politics

Aid flotilla arrives in Cuba as US oil blockade bites

BY ELISA COLELLA ABOARD THE MAGURO WITH LISANDRA COTS IN HAVANA AND GERARD MARTINEZ IN MIAMI

  • "The interesting thing is that we're able to carry much larger items, like solar panels," she told AFP. - 'Political sideshow' - In addition to daily outages, fuel prices have soared, public transport has become rare and trash is piling up as garbage trucks are no longer running.
  • The first boat of a flotilla carrying medical supplies, food and solar panels reached Cuba on Tuesday to aid the island as a US fuel blockade deepens its energy crisis.
  • "The interesting thing is that we're able to carry much larger items, like solar panels," she told AFP. - 'Political sideshow' - In addition to daily outages, fuel prices have soared, public transport has become rare and trash is piling up as garbage trucks are no longer running.
The first boat of a flotilla carrying medical supplies, food and solar panels reached Cuba on Tuesday to aid the island as a US fuel blockade deepens its energy crisis.
The Maguro shrimp fishing boat docked in Havana three days later than hoped after battling strong winds, currents and a pesky battery during its journey from Mexico.
As they approached Havana's colonial-era fortification, the international activists stood on the cabin roof of the boat -- symbolically renamed "Granma 2.0" as a tribute to the yacht used by Fidel Castro's guerrilla fighters to launch their revolution in 1956.
They held a sign reading "Let Cuba live" while others waiting for them on the dock chanted "Cuba yes! Blockade no!"
"I wish everyone would unite, even Cubans abroad, and come and do the same because it is the people who are suffering," said Amado Rodriguez, a 59-year-old driver walking near Havana Bay.
The first shipments arrived by plane from Europe, Latin America and the United States last week as part of an air and sea mission, dubbed Our America Convoy, to bring some 50 tonnes of aid to Cuba.
Two more ships were due to arrive Tuesday or Wednesday.
Activists say the mission, which had the support of the government, aims to bring relief to Cubans amid a de facto US oil blockade that President Donald Trump launched in January.
Critics have slammed the effort as benefiting the communist government more than ordinary people.
Convoy organizer David Adler, a US citizen, told AFP the mission brought urgently needed aid directly to Cubans and showed the world "the human costs of Trump's siege on Cuba."
"It demonstrated that international solidarity can triumph over forced isolation," said Adler, coordinator of global left-wing group Progressive International.
Cuba has suffered seven nationwide blackouts since 2024 -- two of them this past week -- due to aging thermoelectric plants and oil shortages.
The situation has deteriorated since Cuba's chief regional ally, Venezuelan socialist leader Nicolas Maduro, was captured by US forces in January and Trump threatened tariffs against countries that ship oil to the island.
The Sea Horse, a Hong Kong-flagged tanker that was previously reported to be taking Russian diesel to Cuba, ended up in Venezuelan waters, data from maritime tracker Kpler showed Tuesday.

Trump's 'greed'

The Maguro left from Mexico's Yucatan peninsula Friday carrying 32 people, including activists from Australia, Brazil, Ecuador, Italy, Mexico and the United States, and AFP journalists.
As the boat motored across the sea, Brazilian activist Thiago Avila said other nations should come to Cuba's aid.
"We cannot allow the world and international law to be buried under the greed of Donald Trump," Avila told AFP.
"That's why we are here, that's why people decided to mobilize for this and decided to donate."
Avila was among the organizers of a flotilla that had tried to bring aid to Gaza last year despite a naval blockade. That effort was intercepted by Israeli forces.
Fellow Brazilian activist Lisi Proenca said the group was applying the experience it gained from the Gaza flotilla.
"The interesting thing is that we're able to carry much larger items, like solar panels," she told AFP.

'Political sideshow'

In addition to daily outages, fuel prices have soared, public transport has become rare and trash is piling up as garbage trucks are no longer running.
Cuba has blamed Washington for the country's hardship, pointing to the fuel blockade and a decades-old trade embargo.
Cuban exiles and other critics, who say the communist government is to blame for the economic crisis, said the convoy is giving political support to Havana.
"All of this is nothing more than a political sideshow," Luis Zuniga, a former Cuban political prisoner now based in Miami, told AFP.
"The electricity crisis in Cuba does not stem from the oil embargo imposed by (Trump). It dates back to long before that," Zuniga said.
bur-lt/sms

France

600-year-old pinot noir grape found in medieval French toilet

BY BéNéDICTE SALVETAT REY

  • "She could have eaten the same grapes as us," the paleogeneticist at the University of Toulouse told AFP. The seed was found in a toilet in a 15th-century hospital in Valenciennes in northern France.
  • A 600-year-old grape seed discovered in the toilets of a medieval French hospital is genetically identical to the grapes still being used to make pinot noir wine, scientists said Tuesday.
  • "She could have eaten the same grapes as us," the paleogeneticist at the University of Toulouse told AFP. The seed was found in a toilet in a 15th-century hospital in Valenciennes in northern France.
A 600-year-old grape seed discovered in the toilets of a medieval French hospital is genetically identical to the grapes still being used to make pinot noir wine, scientists said Tuesday.
The seed reveals that people in France have been cultivating this immensely popular variety of grape since at least the 1400s, the scientists said in a new study.
It is not possible to say whether the fruit was "eaten like table grapes or whether people made wine from it at the time", study co-author Laurent Bouby told AFP.
But the research provides a link between modern France -- one of the world's largest wine-producing and -consuming countries -- and its distant wine-loving past.
Another study co-author, Ludovic Orlando, pointed out that the Hundred Years' War between England and France finally wrapped up in the mid-1400s.
And the brief life of France's patron saint, Joan of Arc, was also in the 15th century.
"She could have eaten the same grapes as us," the paleogeneticist at the University of Toulouse told AFP.
The seed was found in a toilet in a 15th-century hospital in Valenciennes in northern France. At the time, toilets were sometimes used as rubbish bins, the researchers explained.
The study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, involved sequencing the genome of 54 grape seeds dating from the Bronze Age -- from around 2,300 BC -- to the Middle Ages.
It confirms that generations of winegrowers had been using what are today called "clonal propagation" techniques, such as preserving cuttings of particular grape varieties for 600 years, the researchers said.
Ancient texts had offered indications this was happening, "but outside of paleogenomics, it is very difficult to characterise this technique", said Bouby of the Institute of Evolutionary Science of Montpellier.
But the new research found evidence this technique was being used in many areas as far back as the Iron Age, around 625–500 BC.

Aged like fine wine

The oldest grapes analysed in the study were from wild vines in the French region of Nimes dated to around 2,000 BC.
Domesticated vines then started to appear between 625 and 500 BC in France's southern Var region.
This lines up with when colonising Greeks were believed to have introduced viticulture -- cultivating grapevines -- to France, after founding the city of Marseille.
Orlando said it was already known that wine was traded at the time by the Greeks and the Etruscans, because of wine jugs called amphora that lasted through the centuries.
But the DNA of the grape seeds, particularly those from the ancient Roman period, revealed long-distance exchanges of domesticated grape varieties from places including Spain, the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East.
It also showed there was plenty of genetic mixing of domesticated grape varieties and local wild vines during the Roman period, particularly in northern France.
In the future, "it would be very interesting to work closely with historians who have access to texts describing certain winegrowing techniques" to find out more, Orlando said.
Pinot noir, which is often associated with France's Burgundy region, is the fourth most widely grown grape in the world, according to the study.
ber-dl/rmb

economy

'Plundered': Senegal fishers feel sting of illegal, industrial vessels

BY BECCA MILFELD

  • Colourful pirogues are ubiquitous along Senegal's 700-kilometre (435-mile) coast.
  • Ibrahima Mar first lost his livelihood then lost his son when the fish off Senegal's coast began to disappear, rupturing a way of life that had sustained his family for generations.
  • Colourful pirogues are ubiquitous along Senegal's 700-kilometre (435-mile) coast.
Ibrahima Mar first lost his livelihood then lost his son when the fish off Senegal's coast began to disappear, rupturing a way of life that had sustained his family for generations.
Industrial and illegal fishing, among other factors, have contributed to a sharp decline in the region's fish stock, robbing the west African nation of a traditional source of nutrition and income.
In recent years, fish have been "increasingly plundered", said Mar, who lives in a fishing village in the Dakar suburb of Rufisque.
The 55-year-old fisherman, a member of the Lebou ethnicity, a traditional fishing people, spoke to AFP from one of Rufisque's boat landings, explaining that the fish had been "taken from our path. So, there's no hope left".
Bottom trawlers and other industrial ships, generally flagged to Senegal but whose owners' real nationalities are difficult to trace, send their catches abroad.
"If you dig a little deeper into the ultimate beneficial ownership" the boats are Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese and Turkish, among other nationalities, Bassirou Diarra, country manager for Senegal at the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), told AFP.
"Not only is there a shortage of fish for the Senegalese market, for food security, but the money that should come back in terms of currency for the national economy isn't coming back," he said.
Destructive and illegal practices meanwhile include "fishing in prohibited areas, nets that do not comply with regulations, MPA (marine protected area) rules that are not respected, and the abusive granting of licences", Diarra said.

Fish dependency

A 2025 EJF report suggests that 57 percent of fish populations exploited in Senegal are in a state of collapse.
Members of coastal fishing communities have become increasingly desperate, illegally immigrating in traditional wooden canoes called pirogues along the deadly Atlantic migration route to Europe.
That includes two of Mar's sons, both fishermen.
After one succeeded, Mar received a call several years ago from his other son, in his late teens.
He phoned "to tell me he was in a pirogue heading for Spain. That pirogue had 140 people on it," Mar said.
The family waited the five- to six-day journey for news of his arrival, then 15 days, 20 and 30.
But they never heard from him again.
Colourful pirogues are ubiquitous along Senegal's 700-kilometre (435-mile) coast.
"What a pirogue used to catch in two months, now that same pirogue can fish for six or seven months to catch the same amount, which is a problem," Mamadou Diouf Sene, president of the Fishing Wharf Revenue Commission of Rufisque, told AFP from the city's wharf.
A web of professions from cart driver to ice seller, as well as fishmonger and processor, depend on fish.
Fishmonger Fatou Seck, 39, sat at the Rufisque wharf alongside several other women with small trays of sea bream, white carp and mullet.
"Times are really tough right now," the mother of six told AFP, adding that "many of us base our hopes on this work, which is our only source of income to feed our children".
More than 82,000 people in Senegal work in fishing according to latest census information, comprising some two percent of the workforce in 2023.
A surge of artisanal fishermen has additionally contributed to fish population decline, as people flock to the profession which requires minimal training.
Estimates on pirogue numbers in Senegal vary but generally fall between 12,000 to 19,000.
Meanwhile, climate change is pushing west Africa's small pelagic fish -- smaller, often schooling species caught by artisanal fishers -- to move northward, according to research.

Wild West

Fish have declined for some 40 years but artisanal fishers really took note when small pelagics like sardinella and horse mackerel started vanishing some 15 years ago.
The prospect of Senegal having to import fish, a part of its cultural identity and a major natural resource, "is catastrophic", Mar said.
Cheikh Salla Ndiaye of Senegal's Directorate of Fisheries Protection and Surveillance described monitoring the sea as "very difficult", even with assistance from the navy and air force.
Mar recently spent time on a Greenpeace ship with four other fishermen learning how to better spot and report illegal fishing.
"We used to call the high seas like the Wild West because there was no way to see what was happening out there," Sophie Cooke, a fishing vessel analyst with Greenpeace, told AFP aboard the ship.
But technologies such as tracking devices, satellite radar and even smartphones, which fishermen can use to take pictures and pinpoint boats' locations, are changing that, she said.
Mar intends to take these tools back to his community.
With his two fishermen sons now gone, one in Spain and the other taken by the sea, Mar's experience with declining fish stocks is deeply personal.
As for his third son, Mar said: "I put him in a training centre. He's learning metal welding."
bfm/giv/kjm

tourism

'Perfect Japan' posts spark Gen Z social media backlash

  • The short video posts on platforms like TikTok show how even just the words "Tokyo, Japan" with a cherry blossom emoji can make an otherwise banal street scene more appealing for some users.
  • Take an everyday video on any suburban transport network, add anime-style music and a rosy filter, and it's suddenly a scene from the Japanese holiday of your dreams.
  • The short video posts on platforms like TikTok show how even just the words "Tokyo, Japan" with a cherry blossom emoji can make an otherwise banal street scene more appealing for some users.
Take an everyday video on any suburban transport network, add anime-style music and a rosy filter, and it's suddenly a scene from the Japanese holiday of your dreams.
That's the "Japan effect": a Gen Z social media trend satirising the often-romanticised image of the Asian country, which welcomed a record number of visitors last year.
Residents of Kyoto and other tourist hotspots have expressed exasperation with selfie-taking crowds, and now an online backlash against Japan fever is growing.
The short video posts on platforms like TikTok show how even just the words "Tokyo, Japan" with a cherry blossom emoji can make an otherwise banal street scene more appealing for some users.
"The point is to make fun of Japan's 'cute' image online, with all its cliches and stereotypes," 25-year-old French YouTuber Rocky Louzembi, who analyses internet culture, told AFP.
Along with the chronically weak yen, the booming popularity of anime and game franchises such as Pokemon is drawing tourists to the nation.
But some people take their love of Japan too far, said Louzembi, who goes by the handle rockylevrai.
To describe the phenomenon, he used the slang word "glazing" -- to excessively praise something.
A "Japan glazer" is "someone who puts everything that comes from Japan on a pedestal, while disparaging things that come from their own country", Louzembi said.

'Not that clean'

Japan logged a record 42.7 million tourist arrivals in 2025, despite a steep fall in Chinese visitors in December due to a diplomatic row.
Many visitors post online about their trip -- making pilgrimages to real-life locations from cartoons or joking about spending $1,000 on flights just so they can eat a $1 convenience store rice ball.
"The 'Japan' portrayed in an anime world is often quite different from how Japanese society is", said Marika Sato, a 29-year-old who works in marketing in Tokyo.
For instance, many women have experienced groping, said Sato, a contributor to "Blossom The Project", an Instagram account focused on Japanese social issues.
Graphic designer and fellow Blossom contributor Maya Kubota, 28, said that she appreciates people liking Japan and wanting to visit.
But over-the-top comments such as "Japanese people are next level" give her an "icky vibe", Kubota told AFP.
Some of the online Gen Z pushback focuses on the exaggerated idea that Japan's streets are so spotless people don't even have to wear shoes.
"Japan is clean but not THAT clean," joked a US couple who post social media content about the country under the name The Hitobito -- showing off their dirty white socks after a real-life experiment.

Viral effect

Japan's tourist boom has forced some authorities to take action.
A cherry blossom festival boasting a highly Instagrammable view of Mount Fuji was cancelled this year after residents complained of overtourism.
"People associate Japan with carefully composed visuals," said Seio Nakajima, a professor in the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies at Waseda University.
That could be because of the detailed, beautiful backgrounds in anime, or because of a deeper "cultural tradition of emphasising form".
"If people focus on form rather than meaning, it becomes easier to go viral. Because you don't need to think," Nakajima told AFP.
Japan's formalities -- from the complexity of polite language to extreme attention to detail in packaging or wrapping -- may surprise visitors, he said.
But "Japan is not always clean and aesthetic. That's only part of the reality."
Despite the backlash, tourists in Tokyo's busy Tsukiji market told AFP that the country had lived up to their expectations.
"In Russia, it's very popular to hype Japan," said Tatiana Mokeeva, 25.
When asked if posts about Japan could be unrealistic, she said: "To tell the truth, no... I love all about Japan."
str/kaf/ane/ceg

cruelty

Eight people arrested in Brazil for 'brutal' attack on capybara

  • In recent years the semi-aquatic capybara -- native to South America -- has gained a devoted following online, and its image is increasingly used on toys, clothing and home decor items.
  • Rio de Janeiro police said Monday they had arrested eight people for brutally beating a capybara -- the world's largest rodent whose chill demeanor has inspired countless memes online in recent years.
  • In recent years the semi-aquatic capybara -- native to South America -- has gained a devoted following online, and its image is increasingly used on toys, clothing and home decor items.
Rio de Janeiro police said Monday they had arrested eight people for brutally beating a capybara -- the world's largest rodent whose chill demeanor has inspired countless memes online in recent years.
Resembling a giant, gentle guinea pig, the shaggy, light brown capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) is often seen roaming in the Brazilian city, particularly near streams and lagoons.
In an incident filmed by security cameras before dawn on Saturday, a group of attackers beat the capybara with sticks and iron bars in the working-class neighborhood of Ilha do Governador.
"This is a brutal crime that shocks society," said Felipe Santoro, the police commissioner in charge of the investigation, was quoted as saying by the O Globo daily newspaper. 
"It is an act of extreme cruelty toward a creature that posed absolutely no threat...yet was deliberately attacked nonetheless," he added.
The attackers -- including two minors -- were identified through CCTV footage and arrested on Saturday, police said in a statement.
The capybara, a 65-kilogram (143-pound) male, was taken to the Wildlife Care Center (CRAS) at the private Estacio University in southwestern Rio.
"We have been treating Rio's wildlife here for 22 years, and I have never before received a capybara subjected to such extreme aggression," veterinarian and head of CRAS Jeferson Pires told AFP on Monday. 
He said the creature was doing better, but was "suffering from head trauma, swelling with internal bleeding around his left eye, and multiple injuries to his back."
In recent years the semi-aquatic capybara -- native to South America -- has gained a devoted following online, and its image is increasingly used on toys, clothing and home decor items.
It is often used in posts about being zen and going with the flow.
One popular meme is "Comrade Capybara" -- depicting the animal as a communist revolutionary -- inspired by the 2021 "invasion" by capybaras of a luxury gated estate in Argentina that was built on a wetland that had been their natural habitat.
In early January, the death of a stray dog after it was beaten to death by teenagers sparked a massive wave of outrage in Brazil, even prompting a reaction from First Lady Rosangela "Janja" da Silva.
lg/fb/jgc

police

UK police probe attack on Jewish ambulances

BY CAROLINE TAIX

  • - Volunteer service - The ambulances are run by volunteer organisation Hatzalah. 
  • London's police chief pledged Monday over 250 more officers and "highly visible" armed patrols to protect the Jewish community after an arson attack on four volunteer ambulances run by a Jewish organisation next to a synagogue.
  • - Volunteer service - The ambulances are run by volunteer organisation Hatzalah. 
London's police chief pledged Monday over 250 more officers and "highly visible" armed patrols to protect the Jewish community after an arson attack on four volunteer ambulances run by a Jewish organisation next to a synagogue.
The promise of the 264 additional officers by Metropolitan Police head Mark Rowley came as the force said it was investigating an online claim of responsibility.
Counter-terrorism police have been tasked with the inquiry into what Prime Minister Keir Starmer called a "deeply shocking antisemitic arson attack". Here is what we know:

What happened?

The London Fire Brigade said it was alerted to vehicles on fire at Highfield Court in Golders Green, a north London area with a substantial Jewish population, at 1:40 am (0140 GMT) on Monday.
Around 40 firefighters called to the scene found that the cylinders stored on the vehicles, belonging to the Jewish Community Ambulance service, had exploded.
The little-known Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI) group, meaning The Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand, claimed responsibility for the attack in a video posted on its recently created Telegram channel.
The group, which the SITE monitoring service said was aligned with Iran, has also claimed similar attacks this month in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Later Monday, around 250 people attended a rally against antisemitism in Golders Green, the PA news agency reported.

Police probe

Police said in a statement "the arson attack is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime".
Counter-terrorism police are now leading the inquiry, even though it was not yet determined to be a terror attack.
"Establishing the authenticity and accuracy of this claim will be a priority for the investigation team," Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams said at the scene.
"CCTV footage appears to show three people in hoods pouring an accelerant onto the vehicles before igniting them and fleeing."
Rowley announced the strengthening of security around "vulnerable locations" to the annual dinner of the Community Security Trust, a charity which tracks antisemitism in the UK.
"Our intent is to reduce the threat, target the offenders, and stop further attacks," he said, outlining a raft of security measures.

'Horrific news'

Starmer said in a post on X: "Antisemitism has no place in our society", and urged Britain's communities to stand together after the "horrific news".
Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood said the arson was "so warped it defies words", adding in a speech that it was an attack "on this country and on us all".
Chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis vowed: "We're not going to be intimidated by terrorists, and this was a terrorist attack."
Israeli President Isaac Herzog sent a message saying: "We in Israel care for every Jew everywhere in the world and embrace you at this difficult moment."
Shomrim North West London, a charity and volunteer neighbourhood watch group, branded the arson a "targeted and deeply concerning incident affecting a vital emergency service serving the local Jewish community".

Volunteer service

The ambulances are run by volunteer organisation Hatzalah. 
It provides free medical transportation and emergency response to those living in north London.
"Our... volunteer ambulance corps is an extraordinary service, whose sole mission is to protect life, Jewish and non-Jewish alike," Mirvis said on X.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the government would provide four replacement ambulances by Tuesday morning.

Similar attacks

Monitoring groups have reported an upsurge in both antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents in Britain in recent years, particularly during the recent war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The Community Security Trust recorded 3,700 instances of anti-Jewish hate across the UK last year, a four-percent rise on 2024, but down on 2023.
The most serious was an attack on a Manchester synagogue in October 2025, when two people were killed and three others seriously injured.
The group likened the attack to similar incidents in Belgium, when a synagogue in Liege was attacked on March 9 and another in the Dutch port of Rotterdam on March 14. The following day, a Jewish school in Amsterdam was attacked. There were no injuries.
The Netherlands-based International Centre for Counter-terrorism said the claim for Monday's attack was being circulated on accounts linked to pro-Iran Shia militias.
But it raised "the question whether HAYI is a genuine terrorist group or merely serves as a facade for Iranian hybrid operations that enables plausible deniability", the centre wrote in its report.
pdh-jkb/har

assault

Bill Cosby ordered to pay $19m over sex abuse claim

  • "She knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby," the suit said.
  • A woman who said she was drugged and sexually assaulted by veteran US entertainer Bill Cosby was awarded more than $19 million on Monday after a civil hearing in California.
  • "She knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby," the suit said.
A woman who said she was drugged and sexually assaulted by veteran US entertainer Bill Cosby was awarded more than $19 million on Monday after a civil hearing in California.
Donna Motsinger said she was working as a waitress more than 50 years ago when the performer began to target her.
The hearing in Santa Monica was told how the comedian had initially come into the restaurant where the now-84-year-old Motsinger worked.
One day when he picked her up in his limousine, Cosby gave her a glass of wine and what she thought was an aspirin.
She began slipping in and out of consciousness and the next thing she knew she was waking up at home, wearing only her underwear.
"She knew she had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby," the suit said.
Attorneys said Cosby, 88, did not remember any sexual contact with Motsinger, but that any that had occurred had been consensual.
The jury took three days to deliver its verdict, ordering Cosby to pay $19.3 million, a figure that could increase if they add punitive damages.
The case was heard in the same courthouse where a 2022 jury ordered Cosby to pay $500,000 in damages to Judy Huth after finding that he had molested her in 1975 when she was just 16 years old.
The man formerly known as "America's Dad" was jailed in Pennsylvania for drugging and molesting a woman in a separate criminal case in 2018, but was freed in 2021 when his conviction was overturned on a technicality.
Cosby was a towering figure in late 20th century American popular culture, including for his starring role in "The Cosby Show," which ran from 1984 to 1992.
Dozens of women have accused Cosby of being a calculating, serial predator who plied victims with sedatives and alcohol before assaulting them over four decades.
hg/mlm

conflict

World gave Israel 'licence to torture Palestinians': UN expert

  • "Torture extends far beyond prison walls, in what can only be described as a torturous environment imposed by Israel across the entire occupied Palestinian territory," she told the Human Rights Council.
  • The world has given Israel "a licence to torture Palestinians", a UN expert said Monday, with life in the occupied territories "a continuum of physical and mental suffering".
  • "Torture extends far beyond prison walls, in what can only be described as a torturous environment imposed by Israel across the entire occupied Palestinian territory," she told the Human Rights Council.
The world has given Israel "a licence to torture Palestinians", a UN expert said Monday, with life in the occupied territories "a continuum of physical and mental suffering".
Francesca Albanese, the UN's special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, alleged that "torture has effectively become state policy" in Israel.
"Israel has effectively been given a licence to torture Palestinians, because most of your governments, your ministers, have allowed it," she said, as she presented her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council.
Albanese has faced harsh criticism, allegations of anti-Semitism and demands for her removal, from Israel and some of its allies, over her relentless criticism and long-standing accusations of "genocide".
"Francesca Albanese is not a promoter of human rights; she is an agent of chaos... and any document she produces is nothing but a politically-charged, activist rant," Israel's mission in Geneva said in a statement Monday.
Albanese "advocates dangerous extremist narratives to undermine the very existence of the State of Israel", it said.
Albanese's report claimed Israel was systematically torturing Palestinians on a scale "that suggests collective vengeance and destructive intent".
"Torture extends far beyond prison walls, in what can only be described as a torturous environment imposed by Israel across the entire occupied Palestinian territory," she told the Human Rights Council.
She said torture destroys the conditions that make life meaningful, stripping away human dignity, leaving empty shells behind.
"The testimonies that I and many others are documenting are not only tragic stories of suffering; they are evidence of atrocity crimes targeting the totality of the Palestinian people, across the totality of the occupied land, through a totality of criminal conduct," she said.

'Stop impunity'

Albanese warned that the international response would be a test of countries' collective legal and moral responsibility.
"Disregard for international law will not stop in Palestine. It is already unfolding from Lebanon to Iran, across the Gulf countries, and in Venezuela. And if left unchecked, it will spread far beyond," she said.
Though appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, special rapporteurs are independent experts and do not speak on behalf of the United Nations itself.
Palestinian ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi told the council that the practices documented in Albanese's report "are not just individual cases of torture but amount to collective and systematic torture.
"We renew our call to the international community to take urgent action to guarantee accountability, to stop impunity," he said.
Pakistan, speaking for the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, added: "Impunity has been entrenched and safeguards eroded.
"These crimes are being committed with the intent to inflict individual and collective suffering on the people under occupation in order to erase them from their own native land."
Venezuela asked: "Where is the international community? It is painful and despicable to see nations remain silent and even worse, finance this massacre."
South Africa's representative said: "Inaction in the face of Israel's depravity is not neutrality: it is complicity."
rjm/nl/giv

games

No 'silver bullet' for video game age restrictions: PEGI chief

BY KILIAN FICHOU

  • In future, "we will have to work out a plan of attack, an approach to live service games," Bosmans said, "especially games that will continually provide new updates".
  • The head of Europe's video game rating system, PEGI, has warned against supposed "silver bullet" child protection solutions such as age verification, in an interview with AFP. A new set of PEGI (Pan-European Game Information) age ratings, coming into force from June, will take into account factors including in-game purchases, incentives to constantly revisit games or the ability to limit in-game messages from strangers.
  • In future, "we will have to work out a plan of attack, an approach to live service games," Bosmans said, "especially games that will continually provide new updates".
The head of Europe's video game rating system, PEGI, has warned against supposed "silver bullet" child protection solutions such as age verification, in an interview with AFP.
A new set of PEGI (Pan-European Game Information) age ratings, coming into force from June, will take into account factors including in-game purchases, incentives to constantly revisit games or the ability to limit in-game messages from strangers.
It had taken "a couple of years" for PEGI to work out the new classification, its director general Dirk Bosmans told AFP.
The games sector has in recent years been the subject of debate, including over allegedly addictive mechanics such as "loot boxes" -- virtual items purchasable for real money that contain a random in-game reward.
PEGI's new ratings will not apply to games released before June this year -- even the most widely played titles, such as "Fortnite" or "League of Legends".
In future, "we will have to work out a plan of attack, an approach to live service games," Bosmans said, "especially games that will continually provide new updates".
Introduced in 2003, PEGI is the only media age classification system harmonised across European countries, its chief noted -- although Germany has its own ratings.
As a self-regulatory mechanism by the games industry, its rules are applied by major console makers Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, as well as by Google on its app store.
Apple has its own age rating system, while the dominant PC gaming platform Steam -- based in the US -- has not implemented one.

'Regulatory pressure'

PEGI has updated its approach in part in response to growing "regulatory pressure" within the European Union, Bosmans said.
Even as the EU has tightened digital regulation in recent years, member states are taking their own steps -- including a draft law in France barring under-15s from social media, which the government has warned would cover some online games with social aspects, such as "Roblox".
If passed, the law will require all users to prove their age from 2027.
While automated online verification "sounds like it's going to fix everything... data protection organisations are very concerned", Bosmans said.
"We first need to have a really good conversation before we start deciding on where to apply it."
He added that companies in the sector have welcomed the updated PEGI classifications.
"They understand that by making PEGI better and stronger, they are better protected against lack of nuance, quick fixes," Bosmans said.

Parents needed

Bosmans also spoke out against full-on bans of games for children below a certain age -- as mooted by French President Emmanuel Macron last month ahead of an expert inquiry.
"A ban is not very nuanced. It's not very proportionate, no matter for what you apply it," he said, recalling that PEGI was created to avoid just such a scenario in the early 2000s.
What's more, in Australia -- where social media has already been banned for under-16s -- "there is now concern that kids are primarily busy with trying to circumvent the rules, sometimes with the help of their parents," Bosmans said.
"You can try all kinds of technical or legal methods to enforce PEGI ratings. If in the end parents decide, no, my 13-year-old is going to play this 16 (rated) game, it doesn't change anything," he added.
"Thinking that you can do it without the parents is the biggest mistake you can make."
kf/tgb/jhb

internet

Russia's Max: The unencrypted super-app being forced on citizens

  • Even so, she has ditched Max in favour of IMO, a less popular US-made app that has encryption.
  • Russia is pushing its Max messenger -- a social media platform without encryption -- onto its citizens with a massive promotion campaign and the simultaneous blocking of Whatsapp and Telegram, the country's two most popular messenger apps.
  • Even so, she has ditched Max in favour of IMO, a less popular US-made app that has encryption.
Russia is pushing its Max messenger -- a social media platform without encryption -- onto its citizens with a massive promotion campaign and the simultaneous blocking of Whatsapp and Telegram, the country's two most popular messenger apps.
The rollout has raised concerns among critics and digital rights groups that Moscow will use Max to surveil its citizens and further cut digital links to the West.
"Any data that passes through this application can be considered to be in the hands of its owner, and in this case, the hands of the Russian state," cybersecurity researcher Baptiste Robert, CEO of the French company Predicta Lab, told AFP.
Launched in 2025 by Russian social media giant VK, the app has been compared to China's WeChat, combining social media and messaging functions with access to government services, a digital ID card system, banking and payments.
It is not officially mandatory, but the authorities are making it clear that life without Max will become increasingly hard.
President Vladimir Putin has touted it as a more "secure" platform that meets Russia's demand for "technological sovereignty."
Moscow has been pushing that agenda for years.
"This is the culmination of policies aimed at creating a sovereign internet," Marielle Wijermars, an associate professor of internet governance at Maastricht University told AFP.
"Russia wants to restructure the internet to better control what is published" including "by migrating all Russians to platforms that are more state-controlled," she added.

'Forced' to download

Max has been pre-installed on phones and tablets sold in Russia since September.
The design is familiar and resembles Telegram, offering private messages, public channels and cute stickers.
Unlike Telegram and Whatsapp, it is also on Russia's "white list" of approved digital services that stay online during the increasingly common forced internet blackouts that Moscow says are necessary to thwart Ukrainian retaliatory drone attacks.
Initially only available to users with a Russian or Belarusian SIM card, the app is now available in English and to those with phone numbers from 40 other countries -- only those Russia deems "friendly," like Cuba, Pakistan and ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia.
It is not available in the European Union -- or Ukraine. 
That has not stopped Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowing to infiltrate the messenger.
One of the reasons Russia wants to ditch Telegram is because it has become a platform used by Ukraine to recruit Russians for sabotage attacks, including assassinations.
Inside Russia, opinions are split.
"You can send messages, photos and videos. What more do you need?" said Yekaterina, a 35-year-old dance teacher.
Irina, a 45-year-old doctor, however, complained she has been "forced" to use Max for school activities for her children and to access the government's official online portal, Gosuslugi, where her patients make appointments.
She plans to "buy another SIM card to download Max on another phone."
Large businesses have been accused of forcing employees to download the app and schools have migrated all communication with parents to the platform.
At the same time, celebrities and popular bloggers are moving their content to Max.
Dmitry Zakharchenko, founder of the Russian analytics agency GRFN, has compared the "aggressive" campaign with Soviet propaganda billboards.
The carrot-and-stick approach has driven downloads -- more than 100 million users in March, according to the service.

'Being watched'

The launch of Max comes years into Russia's political and technological campaign to develop a "sovereign internet", less reliant on -- and vulnerable to -- foreign services.
Russian telecoms regulator Roskomnadzor and the security services have enjoyed growing powers to monitor and block sites they deem dangerous.
Unlike Telegram and Whatsapp, Max does not use end-to-end encryption and its terms of use state that user data is stored exclusively on services in Russia.
Varvara, a 35-year-old interpreter said she was not worried about that as she was not a "foreign agent" and had nothing to hide -- referring to a label used by the Kremlin to target critics.
Even so, she has ditched Max in favour of IMO, a less popular US-made app that has encryption.
Scientist Alexandra, 32, refuses to download Max "out of contrariness" to its heavy-handed promotion.
"We're already being watched everywhere," she added, dismissing the privacy concerns.
But another resistant user -- Natasha, 48 -- shows the general feeling of resignation when it comes to the future of the app in Russia.
"Sooner or later, there will be no alternative."
bur/gv

X

French prosecutors suspect Musk encouraged deepfakes row to inflate X value

BY CLARA WRIGHT

  • French authorities are already investigating X over allegations that its algorithm was used to interfere in French politics, as well as Grok's dissemination of Holocaust denials and the sexualised deepfakes.
  • French prosecutors said Saturday they had alerted US authorities to a suspicion that tech tycoon Elon Musk had encouraged controversy over sexualised deepfakes on X to "artificially" increase the value of his company.
  • French authorities are already investigating X over allegations that its algorithm was used to interfere in French politics, as well as Grok's dissemination of Holocaust denials and the sexualised deepfakes.
French prosecutors said Saturday they had alerted US authorities to a suspicion that tech tycoon Elon Musk had encouraged controversy over sexualised deepfakes on X to "artificially" increase the value of his company.
The social media network's Grok AI chatbot stirred outrage earlier this year over it generating images of naked women and girls without their consent.
"The controversy sparked by sexually explicit deepfakes generated by Grok (X's AI) may have been deliberately generated in order to artificially boost the value of companies X and xAI," the Paris prosecutor's office said, confirming a report in Le Monde newspaper on Friday.
This could have been done towards "the planned June 2026 stock market listing of the new entity created by the merger" between SpaceX and xAI, it added.
The prosecutor's office said it had on Tuesday reached out to the US Department of Justice, as well as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a financial market regulation body, to share its concerns.
X's lawyer in France was not immediately available for comment.
Replying on X in French to a link to AFP's coverage of the story, Musk slammed French prosecutors as "mentally retarded."
French authorities are already investigating X over allegations that its algorithm was used to interfere in French politics, as well as Grok's dissemination of Holocaust denials and the sexualised deepfakes.
AI chatbot Grok has its own account on the X social network allowing users to interact with it.
For a period, users could tag the bot in posts to request image generation and editing, receiving the image in a reply from Grok. Many sent Grok photos of women or tagged the bot in replies to women's photo posts, giving it prompts such as "put her in a bikini" or "remove her clothes".

'Incitements'

It generated an estimated three million sexualised images -- mostly of women, though also 23,000 that appeared to depict children -- in 11 days, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit watchdog, said in late January.
Le Monde pointed to "several posts by Musk, published at the height of the controversy, which prosecutors interpret as incitements to generate non-consensual images". 
"The billionaire posted several messages in which he expressed delight, using numerous emojis, about his AI engine's 'undressing' capabilities, even sharing an image of himself in which his chatbot depicted him wearing a bikini," Le Monde reported.
Daily average app downloads for Grok worldwide soared by 72 percent from January 1 to January 19 compared to the same period in December, the Washington Post has cited market intelligence firm Sensor Tower as saying.
French authorities last month summoned Musk to a "voluntary interview" and searched the local offices of his social media network, in what Musk called a "political attack".
Both Britain and the European Union have also opened investigations into the creation of the sexualised deepfakes.
bur-arp/acb

Israel

Jerusalem's Muslims despair as war shuts Al-Aqsa Mosque for Eid

BY HERVé BAR

  • Since Israel and the United States started the war with Iran on February 28, Israeli authorities have closed access to Jerusalem's world-renowned holy sites over security concerns -- Al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians and the Western Wall for Jews. 
  • Hundreds of Muslim worshippers held Eid prayers at the gates of Jerusalem's Old City Friday, with Israel closing access to the Al-Aqsa mosque and other holy sites over the war with Iran.
  • Since Israel and the United States started the war with Iran on February 28, Israeli authorities have closed access to Jerusalem's world-renowned holy sites over security concerns -- Al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians and the Western Wall for Jews. 
Hundreds of Muslim worshippers held Eid prayers at the gates of Jerusalem's Old City Friday, with Israel closing access to the Al-Aqsa mosque and other holy sites over the war with Iran.
"Today, Al-Aqsa has been taken from us. It's a sad and painful Ramadan," Wajdi Mohammed Shweiki, a silver-haired Palestinian man in his 60s, told AFP. 
"It's a catastrophic situation for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for Palestinians in general and for all Muslims across the globe."
Since Israel and the United States started the war with Iran on February 28, Israeli authorities have closed access to Jerusalem's world-renowned holy sites over security concerns -- Al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians and the Western Wall for Jews. 
As Iranian missile barrages head towards Israel, the authorities have banned gatherings of more than 50 people nationwide to limit potential casualties. In a sign of the risks, police said this week that shrapnel fragments had fallen on the Old City. 
Researchers say this is the first time the Al-Aqsa Mosque -- the third holiest site in Islam -- has been closed during the last 10 days of Ramadan and for Eid al-Fitr since Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem in 1967. 
As the holiday marked the end of the Muslim holy month, worshippers denied access to the site arrived with prayer mats under their arms at dawn under the watchful supervision of Israeli police. 
Shouting "Allahu akbar" ("God is the greatest") or chanting the shahada (the Muslim declaration of faith), the crowd tried to push through the city gates.
But the few dozen police officers repelled them, occasionally with kicks or slaps to the head and at least twice with tear gas.
Eventually the worshippers managed to take up a position next to Herod's Gate as the police relented for a few minutes and allowed the street prayers to take place.
An imam standing on a plastic stool delivered a short sermon. 
"Pray, invoke Almighty God and hope that your prayers will be answered," he told the worshippers. "O God, grant victory to the oppressed."
The Israeli police then pushed back the worshippers, who dispersed without resistance into the narrow streets, buying still-warm bread from street stalls as they went.

'Broken heart'

The gathering of just a few hundred worshippers was a far cry from the typical way Eid is usually marked in Jerusalem, when some 100,000 people flock to Al-Aqsa. 
The Israeli police said that "despite the high-alert status, police allowed prayers to be conducted on the street outside the Old City of Jerusalem without intervention".
"However, officers were required to enforce... life-saving guidelines when crowds later exceeded authorised capacity and seemingly attempted to breach security perimeters into the Old City," they said. 
But while Israeli authorities insist the closure of Al-Aqsa is for safety reasons, there is fear among some Palestinians that it could be part of efforts to rewrite the strict rules governing access to Jerusalem's holy sites. 
"The occupier, under the pretext of security and for its own interests, has closed the mosque," cleric Ayman Abu Najm, who had come from Beit Hanina, a Palestinian neighbourhood in east Jerusalem, said.
"In the history of the occupation, this is the longest period during which the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been closed."
Israel says it is committed to upholding this status quo, though Palestinians fear it is being eroded.
While politics and faith are always closely tied in this flashpoint city, for some Muslims the inability to access Al-Aqsa this year was felt as a deep personal loss.
"Ramadan without the Al-Aqsa Mosque is a very sad feeling, a feeling of having a broken heart," said worshipper Zeyad Mona.
hba/del/sbk

US

'War has aged us': Lebanon's kids aren't alright

BY NADER DURGHAM

  • I lost two cousins and two friends in a massacre in Shehabiyeh," he added, referring to a deadly Israeli strike in his town that killed at least seven people on March 11.
  • Forced by yet another war in Lebanon to flee his home for the second time in just two years, and mourning lost relatives and friends, Hassan Kiki said he feels much older than 16.
  • I lost two cousins and two friends in a massacre in Shehabiyeh," he added, referring to a deadly Israeli strike in his town that killed at least seven people on March 11.
Forced by yet another war in Lebanon to flee his home for the second time in just two years, and mourning lost relatives and friends, Hassan Kiki said he feels much older than 16.
"War has aged us... We have lived through what no one else has," the tall teen from south Lebanon told AFP in Beirut.
"I miss my school, my friends... I lost two cousins and two friends in a massacre in Shehabiyeh," he added, referring to a deadly Israeli strike in his town that killed at least seven people on March 11.
Kiki is among more than a million people Lebanese authorities have registered as displaced since the country was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2.
On that day, the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel to avenge the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israel, which never stopped bombing Lebanon despite a 2024 truce that sought to end the last war with Hezbollah, responded with widespread strikes, ground operations along the border, and an evacuation warning for swathes of the country.
For many young Lebanese caught in the crossfire, their formative years have been jeopardised by repeated conflicts and crises.
"My childhood is gone," said Kiki.
"Material losses can be made up for, but people do not come back."
Since 2019, Lebanese have been battling a financial crisis that has locked them out of their bank deposits, while the Covid pandemic made life even harder for everyone.
Beirut's port exploded the following year in one of the world's largest non-nuclear blasts, destroying swathes of the Lebanese capital, and killing more than 220 people.

'Dreams on hold'

The first time Zahraa Fares experienced war was in 2024, when she was just 14.
"We were still discovering what we like to do, what activities we enjoy, how we like to spend our days, then we were displaced... and could not do anything", said the now-16-year-old, who escaped the southern city of Nabatiyeh.
Fares, who said she now feels "mentally crushed", found relief in an acting workshop in Beirut's Lebanese National Theatre intended to support war-affected youth like herself.
Wassim al-Halabi, a 20-year-old Syrian who fled the war in his country nine years ago and is still living in Lebanon, has found himself stuck in another conflict.
Working in a restaurant since the 2024 war forced him out of university, Halabi said he was "starting from zero to be able to stand on my two feet again, but war started again".
"Our dreams are now on hold until the war ends."
Lebanese authorities on Thursday said Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people since March 2.
The toll includes 118 children.
"Cumulative trauma, cumulative adverse experiences and ongoing instability and unpredictability certainly put these children at higher risk... of developing psychiatric disorders and negative mental health outcomes," Evelyne Baroud, a child and adolescent psychiatrist told AFP.
"Witnessing violence, physical assaults, killings, forced displacement, losing one's home, loss of a parent, all of these carry a very high risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder."

Generational trauma

Lebanon has been mired in conflicts and crises for decades, the worst of which was the 15-year civil war that erupted in 1975 and which divided the country into warring sectarian fiefdoms.
For many years since the end of that war, which killed 150,000 people and left 17,000 more missing, bitter political divisions continued to plague Lebanon.
The war also saw an Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon until 2000.
While young Lebanese grew up hearing stories of war from their parents, they never expected to have to live through one themselves.
"My mother used to tell us about how they would be displaced, hear airstrikes, but I was not able to properly imagine it," Fares said.
"I used to ask myself 'how could they shelter in a school?' but now I see it with my own eyes."
At a gathering in Beirut to express solidarity for victims of the war, 18-year-old Laura al-Hajj wondered: "Why do I have so many concerns at my age?"
"We carried burdens that are much bigger than us, and beyond our age... I now just worry about being alive tomorrow."
Hajj said she feels like "from generation to generation, we are all living through wars".
"No child should have to go through what we went through."
nad/ser

music

Behind the BTS comeback, the dark side of K-pop

BY KANG JIN-KYU

  • But industry bosses argue that the competitive structure is what keeps K-pop so successful. 
  • K-pop oozes with talent, flair and hard work, but the spectacularly successful South Korean music industry also has a dark side -- sometimes with tragic results.
  • But industry bosses argue that the competitive structure is what keeps K-pop so successful. 
K-pop oozes with talent, flair and hard work, but the spectacularly successful South Korean music industry also has a dark side -- sometimes with tragic results.
Ahead of BTS's comeback concert on Saturday, AFP looks at the intense competition, the gruelling training, the tight control over stars' lives and the sometimes obsessive fan behaviour in the industry.

300 groups

South Korean record labels launch dozens of new groups every year in the hope they will become the next BTS or Blackpink, but with some 300 outfits already out there, the big time is elusive.
The tiny minority of the thousands of young hopefuls who make it past the audition phase can then face 15-hour days of gym sessions, singing lessons, promotional shoots and dance practice.
They sometimes sleep not at home but in bunk beds in shared houses, with tight control over the lives, including what they eat, their weight and their looks.
In a 2020 interview with AFP, former Nine Muses member Ryu Sera likened it to a "factory-like mass-production system", with people treated like "replaceable products".
But industry bosses argue that the competitive structure is what keeps K-pop so successful. 
"We can't help those who were given an opportunity for self-improvement but couldn't keep up with the others," Blitzers manager Oh Chang-seok told AFP in 2021.
The balance of power between labels and K-pop stars was once heavily skewed, with "slave contracts" mandating unequal profit-sharing and binding artists for well over a decade. 
After a legal battle involving idol group TVXQ, the fair trade commission revised standard contracts, with changes introduced in 2009 that cap initial deals at seven years.

No dating

Fans can become obsessive, and anger over rumours that their beloved stars may be romantically involved has become a hallmark of the industry.
When Jung Kook of BTS was rumoured to be dating Aespa member Winter, fans sent a truck carrying a billboard to the headquarters of BTS label HYBE accusing him of "deceit".
Karina of Aespa faced similar trouble when she acknowledged her relationship with an actor in 2024, drawing the ire of fans who also dispatched a truck.
"Do you not receive enough love from your fans?" it read.
Karina delivered her "sincere apologies" in a handwritten letter, vowing she would "not disappoint" her fans again. Shortly afterwards, the couple broke up.
Others have taken things to dangerous extremes.
In 2024, Sunwoo from The Boyz was assaulted when a fan hid in an emergency stairwell to confront him. The group's label said it had also detected a tracking device on their vehicle.
This month, a Brazilian woman was indicted on charges of stalking BTS's Jung Kook. She allegedly rang his doorbell and left a letter 23 times in one month -- "out of love".
Kim Seong-sheen, a professor of creative convergence education at Hanyang University in Seoul, blames the way the industry has structured the relationship between groups and fans.
"Fans have come to occupy the role not of simple consumers but of participants who invest their emotions and time," Kim told AFP. 
"The industry has long operated on the premise of controlling idols' private lives and sustaining an illusion of intimacy to maintain that engagement."

Cyberbullying

The industry has seen a number of suspected suicides, most recently in 2023 when Moonbin, 25, from boy band ASTRO, was found dead at his home.
While mental health professionals caution it is rare that there is only one trigger factor, some performers have been subjected to intense cyberbullying and harsh scrutiny of their personal lives, both by fans and their management.
Bang Si-hyuk, creator of BTS and chairman of HYBE, questioned in a 2023 CNN interview whether such criticism was "justifiable", suggesting conditions were no better in Western pop.
Cultural commentator Kim Do-hoon said a deeper problem lies in the industry's hierarchical structure between management and singers.
Unlike many groups elsewhere, K-pop bands are assembled by agencies that invest time and capital to train them in a top-down system. 
BTS was created in the same manner.
"This is a very hierarchical system that, at its core, has not changed over the years," he said.
kjk/stu/lga

US

Displacement, bombs and air raid sirens weigh on Mideast Eid celebrations

BY CELIA LEBUR WITH WITH AFP'S MIDDLE EAST BUREAUS

  • The small, run-down apartment where Ahmad, 49, lives with her husband and three sons is currently home to 12 people.
  • Aziza Ahmad hasn't planned anything -- no family meal, no gifts for the children.
  • The small, run-down apartment where Ahmad, 49, lives with her husband and three sons is currently home to 12 people.
Aziza Ahmad hasn't planned anything -- no family meal, no gifts for the children. In Lebanon, between the war and soaring prices, she said "there's nothing to celebrate" this Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan.
From Beirut to Dubai, Manama to Jerusalem, the holy month of fasting is ending on a bitter note for millions of Muslims unsettled by the Middle East war.
The small, run-down apartment where Ahmad, 49, lives with her husband and three sons is currently home to 12 people.
"Maybe it's different for the rich, but the joy of Eid is missing here... We have no money, and the displaced people can't even go back home".
In Lebanon, years into an economic crisis even before the war broke out, prices for some products have risen sharply in local markets.
On the eve of Eid, Ahmad has set up a small pastry stall in front of her home to supplement her husband's salary as a car washer.
"We won't eat a single one; everything is for sale," she told AFP. 
Kneading dough and crushing pistachios, the whole family was busy in the building's entryway.
"We won't even go out to play. Everyone is scared, Israel is striking, so we stay home," said Yasmine, 11, a big pink ribbon in her hair.
In the Gulf, fear of bombings has also dampened the mood.
Long seen as the region's safe havens, these countries have been the target of Tehran's retaliatory strikes following US-Israeli attacks on Iran from February 28. 
Nearly 30 people have been killed in Gulf states since the war broke out.
In Kuwait, authorities have temporarily banned plays, concerts and weddings during Eid al-Fitr to limit large gatherings.
Ali Ibrahim, a 41-year-old Egyptian working in Kuwait, said fewer customers than usual have turned up at stores to buy new clothes ahead of Eid. 
Qatar also suspended all public events until further notice from the start of the conflict.

'Intimate celebrations'

In the United Arab Emirates, outdoor prayers are banned for Eid and must be held inside mosques for security reasons. 
Juhi Yasmeen Khan, a 53-year-old social worker from India who has lived in Dubai for nearly three decades, said "it doesn't feel right to have a grand celebration" this year. 
"Given the current situation, many of us are opting for intimate celebrations at home," she said, adding that she would celebrate with her mother, sister and son.
"Together, we will keep the Eid spirit alive."
For Palestinians in occupied east Jerusalem, Ramadan is incomplete this year after Israel shut Al-Aqsa Mosque, among other holy sites, over the ongoing war. 
"There is a pain in our hearts because we are deprived of Al-Aqsa Mosque", said Ihab, a 30-year-old who declined to share his last name.
This year, the lights and lanterns featuring Islamic designs, such as crescent moons, are absent in the streets. 
The narrow passages of the usually bustling Old City emptied at the start of the conflict. 
In Bahrain, people have been living to the sound of sirens ringing several times a day to warn of potential missile and drone threats.
At a beauty salon in the capital Manama, five-year-old Sarah waited to have her hands painted with henna ahead of Eid celebrations.
Her mother Maryam Abdullah said the war will not stop her family "from buying our Eid necessities and preparing for the holiday as we always have".
"This will surely pass, and it won't prevent us from enjoying the Eid atmosphere, even if it's limited to visiting family at home," she said.
Hessa Ahmed, a Bahraini employee in her thirties, was also intent on celebrating. 
"I went shopping with my friend. We bought clothes and accessories and will prepare to celebrate Eid with family, relatives, and friends."
burs-ha-cl/ris/rh

prisoners

Salvadoran anti-corruption lawyer jailed to 'silence her', husband says

BY MARíA ISABEL SáNCHEZ

  • A: Ruth symbolizes what she herself expressed: decency.
  • Jailed Salvadoran lawyer Ruth Lopez symbolizes the "decency" and "credible voice" that President Nayib Bukele's government only managed to silence with imprisonment, her husband Louis Benavides told AFP in an interview.
  • A: Ruth symbolizes what she herself expressed: decency.
Jailed Salvadoran lawyer Ruth Lopez symbolizes the "decency" and "credible voice" that President Nayib Bukele's government only managed to silence with imprisonment, her husband Louis Benavides told AFP in an interview.
Lopez, 48, who headed the anti-corruption unit at the NGO Cristosal, was arrested in her pajamas on May 18, 2025, accused by the Bukele-allied Attorney General's Office of illicit enrichment during her time working at the electoral tribunal a decade ago.
"Have some decency. This will end one day," Lopez said after being arrested, in cell phone video that went viral at the time.
Her case has been declared sealed. Her family has not seen Lopez since July 3, when she was ordered into pretrial detention.
A close ally of US President Donald Trump, Bukele calls himself the "world's coolest dictator" and rules under a state of emergency that has seen crime rates plummet, but has prompted wide-ranging claims of rights abuses.
Last week, Cristosal released a report that Bukele's government is holding dozens of political prisoners, including Lopez.
Benavides, also a lawyer, spoke with AFP on Sunday, before delivering medicine for Lopez at the Izalco prison farm, 60 kilometers from San Salvador. The interview has been edited for brevity.
QUESTION: What stage is the process at?
ANSWER: In the investigation phase, gathering evidence. Even the lawyers sometimes have trouble finding out about the progress. The judge overseeing the probe should decide if the evidence gathered is sufficient to go to trial. It is very likely that they will uphold her pretrial detention. We are in a backwards system. There is no presumption of innocence. And one has to prove that one is not guilty. 
Q: Why was she arrested? 
A: Because the authorities didn't like the free expression she exercised...She had a very strong and credible voice. She has been extremely active in denouncing corruption, illegalities, arbitrary actions by the authorities, and human rights violations. Her illegal detention was the only alternative left for the government to stop her from continuing to make accusations. Ruth's voice is so uncomfortable that it's the only way they can silence her.
Q: How do the precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights help?
A: They serve as pressure for the State to guarantee her certain minimum conditions, for example, regarding her health. She has high blood pressure, and I'm going to give her medication regularly.
Q: How do you think she's coping with prison? 
A: Ruth is very strong. I think she must be doing well emotionally, of course, considering the circumstances. But she's a woman who seeks purpose, and she's surely found it even in there. The last time we saw her, she was giving us strength. Not the other way around, that's how strong she is.
Q: Do you have hope of seeing her free soon? 
A: I'm a very religious man. I haven't lost hope in God. Now, realistically, a quick release does seem really difficult. It's truly an uphill battle. 
Q: What does Ruth Lopez mean for El Salvador? 
A: Ruth symbolizes what she herself expressed: decency. I think she symbolizes resilience, honesty, dignity. Things we lose with the polarization in our society. They arrested her because she represents the voice of those who were afraid to raise theirs. Decency means being humble enough to acknowledge your own imperfections. These people don't even want to accept that. They think they're infallible.
mis/axm/nn/mel/mjf/des

labor

California to rename Cesar Chavez Day after sex abuse claims

BY HUW GRIFFITH

  • "To honor the movement's rich California history and the steadfast dedication behind it, we are putting forward legislation to designate the following 2026 state holiday in California: Farmworkers Day," the statement added, referring to the March 31 celebration.
  • Lawmakers in California said Thursday they will rename the Cesar Chavez Day state holiday in the wake of disturbing allegations of sexual abuse by the late labor rights icon.
  • "To honor the movement's rich California history and the steadfast dedication behind it, we are putting forward legislation to designate the following 2026 state holiday in California: Farmworkers Day," the statement added, referring to the March 31 celebration.
Lawmakers in California said Thursday they will rename the Cesar Chavez Day state holiday in the wake of disturbing allegations of sexual abuse by the late labor rights icon.
The development comes as the workers movement Chavez founded reels from a bombshell New York Times investigation detailing child abuse, harassment and rape, including cases that resulted in the birth of children.
"California's farmworker rights movement never has been about one individual. To the survivors who have found the courage to come forward, uplifting the movement's values of dignity and justice, and demanding accountability, our hearts are with you always," said a statement issued by senior legislators.
"To honor the movement's rich California history and the steadfast dedication behind it, we are putting forward legislation to designate the following 2026 state holiday in California: Farmworkers Day," the statement added, referring to the March 31 celebration.
The New York Times catalogued lengthy accounts of grooming of underage girls that resulted in the sexual abuse of one named Ana Murguia from the age of 12 and the rape of another, Debra Rojas, at 15.
Dolores Huerta, a fellow founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW) union, said her longtime comrade-in-arms forced her into sex that resulted in two pregnancies.
Chavez, who died in 1993, rallied California's largely Latino farmworkers starting in the 1950s to win improvements in working conditions.
He led huge marches and national boycotts that brought about lasting change, and became a figure revered throughout the labor movement.
Former president Bill Clinton posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Joe Biden had a bust of Chavez installed in the Oval Office.
Chavez's name or face adorn schools, auditoriums, streets and public squares throughout California, where he has long been a deeply beloved figure, especially among the large Latino population.
Footage on Thursday showed statues being covered up as communities began to grapple with Chavez's sudden fall from grace.
Governor Gavin Newsom welcomed the move by California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón to introduce urgent legislation that would remove Chavez's name from the state holiday.
"The farmworkers' movement was always bigger than just one man or one person. Given the horrendous allegations that were made public for the first time yesterday, this is a welcomed change," he wrote on social media.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she would be looking at renaming city landmarks.
"I am keeping Dolores Huerta, Ana Murguia, and Debra Rojas in my heart, and I honor their strength and that of every woman and girl horrifically harmed by those in power," she said.
"The sickening reality is that what Dolores, Ana, and Debra endured is not isolated, nor is it of the past. 
"Dolores and leaders like her inspired so many of us to activism. Mr. Chavez's crimes do not diminish the courage of farm workers and workers everywhere who fight for their rights, equality for Latinos, and a stronger nation for everyone."
hg/dw

film

Labubu creators hope for monster film hit in Sony co-production

  • "The collaboration between Pop Mart and Sony Pictures marks a significant milestone," Pop Mart said, which promises "a unique cinematic experience with creative storytelling, artistic vision and enduring global appeal".
  • China's snaggle-toothed Labubu dolls will soon come alive on the big screen after flying off the toy shelves, with maker Pop Mart announcing a collaboration with Sony Pictures.
  • "The collaboration between Pop Mart and Sony Pictures marks a significant milestone," Pop Mart said, which promises "a unique cinematic experience with creative storytelling, artistic vision and enduring global appeal".
China's snaggle-toothed Labubu dolls will soon come alive on the big screen after flying off the toy shelves, with maker Pop Mart announcing a collaboration with Sony Pictures.
The movie, which is still in early development, will feature the fanged plushie monsters in a "live-action and CGI hybrid", Beijing-based Pop Mart said on Thursday.
Created in 2015 by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung, Labubus sparked a craze nine years later, with the "ugly-cute" charms adorning the handbags of celebrities such as Rihanna and Dua Lipa and sparking massive queues at Pop Mart stores around the world.
Vivian Jia, a Canadian tourist visiting Pop Mart's flagship Shanghai flagship store, said she was looking forward to watching the Labubu movie with her children.
"I think they're so cute, especially the ones with the eyes that move... my friends' kids all like (Labubus) too," she told AFP.
Jia said she spent more than 400 yuan ($58) on a Labubu figure, which she said she planned to display in her living room in Vancouver.
The new film project, unveiled by Lung and director Paul King ("Wonka" and "Paddington") in Paris on Thursday, will seek to capitalise on the dolls' viral fame by bringing "Labubu's whimsical world to the big screen", Pop Mart said.

'Cool' China

The collectable dolls, which typically sell for around $40, are released in limited quantities and sold in "blind boxes", meaning buyers do not know the exact model they will receive.
Some of the less common Labubu figures can fetch thousands of dollars.
Pop Mart sold more than 100 million Labubu dolls worldwide last year, with Chinese officials hailing the toothy characters' popularity as evidence of China's growing cultural and soft power.
They have become furry ambassadors for a "cool" China, even in places such as Europe and North America, where public opinion towards Beijing has not always been positive.
Camilla Pinheiro, a Brazilian Pop Mart fan who bought several dolls at the Shanghai store, said she would prefer a movie franchise about some of Pop Mart's less well-known toy lines, such as the punk-inspired Peach Riot figures.
"The whole (Labubu) fever, it was kind of intense... by the time they finish the movie, it will be so saturated," Pinheiro said.
King will share scriptwriting duties with Tony Award-winner Steven Levenson.
"The collaboration between Pop Mart and Sony Pictures marks a significant milestone," Pop Mart said, which promises "a unique cinematic experience with creative storytelling, artistic vision and enduring global appeal".
The company now has more than 600 stores in over 30 countries and regions.
A release date for the film has not yet been announced.
sam-tjx/pbt/cms

Global Edition

Ahead of election, Danish city mirrors country's challenges

BY CAMILLE BAS-WOHLERT

  • Meanwhile, the city's mayor attributed the concerns of Kolding people to broader geopolitical issues, such as the Ukraine war and US President Donald Trump's demand to take over Denmark's autonomous territory of Greenland.
  • In the Danish city of Kolding, voters are worried about rising prices, the welfare state and immigration ahead of the country's general election, reflecting nationwide concerns reinforced by worries about Greenland and global uncertainty.
  • Meanwhile, the city's mayor attributed the concerns of Kolding people to broader geopolitical issues, such as the Ukraine war and US President Donald Trump's demand to take over Denmark's autonomous territory of Greenland.
In the Danish city of Kolding, voters are worried about rising prices, the welfare state and immigration ahead of the country's general election, reflecting nationwide concerns reinforced by worries about Greenland and global uncertainty.
Kolding -- Denmark's eighth biggest city with 64,000 inhabitants -- lies at the intersection of the main road and rail routes linking Jutland, the continental part of Denmark, to the eastern islands where Copenhagen is located.
Campaign posters line the port city's almost-empty streets, dotted with shuttered shops, but the debate is the same as in many towns in the country of six million people that will vote on Tuesday.
Denmark is one of the world's wealthiest countries in per capita terms. But in Kolding "there are a lot of empty stores," lamented Per Hansen, a 54-year-old florist. 
"People don't dare to start something because it's expensive, and a lot of banks are reluctant to loan money to set up a proper business," he said.
Hansen, who opened his store in 2001, hopes the next government will help small businesses, squeezed by online shopping and large shopping centres on the one hand and rising prices on the other.
"Prices are increasing, and sometimes consumers don't understand that the price of flowers is going up," he said. 
"The Middle East war is also pushing up the price of oil and fuel, so it costs more for the Dutch truck to bring the flowers to Denmark, and prices will inevitably go up."
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's Social Democrats, in power since 2019 and currently leading a left-right coalition, top public opinion polls with around 21 percent of votes, though that is six points lower than their 2022 election score.
Negotiations after the election will determine the shape of the next government.

'We're doing okay'

In Kolding, 42-year-old Afghan Wahida Abdul Mutaleb admitted she's struggling to make ends meet. 
"We have to cut back on everything to live." 
"But despite everything, we're doing okay," said the mother of four children aged 13 to 20, who makes a point of being involved in the community where the family has lived for 12 years. 
In the beginning, she went to the Volunteers' House to learn Danish and get help finding her way in the Scandinavian country. 
She now works as a volunteer there herself.
Nearly 400,000 people in the population were born outside the European Union, according to EU figures, but Denmark is known for its tightening of immigration policies in recent decades.  
As a Muslim woman in Denmark. Mutaleb said she has "never had any bad experiences".
"When I started taking language classes and I tried to learn a bit of Danish, I was always welcomed with smiles and a lot of patience."
Kolding mayor Jakob Ville, of the liberal Venstre party, told AFP that in national politics, "some parties take very hard lines on refugees and immigrants".
"Those same parties sit here on the municipal council, and in the eight or nine years I've been a member I've never heard a single one of them talk about refugees." 
"I think it's because when it comes to (the national) parliament, they speak to people's emotions."

Pragmatists

Ville said Kolding residents were pragmatic.
"What's important is that when my mother and father go into a nursing home, they will be able to get the services they need. And I don't care, and my mother and father don't care, whether it's someone who speaks Danish," he said.
But in national politics, parties keep trying to outdo each other: the Social Democrats want to facilitate returns and expulsions, while the far-right Danish People's Party is pushing for what it calls "re-migration", especially of Muslims.
The head of the Volunteers' House, Margit Vestbjerg, said some migrants, in particular Syrians, "feel increasingly insecure".
"Their right to stay here is being called into question," she noted.
"There is constant talk of temporary residence. And there are also more and more politicians who openly talk about sending them back home," she added.
Michael Jensen, who said he was a lifelong Social Democratic voter, believes Denmark's integration policy has failed.
"It's certainly not gotten any better. It's actually gotten much worse," he grumbled.
Meanwhile, the city's mayor attributed the concerns of Kolding people to broader geopolitical issues, such as the Ukraine war and US President Donald Trump's demand to take over Denmark's autonomous territory of Greenland.
"There is a kind of anxiety in our society at the moment," he said.
"During the campaign for the municipal elections in November, many people started asking: 'Where are our shelters? Where could we go?' I had never heard that question before."
cbw/po/jfx

film

Director plans to put Val Kilmer back on screen thanks to AI

  • Kilmer, who played in big-budget successes and indie films throughout his career, was one of the late actors praised during the In Memoriam segment of the Oscars ceremony on Sunday. pr/js/md
  • The late American film star Val Kilmer could soon be "acting" on the big screen again after allowing a director to use AI tools to produce his likeness for an upcoming film, media reports said Wednesday.
  • Kilmer, who played in big-budget successes and indie films throughout his career, was one of the late actors praised during the In Memoriam segment of the Oscars ceremony on Sunday. pr/js/md
The late American film star Val Kilmer could soon be "acting" on the big screen again after allowing a director to use AI tools to produce his likeness for an upcoming film, media reports said Wednesday.
Coerte Voorhees had tapped Kilmer, who died of pneumonia last year after years of battling throat cancer, for "As Deep as the Grave," about the pioneering archaeologist Ann Morris, a co-discoverer of the Anasazi civilization.
Kilmer was to play a Catholic priest named Fintan.
"He was the actor I wanted to play this role," Voorhees told industry magazine Variety. "It drew on his Native American heritage and his ties to and love of the Southwest."
He said Kilmer signed on to the project but later became too ill to begin filming. 
"I was looking at a call sheet the other day, and we had him ready to shoot," Voorhees said. "He was just going through a really, really tough time medically, and he couldn't do it."
He said Kilmer's family had provided video images of Kilmer, who was known for keeping a vast archive of footage from various moments of his life, that would be used to build the AI actor.
The project will likely get a wary welcome from many in Hollywood, where actors, writers and others are worried that AI could replace an array of jobs.
AI was already used with Kilmer so he could again play one of his most iconic roles, the cocky pilot Iceman, in the 2022 sequel to the era-defining 1980s hit "Top Gun."
Kilmer, who played in big-budget successes and indie films throughout his career, was one of the late actors praised during the In Memoriam segment of the Oscars ceremony on Sunday.
pr/js/md