Reddit files legal challenge to Australia social media ban


By AFP
December 11, 2025


Online discussion site Reddit launches a legal challenge to Australia's social media ban on under-16s, just days after the landmark laws came into effect

 - Copyright AFP/File Lionel BONAVENTURE

Laura CHUNG

Online discussion site Reddit launched a legal challenge Friday to Australia’s social media ban on under-16s, just days after the landmark laws came into effect.

This week, the country became the first to ban under-age users from a raft of popular apps and websites — Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and X among them.

Tech companies that fail to comply face Aus$49.5 million (US$33 million) fines if they do not purge Australia-based users younger than 16.

The court filings by US-based Reddit, a discussion forum site made up of thousands of sprawling niche communities, challenge the general validity of the law, arguing that it should be exempt from the government’s list of banned platforms because it is “not an age-restricted” app.

It added that the law “infringes the implied freedom of political communication”, and called for it to be reviewed by Australia’s High Court.

A Reddit spokesperson said the government had not been consistent in selecting which platforms should be banned, with some apps with large under-16 user groups exempt.

Platforms currently exempt from the law include Roblox, Pinterest and WhatsApp, but the government has stressed that the list remains under review.

The spokesperson also said that Reddit was an online discussion forum aimed at adults, rather than driven by algorithms and social engagement.

There were serious privacy concerns associated with how platforms needed to verify users’ ages and the collection of personal data which increased the risk of leaks or hacks, the spokesperson added.

Before the ban was enacted December 10, Reddit previously said it would comply with the Australian government’s legislation, but warned it was “legally erroneous”.

An Australian government spokesperson said authorities were ” on the side of Australian parents and kids, not platforms”.

“We will stand firm to protect young Australians from experiencing harm on social media.”



– Closely watched –



Reddit’s case is separate from one filed by an internet rights group last month, which is also seeking to overturn the laws on the grounds they are an “unfair” assault on freedom of speech.

Australia’s social media ban is being closely watched by all those worried about the dangers of social media, with New Zealand and Malaysia mulling similar restrictions.

The Australian government concedes the ban will be far from perfect at the outset and canny teenagers will find ways to slip through the cracks.

But authorities say unprecedented measures are needed to protect children from “predatory algorithms” filling phone screens with bullying, sex and violence.

‘Not black or white’: Teens worldwide react to Australia social media ban

By AFP
December 7, 2025


Australia's landmark move to ban under-16s from social media will be closely watched by other countries - Copyright AFP/File DAVID GRAY

AFP bureaus

Australia’s landmark move to ban under-16s from social media will be closely watched by other countries, which could follow suit with similar laws.

AFP spoke to teenagers and adults around the world about the Australian ban, which comes in on Wednesday. Here are some of their reactions:

– Mumbai: ‘Nothing is black or white’ –

At the seafront in India’s Mumbai, 19-year-old Pratigya Jena scrolls with her friends through Instagram videos of a posing influencer and a camel at a beach.

Social media “should be partially banned because according to me nothing is either black or white”, the student said.

“Gen Z are very active, they are doing really well on social media. And doing great things, especially young entrepreneurs,” Jena said.

At the same time, children watching adult content online “has a very bad effect”.

At a Mumbai park, cricket coach Pratik Bhurke, 38, said Australia’s move would encourage children to spend time outdoors and could have “great benefits” in India too.

– Berlin: ‘Help to detox’ –

In the chilly German capital, Luna Drewes, 13, is watching selfie-style TikTok clips posted by other young people.

“Actually a good thing in some ways because social media often portrays a certain image of how people should look, like girls have to be thin,” she said of the ban.

Another teenager, Enno Caro Brandes, said: “I’m 15 so for me the ban would definitely come into effect. I can’t really imagine giving it up completely.

“A ban is a bit extreme, but it could definitely help to do a detox.”

– Doha: ‘Really stupid’ –

An AI baby singing and answering interview questions are among the videos served up to Firdha Razak, 16, as she scrolls in her room.

Razak is not in favour of a ban. “It’s really stupid, honestly,” although “there’s not really much we can do as 16-year-olds” if governments decide to act, she said.

The families of many people in Qatar live abroad, so “it’s going to be so much harder to talk to them”.

Also in Doha, Youssef Walid, 16, said bans like Australia’s were “a bit harsh” and hard to enforce.

“We can use VPN. We can easily bypass the security and easily make new accounts,” he said.

– Lagos: ‘We were born with it’ –

At a Nigerian high school, Mitchelle Okinedo is revising for exams, checking over her hand-written notes. In the classroom — where phones are banned — students in uniform sit at separate desks.

“I see where the (Australian) government is coming from. Students nowadays, they are really distracted,” Okinedo said.

Even so, “we were born with it”, the 15-year-old added. “And I don’t think it’s something I want to stop.”

Her mother, 50-year-old event planner Hannah Okinedo, agrees with a social media ban for under-16s, saying most parents “don’t have time to monitor their children all day”.

– Mexico City: ‘Express yourself’ –

Young Mexico City resident Aranza Gomez, 11, has had a smartphone with access to social media for one year.

Without it, “I would honestly feel sad. I wouldn’t really have a good way to spend my time,” she said.

Santiago Ramirez Rojas, 16, is sitting on a bench in the Tabacalera district, scrolling through posts containing news about Argentina and tour dates for a musician.

“Social media today is very important for expressing yourself, no matter how old you are,” said Rojas.

But “there are many kidnappings that begin online” and “younger kids, around 10 or 12, are much more vulnerable”.

– Sydney: ‘Not going to have any impact’ –

In Australia one family has diverging ideas on how the law will go.

“I don’t think the government really knows what they’re doing and I don’t think it’s going to have any impact on children of Australia,” said 15-year-old Layton Lewis.

But his mother Emily Lewis hopes it will help children “have better, more authentic relationships”.

“They’ll make proper plans, like we used to, to meet up with their friends face-to-face and have proper conversations as opposed to these illusive friendships online,” she said.

burs-kaf/pst

‘Downward spiral’: French mother blames social media for teen’s suicide


By AFP
December 10, 2025


Image: — © Digital Journal

Benjamin Massot and Claire Robiche

A French mother whose teenage son took his own life is fighting to hold social media platforms accountable, saying their algorithms pushed suicide-related content that sent the 15-year-old into a “downward spiral”.

Emmanuelle Pouedras told AFP her story as France mulls scaling back social media access for teens, including through a possible ban for children under 15 similar to the one in Australia.

Clement had only just started his second year of secondary school when he jumped off a bridge in the northwestern region of Brittany in 2024.

His mother, a 55-year-old shopkeeper, and her husband, Sebastien, are now seeking to reopen the investigation into his death and hold social media platforms to account.

In September, they filed a complaint against TikTok and Meta among other such companies on charges including incitement to suicide.

The vast majority of the videos on his TikTok “For You” page — where the platform’s algorithm recommends content — were “inciting him to death, telling him he doesn’t matter to anyone”, Clement’s mother told AFP at home in the town of Lorient.

The self-harm content “exacerbated” her son’s distress and sent him into a “downward spiral”, she said.

“TikTok knew he wasn’t doing well, TikTok did nothing, and TikTok is not helping us find the truth,” she said, accusing the platform of failing to act.

Her son was also cyberbullied on the messaging service WhatsApp right up until the last hours before his death, she told AFP.

Pouedras was on Wednesday to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in the town of Saint-Malo, also in Brittany, where he was to discuss the challenge that social media and their algorithms pose to democracy.

In a letter she sent to the president on Monday, she described her son as “yet another victim of social media”.

– ‘Incitement’ to death –

Before Clement died, Pouedras said she was wary of the potential harm posed by unfettered access to smartphones and required her two children to keep theirs out of their bedrooms at night.

During the investigation into Clement’s death, police did not examine his phone but she later found messages indicating he had been cyberbullied.

“Have you finished your shitty suicide?” read one text sent in a group chat on the messaging service WhatsApp.

She said she spent months trying to contact social media platforms, including Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok, to gain access to his data to try to understand what led to his death.

But she received only partial responses, despite platforms being required to give her access to this data, according to France’s data protection authority CNIL, she told AFP.


Students place their phones in lockers after switching them off at a highschool in Lorient – Copyright AFP Loic VENANCE

The family filed a complaint on September 19, their lawyer Pierre Debuisson accusing the platforms of “deliberate obstruction”. He argued that social media sites were the scene of a wave of “multiple incitements to suicide, accessible to minors without any protective filter”.

The regional public prosecutor’s office did not say what action it would take in response to the Pouedras’ complaint.

TikTok told AFP it “strictly prohibits content that depicts or promotes suicide or self-harm” and “removes 98 percent of violating content before it is even reported”.

Searches containing terms such as “suicide” are redirected to “a page with dedicated resources”, it added.

Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.

– World first crackdown –

There is a growing global push to address the impact of social media on young people’s mental health.

In September, a French parliamentary commission probing the psychological effects of TikTok recommended banning social media for children under 15 and adopting a “digital curfew” for 15- to 18-year-olds.

The commission was launched in March, after seven families sued TikTok in late 2024, accusing them of having exposed their children to content that could push them to suicide.

Macron in recent weeks has urged stricter oversight of social media and their algorithms, describing it as the “Wild West”.

In a world first, Australia on Wednesday banned under-16s from social media, declaring it was time to “take back control” from formidable tech giants.

New Zealand and Malaysia are mulling similar restrictions.

YouTube, Meta and other social media giants have lined up to condemn the ban.

EMOTIONAL PLAGUE

Escapism or exaltation? ‘Narco-culture’ games raise concern in Mexico


By AFP
December 12, 2025


Video game developers like Angel Villaverde, 19, say the more realistically gruesome a game is, the more popular - Copyright AFP Julio César Aguilar
Arturo ILIZALITURRI

In violence-riddled Mexico, children as young as 13 are hooked on bloody video games that vividly recreate the horrors of the country’s narco war.

Some experts say it’s a way of coping. Critics, including President Claudia Sheinbaum, see it as monetized glorification of a genre known as “narco culture.”

With thousands of daily users, the games allow players to choose whether they want to be a cartel hitman, a police officer or a soldier.

There are wild chases and brutal shootouts, gold-plated pistols, personalized bulletproof helmets, and souped-up cars.

“It really draws me in, seeing things I’d like to have in real life — for example, who wouldn’t want to have a Lamborghini, or a big truck, a big house?” gaming fanatic Alan Crespo, a 24-year-old farmer from San Blas on Mexico’s Pacific coast, told AFP.

Crespo is on the older side of the player age spectrum, with most between 13 and 18 and hailing primarily from northern Mexican states like Sinaloa, Chihuahua and Baja California — synonymous with cartel violence.

This age group was born amid the wave of violence unleashed in 2006, when the Mexican government militarized the fight against drug trafficking — a strategy that has claimed nearly half a million lives.



– Hell’s Troop –



Dozens of war-like games can be found on online platform Roblox, which allows programming enthusiasts to design their own video games for others to play.

The most popular ones attract up to 1,000 users a day. The games are free, though players can purchase better weapons or uniforms with real money.

The more realistic and gruesome a game is, the more popular, developers say.

“Players aren’t interested in seeing made-up names of criminal groups,” said Angel Villaverde, a 19-year-old who designs games on his computer in Monterrey in Mexico’s northeast.

Users of the game “Tamaulipas Belico,” for example, can choose to play as a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) or of the Northeast Cartel (CDN).

Both have been designated “foreign terrorist organizations” by US President Donald Trump and are responsible for innumerable deaths, including of civilians.

Matches entail killing off one’s enemies to take control of buildings, usually gas stations or shops.

Opponents patrol in camouflaged army pickups or in vehicles decorated with a demon drawing and the number 666 — the insignia of the CDN’s Tropa del Infierno (Hell’s Troop) armed wing, known for its extreme brutality.



– ‘Apology for violence’ –



Mexico’s so-called “narco-culture” can also be found in music, films and fashion items glorifying the criminal life.

Sheinbaum rejects what she considers an “apology for violence” and has launched a campaign against the sub-culture, including an eight-percent tax on video games with violent content.

Behavioral scientists say that through gaming, young people may feel they have a sense of control over a violent reality that makes them anxious.

Student Alejandro Solorzano, 18, a game developer from Tijuana, notes that players are “fascinated by going around doing criminal activities.”

“It’s something warlike, it’s something grotesque, but it’s fictional at the same time” he told AFP.

Ainhoa Vasquez of Chile’s Federico Santa Maria Technical University, says gaming may also be a way of “making sense” of a violent society, of “transferring real anguish” to a fictional realm.

These experiences can be “a catharsis,” said Vasquez, who studies cultural representations of the drug trade.

The platform Roblox, which reported some 112 million daily users worldwide in the second quarter of this year, recently tightened its controls to protect minors.

Among other measures, it implemented a system to verify users’ ages to prevent harassment by adults on the platform.

Gamer warns conspiracy-theorist TikTokkers are more dangerous than 'drunk drivers'

Laura Loomer arrives ahead of Donald Trump's debate with Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 10, 2024. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo

Adam Lynch

November 29, 2025

ALTERNET

Slate reports videogames stuff a lot of entertainment into one sandbox, and some of them augment their storylines with every kind of conspiracy imaginable.

The two-decade-old Assassin’s Creed games are peppered with “almost every kind of conspiracy theory you can think of,” reports Joshua Rivera. “In the fiction of Assassin’s Creed, humanity is descended from ancient aliens, and this knowledge is suppressed throughout history; the tide of world events is influenced by a shadow war between two secret societies; the media exists to manipulate the public. This makes for an exciting series of video games with a near-limitless scope. It also echoes uncomfortable real-world conspiracy theories that have proven consequential in our lifetime.”

But how seriously do players take conspiracies that try to rope aliens in with an over-controlling order of the Knights Templar and a “bloodthirsty” Pope Alexander VI — a pope more known for nepotism, unexciting papal decrees and for his reputation as a patron of the arts? Media critic and scholar Cameron Kunzelman tells Slate no more than any other media source.

“Conspiracy exists as a crime that you can be charged with, because conspiracies do exist!” said Kunzelman. “There are groups of people who make decisions together that can impact other people, and they can do that secretly. Seemingly lots of things that are involved in what’s being released right now in the Epstein files are what we would call dyed-in-the-wool, true conspiracy. From human trafficking to much more banal, but just as bad, practices of money moving around and political meetings.”

But Kunzelman said today a wide variety of conspiracies are getting “mashed together” into big ugly “metaconspiracies.”


“Where conspiratorial movements at one time were seen as discrete from one another, now they kind of attach to each other and they get folded into QAnon,” said Kunzelman, whose new book “Everything is Permitted” claims that this massive folding of conspiracies mirrors how entertainment franchises are now built.

But, like zombies and other things that should not exist, they are perpetual motion machines that sometimes keep churning away long after their creators are dead and gone, using the engine of capital “to keep themselves revolving and moving,” said Kunzelman.

But Kunzelman’s book points out that algorithms on things like YouTube and other sites shunt viewers into “harder stuff,” that even our basic entertainment patterns make us minor conspiracy theorists.

“Every part of our lives where we engage with the internet is about putting us in a ditch that leads to another ditch that leads to another ditch,” Kunselman told Slate. “And unfortunately, the scale of that, the allure of that, often leads into things that will harm us in some way. It’ll remove us from our actual communities. It will put us into kind of epistemic places that are only engaged with their own ideas. … whatever happens to you is whatever happens to you.”

Oddly, Kunzelman is one video game enthusiast who thinks platforms that shunt audiences down a rabbit hole need more policing, arguing that we don’t even build open roads without some guardrails.

“I think being a very influential conspiracy-theorist TikTokker is probably on the whole more dangerous than being a drunk driver for an afternoon,” said Kunzelman. “I think it’s harming more people in serious and real ways. But we don’t take it seriously at all. It’s a bipartisan belief that these industries should not be constrained by the law, and by any concern for other human beings. I think that’s bad."

Read the Slate report at this link.

Crypto mogul Do Kwon sentenced to 15 years for fraud: US media


By AFP
December 11, 2025


In 2019, Do Kwon featured in Forbes' 30 under 30 Asia list - Copyright AFP/File SAVO PRELEVIC

South Korean cryptocurrency tycoon Do Kwon was sentenced to 15 years in prison Thursday over fraud linked to his company’s failure, which wiped out $40 billion of investors’ money and shook global crypto markets, US media reported.

Kwon, who nurtured two digital currencies central to the bankruptcy, was sentenced at the New York court where he pleaded guilty in August after an international manhunt spanning Asia and Europe.

He still faces fraud charges in his native South Korea.

The 34-year-old’s Terraform Labs created a cryptocurrency called TerraUSD that was marketed as a “stablecoin,” a token that is pegged to stable assets such as the US dollar to prevent drastic fluctuations.

Kwon successfully marketed them as the next big thing in crypto, attracting billions in investments and global hype.

He was flooded with praise in South Korean media, which described him as a “genius” as thousands of private investors lined up to pour cash into his company.

And in 2019, Kwon featured in Forbes’ 30 under 30 Asia list.

But despite billions in investments, TerraUSD and its sister token Luna went into a death spiral in May 2022.

Experts said Kwon had set up a glorified pyramid scheme, in which many investors lost their life savings.

He left South Korea before the crash and spent months on the run.

The crypto tycoon was arrested in March 2023 at the airport in Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital, while preparing to board a flight to Dubai, in possession of a fake Costa Rican passport.

He was extradited last year from Montenegro to the United States.

South Korea police raid e-commerce giant Coupang over data leak


By AFP
December 8, 2025


Coupang is South Korea's most popular online shopping platform, serving millions of customers - Copyright AFP/File Ed JONES

Claire LEE

South Korean police raided the Seoul headquarters of e-commerce giant Coupang on Tuesday over a recent data leak believed to have affected almost two-thirds of the country’s population.

Coupang is South Korea’s most popular online shopping platform, serving millions of customers with lightning-fast deliveries of products from groceries to gadgets.

But the company suffered a massive data leak this year and was forced to alert customers that their names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses and some order histories had been exposed.

Payment details and login credentials were not affected, it said.

Coupang had told authorities the personal information of 33.7 million customers had been leaked — almost two-thirds of the population of the country.

On Tuesday police in Seoul conducted a “search and seizure” operation at Coupang’s South Korean headquarters, describing it as a “necessary measure to accurately understand the incident”.

Seventeen officers from the force’s cyber investigation unit were deployed, with law enforcement vowing to “comprehensively investigate” based on the evidence obtained.

Last week, President Lee Jae Myung called for swift action to penalise those responsible for the debacle.

Seoul has said the leak took place through Coupang’s overseas servers from June 24 to November 8.

The company only became aware of it last month, according to police and local media, when it issued a complaint against the alleged culprit — a former employee who is a Chinese national.

The firm is now facing a class action lawsuit in the United States, where its global headquarters is based, over the leak, Yonhap news agency reported.

– Exposed –

And Seoul’s presidential office said Monday that the firm needed to provide answers over how it would compensate users who have had data stolen.

“Coupang must present clear measures outlining how it will take responsibility if damages occur,” presidential chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik said, according to Yonhap.

The case follows a major breach at South Korea’s largest mobile carrier SK Telecom, which was fined 134 billion won ($91 million) in August after a cyberattack exposed data on nearly 27 million users.

South Korea, among the world’s most wired countries, has also been a target of hacking by arch-rival North Korea.

Police announced last year that North Korean hackers were behind the theft of sensitive data from a South Korean court computer network — including individuals’ financial records — over a two-year period.

And last month, Yonhap reported that South Korean authorities suspected a North Korean hacking group may be behind the recent cyberattack on cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, which led to the unauthorised withdrawal of 44.5 billion won in digital assets.

‘Democracy has crumbled!’: Four arrested in UK Crown Jewels protest


By AFP
December 6, 2025


A little-known, self-proclaimed civil resistance group called Take Back Power claimed responsibility - Copyright Take Back Power/AFP Handout

London police arrested four people Saturday after apple crumble and custard were thrown at a display case containing Britain’s priceless Crown Jewels in the Tower of London, in the latest direct action protest stunt.

The city’s Metropolitan Police said officers responded to “reports of criminal damage to a display case, containing the State Crown” and that “four protesters threw suspected food onto the case before two left the scene”.

“Officers worked closely with City of London Police and security officers and four people have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage,” the force added. It noted they were in custody.

A little-known, self-proclaimed non-violent civil resistance group called Take Back Power claimed responsibility, saying its members had thrown the crumble and custard.

It is “demanding that the UK government establish a permanent citizen’s assembly… which has the power to tax extreme wealth and fix Britain”, according to statement posted online.

The group shared a video of the incident on social media showing a young woman planting a foil tray containing the crumble up against the glass pane, followed by a young man splattering custard from a tub on top of it.

The Imperial State Crown, worn by King Charles III at the end of his 2023 coronation ceremony and at formal occasions like the State Opening of Parliament, could be seen shimmering inside the case.



– ‘Britain is broken’ –



Both suspected perpetrators in the footage wore t-shirts with “take back power” and a logo emblazoned on the front.

“Democracy has crumbled!” the young woman yelled, as the custard-throwing man shouted “Britain is broken!”

“We’ve come here, to the jewels of the nation, to take back power,” he added.

The footage, filmed by another person close by, showed a female staff member with a walkie-talkie attempting to intervene, repeatedly shouting “excuse me!” as she radioed for help.

The incident is the latest example of so-called direct action demonstrations, targeting cultural, sporting and other sites in Britain and beyond.

Stunts have included targeting Vincent van Gogh’s glass-protected “Sunflowers” painting with tomato soup and daubing Stonehenge with orange paint powder.

Take Back Power targeted the Ritz Hotel on Wednesday, emptying bags of manure next to its Christmas tree.

The Crown Jewels were not damaged during its new stunt, the Historic Royal Palaces charity which manages the Tower of London said.

The Jewel House at the world-famous tower where most of the historic treasures are kept temporarily closed while police investigated, but reopened later Saturday.

The Crown Jewels are Britain’s most precious treasures, including regalia used at coronations of new monarchs.

Comprising more than 100 objects and over 23,000 gemstones, they are considered “of incalculable cultural, historical, and symbolic value,” according to Historic Royal Palaces.

The jewels are part of the Royal Collection, held in trust by the monarch for the nation.

Hong Kong university axes student union after calls for fire justice


By AFP
December 4, 2025


A woman takes a photo with her phone above barricades in front of the student union-run notice board, nicknamed “democracy wall”, at Hong Kong Baptist University 

 Copyright POOL/AFP KIM Min-Hee

A Hong Kong university ordered its student union to shut down after a message was posted on campus expressing condolences and urging justice for the victims of a major fire, according to a letter publicly shared on Friday.

The blaze that ripped through Wang Fuk Court in the city’s northern Tai Po district last week killed at least 159 people and was the world’s deadliest residential building fire since 1980.

The Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) said it will “suspend the operations” of the student union acting executive committee with immediate effect and take over their facilities, according to a letter shared on social media by the union on Friday.

The school cited reasons such as a lack of representation and poor financial management, which the union called “unfounded and arbitrary”.

“The university’s irrational action raises concerns about potential ulterior motives behind this forced suspension,” the union said in a statement.

Social media users circulated photos on Tuesday of a message stuck onto a student union-run notice board, nicknamed the “democracy wall”, which expressed condolences for those killed in the fire.

The unsigned message continued: “We are Hongkongers. Urge the government to be receptive and respond to public demands so justice can be done.”

The wall was blocked off with tall barricades on Wednesday, an AFP reporter saw.

Kevin, a HKBU student who declined to give his surname, told AFP at the time he found the noticeboard message to be “positive” and said it drew attention from students walking by before it was sealed off.

The university did not respond to multiple requests for comment from AFP.

Authorities have warned against crimes that “exploit the tragedy” and have reportedly arrested at least three people for sedition in the fire’s aftermath.

Student unions at Hong Kong universities were once hotbeds of political activism and played a role in the city’s huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019.

They either shrank their operations or were shut down entirely after Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong a year later, which critics say has curbed dissent.

Louvre trade unions call for rolling strike next week

By AFP
December 8, 2025


Storm clouds are gathering over the Louvre in Paris due to staff working conditions - Copyright AFP/File Ian LANGSDON

Trade unions at the Louvre Museum in Paris on Monday called for a rolling strike next week over working conditions, piling more bad news on the beleaguered institution.

The announcement came a day after the world’s most visited museum admitted to a major leak in late November and nearly two months after an embarrassing heist in which French crown jewels were stolen from its permanent collection.

In between those two incidents, it had to close a gallery containing ancient Greek ceramics over fears for the safety of a ceiling.

Three unions — the CGT, Sud and the CFDT — called for a rolling strike starting Monday December 15 which was voted for at a staff meeting of around 200 employees “with unanimity”, CFDT official Valerie Baud told AFP.

If followed widely by the Louvre’s 2,100-strong workforce, it could lead to the closure of the institution in the run-up to the Christmas holidays when Paris is full of festive holidaymakers.

The Louvre was forced to shut temporarily on June 16 this year after gallery attendants, ticket agents and security personnel organised a spontaneous walk-out over what they see as understaffing and overcrowding.

In a joint letter addressed to Culture Minister Rachida Dati on Monday, the unions wrote that parts of the Louvre were being regularly closed because of “insufficient staff numbers as well as technical failures and the building’s ageing condition”.

“The public now has only limited access to the artworks and has trouble moving around. A visit to the Louvre has become a real obstacle course,” they added, according to a copy seen by AFP.

On Sunday, the museum’s deputy administrator, Francis Steinbock, said that an open valve in the heating and ventilation system had caused water damage to 300 to 400 journals, books and documents in the Egyptian department.

The damaged items date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and are “extremely useful” but are “by no means unique”, Steinbock added.

On October 19, a four-person gang raided the museum in broad daylight, stealing jewellery worth an estimated $102 million in just seven minutes before fleeing on scooters.

The incident has highlighted major security vulnerabilities and heaped pressure on government-appointed Louvre boss Laurence des Cars.

She has called it “an immense wound that has been inflicted upon us”.

Des Cars and unions had warned repeatedly before the break-in about conditions inside the Louvre and the cost of maintaining the vast former royal palace.

The home of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” welcomed 8.7 million people last year.

General strike hits planes, trains and services in Portugal


By AFP
December 11, 2025


Labour reforms sought by Portugual's Prime Minister Luis Montenegro set off the country's biggest strike since 2013 - Copyright AFP PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA

Thomas CABRAL

Widespread disruption hit Portuguese air travel and trains, hospitals and schools Thursday as the unions called the biggest nationwide strike action for more than a decade against government labour reforms.

Lisbon’s main train station was empty with most services cancelled and the TAP Air Portugal national airline called off about two thirds of its normal 250 flights.

According to unions, refuse collection was at a standstill along with hospital departments handling non-urgent cases. Schools and courts were also affected.

Unions have been infuriated by a law proposed by the right wing minority government that it says aims to simplify firing procedures, extend the length of fixed-term contracts and expand the minimum services required during a strike.

Prime Minister Luis Montenegro insisted that the labour reforms, with more than 100 measures, were intended to “stimulate economic growth and pay better salaries”.

But the communist-leaning CGTP and more moderate UGT unions have lambasted the plans. And the walk-out is Portugal’s biggest since June 2013, when the country needed International Monetary Fund and European Union help to overcome a debt crisis.

CGTP secretary general Tiago Oliveira said the reforms were “among the biggest attacks on the world of work”. He told AFP the government action would “normalise job insecurity” and “make dismissals easier”.

– Support for strikers –



Out of a working population of some five million people, around 1.3 million are already in insecure positions, Oliveira said.

With Portugal set to elect a new president in early 2026, Oliveira said he considered the strike was “already a success” even before it started as it had drawn public attention to the labour reforms.

Public opinion is largely behind the action, with 61 percent of those polled in favour of the walk-out, according to a survey published in the Portuguese press.

On the eve of the strike, Montenegro said he hoped “that the country will function as normally as possible… because the rights of some must not infringe on the rights of others”.

Although his right-wing party lacks a majority in parliament, Montenegro’s government should be able to force the bill through with the support of the liberals — and the far right, which has become the second-largest political force in Portugal.

The left-wing opposition has accused Montenegro’s camp of not telling voters that workers’ rights roll-backs were on the cards while campaigning for the last parliamentary elections.

Although Portugal has recorded economic growth of around two percent and a historically low unemployment rate of some six percent, the prime minister has argued that the country should take advantage of the favourable climate to push through reforms.

Armindo Monteiro, head of the main employers confederation, the CIP, condemned the strike and told AFP the government’s draft law was only a “basis for discussion” aiming to correct the “misbalance” caused by labour changes made by a previous left wing government.

Nepal estimates millions in damages from September protests


By AFP
December 11, 2025


Nepal suffered losses of about $586 million in deadly anti-corruption protests in September, a report says - Copyright AFP/File PRABIN RANABHAT

Nepal on Thursday estimated that the country suffered losses of about $586 million in September’s deadly anti-corruption protests that ousted the government.

The youth-led demonstrations, initially triggered by anger over a brief government ban on social media, were fuelled by deeper frustration over economic hardship and corruption.

After a police crackdown killed young protestors, the riots spread and on the second day more than 2,500 structures were torched, looted or damaged.

The committee formed to assess the damage caused during the protest submitted its report to Prime Minister Sushila Karki on Thursday, the prime minister’s secretariat said in a statement.

The report said that a total of 77 people died during the movement, 20 people on 8 September, 37 on the following day and another 20 later.

“In terms of total physical damage, the committee estimates the loss to be equivalent to 84 arab 45 crore 77 lakh rupees ($586 million),” the statement said.

The report said that damage to government and public buildings accounted for half of the amount.

The unrest spread nationwide on its the second day as parliament and government offices were set ablaze, resulting in the government’s collapse.

Within days, 73-year-old former chief justice Sushila Karki was appointed interim prime minister to lead the Himalayan nation to elections on March 5, 2026.

Karki’s cabinet formed the committee to assess the damage soon after.

The committee also submitted a reconstruction plan, estimating a need of $252 million.

Three months on from the September 8–9 protests, and with three months to go before elections, Nepal faces daunting challenges including rising unemployment and collapsing foreign investment.

Some of Nepal’s largest companies — major contributors to state revenue — suffered heavy losses, including Bhat-Bhateni supermarkets, the Chaudhary Group conglomerate and the telecom provider Ncell.

In Pokhara, one of Nepal’s key tourist hubs, Hotel Sarowar was set ablaze.

“The loss is immense,” chairman Bharat Raj Pahari told AFP in an interview earlier this month. “It has directly affected 750 family members.”

The World Bank in November revised its growth projections for Nepal, warning that due to the recent unrest and “heightened political and economic uncertainty, real GDP growth is projected to slow to 2.1 percent” in 2025, from an earlier forecast of 5.1 percent.

It also raised its poverty estimate to 6.6 percent of the population this financial year, up from 6.2 percent.

Kushner returns to team Trump, as ethical questions swirl


By AFP
December 11, 2025


Jared Kushner, seen with Ivanka Trump, played a key role in the Gaza ceasefire deal - Copyright POOL/AFP SAUL LOEB

Danny KEMP

His only official job title at the White House is son-in-law. But Jared Kushner has staged a remarkable — and sometimes controversial — comeback to President Donald Trump’s inner circle.

Four years after Kushner left the White House, Trump has handed the husband of his daughter Ivanka a key role in the Gaza and Ukraine peace talks.

This week, the 44-year-old also emerged as an investor in a bid by Paramount to buy Hollywood giant Warner Bros., which if successful could mean the Trump family partially owning CNN, the president’s most-hated news channel.

Kushner and Ivanka served as special advisors in Trump’s first term. But after his 2020 election loss they decamped to Florida and Kushner vanished into the private sector, insisting he would not return for a second administration.

Since then, Kushner has founded an investment company largely funded by the same Middle Eastern countries that he dealt with in the first Trump term — and has become a billionaire, according to Forbes.

That has raised ethical questions about possible conflicts of interest, which Kushner has denied and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has branded “frankly despicable.”

But it has not stopped Trump, who has long mixed business and politics with family, from bringing him back in from the cold.

“We called in Jared,” Trump told the Israeli parliament in October after the Gaza ceasefire deal. “We need that brain on occasion. We gotta get Jared in here.”



– ‘Trusted family member’ –



The White House said that Kushner was giving “valuable expertise” while stressing that he working as an “informal, unpaid advisor.”

“President Trump has a trusted family member and talented advisor in Jared Kushner,” Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to AFP, citing Kushner’s “record of success” in the Middle East.

Trump and his roving global envoy, businessman Steve Witkoff, “often seek Mr. Kushner’s input given his experience with complex negotiations, and Mr. Kushner has been generous in lending his valuable expertise when asked.”

The slim, softly-spoken scion of a property empire — whose father was jailed for tax evasion and later pardoned by Trump — Kushner faced accusations of inexperience when he joined Trump’s first team.

But he ended up playing a key role in Trump’s signature diplomatic achievement, the Abraham Accords that saw several Muslim nations recognize Israel.

During that time Kushner, who is Jewish, built enduring relationships with Gulf states like Saudi Arabia.

As Trump sought a Gaza ceasefire in his second term, he turned again to his son-in-law.

Kushner began to be seen around the White House again, and Trump dispatched him and Witkoff to negotiate with Israel, Hamas and Middle Eastern powers.

After the Gaza deal, Kushner said his role was only temporary — and joked that he was worried Ivanka would change the locks of their Florida mansion and not let him back in if he stayed on.

Yet the following month, Kushner turned up at the Kremlin with Witkoff to meet President Vladimir Putin. Top Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Kushner “turned out to be very useful.”



– Paramount bid role –



Kushner’s business interests hit the headlines again this week when it emerged that his private equity firm, Affinity Partners, was among the investors backing Paramount’s battle with Netflix to buy Warner Bros.

It added a political twist to the story, as not only has his father-in-law said he would get “involved” in approving any deal, but Trump also appears determined to clamp down on CNN, which is part of Warner.

Kushner founded Florida-based Affinity in 2021, with much of its funding coming from foreign sources, particularly the Middle Eastern governments he’d done business with.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) gave $2 billion in 2022, the New York Times reported. The Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi-based Lunate Capital together gave around $1.5 billion in 2024, Kushner said in a podcast last year.

Kushner’s firm now manages $5.4 billion, according to a press release in September.

A US Senate finance committee launched an inquiry last year into whether Affinity was effectively being used as a foreign influence-buying operation with the Trump family ahead of the 2024 election, saying it had won millions in fees from foreign clients without returning any profits.

Affinity Partners did not reply when contacted by AFP.

Kushner hasn’t commented on the Paramount deal, but he has previously rejected any suggestions of ethical breaches, particularly regarding his Gulf ties.

“What people call conflicts of interest, Steve and I call experience and trusted relationships,” he told the CBS program “60 Minutes” when it interviewed him and Witkoff in October on the Gaza deal.