Lula: 'We need global governance now more than ever'
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has decorated his office with care. You can see a large crucifix, a photo of his wife, a sculpture of a jaguar and a large map of protected natural areas around the world. In a turbulent and war-torn international context, the 79-year-old Brazilian president has remained true to his priorities: defending the environment and fighting poverty. These themes will take center stage during his state visit to France, beginning Thursday, June 5. Ahead of his departure, he granted Le Monde an exclusive interview from the presidential Planalto Palace in Brasília.
What are the goals of your visit to France and how would you describe your relationship with French President Emmanuel Macron? People remember the very warm images from your meeting in Brazil in 2024, which were described as "wedding photos"…
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France 24
5 hours ago
- France 24
France's top porn sites protest new age verification rules by blacking out
French visitors to major adult websites Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube were met Wednesday with a message denouncing privacy risks from government demands that they verify users' ages. 'Your government suggests checking your age every time you visit our site – that's crazy, right?' asked a message displayed on Pornhub in place of the platform's usual torrent of explicit content. It was topped with an image of the bare-breasted allegorical figure of Liberty brandishing the French flag from Eugene Delacroix's 1830 painting 'Liberty Leading the People'. France has this year gradually introduced requirements for all adult websites to have users confirm their age with details like a credit card or ID document, aiming to prevent minors from accessing pornography. 'Unacceptable security risks' In a bid to preserve privacy, operators must offer a third-party 'double-blind' option that would keep the platforms themselves from seeing users' identifying information. But Pornhub parent company Aylo says this is an ineffective mechanism that puts people's data at risk from bad actors, hacks or leaks. 'Requiring you to repeatedly provide sensitive personal information creates an unacceptable security risk that we refuse to impose on our users,' the message read. The platform argues that the French law also 'diverts users to thousands of sites that deliberately circumvent regulations' and that fail to moderate videos for issues like the age and consent of performers. 'Let them go' Aylo has called for governments to instead have makers of operating systems like Apple, Microsoft and Google verify users' ages at the level of individual devices. An 'age signal' from the operating system could then be used to grant or deny access to adult content without compromising privacy, the company argues. 'Let (Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube) go,' France's digital affairs minister Clara Chappaz said in a statement. 'They can come back the day they're ready to finally respect our rules.' Women's rights group Osez le feminisme (Dare to be Feminist) said in a statement that 'this multi-billion-dollar industry prefers to mobilise its resources to fight any attempt at regulation... rather than give up the free, unconditional access that feeds its business model.'
France 24
6 hours ago
- France 24
Paris seeks personhood status for River Seine
In a resolution adopted on Wednesday, the Paris City Council called on parliament to pass a law granting the Seine legal personhood to enable "an independent guardian authority to defend its rights in court". "The Seine must be able to defend itself, as a subject of law and not as an object, because it will always be under attack," said Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo. Conservationists have backed granting fragile ecosystems such as rivers and mountains basic legal rights to better protect them. In a world first, New Zealand in 2017 recognised the Whanganui River revered by Indigenous people as a living entity, with legislation combining Western legal precedent and Maori beliefs. In 2022, Spain granted personhood status to the Mar Menor, one of Europe's largest saltwater lagoons, to give its threatened ecosystem better protection. The Paris Council based its decision on the conclusions of a citizens' convention on the future of the Seine held between March and May. Fifty citizens chosen at random proposed granting the Seine fundamental rights such as "the right to exist, to flow and to regenerate". The Seine must be considered an ecosystem that "no one can claim ownership of", where the preservation of life must "take precedence over everything", the convention concluded. It also noted "positive" change, with the Seine now home to around 40 species of fish, compared to only four in 1970. French authorities spent $1.5 billion ahead of the 2024 Olympics to clean up the Seine, the 777-kilometre (482-mile) river that flows through Paris past the Louvre, Notre Dame cathedral and other iconic landmarks. However, it is threatened by pollution, rising water temperatures and the use of pesticides in agriculture. The opening of the river to the public for swimming this summer could present "additional risks", warned the convention. Fulfilling a key legacy promise from the Paris Games, authorities are to allow the public to swim from July 5 at three points in the Seine, which is now deemed safe for a dip. © 2025 AFP
AFP
6 hours ago
- AFP
Old video of political rally in South Africa predates diplomatic row with US over white farmers
'South African communists are celebrating the expropriation of land from exiled white farmers and calling for the killing of those who remain,' reads an X post published with a video on May 22, 2025. Image Screenshot of a misleading X post published on May 22, 2025 The 15-second clip shows a stadium full of people wearing red shirts, the same colours of the radical left South African political party Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). The crowd chants, 'Kill the Boer'. The 'boers' are white Afrikaans farmers, descendants of the first Dutch settlers in South Africa. The chant, reprised in recent years by the EFF, was a popular struggle song in apartheid aimed at the repressive Afrikaner nationalist establishment. Even after 30 years of democracy, land ownership in the country remains contentious, at home and abroad. After South Africa's parliament ratified an amended property expropriation law earlier this year, Trump falsely accused the government of a 'white genocide' and encouraged Afrikaners, especially farmers, to apply for refugee status (archived here). The claim circulated primarily in French, while other posts were shared in Spanish and Portuguese. AFP Fact Check previously debunked this claim in French. Image Screenshots of similar French misleading posts published on May 20, 2025 Claims that the video shows South African 'communists' celebrating the expropriation of farms left behind by fleeing whites are misleading. 2024 EFF election rally A reverse image search of keyframes taken from the video reveals that it appeared online as early as March 3, 2024 — long before the first group of white South Africans granted asylum arrived in the US. It was featured in an X post about EFF's election manifesto launch which had occurred the day before (archived here). The political party's poster on Facebook confirmed the manifesto launch date as March 2, 2024, at South Africa's Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto (archived here). A keyword search of the EFF's YouTube account shows there was a live broadcast of the rally (archived here). AFP Fact Check matched part of the audio in the video on X with audio about 68 minutes into the live stream. The clip features EFF leader Julius Malema, whose party secured 9.5 percent of the vote in the country's 2024 general elections. Malema is wearing the same white T-shirt in both the viral video (filmed from the stage) and the one posted on the EFF's YouTube channel. We also matched people on the stage with him to confirm it was the same event: a woman in a green dress and red beret and a man in a black shirt. Image Screenshots comparing the EFF video (left) and the misleading post video (right) Anti-apartheid song Malema and EFF supporters are known for singing 'Kill the Boer', a song originally chanted in protest against the former racist white-minority rule regime. The song was also part of the footage played in the Oval Office on May 21, 2025, when Trump ambushed Ramaphosa during their diplomatic meeting with a video package, as supposed proof of his claims about an ongoing genocide (archived here). Image Donald Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa watch the video package in the Oval Office on May 21, 2025 (GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / CHIP SOMODEVILLA) But many, including South Africa's ex-president Thabo Mbeki, have said the song is not meant to be taken literally (archived here). Ramaphosa reiterated this (archived here) on May 27, 2025, telling the media that 'it's not meant to be a message that elicits or calls upon anyone to be killed'. "We are a country where freedom of expression is in the bedrock of our constitutional arrangements," Ramaphosa added, dismissing Trump's suggestion that Malema should be arrested for singing the song. Singing the song was banned in 2010, but the Equality Court ruled it should be seen as a historical symbol in the fight against racial segregation and not as real incitement to hatred (archived here). In 2024, the country's Constitutional Court, the highest in the land, upheld that view (archived here). Diplomatic tensions At the end of January 2025, South Africa passed a law regulating expropriations and setting conditions for compensating former owners in all but exceptional cases (archived here). Most legal experts said the law clarifies the existing framework without major changes. But Trump claims it allows the illegal seizure of land from white farmers, who owned 72 percent of agricultural land according to 2017 government data (archived here). Trump has also accused the South African government of discrimination and of conducting a "white genocide", which AFP Fact Check previously debunked. The US offered white farmers asylum based on this falsehood, and had welcomed around fifty people by May 12, 2025. Local media reported that more Afrikaners also quietly arrived in the US on May 30, 2025 (archived here).
