GENDER APARTHEID IS FEMICIDE

Abortion in Afghanistan: ‘My mother crushed my stomach with a stone’

By AFP
December 4, 2025


A protest for Afghan women's rights in New Delhi in 2021, the year the Taliban returned to power - Copyright AFP/File Sajjad HUSSAIN

Claire GOUNON

When Bahara was four months pregnant, she went to a Kabul hospital to beg for an abortion. “We’re not allowed,” a doctor told her. “If someone finds out, we will all end up in prison.”

Abortion in Afghanistan is illegal and you can be locked up for having or assisting one.

But Bahara was desperate. Her jobless husband had ordered her to “find a solution” — he did not want a fifth daughter.

“We can barely afford to feed” the girls as it is, Bahara, 35, told AFP. “If it was a boy, he could go to school and work.”

But there are no such prospects for a girl, with women banned from secondary schools, universities and most jobs since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

So Bahara took a neighbour’s advice and bought — for the equivalent of two dollars — a herbal tea at the market made from a type of mallow that induces contractions.

The bleeding was so bad she had to go back to the hospital. “I told them that I had fallen, but they knew I was lying because I had no marks on my body. They were angry but did not report me,” said the mother-of-four.

“They operated and removed the remains of the foetus. Since then I have felt very weak.”

The plant she used can be “very risky”, said ethnobotanist Guadalupe Maldonado Andrade from the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. A wrong dose can cause organ damage and severe haemorrhaging.

Bahara’s is not an isolated case.

Two other women AFP talked to during our months-long investigation also risked their lives to abort. Nesa took tablets toxic to the embryo and Mariam crushed her stomach with a heavy stone.

Of the dozen women AFP talked to about their clandestine abortions, only five agreed to be interviewed on condition we protected their anonymity and changed their names. Even outside Taliban circles, the fear of being stigmatised, and arrested, is strong in Afghanistan’s deeply conservative society.



– More ‘miscarriages’ –



With such a taboo, and no real statistics, Sharafat Zaman of the Afghan health ministry insisted “few” women are affected.

The Taliban — who follow a strict interpretation of Islam — did not change the abortion laws when they returned to power in 2021.

But officials check more often that terminations are not being carried out in hospitals, panicking doctors and pushing women to have abortions in secret, according to many health sector workers AFP interviewed.

Several doctors said the number of miscarriages has increased since 2021, which they suspect may conceal clandestine abortions given the injuries patients present and their psychological state.

Two international medical organisations also said they noticed the same trend, while access to contraception has become more difficult.

“Budget constraints and the forced closure of family planning services endanger access to modern contraception,” a UN source told AFP, saying less than half of Afghan women have access to methods such as condoms, implants or pills.

Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world, with young women banned from training as midwives or nurses in medical schools since last year.

While health ministry spokesman Zaman acknowledged the dangers of clandestine abortions, and that some women face “problems”, he said it was not the government’s fault.

Abortion is permitted when the life of a pregnant woman is in grave danger. However, in practice it is rarely granted. For the Taliban abortion is “taking a life”, Zaman said.



– He didn’t want another girl –



“Before (the Taliban’s return) we were able to perform more abortions, there were NGOs helping us and no government checks,” said a 58-year-old gynaecologist in Kabul.

“Now doctors are afraid because if they check prescriptions at a pharmacy, it’s very dangerous” for them.

Women are afraid to ask for a termination in hospital, she said, “so more are trying it at home, and then they go to hospital saying they have had a miscarriage.”

Some pharmacies sell them the abortion drug misoprostol without a prescription, the doctor said.

While some healthcare workers are compassionate, others can demand exorbitant sums in what is one of the world’s poorest countries.

Nesa, a mother of eight daughters and one son, found out she was pregnant with another girl at four months.

“I knew if my husband found out, he would throw me out. He thinks we do better with boys,” the 35-year-old farmer said.

“I begged a clinic to help me. They asked for 10,000 Afghanis (130 euros), which I didn’t have. I went to the pharmacy without a prescription and they gave me a malaria drug, saying it would help.”

The only antimalarial drugs available in Kabul pharmacies are chloroquine and primaquine, drugs that should not be used during pregnancy, according to the French agency for medicine safety (ANSM), because they are potentially toxic to the foetus.

“I started bleeding and lost consciousness,” Nesa said. “I was taken to the hospital and I begged the doctors not to report me and they removed the remains of the foetus.”



– Constant pain –



Mariam, 22, had an affair. While abortion is a source of shame in Afghanistan and weighs on the entire family, sex outside marriage is often dangerous, sometimes leading to femicides known as “honour killings”.

One month into her pregnancy, “my mother contacted a midwife, but she asked for too much money. So my mother brought me home, placed a very heavy stone on my belly and crushed my stomach.

“I screamed and started bleeding,” Mariam said. “I went to the hospital and they told me the embryo was gone. Now I am depressed and constantly have stomach pain.”

Only one third of women globally live in countries where abortion is allowed on demand, according to the US NGO Center for Reproductive Rights. Illegal abortions result in 39,000 deaths a year worldwide, it estimates.

A Kabul midwife told AFP she feels “helpless and weak for not being able to help (women) more.” A gynecologist in the Nangarhar region in the east of the country was equally despairing.

“I feel for these women — I vowed to help them by becoming a doctor. But we can’t,” she said.

Tree branches to fleece jackets: Chemicals plant in Germany bets on biomass

By AFP
December 3, 2025


A beech forest in Saxony-Anhalt state is providing biomass for Germany's chemicals industry - Copyright AFP GREG BAKER

Clement KASSER

Staring at a pile of freshly cut beechwood, forestry manager Johannes Brodowski wonders if he is looking at the future of Germany’s chemicals industry.

A local factory will use Brodowski’s trees and other organic material — instead of climate-harming fossil fuels — to make chemical products used to manufacture items ranging from packaging to car tyres and fleece jackets.

“The innovative part of the whole thing is that a new product is getting made,” he told AFP: “Namely, chemical materials that were originally made from fossil fuels and now can be made from renewable sources.”

Finnish group UPM Biochemicals unveiled its 1.3-billion-euro ($1.5-billion) biorefinery in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt this year, taking a big risk at a difficult time for the sector.

Germany’s traditional chemicals industry has been battered by high energy prices and cheap competition from Asia, with national output now at its lowest level since 1995.

Still, UPM thinks now is the right time to try and get chemical giants to break with fossil fuels and switch to renewable biomass, in this case wood which grows abundantly in the region.

“With local supply chains, we can be competitive and meet the needs of international markets,” said UPM site manager Harald Dialer.

The opportunity is large: about 80 percent of German chemical products rely on imported fossil-based materials, said Paul Muennich of Agora Energiewende, an energy-transition think tank.

UPM has signed a supply contract with the forest-rich state of Saxony-Anhalt, making use of beech tree branches and twigs for chemical processes in its refinery.

As a result, beech wood production in this corner of Saxony-Anhalt could go up by 20-30 percent, Brodowski said.

He explained that the plant uses tree branches, which are less commercially viable than trunks and usually incinerated in factories.



– ‘Like popcorn’ –



The wood is processed at the Leuna Chemical Park, home to over 100 different firms.

Most of the factories give out the smell of rotten eggs, but inside some areas of the UPM site, a sweeter smell fills the air.

Wood chips are treated until they burst “like popcorn”, turning into a slurry that is fermented in huge metal tanks, UPM spokesman Martin Ledwon said.

At the end of the process, two types of products emerge: liquids used to make clothing or bottles, and a brown powder that can replace carbon black, a powder used as a filler in tyres and other rubber products.

The UPM site should reach full capacity by 2027, with annual output of 220,000 tonnes of chemicals.

That would mark a rare bright spot in Germany’s otherwise stagnant chemicals industry — a trend thrown into stark focus in Leuna where the US group Dow is to soon close two plants.



– ‘Bold decision’ –



Opening the plant was a “very bold decision”, Dialer said, adding that the Covid pandemic had doubled the timeline and the associated costs of the project.

UPM would like to count on help from the German state, highlighting that its project is more ecologically sustainable than oil-guzzling plants that also accelerate climate change.

But the federal government led by conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, which took power in May, has been less enthusiastic about environmental and climate protection than its predecessors.

When the project was launched in 2020, sustainability was “more at the centre of the debate”, Dialer said.

In his view, Germany and the European Union should support European industry by imposing quotas on what he says are cheap but often environmentally damaging imports of Chinese chemicals.

Paul Muennich of Agora Energiewende also argued that government intervention with subsidies or tariffs would be “necessary to shift from fossil fuel to sustainable biomass”.

REST IN POWER

Frank Gehry, master architect with a flair for drama, dead at 96


ByAFP
December 6, 2025


Architect, Frank Gehry, takes questions from members of the media in a press conference at the Art Gallery of Ontario. — Photo by © Chris Hogg, Digital Journal

Canada-born US architect Frank Gehry, whose daring and whimsical designs from the Guggenheim Bilbao to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles captivated fans and critics, died on Friday aged 96.

Gehry was perhaps the biggest of the so-called “starchitects” — an elite group that includes Renzo Piano, Rem Koolhaas, Norman Foster and others — and enjoyed his fame, but absolutely hated the label.

“There are people who design buildings that are not technically and financially good, and there are those who do,” he told The Independent in 2009. “Two categories, simple.”

One of Frank Gehry’s most famous designs was of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, where he built his architectural practice. — © Getty Images North America/Getty Images/File DAVID MCNEW

His artistic genius and boldness shone through in his complex designs — such as the glass “sails” of the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.

He popularized contemporary architecture, and became such a sensation that he was featured on “The Simpsons” — all while insisting he was a simple maker of buildings.

“I work with clients who respect the art of architecture,” he said in 2014, according to his biographer Paul Goldberger.

Gehry’s representative Meaghan Lloyd told AFP that he died Friday morning at his home in Santa Monica following a brief respiratory illness.

– From Canada to Los Angeles –

Born Frank Owen Goldberg in Toronto on February 28, 1929 to a Jewish family that would move to the United States in the late 1940s, he later changed his name to Gehry to avoid becoming the target of anti-Semitism.


Frank Gehry’s tower is wrapped in 11,000 stainless-steel panels – Copyright AFP Pascal GUYOT

He studied architecture at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, graduating in 1954 before enlisting in the US Army and later continuing his studies in city planning at Harvard University, though he did not finish the program.

Gehry eventually returned to Los Angeles to start his career working for Victor Gruen, a pioneer in the design of shopping malls.

He went on to work in Paris with Andrew Remondet in 1961 before returning to Los Angeles, establishing his own architectural practice the following year.

The 70s and 80s would mark the rollout of a long series of his most audacious and innovative architectural achievements, many of them in southern California.


The new Art Gallery of Ontario in downtown Toronto was designed by renowned architect, Frank Gehry. — Photo by © Chris Hogg, Digital Journal

Close to the avant-garde “funk” art scene in California, Gehry’s deconstructionist and experimental style — sometimes derided as crude — is hard to categorize.

Many of his buildings — irregularly-shaped metal facades that can look like crumpled paper — could only be realized with the help of computer design tools, which he fully embraced.

This is maybe best reflected in his seminal reworking in 1978 of his own home in Santa Monica, where he long resided.

It features corrugated metal wrapped around the original 1920s building, described by author Paul Heyer as “adhering to the spirit of ad-hocism” and a “collision of parts.”

Gehry ended the 1980s by receiving the highest architectural honor, the Pritzker Prize, in 1989.

– ‘Bilbao effect’ –

Almost a decade later, he would unveil arguably his most iconic design: the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which earned him international acclaim and notice.

The limestone and glass building with curvy walls clad in titanium scales is instantly recognizable as a Gehry design, and was once described by his American colleague Philip Johnson as “the greatest building of our time.”

A maze of wood curves in the front lobby of the new Art Gallery of Ontario in downtown Toronto. — Photo by © Chris Hogg, Digital Journal

The building helped revitalize the ancient industrial heart of the Spanish city, attracting visitors from around the world and leading to the coining of the term “Bilbao effect” to explain how beautiful architecture can transform an area.

Emboldened, Gehry would take even greater risks in his next projects, which included the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (2003), the Beekman Tower in New York (2011), and the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris (2014).

Facebook tapped Gehry for a major expansion of its Menlo Park campus in California, which opened in 2018.

– ‘I love working’ –

Many of Gehry’s designs require complex computations — which he pushed to the limits.

For a period, architects avoided the use of rounded or curved shapes as they caused headaches for engineers and led to spiralling construction costs.

Gehry pushed back, applying 3D modelling software similar to that used by aerospace firms to create unique building shapes while keeping costs in line with what developers would pay for a more conventional building of similar dimensions.

The Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas — its walls and windows appearing to have melted under the hot desert sun — is a classic example of Gehry’s groundbreaking vision.

“I love working. I love working things out,” he told The Guardian in 2019.

Data centers: a view from the inside


By AFP
December 8, 2025


Cooling vent fans are seen on the roof of a Digital Realty data center in Ashburn, Virginia - Copyright AFP/File Jason Redmond

Alex PIGMAN

The expansion of data centers to power the AI boom has more people wondering: what exactly is in a data center?

AFP got a chance to take a look at what is inside.


– Concrete warehouse –

Data centers are the physical infrastructure that make our digital lives possible, yet most people have never seen one up close or understand how they operate.

Roughly 12,000 data centers are in operation in the world, with about half in the US, according to Cloudscene, a data center directory.

At its most basic, a data center is a concrete warehouse filled with thousands of computer servers working in tandem. Traditional facilities span one or two floors divided into vast rooms, though newer ones rise higher.

A facility may serve a single company or be shared by several clients.

The servers sit in standardized 19-inch (48 cm) racks — essentially metal closets lined up in rows.

A large data center can house tens of thousands of servers running simultaneously, generating enormous heat and consuming significant energy for both power and cooling.

High-speed networking equipment — switches, routers, and fiber optic cables — connects everything, moving terabytes of data per second.


– Stay close –


Having a data center close to end users improves speed, which is critical for things like trading and gaming where immediacy is paramount.

Ashburn, Virginia, which has the highest concentration of data centers in the world, offers ideal conditions as it is located only about 30 miles from the US capital, Washington.

However, building in densely populated areas costs more and faces local resistance. Companies increasingly turn to rural locations where land is cheaper and zoning less restrictive.

But distance adds to loading times — that brief delay when a page loads or a feed refreshes.

To balance cost and performance, operators typically house core infrastructure — or the training of AI models — in affordable rural regions while keeping equipment that handles time-sensitive requests closer to urban centers.


– Stay Cool –


Inside these bunker-like buildings, a single server rack generates as much heat as several household ovens running nonstop. Cooling consumes roughly 40 percent of a data center’s total energy.

The most advanced chips — GPUs (graphics processing units) used for AI — can reach temperatures exceeding 90°C, threatening performance and causing permanent damage during extended operation. They are also much heavier than lower performing chips.

Traditional facilities use computer room air conditioners with heat blasting out of mounted vents on on rooftops – but this is not fit for GPUs that mainly turn to water for cooling.

Modern facilities are beginning to deploy “free cooling” that uses outside air when temperatures allow, and different water-based approaches: liquid cooling systems that pump coolant directly to components or evaporative cooling that works like perspiration on skin.

Today massive amounts of water are still required for direct and indirect cooling in data centers. In 2014, US data centers used 21.2 billion liters of water, and that number rose to 66 billion liters in 2023, according to federal estimates.


– Where’s the power? –


Power supply — and the high voltage transmission lines needed to source it — is key for a data center and is only growing with facilities that run the powerful GPUs.

“One of the biggest challenges for a lot of our customers is they buy the chips and then they don’t know where to go,” Chris Sharp, Chief Technology Officer at Digital Realty, which operates data centers around the world, told AFP.

The big tech giants, caught up in the AI arms race, have spent tens of billions of dollars in just months towards building suitable structures for GPUs.

Operators rely on the existing power grid but are increasingly seeking to secure their own resources — called “behind-the-meter” — for greater security and to limit rate increases for all users.

Solar panels or gas turbines are sometimes installed, and many are also awaiting the arrival of the first small modular reactors (SMRs), a nuclear energy technology currently under development.

Most data centers have to run 24/7 and every critical system has backups in case of power outages. This can come through massive battery banks or diesel generators.

The best facilities guarantee power 99.995 percent of the time.

2025 on track to tie second hottest year on record: EU monitor

By AFP
December 9, 2025


The planet is on track to log its second hottest year on record in 2025, tied with 2023 - Copyright AFP/File Nicolas TUCAT

The planet is on track to log its second hottest year on record in 2025, tied with 2023 after a historic high in 2024, Europe’s global warming monitor said Tuesday.

The data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service reaffirms that global temperatures are on course to exceed 1.5C above pre-industrial levels — the threshold considered safer in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Temperatures rose by 1.48C on average between January and November, or “currently tied with 2023 to be the second-warmest year on record”, according to the service’s monthly update.

“The three-year average for 2023–2025 is on track to exceed 1.5C for the first time,” Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at Copernicus, said in a statement.

“These milestones are not abstract –- they reflect the accelerating pace of climate change and the only way to mitigate future rising temperatures is to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Burgess said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in October that the world would not be able to contain global warming below 1.5C in the next few years.

Last month was the third warmest November on record at 1.54C above pre-industrial levels, according to Copernicus, with the average surface air temperature reaching 14.02C.

Such incremental rises may appear small but scientists warn that is already destabilising the climate and making storms, floods and other disasters fiercer and more frequent.

“The month was marked by a number of extreme weather events, including tropical cyclones in Southeast Asia, causing widespread, catastrophic flooding and loss of life,” the monitor said.



– Fossil fuel fight –



The Philippines were ravaged by back-to-back typhoons that killed some 260 people in November, while Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand were hit by massive floods.

The global average temperature for the northern hemisphere autumn, from September to November, was also the third highest on record after 2023 and 2024.

“Temperatures were mostly above average across the world and especially in northern Canada, over the Arctic Ocean, and across Antarctica,” the monitor said, adding that there were notable cold anomalies in northeastern Russia.

Copernicus takes its measurements using billions of satellite and weather readings, both on land and at sea, and their data extends back to 1940.

Global temperatures have been stoked ever higher by humanity’s emissions of planet-heating gases, largely from fossil fuels burned on a massive scale since the industrial revolution.

Nations agreed to transition away from fossil fuels at the UN’s COP28 climate summit in Dubai in 2023 but ambitions have stalled since then.

The COP30 climate conference in Belem, Brazil, concluded last month with a deal that avoided a new, explicit call to phase out oil, gas and coal following objections from fossil fuel-producing countries.

Billionaire Trump fan Babis returns to power as Czech prime minister


ByAFP
December 9, 2025


The party of Andrej Babis (3rd R) has teamed up with two eurosceptic 

parties to form a coalition government - Copyright AFP Michal Cizek

Jan FLEMR

Andrej Babis, a billionaire supporter of US President Donald Trump, returned to power as Czech prime minister on Tuesday, signalling a possible end to Ukraine aid and potentially rockier ties with the European Union.

Babis’s ANO movement, which won October parliamentary elections, teamed up with two eurosceptic parties to form a coalition government.

In its policy statement, the coalition said the EU had “its limits” and no right to impose decisions infringing on the sovereignty of member states.

In his campaign, Babis has also vowed to curb aid to Ukraine, battling a Russian invasion since 2022. The outgoing centre-right government gave humanitarian and military aid.

President Petr Pavel appointed the 71-year-old, who governed the EU and NATO member of 10.9 million people from 2017 to 2021.

“I promise all citizens of the Czech Republic to fight for their interests at home and abroad,” said Babis, who has described himself as “Trumpist” in the past.



– Fraud trial –



Throughout his political life, Babis has battled conflict of interest allegations over his roles in business and politics, drawing mass protests during his earlier term.

Thousands rallied against Babis last month on the anniversary of the 1989 Velvet Revolution that toppled communism in the former Czechoslovakia.

Slovak-born, Babis is the seventh wealthiest Czech according to Forbes magazine. He made his fortune as the owner of the sprawling food and chemicals holding Agrofert and other companies.

Pavel urged Babis to resolve the conflict of interest before he is appointed, and the new premier last week vowed to put Agrofert in the hands of an independent administrator.

He did not disclose details, sparking speculation about the move, but Pavel said he was happy with the explanation and promised to appoint him.

Babis is due to stand trial over a two-million-euro ($2.3 million) fraud. He is accused of taking a farm out of Agrofert in 2007 to make it eligible for an EU subsidy for small companies.

Babis has also battled allegations of being a communist secret police agent in the 1980s.

He has denied any wrongdoing, calling all the allegations a “smear campaign”.

Babis, who holds an economics degree, entered politics with his ANO party in 2011.

He was finance minister from 2014 to 2017 but was ousted after leaked recordings showed he had influenced reporters working for his newspapers, which he has since sold.

In 2023, he lost a presidential run-off vote to Pavel.

Thanks to his father’s job as a trade representative for Czechoslovakia during the communist era, Babis attended elementary school in Paris and high school in Geneva.



– Controversial minister candidate –



In the European Parliament, ANO and its new coalition partner, the Motorists, are part of the far-right Patriots for Europe bloc, which Babis co-founded with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Together with the far-right SPD, the three parties hold 108 seats in the 200-member Czech parliament.

Pavel has said he would reveal the government’s ministers after Babis submits a list of candidates.

He has expressed reservations about naming the Motorists’ candidate for the environment minister, Filip Turek, over his past.

Turek is under police investigation for alleged rape and domestic violence following a complaint by a former girlfriend.

Police had also probed Turek for allegedly giving Nazi salutes in public, but they have shelved the case.

Czech media have published racist and homophobic posts on social media attributed to Turek.

Greek govt seeks to tackle farmer protests after Crete clashes


By AFP
December 9, 2025


Farmers block the highway outside the central Greek city of Karditsa

 on December 8, 2025 to demand swifter access to EU subsidies

 - Copyright AFP Aris MESSINIS

Vassilis KYRIAKOULIS, Will VASSILOPOULOS

Greece’s government was on Tuesday scrambling to keep angry farmers from blocking key infrastructure after airports were occupied on Crete in a growing nationwide protest for agriculture funds.

Thousands of tractors have intermittently blocked highways and border crossings since late November, and the farmers have vowed to block the central port of Volos on Wednesday.

“At this moment, there are over 20,000 tractors on the roads of Greece, possibly approaching 25,000,” Sokratis Alifteiras, a senior farm unionist for the central Larissa region, told AFP.

“The decision made by the farmers of Thessaly for tomorrow morning is to block the port of Volos” from both land and sea, he said.

The conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis has for months struggled to address a farm subsidy scandal investigated by EU authorities, which has resulted in payment delays to tens of thousands of growers.

The government has promised to allocate additional funds to legitimate farmers, who are under additional pressure this year owing to low prices for their produce, higher energy costs and a disastrous sheep pox epidemic.

“Produce prices are so humiliatingly low, that the cost of production is higher than the money we earn,” Vaios Tsiakmakis, a tobacco and cotton grower told AFP at a protest near the central town of Karditsa.

On Monday, farmers on the island of Crete broke through police lines and occupied the main airports of Heraklion and Chania, forcing several flights to be cancelled or rescheduled.

Another farm protest on the island of Lesbos on Monday prevented passengers from leaving an outbound ferry.

The protest in Heraklion ended on Tuesday, while in Chania the farmers were seeking to meet with local officials before deciding on further action.

In May, EU prosecutors alleged that thousands of suspects — many of them not farmers — had for years made claims for land they did not own, and exaggerated livestock numbers.

Greek officials say more than 30 million euros ($35 million) of false claims were made.

The alleged graft is believed to have been ongoing at least since 2018, costing genuine farmers 70 million euros annually.

“The money never reached the farmers, those who stole should be in prison,” said Costas Tsoukalas, another farmer at the Karditsa protest.

The government has vowed that no legitimate farmers will lose money and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday insisted the government was open to dialogue with farmers’ representatives.

He warned the protests could be detrimental to the farmers’ cause.

“Sometimes, the most extreme mobilisations might turn large segments of society against the farmers, who may have legitimate demands,” said the Greek leader, whose home island of Crete is strongly implicated in the scandal.

According to officials, the sector stands to receive 3.7 billion euros in subsidies this year, 600 million euros more than in 2024.

Approximately 80 percent of total subsidies granted from 2017 to 2020 for pastures ended up in Crete.

The scandal has already led to the resignation of one minister.

Farmers are also demanding compensation following the loss of over 400,000 sheep and goats in a sheep pox outbreak, all of which were slaughtered to stop the spread of the disease.

Breakout star: teenage B-girl on mission to show China is cool


By AFP
December 10, 2025


Royal, whose real name is Guo Pu, is part of a growing Chinese force in breakdancing - Copyright AFP WANG Zhao

Ludovic Ehret

Flipping and spinning on a studio floor, 17-year-old Royal is a star in China’s breakdancing scene and aiming for gold at the World Championships in Japan this week.

Royal, real name Guo Pu, shot to fame when she won both the youth and adult Asian Championships in June.

She is part of a growing Chinese force in breakdancing, which combines acrobatic floor moves, footwork and rhythmic expression to hip-hop or funk and was included as an Olympic sport for the first time at Paris 2024.

“At first my grandmother would not let me dance breaking because back then, breaking’s reputation truly was not very good,” Royal told AFP at the studio where she trains in her hometown of Pingyi, in the eastern province of Shandong.

“But after I achieved some results, she stopped saying anything,” she smiled.

Having already won the youth world title in August, Royal will compete alongside other “B-girls” and “B-boys” at the adult World Championships taking place Friday and Saturday in Fukuoka, Japan, the country which has long dominated the sport.

“I want to win that gold medal for China and show the world that Chinese breaking is getting cooler and cooler,” she said.



– ‘Born for breaking’ –



As a youngster, “my mother signed me up for all kinds of extracurricular classes, such as playing instruments, then Chinese dance”, Royal said.

“I also participated in a local children’s artistic show for the Chinese New Year. That’s when coach Mike saw me.”

Mike, whose real name is Li Shilong, told AFP “she immediately impressed me”.

“During her performance I saw a light in her eyes… It was a kind of light that shows a real passion, a real drive for dance and for art.

“I felt that this girl might have been born for breaking.”

Royal has now put school on hold to dedicate her time entirely to dancing.

Like other top athletes in China, she will benefit from easier access to university thanks to her sporting achievements.

Royal describes herself as “not very talkative” and still “pretty nervous before competitions”, but says she is able to “open up” on stage.

In addition to her Asian and world titles, Royal won gold at this year’s World Games — a top competition for non-Olympic sports.

She has developed a healthy rivalry with fellow Chinese breakdancer Liu Qingyi, known as “671”, who won bronze at the Paris Games.

The country’s next generation of breakdancers looks promising, with China winning five out of six medals at the youth World Championships in August.



– Inspiring creativity –



“In four years, China has gone from being unknown in the world of breakdancing to ranking among the world’s top three and is now seen as the future of breaking,” Mounir Biba, a 13-time world champion and head coach of the Chinese team, told AFP.

“There is talent, there is a lot of potential. There are a lot of young dancers in China,” he said, adding that financial support from the government was helping the sport grow.

Having breakdancing in the Olympics has encouraged the surge of interest in China, according to coach Mike.

“Once a discipline is officially recognised as a sport in China it’s developed very intensively,” he said.

Authorities see an opportunity to win international honours while parents, reassured by breakdancing’s new respectability, are more willing to let their children practise it.

The Chinese DanceSport Federation now organises numerous competitions, Mike said, while funds are allocated to training facilities.

The only downside, according to the coach, is that some Chinese dancers do not necessarily fully understand the culture of breakdancing, which originated in New York in the 1970s.

“The (skill) difficulty level in China is exceptionally high. However, the understanding of dance and the depth of exploration into dance artistry remains insufficient,” he told AFP.

“This is an area where we need to learn from Western nations,” Mike said.

“Breakdancing, and other street dance styles… their essence is innovation. I believe that by understanding the core of this culture, Chinese children will become more creative.”

Royal is keen to push the sport’s creativity.

“I really want to inspire the next generation of B-girls,” she said.

“By passing on the history and the culture of breaking, and developing a style of breaking that’s unique to girls.”

France’s ‘Battery Valley’ makes use of Asian experts


By AFP
December 10, 2025


A Chinese operator works next to a French operator at the AESC factory in northern France - Copyright AFP/File -

Etienne BALMER

France is developing domestic production of electric vehicle batteries with an eye on industrial independence but Asian experts are proving key in launching operations.

In the Verkor factory outside the northern city of Dunkirk, which will be inaugurated on Thursday, foreign specialists, notably from South Korea and Malaysia, are training the local staff.

Verkor is the third battery gigafactory to open in northern France in a region that has become known as “Battery Valley”.

At the AESC factory near the city of Douai, where production has been underway for several months, Chinese engineers and technicians supervise French recruits.

“They are the ones who train us on the equipment, how to operate it, how to fix problems,” said Ericka Redjimi, 39.

Redjimi arrived at AESC in May without any experience in the sector.

“I sold clothes at open-air markets,” she said.

Communication can prove complicated.

“We use Google Translate often.”

“I still need them, much less than at the beginning,” but “it’s reassuring that they are still here,” said Redjimi, who works in the section of the factory that makes battery cells.

Once finished, autonomous robotic sleds transport the cells to another section of the factory where they are assembled into battery modules that are used to power Renault’s R4 and R5 models, as well as the Nissan Micra.



– Skills transfer –



By the end to the first quarter of 2026 the factory should be running at full speed, turning out batteries to equip 150,000 to 200,000 vehicles per year, said Ayumi Kurose, who heads up operations at AESC France.

He said the first few months of production had gone pretty much as expected.

“What’s always complicated is gaining mastery of the equipment” which often comes from Asia, and the training of staff, Kurose said.

Founded in Japan but now owned by China’s Envision, AESC has been manufacturing electric car batteries in Asia for 15 years.

The group can rely on its in-house know-how to ensure “good practices from beginning” at its new factories elsewhere in the world, said Kurose.

He said there are currently nearly 150 Chinese experts working at the Douai directing 800 local staff.

These include experts in vision-based control of industrial machinery and cutting-edge soldering techniques.

“The goal is really the transfer of skills,” said Kurose.

The experts “come for between six months and two years, but they aren’t meant to stay,” he added.

The Douai factory should be ready to operate on its own by the end of 2026, he estimated.

One of the Chinese engineers also expressed confidence.

“I have to say, my French colleagues, they are always working hard,” said He Xiaoming, 36.

If they acquire the necessary knowledge and gain additional experience “they will go quite fast”, he added.



– Chinese partner –



The nearby ACC factory, the first battery gigafactory to open in France in 2024, is also scaling up production after a difficult start.

“What we manufacture in a day now took us a month to do at the beginning of the year,” said ACC’s chief executive Yann Vincent.

“We’re not yet where we want to be”, but in terms of the rate of defective cells and volumes “we’ve made significant improvement.”

A joint venture of carmakers Stellantis and Mercedes-Benz plus energy firm TotalEnergies, ACC earlier this year struck a temporary partnership with a Chinese battery manufacturer.

The company, the name of which ACC hasn’t disclosed, will manage one of its three production lines from A to Z until mid-2026.

Vincent said the Chinese have learned an enormous amount in two decades of manufacturing electric vehicle batteries, while France began from zero five years ago.

So “it’s better to rely on the people who know best” to speed up learning a “really delicate” manufacturing process.

ACC, which currently employs 1,200 people at its Billy-Berclau factory, aims to manufacture batteries for 250,000 electric vehicles next year, against 10,000 to date.

‘Resilient’ airlines head for record passenger numbers: IATA


By AFP
December 9, 2025


The year is shaping up to be better than expected for the world's airlines - Copyright AFP

 Fabrice COFFRINI

International airlines expect to transport a record 5.2 billion passengers in 2026 despite global headwinds affecting the sector, the industry’s trade association said on Tuesday.

Carriers also expect higher profits than previously forecast for 2025, and predict earnings at a comparable level next year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) added.

IATA, which groups around 360 carriers representing 80 percent of global air traffic, said 2025 profits are projected to reach $39.5 billion, up from the $36 billion they predicted at the body’s annual general meeting in June.

IATA director general Willie Walsh said the improved performance was “welcome news considering the headwinds the industry faces”.

He said challenges included rising costs from bottlenecks in the aerospace supply chain, geopolitical conflict, sluggish global trade, and growing regulatory burdens.

Walsh attributed the improved outlook to air freight’s better performance, achieved despite trade disputes triggered by US tariffs.

“Airlines have successfully built shock-absorbing resilience into their businesses that is delivering stable profitability,” he was quoted as saying in an IATA statement.

Profits in 2026 are projected at $41 billion, with persistent aircraft availability problems putting a cap on performance, IATA said.

Profitability projections differ markedly, however, between regions. Middle East-based airlines are expected to register a net profit per passenger of around $28.60, compared to $10.90 in Europe, $9.80 in North America, $3.20 in the Asia-Pacific and $1.30 in Africa.

Global passenger numbers this year are expected just shy of the five-billion figure, at 4.98 billion, up from 4.77 billion in 2024 the previous record figure.