Beneath Antarctica’s largest ice shelf, a hidden ocean is revealing its secrets

Stevens/NIWA/K061, CC BY-NC-ND

Published: January 21, 2026 
THE CONVERSATION


Beneath Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf lies one of the least measured oceans on Earth – a vast, dark cavity roughly twice the volume of the North Sea.

This hidden ocean matters because it is the ice sheet’s Achilles heel. The ice sheet is the continent’s enormous, kilometres-thick mass of land-based ice, while the ice shelf is the floating platform that fringes it.

If warmer water reaches the underside of the shelf, it can melt the ice that holds back millions of cubic kilometres of Antarctic ice, with consequences for global sea levels.

Yet almost everything we know about this cavity has come from brief snapshots at its edges. Until now, no one had captured a long, continuous record from its central heart. Our newly published study set out to change that.

Inside Antarctica’s least-measured ocean

Ice shelves act as buttresses for Antarctica’s 30 million cubic kilometres of ice, built up over millions of years. The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest, among the coldest and most southerly, and perhaps the most sheltered from a warming ocean.

It spans both West and East Antarctica, where dozens of giant glaciers merge to form a wedge of ice 300 to 700 metres thick that flows northward, melting from below and calving the world’s largest icebergs.

Flying out over the Ross Ice Shelf with the Trans Antarctic Mountains in the distance. Stevens/NIWA/K061, CC BY-NC-ND

When studying the ocean, snapshots are useful, but long time series are far more powerful. They reveal the rhythms of currents, eddies, tides and mixing, and how these interact with a warming climate. Beneath Antarctic ice shelves, where measurements are vanishingly rare, developing such records is essential.

Our study describes a four-year record of ocean processes beneath the middle of the Ross Ice Shelf, where the ice is 320 metres thick and the ocean below it 420 metres deep.

Most expeditions focus on the edges of ice shelves. We needed to understand what happens at their centre: so that is where we went

.
Instruments being deployed through the ice shelf borehole – Mike Brewer is monitoring the lowering rate. Stevens/NIWA/K061, CC BY-NC-ND

The work was part of a large, multi-year project that began in 2016 with exploratory missions and ice-drilling trials and ended in 2022 when we finally lost contact with instruments suspended from the underside of the ice.

Once the drilling team reached the ocean – despite bad weather and the technical challenges of working in such a remote, extreme environment – we were able to deploy our instruments. These precision devices reported temperature, currents and salinity via satellite. We expected them to last two years before succumbing to cold or transmission failure. Instead, most continued to operate for more than four years, producing a uniquely long and remote record.

Looking downward in the borehole just before emerging into the ocean cavity. The white specks are sediment particles. Stevens/NIWA/K061, CC BY-NC-ND

The new analysis shows that water properties vary systematically through the year, far from the open ocean and its seasons. The changes in temperature and salinity are subtle, but in a cavity shielded from winds and cold air even small shifts can have large implications.

Our work also reveals how variations in the central cavity align with changes in the Ross Sea Polynya – a wind-swept, ice-free area hundreds of kilometres away where high-salinity water forms. As Antarctic sea ice changes, this connection to the cavity will respond in ways we have not yet fully considered.

Read more: From sea ice to ocean currents, Antarctica is now undergoing abrupt changes – and we'll all feel them

Perhaps most intriguingly, the data show persistent layering of water with different properties within the cavity. This unusual structure was detected in the very first measurements collected there in 1978 and remains today. While much remains to be learned, our results indicate the layers act as a barrier, isolating the ice shelf underside from deeper, warmer waters.

What melting ice brings home

Much recent cavity research has treated the ice shelf as a middleman, passing ocean warming through to the ice sheet. Work like ours is revealing a more complex set of relationships between the cavity and other polar systems.

One of those relationships is with sea ice. When sea ice forms around the edges of an ice shelf, some of the cold, salty water produced as a by-product flows into the cavity, moving along the seafloor to its deepest, coldest reaches. Paradoxically, this dense water can still melt the ice it encounters. We know very little about these currents.

Changes to the delicate heat balance in ice-shelf cavities are likely to accelerate sea-level rise. Coastal communities will need to adapt to that reality. What remains less understood are the other pathways through which Antarctic change will play out.

Instruments being lowered down the borehole. Stevens/NIWA/K061, CC BY-NC-ND

Impacts from ice sheets unfold over decades and centuries. On similar timescales, changes around Antarctica will alter ocean properties worldwide, reshaping marine ecosystems and challenging our dependence on them.

In the near term, we can expect shifts in southern weather systems and Southern Ocean ecosystems. Fisheries are closely linked to sea-ice cover, which in turn is tied to ocean temperatures and meltwater.

Weather and regional climate feel even closer to home. A glance at a weather map of the Southern Ocean shows the inherent wobble of systems circling the globe. These patterns influence conditions in New Zealand and southern Australia and they are already changing.

As ice shelves and sea ice continue to evolve, that change will intensify. Ice shelves may seem distant, but through their ties to the atmosphere and ocean we share a common future.

Authors

Craig Stevens
Professor in Ocean Physics, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau; National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA)

Christina Hulbe
Professor and Dean of the School of Surveying (glaciology specialisation), University of Otago

Yingpu Xiahou
PhD Candidate in Physical Oceanography, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

Disclosure statement

Craig Stevens receives funding from the NZ Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment and its Strategic Science Investment Fund, and the Antarctica New Zealand Antarctic Science Platform. He is a Council member of the New Zealand Association of Scientists.

Christina Hulbe receives funding from the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment, the Antarctica New Zealand Antarctic Science Platform, and the Ōtākou Whakaihi Waka Foundation Trust. They are a member of the Board of the Waitaki Whitestone Unesco Global Geopark.

Yingpu Xiahou receives funding from the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment to support her PhD research. She is affiliated with NIWA, and is a postgraduate member of the Antarctic Science Platform team and a SCAR INSTANT team member.

The Bright Side: Researchers to test whether deep-sea rocks produce ‘dark oxygen’

A group of scientists will later this year deploy deep-sea landers to test whether metallic rocks on the ocean floor do in fact produce oxygen. The claim, made in 2024 by British marine ecologist Andrew Sweetman, has been criticised by the deep-sea mining industry, which wants to harvest the nodules to extract precious metals for car batteries and other products.


Issued on: 20/01/2026 
By: FRANCE 24

Could something be creating oxygen in the total darkness at the bottom of the ocean? 

© Handout, National Oceanography Centre, Smartex project (NERC), AFP file photo

A team of scientists announced Tuesday they have developed new deep-sea landers specifically to test their contentious discovery that metallic rocks at the bottom of the ocean are producing "dark oxygen".

If a previously unknown source of oxygen has always been lurking in Earth's depths, it would represent a remarkable revelation that would call into question long-held assumptions about the origins of life on our planet.

But the deep-sea mining industry – which is keen to extract precious metals from these potato-sized polymetallic nodules – and some researchers have expressed doubts about the claim.

So British marine ecologist Andrew Sweetman, who led the 2024 research that revealed the possible existence of dark oxygen, is planning a new underwater expedition in the coming months.

If these potato-sized polymetallic nodules do produce oxygen, it would be a remarkable revelation. © Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), AFP


At a press conference on Tuesday, Sweetman and his team unveiled two new landers capable of diving to a depth of 11 kilometres with the aim of finding out how the nodules could be creating oxygen.

Unlike previous missions, these landers will have sensors specifically designed to "measure seafloor respiration", Sweetman explained.

They can withstand 1,200 times the pressure on Earth's surface and more resemble space exploration equipment, a statement said.

The landers will be launched from a research ship in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a vast region between Hawaii and Mexico.

Mining companies have plans to start harvesting the nodules, which contain valuable metals used in electric car batteries and other tech.

The scientists believe that the nodules give off enough electric charge to split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen, a process known as electrolysis.
Underwater gold rush?

Sweetman also used the press conference to push back against criticism of his 2024 study.

Some researchers have suggested that the oxygen was not coming from the nodules, but instead were just air bubbles trapped in the measuring instruments.

"We've used these instruments over the last 20 years and every time we've deployed them, we've never had bubbles," Sweetman said, adding that the team conducted tests to rule out such a possibility.

The nodules are right at the bottom of the ocean.

 © Jonathan Walter, Paz Pizarro, Laurence Saubadu, AFP file

The debate comes as companies and nations battle over proposed rules regulating the new and potentially environmentally destructive deep-sea mining industry.

Sweetman's 2024 study was partly funded by a Canadian deep-sea mining firm, The Metals Company, which has since sharply criticised his research.

"If commercial mining goes ahead then there will be quite widespread impacts," Sweetman said, adding that "these nodules are home to a variety of diverse fauna".

But the scientist emphasised it is "not our intention" to find something to stop deep-sea mining.

He instead wants to gather as much information as possible to "minimise the impacts as much as possible" if mining does go ahead.

Matthias Haeckel, a biogeochemist at Germany's GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, told AFP that his own research did "not show any hint towards oxygen production" from the nodules.

British marine ecologist Andrew Sweetman's hypothesis has been met with some resistance. © Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), AFP

But he said Sweetman will "join our cruise at the end of this year, where we plan to compare our methods".

For the new research funded by the Japanese Nippon Foundation, Sweetman and his team plan to spend May on a research ship in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.

"We'll be able to confirm dark oxygen production within 24 to 48 hours after the landers come up," he said.

The world will probably not know the results until the ship returns in June – and further experiments back on dry land could take months, Sweetman added.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Donald Trump's latest visa ban hits African countries hard

Martina Schwikowski

DW

A decision by the US government to suspend visa procedures for numerous countries, including African ones, has come into effect. Experts say it is part of Donald Trump's strategy of portraying immigrants as a threat.

Trump's migration policy has affected numerous African countries, including those considered friendly to the US

Image: Olga Yastremska/Pond5 Images/IMAGO

The US is further tightening its immigration policy, following a decision by Donald Trump's administration to suspend the processing of immigration visas for applicants from 75 nations, a third of which are African.

Some of the affected African countries include Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan. In West Africa, Ghana, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Liberia, Togo, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Senegal also face US visa restrictions.

The visa ban took effect on January 21, 2026, and applies to individuals seeking to live and work permanently in the US.

With this step, Washington claims to be putting an end to the alleged "abuse of the immigration system by people who want to enrich themselves at the expense of the US."

"President Trump has made it clear that immigrants must be financially independent and not be a financial burden on Americans," Phillip Assis, a spokesman for the State Department and director of the Africa Regional Media Hub in Johannesburg, told DW.

Are only wealthy immigrants welcome?

"The State Department is currently conducting a comprehensive review of all policies, regulations, and guidelines to ensure that immigrants from these high-risk countries do not claim social benefits in the United States and do not become dependent on government assistance," Assis said, adding that tourist visas are not affected.

The duration of the suspension is unclear. But according to Assis, nationals of the affected countries can continue to submit their visa applications.

However, during the suspension period, these nationals would not be granted immigration visas.

"Other visas, such as those for tourists, athletes and their families, and media representatives traveling to the United States for the FIFA World Cup, are not affected," he added.

The US will host the World Cup in 2026 with Mexico and Canada. In addition, Los Angeles is set to host the 2028 Olympic Games. The US is promoting the games as moments that can unify humanity.

Trump's Africa travel ban: Security move or visa racism?  04:06

At the same time, Trump is continuing the policy he began last November of "permanently stopping migration from low-income and middle-income countries.

In December, the US government suspended immigration applications for citizens of 18 countries and imposed entry bans on citizens of seven countries. Some of the affected countries, such as Mali and Burkina Faso, responded with similar restrictions on US citizens entering their countries.


Nationalism shapes Trump's MAGA movement

"We must not forget that Trump campaigned under the slogan 'Make America Great Again' (MAGA) and that nationalism and self-sufficiency are central features of this movement," Fredson Guilengue, a political scientist at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation's South Africa office, said.

He explained that the MAGA movement emphasized protecting US workers and taxpayers. "It's about gaining more support within their own movement, as immigrants are portrayed by the current administration and Trump as a threat to American society," Guilengue told DW.

In December 2025, President Trump signed the 'Trump Gold Card' executive order — a quick path to permanent residence in the US upon payment of $1 million (€920,000).

Image: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Experts see the US migration policy as a setback for long-standing relations between the two continents. "For Senegal, the impact will be severe. Plans to study, work, or reunite families will be blocked. This decision sends the wrong signal and requires a diplomatic response and decisive advocacy," according to Boubacar Seye, president of the non-governmental organization Horizon Sans Frontieres, which advocates for the rights of migrants from its base in Dakar.

"The argument of 'overstaying' [one's visa] is greatly exaggerated," Seye stressed, referring to an alleged concern of the US government regarding immigration. "It punishes an entire population group because of the behavior of a minority [...] This justification is mainly used to tighten restrictive migration policies."

Nevertheless, the US is a country that offers opportunities on many levels, even for people without qualifications, Seye added.

"Visa restrictions are dangerous for all young people, whether from Latin America or even Europe, but especially for us in the Sahel and for the countries affected," Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, former Mauritanian foreign minister and UN ambassador, who now heads the Centre 4S research institute, told DW.

Is Trump targeting the Sahel Alliance?

The US visa regulations appear to be particularly aimed at the countries that make up the Sahel Alliance, according to Ould Abdallah. "This is not good news for the youth of these countries, who are generally not politicized and where there have been no elections to find out who they will or will not vote for," he said.

He added that the policy does not seem sensible for African countries.

Many migrants from West Africa are not welcome to stay permanently in the US under the new Trump immigration policy

Image: Jean-Claude Abalo/DW

Emigration is not about hiding from political difficulties, he explained, "it's more about having more freedom to work, be successful, and compete on a level playing field without being attributed to a religious, tribal, regional or family affiliation."

The Democratic Republic of Congo is also affected by the visa ban. Fred Bauma, executive director of the Ebuteli research institute in Kinshasa, finds this contradictory. "It is not only in [the DR] Congo that we observe this paradox," Bauma said. "There are other countries that are rich in resources and coveted by the United States, but which find themselves excluded from any movement," he told DW.

Bauma cited Angola as an example of a resource-rich nation subject to some US visa restrictions. "It [Angola] is a central part of US strategy in the southern African region due to the Lobito corridor infrastructure project."

The race for Angola's resources  06:23

He added that such a strategy reinforces the idea that the race for resources is more critical than cooperation with states. "This is obviously a dangerous and unfavorable perspective for countries in the Global South that want to go beyond the simple exchange of goods."

But cultural identity politics also play a role, according to Guilengue. "These restrictions signal a desire to preserve 'American culture' by allowing fewer and fewer people with different identities to come to America and settle there." Guilengue calls this "exclusionary populism."

The result is that people suffer from exclusion. According to him, immigrants do not represent an economic burden. But instead, they contribute to economic growth and society. "It is not true that suspending the 75 countries [from entering the US] will protect the American economy. It could have the opposite effect."

This article was originally written in German.

Edited by: Chrispin Mwakideu

Martina Schwikowski Author for the Africa desk

HOPE IS ETERNAL

Myanmar junta 'can't last forever': Military in 'worse position now' than ever before

Issued on: 20/01/2026 

FRANCE24

Catherine Viette welcomes Kim Aris, son of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who bears witness to the fraught political landscape of Myanmar five years after the 2021 military coup. Mr. Aris sounds the alarm on the deteriorating condition of his ailing mother who remains imprisoned and whose whereabouts are unknown. He offers a scathing critique of the "sham election" and the contradictions between the junta’s claims of legitimacy and civilians on-going resistance to brutal oppression, political violence and civil conflict.

Video by: Catherine VIETTE

'I am not a criminal': Uganda opposition leader Bobi Wine hits back from hiding

Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine on Wednesday insisted that he was "not a criminal" while still in hiding after escaping what he said was a police raid on his home ahead of last week's presidential election. The country's army chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba – and the son of re-elected President Yoweri Museveni – threatened on Tuesday to hunt down and kill Wine, accusing him of being a "terrorist".


Issued on: 21/01/2026 
By: FRANCE 24

Ugandan presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, with his wife Barbara Kyagulanyi in Kasangati town near Kampala, Uganda, on January 15, 2026. © Thomas Mukoya, Reuters

Uganda's opposition leader Bobi Wine said on Wednesday he was "not a criminal" after going into hiding following last week's election in which President Yoweri Museveni won a seventh term.

Wine, 43, a former singer turned politician who was arrested ahead of Uganda's last election in 2021, said on Saturday that he had escaped a police raid on his home. His whereabouts have been unknown since then.

READ MORE Ugandan opposition denounces army raid on party leader Bobi Wine

He had denounced last Thursday's presidential election as "blatant theft".

In a phone interview, Wine said he was constantly on the move but was being "housed and protected by the common people".

Responding to a threat by Uganda's army chief and Museveni's son Muhoozi Kainerugaba, he said: "I'm not a criminal."

"I'm a presidential candidate and it's not a crime to run against his father," Wine – whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi – said.

Uganda: Africa’s longest-serving leader, Yoweri Museveni, seeks to extend 40-year rule

© France 24
02:08

On Tuesday, Kainerugaba, 51, who has made no secret of his desire to succeed his father, threatened in a post on X to hunt down and kill Wine.

"We have killed 22 NUP terrorists since last week," Kainerugaba wrote, referring to the opposition National Unity Platform led by Wine, who came second in the ballot.

"I'm praying the 23rd is Kabobi," he added, using his nickname for the opposition leader.

In a separate post, Kainerugaba called on Wine to give himself up.

"I am giving him exactly 48 hours to surrender himself to the Police," Kainerugaba wrote. "If he doesn't we will treat him as an outlaw/rebel and handle him accordingly."

Police spokesperson Kituma Rusoke said on ​Monday night that Wine was not being sought.

Asked about the future for his party, Wine said he did not have a firm plan.

"In a dictatorship, you don't draw a strategy, but you respond to the kind of oppression," he said.

Last week's ballot was marred by violence and an internet shutdown, while African observers said arrests and abductions had "instilled fear".

Museveni, 81, who won a landslide with 72 percent of the vote, has said the opposition are "terrorists" who had tried to use violence to overturn results.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)

Ugandan opponent Bobi Wine receives threats from President Museveni's son

Uganda's army chief, who is also the son of long-serving president Yoweri Museveni, said he wants opposition leader Bobi Wine dead, days after Wine claimed he had been forced into hiding. Wine already survived many attacks on his life since entering politics.


Issued on: 20/01/2026 - RFI

Ugandan presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, of the National Unity Platform (NUP), often wears a bulletproof jacket at his campaign rallies, like here in Kampala, Uganda, on 12 January, 2026. REUTERS - Abubaker Lubowa

General Muhoozi Kainerugaba's comments come after his father, President Yoweri Museveni won an seventh term following general elections on Thursday that was widely criticised by poll observers and rights groups.

The embattled opposition, led by 43-year-old Bobi Wine, real name Robert Kyagulanyi, says they faced violence and intimidation ahead of the vote, with international bodies also accusing the government of "brutal repression".

"We have killed 22 NUP terrorists since last week. I'm praying the 23rd is Kabobi," Kainerugaba posted on social media X late Monday night, referring to Wine and his National Unity Platform (NUP) party.

"As for Kabobi, the permanent loser, I'm giving him exactly 48 hours to surrender himself to the Police. If he doesn't we will treat him as an outlaw/rebel and handle him accordingly," he added in a separate post on X.

'He represents a population desperate for change’, Bobi Wine’s lawyer tells RFI

Ordeal

The east African country's veteran leader Yoweri Museveni, 81, was declared the landslide winner of the January 15 poll with 71.6 percent of the vote against his opponent Bobi Wine with 24.

Wine, the pop star-turned-politician, and his party, the National Unity Platform (NUP) have rejected the results, alleging widespread irregularities including ballot stuffing, enforced disappearance of polling agents and intimidation by security forces.

Wine's whereabouts remain unknown after he said on Saturday he had escaped a police raid on his home, where his wife remains under apparent house arrest. He says he is in hiding.

Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine under house arrest as Museveni leads vote

Wine criticised Kainerugaba's "threats to kill me" on his own social media and demanded the military vacate the his compound, adding: "My wife and people are not safe."

He also appeared on NTV Uganda on Monday night and accused police of vandalising his home and said leaving his residence would free him "to speak to the world," still not disclosing his location.

The opposition leader had already faced arrest and torture in the run-up to the 2021 election, when he first ran for president.
Growing role

Over 100 members of Uganda's biggest opposition party have also been charged with various offences including unlawful assembly related to violence around last week's election, according to court documents and an opposition official.

In the run-up to polls last week, Kainerugaba, infamous for his colourful tweets and regular threats to behead Wine, was unusually silent on social media, but since his father's win he has returned to posting frequently, often late at night.

It has been said on several occasions that Museveni wants his son to succeed him.

Israeli strike kills three journalists in Gaza, civil defence agency says

Three journalists were killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza on Wednesday, the Palestinian territory's civil defence agency said. Israel has been the biggest killer of journalists for three years running, Reporters Without Borders data shows, with the country's forces killing 220 media professionals since the war in Gaza began.


Issued on: 21/01/2026 
By: FRANCE 24

People carry the body of the Palestinian photographer Anas Ghneim, who was killed in an Israeli strike on a vehicle on January 21, 2026. © Abdel Kareem Hana, AP



An Israeli strike in the centre of Gaza killed three journalists on Wednesday, including a freelancer who regularly contributed for AFP, the Palestinian territory's civil defence agency said, despite the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

In a statement, the civil defence said "the bodies of the three journalists killed in an Israeli air strike in the Al-Zahra area southwest of Gaza City were transported to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah".

It named the dead as Mohammed Salah Qashta, Abdul Raouf Shaat and Anas Ghneim.

Israel says will bar several NGOs from Gaza, FRANCE 24 speaks to MSF

 Egyptian Red Crescent warehouses storing aid for Gaza in Arish 

REUTERS - Benoit Tessier
09:27

Since October 10, a fragile US-sponsored truce in Gaza has halted the large-scale fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas, but both sides have alleged frequent violations.


Israeli forces have killed at least 466 Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, with the Israeli military saying that militants have killed three of its soldiers during the same period.

READ MOREIsraeli strikes kill at least 13 in Gaza, including children, civil defence says

Shaat had contributed regularly to AFP as a photo and video journalist, but at the time of the strike he was not on assignment for the agency.

The Israeli military said it was checking the reports.

The civil defence, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority, said in an earlier statement that an Israeli drone strike had targeted "a civilian vehicle" near Al-Zahra.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said that Israeli forces killed at least 29 Palestinian journalists in Gaza between December 2024 and December 2025.

The most deadly single attack was a "double-tap" strike on a hospital in south Gaza on August 25, which killed five journalists, including two contributors to international news agencies Reuters and the Associated Press.

Israel the biggest killer of journalists worldwide for 3 years running, says RSF

In total, nearly 220 journalists have died since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, making Israel the biggest killer of journalists worldwide for three years running, RSF data shows.

Last week, US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff announced the start of phase two of the Gaza ceasefire, saying it aimed to pave the way for reconstruction and the demilitarisation of all armed factions in the territory.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER WAR CRIME

Israel used white phosphorus widely in southern Lebanon, study finds



Issued on: 14/01/2026 

FRANCE24

VIDEO- 11:38

An investigation by open-source researcher Ahmad Baydoun highlights Israel's use of white phosphorus munitions during the recent conflict with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon between October 2023 and November 2024. Although not explicitly prohibited by international law, the use of white phosphorus is regulated as an incendiary weapon, and its use in densely populated areas is banned.

Ahmad Baydoun is an open source intelligence (OSINT) researcher at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The study he led mapped 248 Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon by geolocating photos and videos and gathering accounts from residents.

The findings, released in an interactive map in October 2025, allow residents to check whether their land or homes have been affected.

The study found that a significant proportion of these white phosphorus strikes hit civilian and agricultural areas.

Baydoun told our team:

"According to my research, 91 percent of white phosphorus strikes took place before Israeli forces entered southern Lebanon in October 2024, which contradicts the official Israeli version. Furthermore, 39 percent of all phosphorus strikes we documented took place over civilian areas, 16 percent over agricultural land, and only 44 percent in uninhabited areas or areas far from residents.”

Read our full story in the article below:

Study reveals 'persistent danger' from Israel's white phosphorus strikes in southern Lebanon

BY: The FRANCE 24 Observers
Djamel BELAYACHI

French journalist arrested in Turkey while covering pro-Kurdish protest released

A French journalist who was arrested while covering a protest over a Syrian government offensive targeting Kurdish fighters has been released, though it is not clear whether the charges against him have been dropped.


Issued on: 22/01/2026 - RFI

Raphael Boukandoura, a French journalist who has been living and working in Turkey for nearly a decade, was released Wednesday after he was detained by police while covering a pro-Kurdish demonstration in Istanbul. © Boukandoura family via AFP

"I am on my way home," Raphael Boukandoura, 35, told the AFP news agency in a brief phone call on Wednesday. He was speaking from a taxi bringing him home from the migrant detention centre in Arnavutkoy, near Istanbul airport, where he had been transferred after his arrest on Monday.

His lawyer Emine Ozhasar confirmed he had been freed, adding that they were still waiting to hear details of his release.

Boukandoura, who has been living in Turkey for at least a decade and holds an official press card, was arrested on Monday while he was covering a protest called by pro-Kurdish opposition party DEM for the French daily newspaper Libération.

He was arrested along with nine other people when police broke up the protest, and was accused of joining in with the protesters shouting slogans against the Turkish military offensive targeting Kurds in north-eastern Syria.

He denied taking part in the protest, and said he was there as a journalist covering the event.

Turkey's independent media on alert over stance of tech giants

'Hazardous job'

France's foreign ministry had on Tuesday said it hoped Boukandoura, who regularly covers Turkey for French publications, would be "freed as quickly as possible".

The European Parliament's Turkey rapporteur Nacho Sanchez Amor had also said he was following "with concern" the reporter's case, especially the threat of deportation.

"Independent journalism is really a hazardous job in Turkiye for locals and foreigners," he wrote on social media before Boukandoura's release.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) had earlier called it "unacceptable" to threaten a French journalist with expulsion for doing his job.

"It is intended to intimidate journalists covering pro-Kurdish protests in Turkey," the group’s Turkey representative Erol Onderoglu told AFP.

(with AFP)

French journalist arrested during Istanbul protest over Syria offensive

A French journalist was one of 10 people arrested in Istanbul late Monday at a protest over a Syrian government offensive targeting Kurdish fighters, the pro-Kurdish DEM party told French news agency AFP.


Issued on: 20/01/2026 - RFI

Protesters gather and show victory signs during a demonstration against the attacks by the Syrian government forces, in Diyarbalir, the main city in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast, on 19 January 2026. AFP - ILYAS AKENGIN

Raphaël Boukandoura, who works for various French publications including Ouest France and Courrier International, was arrested outside DEM's Istanbul headquarters in the Sancaktepe district, it said.

His arrest was also confirmed by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), who called for him to be freed without delay.

"We call for the immediate release of our colleague who did nothing but his legitimate duty to cover a protest," RSF's Turkey representative Erol Onderoglu told AFP.

"RSF is closely following his case and calls on the authorities to put an end to such arbitrary interference against media professionals," he said.

Ouest France echoed the call for him to be freed "immediately".

Call for protection

The police intervened after a DEM statement was read out calling for "an immediate halt to the attacks" and for the protection of civilians in northeastern Syria, Turkish news reports showed.

Syrian forces began an offensive nearly two weeks ago which pushed Kurdish-led SDF forces out of the northern city of Aleppo, and expanded over the weekend to push deep into territory that has been held by Kurdish forces for over a decade.

People celebrate in Sheikh Maksoud neighbourhood following the collapse of an agreement between the Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in Aleppo, Syria, 10 January 2026. REUTERS - Khalil Ashawi

The move was hailed by Ankara as a legitimate "fight against terror" but triggered angry protests among Turkey's Kurds, who make up a fifth of the country's population of 86 million and who have been deeply unsettled by the violence.

It has also raised questions about the fate of Turkey's peace process with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in a bid to draw a line under a four-decade insurgency that cost some 50,000 lives.

Ceasefire negotiations collapse

The PKK on Tuesday said it would "never abandon" Kurds in Syria.

"You should know...whatever the cost, we will never leave you alone.. we as the entire Kurdish people and as the movement, will do whatever is necessary," Murat Karayilan of the PKK was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, negotiations have collapsed between the Syrian president and the chief of the country's Kurdish-led forces, a Kurdish official told AFP on Tuesday, as the army deployed reinforcements to flashpoint areas in the north.

US and EU urge fresh talks between Syria govt, Kurds after deadly clashes

President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Mazloum Abdi, who heads the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), were meeting to discuss a ceasefire agreement that included integrating the Kurds' administration into the state.

The agreement had marked a blow for the Kurds' long-held ambitions of preserving the de facto autonomy they had exercised in swathes of northern Syria for over a decade.

Sunday's ceasefire deal included the Kurds' handover of Arab-majority Deir Ezzor and Raqa provinces, which they administered after their US-backed defeat of IS at the height of Syria's civil war.

Sharaa, who is backed by the United States and Turkey, has refused to entertain the idea of decentralisation or federal rule, and insisted the army must deploy across Syria.

(with AFP)

Eroded by rising seas, France's disappearing coasts force beach towns to adapt

With sea levels rising and warmer oceans fuelling more powerful waves, France is preparing to lose 500,000 hectares of coastline by 2100. People in one coastal community in the south-west tell RFI why they're sacrificing some structures to the advancing sea.


Issued on: 19/01/2026 - RFI

A mechanical excavator brings sand to reinforce dunes next to buildings threatened by coastal erosion in Biscarosse, south-western France, on 17 January 2025

. © Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

Winter is storm season in Labenne, a seaside resort on France's southern Atlantic coast.

On the beach, a World War II bunker is half buried by the dunes. The lifeguard station will soon be overtaken too; the town council has had to build another one, farther from the beach.

"We're well aware that even the beach car park is doomed to disappear," says Stéphanie Chessoux, Labenne's mayor.

"Like businesses, we will have to take this natural progression into account. The elements are reclaiming their rights."


Surrendered to sea and sand

This part of France loses around two metres of coast a year to erosion.

In Labenne, more and more land has turned into sand dunes. They surround the site of the town's former sanatorium, where tuberculosis patients once came to breathe the sea air.

Constructed in the 1920s, the concrete building contained asbestos, presenting health risks as it fell into disrepair. Local authorities had it demolished last October.

An aerial view of the old sanatorium before it was demolished, by the Atlantic ocean in Labenne, south-western France, on 24 July 2025. 

© AFP - CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT


"The ocean has advanced, but the building also deteriorated due to its proximity to the ocean, sand and salty air, which wore down everything made of metal inside the concrete," explains Laure Guilhem-Tauzin of the Coastal Protection Agency, where she focuses on the Aquitaine region.

By knocking the structure down, "the idea was first and foremost to give nature back its rights and prevent marine pollution in the medium term", she says.

"And also to prevent an investor who underestimated the costs of investment and depreciation from redeveloping the building, which would have had to be demolished 15 or 20 years later."

French towns left uninsured as climate change increases risks

Nature-based solutions

Now, the 12,000-square-metre site is being turned over to a project to plant vegetation that can help stabilise the sand.

The area will be planted with species adapted to growing on dunes, says Guilhem-Tauzin. "It traps sand and holds the dunes in place. When there are storms, it stops the sand going inland."

The project is an example of "nature-based solutions", she explains, which are often the most effective. "A floodable marsh protects a green space behind the coast better than a sea wall, which can break in one go."

Across France, as many as 50,000 buildings could be threatened by shrinking coastlines by 2100.

In the long term, some experts say the country will have to consider more radical options, such as managed retreat – moving communities away from the coast and allowing the sea to reclaim low-lying land.

 

Restart of world's biggest nuclear plant paused after alert, Japan's TEPCO says

Copyright AP Photo

By Gavin Blackburn

Published on 22/01/2026 - EURONEWS

The restart, initially scheduled for Tuesday, had been pushed back after another technical issue related to the control rods' removal was detected last weekend.

The restart of the world's largest nuclear power plant was suspended in Japan on Thursday just hours after the process began, its operator said, but the reactor remains "stable."

Operations to relaunch a reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in Niigata province, closed since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, began late on Wednesday after it received the final green light from the nuclear regulator despite divided public opinion.

But its operator the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said that "an alarm from the monitoring system...sounded during the reactor startup procedures," causing them to suspend operations.

"We were investigating the malfunctioning electrical equipment," spokesperson Takashi Kobayashi said and "once it became clear that it would take time, we decided to reinsert the control rods in a planned manner."

A radiation monitor at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station in Okuma, 28 February, 2012 AP Photo

The reactor "is stable and there is no radioactive impact outside," he said.

Control rods are a device used to control the nuclear chain reaction in the reactor core, which can be accelerated by slightly withdrawing them, or slowed down or stopped completely by inserting them deeper.

The restart, initially scheduled for Tuesday, had been pushed back after another technical issue related to the rods' removal was detected last weekend, a problem that was resolved on Sunday, according to TEPCO.

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is the world's biggest nuclear power plant by potential capacity, although just one reactor of seven was restarted.

Related

• European Commission gives green light to construction of first nuclear power plant in Poland
• Shield protecting Chernobyl nuclear power plant no longer blocks radiation, IAEA says

The facility was taken offline when Japan pulled the plug on nuclear power after a colossal earthquake and tsunami sent three reactors at the Fukushima atomic plant into meltdown in 2011.

However, Japan now wants to revive atomic energy to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and meet growing energy needs from artificial intelligence.

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is the first TEPCO-run unit to restart since 2011. The company also operates the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant, now being decommissioned.

Protesters hold placards during a rally to oppose nuclear power generation held in front of the TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo, 3 April, 2011 AP Photo

Public opinion in Niigata is deeply divided. Around 60% of residents oppose the restart, while 37% support it, according to a survey conducted in September.

"It's Tokyo's electricity that is produced in Kashiwazaki, so why should the people here be put at risk? That makes no sense," Yumiko Abe, a 73-year-old resident, told the AFP news agency during a protest earlier this week.

Earlier this month, seven groups opposing the restart submitted a petition signed by nearly 40,000 people to TEPCO and Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority, saying that the plant sits on an active seismic fault zone and noted it was struck by a strong quake in 2007.