Saving the ocean: 'We have to be optimistic because it's our only planet'
13:13
09/06/2025
Don't let deep sea become 'wild west', Guterres tells world leaders in Nice
Environment
09/06/2025
Global push to ratify high seas treaty, that is two-thirds of oceans
Environment
09/06/2025
UN Ocean Conference opens in Nice today to tackle ocean "Emergency'
Environment
09/06/2025
World leaders urged to step up and cooperate for overexploited oceans
France
09/06/2025
Macron opens UN ocean summit with call for multilateral mobilisation
France
09/06/2025
Global Ocean Summit opens in Nice with calls to boost marine protections
Environment
06/06/2025
French dock workers block shipment of military material for Israel
France
06/06/2025
"Racism in France has always been a question of anti-migrant and anti-Muslim bias"
France
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France 24
38 minutes ago
- France 24
WADA calls on US to stop 'dangerous' Enhanced Games
Speaking in Lausanne in an address to a meeting of summer Olympic officials, Banka said the inaugural edition of the Enhanced Games in Las Vegas -- where athletes will be free to use performance-enhancing drugs -- "must be stopped." "We all must stand up and condemn those who put greed and ego before the well-being of athletes and the values of fair competition," Banka said. "As the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles approach, we cannot allow what should be a celebration of honest sporting endeavor to be overshadowed by this cynical attempt to undermine clean sport. "WADA is now urging the authorities in the US to seek ways to prevent the Enhanced Games from going ahead as planned. For the sake of athletes' health and the purity of sport, it must be stopped." In separate remarks following the address, Banka urged US authorities to consider legal action to prevent the Enhanced Games from taking place. "Every effort should be made by the authorities in the US to prevent this dangerous event from going ahead as planned," Banka said. "This should be explored from the legal perspective. For example, I would question whether it is legal for licensed doctors to give these potent drugs to healthy athletes. "It goes completely against the rules and values of their profession...I think there is a strong role to be played by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)". USADA has been a strident critic of WADA in recent years following controversy over the global doping watchdog's handling of positive drug tests from 23 Chinese swimmers in 2021. Responding to Banka's remarks on Wednesday, USADA chief executive Travis Tygart accused the WADA president of "attempting to leverage this sideshow to distract from fixing WADA and to stoke anti-American rhetoric." "As we have repeatedly said, for all of the obvious reasons, the Enhanced Games or any other open competition is a bad idea," Tygart said in comments emailed to AFP, urging Banka to accept an invitation to a US Senate hearing next week where the 2021 case involving Chinese swimmers is to be discussed. The first Enhanced Games will be staged in Las Vegas in May 2026, with athletes participating in three sports -- athletics, swimming and weightlifting. Athletes will be allowed to use drugs banned across international sport such as steroids and human growth hormones, with winners of each event receiving $250,000, and a bonus of $1 million for any athlete who breaks a world record. © 2025 AFP
AFP
3 hours ago
- AFP
Bricks from Malaysia and New Jersey misrepresented amid LA unrest
"Soros funded organizations have ordered countless pallets of bricks to be placed near ICE facilities to be used by Democrat militants against ICE," says a June 7, 2025 Facebook post from David Harris Jr, a commentator supportive of US President Donald Trump whom AFP has previously fact-checked for spreading misinformation. Image Screenshot from Facebook taken June 11, 2025 The post references George Soros, a billionaire Democratic megadonor commonly targeted by right-wing and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. In another post shared June 8 on X, American actor James Woods, who has also repeatedly peddled misinformation, shared a photo of a different stack of masonry. "It's not like these 'protests' are organized though…," he wrote. Image Screenshot from X taken June 9, 2025 Similar claims citing either of the two images of bricks rocketed across social media platforms amid protests in Los Angeles that broke out June 6, triggered by immigration raids and arrests of what federal authorities say are undocumented migrants and gang members. Los Angeles officials have said the demonstrations were in large part peaceful but punctuated by scattered violence, including moments during which participants torched cars and law enforcement fired tear gas. The unrest continued to escalate over several days, with Trump clashing with California leaders as he bypassed the governor to deploy the state's National Guard to the city -- and active-duty US Marines. Other protests have also spread elsewhere in the country. Local news outlets have reported that some of the protesters in Los Angeles have thrown objects at officers and police cruisers, including rocks and fireworks. But the two widely shared photos showing stacks of bricks are unrelated. Malaysian hardware dealer traced the first image to a Malaysian hardware and construction dealer's page on Building Materials Online, a Malaysian online marketplace (archived here and here). Image Screenshot from taken June 11, 2025 The distributor, Ng Lian Seng Hardware Trading, is based in the town of Jinjang, northwest of Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur. Reached by AFP, a worker at the dealer said the store took the picture and uploaded it to Build Materials Online more than eight years ago. Google Street View imagery appears to show matching pallets of bricks piled up at the location (archived here). Image Screenshot from Google Street View taken June 11, 2025, with elements outlined by AFP New Jersey construction The second photo can be geolocated using Google Street View to West New York, New Jersey (archived here). Image Screenshot from X taken June 9, 2025, with elements outlined by AFP Image Screenshot from Google Street View taken June 11, 2025, with elements outlined by AFP A journalist with the fact-checking website Lead Stories visited the location June 9 and photographed additional construction equipment they found stationed beside the same heap of bricks (archived here). They also observed scaffolding set up along a nearby building, where contractors appeared to be working on the exterior. A well-worn narrative Fearmongering narratives about piles of bricks have become a common trope among accounts that traffic in misinformation since the nationwide protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, when images from construction sites were misrepresented in posts claiming authorities or left-wing groups were stashing bricks near planned demonstrations to foment violence. Similar claims have resurfaced around prominent court trials, trucker convoys and the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where protesters demonstrated against Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza. "These days, it feels like every time there's a protest, the old clickbaity 'pallets of bricks' hoax shows up right on cue," said the Social Media Lab, a research center at Toronto Metropolitan University, in a June 9 post on Bluesky (archived here and here). "You know the one, photos or videos of bricks supposedly left out to encourage rioting. It's catnip for right-wing agitators and grifters," it added. AFP has debunked other misinformation about the Los Angeles protests here, here and here. Raevathi Supramaniam contributed to this report.
Fashion Network
5 hours ago
- Fashion Network
French Senate approves ‘anti-fast-fashion' bill chiefly targeting Shein, Temu
Louwagie said that the government will notify the European Commission of this bill even before the end of the joint parliamentary committee work that will start soon, and that the government will also work on the decrees regulating the bill's application, and notably define the thresholds that will formally identify an operator as 'ultra-express' or 'ultra-fast-fashion'. Before the vote, the representatives of the various Senate groups spoke to explain their positions on the vote. An opportunity to underline for some the positive amendments made to the bill, and its weaknesses for others. Many senators welcomed the removal of a provision of the 2022 anti-waste law on unsold goods, which allowed ultra-fast-fashion operators to benefit from tax allowances when donating unsold goods to charitable associations. The re-introduction of a blanket ban on advertising for ultra-express fashion operators was also appreciated. 'This law does not prohibit, it protects by defining what is abnormal. It protects our environment and that of our children. It protects the economy and our textile industry. We can be happy we are giving ourselves the means to achieve our goals,' said Nicole Bonnefoy, representing the Socialist, Ecologist and Republican group, adding that 'we welcome the re-introduction of article three, which will form a negotiation basis for requesting an amendment to the European e-commerce directive, so that these restrictive measures can be made to apply to companies based for example in Ireland.' Although the amendments have been approved by the groups, several points still prompted strong reservations. The introduction of the term 'ultra-express fashion' has led to much teeth-gnashing among environmental associations and sustainable fashion brands, which believe that the aim of fencing in all types of fast-fashion practices is no longer being pursued. Jacques Fernique of Ecologist group Solidarité et territoires insisted on this aspect, emphasising that the various laws will not enter into force for many months yet, since they have to be examined again by the European Commission and the joint parliamentary committee, something which won't happen before the autumn. 'Today's vote is a relatively positive step. Shein, Temu and Amazon are pushing to the extreme a business model that destroys local jobs and our city centres' appeal. But both ultra-express fast fashion and fast fashion adopt the same approach, selling transient, low-cost disposable products. This bill is targeting the ultra-fast fashion explosion, but we can't see why the penalties shouldn't potentially apply to everyone.' Fernique is campaigning for provisions that would 'push back against the kind of disposable fashion sold by foreign platforms but also by French and European companies. It's sustainable fashion that we ought to promote, regardless of the nationality of who sells it.' An issue which the majority of senators did not endorse. 'This bill has set a course. It doesn't pretend to solve everything, but it intends to draw boundaries,' said Valente Le Hir, who is affiliated with the Republican group and is the bill's rapporteur in the Senate. She has advocated for the middle ground in various issues, asserting that the Senate wants to draw up a 'stronger bill, not a travesty of it. We have said it's time to limit the excesses of express fashion without penalising those who are working towards greater sustainability in the industry. [The bill] has distinguished, within a poorly understood sector, what constitutes planned overconsumption and what constitutes sustainable innovation. We've clarified the target. We've drawn a clear line between what we want to regulate, ultra-express fast fashion as embodied by platforms like Shein and Temu, and what we want to preserve, in other words affordable, locally rooted fashion that generates jobs in France, that anchors our communities, creates connections and boosts local industry.' After the government will have sent the text over to the European Commission, the latter will have three to four months to comment. And while French MPs and senators will be working within the joint parliamentary committee, the Commission's analysis and observations will play a key role in the bill's final wording and provisions. In the meantime, the lobbying efforts that have been ongoing for months are set to continue.
