Government policies have already directed that Mandarin Chinese be used as the language of instruction in some areas with large minority populations, such as Tibet and Inner Mongolia.
Yalkun Uluyol, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch, described the new legislation as a "significant departure" from a Deng Xiaoping-era policy that guaranteed the right of minorities to use their own languages.
Educational institutions will now need to use Mandarin as the principal teaching language. Teenagers will now be required to have "a basic grasp" of Mandarin upon completing compulsory education.
No minority languages are specifically cited in the new law, although it will likely affect Uyghur, Mongolian and Tibetan speakers.
"It is no coincidence that the law targets spaces where children are most likely to encounter their mother tongue," Erika Nguyen from PEN America told AFP.
"The intent being to sever children's ties with their identity, history, and culture."
A recent report by PEN and the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC) said that more than 80 percent of Mongolian language websites in China have been "censored or banned". 
Requiring fluency in Mandarin in public life could also inhibit the chances of Mongolian-speakers advancing professionally, SMHRIC director Enghebatu Togochog said in a statement.
"Economically, it marginalises Mongolians, as Chinese fluency becomes a gatekeeper for jobs and advancement," Togochog said.
The law also states that its provisions can also be applied outside China's borders.
While it calls for "strengthening ties" with overseas Chinese communities, it also warns that people outside China who "engage in activities that undermine ethnic unity" or inciting "ethnic separatism" will be held legally liable.
bur-pbt/dhw/fox

US

Checkpoints, air strikes and hope: a Tehran resident tells her story

  • Here is an edited transcript of the conversation:   - How is daily life in Tehran?
  • Torn between hope and fear, a Tehran resident in her 30s agrees to share her thoughts with AFP about the ongoing war and daily life.
  • Here is an edited transcript of the conversation:   - How is daily life in Tehran?
Torn between hope and fear, a Tehran resident in her 30s agrees to share her thoughts with AFP about the ongoing war and daily life.
We are withholding her identity for her protection. Here is an edited transcript of the conversation:  

How is daily life in Tehran?

People left in waves, especially those who were next to targets. 
The financial situation is very bad. My job has been halted and I am spending out of my savings. Going away has costs too, so this may be one of the reasons why people are leaving Tehran less now, along with Trump saying civilians would be safe. 
You can still do your shopping though. For petrol, they went from 30 litres maximum to 20. I didn't take any petrol because I have enough. But I heard from a friend that at one petrol station, they capped it at five litres.
Thankfully we haven't had to go to a hospital yet but apparently they work fine. 

How is the security situation? 

Even the smallest police stations are closed, so officers don't have anywhere to go. For the rest (the military), it's even worse because they have hit all their bases. 
The only way they can show that they're there and that the situation is under control is to put checkpoints around the place. 
I didn't have to stop at any of the checkpoints I passed through, but I've heard that they take people's phones and they will type 'Leader', 'Khamenei' or even 'moosh Ali' (a pejorative nickname for late leader Ali Khamenei which translates as "Mouse Ali").
Other regime supporters come to the streets with flags and signs chanting "Allahu akbar" ("God is the greatest") around 10:00-10:30PM. They're in around 50 cars and do loops and chant a bit.

Do you know people directly affected by air strikes?

The house of my friend's mother is in front of the Public Security Police station in Gisha (an upmarket area of central Tehran). The windows of part of the building facade were blown off completely. 
They hit Gisha pretty bad. Another friend from Gisha said they were scared to open their eyes after the strikes for fear of finding themselves either dead or without a roof. 
The Niloufar Square police station was a huge one. When they hit it, the strikes were so intense that the square has expanded by a street. The destruction was huge, I went to see myself. 
A person I know owns a shop there, they could only recover a few boxes of merchandise from the back. The store is destroyed. 
- How do you feel about the war? - 
The night they announced Khamenei had died, my neighbours and I went up on the roof and everybody was screaming and celebrating. But then they (security forces) came to the neighbourhood with their motorbikes and started shooting in the air. 
They started firing at windows with bullets randomly, they wouldn't even aim.
I don't know what will happen to us mentally and emotionally if it doesn't work out this time. 
I don't understand people who say "no to war" because we were the ones out in the streets protesting (in January), and we saw that they (the leadership) will not leave no matter what. 
There is no other way to remove them except foreign intervention. 
"No to a ceasefire!", "War, war, until victory!": we keep repeating these phrases among ourselves. If they stay, people will end up killing each other. We'll have a civil war.

How are you sleeping?

I don't hear much where I am. One night they hit an area close to me and it felt like someone was taking off the entrance door to the building. But I have a friend in Tehran-Pars (a suburb northeast of Tehran), she takes sleeping pills because of the noise. 
Another friend who is close to Mehrabad (central Tehran) said that the night they hit the airport, they spent a couple of hours in the bathroom. They felt like the roof was falling down on them. 
But Tehran is big and the experiences are quite different.
bur-adp/ser

internet

Mexico considering social media restriction for minors: minister to AFP

BY JEAN ARCE

  • TikTok, in a statement to AFP, said it has made efforts to prevent children from using its platform and that children under 13 should not be on social media.
  • Mexico is considering implementing an Australia-style social media restriction for minors, Public Education Secretary Mario Delgado told AFP. Several nations are toughening up age restrictions on social media platforms as concerns grow over excessive screen time for children and their exposure to harmful content online.
  • TikTok, in a statement to AFP, said it has made efforts to prevent children from using its platform and that children under 13 should not be on social media.
Mexico is considering implementing an Australia-style social media restriction for minors, Public Education Secretary Mario Delgado told AFP.
Several nations are toughening up age restrictions on social media platforms as concerns grow over excessive screen time for children and their exposure to harmful content online.
Delgado said the government had launched consultations with a range of civil society groups, including teachers and parents' representatives, with a view to developing regulatory proposals by June.  
Australia has since December required TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and other top social media services to remove accounts held by under-16s, or face heavy fines.
French lawmakers in January approved a social media ban for under-15s, although it still needs to be ratified by the Senate.
Britain, Spain, Denmark, India, Indonesia and Portugal are studying similar restrictions.
"The state has the responsibility for the guardianship and education of minors. And that's where we should think about setting certain limits," Delgado told AFP.
"What Meta, Facebook and TikTok are interested in is having followers, and there are no filters on content that could affect children's emotional health," he said, citing their exposure to violent or pornographic content and cyberbullying. 
TikTok, in a statement to AFP, said it has made efforts to prevent children from using its platform and that children under 13 should not be on social media.
TikTok and Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, require users to be at least 13 years old, and have automatic safety and privacy settings for teenagers between 13 and 17 years old.
That hasn't stemmed criticism over implementation of thse controls.

Responsible, critical and conscious'

Delgado insists that any ban needed to come "from the grassroots, from the lived experiences of parents, different communities, and teachers."
"We want them to tell us what these limits should be and how to regulate them,” he stressed.
He added that tech companies would be given a voice in the debate, which aims to promote a "responsible, critical, and conscious" digital culture, rather than prohibit.
Australian officials say that country's ban has already reduced cyberbullying and increased student concentration in schools.
"I personally like the Australian model," Delgado said, while adding that, as the father of a teenager, he understood the challenges of curbing children's social media use.
He added that, for now, Latin America's second-most populous country after Brazil was not considering banning mobile devices in public schools.
Brazil and Chile last year joined a growing number of nations that have banned non-emergency smartphone use by children in schools.
jla/acc/cb/jpo/dw/sla/des

politics

Scary times for Haitians in US living in shadows of ICE

BY JOHN BIERS

  • Balthazar, who stayed in the United States after a devastating 2010 earthquake hit Haiti, is one of some 350,000 Haitian nationals granted Temporary Protective Status but now in the crosshairs of the Trump administration's crusade against immigrants without papers.
  • Life has not always been easy for Maryse Balthazar since she relocated to the United States from Haiti, but she felt peace of mind before Donald Trump returned to office.
  • Balthazar, who stayed in the United States after a devastating 2010 earthquake hit Haiti, is one of some 350,000 Haitian nationals granted Temporary Protective Status but now in the crosshairs of the Trump administration's crusade against immigrants without papers.
Life has not always been easy for Maryse Balthazar since she relocated to the United States from Haiti, but she felt peace of mind before Donald Trump returned to office.
"You didn't have anxiety, like, 'When are they going to grab me?'" the certified nursing assistant told AFP in a phone interview from Boynton Beach, Florida. "It's scary."
Balthazar, who stayed in the United States after a devastating 2010 earthquake hit Haiti, is one of some 350,000 Haitian nationals granted Temporary Protective Status but now in the crosshairs of the Trump administration's crusade against immigrants without papers.
Trump and recently-ousted homeland security secretary Kristi Noem have repeatedly sought to terminate TPS for Haiti, a move that would shift the population's status from legal to illegal immigrants.
These efforts to send Haitians back home come even as the US State Department keeps a red alert on the country over robbery, sexual assault, gangs and other ills, saying, "Do not travel to Haiti for any reason."
The Trump administration had designated the program to end on February 3, but the order was suspended by US District Judge Ana Reyes on February 2.
Reyes' decision was hailed by Colin O'Leary, who runs a 120-bed Ascentria nursing home in Boston that, like other US senior care facilities, includes a heavy number of Haitian workers.
"We've now had three different times where we thought we were losing a significant portion of our staff," said O'Leary.
While Ascentria attorneys have cleared TPS holders to keep working, Balthazar said her son lost his receptionist job.
Stories of job loss abound within the US Haitian diaspora as some employers become skittish over the uncertainty surrounding TPS. 
Doris Etheart, who runs a Caribbean foods store in New York, said a couple of cousins who arrived in 2024 were dismissed from their jobs as security guards.
The relatives have been keeping a low profile, said Etheart, who was born in the United States from parents who emigrated from Haiti in the 1990s.
Foot traffic near Etheart's store in Brooklyn's "Little Haiti" is much diminished.
"All of them are just in fear," Etheart said. "They're in hiding because of this."

Congressional push

The current judicial battle revives a legal fight after the first Trump administration's efforts to end TPS remained stuck in the courts. Former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama extended TPS for Haiti.
Reyes' ruling characterized Haiti as "a country in chaos and crisis," pointing to supporting 2025 statements from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and noting that plaintiffs in the case would be gang targets or deprived of needed medical supplies if deported to Haiti. 
Withdrawing TPS for Haiti lacked sufficient review, likely reflecting "hostility to nonwhite immigrants," Reyes wrote, citing a Noem social media post dismissing migrants as "killers, leeches and entitlement junkies."
The ruling also highlighted the role of Haitian labor in health care and other sectors, noting the population generates $5.2 billion in taxes annually.
While Reyes' decision means that TPS holders can't be legally deported right now, many in the community remain on guard.
Eno Mondesir, a Massachusetts public health official who is also a pastor, has been advising Haitian nationals with kids to line up friends in case they are detained.
"With this present administration, they can apprehend anyone just as they won't back down from killing American citizens," said Mondesir, a US citizen who emigrated from Haiti in the 1980s.
"I never expected to see in the US complete disregard for human rights and violation of the Constitution and the law of the land," Mondesir said.
The Trump administration on Wednesday filed a request with the Supreme Court asking it to halt Reyes' order. 
There has also been a push in Congress led by Massachusetts Democrat Representative Ayanna Pressley with more than 170 supporters for legislation to require the administration to designate Haiti for TPS. 
Advocates of the Haitian community have been encouraging business groups with large immigrant workforces to lobby behind the scenes if they won't publicly criticize the Trump administration.
"The politics has made it hard for businesses to advocate for their own interests because they're worried about retaliation," said Brian Concannon, executive director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti.
The drive in Congress offers another source of hope for home health care worker Balthazar as she nervously monitors the courts.
"We have a lot of people fighting for us," she said. "With a troop, you can win. Solo, it's hard."
jmb/dw

bunker

With Middle East in flames, Texan bunker maker sees business boom

BY MOISéS ÁVILA

  • But with Iranian missiles hitting US targets in the Middle East and violence on the rise domestically, Americans are also worried.
  • Since the war in the Middle East began nearly two weeks ago, the phone at Ron Hubbard's bomb shelter company in Texas hasn't stopped ringing.
  • But with Iranian missiles hitting US targets in the Middle East and violence on the rise domestically, Americans are also worried.
Since the war in the Middle East began nearly two weeks ago, the phone at Ron Hubbard's bomb shelter company in Texas hasn't stopped ringing.
Foreign and US clients are rushing to buy his bunkers, seeking refuge in case of air raids, nuclear fallout or apocalypse.
With the United States and Israel pounding Iran, and Tehran retaliating with strikes across the region, Hubbard has seen demand for his product soar, mostly from Gulf nation clients in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
"You can imagine how many people are thinking 'I wish I had a bomb shelter,'" Hubbard, 63, told AFP in the office of his company, Atlas Survival Shelters. "The respect and the demand for the product is really at an all-time high right now like I've never seen it before."
But with Iranian missiles hitting US targets in the Middle East and violence on the rise domestically, Americans are also worried. One recent morning, a client from Florida called Hubbard to inquire about a bomb shelter for 10 people.

How It Works

A basic backyard bunker housing four people underground for up to a week while shielding them from bomb blasts and radiation costs around $25,000.
More sophisticated models, designed for years-long stays, can cost millions of dollars depending on how much food, energy and water they are stocked with.
"It depends if they're preparing for the end of the world or Armageddon or they're preparing just basically for a barrage of missile fires as mostly the Israelis have," Hubbard said.
His bunkers can be built from concrete directly on-site, or fabricated from metal at his facility in the town of Sulphur Springs in rural Texas, and then transported to the client.
A nuclear shelter only needs to be three feet deep because "it's the earth and the concrete on top of you shielding you from the gamma radiation," Hubbard explained, adding that he usually tries to build them six to ten feet underground to allow for protection from artillery fire.
The shelters feature a main door that seals hermetically and a decontamination chamber where people can shower if they have been in a contaminated environment.
Depending on the budget, the interior can resemble a small apartment, with a living room and TV, a bedroom, a kitchen, a laundry area and a bathroom. Some models even include a weapons storage room.
The facility connects to a power source and can store and filter water. If electricity fails, the bunker's ventilation system can be operated manually using a hand crank — much like in vintage cars.

'Crazy Americans getting bomb shelters'

In Hubbard's factory yard, about twenty bunkers that look like steel shipping containers stood ready to be shipped to clients across the country. Another 40 orders were in production.
"I expect to see my sales surpass probably the previous three years in the next two months," Hubbard said. "But it will take me two to three years to probably produce all the shelters that I will sell over the next two months."
Atlas also licenses its technology to companies abroad and sends a team of specialists from the United States to supervise the construction work.
While Hubbard keeps his client list confidential, some high-profile buyers, such as misogynist influencer Andrew Tate and YouTuber and philanthropist MrBeast, have publicly acknowledged purchasing his bunkers.
In 2021, he took part in a TV show featuring socialite and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian, where he built a bunker for her California home. And, according to Hubbard, tech titan Mark Zuckerberg also commissioned a bunker design from him, which was then assembled by a local contractor.
"To those who say 'crazy Americans getting bomb shelters,' they're not saying that anymore because they're seeing that a country like Dubai is being bombed religiously every single day," Hubbard said, adding "especially with the future of the globe looking very bad."
mav/md/sla

technology

'Happy (and safe) shooting!': Study says AI chatbots help plot attacks

BY ANUJ CHOPRA

  • The study, which highlights the risk of online interactions spilling into real-world violence, comes after February's mass shooting in Canada, the worst in its history.
  • From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading AI chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published Wednesday that highlighted the technology's potential for real-world harm.
  • The study, which highlights the risk of online interactions spilling into real-world violence, comes after February's mass shooting in Canada, the worst in its history.
From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading AI chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published Wednesday that highlighted the technology's potential for real-world harm.
Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the United States and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek, and Meta AI.
Testing showed that eight of those chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in over half the responses, providing advice on "locations to target" and "weapons to use" in an attack, the study said.
The chatbots, it added, had become a "powerful accelerant for harm."
"Within minutes, a user can move from a vague violent impulse to a more detailed, actionable plan," said Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of CCDH.
"The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics, and target selection. These requests should have prompted an immediate and total refusal."
Perplexity and Meta AI were found to be the "least safe," assisting the researchers in most responses while only Snapchat's My AI and Anthropic's Claude refused to help them in over half the responses.
In one chilling example, DeepSeek, a Chinese AI model, concluded its advice on weapon selection with the phrase: "Happy (and safe) shooting!"
In another, Gemini instructed a user discussing synagogue attacks that "metal shrapnel is typically more lethal."
Researchers found Character.AI also "actively" encouraged violent attacks, including suggestions that the person asking questions "use a gun" on a health insurance CEO and physically assault a politician he disliked.

'Escalating risk'

The most damning conclusion of the research was that "this risk is entirely preventable," Ahmed said, citing Anthropic's product for praise.
"Claude demonstrated the ability to recognize escalating risk and discourage harm," he said.
"The technology to prevent this harm exists. What's missing is the will to put consumer safety and national security before speed-to-market and profits."
AFP reached out to the AI companies for comment.
"We have strong protections to help prevent inappropriate responses from AIs, and took immediate steps to fix the issue identified," a Meta spokesperson said.
"Our policies prohibit our AIs from promoting or facilitating violent acts and we're constantly working to make our tools even better."
A Google spokesperson pushed back, saying the tests were conducted on "an older model that no longer powers Gemini."
"Our internal review with our current model shows that Gemini responded appropriately to the vast majority of prompts, providing no 'actionable' information beyond what can be found in a library or on the open web," the spokesperson said.
The study, which highlights the risk of online interactions spilling into real-world violence, comes after February's mass shooting in Canada, the worst in its history.
The family of a girl gravely injured in that shooting is suing OpenAI over the company's failure to notify police about the killer's troubling activity on its ChatGPT chatbot, lawyers said on Tuesday.
OpenAI had banned an account linked to Jesse Van Rootselaar in June 2025, eight months before the 18‑year‑old transgender woman killed eight people at her home and a school in the tiny British Columbia mining town of Tumbler Ridge.
The account was banned over concerns about usage linked to violent activity, but OpenAI has said it did not inform police because nothing pointed towards an imminent attack.
ac/dw

court

Kneecap rapper wins new court victory over 'witch hunt' terror charge

BY JOE JACKSON WITH PETER MURPHY IN BELFAST

  • But in its decision on Wednesday, a two-judge panel at the High Court dismissed the appeal, siding with the chief magistrate.
  • An Irish-language singer from punk-rap group Kneecap will not face a terrorism charge after UK prosecutors lost a High Court challenge Wednesday against a judge's decision to dismiss the case.
  • But in its decision on Wednesday, a two-judge panel at the High Court dismissed the appeal, siding with the chief magistrate.
An Irish-language singer from punk-rap group Kneecap will not face a terrorism charge after UK prosecutors lost a High Court challenge Wednesday against a judge's decision to dismiss the case.
Liam O'Hanna was charged in May last year with displaying a flag of the proscribed Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah at a November 2024 concert in London under the UK's 2000 Terrorism Act.
But he walked free from a London court in September after a chief magistrate, Paul Goldspring, found there had been a technical error around the timings in bringing the case against him.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) appealed the decision in January, arguing Goldspring had erred in ruling that the written charge had been filed too late.
But in its decision on Wednesday, a two-judge panel at the High Court dismissed the appeal, siding with the chief magistrate.
"The judge was right to hold that he had no jurisdiction," the pair stated in a 13-page ruling, concluding "no written charge was issued within six months" of the alleged offence. 
O'Hanna, named Liam Og O hAnnaidh in Irish, was charged on May 21 -- six months to the day after the concert when he allegedly displayed the flag. 
But the attorney general did not approve the charge until the following day, which O'Hanna's legal team argued meant it fell outside a six-month time limit.
O'Hanna, who performs under the name Mo Chara, welcomed the ruling. 

'Proud of our boys'

"Your own High Court has ruled against you," O'Hanna said at a Belfast press conference, in comments aimed directly at the UK government.
"The pathetic thing about this whole process is that you falsely try to label me a terrorist," he added, before accusing London of aiding various alleged crimes in the Middle East.
Cheered by supporters at the event, he was joined by Kneecap bandmates JJ O Dochartaigh and Naoise O Caireallain -- better known by their respective stage names DJ Provai and Moglai Bap.
"This ruling again just proves that they were right all along to fight the British in the courts and once again win," said Kevin Gamble, a 44-year-old Kneecap fan at the event.
"I'm very proud of our boys from West Belfast," added Bernie Devlin, 73, holding a Palestinian flag.
Darragh Mackin, a Belfast-based solicitor representing O'Hanna, said the attempted prosecution was "legally laughable". 
"It was a witch hunt," he added.
The CPS acknowledged the High Court had "clarified how the law applies" to such cases, and said that it accepted "the judgment and will update our processes accordingly".
O'Hanna was charged after a video emerged from the London concert in which he allegedly displayed the Hezbollah flag, an offence the singer has denied.
The band, whose members sing in Irish and regularly lead crowd chants in support of Palestinians in Gaza, have had multiple international concerts cancelled over their pro-Palestinian stance and other controversies.
Canada barred Kneecap last year from entering the country, citing the group's alleged support for Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
However, their performance in Paris in September went ahead despite objections from French Jewish groups and government officials.
The group also played England's legendary Glastonbury Festival in June and drew packed audiences in Tokyo in January.
bur-jj-aks/mp

fraud

'This is me, very pretty': inside a Cambodian cyberscam site

BY SUY SE WITH SALLY JENSEN IN BANGKOK

  • The suspects "committed online scams by persuading victims who are foreigners in Europe to invest in fake investments", said Phnom Penh deputy police chief Bun Sosekha, who led the raid.
  • Multilingual scripts, images of young women and timed toilet breaks: a police tour of a newly busted cyberscam operation in Cambodia on Wednesday revealed how fraudsters ensnare foreign victims online.
  • The suspects "committed online scams by persuading victims who are foreigners in Europe to invest in fake investments", said Phnom Penh deputy police chief Bun Sosekha, who led the raid.
Multilingual scripts, images of young women and timed toilet breaks: a police tour of a newly busted cyberscam operation in Cambodia on Wednesday revealed how fraudsters ensnare foreign victims online.
Cambodia has become a major hotspot for crime syndicates running a multibillion-dollar illicit industry in which scammers defraud internet users globally in romance and cryptocurrency investment cons.
As countries like the United States and China press Cambodia to crack down on the networks stealing from their citizens, AFP was invited to visit an office in the capital Phnom Penh a day after it was raided by police.
On the 30th floor of a luxury building, dozens of desktop computer screens showed conversations, group chats and software that authorities said scammers used to swindle people in Britain and Europe.
Police said they detained 57 Cambodian suspects and eight Chinese "ringleaders" at the office on Tuesday night.
The suspects "committed online scams by persuading victims who are foreigners in Europe to invest in fake investments", said Phnom Penh deputy police chief Bun Sosekha, who led the raid.
"We see a difference here because in the past the offenders were foreigners, but now Cambodians also start to do this."

Toilet time tracked

Screens left on showed Telegram channels in Chinese selling "stock materials", social media accounts and SIM cards for the United States and Britain.
Other chat windows showed accounts of working hours, including time spent using the toilet, eating and smoking.
One monitor showed notes titled "scripts" in more than 20 European languages.
"If you don't mind, can I ask, are you older or younger than me? I am 33 years old," reads one conversation in Czech.
"52," the user at the other end replies.
"Men at this age are very attractive, stable and mature," writes the alleged scammer account.
"This is me, very pretty," it adds, sending the target a picture of a young woman.
Known as "pig-butchering", scammers groom targets for weeks before cajoling them into ploughing money into fake investment platforms and other ruses, according to experts and law enforcement.
Largely concentrated in Southeast Asia, the global cyberscam industry has reached "industrial proportions", with some estimates of its annual revenues hitting $64 billion, according to a February report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
Some of the hundreds of thousands of people carrying out scams in the region are trafficked and held against their will, while others work voluntarily.
Chhay Sinarith, senior minister on the government's anti-cyberscam commission, told AFP only a "small percentage" of scammers were forced to work.

Smaller scale scams

Since a government crackdown began in July, authorities have shut down around 250 scam sites and 91 casinos, he said.
He added that more than 200,000 people have fled scam sites and left Cambodia, and that the country has deported around 10,000 foreign nationals.
The law enforcement push, which analysts have criticised as window-dressing, nabbed its biggest player with the January arrest of Chinese-born tycoon Chen Zhi, who was extradited to China.
The accused scam boss, who was indicted by US authorities last year, had served as an adviser to Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father, former leader Hun Sen.
Cambodian authorities have frozen Chen's assets, including his real estate properties and myriad businesses in the country, Chhay Sinarith said.
Despite his extradition, Chen "will be prosecuted in the near future" in Cambodia, and his assets "will be confiscated", the senior official added.
Authorities have acknowledged an industry shift as scammers move operations from large-scale compounds to smaller sites like office and hotel buildings.
"Their networks from overseas have ordered them to carry out activities on a small scale, which is different from before," Chhay Sinarith told AFP.
Cambodian authorities have vowed to stamp out the business by the end of next month, vowing to prosecute low-level scammers, bosses and landlords of scam sites alike.
"We hope it will be wiped out in April," Chhay Sinarith said. 
suy-sjc/sco/mjw

film

New generation of Irish actors harness talent for global stardom

BY PETER MURPHY

  • Thousands of miles from Los Angeles the next wave of Irish acting talent is being shaped on rehearsal floors at institutions like The Lir Academy in Dublin's docklands.
  • When the envelopes are opened at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, one of the few guarantees is that actors from Ireland -- population just over five million -- are increasingly likely to be in the frame.
  • Thousands of miles from Los Angeles the next wave of Irish acting talent is being shaped on rehearsal floors at institutions like The Lir Academy in Dublin's docklands.
When the envelopes are opened at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, one of the few guarantees is that actors from Ireland -- population just over five million -- are increasingly likely to be in the frame.
Performers from the Emerald Isle have become regular fixtures on Oscar shortlists in recent years, with wins, nominations and breakout performances.
Cillian Murphy, Barry Keoghan, Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan are among those helping cement the country's reputation as a powerhouse of screen acting.
Now Jessie Buckley, who has swept all major awards this season for her role as William Shakespeare's wife in Chloe Zhao's "Hamnet", is poised to add a Best Actress Oscar to her collection.
Thousands of miles from Los Angeles the next wave of Irish acting talent is being shaped on rehearsal floors at institutions like The Lir Academy in Dublin's docklands.
Founded in 2011 and linked to Trinity College Dublin, The Lir Academy -- whose alumni include Mescal -- admits only small cohorts of just 16 students each year for intensive conservatoire-style training.
In the rehearsal room, however, there is little talk of Hollywood.
The focus is on voice, movement, accents and classical text, which produces performers with technical control and -- crucially -- "authenticity", Director of Actor Training Gavin O'Donoghue told AFP.
"One of the most important elements of learning here is the ability to be a spontaneous actor on stage and on screen," O'Donoghue told AFP on a grey Dublin morning between classes.
"Screen acting demands being rooted in emotional and psychological truth, and Irish actors do that really well."

Theatre-first tradition

The foundational skills taught at The Lir Academy are reinforced by Ireland's wider theatre-first tradition in which actors often do stage before screen.
Ireland's tradition of playwrights -- from J.M. Synge who helped set up Dublin's Abbey Theatre in 1899 to Martin McDonagh whose film "Banshees of Inisherin" was nominated for a raft of Oscars in 2023 -- underpins the acting culture from which many screen stars emerge.
At the Abbey, Ireland's national showcase, actors perform in intimate auditoriums where language and psychological detail are paramount, according to its artistic director Caitriona McLaughlin.
"There is something about having to perform live in the moment that makes screen actors who come through Irish theatres exciting to watch," she said.
"Irish actors have it all," McLaughlin told AFP as she kept an eye on last rehearsals for an upcoming centenary revival of Sean O'Casey's 1926 Irish classic "The Plough and the Stars". 
"They have a strong connection with words so can play into the psychology of a character, they are physical, energetic, and have a great capacity for humour as well as drama," she said.
Irish actors' "vocal quality" that allows them to excel at accents like British and American and "lose themselves in the character" also makes them unique, according to McLaughlin.
Actors like Andrew Scott -- who honed his craft at the Abbey -- Saoirse Ronan, and Cillian Murphy of "Peaky Blinders" fame, can easily play British or American roles due to their aptitude for accents, she said. 
- Talent spotted early - 
Opportunities for young actors to build careers at home before Hollywood comes calling are also a factor in the current success, said state film-funder Screen Ireland's marketing head Louise Ryan.
The group supports debut shorts and features, allowing young actors to lead films and develop their craft, and also promotes Ireland as a film location, Ryan told AFP at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin.
"You can get 360-degrees experience with lead roles in indigenous films, and in parallel get a part in a big-budget TV show shot here like "Wednesday" which helps you get those international breaks," she said.
Ireland's small scale also means directors, casting agents and actors know one another, with talent spotted early and word travelling fast.  
"It is easier to break talent here as streaming shows like 'House of Guinness' and 'Say Nothing' are casting largely from the Irish pool," Dublin-based casting director Maureen Hughes told AFP.
According to the Abbey's McLaughlin, Ireland has always had the talent "right from the formation of this theatre", but the difference now is that the world is looking.
"This brilliant wave of talent is being exposed nationally and internationally," she said.
pmu/har/jkb/pdw/jfx