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  • Eiffel Tower reopens after strike over limits on women staff during Hindu delegation visit

    Eiffel Tower reopens after strike over limits on women staff during Hindu delegation visit

    PARIS – One of the globe’s most recognizable tourist landmarks, the Eiffel Tower, welcomed visitors again on Tuesday, just 24 hours after a worker strike shut down the iconic site over what union leaders described as unacceptable management orders. The action was triggered by a demand to restrict female staff presence during a weekend visit from a Hindu religious delegation.

    Diane Davoine, a representative of France’s CGT union, told the Associated Press that resentment built rapidly among Eiffel Tower employees through the weekend after site management issued the directive: female workers were ordered to avoid any direct contact with the visiting group from Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, better known by its acronym BAPS.

    BAPS is a global religious and civic organization affiliated with the Swaminarayan tradition, a major branch of Hinduism. The delegation was in Paris to mark the inauguration of a new traditional stone Hindu temple in the French capital.

    In an official statement released Monday evening, BAPS extended a public apology to all those who were offended or disrupted by the incident. “We are deeply committed to the universal values of mutual respect and service to others,” the organization said. “We respect the concerns raised and take them very seriously.”

    Officials from the Eiffel Tower’s operating company have not yet issued any public comment on the controversy. The 137-year-old iron lattice monument draws roughly 7 million visitors from across the globe every year, making it one of the most-visited paid tourist sites on Earth.

    Davoine noted that the Eiffel Tower regularly accommodates high-profile special delegations, from sitting heads of state like former U.S. President Donald Trump to visiting European royalty and A-list celebrities such as pop star Britney Spears, and staff have always been willing to adjust protocols for special events. But Saturday’s instructions, she emphasized, were extraordinary and crossed a line into unacceptable territory.

    Paris Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire, who made the announcement on the social platform X, confirmed that city officials would open a formal investigation into the incident. “Gender equality will never stop at the foot of our historic monuments, or anywhere else in this city,” Grégoire said. “It must apply everywhere and to everyone. I will ensure that it does — everywhere, without exception.”

    This is not the first time industrial action has disrupted operations at the landmark. In February 2024, a six-day strike closed the tower entirely, as workers walked off the job to demand improved infrastructure maintenance for the aging site and wage increases for staff.

  • Japan protests as China slaps new measures against its exports of a key chipmaking material

    Japan protests as China slaps new measures against its exports of a key chipmaking material

    BANGKOK, AP – In a move that adds fresh friction to already tense bilateral ties, China has introduced provisional trade controls targeting Japanese shipments of dichlorosilane (DCS), a critical ultra-pure chemical compound indispensable to semiconductor manufacturing. The new rules, which took effect Tuesday, have drawn immediate pushback from Tokyo, which says it is assessing the potential fallout for domestic Japanese firms and preparing a calibrated response.

    Beijing’s decision stems from an ongoing anti-dumping investigation into Japanese DCS imports. Chinese authorities argue that Japanese exporters of the material have violated global anti-dumping norms by undercutting prices, inflicting measurable harm on China’s domestic DCS production industry. Under the new provisional measures, any company importing DCS from Japan is required to post cash deposits with Chinese customs, with deposit rates reaching as high as 99.2 percent of the shipment’s value. The regulation explicitly targets major Japanese DCS producers including Shin-Etsu Chemical and Denal Silane, and applies to all other Japanese exporters of the chemical as well.

    Beijing emphasizes that the current restrictions are temporary, pending the conclusion of its ongoing investigation, with a final binding ruling to be issued at a later date. The trade action comes against a backdrop of steadily worsening relations between Beijing and Tokyo that dates back to November last year, when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi provoked fierce Chinese ire by suggesting Japan’s military could intervene if China resorted to military force against Taiwan. China claims the self-governing island of Taiwan as an inalienable part of its sovereign territory, and has repeatedly condemned foreign and Japanese statements interfering in what it considers an internal affair.

    In Tokyo, Japan’s top government spokesman Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara issued a formal protest over the new controls Tuesday. Kihara confirmed that Tokyo would take what he described as appropriate action to prevent unfair economic harm to Japanese DCS producers and exporters. This latest trade measure is not Beijing’s only action targeting Japanese trade in recent months: the Chinese government previously rolled out separate export controls on dual-use goods with potential military applications for Japanese firms, adding to a growing list of economic frictions between the two neighboring Asian powers.

    For the global semiconductor industry, DCS fills a uniquely critical role: the chemical is a core input for the chemical vapor deposition process used to lay down thin layers of silicon, oxide and other specialized films on both logic and memory semiconductor chips. While the global DCS market as a whole is marked by tight competition, Japan has long held a dominant position as the world’s leading supplier of the ultra-pure grade DCS required for advanced chip manufacturing. This market position means the new Chinese import controls could have ripple effects across regional and global semiconductor supply chains, even as the final outcome of Beijing’s anti-dumping probe remains uncertain.

  • Hungary orders 10 Russian diplomats to leave the country over activities deemed unacceptable

    Hungary orders 10 Russian diplomats to leave the country over activities deemed unacceptable

    In a landmark move signaling a sharp break from its predecessor’s pro-Moscow stance, Hungary’s newly installed government has ordered 10 members of Russia’s diplomatic mission in Budapest to leave the country, citing activities that violate international diplomatic rules. The announcement, made public by Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán on Tuesday, confirms that the Russian ambassador to Hungary was formally notified of the expulsion order.

    Orbán, who is not related to Hungary’s former long-serving Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, clarified that the decision stems from a Hungarian security assessment finding the 10 Russian diplomats engaged in activity incompatible with their diplomatic status under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the binding international treaty that outlines accepted conduct for diplomatic personnel globally. She declined to provide specific details about the alleged improper activities, nor did she specify the timeline by which the expelled diplomats must exit Hungarian territory.

    Crucially, the foreign minister emphasized that the expulsion is not a step toward cutting bilateral diplomatic ties between Budapest and Moscow. “This decision protects Hungary’s security and sovereignty,” Orbán said in an official written statement. “It does not imply breaking off diplomatic relations with Russia. Hungary intends to continue the necessary dialogue, based on mutual respect and adherence to the rules.”

    Moscow has already signaled it will push back against the action. In remarks carried by Russia’s state-owned news agency RIA Novosti, the Russian Foreign Ministry pledged to deliver an “appropriate response” to the expulsions, though it offered no further details on what form that retaliation might take.

    This diplomatic move marks the first major foreign policy shift from Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s administration, which took power earlier in 2025 on a campaign pledge to reverse the country’s long-standing pro-Russia alignment. Magyar’s predecessor, Viktor Orbán, maintained a close alliance with Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout his tenure, repeatedly working to delay or block collective European Union sanctions targeting Moscow over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and prioritizing bilateral energy trade deals with Russia.

    Analysts view the expulsion as a clear indicator that Budapest is aligning more closely with broader EU policy toward Russia, a departure from years of diplomatic ambiguity and pro-Moscow advocacy under the previous Orbán administration.

  • Renoir paintings stolen from provincial French museum

    Renoir paintings stolen from provincial French museum

    In an early morning theft that has shaken France’s cultural heritage community, two robbers stole four valuable Pierre-Auguste Renoir artworks from a small coastal museum on the French Riviera on Tuesday, before abandoning two of the pieces during their escape, according to local municipal officials. Law enforcement agencies have launched a full-scale manhunt for the unidentified perpetrators.

    Bryan Masson, mayor of the town of Cagnes-sur-Mer where the Renoir Museum is located, released an official statement confirming details of the heist. Footage from the museum’s on-site surveillance system clearly documented two suspects entering the landmark institution and removing four Renoir originals from their displays, Masson said.

    The museum’s security alarm was triggered at 5:48 a.m. local time, with responding police officers arriving at the scene just five minutes after the alert went out, the mayor’s statement added. In comments to local French newspaper Nice-Matin, Masson noted that two of the stolen paintings were quickly recovered in the museum’s landscaped gardens shortly after the thieves fled the property.

    Per local reports from Nice-Matin, the three unrecovered stolen works include *Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano*, *Coco Lisant* and *Young Girl at the Well*, bringing the total estimated value of all four stolen pieces to $10.5 million. A senior official from the regional police administration, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with departmental protocol, confirmed the theft and the ongoing search for suspects, adding that a formal criminal investigation has been opened. The official however declined to confirm the reported $10.5 million valuation of the stolen artworks.

    The Renoir Museum remained closed to the public all Tuesday as investigators processed the crime scene and collected evidence. In a strongly worded response to the incident, Mayor Masson emphasized that targeting the museum amounted to an attack on a core piece of Cagnes-sur-Mer’s cultural and historical identity. “Attacking the Renoir Museum is attacking a part of the history and heritage of Cagnes-sur-mer,” he said.

    Masson also used the incident to call for sweeping upgrades to security standards at cultural institutions across France, arguing that more must be done to protect the country’s priceless artistic legacy. Tuesday’s heist comes one year after a high-profile theft of crown jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris, a separate incident that also sparked widespread debate over cultural site security in France.

    Nestled between the iconic Mediterranean resort towns of Cannes and Nice, the Renoir Museum occupies the former private residence of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the leading French Impressionist painter who lived in the home until his death in 1919. The site is the most popular tourist attraction in Cagnes-sur-Mer, drawing thousands of art lovers from across the globe each year.

  • Highest paid world leader to get salary increase of $1 million

    Highest paid world leader to get salary increase of $1 million

    Singapore’s government has sparked widespread public debate after unveiling a controversial plan to raise annual salaries for top political office holders, including Prime Minister Lawrence Wong — a move that will cement his position as the world’s highest-paid elected political leader. Under the new salary framework, Wong’s annual compensation will jump more than 60% from the current S$2.2 million to S$3.6 million, representing a one-year increase of S$1.4 million (US$1.1 million). In a response to early criticism, the prime minister announced he would donate the entire additional pay increment to charity over the next five years.

    Wong defended the adjustment in remarks to the public on Tuesday, framing the pay raise as a critical policy to attract high-capacity talent to Singapore’s political leadership. The prime minister acknowledged that the existing gap between private sector executive earnings and ministerial pay had created significant barriers to recruiting experienced business leaders and top-ranking civil servants to run for public office. While the government cannot match the top end of private sector compensation, he argued, eliminating unnecessary financial barriers encourages capable Singaporeans to leave their private careers and enter public service. “Overall, I believe this will give me and future prime ministers a better chance of persuading capable Singaporeans to step forward, and of building the strongest possible team for Singapore,” Wong said.

    For the country’s ministerial cohort, the new scheme raises the base annual salary from S$1.1 million to around S$1.2 million, with performance-based bonuses pushing the average total pay for sitting ministers to roughly S$1.35 million by the end of the current government term. A portion of all ministers’ compensation is tied to the country’s achievement of key economic and social targets, including GDP growth, median income growth, and national unemployment rate goals. This structure, the government argues, aligns leadership pay with broader national progress.

    The policy has long followed a core government rationale: competitive political salaries act as a deterrent to corruption. Singapore consistently ranks among the top least corrupt countries globally in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index, which the government cites as evidence that the current pay model delivers results. For comparison, global political leaders earn far less: Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee receives roughly US$719,000 annually, Swiss President Guy Parmelin earns US$606,000, U.S. President Donald Trump draws a US$400,000 annual salary, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (corrected from the original text’s misattribution) earns approximately US$230,000.

    Even before the raise, Wong’s salary far outpaced that of any other sitting world leader. The announcement has drawn sharp criticism from Singaporeans at a moment of widespread economic anxiety: the country’s median monthly personal income stands at just S$5,773, and official data shows that layoffs (retrenchments) hit a five-year high in the final quarter of the most recent reporting period. Public concerns are already running high over job security for workers, employment prospects for new graduates, and persistent inflation driving up the cost of living. On Tuesday, thousands of critical comments circulated across Singaporean social media, with many describing the pay hike as “tone deaf” to the economic struggles of ordinary households.

    This is not the first time that high ministerial pay has been a flashpoint for public anger against the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), which has governed Singapore continuously since the country gained independence. In the 2011 general election, the PAP secured its lowest vote share in post-independence history, driven in large part by voter dissatisfaction over ministerial pay and immigration policies. The government responded with an across-the-board cut to political salaries the following year. The current move mirrors a 2007 precedent, when then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Wong’s predecessor, also pledged to donate his incremental salary increase to charity.

    Public opinion on the new policy remains split. A small share of commentators and members of the public have supported the adjustment, arguing that recruiting the most qualified candidates to lead the country requires competitive compensation. For the majority of the public, however, the gap between top political pay and ordinary household incomes continues to be a source of deep frustration, and the latest announcement has done little to resolve that long-running tension.

  • UK government will ban goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank in a toughening of its stance

    UK government will ban goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank in a toughening of its stance

    LONDON – In a significant shift of policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the United Kingdom government announced Tuesday it will implement a ban on goods produced in Israeli settlements built in the occupied West Bank. The move comes as a direct response to Israel’s ongoing expansion of settlement construction, which British officials say threatens the viability of creating an independent Palestinian state. Details of the new measure will be laid out to the House of Commons later this week by Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who confirmed last week he would pursue a full “reset” of the UK’s diplomatic relationship with Israel.

    Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden clarified ahead of the official announcement that the ban is not a blanket boycott of all Israeli products, but a targeted measure focused exclusively on settlement expansion activity that violates longstanding international law. Speaking to Times Radio, McFadden emphasized the core principle guiding the UK’s decision: “At the heart of the statement is the idea that the U.K., along with many other countries, do not want to see the possibility of a two-state solution in Israel and Palestine being erased by changes to the facts on the ground.”

    The dramatic policy shift comes against a deeply contentious backdrop in the region. Israel’s current government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is widely regarded as the most ultranationalist and religiously conservative administration in the country’s history. Since taking office, it has overseen a sharp surge in new settlement construction across the West Bank, a territory Israel captured during the 1967 Middle East war that the international community has long recognized as the core territory for a future independent Palestinian state. Netanyahu’s government rejects the premise of Palestinian statehood entirely, framing the entire West Bank as the biblical and historical homeland of the Jewish people.

    Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s centre-left Labour government has already taken incremental action against settlement expansion, imposing targeted sanctions on violent extremist settlers and unauthorized illegal outposts over the past year. Tuesday’s announcement scales up those measures significantly, extending restrictions to cover all trade in goods – and potentially select services – connected to any Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Burnham has repeatedly raised alarm over Israel’s recent approval of the controversial E1 settlement project, a planned development that would split the geographically contiguous Palestinian West Bank into two disconnected sections. Palestinian leaders and international human rights groups warn that if completed, E1 would eliminate any realistic path to creating a sovereign, unified Palestinian state.

    The UK’s decision marks the latest step in the country’s evolving approach to the conflict. As a longstanding close ally of Israel, the UK formally recognized Palestinian statehood last year in a bid to revitalize stalled international negotiations aimed at a two-state resolution.

    Domestically, the harder line on Israeli settlements is expected to gain broad support from within the Labour Party, where a large share of voters and lawmakers have pushed for bolder action to hold Israel accountable for its expansion policies and defend Palestinian rights. However, the move carries notable political and diplomatic risks. Some political analysts have warned that the UK’s action could play directly into Netanyahu’s hands, bolstering nationalist support for his government ahead of a tightly contested general election scheduled for October.

    Israeli officials have already issued fierce condemnation of the impending ban. Senior cabinet members have threatened reciprocal action: Foreign Minister Gideon Saar warned that “if Britain acts against Israel, Israel will act against Britain.” Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s hard-line public security minister, went a step further, calling on Netanyahu to formally back Argentina’s longstanding territorial claim to the Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic known as the Islas Malvinas in Argentina.

    The announcement has also drawn pushback from the United States. Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, labeled the ban “discrimination against the Jewish people” and warned that the UK could face “repercussions or retaliations” from the U.S. if it moves forward with the restrictions. Ahead of the public announcement, Burnham’s office confirmed the British prime minister held a call with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday to outline the UK’s position, stating Burnham “set out the U.K.’s commitment to working toward peace and security in the region” and reaffirmed the country’s commitment to achieving a two-state solution. No details have been released on how President Trump responded to the announcement.

  • Australian social media users to be offered choice to opt out of algorithms

    Australian social media users to be offered choice to opt out of algorithms

    CANBERRA, Australia — The Australian government has put forward landmark proposed legislation that would upend default social media practices across the country, giving users 16 years and older the explicit right to opt out of algorithmic content curation for their feeds and placing sweeping new child safety obligations on major digital platforms.

    Speaking to reporters in the national capital on Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese outlined that the proposed rules would mandate large social media services to build dedicated user empowerment tools. These tools would provide lasting, meaningful control over what content appears on a user’s homepage feed, ending the long-standing industry norm of forcing personalized algorithmic recommendations on all account holders by default.

    Under the draft framework, all new and existing users will receive a clear notification prompting them to make an active choice about their feed settings. Users can opt to retain an algorithm-driven default feed that surfaces personalized content tailored to their browsing history and engagement patterns, or they can reject algorithmic curation entirely. For those who opt out, feeds will only display chronological content from friends, followed accounts and creators the user has explicitly chosen to follow.

    Child safety sits at the core of the new regulatory package, which carries the name Digital Duty of Care legislation. The proposed rules require platforms to block minors from accessing a range of harmful content that has been linked to severe mental health harm, including material that promotes eating disorders, misogynistic hostile ideology, pornography, criminal activity and dangerous, high-risk physical stunts. The scope of the law extends beyond major social media platforms too: digital services ranging from online video games and mobile applications to AI-powered chatbots will also be required to implement safeguards against harmful design features, including addictive interface elements and functions that erode young users’ self-esteem.

    This new proposal builds on Australia’s already history-making digital regulatory regime. In December of last year, the country became the first nation in the world to enact legislation banning users under the age of 16 from opening personal accounts on the world’s largest social platforms, which include Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook, as well as ByteDance-owned TikTok. Despite that 2023 rule, enforcement has faced ongoing scrutiny: in April this year, Australia’s independent online safety watchdog announced it was weighing formal court action against five major platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube — over allegations that the companies have failed to take sufficient action to exclude under-16 users from their services.

    Albanese emphasized that the new framework shifts accountability for safe, user-centric digital practices directly onto big tech companies. “It gives users choice and it will hold the big tech companies responsible for inaction,” the prime minister said. “If they don’t follow our laws, they will face significant penalties.” The maximum financial penalty for violations of the Digital Duty of Care legislation would reach 109.2 million Australian dollars, equivalent to roughly $78.6 million U.S. dollars.

  • ‘Tirana teeth’: Albania hopes to be the new Turkey for dental work

    ‘Tirana teeth’: Albania hopes to be the new Turkey for dental work

    For 58-year-old British window cleaner Anthony Hook, a trip to Tirana for a football match turned into a life-changing dental journey that puts Albania’s booming medical tourism sector in the spotlight. Sitting back in a dentist’s chair, grinning widely as he inspects his new full set of dental implants in a handheld mirror, Hook is one of a growing number of Western Europeans flocking to the Albanian capital for affordable, reliable dental care.

    Albania’s capital has rapidly become the epicenter of a fast-growing medical tourism industry, centered heavily on cosmetic and restorative dentistry. Giant, glowing 3D molar signs dot the city center – not macabre leftover attractions, but playful adverts for the dozens of dental practices that have opened across the city. There are nearly 400 registered dental clinics in the Tirana metropolitan area alone, a number that far outpaces the needs of the local population of just over 600,000, with most clinics actively targeting international patients with multilingual websites and signage.

    The primary draw for patients like Hook is dramatic cost savings. A single dental implant in Albania typically costs around €600, a price point on par with rates in Turkey, which has long dominated the low-cost overseas dental market for Western Europeans. By comparison, the same procedure in the UK, France, or Germany often costs four times as much, putting full mouth restoration out of reach for many patients without comprehensive insurance coverage. For Hook, the choice to come to Albania rather than Turkey came down to safety concerns: widespread negative media coverage of botched procedures in Turkey, paired with an official warning from the UK Foreign Office noting seven British patient deaths and numerous complication cases linked to Turkish medical tourism in 2025, pushed him to explore alternatives. After two days of careful online research, he committed to treatment in Tirana, and after multiple follow-up trips, he now has a fully restored smile. Hook says he is so satisfied with the experience that he would happily visit monthly for a dental check-up and holiday if he could.

    Leading local clinics like Elite Dental, one of Tirana’s largest licensed practices with 15 fully certified dentists on staff, have built their international reputation on patient safety and care. Clinic director Ardtur Dema explains that his team prioritizes functional outcomes over unnecessary cosmetic procedures, focusing on restoring patients’ ability to eat and smile confidently. Dema notes that Albania’s non-EU status keeps operational and labor costs far lower than rates in Western Europe, while the expansion of low-cost airline routes to and from Tirana has made travel to the capital cheaper and more convenient than ever for patients from across the continent. Still, Dema warns that the rapid, unregulated growth of the sector could create risks: many unvetted, unethical operators have entered the market to cash in on the boom, threatening to damage the reputation of legitimate providers. Dema is part of the newly formed Albanian Medical Tourism Association, though many clinics have not yet joined the industry self-regulatory body.

    Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has acknowledged that the government is working to catch up with the sector’s explosive growth. Over the past five years, total international tourist arrivals to Albania have more than doubled, and medical tourism has emerged as a high-potential niche within the broader tourism industry. Rama says the government is exploring the creation of an official accreditation system for medical tourism facilities to protect patients and support reputable providers, though regulatory details are still being finalized. The government’s goal is to help ethical operators grow while cracking down on unregulated, informal bad actors that undermine consumer trust.

    Dentistry is not the only medical service drawing international visitors: Albania is also quickly expanding into the hair transplant market, following Turkey’s lead. Some clinics hire experienced Turkish surgeons, while others are direct branches of established Turkish global medical brands. Vatanmed, one such Tirana-based branch of an international chain with 15 clinics across multiple countries, markets its services to international patients seeking both affordable treatment and a Mediterranean holiday. Clinic representative Ayşe Mina Kasemi notes that Albania’s natural beauty, from its mountain interiors to its stunning coastline, adds an extra layer of appeal: patients can combine their procedure with a relaxing vacation, as long as they avoid prolonged sun exposure in the first few days after surgery.

    For patients like Hook, that combination of low cost, high quality care and scenic holiday opportunities is unbeatable. Already looking ahead to future trips, he says he is glad he visited now before the destination becomes overcrowded and prices rise, a common trajectory for popular medical tourism hubs. With his new teeth, he is looking forward to enjoying all that Albania’s coast, cuisine and hospitality have to offer for years to come.

  • Nepal cracks down on online abuse against flood survivors

    Nepal cracks down on online abuse against flood survivors

    In the wake of last month’s catastrophic flooding that left dozens missing and hundreds displaced across Nepal, Prime Minister Balendra Shah has announced a harsh government crackdown on unregulated online harassment targeting disaster survivors who have spoken out about slow search and rescue efforts. The prime minister’s public warning, shared via a Facebook post, makes clear that authorities will not tolerate behavior that adds to the anguish of families already grappling with grief and uncertainty.

    The crisis began when multiple flood survivors turned to social media to plead for information about missing loved ones and push public officials to accelerate search operations. Instead of receiving support, many of these vulnerable users have been met with virulent hostile comments from other online users. Shah condemned these actors in stark terms, stating, “People who make unnecessary remarks, belittle those in pain or seek to cause them further suffering at this sensitive time are criminals.”

    One high-profile case underscores the severity of the abuse. Two weeks after floodwaters swept through her community, a woman whose brother remains missing publicly told the BBC that Nepal’s search and rescue operations were unacceptably slow, arguing that timely deployment of specialized experts and equipment would have let her learn her brother’s fate far sooner. She told the outlet she still held out hope of finding him alive, but days after speaking out, she reported receiving dozens of vicious, insulting comments in response to her criticism, saying the abuse only compounded her family’s already unbearable suffering.

    A second viral case has drawn widespread attention: a pregnant young woman whose husband is missing posted a video criticizing authorities for what she described as a “lack of urgency” in search efforts, asking through tears, “My husband is missing now, how can I keep this baby?” The video quickly spread across regional social platforms, but instead of sympathy, it drew a wave of cruel insults. One comment urged her to jump into the flood-swollen river to conduct the search herself, while another accused her of unfairly scapegoating the government for the disaster.

    While a small contingent of social media users has pushed back against the abuse, calling on communities to console survivors rather than attack them, the frequency of these attacks has prompted formal law enforcement action. Nepali police officials confirmed they have launched investigations to trace the origin of abusive comments, cross-referencing digital metadata to identify perpetrators through their registered addresses and phone numbers. A dedicated 10-member inter-agency committee has been convened specifically to probe these cases of online harassment.

    Under Nepal’s existing Electronic Transactions Act, perpetrators convicted of defaming or harassing others via social media face severe legal penalties: up to five years of prison time, a fine of as much as 100,000 Nepali rupees (equal to approximately $662 USD or £490 GBP), or both.

    Digital rights experts say the abuse stems from multiple overlapping sources. Dovan Rai, executive director of Body & Data, a Nepal-based non-profit focused on advancing safe digital spaces, told the BBC that a portion of the insensitive comments come from users engaging in “rage baiting” — a manipulative tactic where creators post inflammatory negative content to trigger public outrage, drive engagement, and boost shares and clicks on their posts. Rai added that other abusers are staunch, ideologically driven supporters of the current government, who view any criticism of official disaster response as an attack that must be condemned. This extreme partisan polarization, she explained, has further eroded civil discourse on Nepal’s social media platforms, leaving vulnerable survivors caught in the crossfire.

  • German vote shows rise of far-right in Europe, but it hasn’t been a steady march

    German vote shows rise of far-right in Europe, but it hasn’t been a steady march

    BRUSSELS – Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) groundbreaking first victory in a German state election has reignited widespread concern over the growing momentum of far-right politics across the European continent. The breakthrough comes as millions of voters channel growing frustration over overlapping crises – from soaring cost of living and economic instability to heightened geopolitical tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and trade frictions with China and the United States – while mainstream political establishment struggle to craft cohesive, trusted responses.

    While anti-immigration, pro-Russian populist far-right parties have steadily expanded their influence across European national and regional institutions in recent years, the landscape is far from one-sided: the movement has also suffered high-profile setbacks, and many leading parties have softened their once-radical policy stances to enter governing coalitions with moderate, mainstream factions.

    In Sunday’s regional vote in Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD fell just short of an absolute majority, a result that would have allowed it to form the first far-right state government in Germany since the end of the Nazi era. Even without a full majority, however, the party remains in a strong position to negotiate a coalition and claim the region’s top leadership post. News of the AfD’s win was quickly celebrated by far-right leaders from Portugal to Austria, who are already gearing up for a wave of national and regional elections across Europe in the coming months.

    These upcoming contests will serve as a critical litmus test: will the AfD’s victory mark a permanent tipping point, unraveling the post-World War II anti-fascist consensus that has shaped European politics for 80 years? Or is it simply the latest example of a global pattern where angered, disillusioned voters oust sitting incumbent governments, regardless of ideology?

    In recent years, far-right parties have already secured cabinet positions and influence in multiple national governments across the bloc. The most high-profile success came in Italy, where Giorgia Meloni – leader of a party with historic neo-fascist roots – became prime minister, making her the head of government of one of Europe’s largest and most politically influential nations. Though Meloni campaigned on an anti-EU populist platform, she has shifted sharply to the moderate end of the spectrum once in office, a move that has earned her broad praise across the continent and allowed her to lead Italy’s most stable government in decades. Even so, she now faces a challenge from an even more right-wing upstart party led by a retired military general.

    Beyond Italy, far-right factions have joined ruling coalitions and taken control of key cabinet portfolios in Finland, Croatia, and Slovakia. In the 2024 European Parliament elections, populist anti-immigrant parties notched major gains across the 27-nation bloc, reflecting their growing grassroots support among European voters. In response, the center-right European People’s Party, the largest faction in the EU legislature, has increasingly aligned itself with far-right groups – a partnership that produced a controversial, historic overhaul of EU migration policy earlier this year, which drew fierce backlash from traditional center-left allies and global human rights organizations.

    Sophia Russack, a fellow at the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies, described the dynamic as a defining paradox for mainstream parties: “You partner up with them to prevent them from getting more powerful,” she explained.

    For all their recent gains, the far-right populist movement has also suffered a series of notable defeats in recent months. For 16 years, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán stood as the ideological standard-bearer for European far-right politics and a key inspiration for populist movements across the globe. But in April, he suffered a landslide defeat at the hands of a former ally who campaigned on an anti-corruption platform. In the Netherlands, iconic far-right leader Geert Wilders collapsed a governing coalition he helped co-found after his moderate allies refused to support his sweeping, hardline crackdown on immigration.

    In the United Kingdom, the anti-immigration far-right Reform UK party has expanded its influence steadily in recent years, scoring a major upset as the top winner in May local elections. That result triggered internal panic within the Labour Party, leading to the replacement of former leader Keir Starmer and the appointment of Andy Burnham as Prime Minister. Though Reform UK holds just eight of 650 seats in the House of Commons, it has repeatedly led national opinion polls and dominated national political conversation around immigration policy. Led by veteran nationalist figure Nigel Farage, the party has found particular traction in regions that voted to leave the European Union in the 2016 Brexit referendum. Even so, Reform UK has recently stumbled, losing multiple special parliamentary elections and facing growing scrutiny over its sources of funding.

    Jeremy Cliffe, editorial director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, noted that electoral setbacks for far-right parties send a mixed message: “These parties are mortal, they can be defeated, but when they’re in power, they’re not all chaotic and hopeless,” he explained.

    All eyes now turn to 2025 national elections in France and Spain, which will shape the future of the far-right’s trajectory across the continent. Lisa Musiol, head of EU Affairs for the International Crisis Group, noted that the contests will either confirm the movement’s continued advance or mark a clear halt to its growth.

    In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez – celebrated by the global left for his progressive stance on migration and his positions on the conflicts in Gaza and Iran – has faced widespread mass protests in response to the Ceuta border crisis. The far-right anti-immigrant Vox party, which currently holds just 32 of 350 seats in the national parliament, is widely projected to make major gains. It has already entered regional governing agreements with the center-right Popular Party, the parliament’s second-largest faction, in four autonomous regions. Following the AfD’s election win, Sanchez warned that the result should serve as a wake-up call for progressive forces across the continent: “a warning that the far-right threat is gaining ground in Europe and the world,” he said Monday, adding that “a progressive coalition government is more necessary than ever.”

    In France, far-right leader Marine Le Pen is currently the front-runner to replace deeply unpopular incumbent President Emmanuel Macron, who is constitutionally barred from running for a third term. Le Pen, leader of the National Rally, has long held anti-EU and anti-immigration policy positions. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, whose center-right party is one of many competing against Le Pen, condemned the AfD’s German win as a victory for “the neo-Nazi, anti-European and pro-Putin far right.” “We urgently need to open our eyes to the despair that is propelling such ideas and such parties to power,” he wrote in an online post. “It can be done, but this is our last chance.”

    This report includes contributions from Associated Press writers Suman Naishadham in Madrid, Giada Zampano in Rome, and Sylvia Hui in London.