Berlin Rally Backs Iran’s Democratic Revolution, Rejects Dictatorship, Turnout Estimated At Over 100,000 – OpEd


Iranian Resistance Berlin Rally February 7, 2026. Photo Credit: PMOI


February 9, 2026
By Matin Karim

Under the freezing skies of Berlin, with temperatures dropping well below zero, more than 100,000 Iranians and international supporters gathered at the historic Brandenburg Gate, according to the Express. Undeterred by the biting cold and logistical hurdles, including widespread flight and train cancellations, the massive crowd turned the heart of Germany into a resounding stage for the Iranian Resistance.

The rally, held to mark the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 anti-monarchical revolution, took on a distinct and urgent gravity this year. It convened in the immediate aftermath of a nationwide uprising that swept across Iran in late December 2025 and early January 2026. This recent explosion of public anger saw the clerical regime respond with unprecedented brutality, leaving thousands of protesters dead.

Prominent European and American dignitaries joined Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), to declare that the era of theocratic rule in Iran is drawing to a definitive close. The event underscored a shift in global perspective, moving away from appeasement and toward a recognition of the Iranian people’s right to self-defense and regime change.
Maryam Rajavi: The Countdown to Overthrow Has Begun

In her keynote address, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi set the tone for the event by drawing a direct line between the 1979 revolution against the Shah and the current uprising against the mullahs. She described the recent unrest as a turning point that has shattered the regime’s perceived stability.

“The January uprising turned crimson, but with the blood of a galaxy of martyrs and thousands of devoted souls and with the fury of a heroic nation, it shook Iran and the world,” Mrs. Rajavi declared. She emphasized that the sheer scale of the sacrifice has made the regime’s downfall an inevitability visible to the entire world. “For years and years, we said: overthrow, overthrow. And now, everyone sees it is approaching with their own eyes and hears its footsteps.”



Mrs. Rajavi outlined a specific path forward, rejecting both the current theocracy and any return to the monarchical dictatorship of the past. She presented a comprehensive six-point demand to world leaders, calling for the recognition of the Iranian people’s struggle, the prosecution of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for crimes against humanity, the closure of regime embassies, and immediate UN action to halt the execution of uprising detainees. Her speech culminated in a vow that the democratic revolution, fueled by the “Resistance Units,” would inevitably triumph where the 1979 revolution was hijacked.
The January Uprising: A Revolution in Blood and Fire

A central theme of the conference was the recognition of the recent December 2025 and January 2026 protests not merely as civil unrest, but as a full-scale revolution. Speakers provided harrowing details regarding the intensity of the conflict and the regime’s lethal response.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo provided a stark assessment of the death toll, highlighting the severity of the regime’s crackdown. “The massacre of January 8th and January 9th killed at least 20,000, perhaps twice that many,” Pompeo stated, describing the events as a “murderous rampage” by a regime nearing its death. He noted that while protests have occurred before, the recent events represent a “hinge point” in history where the Iranian people have definitively signaled the end of the Islamic Republic.

This sentiment was echoed by Mrs. Rajavi, who lamented the loss of young lives, noting that “14- and 15-year-old girls continue to be gunned down in the streets.” She described the uprising as a “lightning assault” that showed the path to freedom, driven by a generation unwilling to submit to tyranny.

Peter Altmaier, former German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, addressed the heroes of the uprising directly, acknowledging those who lost their lives or are currently languishing in prisons. He emphasized that the regime has “lost all legitimacy” by treating its citizens with a level of cruelty unmatched globally. “During the various uprisings, the mullahs’ regime shot tens of thousands; tens of thousands were executed, and tens of thousands are sitting in prisons,” Altmaier observed, reinforcing the scale of the humanitarian crisis.
Rejecting the “Hijackers”: No to Shah, No to Mullahs

A significant portion of the rally was dedicated to clarifying the political identity of the uprising. Speakers were unified in their rejection of the “two dictatorships”—the deposed Pahlavi monarchy and the current religious tyranny. This dual rejection was presented as the guiding principle of the current revolution.

Charles Michel, former President of the European Council, delivered a stinging critique of attempts by the remnants of the Shah’s regime to co-opt the current movement. He warned against those seeking to “steal your dreams and aspirations,” specifically pointing to the son of the Shah.

“Being the son of a dictator should inspire shame and humility,” Michel argued. He accused the remnants of the shah regime of using “industrial artificial intelligence bots” and massive financial resources to manufacture a fake image of support. “He seeks to create a fake image of support to manipulate and attempt to hijack the future of the Iranian people once again,” Michel said, drawing a sharp contrast between the “organized resistance” that seeks democracy and those who feel entitled to rule by lineage.

Mrs. Rajavi reinforced this narrative, categorizing the political landscape into three sides: the rebels sacrificing for freedom, the murderous clerics, and the “remnants of the Shah.” She described the slogan “Long Live the Shah” as “ultra-reactionary” and a tool that ultimately serves the current Supreme Leader by dividing the opposition and justifying suppression. “Anyone who imagines they can hijack Iran’s new democratic revolution… are gravely mistaken,” she affirmed.

Mike Pompeo also weighed in, stating that the Iranian people have made their preferences “abundantly clear” through repeated uprisings: “They do not want theocracy, they do not want autocracy, and they do not want a monarchy.”
The Organized Resistance and the “Third Option”

Countering the narrative that the alternative to the Iranian regime is chaos, the speakers highlighted the role of the NCRI and the PMOI/MEK as a viable, organized democratic alternative. They argued that the “Third Option”—neither foreign war nor appeasement—relies on empowering the Iranian people and their organized resistance.

Charles Michel articulated this explicitly: “There is an alternative! There is the mobilization of the people of Iran… The Ten-Point Plan is the right recipe to move from tyranny to democracy.” He praised the plan for its commitment to a secular system, gender equality, and the abolition of the death penalty. “The Ten-Point Plan is a solid bridge from oppression to liberty,” Michel concluded.

Mike Pompeo pointed to the “Resistance Units” inside Iran as the engine of the recent uprisings. “The uprisings that we have seen in these past days didn’t come out of nowhere… They are rooted in a Resistance now four decades in the making,” he said. He emphasized that the NCRI has built the capacity for popular support and laid out a systemic plan for a transition period, stressing that this movement does not ask for foreign soldiers but for recognition.

Mrs. Rajavi detailed the mechanics of the proposed transition, reiterating the NCRI’s commitment to a Constituent Assembly elected within six months of the regime’s overthrow to draft a new constitution. She highlighted the presence of the “National Liberation Army” and the “Resistance Units” as the forces capable of preventing disorder and instability in the post-regime vacuum.
Condemnation of Human Rights Abuses and the “Wall of Fear”

The rally took place in the shadow of the Brandenburg Gate, a location invoked by several speakers to symbolize the breaking of barriers. Charles Michel compared the Berlin Wall to the “wall of fear” in Iran—a divide between oppression and freedom. “It is a reminder that no wall is eternal and that freedom cannot be defeated forever,” he told the crowd.

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, former German Federal Minister of Justice, focused her address on the severe human rights violations occurring inside Iran’s prisons. She reminded the audience of the “torture chambers” and the reality that people are being “arrested, tortured, murdered, and executed” simply for demanding basic rights.

“What this mullahs’ regime is criminally and brutally inflicting on its own citizens in Iran cannot be accepted,” Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger stated. She highlighted the specific plight of women, noting their fight for the right to “go out on the streets without a headscarf—without having to fear disappearing into torture chambers for years.”

The speakers collectively painted a picture of a regime that has resorted to taking foreign hostages and massacring its own youth as a desperate survival tactic. As Michel noted, “Their cruelty is a desperate sign of weakness… This regime is more fragile and isolated than ever.”

Policy Demands: End Appeasement, Sanction the IRGC

A unified demand emerging from the Berlin rally was for Western governments to fundamentally alter their policy toward Tehran. The era of engagement and “appeasement” was declared dead, with speakers calling for tangible, punitive measures against the regime’s apparatus of suppression.

Peter Altmaier was emphatic in his message to Western capitals: “All hopes that this regime would modernize… were false.” He welcomed the EU’s designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization but termed it “only a first step.” Altmaier called for tougher sanctions and urged the free press to increase its coverage of the atrocities in Iran.

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger criticized ongoing diplomatic efforts, specifically mentioning negotiations via Oman regarding the nuclear deal. “What belongs in such talks, if they are already taking place?” she asked. She insisted that no talks should proceed without the primary demand being the release of uprising detainees. “One cannot continue with negotiations and then return to business as usual,” she argued, calling for a halt to financial flows that line the mullahs’ pockets.

Mike Pompeo, drawing on his experience implementing the “Maximum Pressure” campaign, reiterated that the regime is incapable of reform. “We need a policy that is grounded in strategic and moral clarity,” he said. He expressed confidence that the U.S. administration would continue to “cut off the lifelines” of the regime, noting recent sanctions on Iranian crude oil.

Maryam Rajavi provided a specific policy roadmap for the international community. Her demands included referring the regime’s leaders to the UN Security Council for prosecution, completely cutting off the regime’s financial resources, and providing the facilities necessary to ensure the Iranian people have access to a free and open internet to bypass state censorship.

The rally in Berlin concluded with a message of profound optimism despite the grim circumstances of the recent massacres. The speakers concurred that the sheer magnitude of the January 2026 uprising, combined with the organized nature of the resistance, signaled that the clerical regime has entered its final phase.

Mike Pompeo summarized the sentiment of the day: “Today, it is unequivocal and unmistakable that we are at a hinge point in Iran’s history… The Iranian people will prove fearless.”

“The decaying forces will be swept from the stage of history,” Mrs. Rajavi quoted the slain resistance leader Moussa Khiabani, assuring that the revolution would prevail.


Matin Karim

Matin Karim writes for the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK)

Exclusive: Iran, massacre under a blackout

Issued  08/02/2026 
FRANCE24

In this exclusive documentary, FRANCE 24 retraces the chronology of events that took place in Iran from December 28, 2025, when merchants in Tehran's Grand Bazaar went on strike, to January 18, 2026, when the authorities restored internet access. Behind closed doors, from January 8 to 11, Iran's worst massacre took place since the 1979 establishment of the Islamic Republic. Warning: viewers may find the footage and descriptions in this report upsetting.




In early January, FRANCE 24 assembled a cross-media team of journalists, including senior producer Mariam Pirzadeh, online journalist Bahar Makooi and Ershad Alijani from the FRANCE 24 Observers. They collated and verified the many videos they received from Iran before, after and sometimes during the internet blackout. They also gathered the harrowing testimonies of several participants in, and victims of, the protest movement.

What emerged is a relentless, sometimes painful account of the extreme police brutality used by the Iranian regime from the early days of the protests, which escalated to the use of military methods and weapons from January 8 onwards. Then came the pressure put on victims' families, who were tracked down in hospitals and morgues as they went to collect their injured or dead loved ones, whom they had to pay for.

Our documentary ends on January 18, with undoubtedly tens of thousands of victims. It will be up to history to determine the final toll.

Warning: The report contains disturbing and violent images. Caution is advised for underage viewers.

Illustrations by Adel Gastel.

Iran: France 24 Reporters retrace chronology of deadly crackdown

© France 24
22:45

BY:

Julie DUNGELHOFF

Mariam PIRZADEH

Bahar MAKOOI

Ershad ALIJANI

Adel GASTEL

Iranian Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi sentenced to seven additional years in prison

By Orestes Georgiou Daniel with AP

Published on 08/02/2026 - EURONEWS

Supporters of Narges Mohammadi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, said she had been on hunger strike since 2 February.

Iran has sentenced Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi to more than seven additional years in prison after she began a hunger strike, supporters of hers said on Sunday.

Mohammadi’s supporters cited her lawyer, who spoke to Mohammadi. The lawyer, Mostafa Nili, confirmed the sentence on X, saying it had been handed down Saturday by a Revolutionary Court in the city of Mashhad.

The Nobel laureate had previously been sentenced to nearly 14-years in prison on other charges. Iranian authorities did not immediately acknowledge the more recent sentence.

“She has been sentenced to six years in prison for ‘gathering and collusion’ and one and a half years for propaganda and two-year travel ban,” Nili said. She received another two years of internal exile to the city of Khosf, some 740 kilometers (460 miles) southeast of Tehran, the capital, the lawyer added.

Supporters say Mohammadi has been on a hunger strike since 2 February. She had been arrested in December at a ceremony honoring Khosrow Alikordi, a 46-year-old Iranian lawyer and human rights advocate who had been based in Mashhad. Footage from the demonstration showed her shouting, demanding justice for Alikordi and others.

The new convictions against Mohammadi come as Iran tries to negotiate with the United States over its nuclear programme to avert a threatened military strike by President Donald Trump. Iran's top diplomat insisted Sunday that Tehran's strength came from its ability to “say no to the great powers," striking a maximalist position just after negotiations in Oman with the US.

Concerns over Mohammadi's health

The Nobel laureate is now in "deteriorating health", her supporters say, after ending her nearly week-long hunger strike.

Mohammadi's supporters had warned for months before her arrest in December that she was at risk of being sent back to prison after having received a furlough in December 2024 over medical concerns.

While that was to be only three weeks, Mohammadi’s time out of prison lengthened, possibly as activists and Western powers pushed Iran to keep her free.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammad after being released on a medical furlough in Tehran, Iran, 4 Dec, 2024. On her hand written in Farsi is "End gender apartheid." Narges Foundation Archive/AP

Mohammadi still kept up her activism with public protests and international media appearances, including even demonstrating at one point in front of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, where she had been held.

She had been serving 13 years and nine months on charges of collusion against state security and propaganda against Iran’s government. She also had backed the nationwide protests sparked by the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, which have seen women openly defy the government by not wearing the hijab.

Mohammadi suffered multiple heart attacks while imprisoned before undergoing emergency surgery in 2022, her supporters say. Her lawyer in late 2024 revealed doctors had found a bone lesion that they feared could be cancerous that later was removed.

Iranian foreign minister strikes hard-line tone

Speaking to diplomats at a summit in Tehran, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi signalled that Iran would stick to its position that it must be able to enrich uranium - a major point of contention with US President Donald Trump.

“I believe the secret of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s power lies in its ability to stand against bullying, domination and pressures from others," Araghchi said. "They fear our atomic bomb, while we are not pursuing an atomic bomb. Our atomic bomb is the power to say no to the great powers. The secret of the Islamic Republic’s power is in the power to say no to the powers.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to travel to Washington this week, with Iran expected to be the major subject of discussion.

The US has moved the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, ships and warplanes to the Middle East to pressure Iran into an agreement and have the firepower necessary to strike the country, should Trump choose to do so.

 SPACE/COSMOS

This Student Made Cosmic Dust In Her Lab: What She Found Could Help Us Understand How Life Started On Earth


PhD candidate and lead author of the study Linda Losurdo in the plasma physics laboratory at the University of Sydney. CREDIT: Fiona Wolf/The University of Sydney

February 9, 2026 
By Eurasia Review

A Sydney PhD student has recreated a tiny piece of the Universe inside a bottle in her laboratory, producing cosmic dust from scratch. The results shed new light on how the chemical building blocks of life may have formed long before Earth existed.

Linda Losurdo, a PhD candidate in materials and plasma physics in the School of Physics, has used a simple mix of gases – nitrogen, carbon dioxide and acetylene – to mimic the harsh and dynamic environments around stars and supernova remnants.

By subjecting these gases to intense electrical energy, she generated carbon-rich “cosmic dust” similar to the material found drifting between stars and embedded in comets, asteroids and meteorites.

Her results are published in The Astrophysical Journal of the American Astronomical Society.

The dust she created contains a complex cocktail of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen – known collectively as CHON molecules – which are central to many organic substances essential for life.

“We no longer have to wait for an asteroid or comet to come to Earth to understand their histories,” Ms Losurdo said. “You can build analogue environments in the laboratory and reverse engineer their structure using the infrared fingerprints.

“This can give us huge insight into how ‘carbonaceous cosmic dust’ can form in the plasma puffed out by giant, old stars or in cosmic nurseries where stars are being born and distribute these fascinating molecules that could be vital for life.

“It’s like we have recreated a little bit of the Universe in a bottle in our lab.”

Cosmic dust is known to form in extreme astrophysical environments, where molecules are constantly bombarded by ions and electrons. Scientists can identify this dust in space because it emits a distinctive infrared signal – a molecular fingerprint that reveals its chemical structure.

The dust produced in Ms Losurdo’s experiments showed the same tell-tale infrared signatures, confirming the laboratory process closely mirrors what happens in space.

BUILDING BLOCKS OF LIFE

One of the enduring questions in science is how life began on Earth. Researchers are still debating whether the earliest organic molecules formed locally on our young planet, arrived later aboard comets and meteorites, or were delivered during the earliest stages of solar system formation – or some combination of all three.

Between about 3.5 and 4.56 billion years ago, Earth was bombarded by meteorites, micrometeorites and interplanetary dust particles originating from asteroids and comets. These objects are thought to have delivered vast amounts of organic material to the planet’s surface. Yet the origins of that material remain mysterious.

“Covalently bonded carbon and hydrogen in comet and asteroid material are believed to have formed in the outer envelopes of stars, in high-energy events like supernovae, and in interstellar environments,” Ms Losurdo said.

“What we’re trying to understand are the specific chemical pathways and conditions that incorporate all of the CHON elements into the complex organic structures we see in cosmic dust and meteorites.”

HOW THEY DID IT

In the experiment, the team, consisting of Ms Losurdo and her supervisor Professor David McKenzie, used a vacuum pump to evacuate air from glass tubes, recreating the near-empty conditions of space. Nitrogen, carbon dioxide and acetylene were then introduced. The gas mixture was exposed to around 10,000 volts of electrical potential for about an hour, creating a type of plasma known as a glow discharge.

Under this intense energy, molecules broke apart and recombined into new, more complex structures. These compounds eventually settled as a thin layer of dust on silicon chips placed inside the tubes.

The collected dust at times looks like glittering collections of cosmic material.

Professor David McKenzie, co-author on the paper, said the work will allow scientists to probe conditions that are otherwise impossible to study directly.

“By making cosmic dust in the lab, we can explore the intensity of ion impacts and temperatures involved when dust forms in space,” Professor McKenzie said. “That’s important if you want to understand the environments inside cosmic dust clouds, where life-relevant chemistry is thought to be happening.

“This also helps us interpret what a meteorite or asteroid fragment has been through over its lifetime. Its chemical signature holds a record of its journey, and experiments like this help us learn how to read that record.”

Beyond insights into the origins of life, the researchers aim to build a comprehensive database of infrared fingerprints from lab-made cosmic dust. Astronomers could then use this library to identify promising regions of space – in stellar nurseries or the remnants of dead stars – and work backwards to understand the processes shaping them.

By recreating cosmic chemistry on Earth, the research opens a new window onto deep stellar processes – and the ancient steps that may have helped make life on Earth possible.

Ms Losurdo won the best presentation for this research at the international Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society late last year.

China develops compact microwave driver that could power a ‘Starlink-killer’ weapon

Copyright AP Photo/John Raoux

By Roselyne Min

Published on 06/02/2026 - EURONEWS

The compact pulse-power driver could enable high-power microwave attacks that are harder to detect and attribute than conventional anti-satellite weapons, potentially putting China ahead of the United States and Russia in the space-weapons race.

China has developed a new piece of military technology that could one day be used to disrupt satellite networks such as Starlink, according to a study.

Researchers at the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology (NINT), a research facility linked to the Chinese military in Xi’an, say they have built the world’s smallest driver for a high-power microwave (HPM) weapon, a system that could potentially be used to disrupt satellite networks such as Starlink.

The device, known as TPG1000Cs, measures about four metres long and weighs roughly five tons, making it significantly smaller than comparable systems.

“The system has demonstrated stable operation over continuous one-minute durations, accumulating approximately 200,000 pulses with consistent performance,” the study said.

Until now, similar known systems could only operate continuously for no more than just a few seconds and were far bulkier, making them difficult to install in smaller weapons systems

The TPG1000Cs system can generate electrical pulses reaching 20 gigawatts, according to the study. This far exceeds the roughly 1 gigawatt output that experts say a ground-based microwave weapon would need to potentially disrupt low-Earth-orbit satellite networks such as Starlink.

Related

How does it work?

The United States, Russia, and China have all been exploring whether high-power microwave technology could be developed into weapons capable of disrupting satellites.

Destroying satellites using conventional weapons can create large clouds of orbital debris that may threaten other spacecraft, including those belonging to the attacking country.

Microwave weapons, in contrast, could theoretically disable electronics without creating significant debris, potentially offering strategic advantages and a degree of plausible deniability.

These weapons store electrical energy and then release it in a sudden, powerful burst. This pulse can produce intense microwave radiation that can disrupt electronics.

Relate

Starlink satellite communications have been used to support Ukraine’s communications infrastructure during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, thanks to demonstrated resilience against jamming attempts.

The study was published in the Chinese journal High Power Laser and Particle Beams on January 13.

China has published a number of studies in recent years discussing the need to develop ways to disrupt large satellite constellations, including Elon Musk’s Starlink network.

Researchers say the breakthrough was made possible by a special liquid insulating material called Midel 7131.

“By adopting a high-energy-density liquid dielectric Midel 7131 and a dual-width pulse-forming line, the study achieved miniaturisation of an integrated Tesla transformer and pulse-forming system,” scientists wrote in the study.

 Trump video showing Obamas as monkeys sparks outrage over 'vile' racist depiction

President Donald Trump posted an election conspiracy video depicting former president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as monkeys, drawing condemnations over the racist portrayal of America's first and only Black president. The White House on Friday initially dismissed the criticism as "fake outrage" before deleting the post and claiming the video had been “erroneously” made by a staffer.

Issued on: 06/02/2026
By: FRANCE 24

Barack and Michelle Obama attend Donald Trump's first presidential inauguration on January 20, 2017. © Jim Watson, AFP

US President Donald Trump on Thursday posted an election conspiracy video that depicted former president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as monkeys, drawing condemnation from prominent Democrats.

Near the end of a one-minute-long video posted on Trump's Truth Social platform, the Obamas are shown with their faces on the bodies of monkeys for about one second.

The song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" plays in the background when the Obamas appear.

The video repeats false allegations that ballot-counting company Dominion Voting Systems helped steal the 2020 election from Trump.

As of early Friday morning, the video had been liked several thousand times on the president's social media platform.

The office of California Governor Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate and a prominent Trump critic, slammed the post.

"Disgusting behavior by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now," Newsom's press office account posted on X.

House Democrati leader Hakeem Jeffries on Friday branded Trump's video as "vile, unhinged and malignant".

In a post on X, Jeffries said, "Every single Republican must immediately denounce Donald Trump's disgusting bigotry," calling Trump a "sick individual."

Ben Rhodes, a former top national security advisor and close confidant to Barack Obama, also condemned the imagery.

"Let it haunt Trump and his racist followers that future Americans will embrace the Obamas as beloved figures while studying him as a stain on our history," he wrote on X.

'Fake outrage'


The White House however initially dismissed the condemnations as "fake outrage".

"This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King. Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to AFP.

But hours later, the White House said a staff member had "erroneously" made the Obama post, which was then deleted.

"A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down," a White House official told AFP.

Obama is the only Black president in American history and backed Trump's opponent Kamala Harris on the campaign trail in the 2024 presidential election.

Trump has a long history of intensely personal criticism of the Obamas and of using incendiary, sometimes racist, rhetoric.

When Obama was in the White House, Trump advanced the false claims that the 44th president, who was born in Hawaii, was born in Kenya and was constitutionally ineligible to serve.

Obama eventually released his Hawaii records. Trump finally acknowledged during his 2016 campaign, after having won the Republican nomination, that Obama was born in Hawaii.
AI imagery

In the first year of his second term in the White House, Trump ramped up his use of hyper-realistic but fabricated visuals on Truth Social and other platforms, often glorifying himself while lampooning his critics.

He has used the provocative posts to rally his conservative base.

Last year, Trump posted a video generated by artificial intelligence showing Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office and appearing behind bars in an orange jumpsuit.

Later, he posted an AI clip of Jeffries – who is Black – wearing a fake moustache and a sombrero.

Jeffries called the image racist.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has drawn criticism from his opponents for leading a crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes.

One of Trump's first acts was to terminate all federal government DEI programmes, including related policies in the military.

The drive to rid the armed forces of what Trump has derided as "woke" initiatives has also seen the removal from some military academy bookshelves of scores of books that cover the US's history of discrimination.

US federal anti-discrimination programs were born of the 1960s civil rights struggle, mainly led by Black Americans, for equality and justice after hundreds of years of slavery, whose abolition in 1865 saw other institutional forms of racism enforced.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)

'I didn't make a mistake': Trump refuses to apologise for since-deleted racist post about Obamas

By Emma De Ruiter

Published on 07/02/2026 - EURONEWS

A social media post by US President Donald Trump depicted former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle. It was deleted on Friday after a backlash from both Republicans and Democrats.

US President Donald Trump refused to apologise on Friday for a racist video he posted on his social media platform Truth Social, which depicted the former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as primates.

Following widespread backlash for its treatment of the nation’s first Black president and first lady, the post was blamed on a staffer and deleted.

Near the end of the one-minute-long video promoting conspiracies about Republican Trump's 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, the Obamas were shown with their faces on the bodies of apes for about one second.

The video repeated false allegations that ballot-counting company Dominion Voting Systems helped steal the election from Trump.

The frames of the Obamas at the end of the clip originated from a separate video, previously circulated by an influential conservative meme maker. It shows a lion Trump as “King of the Jungle” and depicts Democratic leaders as other animals.

A rare admission of a misstep by the White House, the deletion came hours after press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed “fake outrage” over the post. After calls for its removal — including by Republicans — the White House said a staffer had posted the video erroneously.

"I didn't make a mistake," Trump said on Air Force One late Friday when asked if he would apologise for the post.

"I just looked at the first part... and I didn't see the whole thing," Trump said, adding that he "gave it" to staffers to post and they also didn't watch the full video.

Asked if he condemns the racist imagery in the video, Trump replied: "Of course I do."

Former vice president Kamala Harris called out the White House's backpedaling in a post on X on Friday.

"No one believes this cover up from the White House, especially since they originally defended this post," she wrote.

"We are all clear-eyed about who Donald Trump is and what he believes."

There is a long history in the US of powerful white figures associating Black people with animals, including apes, in demonstrably false, racist ways. The practice dates to 18th century cultural racism and pseudo-scientific theories used to justify the enslavement of Black people, and later to dehumanise freed Black people as uncivilised threats to white people.

When Obama was in the White House, Trump pushed false claims that the 44th president, who was born in Hawaii, was born in Kenya and constitutionally ineligible to serve. Trump had demanded that Obama prove he was a “natural-born citizen” as required to become president.

The White House explanation also raises questions about control of Trump’s social media account, which he's used to levy import taxes, threaten military action, make other announcements and intimidate political rivals. The president often signs his name or initials after policy posts.

The White House did not immediately respond to an inquiry about how posts are vetted and when the public can know when Trump himself is posting.

Betting on catastrophe: the dizzying rise of prediction markets

ANALYSIS

Bets on the fall of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro have shed light on the spectacular rise of prediction markets: portals where people place bets on everything from sporting events, to Trump’s next strikes, to the resurrection of Jesus. Some are profiting from the predictions, while others are concerned about real world human and geopolitical impacts of prediction markets.


Issued on: 08/02/2026 
FRANCE24
By: Diya GUPTA

Advertisements by the American company Polymarket predict a victory for Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayoral election on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in New York. © Olga Fedorova, AP

Only a handful of people in the world knew what was going to happen in the early hours of January 3, before ‘Operation Absolute Resolve’ was launched. The extraordinary two-hour-and-twenty-minute military intervention by air, land and sea culminated in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. It was a top-secret operation, which stunned the world.

But a hint of what was to occur emerged in the online, crypto-based prediction market portal Polymarket, where anonymous users bet on real world events. User 0x31a56e wagered $32,537 that Maduro would be out of power by the end of January when the odds of that happening on the afternoon of January 2 were placed at just 6.5%. By midnight, those odds jumped to 11% and surged just before the operation was executed. The suspiciously timed bet paid off – anonymous user 0x31a56e made a neat profit upwards of $436,000 in just one night. The account has since vanished.

This odd incident pushed the online prediction market – which was growing but still fairly niche – into the mainstream spotlight. These are platforms where people can bet on the outcome of an enormous variety of future events – from the common (who will win the Super Bowl) to the bizarre (will Jesus be resurrected in 2026). These companies insist that they are not gambling portals, but legitimate financial markets, a chimera of a stock exchange and a crypto platform (though some watchdogs disagree).

Two players, Kalshi and Polymarket, have dominated the space in recent years. Of a total volume of $44 billion in prediction markets in 2025, Kalshi and Polymarket were responsible for a combined total of $38 billion: one of the fastest growing financial markets is one that most people ignore, or don’t know about.

Shayne Coplan, founder and CEO of betting platform Polymarket, participates in the State of Crypto Summit, in New York, Thursday, June 12, 2025. © Richard Drew, AP

Trades on these websites are not to be confused with polls, insists Polymarket’s precocious founder Shayne Coplan, in an interview with 60 Minutes. Coplan, who founded the company in 2020 when he was just 21 years old, said that Polymarket tries to predict actual outcomes – "You make money if you're right. You lose money if you're wrong. And as a result it creates this information that's useful for people."

Some people have profited from making informed wagers – including a prolific, successful Polymarket trader who goes by the name Domer and features in the same 60 Minutes report. The former professional poker player moved to Polymarket because it was ‘more exciting’. He won over $100,000 predicting an American Pope, and even more after he picked JD Vance to be Donald Trump's presidential running mate. Domer went against the odds because he believed US President Donald Trump likes one syllable names because “he (Trump) is very into marketing”.

Even established media outlets like CNN and CNBC have struck deals to incorporate Kalshi prediction markets into coverage.

But prediction markets do not come without an enormous share of criticism. Polymarket, specifically, has been at the root of controversy because it relies on cryptocurrency and blockchain to run.

Users like 0x31a56e, who predicted Maduro’s capture, can trade anonymously, without being traced. While it is possible that they just got very lucky, analysts say it’s far more likely that someone with inside information realised they could make a quick buck. On crypto-native platforms, there’s no real way of knowing.

It’s because of this reason that in most of Europe, where a patchwork of rules must be adhered to, Polymarket is not legal or easily accessible. Some countries treat prediction markets as gambling, and the ones that do not still require licensing. Regulators are wary, with good reason.

Prediction markets were also heavily regulated under the Biden administration, but under President Trump, these sites have profited from deregulation and a huge boom in power.

But critics are concerned about the platforms commodifying real world events and encouraging people to bet on political, military and diplomatic events that have real-world consequences.
The risks of manipulation and insider trading

Maduro is only one example of a litany of shady trades made on prediction markets. Hours before the announcement of Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, one user bet thousands in her favour: the likelihood of her winning leapt from 3.75 percent to nearly 73 percent within two hours – prompting authorities in Norway to open an investigation.

Similarly, in early January, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt ended her briefing after 64 minutes and 30 seconds. Her abrupt exit left traders wondering whether Leavitt had deliberately stopped before the 65-minute mark to turn a profit. Polymarket had predicted at 98 percent odds that the briefing would run past 65 minutes.

Alex Goldenberg, an intelligence analyst and fellow at the Miller Center on Policing and Community Resilience at Rutgers University, says the signs are clear: “Across these cases, a consistent pattern emerges: new accounts with no trading history taking high-conviction, low-probability positions hours before those events occur. These aren't gradual market movements reflecting evolving public information. They bear the textbook signatures of insider trading in traditional financial markets.”

The point of these markets is to reward people with superior information i.e., those who collect the right data and analyse accurately could stand to make money. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, he says, but there’s a fine line between analysis and inside information. “Scale that logic to domains governed by secrecy: military operations, covert action, diplomatic negotiations. In those domains, ‘superior information’ means access to classified or non-public knowledge. The platform architecture doesn't distinguish between a well-informed analyst and someone with a security clearance who just walked out of a briefing.”

Prediction markets’ blurry lines can also create serious problems for national security.

Polymarket prediction market website is displayed on a computer screen Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Philadelphia. © Wally Santana, AP

One account, originally named RicoSauve666 and later Rundeep, bet on several operations connected to Israeli military action with extremely consistent outcomes. Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet ) ultimately opened an investigation into the user.

“The high-conviction, low-probability trades we saw before the Venezuela operation and Israeli strikes bear the hallmarks of someone with access monetizing what they know,” says Goldenberg. “That's privatizing state secrets. Diplomats, military personnel, intelligence analysts, contractors, and anyone in the national security apparatus now has a potential avenue to monetize non-public, sensitive information for personal profit.”
How prediction influences perception and policy

Dangerous biases can occur when an outcome is presumed – Goldenberg presents a hypothesis: “Suppose the US is about to carry out an operation against Iran and multiple high-conviction, low-probability bets suddenly appear on a prediction market that it's going to happen tomorrow,” he posits. “You've potentially given an adversary advance notice of an operation through publicly visible market activity.

"An adversary placing large bets on specific military outcomes can create a situation where we ask ourselves, does someone know something? That alone sows confusion and distorts decision-making."

The predictions on these platforms are visible to anyone. Diplomatic, geopolitical and military decisions could potentially be made on assumed outcomes – which could be particularly dangerous if these markets can be manipulated.

“When a prediction market shows odds on a US strike suddenly jumping, that movement could become news. Media reports it, policymakers see it. The market doesn't just predict. It shapes perception.”

This is a far greater risk on crypto native platforms like Polymarket, where trades take place anonymously, often in offshore jurisdictions. They are extremely difficult to trace back to an individual. “Who investigates? Which jurisdiction applies?” asks Goldenberg. “Today, the honest answer is that in many cases, they wouldn't be caught. Several countries, including France, have already concluded these platforms can't be adequately regulated and banned them outright.”

There’s also the important question of who runs the market themselves: the US president's son Donald Trump Jr. is an adviser to both Kalshi and Polymarket. His venture capital firm 1789 invested an undisclosed “double-digit millions of dollars” into Polymarket in 2025. Polymarket’s founder sees this as a positive – saying in an interview, “This admin is very pro-innovation, and pro-crypto, and pro-Polymarket, which is amazing… I'm a young entrepreneur. If I have people who believe in what I do, who understand how politics works and can help me… there's nothing wrong about that.”

Furthermore, Trump Media and Technology Group, the owner of the president’s social-media platform, Truth Social, has announced its own platform, Truth Predict.

There are real, human consequences of turning the world into one big casino where serious events with real repercussions are being reduced to a set of numbers. “When you're looking at a screen that says 'Will Country X invade Country Y by March 31? Yes/No', you're interacting with an abstraction. But the underlying event involves air strikes, casualties, displaced populations. The platform strips away human reality and replaces it with a contract and a price,” says Goldenberg.

“It fundamentally changes civic discourse. Instead of asking ‘should we strike’, which is a moral and strategic question, we're asking ‘what are the odds we strike’. We've taken events with real human consequences and made them feel like any other financial instrument. That normalization is worth paying attention to."

Thailand’s ruling Bhumjaithai party tops election amid wave of nationalism

NOT A DEMOCRACY, ITS A JUNTA RUN MONARCHY

Issued on: 09/02/2026 

The Bhumjaithai Party of Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul is on track to win the most seats in Thailand’s general election, according to unofficial results released by the state Election Commission after about 94% of polling stations had reported Monday. It’s the first decisive victory of a conservative party in Thailand in years and comes against a backdrop of slow economic growth and heightened nationalist sentiment.

Zelensky French TV interview: 'If Ukraine doesn't stop Putin, he will invade Europe'

Amid a flurry of diplomatic meetings in Moscow and Abu Dhabi, in an interview on TV channel France 2 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on his European partners – as well as United States President Donald Trump – to put more pressure on Russia to end the four-year war.


Issued on: 05/02/2026 - RFI

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke exclusively to French public television channel France 2 on Wednesday. © AFP - UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE


The conflict is Europe's deadliest since the Second World War, with hundreds of thousands of people killed, millions forced to flee their homes and much of eastern and southern Ukraine left decimated.

Underscoring the human toll, Zelensky told France 2 journalist Léa Salamé on Wednesday that 55,000 of his country's troops had been killed, a rare assessment of battlefield losses by either side.

"And there are a great number Ukraine lists as missing," he said, through translated comments.

While denying that he was trying to scare anyone, the Ukrainian leader issued a blunt warning to European countries.

"Life in Europe is cool, it's nice... That's why I say we are all fighting to defend this way of life," he said. "But today, it is very clear that if Ukraine does not stop [Vladimir] Putin, he will invade Europe."

Zelensky is calling on Europeans to review their priorities, which he believes are too focused on "their internal affairs".

"I think the pressure on Putin is not enough... My opinion is that we need to engage in dialogue, but with conditions," he said, asserting that the Russian president's "interest" is "to humiliate Europe".

Putin 'only scared of Trump'

He accused Moscow of taking advantage of the cold weather to try to tip the balance of the war by increasing strikes against energy infrastructure since the beginning of winter. This has left many people, including residents of the capital Kyiv, without power in temperatures as low as minus 20C in recent days.

"Russia wants to inflict more suffering on Ukrainians so that they accept what our American friends call a 'compromise', But in fact, it is an ultimatum."

Zelensky said the US president's role in ongoing peace talks would be crucial, and that "Putin is only scared of Trump".

He suggested that Trump could use economic sanctions against Russia or transfer weapons to Ukraine to "maintain this pressure on Putin", adding that Kyiv would not compromise on sovereignty.

Zelensky's comments came as a second day of trilateral talks gets under way on Thursday in Abu Dhabi.

These US-mediated talks are the latest chapter in the so far unsuccessful diplomatic effort to halt the war, which started on 24 February, 2022 with Russia's full-scale invasion.

The main sticking point in the negotiations is the long-term fate of territory in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow is demanding that Kyiv pull its troops out of swathes of the Donbas region, including heavily fortified cities atop vast natural resources, as a precondition of any deal.

It also wants international recognition that land seized in the invasion belongs to Russia.

Russia occupies around 20 percent of Ukraine. It claims the Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions as its own, and holds pockets of territory in at least three other Ukrainian regions in the east.

Kyiv still controls around one-fifth of the Donetsk region.

International intervention force

But Zelensky has warned that ceding ground will embolden Moscow, and that it will not sign a deal that fails to deter Russia from invading again.

"We Ukrainians are well aware of the price that every metre and every kilometre of this land costs our army," he told France 2.

"To conquer eastern Ukraine, it would cost them [the Russian army] 800,000 more [soldiers'] lives. It will take them at least two years, with very slow progress. In my opinion, they will not last that long."

Instead he raised the suggestion of a "frozen front line" and the creation of a special economic zone, with international oversight.

"We must be in control of our part. They must control theirs. But, between us, we need an international intervention force, an international presence," he added.

French diplomatic visit

European leaders have balked at their exclusion from peace talks led by Trump’s administration, forced instead to shore up Ukraine’s negotiating position from the sidelines.

France and the United Kingdom have been leading efforts to put together a peacekeeping force that could be deployed to Ukraine after any deal.

On this subject, French President Emmanuel Macron stated in early January that "several thousand" French soldiers could be deployed.

Macron also reiterated this week the importance for Europeans "to restore their own channels of discussion".

He said in December that Europeans would have to re-engage in direct talks with Putin if the latest US-led efforts to broker a Ukraine peace deal were to founder.

In this vein, Macron’s most senior diplomat, Emmanuel Bonne, travelled to Moscow on Tuesday for talks with Russian officials.

"These discussions exist at a technical level, in full transparency and in consultation with President Volodymyr Zelensky and with the main European colleagues," the president's office said on Tuesday.

(with newswires)

Hong Kong sentences pro-democracy mogul Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison


Former Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, a steadfast critic of Beijing, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday in the longest punishment given so far under a China-imposed national security law that has virtually silenced the city’s dissent. The European Union said it "deplored" the ruling, calling for Lai's "immediate and unconditional release".


 09/02/2026 -
By:  FRANCE 24
Video by:  FRANCE 24

Beijing critic and pro-democracy mogul Jimmy Lai pictured in Hong Kong in June 2020. © Anthony Wallace, AFP file photo
01:37

A Hong Kong court sentenced pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison on Monday for national security crimes, a punishment rights groups condemned as "effectively a death sentence" and a symbol of the city's shrivelling press freedoms.

Lai, a British citizen and founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, was found guilty in December of urging foreign countries to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and for publishing "seditious" articles in his paper.

The 78-year-old's sentence is by far the harshest handed out under the Beijing-imposed national security law, surpassing the previous record of 10 years given to legal scholar Benny Tai in 2024.

A summary document from the judges said they had settled on 20 years' imprisonment "after considering the serious and grave criminal conduct of Lai".

Two of those years will overlap with Lai's existing prison term, meaning that he will serve an additional 18 years, the judges wrote.

Lai, who has been behind bars since 2020, sat impassively in the dock as his sentence was read out, an AFP journalist in the court saw.

As he was led away, he waved solemnly to people in the public gallery, including his wife Teresa, former Hong Kong bishop Cardinal Joseph Zen, and former Apple Daily reporters.

His defence lawyer Robert Pang declined to comment on whether Lai would lodge an appeal, which can be done in the next 28 days.

Asked if the sentence was in line with expectations, Pang told AFP: "In these times, I don't know what to expect."

Teresa Lai was grim-faced during the hearing and made no comment as she left the court, but their children, who live abroad, condemned the sentence in a statement.

"Sentencing my father to this draconian prison sentence is devastating for our family and life-threatening for my father," Lai's son Sebastien said.

The mogul's daughter Claire called it "a heartbreakingly cruel sentence" given his declining health in prison, and if carried out, "he will die a martyr behind bars".
'Effectively a death sentence'

Rights groups also said Lai's punishment amounted to a grave injustice.

"The harsh 20-year sentence against 78-year-old Jimmy Lai is effectively a death sentence. A sentence of this magnitude is both cruel and profoundly unjust," Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Amnesty International called the case "another grim milestone in Hong Kong's transformation from a city governed by the rule of law to one ruled by fear".

Jodie Ginsberg, the CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said "today's egregious decision is the final nail in the coffin for freedom of the press in Hong Kong".

Retired bishop Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun and Teresa Lai, wife of Jimmy Lai, arrive at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts building in Hong Kong for sentencing on February 9, 2026. © Tyrone Siu, Reuters

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer previously said he had raised the issue of Lai during his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing last month, while US President Donald Trump has also called for his release.

Following Lai's sentencing, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper called on Hong Kong to "end his appalling ordeal" and pledged to "rapidly engage further" with Beijing.

Taiwan said Lai's sentencing created a "chilling effect" across borders and "tramples on freedom of speech".

Beijing again dismissed critics on Monday as smearing Hong Kong's judicial system, calling the sentence "reasonable, legitimate and legal".

Hong Kong's chief executive John Lee lauded the lengthy prison term as "deeply gratifying".
Staunch supporters

Dozens of former Apple Daily employees and others braved the cold to queue overnight outside the West Kowloon court for a spot in court, while journalists gathered outside the building's entrance.

The mood was tense as police deployed dozens of officers, an armoured car and a bomb disposal van to the area.

"I think this is equivalent to sentencing Lai to life imprisonment," Lam Ying-kit, a former history teacher in his 50s, told AFP.

Lai's supporters, children, lawyers and rights groups have all raised concerns about his deteriorating health in prison.

Lai was kept in solitary confinement at his own request to avoid harassment, according to prosecutors, while authorities maintain he receives "adequate" care.

Long a thorn in Beijing's side, Lai was prosecuted under the national security law imposed by China on Hong Kong in 2020 following huge pro-democracy protests.

Apple Daily was forced to close in 2021 after police raids.

Eight other defendants, including six Apple Daily executives, were handed sentences of up to 10 years in jail. All had pleaded guilty.

Hong Kong had arrested a total of 386 people for various national security crimes by the start of this month, with 176 of them being convicted.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

'Curtain falls on Hong Kong press freedom': Jimmy Lai prison sentence sparks outcry

Hong Kong's most prominent China critic, media tycoon Jimmy Lai, was sentenced on Monday to 20 years in jail under the city's controversial national security law, in what rights groups condemned as "effectively a death sentence" and a symbol of the city's shrivelling press freedoms.


Issued on: 09/02/2026 
By: FRANCE 24

Merchandise in support of Jimmy Lai is displayed before a news conference in Washington on December 15, 2025. © Julia Demaree Nikhinson, AP

Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced on Monday to 20 years in prison for foreign collusion and sedition, the harshest penalty yet under a Beijing-imposed national security law.

The 78-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper has been behind bars since 2020.

Here are some key reactions:

Lai's children: 'Cruel'

Jimmy Lai's son Sebastien said in a statement: "Sentencing my father to this draconian prison sentence is devastating for our family and life-threatening for my father."

His daughter Claire added: "This is a heartbreakingly cruel sentence. Over the last five years, I have watched my father's health deteriorate dramatically and the conditions he's kept in go from bad to worse. If this sentence is carried out, he will die a martyr behind bars."

Hong Kong leader: 'Deeply gratifying'

Hong Kong leader John Lee said Lai's crimes were "heinous and evil in the extreme".

"(Lai's) heavy sentence of 20 years' imprisonment demonstrates the rule of law, upholds justice and is deeply gratifying," Lee said in a statement.
Beijing: 'No room for argument'

Lin Jian, spokesperson of China's foreign ministry, said Lai was a Chinese citizen and was "a key planner and participant in a series of anti-China and disruptive activities in Hong Kong".

"This is reasonable, legitimate, and legal; there is no room for argument," Lin said at a press briefing.

UK: 'Rapidly engage further'

Britain's Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper said Lai's penalty was "tantamount to a life sentence" and reiterated calls for the tycoon's release on humanitarian grounds.

"Following today's sentencing we will rapidly engage further on Mr Lai's case. We stand with the people of Hong Kong," Cooper added.

EU: 'Deplores'

The European Union said it "deplores" Lai's sentencing and called for his "immediate and unconditional release".

"The EU calls on the Hong Kong authorities to restore confidence in press freedom in Hong Kong... and to stop prosecuting journalists," EU foreign affairs spokesperson Anitta Hipper said.

Australia: 'Cease suppression of freedoms'

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong urged China to "cease suppression of freedoms" and repeal Hong Kong's national security law.

"The Australian Government is gravely concerned by the sentences handed down to Jimmy Lai and his co-defendants in Hong Kong today.

"We continue to call on China to ​cease suppression of freedoms of expression, assembly, media and civil society, consistent with UN Human Rights Committee recommendations, and to call for the repeal of ​the national security law in Hong Kong."

Taiwan: 'Chilling effect'

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement that China and Hong Kong "have brought media influence and international connections within the scope of national security measures, aiming to create a chilling effect across sectors and borders".
Reporters Without Borders: 'Collapse of press freedom'

Thibaut Bruttin, director general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said Lai's case was "nothing more than a sham".

"Today, the curtain falls on press freedom in Hong Kong. We are outraged by the harsh sentences handed down to Jimmy Lai," Bruttin said in a statement.

"Democracies, such as the UK and the US, must stop prioritising the normalisation of relations with China and instead exert pressure on the Chinese regime and Hong Kong authorities to ensure that Jimmy Lai and all other journalists are released from prison," he added.

Human Rights Watch: 'Effectively a death sentence'

Lai's 20-year jail term is tantamount to a death sentence, said Elaine Pearson, Asia Director at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

"The harsh 20-year sentence against 78-year-old Jimmy Lai is effectively a death sentence. A sentence of this magnitude is both cruel and profoundly unjust.

"Lai’s years of persecution show the Chinese government’s determination to crush independent journalism and silence anyone who dares to criticise the Communist Party."

HRW's Elaine Pearson reacted to Jimmy Lai's prison sentence in a post on X. © X

Legal scholar: 'On the high side'

Simon Young, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, said the parts of Lai's sentencing related to foreign collusion "appear to be on the high side".

"I think the Court is wrong to say that (pre-national security law) conduct can be considered in assessing the gravity of the offences," Young told AFP.

Lai's legal team should consider an appeal of sentence, he added.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)

Nigeria deploys army to Kwara state after deadly mass shootings

Nigeria's President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has deployed an army batallion to the western state of Kwara after gunmen killed at least 162 people in one of the country's deadliest attacks in recent months.


Issued on: 05/02/2026 - RFI

Nigerian soldiers driving in Ngamdu, north-eastern Nigeria, on 3 November 2020. © AFP - AUDU MARTE

Tinubu condemned Tuesday's "beastly attack", which he said was carried out against villagers who had rejected extremist Islamist ideology.

"President Tinubu expressed rage that the attackers killed the community members who rejected their obnoxious attempt at indoctrination," a presidential statement said on Wednesday.

The main attack occured late Tuesday in Woro village, while another attack was reported in Nuku village.

Ayodeji Emmanuel Babaomo, the Red Cross secretary in Kwara State, said the death toll stood at 162, "as the search for more bodies continues".

He told French news agency AFP that gunmen had burned shops and a traditional ruler's home in Woro and that wounded people fled into the bushes.

Babaomo said the organisation has been unable to reach the communities where "scores of people were killed" because of the remoteness of the area – about eight hours from the state capital and near Nigeria’s border with Benin.

Conflicting casualty reports

Residents told Reuters news agency the gunmen, thought to be jihadists who often preached in the village, demanded that locals ditch their allegiance to the Nigerian state and switch to Sharia Islamic law. When the villagers pushed back, the militants opened fire.

Earlier, a local lawmaker in Woro, Sa'idu Baba Ahmed, gave an initial toll of 35 to 40 dead but said he expected more bodies would be found. He later put the death toll at more than 170.

The attack was confirmed by police, who did not give a casualty figure.

While no group has yet claimed responsibility, the Kwara state governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq blamed "terrorist cells".

He said their attack as a "cowardly expression of frustration" in response to ongoing military operations against armed extremists in the state.

Mohammed Omar Bio, a member of parliament representing the area, told the Associated Press agency the attacks in Woro and Nuku were carried out by the Lakurawa, an armed group affiliated with the Islamic State group.

President Tinubu blamed the attack on Boko Haram jihadists.

Complex security crisis

Nigeria is in the grip of a complex security crisis, with an insurgency by Islamic militants in the north-east alongside a surge in kidnappings for ransom by gunmen across the north-west and north-central regions over recent months.

Last month, the military said it had launched "sustained coordinated offensive operations against terrorist elements" in Kwara State. Local media reported that the army had "neutralised" 150 bandits.

Jihadist attacks have intensified over the past year in Nigeria. The powerful Al-Qaeda affiliate Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) – which operates across the northern border in Niger – claimed responsibility for its first attack in Nigeria at the end of October, in Kwara State.

Researcher Brant Philip said the latest raid occurred very near the site JNIM attacked, suggesting a "direct overlap" between JNIM and Boko Haram, with the groups appearing to have a "loose alliance".

US involvement

Nigeria is under pressure to restore security since US President Donald Trump accused it last year of failing to protect Christians after numerous Islamist attacks and mass kidnappings.

In response, Trump ordered US air strikes in December on IS group-affiliated militants in Nigeria.

On Tuesday, the head of US Africa Command said the US had sent a small team of military officers to Nigeria.

The Nigerian authorities say they are cooperating with Washington to improve security and have denied there is systematic persecution of Christians.

Experts say Muslims as well as Christians have been killed in the country's violence, often without distinction.

(with newswires)

Sudan conflict worsening with mass killings and famine, HRW warns

Sudan’s war has been marked by mass killings, famine and the deliberate blocking of aid as rival forces carried out war crimes across the country, Human Rights Watch said, while the United Nations warned the conflict has become the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.


Issued on: 04/02/2026 - RFI

Relatives check the body bags of victims of the Sudanese war after the Sudanese Red Crescent transferred the remains from makeshift graves to a local cemetery in Khartoum on 11 January 2026. AP - Marwan Ali



Fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces has devastated cities, driven millions from their homes and left vast areas facing hunger since April 2023.

Both sides have attacked civilians, obstructed humanitarian assistance and committed serious abuses, the rights group said.

The actions of the warring parties have created the most severe humanitarian emergency globally, Human Rights Watch said in World Report 2026, its annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe.

The UN World Food Programme reported that 24.6 million people are suffering acute hunger, with 2 million facing famine or the risk of famine. More than 11.8 million people have been displaced, including 7.4 million inside Sudan and 4.2 million who have fled to neighbouring countries.

While the army retook Khartoum and other areas in central Sudan, the RSF captured El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, on 26 October after a siege that began in May 2024.

There were immediate reports and images of RSF extrajudicial killings and other serious violations against civilians trying to flee, Human Rights Watch said.

Killings, torture, mass graves

In Khartoum, the army uncovered evidence of serious abuses by the RSF as it regained control of the capital in March, particularly in Omdurman, Human Rights Watch said. The army then carried out retaliatory attacks against local volunteers accused of collaborating with the RSF.

Local medical authorities and activists said RSF shelling killed 54 people and wounded more than 100 at a market in Omdurman in February.

Media reported in March that around 500 people may have been buried in mass graves near an RSF base in northern Khartoum, where detainees reported torture and starvation.

The UN Human Rights Office said there were credible reports that RSF and allied forces looted houses in eastern Khartoum and carried out summary killings and arbitrary detentions. It also said SAF-allied fighters were reported to have carried out similar abuses.

Local volunteers said in January that the army carried out indiscriminate airstrikes in southern Khartoum, including on a market, killing and injuring dozens of civilians, Human Rights Watch reported.

The group also said the army bombed a mosque in West Kordofan on June 21, killing 41 and wounding dozens.

Darfur under siege

The fall of El Fasher followed relentless RSF attacks that triggered famine in displacement camps in and around the city, Human Rights Watch said. It said the RSF carried out mass killings of people fleeing as well as sexual violence.

The UN fact-finding mission reported that the RSF damaged water facilities and supply lines in February and that mid-April attacks on Zamzam killed between 300 and 1,500 people and injured more than 157, the majority women and children.

Human Rights Watch said the army shelled and bombed residential areas, including a market north of El Fasher on March 24. It also said the army killed scores of civilians in early February in attacks on residential and commercial neighbourhoods in Nyala, South Darfur.

Both warring parties continue to wilfully obstruct aid despite desperate needs, the report said, and have detained and harassed humanitarian workers and local volunteers.

The UN fact-finding mission concluded that the RSF and allied forces used starvation as a method of warfare, a war crime.

Aid blocked, women and girls targeted

In June, a World Food Programme convoy was attacked in North Darfur, killing five staff members. A drone strike also hit another UN convoy in the same region in August.

An armed attack in August forced Doctors without Borders to suspend operations at Zalingei hospital in central Darfur in the midst of a cholera outbreak.

At least 330 cases of conflict-related sexual violence have been documented, primarily against women and girls, UN experts said in May. The UN Population Fund said cuts to aid funding have forced it to withdraw from more than half of the 93 health facilities it was supporting.

The UN’s top humanitarian official, Tom Fletcher, urged donors and diplomatic partners to act at a donor conference in Washington on Tuesday.

“The horrific humanitarian crisis in Sudan has endured more than 1,000 days – too long,” he said. “Too many days of famine, of brutal atrocities, of lives uprooted and destroyed.”

Fletcher warned that funding alone would not be enough. “The money is not enough,” he said.

“We need the air assets, the security, the medical support for our teams, and the mediation work that has to underpin the access.”

He said the UN was pushing for visible progress toward a humanitarian truce ahead of Ramadan.

In October, ICC judges convicted former Janjaweed militia leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur in 2003-04 and 2013, the first trial arising out of the court’s Darfur investigation, Human Rights Watch said.

The group said the ICC’s mandate remains limited to Darfur, leaving no independent judicial mechanism to prosecute grave crimes committed elsewhere in Sudan.