Author: afp

  • Amid ‘Katespiracy’, Meghan Markle returns to Instagram

    Amid ‘Katespiracy’, Meghan Markle returns to Instagram

    Meghan Markle, the wife of Britain’s Prince Harry, is launching a new lifestyle brand seemingly named after the couple’s oceanside California home. An Instagram page and website for American Riviera Orchard went live without advance warning Thursday, both featuring a gold-colored crest for the new venture. 

    The logo featured the word Montecito, the celebrity enclave where the couple have lived since 2020, which is close to Santa Barbara — itself sometimes known as the American Riviera. The social media account’s biography simply reads: “by Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex.”

    A representative for the duchess confirmed her participation in the new venture to AFP, without providing further details. American Riviera Orchard appears to be a kitchen and lifestyle-themed brand.

    Thursday’s launch was accompanied by a grainy, retro-style promotional video in which Meghan Markle is seen arranging flowers and baking in a kitchen. A mailing list offered users the chance to sign up to become “the first to know about products, availability, and updates from American Riviera Orchard.”

    Harry and Meghan, who is American, quit royal duties in 2020 and relocated to California. Their official Instagram handle has not posted since then. Meghan’s personal social media accounts and former lifestyle blog were both closed before the couple married.

    In recent years, the couple have pursued a variety of media ventures. They criticised Britain’s royal family in a string of high-profile outpourings including a Netflix documentary series and Harry’s blockbuster autobiography Spare.

    The couple had a Spotify-exclusive podcast deal, which came to an end last year after just one show. Netflix also dropped an animated series created by Meghan but an executive for the streaming giant in January said multiple projects from the couple, including a movie, remained “in very early development.”

  • Palestinian leader names adviser Mohammed Mustafa as PM

    Palestinian leader names adviser Mohammed Mustafa as PM

    Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has appointed Mohammed Mustafa, a long-trusted adviser on economic affairs, as prime minister, the official Wafa news agency said on Thursday.

    Mustafa’s appointment comes less than three weeks after his predecessor, Mohammed Shtayyeh, resigned, citing the need for change after the October 7 attacks leading to Israeli genocide in Gaza.

    The 69-year-old now faces the task of forming a new government for the Palestinian Authority, which has limited powers in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

    Since 2007, control of the Palestinian territories has been divided between Abbas’s Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

    Mustafa, who studied at George Washington University in the United States, is an independent executive committee member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation — dominated by the ruling Fatah movement.

    He has served as deputy prime minister for economic affairs, held a board seat at the Palestine Investment Fund and worked in a number of senior positions at the World Bank.

    He has also advised the Kuwaiti government and the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, the Public Investment Fund.

    Mustafa was also involved in reconstruction efforts in Gaza after Israel’s 2014 invasion.

    ‘Right-hand man’

    Mustafa’s appointment represents an attempt to bolster Palestinian institutions and “close some loopholes in the Palestinian Authority” at a time when Abbas is “under siege and under pressure” from Israel and the United States, Palestinian analyst Abdul Majeed Sweilem told AFP.

    Mustafa would likely be seen as “acceptable to the Americans as he follows a liberal approach,” Sweilem added.

    The White House on Thursday welcomed Mustafa’s appointment, calling on him to deliver “credible and far-reaching reforms” as he prepares his cabinet.

    “A reformed Palestinian Authority is essential to delivering results for the Palestinian people and establishing the conditions for stability in both the West Bank and Gaza,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.

    Yet Khalil Shaheen, political analyst and writer, said Mustafa’s closeness to Abbas limits prospects for major change.

    “In the end, the man (Mustafa) remains the right-hand man of President Abbas… Abbas wants to say that he supports reforms, but they remain under his control,” Shaheen said.

    The Israeli military offensive after October 7 in Gaza has killed at least 31,341 people, most of them women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

    During the war, violence in the West Bank has flared to levels unseen in nearly two decades.

    Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 430 Palestinians in the West Bank since the Gaza war began, according to the health ministry in Ramallah.

    The United States and other powers have called for a reformed Palestinian Authority to take charge of all Palestinian territories after the end of the war.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has rejected postwar plans for Palestinian sovereignty.

    Shortly after Shtayyeh’s resignation in late February, Palestinian factions including Hamas and Fatah participated in talks hosted by Russia that addressed the war in Gaza and post-war plans.

    Afterwards the factions said in a statement they would pursue “unity of action” in confronting Israel.

  • Israeli general in Gaza criticises political leaders

    Israeli general in Gaza criticises political leaders

    An Israeli general leading troops in Gaza has delivered rare public criticism of the country’s political leadership, demanding it “be worthy” of the soldiers fighting against Hamas in the Palestinian territory.

    Brigadier General Dan Goldfus, head of the 98th division deployed in Gaza’s main southern city of Khan Yunis, also appeared to enter into a row over exempting ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service.

    He was subsequently summoned by the military leadership for his comments, which breached a long-standing taboo on uniformed officers publicly wading into politics.

    “You must be worthy of us,” Goldfus said of his country’s leaders, in comments broadcast on Israeli television on Wednesday.

    He called for Israeli politicians “to push aside the extreme, and adopt togetherness” in the Gaza following October 7 attacks.

    The general vowed that military commanders and soldiers would take responsibility for their actions.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far stopped short of assuming personal responsibility for Israel’s intelligence failures on October 7 and said any official investigations must take place after the war.

    “We will not run from responsibility. We bow our heads in light of our reverberating failure on October 7, but at the same time are leading forward,” the general said.

    Since Israel launched a ground offensive in Gaza on October 27, 249 soldiers have been killed in the Palestinian territory, according to the military.

    Addressing Israel’s political leaders, Goldfus called on them to ensure that “everyone takes part” in enlisting in the armed forces, in an apparent reference to ultra-Orthodox Israeli men being exempt from national service — a contentious political issue.

    Most Jewish men are required by law to serve in the Israeli military, but members of the ultra-Orthodox minority — known in Hebrew as Haredim — have long been given sweeping exemptions.

    Since the October 7 attack, public frustration over the exemption has resurfaced, adding pressure on Netanyahu’s governing coalition, which relies on ultra-Orthodox allies staunchly opposed to drafting Haredi men.

    Neither Netanyahu nor Defence Minister Yoav Gallant publicly responded to Goldfus’s remarks.

    Some lawmakers voiced their approval while others expressed dissatisfaction with the general making political statements of any kind.

    Yoav Segalovitz, a centrist opposition lawmaker, told Kan public radio on Thursday that “a uniformed officer needs to talk only about what’s related to his decisions or take off the uniform”.

    Writing in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, columnist Nahum Barnea said that “with all respect to the heartfelt sentiments of the esteemed officer, fighting in Gaza doesn’t give him the right or the authority to express a position on political matters”.

    Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed at least 31,341 Palestinians since October 7, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.

  • Streaming giant Spotify adds music videos to output

    Streaming giant Spotify adds music videos to output

    Stockholm (AFP) – Music streaming giant Spotify on Wednesday announced it would be posting music videos on its platform in “select markets”, entering an arena long dominated by YouTube.

    “The beta version of music videos on Spotify begins rolling out today…,” the company said in a statement.

    It would release limited catalogue of hits from global artists such as Ed Sheeran, Doja Cat, and Ice Spice, as well as local favourites, it added.

    Initially, the music videos will only be available to paying subscribers in the UK, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Brazil, Colombia,the Philippines, Indonesia, and Kenya.

    In early February, Spotify announced it had passed 600 million monthly users, of which 236 million were paying subscribers.

    Google’s streaming behemoth YouTube has long dominated music videos online, with much of the platform’s most-viewed content being music videos.

    Songs like Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito,” Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” and K-pop star Psy’s viral hit “Gangnam Style” each gathered several billion views.

    Spotify has invested heavily since its launch to fuel growth with expansions into new markets and, most recently, exclusive content such as podcasts.

  • At least 60 Afghans killed by weeks of intense snow, rain

    At least 60 Afghans killed by weeks of intense snow, rain

    At least 60 people have been killed by heavy rain and snow in Afghanistan over the past three weeks, the government’s disaster ministry said Wednesday.

    Afghanistan has been parched by an unusually dry winter, but the end of the season is normally a time when deadly bad weather — particularly floods — batter communities.

    “Because of the snow and rains unfortunately sixty compatriots have been martyred and 23 people injured” since February 20, ministry spokesman Janan Sayeq said in a video statement.

    About 1,645 houses have been totally or partially ruined and nearly 178,000 livestock killed, he added.

    Since the collapse of the US-backed government and the return of the Taliban, foreign aid to Afghanistan has shrunk dramatically, undermining the already impoverished nation’s ability to respond to disasters.

    Western Herat province — still reeling from a succession of devastating earthquakes in October — has been hit by flash floods after heavy rain since Monday evening.

    Five members of the same family were killed Tuesday when the roof of their home collapsed in the provincial capital of Herat city, disaster management official Abdul Zaher Noorzai told reporters.

    Provisional data showed about 250 houses had been destroyed and vast tracts of farmland flooded, he added, saying aid should begin arriving on Thursday.

    Like many other houses in the area, the one that caved-in on the five relatives had been damaged in a series of earthquakes five months ago, local imam Naqibullah told AFP.

    The trio of quakes — starting on October 7 — killed nearly 1,500 and left some 30,000 homes totally or partially destroyed, according to the United Nations.

  • UN aid agency in Gaza hit by Israel, injuries reported

    UN aid agency in Gaza hit by Israel, injuries reported

    The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said one of its aid warehouses in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip was “hit” on Wednesday, wounding scores of people.

    “At least one UNRWA staff member was killed and another 22 were injured when Israeli forces hit a food distribution centre in the eastern part of Rafah” in southern Gaza, the agency said in a statement.

    The health ministry in Gaza Strip earlier had said four people were killed in the “bombing of the warehouse”.

    Wednesday’s incident comes amid mounting concern about worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza, where Israel has carried out military operations since October intended to eliminate the Hamas militant group.

    “Today’s attack on one of the very few remaining UNRWA distribution centres in the Gaza Strip comes as food supplies are running out, hunger is widespread and, in some areas, turning into famine,” said UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini.

    He also said the UN had shared coordinates of the facility with the Israeli army on Tuesday.

    An UNRWA spokeswoman said the facility was used “to distribute much-needed food and other lifesaving items to displaced people in southern Gaza”.

    At least 165 UNRWA employees have been killed since the beginning of the war on Gaza, Wednesday’s UNRWA statement said.

    “More than 150 UNRWA facilities were hit, some totally destroyed, among them many schools,” it said.

      ‘How can they bombard us?’ 

     An AFP photographer saw victims of the strike on Wednesday arriving at Al-Najjar hospital in Rafah, at least one of whom was identified by other people at the hospital as a UN employee.

    Witnesses said the strike compounded security fears in Rafah, which is overcrowded with 1.5 million mostly displaced people, further marring the normally festive Muslim fasting month of Ramazan which began on Monday.

    “It’s an UNRWA centre, expected to be secure,” said Rafah resident Sami Abu Salim.

    “Some came to work to distribute aid to the people in need of food during the holy month of Ramazan. Suddenly, they were struck by two missiles.”

    Hasan Abu Auda, displaced from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, said people had come to the warehouse “to sustain themselves for their daily meals”.

    “It’s Ramazan today,” he said. “How can they bombard us during the month of Ramazan?”

    Israel’s aggressive military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 31,272 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

    Gaza’s dire food shortages after more than five months of war have resulted in 27 deaths from malnutrition and dehydration, most of them children, the ministry says.

    Cumbersome Israeli security checks on all cargoes entering the territory slow down the delivery of aid, and some trucks are sent back when they are found to contain forbidden items, aid workers say.

    Israeli authorities say bottlenecks are caused by aid piling up on the Palestinian side as there are not enough trucks to distribute it.

  • Nearly 230,000 children, new mothers risk dying of hunger in Sudan: NGO

    Nearly 230,000 children, new mothers risk dying of hunger in Sudan: NGO

    Without critical action, nearly 230,000 children and new mothers in war-ravaged Sudan are “likely to die from hunger”, Save the Children warned on Wednesday.

    Nearly 11 months of fighting between the forces of two rival generals has killed thousands and displaced eight million people in the northeast African country, the United Nations says.

    The bombing and destruction of fields and factories have plunged Sudan into “one of the worst” nutrition situations in the world, said Arif Noor, Save the Children’s country director in Sudan.

    “Nearly 230,000 children, pregnant women and new mothers could die in the coming months,“ the British non-governmental organisation said.

    The charity said “more than 2.9 million children in Sudan are acutely malnourished and an additional 729,000 children under five are suffering from severe acute malnutrition — the most dangerous and deadly form of extreme hunger”.

    It warned “about 222,000 severely malnourished children and more than 7,000 new mothers are likely to die” under the current levels of funding which “only covers 5.5 percent” of Sudan’s total needs.

    The United Nations’ World Food Programme sounded the alarm on Sudan this month, warning the war risked triggering the world’s largest hunger crisis.

    The conflict, which experts have warned could last years, is being fought between Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, his former deputy and commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

    Noor warned the situation would only worsen as the consequences of the current fighting take hold.

    “No planting last year means no food today. No planting today means no food tomorrow. The cycle of hunger is getting worse and worse with no end in sight — only more misery,“ he said.

    Already, more than half of all Sudanese, including 14 million children, require humanitarian assistance to survive, the United Nations says.

    The UN has described a “climate of sheer terror”, reporting the use of heavy artillery in densely populated urban areas, sexual violence as a weapon of war, the destruction of hospitals and schools.

    The United States has accused both sides of war crimes and alleged the RSF has carried out ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

    A report before the UN Human Rights Council details gross violations and abuses of international human rights law and possible war crimes.

    Earlier in March, the UN’s human rights chief Volker Turk called the conflict a “living nightmare” and said it had “slipped into the fog of global amnesia”.

    The conflict has driven 18 million people into food insecurity, including five million who are only one stage away from famine.

    Humanitarian organisations have been prevented from entering Sudan or moving freely and have come under attack by both sides. – AFP

  • China warns proposed TikTok ban will ‘come back to bite’ US

    China warns proposed TikTok ban will ‘come back to bite’ US

    Beijing (AFP) – Beijing warned on Wednesday that a proposed ban on Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok would “inevitably come back to bite the United States”.

    The US House of Representatives is set to vote later Wednesday on a bill that would force the app to cut ties with its Chinese owner or get banned in the United States.

    The legislation is the biggest threat yet to the video-sharing app, which has surged to huge popularity across the world while raising fears among governments and security officials over its Chinese ownership and potential subservience to the Communist Party in Beijing.

    Ahead of the vote, foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin condemned the proposed ban.

    “Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok,” he said.

    “This kind of bullying behaviour that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies’ normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order,” he added.

    “In the end, this will inevitably come back to bite the United States itself,” Wang said.

    The vote is likely to occur at 10:00 am (1400 GMT) and is expected to pass overwhelmingly in a rare moment of bipartisanship in politically divided Washington.

    The fate of the bill is uncertain in the Senate, where key figures are against making such a drastic move against an hugely popular app that has 170 million US users.

    President Joe Biden will sign the bill, known officially as the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” into law if it comes to his desk, the White House has said.

    TikTok staunchly denies any ties to the Chinese government and has restructured the company so the data of US users stays in the country, the company says.

    TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is in Washington, trying to shore up support to stop the bill.

    “This latest legislation being rushed through at unprecedented speed without even the benefit of a public hearing, poses serious Constitutional concerns,” wrote Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s vice president for public policy, in a letter to the bill’s co-sponsors seen by AFP.

  • Teenager on bicycle stabs two Israelis at West Bank checkpoint

    Teenager on bicycle stabs two Israelis at West Bank checkpoint

    A 15-year-old boy riding a bicycle stabbed two Israeli security personnel at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday before he was “neutralised,” police said.

    The attack occurred at around 8:15 am (0615 GMT) at the Tunnels checkpoint south of Jerusalem when the teenager arrived on a bicycle, the force said in a statement.

    “When security forces at the crossing attempted to check him, the terrorist drew a knife and began stabbing the forces present at the scene,” the police said.

    “An armed civilian guard immediately engaged with the terrorist, and simultaneously IDF (army) forces at the location responded with precise gunfire neutralising the terrorist.”

    Two security personnel were wounded in the stabbing, the police said. It was unclear whether the attacker had been killed.

    The knife attack comes a day after a 12-year-old Palestinian boy died after being shot by Israeli border police at a refugee camp in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

    Rami Hamdan al-Halhuli, 12, suffered a fatal gunshot wound during clashes between residents of the Shuafat refugee camp and police, who said the child had aimed fireworks at them.

    Hundreds of extra police have been deployed in the Old City of east Jerusalem since the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan began on Monday.

    myl-jd/kir

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Huge blast kills two, injures 26 in northern China

    A huge suspected gas explosion at a restaurant in northern China killed two people and injured 26 more during Wednesday rush hour, state media reported, causing severe damage to buildings.

    The blast occurred just before 8:00 am (0000 GMT), state broadcaster CCTV said, in a residential area in the city of Sanhe, Hebei province, less than 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of the centre of Bejing.

    CCTV reported at 1:30 pm that two people had since died and that 26 were injured. The fire has been extinguished, it added.

    The explosion was suspected to have been caused by a gas leak at a fried chicken shop, state media reported.

    “I heard a great big bang… which scared me stiff,” a seller at a local market told AFP.

    “Outside, I saw clouds of black smoke,” they added.

    Another seller said they also heard a “huge bang” from the blast site, in a bustling area of squat apartment blocks about six or seven floors high.

    An AFP team at the scene also observed police waving oncoming traffic away from an entrance to the neighbourhood where the explosion occurred.

    From a police cordon on the north side of the blast zone, they could see a tower of grey smoke a few hundred metres (yards) away, with what appeared to be a crane positioned near it.

    ‘Destroyed‘

    Footage online circulated by state media showed a huge explosion that sent plumes of smoke and fire across a busy road.

    Another video on social media verified by AFP showed what appeared to be a building that had completely collapsed as well as several destroyed cars and debris strewn across the street.

    The blast blew out shop facades opposite, footage shared on video-sharing site Douyin showed. The uploader told AFP the explosion took place 200 metres from her home.

    Rescue workers rushed to the scene, with the local Langfang fire department saying 36 emergency vehicles and 154 personnel had been dispatched.

    A merchant working at a nearby store told state-run Jimu News she had been in her shop when she heard a bang.

    She ran out of her store and saw a building on fire, she said, adding that “the whole building was virtually destroyed”.

    Accidents common

    Explosions and other deadly accidents are common in China due to lax safety standards and poor enforcement.

    Last month, at least 15 people were killed and 44 injured in a fire at a residential building in the eastern city of Nanjing.

    In January, dozens died after a fire broke out at a store in the central city of Xinyu, with state news agency Xinhua reporting the blaze had been caused by the “illegal” use of fire by workers in the store’s basement.

    That fire came just days after a late-evening blaze at a school in central Henan province killed 13 schoolchildren as they slept in a dormitory.

    Domestic media reports suggested the fire was caused by an electric heating device.

    And in November last year, 26 people were killed and dozens sent to hospital after a fire at a coal company office in northern Shanxi province.

    Last June, an explosion at a barbecue restaurant in the northwest of the country left 31 dead and prompted official pledges of a nationwide campaign to promote workplace safety.