conservation

Indonesia cash-for-photos scheme turns animal hunters into protectors

BY MARIëTTE LE ROUX

  • Imelda, a farmer in Labian, goes into the forest daily with friends to record bird sounds and, if they are lucky, orangutans.
  • Indonesian villager Octavius wades through the forest in rubber boots and tattered joggers, ears pricked, eyes peeled, a telephoto lens on his phone primed to capture orangutans, monkeys or birds.
  • Imelda, a farmer in Labian, goes into the forest daily with friends to record bird sounds and, if they are lucky, orangutans.
Indonesian villager Octavius wades through the forest in rubber boots and tattered joggers, ears pricked, eyes peeled, a telephoto lens on his phone primed to capture orangutans, monkeys or birds.
The daily photo hunt earns Octavius and hundreds of others in Borneo cash as part of a conservation programme seeking to make animals worth more alive than dead.
Locals on the island have long made money from hunting wild songbirds and selling them, mainly to domestic customers.
The KehatiKu project aims to break that cycle by paying individuals in nine participating villages in West Kalimantan province for photos or recordings of animals instead.
Payments range from 5,000 rupiah (about $0.30) for observing a common bird, to 130,000 rupiah for an endangered orangutan -- the top prize.
The most successful observers earn up to 10 million rupiah a month -- equivalent to about $570, several times an average farmworker's income.
The extra cash "really helps, especially to pay for my children's college", said 50-year-old Octavius, who like many Indonesians uses a single name.
The programme, run by environmental consultancy Borneo Futures, began two years ago and produces data on wildlife distribution and population changes.
Most participants are small-scale farmers of rice, cacao, durian and the stimulant kratom.
Early signs suggest the scheme is working.
"People have started to realise that where previously they caught one bird and it was worth 50,000 rupiah, now they just need to take a photo, send it to us, and they can receive a payment of 5,000 to 10,000 rupiah," Borneo Futures Indonesia director Nardiyono told AFP.
"If they take just five photos, they (may) earn 50,000 rupiah, and the bird is still in their environment, still observable, and still able to reproduce, so the potential income from observing birds is far greater than from hunting birds."

Side-job

That shifting logic has prompted two participating villages to voluntarily introduce hunting bans since the project started, added Nardiyono.
The programme is funded by philanthropic foundations and has received about $300,000 to date, according to Borneo Futures.
Half has gone towards development, including a mobile app for uploading animal sightings and an AI system that helps humans verify observations.
So far, users have submitted over 350,000 observations, about half of which have been validated and paid for.
Invalid entries might include multiple observations of the same animal, or a species that is not on the programme's list.
In September, Octavius and dozens of others gathered at the tiny office in Labian village -- population 683 -- for their monthly payments.
His share was four million rupiah, or nearly $230.
"This is a side-job; it doesn't interfere" with farming, he told AFP as he showed off a patch where he grows kratom and cacao.
"Sometimes when we're working, when everyone is gathered to collect kratom leaves, we hear birds calling, so we go over, observe them -- if we can take a photo, we take a photo; if not, we just make a sound recording."
The programme's model is "likely better for both environmental and social impacts than an unincentivised, top-down conservation project design," said researcher Paul Ferraro of the US-based Johns Hopkins University.
The main challenge will be maintaining funding, he added.
"People may revert to their prior behavioural patterns because the incentive payments are insufficient when the enthusiasm has waned," said Ferraro, an expert in human behaviour and public policy.

Sense of independence

For now, Borneo Futures has funding secured through 2028, and two more villages will join next month.
It pays for observations of 73 species, including birds, monkeys, wild cats and deer.
Antonia Uneng says she never has to venture too far from her home in Sungai Ajung, a village of fewer than 400 people, for observations.
She bought her first fridge with her earnings, as well as a karaoke machine, complete with flashing lights and two microphones, that occupies pride of place in her living room.
The project has given women in the village a sense of independence, said the 36-year-old part-time nursing assistant, whose husband works abroad.
"I have my own income... so I am not dependent on my husband."
Imelda, a farmer in Labian, goes into the forest daily with friends to record bird sounds and, if they are lucky, orangutans.
"It makes us healthier, walking in the forest," said the 72-year-old.
In the past, some in the community considered wild boar and deer pests for damaging their gardens and crops, she said.
But now, "we really, really want to protect them".
mlr/sah/mjw/abs

books

UK-Sudanese author pens book to give children 'African history of Africa'

BY CAROLINE TAÏX

  • Entitled "Africa: History and Heroes", the new book will combine simple text with illustrations aimed at making "Africa's history come alive" for younger readers.
  • Journalist and author Zeinab Badawi, whose history of Africa has sold more than 110,000 copies, is turning her attention to younger readers with a forthcoming children's edition of the book.
  • Entitled "Africa: History and Heroes", the new book will combine simple text with illustrations aimed at making "Africa's history come alive" for younger readers.
Journalist and author Zeinab Badawi, whose history of Africa has sold more than 110,000 copies, is turning her attention to younger readers with a forthcoming children's edition of the book.
Badawi, best known for her work as a broadcaster for the UK's Channel 4 News and the BBC, was born in Sudan and brought up in England.
"An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence" was first published in 2024 and now she is working on a children's version.
Like the adult volume, the adapted edition will trace the broad sweep of African history from the rise of powerful kingdoms, great trading centres and influential leaders, before charting the continent's path towards independence in the modern era.
"Of course you have to engage the young reader through vivid illustrations and I have a wonderful illustrator who I think captures the essence of the characters I have focused on in the children's book," she told AFP.
"History is best understood if it is seared into the imagination and that is especially true for young readers," she added. 
Entitled "Africa: History and Heroes", the new book will combine simple text with illustrations aimed at making "Africa's history come alive" for younger readers.

No history 'myth'

Badawi, 67, said she believed children should be introduced to African history at an early age to help them understand that it was "part of our global story".
A French translation of Badawi's original book is being published on Friday in France which she hopes will reach new readers in francophone Africa.
France and Britain were the major colonial powers on the continent.
The book began life as a BBC series and has seen her travel to about 30 African countries to meet with historians, anthropologists and specialists in African culture.
"I wanted to dispel the myth that Africa had no history," she said.
Badawi, the president of SOAS University of London, said Africa's history had previously been largely seen through the European lens.
The extent to which it had been sidelined really hit home, she said, when a former African president admitted he was "better" at naming English medieval kings than kings and queens of Africa.
"If you ask most people 'what do you know about Africa's history?' they know nothing, really, including on the continent itself," she said. 
"So I really wanted to tackle this ignorance, which, frankly, even I had in many ways."

Steeped in culture

Badawi, who left Sudan at the age of two, describes herself as merely a go-between helping the reader access the continent's experts steeped in its languages and culture.
She said she hoped the book filled a gap that she had experienced herself.
"I'd go to a library or a bookshop and I could not find a book that conveyed the African perspective on Africa's history, which gave me this kind of holistic overview."
For now, she remains optimistic about Africa partly due to its youth. The average age is around 18 compared to 38 in the United States.
And she welcomed the United Nations' vote earlier this month to adopt a new more accurate world map.
The new map replaces the traditional so-called Mercator projection, dating from 1569, which inflated the size of northern regions and compressed equatorial ones.
As a result it made Europe and North America appear much larger, while shrinking Africa and South America.
"I think we have to abandon the old thinking that made Africa look like it was tiny," sh said.
"I really welcome the fact that that balance has been redressed."
ctx/har/pdh/ach/cms

film

'Being Heumann' captures joy in fight for disability rights

BY PAULA RAMON

  • "Being Heumann" brings to screen a 1977 protest led by activist Judy Heumann, known as the "mother of the disability rights movement."
  • Sian Heder's new film "Being Heumann" profiles an American activist fighting for the rights of people with disabilities, with the Oscar-winning director saying its message of inclusivity has renewed importance in today's society.
  • "Being Heumann" brings to screen a 1977 protest led by activist Judy Heumann, known as the "mother of the disability rights movement."
Sian Heder's new film "Being Heumann" profiles an American activist fighting for the rights of people with disabilities, with the Oscar-winning director saying its message of inclusivity has renewed importance in today's society.
The film, starring Ruth Madeley and Mark Ruffalo, opened the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last week.
"It's a time where people need to fight again and need to come together in collective action and take a stand," Heder told AFP in an interview. 
"A lot of the rights that activists fought for and put their bodies on the line for in the 1970s are being rolled back completely," she said.
"Being Heumann" brings to screen a 1977 protest led by activist Judy Heumann, known as the "mother of the disability rights movement."
Heumann, together with a group of people with different disabilities, occupied a government building in California for weeks, demanding the implementation of regulations to expand accessibility.
"This is a movie about a time when protest really mattered, and invisible people were refusing to be invisible, and I think we're at that place right now," Heder said.
The film doesn't show only conflict. Heder also wanted to highlight the joy in protest.
"The protesters are fun. The building is joyful, so activism doesn't need to be only painful. It can be about community as well," she said.
The director conducted 35 interviews and immersed herself in archive material to write the script along with Rebekah Taussig.

'Intimacy'

The AppleTV film offers the perspective of people with disabilities and shows the challenges of everyday tasks such as getting out of bed or going to the bathroom. 
It also portrays the close relationships that people with disabilities can develop with caregivers.
"Judy slept with eight different pillows under her legs and part of that was she couldn't move herself until the morning," Heder said.
"So until her attendant came in the morning, she was going to be stuck in whatever position she was left in."
"The details and that intimacy was really important to me," said Heder, who won an  Oscar for the screenplay of "CODA," which centers on a family with deaf parents.
"Being Heumann" shows its title character with all her complexities and vulnerabilities.
Madeley said she felt the pressure of embodying a woman who devoted decades to activism and served in the administrations of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
"It made me nervous in the best possible way," Madeley told AFP.
"Judy is such an iconic figure, and I wanted to do her justice, but I also wanted to do disabled creatives justice who have been waiting for to see themselves in a lead role in Hollywood," said the British actress who has spina bifida, a spine condition that requires her to use a wheelchair.
"This was a real milestone, not just in my personal career, but in the industry and seeing disability cast authentically," she said.
Madeley, who entered the industry as a writer before turning to acting, said the sector has changed considerably since she started.
She recalled feeling panicked about asking for help for fear of being seen as a burden.
"If there's no accessible bathroom on set, don't worry about it. No, no problem. There's no ramp. Don't worry, it's fine. I don't need ramp," she said.
While filming "Being Heumann," Madeley said she noticed the same fear in some actors.
"It was so healing and rewarding for me to be able to say 'You can ask for that, that's fine,'" she said. 
TIFF ends on September 20. 
pr/lkd/acb/bgs

children

EU to ban social media for under 13s, curb access until 15

BY RAZIYE AKKOC

  • "No social media under the age of 13.
  • The European Union will ban social media for children under 13 and allow only limited, supervised access until the age of 15 under plans unveiled Wednesday by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.
  • "No social media under the age of 13.
The European Union will ban social media for children under 13 and allow only limited, supervised access until the age of 15 under plans unveiled Wednesday by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.
A global backlash against social media has piled pressure on policymakers, with a rising body of evidence showing negative impacts on children's physical and mental health.
"It is time for Europe to act," von der Leyen said during her annual keynote address to the European Parliament. "It is we who decide our rules, not big tech," she warned.
Australia last year became the first country to ban social media for under-16s, triggering similar moves elsewhere, but the European Commission chief said the 27-country bloc would take a more "gradual" approach.
"No social media under the age of 13. No personal account under the age of 15," she said. "That means from 13 to under 15, only mini accounts, set up and supervised by parents or guardians, with limited features and time restriction to one hour a day."
"And between 15 and 18, safe design will be an obligation for the platforms."
Before outlining the EU's approach, von der Leyen paid tribute to a 14-year-old girl in Belgium, named Olea, who killed herself one month ago after being bullied, and whose mother she quoted as saying: "I am convinced that without these omnipresent networks, my daughter would still be here."
Von der Leyen made no reference to online games or AI chatbots, which according to draft legislation seen by AFP would also be hit by the restrictions.
The commission president and tech chief Henna Virkkunen will formally present the proposed "KIDS Act", including the tiered age limits in Strasbourg, France on Thursday.
Children's rights and parents groups welcomed moves to make online platforms safer.
"The devil is of course in the detail. Tomorrow's proposal must be coherent, comprehensive, future-proof and robustly enforceable," the 5Rights Foundation advocacy group's Leanda Barrington-Leach said.
"Finally Europe is sending a clear signal: it's time to act against the harmful design of platforms to protect our children from toxic algorithms and features," said Arnaud Ducoin, part of a group of French families who have filed a complaint against TikTok over teenagers' self-harm and suicides.

'Arbitrary age threshold'

The new EU law will also ban addictive design features such as so-called infinite scrolling where children are concerned, according to a draft document.
If platforms break the rules, they face fines of up to six percent of annual turnover, draft details show.
"We do not have to accept addictive features," von der Leyen warned, saying "platforms will have to prove that they are safe".
The "risk" is not limited to children, she noted. "Addictive design, for example, is harming everyone," she said, telling EU lawmakers that Europe needed more rules that will be proposed in the autumn.
Simeon de Brouwer of digital rights group EDRi said making platforms safer across the board was an urgent necessity, telling AFP "if the design is harmful at 13, it does not magically become safe on their 15th or 18th birthday".

Pressure from EU states

Von der Leyen had faced pressure from members including France, Denmark and Greece for action across the 27-nation bloc to limit online harms for children.
France, which has proposed its own legislation, welcomed the announcement. Government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon said it was "a step in the right direction".
The EU has sought for years to rein in Big Tech, empowering itself with a strengthened legal armoury, but it believes additional tools are needed to limit online harms.
The bloc has already told Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram as well as TikTok to change their "addictive" design through its content law known as the Digital Services Act, but changes have taken longer than Brussels wants.
Digital and consumer rights groups have meanwhile raised concerns over a related age-check app due to be rolled out later this year which Brussels says will keep children off social media.
"Age verification is not a silver bullet and would raise serious privacy and data protection concerns," said European consumer organisation BEUC's Agustin Reyna.
Thursday's proposal will only become law after negotiations between EU capitals and the European Parliament, which could take months.
bur-raz/ec/jxb

migration

English village votes to 'secede' from UK over asylum centre plan

BY HELEN ROWE

  • Prime Minister Andy Burnham promised to "look at the issues raised by the community and in the referendum" but said the "vast majority" of British people backed a government plan to stop housing asylum seekers in hotels and it was "fair" to locate holding centres around the country.
  • An English village of around 350 people announced Wednesday that a vast majority of residents had voted to exit the UK in an "independence referendum" in protest at plans to house over 1,200 migrants in a nearby facility.
  • Prime Minister Andy Burnham promised to "look at the issues raised by the community and in the referendum" but said the "vast majority" of British people backed a government plan to stop housing asylum seekers in hotels and it was "fair" to locate holding centres around the country.
An English village of around 350 people announced Wednesday that a vast majority of residents had voted to exit the UK in an "independence referendum" in protest at plans to house over 1,200 migrants in a nearby facility.
Piddington in central England, 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the university city of Oxford, has grabbed headlines with its tongue-in-cheek breakaway vote.
The village's parish council announced that with 312 ballots counted, 285 had voted to secede from Britain over plans to house asylum seekers in a nearby disused military site, in a symbolic vote with no recognised legal basis.
Residents were handed a ballot paper with the statement: "I support Piddington seeking to secede from the United Kingdom and pursuing self-determination."
The local parish council chair Tim McNally said that the village will now be known as the "principality of Piddington".
McNally told Sky News: "For us, it's about proportionality -- how does a small village of 350 odd people assimilate with 1,250 males?"
He accused the government of "trying to rush this whole plan through".
The leader of Oxfordshire county council, Tim Bearder, speaking to the BBC, warned the planned centre "will be a lightning rod to the far right, who come here to protest" and "potentially attack" asylum seekers.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham promised to "look at the issues raised by the community and in the referendum" but said the "vast majority" of British people backed a government plan to stop housing asylum seekers in hotels and it was "fair" to locate holding centres around the country.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told the BBC a former military base "is a better option for housing asylum seekers" than hotels or rented accommodation and vowed the base would go ahead.
Around Britain, regular protests have been staged against housing asylum seekers in hotels and other facilities.

'I voted to leave'

The Piddington referendum was a play on the British comedy film "Passport to Pimlico".
In the 1949 classic, a small group of Londoners discover treasure and declare independence making them exempt from post-war rationing and other bureaucratic restrictions.
"I voted to leave the United Kingdom," 76-year-old Piddington resident Herbert Owen, told AFP during the vote, saying it felt like the government did not "care" about the bucolic village in the Oxfordshire countryside.
"We have a village hall, a 12th-century church and a playing field -- and that's it," another villager Ian Darby, 63, said, questioning how the migrants would spend their time and warning of a "takeover of our village."
"I've lived here, my whole life... I won't really feel safe enough to walk around anymore," 17-year-old student and part-time stablehand Dita Jackson told AFP.
The government says the proposed centre would be used for a minimum of 10 years to house single adult male asylum seekers.
The "safety and security" of the migrants, staff at the base and the local community would be "of the utmost importance", it said.
The centre-left Labour Party, in power since July 2024, has vowed to replace use of hotels as migrant accommodation, a policy it inherited from the previous Conservative government, with ex-military bases by 2029.
har-am/pdh/cw

politics

Hong Kong unveils plan to align economy with China's goals

  • - 'Dissolve the borders' - Hong Kong's Five-Year Plan also aims to speed up development of the Northern Metropolis -- a development project to build a massive tech hub near the border with mainland China.
  • Hong Kong's government unveiled plans on Wednesday to significantly boost investment on innovation and technology as it aims to align the financial hub with mainland China's development goals.
  • - 'Dissolve the borders' - Hong Kong's Five-Year Plan also aims to speed up development of the Northern Metropolis -- a development project to build a massive tech hub near the border with mainland China.
Hong Kong's government unveiled plans on Wednesday to significantly boost investment on innovation and technology as it aims to align the financial hub with mainland China's development goals.
City leader John Lee made the announcement as he unveiled Hong Kong's first Five-Year Plan, outlining its economic and social strategy to 2030.
The city will aim to make research and development account for three percent of gross domestic product after 2030, up from 1.63 percent in 2024, according to an official document.
China, the world's second-largest economy, has made scientific and technological self-reliance a priority, investing heavily in industries including semiconductors and artificial intelligence as a way to reduce dependence on the United States.
Its ruling Communist Party has used five-year plans modelled on those of the former Soviet Union to set its development targets and social priorities since the 1950s.
Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997 and is now a Chinese "special administrative region" with different economic and trade regulations to the mainland.
It has long benefitted financially from its semi-autonomous position as a free-market gateway for investment into and out of China, though Beijing has asserted greater control over the city's governance since quashing widespread protests in 2019.
Lee vowed that the inaugural plan would uphold Hong Kong's capitalist system.
"I want to make it very clear: the five-year plan is not a planned economy," he told reporters on Tuesday ahead of its publication.
Christine Loh, a former government official and lawmaker, told AFP that it will give Hong Kong a "useful governance tool" to implement longer-term, strategic planning.
The move was "primarily to synchronise" Hong Kong with China's national Five-Year Plan released in March, said Dylan Loh, an associate professor at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.
To Beijing, Hong Kong's plan signals "proactive loyalty and a commitment to integrating into national development goals", he added.
"What it does portend, to me, is that Hong Kong will accelerate its economic intertwining with Beijing."

'Dissolve the borders'

Hong Kong's Five-Year Plan also aims to speed up development of the Northern Metropolis -- a development project to build a massive tech hub near the border with mainland China.
First proposed in 2021, the project will eventually cover a third of Hong Kong's total land area.
Critics and locals have raised concerns over its potential environmental impact as well as the strain it will put on the city's public finances.
Eilo Yu, a political scientist who specialises in Hong Kong and Macau development, said the programme announced on Wednesday reflects "how the entire system (in Hong Kong) can be fully integrated with China's development".
The Northern Metropolis and Hengqin Island -- a landmass adjacent to Macau and three times its size -- are both part of China's vision, he said.
Yu added that Beijing hopes, through the "geographical integration" of the two cities, "to gradually dissolve the borders".
twa/dhw/mjw

vote

Brazilian voters the latest to eye Bukele security model with envy

BY LUCíA LACURCIA

  • In Brazil, organized crime groups such as Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) impose their rule over millions of people living in favelas, while street crime in the form of cellphone, handbag and car theft is rampant.
  • Fed up with witnessing muggings in Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana neighborhood, William Correia formed a volunteer group to patrol the streets and report robberies on social media. 
  • In Brazil, organized crime groups such as Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) impose their rule over millions of people living in favelas, while street crime in the form of cellphone, handbag and car theft is rampant.
Fed up with witnessing muggings in Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana neighborhood, William Correia formed a volunteer group to patrol the streets and report robberies on social media. 
He dreams of Brazil adopting El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's hardline approach to crime.
"I'd like to see here what is happening in El Salvador, so criminals get a reality check," the 39-year-old martial arts instructor told AFP.
Crime and insecurity are the biggest concerns among Brazilian voters ahead of October 4 elections, and right-wing candidate Flavio Bolsonaro has tapped into these fears, vowing to import the Salvadoran model.
Bukele's formula, which has sharply reduced violence under a controversial state of emergency, became a key campaign theme for right-wing politicians who won elections across Latin America, including Ecuador's Daniel Noboa, Colombia's Abelardo de la Espriella and Keiko Fujimori in Peru.
In Brazil, organized crime groups such as Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) impose their rule over millions of people living in favelas, while street crime in the form of cellphone, handbag and car theft is rampant.
Against that backdrop, 88 percent of Brazilians favor tougher sentences for criminals and 79 percent support lowering the age of criminal responsibility, according to recent polls.

'Inspiring'

Bukele has brought down gang violence through mass arrests and imprisonment, drawing criticism from rights groups over arbitrary detentions, torture and deaths in custody.
Despite questions over his methods, Bukele is now the most popular leader in Latin America, according to a recent regional poll.
Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of jailed far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, said El Salvador's turnaround on violence was "inspiring."
Among other measures, he has pledged to build maximum-security mega-prisons and designate the Comando Vermelho and PCC criminal factions as terrorist organizations, as US President Donald Trump's administration did recently.
Leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is seeking reelection and whose rivals accuse him of being soft on crime, has steered clear of such rhetoric.
His main strategy is what he calls "financial suffocation" -- choking off the assets and businesses criminal factions use to launder money.

'Brazilian law protects criminals'

Correia, who was barred by a court in May from organizing patrols, believes human rights violations are an unavoidable price to pay.
"It's like cancer. Chemotherapy is bad for the body, but it works against the disease. Faced with this absurd violence, we need chemotherapy" for criminals, said Correia, who is now running for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies for a center-right party.
Taxi driver Wallace Ferreira, 53, says "Brazilian law protects criminals, not law-abiding citizens" and complains that suspects are quickly released after being arrested.
Ferreira stopped working nights out of fear after a colleague was robbed by a passenger who lured him into an ambush.

'Many mothers will cry'

Others, like Sonia Bonfim Vicente, warn of the consequences of a hardline approach, pointing to alleged police impunity that already exists and has claimed innocent lives.
In 2018, a police officer shot and wounded her five-year-old daughter during an operation in the Chapadao favela, where they live.
She said that three years later, police killed her husband and 17-year-old son Samuel during another operation, accusing them of being armed. 
She is still seeking to prove that allegation false in an ongoing court case.
"Brazil will become a bloodbath" if it adopts the Bukele model, Bonfim, 41, told AFP.
"If security forces are allowed to act with greater impunity, it will only make things worse. Many mothers will cry, many children will die," said the hairdresser, who now works for an association supporting other mothers in similar situations.
Political scientist Robert Muggah of the Igarape Institute, which specializes in security, said the Bukele model could "weaken democratic safeguards without achieving the dramatic reduction in violence seen in El Salvador."
"Brazil's criminal landscape is more complex," he said.
Salvadoran gangs built their power on territorial control and extortion, whereas Comando Vermelho and PCC have expanded into dozens of countries, with their money flowing through legitimate businesses and financial networks, he said.
With less than three weeks before elections, Lula and Bolsonaro are neck-and-neck in polls.
ll/app/fb/mjf/pnb/lkd

energy

In hydropowered Bhutan, solar starts to rise

BY SARA HUSSEIN

  • - Rooftop solar - Om Pradhan, a former minister and ambassador, had long advocated for solar in Bhutan, and was keen to install panels at home.
  • Engineer Rinzin Galley stands on a platform overlooking a former military shooting range on the edge of Bhutan's capital Thimphu, now home to a gleaming field of solar panels.
  • - Rooftop solar - Om Pradhan, a former minister and ambassador, had long advocated for solar in Bhutan, and was keen to install panels at home.
Engineer Rinzin Galley stands on a platform overlooking a former military shooting range on the edge of Bhutan's capital Thimphu, now home to a gleaming field of solar panels.
With abundant waterways, Bhutan has long relied on hydroelectric power to meet its electricity needs and stay carbon negative -- absorbing more planet-warming gases than it emits.
But demand is growing, and in winter, when rivers run low before the mountain melt arrives, Bhutan already relies on imported Indian electricity.
Climate change is also threatening the future of the glaciers that feed those rivers, adding impetus to a push for energy diversification.
"Solar projects are booming," said Rinzin, senior engineer at Norion Renewable Energy.
The company's biggest project to date is the Dechencholing solar farm on former military land, with an installed capacity of 4.45 megawatts (MW).
Dechencholing is one of several solar fields developed in recent years, including the country's first mega project -- Sephu, with over 22 MW capacity.
That is relatively modest, especially compared to the vast solar fields installed in neighbouring China.
But it represents a new direction for Bhutan, where hydropower exports account for up to 15 percent of GDP, according to the World Bank.
"Our plans are to develop about 5,000 megawatts," said Chhewang Rinzin, managing director of Druk Green Power Corporation, the country's generation utility.
Bhutan can currently produce around 3,700 MW from hydro, but that capacity falls around 80 percent during the winter, he said.
Winter demand has increased to 1,500 MW from 400 MW,creating a significant shortfall currently being met by electricity imports from India.

Finding space

Officials attribute part of the growing demand to a construction boom, but Bhutan has also bet on bitcoin mining to boost revenue. A planned special economic zone known as the Gelephu Mindfulness City is expected to host energy-hungry data centres.
The problem was already clear back in 2008, when a goal of generating 10,000 MW from hydropower by 2020 was agreed. But the plan ran into a series of obstacles, including financing.
"When you're looking at constructing 10,000 megawatts in hydropower capacity and each megawatt probably costs you about $1.5 million... for a small economy like ourselves, that's quite difficult," said Chhewang.
Solutions have included liberalising foreign investment rules and increasing solar targets in the energy mix.
The country now aims for 25,000 MW by 2040, with solar accounting for a fifth of that.
But finding sufficient space for projects is challenging given Bhutan's largely mountainous terrain.
"When we do solar projects on the ground mount, it takes a huge amount of area to get certain capacity," Norion's Rinzin said.
The country's high altitudes, circuitous routes and roads frequently damaged by landslides pose further problems.
Part of the push has involved training up a corps of solar engineers, including through the De-suung royal skilling initiative.
Norion has trained around 450 De-suung volunteers "to build in-house capacity in the country," Rinzin said.
Several dozen now work at Norion, which has a goal of installing 30 MW of solar by 2027, much of it on rooftops.
Rooftop solar is now a common sight in Thimphu on government buildings and businesses, but the incentives for individual consumers are still slim.
Electricity is comparatively cheap in Bhutan, and installing solar remains expensive.

Rooftop solar

Om Pradhan, a former minister and ambassador, had long advocated for solar in Bhutan, and was keen to install panels at home.
"I thought that firstly it would benefit me personally, in the sense that my electricity bills would go down," the 79-year-old former minister for trade and industries told AFP.
"The second thing is that I've always been an advocate for solar power," he said.
But the 600,000 ngultrums ($6,300) it cost him to install the system remains far out of reach for most Bhutanese.
"Many people calculate that if you put that money in the bank, the interest would pay your electricity bills," he said.
For now, Bhutan's solar targets do not depend on rooftop installation.
Energy demand is not the only driving factor.
"We are quite aware that climate change will affect us, that the glaciers will keep receding," said Chhewang of Druk Green Power.
"So I think in the long-term, you will have to keep yourself open to other options."
sah/lkd/abs

conflict

Peace is a 'dangerous' word in Russian city heading to polls

  • Ukrainian attacks -- even the one on Wildberries close to Tambov -- have not triggered any "influx" into the pro-peace camp, Zenkina said.
  • "Terrified" by escalating Ukrainian drone attacks, locals in the Russian city of Tambov head to parliamentary elections this weekend under no illusions that the pro-peace candidate stands a chance of victory.
  • Ukrainian attacks -- even the one on Wildberries close to Tambov -- have not triggered any "influx" into the pro-peace camp, Zenkina said.
"Terrified" by escalating Ukrainian drone attacks, locals in the Russian city of Tambov head to parliamentary elections this weekend under no illusions that the pro-peace candidate stands a chance of victory.
At first glance, the city of around 250,000 -- some 500 kilometres (300 miles) southeast of Moscow -- exudes calm.
Its quaint 19th-century houses and Soviet architecture seem far away from the Russian offensive in Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands have been killed.
Until that tranquility was shattered on a July night, when a Ukrainian drone smashed into a warehouse of online retail giant Wildberries outside the city.
Seven people were killed and 25 wounded. A repeat attack a month later completely destroyed the site, where some 5,000 people used to work. 
"It's terrifying, impossible to put into words just how awful it is," said Diana, an 18-year-old student in the city.

'Go and vote'

Despite the result of the September 18-20 vote being in no doubt -- President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party set for a comfortable majority -- many in Tambov, including Diana, see the poll as crucial.
"It's essential to go and vote, because the future, I believe, depends on us," said Daria, a 35-year-old manicurist.
"It's very important to choose the right party, to cast your vote, not to ignore this moment."
She was backing Yabloko because they are "against military action".
The anti-war party has been banned from running at the national level but is still fielding a handful of candidates in constituency races across the country.
They stand little chance against the pro-Putin ruling United Russia party -- set to retain its majority -- and the other pro-war paper opposition groups that will share the rest of the seats.
"Almost everyone is going to vote for United Russia. I know I'll vote against," said 76-year-old Vladimir Vinogradov.
He plans to back the Communist Party, which supports the offensive in Ukraine.
Andrei Zhidkov, the party's 64-year-old candidate in Tambov, told AFP he opposes peace talks with Kyiv.
"Victory... means survival, the survival of the state," he said, sitting in front of a bust of Communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin and a red flag.
"Any war ends in peace. But peace proposals during a war are always a dangerous path. That's why we are a fighting party."
Several members of the local party are fighting against Ukraine. Six have been killed, he said.

Dangerous 'peace'

Yabloko candidate Yana Zenkina, 32, is the only one calling for an end to Russia's offensive.
In her modest office, a poster bears a famous quote from legendary Soviet rock group Kino: "Our hearts demand changes."
Her campaign videos have been banned from local television after the station and local election officials alleged they displayed "signs of an extremist nature".
"The word 'peace' is considered offensive, dangerous," Zenkina told AFP, smiling.
Nevertheless she said she has felt "enormous support from young people and even from the older population".
"People are tired," with the conflict dragging through its fifth year.
"It's a heavy burden, economically and socially. Everyone is already exhausted, and naturally, they want to live in calm, in peace, to be safe."
The Russian economy has stagnated over the last year, with Ukrainian attacks on oil refineries triggering nationwide fuel shortages and pushing prices higher.
The party was banned at the national level after seeing a jump in membership and winning the support of the exiled Russian opposition -- outlawed in Russia as traitors and enemies of the state.
Across Tambov, posters encourage voters to go to the polls with the slogan: "Your voice is Russia's strength."
The Kremlin sees securing a high turnout as a way to legitimise Putin's rule, analysts say.
Ukrainian attacks -- even the one on Wildberries close to Tambov -- have not triggered any "influx" into the pro-peace camp, Zenkina said.
The factory was one of the best-paying blue-collar jobs in the area.
But the head of the city's employment centre, Olga Meshcheryakova, told AFP there were good alternatives.
"Enterprises in the city and region can offer comparable salaries... in the defence industry."
bur/phz/abs

Guatemala

Dead animals, barren fields, and hunger - El Nino chokes Central America

BY DANIEL FONSECA AND MELISSA PAISES

  • - Harvests lost -   El Nino raises surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean and causes global changes in winds and rainfall as well as erratic weather conditions.
  • Animals are dropping dead amid the worst drought in living memory for many Central Americans, who are grappling with the unforgiving effects of the powerful El Nino weather pattern.
  • - Harvests lost -   El Nino raises surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean and causes global changes in winds and rainfall as well as erratic weather conditions.
Animals are dropping dead amid the worst drought in living memory for many Central Americans, who are grappling with the unforgiving effects of the powerful El Nino weather pattern.
"Sometimes I break down in tears. Sometimes you eat, sometimes you don't," said Lidia Ochoa in San Lorenzo, southern Honduras.
The same scene is playing out across the Central American Dry Corridor, which includes parts of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
More than 10 million people live here, and 80 percent of small-scale producers in the corridor are poor, United Nations figures show.
Extreme weather events are common in this part of the world, but this year's El Nino -- expected to be the strongest since comparable records began four decades ago -- has bewildered locals.
"We had never seen anything like this," said 76-year-old Ochoa.
At this time of year, corn should be growing abundantly on the plot belonging to fellow resident Francisco Molina.
But the field lies barren, surrounded by livestock carcasses decaying under the boiling heat.
The same disaster is unfolding in El Salvador.
Maria de la Paz Portillo manages an increasingly thirsty water tank that supplies the northeastern El Matazano community, where temperatures have reached a record-breaking 42C.
"This is the first year that we've seen this shortage and this need for water," the 31-year-old said.
- Harvests lost -  
El Nino raises surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean and causes global changes in winds and rainfall as well as erratic weather conditions.
Farmers, no longer able to depend on excess crops to feed themselves, are cutting down on how much they eat.
Governments have declared national emergencies but are facing accusations of neglecting affected communities, with many depending on NGOs for help.
"All the corn harvests are going to be lost," said Indigenous leader Elvira Pasa from a remote village in the municipality of Cunen, northern Guatemala.
Pasa's country suffers serious child malnutrition problems that are being exacerbated by the drought.

'Outrageously expensive'

He says some villagers are already buying corn at prices 50 percent higher than normal.
Back in Honduras, the same predicament troubles Ochoa.
"We eat with just one tortilla and then we don't eat again because everything is outrageously expensive," she said.
El Matazano's tank used to supply around 50 families and fill a pond where locals raised tilapia, a freshwater fish, to sell and to eat.
But the latter project has been abandoned and the water is being saved for other, more pressing needs.
"It's affecting us because… we're not eating tilapia, and also financially because it was a source of livelihood," said 32-year-old resident Maria del Carmen Portillo.
Sixteen million people across Latin America could face food shortages due to El Nino, Lena Savelli, regional director of the UN World Food Programme, told AFP.
The climate phenomenon is predicted to peak at the end of the year, but experts say the consequences will stretch far into 2027.
- Skin and bone - 
The drought is also killing off malnourished livestock, and some San Lorenzo farmers are rushing to sell their cattle before they perish.
The Honduran village has seen around 100 cows die in recent months, their skeletons littering the parched fields as farmers milk the scrawny creatures that remain.
Since conditions intensified in June, Darwin Cruz has had to sell two of his dairy cows, while another one died.
The three cows left produce just a quarter of their usual output.
That marks a heavy blow to a small producer like him, with his wife and two daughters dependent on his dwindling income.
Cruz doesn't know what to do if the rain doesn't come. The less-than-ideal solution, he says, is to "sell my little cows."
El Matanzo resident Vilma Ortiz is trying to adapt by producing crops that require less water.
The 53-year-old is growing chili peppers, which she believes are "braver" than her usual choice of tomato plants in the face of drought.
Indigenous leader Pasa meanwhile cannot escape the anxiety seeping from the cracked ground in Guatemala.
"The truth is, I'm starting to get scared because we don't know what we're going to live on," he said.
str-mp-ec/axm/hma/lbc/cc/bgs

defense

US military buildup in Palau stirs war fears

BY KIRSTY NEEDHAM

  • - Disturbing dugongs - The plans to rebuild the main port in the tourism hub of Koror have also sparked anxiety among traditional chiefs, scientists and tour operators.
  • US military plans to rebuild the main port in a pristine Pacific archipelago have stirred painful memories of World War II and have locals concerned about being caught in a potential superpower conflict.
  • - Disturbing dugongs - The plans to rebuild the main port in the tourism hub of Koror have also sparked anxiety among traditional chiefs, scientists and tour operators.
US military plans to rebuild the main port in a pristine Pacific archipelago have stirred painful memories of World War II and have locals concerned about being caught in a potential superpower conflict.
Palau will become the US military's top overseas location for construction next year as a crumbling wharf built by Japan in World War Two is expanded to berth US Navy ships and the harbour dredged deeper in a $500 million project.
Haunted by their past, Palauans have asked Washington how they will be protected if war breaks out again in a country with less than 177 square miles of habitable land.
"Where would they go? The concern is very real," said Madelsar Ngiraingas, who grew up with stories told by her grandmothers of how they escaped during a bloody WWII clash between American and Japanese troops.
Located some 500 miles (800 kilometres) west of the South China Sea and home to just 17,000 people, Palau is also earmarked to house a crisis-ready stockpile for US Marines, tender documents show.
Land is being cleared for a military radar and a remote airfield widened for heavy aircraft.
A petition signed by two thousand people sent last month to Palau's congress sought assurances from Washington that the population would be safe should war reach their shores.

'We are now a target'

Palau receives significant US funding under a compact of free association and its citizens have the right to work and study there visa-free. 
In return, they cede territorial access to the US military.
The construction boom is the first significant US military activity under that compact, explained Ongerung Kambes Kesolei, founder of local think-tank the Congress Point Institute.
"With the US military coming in, we are now a target. The role of Palau in the second island chain has become more prominent," he said, referencing a dividing line in the Pacific viewed by both Chinese and US strategists as crucial in a potential future conflict.
At a community meeting last month, US officials explained the port's benefits by showing images of cruise ships, not warships.
But when a resident asked where the passenger terminal would be, the reply was the US Navy didn't require one.
"Many Palauans are not against the US military, nor the projects, there just needs to be better communication and discussion around the potential impacts," said Ngiraingas, who organised the meeting.

Disturbing dugongs

The plans to rebuild the main port in the tourism hub of Koror have also sparked anxiety among traditional chiefs, scientists and tour operators.
Locals fear it will drive away vulnerable dugongs and put at risk World Heritage turquoise lagoons two kilometres from the construction.
UNESCO describes Koror's marine lakes as "natural laboratories" for science, yielding new species in a zone abundant with large coral.
An environmental impact assessment found that the dredging in nearby Malakal Harbour -- expected to start this year -- will cause the loss of 4.26 hectares of coral, impacting endangered turtles, fish and dugong.
"If we are pounding pilings and dredging coral, I have to imagine they are simply going to leave the neighbourhood," said Ron Leidich, a biologist who monitors dugong herds feeding on sea grass beds at nearby Ngederrak Reef.
The construction site will be wrapped with underwater silt curtains but Leidich worries the marine lakes will be contaminated by sediment plumes.
He was sceptical about assurances that construction would be suspended if a dugong swims into range.
"In that case the dugongs could come in and stop everything for weeks at a time. I don't think that is realistic."
Public submissions lodged with the environment watchdog last month demanded greater protection for the pristine waters.
Koror's state government has asked for a bigger fund to rectify any potential damage and independent environmental monitoring, according to filings seen by AFP. 

Restricted access

Palau's President Surangel Whipps said in an interview the old port was "about to collapse" and he was grateful for the necessary upgrade.
"We can jointly use it for the benefit of the people, but at the same time ensure defence and security," he said.
The US military's Joint Taskforce-Micronesia told AFP the port will "expand Palau's capacity for commercial shipping and larger vessels while simultaneously enhancing the US military's logistical options for regional defence".
A 10,000-square-foot restricted access warehouse to be built at the port will house mooring lines, pedestrian barriers, gangways and repair gear for the US Navy, said a spokeswoman.
On his boat, Leidich hopes for peace.
"The thought that all of these beautiful creatures and habitats could be compromised as superpowers slug it out for supremacy is sobering."
kln/oho/hmn/abs

immigration

Tiny English village holds 'independence' vote over asylum seeker housing

BY HELEN ROWE

  • Around the UK, towns and villages have regularly staged protests against the housing of asylum seekers in hotels and other facilities.
  • A small English village of just 350 people has found itself on the front line of a national debate on the housing of asylum seekers, holding an "independence referendum" on Tuesday to protest plans to house over 1,200 migrants in a nearby facility.
  • Around the UK, towns and villages have regularly staged protests against the housing of asylum seekers in hotels and other facilities.
A small English village of just 350 people has found itself on the front line of a national debate on the housing of asylum seekers, holding an "independence referendum" on Tuesday to protest plans to house over 1,200 migrants in a nearby facility.
Piddington in central England, 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the university city of Oxford, doesn't even have a shop but it has grabbed headlines with its tongue-in-cheek breakaway vote.
The vote, which is entirely symbolic with no real legal basis, is Piddington's response to plans to house asylum seekers in a nearby disused military site.
"It's all about how do we get our voice heard in a different way to the way others have gone about it," villager Ian Darby, 63, told AFP.
Darby stressed that the village was happy to take a share of migrants but felt that 1,200 was excessive.
Residents arriving at the village hall received "ballots" asking them to vote "Yes" or "No" to the statement: "I support Piddington seeking to secede from the United Kingdom and pursuing self-determination."
"I voted to leave the United Kingdom," said 76-year-old local resident Herbert Owen, who said it felt like the government didn't "care" about the bucolic village in the Oxfordshire countryside.
Around the UK, towns and villages have regularly staged protests against the housing of asylum seekers in hotels and other facilities.

'Ground zero'

The so-called referendum is a play on the British comedy film "Passport to Pimlico".
In the 1949 classic, a small group of Londoners discover treasure and declare independence making them exempt from post-war rationing and other bureaucratic restrictions.
"What we're doing is a very British thing -- we're voting," said chair of the local parish council Tim McNally.
"Because this is a really important topic... not just in this region, (but) across the whole of the United Kingdom. We're just ground zero," he said.
McNally said the community's fears were not about the majority of asylum seekers who may be housed at the base.
What worried people was a "small minority of individuals who will be a nuisance that we cannot predict or control", he said, adding that the sheer scale of the plans were "unimaginable".
"And we are going to have to change our way of life to facilitate what's coming."
Plans were afoot, he said, for CCTV and a security audit of the village.

'Disproportionate'

According to a government factsheet, the proposed site would be used for a minimum of 10 years to house single adult male asylum seekers.
The "safety and security" of the migrants, staff at the base and the local community would be "of the utmost importance", it said.
But villagers in Piddington said the government proposals are impractical.
"We have a village hall, a 12th-century church and a playing field -- and that's it," said Darby, questioning how the migrants would spend their time.
"This is so disproportionate. It is a takeover of our village, it's four times the people of this village. They are going to want to get out and about (locally) and that raises serious issues," he said.
Women in the village said they feared for their safety.
In an open letter to parliament's 266 women MPs, 133 female villagers wrote that they were "facing a crisis".
"Life as we know it will be destroyed. We will not feel safe walking our streets. We are already living in fear," they said.

Safety fears

Seventeen-year-old student and part-time stablehand Dita Jackson said she found the proposals "worrying" and was taking self-defence classes.
"I've lived here, my whole life... I won't really feel safe enough to walk around anymore," she said.
"It's going to change it completely," added farmer Jennifer Owen, 76.
Immigration, in particular irregular migration, has become a major political issue in recent years, boosting support for hard-right parties in the UK.
Just this month, masked men dressed in black clashed with police near two southern coast ports over the arrival of undocumented migrants on small boats.
The Labour Party, in power since July 2024, is phasing out the use of hotels as migrant accommodation, a policy it inherited from the previous Conservative government.
It has vowed to completely end their use by the end of this parliament, due in 2029, turning instead to ex-military bases.
New Prime Minister Andy Burnham  suggested last month it would be unfair if refugees and asylum-seekers were only to be housed in the "poorest communities".
The result of the village's symbolic vote is due to be announced Wednesday morning.
har/

education

Empty seats as schools reopen in Venezuela's quake-hit Guaira

  • La Guaira, home to a popular resort of the same name north of Venezuela's capital Caracas, was devastated by powerful back-to-back quakes on June 24 that left over 6,500 people dead.
  • Schools in Venezuela's quake-scarred coastal state of La Guaira were deserted on Tuesday, a day after the start of the new school year, with many parents opting to keep children home for fear of further deadly tremors.
  • La Guaira, home to a popular resort of the same name north of Venezuela's capital Caracas, was devastated by powerful back-to-back quakes on June 24 that left over 6,500 people dead.
Schools in Venezuela's quake-scarred coastal state of La Guaira were deserted on Tuesday, a day after the start of the new school year, with many parents opting to keep children home for fear of further deadly tremors.
La Guaira, home to a popular resort of the same name north of Venezuela's capital Caracas, was devastated by powerful back-to-back quakes on June 24 that left over 6,500 people dead.
Dozens of schools were damaged in the worst disaster in the Caribbean country in decades, which reduced hundreds of buildings to rubble.
A further 60 schools were converted into shelters for thousands of people left homeless by the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes.
In some areas, lessons are being taught under a tarp.
In one such tented school on Tuesday, a teacher drew a circle on a blackboard as part of a discussion with 14 students on managing their emotions.
"They're still very sensitive. In any conversation you have with them, they always bring it (the earthquake) up, and it's always good to listen to them so they can process all that pent-up emotion," María Herrera, the 43-year-old teacher, explained to AFP. 
Many parents were too fearful of a repeat disaster to allow their children back into a bricks-and-mortar classroom.
Just over 300 students have enrolled for the new school year at John Paul II Diocesan Educational Unit, one of the few schools open in the port city of La Guaira.
The school has capacity for more than double that.
Only seven children showed up on Tuesday.
"The return to classes will be gradual and safe, focusing primarily on the emotional well-being not only of our students but also of our staff," said the principal, Marco Antonio Espinoza.
Yanet Dominguez, a fifth-grade teacher at the school, said parents had been plying her with questions about the building's structural safety.
"I told them yes, that improvements have been made to the building this year, and that they shouldn't be afraid to send their children," she said.
Amni Nunez, a 40-year-old industrial engineer, sent his two young children back to school after deciding that life must go on.
"They need to understand that the world keeps spinning and that we have to learn to live with this new reality," he told AFP.
bc-mbj/lp/cb/des/mjf

society

'We unleashed the beast': the world's fears and hopes about AI

  • - Israel: 'Can finish us' - "Like the internet, each country has its own authority, but we still need something global," said software engineer Tal Reinfeld.
  • The threat of catastrophic danger as artificial intelligence develops at high speed has sparked a global debate on how it should be regulated.
  • - Israel: 'Can finish us' - "Like the internet, each country has its own authority, but we still need something global," said software engineer Tal Reinfeld.
The threat of catastrophic danger as artificial intelligence develops at high speed has sparked a global debate on how it should be regulated.
AFP spoke to people in different countries about their fears and hopes for the AI future, as leading US labs call for a coordinated slowdown of their cutting-edge work on the technology.

Italy: 'Privately, it scares me'

Beside ancient buildings in central Rome, 43-year-old architect Frida Awrohum said she tries to use AI tools in her professional life because they offer fresh ideas.
"But privately it still scares me," she confided, adding she prioritises the "human" aspect of her work.
Diego Sermattei, 18, said AI can be very helpful for students like himself, because "you just have to look something up and it finds it for you right away".

Indonesia: 'Could any human respond better?'

"Sometimes when I share my personal life with AI, I think, would there be any human who could respond to me as well as AI does?" said 18-year-old student Astrid Anindya.
Anindya uses several chatbots to find information -- and to help her use effective wording when applying for jobs.
"Sometimes they give wrong information. So, usually I do a crosscheck, from ChatGPT to Gemini," she said, referring respectively to OpenAI's and Google's flagship products.

United States: 'Unleashed the beast'

"AI is here. We unleashed the beast," said Maliyka Muhammad, a 46-year-old analyst for New York State, who thinks "a consortium of people" would be best to regulate it.
San Francisco software engineer Lucy Pen, 30, has already seen her job shift from writing code herself to having AI agents write it for her too.
"Maybe in the future they don't need me to give commands to AI anymore," she said.
Brian Diaz, a 26-year-old nurse in New York, said that "humanity has to develop", even though in the wrong hands AI could cause harm.
"You're either gonna be with it or you're gonna get left (behind)," Diaz said.

China: 'Real hardship'

On the streets of Shanghai, 42-year-old Xie Zongbo said "no new technology develops completely smoothly".
"We will slowly learn to minimise its negative impacts, so its positive aspects can better serve humanity and offer greater convenience," he said.
Jenny, a 50-year-old pharmaceutical worker who declined to give her surname, said that "businesses cannot possibly regulate themselves".
Instead they must be restrained through policies and laws, she said.
Businessman Yang Shuai, 42, feared that future generations would "face real hardship" due to hurdles encountered when searching for jobs.

Chile: 'Making us dumber'

Advertising student Catalina Cruz, 19, thinks AI is "making us dumber" because "people aren't able to think for themselves any more".
"There's also the environmental issue, because it uses too much water," she said, saying the technology "definitely needs to be regulated".
But Constanza Medel, a 29-year-old occupational therapist, sees AI "as a clear benefit as long as you take the proper precautions".

France: 'Letting things happen'

Train driver-in-training Romain Hamel, 34, said in Paris that AI was developing so quickly that "we don't have enough perspective yet".
"We're not putting enough barriers in place at the moment -- we're letting things happen," with the race driven by the United States and China.
"I don't want to say there's not enough regulation, because in Europe we regulate a lot, and I think more frameworks should be introduced to prevent abuse, or us losing control over it."

Israel: 'Can finish us'

"Like the internet, each country has its own authority, but we still need something global," said software engineer Tal Reinfeld.
Video creator Yotam Katzor, 32, worried about what would happen when humans were no longer the smartest thing on Earth.
"If it wants, it can finish us. But we still have the power to win" through regulation, he said.

Japan: 'AI doesn't have emotions'

Atsukuni Tabata, 56, who works at an advertising company, said it was "scary" not knowing what AI would do as it "accumulates more and more data".
But part-time service industry worker Konno Hazuki, 29, does not feel she is "about to be replaced by AI".
"Because AI doesn't have emotions, there are things it just can't offer customers," Hazuki said.
burs-kaf/mjw

children

EU to propose curbing social media, online games for under 15s

BY RAZIYE AKKOC

  • The Commission, the EU's digital watchdog, refused to comment on details of the draft seen by AFP.  Here are the key proposals in the draft, which remains subject to change until the text is published on Thursday: - Gradual age limit - The new law "sets an EU-wide minimum age for minors to open an autonomous account at the age of 15," the draft says, with a tiered system applying to younger children.
  • The European Union is set to propose curbing access to social media, video-sharing platforms, chatbots, and online games to children under the age of 15, according to a draft legal document seen by AFP. A proposed new law -- to be formally presented Thursday -- would mean banning minors under 15 from opening their own accounts, with a tiered system of access under parental supervision for younger children.
  • The Commission, the EU's digital watchdog, refused to comment on details of the draft seen by AFP.  Here are the key proposals in the draft, which remains subject to change until the text is published on Thursday: - Gradual age limit - The new law "sets an EU-wide minimum age for minors to open an autonomous account at the age of 15," the draft says, with a tiered system applying to younger children.
The European Union is set to propose curbing access to social media, video-sharing platforms, chatbots, and online games to children under the age of 15, according to a draft legal document seen by AFP.
A proposed new law -- to be formally presented Thursday -- would mean banning minors under 15 from opening their own accounts, with a tiered system of access under parental supervision for younger children.
As well as age limits, the new "EU KIDS Act" would force digital giants to make their platforms "safe by design" for children, meaning certain "addictive" features such as so-called infinite scrolling would have to be removed, the draft showed.
The European Commission has come under pressure from several EU member states including France and Greece to take bloc-wide measures to protect children from social media harms, a push that intensified after Australia banned under 16s from such platforms.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen will provide a glimpse of what to expect from the new law on Wednesday, during her annual address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
She will then join EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen the following day to present the proposal, which according to the draft would ban addictive features such as endless scrolling, artificial notifications, and some reward features for children.
The Commission, the EU's digital watchdog, refused to comment on details of the draft seen by AFP. 
Here are the key proposals in the draft, which remains subject to change until the text is published on Thursday:

Gradual age limit

The new law "sets an EU-wide minimum age for minors to open an autonomous account at the age of 15," the draft says, with a tiered system applying to younger children.
Minors aged 13 and 14 will have to ask their parents to set up "introductory" accounts on social media, AI or gaming platforms, with limited features and strict screen time use.
Those accounts would also be under parents' control.
Those aged between three and 13 can access "fully parent-controlled accounts on 'childfriendly' services" with strict safety standards.
Below the age of three, children in the 27-nation bloc would have no access at all to social media and other "risky services", the draft says.
The EU is simultaneously preparing to roll out an age check app to ensure children are kept off such platforms.
The rules on gradual access make the EU's approach different to that chosen by Australia, where parents cannot consent to children below 16 having any access to social media.
The law's enforcement will be paid for by a supervisory fee on platforms.
The EU already has powerful laws to protect children including the content rules known as the Digital Services Act (DSA), with which it has told Meta's Facebook and Instagram, and TikTok, to change their addictive design.
But in the document, the EU admits the "existing rules do not suffice", since there is no "outright ban on common problematic features".
It said the new law would build on enforcement of the DSA, which allows in theory for fines of up to six percent of a company's annual global turnover.

'Safe design'

The EU's approach "needs to limit the access of tech companies to our children, and not the other way around", the document says.
Alongside a ban on addictive features, the draft says the EU would regulate so-called recommender systems -- the algorithms that feed users more personalised content -- to control the content promoted to children and avoid harm.
The EU wants children's accounts to remain private, with "risky settings" disabled by default and unknown users prevented from contacting minors.
There will also be "tailored commitments" for online games and AI chatbots.
The proposal will become law after negotiations between the EU parliament and member states.
raz/ec/cw

tradition

In Kashmir, lake weeds mix with traditional art

BY MUKHTAR ZAHOOR

  • Simran Irshad, 35, began experimenting with weeds after the rising cost of paper made traditional papier-mache increasingly expensive.
  • A Kashmiri artisan is turning weeds pulled from Srinagar's famous Dal Lake into a new ingredient for the centuries-old craft of papier-mache, one of Kashmir's best-known traditional art forms.
  • Simran Irshad, 35, began experimenting with weeds after the rising cost of paper made traditional papier-mache increasingly expensive.
A Kashmiri artisan is turning weeds pulled from Srinagar's famous Dal Lake into a new ingredient for the centuries-old craft of papier-mache, one of Kashmir's best-known traditional art forms.
Dal Lake is famed for its floating gardens and houseboats against a Himalayan backdrop.
Among its past visitors was Beatles guitarist George Harrison, who stayed on a houseboat in 1966 and met sitar maestro Ravi Shankar.
But the lake has long struggled with heavy growth of aquatic weeds, which Indian authorities regularly remove to keep its waterways clear.
Simran Irshad, 35, began experimenting with weeds after the rising cost of paper made traditional papier-mache increasingly expensive.
With roots in Persian craftsmanship, Kashmir's papier-mache is known for brightly painted boxes, trays and ornaments decorated with intricate floral, bird and paisley motifs -- as well as Christmas ornaments exported worldwide.

'Like a treasure'

Irshad searched for a cheaper, locally available material, and eventually turned to aquatic vegetation regularly cleared from the lake as waste.
After months of experimentation, she developed a technique using dried and pulverised weeds mixed with recycled paper pulp and a binding agent to create the material.
"For the past 100 years this craft has been done this way, using only paper," Irshad told AFP.
"Why not use something that can increase production, make it durable and also make it cheaper?" she said.
Irshad collects the weeds by boat before drying and processing them at her workshop.
She tested different vegetation before finding the lake weeds most suitable because of their higher moisture content.
"Paper comes from trees, trees are cut down to make paper," she said.
"What I am removing from the lake is like a treasure given to me by God."
She has trained around 50 women to make paper products, with 15 currently working with her on the weed-based craft.
Irshad hopes to expand the initiative but said she needs more support to provide work for additional women.
str-pjm/lga/mjw

climate

Sri Lanka's famed beach shack battles demolition

BY AMAL JAYASINGHE

  • Princess Anne had dinner at Wadiya in 1995.
  • Sri Lanka's famed seafood shack Beach Wadiya has hosted royalty including Britain's Princess Anne and sporting legends such as cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, but now faces demolition under a government-ordered coastal clean-up.
  • Princess Anne had dinner at Wadiya in 1995.
Sri Lanka's famed seafood shack Beach Wadiya has hosted royalty including Britain's Princess Anne and sporting legends such as cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, but now faces demolition under a government-ordered coastal clean-up.
The simple Colombo beach restaurant has welcomed a string of celebrities,featured in Madhur Jaffrey's culinary travels and received rave reviews in international publications, including London's Financial Times.
"Beach Wadiya comes with a lot of history," said Suhara Chandrasekera, the founder's granddaughter, now a director of the restaurant.
But more than half a century after it opened, the glamour is giving way to grief at Wadiya -- which means "shack" in the island's Sinhala language.
The government's Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management Department gave Wadiya 10 days to pack up and leave -- or face demolition.
That deadline expired on September 10, but the restaurant is resisting the order to leave.
Seven other beach properties were given extensions of about four days to salvage furniture and fittings.
A few shops near Wadiya were demolished last month as part of a broader government plan to remove businesses within 10 metres (33 feet) of the shoreline.
"There shouldn't be any buildings within the 10-metre coastal reservation from the shoreline," Environment Minister Dammika Patabendi told AFP.
"We have identified 82 such premises and we are taking steps to remove them."

'Sea erosion'

Beach Wadiya is the only establishment resisting the order and has taken the matter to court.
The family of its late founder, Olwyn Weerasekera, argues that the restaurant existed before the 1981 Coast Conservation Act being used to evict them.
"We built in 1974, which predates the law that they were talking about... We have permits dating all the way back to 1974," 26-year-old Chandrasekera said.
"In addition to the appeal to the Coast Conservation Department, we also took the decision to file a writ," she told AFP, referring to a case filed in the Court of Appeal.
The family has won a temporary reprieve, with the court ordering the department not to demolish the restaurant for two weeks pending a hearing.
When Wadiya was established, the beach was wider and cleaner, with rows of coconut trees, most of which have since been lost to sea erosion.
"Right now we have lost two of our huts... We've lost parts of our bathroom due to sea erosion," Chandrasekera said.
She said Wadiya was the only restaurant on the beach before Sri Lanka's tourism boom in the late 1970s.
Princess Anne had dinner at Wadiya in 1995. Nepali royals have also dined there.
British tycoon Richard Branson visited the restaurant during a family holiday in Sri Lanka in 1992, although the guestbook he signed was washed away in the December 2004 tsunami, according to the family.
Indian singing sensation Asha Bhosle, and cricket stars including India's Rahul Dravid and former Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram, have also dined there.

Singing lobster

One of the restaurant's walls has a reproduction of a Financial Times cartoon of a guitar-playing lobster that accompanied a March 1994 food review headlined: "Cook me tender."
The restaurant is best known for offering diners a platter of fresh seafood from which they can choose how it should be cooked.
There is no air conditioning and small tables are set up on the beach. An upper floor was added as the beachfront shrank over the years.
Experts blame worsening erosion on large-scale land reclamation farther north near Colombo port.
If the courts allow the restaurant to survive the government's coastal clean-up, Chandrasekera says Wadiya will return to its roots.
"The only restaurant on the strip," she said.
aj/pjm/lkd/mjw

children

New Zealand agencies missed red flags in child kidnapping case: inquiry

  • He had eluded capture by setting up several camps in dense bush and despite several sightings by the public and on CCTV. A report on Tuesday into the handling of the case by authorities found a number of red flags were raised about Phillips prior to the kidnapping -- the second time he had disappeared with his children.
  • New Zealand authorities failed to act on prior warnings that a man who went on the run with his kids for four years had a stash of guns and fears he would kidnap his children, an inquiry into a case that drew global headlines found Tuesday.
  • He had eluded capture by setting up several camps in dense bush and despite several sightings by the public and on CCTV. A report on Tuesday into the handling of the case by authorities found a number of red flags were raised about Phillips prior to the kidnapping -- the second time he had disappeared with his children.
New Zealand authorities failed to act on prior warnings that a man who went on the run with his kids for four years had a stash of guns and fears he would kidnap his children, an inquiry into a case that drew global headlines found Tuesday.
Tom Phillips was shot dead by police in September 2025 after nearly four years hiding with his three children in the rolling hill country of the North Island's Waikato region.
He had eluded capture by setting up several camps in dense bush and despite several sightings by the public and on CCTV.
A report on Tuesday into the handling of the case by authorities found a number of red flags were raised about Phillips prior to the kidnapping -- the second time he had disappeared with his children.
"The harm caused by Tom Phillips isolating the children from family, friends and society was underplayed, minimised or overlooked by agencies for significant periods," the report found.
"Our agencies did not take all practical steps to protect you," government minister Louise Upston said to his children.
"For that we are deeply sorry."
The 211-page report looked at the time before the children were taken in December 2021, through to the moment they were recovered after the deadly shootout in September last year.
Phillips first disappeared with his three children in September 2021 for 18 days.
He abandoned his vehicle on a beach, below the high tide mark, and the report said police believed "Tom Phillips had staged his and his children's death".
When he emerged from the bush 18 days later, he was charged with wasting police resources.
Police at the time were "seriously concerned that he might take the children away again", the report said -- fears that were not passed on to the Ministry for Children.
They also failed to identify and seize his firearms after he lost his licence around the same time, the report said.
"Those additional steps could have contributed to recovering the children sooner," it found.
In the two months before Phillips took the children again, social workers also ignored concerns raised by their older step-siblings.
One specifically asked if the agency "would be held responsible if the children went missing again".
The other provided an affidavit to the agency which was never read.
A supervisor for the ministry admitted that had they read the statement they "would have challenged Tom", and that it "read terribly", the report found.
Ministry of Children chief executive Amanda Malu admitted the report was "difficult and at times harrowing reading".
"We did not listen in the way we should have, and this family deserved better from us."
bes/oho/abs

pornography

New York seizes 12 celeb deep-fake porn sites

  • The sites, with names like "AI Celebs," hosted hyper-realistic deep-fake montages and clips of what prosecutors said was around 1,200 victims.
  • Authorities in New York announced Monday the seizure of a dozen prominent websites hosting pornographic celebrity deep-fakes that featured politicians and actors.
  • The sites, with names like "AI Celebs," hosted hyper-realistic deep-fake montages and clips of what prosecutors said was around 1,200 victims.
Authorities in New York announced Monday the seizure of a dozen prominent websites hosting pornographic celebrity deep-fakes that featured politicians and actors.
An online boom in non-consensual deep-fakes is currently outpacing efforts to regulate the technology around the world due to a proliferation of AI tools, including "nudification" apps.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said he believed it was the largest seizure of websites focused on AI-generated illegal pornography. 
The sites, with names like "AI Celebs," hosted hyper-realistic deep-fake montages and clips of what prosecutors said was around 1,200 victims.
He said they were "photos and videos that use artificial intelligence to make it seem like real people are engaging in sexually explicit acts."
"In New York State it is illegal to share real photos and videos of people engaging in sex without their permission. Likewise, it is also illegal to share that content if it's created or altered by artificial intelligence tools."
Bragg said a victim came forward to report a site, triggering the investigation. He did not confirm any arrests.
"Our investigations into deep-fake pornography sites and content creators are just beginning. This is part of our broader work to dismantle systems that breed and foster crime," he added.
In May, the United States began enforcing a law requiring tech platforms to remove sexual deep-fakes and other non-consensual intimate imagery.
President Donald Trump signed the Take It Down Act last year, criminalizing the online distribution of non-consensual sexual imagery that is often created using cheap and widely available artificial intelligence tools.
gw/dw

Congress

Alarm over AI grows as divided US Congress struggles to act

BY FRANKIE TAGGART

  • The warnings came after OpenAI disclosed that models had broken out of their test environment during evaluation, connected to the internet and infiltrated Hugging Face, a site where developers store and share code. 
  • The US Congress returned from recess Monday facing urgent warnings that artificial intelligence could spin dangerously out of control -- and little agreement over whether, or how, Washington should intervene.
  • The warnings came after OpenAI disclosed that models had broken out of their test environment during evaluation, connected to the internet and infiltrated Hugging Face, a site where developers store and share code. 
The US Congress returned from recess Monday facing urgent warnings that artificial intelligence could spin dangerously out of control -- and little agreement over whether, or how, Washington should intervene.
The House of Representatives has just four legislative days left before members hit the road to campaign for the November 3 midterm elections. And these lawmakers are divided not only across party lines but within them.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer on Monday demanded a classified briefing for all senators on frontier AI testing, Chinese access to advanced chips and the threat of AI-enabled cyberattacks on US infrastructure.
"Warning bells are ringing louder than they ever have -- and the Trump administration is looking the other way," Schumer said.
"If Trump does not act, Congress must."

'Gambling with our lives'

The alarm was set off last week by Jacob Coxon, a researcher who spent three years at OpenAI and then Anthropic before quitting the industry on September 8, accusing both companies of "gambling with our lives" in the race to build self-improving systems.
Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei followed on Saturday with an essay urging AI companies to slow the pace at which they make their models more capable.
OpenAI boss Sam Altman and Elon Musk, who owns xAI, said within hours that they agreed.
The warnings came after OpenAI disclosed that models had broken out of their test environment during evaluation, connected to the internet and infiltrated Hugging Face, a site where developers store and share code. Anthropic has reported a similar scare.

China race

President Donald Trump has largely rejected the alarm, framing AI as a technological contest the United States cannot afford to lose.
"The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!" Trump said Monday in a post on his Truth Social network.
House speaker Mike Johnson has struck a similar tone, warning specifically against emergency action.
"If Congress just races in and does some sort of emergency session to try to regulate AI, we will lose the race to China, and that is a threat to every single American," the Republican told CNN on Sunday.
Lawmakers should not panic, he said, and should handle AI as they have past technologies without smothering American innovation.
Johnson is pushing instead for Congress to sit down with top AI executives, an idea he said he had raised with Trump. 
That puts him at odds with Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, a fellow Republican, who has called for a special session devoted to AI.
In the Senate, members have begun investigating existential risks posed by the technology, and on bipartisan legislation requiring companies to test for and report catastrophic dangers. 
No text has been published.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said lawmakers needed to "act urgently" and promised AI would be a priority for his party.
But Democrats are split, too. Leftist Senator Bernie Sanders wants a ban on superintelligent AI and a pause in the development of advanced systems, while others favor narrower steps such as tougher safety reviews or mandatory reporting of catastrophic risks.

Congress playing catch-up

There is no shortage of proposals in the House. One bipartisan bill would require developers of the most powerful systems to retain the ability to throttle, suspend or shut them down. Another would set a national framework for advanced models.
None appears close to becoming law before lawmakers leave town for the campaign trail.
Washington is not starting from scratch. In early August the government introduced a voluntary security review for advanced models before release, though its parameters remain unclear and industry observers doubt its force, given the Trump administration's preference for light-touch regulation.
The institutional obstacles run deeper than partisanship. AI touches national security, jobs, energy and consumer protection, leaving responsibility scattered across committees that rarely move together.
"Humans have to be able to turn off AI systems or agents that go rogue," Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu, a co-sponsor of the "kill switch" bill, told CNN.
"And if the response is we can't do that, then look, we might as well just pack up our bags and go to some island in the South Pacific and wait for the apocalypse."
ft/dw