It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, April 30, 2026
European rocket blasts off with Amazon internet satellites Kourou (AFP) – Europe's most powerful rocket Ariane 6 launched on Thursday carrying a second batch of 32 satellites into space for Amazon's internet constellation, which is bidding to rival Elon Musk's giant Starlink.
Issued on: 30/04/2026 - FRANCE24
The rocket blasted off into overcast skies at 5.57 am local time (0857 GMT) from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeastern coast of South America, an AFP correspondent said.
It was the second Ariane 6 launch carrying 32 satellites for Amazon Leo, the internet constellation of the giant US company founded by US billionaire Jeff Bezos.
The launch also marked the second Ariane 6 mission using four boosters, its most powerful configuration.
The satellites are scheduled to separate an hour and 54 minutes after launch. They will be released into low-Earth orbit in small batches of twos and threes.
Amazon Leo plans to intially deploy 3,200 satellites into space that will form a network to provide internet back on Earth.
However after delays there are currently just 239 in orbit, including some launched by the rival SpaceX company of fellow billionaire Musk, according to data provided to AFP on Wednesday by Look Up, a French startup specialising in space surveillance.
In March, Musk's Starlink internet constellation crossed the symbolic threshold of 10,000 satellites -- and now has 10,162 in orbit, the startup added.
The French company Arianespace, which operates the rocket, will carry out a total of 18 launches for Amazon Leo, its main commercial customer.
Amazon Leo has become crucial for keeping Europe's relatively new Ariane 6 rocket competitive, because many European commercial customers have opted to rely on SpaceX for launches.
Global press freedom falls to lowest level in 25 years, RSF warns
Freedom of the press has fallen to its lowest level in a quarter of a century, NGO Reporters without Borders (RSF) warned Thursday as it released its annual global ranking. The group reported a worldwide decline in media freedom, citing factors ranging from US President Donald Trump’s “systematic” attacks on the press to actions in Saudi Arabia, where a journalist was executed in 2025.
The NGO's annual ranking, which was established in 2002, uses a five-point scale to asses the level of press freedom in a country, ranging from "very serious" to "good".
This year's index reveals a global trend towards restricting press freedoms.
"For the first time in the index’s 25-year history, more than half the world’s countries now fall into the 'difficult' or 'very serious' categories for press freedom," RSF said.
The proportion of the population living in a country where the press freedom situation is "good" has plummeted, falling from 20% to "less than 1%", it said.
Only seven countries in northern Europe are ranked "good", with Norway receiving the highest rating. France ranks 25th, with a ‘"satisfactory" score.
“In 25 years, the average score for all the countries studied has never been so low,” the NGO said.
The United States, received a "problematic" rating and has dropped seven places to 64th, between Botswana and Panama.
The organisation said US President Donald Trump's attacks on the press had become “systematic” resulting in such incidents as the the detention and subsequent deportation of the Salvadoran journalist Mario Guevara, who was reporting on the arrests of migrants in the United States.
Trump has also overseen a drastic reduction in funding for US international broadcasting.
RSF also highlighted the dramatic falls of El Salvador (143rd), which has dropped 105 places since 2014 following the launch of a war against the Maras criminal gangs, and Georgia(135th), which has fallen 75 places since 2020 due to an “escalation of repression”.
The sharpest decline in 2026 is attributed to Niger (120th, down 37 places) due to the “the deterioration of press freedom in the Sahel over several years”, amid “attacks by armed groups and (the) ruling juntas”, RSF said.
Saudi Arabia (176th, down 14 places), where the columnist Turki al-Jasser was executed by the state in June – “a unique occurrence in the world” – sits alongside Russia, Iran and China at the very bottom of the ranking, which is rounded out by Eritrea (180th).
By contrast, Syria (141st) has leapt 36 places following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Reporters Without Borders head on group's list of 'press freedom predators'
The director general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has spoken to FRANCE 24 about the "series of crises" affecting journalism. Thibaut Bruttin hit out at the "return of violence against journalists" and the "erosion of support" for the protection of journalism. Bruttin was speaking to us to mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists. This year, his organisation is unveiling what it calls a list of 34 "press freedom predators" who attacked journalists and the right to information in 2025.
With three in four countries "problematic" or worse, the 2026 World Press Freedom Index offers a bleak picture for global media. The conditions for press freedom are rated "satisfactory" in only a few dozen countries. All data, methodology and code behind this story can be found in this github repository.
In many countries around the world, working as a journalist has become increasingly dangerous
Image: Ibrahim Ezzat/NurPhoto/picture alliance
The ability of journalists to work safely and independently is under threat globally, according to the 2026 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
The NGO, which has reported on the state of worldwide journalism annually since 2002, defines press freedom as "the ability of journalists as individuals and collectives to select, produce, and disseminate news in the public interest independent of political, economic, legal, and social interference and in the absence of threats to their physical and mental safety."
RSF now classifies the press freedom environment as "problematic" or worse in about three-fourths of the 180 countries evaluated. Conditions for media are classified as "difficult" to "very serious" in over half of the countries, RSF found.
In 2013, conditions in fewer than one-third of countries were classified as "difficult" to "very serious." The press freedom environment in seven-tenths was classified as "problematic" or worse.
Though there's a global downward trend, press freedom varies by region. Generally, the freest countries — including the top four: Norway, Estonia, the Netherlands and Denmark — can be found in Europe, while journalists in parts of Africa and Asia face the harshest conditions.
Discrepancies within regions can also be pronounced. In Europe, for example, there's a strong divide between the Southern and Eastern regions, where challenges to press freedom are higher, and the Northern and Western regions, where countries are generally ranked as "satisfactory" to "good." Similarly, journalists in North Africa are, in general, less free than their counterparts in the Southern region of the continent.
Poland and Slovakia take different paths
One example of an interregional divide can be found in the heart of Europe: The press in Poland has become freer, while hostility toward the media is growing in Slovakia. Both countries are classified as "satisfactory," but they are trending in different directions
According to RSF, the turning point for Poland was a change in government. After the Law and Justice party (PiS), which opposed abortion and LGBTQ+ rights and pushed anti-migration policies, was ousted from power in late 2023, the new government toned down verbal attacks and judicial actions against the press.
An election that year also served as a turning point in Slovakia, where, after years in the opposition, Robert Fico began his fourth term as prime minister in 2023.
"He has a long career behind him, and it was always his narrative that journalists are his enemy," said Lukas Diko, the editor-in-chief of the Investigative Center of Jan Kuciak (ICJK), an independent news organization named after a journalist murdered during Fico's third term.
Kuciak had been investigating connections between organized crime groups and businesses in Slovakia that were linked to members of Fico's ruling party. Though Kuciak's killing led to a wave of anti-corruption protests that helped bring down Fico's government in 2018, Diko said attacks on the press had escalated since the prime minister returned to office.
"It's really without any rules," he said.
Diko said the fear caused by the murder of a young journalist and the hostile official rhetoric had discouraged people from careers in reporting.
"Not many young people want to become journalists anymore," he said. "The murder of Kuciak is still something that tells them not to do it — but they also don't want to be verbally attacked on a daily basis."
Attacks on press as a political strategy
Argentina is another country that has sharply dropped in the index. Media advocates say anti-press smear campaigns waged by President Javier Milei, whose hard-right policies favor financial freedoms above all others, have created a hostile climate for journalists. He often uses social media to attack critics, and claims that journalists are "not hated enough."
"When Milei insults a journalist, he is not doing that as Milei, the economist, or Milei, an ordinary citizen," said Fernando Stanich, the president of the Argentine press forum FOPEA, an organization that defends freedom of expression and promotes quality journalism. "He is doing that as the main representative of the Argentinian state. "
Stanich said previous Argentine governments had been hostile to the press — the Peronist Cristina Kirchner had frequently sparred with the media as president from 2007 to 2015 — but, according to FOPEA's monitoring, the current level of verbal attacks on journalists is unprecedented.
Like Argentina's Milei and Slovakia's Fico, US President Donald Trump has insulted and threatened the press since his first campaign for office in 2016. Coincidentally, the United States has also seen a significant drop in its standing in the World Press Freedom Ranking, along with other countries where leaders follow the same playbook — such as El Salvador.
Argentina, Slovakia and the United States show how quickly countries considered relatively stable and democratic can become hostile to journalists. The press has never been free in Eritrea, China, North Korea and Iran, which have long been ruled by authoritarian regimes that silence independent reporting.
According to the RSF report, "armed conflict is the primary reason for [the] decline in press freedom" in countries such as Iraq, Sudan, South Sudan and Yemen. Since Israel launched its war in Gaza following the Hamas-led terror attacks on October 7, 2023, more than 220 journalists have been killed by the Israeli army, including at least 70 while working, the report states.
Networks fight threats to press freedom
Vera Slavtcheva-Petkova, a professor in the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool, said societal threats to press freedom fell into three main categories. The use of political structures to intimidate or harm journalists, including verbal attacks by public officials and threats of violence and incarceration, is the most obvious indicator of press freedom in decline. But societal and economic factors, such as the targeting of journalists for their gender, race or sexual orientation and the pressures of a precarious media labor market, can also curtail press freedoms.
Slavtcheva-Petkova said journalists could fight such challenges by banding together, as well as by collaborating with organizations that share their values, including rights activists and academics.
"Knowing that there is somebody you can rely on for support is very important," Slavtcheva-Petkova said. "When journalists don't have that, when they don't know whom to turn to for help ... then they feel that what they're experiencing might even be their own fault."
With most journalists worldwide now working in conditions that are problematic at best, as the 2026 RSF World Press Freedom Index demonstrates, such networks are likely to take on increased importance in the coming years — both within countries and internationally. Only 17 countries improved their press freedom scores from 2013 to 2026; conditions in 163 got worse.
South Africa is one example of a country with robust networks to fight for press freedom. The country has maintained its "satisfactory" rating since 2013, resulting in a steady climb in the rankings as other nations' scores have slipped.
Glenda Daniels, a journalist and professor of media studies at Wits University in Johannesburg, said a strong civil society had helped South Africa maintain its status as press freedom declines globally. Despite challenges common to journalists across the world — including biases against and threats to women in the media and a shrinking labor market — Daniels said strong networks had helped preserve press freedom in South Africa.
Daniels herself serves as secretary-general of the South African National Editors’ Forum, which defends journalists' right to conduct their work. "SANEF is loud and noisy," she said. "It makes a difference to have a strong civil society approach, advocacy and activism."
Indian Muslims say they're being targeted as millions of voters deleted from rolls
Issued on: 29/04/2026 - FRANCE24 06:20 min From the show
Last year, the Election Commission of India launched a "Special Intensive Revision", or SIR, describing it as an exercise to eliminate duplicate or deceased voters. So far, 13 states and federally administered territories have completed the task, leading to the deletion of over 55 million voters from the electoral rolls. But this exercise has become a political flashpoint in West Bengal, where 9 million voters have been deleted ahead of a crucial state election.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party, the BJP, is hoping to win that state election. Opposition leaders and former officials argue the scale and timing of deletions could undermine democratic fairness and tilt the election result.
The controversy has become one of the defining issues of the West Bengal election, exposing deeper fault lines in voter rights and the integrity of India's electoral system.
FRANCE 24's Navodita Kumari, Zubair Dar and Mohammad Sartaj Alam report.
Oil crisis fuels calls to speed up clean energy transition
Paris (France) (AFP) – The oil crisis triggered by the Middle East war has underscored the need for the world to accelerate the clean energy transition, the COP31 president-designate and the UN's climate chief said Thursday.
Crude prices have soared since the United States and Israel launched the war against Iran in late February and Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz in response. That has fuelled calls for the world to ditch its reliance on fossil fuels.
"The fossil fuel cost crisis now has its foot on the throat of the global economy," Stiell said at a meeting on the energy transition hosted by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris.
"From this tragedy, an immense irony is unfolding. Those who've fought to keep the world hooked on fossil fuels are inadvertently supercharging the global renewables boom," he said, without naming countries or companies.
The Paris meeting was being in held in the lead-up to the UN's COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Turkey, in November.
Diplomats and representatives from banks, oil firms and renewable energy companies attended the talks.
"The world is facing the biggest energy crisis in its history today," COP31 president-designate Murat Kurum said.
"We now know clearly that the global economy must transform its energy paradigm," said Kurum, who is also Turkey's climate minister.
"And the most critical step is to accelerate the transition to clean energy," he added.
IEA chief Fatih Birol said oil prices, which topped $126 per barrel on Thursday, were "putting a lot of pressure in many countries".
"Our world is facing a major energy and economic challenge," said Birol, adding that his agency, which advises its member countries on energy policy, was monitoring the situation. 'Real momentum'
The talks in Paris came as nearly 60 nations hailed progress at the end of a conference in Colombia aimed at speeding the shift away from planet-heating fossil fuels and break a stalemate on the issue at UN climate talks.
The Santa Marta conference was announced last year after nations failed to include an explicit reference to fossil fuels in the final deal reached at the UN COP30 climate summit in Brazil.
"Coalitions of the willing are already forging ahead," Stiell said, pointing to the gathering in Colombia.
"In key sectors right across the action agenda, COP31 in Turkey will provide a global stage to pick up the pace," he said. "We must seize this moment. We have no time to lose."
Stiell said that countries rich in renewables, such as Spain and Pakistan, had been shielded from the worst impacts of the fossil fuel cost crisis.
"Renewables offer safer, cheaper, cleaner energy that can't be held captive by narrow shipping straits, or global conflicts," Stiell said.
"That's why so many governments are pushing renewables plans into overdrive: to restore national security, economic stability, competitiveness, policy autonomy and basic sovereignty," he added.
China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Germany, the UK, and others have been "clear that pushing forward with the renewables transition is a cornerstone of energy security", he added.
"This is real momentum," Stiell said. "We must harness it to accelerate a truly global shift."
'We represent a new force': Nearly 60 nations push ahead with fossil fuel exit
Issued on: 27/04/2026 - FRANCE24 05:48 min From the show Some 60 countries are gathering in the coastal city of Santa Marta in Colombia to tackle an issue that has deadlocked UN climate talks: how to exist fossil fuels. It's the first global conference of its kind, bringing together nations that want to accelerate a fossil fuel phaseout, despite a decades-long stalemate at the UN-level COP summits. Our Environment Editor Valerie Dekimpe tells us more.
Before he became one of the leading voices of Nordic Noir, Ragnar Jónasson was a teenager who translated novels by Agatha Christie into Icelandic. That early immersion in the mechanics of crime fiction helped shape a writer now published in around 40 countries, with millions of copies sold worldwide and a particularly devoted readership in France.
Jónasson has since carved out his own space in the genre: quieter than the violence-driven thrillers often associated with Nordic Noir, his novels lean into atmosphere, psychology and slow-burning tension. His stories unfold in stark Icelandic landscapes, where silence and isolation are as important as plot. Now, with "Hulda" – the fourth instalment in his series about detective Hulda Hermannsdóttir – he returns to one of his most distinctive creations.
Hulda is not your typical crime heroine. In her sixties, pushed out of the police force and routinely underestimated, she stands in sharp contrast to the genre's usual protagonists.
In this latest novel, Jónasson takes readers back to one of her earliest cases: the disappearance of a baby in 1960; a cold case that echoes through decades.
Across the "Hulda" series, Jónasson has consistently explored the lives of women navigating systems that fail them – a recurring thread that adds depth to his tightly constructed mysteries.
It's a perspective that goes against Iceland's image as a model of equality, revealing darker undercurrents beneath the surface. And Hulda's story isn't confined to the page. The series has now been adapted for television as "The Darkness", bringing Jónasson's understated, melancholic storytelling to a wider audience
Musk lawsuit against OpenAI 'more about corporate strategy than any philosophical or ethical moves'
Issued on: 28/04/2026 - FRANCE24
Oliver Farry is pleased to welcome Bernard Benhamou, Secretary General of the Institute of Digital Sovereignty (ISN) and Senior Lecturer on Internet Governance at Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. According to Mr. Benhamou, this trial is not a clash of the tech titans. Rather, it is a strategic legal battle in the uncharted waters of AI. The timing is critical, as it coincides with the anticipated IPO of a new entity emerging from the convergence of SpaceX and xAI. In this context, any legal victory for Musk could have far-reaching consequences that could weaken a primary competitor such as OpenAI.
Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Europe hit by record heat, glacier loss and marine extremes per climate report
Europe recorded its hottest year yet in 2025, with unprecedented heatwaves stretching from the Mediterranean to the Arctic, rapid glacier melt, record sea temperatures and expanding wildfires, according to a major climate report warning that the continent is warming twice as fast as the global average.
Europe endured a historic heatwave across Nordic countries, shrinking glaciers and record sea temperatures in 2025 as the fast-warming continent faces more frequent climate extremes, a new report showed Wednesday.
"The climate indicators ... are quite worrying," Mauro Facchini, a European Commission official, told journalists.
The European State of the Climate report underscores the urgent need for the region to adapt to global warming and accelerate its transition to clean energy, another EU official said.
Here are some key findings of the report published by the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO):
Record heatwaves
At least 95 percent of the region experienced above-average annual temperatures, with Britain, Norway and Iceland recording their warmest year on record, according to the report.
"Since 1980, Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average, making it the fastest warming continent on Earth," WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said in a briefing on the report.
"Heatwaves are becoming more frequent and severe. And in 2025, we saw long duration heatwaves from the Mediterranean to the Arctic Circle," Saulo said.
Sub-Arctic Finland, Norway and Sweden – a region dubbed Fennoscandia – experienced a record three-week heatwave in July, with temperatures reaching 30C within the Arctic Circle.
Parts of Fennoscandia had almost two weeks of "strong heat stress" – when temperatures feel hotter than 32C. In an average year, the region will normally have up to two days of strong heat stress.
In Turkey, temperatures reached 50C for the first time in July while 85 percent of the Greek population was affected by extreme temperatures close to or above 40C.
Large parts of western and southern Europe were hit with two significant heatwaves in June, including most of Spain, Portugal, France and southern parts of Britain.
A third major heatwave struck Portugal, Spain and France in August.
Europe and the rest of the world could face another extremely hot summer as the El Nino weather phenomenon, which pushed global temperatures to record highs in 2024, is expected to return in the middle of the year.
Melting ice
Glaciers across Europe recorded a net mass loss in 2025, with Iceland experiencing its second-largest ever melt.
Europe's glaciers are found in mountainous areas such as the Alps, northern Scandinavia, Iceland and Greenland's periphery.
"Glaciers across Europe and globally are projected to continue to lose mass throughout the 21st century, regardless of the emission scenario," the report said.
The Greenland Ice Sheet lost around 139 billion tonnes of ice – "equivalent to losing 100 Olympic-sized swimming pools every single hour", said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which operates Copernicus.
It raised the global mean sea level by 0.4mm.
Europe's snow cover, meanwhile, was the third lowest on record.
Renewables rise
For the third year running, renewable energy produced more of Europe's electricity than fossil fuels, accounting for 46.4 percent of the continent's power generation.
Solar power's contribution reached a record 12.5 percent.
"But that's not sufficient. We need to speed up," said Dusan Chrenek, principal advisor at the European Commission's climate office. "We need to work on transitioning away from fossil fuels."
Europe's annual sea surface temperature was the highest on record for the fourth consecutive year.
A record 86 percent of the European ocean region had at least one day with "strong" marine heatwave conditions.
Such heatwaves have an impact on biodiversity, notably on seagrass meadows in the Mediterranean which act as natural sea barriers and are sensitive to high temperatures.
"They are biodiversity hotspots housing thousands of fish per acre and are critical nursery habitats," said Claire Scannell, one of the report's authors and principal meteorologist officer at Ireland's weather service.
The area burnt by wildfires, meanwhile, reached a record 1,034,550 hectares.
Storms and floods killed at least 21 people and affected 14,500 across Europe, though flooding and extreme rainfall were less widespread than in recent years.
FIFA introduces new World Cup red-card rules to combat racism FIFA announced on Tuesday that players who cover their mouths during confrontations with opponents could be sent off at this year's World Cup under new anti-racism measures while walking off the pitch in protest at refereeing decisions may also result in red cards.
World Cup players who cover their mouths during confrontations with opponents will face a red card as part of a new initiative aimed at combating racism, world governing body FIFA said on Tuesday.
In a statement following a meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) in Vancouver, FIFA confirmed that the rule was one of two law changes that would be introduced at this year's World Cup.
"At the discretion of the competition organiser, any player covering their mouth in a confrontational situation with an opponent may be sanctioned with a red card," FIFA said in a statement.
The new rule follows controversy earlier this year when Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni was accused of racially abusing Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior during a Champions League game in February.
Prestianni was accused of calling Vinicius a "monkey" repeatedly while covering his mouth. Prestianni denied racially abusing Vinicius but was later banned for six matches – with three of those suspended – for "homophobic conduct".
FIFA President Gianni Infantino had voiced support for the law change in an interview with British broadcaster Sky News last month.
"If a player covers his mouth and says something, and this has a racist consequence, then he has to be sent off, obviously," Infantino said.
"There must be a presumption that he has said something he shouldn't have said, otherwise he wouldn't have had to cover his mouth.
"If you do not have something to hide, you don't hide your mouth when you say something. That's it, as simple as that." Protest sanction
In a separate law change announced on Tuesday to be enforced at the World Cup, FIFA said that red cards would also be introduced for players leaving the field of play in protest at a referee's decision.
"At the discretion of the competition organiser, the referee may sanction with a red card any player who leaves the field of play in protest at a referee's decision," FIFA said.
"This new rule will also apply to any team official who incites players to leave the field of play."
FIFA said a team causing a game to be abandoned will forfeit the match.
The move follows the uproar at this year's final of the Africa Cup of Nations, when Senegal's players, head coach Pape Thiaw and his staff walked off the pitch in Rabat after Morocco were awarded a penalty in added time, which forward Brahim Diaz ultimately missed.
Senegal went on to win the final 1-0 in extra time, but were sensationally stripped of the title by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in a bombshell decision issued last month.
The law changes came as FIFA delegates gathered in Vancouver ahead of Thursday's FIFA Congress, the final gathering of football's global governing body before the World Cup gets underway in Canada, Mexico and the United States in June.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Despite everything, 'the Palestinians have not given up', says historian Rashid Khalidi
One of the world's leading historians on the Palestinian people has told FRANCE 24 about how there is a future basis for peace in the region. Rashid Khalidi has spent years writing a series of books on the region and its conflicts, often through the eyes of his own family. He says that millions of people are not going to leave their land, so there's a basis for the two peoples to figure something out. Khalidi is in Paris for several appearances, including at the Arab World Institute. He spoke to us in Perspective.
Palestinians in Gaza’s Deir al-Balah elect local leaders for the first time in two decades
Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gazan community of Deir al-Balah headed to the polls this weekend for the first election of local leaders in more than two decades. Palestinian authorities hailed the vote as a success and said it paves the way for more elections in the war-torn enclave in the near future.
Palestinian authorities said Sunday that local elections in a single Gaza community and the Israeli-occupied West Bank were a success and called them a step towards a long-delayed presidential election in the territories and eventual statehood.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers semiautonomous areas of the West Bank but is left out of the US-drafted ceasefire plan for Gaza, has described Saturday’s local election in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah as a largely symbolic pilot while the authority seeks to politically link the territories.
It was the first election in part of Hamas-run Gaza in more than two decades. Deir al-Balah, like much of the territory, is devastated by two years of war but was spared an Israeli ground invasion. Turnout there was 23 percent, but officials cited challenges including large-scale displacement and outdated civil registry records.
Hamas, which controls the half of Gaza that Israel withdrew from last year under the current ceasefire, did not field candidates and did not try to block the vote.
Turnout in the West Bank elections was 56 percent, or over a half-million people, not dramatically different from elections there in recent years. Sidelining Hamas
Many races were not contested, and candidates were required to accept the programme of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which leads the Palestinian Authority. The programme calls for the recognition of Israel and renouncing armed struggle, effectively sidelining Hamas and other factions.
Election results, then, were dominated by independents and Fatah, the faction that leads the authority and claimed victory.
“Everyone is aware of the political, security and economic conditions, the fragmentation of Palestinian territory, the war on Gaza, and the regional conflict in Iran,” Rami Hamdallah, chair of the Ramallah-based Central Election Commission and a former prime minister, told journalists.
“Simply holding the elections in Deir al-Balah is a significant achievement, and we hope to hold elections in other bodies across the Gaza Strip in the near future,” he said.
The elections in both territories were for the makeup of local councils tasked with overseeing water, roads and electricity.
The elections were the first to take place since reforms were enacted in response to international pressure. Elections now allow voting for individuals rather than slates. With faith in political parties low, they were less important than families and clans in campaigning.
Hamdallah called the vote a reflection of national unity, adding that “we hope that presidential and legislative elections will follow".
The Palestinian Authority, however, has not held a presidential election in 21 years, and support for it and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has withered during years of corruption and frustration over the sometimes violent advances of Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
The Palestinian Authority is the internationally recognised representative of the Palestinian people. It was ousted from Gaza after Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and violently seized control. Abbas, 90, was elected to what was supposed to be a four-year term in 2005. The authority has not held presidential or legislative elections since 2006.
Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa called Saturday’s elections “another step on the path to full independence". Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, opposes a Palestinian state.
Many Palestinians want more than local votes as they seek a greater say in their future.
“Municipal elections are an important step, but they are not enough ... We want general elections,” Bashar Masri, a prominent Palestinian-American business owner, said on social media.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
French high-tech mission reveals secrets of 16th-century shipwreck
A remotely operated submarine has begun uncovering the secrets of a 16th-century shipwreck lying 2.5 kilometres beneath the Mediterranean off southern France, where researchers are delicately recovering brightly coloured ceramic treasures from the deepest wreck ever found in French territorial waters.
Issued on: 28/04/2026 - RFI
A ceramic jug recovered from the Camarat 4 shipwreck is examined at the DRASSM laboratory in Marseille on 16 April 2026. AFP - THIBAUD MORITZ
At a secret location off Ramatuelle on France’s southern coast, the Camarat 4 sank around 500 years ago and was discovered by chance in 2025 during a French military seabed survey.
Now, Operation Calliope 26.1 is carrying out the first stage of a joint research mission on the wreck, led by Cephismer, the French Navy’s deep-sea intervention unit, and DRASSM, the Culture Ministry’s underwater archaeology department.
Its exact coordinates are being kept secret because of the sensitivity of the objects found on the seabed.
Launched this year, the project aims to further investigate the wreck and its cargo using a remotely operated underwater vehicle capable of descending to 4,000 metres.
Tethered by cable to a tugboat platform, the robot is equipped with several cameras and articulated arms. Two containers onboard allow teams to control the machine and monitor its live feed.
After two hours of sailing from the Var coast, the high-seas tug Jason reaches the site, where the machine is lowered into the water.
After an hour-long descent, it reaches the wreck site.
The ROV C 4000, a remotely operated underwater vehicle used for deep-sea exploration, is brought aboard the Jason during an archaeological mission to investigate the Camarat 4 shipwreck off Ramatuelle in southern France on 7 April 2026. AFP - THIBAUD MORITZ
“It’s extremely precise work to avoid damaging the site, to avoid stirring up the sediment,” Sébastien, head of the Calliope 26.1 mission, said. “This delicate work is also of major importance for training our sailors.”
On control screens, researchers watch the wreck emerge – the ship’s structure, a cannon and hundreds of pitchers and plates decorated with floral motifs, crosses and blue, orange and green fish.
The onboard camera captures eight images per second for three hours, producing nearly 68,000 photos to build a 3D model of the wreck.
“The visibility is excellent,” said Franca Cibecchini, a maritime archaeologist at DRASSM.
“You can’t really tell how deep it is. Thanks to this quality, we can say that it’s likely a merchant ship carrying Ligurian faience [from northwestern Italy], so perhaps from the port of Genoa or Savona.”
Researchers say the site may offer rare evidence about 16th-century trade because its depth means it was likely untouched after it sank.
“What’s also important is that this is a site where there could have been no attempt at looting after the shipwreck,” said Marine Sadania, the researcher leading operations.
“For the 16th century, we have texts that aren’t very detailed about merchant ships, so this is a valuable source of information on maritime history and transport networks.”
Several pitchers and plates were recovered during the expedition for study on land.
Marine Sadania, the researcher leading operations on the Camarat 4 mission, examines a ceramic jug recovered from the wreck at the DRASSM laboratory in Marseille on 16 April 2026. AFP - THIBAUD MORITZ Fragile recovery
At the DRASSM laboratory in Marseille, Sadania carefully examined one of the ceramic pieces underwater.
“This is one of the deepest objects ever recovered from a shipwreck in France,” Sadania said. “For us, it’s an opportunity to test protocols for extracting these artifacts while preserving their integrity.”
Around a third of ceramics recovered from deep-water excavations later break, for reasons scientists still cannot explain.
A temporary exhibition at the Toulon Maritime Museum in November will present the mission’s first findings, while the wreck itself will remain on the seabed under Unesco conservation guidelines.
