Threats to US lawmakers spiked after Meta eased moderation: watchdog

AFP
June 10, 2026

Image: — © AFP SEBASTIEN BOZON

From explicit calls for murder to sexual harassment, violent threats targeting US lawmakers on Facebook rocketed after tech giant Meta rolled back key content moderation policies last year, a tech watchdog said Tuesday.

The report from the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) analyzed nearly eight million Facebook comments targeting 100 members of Congress in the six months before and after Meta eased safeguards in what was billed as an attempt to protect free speech.

Violent threats targeting lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle — including calls for murder — quadrupled, harassment more than doubled, while racist and gendered abuse jumped on the platform, the report said.

CCDH also found that comments inciting violence against President Donald Trump surged after the policy changes, including one that he “deserves a bullet through his head.”

“When platforms stop enforcing their own rules against threats, hate, and harassment, they become complicit in normalizing intimidation and harassment of elected officials,” said Imran Ahmed, chief executive of CCDH.

“The result is a culture where violence feels easier to justify and radicals feel empowered.”

In a statement, a Meta spokesman said the Palo Alto company regularly issues public reports tracking “violating content” on its platforms and “the prevalence of hateful conduct did not increase throughout 2025.”

AFP shared CCDH’s report with Meta but the spokesman said: “We cannot address the claims in this report as we were not provided it in advance of publication.”

In recent years, politicians as well as election officials across the United States have reported escalating threats, intimidation and harassment.

Minnesota state legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed in a politically motivated attack last year. In April, a shooting disrupted the White House correspondents dinner attended by Trump, who had to be evacuated from the dinner at the Washington Hilton hotel — one of several such incidents.

“When companies reduce oversight in areas like violence, hate, and harassment, it should not be any surprise to see those harms increase,” John Curtis, a Republican senator from Utah, said in a statement to CCDH.

“Similarly, the reported surge in abusive and threatening content directed at public officials is deeply concerning, particularly in light of recent events.”

The CCDH report comes after the tech giant ditched US fact-checkers in January 2025 and turned over the task of debunking falsehoods to ordinary users under a model known as “Community Notes,” popularized by Elon Musk’s platform X.

The decision was widely seen as an attempt to appease Trump’s new administration, whose conservative support base has long complained that fact-checking on tech platforms was a way to curtail free speech and censor right-wing content.

Meta also rolled back speech restrictions around topics such as gender and sexual identity, triggering concern from advocacy groups.

The International Fact-Checking Network has previously warned of devastating consequences if Meta broadens its policy shift related to fact-checkers beyond US borders to the company’s programs covering more than 100 countries.

AFP currently works in 26 languages with Meta’s fact-checking program, including in Asia, Latin America, and the European Union.

Nintendo agrees to €35 million French fine over faulty Switch controllers

AFP
June 8, 2026

The Nintendo Switch was launched in 2017 – Copyright AFP/File Kazuhiro NOGI

Nintendo said Monday that it would pay a fine of 35 million euros ($40 million) to settle a French claim over faulty controllers on its Switch consoles.

A French consumer advocacy group filed the claim alleging “planned obsolescence” in 2020, saying the Japanese giant knew some controllers were failing too quickly.

It noted thousands of complaints by customers about “Joy-Con drift”, with toggles stuck in one direction on the original version of the Switch, even when users were not touching them.

France’s consumer protection agency, DGCCRF, determined that Nintendo Europe had not sufficiently informed consumers of the recurring problem despite the console being sold for years since its 2017 launch.

Its report said Nintendo had “commented only in 2020, and not as soon as it was aware of the malfunctions”, the Commerce Ministry and the court in Nanterre, outside Paris, said in a statement.

It added that Nintendo’s statements on the problem were “patchy”, and as a result many customers simply bought new controllers, instead of pursuing a free fix or replacement via customer service.

Nintendo promised in 2023 that it would repair or replace faulty controllers without cost, even if no longer covered by warranty.

Art, maths and killing: Ukraine drone chief’s formula to stop Russia

AFP
June 9, 2026

Madyar has risen through Ukraine’s military, to head one of its most effective branches – Copyright AFP Genya SAVILOV

Robert “Madyar” Brovdi’s underground command post features walls of blinking screens playing footage of Ukrainian drones attacking Russian troops, frontline maps, and scoreboards of destroyed targets.

The drone attacks that the grey-bearded 50-year-old oversees from the bunker — in a secret location in Ukraine — are recorded and analysed, for him to develop strategies to stop the Russian invasion.

The secretive and unlikely head of Ukraine’s unmanned systems forces, whose recent strikes have embarrassed the Kremlin, grumbles that he does not like interviews, but his face lights up when the conversation turns to maths and war.

“Numbers are the foundation of war. Everything starts there. Anyone who ignores this cannot play this game. They will be followers rather than leaders,” Brovdi told AFP.

Better known by his call-sign of Madyar, Brovdi was a wealthy grain trader with no military background when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

He volunteered to fight, then set up his own drone unit — “Madyar’s Birds” — well before many had realised the full importance of the technology, quickly earning plaudits inside the military.

Zelensky appointed him in June 2025 to command the army’s overall unmanned systems forces.

His path reflects how Ukraine has leveraged innovation to fight Russia’s more conventionally powerful army.

“I simply brought my accounting system with me to the war. We took the names of grain varieties from the table and entered the types of drones and ammunition there,” he told AFP.

Brovdi has masterminded some of the biggest attacks on Russia, with long-range drone strikes on oil and military facilities chipping away at Vladimir Putin’s war chest.

These attacks have made Madyar a priority target for Russia, he says, forcing him into secret underground bunkers.

On a visit to one site, AFP journalists had to follow strict protocols, including a ride in a car with blacked-out windows.



– ‘Dangerous, committed’ –



Ukrainian artwork and drone carcasses provide an eclectic decor to the interior of Brovdi’s underground bunker, from where he commands a unified force of some of Ukraine’s highest-ranking drone units.

He receives a stream of calls in his windowless office, stepping in and out to speak to teams hunched over screens in a command post.

Last week his forces hit Saint Petersburg, just as Putin’s flagship economic summit commenced in the city.

Other long-range strikes have sparked fires that have burned for days at oil facilities hundreds of kilometres behind the front line.

The strikes have drawn grudging recognition from Russian military analysts.

“Madyar is a dangerous, committed, and professional enemy,” Andrey Medvedev, a blogger and Russian-state news reporter wrote last year.

Another, the Rybar Telegram channel, credited Madyar with creating “the most effective formation of its kind” within the Ukrainian army.

His unmanned systems forces claim responsibility for 30 to 35 percent of all confirmed destroyed Russian targets, even though they make up just two percent of the Ukrainian army.

His strategy to win the war is a bet on numbers: kill more Russians than Moscow can mobilise.

To improve the effectiveness of strikes, Madyar relies on data from the videos streaming into his command post.

They show Ukrainian drones chasing Russian forces near the front, hunting them as they flee through fields and forests until the feed cuts on impact.

Some videos make it onto Brovdi’s social media accounts — where he is followed by hundreds of thousands — with cartoony music and mocking captions.

Inside Ukraine, some have found the footage mocking the dead morally questionable, with legal experts suggesting it could qualify as a war crime under the Geneva Convention.



– ‘Revenge’ –



He is widely popular in Ukraine, especially on social media, and his drone forces are vaunted by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Next to the screens of combat videos in Madyar’s bunker is artwork from renowned Ukrainian painters, including a still life of flowers by Maria Prymachenko.

“Art allows us to ground ourselves and take our minds off the circumstances that have brought us here,” Madyar told AFP.

Before the war, he ran an art foundation in his native region of Transcarpathia in western Ukraine.

The works give him a feeling of home, where he can no longer go for security reasons.

“I can’t lay my eyes on my favourite place at home, on some elements of my house, a vase, a view from my window,” he said.

His wife enlisted in the army shortly after him, and heads his unit’s troop support service.

Apart from her, only a small circle knows where he will be even two hours ahead.

The father of two says his force’s success is compensation for the personal sacrifices.

“That momentary satisfaction, when you have taken revenge by taking the remote control into your own hands and seen the results of your work with your own eyes.”

Israeli data security firm Cyera raises $600mn at $12bn valuation

/ CC: CyeraFacebook

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By IntelliNews Tel Aviv bureau June 11, 2026

Israeli data security company Cyera has raised $600mn in a new funding round at a $12bn valuation, according to a press release from the company. 

The investment makes Cyera one of Israel's most valuable technology companies, indicating investor appetite for AI-era data protection infrastructure amid the ongoing increase in hacks from foreign actors across the region.

The round was led by Evolution Equity Partners, with participation from CyberStarts and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek, alongside existing investors Sequoia, Accel, Blackstone, Spark Capital and AT&T Ventures.

The raise brings Cyera's total funding to $2.3bn and represents a fourfold increase in valuation over the past 18 months, Israeli financial newspaper Globes reported.

The company, founded by Yotam Segev and Tamar Bar-Ilan following their service in Unit 8200, operates in the data security posture management (DSPM) segment, a discipline focused on giving organisations visibility and control over sensitive data distributed across cloud, local servers and endpoints. The fundraise also revealed a previously undisclosed co-founder: Yonatan Itay, VP of development.

The valuation places Cyera second among Israeli unicorns by current value, behind Wiz and ahead of Drivents, which raised at an $8.5bn valuation last week.

The investment thesis centres on AI agent proliferation. Cyera estimates that by 2026, approximately 68% of organisations will be unable to distinguish between human and AI agent activity within their systems, a visibility gap the company says its platform is designed to close.

Over the past year, it has launched more than 100 new capabilities spanning AI agent security, identity management, DSPM and data loss prevention.

The broader DSPM space has seen significant consolidation: Rubric acquired Laminar for approximately $105mn in 2023, Palo Alto acquired Dig Security for $295mn in 2024, and CrowdStrike acquired Flow Security for around $120mn.

Cyera, at its current scale, has positioned itself beyond the acquisition range that has absorbed smaller peers and has indicated it intends to remain independent.

MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M

Frasers makes €2 billion offer for Hugo Boss

AFP
June 10, 2026 

Hugo Boss may get a new boss if a buyout offer by Britain’s Frasers Group is successful – Copyright AFP/File Charly TRIBALLEAU

British clothing group Frasers announced Wednesday a nearly two-billion-euro ($2.3 billion) offer to acquire outstanding shares in German men’s premium apparel firm Hugo Boss.

“Hugo Boss is a key brand partner for Frasers, and one of the top five brands across the Frasers group,” said the British firm, which owns the sporting goods chain Sports Direct and already holds 26 percent of the German brand.

The offer is voluntary, but Frasers noted that it held a significant number of options on Hugo Boss shares that would put its stake above 30 percent and oblige it to make a buyout offer.

Frasers said the offer would allow it to continue to invest in Hugo Boss and expressed its support for the company’s current leadership team.

At 38 euros per share in cash, the offer is worth approximately 1.98 billion euros overall.

But that proposal doesn’t offer Hugo Boss shareholders much of a premium from the 36.46 euros the company’s stock closed at on Wednesday on the Frankfurt stock exchange.

Hugo Boss shares spent much of 2023 above 60 euros per share.

Subject to regulatory approvals Frasers said it hoped the offer could be completed in the second half of this year.

Hugo Boss, which offers apparel, footwear and fragrances in the accessible-luxury segment, posted a net profit of 249 million euros in 2025.

Frasers saw its net profit slide to 292.1 million pounds (339 million euros) in its fiscal year that ended on April 30.

Tuvalu says fossil fuel holdings revealed by AFP ‘not a good look’

AFP
June 5, 2026

Tuvalu’s Prime Minister Feleti Teo speaks during the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City on September 26, 2025. – Copyright AFP Connie FRANCE

Tuvalu’s prime minister voiced disappointment Friday over the island nation’s fossil fuel holdings, after AFP revealed a trust fund for the climate change-threatened state had invested in oil and coal.

The investigation published last week showed that global advisory firm Mercer has invested on Tuvalu’s behalf in funds exposed to coal mining, gas exploration and the world’s largest crude oil refinery.

Prime Minister Feleti Teo told AFP he was personally disappointed to learn of these investments, which Tuvalu is now reviewing.

“It’s not a good look on Tuvalu, given the very strong advocacy work that we do in terms of combating climate change,” he told AFP on the sidelines of the Island State Oceans Summit in Tokyo.

Few countries are more exposed to climate change than Tuvalu, a chain of coral atolls reckoning with acidifying oceans, tropical disease and rising seas.

Land is already so scarce across the archipelago — halfway between Australia and Hawaii — that the international airport runway doubles as a makeshift sports field.

With a fragile economy and few natural resources, Tuvalu relies on a government trust fund to help foot the growing costs of the climate crisis.

Mercer took over management of the $200 million Tuvalu Trust Fund in 2022.

It has since invested in funds that include Indian energy giant Reliance Industries, which owns the largest oil refinery in the world, and The Southern Company, the second-biggest greenhouse gas emitter in the United States.



– Climate reparations –



“I think we were also surprised when we first heard of that information,” Teo said, referring to AFP’s findings.

“So we are doing our own internal due diligence, but it’s obviously not a good image to us.”

Tuvalu has long been renowned for its staunch advocacy in support of urgent climate action.

It was one of the first nations to sign a proposed treaty calling for an end to the expansion of fossil fuel projects.

Tuvalu will receive a rare burst of international attention later this year when it hosts leaders for a special summit ahead of the UN’s COP31 climate conference.

The meeting has been billed as a chance to show how climate change is battering the South Pacific.

Teo said a key focus would be on how big-polluting nations can help finance the costs of climate mitigation in exposed states like his.

Pacific island neighbour Vanuatu secured a landmark win last year in the International Court of Justice, which found nations had a legal duty to prevent harms from planet-warming pollution.

Teo floated the idea of taking legal action to force climate reparations, saying a class action involving multiple nations would be “more attractive to us”.

“I think it will be much stronger than a country individually taking such actions.

“But it’s a possibility that we are not ruling out.”

Mercer previously told AFP: “We do not provide commentary or analysis on our clients or their investment portfolios.”

COP31 hosts unveil ‘electrification’ priority for climate talks

AFP
June 9, 2026 

Electrification means replacing technologies that burn fossil fuels directly with electric alternatives. – Copyright AFP Tobias SCHWARZ

COP31 hosts Turkey urged countries Tuesday to join a voluntary push to make electricity account for 35 percent of global energy demand by 2035 as it outlined its priorities for the UN climate talks.

The November summit in Antalya is taking shape as the Middle East conflict roils global energy markets, exposing fossil fuel importers to price spikes and supply shortages.

The electrification target unveiled in Bonn was “a flagship initiative” of COP31 that could respond to this crisis and help insulate economies from fossil fuel price shocks, the Turkish conference organisers said in a statement.

Thousands of climate negotiators are in Bonn this week and next to draft agreements and lay the groundwork for the final decisions taken by political leaders at the summit due to start November 9.

Turkey said raising the global share of energy demand met by electricity from roughly 20 percent to 35 percent by 2035 would speed up the shift from fossil fuels to renewable power.

“By electrifying daily life, from transport to buildings and industry, we can protect families and businesses from volatile energy markets,” incoming COP31 president Murat Kurum said in a statement.

The goal will not require formal agreement by the nearly 200 nations taking part in the annual talks because it is part of the voluntary program that runs alongside the binding negotiations.

This so-called “action agenda” encourages countries to join non-binding pledges and other initiatives to turn commitments made at the UN-sponsored climate talks into action on the ground.



– Clean switch –



In simple terms, electrification means replacing technologies that burn fossil fuels directly — such as gas heating systems and diesel vehicles — with electric alternatives.

But for electrification to drive down heat-trapping emissions and tackle climate change, the extra electricity must come primarily from renewable sources — rather than fossil fuels.

“If you electrify and you increase coal, then what are you doing?” veteran COP observer and E3G analyst Alden Meyer told AFP in Bonn.

“You do need to both expand electrification and squeeze fossil fuels out of the electricity system at the same time.”

The electrification target unveiled by Turkey did not explicitly state how that extra power should be produced.

In 2025, renewables reached 34 percent of global electricity generation, overtaking coal’s 33 percent share for the first time in 100 years, according to energy think tank Ember.

Australia, which is steering the formal negotiations in a COP31 co-hosting arrangement with Turkey, said electrification could cut emissions and shore up energy security.

“I see them as different sides of the same coin. Electrification reduces the need for fossil fuels,” COP31 negotiations chief Chris Bowen, who is also Australia’s climate and energy minister, told AFP in an interview in Bonn on Monday.

‘We need to get off fossil fuels’ says COP31 negotiations chief

AFP
June 8, 2026

Australia’s Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen will preside over the UN climate negotiations at the COP31 summit in Turkey in November. – Copyright Ritzau Scanpix/AFP Sebastian Elias Uth

The incoming COP31 negotiations president said on Monday that the Middle East war underscored the need to “get off fossil fuels” and rejected criticism the UN climate summit was losing relevance.

Chris Bowen, who is also Australia’s climate and energy minister, said fresh anxiety around global fuel supplies as Iran and Israel launched new strikes only “proves the risks” of fossil fuel dependence.

“The good news is: the answer for the short-term crisis and the long-term crisis are effectively the same: i.e. move away from a reliance on an energy source which… is only going to get more unreliable,” Bowen told AFP in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of the UN midyear climate sessions in Bonn.

“We need to get off fossil fuels,” he added.

But he stopped short of saying how his stewardship of the November talks would break a stalemate around fossil fuels that has plagued recent COPs and sparked a revolt at the last summit in Brazil.

Bowen is contending not just with an historic oil shock but an energised coalition of nations demanding a faster phaseout of fossil fuels — the main driver of human-caused global warming.

COP31 is being organised and chaired by Turkey but Bowen is steering the marathon talks under an unusual arrangement struck after Canberra and Ankara competed to host the world’s most important climate summit.

In the months ahead, he must lay the groundwork for consensus between nearly 200 nations even as the war rattles energy markets, nations scramble for fuel supply and climate change slips down the priority list.

Bonn is where government negotiators meet every June to hammer out technical details and narrow differences over global climate action before leaders tackle the bigger decisions at COP31.

“We’re talking to parties about what they want to see, and we’ll try and steer that to a very strong outcome,” said Bowen, who attended the last four COPs as a minister in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s centre-left government.

Last year’s summit in Brazil ended with a modest pact that failed to explicitly mention fossil fuels and many nations fear a repeat unless stronger leadership is shown.

On Monday, the climate-vulnerable Alliance of Small Island States said countries could not keep ignoring “the elephant in the room” and warned that anything short of winding down fossil fuels was “papering over the cracks”.

Frustrated by a lack of progress at the last summit, nearly 60 nations attended a world-first meeting in Colombia in April dedicated to speeding up the transition away from fossil fuels — outside the UN process.

Bowen said the breakaway conference in Santa Marta was “a positive contribution” — but did not say how their concerns might be incorporated into a final negotiated outcome.

“Consensus arrives in November with hard work. I didn’t take this job because I thought it’d be easy, I didn’t come here to do the easy things. I took this job because it is hard,” he said.

Many countries have criticised the consensus-based model by which decisions at COPs can be blocked by a small handful of countries but Bowen said “that’s what we’ve got. And that’s not going to change”.

He said countries big and small remained in some way dependent on fossil fuels — including Australia, a major coal and gas exporter, yet highly reliant on imports for petrol, diesel and other fuels.

Bowen cancelled his first trip abroad as COP31 negotiations chief in April when an oil refinery caught fire in Australia.

“Historically, Australia is without doubt a climate villain, but it can also use its status as a major fossil fuel producer to lead the conversation on transitioning away from fossil fuels,” Simon Bradshaw, COP31 lead at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, told AFP in Bonn.

Bowen said every country “has a fossil fuel profile” and that “we’re all in this together”.

“It’s not all the job of importers. It’s not all the job of exporters. That’s what a COP is for — bring all parties together.”

The COPs “send a signal to the rest of the world” that the issue is being taken seriously, he said.

“We need to give a very positive signal. I’m confident we can,” he said.

Climate change-fuelled storm decimated world’s rarest great ape: study

AFP
June 10, 2026 

Fewer than 800 Tapanuli orangutans remain in the wild, scientists say

 – Copyright AFP ROMAIN PERROCHEAU

Climate change-fuelled landslides wiped out nearly one in ten of the world’s rarest great ape species on Indonesia’s Sumatra island, scientists said Wednesday.

A single weather event last November pushed the Tapanuli orangutan — of which there are fewer than 800 left in the wild — even closer to extinction, according to a study published in the science journal Current Biology.

An estimated 58 Tapanuli orangutans died as a result of mudslides triggered by heavy rains during Cyclone Senyar — about 11 percent of the total living in the region, or seven percent of the estimated overall wild population.

The flooding killed more than 1,000 people.

Only scientifically classified as a species in 2017, Tpanulis are incredibly rare, confined to a small range in Sumatra.

“This level of loss is substantial for a species with such a small total population,” said Erik Meijaard, chief scientist at Borneo Futures, a conservation initiative.

The floods also wiped out sources of Tapanuli food and shelter.

Scientists analyzed satellite evidence of landslide scars in the Batang Toru Ecosystem — home to the largest remaining population of the apes.

They found that about 8,300 hectares of forest — more than 11 percent of the area — were affected.

The lost forest area was overlaid with orangutan density maps to come up with an estimate of population loss.

“The loss of an estimated 58 Tapanuli orangutans to a single climate-induced landslide event is a devastating demographic shock to the world’s rarest great ape,” said researcher Jatna Supriatna of Indonesia University.

Environmentalists have long campaigned against industrial activity in Batang Toru, particularly a hydroelectric dam and gold mine.

The highland homes inhabited by Tapanulis are not their preferred habitat, but it is where remaining orangutans have been pushed by human development elsewhere.

“To prevent the first modern extinction of a great ape species, Indonesia must permanently protect the Batang Toru ecosystem,” Jatna said.

“But our international partners must also meet their global commitments by providing immediate biodiversity-recovery financing.”

Sumatra lost 4.4 million hectares of forest — an area larger than Switzerland — between 2001 and 2024, making hilly landscapes more vulnerable to landslides, the conservation group Mighty Earth said in February.

A woman in charge of the UN? Candidates feel it’s about time

AFP
June 9, 2026

Rebeca Grynspan, Maria Fernanda Espinosa and Michelle Bachelet took part in a debate in Geneva as they run to become the next UN chief – Copyright AFP Yuri CORTEZ

It is high time a woman took charge of the United Nations, argued three of the candidates in the running to take over as secretary-general, at a debate on Tuesday.

Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica and Maria Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador are all standing to succeed Antonio Guterres, who is stepping down at the end of the year after two five-year terms.

The trio touted their diplomatic credentials during a debate organised by independent organisations in Geneva, the city home to the UN’s European headquarters.

“I think, of course, a woman — it’s about time, isn’t it? After 80 years” of the UN’s existence, said Espinosa, a former foreign minister.

But the next secretary-general should be “the best woman, not any woman”, the 61-year-old added; a “leader with a lot of energy”.

Many countries are advocating for a woman to head the UN for the first time, and Latin America is claiming the position based on a tradition of geographical rotation — which is not always strictly followed.

“Women can bring more humanism,” said the Chilean ex-president Bachelet, who is also a former UN rights chief.

She likewise said the next chief should be a woman, “but not any woman”, saying she was someone unafraid of “risking that what I try doesn’t work”.

“I’m not afraid of speaking up when it’s needed,” she added.

Meanwhile Grynspan, 70, the head of the UN trade and development agency UNCTAD, said she was running “because I think I am the best person for the job”.

The former vice president of Costa Rica is calling for a selection process free from any preferential treatment for women.

The debate was held at the Maison de la Paix, which houses several organisations and is a stone’s throw from the UN Palais des Nations.

Also invited were the two other declared candidates: Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency; and the former president of Senegal, Macky Sall, with the latter sending a short video message.



– UN ‘irreplaceable’ –



The UN General Assembly of member states can only elect the secretary-general after a recommendation from the UN Security Council, where the five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — wield veto power.

The Security Council deliberations are expected to begin in late July, before a General Assembly vote in the following months.

On Tuesday the three candidates in Geneva set out how they would reform the UN, which is facing a lack of funding, multiple conflicts and dwindling faith in multilateralism.

“The UN is not the only game in town,” said Espinosa.

“But the UN is irreplaceable because it’s the only universal platform that brings all countries together to face and respond to the challenges of the world of today,” she said, highlighting her experience as a former president of the General Assembly.

Grynspan said: “The UN is unique, but it’s not alone,” explaining that it had a “culture problem” and needed to find ways to forge partnerships with outside forces.

Bachelet, 74, insisted that she would be “an independent secretary-general, always on the ground”.

Republican lawmakers in the United States have already urged Washington to block Bachelet due to her support for abortion rights.

“If somebody vetoes me because I believe in democracy, because I believe in multilateralism, because I believe in women’s rights, and because I believe in human rights, I mean, I would be honoured,” she told reporters afterwards.

THE CAPITALI$T STATE

Record lobby cash shapes EU pro-business agenda, campaigners say

AFP
June 10, 2026

Digital giants including Amazon, Apple and Meta spent 73 million euros on lobbying last year – Copyright AFP/File Charly TRIBALLEAU

The corporate titans of the tech, energy and chemicals industries are spending more than ever to influence EU decision-makers, determined to see more business-friendly policies — and it’s paying off, campaigners said Thursday.

Lobbying is big business in Brussels, with more than 17,000 organisations working to sway policy in the city that hosts the European Union’s executive and parliament — from professional lobbyists and corporate staff to consultants and NGOs.

Two campaign groups, Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl, said on Thursday businesses are set to spend this year a minimum of 381.7 million euros ($440.5 million) into lobbying EU institutions, up 7.8 percent compared to 2025.

The figures come as the EU under Ursula von der Leyen is pushing a more business-friendly agenda, with a “simplification” effort it says aims to cut red tape and help firms catch up with US and Chinese rivals.

Critics say the term is a fig-leaf for an industry-backed push to walk back years of EU progress on climate, sustainability and tech rules.

“Today’s figures are just the tip of the iceberg,” Vicky Cann of Corporate Europe Observatory said, adding: “This takes place in the midst of the biggest deregulation wave ever seen in the EU.”

The impact of this lobbying is far-reaching, the report said, “from the cost of living, to worsening climate disasters, from rollback of chemicals regulations and our digital rights”.

The biggest sector throwing money to influence EU policy-makers? Big Tech.

Digital giants including Amazon, Apple and Meta spent 73 million euros on EU-focused lobbying annually, ahead of the 66.7 million euros spent by the finance sector.

Big Tech has ramped up its efforts to oppose the enforcement of European digital rules, according to the report, in alignment with the administration of US President Donald Trump.



– Going too far? –



The campaigners found the energy industry poured some 52 million euros while the chemicals and agri-business sectors spent 46.5 million euros.

The total spending for lobbying is calculated by looking at annual expenditure of one million euros or more by 173 companies and industry associations among the 17,501 currently declared in the EU lobby transparency register.

Campaigners say the true figure — if all corporate and campaign spending in Brussels were taken into account — is much higher.

The report says the rise has been matched by an “unprecedented rate” of industry-friendly policies since right-wing parties won a majority in the European Parliament and von der Leyen’s second mandate began in 2024.

The company that spent the most on lobbying was Facebook and Instagram owner Meta, with expenditure of more than 10 million euros, the report found.

Lobbying is part of the legislative process and can help shape a law.

But campaigners argue lobbying goes further than it should.

Examples they gave include pressure by the tech sector, which the report said led the EU to propose legal changes that risk “severely” weakening AI and data privacy rules.

Investigate Europe, a journalism cooperative, in April reported the EU copy-pasted from proposals by tech industry lobbyists in adopting rules allowing data centres to keep their environmental impact secret.

Brussels denied the claim.



– Greater transparency calls –



The campaigners say there isn’t an equal playing field, with some companies and groups getting more access than others.

The EU Ombudsman, Teresa Anjinho, echoed such criticism last year.

She slammed the European Commission for working too closely with industry to rush through the scaling back of sustainability rules for firms.

Under current rules, European commissioners and their staff, senior officials and EU lawmakers pushing through legislation through parliament must publish information about their meetings with lobbyists.

The rules have been strengthened many times after scandals including “Qatargate”, in which a number of EU lawmakers were accused in 2022 of being paid to promote the interests of Qatar and Morocco.

But the campaigners behind Thursday’s report believe more is needed to ensure full transparency, calling in particular for a legally-binding lobby register that would punish companies and groups posting inaccurate data.