SPACE / COSMOS

'We weren't stuck': Astronaut pushes back after Fox News host suggests Biden marooned them

David Edwards
March 31, 2025

RAW STORY

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore (Fox News/screen grab)

Astronaut Butch Wilmore pushed back after Fox News host Bill Hemmer suggested President Joe Biden's administration left him "marooned" on the International Space Station.

During a Monday interview on Fox News, Hemmer spoke to Wilmore and Suni Williams about their failure to return to Earth on Boeing Starliner, leaving them in space months longer than expected.

President Donald Trump has claimed that the astronauts were "virtually abandoned" and that he had tasked Elon Musk's SpaceX with bringing them home. However, plans were in place to bring the two back on a SpaceX capsule before Trump took office.

"I just wanna put a fine point on this because, Butch, you said, we don't feel abandoned," Hemmer told Wilmore. "We don't feel stuck. We don't feel stranded. Could I use the word maroon?"

Wilmore politely disagreed with the Fox News host.

"Okay, so any of those adjectives, they're very broad in their definition," he explained. "So, okay, in certain respects, we were stuck. In certain respects, maybe we were stranded."

"But based on how they were couching this, that we were left and forgotten and all that, we were nowhere near any of that at all," the astronaut continued. "In the big scheme of things, we weren't stuck. We were planned and trained."

Watch the video below from Fox News

SpaceX to launch private astronauts on first crewed polar orbit

By AFP
March 30, 2025


This picture courtesy of Fram2/SpaceX shows from left to right, mission specialist and medical officer Eric Philips, mission commander Chun Wang, pilot Rabea Rogge and vehicle commander Jannicke Mikkelsen - Copyright Courtesy of Fram2/SpaceX/AFP Handout

SpaceX is set to launch the first human spaceflight directly over Earth’s polar regions on Monday — a days-long, privately funded orbital mission involving four astronauts.

Named “Fram2” after the famed Norwegian ship built in the 19th century for Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, the mission will feature a range of experiments including taking the first X-ray in space and growing mushrooms in microgravity.

It’s hoped that the research will support future long-duration space travel to Mars.

The crew will launch aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket in a window that opens at 9:46 pm (0146 GMT) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“With the same pioneering spirit as early polar explorers, we aim to bring back new data and knowledge to advance the long-term goals of space exploration,” said Chun Wang, mission commander.

Wang, a Maltese adventurer and co-founder of crypto companies f2pool and skatefish, selected the rest of the crew: vehicle commander Jannicke Mikkelsen, a Norwegian film director; mission pilot Rabea Rogge, a robotics researcher from Germany; and mission specialist and medical officer Eric Philps, an Australian polar explorer.

The team trained for eight months in preparation for the approximately four-day trip, including a wilderness expedition in Alaska to simulate living in close quarters under harsh conditions.

Upon returning to Earth, the crew will attempt to exit the spacecraft without additional medical support — part of a study to help researchers understand how well astronauts can perform basic tasks after spaceflight.

Except for the Apollo lunar missions, Earth’s polar regions have remained out of view for astronauts, including those aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Even on Apollo they did not fly directly over the Earth’s poles.

SpaceX has carried out five private astronaut missions to date — three in collaboration with Axiom Space to the ISS, and two free-flying in Earth orbit.

The first of these was Inspiration4 in 2021, followed by Polaris Dawn, which featured the first spacewalk conducted by private astronauts.

Both free-flying missions were chartered by e-payments billionaire Jared Isaacman, a close associate of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has also been nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as the next NASA administrator.

Thai authorities probe collapse at quake-hit construction site


By AFP
March 31, 2025


Thai authorities are investigating what led to the collapse of a construction site followinga massive earthquake - Copyright AFP Chanakarn Laosarakham

Authorities in Thailand are investigating possible factors that led to the devastating collapse of a Bangkok construction site, where dozens remained missing on Monday, three days after a massive earthquake centred in Myanmar.

The planned skyscraper was to house government offices, but the shaking reduced the structure to a pile of rubble in seconds.

The collapse is the worst damage inflicted in Thailand by the 7.7-magnitude quake, which caused widespread destruction — and at least 1,700 deaths — in neighbouring Myanmar.

Numerous high-rise buildings elsewhere in Bangkok were left unscathed with limited reports of major damage, prompting questions as to why the one tower was destroyed.

Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt told reporters on Monday that only two buildings in the city remained inaccessible.

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra had expressed concerns on Saturday, questioning why the collapsed building was the only one in the capital to suffer major damage.

“I have questions in my mind,” she said. “What happened from the beginning since it was designed? How was this design approved? This was not the first building in the country.

“We have to investigate where the mistake happened.”

Paetongtarn ordered a probe into the incident involving a group of experts who she said would report back to her this week.



– ‘Something suspicious’ –



Critics have said that the steel bars used to link the building’s concrete structures may have been too thin, or not of sufficient quality.

Several steel rods were taken from the rubble for testing on Monday afternoon.

Industry minister Akanat Promphan said Sunday that six types of steel had been found, all from a single producer.

“The collapse of a building can come from several factors, from design, construction (and) material specification,” he said.

“Most important is the standard of the materials.”

Akanat said he had already “found something suspicious”, but that he would wait until testing had been completed before elaborating.

The confirmed death toll for Bangkok stood at 18 on Monday, with fears that the number could significantly rise as dozens remain missing under the building’s rubble.

Morning rain on Monday gave way to a hot, humid and overcast afternoon as responders worked to remove debris and locate any remaining survivors.

Meanwhile, concerns have also been raised about Thailand’s emergency response system, after a text message alert system experienced delays when Friday’s quake struck.

“Our problem is that the sending of messages was slow and did not cover enough people,” Paetongtarn said Saturday.

The prime minister has called a meeting for Monday with government departments responsible for sending the SMS alerts to the public, Thai media reported.


‘Devastated’: Relatives await news from Bangkok building collapse


By AFP
March 31, 2025


Naruemol Thonglek (C) is praying her boyfriend will emerge from the rubble where a Bangkok skyscraper collapsed in the wake of a devastating earthquake in Myanmar - Copyright AFP Lillian SUWANRUMPHA

Watsamon TRI-YASAKDA

Three days after a Bangkok skyscraper collapsed in the wake of a devastating earthquake in neighbouring Myanmar, Naruemol Thonglek is still praying that her boyfriend will emerge from the immense pile of rubble where the building once stood.

The sudden crumbling of the 30-storey tower, which was under construction at the time of Friday’s 7.7-magnitude quake, has killed at least 11 people and rescue workers are racing to find 76 others still trapped among the debris.

Electrician Kyi Than, the boyfriend of Naruemol, is among those missing under the enormous mound of concrete and twisted metal being lifted by mechanical diggers as part of the desperate search.

“I’m devastated… I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life,” 45-year-old Naruemol told AFP from a small shelter near the site, where a group of around 50 relatives await news.

“I still pray that he is alive but if he is no longer alive then I hope that we can retrieve his body,” she said.

Among the missing are Thais, Laotians, Cambodians and Myanmar nationals.

Many relatives are choosing to sleep in the shelter, on camp beds or directly on the stone floor, and are reluctant to leave in case news emerges.



– ‘We wait, we wait’ –



Rain fell Monday at the site, where sniffer dogs and thermal imaging drones have been deployed to seek signs of life in the collapsed building, which is close to the Chatuchak weekend market popular among tourists.

Around lunchtime, Tavida Kamolvej, the deputy governor of Bangkok, raised hopes over a noise or movement in the rubble that could be a survivor, but cautioned that the situation was still extremely unclear and they needed “a quiet moment” to work out its origin.

Thailand Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was ushered away from the site, which she had been visiting, as experts rushed to help.

At least 18 people have been killed in Bangkok following the quake that struck near Mandalay early Friday afternoon, causing severe damage in central Myanmar in particular and killing more than 1,700 people across the country.

In the Thai capital, 33 people have been injured and 78 are still missing, most of them under the rubble of the building site.

Naruemol said Kyi Than, a Myanmar national, was among a group of electricians — including his son — working on the 26th floor.

She told AFP she had lit incense and candles, prayed and wished, begging her boyfriend to return alive.

“If you can hear my voice, if you’re still alive, please shout and let the officials know,” she said, calling out to Kyi Than.

Elsewhere in the shelter, Daodee Paruay said she had been at the site for two days, hoping for a miracle. Her brother, also an electrician, is under the rubble.

“We wait. We wait. We will wait until (they are) found,” she said.

Myanmar quake: a nation unprepared for disaster

By AFP
March 31, 2025


Myanmar's military chief Min Aung Hlaing rules a country battered by four years of civil war - Copyright AFP Sai Aung MAIN

Ravaged by four years of civil war, Myanmar is ill-prepared to cope with the destruction brought by Friday’s massive earthquake.

The 7.7-magnitude quake that struck central Myanmar has killed more than 1,600 people and destroyed thousands of homes.

But the bloody conflict sparked by the 2021 military coup has brought the country’s infrastructure, healthcare system and power network to their knees.

Here are some of the challenges facing relief efforts in Myanmar:



– Humanitarian crisis –



The United Nations and aid agencies have warned that millions were already facing a dire humanitarian crisis before the quake, and are now in urgent need of yet more aid.

Much of the country was already plagued by a punishing mix of conflict, poverty and instability after the civil war that left 3.5 million people displaced and smashed the economy.

“We have estimated that 19.9 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, and this is just before the earthquake,” said UN humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar Marcoluigi Corsi.

“The situation will be further aggravated.”

Before the quake, the World Food Programme (WFP) said more than 15 million out of a population of 51 million were unable to meet their daily food needs.

Just two days after the quake, the UN said the aid effort was being hampered by a severe lack of medical supplies, while rescuers on the ground have pleaded for more equipment to comb ruined buildings for survivors.

The quake also struck Myanmar at a time when US President Donald Trump has slashed jobs and funding to Washington’s foreign aid agency.

Trump has promised US help but one million civilians in Myanmar face WFP aid cuts after he took an axe to the US Agency for International Development.

Countries around the world have begun sending rescue teams and aid shipments.



– Junta rule –



The junta, led by General Min Aung Hlaing, has lost control of large parts of Myanmar throughout the conflict, though it remains in charge of major cities including Mandalay — the closest to the quake epicentre and worst hit.

But many civil servants chose to switch sides following the military coup and join resistance to the junta.

This loss of personnel has further weakened an already antiquated civil administration, making the management and distribution of relief efforts harder.

In a sign of the enormity of the disaster — and perhaps in a tacit admission of the state’s inability to respond — Min Aung Hlaing issued a rare appeal for foreign aid on Friday.

This marked a major shift from previous military rulers who shunned all international assistance.

Poverty is rampant, the economy shattered, and international sanctions combined with the expense of fighting the civil war have drained the junta’s coffers.



– Splintered control –



Much of Myanmar is controlled by a shifting patchwork of junta forces, ethnic armed groups and pro-democracy partisans.

The complex mosaic of control on the ground, often involving competing groups with different agendas, may further frustrate efforts to move relief resources to where they are needed around the country.

Sagaing city — near the quake’s epicentre — has seen some of the heaviest fighting between junta forces and armed resistance groups.

Ethnic armed groups, border militias and the military have all been vying for control of local resources, spurring fears there will be a similar tussle for aid.



– Poor infrastructure –



Myanmar’s infrastructure and medical system have been ravaged by the civil war.

The junta has bombed hospitals in rebel-held areas and many doctors have abandoned government medical facilities to join the rebellion.

The UN has said hospitals in Mandalay, Magway and the capital Naypyidaw “are struggling to cope with the influx of people injured”.

The country was already beset by phone and internet blackouts but the quake has further hurt communications and the ability to direct aid to the most in need.

Internet communications in Mandalay were patchy and land and air routes severely disrupted after the quake buckled roads.

With many houses collapsed, the UN and other NGOs say solutions are needed for the many left homeless.

Prayers and tears for Eid in quake-hit Mandalay


By AFP
March 31, 2025


Muslims gather in Mandalay for a sombre first prayer of the Eid al-Fitr festival, three days after a devastating earthquake hit Myanmar and Thailand

 - Copyright AFP Sai Aung MAIN

Hla-Hla HTAY, Sebastien BERGER

Hundreds of grieving Muslims gathered for Eid prayers in the street in Mandalay on Monday, the death and destruction of Myanmar’s huge earthquake casting a pall of anguish over the occasion.

The watching women were the first to weep. A tear, a sniffle, a cry. The emotion spread among hundreds of men lined up in the street outside two mosques where 20 of their fellow believers died.

Sobs and sighs haunted the air in the gentle morning light. Finally the imam’s voice broke as he prayed for the souls of the dead.

“May Allah grant us all peace,” he intoned. “May all the brothers be free from danger.”

The Muslims of Mandalay gathered for a sombre first prayer of the Eid al-Fitr festival, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, three days after a devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck during Friday prayers.

The minaret of the Sajja South mosque in the Muslim neighbourhood of Mawyagiwah crashed to the ground in the quake, killing 14 children and two adults, locals said.

Four more people were killed at the neighbouring Sajja North mosque when its tower came down.

Many of the dead were from Win Thiri Aung’s family, close and extended.

“In normal times, it is full of joy when it is Eid,” the 26-year-old told AFP.

“Our hearts are light. This year, we are not like that. All of our minds are with the dead children. I see their faces in my eyes.

“We believe the souls of children and everyone we know who died have reached Paradise. We believe they were blessed deaths,” she said, breaking down.

“It is a test from Allah. It is a reminder from him that we need to turn towards him. So we need to pray more.”



– Terror at prayers –



Outside the alley leading to the mosques, the Eid worshippers, many wearing the new clothes that are the traditional gift for the festival, lined up on plastic sheeting laid on the road, held in place by bricks.

A plastic bucket served for ritual washing.

“We have to pray on the road, feeling sadness and loss,” said Aung Myint Hussein, chief administrator of the Sajja North mosque.

“The situation is so dire that it’s hard to express what is happening.

“We were terrified when we saw the destruction. It feels as if our entire lives have been shattered by this series of tremors and fears.”

The pattern of destruction in Myanmar’s second city is variable, with some buildings utterly devastated and a few areas of concentrated damage.

Down the street from the mosques, a resident said six people were killed when a dessert shop collapsed, as well as two people in a restaurant across the road.

But much of the city appeared unharmed, with traffic on the streets, some restaurants reopening and daytime life beginning to return to normal for many.

That is a distant prospect for those who have lost loved ones.

Sandar Aung’s 11-year-old son Htet Myet Aung was seriously injured at Friday prayers and died that evening in hospital.

“I am very sad, my son was very excited for Eid,” the 37-year-old said tearfully. “We got new clothes that we were going to wear together.

“We accept what Allah has planned,” she said. “Allah only does what’s good and what’s right and we have to accept that.”

Tears in Taiwan for relatives hit by Myanmar quake


By AFP
March 31, 2025


Yang Bi-ying could only weep for her family in Myanmar after a devastating earthquake killed more than 1,700 - Copyright AFP I-Hwa Cheng

Joy CHIANG

As images of destroyed buildings in earthquake-hit Myanmar flashed across her television screen in Taiwan, Yang Bi-ying could only weep for her family there.

Yang, 76, has lived in Taiwan for more than half her life and has a daughter-in-law in the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, which was devastated by Friday’s massive earthquake.

At least 1,700 people have been killed in Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand, and hopes of finding more survivors are fading fast.

Yang said her daughter-in-law was safe and other relatives in Yangon were unaffected by the 7.7-magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks.

“I could only cry. There was nothing else, just tears,” the grandmother told AFP at an eatery in a Sino-Burmese neighbourhood near the capital Taipei.

“Every family has been worried, especially for those buried under the rubble. What could be done? Nothing. It’s all in the hands of fate.”

Three days after the quake struck, many in Taiwan’s Sino-Burmese community still feared for their loved ones.

“Several buildings near my family’s home collapsed, many people died,” said eatery owner Yeh Mei-chin, 48, showing AFP a video of the damage on her smartphone.

It took hours before Yeh was able to reach her mother and sisters in Mandalay on Friday. They were safe, but too scared to go home.

“I asked them where they would sleep that night and they said they were still looking for a place but hadn’t found one yet,” Yeh said.

People in Taiwan have been using social media platforms, including Line and WeChat, to contact family in Myanmar and monitor the situation.

But internet connection has been intermittent.

“On a lucky day, we may be able to get through a few times,” Lee Pei, 66, chairman of the Myanmar Overseas Chinese Association, told AFP.

“Usually, we can only leave messages as voice calls rarely go through. If we do manage to connect, the signal deteriorates after a few words.”



– Waiting for friends online –



The Myanmar community in Taiwan dates back to the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.

Many members of Chiang Kai-shek’s defeated Kuomintang nationalist forces fled across the border to Myanmar and later went to Taiwan.

Over the decades, students and people fleeing anti-Chinese sentiment as well as economic and political turmoil in Myanmar have followed.

Pei estimated Taiwan’s Sino-Burmese population at 160,000 and said 10 percent were originally from Mandalay.

University student Aung Kyaw Zaw has been following developments on Facebook where he has seen reports that in Sagaing city, near the quake’s epicentre, there was a “stench… like the smell of decaying bodies”.

The 24-year-old said he had exchanged messages with some friends in quake-hit areas, but “some of them still haven’t come online”.

There were also concerns that donations sent to Myanmar would not reach the people who need it.

“The junta only cares about fighting wars or other things, but they don’t really do much to help the people,” said university student Yi Chint, 24.

“I think very little of it would actually go to the people.”


Rescue hopes fading three days after deadly Myanmar quake


By AFP
March 30, 2025


Rescue teams work to reach people believed trapped under the rubble of the collapsed building Sky Villa Condominium in Mandalay - Copyright AFP Ludovic MARIN

Sebastien BERGER and Hla-Hla HTAY

Hopes were fading Monday of finding more survivors in the rubble of Mandalay, where some residents spent a third night sleeping in the open after a massive earthquake killed at least 1,700 people in Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand.

Rescue efforts were less active in the central Myanmar city of more than 1.7 million people early Monday, but conditions are difficult — with temperatures expected to reach around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

The sticky heat has exhausted rescue workers and accelerated body decomposition, which could complicate identification.

A desperate scene unfolded at a collapsed apartment block in Myanmar’s second biggest city on Sunday evening, when rescuers thought they had saved the life of a pregnant woman trapped under the rubble for more than 55 hours.

They amputated her leg to free her, but after pulling her out she was pronounced dead.

“We tried everything to save her,” said one of the medical responders, but she had lost too much blood from the amputation.

Muslim worshipers, meanwhile, gathered near a destroyed mosque in the city on Monday morning for the first prayer of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that follows the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.

Funerals for hundreds of victims are also expected to take place on Monday.

The initial 7.7-magnitude quake struck near Mandalay early Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.

The tremors collapsed buildings, downed bridges and buckled roads, with some of the worst destruction seen in central Myanmar.



– Aftershocks cause panic –



Aftershocks continued to be felt in Mandalay over the weekend, spurring residents to flee into the streets in multiple instances of brief panic.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched an emergency appeal Sunday for more than $100 million to help victims.

The world’s largest humanitarian network said needs were growing by the hour as rising temperatures and the approaching monsoon season increase the risk of “secondary crises”.

The challenges facing the Southeast Asian country of over 50 million people were immense even before the earthquake.

Myanmar has been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked by a military coup in 2021.

Reports have emerged of sporadic fighting even after the quake, with one rebel group telling AFP on Sunday that seven of its fighters were killed in an aerial attack soon after the tremors hit.

Before Friday’s quake, some 3.5 million people were displaced by the raging civil war, many at risk of hunger.



– Bangkok building collapse –



In the Thai capital of Bangkok — about 1,000 kilometres away from Mandalay — rain fell on Monday morning at the site of a collapsed building that had been under construction at the time of Friday’s quake.

At least 18 people have been killed in Bangkok, city authorities said Sunday, with 33 injured and 78 still missing.

Most of the deaths were workers killed in the tower collapse, while most of the missing are believed to be trapped under the immense pile of debris where the skyscraper once stood.

Rescue workers raced over the weekend to find survivors, using large mechanical diggers to uncover rubble while distressed family members waited nearby.

Sniffer dogs and thermal imaging drones have been deployed to seek signs of life in the collapsed building, which is close to the Chatuchak weekend market popular among tourists.

burs-pfc/fox/jfx


Aftershocks rattle Myanmar as rescuers search for survivors


By AFP
March 30, 2025


Rescue teams work to save residents trapped under the rubble of a condominium development in Mandalay on March 30, 2025 - Copyright AFP Sai Aung MAIN

Hla-Hla Htay, with Montira Rungjirajittranon in Bangkok

Rescuers braved aftershocks to scour the devastated city of Mandalay for survivors on Monday, after a massive earthquake killed at least 1,700 people in Myanmar and at least 18 in neighbouring Thailand.

The initial 7.7-magnitude quake struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.

The tremors collapsed buildings, downed bridges and buckled roads, with mass destruction seen in the city of more than 1.7 million people.

Tea shop owner Win Lwin picked his way through the remains of a collapsed restaurant in his neighbourhood on Sunday, tossing bricks aside one by one.

“About seven people died here” when the quake struck, he told AFP. “I’m looking for more bodies but I know there cannot be any survivors.”

A small aftershock struck in the morning, driving people scurrying out of a hotel for safety, following a similar tremor felt late Saturday evening.

And around 2:00 pm (0730 GMT), another aftershock — of 5.1-magnitude according to the US Geological Survey — sent alarmed people into the streets once again, temporarily halting rescue work.

Myanmar’s ruling junta said in a statement Sunday that about 1,700 people were confirmed dead so far, about 3,400 injured and around 300 more missing.

But with communications down in many areas, the true scale of the disaster remains unclear in the isolated military-ruled state, and the toll is expected to rise significantly.

At a destroyed Buddhist examination hall in Mandalay, Myanmar and Chinese responders worked to find buried victims on Sunday.

San Nwe Aye, sister of a 46-year-old monk missing in the collapsed hall, appeared in deep distress, and told AFP she has heard no news about his status.

“I want to hear the sound of him preaching,” she said.

At a collapsed apartment block in the city, rescuers thought they had saved the life of a pregnant woman trapped under rubble for more than 55 hours.

They even amputated her leg to free her, but after pulling her out they were unable to resuscitate her and she was pronounced dead.



– Myriad challenges –



Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing issued an exceptionally rare appeal for international aid on Friday.

Previous military governments have shunned foreign assistance, even after major natural disasters.

Myanmar has already been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked by a military coup in 2021.

Reports have emerged of sporadic violence even after the quake, with one rebel group telling AFP on Sunday that seven of its fighters were killed in an aerial attack soon after the tremors hit.

Anti-junta fighters in the country have declared a two-week partial ceasefire in quake-affected regions starting Sunday, the shadow “National Unity Government” said in a statement.

The UN said overnight that a severe lack of medical equipment is hindering Myanmar’s response to the quake, while aid agencies have warned that the country is unprepared to deal with the disaster.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies on Sunday launched an emergency appeal for more than $100 million to help victims, while the World Health Organization said the quake was a top-level crisis and urgently launched its own appeal.

Some 3.5 million people were displaced by the raging civil war, many at risk of hunger, even before the quake struck.

Rescue teams and aid have been arriving from donor countries around the world, with Thailand on Sunday dispatching 55 military personnel and six rescue dogs, along with equipment including cranes and diggers.

China sent 118 search and rescue personnel as well as canine units, demolition equipment and field hospital systems, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.



– Bangkok building collapse –



Across the border in Thailand, rescuers in Bangkok worked Sunday to pluck out survivors trapped when a 30-storey skyscraper that was under construction collapsed after the Friday earthquake.

At least 18 people have been killed in the Thai capital, city authorities said Sunday, with 33 injured and 78 still missing.

Most of the deaths were workers killed in the tower collapse, while most of the missing are believed to be trapped under the immense pile of debris where the skyscraper once stood.

The shock made 22-year-old survivor, Burmese worker Kyaw Lin Htet, feel like he “lost consciousness,” he told AFP at the site on Sunday.

Sniffer dogs and thermal imaging drones have also been deployed to seek signs of life in the collapsed building, close to the Chatuchak weekend market popular among tourists.

burs-st/dc

Tears, prayers in search for monks trapped by Myanmar quake


By AFP
March 30, 2025


Rescue workers try to retrieve the body of a victim trapped in the rubble of a damaged monastery in Mandalay - Copyright AFP Sai Aung MAIN

Sebastien BERGER

Covered in dust and resembling a Buddhist statue, the face of a dead monk emerges from the rubble of a religious examination hall in Mandalay flattened by Myanmar’s devastating earthquake.

A rescue worker gently brushes some of the grey powder off the face before covering it respectfully with a fan. Under another concrete slab, flies crawl over a shaven head matted with blood.

The rotting odour of death permeated the air above the remains of the U Hla Thein monastery on Sunday, 48 hours after the shallow 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck, destroying buildings across the central Myanmar city.

More than 180 monks were taking the third session of a six-day exam for a senior level of monkhood when the tremors hit around 12:50 pm (0620 GMT) on Friday.

A picture shows them sitting on pink plastic chairs at individual desks in the cavernous hall, heads diligently bent over their papers as they worked.

An unknown number were able to escape as the three levels of one part of the building slammed down, one on top of another.

On Friday and Saturday a total of 21 people were rescued alive, and 13 bodies had been recovered by Sunday morning, a co-ordinator said.

It was impossible to say how many more lay crushed in the concrete, but it could be dozens.

Farmer Kyaw Swe’s son Seikta was taking the exam at the time and was among the missing.

He became a novice at the age of nine and has been in the monkhood for 31 years.

“I am hoping he is alive,” Kyaw Swe told AFP, a tear trickling down his cheek. “His mother is very sad.

“If it is your time to die, you can not avoid it. If you can abide by the Dhamma (Buddhist scripture), you will find some relief but if you can’t you will be tormented.”



– ‘It’s meant to be’ –



Novices, monks and relatives of the missing, many of them wearing surgical masks, peered through the hall as rescue workers used jackhammers to break up the pancaked mass of concrete.

Two people had been detected alive in the wreckage, one rescue officer said, and they were working to free them.

Cracks run through the still-standing but damaged structure of the rest of the building, and every sudden sound sent rescuers and onlookers sprinting away for fear of a collapse.

San Nwe Aye, 60, whose brother was administering the exam, said she hoped he would not be tormented by thoughts of his family while trapped.

“I want to hear the sound of him preaching,” she said. “He has such a great voice. I feel happy whenever I see him.”

Bhone Thuta, 31, who has been a monk for 18 years, said the devotees’ religious study taught them acceptance.

“This happens because it’s meant to be. You can’t blame anyone,” he told AFP.

“In Buddhism, we believe it’s because of our karma from our past lives. We are merely repaying our debts. Only Buddha knows what will happen and this is a debt we have to repay.”

Waited for death’: Ex-detainees recount horrors of Sudan’s RSF prisons

By AFP
March 30, 2025


Held for months by Sudanes paramilitaries, Egyptian merchant Emad Mouawad recalls abuse and harsh conditions - Copyright AFP Robin LEGRAND

Menna Farouk

For almost two years, Emad Mouawad had been repeatedly shuttled from one Sudanese paramilitary-run detention centre to another, terrified each day would be his last.

The 44-year-old Egyptian merchant spent years selling home appliances in neighbouring Sudan before fighters from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stormed his Khartoum home in June 2023, taking him and six others into custody.

“They accused us of being Egyptian spies,” he told AFP, back home in Kafr Abu Shanab, a quiet village in Egypt’s Fayoum governorate southwest of Cairo.

The RSF has accused Egypt of involvement in the war, which Cairo has denied.

“We were just traders, but to them, every Egyptian was a suspect,” said Mouawad, recalling how his captors searched their phones and home.

They found nothing, but that did not spare the group, who were blindfolded, crammed into a truck and driven to one of the RSF’s many detention sites in Khartoum.

It was two months into the RSF’s war with the army, and hundreds of thousands of people had already fled to the Egyptian border, seeking safety.

“We couldn’t just go and leave our things to be looted,” said Mouawad.

“We had debts to pay, we had to guard our cargo at any cost.”



– ‘Nothing but skeletons’ –



In a university building-turned-prison in the Sudanese capital’s Riyadh district, Mouawad was confined with eight other Egyptians in a three-by-three-metre (10-by-10-feet) cell without any windows.

Other cells held anywhere between 20 and 50 detainees, he said, including children as young as six and elderly men, some of them in their 90s.

Food, when it came, “wasn’t food,” said Ahmed Aziz, another Egyptian trader detained with Mouawad.

“They would bring us hot water mixed with wheat flour. Just sticky, tasteless paste,” Aziz told AFP.

Water was either brackish and polluted from a well, or silt-filled from the Nile.

Disease spread unchecked, and many did not survive.

“If you were sick, you just waited for death,” Aziz said.

According to Mouawad, “people started losing their immunity, they became nothing but skeletons.”

“Five — sometimes more, sometimes fewer — died every day.”

Their bodies were often left to rot in the cells for days, their fellow detainees laying beside them.

And “they didn’t wash the bodies”, Mouawad said, an important Muslim custom before a dignified burial.

Instead, he heard that the paramilitaries just “dumped them in the desert”.



– Stripped of humanity –



Mouawad and Aziz were among tens of thousands vanished into prisons run by both the RSF and the rival Sudanese army, according to a UN report issued earlier this month.

Since the war began in April 2023, activists have documented the detention and torture of frontline aid workers, human rights defenders and random civilians.

The UN report said the RSF has turned residential buildings, police stations and schools into secret prisons.

Often snatched off the streets, detainees were beaten, flogged, electrocuted or forced into backbreaking labour.

The army has also been accused of torture, including severe beatings and electric shocks.

Neither the army nor the RSF responded to AFP requests for comment.

Soba, an infamous RSF prison in southern Khartoum, may have held more than 6,000 detainees by mid-2024, the UN said.

Aziz, who was held there for a month, described a living nightmare.

“There were no toilets, just buckets inside the cell that would sit there all day,” he said.

“You couldn’t go two weeks without falling sick,” Aziz added, with rampant fevers spreading fear of cholera and malaria.

At night, swarms of insects crawled over the prisoners.

“There was nothing that made you feel human,” said Aziz.

Mohamed Shaaban, another Egyptian trader, said RSF guards at Soba routinely insulted and beat them with hoses, sticks and whips.

“They stripped us naked as the day we were born,” Shabaan, 43, told AFP.

“Then they beat us, insulted and degraded us.”



– ‘Complete impunity’ –



Both the RSF and the army have been accused of war crimes, including torturing civilians.

Mohamed Osman, a Sudanese researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that while “the army at least has a legal framework in place”, the RSF “operates with complete impunity”.

The paramilitary force “runs secret facilities where people are taken and often never seen again”, Osman told AFP.

Despite their ordeals, Mouawad, Aziz and Shaaban were among the luckier ones, being released after 20 months in what they believe was a joint intelligence operation between Egypt and Sudan’s army-aligned authorities.

Finally back home in Egypt, they are struggling to recover, both physically and mentally, “but we have to try to turn the page and move on”, said Shaaban.

“We have to try and forget.”

Renault and Nissan shift gears on alliance

By AFP
March 31, 2025


Nissan Rogue: — © Nissan USA

Renault and Nissan said Monday they had revised their partnership to allow for a reduction in their cross-shareholdings and other measures that would help the financially troubled Japanese carmaker.

The new agreement will allow the carmakers to reduce their current 15 percent cross-shareholdings to 10 percent.

Renault will also acquire Nissan’s 51 percent stake in their joint factory in the Indian city of Chennai, which will produces Nissan vehicles.

Nissan will no longer be required to invest in Renault’s electric vehicle development unit, Ampere, although the French company will continue to develop and manufacture an electric version of its subcompact Twingo for Nissan to sell in Europe.

“Renault Group has a strong interest in seeing Nissan turnaround its performance as quickly as possible,” Renault Group chief executive Luca de Meo said in a statement.

The two carmakers have been partners since 1999 when Renault rescued Nissan from bankruptcy. But numerous tensions emerged, particularly over Renault’s greater holding in Nissan, and in 2023 the carmakers worked to rebalance their alliance.

But Nissan announced last year thousands of job cuts after reporting a 93 percent plunge in first-half net profit, and it expects to post a loss of over $500 million for 2024.

Its CEO Makoto Uchida stepped down earlier in March after merger talks with Honda fell apart.

“Nissan is committed to preserving the value and benefits of our strategic partnership within the Alliance while implementing turnaround measures to enhance efficiencies,” said incoming Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa.

The amended alliance agreement will not impact the additional 18.66 percent stake in Nissan that Renault holds in a French trust. Those shares do not give Renault voting rights in Nissan under their alliance agreement, unlike the 15 percent holding.

Japan-Australia flagship hydrogen project stumbles

By AFP
March 30, 2025


A picture taken in October 2020 shows a tank containing liquid hydrogen at Kobe Port Island plant - Copyright AFP/File Frederic J. BROWN

Katie Forster and Kyoko Hasegawa

Japan wants to become a hydrogen fuel leader to meet its net-zero goals, but one blockbuster project is hanging in the balance over questions about its climate credentials.

The Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) is billed as a billion-dollar attempt to ship liquid hydrogen from Australia to Japan.

However, cold feet about the project in Australia means HESC will source hydrogen from Japan to meet a 2030 deadline for its demonstration phase.

Hydrogen sounds promising on paper: while fossil fuels emit planet-warming greenhouse gases, burning hydrogen creates only water vapour.

But it has not yet lived up to its promise, with several much-hyped projects globally struggling to overcome high costs and engineering challenges.

Hydrogen’s climate credentials also depend on how it is produced.

“Green hydrogen” uses renewable energy, while “blue hydrogen” relies on fossil fuels such as coal and gas, with carbon-capture technology to reduce emissions.

“Brown hydrogen” is produced by fossil fuels without any carbon capture.

The HESC project aims to produce blue hydrogen in the Australian state of Victoria, harnessing abundant local supplies of lignite coal.

With the world’s first liquid hydrogen tanker and an imposing storage site near Kobe in Japan, HESC had been touted as a flagship experiment showcasing Japan’s ambitions for the fuel.

HESC says it aims to eventually produce enough hydrogen to “reduce about 1.8 million tonnes per annum of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere”.

Japan’s energy sector emitted 974 million tonnes of CO2 from fuel combustion in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).



– ‘Strong opposition’ –



Japan’s government pledged 220 billion yen (now $1.4 billion) to HESC’s current “commercial demonstration” phase, which has a completion deadline of 2030.

But to meet this deadline, the project will now source hydrogen in Japan.

That has been blamed on cold feet among Australian officials concerned about the project’s environmental payoff.

A spokesman for Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries, one of the companies behind HESC, said the decision to shift production to Japan was taken “chiefly because of delay in procedures on the Australian side”.

The Victoria government did not respond to repeated requests for comment, though Australian officials have told local media that the move was a Japanese “commercial decision”.

Australia’s cooling interest in the project is due to “strong opposition” from environmental activists and energy experts opposed to carbon capture and storage, said Daisuke Akimoto of Tokyo University of Information Sciences.

“The main problem the project faces is the lack of approval of the blue hydrogen project by the Victorian government,” Akimoto said.

Kawasaki said it has not yet decided what type of hydrogen it will procure in Japan and downplayed the project’s challenges.

“We are very positive” about HESC and “there is no change” to the goal of building a new supply chain, the spokesman said, declining to be named.



– ‘Evidence gap’ –



However, sourcing the hydrogen locally leaves “a critical evidence gap at the middle of the project” — proving carbon capture and storage work — explained David Cebon, an engineering professor at the University of Cambridge.

That is “difficult and challenging and not being done successfully anywhere”, Cebon said.

Kawasaki has said it will continue “feasibility studies” for the HESC project, but Cebon believes it will “quietly die”, partly because of the cost of shipping hydrogen to Japan.

To be transported by sea as a liquid, hydrogen needs to be cooled to -253 degrees Celsius (-423.4 Fahrenheit) — an expensive, energy-intensive process.

“I think wiser heads in the government just realised how crazy it is,” said Mark Ogge from the Australia Institute think-tank.

Japanese energy company Kansai Electric has separately withdrawn from a different project to produce “green” hydrogen in Australia.

A company spokesman declined to comment on reports that the decision was due to ballooning costs.



– ‘It will take decades’ –



Resource-poor Japan is the world’s fifth largest single-country emitter of carbon dioxide.

It already produces some hydrogen domestically, mostly using natural gas and oil or nuclear power, although this is limited and expensive.

Some experts are sanguine about HESC’s challenges.

Noe van Hulst, a hydrogen advisor to the IEA, said it was important to take the long view.

“Pilot projects are undertaken to test innovations in practice: learning-by-doing,” he told AFP.

“Yes, it is hard to develop a low-carbon hydrogen market and it will take decades,” as with wind and solar energy, van Hulst said.

Solar in particular has seen costs plummet and uptake soar far beyond initial expectations and at greater speed.

And for now, “there isn’t really an alternative (to) decarbonise these hard-to-electrify sectors like steel, cement, ships and planes”, van Hulst added.

Venezuela says US revoked transnational oil, gas company licenses


By AFP
March 31, 2025


Venezuela says the United States has revoked several transnational oil and gas companies' licenses to operate in the country - Copyright AFP/File

 Pedro MATTEY

The United States has revoked several transnational oil and gas companies’ licenses to operate in Venezuela, Caracas said on Sunday, which had been granted despite Washington’s sanctions against the South American country.

US President Donald Trump is seeking to strangle Venezuela economically in order to cripple its leader Nicolas Maduro, and announced a week ago 25 percent tariffs on imports from countries buying Venezuelan oil and gas.

Venezuela did not specify which companies were affected but French oil firm Maurel & Prom (M&P) said on Monday that the special license it had been granted last May had been revoked.

M&P said the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had given it until May 27 to wind down its activities in Venezuela.

“It is M&P’s understanding that this action is part of a broader initiative by OFAC affecting both US and international oil companies operating in Venezuela under similar authorisations, pending a possible agreement between the US and Venezuela as the situation continues to evolve,” it said in a statement.

US energy giant Chevron had its license revoked in February.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Washington had ordered Global Oil Terminals, owned by tycoon Harry Sargeant III, to cease operating in Venezuela.

Spanish oil giant Repsol, Italian gas producer Eni and India’s Reliance Industries are also expected to be hit by the US license revocations.

Chevron produces some 220,000 barrels per day (bpd), Repsol around 65,000 and M&P around 20,000, according to experts.

“I want to inform you that we have maintained fluid communication with the transnational oil and gas companies operating in the country, and that they have been notified in recent hours by the US government about the revocation of their licenses,” Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said in a statement on Telegram on Sunday.

“We were prepared for this situation and we are ready to continue honoring contracts with these companies,” she said.

Companies that violate the US oil embargo and other directives could be sanctioned by the United States.

Chevron’s revoked license had been granted by former US president Joe Biden and allowed the company to operate despite sanctions. Other companies had received similar licenses.

Trump, who had initially given Chevron until April 3 to shut down its operations, extended it until May 27.

The United States and many other countries do not recognize last year’s claim of victory by Maduro in elections he is accused of having stolen.

Venezuela’s oil production, which exceeded three million bpd 25 years ago, is about one million bpd today, having fallen to less than 300,000 at its worst.

Hard-hitting drama ‘Adolescence’ to be shown in UK schools


By AFP
March 31, 2025


UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, centre, with Sarah Simpkin from the Children's Society and writer Jack Thorne of the Netflix drama 'Adolescence' - Copyright AFP STR

The Netflix drama “Adolescence”, which has sparked widespread debate about the toxic and misogynistic influences young boys are exposed to online, will be shown in UK secondary schools, the prime minister’s office and the streaming giant said Monday.

“We’re incredibly proud of the impact the show has made, and are delighted to be able to offer it to all schools across the UK,” said Anne Mensah, vice president of UK content at Netflix, adding that the four-part series had “helped articulate the pressures young people and parents face”.

The announcement came as Prime Minister Keir Starmer met the creators of the show alongside charities and young people at his Downing Street office to discuss the issues raised in the series.

Starmer said that he had watched the drama — in which a 13-year-old boy stabs a girl to death after being radicalised online — with his own teenage children and that it had “hit home hard”.

“It’s an important initiative to encourage as many pupils as possible to watch the show,” he said. Minors aged 11 to 18 will be able to see the series at their secondary schools.

“Openly talking about changes in how they communicate, the content they’re seeing, and exploring the conversations they’re having with their peers is vital if we are to properly support them in navigating contemporary challenges, and deal with malign influences,” Starmer added.

“Adolescence”, which was released on March 13, follows the aftermath of the schoolgirl’s fatal stabbing, revealing the dangerous influences boys are subjected to online.

The series had 24.3 million views in its first four days, making it Netflix’s top show for the week of March 10-16, according to the entertainment industry magazine Variety.

Maria Neophytou of the UK’s children’s charity NSPCC said the meeting had been a “critical milestone”.

“The online world is being polluted by harmful and misogynistic content which is having a direct impact on the development of young people’s thinking and behaviours. This cannot be allowed to continue,” she said.

Computer pioneer Microsoft turns 50 in the age of AI


By AFP

March 30, 2025


Bill Gates (C) and Paul Allen (L), pictured here at a Portland Trailblazers basketball game in May 2000, founded Microsoft in 1975 with a mission to put computers in every home and office - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP CHIP SOMODEVILLA

Julie JAMMOT

Microsoft has been at the heart of computing for half a century, becoming a tech stalwart almost taken for granted as lifestyles embraced the internet.

As the company, founded with a vision of putting computers in every home and office, celebrates its 50th anniversary on Friday, it is looking to boost its fortunes by being a leader in the fast-developing field of artificial intelligence (AI).

“From a storytelling standpoint, they’ve been a boring company and a boring stock,” eMarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman said of the Richmond, Washington-based behemoth.

“It’s funny because they have a $2.9 trillion market cap, and that is huge,” he continued, referring to Microsoft’s value based on its share price.

The only company with a higher market cap is iPhone maker Apple.

Cloud computing is fueling Microsoft’s revenue with the help of its ubiquitous Office software, now hosted online and no longer released in boxes of floppy disks or CDs.

“It’s not a very sexy infrastructure, but it’s a very valuable one,” Goldman said of Microsoft’s data centers and software at the foundation of its cloud-computing platform.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google are Microsoft’s cloud-computing rivals.

– ‘Micro-Soft’ –

Clouds were the stuff of weather forecasts rather than computing when Bill Gates and childhood friend Paul Allen founded what was first called “Micro-Soft” in 1975.

They launched the MS-DOS operating system that became known as “Windows” and went on to run most of the world’s computers.

Microsoft Office programs including Word, Excel and PowerPoint became standard business tools, even fending off free Google Docs software.

“Microsoft had a lot of businesses that were weaker and challenged — the perfect example is Office,” Goldman said.

“That Office is still such a meaningful business for them says something about the way they were able to innovate.”

Current chief executive Satya Nadella championed a Microsoft shift to making its software available on just about any device as subscription services hosted in the cloud.

Image: © AFP JULIEN DE ROSA

The move likely saved Microsoft from seeing free services like Google Docs reduce their market share to zero, the analyst said.

– ‘Achilles heel’ –

Microsoft remains in the shadow of other US tech giants when it comes to offerings such as social networks, smartphones and the AI-infused digital assistants that have become woven into people’s lives, but it is not for lack of effort.

Microsoft introduced Xbox video game consoles in 2001, steadily building up its stable of studios, making the blockbuster buy of Activision Blizzard two years ago and adding an online subscription service for players.

And despite its launch of the Bing search engine in 2009, Google still dominates that market.

Microsoft in 2016 bought career-focused social network LinkedIn, which has seen steady growth. But it still lacks the reach of Meta’s Facebook or Instagram, or the influence of Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter).

Microsoft is among those in the running to buy TikTok, which faces a ban in the United States if not sold by China-based ByteDance.

While Apple and Google have excelled at making it easy or even fun for users to engage with products, that has been an “Achilles heel” for Microsoft, according to Goldman.

“It’s never been a strong suit of theirs,” the analyst said.

– Mobile miss –

Known for a focus on sales rather than innovation, Steve Ballmer, who followed Gates as chief of Microsoft from 2000 to 2013, has been faulted for missing the shift to smartphones and other mobile computing devices.

His successor, Nadella, took over with a vow to make Microsoft a “mobile-first, cloud-first” company and Microsoft has since invested heavily in AI, taking a stake in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and building the technology into offerings including Bing, though to little avail.

– Behind in AI? –

Independent analyst Jack Gold believes that despite those investments and efforts, Microsoft lags in AI because it lacks its own chips or foundation model.

“They are not as advanced in that as AWS and Google, so they’re still playing a little bit of catchup in that space,” Gold said of Microsoft.

Google Cloud’s revenue growth is on pace to overtake Microsoft’s Azure for second place in the market in two years, the analyst said.


Four men loom large in Microsoft history

By AFP
March 30, 2025


Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. — © AFP Daniel ROLAND

Glenn CHAPMAN

Microsoft was shaped by Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer and Satya Nadella over the course of the last half-century in the male-dominated tech world.

Friends since childhood in Seattle, Gates and Allen founded Microsoft in 1975 with a stated goal of putting a computer in every office and home.

– Gates –

Born William Henry Gates III in 1955 in Seattle, he began writing software programs while a 13-year-old schoolboy.

Gates dropped out of Harvard in his junior year to start Microsoft with Allen.

The childhood friends created MS-DOS operating system, since renamed Windows, which went on to dominate office work.

Gates built a reputation as a formidable and sometimes ruthless leader.

Critics argue he unfairly wielded Microsoft’s clout in the market, and the US pressed a winning antitrust case against the company in the late 1990s.

In 2000, Gates ceded the CEO job to Ballmer, whom he befriended while the two were students at Harvard.

Gates chose to devote himself to a charitable foundation he established with his then-wife, Melinda.

He resigned from Microsoft’s board of directors in 2020 — shortly after the firm acknowledged the existence of an “intimate” relationship with an employee in the past.

The following year, the couple divorced. Melinda Gates faulted him for his relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was found guilty of sexually exploiting under-age girls.

His support of Covid-19 vaccine campaigns and agriculture programs that focus on climate change and women made Gates a favorite target of conspiracy theorists.

Baseless accusations aimed at Gates include him putting tracking chips in vaccines.

– Allen –

Paul Allen, born in 1953 in Seattle, was a schoolmate of Gates.

Allen was 10 when he started a science club at home, and would later bond with young Gates over computers.

“Microsoft would never have happened without Paul,” Gates wrote in tribute to Allen, who died of cancer complications in 2018.

Gates told of Allen showing him a magazine featuring a computer running on a new chip, and warning that a tech revolution was happening without them.

Allen is credited with combining “microcomputer” and “software” to come up with “Micro-Soft”.

He left Microsoft in 1983, but remained a board member until 2000. He went on to accuse Gates and Ballmer of scheming to “rip him off” by getting hold of his shares while he battled cancer.

– Ballmer –

Ballmer was seen as a devoted salesman who ramped up Microsoft revenue while neglecting innovation.

A Michigan native with a talent for mathematics, he graduated from Harvard.

Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980 and was best man at the 1994 wedding of Bill and Melinda Gates.

Ballmer, now 69, succeeded Gates as chief executive in 2000.

His enthusiastic gestures, awkward dance moves, and voice-straining shouts made him the stuff of internet memes and company lore.

Ballmer oversaw the launch of Xbox video game consoles, Surface tablets, and Bing online search engine. Microsoft bought Skype and Nokia’s mobile phone division on Ballmer’s watch.

During his tenure, Microsoft was seen as clinging to PCs while lifestyles raced toward mobile devices and cloud-based software.

His product failures include Zune digital music players, Kin mobile phones, and a Vista version of Windows.

– Nadella –

Nadella took over as chief executive in early 2014 and says he learned leadership skills playing cricket as a boy growing up in India.

Nadella, who will turn 58 in August, was hired in 1992 while studying at the University of Chicago.

Early in his academic career, a drive to build things led him to pursue computer science, a focus not available during his engineering studies at Mangalore University.

Nadella’s Microsoft bio shows stints in research, business, server and online services units.

For relaxation, he turns to poetry, which he likened to complex data compressed to express rich ideas in few words.

Nadella held firm that for Microsoft to succeed, it needed to adapt to a “cloud-first, mobile-first world”.

Soon after becoming chief, he ordered the biggest reorganization in Microsoft’s history.

He is credited with guiding Microsoft from a fading packaged software business to the booming market for cloud services.

Microsoft has been pumping billions of dollars into AI, investing in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and infusing the technology across its products.

In a rare stumble, Nadella triggered an uproar his first year as chief by suggesting during an on-stage discussion that working women should trust “karma” when it comes to securing pay raises.

Microsoft’s acquisitions under Nadella include Sweden-based Mojang, maker of the popular video game Minecraft; social network LinkedIn, and the GitHub online platform catering to software developers.

In Turkey, new technologies reinforce repression

By AFP
March 30, 2025

After the arrest of Istanbul's mayor, authorities made social networks inaccessible in the city by reducing internet bandwidth 

- Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File JUSTIN SULLIVAN

Burcin GERCEK

With anti-government protests sweeping across Turkey, the authorities have used all technological means to try to curb them, from restricting internet access to using facial recognition to identify protesters, who have been forced to adapt.

Amid a ban on protests, nearly 2,000 people have been arrested in connection with the demonstrations that erupted on March 19 following the detention of Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on graft charges.

As well as those apprehended in the streets, many others have been arrested in pre-dawn raids at their homes after being identified from footage or photos taken by the police during the demonstrations.

So far, 13 Turkish journalists have been detained for covering the protests, including AFP photographer Yasin Akgul, who was charged with “taking part in illegal rallies and marches” on the basis of images shot by the police.

For Orhan Sener, a digital technologies expert, the use of technology marks a major departure from 2013, when a small protest against plans to demolish Gezi Park in central Istanbul snowballed into a wave of national unrest over the rule of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was prime minister at the time.

“The security forces’ information technology capabilities have increased considerably since then,” Sener said.

“During the Gezi movement, the protesters dominated social networks and the police weren’t able to identify them,” he said.

“But today, when you join a demonstration in Turkey, your face is recognised by a camera and the system cross-references it with your profile on social networks.”

– Faces masked –

Faced with such a risk, many demonstrators are now covering their heads and faces with hats, masks and scarves.

In Istanbul, police have frequently surrounded protesters and ordered them to uncover their faces so they can be filmed, refusing to let them go if they do not, generating widespread distress for many young people, AFP correspondents said.

“Every means of pressure generates a countermeasure. We will soon see greater use of different clothing, glasses or make-up to thwart facial recognition technologies,” said Arif Kosar, who specialises in the impact of new technologies.

“But I don’t think facial recognition technology is the main source of pressure today. The use of disinformation to smear the protests, or neutralise and divide them, plays a more important role,” he said.

Erdogan has denounced the protests as “street terror”, accusing participants of “vandalising” a mosque and a cemetery, charges the opposition has denied.

“Authoritarian regimes now know how to use the internet to their advantage. They have found ways of censoring it,” Sener said.

“But above all, they use it for their own propaganda.”

– ‘Moving towards a surveillance state’ –

Immediately after Imamoglu’s arrest in a pre-dawn raid, which he recounted on X before being taken away, the authorities started reducing bandwidth for internet users in Istanbul, rendering access to social networks impossible for 42 hours.

They also asked the social media platform X to close more than 700 accounts belonging to journalists, news organisations, political figures and students among others, the platform said.

“There was no court decision behind the bandwidth reduction or the bid to block X accounts. These measures were put in place arbitrarily,” said Yaman Akdeniz, a law professor and head of Turkey’s Freedom of Expression Association (IFOD).

He said there was legislation being prepared that would require messaging services such as WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram to open offices in Turkey and disclose users’ identities to the authorities.

“We are moving towards a surveillance state,” Akdeniz said.

Since 2020, internet service providers have provided data on online activities and the identity of internet users to the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), the opposition news website Medyascope revealed in 2022.

“By law, the BTK can only keep the data collected for two years. However, we have seen data going back 10 years being provided to prosecutors during the investigation into the Istanbul mayor,” Akdeniz said.

“This data retention, despite the law, for purposes which are unknown, opens the way for arbitrary practices,” he said.

For Sener, activism in the real world and online “used to be two different worlds, but now they are intertwined”.

With facial recognition, “the government is trying to discourage people from joining demonstrations, while hindering their mobilisation through social networks,” he said.