‘No one can stop’ Duterte impeachment trial: Philippine House prosecutors

By AFP
June 11, 2025


Philippine senators pose before taking their oaths as jurors in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte - Copyright AFP Ted ALJIBE

Pam CASTRO, Cecil MORELLA

House of Representatives prosecutors said Wednesday that Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial could not be stopped despite the Senate sending the case back to them hours after convening as a court.

Prosecutors told an afternoon press briefing their case had complied strictly with the constitution, adding they would seek clarification over what they called “confusing” Senate orders.

Duterte was impeached in early February on charges of graft, corruption and an alleged assassination plot against former ally and running mate President Ferdinand Marcos.

A guilty verdict would see her removed from office and permanently barred from politics.

“No one can stop this anymore, because jurisdiction has been acquired already by the impeachment court,” said Congresswoman Gerville Luistro, pointing to the Senate’s issuing of a summons for Duterte late Wednesday night.

“There will be no… withdrawal (of the impeachment case) by the House. That is not allowed by the constitution.”

Tuesday night’s 18-5 Senate vote ordered the House to certify it had not violated the constitution by hearing three impeachment complaints before the one that ultimately went to a vote.

The constitution bars subjecting anyone to multiple impeachment proceedings within the same year.

But House member Ysabel Maria Zamora said the final impeachment complaint had “consolidated all the articles” of the first three into one.

A second order to guarantee the case would move forward after new House members take their seats on June 30 was “impossible” to fulfill as they could not speak for a future Congress, prosecutors said.



– ‘Political survival’ –



The Senate’s vote to remand was as much a matter of “political survival” as anything, lawyer and former senator Leila de Lima told AFP Wednesday.

De Lima, who warned more than a week ago the Senate could move to kill the impeachment, said the spectre of a still-powerful Duterte was likely on lawmakers’ minds.

“Loyalty, friendship, political survival. Maybe they are thinking the Dutertes are very much around even if the patriarch (ex-president Rodrigo Duterte) is in The Hague,” she said.

The elder Duterte has been imprisoned since March when he was arrested and transferred to the International Criminal Court to face charges tied to his deadly drug war.

His daughter has been widely mooted as a presidential candidate in 2028 should she survive the impeachment process.

Senators “were trying to protect their political ambitions,” agreed Congresswoman France Castro, who endorsed an early impeachment complaint against the vice president.

Asked at Wednesday’s press briefing if he believed the Senate was deliberately delaying the trial, Congressman Keith Flores said the answer was clear.

“I cannot speak for everyone but for me, yes.”

ATTN: EARTHLINGS

May 2025 second warmest on record: EU climate monitor


By AFP
June 11, 2025


2025: the second warmest May on record - Copyright AFP PAUL FAITH

Julien MIVIELLE

Global heating continued as the new norm, with last month the second warmest May on record on land and in the oceans, according to the European Union’s climate monitoring service.

The planet’s average surface temperature dipped below the threshold of 1.5 degree Celsius above preindustrial levels, just shy of the record for May set last year, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

The same held for the world’s oceans. With a surface temperature of 20.79C, last month was second only to May 2024, with some unprecedented warmth regionally.

“Large areas in the northeast North Atlantic, which experienced a marine heatwave, had record surface temperatures for the month,” Copernicus reported. “Most of the Mediterranean Sea was much warmer than average.”

The increasingly dire state of the oceans is front-and-centre at the third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC), which kicked off Monday in Nice, France.

Ocean heatwaves are driving marine species to migrate, damaging ecosystems, and reducing the ability of ocean layers to mix, thus hindering the distribution of nutrients.

Covering 70 percent of the globe’s surface, oceans redistribute heat and play a crucial role in regulating Earth’s climate.

Surface water warmed by climate change drive increasingly powerful storms, causing new levels of destruction and flooding in their wake.

Some parts of Europe, meanwhile, “experienced their lowest levels of precipitation and soil moisture since at least 1979,” Copernicus noted.

Britain has been in the grips of its most intense drought in decades, with Denmark and the Netherlands also suffering from a lack of rain.



– ‘Brief respite’ –



Earth’s surface last month was 1.4C above the preindustrial benchmark, defined as the average temperature from 1850 to 1900, before the massive use of fossil fuels caused the climate to dramatically warm.

“May 2025 interrupts an unprecedentedly long sequence of months above 1.5C,” noted Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

All but one of the previous 22 months crossed this critical threshold, which marks the 2015 Paris Agreement’s most ambitious target for capping global warming.

“This may offer a brief respite for the planet, but we expect the 1.5C threshold to be exceeded again in the near future due to the continued warming of the climate system,” he added.

Over the 12-month period June 2024 to May 2025, warming averaged 1.57C compared to the 1850-1900 benchmark.

The Paris treaty target, however, is pegged to a 20-year average, in order to account for the influence of natural variability.

The UN’s climate science advisory panel, the IPCC, has said there’s a 50-percent change of breaching the 1.5C barrier in line with these criteria between 2030 and 2035.

Using this method of calculation, the world today has warmed by at least 1.3C.

The UN’s World Meterological Organization (WMO), meanwhile, has said there’s a 70 percent chance the five-year period 2025-2029, on average, will exceed the 1.5C limit.

Scientists stress the importance of limiting global warming as soon and as much as possible because every fraction of a degree increases the risks of more deadly and destructive impacts, on land and in the sea.

Limiting warming to 1.5C rather than 2C would significantly reduce the most catastrophic consequences, the IPCC concluded in a major report in 2018.

Steel startup aims to keep Sweden’s green industry dream alive


By AFP
June 11, 2025


The bankruptcy of Northvolt has not deterred the Stegra company from pursuing its green steel project in northern Sweden - Copyright US Treasury Department/AFP HANDOUT

Johannes LEDEL

The spectacular fall of battery maker Northvolt led to fears over several Swedish green industry projects, but startup steelmaker Stegra believes it can confound the doubters.

Just outside the town of Boden in Sweden’s far north a massive worksite is teeming with activity.

The metal skeletons rising out of the ground hint at the brand new mill which will produce steel using technology that the company says gives off 95 percent less CO2 emissions than traditional methods.

“Right now, we got the pole position,” Denis Hennessy, Stegra’s vice president for steel, said during a site tour.

“We’re in a very unique position to do some things first in the industry,” Hennessy said as he described the benefits of building a completely new plant.

Among heavy industries, iron and steel production is the number one CO2 emitter, according to the International Energy Agency.

The traditional process gives off nearly two tonnes of CO2 for every tonne of steel made.

– Hydrogen –



The iron ore that comes out of a mine is usually rich in oxides, chemical compounds made up of iron and oxygen, and this oxygen has to be removed — usually by heating it with coke in a blast furnace — which is when most of the CO2 is released.

Stegra will remove the oxygen by circulating heated hydrogen gas which binds the oxygen — creating water as a byproduct

The hydrogen is also to be produced on site at an electrolyzer plant powered by renewable energy.

Access to cheap renewable energy, such as hydro power in Sweden’s north, is key to Stegra’s business model, according to CEO Henrik Henriksson.

He told a group of investors and reporters that most established European steel firms are paying three times as much for their electricity.

“That gives us a relatively huge cost advantage,” he added.

While traditional steelmaking is still cheaper, Stegra thinks it will benefit by being able to charge a premium for “green” steel.

When the company first announced plans for a new plant in 2021, it was called H2 Green Steel and had an ambitious target of starting production in 2024. It also aimed for annual output of five million tonnes of steel — more than all of Sweden’s current annual output — by 2030.



– Northvolt’s shadow –



It is now targeting to turn on the mills in the second half of 2026, with an initial capacity of 2.5 million tonnes of steel per year, which they hope to eventually double.

This is a still a drop in the ocean compared to the near 1.9 billion tonnes of steel shipped worldwide in 2024, according to the World Steel Association.

Behind Stegra is investment firm Vargas Holding, which was also a co-founder of battery maker Northvolt.

Northvolt was seen as a cornerstone in European efforts to catch up with Chinese battery producers before production delays and a debt mountain led it to declare bankruptcy in March.

As Northvolt was seen as a leader in a green industrial boom in Sweden, its demise has dampened optimism.

A review by Dagens Arbete, a magazine published by three labour unions, found that 20 out 30 “green industrial projects” in Sweden were either delayed or had been cancelled.

Stegra also has detractors.

Magnus Henrekson, a professor at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), told AFP that the first problem with the startup was the inland location without the infrastructure to transport large amounts of steel to nearby ports.

“And this is to be done by a startup, without previous experience of steel production,” Henrekson said, adding that he thought that given Stegra’s massive power needs, it was over optimistic to think electricity prices would remain competitive.



– No Chinese competitor –



Henrekson also noted that there are signs that the wider steel industry has lost faith in hydrogen reduced iron, highlighting ArcelorMittal’s announcement in November that it was holding off decisions on several direct reduction plants — citing both market and technology concerns.

Despite the challenges, Stegra’s Henriksson stressed that the company was “different” from Northvolt.

“We are a different team. We are a different setup,” he said, adding that there was “no green steel business” in China to provide competition.

Henriksson also said that a key difference was also steel as a product was much different from battery packs for vehicles — which require customers to adapt software, technology and design.

Producers who want to reduce their carbon footprint can simply use Stegra’s steel, he said.

“On Monday … you can run brown steel. And on Tuesday, you can run green.”

Waymo leads autonomous taxi race in the US


By AFP
June 11, 2025


In San Francisco, locals barely notice the steering wheels turning by themselves anymore, with Waymo's fleet of Jaguars also available in parts of Silicon Valley - Copyright AFP -

Julie JAMMOT

Waymo’s autonomous vehicles have become part of the everyday landscape in a growing number of US cities, serving as safe transport options, tourist attractions, and symbols of a not-so-distant future. Their market dominance, however, is far from guaranteed.

As Tesla preps to launch its first driverless taxi service in Austin, Texas, this month after numerous delays, Waymo already claims to have more than 250,000 weekly rides across Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin (in a partnership with Uber).

In San Francisco, locals barely notice the steering wheels turning by themselves anymore, with Waymo’s fleet of Jaguars also available in parts of Silicon Valley.

But for tourists and business travelers, their first Waymo ride often becomes the most memorable part of a trip to the Golden Gate city.

In Los Angeles, the vehicles also became a target of protesters against the White House’s immigration policies, who set Waymos on fire or covered them in graffiti.

That blip aside, Waymo has been going from strength to strength, with the company — a subsidiary of Google-parent Alphabet — capturing 27 percent of San Francisco’s market share, according to YipitData.

The data shows that Waymo has surpassed Lyft, the United States’ second-largest ride-hailing service, in the city, while Uber maintains a dominant 50-plus percent market share.

Remarkably, Waymo only launched commercial service in San Francisco in 2023 and opened to the general public just one year ago.

“People quickly feel comfortable because they perceive these cars as safer than human-driven vehicles,” explained Billy Riggs, an engineering professor at the University of San Francisco who studies such vehicles and their integration into daily life.

– Better than humans –

Despite typically higher fares than Uber and longer wait times, Riggs’s research reveals that more than a third of users earn less than $100,000 annually –- the median salary in the tech capital.

Three factors drive this success: safety, the absence of a driver (no need to haggle over what music to play), and well-maintained vehicles.

According to a recent Waymo study covering more than 90 million kilometers (56 million miles) of driving, their autonomous vehicles achieved a 92 percent reduction in pedestrian-involved accidents and a 96 percent reduction in injury-causing collisions at intersections.

“Even when humans challenge them, the vehicles don’t respond aggressively. They’re better versions of ourselves,” Riggs joked.

While better than humans, these vehicles are less passive and hesitant than in their early days.

Through continuous data collection on driver behavior and algorithmic adjustments by engineers, Waymo cars have developed “humanistic driving behavior.”

“That’s everything from being able to creep into the intersection if there’s a potential blind right turn or nudging into a left-hand turn” against oncoming traffic.

Both are legal, “but they would be seen as more aggressive, rather than defensive, human, driving maneuvers.”

The vehicles have also gained recognition for their smooth accelerations and braking.

“My boys say, it’s like butter. When they ride with me in our Tesla, I make them sick,” he added.

– $100,000 taxi –

The collapse of Waymo’s main competitor, Cruise — due to high costs and following poor crisis management after a San Francisco accident — has propelled Waymo to market leadership.

It plans to expand to Atlanta, Miami and Washington by 2026.

True large-scale deployment, however, requires adapting to different regulations and, more critically, acquiring many more vehicles.

The company currently operates 1,500 vehicles across four cities.

In early May, Waymo announced plans to build 2,000 additional electric Jaguar I-Pace vehicles next year, all equipped with autonomous driving technology.

These vehicles cost approximately $100,000 each, according to an interview with Waymo executive Dmitri Dolgov on the Shack15 Conversations podcast.

That means profitability remains a distant goal.

In the first quarter, Alphabet’s “Other Bets” division, which includes Waymo, recorded net losses of $1.2 billion.

“There still could be a scenario where Waymo loses. It’s not unrealistic that some Chinese competitor comes in and wins,” Riggs said.

AUKUS

Australia ‘confident’ in US nuclear sub deal despite review


By AFP
June 11, 2025


The 2021 AUKUS deal joins Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States in a multi-decade effort to balance China's growing military might

 - Copyright POOL/AFP COLIN MURTY

David WILLIAMS

Australia said Thursday it is “very confident” in the future of a US agreement to equip its navy with a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines, after the Trump administration put the pact under review.

The 2021 AUKUS deal joins Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States in a multi-decade effort to balance China’s growing military might.

It aims to arm Australia with a fleet of cutting-edge, nuclear-powered submarines from the United States, and cooperate in developing an array of warfare technologies.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has advised Australia and the United Kingdom that it is reviewing AUKUS, a spokesperson for the Australian Defence Department confirmed Thursday.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said he was “very confident” Australia would still get the American submarines.

“I think the review that’s been announced is not a surprise,” he told public broadcaster ABC.

“We’ve been aware of this for some time. We welcome it. It’s something which is perfectly natural for an incoming administration to do.”

Australia plans to acquire at least three Virginia Class submarines from the United States within 15 years, eventually manufacturing its own subs.

– ‘Time to wake up?’ –

The US navy has 24 Virginia-class vessels, which can carry cruise missiles, but American shipyards are struggling to meet production targets set at two new boats each year.

Critics question why the United States would sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia without stocking its own military first.

Marles said boosting the US production of US Virginia Class submarines was a challenge.

“That’s why we are working very closely with the United States on seeing that happen. But that is improving,” he said.

Government forecasts estimate the submarine programme alone could cost Australia up to US$235 billion over the next 30 years, a price tag that has contributed to criticism of the strategy.

Australia should conduct its own review of AUKUS, said former conservative prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, noting that Britain and now the United States had each decided to re-examine the pact.

“Australia, which has the most at stake, has no review. Our Parliament to date has been the least curious and least informed. Time to wake up?,” he posted on X.

Former Labor Party prime minister Paul Keating, a vehement critic of AUKUS, said the US review might “save Australia from itself”.

Australia should carve its own security strategy “rather than being dragged along on the coat tails of a fading Atlantic empire”, Keating said.



– ‘Good deal for the US’ –



Any US review of AUKUS carries a risk, particularly since it is a Biden-era initiative, said Euan Graham, senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

But it is “fundamentally a good deal for the US”, he said, with Australia already investing cash to boost American submarine production as part of the agreement.

“I just do not think it is realistic for Australia, this far backed in, to have any prospect of withdrawing itself from AUKUS,” Graham told AFP.

“I don’t think there is a plan B that would meet requirements, and I think it would shred Australia’s reputation fundamentally in a way that would not be recoverable.”

Rice prices Japan’s hot political issue, on and off the farm


By AFP
June 11, 2025


Rice shortages caused by a supply chain snarl-up have fuelled frustration over inflation - Copyright AFP Richard A. Brooks

Kyoko HASEGAWA

All is calm at Satoshi Yamazaki’s rice farm, with its freshly planted rows of vivid-green seedlings, but a row over the cost of the staple in Japan is threatening to deal the government a blow at the ballot box.

Shortages of the grain caused by a supply chain snarl-up have seen prices almost double in a year, fuelling frustration over inflation — and voters could let their anger be known in upper house elections due next month.

To help ease the pain for consumers and restaurants, the government started tapping emergency stockpiles in March, having only previously done so during disasters.

Yamazaki, who grows about 10 percent of his rice organically using ducks to eat pests, said he understands high prices are “troubling” for ordinary people.

But he stressed that thin profits are a concern for many of those who produce it.

“There’s a gap between shop prices and what farmers sell rice for to traders and the like,” he told AFP in the northern Niigata region.

“Not all the money paid at shops becomes our income,” said Yamazaki, a 42-year-old father of seven.

A mosaic of factors lies behind the shortages, including an intensely hot and dry summer two years ago that damaged harvests nationwide.

Since then some traders have been hoarding rice in a bid to boost their profits down the line, experts say.

The issue was made worse by panic-buying last year prompted by a government warning about a potential “megaquake” that did not strike.



– ‘Old’ rice –



Meanwhile, the rising price of imported food has boosted the popularity of domestic rice, while record numbers of tourists are also blamed for a spike in consumption.

Farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi has pledged to cut prices quicker by selling stockpiled rice directly to retailers — attracting long queues to some shops.

It appears to be working: the average retail price has edged down for a second week to 4,223 yen ($29) for five kilograms (11 pounds), down from a high of 4,285 yen in May.

That hasn’t stopped opposition politicians — with an eye on the elections — and online critics branding the reserve rice “old”, with some likening it to animal feed.

But analysts also blame Japan’s decades-old policy of cutting rice-farming land. The policy was introduced to support prices that were being hit by falling demand brought about by changes in the Japanese diet.

Under the 1971 policy, farmers were told to reduce the amount of space used to grow the grain in favour of other crops.

That saw the amount of land used for rice paddies — not including for livestock feed — plunge below 1.4 million hectares (3.5 million acres) in 2024, from a peak of 3.3 million hectares in 1960.

While the policy was officially abolished in 2018, it has continued in a form of incentives pushing farmers towards other commodities like soybeans.

Adding to the crisis is Japan’s ageing population. Many rice farmers are old and their children have no interest in taking over.

Eighty percent of rice farmers are part-time with less than two hectares of fields but they account for only 20 percent of production, said agronomy expert Kazunuki Oizumi, professor emeritus of Miyagi University.

Their main revenue comes from other jobs or pensions, he added.



– Agriculture ‘destroyed’ –



Toru Wakui, chairman of a large-scale farm in the northern Akita region who has for decades fought against the acreage reduction, said Japan should “seek an increase in rice production and exports to foreign markets”.

“If you only think about the domestic market while increasing output, of course prices will fall,” he told AFP. “We need to look for markets abroad.”

“The 55 years of acreage reduction destroyed Japan’s agriculture,” said Wakui, 76, who urged Koizumi in a letter last month to “declare an expansion in rice production”.

He also said Japan should consider a scheme to help young people start agriculture businesses without the burden of initial investment in fields and machinery, by involving other sectors including banks and trading companies.

Public support for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s government has tumbled to its lowest level since he took office in October, which local media say was partly caused by the surge in inflation and soaring rice costs.

He has told parliament that increasing production is “an option” to temper prices, but said food security and the livelihood of producers was also important.

For the farmer Yamazaki, “wanting cheap rice with high quality” is a pipe dream.

“We farmers are a little baffled by the limelight that suddenly shifted to us,” he said.

“But I think it’s a good opportunity for the public to think about how rice is produced.”

Niger-Benin border standoff deepens as trade collapse bites


By AFP
June 12, 2025


Niger shut its border with Benin when the military seized power two years ago, hitting trade - Copyright AFP/File Sai Aung MAIN

Nearly two years after Niger’s military seized power and the border with Benin was shut, tensions over security, sovereignty and French influence have hardened into a stand-off throttling trade and paralysing ties between the west African neighbours.

Benin, which denies hosting foreign forces accused of destabilising Niger, claims it has made repeated overtures to ease the blockade, but efforts have failed despite mounting economic pain on both sides of the border.

“Those who are suffering are the people of both countries,” Nigerien haulier Ibrahim Abou Koura, who is based in Benin’s economic capital Cotonou, said.

General Abdourahamane Tiani has repeatedly accused Benin of harbouring French military bases training jihadists to undermine Niger.

In May, he insisted the border would “remain closed”, saying the fight was not with Benin but with French troops he claims are operating from its soil.

The friction since the coup has taken a heavy toll on cross-border trade and travel between the two countries.

“Buses aren’t as full. There’s not the same number of people,” said Abou Koura, in the deserted yard of his compound in Zongo, where he once stored goods bound for major Nigerien cities.

Still, transport workers in Cotonou say some movement persists, with the Niger River — a natural border — remaining a busy crossing despite the official closure.

“Goods pass and travellers cross the river to continue their journey by bus on the Niger side,” said Alassane Amidou, a resident of Malanville, a city in northeastern Benin.

But for trucks unable to cross by water, perilous detours through jihadist-infested zones in Burkina Faso have become the only option.

“The Niger-Benin corridor is currently the safest, most profitable and shortest route for transporters and businesses,” said Gamatie Mahamadou, secretary-general of a consortium of Nigerien truck driver unions, in Niamey.

He called on Niger’s military rulers to “immediately normalise relations with Benin”, warning that “workers’ safety” and “the national economy” are at stake.



– Cautious optimism –



Niger’s vital oil exports to Benin’s port of Seme-Kpodji resumed in late 2024 via a cross-border pipeline after months of disruption.

Uranium shipments from northern Niger remain stalled, awaiting either a diplomatic thaw or an alternative route.

Benin has denied Niger’s claims it is turning a blind eye to any destabilisation attempts and continues to extend an olive branch to Niger.

Former presidents Thomas Boni Yayi and Nicephore Soglo travelled to meet General Tiani a year ago in a failed bid to restore ties.

Beninese Foreign Minister Olushegun Adjadi Bakari in early June said he hoped for “prospects for recovery” provided security conditions are met.

“We are hopeful that this will be resolved quickly … the blockage is not on Benin’s side,” he told local media.

“We have to accept the fact that we are not on the same wavelength sometimes… The door remains open.”

A new Beninese ambassador may soon be appointed to Niamey, following the quiet February recall of Gildas Agonkan, who had publicly apologised to the Nigerien people “on behalf of all Beninese and the authorities of Benin”.

“The apology to the Nigerien people was seen in Cotonou as a diplomatic weakening of the country during this crisis,” said Guillaume Moumouni, an international relations expert.

“The next ambassador must be someone of great repute and who knows Niger well enough to inspire trust and respect.”

Benin, which maintains it hosts no foreign military bases, has seen a surge in jihadist attacks this year and laments poor cooperation with neighbouring Sahel states also affected.

“Not being able to talk directly with its neighbours increases Benin’s vulnerability,” said Lassina Diarra, head of the Strategic Research Institute of the International Counter-Terrorism Academy in Ivory Coast.

Benin is set to elect a new president in April 2026, which could be a chance to restart “serious negotiations”, Moumouni said.

Archaeologists find France’s deepest shipwreck


By AFP
June 12, 2025


Researchers have called the site 'Camarat 4' - Copyright Marine Nationale/AFP Handout

Archaeologists have discovered what they say are the remains of a 16th-century merchant ship more than 2.5 kilometres underwater off southern France, the deepest such find in its section of the Mediterranean or any other French waters.

Archaeologists believe the ship was sailing from northern Italy loaded with ceramics and metal bars before it sunk.

Despite a little modern household waste dotting its sunken cargo at 2,567 metres (more than 1.5 miles) below sea level, they were excited about the potential of an archaeological site largely preserved intact.

“It’s the deepest shipwreck ever found in French territorial waters,” Arnaud Schaumasse, the head of the culture ministry’s underwater archaeology department, said late Wednesday.

An underwater drone stumbled upon the sunken ship by chance in early March in waters near Saint-Tropez in southeastern France, deputy maritime prefect Thierry de la Burgade said.

“The sonar detected something quite big, so we went back with the device’s camera, then against with an underwater robot to snap high-quality images,” he said.

The drone was patrolling the seabed as part of a government project to explore and monitor France’s deep-sea resources, from minerals to deep-sea internet cables.

Archaeologist Marine Sadania said experts discovered 200 jugs with pinched spouts among the wreckage at the site they have dubbed “Camarat 4”.

Some of these jugs were marked with the monogram “IHS”, the first three letters of the Greek name of Jesus, or covered with plant-inspired or geometric patterns.

Those details seemed to indicate the jugs hailed from the Liguria region in what is now northern Italy, she said.



– ‘As if time froze’ –



Experts also identified piles of around 100 yellow plates, two cauldrons, an anchor and six cannons.

Modern waste, such as a soda can or an empty yoghurt pot, were spotted too.

But despite this, “the site — thanks to its depth which prevented any recovery or looting — has remained intact, as if time froze, which is exceptional,” Sadania said.

Over the coming two years, she and colleagues plan to draw up a 3D digital version of the ship, as well as extract samples from the site to better study them before returning them to the public domain.

According to the defence ministry in charge of exploring France’s deep seas, researchers can remove an item from a shipwreck by guiding a submarine robot with pincers or arms, via a long cable linking the device to a boat on the surface.

The deepest French authorities had found a sunken vessel until now was 2.3 kilometres under sea level off the southern city of Toulon in 2019.

The wreckage belonged to La Minerve, a French submarine that plunged to its demise in 1968 with 52 navy crew on board, four minutes only after the start of a routine assignment.

Hundreds of civilians were tortured by Wagner mercenaries in Mali: report


By AFP

June 12, 2025


Mali's ruling junta, which seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, pivoted towards Russia for political and military support - Copyright AFP Sam PANTHAKY

In its more than three years in Mali, the Russian paramilitary group Wagner kidnapped, detained and tortured hundreds of civilians, including at former UN bases and camps shared with the country’s army, according to a report published Thursday by a journalist collective.

The victims, who were interviewed by a consortium of reporters led by investigative outlet Forbidden Stories, spoke from a refugee camp in neighbouring Mauritania about waterboarding, beatings with electrical cables and being burned with cigarette butts.

The investigation revealed that the use of illegal detentions and systematic torture, which sometimes led to death, was similar to that which occurred in Ukraine and Russia.

The investigation, which was conducted in conjunction with France 24, Le Monde and IStories, identified six detention sites where the Russian paramilitary group held civilians between 2022 and 2024, but the actual number could be much higher, it said.

Mali’s ruling junta, which seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, broke off ties with former colonial power France and pivoted towards Russia for political and military support after coming to power.

The country never officially admitted Wagner’s presence, insisting it only worked with Russian instructors.

Nonetheless, last week a Telegram channel affiliated with Wagner announced that the Russian paramilitary group was leaving Mali.

Its personnel will be reintegrated into its successor, Africa Corps, another paramilitary group with links to the Kremlin, according to diplomatic and security sources who spoke with AFP.

For more than three years, Mali had relied on Wagner in its fight against jihadists who have killed thousands across the country.

The paramilitary group’s brutal methods on the ground in Mali have been regularly denounced by human rights groups.

A UN report accused Mali’s army and foreign fighters of executing at least 500 people during a March 2022 anti-jihadist sweep in Moura — a claim denied by the junta.

Western governments believe the foreign fighters were Wagner mercenaries.

Last April, bodies were discovered near a Malian military camp, days after the army and Wagner paramilitaries arrested dozens of civilians, most from the Fulani community.

New tool balances accuracy with fairness in social media


By Dr. Tim Sandle
June 12, 2025

DIGITAL JOURNAL

Australian legislation could force social media firms to take steps to prevent those under 16 years of age from accessing platforms such as X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File Michael M. Santiago

Earlier this year, Facebook rolled back rules against some hate speech and abuse. Along with changes at X (formerly Twitter) that followed its purchase by Elon Musk, the shifts make it harder for social media users to avoid encountering toxic speech.

That does not mean all social networks and other online spaces have given up on the massive challenge of moderating content to protect users. One novel approach relies on artificial intelligence. AI screening tools can analyze content on large scales while sparing human screeners the trauma of constant exposure to toxic speech.

Yet AI content moderation faces a challenge, according to Maria De-Arteaga, assistant professor of information, risk, and operations management at Texas McCombs. This is with: being fair as well as being accurate.

An algorithm may be accurate at detecting toxic speech overall, but it may not detect it equally well across all groups of people and all social contexts.

“If I just look at overall performance, I may say, oh, this model is performing really well, even though it may always be giving me the wrong answer for a small group,” De-Arteaga explains. For example, it might better detect speech that’s offensive to one ethnic group than to another.

In new research, De-Arteaga and her co-authors show it’s possible to achieve high levels of both accuracy and fairness. What’s more, they devise an algorithm that helps stakeholders balance both, finding desirable combinations of accuracy and fairness for their particular situations. De-Arteaga worked with datasets of social media posts already rated “toxic” and “nontoxic” or safe by previous researchers. The sets totaled 114,000 posts.

The researchers used a fairness measurement called Group Accuracy Parity (GAP), along with formulas that helped train a machine learning model to balance fairness with accuracy. Applying their approach through AI to analyze the datasets:It performed up to 1.5% better than the next-best approaches for treating all groups fairly.
It performed the best at maximizing both fairness and accuracy at the same time.

But GAP is not a one-size-fits-all solution for fairness, De-Arteaga notes. Different measures of fairness may be relevant for different stakeholders. The kinds of data needed to train the systems depends partly on the specific groups and contexts for which they’re being applied.

For example, different groups may have different opinions on what speech is toxic. In addition, standards on toxic speech can evolve over time.

Getting such nuances wrong could wrongly remove someone from a social space by mislabeling nontoxic speech as toxic. At the other extreme, missteps could expose more people to hateful speech.

The challenge is compounded for platforms like Facebook and X, which have global presences and serve wide spectrums of users.

“How do you incorporate fairness considerations in the design of the data and the algorithm in a way that is not just centered on what is relevant in the U.S.?” De-Arteaga says.

For that reason, the algorithms may require continual updating, and designers may need to adapt them to the circumstances and kinds of content they’re moderating, she says. To facilitate that, the researchers have made GAP’s code publicly available.

High levels of both fairness and accuracy are achievable, De-Arteaga says, if designers pay attention to both technical and cultural contexts.

“You need to care, and you need to have knowledge that is interdisciplinary,” she says. “You really need to take those considerations into account.”

The article“Finding Pareto Trade-Offs in Fair and Accurate Detection of Toxic Speech” is published in Information Research.

Searches for DeepSeek increase amid ChatGPT crash


By Dr. Tim Sandle
June 12, 2025

DIGITAL JOURNAL


OpenAI's ChatGPt and DeepSeek are among growing ranks of rivals as tech firms compete to lead in the hot field of generative artificial intelligence models - Copyright AFP Lionel BONAVENTURE

Open AI’s ChatGPT faced a global outage on Tuesday, 10th June 2025, with users from all over the world complaining about error messages. the cause of the crash remains unknown. According to an update on the OpenAI website, the situation is currently under investigation, citing that users are having “elevated error rates and latency” on services, Chat GPT, APIs, and Sora.


ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot launched in 2022 by OpenAI. As opposed to predictive AI, generative AI is trained on large amounts of data in order to identify patterns and create content of its own, including voices, music, pictures, and videos. ChatGPT allows users to interact with the chatting tool much like they could with another human, with the chatbot generating conversational responses to questions or prompts.

Across social media and Slack threads, creative teams admitted to delays. Copy drafts could not be finished and brand decks could not be polished.

This was not bad news for everyone. A Google Trends analysis by experts at QR Code Generator has revealed that searches for other generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have significantly increased amid this ChatGPT blackout.

According to the findings, searches for DeepSeek are projected to reach 2.13 million queries today (10th June), a 109% increase compared to past the 30-day daily average of 1.02 million.

DeepSeek refers to a new set of frontier AI models from a Chinese startup of the same name. DeepSeek has caused quite a stir in the AI world this week by demonstrating capabilities competitive with – or in some cases, better than – the latest models from OpenAI.

Searches for Claude AI are also expected to increase significantly, rising from 149,441 average daily searches in the past 30 days to 291,181 today, a 95% increase.

The experts also reveal that searches for Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot are projected to increase by 80% and 52%, respectively.

Marc Porcar, CEO of QR Code Generator PRO S.L, has told Digital Journal: “While ChatGPT has captured significant market share, many competitors have been steadily building their user bases and capabilities.

“Today’s global outage of ChatGPT shows the importance of diversification and the challenges that come when the world relies on one single platform and it experiences a blackout.

“The immediate 109% surge in DeepSeek searches and 95% increase for Claude shows that users are actively seeking alternatives rather than simply waiting. This ultimately benefits the AI ecosystem by redistributing market attention and proving that no single platform, regardless of popularity, should be considered indispensable or the sole source for critical workflows.”