AFP Asia Business

Israel claimed on Saturday it has already set back Iran’s presumed nuclear programme by at least two years, a day after US President Donald Trump warned that Tehran has a “maximum” of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes.Trump has been mulling whether to involve the United States in Israel’s bombing campaign, indicating in his latest comments that he could take a decision before the two week deadline he set this week.Israel said Saturday its air force had launched fresh air strikes against missile storage and launch sites in central Iran, as it kept up a wave of attacks it says are aimed at preventing its rival from developing nuclear weapons — an ambition Tehran has denied.”According to the assessment we hear, we already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb,” Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar said in an interview published Saturday.Saar said Israel’s week-long onslaught would continue. “We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat,” he told German newspaper Bild.Top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany met their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Friday and urged him to resume talks with the United States that had been derailed by Israel’s attacks.French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said “we invited the Iranian minister to consider negotiations with all sides, including the United States, without awaiting the cessation of strikes, which we also hope for.”But Araghchi told NBC News after the meeting that “we’re not prepared to negotiate with them (the United States) anymore, as long as the aggression continues.” Trump was dismissive of European diplomacy efforts, telling reporters, “Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this.”Trump also said he’s unlikely to ask Israel to stop its attacks to get Iran back to the table.”If somebody’s winning, it’s a little bit harder to do,” he said. Any US involvement would likely feature powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses to destroy an underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo.On the streets of Tehran, many shops were closed and normally busting markets largely abandoned on Friday.- 450 missiles – A US-based NGO, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, said on Friday based on its sources and media reports that at least 657 people have been killed in Iran, including 263 civilians.Iran has not updated its tolls since Sunday, when it said that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians.Since Israel launched its offensive on June 13, targeting nuclear and military sites but also hitting residential areas, Iran has responded with barrages which Israeli authorities say have killed at least 25 people.A hospital in the Israeli port of Haifa reported 19 wounded, including one person in a serious condition, after the latest Iranian salvo.Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate said more than 450 missiles have been fired at the country so far, along with about 400 drones.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted military sites and air force bases.- ‘Madness’ -Western powers have repeatedly expressed concerns about the rapid expansion of Iran’s nuclear programme, questioning in particular the country’s accelerated uranium enrichment. The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to 60 percent.However, it added that there was no evidence it had all the components to make a functioning nuclear warhead.The agency’s chief Rafael Grossi told CNN it was “pure speculation” to say how long it would take Iran to develop weapons.Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the conflict was at a “perilous moment” and it was “hugely important that we don’t see regional escalation”.Araghchi arrived in Istanbul on Saturday according to the Tasnim news agency, for a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss the Iran-Israel conflict.Switzerland announced it was temporarily closing its embassy in Tehran, adding that it would continue to fulfil its role representing US interests in Iran.burs-ser/ami/kir/gv/acb/tc/mtp

Israel’s war with Iran has entered its second week with the Israeli military chief warning of a “prolonged campaign”.Here are the latest developments:- Delayed by ‘two or three years’ -Israel’s foreign minister said its strikes on Iran have delayed Tehran’s potential to develop a nuclear weapon by at least two or three years.”According to the assessment we hear, we already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb,” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in an interview.Western powers have repeatedly expressed concerns about the rapid expansion of Iran’s nuclear programme, questioning in particular the country’s accelerated uranium enrichment.The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to 60 percent.However, it added that there was no evidence it had all the components to make a functioning nuclear warhead.- ‘Prolonged campaign’ -Israel’s armed forces chief Eyal Zamir warned that his country should be “ready for a prolonged campaign” against Iran.”We have embarked on the most complex campaign in our history to remove a threat of such magnitude, against such an enemy. We must be ready for a prolonged campaign,” Zamir said in a video statement to Israelis.Israel launched attacks against Iran on June 13 which have combined targeted assassinations of key military personnel with strikes on Iran’s nuclear and missile facilities.He said Israelis needed to brace for more difficulties, as the country comes under daily attack from Iranian ballistic missiles.In an interview with German publication Bild, Israel’s top diplomat Gideon Saar said Israel believes it has set back Iran’s nuclear programme by “two to three years” but said the strikes would continue in order “to remove this threat.” – Geneva meeting -As US President Donald Trump mulls the prospect of entering the war, top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany met with their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva.Referring to nuclear negotiations with Washington that had been derailed by the war, Araghchi said Iran is ready to consider diplomacy “once the aggression is stopped”.Tehran did “support the continuation of discussion with” the European countries and was willing “to meet again in the near future”, Araghchi told reporters.French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot urged Iran to resume negotiations with all sides “without awaiting the cessation of strikes”.- Trump says Iran wants talks -Trump said the Europeans were “not going to be able to help” end the war.”Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us,” he said.He also said Iran had a “maximum” of two weeks to avoid possible US air strikes, indicating he could take a decision before the fortnight deadline he set a day earlier.- New day of strikes  -Israel said Saturday it’s air force had launched fresh airstrikes against missile storage and launch sites in central Iran.A US-based NGO, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, put the death toll in Iran at 657 people including at least 263 civilians, citing Iranian sources and reports.Iran said Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. Authorities have not issued an updated toll since.Iran launched two salvoes of missiles at Israel on Friday. At least 19 people were injured in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa, a local hospital said.At least 25 people have been killed in Israel since the war began, according to Israeli authorities.- Diplomats quit Tehran -Britain said it had withdrawn its embassy staff from Iran, while Switzerland announced the temporary closure of its embassy.”Our embassy continues to operate remotely,” the British foreign ministry said.Switzerland cited the “highly unstable situation on the ground” for its decision. It said it would continue to fulfil its role representing US interests in Iran.burs-kir/ami/gv/acb/tc

AI deepfakes, video game footage passed off as real combat, and chatbot-generated falsehoods — such tech-enabled misinformation is distorting the Israel-Iran conflict, fueling a war of narratives across social media.The information warfare unfolding alongside ground combat — sparked by Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and military leadership — underscores a digital crisis in the age of rapidly advancing AI tools that have blurred the lines between truth and fabrication.The surge in wartime misinformation has exposed an urgent need for stronger detection tools, experts say, as major tech platforms have largely weakened safeguards by scaling back content moderation and reducing reliance on human fact-checkers.After Iran struck Israel with barrages of missiles last week, AI-generated videos falsely claimed to show damage inflicted on Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Airport.The videos were widely shared across Facebook, Instagram and X.Using a reverse image search, AFP’s fact-checkers found that the clips were originally posted by a TikTok account that produces AI-generated content.There has been a “surge in generative AI misinformation, specifically related to the Iran-Israel conflict,” Ken Jon Miyachi, founder of the Austin-based firm BitMindAI, told AFP.”These tools are being leveraged to manipulate public perception, often amplifying divisive or misleading narratives with unprecedented scale and sophistication.”- ‘Photo-realism’ -GetReal Security, a US company focused on detecting manipulated media including AI deepfakes, also identified a wave of fabricated videos related to the Israel-Iran conflict.The company linked the visually compelling videos — depicting apocalyptic scenes of war-damaged Israeli aircraft and buildings as well as Iranian missiles mounted on a trailer — to Google’s Veo 3 AI generator, known for hyper-realistic visuals.The Veo watermark is visible at the bottom of an online video posted by the news outlet Tehran Times, which claims to show “the moment an Iranian missile” struck Tel Aviv.”It is no surprise that as generative-AI tools continue to improve in photo-realism, they are being misused to spread misinformation and sow confusion,” said Hany Farid, the co-founder of GetReal Security and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.Farid offered one tip to spot such deepfakes: the Veo 3 videos were normally eight seconds in length or a combination of clips of a similar duration.”This eight-second limit obviously doesn’t prove a video is fake, but should be a good reason to give you pause and fact-check before you re-share,” he said.The falsehoods are not confined to social media.Disinformation watchdog NewsGuard has identified 51 websites that have advanced more than a dozen false claims — ranging from AI-generated photos purporting to show mass destruction in Tel Aviv to fabricated reports of Iran capturing Israeli pilots.Sources spreading these false narratives include Iranian military-linked Telegram channels and state media sources affiliated with the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), sanctioned by the US Treasury Department, NewsGuard said.- ‘Control the narrative’ -“We’re seeing a flood of false claims and ordinary Iranians appear to be the core targeted audience,” McKenzie Sadeghi, a researcher with NewsGuard, told AFP.Sadeghi described Iranian citizens as “trapped in a sealed information environment,” where state media outlets dominate in a chaotic attempt to “control the narrative.”Iran itself claimed to be a victim of tech manipulation, with local media reporting that Israel briefly hacked a state television broadcast, airing footage of women’s protests and urging people to take to the streets.Adding to the information chaos were online clips lifted from war-themed video games.AFP’s fact-checkers identified one such clip posted on X, which falsely claimed to show an Israeli jet being shot down by Iran. The footage bore striking similarities to the military simulation game Arma 3.Israel’s military has rejected Iranian media reports claiming its fighter jets were downed over Iran as “fake news.”Chatbots such as xAI’s Grok, which online users are increasingly turning to for instant fact-checking, falsely identified some of the manipulated visuals as real, researchers said.”This highlights a broader crisis in today’s online information landscape: the erosion of trust in digital content,” BitMindAI’s Miyachi said.”There is an urgent need for better detection tools, media literacy, and platform accountability to safeguard the integrity of public discourse.”burs-ac/jgc

Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who was one of the most visible leaders of nationwide pro-Palestinian campus protests, was released Friday from a federal detention center.Khalil, a legal permanent resident in the United States who is married to a US citizen and has a US-born son, has been in custody since March facing potential deportation.”This shouldn’t have taken three months,” Khalil, wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, told US media outside an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana hours after a federal judge ordered his release.”(President Donald) Trump and his administration, they chose the wrong person for this,” he said. “There’s no right person who should be detained for actually protesting a genocide.”The Department of Homeland Security criticized District Judge Michael Farbiarz’s ruling Friday as an example of how “out of control members of the judicial branch are undermining our national security.”Under the terms of his release, Khalil will not be allowed to leave the United States except for “self-deportation,” and faces restrictions on where he can travel within the country.Khalil’s wife, Michigan-born dentist Noor Abdalla, said her family could now “finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Maumoud is on his way home.””We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family and so many others the government is trying to silence for speaking out against Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians,” added Abdalla, who gave birth to the couple’s first child while her husband was in detention.- Visas revoked -Since his March 8 arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Khalil has become a symbol of Trump’s campaign to stifle pro-Palestinian student activism against the Gaza war, in the name of curbing anti-Semitism.At the time a graduate student at Columbia University in New York, Khalil was a prominent leader of nationwide campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.Following his arrest, US authorities transferred Khalil, who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents, nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) from his home in New York to the detention center in Louisiana, pending deportation.Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invoked a law approved during the 1950s Red Scare that allows the United States to remove foreigners seen as adverse to US foreign policy.Rubio argues that US constitutional protections of free speech do not apply to foreigners and that he alone can make decisions without judicial review.Hundreds of students have seen their visas revoked, with some saying they were targeted for everything from writing opinion articles to minor arrest records.Farbiarz ruled last week that the government could not detain or deport Khalil based on Rubio’s assertions that his presence on US soil poses a national security threat.The government has also alleged as grounds to detain and deport Khalil that there were inaccuracies in his application for permanent residency.Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which is among the groups representing Khalil, welcomed the release order.”This is an important step in vindicating Mr Khalil’s rights as he continues to be unlawfully targeted by the federal government for his advocacy in support of Palestinian rights,” Sinha said. 

US President Donald Trump said Friday that Iran had a “maximum” of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes, as Israel claimed it has already set back Iran’s presumed nuclear programme by at least two years.Trump’s latest comments indicated he could take a decision before the fortnight deadline he set a day earlier, as he dismissed European efforts to end the conflict and said it would be “very hard” to ask Israel to cease its attacks.A series of blasts were heard in Tehran on Friday as Israel kept up the massive wave of strikes it says is aimed at stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons — an ambition Tehran has denied.”According to the assessment we hear, we already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb,” Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar said in an interview published Saturday.Saar said Israel’s week-long onslaught will continue. “We will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat,” he told German newspaper Bild.As Trump mulls the prospect of joining the war on Israel’s side, top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany met their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva and urged him to resume talks with the United States that had been derailed by Israel’s attacks.French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said “we invited the Iranian minister to consider negotiations with all sides, including the United States, without awaiting the cessation of strikes, which we also hope for.”But Araghchi told NBC News after the meeting that “we’re not prepared to negotiate with them (the United States) anymore, as long as the aggression continues.” Trump was dismissive of European efforts, telling reporters, “Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this.”Trump also said he’s unlikely to ask Israel to stop its attacks to get Iran back to the table.”If somebody’s winning, it’s a little bit harder to do,” he said. Any US involvement would likely feature powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses to destroy an underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo.On the streets of Tehran, many shops were closed and normally busting markets largely abandoned on Friday.- 450 missiles – Since Israel launched its offensive on June 13, targeting nuclear and military sites but also hitting residential areas, Iran has responded with barrages which Israeli authorities say have killed at least 25 people.A hospital in the Israeli port of Haifa reported 19 injured, including one person in serious condition, after the latest Iranian salvo.More than 450 missiles have been fired at the country so far, along with about 400 drones, according to Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate. Iran said on Sunday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. It has not updated the toll since.A US-based NGO, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, provided a toll on Friday based on its sources and media reports, saying at least 657 people have been killed in Iran, including 263 civilians.Israel’s military said it struck missile launchers in southwestern Iran after overnight air raids on dozens of targets including a nuclear research centre.In Israel, sirens sounded in the afternoon after missiles were launched from Iran for the second time on Friday. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted military sites and air force bases.Meanwhile, a US Navy official said an aircraft carrier will be moved closer to the Middle East next week, making it the third in or near the region.- ‘Madness’ -“This is a perilous moment, and it is hugely important that we don’t see regional escalation of this conflict,” said Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who earlier stated “Iran can never develop or acquire a nuclear weapon.”The International Atomic Energy Agency said that while Iran is the only country without nuclear weapons to enrich uranium to 60 percent, there was no evidence it had all the components to make a functioning nuclear warhead.”So saying how long it would take for them, it would be pure speculation because we do not know whether there was somebody… secretly pursuing these activities,” agency chief Rafael Grossi told CNN.”We haven’t seen that and we have to say it.”Arab League foreign ministers gathered in Istanbul late Friday to discuss the war, Turkish state news agency Anadolu said, on the eve of a weekend gathering of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).Switzerland announced it was temporarily closing its embassy in Tehran, adding that it would continue to fulfil its role representing US interests in Iran.burs-ser/ami/kir/gv/acb

Global equities were mixed Friday, while oil prices retreated as markets weighed the latest developments in the war between Iran and Israel.Markets rose after US President Donald Trump said he would allow for up to two weeks before possible US military action against Iran.But on Friday afternoon, Trump expressed doubt that European powers would be …

Global stocks mixed, oil lower as market digests latest on Iran Read More »

President Donald Trump said Friday that Iran had a “maximum” of two weeks to avoid possible US air strikes, indicating he could take a decision before the fortnight deadline he set a day earlier.Trump added that he was not inclined to stop Israel attacking Iran because it was “winning,” and was dismissive of European efforts to mediate an end to the conflict.”I’m giving them a period of time, and I would say two weeks would be the maximum,” Trump told reporters when asked if he could decide to strike Iran before that.He added that the aim was to “see whether or not people come to their senses.”Trump had said in a statement on Thursday that he would “make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks” because there was a “substantial chance of negotiations” with Iran.Those comments had been widely seen as opening a two-week window for negotiations to end the war between Israel and Iran, with the European powers rushing to talks with Tehran.But his latest remarks indicated Trump could still make his decision before that if he feels that there has been no progress towards dismantling Iran’s nuclear program.Trump meanwhile dismissed talks that European powers Britain, France, Germany and the EU had with Iran’s foreign minister in Geneva on Friday.- Europe ‘didn’t help’ -“They didn’t help,” he said as he arrived in Morristown, New Jersey, ahead of a fundraising dinner at his nearby golf club.”Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this.”Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said after the talks in Geneva that Tehran would not resume negotiations with the United States until Israel stopped its attacks.But Trump was reluctant. “It’s very hard to make that request right now,” Trump said.”If somebody’s winning, it’s a little bit harder to do than if somebody’s losing, but we’re ready, willing and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran, and we’ll see what happens.”Trump meanwhile doubled down on his claims that Iran is weeks away from being able to produce a nuclear bomb, despite divisions in his own administration about the intelligence behind his assessment.Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, said in a report in March that Iran was not close to having enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon.”She’s wrong,” Trump said of Gabbard, a longtime opponent of US foreign intervention whom Trump tapped to coordinate the sprawling US spy community.Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to release Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student who became a leader of pro-Palestinian campus protests.Khalil, a legal permanent US resident who is married to a US citizen and has a US-born son, has been in custody since March facing potential deportation.District Judge Michael Farbiarz ordered Khalil’s release on bail during a hearing on Friday and he will be allowed to return to New York while his deportation case proceeds.”After more than three months, we can finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Mahmoud is on his way home,” his wife, Michigan-born dentist Noor Abdalla, said in a statement.”We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family and so many others the government is trying to silence for speaking out against Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians,” added Abdalla, who gave birth to the couple’s first child while her husband was in detention.Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which is among the groups representing Khalil, welcomed the release order.”This is an important step in vindicating Mr Khalil’s rights as he continues to be unlawfully targeted by the federal government for his advocacy in support of Palestinian rights,” Sinha said. “We’re confident he will ultimately prevail in the fight for his freedom.”Since his March 8 arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Khalil has become a symbol of President Donald Trump’s campaign to stifle pro-Palestinian student activism against the Gaza war, in the name of curbing anti-Semitism.At the time a graduate student at Columbia University in New York, Khalil was one of the most visible leaders of nationwide campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.Following his arrest, US authorities transferred Khalil, who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents, nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) from his home in New York to a detention center in Louisiana, pending deportation.Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invoked a law approved during the 1950s Red Scare that allows the United States to remove foreigners seen as adverse to US foreign policy.Rubio argues that US constitutional protections of free speech do not apply to foreigners and that he alone can make decisions without judicial review.Hundreds of students have seen their visas revoked, with some saying they were targeted for everything from writing opinion articles to minor arrest records.Farbiarz ruled last week that the government could not detain or deport Khalil based on Rubio’s assertions that his presence on US soil poses a national security threat.The government has also alleged as grounds to detain and deport Khalil that there were inaccuracies in his application for permanent residency.

The hosts of the most recent UN climate talks are worried international lenders are retreating from their commitments to help boost funding for developing countries’ response to global warming.Major development banks have agreed to boost climate spending and are seen as crucial in the effort to dramatically increase finance to help poorer countries build resilience …

World Bank and IMF climate snub ‘worrying’, says COP29 presidency Read More »