Unrest sparked by far-right demos continues in Sweden


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Riot police watch a city bus burn on a street in Malmo, Sweden, Saturday, April 16, 2022. Unrest broke out in southern Sweden late Saturday despite police moving a rally by an anti-Islam far-right group, which was planning to burn a Quran among other things, to a new location as a preventive measure. (Johan Nilsson/TT via AP)

HELSINKI (AP) — Unrest broke out in southern Sweden late Saturday despite police moving a rally by an anti-Islam far-right group, which was planning to burn a Quran among other things, to a new location as a preventive measure.

Scuffles and unrest were reported in the southern town of Landskrona after a demonstration scheduled there by the Danish right-wing party Stram Kurs party was moved to the nearby city of Malmo, some 45 kilometers (27 miles) south.

Up to 100 mostly young people threw stones, set cars, tires and dustbins on fire, and put up a barrier fence that obstructed traffic, Swedish police said. The situation had calmed down in Landskrona by late Saturday but remains tense, police said, adding no injuries were reported in the action.

On Friday evening, violent clashes between demonstrators and counter-protesters erupted in the central city of Orebro ahead Stram Kurs’ plan to burn a Quran there, leaving 12 police officers injured and four police vehicles set on fire.

Video footage and photos from chaotic scenes in Orebro showed burning police cars and protesters throwing stones and other objects at police officers in riot gear.

Kim Hild, spokeswoman for police in southern Sweden, said earlier Saturday that police would not revoke permission for the Landskrona demonstration because the threshold for doing that is very high in Sweden, which values free speech.

The right of the protesters “to demonstrate and speak out weighs enormously, heavily and it takes an incredible amount for this to be ignored,” Hild told Swedish news agency TT.

The demonstration took place Saturday evening in a central park in Malmo where Stram Kurs’ leader Rasmus Paludan addressed a few dozen people. A small number of counter-protesters threw stones at demonstrators and police was forced to use pepper spray to disperse them.

Paludan himself was reported to have been hit by a stone on his leg, Swedish media said. No serious injuries were reported, according to police.

Since Thursday, clashes have been reported also in Stockholm and in the cities of Linkoping and Norrkoping — all locations where Stram Kurs either planned or had demonstrations.

Paludan, a Danish lawyer who also holds Swedish citizenship, set up Stram Kurs, or “Hard Line” in 2017. The website of the party, which runs on an anti-immigration and anti-Islam agenda says “Stram Kurs is the most patriotic political party in Denmark.”

Leftist party consultation shows majority will abstain, vote blank in Macron-Le Pen run-off

FRANCE 24 

Most members of leftist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon's party will abstain or leave their ballot papers blank in the presidential run-off between President Emmanuel Macron and his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen on April 24, an internal consultation showed.

© Emmanuel Dunand, AFP

Macron won the presidency in 2017 after easily beating Le Pen when voters rallied behind him in the run-off to keep her far-right party out of power.

Last Sunday's initial vote set up the same second-round battle, but Macron is facing a much tougher challenge with both sides desperate to court those who backed Mélenchon, who narrowly missed out on the run-off after winning about 22% of the vote.

Mélenchon has called on his supporters not to vote for Le Pen, repeating the injunction four times in a speech to supporters after the first round. But he has stopped short of advocating Macron and said his La France insoumise (France Unbowed) party would hold a public consultation to help guide those who backed him.

According to results published on Sunday from about 215,000 people who took part, more than 66% said they would abstain, leave their ballot paper blank or spoil it. Just over 33% said they would vote for Macron. The option of voting for Le Pen was not given to respondents.

"The results are not an order to vote for anybody (...). Voters will make their own choice and vote as they see fit," Mélenchon's campaign team wrote on its website.

For decades, a "republican front" of voters of all stripes rallying behind a mainstream candidate has helped to keep the far right out of power.

But Macron, whose sometimes abrasive style and policies that veered to the right have upset many voters, can no longer automatically count on that backing.

An IPSOS-Sopra-Steria poll on Saturday showed that some 33% of Mélenchon voters would back Macron with 16% supporting Le Pen on April 24. But more than 50% of people questioned declined to give their view.

With the electorate fragmented and undecided, the election will likely be won by the candidate who can reach beyond his or her camp to convince voters that the other option would be far worse.

Macron borrowed directly from Mélenchon's platform on Saturday by promising to put his next prime minister in charge of "planification écologique" (ecological planning) – a concept popularised by Mélenchon.

Addressing hundreds of supporters in central Marseille, Macron promised a "complete renewal" of his policies. He said he would also appoint a minister of "energy planning" with "a mission to make France the first leading nation to end oil, gas and coal consumption".

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

Divers find 'no leaks' from fuel-laden ship sunk off Tunisia


Sun, April 17, 2022




Divers who inspected the hull of a tanker loaded with 750 tonnes of fuel that sank off southeast Tunisia detected no leaks on Sunday, officials said.

The Equatorial Guinea-flagged Xelo, which sank Saturday in the Gulf of Gabes, has settled on its side at a depth of almost 20 metres (65 feet), the environment ministry said.

"No leak has been detected," it said in a statement.

The inspection was carried out by divers accompanied by the ship's captain and engineer, said Mohamed Karray, spokesman for a court in Gabes city that is investigating the sinking.

The Xelo was travelling from Egypt to Malta when it went down.

With the scene sealed off by Tunisia's military, the defence ministry released pictures showing the vessel submerged on its side.

The crew of the Xelo had issued a distress call on Friday evening and sought shelter in Tunisian waters from bad weather before going down.

Tunisian authorities rescued the seven-member crew, who received first aid and were moved to a hotel.

Transport Minister Rabie Majidi said Sunday that rescue workers had checked during the operation that the valves were closed, and the team of divers ensured they were sealed and intact.

"The situation is not dangerous, the outlook is positive, the ship is stable because luckily it ran aground on sand," he told reporters.

The minister said the priority was to pump the diesel fuel and prevent any spillage or pollution.

An Italian ship specialised in cleaning up marine pollution will be sent alongside a team of divers to aid with efforts, an Italian official said.

As a precaution, protective booms have already been placed around the wreck.

Environment Minister Leila Chikhaoui has also been at the scene in the port of Gabes to follow up on the incident.

Tunisian officials are investigating the itinerary of the tanker, which reportedly has Turkish and Libyan owners.

The Tunisia branch of the World Wildlife Fund has expressed concern about another "environmental catastrophe" in the region, an important fishing zone.

The tanker is 58 metres (63 yards) long and nine metres wide, according to ship monitoring website vesseltracker.com.

It began taking on water around seven kilometres (four miles) offshore in the Gulf of Gabes and the engine room was engulfed, according to the environment ministry.

ayj-fka/jsa/pjm

Yemen's new leaders say focused on peace path

The Yemen war has displaced millions, including this resident receiving food aid at a camp in Hodeida province

 (AFP/Khaled Ziad) 

Haitham EL-TABEI and Robbie COREY-BOULET
Sun, April 17, 2022, 

Yemen's new leaders are "ready for war" should the latest push for peace with Huthi rebels fail, but a senior official told AFP they genuinely want the years-long conflict to end soon.

"Our first option is peace, but we are ready for war," Abdullah al-Alimi said late Saturday in his first interview since being named to an eight-member leadership council tasked with running the country after President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi stepped down earlier this month.

"We believe the council is in a position, with the coalition support, to score a decisive military victory," Alimi told AFP in the Saudi capital.

Hadi's internationally recognised government had been locked in conflict for seven years against the Iran-backed Huthis, who control the capital Sanaa and most of the north despite a Saudi-led coalition's military intervention launched in 2015.

The war has killed hundreds of thousands directly or indirectly, and triggered what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with millions on the brink of famine.

Hadi's April 7 announcement handing power to the council came at the end of talks in the Saudi capital Riyadh that brought together anti-Huthi factions but were boycotted by the Huthis themselves.

The developments followed the start of a renewable two-month truce that has brought a rare respite from violence and spurred cautious hopes the war could finally end.

Hadi said the council would be tasked with "negotiating with the Huthis for a permanent ceasefire".

"We hope the dire situation in Yemen will make people have a desire to leave personal and partisan interests behind in pursuit of peace," said Alimi, formerly Hadi's chief of staff.

He said council leaders are due to meet in the coming days with UN special envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg, who last week visited Sanaa for the first time during his mandate and held talks with Huthi leaders.

After meeting Grundberg, the council will travel to Yemen to be sworn in, though Alimi refused to specify exactly where.

The new council has not yet decided how long it will give the Huthis to join talks, Alimi said.

- Rebel resistance -

The Huthis refused to participate in the negotiations in Riyadh, which they consider enemy territory, but Alimi said future talks could take place in a more neutral location such as Oman.

So far, however, the Huthis have been dismissive, denouncing the new council as "a desperate attempt to rearrange the ranks of the mercenaries" fighting in Yemen.

Analysts note the Huthis have said peace will only come once foreign forces leave and some believe they are only really interested in talks with the Saudis.

"The Huthis don't see themselves in a conflict with Yemenis. The Huthis see themselves in a conflict with Saudi Arabia," said Fatima Abo Alasrar of the Middle East Institute in Washington.

If the push for peace goes nowhere, the newly-aligned anti-Huthi forces are positioned to pursue "a concerted multifront campaign" against the rebels, provided the council's diverse membership can hold together, said Peter Salisbury, senior Yemen analyst for the International Crisis Group.

"They (the leadership council) have the potential to more aggressively pursue peace and more aggressively pursue war, and the most likely outcome is they do a little bit of one and a little bit of the other," he said.

The male model testing gender norms in a changing Saudi Arabia





The male model testing gender norms in a changing Saudi ArabiaZiad al-Mesfer has built a social media following while blazing a trail for the few Saudi male models brave enough to don garments widely seen as appropriate for women only 

(AFP/Fayez Nureldine)


Robbie Corey-Boulet
Sat, April 16, 2022

With his hot pink hair extensions and leopard print pantsuit, model Ziad al-Mesfer was bound to turn heads during his recent public photo shoot in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia.

Passers-by began sneaking pictures on their mobiles merely minutes after Mesfer emerged from his white luxury car onto the cobbled sidewalks of a high-end cafe district in Riyadh, his stylist and photographer in tow.

Such appearances have helped Mesfer, 25, build a massive social media following while blazing a trail for the handful of Saudi male models brave enough to don garments widely seen as appropriate for women only –- thereby pushing the boundaries of their country's famously rigid gender norms.

In the process he has endeared himself to expensive brands keen to profit from a spectacle that would have been unthinkable before Saudi Arabia embarked on a whirlwind series of social reforms ushered in by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Yet Mesfer's approach carries considerable risks.

Along with ardent fans -– mostly bubbly teenage girls who follow him on Snapchat -– the crowd gawking at the recent Riyadh shoot included one irate middle-aged man who got out of his car to denounce Mesfer as "gay", a potential capital offence in Saudi Arabia.

The desert monarchy also traditionally forbids men who "imitate women" or wear women's clothing, and vice versa.

Mesfer does not identify as gay –- he intends to marry a woman one day –- and explains he is simply following global brands' embrace of androgynous fashion.

And despite occasional harassment in-person and online, he told AFP he has no plan to leave Saudi Arabia or modify his look.

"It is better for me to stay in my country and wear these clothes," he said, "not wait for a trip abroad to go outside in a bold outfit."

The male model testing gender norms in a changing Saudi ArabiaBorn into a Riyadh-based family, the eldest of six children, Mesfer started to develop his sense of style from a young age (AFP/Fayez Nureldine)

- Fashionable following -

Born into a Riyadh-based family, the eldest of six children, Mesfer started to develop his sense of style from a young age.

"I used to dress my mom, my aunts and my relatives. I used to love styling them," he said.

"My mom used to consult me regarding these things, so I became more interested in women's fashion."

He only dreamed of going public with his talents after Prince Mohammed began trying to soften the kingdom's image, including by expanding entertainment options and easing rules that required women to wear the abaya, an all-covering robe, and hijab headscarf.

Around two years ago, Mesfer started modelling outfits online using the relatively safe medium of Snapchat, which automatically deletes posts once they are viewed.

Today he boasts more than two million Snapchat followers and another 200,000 on Instagram -– the kind of clout that has captured the attention of brands including Prada and Dior.

When Gucci opened a new boutique in Riyadh last month, staff made sure to invite Mesfer to view the inventory, said senior saleswoman Loulwa Mohammed.

"It's very important to invite him, because when we invite him and take a video or picture of him wearing any item, it sells directly," Mohammed said. "All Saudis -- old women, young girls -- all of them, they are watching him."

Despite his large following, Mesfer has polarised social media users in his home country, as seen in the comments on many of his posts 

(AFP/Fayez Nureldine)

- 'A kind of artist' -

Even as other male models and would-be influencers follow his lead, Mesfer remains in a class by himself.

"He is number one," said a sales associate at Prada who, like others interviewed for this story, declined to be named because of the topic's sensitivity.

Yet several fashion professionals said Saudi's limited acceptance of Mesfer should not be misconstrued as a blanket endorsement of his behaviour.

Instead they said Mesfer, who earns money partly through online ads, enjoys protection because he works with luxury brands and mingles with local celebrities who invite him to their events.

"We see him as a model, as a kind of artist, so we can't judge him," Gucci's Mohammed said.

But she added: "Sometimes the reaction is negative. Saudi is a Muslim country. I wouldn't want to see my brother doing the same thing."

This conflicted perception of Mesfer is on vivid display in the comments on his Instagram page.

In response to a February post in which Mesfer paired a bright red coat with a skin-tight purple turtleneck, one user wrote "may God forgive us" while another wrote "I am deleting Instagram after seeing this."

Another user, though, was encouraging: "Ziad, keep going, I love you, take care of yourself for the people who love you and do what you love, and do not care about any words."

rcb/th/dv

Puppets and poetry go underground in besieged city of Kharkiv

Puppeteers Anton Andriushchenko and Oleksandra Shlykova perform in a metro station serving as a bomb shelter in Kharkiv.

 PHOTO: AFP

KHARKIV, UKRAINE (AFP) - In a subterranean metro station serving as a bomb shelter in eastern Ukraine, two flamboyant puppeteers act out a tabletop fairytale for a gaggle of spellbound children.

With a cast of caricature dolls including a mustachioed king and a herd of pigs, Ms Oleksandra Shlykova and Mr Anton Andriushchenko tell the story of how "Princesses are different", entrancing the kids and their parents.

They are also distracting them from the near constant bombardments raining down on the city of Kharkiv above them, as Russia escalates its offensive in eastern Ukraine.

Using a mobile phone sound system, the pair elicit giggles and gasps from their audience perched on steps lined with cardboard - an auditorium improvised to prevent the cold and damp seeping into their bones.

"A live performance is always an emotion that is here and now," said Ms Shlykova, 47, after concluding the show with a flourished bow and inviting the children to play with the puppets.

"We exchange emotions and it lifts our spirits. It's hard to describe it, you have to feel it."

Deep underground, the metro stations of Kharkiv are now home to residents of the eastern metropolis fearful of the battle raging above.

Since pulling back from its northern offensive to capture the capital of Kyiv, the Kremlin has scaled up attacks on Ukraine's eastern flank, including Kharkiv just 21km from the Russian border.

On Friday (April 15), shelling of residential areas of the city killed 10 people. On Saturday, a strike claimed two more lives.

The walkways of the metro stations are now lined with bedding and mounds of belongings. The stationary carriages have been divided into makeshift homes.

Toiletries line the train windows and inhabitants pry open the sliding doors to access their spaces. The main walkway smells of the soup being ladled out to those living here.

"When you watch this performance, you remember the stories and you alter the way you see the world," said Ms Oksana, 37, who brought her two daughters to the show.

They are living in a underground shelter nearby, and came over to this one to escape the grim tale unfolding above.

"Truth and humour gives you a boost and makes you happy," said Ms Oksana, who declined to give a surname.

Deep underground, the metro stations of Kharkiv are now home to residents of the eastern metropolis fearful of the battle raging above. 

PHOTO: REUTERS


Across town, a poetry performance takes place in a white brickwork bunker down some narrow stairs past a ramshackle workshop.

The shelter is also packed with improvised beds.

Mr Serhiy Zhadan reads out verse overlaid with melodica music in a purple neon-lit soundproofed chamber. A small crowd follows the reading, in which Mr Zhadan holds forth a surreal lyrical monologue detailing an assortment of animals.

Ukrainian poet Serhiy Zhadan performing in the bomb shelter on April 16, 2022.

 PHOTO: AFP


He describes the poem as a "brutal lullaby" based on a satire of a children's book. It is laced with profanity, a far cry from the family-friendly staging in the metro underground. Nevertheless, its objectives are similar.

"A person cannot live only with war," said Mr Zhadan - a literary celebrity in poetry-obsessed Ukraine.

"It is very important for them to hear a word, to be able to sing along, to be able to express a certain emotion."

Endangered North Atlantic right whales make a stand in Cape Cod

The North Atlantic right whale is one of the most endangered mammals in the world -- this photo was taken during a research expedition with the Center for Coastal Studies (NOAA permit 25740-01) (AFP/Joseph Prezioso)

Issam AHMED
Sat, April 16, 2022

After many hours scouring Cape Cod Bay and a few false alarms, those aboard the Research Vessel Shearwater on a bright April day make their first sighting: three North Atlantic right whales, including a rare mother-calf pair.

The captain cuts the engines and a trio of marine biologists spring into action, rapidly snapping photos and noting markings that can be used to identify individual animals and track injuries -- a vital part of conservation efforts for a species believed to have 336 members.

While the whaling that drove them to near-extinction has long been banned, unintended collisions with ships and entanglements with fishing gear are today the main threats for Eubalaena glacialis, one of the most endangered mammals in the world.

Approaching 60 feet in length and weighing over 70 tons, the North Atlantic right whale is the third largest whale in existence. Their life spans are similar to humans, with individuals living up to a century.

"Unfortunately, since 2010, their population has been decreasing," explains Christy Hudak, the leader of the Center for Coastal Studies' expedition that set off from Provincetown, a historic New England fishing village that is today popular for whale watching and gay tourism.

"We're trying to spread the word regarding these amazing creatures and just how a key species they are in the circle of life."

The CCS crew coordinates with an aerial survey plane, while a vessel from another research group flies mini-drones equipped with cameras over the whales as part of a study on the impact of rope entanglements on their growth rate.

Despite strict ship speed limits of 10 knots in some protected areas, and new rules brought in by authorities to limit the number of ropes between buoys to crab and lobster traps on the seafloor, conservationists worry it's not enough.

The problems are compounded by climate change: as the waters of the North Atlantic warm, a tiny oil-rich crustacean called Calanus finmarchicus that is the whales' main food resource is becoming more scarce in their habitat, which stretches from Florida to Canada.

Cape Cod Bay isn't warming as fast as the whales' more northern waters in the Gulf of Maine, and as a result, it is here, in their traditional feeding and nursing grounds, that the marine giants are now more commonly spotted.

Apart from photography and detailed note-taking, the crew also carry out plankton surveys: casting nets and using water pumps to take samples at various depths for lab analysis.

Knowledge of the composition and density of these zooplankton helps scientists predict peak whale arrivals and departures.

- The 'right' whale to hunt -

Right whales were the favored prey of commercial hunters for more than a millennium -- by the Vikings, Basques, English, Dutch and finally Americans -- who sought their blubber for whale oil and their baleen plates, which they use to filter their food, as a strong, flexible material used in the pre-plastic era.

According to David Laist, an author of a book on the species, their numbers prior to commercial whaling ranged up to 20,000, but by the early 20th century, the species was decimated.

There was just one reliable sighting anywhere in the North Atlantic between the mid-1920s to 1950, Laist writes.

"The early whalers thought of them as the correct whale to catch because they were so valuable, great thick layers of blubber that produced oil that was used in lamps," CCS founder Charles "Stormy" Mayo says, explaining the name.

A baby boom in the 2000s led to a recent peak of more than 483 animals by 2010, but numbers are once more in decline -- and in 2017, the species was rocked by a mass-die off due to a shift to new foraging grounds.

"Fourteen right whales died in a very short period, because they moved into an area in the Gulf of St. Lawrence that was not previously known and was not managed," he said.

That move due to declining prey abundance elsewhere appears to have been caused by climate change, and left the whales highly vulnerable to the collisions and ropes that kill them.

And since the population is already so depleted, even a few deaths are enough to trigger a downward spiral, said Mayo, who was part of the first team to disentangle a whale in 1984. Mayo's own father had hunted pilot whales, and their family has lived in the area since the 1600s.

The whales' calving rate in its southern waters is also down.

While three years is considered a normal interval between births, the current average is three to six years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The stressors placed on females -- including non-fatal rope entanglements and ocean noise from human activities -- are thought to be behind the steep decline.

- Playful calf, and a whale party -

Right whales are distinguished by their stocky, black appearance with no dorsal fins, as well as heads adorned with knobby patches of rough skin called callosities, which are colored white from the tiny "whale lice" (cyamids) that cling to their hosts in what is thought to be a symbiotic relationship.

Following tips relayed by their colleagues in the air, the R/V Shearwater finds more right whales including a playful calf copying its mother, and a huddle that biologists call a surface active group -- an opportunity to socialize.

The whales "are getting together, rolling around touching each other. The main part of it is to mate, but also just to interact with other right whales. It's not always about sex," Hudak says.

Back on land, Hudak says she was encouraged by what she saw over the day: a total of 10 right whales, two mother-calf pairs, and the social group, the "piece de resistance."

The long term future of the species is far from assured, but there is hope.

Technologies are being tested to reduce entanglements -- from weak rope that breaks more easily, to ropeless fishing traps that use floats triggered by remote control to ascend by themselves.

Other ideas include deploying more acoustic monitoring devices on buoys to track the whales' movements better, and quickly respond with ship speed limits in those areas.

Also vital, said Hudak, is increasing public awareness and desire to protect the creatures.

The ship's spotter Sarah Pokelwaldt, a recent graduate doing an internship with CCS, said she was blown away by what for her was her first encounter with calves.

"Being able to see the babies shows a lot of promise for the work that we do. It's really fulfilling to see," she said.

ia/sst

Cruise ships at center of dispute in Florida's idyllic Key West




Cruise ships at center of dispute in Florida's idyllic Key WestA Carnival Dream cruise docks in Key West, Florida on April 11, 2022 where the community is divided on the benefit of such ships (AFP/CHANDAN KHANNA)


Gerard MARTINEZ
Sat, April 16, 202

The island-city of Key West off the southern tip of Florida invites visitors to stroll slowly, enjoy turquoise waters and take in the sunset. But according to some residents, that idyllic peace is endangered -- by lumbering, tourist-filled cruise ships.

The huge vessels bring thousands of visitors every day to the small city of 26,000 inhabitants, whose quaint, often pastel-colored Victorian homes line leafy, walkable streets.

Following a drawn-out local battle, the cruise tourist numbers are now down, but many residents say more still needs to be done.

While many businesses depend on the tourist throngs, residents such as Arlo Haskell find the ships to be a nuisance and believe they cause environmental harm. As a result, he founded the Safer Cleaner Ships non-profit.

"These cruise ships are an extraction industry that is profiting off of the beauty in Key West while harming that beauty and degrading the experience for everyone else," Haskell said.

In 2020, his association put forth three local referendums: one to limit the size of cruise ships, another to allow no more than 1,500 people a day to disembark and a third to be able to prohibit boats that do the most damage to the environment.

The three proposals, each approved by between 60 to 80 percent of voters, were ratified by the city council. It was a victory for Haskell -- or so he thought.

Then in June 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law suspending the measures, arguing that voters could not meddle in matters of maritime trade.

Local businesses, including ones also owned by the owner of Pier B -- a huge beneficiary of the cruise ships as one of the city's main docking locations -- had donated almost $1 million to a political campaign committee supporting the governor, according to the Miami Herald.

- Public docks closed -

Relying on a bit of unexpected economic data, Safer Cleaner Ships returned to battle following DeSantis' move.

The info showed that cruise ship suspensions during the pandemic did not sink local finances.

To the contrary, in 2021, the city collected 25 percent more sales taxes than in 2019, before Covid.

Hotels and restaurants seem to have taken advantage of the fact that Florida promoted its open businesses in the middle of the pandemic while other states imposed rules and closings.

The city administration last month decided that since Key West cannot limit the number of cruise ships, it would close its two public docks.

Now cruises can only park at private Pier B, which welcomes only one cruise ship per day. The era of two to three ships arriving daily is over.

The move has been a blow to some businesses.

Although cruise tourists spend only a few hours in the city and usually eat before disembarking -- generating little income for restaurants and hotels -- they do buy souvenirs and snacks.

The visitors support the likes of tchotchke shops, ice cream parlors and tourist destinations, such as the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum where the US writer lived between 1931 and 1939, according to Mayor Teri Johnston.

- Finding balance -

One morning this week, the streets of Key West were nearly deserted. Vanessa Wilder manned her downtown bike rental stand, waiting for the first passengers to disembark from a newly arrived cruise.

"The main shops and the bars down here, we thrive off of these cruise ships," she said.

"If we didn't have them, a lot of businesses around here would have to shut."

Despite his victories, Haskell maintains that things should move one step further, with cruise ships at the private dock not allowed to exceed a size specified by residents.

The boats, according to Haskell "do tremendous damage to our ecosystem" by clouding the water, which endangers the survival of corals.

But Scott Atwell, spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Key West, said the evidence wasn't so clear.

"We do not have specific studies on whether the cruise ship turbidity is any different than natural turbidity and whether turbidity from the ships' channel reaches our coral reefs in a detrimental way," he said.

In the meantime, Key West's city council has decided to monitor water quality and also support coral restoration under an initiative that charges a fee to Pier B for disembarking passengers.

"We don't want to get rid of the cruise ships but bring them into a moderate level so that we have good economic conditions and we also have good quality of life for our residents," Johnston, the mayor, said.

gma/bfm/caw

France: Le Pen accused of embezzlement ahead of election runoff

French prosecutors are looking into a EU report which accuses far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and her associates of embezzling over €600,000.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen and her aides allegedly misappropriated EU funds while serving in the European Parliament

With a week to go before far-right candidate Marine Le Pen squares off against incumbent Emmanuel Macron in the presidential election runoff, the nationalist politician faces a potential embezzlement scandal.

On Sunday, Paris prosecutors told the DPA news agency they were studying the accusations against Le Pen and her party contained in a report from the European Union's anti-fraud office OLAF. Separately,  a source in the European Parliament told the AFP news agency that the parliament will try to recover the money owed by Marine le Pen.

What is Le Pen suspected of?

OLAF indicates that the nationalist politician embezzled nearly €137,000 ($148,000) in EU funds when she was a lawmaker in the European Parliament between 2004 and 2017.

The agency alleged that Le Pen and others used the EU funds for national political purposes, personal expenses or services that would benefit commercial companies close to her Rassemblement National (National Rally) party.

The funds were also allegedly used by the former far-right grouping in the European Parliament, Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF).

The report also names three former lawmakers from Le Pen's party — her father Jean-Marie, her former partner Louis Aliot and the party's former vice president Bruno Gollnisch.

The three are said to have embezzled a total of €486,000, redirecting it for for national policy purposes or to support service providers that are close to the party.

None are accused of profiting directly.

Part of the OLAF reports was published Saturday by Mediapart, the investigative news site.

How has Le Pen reacted to the accusations?

Le Pen's lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut, who is quoted in the Mediapart report, denied the accusations, raising suspicions over the "timing" of the report.

He said the presidential hopeful reserved the right to take legal action against anyone linked to the party who may have committed misconduct without her knowledge.

The attorney added that Le Pen "has not been summoned by any French judicial authority" and slammed the failure to send him or his client the final OLAF report.

The investigation was opened in 2016, Bosselut said, and Le Pen was questioned in writing by post in March 2021.

National Rally president Jordan Bardella told Europe 1 radio that the French public "will not be fooled by attempts of the European Union and the European institutions (...) to interfere in the presidential campaign and harm Marine Le Pen." 

He said his party had filed two legal complaints against OLAF, and that it would be filing a third in response to the report.

Aliot, who is now mayor of the southern French city of Perpignan, also denied the accusations in comments made to broadcaster Franceinfo on Sunday.

Previous embezzlement case pending

The embezzlement accusations are not the first against Le Pen and her party.

Since June 2017, Le Pen has been under investigation on suspicion of having given party members fake jobs as assistants at the European Parliament.

She is accused of "embezzling public funds" and "complicity" in this crime as part of the judicial investigation.

Macron remains in the lead

Macron, a pro-European Union centrist, won the first round of the presidential election on April 10, with Le Pen coming second, setting up a similar runoff battle as in 2017.

The pair are due to clash in a live TV debate on Wednesday evening.

Macron is seen winning the second round with a 55.5% share of the vote, according to a poll published Saturday by Ipsos-Sopra Steria Poll For France Info And Le Parisien-Aujourd'hui En France.

However, he must still convince enough supporters of socialist candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon — who came third in the first round — to support him, rather than abstaining or spoiling their ballot.

Le Pen has softened her party's anti-immigration image and sought to position herself as the candidate that will solve the country's cost of living crisis.

mm/dj (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

DW RECOMMENDS

The rise of mercenary armies in Africa

More African countries are turning to foreign security companies to protect leaders or deploy them in conflict zones. However, criticism of the use of mercenaries, who some accuse of impunity, is growing louder.

A number of African leaders are opting for foreign private security firms for protection

They protect influential African leaders and their properties, secure foreign investments, and intervene in intra-African conflicts — usually without regard for losses.

Foreign private military companies are being deployed in more and more crisis-ridden countries in Africa.

But many mercenaries do not shy away from crimes and human rights violations, according to a recently published study by the Group for Research and Information on Peace and Security (GRIP), an independent research institute based in Brussels.

"Private military companies have increased their power and influence in many African countries over the past few years," Amandine Dusoulier, author of the GRIP study, told DW.

She warned that in some African countries, the [mercenary groups] had become a kind of state within a state, thereby threatening the countries' sovereignty.

Russian private security company Wagner Group has increased its presence in Africa

Shadowy mercenary missions

It is still difficult to estimate the number of private soldiers on the African continent. Many of these companies operate in the shadows, says Jade Andrzejewski of the French Observatory for International Relations, OERI. "There is no detailed information about private military companies operating internationally."

Andrzejewski told DW that the companies often operate unofficially and camouflage their activities.

The shadowy Russian mercenary group, Wagner, reportedly working in Libya, Mozambique, Sudan, the Central African Republic and Mali, is the main object of criticism.

Wherever Wagner mercenaries appear, they make negative headlines. But other private military and security companies — including those from the US and Europe — are also active in Africa and do not always take human rights seriously either, according to the GRIP study published in March 2022.

The US' Blackwater private security firm was accused of human rights violations in Iraq

UN concerns

Last September, a United Nations working group also expressed concern about "the increasing involvement of private military and security providers in humanitarian operations."

The UN group called for a "binding international legal framework" for private security companies.

In its report, the UN working group recalls human rights violations committed in the past by private military companies in various regions of the world. 

For example, in 2007, guards from the US security firm Blackwater fired indiscriminately on Iraqi civilians and killed 14 people, including children.

These atrocities made international headlines. But similar atrocities are still being committed, including and especially in Africa, the UN working group said.

"In Africa, the activities of mercenaries continue to be a matter of serious concern," said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on the occasion of the working group's report.

The African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat stressed that the fight against mercenaries must be seen in the context of promoting peace and security on the continent.

AU President Mahamat says mercenary groups must contribute to Africa's peace

Wagner, DAG, Asgaard & Co.

The list of accusations against private security companies is long: Mercenaries from the Russian Wagner Group have repeatedly committed serious human rights violations against civilians in the Central African Republic, among other places, according to the United Nations document.

The Dyck Advisory Group (DAG) is also in the pillory. The Mozambican government had hired the South African security firm to combat Al-Shabaab jihadist violence in Cabo Delgado in the north of the country.

The UN paper said that instead DAG operatives killed civilians indiscriminately in June 2020 and did not distinguish between civilian and military targets.

US companies CACI and Academi are among the most prominent private military companies present on the African continent, apart from Russia's Wagner Group. 

In addition, the French company Secopex, Great Britain's Aegis Defence Services and G4S are also active in Africa. Others are Omega Consulting Group from Ukraine, South Africa's Dyck Advisory Group, and from Germany, Xeless.

Germany's mercenary involvement

OERI expert Andrzejewski says most mercenary companies hide their activities

Asgaard, another German private security company, recruits mainly former Bundeswehr soldiers and police officers for security duties. This company is mainly active in Sudan, Libya, Mauritania and Egypt.

The private security industry has a long history on the African continent, says GRIP researcher Dusoulier, whether in the Sahel, Mali, or the Central African Republic.

"This state of affairs is fostered by two factors: the weakness of government institutions in some countries and the continent's wealth of mineral resources," Dusoulier points out.

The OERI expert listed Angola, Sierra Leone, G5 Sahel nations, Sudan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and CAR as some of the African countries that have resorted to the services of private mercenary forces in the past.

But criticism of using mercenaries in Africa is growing. At the African Union summit in early February, the AU commissioner for political affairs, peace, and security, Bankole Adeoye of Nigeria, called for the "complete exclusion of mercenaries from the African continent."

This article was translated from German.

Edited by: Chrispin Mwakideu