Journalist found dead in Colombia's conflict zone

Mahima Kapoor 

DW with AFP

08/05/2026 

Mateo Perez, a 25-year-old Colombian reporter, reportedly went missing on May 5 after being detained by guerrilla members at a roadblock.

Press groups have documented an increase in threats against journalists investigating paramilitary groups and organised crime in Colombia

 [File: Antioquia department 2024 Image: Jon G. Fuller/VWPics/IMAGO

A Colombian journalist was found dead on Friday night in the country's northwestern region, an area plagued by guerrillas, drug traffickers, and illegal gold miners, President Gustavo Petro said.

The body of 25-year-old Mateo Perez was found in an area where members of the guerrilla group, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and drug traffickers linked to the the Gulf Clan, operate.

Perez had been missing since Tuesday, when he was working in a rural area of the mountainous Antioquia department, about five hours north of the regional capital, Medellin.

President Petro blamed Perez's killing on guerrilla leader Jhon Edison Chala Torrejano in a post on X, accusing him of seeking control over illicit gold mining in the region.



"The humanitarian commission of the Red Cross and the ombudsman's office, with the support of the government, managed to enter the area and locate the body," Petro said in the post.

"The National Police has had orders for several weeks to strengthen its presence in this zone and to count on the support of the army to eradicate the groups that remain there. The action of the public forces will be effective," he said.

Press groups urge goverment to protect journalists

Perez ran an online news outlet, El Confidente de Yarumal, where his reporting focused mainly on crime, security, politics, and corruption.

The Colombia-based Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) said Perez had "faced legal pressures" over his "investigations into illicit economies linked to armed actors."

In a statement, FLIP urged the government to "stop being indifferent to the attacks against the press" and to adopt "real protection measures" for journalists at risk. "The murder of Mateo Pérez cannot go unpunished," the organization said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Perez had been detained by FARC members at a roadblock on May 5, citing FLIP.

"Colombian authorities must promptly investigate the death of Mateo Pérez Rueda and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ's Latin America program coordinator, in São Paulo.

"The state has a responsibility to guarantee secure conditions nationwide, enabling journalists to carry out their work freely and without fear of retaliation," she said.
Threats against journalists in Colombia

Since 2022, FLIP has recorded 387 attacks against the press by armed groups, with threats and forced displacement cited as the most common tactics.

FLIP said 170 journalists have been killed in Colombia for reasons related to their work since 1977, including Perez. Of those killings, 22 occurred in Antioquia, making it one of the country's deadliest departments for journalists.

Colombia has seen a surge in guerrilla attacks as the country prepares for presidential elections scheduled for May 31.

Edited by: Roshni Majumdar
Mahima Kapoor Digital journalist based in New Delhi

Anti-Christian aggressions on the rise in Jerusalem

Issued on: 03/05/2026 - 

Religious groups have documented a rise in harassment and violence against Christians in parts of Israel. One of the main flashpoints is Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. The Old City of Jerusalem is home to some of the holiest sites in the world for Jews, Christians and Muslims.

ANALYSIS

Keeping the Lebanese army weak: A hardened US military doctrine at Israel's service

As Lebanon marks a month since “Black Wednesday”, when massive Israeli strikes killed 361 people, the international community continues to call on the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah. But the US legal imperative to ensure Israel has a “qualitative military edge” (QME) has kept the Lebanese military under-funded, under-equipped and unable to perform its role.


Issued on:  08/05/2026 - 
FRANCE24
By: Leela JACINTO

Two Israeli soldiers operate in southern Lebanon on April 29, 2026. © Ariel Schalit, AP

Exactly a month ago, Wissam Charaf was in Yarze, a picturesque town in the hills overlooking Beirut, when he suddenly heard the rumbling sound of an Israeli warplane just before it fired on a hill right across from where he was enjoying a break with his family from the Lebanese capital.

The warplane had struck Kayfoun, a town south of Beirut, which had been hit in the past during the waves of air strikes and bombardments Israel has conducted in Lebanon since October 2023. Charaf, like many Lebanese, had grown sickeningly accustomed to Israel’s frequent breaches of Lebanese sovereignty and airspace. So the 52-year-old filmmaker initially thought it would be more of the same in Lebanon’s new normal.

But this time, it was different. “Then there was another hit and then another hit. And then it went downwards towards Beirut, and it was like baba-baba-baba-baba-baba-baba-baba,” he said, recounting the sound of incessant, quick-fire strikes. “Under our eyes, downhill, Beirut was being bombed. It was massive. It was gigantic. It was everywhere.”

It was April 8. Black Wednesday, as the Lebanese call it. Operation Eternal Darkness as the Israeli military called it.


In just 10 minutes, the Israeli military offloaded 100 bombs across Lebanon, from Hermel in the far north, across the eastern Bekaa Valley, to Beirut on the western coast and down to the towns and villages in the country’s already battered south. The death toll on one day mounted to 361, including women and children. In a matter of minutes, Israel had carried out one of its worst mass killings in Lebanon’s history.

Amid an international outcry, diplomatic attempts to include Lebanon in the Iran ceasefire deal – which was announced by Pakistani mediators on April 8, before a US-Israeli rollback – went into high gear.

A week later, US President Donald Trump announced that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon had agreed to a 10-day truce. The US State Department brief on the ceasefire deal noted that, “All parties recognize Lebanon’s security forces as having exclusive responsibility for Lebanon’s sovereignty and national defense; no other country or group has claim to be the guarantor of Lebanon’s sovereignty.”

The long history of Israel’s entanglement with its northern neighbour has produced a diplomatic lexicon that is familiar to the Lebanese and the wider Middle Eastern public. Calls for the Lebanese security or armed forces – sometimes abbreviated to LAF – to defend Lebanon’s sovereignty dot realms of official agreements, briefings, notes and dispatches. Most bear a deceiving tone of resolution in a conflict that has defied diplomacy for decades.

Less well-known is another term, “qualitative military edge”, or QME, that has long been used in Washington policy circles. It was enshrined in US law in 2008, and guides US foreign policy to this day. QME pertains to Israel and is the underlying source, a growing number of experts say, of the bloodshed in the Middle East that shows no sign of abating.

In Lebanon, QME has a particular bearing as the country marks a month since Black Wednesday with Israel continuing to bombard Lebanon despite the shaky ceasefire, killing more than 2,700 people and displacing more than a million since the latest round of fighting re-erupted on March 2, following the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
An Israeli military concept becomes US law

The concept to ensure Israel always has a qualitative military edge over its enemies traces its roots to the country’s first prime minister David Ben Gurion. Drawing from the lessons of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Ben Gurion’s 1953 defence doctrine concluded that since Israel “will continue to be quantitatively inferior vis a vis the Arab world”, the new nation “must develop a very strong qualitative edge”.

In the US, the concept did not take hold until two decades later, following the end of the 1967 war, when then-president Lyndon Johnson approved the sale of F-4 Phantom fighter jets to Israel, according to the pro-Israel think tank The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

It was enshrined in US law in 2008 under George W. Bush’s presidency, when Congress passed the Naval Transfer Act, which requires the US to ensure that arms exports “to any country in the Middle East other than Israel shall include a determination that the sale or export… will not adversely affect Israel's qualitative military edge”.

The concept has continued to frame US legislation approving military aid to Israel through Republican and Democrat presidencies, including the 2012 US-Israeli Enhanced Security Cooperation Act, signed by Barack Obama, which mandates that the US must “help the Government of Israel preserve its qualitative military edge”.

It has ensured that Israel stands as the largest cumulative recipient of US military aid since its founding, receiving over $300 billion in assistance. Since the start of Israel’s Gaza war in October 2023, the US has enacted legislation providing at least $16.3 billion in direct military aid to Israel, according to the Washington DC-based Council on Foreign Relations.

“Initially, the idea [of QME] was simply to ensure that Israel always maintains technological and military superiority over any possible combination of regional adversaries,” explained Karim Emile Bitar, international relations professor at Beirut’s Saint Joseph University and a lecturer in Middle East studies at the Paris-based Sciences Po. “The fact that it's now embedded into US law affects arms sales and military assistance across the Middle East, including Lebanon.”

QME is “not a household concept” Bitar concedes, but it is important because “it’s one of the structural principles shaping US security architecture. It explains why some Arab states receive sophisticated weapons, those pro-US states that are very aligned with Israel, and others face major restrictions. And military aid to Lebanon has ceilings that have rarely been crossed”.

A national army weaker than a militia

In Lebanon, the flip side of Washington’s QME imperative to ensure Israel has the military edge is the enforced weakness of the Lebanese armed forces, according to many Middle East analysts.

“My critique of it [QME] is what it implies on the ground, which is this idea that we constantly hear that the Lebanese military needs to provide security in Lebanon and especially in southern Lebanon. But what we don't hear in this debate is that the Lebanese army is purposefully kept weak and under-prepared and under-equipped by the US and by Western countries that provide military aid and weapons,” said Mohamad Bazzi, director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies and a professor at New York University.

For more than two decades, Israel’s repeated attacks and encroachments on Lebanese territory have been aimed at fighting Hezbollah, the Shiite group with a military wing that is widely considered stronger than the Lebanese national army.

Hezbollah emerged from the 1980s Lebanese civil war – which ended with the 1990 Taif Agreement – stronger than the Lebanese national army, which had fractured along sectarian lines and dissolved during the brutal internecine conflict. At that time, Israel was still occupying southern Lebanon. Hezbollah’s supporters argued that it was the only force capable of resisting the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon – which it did until the 2000 Israeli military withdrawal, giving the Arab world its first military victory against Israel.

Shadow of failed 1983 agreement haunts new Israeli-Lebanon talks

While the rationale for Hezbollah retaining its weapons ended with the Israeli withdrawal, the militia group had, by then, amassed considerable firepower from its backers in Tehran. It had also made in-roads into Lebanese politics under the protection of Bashar al Assad, the strongman in neighbouring Syria. But during the Syrian civil war and Lebanon’s crippling economic crisis, the group’s popularity began to decline – including among Shiites in a deeply divided country where sectarian political parties often provide for their communities in the absence of state services.

But Hezbollah’s plummeting popularity, and the groundswell of Lebanese discontent over the extent of its state capture, has not translated into its disarmament, much less extinction.

Over the past two years, Israel has conducted massive campaigns against the group, assassinating its leader Hassan Nasrallah and top commanders. On Thursday, the Israeli military announced that it had killed ⁠a commander of ​Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in an air strike on Beirut in the first Israeli attack on the Lebanese capital since the ceasefire agreed ​last month.

Israel today has carved ​out a self-declared buffer zone extending as deep as 10 km into southern Lebanon. The population that once lived in these areas has been displaced, and many Lebanese fear a strike at any time, anywhere as the buzz of Israeli surveillance drones offer an incessant soundtrack to their daily lives.

And yet, the Lebanese Shiite group has managed to keep up its fight against Israel. “Hezbollah still possesses capabilities, even though it has been weakened. It still possesses capabilities that in some domains surpass those of the Lebanese state. It has a large missile arsenal. It has extensive combat experience that it gained mostly in Syria when it was fighting alongside Bashar al-Assad, and it has highly motivated, ideological cadres,” said Bitar.

Coffins of Hezbollah fighters are carried on a truck during a mass funeral procession in the southern village of Kfar Sir, Lebanon on April 21, 2026 © Hassan Ammar, AP

Hezbollah fights Israel, the Lebanese army polices

As it continues to battle the IDF in southern Lebanon and launch rockets into northern Israel, Hezbollah argues that it needs to retain its weapons since it’s the only force in Lebanon that can resist Israel.

Technically, Hezbollah has a point. “If the Lebanese military was better equipped and had the resources it needs, there would be a stronger argument for disarming Hezbollah. That's the crux of this issue. It would take away Hezbollah's argument that it needs to be the one that defends Lebanon because the military isn’t capable of doing it,” explained Bazzi.

The Lebanese army today is among the world’s weakest, ranking 118 in the 2026 Global Firepower index of 145 countries. The primarily US-funded military barely has a navy, with its patrol boats conducting mostly coastguard and anti-smuggling duties. Its “air force” has long been a source of Lebanese jokes, including on social media, where wags remark about its lowly Cessna helicopters hovering below Israel’s fighter jets combing the Lebanese airspace. Defence systems, vital for a country’s security in the modern age, are absent as Israel adds layers of shields to its Iron Dome system.

Despite the quips and barbs, the national army is a beloved institution. “The Lebanese army is widely respected by most Lebanese. The Lebanese people want to empower the army. They want the army to be in charge of security,” explained Bitar.

Bazzi agrees. “The Lebanese army has been hailed as this one institution that's cross-sectarian, that's been successful, that's been rebuilt in a way that preserves the power and the interests of the Lebanese state. We've heard a lot of that. But,” he added significantly, “it's never really confronted an external enemy.”

US envoy’s ‘wild interview’

Meanwhile the US and its European allies display all the signs that they want the Lebanese army to succeed, with statements proclaiming it the sole guarantor of Lebanon’s sovereignty amid frequent calls for the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah.

France, Lebanon’s former colonial power, also issues statements advocating the strengthening of the country’s security forces. In March, France repeated its call to “step up support to the Lebanese Armed Forces, whose mission in this difficult context is to continue disarming Hezbollah”. A Paris summit was set for April. But it was then cancelled due to the Iran crisis.

The gap between statements and reality spilled into the open last year, when Trump’s envoy for the region, Tom Barrack, publicly expressed what many Lebanese knew but never imagined they’d hear from a US diplomat.

US envoy Tom Barrack speaks at a panel in Antalya, southern Turkey, April 17, 2026.

© Riza Ozel, AP


In what came to be called Barrack’s “wild interview”, the US envoy called for the Lebanese state to disarm Hezbollah before confessing that Washington does not want to arm the Lebanese army. “We don’t want to arm them… so they can fight Israel? I don’t think so,” Barrack said.

The clincher however came when the US diplomat noted that the Lebanese army was not going to “go knock on the door of a Shia house… and say, 'Excuse me, ma’am, can I go and take the rockets and the AK-47s out of your basement?”

Barrack’s comments, Bitar noted, were “very significant because it was a sort of acknowledgement that pushing the Lebanese army to take on Hezbollah would potentially lead to civil strife.”

More than three decades after the end of the civil war, the US still fears an injection of arms into Lebanon could set the populace at each other’s throats. Meanwhile it continues to provide Israel a qualitative military edge while the Palestinian issue remains unresolved after nearly 80 years.

A month after he watched Israeli warplanes conduct its Operation Eternal Darkness from a hill overlooking Beirut, Charaf is clear-eyed about the dismal chances for peace in his homeland. “The Lebanese army is torn between an international community that is telling them, fight Hezbollah, disarm Hezbollah, and we'll give you aid later. And the Lebanese army is saying, guys, if you want us to disarm Hezbollah, well at least give us weapons to do it,” he noted with a sigh.

“They're asking the Lebanese army somehow to obey the decisions of the Israeli army,” he added. “And they're asking the Lebanese army to do something that I would say is mission impossible.”

 

© France 24
02:03

FOUR YEARS LATE

CPJ demands update on US probe of journalist Abu Akleh’s killing in West Bank


The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday demanded a "public progress update" from the US Department of Justice on the investigation into the Israeli military's killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was gunned down while reporting for Al Jazeera in the occupied West Bank in 2022.


Issued on: 08/05/2026 
By:FRANCE 24

A woman takes a photo of a mural dedicated to Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh after it was unveiled in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on August 30, 2023. 

© Nasser Nasser , AP

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday called for US authorities to relaunch their investigation into the Israeli military's killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was gunned down while reporting for Al Jazeera in the occupied West Bank in 2022.

In a letter to the US Department of Justice -- which oversees the Federal Bureau of Investigation -- and FBI chief Kash Patel, the global press freedoms group demanded a "public progress update" on Abu Akleh's death.

"Although the FBI reportedly opened an investigation into her killing in November 2022, it has made no demonstrable progress," the letter noted, adding that CPJ was "not aware that any formal interviews have been conducted with witnesses despite the willingness of multiple witnesses to cooperate."

"This troubling lack of concrete progress -- four years after Abu Akleh's death -- represents a profound failure of the US government to respond promptly and impartially to the killing of one of its citizens by a foreign military."

Abu Akleh was 51 when she was fatally shot on May 11, 2022 by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers while covering an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank, CPJ said.

Then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett initially claimed gunfire from Palestinian fighters was the likely cause of her death.

The IDF later released a statement saying it was "not possible to unequivocally determine the source of the gunfire" that killed Abu Akleh, adding there was "a high possibility that Ms. Abu Akleh was accidentally hit by IDF gunfire."
Truth in conflict

But CPJ notes that multiple independent investigations from leading news organizations "concluded that Abu Akleh was killed by IDF fire; some found evidence that she was deliberately targeted."

Abu Akleh was "a household name across the Middle East, widely respected for her courageous and in-depth reporting on Palestinian life," CPJ said, adding that she was wearing a vest marked "PRESS" and "clearly identified as press at the time of her killing."

In a separate statement Thursday, Abu Akleh's family also sought justice for violence at the veteran reporter's funeral -- Israeli police attacked her pallbearers, who nearly dropped her coffin -- saying "no one has been brought to justice, neither for her killing nor for the attack on her funeral."

"Her killing was not only a tragic loss for our family, but also a grave attack on press freedom and the fundamental right to report the truth," the family's statement said. "This ongoing impunity sends a dangerous message that journalists can be targeted without consequence."

Abu Akleh's death also made her a broader symbol of the Palestinian struggle: murals of her face adorn walls, her office's street in Ramallah was renamed in her honor and a museum was named for her.

In addition to demanding a public update on the investigation, press advocates called for the FBI to commit to a timeline to "complete a thorough criminal investigation and publicly release its findings," urging the agency to maintain an impartial and independent inquiry "free from political considerations."

CPJ said since Abu Akleh's killing, Israel has killed 258 more journalists and media workers across the Middle East, including 207 in Gaza alone.

Israel was responsible for two-thirds of journalist deaths in 2025, CPJ said.

The Israeli army rejects allegations of targeted violence, saying it does not intentionally target journalists or their families.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

 

Boats from Gaza aid flotilla gathering in Marmaris, Turkey

08.05.2026, 14:17 DPA

A Gaza aid flotilla called the Global Sumud Flotilla plans to regroup in the Turkish port of Marmaris in the coming days, according to the organizers. 

Several boats have already arrived in the harbour town’s bay, and further boats from Greece and Italy are on their way there, the activists said on Friday.

Data from an online tracker provided by the organizers also showed on Thursday that the boats were heading towards Marmaris.

It is unclear when the activists intend to set sail again from Marmaris towards the Gaza Strip with aid supplies. The organizers said that further information on the "next phase" of the campaign would be provided on May 12.

Last week, the Israeli navy intercepted more than 20 ships from the Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters west of Crete and arrested 175 people.

Greece took in most of them and helped them return to their countries of origin.

Two activists were taken to Israel by the Israeli navy and detained there.

Several EU states have expressed doubts about whether the interception in international waters was compatible with legal norms. 

Israel insists that the action taken against the activists was in accordance with international law.

• Activists' press release
• Activists' tracker showing the boats' movements towards Marmaris

(c) 2026 dpa Deutsche Presse Agentur GmbH

Israeli court rejects appeal by detained Gaza aid flotilla activists

An Israeli court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by two foreign nationals, one Spanish and one Brazilian, challenging their detention in Israel. The two men were seized in international waters last week while participating in a humanitarian aid flotilla seeking to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. The ruling means an earlier decision extending their detention remains in place.


Issued on: 06/05/2026 - 
By: FRANCE 24

Brazilian national Thiago Avila were among dozens of activists aboard a flotilla intercepted in international waters off the coast of Greece. © Ilia Yefimovich, AFP

An Israeli court rejected on Wednesday an appeal filed by two foreign activists contesting their detention by authorities, their lawyer told journalists.

Spanish national of Palestinian origin Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian Thiago Avila were among dozens of activists aboard a flotilla intercepted in international waters off the coast of Greece on Thursday.

The two were seized by Israeli forces and brought to Israel for questioning, while the others were taken to the Greek island of Crete and released.

On Tuesday, an Israeli court extended the detention of Abu Keshek and Avila until Sunday to allow police more time to interrogate them, according to their lawyers.

The pair's legal team then filed an appeal at the Beersheva district court against the detention.

But their appeal was rejected.

"Today, the district court of Beersheva denied our appeal and basically accepted all of the arguments that the state or the police have represented before the court and kept the previous decision," Hadeel Abu Salih said, referring to the earlier court's ruling.

The two activists had appeared in the district court, their feet shackled, an AFP journalist reported.

Abu Keshek looked exhausted and sat with his hands clasped in his lap, while Avila seemed calm, said the journalist.

Israeli rights group Adalah, which is representing the pair, has called their detention illegal.

"As we said from the first day, we're talking about an illegal arrest that took place in international waters where the activists were kidnapped by the Israeli navy without any authority," Abu Salih said after the hearing on Wednesday.

"It's so concerning that also the legal system is giving a free hand for the Israeli forces to continue with this illegal arrest in a way that would give it also legitimacy to do it again and again and kidnap international nationals."
'Stopped drinking'

Adalah has also accused the authorities of subjecting the men to continuous abuse in detention.

"Saif basically told us that he stopped drinking water in addition to the hunger strike he started on Thursday morning," Abu Salih said.

"They are also telling us that they keep interrogating them for most of the time, most of the day, and the questions keep going around the same context, which is the humanitarian mission context."

Adalah had earlier said that the two men were being held in "total isolation, subjected to 24/7 high-intensity lighting in their cells and kept blindfolded whenever they were moved, including during medical examinations".

Israeli authorities have rejected the allegations but have filed no charges against the men.

Adalah said authorities have accused the pair of several offences, including "assisting the enemy during wartime" and "membership in and providing services to a terrorist organisation".

Israel's foreign ministry says both men were affiliated with the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA), a group accused by Washington of "clandestinely acting on behalf of" Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Spain, Brazil and the United Nations have called for their swift release.

"It is not a crime to show solidarity and attempt to bring humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population in Gaza, who are in dire need of it," UN rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan said in a statement.

The flotilla had set sail from France, Spain and Italy with the aim of breaking Israel's blockade of Gaza and delivering humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Israel controls all entry points into Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Can artificial intelligence help Nollywood tell African stories differently without losing its soul?

Issued on: 08/05/2026 

08:18 min  From the show

Artificial intelligence is no longer just a Silicon Valley debate: it’s becoming part of Africa’s creative revolution. In Nigeria, filmmakers and digital artists are experimenting with AI tools to create films, archive disappearing oral histories and imagine new African futures. Obinna Okere-keocha, founder of Naija Artificial Intelligence Film Festival, and filmmaker Malik Afegbua, use AI to preserve fading oral traditions by creating digital archives.

OUR GUESTS

Obinna OKEREKOCHA
Malik AFEGBUAAI artist
 BY: 

Clarisse FORTUNÉ
Elisa AMIRI

French prosecutors seek charges against Musk and X over Grok content


French prosecutors said Wednesday that they have opened an investigation into Elon Musk and social media platform X over the distribution of child sexual abuse images, deepfakes, disinformation and alleged complicity in denying crimes against humanity linked to the platform’s artificial intelligence system, Grok.


Issued on: 08/05/2026 -
By: FRANCE 24

File photo of Elon Musk attending the finals for the NCAA wrestling championship taken March 22, 2025, in Philadelphia. © Matt Rourk, AP

French prosecutors are seeking charges against Elon Musk and his social platform X over child sexual abuse images on the platform, deepfakes, disinformation and complicity in denying crimes against humanity by the platform's artificial intelligence system, Grok.

The Paris public prosecutor's office said Wednesday it has opened an investigation into X on charges including complicity in possessing and distributing child sexual abuse images and unlawfully collecting personal data. It's also investigating charges of disseminating non-consensual images or other content and denial of crimes against humanity.

X and its parent company SpaceX did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Thursday.

The investigation comes less than three weeks after Musk and Linda Yaccarino – the former CEO of X – were summoned for “voluntary interviews" to discuss the allegations. They did not show up, but French authorities said this wouldn't hinder the investigation.




Musk was summoned after a search took place in February at the French premises of X as part of an investigation opened in January 2025 by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office. Musk and Yaccarino have been invited in their capacities as managers of X at the time of the events investigated. Yaccarino was CEO from May 2023 until July 2025.

French authorities opened their investigation after reports from a French lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms on X likely distorted the functioning of an automated data processing system. It expanded after the AI system, Grok, generated posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust, a crime in France, and spread sexually explicit deepfakes.

It’s looking into alleged “complicity” in possessing and spreading sexual abuse images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organised group, among other charges.
Why is French cybercrime unit investigating Elon Musk's X?

© France 24
05:00

Grok, which was built by xAI and is available through X, sparked global outrage this year after it pumped out a torrent of sexualised non-consensual deepfake images in response to requests from X users.

Grok also wrote in a widely shared post in French that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” rather than for mass murder – language long associated with Holocaust denial.

In later posts on X, the chatbot reversed itself and acknowledged that its earlier reply was wrong, saying it had been deleted, and pointed to historical evidence that Zyklon B was used to kill more than 1 million people in Auschwitz gas chambers.

In March, the Paris prosecutor’s office alerted the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, suggesting “that the controversy surrounding sexually explicit deepfakes generated by Grok may have been deliberately orchestrated to artificially boost the value of the companies X and xAI – potentially constituting criminal offences,” prosecutors said.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)

Musk to pay $1.5 million to settle Twitter takeover case

05.05.2026, DPA

Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa Pool/dpa

Tech billionaire Elon Musk is set to end a lawsuit by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over his share purchases during his takeover of Twitter with a payment of $1.5 million.

Musk and the SEC agreed on the amount in a settlement disclosed on Monday that will be submitted to the assigned judge for approval. The penalty is only a fraction of the $150 million the SEC alleged Musk saved by violating disclosure rules.

In the lawsuit, filed in early 2025, the SEC accused Musk of failing to disclose in time that his stake in Twitter had crossed the 5% threshold while he was buying shares in the online platform in 2022. That allowed him to buy more shares at lower prices, the regulator said.

The SEC analyzed Musk's purchases and concluded that the delayed mandatory disclosure had saved him more than $150 million. Shareholders who sold him their shares during that period suffered financial harm, according to the regulator.

The SEC had initially sought to force Musk to repay that amount and pay an additional penalty. According to Musk's lawyers, the agency had demanded $200 million in an earlier settlement offer.

Musk failed in February in an attempt to have the lawsuit dismissed. His lawyers had argued that the SEC had applied the law selectively and that the lawsuit violated his right to free speech. Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, however, saw no reason to dismiss the case.

The tech billionaire began buying Twitter shares on the market in early 2022. In its lawsuit, the SEC said his stake reached 5% on March 14, 2022.

Under US rules, Musk should have made that public within 10 calendar days. But he only disclosed on April 4 - 11 days too late - that he already held 9%. Twitter's share price then jumped by 27%, the SEC noted.

Musk spent around $44 billion on the purchase of Twitter, which was completed in October 2022. He sold shares in Tesla, the electric carmaker he leads, to finance most of the deal. Musk also took out loans of around $12 billion.

• SEC complaint
• Decision on motion to dismiss
• Court document on settlement

(c) 2026 dpa Deutsche Presse Agentur GmbH

Mexico: A mother exhumes her son’s bones, seven years after his disappearance

More than 133,000 officially missing persons in Mexico

Ceci Flores discovered her son’s remains during a search in northern Mexico in late March. He had disappeared in 2019. Flores is a well-known figure in Mexico, where she leads a collective of mothers looking for their missing loved ones, often victims of cartels. Collectives like hers aim to fill the gap left by the authorities’ inaction.

Issued on: 08/05/2026 
The FRANCE 24 Observers/
Chloé LAUVERGNIER

This mother found her son’s remains in the state of Sonora, Mexico, on March 24, 2026. © Facebook / Madres Buscadoras de Sonora


"No mother deserves to find not her son, but his bones – to only be able to hold his bones in her arms.” In a video posted on March 24, Ceci Flores says she is sure that the bones she is holding belong to her son, Marco Antonio. The video is filmed in a deserted, arid landscape near Hermosillo in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora, where Marco Antonio disappeared in May 2019, after being kidnapped by an armed group.

Ceci Flores posted this video on March 24, 2026. © Facebook / Madres Buscadoras de Sonora

A few days after her video was posted, a DNA test confirmed what Flores’ instinct had already told her: that the bones did indeed belong to her son. For her part, she had known since she discovered the bones next to clothing that matched the outfit Marco Antonio was wearing when he disappeared.

"[...] The remains discovered in recent days belong to my son [...]. The DNA test confirmed what I was so afraid of [...]", Ceci Flores wrote on March 31, 2026.

Flores says that searches were conducted in the area where his remains were discovered based on information provided by one of the people responsible for his disappearance, who was interviewed by the authorities.

More than 133,000 officially missing persons in Mexico

Mexico is plagued by disappearances. According to a national registry established in 2019, more than 133,000 people are officially “missing or unaccounted for.” The number is likely much higher, as not all disappearances are reported - sometimes because of fear or lack of faith in the authorities.

Criminal gangs are responsible for a large portion of these disappearances. But some public officials also bear both direct and indirect responsibility for some disappearances, according to a recent report by the UN. One of the most well-known cases involving the authorities is the abduction and subsequent disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College in Guerrero state in 2014.

"In the case of my son, Marco Antonio, it’s a cartel that was responsible for his disappearance. He had a shop where he sold drinks, food, etc, but also drugs, except he wasn’t working for the cartel,” Flores says.

However, all types of people are disappearing, not just those with links to the cartel or carrying out illegal activities. The disappeared include men, women and even children.
‘Mothers wouldn’t have to carry out the searches themselves if the authorities were doing their jobs’

Flores may have just discovered the remains of her son, Marco Antonio, but she is still searching for another one of her sons, Alejandro, who disappeared in 2015. Another son was also abducted in 2019 at the same time as Marco Antonio, but, thankfully, he was discovered alive a few days later.

It was that terrible year when Flores founded a collective she calls "Madres Buscadoras de Sonora" ("The searching mothers of Sonora"), which brings together mothers looking for their missing loved ones.


"I created it because of my sons’ disappearances. Mothers wouldn’t have to carry out the searches themselves if the authorities were doing their jobs. They have the technology, the tools and the resources to do it. It is because of the authorities’ inaction that we have to create collectives to search for missing people, to investigate their disappearances and to find them.”

We carry out searches using picks, shovels and sensors. We are looking both for those who have died as well as those who are still alive: we visit detention centres, we walk the streets… we’ve already found more than 3,000 people alive and more than 2,700 who have died [Editor’s note: our team was unable to independently verify these numbers.]

When I found Marco Antonio’s remains, it was very painful because I knew that I wouldn’t see him again, not to mention that we only found some of his bones.

"[...] We go forward alone, while the people who should be looking for them hide behind paperwork and protocols [...]", Flores wrote in mid-April 2026.

‘We are shining a light on something that shouldn’t be happening’

According to a report by Amnesty International, there are more than 200 collectives of families searching for missing loved ones in Mexico - and 90% of the members are women. The report highlighted the dangers and difficulties faced by these women, including assassinations, further disappearances, attacks, threats and stigmatisation. Between February 2011 and May 2025, at least 30 family members of the missing were assassinated.

The most recent case involves Cecilia García Ramblas. She was a member of a collective in Salamanca in the Guanajuato state. She was kidnapped in mid-March, and her body was found a few days later.

Flores is aware of the risks:


"I receive threats every day, telling me to stop searching. The problem is that we report on all of the remains that we find, which makes both the cartels and the authorities look bad, because we are shining a light on something that shouldn’t be happening.

I can’t confirm that they are the ones threatening me, but the threats are daily. People have pointed guns at me and the other mothers. Some [of the other mothers] have disappeared or been executed. We’d like more protection from the authorities, especially when we are carrying out searches.”

These are the remains discovered by Ceci Flores and her collective in Sonora state in April 2025. © X / @MadresBuscan


Despite the risks, Flores isn’t going to give up anytime soon:


"The love for our missing loved ones makes us forget the fear. I want to keep speaking about our reality, so that people know that we exist and to raise awareness about our missing loved ones. They aren’t statistics or numbers, but people who deserve to be looked for, no matter what their pasts.”

She also believes that more needs to be done for the many children whose parents have disappeared. "Many become orphans and need help from society,” she says.

This article has been translated from the original in French by Brenna Daldorph.

Could Iran use 'kamikaze dolphins' against the US in the Strait of Hormuz?


Issued on: 06/05/2026 - 

04:23 min From the show

As US-Iran tensions escalate around the Strait of Hormuz, a journalist at a Pentagon briefing this week asked top US officials an out-of-the ordinary question: whether Tehran could deploy "kamikaze dolphins" against US warships. The idea isn't as far-fetched as it seems, as multiple countries have a history of using marine mammals for military purposes.

The question stems from a Wall Street Journal report published last week. Citing Iranian officials, it said Iran could use "previously unused weapons to attack US warships, from submarines to mine-carrying dolphins".

Though Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth denied that Iran had these in their possession, he refused to "confirm or deny" whether the US does, and Tehran was quick to troll Washington online, with its embassy in Hyderabad posting an AI-generated "dolphin bomber" on its official X account.
A long history of military marine mammals

Military marine mammals - especially bottlenose dolphins - have been around for decades, with the Soviet Union in particular known for its dolphin training programme.

There have been reports of evidence that North Korea possesses a naval marine mammal programme as far back as 2015, as well as reports that the Russian Navy deployed trained dolphins in both 2018 to aid in the Syrian civil war, and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Rumours have floated for over two decades that Iran has "kamikaze dolphins" in its arsenal, after a Russian dolphin trainer claimed to have sold a group of Soviet "killer dolphins" to Tehran in 2000. But it's not known if they are still alive.

The US also has a "Marine Mammal Program", training dolphins and sea lions to detect and recover objects underwater, including mines.

Vedika Bahl goes through whether "kamikaze dolphins" are a myth or a military reality.

New Trump counterterrorism strategy brands Europe an 'incubator' for terrorism

The Trump administration on Wednesday unveiled a new counterterrorism strategy, accusing Europe of fostering terrorism through mass migration, while also expanding US domestic focus to include what it called “violent left-wing extremists” and “radically pro-transgender” groups.


Issued on: 07/05/2026 - 
By: FRANCE 24

US President Donald Trump's administration accused Europe of being an "incubator" for terrorism fueled by mass migration, in a new counterterrorism strategy unveiled on Wednesday.

The strategy also focuses on rooting out "violent left-wing extremists", including "radically pro-transgender" groups, as Trump's administration steps up its political attacks on opponents.

It further places drug cartels in the Americas at the centre of counterterrorism efforts.

But some of its strongest language is reserved for Europe, home to numerous US allies who will be alarmed to see their continent in the Trump administration's crosshairs once again.


"It is clear to all that well-organised hostile groups exploit open borders and related globalist ideals. The more these alien cultures grow, and the longer current European policies persist, the more terrorism is guaranteed," the strategy said.

"As the birthplace of Western culture and values, Europe must act now and halt its willful decline," said the strategy, led by counterterrorism coordinator Sebastian Gorka, who has been accused of links to far-right groups.

The fresh criticism of Europe comes just months after Trump's new national security strategy said the continent faced "civilizational erasure" due to immigration.

Trump has also recently lashed out at European NATO allies for failing to help with his war on Iran.

Left-wing groups are a major preoccupation for the Republican president's administration, with the strategy targeting what it calls "violent Left-Wing Extremists, including Anarchists and Anti-Fascists".

It says US counterrorism efforts will "prioritise the rapid identification and neutralisation of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist".

It specifically cited the alleged killer of Trump ally and conservative influencer Charlie Kirk "by a radical who espoused extreme transgender ideologies."

Since his return to power last year, Trump has demonised any recognition of gender diversity and transgender people.

He regularly boasts about how his administration has banned transwomen from women's sports and shortly after his inauguration signed an executive order proclaiming that there are only two genders.

FRANCE 24 with AFP