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Animal activists have been turning up the heat on Milan Fashion Week to adopt a fully fur-free policy, with dozens of protesters demonstrating outside the Giorgio Armani show Sunday.Although the Armani Group went fur-free a decade ago, activists hope the powerful luxury company can pressure the National Chamber of Italian Fashion (CNMI), which organises fashion week, to disallow brands which use fur from participating.Sunday’s demonstration was one of several protests carried out this week in Milan by international anti-fur activists organised under the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT).Behind a barricade and large banner saying “Milan Fashion Week Go Fur-Free”, activists with a megaphone yelled “Shame on you for what you do!” as Armani guests left the show.Use of fur in the global fashion industry has dramatically fallen in recent years due to concerns about animal cruelty, changing trends and new synthetic alternatives.However, there remain notable holdouts, such as Fendi, owned by French conglomerate LVMH, a storied Italian luxury brand whose roots are in fur.Pierre-Emmanuel Angeloglou, the chief executive of Fendi, sits on the board of directors of the CNMI along with brands like Dolce & Gabbana, Prada and Ermenegildo Zegna, which have already rejected fur.Campaigners hope the anti-fur designers can convince Milan Fashion Week to ban fur, as London and New York have done.Smaller fashion weeks, including in Berlin, Copenhagen and Amsterdam, have also gone fur-free.”It won’t be Fendi that helps us reach our goal, because they have no interest in pushing this issue forward, but other brands might be able to contribute,” Alberto Bianchi, 25, one of the protest’s organisers, told AFP.The CNMI did not respond to an AFP request for comment.The activists had demonstrated on Wednesday outside Fendi’s Milan headquarters where its runway show took place.Inside, newly seated designer Maria Grazia Chiuri showed a collection that included “remodelled” furs, or old furs reworked.Bianchi said that focus on recycling could possibly be seen as “a step forward” but cautioned that LVMH is still actively investing in the use of fur.”I see it as a one-off move maybe to do a bit of greenwashing,” he said. “As long as we still have fur farms in Europe and we still have the possibility of importing it, it’s a gesture that doesn’t change the underlying idea.”The coalition won a victory in late January when pressure campaigns led to shipping giant DHL and cosmetics company Wella withdrawing as sponsors of Milan Fashion Week.Later this month, the European Commission is expected to rule on a 2023 citizens’ initiative that called on the EU to ban fur farms and the killing of animals such as mink, foxes, raccoon dogs or chinchillas solely for their pelts.Activists cite the cruelty inherent in fur farming, in which the animals are crammed into tiny wire battery cages before being gassed or electrocuted.Milan Fashion Week ends today, with focus now turning to Paris Fashion Week – which similarly does not have an anti-fur policy. Related Story Source link
Pope Leo XIV signs a soccer ball during a visit to a parish in Rome Sunday. – Reuters The secret conclave that elected Pope Leo head of the Catholic Church last May was interrupted when one of the 133 cardinals involved was found carrying a cellphone, a massive security breach, a book released Sunday revealed.As the clerics were preparing to take their first vote inside the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, which was fitted with jamming equipment to prevent outside communications, security officials picked up the signal of an active mobile connection.The cardinals stared at each other incredulously, then one of the older clerics discovered he had a phone in his pocket and handed it over, according to *The Election of Pope Leo XIV, a new book by two long-time Vatican correspondents.The book does not name the cardinal or suggest he had any motive for keeping his phone, saying that the moment left him “disoriented and distressed”.The scene was “unimaginable even for a film and never before seen in the history of modern conclaves”, wrote the authors, Gerard O’Connell and Elisabetta Pique.One such film, the 2024 hit *Conclave, imagined a tangled web of intrigues during the fictional selection of a pontiff.Last year’s unprecedented discovery of a phone was in its own way more startling than anything portrayed in that movie, O’Connell told Reuters.”Reality (was) better than fiction,” he said.Clerics taking part in a conclave take a vow not to communicate with the outside world and surrender their phones and all other communication devices for the duration of the proceedings, which can last for days.The Vatican press office did not respond to a request for comment about the new book, which offers behind-the-scenes details of one of the world’s most secretive elections.The cardinals met in a two-day conclave from May 7-8 under an intense global spotlight to elect a successor to Pope Francis, who died in April after 12 years leading the 1.4bn-member church.Much of the speculation at the time focused on the possibility that the cardinals would elect a new pontiff from Asia or Africa, given that the conclave was the most geographically diverse in history, with clerics from 70 countries taking part.However, no candidate from those regions garnered much support, according to the book, which discloses details of the cardinals’ votes for the first time based on information from interviews with participating clerics.While it is strictly forbidden for cardinals to reveal details of the secret balloting at a conclave without permission from the future pope, it is common for journalists to slowly tease out information from clerics in the years afterward.Two candidates immediately emerged as frontrunners inside the conclave, the book said.One was Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, a long-time Vatican official identified by many outlets as a leading favourite.The other was US Cardinal Robert Prevost, a figure who was mostly unknown outside church circles but would emerge as Pope Leo, the first pontiff from the US.On the first vote in the conclave, held in the evening of May 7, Prevost already received between 20-30 votes, an unusually large number, according to the book.Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who was also seen as a favourite going into the election, only ever received fewer than 10 votes in the conclave.On the fourth ballot in the afternoon of May 8, Prevost won with 108 votes.Tagle was sitting next to Prevost as the final vote was being tallied and offered the future pope a cough drop to soothe his throat, the book said. Related Story Source link
File Picture: Ian Russel. (AFP) The father of British teenager Molly Russell, who took her own life after viewing pro-suicide content online, hopes a documentary about her death will inspire change.The film — “Molly vs the Machines” — about his 14-year-old daughter will “bring back some of the grief”, Ian Russell acknowledged.But in an interview with AFP he said it will highlight how the tragedy was not isolated, and “there’s a real hope that it will become part of a conversation that might help bring about change”.The documentary, which premieres in British cinemas from March 1 and airs on the UK’s Channel 4 on March 5, recounts his quest to hold “digital systems designed for profit” accountable for his loss, according to Russell.Perhaps surprisingly, he opposes an outright social media ban for children, arguing “getting the platforms to change is actually much more effective”.The bereaved father is also seeking an end to impunity for big tech, which he says purposefully targets vulnerable people with addictive algorithms feeding them harmful content for monetary gain.’Baffling’Molly took her own life in 2017, with a coroner concluding five years later that she had died from an act of self-harm while suffering from the “negative effects of online content”.The inquest into her death heard that, of the 16,300 posts Molly saved, shared or liked on Instagram in the six-month period before her death, 2,100 related to depression, self-harm or suicide.Her engagement with pro-suicide content increased towards the end of her life, until “this intelligent, caring, beautiful person had been persuaded she was worthless”, her father said.”How Molly of all people could ever have been convinced of that, for those of us lucky enough to have known her, is just baffling,” he added.Research published in October by the Molly Rose Foundation, a suicide prevention charity founded and chaired by Russell, showed 37% of children aged 13-17 had seen at least one type of high-risk content relating to suicide, self-harm, depression or eating disorders during the week they were surveyed.According to the data, which was collected before child safety obligations of the UK’s landmark Online Safety Act became law, 27 % of those children said they had viewed such content at least 10 times that week.Tougher lawsThe foundation has welcomed legislation put forward by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government.It called a decision to ban AI chatbots from generating illegal or harmful content — a loophole exposed by sexualised deepfakes created by X’s AI chatbot Grok — a “welcome downpayment”.But it said the Online Safety Act, which legally obliges tech companies to better safeguard children and adults online, could go further.The law should require greater transparency from platforms and use separate age limits for different tools — such as AI chatbots.The foundation argues that would push companies to offer fewer high-risk services and make platforms safer.It is also calling for “fundamentally repurposed” algorithms that promote healthy content from trusted sources instead of “harmful and toxic material”.And it advocates for better digital education at schools to enable young people to “critically reflect” on online content.Russell favours this two-pronged approach over a social media ban for children, pointing out that Australia’s under-16s block only covers 10 platforms and might push minors to more dangerous fringe sites.Youngsters might find ways to bypass the rules, he added, while those turning 16 will enter an “unregulated” space.’Stand up’Concerns are only deepened by the impression that “tech barons” like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and X owner Elon Musk are above the law, according to Russell.He sees glimmers of hope, however. Zuckerberg recently addressed the safety of his platforms before a jury and under oath in an unprecedented California social media addiction trial.And in January, Britain’s media regulator Ofcom opened a probe into X for failing to meet its safety obligations. It is also investigating X and xAI — which developed Grok — over whether they complied with personal data law over sexualised deepfakes.”If leaders are brave enough to stand up and lock antlers with the barons of big tech, then change will happen,” Russell said. Related Story Source link
BASF employees display placards during a protest in front of German chemical giant BASF’s European administrative headquarters (BASF Services Europe GmbH) in Berlin. – AFP Waving placards reading “Broken Agreements, Sacrificed Futures”, hundreds of workers from chemical titan BASF protested in Berlin yesterday over plans to axe jobs in Germany and shift them to Asia.The looming cuts at a major office employing some 3,000 administrative staff in the capital are the latest sign of the huge pressures facing Germany’s traditional industries. They are part of a cost-cutting drive by the world’s biggest chemical company, which has been battered by high energy costs in Germany, weak demand and massive overcapacity on global markets.“What BASF is doing is not right,” Jesus Pinate, who works in BASF’s human resources division, told AFP at the protest. “They are taking away important jobs, a bunch of people are going to be unemployed,” added the 33-year-old, as some 300 protesters waved the red and white flags of the IGBCE chemical workers union. They also brandished placards emblazoned with various messages playing on the company’s name, such as “Berliners Axed, Shareholders Flourishing” and “Budget Above Staff Futures?”Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner addressed the protesters outside the BASF offices in Berlin, telling them that we “are fighting together for this site” “We are fighting together for your jobs with the works council, with the union, and with the Berlin legislature – I am sure that we will achieve something here.” Outlining the plans yesterday as it unveiled downbeat financial results, BASF said that back-office jobs would be reduced including at the Berlin office – the European hub of the global business services division – although it did not give a figure. A whole range of administrative tasks will in future be carried out at a new site to be established in India, as well as at an existing centre in Malaysia, the group said.“We will adapt our existing location structures and achieve significant cost savings as a result,” BASF chief financial officer Dirk Elvermann told reporters. He offered assurances that the Berlin hub would not be closed completely but conceded that it “will be smaller in terms of staffing than it is today”.Union representatives however slammed the plans to “relocate large parts” of the Berlin operation to India, and accused management of breaching existing agreements. Europe’s biggest economy has faced a storm of problems in recent years, from a manufacturing slump and fierce competition from China to weak demand in key export markets and high energy prices.Firms large and small are shedding jobs, and there is a steady drumbeat of redundancy announcements in sectors ranging from automotive to factory equipment makers. BASF’s latest results highlighted their problems – adjusted operating profit, a key metric for investors and analysts, slipped to €6.6bn ($7.8bn) in 2025 from €7.2bn the year before. Sales meanwhile fell to €59.7bn, from €61.4bn in 2024. The company’s shares fell by 2% after the results were announced.The group, with around 110,000 staff worldwide, is hoping for a turnaround through its cost savings, targeting in particular its historic site in Ludwigshafen, the largest chemical complex in the world. BASF chief executive Markus Kamieth said yesterday that his message was that “cost pressure will naturally remain”.“We will continue to seek constant productivity improvements and cost reductions in the coming years, especially in Europe, but also worldwide.” …
Germany advises ‘urgently’ against travel to IsraeItaly urges its citizens to leave Iran; France maintains advice to citizens not to travel to Israel, West Bank Britain said yesterday it had temporarily withdrawn its staff from Iran and closed its embassy, citing the security situation in the region. US President Donald Trump briefly laid out his case for a possible attack on Iran in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, underlining that while he preferred a diplomatic solution, he would not allow Tehran to obtain a nuclear weapon, Reuters reported. “We have temporarily closed the British Embassy in Tehran, this will now operate remotely,” a government spokesperson said in a statement. Britain’s foreign office said its ability to assist British nationals was now extremely limited, and there was no in-person consular support available even in emergencies. Germany’s foreign ministry yesterday “urgently” advised nationals not to go to Israel as it sharpened its travel advice over increasing tensions in the Middle East, AFP reported from Berlin.“Travel to Israel and East Jerusalem is urgently discouraged,” the ministry said in an advisory on its website. The advice had previously applied only to certain parts of Israel but now takes in the whole country, a ministry source confirmed. Earlier, the US authorised the departure of non-emergency embassy staff from Israel as it threatened strikes on Iran and pressed its biggest military build-up in the Middle East in decades. The move came a day after latest Oman-mediated talks between Iran and the US seen as a last-ditch bid to avert war. Initial optimism was tempered by Tehran warning Washington must drop “excessive demands” to reach a deal. The German foreign ministry source told AFP its embassy in Tel Aviv remained “fully operational”. Germany is “in close contact with our embassy in Tehran, including regarding the security situation of our colleagues on the ground”, the source added. However, due to diplomatic tensions with Iran, “our embassy in Tehran has not been fully staffed for some time” and is “only able to provide very limited consular assistance on the ground”, the source said. Italy’s foreign ministry has urged its citizens to leave Iran and advised extreme caution across the Middle East, citing persistently unstable security conditions, Reuters reported. “Italians in (Iran) for tourism or whose presence is not strictly necessary are urged to depart,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that travel to Iraq and Lebanon was also strongly discouraged. It advised Italian nationals in Israel to exercise maximum caution and remain vigilant.French foreign ministry reiterated its advice to nationals not to travel to Israel, Jerusalem and the West Bank even for tourism or family visits as a result of the security situation in Iran, Reuters reported from Paris.On its website, the ministry also recommended French citizens already there to show great vigilance and prudence and stay away from demonstrations and rallies and identify shelters. Source link
Manchester City Council’s Chief Executive Tom Stannard congratulates Green Party’s candidate Hannah Spencer following her victory in the Gorton and Denton by-election, at the Manchester Central…
Voters in northern England cast ballots Thursday in a local poll seen as a key test of the ruling Labour party's ability to fend off growing support for the hard right and leftists, as the country's traditional two-party system splinters.Defeat for the government in the parliamentary by-election would add to the woes facing unpopular UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who endures frequent mutterings about how much longer he can stay in office.Labour has dominated the Manchester constituency of Gorton and Denton for decades and won almost 51% of the vote there at the July 2024 general election that swept Starmer to power.But less than two years later, it is locked in a three-way fight for the seat with the anti-immigration Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, and the Greens, led by left-winger Zack Polanski.The lead-up to polling day has been fraught, with party leaders hurling insults at each other and activists accusing each other of misinformation and breaking campaign laws, highlighting the high stakes.’I voted Reform because of immigration — I'm sick of it,’ retired nurse Elaine Simpson told AFP outside a polling station in Denton, a majority white working-class part of the constituency.The 78-year-old noted she no longer trusted Britain's more establishment parties, adding: ‘You wouldn't be able to print what I think of Keir Starmer.’In nearby Levenshulme, home to more student and Muslim voters, the Greens appeared ascendant.’The Green Party is offering hope to the wider society, marginalised people, and I think they're the choice for working people,’ writer Matt Alton, 31, told AFP after casting his ballot.’Of people that I know around my age, I don't know anyone who's said that they're not voting Green.’But local Labour councillor Basat Sheikh was confident his party could retain the seat.’Our message has been clear from day one that it is about unity and not division,’ the 45-year-old said, as pouring rain did little to encourage voter turnout, which is typically lacklustre at such contests.Labour won the seat by more than 13,000 votes in 2024.The battle suggests British people appear increasingly willing to look towards insurgent parties to tackle long-standing, hot-button issues like the high cost of living and irregular immigration at the next general election, expected in 2029.’It illustrates how the two main parties are losing so much support at the minute,’ University of Manchester politics lecturer Louise Thompson told AFP, referring to Labour and the main opposition Conservatives. ‘It could be a real sign that they are in a lot of danger.’The vote was triggered by the resignation of former Labour MP Andrew Gwynne on health grounds.Matt Goodwin, a 44-year-old political scientist, is bidding to become Reform's ninth MP in the UK's 650-seat parliament.Standing for the Greens is Hannah Spencer, a 34-year-old plumber and trainee plasterer, who is hoping her party's pro-Palestinian stance will appeal to the constituency's 28% Muslim population.Local councillor Angeliki Stogia was chosen as Labour's candidate after the party's ruling body blocked the candidacy of popular Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.Burnham's bid to try to become an MP was widely seen as a precursor for a potential leadership challenge from the left against Starmer, who hails from the party's centre right.Starmer faced down calls to resign earlier this month amid a row over his appointment of Peter Mandelson, an associate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as Britain's ambassador to Washington.The prime minister has also taken flak for countless policy reversals and polls suggest he is the most unpopular British prime minister since surveys began.A win would help quieten the noise around his future before he faces a bigger moment of peril in May with elections in Scotland, Wales and London that pollsters predict will be painful for Labour. Source link
The Council of Europe, Europe’s watchdog for democracy and human rights, has urged vigilance as some European nations and the European Union mull a social media ban for children like in Australia. “As several European countries consider introducing a minimum age to access social media platforms, I urge caution in imposing sweeping bans,” its human rights commissioner Michael O’Flaherty said. Australia has since December required TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat and other top social media services to remove accounts held by under-16s, or face heavy fines. There were “legitimate concerns”, O’Flaherty said, as worry mounts that excessive screen time could harm childhood development and mental health. “Banning children’s access to social media, though, shifts the responsibility for safety from the platforms that create the environment to the children who navigate it,” he warned. “States should require platforms to prevent and mitigate risks to children’s rights by design and by default, and hold platforms accountable for failures.” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said last week that he was open to a social media ban for minors.French lawmakers last month passed a bill that would ban social media use by under-15s, a move championed by President Emmanuel Macron as a way to protect children from excessive screen time, but the Senate still needs to approve the proposal. France, along with Denmark, Greece and Spain, has been pushing for similar action at EU level. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has advocated going further with a minimum age limit, but first wants to hear from experts on what approach the 27-nation bloc should take. The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe rights organisation, which is not connected to the European Union, counts 46 member states.Council of Europe members sign up to the European Convention on Human Rights, which is enforced by the European Court of Human Rights. Source link
Hollywood and British royalty arrived Sunday at the London ceremony of the Baftas, the UK's biggest night for film, which will set the stage for the Oscars.Prince William and his wife, Princess Catherine, capped off a star-studded red carpet, which saw A-listers Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothee Chalamet and Jessie Buckley earlier in the night.William, the eldest son of King Charles III and president of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, was the latest royal to go about business-as-usual at the end of a dramatic week which saw his uncle and ex-prince Andrew arrested.The ceremony could also see some awards season drama, with offbeat political thriller ‘One Battle After Another’ facing off against vampire horror film ‘Sinners’ and ‘Hamnet’, a period drama about Shakespeare's family life.The awards, seen as a precursor to the Oscars in mid-March, regularly charts its own path with a diverse pool of nominees and nods to British homegrown talent.’Hamnet’ explores William Shakespeare's personal life, while Norwegian family drama ‘Sentimental Value’ completes the five Bafta best film nominees.Scottish actor Alan Cummings will host the ceremony, with Paddington Bear joining as one of the award presenters. Source link
A German minister walked out of the awards ceremony of the Berlin Film Festival after a prize-winning director accused Germany of complicity in the “genocide” committed by Israel in Gaza.Social Democratic Environment Minister Carsten Schneider left the ceremony on Saturday evening because of “unacceptable” remarks, his ministry said. Syrian-Palestinian director Abdallah al-Khatib, who picked up a prize for Best First Feature Award with his Chronicles from the Siege, said in his speech that the German government “are partners in the genocide in Gaza by Israel. I believe you are intelligent enough to recognise this truth.” Schneider was the only member of the German government attending the ceremony though he was not representing it, his ministry told AFP. The Ministry of Culture, contacted by AFP to find out the reason for the absence of its minister Wolfram Weimer, did not respond immediately. A leading member of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative party, Alexander Hoffmann, denounced what he said were “repugnant scenes” of “antisemitic” during the ceremony. “The accusations of genocide, the antisemitic outbursts, and the threats against Germany at the Berlinale are absolutely unacceptable,” Hoffmann, head of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian party allied with Merz’s Christian Democratic Union, told the Bundestag. The CDU mayor of Berlin Kai Wegner told newspaper Bild that “The open display of hatred towards Israel is in direct contradiction with what this festival represents.” The backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East led to a tense 76th edition of the festival. More than 80 film professionals criticised the Berlinale’s “silence” on the war in Gaza in an open letter, accusing the festival of censoring artists “who reject the genocide” they believe Israel has committed in Gaza.Award-winning Indian writer Arundhati Roy withdrew from the festival after jury president Wim Wenders said cinema should “stay out of politics” when asked about Gaza. Source link