Pakistan’s capital picks concrete over trees, angering residents


By  AFP
February 7, 2026


Major infrastructure development in Islamabad has meant large-scale clearance of trees and natural vegetation - Copyright AFP Aamir QURESHI

Shrouq Tariq

Pakistan’s capital Islamabad was once known for its lush greenery, but the felling of trees across the city for infrastructure and military monuments has prompted local anger and even lawsuits.

Built in the 1960s, Islamabad was planned as a green city, with wide avenues, parks and tree-lined sectors.

Many residents fear that vision is steadily being eroded, with concrete replacing green spaces.

Muhammad Naveed took the authorities to court this year over “large-scale tree cutting” for infrastructure projects, accusing them of felling “many mature trees” and leaving land “barren”.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) blamed major infrastructure development, including road construction and monuments, for the mass razing of trees and natural vegetation in Islamabad.

Between 2001 and 2024, the capital lost 14 hectares of tree cover, equal to 20 football pitches, according to Global Forest Watch, though the figure does not account for tree cover gains during the same period.

For Kamran Abbasi, a local trader and resident since the 1980s, it feels like “they are cutting trees everywhere”.

“It is not the same anymore,” he told AFP.

“Trees are life. Thousands are cut to build one bridge.”



– Smog and pollen –



Meanwhile, air quality in Islamabad continues to deteriorate.

Pollution is a longstanding problem, but plants can help by filtering dirty air, absorbing harmful gases and cooling cities.

“Forests act as powerful natural filters… cleaning the air and water, and reducing the overall impact of pollution,” Muhammad Ibrahim, director of WWF-Pakistan’s forest programme told AFP.

There were no good air quality days in Islamabad last month, with all but two classed as “unhealthy” or “very unhealthy” by monitoring organisation IQAir.

While some trees are felled for infrastructure, officials justify removing others to tackle seasonal pollen allergies that are especially acute in spring.

That problem is largely attributed to paper mulberry trees, which were planted extensively during the city’s early development.

“The main reason is pollen allergy,” said Abdul Razzaq, an official from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in Islamabad.

“People suffer from chest infections, asthma and severe allergic reactions. I do too,” he told AFP.

The government plans to remove 29,000 pollen-producing trees and plants, according to a recent WWF report.

However, critics argue that pollen allergies are an excuse to justify broader tree-cutting, particularly linked to military and infrastructure projects.

The solution lies not in indiscriminate tree removal, but careful urban planning, experts say, replanting with non-allergenic species — and greater transparency around development projects in the capital.



– Capital under axe –



In recent months, large bulldozers have been spotted levelling former green belts and wooded areas, including near major highways.

According to WWF and unnamed government officials, some of the cleared land is tapped for monuments commemorating the brief but intense armed conflict between Pakistan and neighbouring India last May.

Other plots were razed to make way for military-linked infrastructure.

“We know that trees are being cut for military-related projects, but there is not much we can do,” a government source told AFP, requesting anonymity for security reasons.

“The people in power, the military, can do whatever they want.”

Pakistan’s powerful military has ruled the country for decades through coups and is deeply involved in the country’s politics and economy, analysts say.

At a proposed military monument site along the city’s express highway, WWF recorded more than six hectares of land clearing last year, with work continuing in 2026.

It saw “no active plantation… indicating that the clearing is infrastructure driven”.

The military did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.

Naveed’s court case seeking to halt the widespread felling, which is still being heard, argues there is “no excuse” for the tree loss.

If a monument is “deemed essential, why was it not placed in any existing park or public place?”, he argues.

In reply to Naveed’s petition, authorities said roads and infrastructure projects were approved under regulations dating back to 1992.

What’s at stake for Indian agriculture in Trump’s trade deal?

By AFP
February 8, 2026


A farmer inspects wheat crop in his field on the outskirts of Amritsar on April 3, 2025 - Copyright AFP/File Narinder NANU

Anuj SRIVAS

Indian farmers have expressed concern that New Delhi has made too many concessions to Washington after the two countries brokered a new trade deal that would lower tariffs.

Under the terms of the deal that was laid out in a joint statement from both countries released on Saturday, India will “eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods” and other food and agricultural products.

Meanwhile, the US will apply a reciprocal tariff rate of 18 percent on goods from India, including textiles and apparel, leather and footwear, plastic and rubber, organic chemicals, and certain machinery, the joint statement added.

The terms were released after US President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with India, stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to halt Russian oil purchases.

Modi lauded the new trade deal in a post on the social media platform X later on Saturday, saying it would open up opportunities and generate jobs.

But Indian farmer unions weren’t convinced, calling the deal a “total surrender” to American agricultural giants.

“Indian industry, agriculture… are now under grave threat of cheap imports that will be dumped into Indian markets,” the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), a coalition of multiple farmers’ unions, said in a statement following the announcement.

The group also called on farmers to join a nationwide protest on February 12.



– What’s on the table? –



The joint statement states that India will “eliminate or reduce” tariffs on a “wide range of US food and agricultural products”.

This includes tree nuts, some fresh fruit, soybean oil, wine, spirits and other “additional products” that were not specified.

Siraj Hussain, a former agriculture ministry top official, said Indian consumers were purchasing more nuts, “so it’s import may not have much impact on local production”, and will help satisfy high demand.

Domestic growers do worry, however, about cheap imports on items such as apples, which they believe could have dire impacts on local producers.

“Import of fresh fruits such as apples… will ruin the farmers,” SKM said. Officials hope safeguards included into the agreement — such as import quotas or minimum import prices for commodities including apples — will reduce the impact of foreign competition.

New Delhi’s promise of lower duties on dried distillers’ grains and red sorghum for animal feed could also reduce the need for local soybean meal.

Opposition lawmaker Jairam Ramesh said the move to ease imports of dried distillers’ grains and soybean oil would hurt “millions of soybean farmers” in key Indian states such as Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.



– What’s off the table? –



To stem concerns, India’s Trade Minister Piyush Goyal reassured farmers that their interests would be safeguarded, adding that the key red lines that had been drawn by New Delhi had not been crossed.

He said “no concessions” had been extended in “sensitive areas” such as grains, spices, dairy, poultry, meat and several vegetables and fruits — including potatoes, oranges and strawberries.

The trade minister also said genetically modified crops were not part of the agreement.

This includes GM soybean, which the US has searched hard to find new markets for.



– Small farms ‘can’t compete’ –



While the farm sector contributes just 16 percent to India’s GDP, it provides livelihood to over 45 percent of the population.

This makes the industry a key voting bloc often wooed by political parties. Farmer groups have also shown, on multiple occasions, that they are a street force to be reckoned with.

In 2021, the government abandoned plans to reform the sector after months of intense protests that blocked the national capital’s highways and led to Delhi’s historic Red Fort complex being stormed by tractors.

“Indian farms are very small and they can’t really compete with highly subsidised US agriculture,” Hussain, the former agriculture ministry official, said.



– India and US trade –



Between January-November 2025, when New Delhi was negotiating with Washington, Indian imports of American agricultural goods rose 34 percent year-on-year, raking in just under $2.9 billion.

Top imports included cotton, soybean oil, ethanol and various nuts such as almonds. This happened even before the trade deal, although the rise is partly due to India reducing tariffs on some of these US items.

Experts have said that a further reduction on duties for products such as soybean oil, which was announced in the joint statement, will likely lead to a jump in goods being imported by India from the US.

THE GRIFT

Serbian minister on trial over Trump-linked hotel plan


By AFP
February 4, 2026


Culture Minister Nikola Selakovic, centre, arrives at the Belgrade courthouse greeted by dozens of protesters - Copyright AFP Oliver BUNIC

Serbia’s culture minister and other senior officials appeared in a Belgrade court Wednesday to face corruption charges over a scrapped hotel project linked to the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.

Nikola Selakovic and the three other defendants were jeered as “thieves” by dozens of protesters as they arrived at the Belgrade court.

Prosecutors say officials forged key documents that would have cleared the way for a Trump-branded luxury hotel to be built on the site of the bombed-out former Yugoslav army headquarters in the capital.

Selakovic had waived his right to ministerial immunity, allowing the trial to proceed, and all the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.

“It is not clear to me what wrongdoing I am accused of,” Selakovic told the Special Court for Organised Crime.

The plan to demolish the army headquarters faced fierce opposition in Serbia, as the site was regarded as both a memorial for the victims of a NATO-led bombing campaign in 1999 and a rare example of modernist architecture.

Despite the outcry and an ongoing investigation into the project’s approval, the government moved to fast-track the work by issuing a document allowing the removal of the site’s “cultural-heritage status”.

But the plan, backed by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, was ditched in December after organised crime prosecutors indicted Selakovic and three others for alleged abuse of office and forgery.

“Because meaningful projects should unite rather than divide, and out of respect for the people of Serbia and the City of Belgrade, we are withdrawing our application and stepping aside at this time,” Kushner’s Affinity Partners said at the time.

The trial is the first of a sitting minister in decades in Serbia and has drawn strong reactions from both supporters and critics of President Aleksandar Vucic.

Vucic and government ministers have criticised prosecutors over the hotel case and over a trial linked to a deadly train station roof collapse in November 2024.

The disaster sparked a widespread, student-led anti-corruption movement and calls for early elections, which Vucic has rejected.

FASCISTS OF A FEATHER

German far-right MP detained over alleged Belarus sanctions breach


By AFP
February 4, 2026


Dornau, picture here last October, has been stripped of his parliamentary immunity - Copyright AFP JENS SCHLUETER

German police detained a regional lawmaker of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in a state parliament Wednesday for questioning about a suspected breach of EU export sanctions on Belarus.

A photo in the Bild newspaper showed Joerg Dornau, 56, a businessman and MP for the Moscow-friendly party in the eastern state of Saxony, being led out of the state parliament’s debating chamber.

A little earlier, deputies had voted to strip him of his parliamentary immunity.

Dornau is accused of having exported a vehicular crane to Russia ally Belarus in 2022 and falsely declaring the destination as Kazakhstan, say Leipzig prosecutors.

Customs officers searched his home and vehicles, prosecutors said.

“The searches serve to secure items that may be considered as evidence in the investigation,” prosecutors said.

“There will be no search of the premises of the state parliament or the parliamentary groups,” they added.

The Saxony parliamentary AfD group told AFP it saw no reason why Dornau had to be detained immediately before a parliamentary session, saying that it appeared to have been “staged for media consumption”.

“The allegations against Mr Dornau have been known for a long time,” it added. “These allegations must be clarified as quickly as possible in a fair trial in accordance with the rule of law.”

Under European Union sanctions put into place after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, exports of industrial equipment to Belarus, Russia’s close ally, are heavily restricted.

Dornau was fined over 20,000 euros ($23,617) last August by parliamentary authorities for having failed to disclose his financial interest in a Belarusian onion farm.

In December, German prosecutors said they would not pursue allegations that Dornau had employed political prisoners on the Belarusian farm because was not clear that a crime had been committed.

The AfD is accused of being overly friendly to Moscow, while many inside the party say it is in Germany’s interest to have a good relationship with Russia.

Though no AfD politician has been convicted of spying for Russia, some have been accused of inappropriate links.

Prosecutors in Dresden last year opened an investigation into AfD national MP Maximilian Krah following reports he had taken money from Russia and China during his time as an MEP in the European Parliament.

Krah denies the allegations.

MSF says its hospital in South Sudan hit by government air strike


By AFP
February 4, 2026


MSF says it has been present in the territory that makes up present-day South Sudan for more than four decades - Copyright Medecins Sans Frontieres/AFP KAREL PRINSLOO

Doctors Without Borders said Wednesday its hospital in Lankien, South Sudan was hit by a government air strike overnight, after another of its health facilities was looted.

The medical charity, which goes by its French acronym MSF, said the hospital in Jonglei State “was hit in an air strike by the government of South Sudan forces during the night of Tuesday”.

The hospital was “evacuated and patients were discharged hours before the attack” after it received information about a possible strike against the city, it said in a statement.

But “one MSF staff member suffered minor injuries”, it added.

“The hospital’s main warehouse was destroyed during the attack, and we lost most of our critical supplies for providing medical care,” said the statement.

In a separate incident, MSF said its health facility in Pieri, also in Jonglei, had been looted on Tuesday by unknown assailants, making it “unusable for the local community”.

“Our colleagues from Lankien and Pieri had to flee with the community, and their fate and whereabouts are still unknown, as we are trying to establish communication with them,” the organisation said.

Gul Badshah, MSF’s operations manager in South Sudan, stressed that the charity had “shared the GPS coordinates of all our facilities with the government and other parties to the conflict before, and we received the confirmation that they are aware of our locations”.

“The government of South Sudan armed forces are the only armed party with the capacity to perform aerial attacks in the country,” he added.



– ‘Unacceptable’ –



MSF highlighted that it was the only health provider serving around 250,000 people in Lankien and Pieri, cautioning that attacks on its facilities there “mean that local communities will be left without any healthcare”.

Badshah said MSF would “make the necessary decisions to protect the safety of our staff and healthcare facilities” there.

“While we are aware of the enormous needs in the country, we find it unacceptable to be a target for attacks,” he said.

MSF has been present in the territory that makes up present-day South Sudan for more than four decades, he noted.

South Sudan is the world’s newest sovereign state, which has been beset by civil war, poverty and massive corruption since it was formed in 2011.

MSF said it had experienced eight targeted attacks in South Sudan last year, forcing the closure of two hospitals in Greater Upper Nile and the suspension of general healthcare activities in Jonglei, Upper Nile and Central Equatoria.

The bombing of MSF’s hospital this week came after the South Sudanese government in December imposed restrictions on humanitarian access in opposition-held areas of Jonglei, restricting its ability to deliver essential medical assistance there.

Who is behind the killing of late ruler Gaddafi’s son, and why now?


By AFP
 February 4, 2026


Seif al-Islam Gaddafi was seen by some as a reformer and moderniser until the Libyan revolt in 2011, when he became one of the most hardline supporters of his father's regime - Copyright AFP Charly TRIBALLEAU

Seif al-Islam, the son of Libya’s slain longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi and once seen by some as his likely heir, has been killed.

Targeted by a warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity, and still a player in Libya’s turbulent political scene, the 53-year-old was no stranger to violence.

But his sudden assassination has raised many questions:



– Who is behind it? –



Very little has emerged about the identity or motives of the assailants.

Seif’s lawyer, Marcel Ceccaldi, told AFP he was killed by an unidentified “four-man commando” who stormed his house on Tuesday afternoon in the city of Zintan, western Libya.

His adviser, Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim, told Libyan media the four unidentified men had stormed the home before “disabling surveillance cameras, then executed him”.

Libyan prosecutors said Wednesday they were probing the killing after establishing that “the victim died from wounds by gunfire”.



– Why now? –



Claudia Gazzini, a senior Libya analyst at International Crisis Group, described the timing of Seif’s death as “odd”.

“He had been living a relatively quiet life away from the public eye for many years now,” she told AFP.

Seif had announced his bid to run for president in 2021. Those elections were indefinitely postponed, and he had barely made any major public appearances since.

His whereabouts had been largely unknown. Aside from a small inner circle — and probably the Libyan authorities — few people knew he lived in Zintan.

Ceccaldi said “he often moved around” but “had been in Zintan for quite some time”.

Anas El Gomati, head of the Tripoli-based Sadeq Institute think tank, said the timing was “stark”.

His death came just “48 hours after a US-brokered Paris meeting between Saddam Haftar and Ibrahim Dbeibah”, respectively the son of eastern Libya’s military strongman Khalifa Hafter and the nephew of the Tripoli-based Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah.

Libya has remained divided between the UN-backed Tripoli government and its rival administration in the east.



– What Seif al-Islam represented –



Experts differ over the extent of Seif’s political influence. But there is broad agreement on his symbolic weight as the most prominent remaining figure associated with pre-2011 Libya.

“Seif had become a cumbersome actor” in Libyan politics after announcing his bid for office in 2021, said Hasni Abidi, director of the Geneva-based Centre for Studies and Research on the Arab and Mediterranean World.

His killing “benefits all political actors” currently competing for power in the North African country, Abidi said.

For Gomati, his death “eliminates Libya’s last viable spoiler to the current power structure”.

“He wasn’t a democrat or reformer, but he represented an alternative that threatened both Haftar and Dbeibah,” Gomati added. “His removal consolidates their duopoly … The pro-Gaddafi nostalgia bloc now has no credible leader.”

Libya expert Jalel Harchaoui offered a more cautious assessment, saying Seif’s death was “no major upheaval”.

“He was not at the head of a unified, cohesive bloc exerting real weight in the competition for power, rivalries, or the allocation of territory or wealth,” Harchaoui explained.

Still, “he could have played a decisive role under specific circumstances”, Harchaoui said, arguing that his mere name on a presidential ballot would have had a substantial impact.



– How has the public reacted? –



Among the public, speculation is rife.

Some have suggested the involvement of a local Zintan-based armed group that may no longer have wanted Seif on its territory.

Others suspect foreign forces may have been involved.

“The operation’s sophistication — four operatives, inside access, cameras disabled — suggests foreign intelligence involvement, not militia action,” said Gomati.

burs-iba-bou/dc

Sad horses and Draco Malfoy: China’s unexpected Lunar New Year trends


By AFP
February 5, 2026


Draco Malfoy, one of the schoolboy villains in the Harry Potter series, has become an unlikely Lunar New Year mascot - Copyright AFP STR
Sam DAVIES

A morose horse, rice cakes, and a Harry Potter villain have become surprise hits in China ahead of the country’s Lunar New Year holiday.

These viral trends play on Chinese traditions and young workers’ anxieties as millions head to their hometowns to welcome in the Year of the Horse, which begins on February 17.

Here they are explained:

– Lucky Draco –

Draco Malfoy, one of the schoolboy villains in the Harry Potter series, has become an unlikely New Year mascot.

The face of British actor Tom Felton, who played Malfoy in the film series that ended 15 years ago, has appeared on posters, fridge magnets, and even emblazoned on a banner in a Chinese shopping mall.

The film franchise is wildly popular in China, and capital Beijing has a large-scale Harry Potter-themed attraction at a Universal Studios resort.

But the current Draco obsession stems from the transliteration of his surname, “Ma Er Fu”, which contains the Chinese characters for “horse” and “good fortune” — an auspicious omen for the year ahead.

Felton, now 38, has embraced the trend, reposting videos of New Year decorations featuring his image on Instagram.



– Why the long face? –

A manufacturing blunder recently turned a smiling horse plushie into an icon of China’s young employees.

Making “Year of the Horse” stuffed toys in a workshop, an employee accidentally stitched the festive foal’s mouth on upside-down — turning its cheerful expression into a gloomy frown.

That hit a chord with stressed-out youth struggling in China’s highly competitive job market and sluggish economy.

Dubbed the “crying horse” online, the depressed animal has become an internet sensation, with a related hashtag gaining more than 100 million views on social media platform Weibo.

Almost 20,000 were being shipped per day at the height of its fame and orders are backed up to March, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

“With a face full of resentment and helplessness, it really looks like an employee coaxing themselves to go to work,” wrote one Weibo user.

Many consumers have bought both the smiling and frowning versions, to represent both the highs and lows expected in the coming year.



– Edible ‘pets’ –

Another trend has people “adopting” sticky rice cakes.

Sticky rice cakes are a popular New Year’s dish in much of eastern and southern China, but to be prepared they must be soaked in water which is regularly changed.

Social media posts show users “raising” their rice cakes, complaining about being at home to babysit, and dubbing them their new pets.

One user on the Instagram-like RedNote gained more than 23,000 likes on their post of a photo of a bag of rice cakes left unattended on a train, along with the caption: “Who’s lost their pet?”

Rice cakes join a long list of inanimate objects that time-poor young Chinese have jokingly adopted for low-maintenance companionship in recent years, ranging from mango pits, to rocks, to cardboard dogs.



– Clean hair day –

In a twist of tradition, netizens have called for a national day of hair washing on Lunar New Year’s Eve.

A common Chinese tradition warns that people should refrain from cleaning their hair on Lunar New Year’s Day — and even for a few days after — to avoid washing away good luck and incoming wealth.

The recent hashtag “collective hair washing on the 16th” calls for nationwide mass hair washing on the last day of the lunar year, with social media users joking about salons being booked up.

Opinion: Fountains of sleaze and ‘elite’ trash — Epstein files show the reality


By Paul Wallis
EDITOR AT LARGE

DIGITAL JOURNAL

February 7, 2026


Several photographs in the newly released trove of so-called Epstein files show former US president Bill Clinton, as well as Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger, Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson and convicted child sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell - Copyright AFP Mandel NGAN

The Epstein saga, now in its seventh year, has shown a scale of criminality beyond caricatures. A seemingly endless parade of untouchable sleazebags infests the news like a much longer pandemic.

Let’s clarify – This isn’t about the rich geriatrics having a good time. These allegations all relate to extremely serious crimes against a lot of people. They all carry heavy-duty jail time. There’s no “immunity”.

God’s gift to scatology, sometimes known as Donald Trump, isn’t anything like the whole story; he’s just hogging the headlines as usual. Anyone else with a name worth mentioning is popping up monotonously as the story goes on.

I’ve never understood why these people were ever called ‘elite’. Elite means something. It means top professionals.

That definitely does not describe the vast majority of these guys. Even at top levels, they’re mainly business, media, and political networkers, insiders in the boys’ clubs. Not heavy hitters. Not standalone tough guys. Just rich brat nothings as people.

It’s a procession of personal mediocrity that has led to this unsightly horror story.

Epstein got his start in finance. At the soon-to-fail Bear Stearns, he made contacts and eventually became a “limited partner”. Bear Stearns was one of the first big crashes in the subprime disaster that destroyed the US middle class and caused the Great Recession.

Epstein sailed serenely through the crisis. At some point, he formed J. Epstein & Company, managing financial assets. He was still very much involved in the finance sector. This sector is effectively a mega-network, connecting with big money and big names.

A well-known, long, and turgid list of criminal cases related to sex trafficking began in 2008. After he died in 2019, the flood of details emerged of his other activities, soon dragging in names like a fishing trawler scraping the bottom of the sea.

It’s almost pointless to recite the names involved. Suffice to say it’s a picture of the ‘leadership’ of this catastrophically mismanaged world. Epstein is a common factor.

Pretty cute so far, isn’t it?

A few questions at this point:

How do so many underage kids get so easily involved with the ‘elite’ for so long?

Who does the physical trafficking and moves people from A to B?

How does a guy who started barely one step up from an office boy suddenly become best friends with the richest of the rich and political powerbrokers?

You need connections. You need introductions. You need traffickers. You need direct communications. That’s exactly what’s coming out of the Epstein files.

These people don’t communicate with just anyone. They filter out just about everybody. They routinely delegate almost all contacts. The entire Epstein operation was clearly based on an almost incredible range of inside contacts. Who has so many contacts that just spring to life when required?

How was it all funded? By Epstein? There’d be vast records of housekeeping at least. Even the catering for parties should have generated at least some information. Anyone trace the money? There’s no noticeable mention of how any money and so many people moved around in this operation. Enforcement doesn’t seem to be looking.

Enforcement has also mysteriously failed systematically and infallibly missed every shot on the board. That’s been pretty common in corrupt governments at all levels in the US since Prohibition and Tammany Hall. Sound familiar? It’s folklore in the US. Does the expression ‘organized crime’ ring a bell? How and to what extent are they involved?

The most basic example of failure of enforcement is indicative. There are famous laws in the US about transporting minors over state lines and related laws. It looks like most of that enforcement simply never tried to happen, and if it did, it did nothing.

Other countries are now getting conspicuously involved in investigations. That’s tricky, because jurisdictions matter. Whoever is charged with what will reverberate through other jurisdictions. Justice may come from outside the US.

Says a lot about the state of America, doesn’t it?

The fountains of sleaze are overflowing. The pipelines can’t handle it.

__________________________________________________

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.

Davos forum opens probe into CEO Brende’s Epstein links


By AFP
February 5, 2026


World Economic Forum president and chief executive Borge Brende at the annual summit in Davos, eastern Switzerland - Copyright AFP Fabrice COFFRINI

The World Economic Forum, which organises the Davos summit, said Thursday that it would conduct an independent review into its chief executive’s interactions with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Former Norwegian foreign minister Borge Brende, 60, has since 2017 been president of the WEF, which organises the annual gathering of the super-rich and powerful in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

“The WEF seeks to clarify recent disclosures regarding its president and CEO, Borge Brende, and his participating in three business dinners with Jeffrey Epstein, along with subsequent email and SMS communications,” the forum said.

“In light of these interactions, the governing board requested the audit and risk committee to look into the matter, which subsequently decided to initiate an independent review.”

The forum said it was committed to transparency and aimed to handle the matter thoughtfully and efficiently.

The Geneva-based organisation said Brende would continue to fulfil his roles at the WEF, without involvement in the review process.

Brende was mentioned more than 60 times in the millions of new Epstein documents released last week by the US Justice Department.

Appearing in the released Epstein files does not in itself imply wrongdoing.

Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring a child for prostitution and served 13 months of an 18-month sentence.

Epstein was facing charges of alleged sex trafficking when he killed himself in detention in 2019.

Brende said in a statement that during a visit to New York in 2018, he received an invitation for former Norwegian deputy prime minister Terje Rod-Larsen to join him for dinner with several other leaders, plus “someone who was presented to me as an American investor, Jeffrey Epstein”.

“The following year, I attended two similar dinners with Epstein, alongside other diplomats and business leaders. These dinners, and a few emails and SMS messages, were the extent of my interactions with him,” he said.

“I was completely unaware of Epstein’s past and criminal activities.”

He said that had he known about Epstein’s background, he would have declined the initial invitation for dinner and any other subsequent invitations or communications.

Brende said he recognised that he could have conducted a more thorough investigation into Epstein’s history, and regretted not doing so.

He welcomed the independent review, “which I indeed requested”.


France detects Russia-linked Epstein smear attempt against Macron: govt source


By AFP
February 6, 2026


Much of the Jeffrey Epstein document trove released by the US Justice Department has been blacked out - Copyright AFP Mandel NGAN

Pierre MOUTOT, Tiphaine LE LIBOUX

France has detected a Russia-linked disinformation effort alleging President Emmanuel Macron’s involvement with convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a government source told AFP on Friday.

Politicians, celebrities and royals have been caught up in the turmoil after the US Justice Department last week published a new cache of nearly three million documents related to the investigation of Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.

France’s Viginum agency, which counters foreign disinformation campaigns, detected Wednesday the operation involving a fabricated video report “accusing President Emmanuel Macron of being involved in the ‘Epstein affair'”, the source said.

The fake report was posted on a site fraudulently using the identity of a French media organisation, France-Soir, said the source, adding that the Storm-1516 project spreading fabricated content was behind the operation.

The fake report, allegedly by Le Parisien journalist Victor Cousin, claims to reveal “documents” incriminating Macron.

The Department of Justice’s files about Epstein do not contain the alleged documents.

Writing for Le Parisien, Cousin, 26, said he went to a police station to file a complaint.

“I had to explain how pro-Russian individuals had stolen my identity to attack the French president,” he wrote.

“The police officer in front of me stared at me with wide eyes, unable to comprehend what I was saying.”

– ‘Brand theft’ –

On Wednesday, France-Soir sought to distance itself from the fabricated report.

“Warning: brand and content theft,” it said. “The website http://france-soir.net has no connection with France-Soir.”


French President Emmanuel Macron has warned the public over Russian disinformation campaigns in Europe – Copyright POOL/AFP Ludovic MARIN

According to the government source, the site was linked “with a high degree of confidence to the CopyCop information operation.”

CopyCop is linked to John Mark Dougan, an American fugitive living in Russia. The latter “maintains part of the digital infrastructure of the Storm-1516 information operation,” the source added.

On X, the first account to share the fake video report was “@LoetitiaH, a frequent relay for Storm-1516 information operations,” the source added.

The video content was then “picked up and amplified by numerous other accounts monitored by Viginum,” said the source.

The source said that “this operation is very similar” to other Storm-1516 campaigns targeting political figures.

The posts targeting Macron began appearing online on Wednesday, shared simultaneously by several social media accounts identified as regular sources of pro-Russian disinformation. The accounts have a following of several thousand internet users.

The posts cite an alleged email exchange between Epstein and the controversial French modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who was found dead in his cell in a Paris prison in 2022 after being charged with raping minors. The alleged email does not exist in the files.

According to the false narrative, Brunel allegedly told Epstein in May 2017 that he would take “a few boys” to a party that Macron was organising.

Like previous disinformation operations on social media, they rely on a video with audio dubbed by artificial intelligence, screenshots of altered documents, and links to a website impersonating another media outlet to lend credibility to their narrative.

The posts share a link to the clone of the France-Soir media site, launched on Sunday, whose domain name is registered as .net instead of the .fr of the authentic site.

The French government has repeatedly warned the public over Russian disinformation campaigns in Europe that have grown in intensity since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022.

– Missing link –

According to Antibot4Navalny, a collective that monitors pro-Kremlin bot networks, Storm-1516 and Matryoshka launched simultaneous campaigns targeting Macron in early February.

However, the group said there was no proven “direct link beyond the timing and topics” between the two operations.

“No strong connections between sites or distribution accounts can give us grounds to make that claim,” Antibot4Navalny told AFP.

According to Viginum, Storm-1516 was behind at least 77 disinformation operations targeting Western countries between late 2023 and March 2025.

After the publication of the Epstein files, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was also targeted by false posts.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said this week the Epstein files demonstrate “how the Western elite treats children” and such officials “stand behind the Kyiv regime”.

tll-nl-am-pim-as/ah/st

‘Burned inside their houses’: Nigerians recount horror of massacre


By AFP
February 5, 2026


Nigerian chief Umar Bio Salihu says attackers killed scores of people and torched homes and businesses in his village, Woro - Copyright AFP Light Oriye Tamunotonye

John Okunyomih in Kaiama with Leslie Fauvel in Lagos

First, the jihadists sent a letter saying they were coming to the village to preach, said Nigerian chief Umar Bio Salihu.

When no one attended, they went on a rampage, killing people and torching houses, he said.

Salihu is the traditional chief of Woro, a small, Muslim-majority village in west-central Nigeria where alleged jihadist gunmen perpetrated a massacre late Tuesday.

Details are still emerging from the attack in Kwara State, but it is one of the country’s deadliest in recent months. According to the Red Cross, the death toll stands at 162 people, and the search for bodies is ongoing.

Badly shaken, Salihu recounted the night of terror he survived as the attackers killed two of his sons and kidnapped his wife and three daughters.

Around 5:00 pm, the gunmen “just came in and started shooting”, the 53-year-old chief told AFP Thursday, clutching his Muslim prayer beads in his hand.

“All those shops that are within the road, they burnt them… Some people have been burned inside their houses,” he said.

“They killed two of (my sons) standing at the front of my house. They took away my second wife with some three (daughters). They are with them presently in the bush.”

Salihu survived by hiding in a house, then fled to the neighbouring town of Kaiama, where he has a home, after the attackers left.

The attack lasted until 3:00 am, he said.

“When the day breaks, the corpses we see, it’s too much,” he said.



– ‘Don’t want their ideology’ –



Woro, a village of several thousand people, sits near a forest region known as a hideout for jihadist fighters and armed gangs, groups that have fuelled nearly two decades of violence in Africa’s most populous country.

It is a Muslim community, but its residents want nothing to do with radicalised jihadist groups, said Salihu.

“People don’t want to follow their ideology,” he said.

When a radical group sent a letter saying they planned to come to Woro to preach, no one attended, he said.

Salihu alerted the local security services.

“I think that is what brought the anger to come and just kill people like that in the community,” he said.

The governor of Kwara gave the death toll from the attack as 75.

Sa’idu Baba Ahmed, a member of the local assembly, said 78 bodies had been buried Wednesday afternoon.

“More dead bodies are being recovered and brought from the bush,” he said.

The attackers kidnapped another 38 people, mostly women and children, he said.



– ‘Beastly attack’ –



Nigerian President Bola Tinubu condemned the “beastly attack”, deploying an army battalion to the troubled region and blaming Islamist movement Boko Haram — though the name is often used generically for jihadist groups in Nigeria.

Kwara is racked by violence by armed “bandit” gangs and jihadist groups that have been extending their range from northwestern Nigeria farther south.

In October, the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) claimed its first attack on Nigerian soil in the state, near Woro.

Nigeria’s northeast is meanwhile the scene of long-running violence by Boko Haram and a rival offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

Nigeria is broadly split between a Christian-majority south and Muslim-majority north.

US President Donald Trump has alleged there is a “genocide” of Christians in Nigeria — a claim rejected by the Nigerian government and many independent experts, who say the country’s security crises claim the lives of both Christians and Muslims, often without distinction.

Washington has alternately pressured and aided the Nigerian government in its fight against jihadist violence.

On Christmas Day, the United States launched strikes targeting jihadist militants in northwestern Nigeria, and Washington has deployed a small military team to the country, according to the head of the US Africa Command.

GREY LADY D0WN

Washington Post CEO out after sweeping job cuts

By AFP
February 8, 2026


The sweeping job cuts at The Washington Post left hundreds of journalists without work - Copyright AFP/File Oliver Contreras

Nicholas ROLL

The Washington Post said Saturday its CEO and publisher Will Lewis was leaving effective immediately, just days after the storied newspaper owned by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos made drastic job cuts that angered readers.

Though newspapers across the United States have been facing brutal industry headwinds, Lewis’s management of the outlet was sharply criticized by subscribers and employees alike during his two-year tenure as he tried to reverse financial losses at the daily.

Lewis, who is English, has been replaced by Jeff D’Onofrio, a former CEO of social media platform Tumblr who had joined the Post as chief financial officer last year, the paper announced.

In an email to staff shared on social media by one of the newspaper’s reporters, Lewis said it was “the right time for me to step aside.”

A statement from the Post said only that D’Onofrio was succeeding Lewis “effective immediately.”

Hundreds of Post journalists — including most of its overseas, local and sports staff — were let go in the sweeping cuts announced on Tuesday.

The Post did not disclose the number of jobs being eliminated, but The New York Times reported approximately 300 of its 800 journalists were laid off.

The paper’s entire Middle East roster was let go as was its Kyiv-based Ukraine correspondent as the war with Russia grinds on.

Sports, graphics and local news departments were sharply scaled back and the paper’s daily podcast, Post Reports, was suspended, local media reported.

Hundreds turned out Thursday at a protest in front of the paper’s headquarters in downtown Washington.

– Editorial interference –

Newspapers across the country have cratered under falling revenues and subscriptions as they compete for eyeballs with social media, and as internet revenue pales in comparison to what print advertising once commanded.

However, national papers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have managed to weather the storm and come out financially solid — something the Post, even with a billionaire backer, has failed to do.

In Lewis’s note to staff, shared on X by White House bureau chief Matt Viser, Lewis said “difficult decisions have been taken” during his tenure “in order to ensure the sustainable future of The Post so it can for many years ahead publish high-quality nonpartisan news.”

Bezos, one of the world’s richest people, and Lewis have come under scrutiny for intervening directly in the paper’s editorial processes.

Bezos reined in the newspaper’s liberal-leaning editorial page and blocked an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris days before the 2024 election — breaking the so-called firewall of editorial independence.

He was widely seen as bowing to Trump.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that 250,000 digital subscribers left the Post after it refrained from endorsing Harris, and the paper lost around $100 million in 2024 as advertising and subscription revenues fell.

Marty Baron, the Post’s executive editor until 2021, said that the job cuts ranked “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.”

‘Save the Post’: Hundreds protest cuts at famed US newspaper

By AFP
February 5, 2026


Copyright AFP Ina FASSBENDER

Several hundred people rallied outside The Washington Post headquarters Thursday to protest its decision to lay off hundreds of journalists, including most of its overseas staff.

“Democracy dies in darkness. And you, Jeff Bezos, have turned off the lights,” a sign at the demonstration read, referring to the newspaper’s front-page slogan and its billionaire owner, who has become close to President Donald Trump during the Republican’s second term.

The sweeping cuts at the Post announced Wednesday came as major traditional media outlets in the United States face intense pressure from Trump, who routinely denigrates journalists as “fake news” and has launched multiple lawsuits against media organizations.

“In a time where we’ve seen unprecedented attacks on the press, and anti- or negative sentiment toward journalists for just doing their jobs, it’s dangerous to cut staff this way,” said Michael Brice-Saddler, who covered the US capital for the Post and has now been laid off.

“These cuts are not the fault of our staff, yet they are the ones who bear the brunt of the cost. They lose resources, they lose the ability to tell stories that are meaningful to Washington,” Brice-Saddler said.

The Post did not disclose the number of jobs being eliminated but The New York Times reported approximately 300 of its 800 journalists were laid off.

Most of the paper’s journalists overseas were let go, including its entire Middle East roster and its Kyiv-based Ukraine correspondent as the war with Russia grinds on.

Sports, graphics and local news departments were sharply scaled back and the paper’s daily podcast, Post Reports, was suspended, local media reported.

Bezos reined in the newspaper’s liberal-leaning editorial page and blocked an endorsement of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris days before the 2024 election — breaking the so-called firewall of editorial independence. He was widely seen as bowing to Trump.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that 250,000 digital subscribers left the Post after it refrained from endorsing Harris and the paper lost around $100 million in 2024 as advertising and subscription revenues fell.

Marissa J. Lang, an enterprise reporter who was fired by the Post, said the full effect of the layoffs remains to be seen.

“A lot of people have been asking me about the impact of these cuts, and I have very honestly been telling them, I don’t think we know yet,” Lang said.

“The impact of losing 300 journalists who hold power to account, who investigate corruption, who tell you about what’s happening in war zones overseas, and whether your kids’ schools will be open because it snowed, is immeasurable,” Lang said.