JOHANNESBURG, June 3, 2024 (AFP) – Twelve people have died in flooding caused by torrential rain on South Africa’s eastern coast, local authorities said on Monday. In Eastern Cape province, “the death toll is currently sitting at seven,” a spokesperson from Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, at the heart of the floods, told AFP. More than 2,000 people have been evacuated from Nelson Mandela Bay, notably from makeshift homes in the municipality’s slums. Local authorities […]
International
TikTok fails ‘disinformation test’ before EU vote, study shows
By Joseph Boyle with Anuj Chopra in Washington PARIS, June 4, 2024 (AFP) – Wildly popular social network TikTok approved adverts containing political disinformation ahead of European polls, a report showed Tuesday, flouting its own guidelines and raising questions about its ability to detect election falsehoods. International campaign group Global Witness created 16 ads targeting Irish audiences with false information about this week’s EU elections and tried to get them approved by three platforms — […]
Biden’s son Hunter stands trial on gun charge
By Ryan Collerd WILMINGTON, United States, June 3, 2024 (AFP) – Hunter Biden, the long-troubled son of Joe Biden, went on trial Monday on gun charges in a historic first prosecution of a sitting president’s child — and potential threat to his father’s reelection. The only surviving son of President Biden, Hunter Biden is charged with lying about his illegal drug use when buying a handgun in 2018, a felony. The 54-year-old arrived in court […]
Russia ramps up disinfo ahead of Paris Games: Microsoft
WASHINGTON, June 3, 2024 (AFP) – Russia is waging an intense disinformation campaign aimed at tarnishing the reputation of the International Olympic Committee and stoking fears of violence at this summer’s Paris Games, according to a new report from Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center. According to Microsoft, the influence operations utilize a potent mix of fake videos, fictitious news stories, and AI-generated impersonations, including the faked voice of Hollywood star Tom Cruise. “Russia is ramping up […]
Tiananmen crackdown ‘will not disappear in the torrent of history’: Taiwan president
TAIPEI, June 4, 2024 (AFP) – Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said on Tuesday that the memory of Beijing’s deadly crackdown at Tiananmen Square “will not disappear in the torrent of history” in a post marking the event’s 35th anniversary. Discussion of the crackdown at Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989 is highly sensitive for China’s communist leadership, and any mention of it is strictly censored on the mainland. But self-ruled Taiwan commemorates the date with […]
Japan’s emperor and empress to pay three-day state visit to UK
LONDON, June 4, 2024 (AFP) – Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako will visit Britain at the end of June, spending three days as guests of King Charles III, Buckingham Palace confirmed on Tuesday. The royal couple is due to arrive on June 22, but will spend the first three days in private engagements before beginning the official state visit, which will run from June 25 to 27. Naruhito, 64, will meet Charles and his […]
‘Enemy within’: Trump rhetoric rings alarm bells
By Aurélia END WASHINGTON, June 4, 2024 (AFP) – The language sounds like something from an authoritarian state or the US anti-communist purges of the 1950s, but Donald Trump is increasingly focused on one target: “the enemy within.” The 77-year-old Republican has stepped up his rhetoric against a host of domestic opponents in recent months, and looks set to go even further after his historic conviction in a criminal trial that he claims — without […]
Forest fires blaze in north Israel after rockets launched from Lebanon
KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel, June 4, 2024 (AFP) – Israeli authorities were battling intense forest fires Tuesday in the north of the country that broke out shortly after rocket and drone strikes from neighbouring Lebanon, forcing the partial evacuation of one town. “Firefighting units, assisted by various entities, are working to extinguish the fires,” Israeli police said in a statement, adding that several homes in Kiryat Shmona had been evacuated. An AFP photographer in the northeastern […]
Biden slams Trump as ‘convicted felon’ for first time
GREENWICH, United States, June 4, 2024 (AFP) – Joe Biden blasted Donald Trump on Monday as a “convicted felon” who is seeking the US presidency for the first time in history, in a dramatic escalation of his attacks on his rival in November’s election. Biden, 81, was using the description for the first time since Trump was convicted by a New York jury of covering up hush money payments to a porn star in a […]
Israel govt spokesman says PM views Biden Gaza plan as ‘partial’
JERUSALEM, June 3, 2024 (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu views a plan outlined by US President Joe Biden for a truce in Gaza and hostage release deal as “partial”, a government spokesman said Monday. Biden on Friday presented what he labelled an Israeli three-phase plan that would eventually end the fighting, free all hostages held by Palestinian militants and lead to the reconstruction of the devastated Gaza Strip without Hamas in power. “The […]
Four dead as floods sweep southern Germany
By Pauline CURTET REICHERTSHOFEN, Germany, June 3, 2024 (AFP) – Rescuers battled Monday to evacuate people from floods in southern Germany that have claimed four lives, as Chancellor Olaf Scholz called it a “warning” that climate change was getting worse. Thousands of people in the regions of Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg had to leave their homes since torrential rain on Friday sparked deadly flooding. More evacuations were called overnight into Monday as the huge volumes of […]
Claudia Sheinbaum makes history as Mexico’s first woman president
By Daniel Rook and Yussel Gonzalez MEXICO CITY, June 3, 2024 (AFP) – Claudia Sheinbaum was elected Mexico’s first woman president by a landslide Sunday, making history in a country plagued by rampant criminal and gender-based violence. Flag-waving supporters sang and danced to mariachi music in celebration of the ruling party candidate’s victory, in a nation where around 10 women or girls are murdered every day. “I want to thank millions of Mexican women and […]
