internet

Musk's Grok AI bot barred from undressing images after backlash

BY BENJAMIN LEGENDRE WITH ANUJ CHOPRA IN WASHINGTON

  • "We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing," X's safety team said, adding that the restriction applied to "all users" without exceptions.
  • Elon Musk's platform X announced measures to prevent its AI chatbot Grok from undressing images of real people, but the Philippines on Thursday said it would become the latest country to block the online tool in a growing global backlash.
  • "We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing," X's safety team said, adding that the restriction applied to "all users" without exceptions.
Elon Musk's platform X announced measures to prevent its AI chatbot Grok from undressing images of real people, but the Philippines on Thursday said it would become the latest country to block the online tool in a growing global backlash.
Pressure had been building on Musk's xAI, the developer of Grok, to rein in the chatbot after it was used to generate a flood of lewd photos of women and children.
The company's announcement came after California's attorney general launched an investigation into xAI over the sexually explicit material, and multiple countries either blocked access to Grok or opened their own probes.
X said Wednesday it will "geoblock the ability" of all Grok and X users to create images of people in "bikinis, underwear, and similar attire" in those jurisdictions where such actions are deemed illegal.
"We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing," X's safety team said, adding that the restriction applied to "all users" without exceptions.
In an "extra layer of protection," image creation and the ability to edit photos via X's Grok account was now only available to paid subscribers, they added.
But the Philippines said Thursday it planned to block Grok nationwide, joining Southeast Asian neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia.
"By tonight or within today, we are expecting (Grok) to be blocked in the entire Philippines," Renato Paraiso, acting executive director of the country's cybercrime center, told AFP.
He said X's pledge to limit access would have no effect on the plans, adding that the government would watch to see if the platform follows through on its promises.
"We need to clean the internet now because much toxic content is appearing, especially with the advent of AI," Philippine telecommunications secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda said.

'Shocking'

Grok's so-called "Spicy Mode" feature allowed users to create deepfakes using simple text prompts such as "put her in a bikini" or "remove her clothes."
An analysis of more than 20,000 Grok-generated images by Paris non-profit AI Forensics found that more than half depicted "individuals in minimal attire" -- most of them women, and two percent appearing to be minors.
The European Commission, which acts as the EU's digital watchdog, had said it would "carefully assess" additional measures taken by X to stop the deluge to ensure "they effectively protect citizens."
California Governor Gavin Newsom said that xAI's "vile" decision to allow sexually explicit deepfakes to proliferate prompted him to urge the state's Attorney General Rob Bonta to hold the company accountable.
"The avalanche of reports detailing the non-consensual, sexually explicit material that xAI has produced and posted online in recent weeks is shocking," Bonta said on Wednesday.
"We have zero tolerance for the AI-based creation and dissemination of nonconsensual intimate images or of child sexual abuse material."
Bonta said the California investigation would determine whether xAI violated state law after the explicit imagery was "used to harass people across the internet."

Posts removed

Adding further pressure onto Musk's company Wednesday, a coalition of 28 civil society groups submitted open letters to the CEOs of Apple and Google, urging them to ban Grok and X from their app stores amid the surge in sexualized images.
Indonesia on Saturday became the first country to block access to Grok entirely, with Malaysia following the next day.
On Thursday, Malaysia's communications minister said national regulators had found that X's steps to prevent Grok generating indecent images were "not done in totality."
If X can successfully deactivate and prevent the generation of such online content considered harmful, Malaysia will lift the temporary restriction imposed on Grok, Minister Fahmi Fadzil said.
India has said X removed thousands of posts and hundreds of user accounts in response to its complaints.
And Britain's Ofcom media regulator on Thursday called X's new measures a "welcome development."
"However, our formal investigation remains ongoing," an Ofcom spokesperson said, referring to a probe it announced this week into whether X failed to comply with British law over the sexual images.
ac/jgc/burs-kaf/ami

health

South Korean health insurer loses appeal against tobacco companies

  • The case brought by the South Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) sought to hold tobacco companies "socially accountable for the harms caused by smoking".
  • South Korea's state health insurer lost an appeal on Thursday in its lawsuit seeking damages from the country's three largest tobacco companies over their alleged responsibility for smoking-related harms.
  • The case brought by the South Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) sought to hold tobacco companies "socially accountable for the harms caused by smoking".
South Korea's state health insurer lost an appeal on Thursday in its lawsuit seeking damages from the country's three largest tobacco companies over their alleged responsibility for smoking-related harms.
The case brought by the South Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) sought to hold tobacco companies "socially accountable for the harms caused by smoking".
It also aimed to "prevent leakage in the national health insurance finances while promoting public health", the NHIS said.
The suit targeted the country's three largest tobacco firms, including giants British American Tobacco and Philip Morris Korea, and was valued at 53.3 billion won ($36.2 million).
It covers 3,465 patients who smoked for at least three decades and were diagnosed with related cancers, including lung cancer, for whom the NHIS paid out medical benefits. 
Ninety percent of the patients have already died.
In the first hearing, filed in 2014, the court sided with the tobacco companies, saying the NHIS was obliged to pay medical benefits under the law even if it led to financial losses.
Proving a causal link between smoking and the patients' diseases would require additional evidence showing that other risk factors, such as lifestyle and other health conditions, were not present, it added.
In an appellate trial on Thursday, the court again ruled in favour of the tobacco companies.
President of the NHIS Jung Ki-suck told reporters that the ruling was "deeply disappointing" but said he believed "the truth will one day be recognised".
"I think tobacco companies are hit-and-run offenders. A car caused a traffic accident. Many people were injured and killed. But the driver fled the scene," he said after the verdict. 
"In my view, that car driver is cigarettes, and the companies that sell them."
Smoking rates in South Korea have fallen over the past decade, with about one-fifth of the population now reporting that they smoke, according to the NHIS.
hs/oho/mjw

conflict

Trump to host Venezuelan opposition leader sidelined by US

BY DANIEL STUBLEN

  • - Nobel sharing - Machado, 58, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year for her activism in pursuit of democracy in Venezuela, despite threats of imprisonment by Maduro's government.
  • US President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet Thursday with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, whose pro-democracy movement he has sidelined since toppling her country's leader, and whose Nobel Peace Prize he openly envies.
  • - Nobel sharing - Machado, 58, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year for her activism in pursuit of democracy in Venezuela, despite threats of imprisonment by Maduro's government.
US President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet Thursday with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, whose pro-democracy movement he has sidelined since toppling her country's leader, and whose Nobel Peace Prize he openly envies.
Machado's White House visit comes a day after Trump used glowing terms to describe his first known call with Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodriguez, confirming his satisfaction with the allies of Nicolas Maduro remaining in power, for now at least.
Trump called Rodriguez a "terrific person" and hailed "terrific progress" made since US special forces seized Maduro and his wife in a deadly raid.
Rodriguez meanwhile said the call was "productive and courteous," and characterized by "mutual respect."
"Many topics were discussed," Trump said on social media, "including Oil, Minerals, Trade and, of course, National Security."
Notably absent was any mention of a political transition, an issue that Washington has recently downplayed compared to economic concerns, especially access to Venezuelan oil.
Machado, who campaigned for years to end Maduro's rule, will seek Thursday to bring the issue back into the foreground.

Nobel sharing

Machado, 58, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year for her activism in pursuit of democracy in Venezuela, despite threats of imprisonment by Maduro's government.
Venezuela's opposition has argued and presented evidence that Maduro stole the 2024 election from Machado's party, namely candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia -- claims supported by Washington.
Venezuela's electoral authorities, seen as allied with Maduro, never released data from the vote.
Hundreds of people were arrested in post-election protests, and while Gonzalez Urrutia fled to Europe for asylum, Machado remained in the country in a hidden location, appearing only intermittently at rallies.
She appaeared in Oslo, Norway last month to collect her Nobel prize after a daring escape by boat, and has not yet returned to her home country.
Trump has openly fumed about not being awarded the prize, calling it a "major embarrassment" for NATO ally Norway.
Machado has offered to share her award with Trump, and the president indicated she might give it to him when they meet.
"I understand she wants to do that. That would be a great honor," Trump said in a recent Fox News interview.
The Nobel Institute has stressed that the prize cannot be transferred from one person to another.

Prisoner releases

Under pressure from Washington, Venezuela has released dozens of political prisoners in the past week, though hundreds remain behind bars.
Rodriguez claimed a total of 406 political prisoners had been released since December in a process that "has not yet concluded."
The Foro Penal legal rights NGO, which defends many of the detainees, gave a much smaller tally of around 180 freed.
AFP's count, based on data from NGOs and opposition parties, showed 70 people released since the fall of Maduro, who has been taken to the United States to face trial for alleged drug trafficking.
To avoid scenes of jubilant opposition activists punching the air as they walk free from prison, the authorities have been releasing them quietly at other locations, far from the TV cameras and relatives waiting outside detention centers.
bur-aue-des/sla/mjw

Rohingya

Dreams on hold for Rohingya children in Bangladesh camps

BY SHEIKH SABIHA ALAM

  • Around half a million children live in the camps housing the waves of Rohingya who have escaped Myanmar in recent years, many during a brutal military crackdown in 2017.
  • Books tucked under their arms, children file into a small classroom in Bangladesh's vast refugee camps, home to more than a million Rohingya who have fled neighbouring Myanmar.
  • Around half a million children live in the camps housing the waves of Rohingya who have escaped Myanmar in recent years, many during a brutal military crackdown in 2017.
Books tucked under their arms, children file into a small classroom in Bangladesh's vast refugee camps, home to more than a million Rohingya who have fled neighbouring Myanmar.
"They still dream of becoming pilots, doctors or engineers," said their teacher Mohammad Amin, standing in front of a crowded schoolroom in Cox's Bazar.
"But we don't know if they will ever reach their goals with the limited opportunities available."
Around half a million children live in the camps housing the waves of Rohingya who have escaped Myanmar in recent years, many during a brutal military crackdown in 2017.
The campaign, which saw Rohingya villages burned and civilians killed, is the subject of a genocide case at the United Nations' top court in The Hague, where hearings opened on Monday.

'Severe shortage'

In the aftermath of the 2017 exodus, international aid groups and UNICEF, the UN's children's agency, rushed to open schools.
Determined to avoid permanently settling refugees it said it lacked the resources to absorb, the Bangladeshi government consistently opposed enrolling Rohingya children in national schools and barred them from studying in Bangla, the national language.
By 2024, UNICEF and its partners were running more than 6,500 learning centres across the Cox's Bazar camps, educating up to 300,000 children.
But the system is severely overstretched -- a situation worsened by cuts to US aid under President Donald Trump, which slashed funding and forced sweeping closures or scale-backs.
"The current system provides three hours of instruction per day for children," said Faria Selim of UNICEF. "The daily contact hours are not enough."
Khin Maung, a member of the United Council of Rohingya which represents refugees in the camps, said the education on offer leaves students ill-prepared to re-enter Myanmar's school system should they return.
"There is a severe shortage of teachers in the camps," he said.
Hashim Ullah, 30, is the only teacher at a primary school run by an aid agency.
"I teach Burmese language, mathematics, science and life skills to 65 students in two shifts. I am not an expert in all subjects," he told AFP.
Such shortcomings are not lost on parents.
For them, education represents their children's only escape from the risks that stalk camp life -- malnutrition, early marriage, child labour, trafficking, abduction or forced recruitment into one of the armed groups in Myanmar's civil war.
As a result, some families supplement the aid-run schools with extra classes organised by members of their own community.
"At dawn and dusk, older children go to community-based high schools," said father-of-seven Jamil Ahmad.
"They have good teachers," and the only requirement is a modest tuition fee, which Jamil said he covered by selling part of his monthly food rations.
"Bangladesh is a small country with limited opportunities," he said. "I'm glad that they have been hosting us."

'Justice and peace'

Fifteen-year-old Hamima Begum has followed the same path, attending both an aid-run school and a community high school.
"I want to go to college," she said. "I am aiming to study human rights, justice, and peace -- and someday I will help my community in their repatriation."
But such schoolsare far too few to meet demand, especially for older children.
A 2024 assessment by a consortium of aid agencies and UN bodies concluded that school attendance falls from about 70 percent among children aged five to 14, to less than 20 percent among those aged 15 to 18.
Girls are particularly badly affected, according to the study.
Even for those who stay enrolled, academic standards remain low.
"We organised a mid-year exam this year, and 75 percent of high school students failed," Khin Maung said.
Jaitun Ara, 19, is therefore an exception.
Having arrived in Cox's Bazar at the age of 12, she has now secured a place at the Asian University for Women in Chittagong on a support programme to prepare for degree studies.
But she doubts many others will be able to follow her path.
"Families can barely manage food," she said. "How would they spend money on their children's education?"
sa/pjm/mjw/abs

US

Hit TV show 'Heated Rivalry' a welcome surprise for gay hockey community

BY BEN SIMON

  • Quitting hockey at 19 "was awful," he said.
  • Growing up in a rural, religious community in western Canada, Kyle McCarthy loved hockey, but once he came out at 19, he quit, convinced being openly gay and an active player was untenable.
  • Quitting hockey at 19 "was awful," he said.
Growing up in a rural, religious community in western Canada, Kyle McCarthy loved hockey, but once he came out at 19, he quit, convinced being openly gay and an active player was untenable.
So the 32-year-old says he is "very surprised" by the runaway success of "Heated Rivalry," a Canadian-made series about the romance between two closeted gay players in a sport that has historically made gay men feel unwelcome.
Ben Baby, the 43-year-old commissioner of the Toronto Gay Hockey Association (TGHA), calls the success of the show -- which has catapulted its young lead actors to stardom -- "shocking," and says viewers have bought into its authentic portrait of a relationship.
McCarthy and Baby are not alone -- "Heated Rivalry" is a veritable cultural phenomenon. 
The show, an adaptation of a series of hockey-themed queer romance novels by Rachel Reid, charts the budding careers and secret relationship of two young hockey stars -- one Canadian, one Russian -- over a series of years.
After premiering on the Canadian streaming platform Crave in late November, the series hit HBO Max and took off, becoming one of its most popular shows by Christmas.
Variety called it "the biggest TV surprise" of 2025, and the show has even reportedly drawn a massive audience in China, where fans are watching pirated episodes.
The stars, Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams, were unknown, struggling actors before being cast.
Now, they are being mobbed by fans, joining A-listers on red carpets like at the Golden Globes, and have made their late night talk show debuts.
"Our expectations were kind of nonexistent," Storrie said on the Globes red carpet.
"For it to turn out so good and also go on HBO and be involved in this level is unreal."

'Toxic, homophobic'

Writing in Maclean's magazine in December, Reid -- who is Canadian -- said the novels were inspired by her "lifelong love of hockey, but also an awareness of the problems with the sport's culture more broadly."
"I thought a lot about how difficult it would be to be a closeted pro player."
For McCarthy, hockey was his first love -- until it wasn't.
"My brother played, my sister played, my dad coached us all," he told AFP. "Hockey was 100 percent of my life."
But by age 12, as he began to realize he was gay, McCarthy became uncomfortable in a sport he said had a "toxic, homophobic" culture.
Quitting hockey at 19 "was awful," he said.
"I love the game and didn't want to walk away from it," he said. But his gear sat unused in his garage "for eight, nine years."
Then he reconnected with the sport through a Vancouver-based LGBTQ+ hockey association now called The Cutting Edges, where he is president. 

'Safe space'

Baby grew up in the northern Ontario city of Timmins, which, like many small Canadian communities, has a deeply rooted hockey culture.
He told AFP he feared playing as a child, because he "instinctively" knew it "wouldn't have been a safe space."
After moving to Toronto as a teenager in the late 90s and discovering the TGHA, Baby took up the sport.
Hockey has made advances toward being more inclusive over the last 20 years, he said, but noted progress has been uneven.
He said the NHL's decision in 2023 to ban the use of rainbow-colored Pride tape on sticks was a "fiasco."
The league ultimately rescinded the ban due to player and public outrage.

Broader impact?

The NHL is alone among the so-called Big Four male professional sports leagues with no active or retired players who have come out as gay.
Luke Prokop, a prospect drafted in 2020 who is gay, has not yet appeared in an NHL game.
For McCarthy, the absence of an openly gay NHL player is "100 percent" due to persistent issues with hockey culture.
Baby nevertheless credited the NHL with quieter efforts to make LGBT fans feel welcome and applauded the league's apparent embrace of "Heated Rivalry."
"There are so many ways to get hooked on hockey and, in the NHL's 108-year history, this might be the most unique driver for creating new fans," the league said last month.
Baby noted that popular podcasts hosted by "straight hockey bros" are offering commentary on each episode.
"Queer characters are often flat, one-sided and stereotypical," but the leads in "Heated Rivalry" are "complex," he said.
"They're rich, they're interesting. They're the antidote to stereotypes."
Asked whether he believed "Heated Rivalry" could make hockey more welcoming for the LGBTQ community, McCarthy said: "I hope it can, I don't know that it will."
bs/sst

court

UK prosecutors appeal Kneecap rapper terror charge dismissal

BY ALEXANDRA DEL PERAL

  • A decision by the High Court is not expected immediately.
  • UK prosecutors launched a High Court challenge Wednesday to appeal a judge's decision to throw out a charge of supporting terrorism against an Irish-language singer from the punk-rap group Kneecap.
  • A decision by the High Court is not expected immediately.
UK prosecutors launched a High Court challenge Wednesday to appeal a judge's decision to throw out a charge of supporting terrorism against an Irish-language singer from the punk-rap group Kneecap.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which operates in England and Wales, argued a chief magistrate had erred in September when he dismissed the case against Liam O'Hanna over a technical error.
O'Hanna was charged with displaying a flag of the proscribed Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah at a November 21, 2024 concert in London, breaching the UK's 2000 Terrorism Act.
The CPS "submits that the Learned judge was wrong to find that the proceedings... were not instituted in the correct form", it said in written submissions unveiled in court.
Paul Jarvis, for the prosecution, insisted in court that the proceedings against O'Hanna "are and remain valid in law".
The argument turns on the date the charge was brought, which was May 21 -- six months to the day after the concert. But the attorney general did not approve the charge until May 22, which O'Hanna's legal team argues fell outside a six-month time limit.

A 'witch-hunt'

O'Hanna, who performs under the name Mo Chara, did not attend London's Royal Courts of Justice for the hearing before two judges.
But bandmate JJ O Dochartaigh -- better known by his stage name DJ Provai -- was in court alongside the band's manager, Dan Lambert, and the band's lawyers.
Kneecap had urged its supporters to rally outside and about 100 showed up, holding Irish and Palestinian flags, singing songs and listening to speeches by speakers including Sinn Fein MP John Finucane.
The band has called the attempted prosecution a "British state witch-hunt". They celebrated last year after chief magistrate Paul Goldspring, sitting at London's Woolwich Crown Court, threw out a charge of supporting terrorism brought against O'Hanna.
Goldspring agreed with O'Hanna's lawyers that the legal proceedings had not been "instigated in the correct form" due to time limits on bringing criminal charges.
Kneecap has vowed to "win again", with its legal filings arguing Goldspring "was plainly correct" in his September decision.
A decision by the High Court is not expected immediately.

'We will not be silent'

O'Hanna, 28, named Liam Og O Hannaidh in Irish, was charged in May 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 the Palestinians in Gaza, have had multiple international concerts cancelled over their pro-Palestinian stance and other controversies.
Canada barred Kneecap in September from entering the country, citing the group's alleged support for Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
But their performance in Paris in September went ahead despite objections from French Jewish groups and government officials.
The group also played southwest England's vaunted Glastonbury Festival in June and drew packed audiences in Tokyo last week.
Posting on X on January 1 about the appeal, Kneecap said: "It is the view of our legal team that there is not an iota of logic for this, it is without any sound legal basis.
"We will not be silent," the group vowed. 
O'Hanna has maintained that the band's stand "was always about Gaza, about what happens if you dare to speak up". 
adm-jj/jkb/jj

justice

Death of author's baby son puts Nigerian healthcare in spotlight

BY SUSAN NJANJI

  • Calling for systematic reforms and patients safety in Nigeria, she said: "This is a wake-up call... for we the public... to demand accountability, and transparency and consequences of negligence in our healthcare system."
  • The recent death of the 21-month-old son of Nigerian best-selling author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has brought healthcare standards in Africa's most populous country under fresh scrutiny, prompting calls for reforms.
  • Calling for systematic reforms and patients safety in Nigeria, she said: "This is a wake-up call... for we the public... to demand accountability, and transparency and consequences of negligence in our healthcare system."
The recent death of the 21-month-old son of Nigerian best-selling author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has brought healthcare standards in Africa's most populous country under fresh scrutiny, prompting calls for reforms.
Nkanu Nnamdi, died on January 7, following "a brief illness" at Lagos's Euracare Multispecialist Hospital. He had been taken there for diagnostic tests including MRI before he was due to travel to the United States for specialised care, the family said.
Nkanu was one of twins, and according to a close family member Adichie and her medical doctor husband Ivara Esege had been trying for eight years to have children.
The family of the Nigerian author and feminist icon Adichie has accused the hospital of "gross medical negligence".
Adichie's sister-in-law, Dr Anthea Esege Nwandu, a physician and professor with decades of experience, said she had been told the boy had been administered an overdose of propofol, to sedate him to conduct MRI tests.
She argued the anaesthesiologist had been "criminally negligent" and had not followed proper medical protocol.
The boy suffered cardiac arrest when he was being transferred on the anaesthesiologist's shoulder, disconnected from the ventilator, she told local TVC television channel.
The hospital's medical director had told her that "it seems he had been overdosed with propofol", she added.
Calling for systematic reforms and patients safety in Nigeria, she said: "This is a wake-up call... for we the public... to demand accountability, and transparency and consequences of negligence in our healthcare system."

Legal notice issued

Adichie lives in the United States but was in Nigeria for the Christmas holidays. She has served legal notice to the hospital seeking answers.
Family spokesperson Omawumi Ogbe said in a text message to AFP "legal notice has been issued" to Euracare hospital, without elaborating.
The Lagos state government has also ordered an investigation into what happened.
Euracare did not immediately respond to AFP request for comment on Wednesday.
The standard of Nigeria's healthcare is generally considered below expectations. Those who can afford to -- including top political leaders -- seek care abroad.
Africa's fourth-largest economy, Nigeria is a major oil producer, has a thriving business culture, and global pop stars. But it lacks basic infrastructure, including water, electricity, and quality healthcare. 
Last month, the country's services came under the spotlight following a fatal accident involving former world heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua -- a British national of Nigerian heritage.
Joshua walked out of the car in pain, helped by bystanders with no ambulance in sight. 
Just this week, the northern Kano state said it had ordered an investigation into the death of a woman four months after doctors left a pair of scissors in her stomach following surgery.
Despite repeated complaints of abdominal pains during several hospital visits, the doctors administered pain killers. Scans finally revealed the scissor just two days before she died.
Cases of reported negligence and inadequate care abound in Nigeria.
The poor state of Nigerian health care is exacerbated by the exodus of skilled doctors and nurses who leave in search of better living standards and salaries.
Between 15,000 and 16,000 doctors emigrated from Nigeria between 2020 and 2024, according to Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate. 
Nigeria has just 55,000 doctors for a population of 220 million, he said in 2024. 
bur-sn/jj

migrants

France bans 10 British anti-migrant activists

BY KENAN AUGEARD WITH ESTELLE EMONET IN PARIS

  • On Tuesday, "territorial bans were issued against 10 British nationals, identified as activists within the movement and having carried out actions on French soil", it said.
  • French authorities have banned 10 British far-right activists for actions in France intended to stop migrants crossing to England on small boats, the interior ministry said Wednesday.
  • On Tuesday, "territorial bans were issued against 10 British nationals, identified as activists within the movement and having carried out actions on French soil", it said.
French authorities have banned 10 British far-right activists for actions in France intended to stop migrants crossing to England on small boats, the interior ministry said Wednesday.
Immigration has become a central political issue in the United Kingdom, as the government seeks to stem a wave of undocumented migrants arriving on British shores after paying smugglers to cross the Channel.
The arrivals have fuelled widespread public concern and rising anger on the British far right, and since last year videos have circulated of anti-migrant vigilantes visiting France to take matters into their own hands.
France's interior ministry said it responded to reports that members of the "Raise the Colours" movement had conducted anti-migrant activities in France.
On Tuesday, "territorial bans were issued against 10 British nationals, identified as activists within the movement and having carried out actions on French soil", it said.
"Raise the Colours" on X denounced the ban as "absolutely disgraceful".
In a written comment to AFP, it said it understood the ban targeted "specific individuals, rather than the organisation as a whole".
"Raise the Colours has always maintained that its activities must remain peaceful and within the law. The organisation does not support violence or any unlawful activity," it added.
Its website on Wednesday included a banner that said the movement did not support "vigilante behaviour" or "anyone travelling to France, approaching migrant vessels, or attempting to intervene in crossings".

'Not welcome'

The French ministry said it would not name the 10 people, and did not describe the exact nature of their actions.
French authorities have opened an investigation over an alleged "aggravated assault" on migrants in September in a coastal area near the northern city of Dunkirk.
Four men carrying British and English flags verbally and physically assaulted a group of migrants in Grand-Fort-Philippe on the night on September 9 to 10, telling them they were not welcome in England, a charity working with migrants called Utopia 56 told AFP.
"Raise The Colours", in a post on X responding to a news report of the probe in November, however claimed it had "only been going over to France in the past month".
Another of its social media accounts on Instagram late last year posted videos of anti-immigration activists on France's northern coastline.
In one video posted in November, a man filmed himself on a French beach, saying he had found a small inflatable boat buried in the sand and had slashed it.
"That is not going to England," said the man, who elsewhere has called himself Ryan Bridge.
In another post published earlier the same month, he waded into the sea shouting at what appeared to be dozens of undocumented migrants boarding an inflatable dinghy on their way to England.
"You're not welcome in our country," he said, calling the passengers "potential rapists, murderers and child abusers".
In a third November video, Bridge filmed himself in the French capital speaking to would-be migrants.
AFP had spotted three such individuals on a beach in the northern area of Gravelines on December 5.

'Fan hatred'

Paul Alauzy, from the Medecins du Monde charity that helps migrants, welcomed what he described as a travel ban against "far-right activists who fan hatred and sow division by targeting extremely vulnerable people who are simply seeking refuge".
A spokeswoman from L'Auberge des Migrants, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her safety, said it was a good move from the French authorities, but that it came very late.
Her charity had been signalling a problem since May last year, she said, adding they had received reports of people being tasered and person who had their arm broken.
The debate about immigration in the United Kingdom last year triggered a new trend of flying English and British flags.
Anti-racism campaigners say far-right activists are behind the main organisers, "Raise the Colours".
Migrants from impoverished or war-torn countries have long sought to cross the Channel from France to the United Kingdon dreaming of a better life in Britain.
Last year saw the second highest number of undocumented migrants arrive on British shores since such crossings began in 2018.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has struggled to reduce the number of migrants arriving in the country -- the vast majority of them legally.
The issue is being exploited by the anti-immigration Reform party led by Nigel Farage. 
burs-ah/giv

election

Japan's Takaichi to dissolve parliament for snap election

BY TOMOHIRO OSAKI AND KYOKO HASEGAWA

  • "I was notified by Prime Minister Takaichi that she will dissolve" the lower house "at an early stage of the ordinary parliamentary session", Hirofumi Yoshimura, one of the leaders of the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), told reporters.
  • Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi intends to dissolve the lower house for a snap election soon after a parliamentary session begins next week, her ruling party and a coalition partner said Wednesday.
  • "I was notified by Prime Minister Takaichi that she will dissolve" the lower house "at an early stage of the ordinary parliamentary session", Hirofumi Yoshimura, one of the leaders of the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), told reporters.
Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi intends to dissolve the lower house for a snap election soon after a parliamentary session begins next week, her ruling party and a coalition partner said Wednesday.
Takaichi was appointed Japan's first woman prime minister in October and her cabinet is enjoying an approval rating of around 70 percent.
But her ruling bloc only has a slim majority in the powerful lower house of parliament, hindering its ability to push through her ambitious policy agenda.
"I was notified by Prime Minister Takaichi that she will dissolve" the lower house "at an early stage of the ordinary parliamentary session", Hirofumi Yoshimura, one of the leaders of the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), told reporters.
Yoshimura added that Takaichi told him she planned to hold a news conference on Monday to explain more about her decision.
The Tokyo stock market closed 1.5 percent higher and the yen slumped to its lowest value since mid-2024 on media reports that the election could take place as soon as February 8.
The prime minister also conveyed her intention to dissolve the chamber to Shunichi Suzuki, secretary-general of her ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), he said.
Suzuki told reporters in Tokyo that the election would in part be about seeking a public mandate on the current LDP-JIP partnership, which materialised only recently after the ruling party's former partner exited the coalition.
The junior Komeito party ended its 26-year relationship with the LDP last year, citing the LDP's failure to tighten party funding rules following a damaging slush fund scandal.
It was also unnerved by Takaichi's previous harsh rhetoric on China and her regular visits to a Tokyo shrine that honours Japan's war dead, including war criminals.

Budget bill

If Takaichi dissolves the lower house on January 23, which is the start of a regular parliament session, the most likely election date would be February 8, various media reported.
By keeping short the period between parliament dissolution and a general election, Takaichi hopes to curb the election's impact on parliamentary debate over the budget bill for the upcoming fiscal year, the Yomiuri newspaper said.
Takaichi's cabinet approved a record 122.3-trillion-yen ($768 billion) budget for the fiscal year from April 2026, and she has vowed to get parliamentary approval as soon as possible to address inflation and shore up the world's fourth-largest economy.
Takaichi became Japan's fifth premier in as many years when she was elected, initially as the head of a minority government.
Her LDP and the JIP regained their lower-house majority in November after three lawmakers joined the LDP.
The ruling bloc remains a minority in the upper house.
Takaichi reportedly hopes a bigger majority will help her implement her agenda of more "proactive" fiscal spending, and may also help her break the deadlock in a spat with China.
Ties have deteriorated since Takaichi suggested in November that Japan could intervene militarily if China ever launched an attack on Taiwan, the self-ruled island it claims.
tmo-kh/ami/mjw

economy

Louvre and other French museums fare hikes for non-European visitors

BY JéRéMY TORDJMAN AND ADAM PLOWRIGHT

  • The move is one of the boldest adoptions in Europe of so-called "dual pricing" at museums -- charging visitors different prices depending on their origins.
  • France began charging non-EU visitors to the Louvre Museum 45 percent more than Europeans on Wednesday, in a controversial bid to raise money for renovations at the beleaguered Paris landmark. 
  • The move is one of the boldest adoptions in Europe of so-called "dual pricing" at museums -- charging visitors different prices depending on their origins.
France began charging non-EU visitors to the Louvre Museum 45 percent more than Europeans on Wednesday, in a controversial bid to raise money for renovations at the beleaguered Paris landmark. 
The move is one of the boldest adoptions in Europe of so-called "dual pricing" at museums -- charging visitors different prices depending on their origins.
The practice is common in many developing countries, but until now was largely absent in Europe and has been criticised for being discriminatory and reducing access for some low-income foreign visitors to the home of the Mona Lisa.
Tourists who spoke to AFP on Wednesday had mixed reactions.
Kevin Flynn, an Australian in his 60s in Paris for a week with his wife, said the new 32-euro (37-dollar) tariff for non-Europeans was "acceptable".
"It’s the same price for many things in Italy, many things in Malta ... of such magnitude," he said.
But others, such as Joohwan Tak from South Korea, thought it was "unfair."
"We’re all human beings. It’s a big difference," he added.
"If I go to India, people from India pay less than people from abroad - it's fair because they have less money," added Marcia Branco from Brazil. "But because I'm in Paris and it's supposed to be a rich country I think it's not fair."
Other state-owned French cultural tourist hotspots are also hiking their fees for non-EU visitors, including the Versailles Palace, Chambord Palace in the Loire region and the national opera house in Paris.
The government has justified the increases on financial grounds, saying the change at the Louvre would raise 20-30 million euros annually for the museum which needs repairs and suffered a major robbery last October.
Trade unions at the Louvre have denounced the policy as "shocking philosophically, socially and on a human level" and have cited the change among complaints that have sparked recent strike action.
They argue that the museum's vast collection of around 500,000 items, including many from Egypt, the Middle East or Africa, hold universal human value. 
While rejecting discriminatory pricing on principle, they are also worried for practical reasons, as staff will now need to check visitors' identity papers.
French academic Patrick Poncet has drawn a parallel between France's move and the "America First" policies of US President Donald Trump, whose administration hiked the cost for foreign tourists of visiting US National Parks by $100 on January 1.
The French policy was "symptomatic of the return, as elsewhere in the world, of unabashed nationalism", Poncet wrote in Le Monde newspaper last month.
It remains to be seen whether the break with European convention by the continent's most-visited country will spur other cultural destinations to follow suit.
Price discounts based on age are commonplace in Europe, with access for under-18s free at places such as the Acropolis in Athens, the Prado in Madrid or the Colosseum in Rome to encourage them to visit.
The Louvre remains free for minors from all countries and Europeans under 26. 
adp/yad

environment

As world burns, India's Amitav Ghosh writes for the future

  • But he is wary of overstating literature's capacity to change history.
  • Indian writer Amitav Ghosh has long chronicled the entangled histories of empire, trade and migration.
  • But he is wary of overstating literature's capacity to change history.
Indian writer Amitav Ghosh has long chronicled the entangled histories of empire, trade and migration.
But his recent work focuses on what he considers the most urgent concern: the accelerating unravelling of the natural world and the moral legacy left for the future.
Author of "The Great Derangement", "The Glass Palace" and the forthcoming "Ghost-Eye", Ghosh speaks bluntly about our headlong rush towards disaster while treating the Earth as an inert resource rather than a living world.
"Sadly, instead of shifting course, what we're actually doing is accelerating towards the abyss," he told AFP from a bookshop in New Delhi. "It's like people have lost their minds."
"We're hurtling down that path of extractivism," he said. "Greenwashing rhetoric has been completely adopted by politicians. And they've become very skilled at it."
His latest novel, a mystery about reincarnation, also touches on ecological crisis, with the "ghost-eye" of its title symbolising the ability to perceive both visible and invisible alternatives.

'Little joys'

Despite his subject matter, Ghosh manages to resist writing from a place of unrelenting grief.
"You can't just write in the tone of tragic despair," he said, calling himself "by nature, sort of a buoyant person".
"One has to try and find the little joys that the world offers," the 69-year-old said. 
For Ghosh, one of those joys arrives each week, when his nine-month-old grandson comes to visit.
The baby is central to Ghosh's motivation to pen another manuscript, one that will remain sealed for nearly a century as part of the Future Library project.
"I think what I'm going to end up doing is writing a letter to my grandson", he said. 
"In an earlier generation, young people would ask their parents, 'What were you doing during the war?'" he said. 
"I think my grandson's generation will be asking, 'What were you doing when the world was going up in flames?' He'll know that I was thinking about these things."
Ghosh will submit his manuscript this year as part of Norway's literary time capsule, joining works by Margaret Atwood, Han Kang, Elif Shafak and others to be sealed until 2114.

Mysterious world

"It's an astonishingly difficult challenge," he said, knowing his book will be read when the world "will be nothing like" today.
"I can't really believe that all the structures we depend on will survive into the 22nd century," he said.
"We can see how quickly everything is unravelling around us," he added.
That change is fuelling the world's "increasingly dysfunctional politics", he said.
The younger generations "see their horizons crashing around them," he said. "And that's what creates this extreme anxiety which leads, on the one hand, to these right-wing movements, where they're filled with nostalgia for the past, and on the other hand, equally, it also fuels a certain left-wing despair."
Born in Kolkata in 1956, Ghosh rose to prominence with novels such as "The Shadow Lines" and "The Calcutta Chromosome", and later the acclaimed Ibis Trilogy. 
He holds India's highest literary honour, the Jnanpith Award, won numerous international prizes, including France's Prix Medicis Etranger, and is regularly tipped as a possible Nobel winner.
But he is wary of overstating literature's capacity to change history.
"As a writer, it would be really vainglorious to imagine that we can change things in the world," he said, while accepting that young activists tell him they are "energised" by his books.
Ghosh keeps writing, not out of faith that words can halt catastrophe, but because they can inspire different kinds of thought.
His involvement with the Future Library embodies that impulse: a grandfather's attempt to speak honestly from a burning world.
"We have to restore alternative ways of thinking about the world around us, of recognising that it's a world that's filled with mystery," he said. "The world is much, much stranger than we imagine."
pjm/lb

conflict

West Bank Bedouin community driven out by Israeli settler violence

  • "What is happening today is the complete collapse of the community as a result of the settlers' continuous and repeated attacks, day and night, for the past two years," Farhan Jahaleen, a Bedouin in the village of Ras Ein al-Auja, told AFP. Since Israel took control of the West Bank in 1967, Israeli outposts have steadily expanded, with more than 500,000 settlers now living in the territory, which is also home to three million Palestinians. 
  • With heavy hearts, Bedouins in a West Bank village dismantle their sheep pens and load belongings onto trucks, forced from their homes in the Israeli-occupied territory by rising settler violence.
  • "What is happening today is the complete collapse of the community as a result of the settlers' continuous and repeated attacks, day and night, for the past two years," Farhan Jahaleen, a Bedouin in the village of Ras Ein al-Auja, told AFP. Since Israel took control of the West Bank in 1967, Israeli outposts have steadily expanded, with more than 500,000 settlers now living in the territory, which is also home to three million Palestinians. 
With heavy hearts, Bedouins in a West Bank village dismantle their sheep pens and load belongings onto trucks, forced from their homes in the Israeli-occupied territory by rising settler violence.
While attacks by Israeli settlers affect communities across the West Bank, the semi-nomadic Bedouins are among the territory's most vulnerable, saying they suffer from forced displacement due in large part to a lack of law enforcement.
"What is happening today is the complete collapse of the community as a result of the settlers' continuous and repeated attacks, day and night, for the past two years," Farhan Jahaleen, a Bedouin in the village of Ras Ein al-Auja, told AFP.
Since Israel took control of the West Bank in 1967, Israeli outposts have steadily expanded, with more than 500,000 settlers now living in the territory, which is also home to three million Palestinians. 
A minority of settlers engage in violence towards the locals aimed at coercing them to leave, with the UN recording an unprecedented 260 attacks in October last year.
The threat of displacement has long hung over Jahaleen's community, but the pressure has multiplied in recent months as about half of the hamlet's 130 families decided to flee.
Among them, 20 families from the local Ka'abneh clan left last week, he said, while around another 50 families have been dismantling their homes.

'We can't do anything'

The trailers of settlers dot the landscape around the village but are gradually being replaced by houses with permanent foundations, some built just 100 metres (300 feet) from Bedouin homes.
In May last year, settlers diverted water from the village's most precious resource -- the spring after which it is named.
Nestled between rocky hills to the west and the flat Jordan Valley that climbs up the Jordanian plateau to the east, the spring had allowed the community to remain self-sufficient.
But Bedouin families have been driven away by the constant need to stand guard to avoid settlers cutting the power supply and irrigation pipes, or bringing their herds to graze near Bedouin houses.
"If you defend your home, the (Israeli) police or army will come and arrest you. We can't do anything," lamented Naif Zayed, another local.
"There is no specific place for people to go; people are acting on their own, to each their own."
Most Palestinian Bedouins are herders, which leaves them particularly exposed to violence when Israeli settlers bring their own herds that compete for grazing land in isolated rural areas.
It is a strategy that settlement watchdog organisations have called "pastoral colonialism".
Israel's military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said in November that he wanted to put a stop to the violence. This month the army announced new monitoring technology to enforce movement restrictions on both Israelis and Palestinians, with Israeli media reporting the move was largely aimed at reining in settler attacks.
Asked for comment, the Israeli military said: "Incidents in the Ras al-Ain are well known. (Israeli military) forces enter the area in accordance with calls and operational needs, aiming to prevent friction between populations and to maintain order and security in the area."
It said it had increased its presence in the area "due to the many recent friction incidents".

'Bedouin way of life'

Naaman Ehrizat, another herder from Ras Ein al-Auja, told AFP he had already moved his sheep to the southern West Bank city of Hebron ahead of his relocation.
But Jahaleen said moving to other rural parts of the territory risks exposing the herders to yet more displacement in the future.
He pointed to other families pushed out of the nearby village of Jiftlik, who were again displaced after moving to a village in the Jordan Valley.
Slogans spray-painted in Arabic have appeared along major roads in the West Bank in recent months that read: "No future in Palestine".
For Jahaleen, whose family has lived in Ras Ein al-Auja since 1991, the message sums up his feelings.
"The settlers completely destroyed the Bedouin way of life, obliterated the culture and identity, and used every method to change the Bedouin way of life in general, with the complete destruction of life," he said.
vid-lba/jd/axn/dcp/ceg

economy

France climate goals off track as emissions cuts slow again

BY JULIEN MIVIELLE

  • France's emissions were estimated to have declined 1.6 percent year-on-year, said Citepa, a non-profit organisation tasked by France's ecology ministry with tallying the country's greenhouse gas inventory.
  • France's cuts to greenhouse gas emissions slowed for a second straight year in 2025 and remain well off track to meeting its climate goals, according to provisional government-commissioned estimates published on Tuesday.
  • France's emissions were estimated to have declined 1.6 percent year-on-year, said Citepa, a non-profit organisation tasked by France's ecology ministry with tallying the country's greenhouse gas inventory.
France's cuts to greenhouse gas emissions slowed for a second straight year in 2025 and remain well off track to meeting its climate goals, according to provisional government-commissioned estimates published on Tuesday.
The slowdown comes as government appetite for climate action flags and major economies struggle to make good on their pledges to reduce planet-warming pollution.
France's emissions were estimated to have declined 1.6 percent year-on-year, said Citepa, a non-profit organisation tasked by France's ecology ministry with tallying the country's greenhouse gas inventory.
The reduction of 5.8 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent was "far below the pace needed to reach 2030 targets", which would require cuts nearly three times larger, Citepa said.
"The decrease in emissions is confirmed for 2025. This is an encouraging sign but it is not enough," Monique Barbut, France's ecological transition minister, said in a press release.
She said all sectors needed to double their efforts to make cuts in greenhouse gases.
The result echoes a slowdown in neighbouring Germany, where emissions fell just 1.5 percent in 2025, the Agora Energiewende expert group said in its annual report last week.
Emissions in the United States meanwhile rose 2.4 percent last year, the Rhodium Group think tank said on Tuesday, spurred by demand for heating and electricity for the AI boom in the world's biggest economy. 
France unveiled in December its updated pathway for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. 
To stay on track, greenhouse gas emissions need to fall 4.6 percent on average every year until 2030.
After France slashed its output by 3.9 percent in 2022 and 6.8 percent in 2023, the rate slowed sharply to 1.8 percent in 2024.
Citepa had earlier predicted a decline of just 0.8 percent in 2025 but said fresh data and updated methods of calculation had allowed a "more accurate" estimate for the full year.

Climate risk

Big polluting nations most responsible for climate change are under pressure to make faster and deeper cuts to the emissions driving record-breaking global temperatures and more extreme weather events.
Scientists say the last three years have been the hottest globally on record.
France encouraged energy saving after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 but since then has faltered in decarbonising some of its most polluting industries.
While improvements were recorded in 2025 in heavy-emitting sectors such as industry, agriculture and transport, they remained virtually flat in energy and waste treatment, Citepa said.
The latest assessment highlighted the urgency for France to phase out its use of fossil fuels, said Anne Bringault, a director at Climate Action Network France.
"It is high time to take seriously the climate risk but also the geopolitical risk of making us suffer from our dependence on fossil fuels, which are overwhelmingly imported," she told AFP.
The European Union has pledged to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent by 2040 compared to 1990 levels. 
It achieved a 37-percent reduction by 2023.
jmi/np/gil

obituary

Hong Kong activist investor David Webb dies at 60

BY TOMMY WANG

  • "It is with great sadness that we share that David M. Webb MBE passed away peacefully in Hong Kong on Tuesday January 13th, 2026 from metastatic prostate cancer," the statement read.
  • David Webb, a Hong Kong activist investor who campaigned for market transparency and democratic accountability, died on Tuesday aged 60, according to a statement posted on his social media.
  • "It is with great sadness that we share that David M. Webb MBE passed away peacefully in Hong Kong on Tuesday January 13th, 2026 from metastatic prostate cancer," the statement read.
David Webb, a Hong Kong activist investor who campaigned for market transparency and democratic accountability, died on Tuesday aged 60, according to a statement posted on his social media.
"It is with great sadness that we share that David M. Webb MBE passed away peacefully in Hong Kong on Tuesday January 13th, 2026 from metastatic prostate cancer," the statement read.
"David will be missed by family, many friends, and supporters. The family request privacy at this difficult time."
Webb was championed by retail investors, who saw him as a rare outlier in a corporate world known for vested interests and opacity -- and a headache for regulators whose failings he laid bare.
His online database, Webb-site, was an invaluable resource for regulators, investors, journalists and lawyers for decades until its shutdown late last year.
Webb told AFP in 2024 that his ethos could be summed up in one word: "fairness".
"Fair treatment, which comes with giving people all the information that is relevant and giving them the power to make decisions," he said.
"And choice, whether it's in economics or in finance or in politics."
Webb revealed his cancer diagnosis in 2020.
He was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) last year for his decades-long contributions to Hong Kong.

'Did my best'

Born in Britain, Webb moved to Hong Kong from London in 1991 and retired from investment banking seven years later.
"Having already made enough money to be financially secure, I was more interested in leaving some mark on the system than just dying rich," Webb told AFP.
His wide-ranging causes included corporate transparency and tax reform.
He founded his non-profit website in 1998, which tracked the ins and outs of the financial sector and gave him a platform.
His greatest triumph was his 2017 expose of the "Enigma Network", involving cross-shareholdings in 50 listed companies, which had eluded regulators.
The ensuing crash wiped out $6 billion in market value.
Webb was a longtime member of Hong Kong's Takeovers and Mergers Panel and at one time served as an independent director of the city's stock exchange operator.
He told AFP he often ran up against vested interests but "I don't think I'm at war with anybody".
Webb, who became a Hong Kong permanent resident, believed that the former British colony's success was its "differentiation" from mainland China.
He addressed pro-democracy demonstrators during the city's 2014 Umbrella Movement, speaking in favour of a "free market in leadership".
The activist investor also criticised Hong Kong authorities during the city's huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019.
In one of his last public appearances, Webb warned in May 2025 that the rise of authoritarianism in Hong Kong had threatened its core economic model.
Looking back at his career, he told reporters he was "certain" he would stay in Hong Kong.
"I wanted to make a contribution... I will die confident that I did my best."
twa-hol/dhw/abs

Auto

'Proving the boys wrong': Teenage racers picked for elite driver programme

BY JESSICA HOWARD-JOHNSTON WITH JOHN WEAVER IN LONDON

  • "It's nice because you're proving all of the boys wrong," the 17-year-old, with Romanian and US citizenship, told AFP. "But on the other hand it's nice to have other people who are dreaming the same as you in a way and that they want to prove themselves as much as you." 
  • Teenage racer Zoe Florescu Potolea says it's nice to "prove the boys wrong" as she celebrates being named on Tuesday among five new drivers picked for a programme to develop elite female F1 talent.
  • "It's nice because you're proving all of the boys wrong," the 17-year-old, with Romanian and US citizenship, told AFP. "But on the other hand it's nice to have other people who are dreaming the same as you in a way and that they want to prove themselves as much as you." 
Teenage racer Zoe Florescu Potolea says it's nice to "prove the boys wrong" as she celebrates being named on Tuesday among five new drivers picked for a programme to develop elite female F1 talent.
The mission of the More Than Equal project is simple and fearlessly ambitious -- to find and develop the first woman Formula One world champion.
F1 attracts legions of female fans, with the numbers turbo-charged by the behind-the-scenes Netflix show "Drive to Survive".
But there has not been a single woman on the grid since 1976 -- when Italian Lella Lombardi competed.
Florescu Potolea, recently put through her paces in an F4 car at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, is used to being the only girl on the track.
"It's nice because you're proving all of the boys wrong," the 17-year-old, with Romanian and US citizenship, told AFP.
"But on the other hand it's nice to have other people who are dreaming the same as you in a way and that they want to prove themselves as much as you." 
Florescu Potolea, wearing a red helmet adorned with yellow "Zs", said it was "about time" a woman was back in F1.
"One of the biggest things is, honestly, believing that you can do it or believing that you're wanted in the sport," she added. "And to be honest I think it is very hard as women in the sport."
Florescu Potolea joins Sweden's Alexia Danielsson, Polish pair Amelia Wyszomirska and Julia Angelard and South Africa's Gianna Pascoal as the new kids on the block.
The existing cohort on the More Than Equal programme comprises Austrian Ivonn Simeonova, Lana Flack, from Australia, and Britain's Skye Parker.

Talent search

The project was founded by Czech entrepreneur and philanthropist Karel Komarek and former F1 driver David Coulthard.
Drivers are selected using a data-driven global talent ranking system, combined with in-depth assessments measuring driving performance, physical capability, psychological readiness and long-term development potential.
Each receives tailored technical and tactical coaching, physical and mental performance support.
"This work is about shaping what the future of the sport can and should look like, and we are proud to support the next generation of female drivers as they progress in their careers," said Britain's Coulthard.
In Spain the girls were given technical briefings and went through various warm-up exercises, including working on hand-eye coordination with tennis balls.
Danielsson was also in action in Montmelo, north of Barcelona, driving in mixed weather conditions on a track backdropped by mountains.
"Motorsport is just a male-dominated sport. And I think that many girls don't think that they belong in this sport, but they do," she said.
"When I was growing up, I didn't really have any to look up to that was female and a driver. And maybe in the future I get to be that role person."
"In ten years, my dream scenario would be racing in F1," she added. "And just living my dream life."
Tom Stanton, chief executive officer of More Than Equal, said it is exciting to build on the work already done with the first group of girls.
"This intake reflects the growing depth of female talent worldwide, strengthens our global programme, and reinforces our focus on giving talented drivers the preparation they need to progress through the ranks," he said. 
jw/jkb/ea

internet

Social media harms teens, watchdog warns, as France weighs ban

BY RéBECCA FRASQUET

  • France is currently debating two bills, one backed by President Emmanuel Macron, that would ban social media for under 15s.
  • Social media harms the mental health of adolescents, particularly girls, France's health watchdog said Tuesday as the country debates banning children under 15 from accessing the immensely popular platforms.
  • France is currently debating two bills, one backed by President Emmanuel Macron, that would ban social media for under 15s.
Social media harms the mental health of adolescents, particularly girls, France's health watchdog said Tuesday as the country debates banning children under 15 from accessing the immensely popular platforms.
The results of an expert scientific review on the subject were announced after Australia became the first country to prohibit big platforms including Instagram, TikTok and YouTube for under 16s last month, while other nations consider following its lead.
Using social media is not the sole cause of the declining mental health of teenagers, but its negative effects are "numerous" and well documented, the French public health watchdog ANSES wrote in its opinion, the result of five years of work by a committee of experts.
France is currently debating two bills, one backed by President Emmanuel Macron, that would ban social media for under 15s.
The ANSES opinion recommended "acting at the source" to ensure that children can only access social networks "designed and configured to protect their health".
This means that the platforms would have to change their personalised algorithms, persuasive techniques and default settings, according to the agency.
"This study provides scientific arguments for the debate about social networks in recent years: it is based on 1,000 studies," the expert panel's head Olivia Roth-Delgado told a press conference.
Social media can create an "unprecedented echo chamber" that reinforces stereotypes, promotes risky behaviour and promotes cyberbullying, the ANSES opinion said.
The content also portrays an unrealistic idea of beauty via digitally altered images that can lead to low self-esteem in girls, which creates fertile ground for depression or eating disorders, it added.
Girls -- who use social media more than boys -- are subjected to more of the "social pressure linked to gender stereotypes," the opinion said. 
This means girls are more affected by the dangers of social media -- as are LGBT people and those with pre-existing mental health conditions, it added.
On Monday, tech giant Meta urged Australia to rethink its teen social media ban, while reporting that it has blocked more than 544,000 Instagram, Facebook and Threads accounts under the new law.
Meta said parents and experts were worried about the ban isolating young people from online communities, and driving some to less regulated apps and darker corners of the internet.
Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter, is meanwhile facing a global backlash for allowing users to use its AI chatbot Grok to create sexualised pictures of women and children using simple prompts such as "put her in a bikini".
ref/dl/yad

economy

French museum fare hikes for non-European tourists spark outcry

BY JéRéMY TORDJMAN AND ADAM PLOWRIGHT

  • - 'Not meant to pay' - Other state-owned French tourist hotspots are also hiking their fees, including the Chambord Palace in the Loire region and the national opera house in Paris.
  • Should foreign tourists pay more for state-funded galleries than locals, or should art be accessible to all, without discrimination?
  • - 'Not meant to pay' - Other state-owned French tourist hotspots are also hiking their fees, including the Chambord Palace in the Loire region and the national opera house in Paris.
Should foreign tourists pay more for state-funded galleries than locals, or should art be accessible to all, without discrimination? France is hiking prices for non-Europeans at the Louvre this week, provoking debate about so-called "dual pricing". 
From Wednesday, any adult visitor from outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway will have to pay 32 euros ($37) to enter the Louvre -- a 45-percent increase -- while the Palace of Versailles will up its prices by three euros.
Americans, UK citizens and Chinese nationals, who are some of the museum's most numerous foreign visitors, will be among those affected, as will tourists from poorer countries.
The French move has few precedents elsewhere in Europe, but is more common in developing countries, where tariffs at sites such as Machu Picchu in Peru or the Taj Mahal in India vary.
Trade unions at the Louvre have denounced the policy as "shocking philosophically, socially and on a human level" and have called for strike action over the change, along with a raft of other complaints.
They argue that the museum's vast collection of 500,000 items, including many from Egypt, the Middle East or Africa, hold universal human value. 
While rejecting discriminatory pricing on principle, they are also worried for practical reasons, as staff will now need to check visitors' identity papers.
French academic Patrick Poncet has drawn a parallel between France's move and the policies of US President Donald Trump, whose administration hiked the cost for foreign tourists of visiting US National Parks by $100 on January 1.
The French policy was "symptomatic of the return, as elsewhere in the world, of unabashed nationalism", Poncet wrote in Le Monde newspaper last month.

'Not meant to pay'

Other state-owned French tourist hotspots are also hiking their fees, including the Chambord Palace in the Loire region and the national opera house in Paris.
The government has justified the increases on financial grounds, looking to raise 20-30 million euros annually at a time when it is under pressure to boost revenues and cut spending.
Some of the funds will go towards a colossal plan to renovate the Louvre, which French President Emmanuel Macron announced last year.
Estimated to cost around a billion euros, unions and some art critics have called the project wasteful.
Everyone agrees the Louvre is in poor shape, however, with a recent water leak, structural problems and an embarrassing daylight robbery in October focusing minds.
"I want visitors from outside the EU to pay more for their entry tickets and for that surcharge to go toward funding the renovation of our national heritage," Culture Minister Rachida Dati said at the end of 2024 as she announced the hikes. 
"The French are not meant to pay for everything all by themselves," she added.

European outlier

It remains to be seen whether the break with European convention by the continent's most-visited country will spur other cultural destinations to follow suit.
Pricing based on age is commonplace in Europe, with access for under-18s free at places such as the Acropolis in Athens, the Prado in Madrid or the Colosseum in Rome to encourage them to visit.
The Louvre will remain free for minors from all countries and Europeans under 26.
Other destinations, such as the Doge's Palace in Venice, offer free entrance for city residents.
Britain has long had a policy of offering universal free access to permanent collections at its national galleries and museums.
But the former director of the British Museum, Mark Jones, backed fee-paying in one of his last interviews in charge, telling The Sunday Times newspaper in 2024 that "it would make sense for us to charge overseas visitors for admission".
The proposal prompted debate but has not been adopted. 
A research paper published last year by The Cultural Policy Unit, a British museum think tank, opposed it for both practical and philosophical reasons. 
It would reduce entries, lengthen queue times and overturn a centuries-old policy, the report concluded.
"Britain holds its national collections for the world -- not just its own residents," it objected. 
jt-adp/cc/sbk

computers

UK regulator opens probe into X over sexualised AI imagery

BY ALEXANDRA BACON

  • It is meanwhile illegal for sites to create or share non-consensual intimate images, or child sexual abuse material, including sexual deepfakes created with AI. Ofcom has the power to impose fines of 10 percent of an offending company's worldwide revenue for breaches of these rules.
  • UK media regulator Ofcom on Monday launched a formal investigation into Elon Musk's X over its AI chatbot Grok's image-creation feature that has been used to produce sexualised deepfakes.
  • It is meanwhile illegal for sites to create or share non-consensual intimate images, or child sexual abuse material, including sexual deepfakes created with AI. Ofcom has the power to impose fines of 10 percent of an offending company's worldwide revenue for breaches of these rules.
UK media regulator Ofcom on Monday launched a formal investigation into Elon Musk's X over its AI chatbot Grok's image-creation feature that has been used to produce sexualised deepfakes.
The probe came as Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned: "If X cannot control Grok, we will -- and we'll do it fast because if you profit from harm and abuse, you lose the right to self regulate."
Grok is facing growing international backlash for allowing users to create and share sexualised pictures of women and children using simple text prompts.
Ofcom described the reports as "deeply concerning".
It said in a statement that the undressed images of people "may amount to intimate image abuse or pornography -- and sexualised images of children... may amount to child sexual abuse material".
Starmer's office welcomed the investigation, saying that Ofcom "has our full support to take any action it sees fit".
Ofcom said it had contacted X on January 5 asking it to explain the steps it has taken to protect UK users. 
Without sharing details of the exchange, the regulator said that X responded within the given timeframe.
The formal investigation will determine whether X failed to meet its legal obligations.
Contacted by AFP, X referred to a previous statement, which said: "We take action against illegal content on X... by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary."

Global backlash

Under Britain's Online Safety Act, which entered force in July, websites, social media and video-sharing platforms hosting potentially harmful content are required to implement strict age verification through tools such as facial imagery or credit card checks.
It is meanwhile illegal for sites to create or share non-consensual intimate images, or child sexual abuse material, including sexual deepfakes created with AI.
Ofcom has the power to impose fines of 10 percent of an offending company's worldwide revenue for breaches of these rules.
Addressing parliament Monday, Technology Minister Liz Kendall pledged to go further, by creating a new criminal offence which would "make it illegal for companies to supply tools designed to create non-consensual internet images".
She added that "tackling violence against women and girls is as important online as it is in the real world". 
Musk's xAI company, which runs Grok, sought to deflect the international criticism with a new monetisation policy at the end of last week, posting on Grok's X account that the tool was now "limited to paying subscribers", alongside a link to a premium subscription.
Starmer, speaking to a meeting of his Labour Party's lawmakers, branded the actions of Grok and X "absolutely disgusting and shameful". 
Musk brushed off the UK's criticism this weekend, posting on X that "they just want to suppress free speech".
On Saturday, Indonesia became the first country to deny all access to the tool, with Malaysia following suit Sunday.
The European Commission, which acts as the EU's digital watchdog, has ordered X to retain all internal documents and data related to Grok until the end of 2026 in response to the uproar.
"We will not be outsourcing child protection and consent to Silicon Valley," European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday. 
"If they don't act, we will," she added. 
bur-ajb/har/rmb

rights

Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine warns of protests if polls rigged

BY ROSE TROUP BUCHANAN

  • "If General Museveni rigs the election, we shall call for protests," Wine told AFP at his home in the capital Kampala.
  • Uganda's opposition leader told AFP on Monday that he would call for protests if President Yoweri Museveni rigs this week's election and said he would welcome an intervention by the United States.
  • "If General Museveni rigs the election, we shall call for protests," Wine told AFP at his home in the capital Kampala.
Uganda's opposition leader told AFP on Monday that he would call for protests if President Yoweri Museveni rigs this week's election and said he would welcome an intervention by the United States.
More than 20 million people are registered to vote in the east African country on Thursday, with 81-year-old Museveni widely expected to continue his four-decade rule thanks to his near-total control of the state and security apparatus.
His main opponent is singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine, 43 -- real name Robert Kyagulanyi -- who is taking a second run at the presidency after his 2021 campaign was met with violent repression and alleged rigging.
"If General Museveni rigs the election, we shall call for protests," Wine told AFP at his home in the capital Kampala.
"We've told the people not to wait for our instruction," he added.
The United Nations and Amnesty International are among the watchdogs accusing Uganda's government of repression ahead of the polls, including hundreds of arrests of Wine's supporters.
There has been increasing political unrest across east Africa as the region's youthful population protests the erosion of democracy and lack of jobs in Kenya, Tanzania and beyond. 
Wine acknowledged that protests were likely to provoke more crackdown.
"I know that General Museveni's government responds to everything with violence... But I also know that even violent regimes get thrown out by protests," he told AFP.
"We did not promise comfort. We did not promise that they will not unleash violence upon us. But we have insisted that our people must be non-violent because we know non-violence defeats violence."
Asked if he would welcome a direct intervention by the US, such as seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Wine said: "Yeah. I would."
"I believe that any assistance that comes our way is helpful. However, that assistance should not be to take over our country," he said.
"I firmly believe that the responsibility to liberate our country, to govern our country, and to move it forward, lies entirely with the people of Uganda."

'Bobi is our Jesus'

Rapturous crowds greeted Wine's convoy as it passed through Kampala to one of his final rallies, people lining the streets, hoisting children onto shoulders, and screaming their support. 
"Bobi is our Jesus Christ," two men on a motorbike shouted as they drove alongside his car.
Thousands gathered off Gadafi road in central Kampala. The crowd, mostly young men packed incredibly tightly, boisterously waited for his speech despite a sudden torrential rainfall.
"We need a new Uganda which functions with no corruption, freedom and employment for everyone," supporter Ssalongo Adam Mwanje told AFP.
"I want to vote for Bobi Wine so he can bring a new Uganda," said Marsha Madinah.
To huge cheers, Wine told the crowd: "If the parliament refuses to come to the ghetto, the ghetto will come to the parliament."
A large police and security presence deterred crowds from staying as the sun went down, but there was no violence as people dispersed.
"Museveni is not one of you, I am you and you are me," Wine said as he wrapped up.
str-rbu/ach 

Meta

Meta urges Australia to change teen social media ban

  • The government said it was holding social media companies to account for the harm they cause young Australians.
  • Tech giant Meta urged Australia on Monday to rethink its world-first social media ban for under-16s, while reporting that it has blocked more than 544,000 accounts under the new law.
  • The government said it was holding social media companies to account for the harm they cause young Australians.
Tech giant Meta urged Australia on Monday to rethink its world-first social media ban for under-16s, while reporting that it has blocked more than 544,000 accounts under the new law.
Australia has required big platforms including Meta, TikTok and YouTube to stop underage users from holding accounts since the legislation came into force on December 10 last year.
Companies face fines of Aus$49.5 million (US$33 million) if they fail to take "reasonable steps" to comply.
Billionaire Mark Zuckerberg's Meta said it had removed 331,000 underage accounts from Instagram, 173,000 from Facebook, and 40,000 from Threads in the week to December 11.
The company said it was committed to complying with the law.
"That said, we call on the Australian government to engage with industry constructively to find a better way forward, such as incentivising all of industry to raise the standard in providing safe, privacy-preserving, age appropriate experiences online, instead of blanket bans," it said in statement.

'Whack-a-mole'

Meta renewed an earlier call for app stores to be required to verify people's ages and get parental approval before under-16s can download an app.
This was the only way to avoid a "whack-a-mole" race to stop teens migrating to new apps to avoid the ban, the company said.
The government said it was holding social media companies to account for the harm they cause young Australians.
"Platforms like Meta collect a huge amount of data on their users for commercial purposes. They can and must use that information to comply with Australian law and ensure people under 16 are not on their platforms," a government spokesperson said.
Meta said parents and experts were worried about the ban isolating young people from online communities, and driving some to less regulated apps and darker corners of the internet.
Initial impacts of the legislation "suggest it is not meeting its objectives of increasing the safety and well-being of young Australians", it said.
While raising concern over the lack of an industry standard for determining age online, Meta said its compliance with the Australian law would be a "multilayered process".
Since the ban, the California-based firm said it had helped found the OpenAge Initiative, a non-profit group that has launched age-verification tools called AgeKeys to be used with participating platforms.
djw/mtp