If you believe the viral videos online, R. Kelly and Pope Leo XIV agree on one thing — that Burkina Faso’s junta chief, Captain Ibrahim Traore, is a fantastic leader.The images are AI-generated propaganda, part of what experts have called a vast disinformation campaign spreading the “personality cult” of the west African country’s strongman.Beyonce and …
Six éléphanteaux orphelins et blessés ont été rendus à la vie sauvage au Sri Lanka jeudi, après avoir été soignés grâce à un programme de préservation, ont annoncé les autorités.Deux femelles et quatre mâles, âgés de cinq à sept ans, ont été relâchés dans la forêt de Mau Ara, dans le parc national d’Udawalawe à environ 210 km au sud-est de la capitale Colombo, a indiqué à l’AFP le ministre de l’Environnement Dammika Patabendi.Les éléphanteaux ont été transportés par camions puis laissés libres, considérés comme suffisamment forts pour se débrouiller seuls ou rejoindre des troupeaux sauvages du parc d’Udawalawe, qui constitue une attraction touristique majeure du pays.Ils avaient été pris en charge dans un centre de réhabilitation dans le cadre du programme de l’Udawalawe Elephant Transit Home, lancé en 1998. Il s’agit de la 26e fois que des éléphants ont été soignés puis relâchés dans le cadre de ce programme, selon M. Patabendi.”Nous espérons, dans l’intérêt de la préservation des éléphants, pouvoir améliorer les équipements de ce centre dans un avenir proche”, a déclaré le ministre, sans donner de détails.Au sein du centre, les éléphanteaux ont un contact minimal avec les êtres humains pour faciliter leur intégration dans les troupeaux sauvages.Tous les éléphants recueillis dans cet établissement l’ont été après avoir été trouvés dans la nature séparés de leurs troupeaux, abandonnés ou blessés.Le directeur de ce centre, Malaka Abeywardana, a indiqué que 57 éléphants se trouvaient actuellement dans l’établissement, qui a relâché 187 individus dans la nature depuis 1998.Les autorités sri-lankaises privilégient une stratégie de réintégration des éléphants secourus dans leur habitat naturel, plutôt que de les domestiquer.La protection des éléphants est un défi au Sri Lanka où les confrontations entre éléphants sauvages et agriculteurs sont fréquentes et font des victimes. Chaque année, 400 éléphants et 200 personnes ont été tués, selon des estimations gouvernementales établies sur ces cinq dernières années.
Air India’s inspection of the locking feature on the fuel control switches of its existing Boeing 787 aircraft found no issues, an internal communication circulated within the airline said.The switches have come under scrutiny following last month’s crash of an Air India jet, which killed 260 people, after a preliminary probe by Indian investigators found that they had flipped from the run position to cutoff shortly after takeoff.India’s aviation regulator ordered the country’s airlines this week to investigate the locking feature on the switches of several Boeing models.The order came after Boeing notified operators that the fuel switch locks on its jets were safe.However, it was in line with a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2018, which recommended inspection of the locks to ensure they could not be moved accidentally.Air India’s probe found no problems with the locking mechanism.”Over the weekend, our Engineering team initiated precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of Fuel Control Switch (FCS) on all our Boeing 787 aircraft,” the airline’s flight operations department said in a communication to its pilots.”The inspections have been completed and no issues were found,” the communication said, noting that it had complied with the regulator’s directives.It said all of its Boeing 787-8 aircraft had also undergone “Throttle Control Module (TCM) replacement as per the Boeing maintenance schedule”, adding that the FCS was part of this module.Other countries have also ordered their airlines to examine fuel switches on Boeing aircraft.Singapore found them all to be “functioning properly”.”Our checks confirmed that all fuel switches on SIA (Singapore Airlines) and Scoot’s Boeing 787 aircraft are functioning properly and comply with regulatory requirements,” an SIA spokesperson told AFP this week.The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that crashed last month was heading from Ahmedabad in western India to London. All but one of the 242 people on board were killed, as well as 19 people on the ground.A report in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, which cited unidentified sources, said a cockpit recording of a conversation between the two pilots indicated the captain had cut off fuel to the engines.India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which released the preliminary report, said it was still “too early to reach any definite conclusions”.It said the investigation’s final report would come out with “root causes and recommendations”. “We urge the public and the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process,” it said in a statement.Â
Residents emerged from their homes to scenes of devastation on Thursday after government forces withdrew from the Syrian Druze-majority city of Sweida, leaving behind looted shops, burned homes and bodies littering the streets after days of violence.”What I saw of the city looked as if it had just emerged from a flood or a natural disaster,” Hanadi Obeid, a 39-year-old doctor, told AFP.What started as deadly clashes between local Druze fighters and Bedouin tribes on Sunday quickly escalated after government forces were deployed to the province the following day.After reaching an agreement with Sweida’s community leaders, Syrian troops withdrew from the city overnight on Wednesday following what witnesses described as a violent rampage.”Three bodies were lying in the street, one of them an elderly woman,” Obeid said, adding that she saw “burned cars everywhere, others upside down, and a charred tank”.Many residents had holed up in their homes as they waited for the fighting to end.On Thursday, Sweida’s typically-bustling streets and markets were still largely quiet, with Obeid saying a foul odour emanated from the area as stray dogs roamed around.As a doctor, she has seen “many corpses and dead bodies, but death has had a different taste in recent days, and I’ve felt it closer to me than ever before”.Obeid, who has a young daughter, said she feared what awaited her when she returned to work at the city’s main hospital.More than 500 people from all sides were killed in the violence, according to the Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.- ‘Humanitarian catastrophe’ -An AFP photographer reported chaos outside the central hospital, with dozens of bodies brought there since Thursday morning after being collected from homes and streets. The photographer counted 15 bodies in the city centre.Grief-stricken families were seen arriving at the hospital searching for their loved ones.Local media outlet Suwayda 24 reported that the central hospital was put out of service on Wednesday after government forces entered it and clashed with Druze fighters.A video that circulated on Wednesday showed bodies piled up in the morgue, with the refrigerated storage units for remains reaching capacity. Other videos showed wounded people in the corridors, some on beds and others lying on the floor, and medical staff unable to respond to emergency cases.Rayan Maarouf, editor-in-chief of Suwayda 24, told AFP that over 150 bodies had been counted at the hospital, which was no longer able to receive corpses.”The dialysis machines are out of service, and patients are not receiving treatment. There is a humanitarian catastrophe in Sweida,” he said.Water and electricity services remained cut off in the city, and most shops have closed their doors pending the completion of search operations by local fighters securing the area. The AFP photographer saw damaged storefronts, their glass shattered in the streets, and others looted. A woman was inspecting her shop, the only one around that had been burned.Government forces were accused by witnesses, Druze factions and the Observatory of siding with Bedouin tribes and committing abuses, including summary executions.As government forces withdrew on Thursday, an AFP correspondent in Sweida province saw Bedouin families dismantling their tents before leaving the area, fearing reprisals. “We have been at war for four days. We want to survive,” said Wadha al-Awad, 58, accompanied by her family. “We fled and are heading west with our children to Daraa,” she added. “This is our destiny. We are afraid, and all we want is peace.”
Wall Street chased new record highs Thursday, while main European and Asian stock markets also rose as investors mulled the US rates outlook and the future of Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell.The dollar lost momentum after earlier rising against main rivals while the US tariffs battle and the earnings season — with Netflix set to kick off tech sector results — influenced market direction.Market observers have been carefully watching developments following reports that US President Donald Trump, fresh from unveiling new tariff threats, was considering whether to sack Powell.Some 20 minutes into the session on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.5 percent, while the broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.2 percent and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.3 percent.The rises came on the back of better-than-expected US retail sales report and a round of mostly solid corporate earnings.Overall retail sales were up 0.6 percent in June to $720.1 billion, reversing a May 0.9 percent decline. The figures topped analyst expectations.Besides retail sales, another week of modest weekly US jobless claims provided reassurance on the economy, said Art Hogan of B. Riley Wealth Management.”We’ve been worried about earnings and trade wars, but the economic data (…) remains resilient,” Hogan said.”If earnings are more upbeat than expected and if management continues to tell a reassuring story about consumer spending, stocks could react favorably,” said Bret Kenwell, eToro US investment analyst, who called the retail sales data “reassuring.”All three main indices in New York had ended in the green Wednesday, with the Nasdaq at another record high, following a brief sell-off after it emerged Trump had raised the idea of firing Powell.Markets recovered after Trump denied he was planning such a move, with PepsiCo adding six percent in early trading and United Airlines making a similar jump.The news had earlier caused a spike in US Treasury yields amid fears over the central bank’s independence. Trump has spent months lambasting Powell for not cutting interest rates.The Fed’s “Beige Book” survey of economic conditions has meanwhile indicated increasing impacts from the tariffs, with many businesses warning they had passed along “at least a portion of cost increases” to consumers.In Asia, Toko and Shanghai added around half of one percent though Hong Kong edged down. Tokyo-listed shares in the Japanese owner of convenience store giant 7-Eleven plunged after its Canadian rival pulled out of an almost $50 billion takeover bid.- Key figures at around 1350 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.5 percent at 44,466.93 pointsNew York – S&P 500: UP 0.2 percent at 6,279.52New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.3 percent at 20,792.97London – FTSE 100: UP 0.5 percent at 8,969.29 pointsParis – CAC 40: UP 0.9 percent at 7,792.21 Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.8 percent at 24,196.72Tokyo – Nikkei 225: UP 0.6 percent at 39,901.19 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.1 percent at 24,498.95 (close)Shanghai – Composite: UP 0.4 percent at 3,516.83 (close)Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1704 from $1.1641 on WednesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.3469 from $1.3414Dollar/yen: DOWN at 147.06 yen from 147.80 yenEuro/pound: UP at 86.90 pence from 86.72 penceBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.0 percent at $68.05 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.1 percent at $65.78 per barrel
Le collectif de victimes de l’ex-chirurgien Joël Le Scouarnec, reconnu coupable fin mai de viols et agressions sexuelles sur près de 300 patients, a annoncé à l’AFP la création d’un numéro vert accessible depuis jeudi matin.Ce numéro vert est à destination des victimes, des co-victimes (parents, enfants) ou des “professionnels de cette affaire”, comme les avocats, magistrats, policiers ou journalistes, selon un document interne transmis à l’AFP. “Le besoin d’apporter un peu d’assurance aux victimes et d’avoir un numéro vert s’est vite ressenti après la fin du procès, puis lors la rencontre à Paris” avec le ministre de la Santé Yannick Neuder, la Haute commissaire à l’Enfance Sarah El Haïry et une conseillère du ministre de la Justice le 18 juin, a expliqué à l’AFP Manon Lemoine, porte-parole du Collectif de victimes de Joël Le Scouarnec.Cette ligne, ouverte du lundi au vendredi de 10H00 à 19H00, qui ne concerne donc pas le grand public, est sécurisée par le ministère de la Santé via la plateforme d’écoute du Collectif féministe contre le viol (CFCV), précise le document.L’ex-chirurgien Joël Le Scouarnec a été condamné le 28 mai à 20 ans de réclusion par la cour criminelle du Morbihan à l’issue de presque trois mois d’un procès particulièrement éprouvant à Vannes.”Les mots qui étaient dits dans cette cour étaient d’une violence ultime et imagée. Avoir une oreille attentive, qui soit accessible de chez soi facilement, gratuitement, ça peut être une première étape d’un parcours de soins qui est plus que nécessaire sept ans après avoir appris les faits”, a ajouté Mme Lemoine, précisant que plusieurs centaines de personnes pourraient avoir recours à ce dispositif.Le numéro vert devait initialement concerner les victimes et les co-victimes mais il a été élargi à tous ceux qui ont participé au procès, y compris les professionnels de la justice, notamment après le suicide début juillet de Me Maxime Tessier, qui avait défendu Joël Le Scouarnec au cours du procès.”L’idée de cette ligne ouverte était très importante. Il y a quelques jours, le collectif a informé M. Neuder du décès de Maxime Tessier, et donc de la souffrance de l’ensemble des professionnels. Il a ainsi été inclus l’ensemble des professionnels ayant assisté ou concouru à ce procès”, a déclaré à l’AFP Me Marie Grimaud, qui représente une quarantaine de parties civiles. “Ce dispositif doit se pérenniser dans le temps et doit être amené à s’anticiper sur d’autres procès”, a souligné l’avocate.
Bangladesh police said on Thursday they had arrested 20 people, a day after clashes between supporters of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina and security personnel killed at least four people.The clashes erupted in Hasina’s hometown of Gopalganj on Wednesday after members of her Awami League party tried to foil a rally by the National Citizens Party (NCP), made up of many students who spearheaded the uprising that toppled her government last year. Bricks, stones and shattered windows littered the area where the clashes occurred. More than 1,500 police, as well as soldiers and border guards, have been deployed in the district to enforce a curfew. “The law and order situation in Gopalganj is currently under control and remains peaceful,” the police said in a statement on Thursday. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of Bangladesh, hailed from Gopalganj and Hasina, his daughter, also contested elections from the district.Jibitesh Biswas, director of the Gopalganj District Hospital, said on Thursday that four people “were brought in dead” after the clashes.Biswas said shots were also fired in front of the hospital and that at least 18 wounded people were also brought in. “Three of them are in critical condition with wounds to the chest, back of the head, and leg,” he said.Ramjan Sheikh, an 18-year-old mason, died of bullet wounds, his family told AFPblaming the military for his death. “They trampled on his chest… We rushed to the hospital only to find his lifeless body soaked in blood,” Mohammed Kalim Munshi, Ramjan’s uncle, said. AFP could not independently verify the claim. The Bangladeshi army said its soldiers intervened, along with the police, to control an “unruly crowd”.”In response, the crowd grew more aggressive, threw molotov (cocktails) and brickbats compelling the Army to use force in self-defence,” it said in a statement.A 24-year-old Gopalganj resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the NCP should have understood that the town would not “accept any disrespect” towards Rahman.”But their leaders continued rants against Mujibur (Rahman),” the resident said. Human rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra said “the application of excessive force on people in Gopalganj and shooting at them blatantly violates human rights standards and the constitution”.Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus said on Wednesday the attempt to foil the NCP rally was “a shameful violation of their fundamental rights”.
