Australia census plan prompts LGBTQ+ boycott threat

Sydney (AFP) – Australia's decision not to include new questions about gender and sexual orientation in the next census prompted fierce debate Thursday, and a warning that LGBTQ citizens may boycott the count.


Issued on: 29/08/2024 -

Australia's Pride March in early 2023. An equality group said LBGTQ Australians may boycott next year's census if questions about gender and sexuality are removed © Saeed KHAN / AFP/File

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The country's centre-left government said it scrapped tentative plans to ask Australians -- for the first time -- about their sexual and gender identity in the 2026 survey.

Supporters had hoped the questions would provide a more accurate snapshot of who Australians are and who they love.

But finance minister Jim Chalmers said Thursday that the decision was made to avoid an ugly and potentially divisive public debate.

"We've seen the way that these issues can be weaponised against members of our community, and we don't want to see that happen," Chalmers told public broadcaster ABC.

"The census isn't the only opportunity to gather that sort of data".

But some have voiced anger at the U-turn.

Independent Sydney lawmaker Alex Greenwich said not being properly counted "would be deeply hurtful" to a part of the population "who for many years have been forced into the closet".

"If this decision sticks, the government could expect LGBTQ people and our families not to participate in the next census," he warned.

Anna Brown, the CEO of Equality Australia, a rights advocacy group, said the notion that census questions would be a threat to social cohesion was "frankly, absurd".

"What the government is saying to us is that we are not worth having the hard conversations for, and they are dumping us in the too-hard basket" she said.

© 2024 AFP

Floods submerge Vietnam's dragon fruit farms

Hanoi (AFP) – Floods submerged hundreds of hectares of dragon fruit farms in south Vietnam, residents told AFP on Thursday, with many villagers forced to seek shelter on higher ground.


Issued on: 29/08/2024 -

An aerial photo shows a flooded dragon fruit field in Binh Thuan province, Vietnam 

Thanh LONG / AFP

The flooding in Binh Thuan province was triggered by heavy rain and the discharge of water from an irrigation reservoir on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"We lost all our dragon fruit and cucumber crops this year," Ho Van Trung, 66, told AFP.

Vietnam dragon fruit exports generated a record $1.8 billion in 2018, but the figure has been declining in recent years.

Binh Thuan province is home to Vietnam's biggest growing area, measuring 28,000 hectares and producing 600,000 tonnes of fruit each year.

The fiery red and green fruit with a scaly skin that gives it its name thrives in hot and dry conditions, but, as part of the cactus family, cannot stand immersion in water.

On Thursday, farmers in two villages in Binh Thuan's Ham My commune said the floods in the area were "unprecedented".

"My house and my gardens growing dragon fruit and cucumber are all submerged," Trung said.

Living close by, Dao Thi Bich Thao and her husband had to evacuate their one-storey home after it flooded.

"Water came so quickly that we could only move our TV and refrigerator and then flee," Thao said.

Around 200 households and 400 hectares of crops, mostly dragon fruit, had been flooded, a local official in Ham My commune told state news site VNExpress.

More than 70 residents moved to higher ground as their homes were temporarily uninhabitable, the report said.

Scientists have warned that extreme weather events globally are becoming more intense and frequent due to climate change.

Other parts of Vietnam have also been hit by heavy rain and floods in recent months.

The country's north has suffered through an extremely wet summer, with mountainous areas in the northwest particularly badly hit since early July.

Across the country, nearly 29,000 houses have been damaged and 90,000 hectares of crops destroyed, Vietnam's General Statistic Office (GSO) said late last month.

Floods caused around $85 million in damage in the first seven months of the year, double that of last year, according to GSO.

Ninety-one people were killed or reported missing due to adverse weather during that period, it said.

© 2024 AFP

Garcia decries online abuse after US Open defeat, cites ‘unhealthy betting’

By AFP
August 28, 2024

France's Caroline Garcia serves in her US Open first-round loss to Renata Zarazua - Copyright AFP/File Jim WATSON, Odd ANDERSEN

Former WTA world number four Caroline Garcia of France shared some of the disparaging messages she has received in the wake of recent defeats on Wednesday and cited “unhealthy betting” as a driver of social media abuse of players.

Garcia, an 11-time WTA champion who reached the US Open semi-finals in 2022, fell to 92nd-ranked Renata Zarazua in the first round at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning in a lengthy post on X (formerly Twitter) she shared “just a few” of the messages she has received after defeats, including one telling her to shoot herself and another saying “I hope your mom dies soon”.

At the age of 30, she said, she’s done enough work to get past the hurtful messages.

“I have tools and have done work to protect myself from this hate. But still, this is not OK,” Garcia wrote.

“It really worries me when I think about younger players coming up, that have to go through this. People that still haven’t yet developed fully as a human and that really might be affected by this hate.”

Garcia called out the practice of the sport and tournaments partnering with betting companies, wondering if it contributed to a rise in such abuse.

“Tournaments and the sport keeps partnering with betting companies, which keep attracting new people to unhealthy betting,” Garcia said.

“The days of cigarette brands sponsoring sports are long gone. Yet, here we are promoting betting companies, which actively destroy the life of some people.”

She continued, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they should be banned as people are free to do whatever they want with their money. But maybe we should not promote them. Also, if someone decided to say this things to me in public, he could have legal issues. So why online we are free to do anything? Shouldn’t we reconsider anonymity online?”

Officials in a range of sports, including tennis, have tried to shield players from abusive messages.

The French Open partnered in 2022 with a company that uses artificial intelligence to filter players’ social media accounts. Wimbledon launched a social media monitoring service to protect players from online abuse and threats.

“Many before me have raised the subject,” Garcia said. “And still, no progress has been made.”

American Jessica Pegula, ranked sixth in the world, was among players posting in support of Garcia.

“The constant death threats and family threats are normal now,” Pegula wrote. “Win or lose.”

American Frances Tiafoe said after his second round victory on Wednesday that social media attacks are par for the course.

“People are saying outlandish stuff,” he said. “You’ve got guys working all their life trying to compete at the highest level. You don’t know people’s circumstances, what they’re going through, how this affects people.”

Athens faces new dangers as forest fires edge closer

By AFP
August 28, 2024

Thousands were forced to flee their homes as the massive blaze raged out of control for three days towards the capital earlier this month - Copyright AFP Angelos TZORTZINIS
Anna Maria Jakubek

With the smell still lingering in its suburbs after Greece’s worst wildfire this year, floods and pollution now threaten Athens, experts say.

Thousands were forced to flee their homes as the massive blaze raged out of control for three days towards the capital earlier this month, swallowing up houses and cars and killing one woman.

Fanned by strong winds, the inferno that began at Varnavas, 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of Athens, reached suburbs at the foot of Mount Penteli, devastating some 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres).

With more than a third of the Mediterranean country’s population of 10 million crammed into the capital’s region of Attica, and the fires edging closer and closer to the city, experts are warning that the situation is becoming critical.

The National Observatory says 37 percent of forests around Athens have been consumed by fire over the past eight years alone.

“Attica has lost most of its forest, and now there is imminent danger for the people of Athens, in terms of polluted environment and risk of flooding” from soil erosion, said Alexandros Dimitrakopoulos, of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

“Where 100 years ago there were vigorous forests of pines, now forest vegetation is of weak and low pines and evergreen shrubs,” the professor of forest fire science told AFP.

Fire meteorologist Theodore M. Giannaros, of the National Observatory, said the situation is aggravated by the “torrential rainfalls which unfortunately we are getting quite frequently”.

He warned of soil erosion and flash floods which “I believe we will face during the coming winter”.

Dimitrakopoulos said the loss of the forests will push Greece’s already sweltering summer temperatures higher. This year the country saw its hottest June and July on record.

– ‘Repeatedly burnt’ –

Scientists say human-caused fossil fuel emissions are increasing the length, frequency and intensity of global heatwaves, raising the risk of wildfires.

“Attica can’t lose more forest,” fire ecology expert Dimitris Kazanis told AFP.

“The percentage is diminishing year by year. A solution must be found.

“In an area with so much cement, so many roads, so much noise, we need forests,” said the lecturer from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

But the frequent fires are impacting the forest’s ability to regenerate.

The Varnavas blaze struck an area covered by Aleppo pine — a species that has evolved to cope with fire but which requires at least 15 to 20 years between fires to regenerate naturally.

“The area burnt has experienced many fire events in the past, some in very frequent intervals,” said ecology professor Margarita Arianoutsou, also of the National and Kapodistrian University.

“This has already caused a serious problem. There are patches repeatedly burnt which need our intervention in order to be restored.”

Reforestation and fire prevention studies were among measures unveiled this month by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

– Pines ‘demonised’ –

Some have called for the planting of other types of trees altogether, as pines burn very quickly because of their naturally flammable resin.

But forester Nikos Georgiadis, from the World Wide Fund for Nature, said people “have demonised the pines”.

“If nature decides that the pines must be there, it’s not easy to change.”

The trick is to create a more resilient, mixed forest — with some broadleaf or less flammable species — and build green belts, said Georgiadis.

“You try to set these zones around settlements, so as to protect both forest and humans,” he added.

Rather than blame the pines, experts fault the encroachment of urban areas into forest land.

“Where trees are burned, houses grow,” said Dimitrakopoulos.

“It was very common in areas of high demand such as Athens… to burn forest in order to create land for construction,” he said.

Most Greek fires are human-caused, through arson or neglect, he added.

Investigators believe a faulty electricity pole may have sparked the Varnavas fire.

“Where there are people, there is fire,” said Dimitrakopoulos.

NAKBA II

Israel 'seems to be settling in for more West Bank raids'


Issued on: 29/08/2024 - 

Video by: Kethevane GORJESTANI

The Israeli military said on Thursday its troops killed five Palestinian fighters who were hiding inside a mosque in the West Bank city of Tulkarm, in one of the largest assaults on the occupied territory for months. France 24's international affairs editor Kethevane Gorjestani says it appears from reporting on the ground that the Israeli military is preparing for further operations in the West Bank.

On the ground in the Middle East: 'An amazing level of violence'


Issued on: 29/08/2024

Video by: Cyril PAYEN

Senior reporter Cyril Payen, who spent three years in Jerusalem as France 24's Middle East correspondent, recently revisited the region for a two-week reporting trip. He reveals what it is like reporting on the ground in the region at a time when Israel's war with Hamas is threatening to spill over into a wider conflict and violence is increasing in the occupied West Bank.

 

Israel launches deadly West Bank operation as Gaza war drags on

By AFP
August 28, 2024

Israeli soldiers operate during a raid in the Nur Shams camp for Palestinian refugees near the city of Tulkarem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank - Copyright AFP GREG BAKER

Israel launched a large-scale military operation Wednesday in the occupied West Bank, where the army said it killed nine Palestinian fighters, while the nearly 11-month Gaza war showed no signs of abating.

Violence has surged in the West Bank during the Gaza war sparked by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel.

The war has killed more than 40,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. It has also caused widespread destruction, displaced nearly all of Gaza’s 2.4 million people at least once and triggered a humanitarian crisis.

In the West Bank in the early hours of Wednesday, the Israeli military launched a series of coordinated raids across four cities — Jenin, Nablus, Tubas and Tulkarem.

Columns of Israeli armoured vehicles entered two refugee camps, in Tulkarem and Tubas, as well as Jenin.

By midday, they were blocking entrances to the towns and camps, AFP photographers said, with soldiers firing at the camps from which gunfire and explosions were heard.

Israeli bulldozers dug up the asphalt from the streets, with the army saying it was looking for roadside bombs.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces killed at least 10 people — two in Jenin, four in a nearby village and another four in the refugee camp near Tubas. Fifteen others were wounded.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas cut short a visit to Saudi Arabia and headed home to “follow up on the latest developments in light of the Israeli aggression on the northern West Bank,” Palestinian official media said.

The Israeli army said it had killed nine Palestinian “terrorists” and that so far there were no casualties on its side.

Soldiers encountered explosives and were exchanging fire with militants, said army spokesman, Nadav Shoshani. He declined to say how many were involved or how long the operation would last.

The operation, he added, was not “extremely different (from usual army activity in the area) or special”.

– ‘This is war’ –

Foreign Minster Israel Katz had a different take, however, saying the military was “operating in full force since last night” in a bid to “dismantle Iranian-Islamic terror infrastructure”.

In a post on X, he accused Iran, Israel’s main foe in the region, of seeking to “establish an eastern front against Israel” based on the “model” for Gaza and Lebanon, where it backs Hamas and Hezbollah, respectively.

“We must address this threat with the same determination used against terror infrastructures in Gaza, including temporary evacuation of residents and any necessary measures,” he said.

“This is a war, and we must win it.”

Since Hamas’s October 7 attack, Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 650 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures.

During the same period, at least 19 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, according to Israeli officials.

But while Israeli military operations have become a daily occurrence in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, it is rare for them to be carried out in multiple cities simultaneously.

In recent weeks, Israeli operations in the West Bank have focused on the north of the territory, where armed groups fighting against Israel are particularly active.

– Patients flee hospital –

Last week, the army announced it had killed a senior Palestinian militant in Lebanon, accusing him of “directing attacks and smuggling weapons” to the West Bank and collaborating with Iranian forces.

Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian Islamist movement allied with Hamas which has a strong presence in the north of the West Bank, issued a statement early Wednesday denouncing an “open war” by Israel.

“With this aggression, which aims to transfer the weight of the conflict to the occupied West Bank, the occupier wants to impose a new state of affairs on the ground to annex the West Bank,” the statement said.

Hamas, whose popularity has soared in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, late Tuesday reiterated its call for Palestinians in the territory to “rise up”.

Its statement came in response to comments by far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who said this week he would build a synagogue at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound if he could.

Ben Gvir, a settler himself, has openly called for the annexation of the West Bank.

In Gaza, families in distress continued to move according to the Israeli army’s evacuation orders.

One of the latest targeted the area around Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, from which “nearly 650 patients have fled”, Doctors Without Borders said.

The medical charity has, instead, “anticipated the opening of a field hospital now that the Al-Aqsa hospital was “almost totally empty”.

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported at least 12 dead, including at least one child and a woman, in new Israeli strikes.

Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,534 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

burs-dv/kir

Israel says it ‘eliminated’ local Palestinian commander in West Bank military operation

The Israeli military on Thursday said it had killed Mohammed Jaber and four more Palestinian militants in a major military operation in the occupied West Bank. Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, was a leader of the Tulkarem Battalion, a local militant group allied to the Islamic Jihad. There was no immediate Palestinian confirmation of his death.

Issued on: 29/08/2024 -

An Israeli soldier aims his rifle while positioned at a gateway during a military operation in Tulkarm in the West Bank on August 29, 2024. 

© Jaafar Ashtiyeh, AFP

The Israeli military said it has killed five more militants in a large-scale operation in the occupied West Bank early Thursday, including a well-known local commander.

There was no immediate Palestinian confirmation of the death of Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, a commander in the Islamic Jihad militant group in the Nur Shams refugee camp on the outskirts of the city of Tulkarem.

He became a hero for many Palestinians earlier this year when he was reported killed in an Israeli operation, only to make a surprise appearance at the funeral of other militants, where he was hoisted onto the shoulders of a cheering crowd.

The military said he was killed along with four other militants in a shootout with Israeli forces early Thursday after the five had hidden inside a mosque. It said Abu Shujaa was linked to numerous attacks on Israelis, including a deadly shooting in June, and was planning more.

The military said another militant was arrested in the operation in Tulkarem, and that a member of Israel's paramilitary Border Police was lightly wounded.

Israel launched a large-scale operation in the West Bank overnight into Wednesday. Hamas said 10 of its fighters were killed in different locations, and the Palestinian Health Ministry reported an 11th casualty, without saying whether he was a fighter or a civilian.

Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza ignited the war there.

Nur Shams is among several built-up refugee camps across the Middle East that date back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation, in which around 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out of what is now Israel. Many of the camps are militant strongholds.

Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.

The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule, with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering towns and cities. Over 500,000 Jewish settlers, who have Israeli citizenship, live in well over 100 settlements across the territory that most of the international community considers illegal.

(AP)

Israel army says killed 5 Palestinian militants on day two of West Bank raids

Tulkarem (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – The Israeli military said its forces killed five Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank on Thursday in a second day of "counter-terrorism" operations that have killed 14 in total.


Issued on: 29/08/2024 -

An Israeli soldier takes position during a raid on the West Bank city of Tulkarem on the second day of a major military operation in the north of the occupied territory 

© Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP

"Following exchanges of fire, the forces eliminated five terrorists who had hidden inside a mosque" in Tulkarem on Thursday morning, the military said.

On Wednesday, the military said it killed nine militants in simultaneous raids in several West Bank cities and refugee camps.

The Palestinian health ministry reported 12 deaths since the start of the operation.

Witnesses told AFP that Israeli forces had withdrawn from Al-Farra camp in Tubas where several Palestinians were killed on Wednesday.

An AFP photographer reported that clashes were still taking place in Jenin as he saw a drone flying overhead.

An Israeli army bulldozer strips the asphalt from a road in Tulkarem as a precaution against concealed explosives

 © Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP

Israeli soldiers were also continuing to operate in Tulkarem, another AFP journalist reported.

Since Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza, violence has flared in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and separated geographically from Gaza by Israeli territory.

Since the start of Gaza war, at least 637 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers, according to UN figures.

At least 19 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations in the West Bank, according to Israeli official figures.

© 2024 AFP

US slaps new sanctions on Israeli settlers over West Bank violence

By AFP
August 28, 2024

Activists try to reach a land confiscated by Israeli settlers in the al-Makhrur area, near Beit Jala in the Israeli occupied West Bank, on August 15, 2024 - Copyright AFP/File HAZEM BADER
Shaun TANDON

The United States on Wednesday announced new sanctions on West Bank settlers over violence against Palestinians, urging greater accountability efforts by its ally Israel, which responded with anger to the move.

The sanctions were announced on the same day that Israel launched a wide-scale attack on the West Bank that it said killed nine Palestinian fighters, despite warnings by President Joe Biden’s administration against expanding the war in Gaza.

“Extremist settler violence in the West Bank causes intense human suffering, harms Israel’s security and undermines the prospect for peace and stability in the region,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

“It is critical that the government of Israel hold accountable any individuals and entities responsible for violence against civilians in the West Bank,” he said.

The latest sanction targets included Hashomer Yosh, an Israeli group that has supported the unauthorized settler outpost of Meitarim Farm in the south Hebron Hills.

Volunteers from the group earlier this year fenced off a village whose 250 Palestinian residents had all been forced to leave, the State Department said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who relies on support from far-right politicians who advocate for the establishment of new settlements on Palestinian land, denounced the move.

“Israel views with utmost severity the imposition of sanctions on citizens of Israel. The issue is in a pointed discussion with the US,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Hashomer Yosh’s website, using the biblical name for the West Bank, says the group helps “various farmers throughout Judea and Samaria, who bravely protect our lands and stand strong in the face of economic difficulties and frequent agricultural crime.”

The Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.

The State Department also imposed sanctions against Yitzhak Levi Filant, who was accused of leading armed settlers in setting up roadblocks and patrols with a goal of attacking Palestinians.

Since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza, Israeli forces have also stepped up operations in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and separated geographically from Gaza by Israeli territory.

At least 640 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers since the start of the Gaza war, according to an AFP count based on Palestinian official figures.

The Biden administration has repeatedly voiced concern to Netanyahu about settler violence and about the expansion of settlements, but has made little impact on the Israeli government’s decision-making.

Last month, the United States imposed sanctions on Lehava, a group of more than 10,000 members, which the State Department described as the “largest violent extremist organization in Israel.”

US sanctions generally bar targets from the US financial system, leading Israeli banks to restrict dealings with sanctioned individuals for fear of repercussions.

The Biden administration, which has been pushing for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, has held off on imposing sanctions on government ministers leading the settlement policy.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also heads civil affairs at the defense ministry, earlier this month approved a new settlement on a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Bethlehem, saying he wanted to “fight against the dangerous project of creating a Palestinian state by creating facts on the ground.”

Pope says repelling, abandoning migrants is ‘grave sin’


By AFP

August 28, 2024


The 87-year-old regularly calls for more empathy for people fleeing conflict, poverty, disasters or persecution - Copyright AFP GREG BAKER

Pope Francis condemned Wednesday efforts to repel migrants and block their routes as a “grave sin”, as he recalled those who lost their lives, including those “abandoned” in the desert.

The 87-year-old regularly calls for more empathy for people fleeing conflict, poverty, disasters or persecution, particularly those seeking to reach Europe from Africa across the Mediterranean Sea.

He dedicated his address at his weekly audience Wednesday to the subject, warning against “restrictive laws” and the “militarisation of borders” and calling for safe migration routes.

“It must be said clearly: there are those who work systematically and with every means possible to repel migrants. And this, when done with awareness and responsibility, is a grave sin,” he said.

He repeated that the Mediterranean — where more than 3,000 migrants went missing last year, according to UN figures — has become a “cemetery”.

“Some deserts too, unfortunately, are becoming cemeteries of migrants. And even here it is not always a question of ‘natural’ deaths. No,” he said.

“At times, they have been taken to the desert and abandoned.

“In the time of satellites and drones, there are migrant men, women and children that no-one must see. Only God sees them and hears their cry.”

He did not specify any particular country but said that his description of seas and deserts also includes oceans, lakes and rivers, as well as forests, jungles and steppes “where migrants walk alone”.

“Brothers and sisters, we can all agree on one thing: migrants should not be in those seas and in those lethal deserts,” he said.

“But it is not through more restrictive laws, it is not with the militarisation of borders, it is not with rejection that we will obtain this result,” he said.

He called for “safe and legal” routes for migrants and asylum seekers, and greater international efforts to combat human trafficking.

The European Union admitted in May to a “difficult situation” after a journalism consortium said Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania were dumping migrants in the desert, using the bloc’s funds.

The 27-nation EU has struck deals with the three countries with explicit financing to boost stopping irregular migration to Europe.

Switzerland reopens door for new nuclear power plants

By AFP
August 28, 2024

The four nuclear power plants currently in service provide around a third of Switzerland's total electricity production - Copyright AFP Fabrice COFFRINI

Switzerland said Wednesday it was open to building new nuclear power stations in the long term, given new geopolitical uncertainties, climate targets and population growth boosting the demand for electricity.

The Swiss approved the gradual phase-out of nuclear power in a referendum in 2017, by banning the construction of new power plants.

That law was the result of a long process initiated after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, triggered by a tsunami.

However, “since 2017, the situation on the electricity market has changed radically”, Energy Minister Albert Rosti told a press conference, following a government meeting.

Furthermore, last year voters backed a new climate bill aimed at steering the country towards carbon neutrality by 2050.

Rosti said new nuclear power was “not an option” in the short or even medium term.

“But to be ready, if it is necessary in the long term, in the next 15 years I would say, we must start now,” he stressed.

His ministry will submit an amendment to the nuclear energy law by the end of the year.

Parliament would then have to debate it and the public would have to vote in a referendum.

“We are not saying that in 10 years there will be a new power plant… but we are responsible for leaving the door open to all possible technologies,” said Rosti, stressing that if the process was not initiated now, it will “perhaps be too late in 20 years”.

As the wealthy Alpine nation hopes to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, the government said it needed to be open to different technologies — and the ban on new nuclear plants was “not compatible” with that objective.

The four nuclear power plants currently in service provide around a third of Switzerland’s total electricity production. They can continue running as long as they remain safe.

When they eventually have to close, the government fears renewable energy might not be able to plug the gap.

“At the time, we had imagined producing the missing electricity using gas-fired power plants,” but “this option has become almost unthinkable” to achieve carbon neutrality, Rosti explained.

He said the lifting of the ban on new nuclear power plants was a “fallback option, just in case”.

The announcement was immediately criticised by Greenpeace Switzerland as well as centrist, socialist and environmentalist parties.

“The construction of a new nuclear reactor will come too late to effectively reduce our carbon emissions and will not free us from our dependence on third countries for our energy supply,” said Greenpeace Switzerland.

Pro-Trump X accounts use stolen photos of European influencers: study


By AFP
August 28, 2024


Fake accounts on X use stolen images of influencers to appear authentic - Copyright AFP/File Jim WATSON, Odd ANDERSEN
Anuj CHOPRA

Meet “Eva,” “Sophia,” and “Samantha” — fake accounts which pose as chic American women who support Donald Trump on the platform X, disguising themselves by using stolen photographs of European fashion and beauty influencers, according to a study published Wednesday.

The report by the nonprofit Center for Information Resilience (CIR) comes as researchers express alarm ahead of the US election in November that the site owned by Elon Musk –- who has endorsed Trump –- is plagued with fake accounts and political disinformation.

CIR said it uncovered 16 accounts that used images of European influencers –- without their permission –- to pose as young women promoting Trump and encouraging thousands of followers to vote for the Republican nominee.

These accounts, which use stolen images of real people to appear authentic, were among 56 profiles that appear to be part of a coordinated campaign to push pro-Trump content, it added.

“By using images of the influencers, the accounts recognize the value of creating a believable human persona, steering clear of the generic photos and bot-like usernames usually associated with fake accounts,” CIR’s report said.

It was unclear who was behind the digital deception or whether the accounts were pushing pro-Trump content for ideological or monetary gain.

The fake profiles use everyday images from the influencers’ Instagram accounts — including pictures of them at the beach or walking their dog — which are captioned with MAGA-related hashtags or pledges to vote for Trump, CIR said.

MAGA, or Make America Great Again, is a political slogan associated with Trump and his campaign.

Many of the accounts have attempted to spread misinformation about hot-button political subjects such as a recent assassination attempt against Trump, his Democratic rival Kamala Harris’s ethnicity and US military aid to Ukraine, the report said.

Some accounts also promote anti-vaccine and Covid-19 conspiracies, with some posts viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

“They post about divisive issues in US politics in a bid to exploit pre-existing tensions,” the report said.

One of the impersonators is “Luna,” a self-described 32-year-old “MAGA Trump supporter,” who used images of a German fashion influencer named Debbie Nederlof, according to CNN, which jointly conducted the investigation with CIR.

Nederlof, a single mother, voiced anger and frustration over the misuse of her images, saying she had “nothing to do with the United States, with Trump, the political things over there.”

“What the hell do I -– from a small place in Germany –- care about US politics?” she said.

X did not respond to a request for comment.

Impersonation is a violation of the platform’s rules, and accounts posing as another person, group or organization may be “permanently suspended,” according to X’s website.

Musk appears to exert an outsized influence on US voters through the platform and his own personal account, which is regularly flagged by fact-checkers for spreading political falsehoods to his nearly 196 million followers.

Since Musk’s 2022 acquisition of X, the platform has gutted trust and safety teams and scaled back content moderation efforts once used to tame misinformation, making it what researchers call a haven for disinformation.

California lawmakers pass AI safety bill


By AFP
August 28, 2024


A California bill seeks to regulate the development of AI models, though critics say the measure can threaten innovation in the nascent field -

Copyright AFP/File Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV

A bill aimed at regulating powerful artificial intelligence models passed California’s legislature on Wednesday, despite outcry that it could kill the technology it seeks to control.

“SB 1047 — our AI safety bill — just passed off the Assembly floor. I’m proud of the diverse coalition behind this bill — a coalition that deeply believes in both innovation and safety,” said Democratic state senator Scott Wiener of San Francisco, who sponsored the bill.

The bill had faced a barrage of critics, including Democratic members of US Congress, who argued that threats of punitive measures against developers in a nascent field would throttle innovation.

It did, however, win the reluctant support of Elon Musk, who argued that AI’s risk to the public justifies regulation.

“This is a tough call and will make some people upset,” he said on Monday as he stated his support on X.

The bill, called the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act, now goes to the desk of California Gavin Newsom for signature, though his position on the proposal is not known.

Newsom has until September 30 to sign the bill or put his veto.

Dan Hendrycks, director of the Center for AI Safety, said the bill provides “a workable path forward” in enforcing “safeguards to mitigate against critical AI risk.”

The bill requires developers of large “frontier” AI models to take precautions such as pre-deployment testing, simulating hacker attacks, installing cyber security safeguards, and providing protection for whistleblowers.

In order to secure the legislation’s passage in the home state of Silicon Valley, lawmakers made several changes to the bill, including replacing criminal penalties for violations with civil penalties such as fines.

But opposition to the bill remained, including from some powerful national figures.

“The view of many of us in Congress is that SB 1047 is well-intentioned but ill-informed,” influential Democratic congresswoman Nancy Pelosi of California said last week, noting that top party members have shared their concerns with Wiener.

But Wiener argues that AI safety and innovation are not mutually exclusive, and that tweaks to the bill have addressed some concerns of critics.

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, also opposed the bill, saying it would prefer national rules instead of a chaotic patchwork of AI regulations across the 50 US states.

At least 40 states have introduced bills this year to regulate AI, and a half dozen have adopted resolutions or enacted legislation aimed at the technology, according to The National Conference of State Legislatures.

Greek port grapples with flood of dead fish


By AFP
August 28, 2024

Dead fish floating in the port of Volos, central Greece, on Wednesday - Copyright AFP Angelos TZORTZINIS

Authorities in central Greece are racing to deal with an inundation of tons of dead fish at a popular port that locals say could threaten their livelihoods.

It is the second environmental catastrophe to hit the port of Volos, a three-and-a-half-hour drive north of Athens, after catastrophic floods hit the Thessaly region last year.

Those floods refilled a nearby lake that had been drained in 1962 in a bid to fight malaria, swelling it to three times its normal size.

“After the storms Daniel and Elias last autumn, around 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) of plains in Thessaly were flooded, and various freshwater fish were carried by rivers” to the sea, Dimitris Klaudatos, a professor of agriculture and environment at the University of Thessaly.

Since then the lake waters have receded drastically, forcing the freshwater fish toward the Volos port that empties into the Pagasetic Gulf and the Aegean Sea, where they cannot survive.

On Tuesday alone, authorities removed 57 tons of the dead fish washed up on beaches near Volos, with cleanup efforts continuing on Wednesday.

Tourist traffic to the area has already plunged by nearly 80 percent since last year’s flooding, according to the local association of restaurants and bars.

“The situation with this dead fish will be the death of us,” said Stefanos Stefanou, the president of the association. “What visitor will come to our city after this?”

Local authorities have opened an inquiry to study water qualities and microbial levels in the estuary of Lake Karla, as well as potential pollution in the gulf.