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The US Commerce Department on Tuesday opened the door for Nvidia to sell advanced artificial intelligence chips in China with restrictions, following through on a policy shift announced last month by President Donald Trump.The change would permit Nvidia to sell its powerful H200 chip to Chinese buyers if certain conditions are met — including proof of “sufficient” US supply — while sales of its most advanced processors would still be blocked.However, uncertainty has grown over how much demand there will be from Chinese companies, as Beijing has reportedly been encouraging tech companies to use homegrown chips.Chinese officials have informed some firms they would only approve buying H200 chips under special circumstances, such as development labs or university research, news website The Information reported Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the situation.The Information had previously reported that Chinese officials were calling on companies there to pause H200 purchases while they deliberated requiring them to buy a certain ratio of AI chips made by Nvidia rivals in China.In its official update on Tuesday, the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security said it had changed the licensing review policy for H200 and similar chips from a presumption of denial to handling applications case-by-case.Trump announced in December an agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping to allow Nvidia to export its H200 chips to China, with the US government getting a 25-percent cut of sales.The move marked a significant shift in US export policy for advanced AI chips, which Joe Biden’s administration had heavily restricted over national security concerns about Chinese military applications.Democrats in Congress have criticized the move as a huge mistake that will help China’s military and economy.- Chinese chips -Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang has advocated for the company to be allowed to sell some of its more advanced chips in China, arguing the importance of AI systems around the world being built on US technology.The chips — graphic processing units or GPUs — are used to train the AI models that are the bedrock of the generative AI revolution launched with the release of ChatGPT in 2022.The GPU sector is dominated by Nvidia, now the world’s most valuable company thanks to frenzied global demand and optimism for AI.H200s are roughly 18 months behind the US company’s most state-of-the-art offerings, which will still be off-limits to China.Nvidia’s Huang has repeatedly warned that China is just “nanoseconds behind” the United States as it accelerates the development of domestically produced advanced chips.On Wednesday, leading Chinese AI startup Zhipu said it had used homegrown Huawei chips to train its new image generator.Zhipu AI described its tool as “the first state-of-the-art multimodal model to complete the entire training process on a domestically produced chip”.The startup went public in Hong Kong last week and its shares have since soared 75 percent — one of several dazzling recent initial public offerings by Chinese chip and generative AI companies, as high hopes for the sector outweigh concerns of a potential market crash.

Beneath the surface of forests, grasslands and farms across the world, vast fungal webs form underground trading systems to exchange nutrients with plant roots, acting as critical climate regulators as they draw down 13 billion tons of carbon annually.Yet until recently, these “mycorrhizal networks” were greatly underestimated: seen as merely helpful companions to plants rather than one of Earth’s vital circulatory systems.American evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers has now been awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement — sometimes called the “Nobel for the environment” — for her work bringing this underground world into focus.By charting the global distribution of mycorrhizal fungi in a worldwide Underground Atlas launched last year, Kiers and her colleagues have helped illuminate below-ground biodiversity — insights that can guide conservation efforts to protect these vast carbon stores.Plants send their excess carbon below ground where mycorrhizal fungi draw down 13.12 billion tons of carbon dioxide — around a third of total emissions from fossil fuels.”I just think about all the ways that soil is used in a negative way — you know, terms like ‘dirtbag,'” the 49-year-old University Research Chair at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam told AFP in an interview. “Whereas a bag of dirt contains a galaxy!”- Biological marketplace – Kiers began studying fungi at 19, after writing a grant proposal that won her a place on a scientific expedition to Panama’s rainforests, “and I started asking questions about what was happening under these massive trees in this very diverse jungle.”She still vividly recalls the first time she peered through a microscope and saw an arbuscule — the mycorrhizal fungi’s tiny tree-like structure that penetrates plant cells and serves as the site of nutrient exchange — which she described as “so beautiful.”In 2011, Kiers published a landmark paper in Science showing that mycorrhizal fungi behave like shrewd traders in a “biological marketplace,” making decisions based on supply and demand. With filaments thinner than hair, fungi deliver phosphorus and nitrogen to plants in exchange for sugars and fats derived from carbon.Using lab experiments her team demonstrated that fungi actively move phosphorus from areas of abundance to areas of scarcity — and secure more carbon in return by exploiting those imbalances. Plants, in other words, are willing to pay a higher “price” for what they lack.The fungi can even hoard resources to drive up demand, displaying behavior that echoes the tactics of Wall Street traders. The fact that all this happens without a brain or central nervous system raises a deeper question: how fungi process information at all — and whether electrical signals moving through their networks hold the answer.- Debt of gratitude – More recently, Kiers and her colleagues have pushed the field further with two Nature papers that make this hidden world newly visible.One unveiled a robotic imaging system that lets scientists watch fungal networks grow, branch and redirect resources in real time; the other mapped where different species are found across the globe.That global analysis delivered a sobering result: most hotspots of underground fungal diversity lie outside ecologically protected areas.With fungi largely overlooked by conservation frameworks, Kiers co-founded the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) to map fungal biodiversity — and argue for its protection.To coincide with the prize, which comes with a $250,000 award, SPUN is this week launching an “Underground Advocates” program to train scientists in the legal tools they need to protect fungal biodiversity.Her aim, she says, is to get people to flip how people think about life on Earth — from the surface down. “Life as we know it exists because of fungi,” she said, explaining that the algal ancestors of modern land plants lacked complex roots, and that a partnership with fungi enabled them to colonize terrestrial environments.

US President Donald Trump warned of unspecified “very strong action” if Iranian authorities go ahead with threatened hangings of some protesters, with Tehran calling American warnings a “pretext for military intervention”.International outrage has built over the crackdown that a rights group said has likely killed thousands during protests posing one of the biggest challenges yet to Iran’s clerical leadership.Iran’s UN mission posted a statement on X, vowing that Washington’s “playbook” would “fail again”.”US fantasies and policy toward Iran are rooted in regime change, with sanctions, threats, engineered unrest, and chaos serving as the modus operandi to manufacture a pretext for military intervention,” the post said.  Iranian authorities have insisted they had regained control of the country after successive nights of mass protests nationwide since.Rights groups accuse the government of fatally shooting protesters and masking the scale of the crackdown with an internet blackout that has now surpassed the five-day mark.New videos on social media, with locations verified by AFP, showed bodies lined up in the Kahrizak morgue just south of the Iranian capital, with the corpses wrapped in black bags and distraught relatives searching for loved ones.Trump — who earlier told the protesters in Iran that “help is on its way” — said Tuesday in a CBS News interview that the United States would act if Iran began hanging protesters.Tehran prosecutors have said Iranian authorities would press capital charges of “moharebeh”, or “waging war against God”, against some suspects arrested over recent demonstrations.”We will take very strong action if they do such a thing,” said the American leader, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military intervention.”When they start killing thousands of people — and now you’re telling me about hanging. We’ll see how that’s going to work out for them,” Trump said.The US State Department on its Farsi language X account said 26-year-old protestor Erfan Soltani had been sentenced to be executed on Wednesday. “Erfan is the first protester to be sentenced to death, but he won’t be the last,” the State Department said, adding more than 10,600 Iranians had been arrested. Rights group Amnesty International called on Iran to immediately halt all executions, including Soltani’s.Trump urged on his Truth Social platform for Iranians to “KEEP PROTESTING”, adding: “I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”It was not immediately clear what meetings he was referring to or what the nature of the help would be. – ‘Rising casualties’ -European nations also signalled their anger over the crackdown, with France, Germany and the United Kingdom among the countries that summoned their Iranian ambassadors, as did the European Union. “The rising number of casualties in Iran is horrifying,” said EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, vowing further sanctions against those responsible.Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights said it had confirmed 734 people killed during the protests, including nine minors, but warned the death toll was likely far higher.”The real number of those killed is likely in the thousands,” IHR’s director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said.Iranian state media has said dozens of members of the security forces have been killed, with their funerals turning into large pro-government rallies. Authorities in Tehran have announced a mass funeral ceremony in the capital on Wednesday for the “martyrs” of recent days.Amir, an Iraqi computer scientist, returned to Baghdad on Monday and described dramatic scenes in Tehran.”On Thursday night, my friends and I saw protesters in Tehran’s Sarsabz neighbourhood amid a heavy military presence. The police were firing rubber bullets,” he told AFP in Iraq.Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran’s ousted shah, called on the military to stop suppressing protests. “You are the national military of Iran, not the military of the Islamic Republic,” he said in a statement. – ‘Serious challenge -The government on Monday sought to regain control of the streets with mass nationwide rallies that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed as proof that the protest movement was defeated, calling them a “warning” to the United States. In power since 1989 and now aged 86, Khamenei has faced significant challenges, most recently the 12-day war in June against Israel, which forced him to go into hiding.Analysts have cautioned that it is premature to predict the immediate demise of the theocratic system, pointing to the repressive levers the leadership controls, including the Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is charged with safeguarding the Islamic revolution.Nicole Grajewski, professor at the Sciences Po Centre for International Studies, told AFP the protests represented a “serious challenge” to the Islamic republic, but it was unclear if they would unseat the leadership, pointing to “the sheer depth and resilience of Iran’s repressive apparatus”.

Actor Kiefer Sutherland, who starred in the television series “24” and vampire flick “The Lost Boys,” was arrested Monday on suspicion of assaulting a ride-share driver, according to Los Angeles police. The Canadian-British actor was taken into custody after officers responded a call in Hollywood shortly after midnight. “The investigation determined that the suspect, later identified as Kiefer Sutherland, entered a ride-share vehicle, physically assaulted the driver (the victim), and made criminal threats toward the victim,” police said in a statement.The 59-year-old actor was released a few hours later after posting $50,000 bail, law enforcement said.Sutherland’s representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment from AFP.Police said the driver did not sustain injuries requiring medical attention.Sutherland is known for playing counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer in the television series “24,” a hit between 2001 and 2010. On the silver screen, he had memorable turns in “The Lost Boys” (1987), “Stand By Me” (1986), and “The Three Musketeers” (1993).Kiefer is the son of actor Donald Sutherland, who passed away in 2024.

Venezuela on Tuesday started freeing jailed Americans, said a US official, who hailed the move by the country’s interim leadership following Washington’s ouster of ex-president Nicolas Maduro.The official did not immediately provide details on the release of prisoners or say how many were being freed, other than that there was more than one.”We welcome the release of detained Americans in Venezuela. This is an important step in the right direction by the interim authorities,” a State Department official said on condition of anonymity.Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s vice president who has become acting president, ordered the release of prisoners in the wake of the US attack.US President Donald Trump hailed the gesture, saying that his response was to call off a second wave of strikes on Venezuela.Many were jailed for taking part in protests over 2024 elections, in which Maduro was declared the victor despite widespread allegations of vote-rigging.Venezuela earlier freed Spanish and Italian citizens from its jails.The United States has long made freeing its nationals overseas a major priority, and secured freedom for some in a deal with Maduro last year.- X access restored -Domestically, Venezuelans regained one freedom on Tuesday — the ability to post on social media platform X.The social network was once again accessible, more than a year after users were blocked by deposed president Maduro.Rodriguez updated her profile’s bio — she served as vice president under Maduro — and wrote: “Let us stay united, moving toward economic stability, social justice, and the welfare state we deserve to aspire to.”Access remained spotty to the social media network owned by billionaire Elon Musk, who engaged in heated online exchanges with the ousted Venezuelan leader, until Maduro lashed out in retaliation for criticism of his contested 2024 election and shut X down.After the July 2024 election, Maduro was declared the winner amid allegations of fraud and suspended the platform in August.Prior to that, X had been a prominent social media network for Venezuelans, but the blockade meant ministers, lawmakers and government institutions stopped updating their pages.Rodriguez assumed power after Maduro was captured by US military forces on January 3 along with his wife, during attacks that left more than 100 dead, according to official figures. The couple faces US charges of alleged drug trafficking.Maduro’s X account was also updated with a photo of the deposed leader and his wife, Cilia Flores. “We want you back,” the post reads. 

The planet logged its third hottest year on record in 2025, extending a run of unprecedented heat, with no relief expected in 2026, US researchers and EU climate monitors said Wednesday.The last 11 years have now been the warmest ever recorded, with 2024 topping the podium and 2023 in second place, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and Berkeley Earth, a California-based non-profit research organisation.For the first time, global temperatures exceeded 1.5C relative to pre-industrial times on average over the last three years, Copernicus said in its annual report.”The warming spike observed from 2023-2025 has been extreme, and suggests an acceleration in the rate of the Earth’s warming,” Berkeley Earth said in a separate report.The landmark 2015 Paris Agreement commits the world to limiting warming to well below 2C and pursuing efforts to hold it at 1.5C — a long-term target scientists say would help avoid the worst consequences of climate change.UN chief Antonio Guterres warned in October that breaching 1.5C was “inevitable” but the world could limit this period of overshoot by cutting greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible.Copernicus said the 1.5C limit “could be reached by the end of this decade -– over a decade earlier than predicted”.But efforts to contain global warming were dealt another setback last week as President Donald Trump said he would pull the United States — the world’s second-biggest polluter after China — out of the bedrock UN climate treaty.Temperatures were 1.47C above pre-industrial times in 2025 — just a fraction cooler than in 2023 — following 1.6C in 2024, according to the EU climate monitor.Some 770 million people experienced record-warm annual conditions where they live, while no record-cold annual average was logged anywhere, according to Berkeley Earth.The Antarctic experienced its warmest year on record while it was the second hottest in the Arctic, Copernicus said.An AFP analysis of Copernicus data last month found that Central Asia, the Sahel region and northern Europe experienced their hottest year on record in 2025.- 2026: Fourth-warmest? -Berkeley and Copernicus both warned that 2026 would not break the trend.If the warming El Nino weather phenomenon appears this year, “this could make 2026 another record-breaking year”, Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, told AFP.”Temperatures are going up. So we are bound to see new records. Whether it will be 2026, 2027, 2028 doesn’t matter too much. The direction of travel is very, very clear,” Buontempo said.Berkeley Earth said it expected this year to be similar to 2025, “with the most likely outcome being approximately the fourth-warmest year since 1850″.- Emissions fight -The reports come as efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions — the main driver of climate change — are stalling in developed countries.Emissions rose in the United States last year, snapping a two-year streak of declines, as bitter winters and the AI boom fuelled demand for energy, the Rhodium Group think tank said Tuesday.The pace of reductions of greenhouse gas emissions slowed in Germany and France.”While greenhouse gas emissions remain the dominant driver of global warming, the magnitude of this recent spike suggests additional factors have amplified recent warming beyond what we would expect from greenhouse gases and natural variability alone,” said Berkeley Earth chief scientist Robert Rohde.The organisation said international rules cutting sulfur in ship fuel since 2020 may have actually added to warming by reducing sulfur dioxide emissions, which form aerosols that reflect sunlight away from Earth.

Denmark’s top diplomat visits the White House on Wednesday in a high-stakes attempt to lower the temperature on Greenland, which US President Donald Trump has vowed to seize from the longtime ally.Since returning to office nearly a year ago, Trump has mused about taking over the vast, strategic and sparsely populated Arctic island, and he has sounded emboldened since ordering a deadly January 3 attack in Venezuela that removed its president.Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen had sought the talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The meeting will take place at the White House, after Vice President JD Vance requested to join.On requesting the meeting, Lokke said he was hoping to “clear up certain misunderstandings.” But it remains to be seen if the Trump administration also sees a misunderstanding and if it wants to climb down.Trump, when asked Tuesday about Greenland’s leader saying that the island prefers to remain an autonomous territory of Denmark, said: “Well that’s their problem.””Don’t know anything about him, but that’s going to be a big problem for him,” Trump said.Trump, a real-estate developer, said on Friday that he wanted Greenland “whether they like it or not” and “if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way.”According to Trump, the United States needs Greenland due to the threat of a takeover by Russia or China. The two rival powers have both stepped up activity in the Arctic, where ice is melting due to climate change, but neither claims Greenland.With an echo of America’s 19th-century self-conception of possessing a “Manifest Destiny” to expand, Trump has spoken of the need for the United States to grow.Incorporating Greenland, which has 57,000 people, would catapult the United States past China and Canada to be the world’s second largest country in land mass after Russia.- Is cooperation possible? -Vance in March paid an uninvited visit to Greenland. He stayed only at Pituffik, the longstanding US base on the island, and did not mingle with local residents.Vance is known for his hard edge, which was on display when he berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly during a White House meeting in February.It has not been announced if the Greenland meeting will be open to the press. If not, it would reduce chances of a similar, televised confrontation.”If the US continues with, ‘We have to have Greenland at all cost,’ it could be a very short meeting,” said Penny Naas, a senior vice president at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a Washington think tank.”If there is a slight nuance to it, it could lead to a different conversation,” she said.Greenland’s top diplomat Vivian Motzfeldt will join the talks. Her government as well as Denmark have been firm against Trump’s designs.”One thing must be clear to everyone: Greenland does not want to be owned by the United States. Greenland does not want to be governed by the United States. Greenland does not want to be part of the United States,” Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said at a press conference ahead of the White House talks.He was speaking alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who said it had not been easy to stand up to “completely unacceptable pressure from our closest ally.”Denmark has rejected US claims it is not protecting Greenland from Russia and China, recalling that it has invested almost 90 billion kroner ($14 billion) to beef up its military presence in the Arctic.Denmark is a founding member of NATO and its military joined the United States in the wars in Afghanistan and, controversially, Iraq.Shortly after the White House talks, a senior delegation from the US Congress — mostly Democrats, but with one Republican — will visit Copenhagen to offer solidarity.”President Trump’s continued threats toward Greenland are unnecessary and would only weaken our NATO alliance,” said Dick Durbin, the number-two Senate Democrat.

The United States said Tuesday it would end a special protected status for Somalis, telling them they must leave the country by mid-March under an escalating crackdown on the community. There is a large Somali community in Minnesota, the Midwestern state at the forefront of raids and searches by immigration officers, one of whom shot and killed a local woman last week, sparking protests.Minnesota has sought a temporary restraining order for the ICE operation in the state which, if granted by a federal judge, would pause the enforcement sweeps that have so far reportedly led to 2,000 arrests.In recent weeks Washington has lashed out at Somali immigrants, alleging large-scale public benefit fraud in Minnesota’s Somali community, the largest in the country with around 80,000 members.The Department of Homeland Security said on X it was “ENDING Temporary Protected Status for Somalians in the United States.” “Our message is clear. Go back to your own country, or we’ll send you back ourselves,” it said.DHS followed up by re-tweeting its initial post with a photograph of President Donald Trump and the caption “I am the captain now,” a reference to the film “Captain Phillips” in which a tanker is seized by Somali pirates.Temporary Protected Status (TPS) shields certain foreigners from deportation to disaster zones and allows them the right to work.Tuesday’s announcement set a March 17 departure deadline for Somalis losing their legal status.Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American elected to Congress, said Saturday Trump is “trying to scare them and terrorize them every single day… And what we know is that Somalis are not intimidated.”On Tuesday, the Republican president took to his Truth Social platform to attack Democrats who lead Minneapolis, its twin city St. Paul, and Minnesota. – Alleged major benefit fraud -“Minnesota Democrats love the unrest that anarchists and professional agitators are causing because it gets the spotlight off of the 19 Billion Dollars that was stolen by really bad and deranged people,” Trump wrote. “FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”Local community organizer Mowlid Mohamed told AFP “it looks like the state of Minnesota is under a persecution by the federal government.””They (are) weaponizing the federal agencies to the state of Minnesota to make it that they show their power — and this is one of the tools that they’re using specifically targeting the Somali people.”Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) meanwhile has kept up its migrant sweeps across Minnesota.On Tuesday masked officers dragged a woman from her car as ICE agents conducted checks. Another individual was carried away by their limbs.Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot dead in her car by an ICE officer Wednesday in Minneapolis.Three federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned after coming under pressure to focus the probe into Good’s death on her widow’s actions, US media reported Tuesday.The Trump administration in recent months has latched onto news of a large-scale public benefit fraud scandal to carry out immigration raids and harsher policies targeting Minnesota’s Somali community.Federal charges have been filed against 98 people accused of embezzlement of public funds and — as US Attorney General Pam Bondi stressed — 85 of the defendants were “of Somali descent.” Fifty-seven people have already been convicted in the scheme to divert $300 million in public grants, prosecutors said.Republican elected officials and federal prosecutors accuse local Democratic authorities of turning a blind eye to numerous warnings because the fraud involved Minnesota’s Somali community.

Boeing secured orders for nearly 1,200 commercial planes last year, topping European rival Airbus for the first time since 2018, according to figures released Tuesday.The US aviation giant booked 175 orders in December, taking the total for 2025 to 1,173. Airbus on Monday disclosed net orders of 889 aircraft for the year.Boeing still lags behind Airbus in terms of the total number of undelivered planes following stumbles in the wake of fatal 2018 and 2019 crashes of the 737 MAX that have weighed on the US company.But Boeing on Tuesday also received a boost from an order by Delta Air Lines to purchase 30 Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with options for 30 more of the widebody jet.Delta CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC that the company was the only major US carrier without the popular plane but it was “confident” based on Boeing’s efforts under Kelly Ortberg, who joined as chief executive in 2024.”Watching the progress that the team has made, we realize that turnaround is still in midst,” Bastian said.Delta’s order was not included in Boeing’s 2025 figures. – Progress with FAA -The improvement in orders marks the latest sign of progress for Boeing after a bruising 2024. Last year opened with a near-catastrophic emergency landing on an Alaska Airlines flight in January, and concluded with the restart of plane production in the Seattle region following a lengthy labor strike.After the Alaska Airlines incident, Boeing fortified its quality control and manufacturing operations under close scrutiny by the US Federal Aviation Administration.In October, the FAA granted approval to Boeing to increase production on the 737 MAX to 42 per month from 38, a key sign of progress.”Our team did great work throughout 2025 to improve the on-time delivery of safe, quality airplanes to our customers to support their growth and modernization plans,” said Boeing commercial plane chief Stephanie Pope.”We’re focused on getting better every day and building on the momentum in the year ahead.”Boeing said it delivered 63 planes in December, taking the annual total to 600 for all of 2025.While that figure marked the most since 2018 and a big jump from the strike-plagued 2024 season, it came in well below the 793 delivered by Airbus.Airbus has dominated deliveries in recent years in the aftermath of the two crashes of Boeing 737 MAX planes that occurred in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Airbus also still holds a sizeable advantage in terms of orders, pointing to a backlog of 8,754 at the end of 2025.Boeing currently lists 6,720 unfilled orders with a backlog of 6,130 after an adjustment under US accounting standards.Morningstar analyst Nicolas Owens said the 2025 result was positive for Boeing, but needs to be weighed against the accumulated orders, which is a “better benchmark,” he said.Boeing’s outpacing of Airbus’ orders in 2025 is “a nice bit of news for Boeing, but it is just one year in a competition for a very large market that plays out over decades,” Owens said in an email to AFP.Boeing shares rose 2.0 percent.

Claudette Colvin, who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Alabama in 1955 and became a US civil rights pioneer, has died aged 86, her foundation said Tuesday.Colvin, then aged 15, made her protest several months before Rosa Parks’ similar act of defiance became a key moment in the birth of the modern civil rights movement in the United States.Colvin “leaves behind a legacy of courage that helped change the course of American history,” her foundation said.Colvin had been studying Black history in school on March 2, 1955, when she was detained after she refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a bus in Montgomery — the same southern US city where Parks’ protest made headlines.”I remained seated because the lady could have sat in the seat opposite me,” Colvin told reporters in Paris in April 2023.”She refused because…a white person wasn’t supposed to sit close to a negro.” “People ask me why I refused to move, and I say history had me glued to the seat,” Colvin said.Colvin was briefly imprisoned for disturbing public order. The following year, she became one of four Black female plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit challenging segregated bus seating in Montgomery. The case was successful, impacting public transportation throughout the United States, including trains, airplanes and taxis.Colvin’s role in the US civil rights movement was less celebrated than that of Parks, who was already a key figure in the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) at the time of her arrest.Parks’ arrest triggered a year-long bus boycott in Montgomery that thrust civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to national prominence.The civil rights movement led to significant advances for Black people in the mid-1960s — ending legal segregation and securing their voting rights.Colvin, who was born in Alabama in 1939 as the eldest of eight sisters, would be ostracized from the civil rights movement when she became pregnant out of wedlock. She spent decades in obscurity, working for 30 years at a Catholic nursing home, caring for elderly patients as a nursing assistant.But she won recognition later in life. A 2009 biography by Phillip Hoose, “Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice,” won the US National Book Award for young people’s literature.However, it was only in 2021 that the record of her 1955 arrest and adjudication of delinquency was expunged by a US court.