Gazan twins in Cannes warn ‘nothing left’ of homeland

By AFP
May 20, 2025


Arab and Tarzan Nasser said their father was still in northern Gaza 

- Copyright AFP/File Aamir QURESHI

Alice Hackman

Twin Gazan filmmakers Arab and Tarzan Nasser said they never thought the title of their new film “Once Upon A Time In Gaza” would have such heartbreaking resonance.

“Right now there is nothing left of Gaza,” said Tarzan when it premiered on Monday at the Cannes film festival.

Since militants from Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, more than 18 months of Israeli bombardment has ravaged large swathes of the Palestinian territory and killed tens of thousands of people.

Israel has vowed to “take control of all” the besieged territory of more than two million inhabitants, where United Nations agencies have warned of famine following Israel’s two-month total blockade.

Israel allowed in several aid trucks on Monday but the UN said it was only “a drop in the ocean” of needs.

The Nasser brothers, who left Gaza in 2012, said their new film set in 2007, when Hamas Islamists seized control of the strip, explains the lead-up to today’s catastrophic war.

“Once Upon A Time In Gaza”, which screened in the festival’s Un Certain Regard section, follows friends Yahia and Osama as they try to make a little extra cash by selling drugs stuffed into falafel sandwiches.

Using a manual meat grinder that does not rely on rare electricity, student Yahia blends up fava beans and fresh herbs to make the patty-shaped fritters in the back of Osama’s small run-down eatery, while dreaming of being able to leave the Israeli-blockaded coastal strip.

Charismatic hustler Osama meanwhile visits pharmacy after pharmacy to amass as many pills as he can with stolen prescriptions, pursued by a corrupt cop.



-‘Human beings’-



Israel first imposed a blockade on Gaza in June 2006 after militants there took one of its soldiers, and reinforced it in September 2007 several months after Hamas took power.

“The blockade was gradually tightened, tightened until reaching the genocide we see today,” said Tarzan.

“Until today they are counting the calories that enter,” he added.

An Israeli NGO said in 2012 that documents showed Israeli authorities had calculated that 2,279 calories per person per day was deemed sufficient to prevent malnutrition in Gaza.

The defence ministry however claimed it had “never counted calories” when allowing aid in.

Despite all this, Gazans have always shown a love of life and been incredibly resilient, the directors said.

“My father is until now in northern Gaza,” Tarzan said, explaining the family’s two homes had been destroyed.

But before then, “every time a missile hit, damaging a wall or window, he’d fix it up the next day”, he said.

In films, “the last thing I want to do is talk about Israel and what it’s doing”, he added.

“Human beings are more important –- who they are, how they’re living and adapting to this really tough reality.”

In their previous films, the Nasser twins followed an elderly fisherman enamoured with his neighbour in the market in “Gaza Mon Amour” and filmed women trapped at the hairdresser’s in their 2015’s “Degrade”.

Like “Once Upon A Time in Gaza”, they were all shot in Jordan.

– ‘Gaza was a riviera’ –



As the siege takes its toll in “Once Upon A Time In Gaza”, a desolate Yahia is recruited to star in a Hamas propaganda film.

In Gaza, “we don’t have special effects but we do have live bullets”, the producer says in one scene.

Arab said, long before Gazan tap water became salty and US President Donald Trump sparked controversy by saying he wanted to turn their land into the “Riviera of the Middle East”, the coastal strip was a happy place.

“I remember when I was little, Gaza actually was a riviera. It was the most beautiful place. I can still taste the fresh water on my tongue,” he said.

“Now Trump comes up with this great invention that he wants to turn it into a riviera after Israel completely destroyed it?”

Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 53,486 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health authorities, whose figures the United Nations deems reliable.

Gaza health authorities said at least 44 people were killed there in the early hours of Tuesday.

Cannes film shines light on secret life of migrant maids


By AFP
May 20, 2025


Oh mama: (From L) Nigerian actor Martin Obgu, Israeli director Or Sinai and Israeli-Belarusian actor Evgenia Dodina at Cannes 

- Copyright AFP/File Aamir QURESHI

Fiachra GIBBONS

Or Sinai didn’t have to go far to find the subject of her acclaimed debut film about the secret lives of the millions of women who support their families back home by being domestic workers abroad.

She was chatting to the “wonderful Ukrainian woman” who looks at her mother, who has Parkinson’s Disease, when the housekeeper started telling her about the lover she had taken.

“I realised that our view of migrant women is so wrong,” she told AFP at the Cannes film festival, where “Mama” is being shown in the official selection.

“We think of them as poor women sacrificing themselves to do everything for their families.

“But actually as I researched I realised they develop these temporary identities,” picking up a little comfort where they can.

When the Ukrainian housekeeper “started working for my parents, they were embarrassed by her and tried to behave as if she wasn’t there. It was crazy,” Sinai said.

“So I started talking to her and I immediately fell in love with her because she’s super funny.

“She’s only three years older than me and she has such a dramatic life, which is an absurd contrast to how many people like her are in the shadows of our society” living their own hidden lives.



– Israel govt ‘doing horrible stuff’ –



It isn’t the first time Sinai has turned received ideas upside down.

She won the Cannes Festival’s top prize for short films with “Anna” in 2016, where an overworked mother heads off looking for sex in a small town after getting an unexpected afternoon off from looking after her son.

“Mama” is about a housekeeper who returns home from working for a rich couple in Israel to find her best laid plans for the family she has been bankrolling have been turned upside down in her absence.

“In her attempt to give her daughter something meaningful, she actually lost all the years with her growing up and her ability to connect with her kids,” Sinai, 40, said.

Instead she finds her passive, less-than-useless husband has supplanted her as her daughter’s confidant.

Sinai’s own best laid plans were thrown up in the air by the outbreak of war in Ukraine, with the director forced to switch the story to neighbouring Poland.

Belarus-born Evegenia Dodina, who plays the housekeeper — best known as Villanelle’s mother in “Killing Eve” — has been winning glowing reviews for her “carefully calibrated performance”.

Screen magazine said: “It’s not merely that she conveys her joy and sadness, but how emotionally torn her character feels.”

War closer to home in Gaza has cast a shadow over “Mama” and other Israeli films at Cannes.

Hundreds of top film figures have signed an open letter condemning Israel for committing “genocide” in Gaza and the film industry for its “passivity”.

With scores dying every day in Israeli strikes on Gaza since the festival began last week, Sinai said it was important to make “a clear separation between the government and the Israeli people”.

“The government is doing horrible stuff” which many people were opposed to, she told AFP. “I wish the war would end immediately. I will always carry this on my back.”

Between Ukraine and Gaza, “it’s really a miracle that we managed to make the film happen at this horrible time,” Sinai added.

“The film is about wanting people to feel love for other people and that’s the only thing I can do, to spread love instead of war.”

Chinese weapons get rare battle test in India-Pakistan fighting


By AFP
May 20, 2025


Pakistan Air Force J10-C fighter jets fly over Islamabad during a national day parade on March 23, 2025. The plane had its first taste of real combat against India - Copyright AFP JUNI KRISWANTO

Rebecca BAILEY with AFP reporters in Islamabad and Washington

Just over a week after a ceasefire with India was struck, Pakistan’s foreign minister is visiting his country’s largest arms supplier, China, with the performance of the weapons they supplied a matter of burning interest for analysts and governments alike.

The most striking claim from four days of fighting earlier this month was Islamabad’s contention its Chinese-supplied jets had shot down six Indian aircraft — including three French-made Rafale fighters — with some observers seeing this as a symbol of Beijing’s rising military might.

Experts who spoke to AFP cautioned that a lack of confirmed information and the limited scope of fighting made it difficult to draw solid conclusions about the Chinese equipment’s prowess.

Still, “this was a rare opportunity for the international community to gauge Chinese military hardware on the battlefield against Western (Indian) hardware”, said Lyle Morris from the Asia Society Policy Institute.

While China pours hundreds of billions of dollars into defence spending each year, it lags far behind the United States as an arms exporter.

China’s drones are used in counter-terrorism operations, and its weapons have been deployed by Saudi Arabia in Yemen and against rebel forces in African countries, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) senior researcher Siemon Wezeman told AFP.

“But this is the first time since the 1980s that a state has used large numbers of Chinese weapons of many types in action against another state,” said Wezeman, referencing the Iran-Iraq war when they were used on both sides.



– ‘Primary option’ –



Pakistan accounts for around 63 percent of China’s arms exports, according to SIPRI.

In the recent fighting, Pakistan used the J10-C Vigorous Dragon and JF-17 Thunder planes, armed with air-to-air missiles.

It was the first time the J10-C has been used in active combat, said the Stimson Center’s Yun Sun.

Islamabad’s air defences also used Chinese kit — including the HQ-9P long-range surface-to-air missile system — and deployed Chinese radar as well as armed and reconnaissance drones.

“This was the first sustained fight where the bulk of Pakistan’s forces used Chinese weapons and, basically, relied on them as their primary option,” said Bilal Khan, founder of the Toronto-based Quwa Defence News & Analysis Group.

India has not officially confirmed any of its aircraft were lost, although a senior security source told AFP three jets had crashed on home soil without giving the make or cause.

Rafale maker Dassault has also not commented.

The Rafale is considered one of Europe’s most high-tech jets, while the J10-C “is not even China’s most advanced”, said James Char from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

But if Pakistan’s claims are true, “this should not be surprising… considering that the Rafale is a multirole fighter, whereas the J-10C was built for aerial combat and is also equipped with a stronger radar,” Char said.

The Chinese air-defence systems, however, “do not appear to have been as effective as the Pakistan Air Force would have hoped”, said Quwa’s Khan, after India said it had neutralised one near the eastern border city of Lahore.

If true, said SIPRI’s Wezeman, that “would be a bigger success and more than balance the loss of some aircraft in the process”.



– ‘Significant reorientation’ –



In the days after the dogfight reports, J10-C maker Chengdu Aircraft Company’s stock soared over forty percent.

“We most likely will see more orders going to Chinese contractors,” said the Stimson Center’s Sun.

However, “it will take time and significant reorientation by Chinese arms manufacturers for the country to be a big arms exporter”, said Jennifer Kavanagh from the US think tank Defense Priorities.

She noted that China “cannot mass-produce certain key inputs, including aircraft engines”.

Wezeman said he thought the stock markets “overreacted”, as “we still have to see how well all the weapons used worked and if it really means much”.

Even if more data emerges, the conflict still does not reveal much about the Chinese military’s own capabilities, the analysts said.

China’s own systems and weapons are much more advanced than what it exports.

And while having high-tech hardware is important, “much more important is how those weapons are used”, said Kavanagh.

Brian Hart of CSIS said he would caution against “reading too much” into recent developments.

“I don’t think you can make direct comparisons to how these Chinese-made systems would fare in different environments against more advanced adversaries like the United States,” he explained.

“Since the number of data points is small and since we don’t know much about the proficiency and training of the personnel on either side, it is hard to draw definitive conclusions,” said Kavanagh.

Dutch museum removes ‘priceless’ Benin Bronzes for return to Nigeria


By AFP
May 20, 2025


The 113 Benin Bronzes represent the largest single return of the treasures looted in 1897 - Copyright AFP/File Aamir QURESHI

Richard CARTER

Clad in protective blue surgical gloves, a Dutch museum worker gingerly unhooks a precious decorative artefact before gently laying it down on a pillow and wrapping it in dozens of layers of special paper.

The artefact is a “Benin Bronze”, a priceless cultural object looted from modern-day Nigeria more than 120 years ago, now being removed from display and returned to its rightful home.

The Wereldmuseum (World Museum) in Leiden is restoring 113 of the ancient sculptures, the latest single return, as pressure mounts on Western governments and institutions to hand back the spoils of colonial oppression.

“These don’t belong here. They were violently taken, so they need to go back,” museum director Marieke van Bommel told AFP in an interview.

“This is a typical example of looted art,” added the 50-year-old.

The story of the Benin Bronzes is one of violence and tragedy. It began when nine British officers were killed on a trade mission to the then independent kingdom of Benin, in the south of present-day Nigeria.

The British reaction was fierce. London deployed a military expedition to avenge its officers. The troops killed several thousand locals and torched Benin’s capital city.

They looted the royal palace, stealing hundreds of artworks, including the Benin Bronzes.

Most of the ornate bronzes were then sold to finance the expedition, auctioned off or sold to museums across Europe and the United States.

This was in 1897 and 128 years later, Nigeria is still negotiating the bronzes’ return around the world — with mixed results.

The Netherlands has agreed to return 119 bronzes in total — six more are coming from Rotterdam — and Germany has also begun handing back its loot.

However, the British Museum in London has refused to return any of its famed collection.

A law passed in 1963 technically prevents the museum from giving back the treasures.



– ‘Follow this example’ –



Museum director Van Bommel hopes the Dutch example will be picked up around the world.

“I think we all agree that this collection doesn’t belong in European museums. We do hope that other countries will follow this example,” she said.

The collection is priceless, said Van Bommel. “It’s a cultural value, so we never put a price on it.”

The museum in Leiden has also restored hundreds of pieces of colonial loot to Indonesia, a former Dutch colony, Mexico and a community in the United States.

Van Bommel said they had struck a deal to keep four of the bronzes on loan, so visitors can continue to learn their story.

“We want to talk about the expedition, but also about the whole subject of restitution,” she said.

In the meantime, the museum will replace their collection with a display of contemporary art.

As for the bronzes, they will be shipped to Lagos in mid-June.

Former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari declared in 2023 that the returned works would be given to the Oba — the traditional ruler — and not to the Nigerian state.

There are plans to build a museum in Benin City in southern Edo state, where the bronzes will have pride of place.

Indonesian gig drivers protest demanding lower app fees

By AFP
May 20, 2025


Gig economy drivers protested in Indonesia demanding a 10 percent cap on commission fees - Copyright AFP JUNI KRISWANTO

Thousands of drivers from ride-hailing and food delivery apps protested in Indonesia on Tuesday, demanding a 10-percent cap on commission fees.

Hundreds of drivers gathered in the streets of the capital Jakarta, driving their motorbikes and waving flags.

Thousands more in Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya drove to the offices of ride-hailing apps GoJek and Grab, before rallying in front of the governor’s office, an AFP journalist saw.

“Many of our friends got into accidents on the road, died on the road because they have to chase their income,” Raden Igun Wicaksono, chairman of the driver’s union Garda Indonesia, told AFP.

“It’s about lives, not about business calculation.”

Drivers are also demanding the end of discounted fare programmes and calling on lawmakers to meet with the drivers’ association and app companies.

Motorbike and scooter drivers who form the backbone of Indonesia’s sprawling gig economy earn up to 150,000 rupiah ($10) a day, but costs including app commissions and fuel eat into their income.

Gojek — which alongside Singapore’s Grab is among Asia’s most valuable start-ups — said it was committed to “supporting the long-term welfare of our driver partners”.

But lowering its 20-percent commission fee, which complied with regulations, was “not a viable solution”, according to Ade Mulya, head of public policy for Gojek’s parent company GoTo.

“Reducing the commission to 10 percent is not a viable solution, as the current 20 percent commission from customer trip fares is essential to fund initiatives that directly support the sustainability of the ecosystem and driver income,” Ade said.

Tirza Munusamy, Grab Indonesia’s head of public affairs, said the company’s commission structure was “necessary” to maintain the quality of service.

“If this commission structure were to be significantly reduced, the impact would go beyond service quality — it would threaten the sustainability of an ecosystem that supports millions of people,” Tirza said, adding that Grab was open for dialogue to ensure policies remain relevant for drivers.

Mother of jailed Egyptian-UK activist returns to full hunger strike


By AFP
May 20, 2025


Fattah's mother Soueif (L) holds a placard reading 'Keir Starmer, bring my son home' - Copyright AFP CHRISTOF STACHE

The mother of jailed Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abdel Fattah announced on Tuesday that she was returning to a full hunger strike to protest against her son’s lengthy imprisonment in Egypt.

Laila Soueif, 69, eased her strike in March after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he had “pressed” for Fattah’s release in a call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

She began consuming 300 calories a day through a liquid nutritional supplement but still went without food.

With her son still languishing in jail two months later, Soueif said it was time to return to taking just rehydration salts, tea without sugar and vitamins.

“I’m going to be on full hunger strike, which means I take zero calories,” she told AFP outside Downing Street, home to Starmer’s official residence.

Soueif said she would also return to protesting outside Downing Street for an hour every day during the week, following a brief pause after Starmer’s intervention.

The London-based mother began her protest on September 29, 2024, which she said marked the day Fattah was due to be released after completing a five-year sentence.

Fattah, 43, a pro-democracy and rights campaigner, was arrested by Egyptian authorities in September 2019 and given a five-year sentence for “spreading false news”.

He was a key figure in the 2011 revolt that toppled Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak and was given UK citizenship in 2022 through his British-born mother.

Fattah launched his own hunger strike on March 1 after hearing about his mother’s admission to hospital, which he continues, according to the campaign group.

Soueif, a mathematician and activist, was in February admitted to a London hospital with dangerously low blood sugar and blood pressure, and given a glucose drip.

The battle by Chile torture site dwellers to remain


By AFP
May 19, 2025


When Chile's German-themed settlement Villa Baviera was known as Colonia Dignidad, it was the home of a brutal cult used for torturing and killing dissidents under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet - Copyright AFP RODRIGO ARANGUA
Pedro SCHWARZE

With its pristine swimming pool, manicured lawns and lush forest backdrop, Villa Baviera, a German-themed settlement of 122 souls in southern Chile, looks like the perfect holiday getaway.

But Colonia Dignidad, as it was previously known, is a byword for horror, as the former home of a brutal cult that was used for torturing and killing dissidents under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Twenty years after the cult leader, former Wehrmacht soldier Paul Schaefer, was jailed for the sexual abuse and torture of children at the colony, the Chilean state wants to turn it into a memorial for the victims of the country’s 1973-1990 dictatorship.

In June last year, President Gabriel Boric ordered that 116 hectares (287 acres) of the 4,800-hectare site, an area including the residents’ homes, a hotel, a restaurant, and several food processing factories, be expropriated to make way for a center of remembrance.

But some of the inhabitants, who were separated from their families as children, subjected to forced labour, and in some cases, sexually abused, say they are being victimized all over again.



– ‘Heavy burden’ –



Schaefer founded Colonia Dignidad in 1961 as an idyllic German family village — but instead abused, drugged and indoctrinated the few hundred residents and kept them as virtual slaves.

The boundaries between abuser and abused were blurred, with the children of Schaefer’s sidekicks counting themselves among his victims.

Anna Schnellenkamp, the 48-year-old manager of the colony’s hotel and restaurant, said she “worked completely free of charge until 2005,” the year of Schaefer’s arrest. “So much work I broke my back.”

Several years ago Schnellenkamp, whose late father Kurt Schnellenkamp was jailed for five years for being an accomplice to Schaefer’s abuse, finally found happiness.

She got married, had a daughter and started to create new, happier memories in the colony, where everyone still communicates in German despite being conversant in Spanish.

But she still views the settlement as part of her birthright.

“The settlers know every detail, every building, every tree, including where they once suffered and were forced to work,” she explained.



– Potato shed torture cell –



Around 3,200 people were killed and more than 38,000 people tortured during Chile’s brutal dictatorship.

An estimated 26 people disappeared in Colonia Dignidad, where a potato shed, now a national monument, was used to torture dozens of kidnapped regime opponents.

But on the inside too, abuse was rife.

Schaefer was captured in 2005 on charges of sexually abusing dozens of minors over nearly half a century. He died in prison five years later while in preventive custody.

His arrest, and those of 20 other accomplices, marked a turning point for the colony, which had been rebranded Villa Baviera a decade previously.

Suddenly, residents were free to marry, live with their children, send them to school and earn a paycheck.

Some of the settlers returned to Germany.

Others remained behind and built a thriving agribusiness and resort, where tourists can sample traditional German fare, such as sauerkraut.

Some residents feel that Chile, which for decades turned a blind eye to the fate of the enclave’s children, now wants to make them pay for the sins of their fathers.

“One feels a kind of revenge against us,” said Markus Blanck, one of the colony’s business directors, whose father was charged as an accomplice of Schaefer’s abuse but died before being sentenced.

The government argues that the expropriations are in the public interest.

“There is a national interest here in preserving our country’s historical heritage,” Justice Minister Jaime Gajardo told AFP, assuring that those expropriated would be properly compensated.



– European-style memorial –



While several sites of torture under the Chilean dictatorship have been turned into memorial sites, Gajardo said the memorial at Villa Baviera would be the biggest yet, similar to those created at former Nazi concentration camps in Europe.

It is not yet clear whether it will take the form solely of a museum or whether visitors will also be able to roam the site, including Schaefer’s house and the infamous potato shed.

The clock is ticking down for Boric to make the memorial a reality before his term runs out in March 2026.

His government wants to proceed quickly, for fear that the project be buried by a future right-wing government loathe to dwell on the abuses of the Pinochet era.

CBS News boss resigns amid tensions with Trump admin


By AFP
May 19, 2025


Owned by Paramount, CBS News has seen leaders resign in protest during the Trump administration - Copyright AFP/File Patrick T. Fallon

The CEO of CBS News, one of America’s best-known broadcast media outlets, quit Monday citing a “challenging” last few months as the network became embroiled in legal and business tensions with the Trump administration.

US President Donald Trump is suing CBS owner and media giant Paramount for $20 billion in damages over the contents of a pre-election interview last year with his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris.

Legal experts have argued the lawsuit is baseless, and would be an easy legal victory for CBS if it ever went to court, per constitutional protections for freedom of the press.

Paramount nevertheless entered into mediation in a bid to placate Trump as it seeks to close an $8 billion merger with the entertainment company Skydance, which needs federal government approval.

“The past few months have been challenging,” CEO Wendy McMahon wrote in a goodbye letter to staff.

“It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward. It’s time for me to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership,” she said.

Trump alleges an interview with Harris on CBS’s “60 Minutes” program last year was edited to remove an embarrassing response.

Many legal analysts maintain the suit is part of a broader assault on press freedom that has seen Trump bar some journalists from the Oval Office and sue other media organizations over their coverage.

In a message to CBS News staff, Paramount CEO George Cheeks confirmed McMahon’s resignation and thanked her for her leadership.

CNBC meanwhile reported that Cheeks spoke with McMahon Saturday and asked for her resignation, citing people familiar with the matter.

The executive producer of “60 Minutes,” veteran journalist Bill Owens, resigned last month, citing what he said were attacks on his independence in running the show.

Award-winning television newsmagazine broadcast “60 Minutes,” which pulls around 10 million viewers weekly, is a leading target of Trump’s offensive against the media.

The program has continued to air investigations critical of the Trump administration since his return to the White House.

In response, Trump has called for its cancellation, while his billionaire advisor Elon Musk has said he hoped the team behind “60 Minutes” would receive long prison sentences.

High times for German cannabis firm amid medical boom


By AFP
May 17, 2025


Medical cannabis has been a boon for the Berlin-based company whose website slogan says 'we love cannabis' and whose Frankfurt Stock Exchange ticker symbol is 'HIGH' - Copyright AFP Daniel Peter

Louis VAN BOXEL-WOOLF

At an undisclosed site in Germany’s Bavaria state, pharmaceutical CEO Philip Schetter opens a 75-centimetre (30-inch) thick steel door that secures his wares: vast amounts of cannabis.

“Better safe than sorry,” he says during a visit to the compound run by Cantourage, a producer and distributor of cannabis-based medicinal products.

Marijuana has been partially legalised in Germany, but the firm fears its wares from as far as Jamaica, Uganda and New Zealand could make it an attractive target for criminals.

“We are committed to the highest safety standards — for our employees as well as for our products,” Schetter told AFP.

Inside the facility, staff wearing surgical gowns, hairnets and face masks were busy using small scissors to cut up dried cannabis flowers.

The brownish-green buds are used to relieve chronic pain and sleep disorders, treat certain forms of epilepsy and offer support for cancer, HIV and palliative care patients.

Medical cannabis has been a boon for the Berlin-based company whose website slogan says “we love cannabis” and whose Frankfurt Stock Exchange ticker symbol is “HIGH”.

Last year it booked revenue of 51.4 million euros, a 118 percent increase on 2023.

The company with 70 staff says it allows producers to enter the European medical cannabis market by processing and distributing their dried flowers and extracts.

Competitors include the Netherlands’ Bedrocan and Canada’s Aurora, which also grows cannabis.

In Germany, the pungent green plant has been available with a prescription since 2017.

One benefit of laboratory-tested and certified medical cannabis is clarity about its origin, processing path and active ingredient content, said Schetter.

“If I went to the black market, the choice would be rather limited and I would be given anything, without knowing what it contains,” he said. “And often the product is contaminated. You may even doubt that it is cannabis.”

– ‘Frosted Cookies’ –

Cantourage markets its medicines in eye-catching ways, naming them after their cannabis strains.

Among its products are “Frosted Cookies”, “Lemon Berry Candy” and “Chemdawg”, complete with colourful stickers that help build brand loyalty even if they do not appear on the packaging.

“Classical pharma firms do classical pharma marketing,” Schetter said. “We’re just young and creative,” he added, noting that the boundaries between recreational and medicinal drugs are sometimes “blurred”.

“You can argue about when a product is recreational and when it is medicinal,” he said. “Cannabis helps in the treatment of certain symptoms.”

Most European nations have legalised medicinal cannabis in some form, but Germany has more liberal rules than most.

The former centre-left government last year made it easier to get cannabis on prescription. It also legalised possession of up to 25 grams for personal, non-medical use and allowed households to grow up to three marijuana plants.

“The change in the law meant lots of people became aware for the first time that you can get cannabis from the chemist without being gravely ill,” Schetter said. “That led to a surge in demand.”

Pharmacies filled over 1,000 percent more cannabis prescriptions in December 2024 than they did the previous March, before the law was loosened, according to Bloomwell, an online platform that puts patients in touch with doctors for cannabis treatment.

– ‘Shame for country’ –

The legal change did not put everyone in high spirits, least of all Germany’s conservative new Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who during the election campaign demanded the legalisation be reversed.

His ally, Bavarian premier Markus Soeder, last year charged that the loosening of the law was a “shame for the country” and vowed his state would apply the law “as strictly as possible”.

Since Merz agreed to share power with the centre-left Social Democrats, his coalition government has taken a softer line, pledging only an “open-ended evaluation” of the issue.

Schetter said he was relaxed about the pending review, telling AFP that “we’re curious to see what comes out of this”.

He acknowledged that “regulatory risk does come up as a topic from time to time” in his talks with investors.

But even a reversal of the latest change to the law should leave Cantourage’s business model intact, Schetter said.

“We are a pharmaceutical company. We make medicines and deliver them to chemists.”

He even dared to dream that the review could go the other way, meaning “further steps will be taken to turn partial legalisation into full legalisation”.

Actors’ union sues Fortnite over AI Darth Vader


By AFP
May 19, 2025


The makers of the popular Fortnite game have created an AI version of Darth Vader, using the voice of late actor James Earl Jones that allows players to interact with the Sith Lord - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File Kent Nishimura

An actors’ union is suing the makers of the Fortnite video game over the use of AI to create an interactive Darth Vader, it said Monday.

Fortnite announced last week it had got permission from the family of James Earl Jones to make a chatty “Star Wars” villain based on the late actor’s voice work in the smash hit space opera series.

Using AI models, developer Epic Games introduced the Emperor’s consigliere into Battle Royale, a player-versus-player version of Fortnite in which squads form to defeat other contestants online.

Users were quick to adopt the Sith Lord on their missions, posting clips of their interactions with one of cinema’s most famous bad guys.

Many delighted in the character’s apparent wit, laughing as he tells them off for poor technique, or suggesting that they are cheating.

“The empire has no need for fast food,” he chides one player who asks what his McDonald’s order would be.

“If I were forced to endure such a culinary experience, I would take a Chicken Selects Meal with large fries and a Coca-Cola drink.”

But actors’ union SAG-AFTRA was not amused, claiming the use of AI in video games puts performers out of work.

“We celebrate the right of our members and their estates to control the use of their digital replicas and welcome the use of new technologies,” a statement said Monday.

“However, we must protect our right to bargain terms and conditions around uses of voice that replace the work of our members, including those who previously did the work of matching Darth Vader’s iconic rhythm and tone in video games.”

The union, which says it represents around 160,000 people, says Epic’s subsidiary did not talk to its negotiators over how AI would be used in the game.

SAG-AFTRA said it had filed a claim for unfair labor practice with the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency that protects workers’ rights to organize and to negotiate.

Epic Games did not immediately respond to AFP’s queries, but a statement released last week cited Jones’s family saying they were pleased with the project.

“We hope that this collaboration with Fortnite will allow both longtime fans of Darth Vader and newer generations to share in the enjoyment of this iconic character,” the family said.

Performers have become concerned about the use of artificial intelligence in films, TV and video games.

Improving technology makes it increasingly possible to digitally recreate the audio and visual likeness of an actor.

The strikes that crippled Hollywood in 2023 stemmed in part from fears that studios would seek to use digital models to replace human performers and creators.

Video game actors began their own strike against major players in the sector in July 2024.