‘We are all foreigners’: Japanese director casts dandelion seeds in migration tale

In her animated film Dandelion's Odyssey, Japanese director Momoko Seto explores the theme of migration – something seen across the natural world, as well as among human beings. Using detailed scientific imagery and a multi-layered soundtrack in place of dialogue, the film’s message is one of resilience.

Issued on: 15/03/2026 - RFI

'Dandelion's Odyssey' by Momoko Seto, which premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. 

© ECCE Films / Miyu Productions
03:23

By: Ollia Horton

Planet Earth is burning, with explosions going off left and right. In the midst of this chaos, four dandelion plants, fearing for their survival, lift off and float away into space to find a new home.

With this animated tale, Seto explores challenges seen in both the natural world and the human race: migration and the effects of climate change. Using the familiar image of dandelion seeds dispersed by the wind, she examines the fragility and resilience of both people and the world around them.

Trained at art school in France, Seto has previously made documentary films with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), which led her to thinking about how to share scientific content with a wider audience.

'Dandelion's Odyssey' was released in France on 11 March. © ECCE Films / Miyu Productions

Seto began with making short films in a series called Planet, which became a template for the full length feature.

The music and sound production, by Nicolas Becker and Quentin Sirjacq, also play a significant role in Dandelion's Odyssey, which has no dialogue, allowing it to transcend barriers of age and language.

Seto credits Japanese culture with influencing her work in this regard, explaining that the "absence of words" is in itself a vital part of communication and that "silence is important between two people", to allow for sounds, body language and movement to also play their part.

DRC artist's film sheds light on link between colonialism and climate change

RFI met with director Momoko Seto at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. 

© RFI / Ollia Horton

Dandelion’s Odyssey was shot in France, Iceland and Japan over several months, with different teams and using various techniques, in a combination of 3D animation, live action and time-lapse footage.

The film zooms in on a miniature world that takes on giant proportions, one where a bee becomes as big as a helicopter and a praying mantis becomes a dinosaur stalking the earth, while a mushroom is seen as a towering tree.

For Seto, the process of migration, be it by humans, plants or animals, is an integral part of life – a natural phenomenon, to be embraced and accepted.

“We shouldn’t be barring people from entering to protect our territory, …saying you are a foreigner. No, we are all foreigners”

Shown as the closing film at the Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025, Dandelion’s Odyssey went on to win the Fipresci International Film Critics Award, as well as taking prizes at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and the Bucheon International Animation Festival in South Korea.

It was released in French cinemas on 11 March.

Under the same sky, climate change brings drought to Somalia and floods to Kenya

For east African neighbours Kenya and Somalia, the effects of climate change are worlds apart, with one country suffering drought and the other deadly flooding.

Issued on: 15/03/2026 - RFI

Drought in Somalia is driving pastoralists farther in search of water and food for their animals. © Abdikarim Mohamed/ICRC

By:Anne Macharia in Nairobi

On the outskirts of Baidoa, southern Somalia, 38-year-old pastoralist Asha Hassan walks several kilometres each morning to find water for the few goats she has left.

Two years ago, she owned nearly 60 – now just 11 remain.

“The drought does not kill everything at once,” she says. “It takes a little today, a little tomorrow, until you realise your whole herd has disappeared.”

In large parts of Somalia, drought grips communities that have faced years of failed rains. Wells are shrinking, grazing land has turned brittle and many families rely on aid deliveries.

But a few hundred kilometres to the south, a different kind of disaster is unfolding. In Kenya, heavy rains have triggered floods that have swept through villages, submerged roads and killed residents in low-lying areas. While one country prays for rain, its neighbour prays for it to stop.

'A broader pattern'

“It is the same sky above us,” Hassan says. “But it is giving different punishments.”

The Horn of Africa often experiences extreme weather, but scientists say the region is now seeing sharper contrasts between neighbouring countries.

“What seems like a contradiction is actually part of a broader climate pattern,” says Abdi Noor, a climate scientist with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

“Rainfall in the region is becoming more uneven. Some areas receive far less rain than normal, while others face sudden and intense storms.”

These changes are influenced by large-scale climate systems in the Indian Ocean that shape East Africa’s rainy seasons.

'Climate whiplash': East Africa caught between floods and drought

Floods in Kenya

In parts of Nairobi, heavy rains have caused rivers to overflow, flooding neighborhoods along their banks.

Peter Otieno, a resident of Mathare, says storms now arrive more quickly than he remembers from his childhood.

During one recent storm, water flooded homes while residents were asleep.

“You wake up and the floor is already wet,” Otieno says. “Then the water keeps rising.”

Families rushed to carry children and belongings to higher ground. For many locals already struggling with rising food prices and unstable work opportunities, the floods have added another layer of hardship.

“When the drought was happening in the north, we were hearing about hunger,” Otieno says. “Here we are fighting water.”

Deadly flash floods devastate Kenyan capital after torrential rain

While floods have inundated parts of Kenya, Somalia is suffering extended drought. © Abdikarim Mohamed/ICRC

Somalia’s slow emergency

In Somalia, the crisis is unfolding more slowly. Drought rarely comes as a single dramatic event, instead creeping across landscapes, drying wells and weakening livestock.

In the rural areas around Baidoa, many families have had to move to find pasture and water. “Every week we travel farther,” Hassan says. “The animals walk until they cannot walk anymore.”

Humanitarian workers say the prolonged drought has changed livelihoods across parts of the country.

“When livestock die, families lose both food and income,” says Abdullahi Mohamed, a field coordinator with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). “Recovery can take years.”

Crisis-level hunger in Somalia nearly doubles to 6.5 million people, UN experts warn

Experts say the contrasting crises in Somalia and Kenya show how climate change is changing weather patterns across East Africa.

Warmer temperatures allow the atmosphere to hold more moisture, which can lead to heavier rainfall in some areas. At the same time, higher heat speeds up evaporation and can worsen drought elsewhere.

“Climate change does not affect every place the same way at the same time,” says Miriam Ochieng of the University of Nairobi. “It often creates a patchwork of extremes.”

RFI   INVESTIGATION

Behind the success of Shen Yun show, former Falun Gong followers allege abuse

The stage show Shen Yun draws audiences across the world with its vision of 5,000 years of Chinese civilisation through classical dance and opera. But in an RFI investigation, former dancers and followers of the Falun Gong movement behind the production describe a very different reality – of psychological coercion, untreated injuries and forced labour involving minors.


Issued on: 15/03/2026 - RFI

Posters advertising the Shen Yun dance show in the Paris metro in March 2024. The global touring production was created by followers of the Falun Gong movement. 

AFP - DIMITAR DILKOFF

John Smithies spent 20 years following the teachings of the Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong, and held a senior role at its newspaper Epoch Times.

At a meeting last year, he heard a dancer from the Shen Yun company, founded by followers of the movement, tell the room: “If you make a mistake during this performance, the audience will lose their chance to remain on Earth for eternity.”

“Saying that to 14 and 15-year-olds puts incredible pressure on their shoulders,” the British former follower told RFI. “It’s like mental torture.”

His account echoes two complaints filed by former dancers accusing the organisation of forced labour by minors and complaining of untreated injuries and psychological pressure that pushed teenagers to work days of more than 15 hours.

Shen Yun describes its performances as “the rebirth of 5,000 years of Chinese civilisation”. The show, lasting two and a half hours, combines lyrical singing, classical dance and a symphony orchestra.

The company now operates eight touring troupes that perform hundreds of shows each year across several continents, drawing more than a million theatre-goers annually – with tickets typically costing around €75.

Inside the Dragon Springs compound

Falun Gong is a spiritual movement founded in China in 1992 by Li Hongzhi. The practice blends elements of Buddhism with the traditional Chinese discipline of qigong, a practice combining controlled breathing, meditation and slow physical movement.

Li's book Zhuan Falun is the central text of the movement and his teachings have attracted followers among the Chinese diaspora in the US as well as in South Korea, Hong Kong, Australia and France.

After the movement was banned in China in 1999, Li settled in the United States. Shen Yun was later founded there as part of a broader network of Falun Gong cultural and media projects.

Many of the dancers train at the Fei Tian Academy, based at Dragon Springs, a 172-hectare complex an hour and a half outside New York City.

The secluded site includes pagodas inspired by China’s Tang dynasty and Buddhist temples as well as modern buildings. Its website says the compound combines “the natural beauty of New York State with Chinese architecture”.

Dancer Li Zhuxing arrived there in 2008 at the age of 13 to begin training. “There on the mountain we lived cut off from the world, like in a bubble,” Li told RFI.

Shen Yun: Fighting Communism - and making a stack on the side

Students lived under strict rules. Boys and girls were separated, internet access was restricted and training sessions were intense.

Students were also required to hand over their passports to the administration, which the organisation claims is common practice at many private schools in the United States.

Yu Chao, a former Falun Gong member who now describes himself as a whistleblower, said the organisation restricted children’s contact with the outside world.

“Shen Yun trapped these children in a real estate complex, limiting their access to the world both physically and in terms of information,” he said.

Yu spent 10 years in Chinese prisons because of his involvement with Falun Gong, whose members have long faced persecution in China. Now a YouTuber, he said he receives many messages with testimonies about life inside Dragon Springs.

For believers, however, the complex represents the centre of the community.

“For the faithful it’s paradise, the pinnacle of the community,” said Rob Gray, who practised Falun Gong for 13 years before leaving the movement in 2024.

Having a child perform with Shen Yun is seen by Falun Gong followers as a major achievement because it offers the possibility of meeting the movement’s founder, Li Hongzhi.

“We saw him once or twice a week,” said former student Li. “When he entered the room everyone stopped what they were doing. We believed we were in the presence of a supreme divine being.”

Concerns over medical care

Daily life at the academy followed a strict routine of studying Falun Gong texts, practising meditation exercises, dance training, classes and meals.

“It was very hard. We constantly pushed our limits,” Li said, adding that many students did not initially view the physical strain as abuse. “Because of the brainwashing we went through, we saw suffering as something positive that could eliminate our karmic debt.”

Other former dancers and visitors to Dragon Springs described a similar mindset.

“It was so deeply ingrained in us to reject Western medicine that our fragile minds told us we couldn’t go to the hospital,” one former dancer told RFI. “It would disappoint Master Li. It would be a sin.”

Similar allegations have surfaced in other investigations. In August 2024, The New York Times reported accounts from former Shen Yun performers describing intense training schedules, pressure to keep performing while injured and being discouraged from seeking medical care.

Several lawsuits filed since then have repeated accusations of forced labour involving minors.

RFI’s investigation, based on interviews with former dancers and followers of the Falun Gong movement behind the show, uncovered similar claims about life inside the organisation.

Shen Yun rejects accusations that it confined performers or restricted their communication.

The company provided a statement from its troupe doctor, Damon Noto, who said claims that medical treatment was discouraged or refused do not match what he has personally observed or what appears in his medical records.

Shen Yun also published a petition signed by 1,550 current or former performers describing the allegations as “gross distortions and false stories about our work, our faith and our way of life”.

Li Hongzhi’s teachings remain unclear on the question of medical treatment.

“Refusal of treatment is extremely common in the community. Some senior members have died because of it,” Yu Chao said.

Other former followers described similar beliefs within the movement.

“Li Hongzhi says with incredible confidence that only he can heal,” Gray added.

Were human organs stolen in 20-year conflict between Beijing and Falun Gong?

Rise of the Falun Gong

At its height, Falun Gong said it had 70 million followers, although the exact number is difficult to verify.

In April 1999, tens of thousands of them gathered near Zhongnanhai, the Chinese leadership compound in Beijing. At the time, Falun Gong claimed tens of millions of adherents across China, including members of the Communist Party itself.

Alarmed by the movement’s growing influence, the authorities later used the demonstration as justification to ban it. Its followers have faced persecution ever since.

Opposition to the Communist Party remains central to the movement’s message. That theme also runs through Shen Yun performances, which present a vision of China before communist rule and portray the party as an oppressive force.

“The fundamental belief of Falun Gong is that Li Hongzhi is not simply God but the Buddha Lord of all gods,” Gray said.

“He came to Earth to carry out what he calls the rectification by the Fa,” he said, describing it as the renewal of Earth and every element of the cosmos.

For Shen Yun dancers, that belief shapes their role.

“Our entire existence was dedicated to this mission – saving sentient beings,” Li Zhuxing said. “The message for us as children was that the apocalypse was coming.”

Tiananmen Square at 35: top Chinese dissident looks back
Total devotion

Some followers first encounter Falun Gong through free meditation sessions offered at practice sites. Over time many devote most of their time to the movement’s projects.

“People working on Falun Gong projects feel it is part of their divine mission,” Smithies said. “They devote 10, 12, 14 or even 16 hours a day, as much as they can.”

During certain periods he said he slept between three and five and a half hours a night.

The current number of Falun Gong followers worldwide remains hard to determine. The movement has claimed it has between 7 million and 20 million practitioners.

Followers also contribute to the organisation’s economic activities. These include the newspaper Epoch Times, which reported $126 million in revenue in 2024, New Tang Dynasty Television and Shen Yun itself, which reported $290 million in assets the same year.

“Li Hongzhi built an empire thanks to free labour,” Smithies added. A former executive at Epoch Times, he said the people who sell tickets for the show in shopping centres receive no pay.

Believers and dancers also help with practical tasks around performances.

“Once the show is over, the Shen Yun performers turn into an army,” Gray explained. “Everyone has an assigned role to pack up and clear the venue.”

Wealth and leadership

Despite the criticism, the show’s popularity and financial success are widely recognised.

Organisations linked to Falun Gong, all registered as non-profit groups, have accumulated considerable resources.

Shen Yun’s lawyer in France, Paul Mallet, rejected accusations that Li Hongzhi personally benefits from the organisation’s wealth.

“Li Hongzhi lives only from the royalties of his books,” Mallet said.

However, former followers have questioned his lifestyle. “His family loves luxury – jewellery, French perfumes, cars,” Yu Chao said – claims that are difficult to verify.

“If he truly preaches detachment from everything earthly – fame, fortune, wealth – then he should prove it,” Li Zhuxing said.

In Zhuan Falun, Li Hongzhi writes that what matters is not wealth itself but whether followers can detach from it.

“What matters is not whether you hold a high position or have great wealth, but whether you can abandon that attachment,” the book states.

“These are phrases open to interpretation but far from what Li says in private or how he behaves,” Gray said. “He lives like a king in his complex while followers sacrifice their lives, accumulate debts and live under constant pressure.”

This story was adapted from the original version in French by Nicolas Rocca.

INTERVIEW

From food to transport, how cities are rewriting the climate playbook

What if tackling sky-high energy bills, unaffordable housing and the daily cost of getting to work could also help solve climate change? One of the world’s leading thinkers on urban sustainability says the two challenges share the same solutions – and cities across Europe are already testing them.


Issued on: 14/03/2026 - RFI

An aerial view of Ungersheim in eastern France – a small town often cited as a pioneer of local climate initiatives, including renewable energy and community food projects. © AFP - SEBASTIEN BOZON


British social scientist and environmental campaigner Rob Hopkins tells RFI that many of the most effective responses to climate change are emerging at the local level – led by citizens, cooperatives and city authorities.

Twenty years ago he helped launch the international Transition Towns movement in Totnes, a town in south-west England, encouraging communities to respond locally to climate change and rising energy costs.

Although he has since stepped back from the organisation, Hopkins remains an influential voice for citizens looking for practical ways to reshape their cities and neighbourhoods.

RFI: Marseille, Metz, Saint-Etienne, Malaucène... you often come to speak in cities and towns across France. What kinds of transition projects are emerging across the country?

Rob Hopkins: There are many transition groups across France and they're doing great things at a community level. But what interests me most is seeing where the idea goes. In France, transition goes beyond the "transition movement" as we originally conceived it. We always thought it was something communities would do, with local government supporting them. In France, mayors have much more power than they do in the UK, so if you have a mayor who understands these ideas, they can do an enormous amount.

In Ungersheim, in Alsace, the mayor Jean-Claude Mensch – an incredibly visionary mayor – has created one of the most amazing examples of transition. It was captured in Marie-Monique Robin’s film What Are We Waiting For? They’ve done lots of renewable energy projects. They created a large market garden that provides jobs for young people. They built a place to process that food – making preserves and other products – which creates more jobs. They even got rid of the school bus and the children go to school in a horse-drawn carriage. All sorts of fantastic things that show what can happen when a mayor catalyses and supports the process.

Richelieu the horse taking children in Ungersheim to school in 2015. 

© RFI/Katia Bitsch

France unveils its first 'positive energy' neighbourhood, powering local pride

RFI: What are some other examples that stood out to you?

RH: I was in Marseille recently and visited a very ambitious urban farm called Le Talus, run mostly by young people. I also went to the opening of Le Présage, which says it is the first completely solar-powered restaurant in France. It’s a very ecological building with a parabolic mirror behind it that focuses the Marseille sunshine directly into the oven. So they use no gas and no electricity for cooking. It’s really phenomenal.

I also visited L’Après M in northern Marseille, where the community has taken over an empty McDonald’s and turned it into a social fast-food restaurant and an incredible community resource.

RFI: What is it about French society that helps these initiatives take root?

RH: In France, as in the UK, there is the problem of a centralised national government that can be bureaucratic, unresponsive and closely connected to oil and gas companies and other industries that we no longer want.

But France, unlike the UK, successfully had a revolution in the past and there is still a kind of rebellious spirit. People’s ability to organise and demonstrate is very inspiring. There is also a strong sense that local places matter. People often feel very connected to where they live, to the landscapes around them and to the food that comes from those places. And there are many strong local associations.

L’Après M in Marseille, a former McDonald’s converted into a community-run social restaurant. © Lewisiscrazy, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons


RFI: The transition movement often begins with small citizen initiatives. How do ideas that start in neighbourhoods grow into real city policies?

RH: The example that always comes to mind for me is Liège in Belgium. In 2012, a group of people in the "Liège Transition" movement had an idea: what if, within a generation, most of the food eaten in Liège came from the land closest to the city? They called it the Liège food belt and organised a big public forum to discuss the idea. Six hundred people came.

Four years later I went back to Liège. In that time they had raised €5 million in investment from the people of the city – not from banks and not from the municipality, which wasn’t involved at the beginning. Residents invested in 30 new cooperatives. They opened four shops in the city centre, a brewery and two vineyards.

Over time the municipality made land around the city available for new market gardeners to grow food for the system. It also created a cooperative food hub on the outskirts of the city, financed by the municipality, where vegetables and other food from local producers are collected and processed. That food is then supplied to schools and public kitchens across the city.

They have also shifted school meals towards largely local, organic and sustainable food, producing thousands of meals every day. They run an extensive public education programme and organise a festival each year called Nourrir Liège.

The city has now adopted an ambitious and comprehensive food strategy that is integrated into its municipal plan through to 2030, placing this idea of a food belt at its core. The model has spread to six other Belgian cities and is now part of several European initiatives.

For me it’s a beautiful example of something that starts with five ordinary people around a table and, 15 years later, becomes public policy. It took three or four years before the municipality became involved and began supporting it. What they are doing there is profoundly inspiring. National governments should support communities and cities so they can become places where this kind of innovation flourishes.

No stone left unturned for makers of Paris region's first olive oil

RFI: Not everyone is motivated by environmental concerns. How do you bring more people on board?

RH: Many of the solutions to the climate emergency are the same ones needed to address the cost-of-living crisis. Many of the conditions feeding the rise of the far right also need to be addressed in ways that meet people’s everyday needs.

If a municipality like Grande-Synthe can provide affordable homes and free public transport, and if we manage the transition well, we will create many jobs. Building a new food system will create jobs. We also need to make homes much more energy-efficient and remove hard surfaces from cities because as they heat up they become a real health risk.

RFI: Cities often say they don’t have the money for this kind of transition. How can they pay for it?

RH: The narrative in municipalities everywhere is that there is no money. That limits imagination enormously. But there are very different ways to do things.

In Preston in the United Kingdom, one plan to revive the city’s economy was to build a large shopping centre in the centre of town. But when major companies withdrew from the project after the 2008 financial crisis, it collapsed.

A councillor then began looking around the world for other ideas and came across the concept of community wealth building. The idea is to keep money circulating in a city’s economy for as long as possible before it leaves. Preston hired the Centre for Local Economic Strategies to map the city’s economy. Researchers found that only 5 percent of the £750 million in public spending by major local institutions each year stayed in the local economy.

The city began changing its economic policies by supporting cooperatives and reconsidering where pension funds were invested. Some investments that had previously been placed far away were redirected into local projects. Today more of the money that enters Preston remains and circulates locally. People now speak about the "Preston model".

We also need to think less in silos. In the Netherlands, for example, the government spends about €500 million each year on high-quality cycling infrastructure because it knows that this can save €19 billion in national health costs, according to a 2015 study.

Bikes in Utrecht, a city in the cyclist-friendly Netherlands. © Pixabay


Slideshow: Paris ring road celebrates 50 years

RFI: National governments often move slowly on climate. Does that hold back the transition?

RH: We are seeing what I call the Trump effect in many parts of the world – a retreat from urgent climate action. In the United States, government documents can no longer even mention climate change and carbon dioxide is no longer considered a pollutant. It’s completely crazy.

In the years after the film Demain came out in 2015 there was huge excitement about these ideas in France and a sense of pride around Cop21. Then the Citizens' Convention on Climate was organised in 2019 and President Emmanuel Macron said he would adopt all of its proposals. Instead he has been very cautious on climate. So we have to find other ways forward.

RFI: Why do you see cities as the key place where this transition can happen?

RH: Because the untapped potential at the city level is enormous. You cannot achieve this without engaged citizens and communities playing an active role. But we cannot expect communities to do all of this as volunteers in their spare time. We need to support and resource community organisations.

In the United States, some of the most ambitious climate action is now coming from cities and states. When I travel across Europe, the most inspiring work I see is where city administrations, citizen groups and local businesses find new ways to work together. They can move very quickly and very ambitiously.

In France I see an incredible movement of energy cooperatives, food cooperatives and people creating new models of living and housing. That is where I see hope for the future.

City Dreamers: The female architects who built 20th century cities

RFI: Transport and housing are major obstacles for the transition, especially in rural or peri-urban areas where cars remain essential. What alternatives do you see?

RH: One option is a four-day working week, which removes one day of commuting. That policy already exists in many places. More people could also work from home. I don’t think that reduces productivity – it may even increase it. We need to be more flexible about how people work rather than assuming everyone must be in the same office all the time. We also need to consider the impact of long commutes on children, families and mental health.

In many places, citizens have organised car-sharing schemes. Some communities have even created their own transport systems. In Brighton, near London, there is something called the Big Lemon – a community-owned cooperative bus service.

In the town where I live, Totnes, which has about 9,000 residents, we have something called Bob the Bus. It is a community bus service run by volunteers on routes that commercial bus companies don’t serve. Volunteers help run it and raise funds from different sources because people are very proud of it.

Two “Bob the Bus” vehicles in Totnes, south-west England. The volunteer-run service provides routes not covered by commercial operators and is supported by around 30 volunteers, mostly drivers.

 © Courtesy of Totnes and Rural Community Transport

RFI: And on housing – what alternatives are emerging?

RH: We have an enormous housing crisis in the UK because private developers build expensive houses and nobody builds affordable homes for people. In Totnes we have a project called Transition Homes, where the community organised itself as a community land trust and became its own housing developer.

They are building 39 truly affordable homes for local people. They are very energy-efficient and will remain in community ownership. The first families will move in next September. For me, it’s a very important idea that communities can become their own housing developers.

RFI: The word “transition” suggests an end point. Is there a city that has completed the transition?

RH: No. I think the city of the future will have the cycling infrastructure of Utrecht in the Netherlands, where at eight in the morning 40,000 bicycles pass by, the superblocks of Barcelona, the car-free neighbourhoods of Freiburg, the urban agriculture of Geneva, the food belt of Liège and the commitment to closing and greening streets that you see in Copenhagen.

And it will also have clean rivers like those we are beginning to see again in Paris, where people can swim.

Rob Hopkins was interviewed by RFI's Géraud Bosman-Delzons.

EU deadline lands for X to pay €120m fine over verification system

Monday marks the deadline for Elon Musk’s social media platform X to pay a €120 million European Union penalty over its verification system and transparency breaches.


Issued on: 16/03/2026 - RFI

South African-born US tech billionaire Elon Musk acquired X, then known as Twitter, in 2022. AFP - NICOLAS TUCAT

The penalty against X (formerly Twitter) stems from a landmark case in 2025 under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), legislation designed to ensure that major online platforms take greater responsibility for tackling illegal and harmful content.

The European Commission has been examining a set of remedies submitted by the company – a sign that discussions between Brussels and the platform remain active.

A spokesperson for the Commission confirmed on Friday that X has proposed changes relating to its blue checkmark verification system, which was central to the case against the company.

The regulator said it would “carefully assess” the proposed remedies, according to Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier, although no further details were disclosed.

The fine was originally issued in December after EU regulators concluded that the platform had breached rules governing transparency and the treatment of users online.

The case marked the first major enforcement action under the DSA, underscoring the EU’s determination to assert stronger oversight of powerful digital platforms.

A test for Europe’s digital rules

At the heart of the dispute lies the platform’s blue checkmark feature, long regarded as a symbol of verified identity on social media.

Before Musk acquired the company in 2022, then known as Twitter, the badge indicated that an account belonged to a notable public figure or organisation whose identity had been confirmed by the platform.

That changed following Musk's takeover, at which point the blue checkmark became tied to a paid subscription service. Under the revised system, users could obtain the badge by subscribing, rather than through an identity verification process.

EU regulators argued that this shift risked misleading users. In July 2024, the European Commission formally charged the company with deceiving users, saying the blue checkmark no longer reflected widely recognised industry practices and could create confusion about the authenticity of accounts.

The case followed a two-year investigation conducted under the DSA – a sweeping regulatory framework that places new obligations on large online platforms operating in the EU.

Among other requirements, the law compels companies to address illegal content, limit systemic risks and ensure greater transparency about how their services operate.

The enforcement action also attracted criticism from the United States government, which has expressed concern about the potential impact of EU tech regulations on American companies.

Changes to verification system

While the fine remains in place, attention has now turned to the remedies proposed by X in response to the Commission’s findings.

The company has reportedly agreed to alter how its verification mechanism works within the EU. The exact nature of the changes has not been publicly outlined, but regulators are expected to scrutinise whether the proposals sufficiently address concerns about user transparency and potential deception.

The Commission’s assessment could shape how the DSA is enforced going forward. As the first major test of the legislation, the case against X is being closely watched by both regulators and technology companies around the world.

(with newswires)

France begins landmark trial over Islamic State genocide of Yazidis

A French court on Monday began a landmark trial examining the Islamic State (IS) group’s campaign against the Yazidi religious minority in northern Iraq. It is the first time France has prosecuted a suspect for genocide linked to the attacks on the community in Iraq and Syria.


Issued on: 16/03/2026 - RFI

Many Yazidis fled their homes after attacks by the Islamic State group targeting the minority community in Iraq. PHOTO/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE

The accused is a French jihadist presumed dead but still being tried in absentia for his alleged role in enslaving and abusing Yazidi women and children.

Sabri Essid, born in Toulouse in 1984, joined the Islamic State group in Syria in early 2014. Investigators say he first worked as a bodyguard to a senior IS leader before becoming a member of the Amniyat, the organisation’s internal security and intelligence branch.

He faces charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and complicity in those crimes committed in Syria between August 2014 and 2016.

Four Yazidi women and their seven children have been identified as victims in the case.

Essid is presumed to have died in Syria in 2018. Because there is no official confirmation of his death, French courts say they can still try him in absentia in case he reappears in Syria or Iraq. The trial is scheduled to run until Friday.

Survivors speak out

The four Yazidi women described captivity marked by deprivation and repeated violence.

Investigators say they were deprived of water, food, medical care and freedom, and spoke of repeated rapes carried out with “violence and brutality”. They said Essid treated them “like sexual merchandise”.

“It is important to understand that an unspeakable horror fell upon these women,” said lawyer Clémence Bectarte, who represents three of the women and is a member of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), an international rights group.

Bectarte told RFI the women had been held by multiple Islamic State fighters during their captivity.

“When I started working with these four women, there was frustration. They had been detained, bought, raped and enslaved by sometimes 10 or 15 members of Daesh,” Bectarte said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

“This trial concerns just one of their tormentors. Of course it is nothing compared with what a trial could have been that delivered justice for all the crimes they suffered. But for each of them it is very important to name the crimes, to recognise them and to ensure their voices are heard through a process of justice."

The women are now focused on the future of their children, Bectarte added.

Recognising genocide

The Islamic State group targeted the Yazidis, a religious minority mainly living in northern Iraq, during its expansion in 2014.

Thousands of Yazidi men were killed while women and girls were abducted and enslaved.

More than 5,000 people were killed and more than 400,000 were displaced from their homes. Thousands of Yazidi women and children are still missing or believed to be held captive.

In May 2021, Karim Khan, who led a United Nations investigation into the atrocities, said investigators had found “clear and convincing evidence that genocide was committed by IS against the Yazidis as a religious group”.

The UN inquiry also identified 1,444 suspected perpetrators of the genocide, including 18 senior Islamic State leaders and the French national Sabri Essid.
National courts step in

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has not opened an investigation into the crimes because the most senior Islamic State leaders involved were nationals of countries that are not parties to the court.

In the absence of a case before the ICC, national courts have become the main path to justice for Yazidi victims.

Germany delivered the first conviction for genocide against the Yazidis in November 2021, when a court in Frankfurt found an IS member known as Taha Al J guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Trials have also taken place in Sweden, the Netherlands and Belgium. In Brussels late last year, a court convicted Sammy Djedou, born to a Belgian mother and Ivorian father and also presumed dead, of genocide against the Yazidis.

For many years France mainly prosecuted citizens who joined the Islamic State group under terrorism charges rather than genocide or crimes against humanity.

Bectarte said that changed after years of legal advocacy.

“In 2017 we began a long effort with the FIDH to explain the importance of also prosecuting crimes against humanity and genocide when there were indications and evidence that French nationals had been involved, particularly in the sexual enslavement of Yazidis,” she told RFI.

Investigations also showed that the persecution of Yazidis formed part of a broader policy organised by the Islamic State group.

“What really emerges from these cases is how much the genocide committed against the Yazidis resulted from a policy put in place, planned and dictated by Islamic State even before or at the moment it captured Mount Sinjar in August 2014,” Bectarte said.
Path to jihad

Essid’s involvement in jihadist networks dates back years before he joined the Islamic State

As a teenager he developed an interest in religion and later became radicalised under the influence of Fabien Clain, one of the men who claimed responsibility for the November 2015 Paris attacks.

In 2006 Essid was arrested in Syria while trying to reach Iraq to fight US forces alongside another future IS member, Thomas Barnouin. He was returned to France and sentenced in 2009 to five years in prison, including one suspended year, for criminal association linked to preparing a terrorist act.

After his release he worked as a crane operator.

Essid later became close to Mohamed Merah, who carried out the 2012 attacks in Toulouse and Montauban. The two men became step-brothers when Essid’s father married Merah’s mother.

Despite being under surveillance by French intelligence services, Essid travelled to Syria in February 2014 with his family.

Investigators say he later appeared in an IS propaganda video released on 10 March 2015.

In the video, his 11-year-old stepson shoots a 19-year-old hostage presented as an Israeli agent. Essid can be heard threatening Israelis and referring to the attack on the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Paris.

Investigators say the video was also used to intimidate Yazidi women held captive by Essid. Some later recognised him in the footage and identified him as one of their abusers.

French woman faces genocide trial over enslavement of Yazidi girl

There are several conflicting accounts of Essid’s death.

Islamic State records captured by US forces list him as a “martyr” in January 2018. His wife said he died on 4 February 2018 after being executed by former IS members who had defected. Another propaganda account said he died after stepping on a mine.

Because none of these claims has been officially confirmed, French courts still consider him a fugitive and have proceeded with the genocide trial.

Next year, a 36-year-old French woman who returned from Syria is due to be tried on terrorism charges and for complicity in crimes against humanity. Sonia Mejri will also become the first French woman tried for genocide in Paris after an appeal challenging the case was rejected. She is accused of enslaving a Yazidi teenager in 2015.

Bectarte said investigations have also changed how some women linked to Islamic State are viewed.

“For a time, the women and family members of French nationals who joined Daesh were seen primarily as victims,” she said.

“But as investigations progressed, particularly through testimony from Yazidi survivors, it became clear that in some cases women had also played a role in the whole system.”

For the Yazidi community, the trials represent part of a broader search for justice after years of persecution that reached its worst point between 2014 and 2016.

This story was adapted from the original version in French by Anne Bernas and Laura Martel

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=YEZIDI

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=YAZIDI

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=YEZEDI

'Kurds can play a significant role in a breakthrough in Iran,' Iranian Kurdish leader says

Issued on: 16/03/2026 - FRANCE24

Play (12:23 min)

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Abdullah Mohtadi, secretary-general of the Iranian Kurdish opposition Komala party, said Kurds "can play a very significant role in making a breakthrough" in Iran. He pointed to "serious signs of weakness" among security forces in Kurdish regions of Iran and said "tens of thousands" of young people were ready to take up arms – without, he claimed, any foreign backing.

Speaking to FRANCE 24 from an undisclosed location, Mohtadi described the Kurds as "the most organised section of Iranian society," citing their track record in organising mass protests, the Woman, Life, Freedom movement and general strikes.

With peshmerga forces ready, he said, if "protected (and) supported enough by the United States, we can do a lot of things", adding that such a move "can be the beginning of the liberation of Iran."

'We have not been aided or helped by any foreign power yet'

Mohtadi denied receiving any foreign backing despite widespread reports of CIA and Mossad plans to arm Kurdish Iranian fighters and move them across the Iraqi border. "We have not been aided or helped by any foreign power yet," he said. He nevertheless expressed hope that Washington would "take into consideration the positive and constructive role that Kurds can play".

Finally, Mohtadi pushed back against Reza Pahlavi, the son the late shah, who has accused Kurdish groups  of threatening Iran's territorial integrity. "The Kurdish parties are not for secession," he said, adding that Pahlavi "should have congratulated the Kurdish people, the Kurdish political parties, for getting united."

BY:
Marc Perelman

Sophian Aubin

Turkey warns against drawing Iran's Kurds into Middle East war

Issued on: 15/03/2026 - RFI

The Turkish government is warning the United States and Israel against involving Iran’s Kurdish minority in the war against the Iranian regime. Home to millions of Kurds, Turkey fears any such move could destabilise its ongoing peace process with Kurdish militants calling for an autonomous state.

Iranian Kurdish fighters from the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) take part in training at a base on the outskirts of Erbil, Iraq, on 12 February 2026. © REUTERS - Thaier Al-Sudani

Concentrated in north-western Iran along the borders with Turkey and Iraq, Kurds are estimated to make up 8 to 17 percent of Iran’s population.

As the war in the Middle East continues, several international news agencies reported talks between US officials and armed Iranian Kurdish groups. Seeking to assuage Turkish concerns, President Donald Trump last weekend ruled out such a move.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan welcomed Washington's assurances, but warned the threat remained. "Israel’s intentions on this matter are no secret," he told reporters. "Israel has for years used Kurdish groups in the region as a proxy."

Home to a large Kurdish minority, Turkey has fought a bitter war for decades against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated by Washington and the European Union as a terrorist organisation.

Last year the PKK ended its armed struggle and committed to disbanding in a peace agreement with Turkey, but its affiliates in Syria and Iran are not part of this process – a distinction that keeps Ankara wary.

"The Syrian branch of the PKK gave Turkey a hard time. Just as an autonomous zone within Syria was unacceptable, a PKK affiliate running the Iranian Kurdistan would be unacceptable – that's basically the state's position," explains Turkish international relations expert Soli Ozel.

"They don't want a Kurdish independent state or an autonomous state anywhere in the region, because they think that it would contaminate [other Kurdish populations]."

'Dangerous gambit'

For a decade, Turkey’s military fought the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which Ankara accuses of ties to the PKK. Earlier this year, the new Damascus regime, backed by Ankara, retook most of the SDF's territory.

"Israel has a very long history with the PKK. They definitely have relations with SDF," claims Serhan Afacan, head of the Centre for Iranian Studies, a think tank based in Turkey. "So Israel can always go and try to support these Kurdish groups in Iran."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an address to Iran last Sunday, called on Iranians to rise up against the regime.

"It is becoming clear that regime change is not an attainable goal just through bombing," says Asli Aydintasbas, a political commentator and Turkey specialist at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. "So I think Israelis are exploring other options, including ethnic competition domestically, working with ethnic groups, including Kurds."

However, Aydintasbas warns that any attempt by Iranian Kurds to carve out an autonomous region would not only be met by strong resistance from Ankara, but also from Tehran.

"The Iranian regime, though it's been unable to resist US operations and military strikes, still retains a significant amount of military power, at least enough to suppress its own people," she says. "This is a very dangerous gambit for all involved, including the Kurds."

Tensions with Israel

Israel’s support for Kurdish groups tied to the PKK has exacerbated Israeli-Turkish tensions, already running high amid Israel’s war in Gaza and competition for regional influence.

Analyst Ozel believes any Israeli support for Iranian Kurdish groups would fit with its long-term strategy for Iran and the wider region. "The Israelis would rather have a chaotic Iran than an Iran that has actually managed better, because no matter who runs Iran, I don’t think they can play Israel’s music," he argues.

"But the real threat, as far as Israel is concerned, is to have a rival that has the weight to play the strategic game... which I think is one of the reasons why plenty of Israelis in positions of authority constantly attack Turkey these days, saying Turkey is the new Iran."

Israel claims its attacks on Iran aim only to protect its security. However, Israeli support for Iranian Kurds would bring it into conflict with Ankara, a close Washington ally. For Trump, balancing Israeli and Turkish interests could be a major challenge in his campaign in Iran.

By: Dorian Jones

The Trump-Driven Push For A ‘New Middle East’ – Analysis

March 15, 2026 
Observer Research Foundation
By Vivek Mishra


The war in Iran is escalating to dangerous proportions. Trump’s declaration of a unilateral victory and Iran’s three preconditions for a ceasefire seem worlds apart. Several American planes have been downed, with the latest being a refuelling plane over Iraq, many US bases hit, and its regional allies scrambling for interceptions.

Adding to this, Iran, being a defiant and wayward actor to potentially mine the Strait of Hormuz, has added another layer to an already combustible situation. The lethality and precision strikes carried out by the United States (US) and Israel, which already exceed 6,000 rounds, may have set a new ceiling for kinetic action conducted using air power. However, the achievements for Washington and Tel Aviv on the ground are qualitatively different from what either may have anticipated before the war with Iran began. The evolving trend lines of the conflict suggest that the US may have bitten off more than it can chew.

What compelled the Trump administration to start the Iran war? Two factors appear particularly significant. The first lies in the spiral set in motion after the Trump administration decided to pull out of the JCPOA in 2018. The second was the Trump administration’s decision to double down on its negotiations with the Iranian regime, demanding that Iran completely halt its enrichment capability. The Trump administration’s proposal that Iran’s enrichment facility be located outside the country but in the region for civil purposes was met with equal scorn from Tehran. In the end, the failure of the Geneva negotiations between Iran and the US, led by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, appears to have pushed the administration to take the ill-advised decision to bomb Iran. In the process, Trump may have boxed himself in, leaving him with limited options since the 12-day war campaign against Iran in June 2025.

At the heart of this historical decision lie the political ambitions of two politicians—Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. Leading up to the decision, the two leaders appeared to converge on the necessity of using kinetic options on Iran for various reasons, albeit with different political ends. For both, Iran appeared to be at its weakest, with its regional proxies debilitated and its economy spiralling downward, pushing the people to the brink. The mass protests in Iran in January 2026 fed the speculation that regime change in Iran is possible with external help. For Israel, the Iranian threat was always existential, but the political moment which started with the October 7 attacks by Hamas bulged to meet with the serendipitous resilience of Netanyahu. He realises that under the Trump administration, Israel may have its last chance to compel Washington’s hand, without appearing to do so.

The Trump administration found itself buoyed by the military success in Venezuela to replicate the seamless operation in Iran. If continued military campaigns against Iran’s proxies—which are largely non-state actors—have proven inconclusive since the October 7 attacks, it was inevitable that America’s military campaign, led by aerial raids, would fall short of enforcing capitulation on Iran. The only outside chance of forcing the Iranian regime to fall would have been the convergence of mass internal uprising with external military assistance. Even then, an effective blow to the Iranian regime would not have come unless the security apparatus inside the country revolted against the Mullah regime, which was perhaps never a concrete reality and in the post-bombing period appears an even distant dream. There is a strong rally-around-the-flag affect which has bound the Iranians loyal to the regime even more tightly than before, attenuating external pulls.

Trump seems increasingly forlorn amidst his decision to enter the war with Iran. The rising cost of the war, coupled with a domestic political scene which is increasingly getting disenchanted with Trump’s decision, is weighing heavily on the administration. Even externally, his allies in the Middle East as well as Europe do not seem aligned with the US’s position. America’s trans-Atlantic allies were still balancing against Washington’s decisions apropos support to Ukraine when the weight of the Iran war began to drag the Europeans into the war, enforcing a reprioritisation in their own internal and external outlook. In the latest, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is struggling to avoid the repercussions of Trump’s decision on Iran in a referendum at home. The United Kingdom initially declined to allow America to use its bases for launching attacks against Iran before eventually granting limited permission.

The ongoing confrontation between the US and Iran suggests that a different Iran will now shape a different Middle East—one where both Tehran’s internal political calculus and its external relationships are fundamentally altered. Iran’s willingness to strike targets across the region has unsettled the security assumptions of Gulf monarchies and introduced a new phase of volatility in its relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council. GCC members , particularly the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, have paid the price for their security alignment with the United States and are now far more wary of the costs of being drawn into Washington’s strategic confrontation with Tehran.

For Washington, the lessons are stark: the war underscores the limits of conventional superiority against an adversary that thrives in asymmetric warfare. Iran’s “precise mass” strategy, deploying large numbers of relatively inexpensive drones and missiles, has shifted the cost equation, forcing the US to expend far more expensive defensive systems while highlighting the urgent need to expand munitions production at scale. At the same time, Tehran’s move to close the Strait of Hormuz, a vulnerability studied since the Tanker War of the 1980s, represent one of the most consequential escalatory risks with global economic repercussions. The targeting of Iranian naval assets such as the IRIS Dena and the wider maritime theatre also indicates that the conflict’s strategic geography is edging closer to the Indo-Pacific. For India, this shift places its traditionally balanced geopolitical posture under unprecedented scrutiny, as disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz directly threaten its energy security, maritime trade routes, and broader strategic calculations in the western Indian Ocean.

Trump’s economic bet on the Middle East had four legs: an intra-regional wager in the I2U2 group built on the momentum of the Abraham Accords; the “Board of Peace” proposal aimed at steering reconstruction efforts in Gaza; the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) as a bridge to connect its energy promise across the Indo-Mediterranean space; and finally, Trump’s technology bet on the region, which was just beginning to take off. All of these now remain fraught as Iran continues to refuse a ceasefire. In the end, this war may well become a test of resolve and of each side’s ability to withstand a prolonged war of attrition. A Trump-size force remains militarily intent on changing the character of the Middle East.

About the author:

 Vivek Mishra is Deputy Director with the Strategic Studies Programme at the Observer Research Foundation.

Source: This article was published by the Observer Research Foundation.

Observer Research Foundation

ORF was established on 5 September 1990 as a private, not for profit, ’think tank’ to influence public policy formulation. 

Indigenous Knowledge Confirms What Scientists Observe: Large Birds Are Disappearing – OpEd

March 15, 2026 

Mongabay
By Bobby Bascomb

Many Indigenous peoples and local communities live in close contact with nature and learn to identify the wildlife around them from an early age. New research published in the International Journal of Conservation draws on that knowledge to better understand a scientifically documented trend: large bird populations are shrinking.

Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares, an ethnobotanist with the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, and lead author of the study, first noticed that trend as a graduate student doing field work in the Tsimane’ Indigenous community in the Bolivian Amazon.

“Many elders told me that the large birds they had grown up seeing in the forest had become much rarer. Species that were once common in their childhood were now difficult to encounter,” Fernández-Llamazares told Mongabay in an email.

He cited similar accounts from Indigenous peoples and local communities in other parts of the world and from very different ecosystems. Large birds from their youth were disappearing, while smaller species seemed to be on the rise — a pattern scientists were also finding. “What had not been explored before was whether these global patterns were also reflected in the long-term ecological memories of people who interact with birds on a daily basis,” he said.

So, researchers surveyed 1,434 people across three continents and 10 sites as part of a broader Local Indicators of Climate Change Impacts (LICCI) project, an international research initiative to understand how Indigenous and local communities observe the changing climate in their territories.

Respondents were asked to name three birds that were most common when they were 10 years old, and the three most common species today. They collected nearly 7,000 individual bird reports belonging to 283 species, spanning roughly 80 years.

While memories can fade or birds can be misidentified, Fernández-Llamazares said the study was measuring an overall trend — and the trend was stark. The average body mass of birds in the surveyed areas is roughly 70% smaller today than it was 80 years ago. The pattern held across all study sites, from the tropical forests of Bolivia to the grasslands of Senegal and the arid deserts of Mongolia.

The report quoted a Daasanach elder in Kenya who summed it up well: “All the big birds are now gone.”

Fernández-Llamazares said there are several explanations for the trend. Larger birds tend to reproduce slowly, making them more vulnerable to population collapse. Also, they’re prime hunting targets since they can provide more meat per bird, and they often require larger tracts of intact habitat, which makes them sensitive to land-use change.

“This study is a great example of how Indigenous science and knowledge and Western science can be woven together to provide clearer answers to questions,” Pam McElwee, with Rutgers University, U.S., who wasn’t involved with the study, told Mongabay. “Each knowledge system stands on its own, but together they give us a more complex picture.”

About the author: Bobby Bascomb has been an environmental journalist since completing her master’s degree in Geography. Before joining Mongabay she worked for the public radio program Living on Earth, serving as the managing producer and co-host of the show. Bobby has reported from nearly a dozen countries including Brazil, Indonesia, Madagascar and Senegal. She currently lives in the mountains of Costa Rica and when she’s not working she loves to listen to her favorite podcasts while going for a hike in the forest.

Source: This article was published by Mongabay
Mongabay

Mongabay is a U.S.-based non-profit conservation and environmental science news platform. Rhett A. Butler founded Mongabay.com in 1999 out of his passion for tropical forests. He called the site Mongabay after an island in Madagascar.

Why The Gracixalus Weii Treefrog Sounds Like A Songbird

Adult male of Gracixalus weii from Leishan County, Guizhou Province, China

 (photo credit: Peng et al.).

March 15, 2026 
By Eurasia Review


The genus Gracixalus belongs to the family of Old World Tree Frogs and is geographically dispersed from Myanmar and western Thailand to Laos, Vietnam, and further to southern China. Despite the considerable number of research on the species richness of Gracixalus, little is known about their vocalisations. To remedy this problem, the recently described Gracixalus weii in southwest China has been investigated from a bioacoustic standpoint by researchers led by Caichun Peng of the Guizhou Leigongshan Forest Ecosystem Observation and Research Station.

Published in the open-access scholarly journal Herpetozoa, the research group’s study reveals an acoustic convergence between frog advertisement calls and avian communication systems – specifically, the call of Gracixalus weii is remarkably similar to a bird-like chirp commonly performed by the Black-Breasted Thrush (Turdus dissimilis) of the same region. Similarities like these have frequently led researchers to underestimate frog populations during field surveys because their chirps are easily mistaken for local bird songs.

To the human ear, vocalisations in the Leigongshan Nature Reserve often sound like a melodious bird song because both the Gracixalus weii and Black-Breasted Thrush use a similar pattern: a longer introductory note, followed by two shorter notes, and almost identical pitches. This phenomenon provides evidence to suggest that the evolution of acoustic symbols in amphibians could be influenced by broad ecological interactions, including with that of birds.

The history of observed similarities between frog and bird vocalisations can be traced further back; the acoustic convergence recorded in the Himalayan rapids in 1984 between frogs in the genus Nanorana and the bird Phylloscopius maginostrostris, for instance, underpins these recent findings. Cases like these demonstrate that bioacoustic data adds value to species identification, particularly because advertisement calls serve as species-specific courtship signals that play an important role in evolutionary diversification.

For cryptic species that may appear identical, acoustic features also provide a reliable alternative to morphological or molecular diagnosis, offering clear evidence for taxonomic validity. Additionally, since many species are difficult to visually observe in dense habitats, such as frogs hiding within bamboo, relying on vocal signatures ensures that biodiversity is not misidentified during field surveys.

The authors argue that future research should focus on combining morphological, genetic, and bioacoustic evidence to better understand the species richness and cryptic diversity within the genus Gracixalus. A key priority is conducting experimental work, specifically playback or “replay experiments”, to observe how Gracixalus weii and the Black-breasted Thrush (Turdus dissimilis) respond to one another’s calls.

As such, the song of Gracixalus weii is a reminder that a familiar tune can be the perfect disguise for a species we are only just beginning to understand.