Africa sets out stall for cotton at the WTO

OpenAI's GPT models can often be fooled into declaring that "pseudo-literary" nonsense is great, a German researcher has found.

Christoph Heilig said he discovered that they consistently rated "nonsense" higher -- including when their so-called "reasoning" features were activated -- which could have stark implications for the development of artificial intelligence.

"It's very important that we talk about what happens when we don't build AI as a neutral, robotic helper or assistant" and seek to instil human-like aesthetic and moral judgements, the academic at Munich's Ludwig Maximilian University told AFP.

His research presented the models with increasingly far-fetched variations of a simple text, asking them to rate sentences out of 10 for literary quality.

He started with a very simple text: "The man walked down the street. It was raining. He saw a surveillance camera."

He repeated the tests many times, altering the phrases to include words drawn from categories such as bodily references, film noir-style atmosphere and technical jargon.

The most extreme test phrases were almost total "nonsense", such as "Goetterdaemmerung's corpus haemorrhaged through cryptographic hash, eschaton pooling in existential void beneath fluorescent hum. Photons whispering prayers" -- which it rated highly.

"Nonsense" could also positively or negatively influence GPT's responses when it was added to an argument the AI was asked to evaluate.

"What my experiment definitely shows is that the more we move towards independently acting (AI) agents... the more we bring aesthetics into play, the more we'll have agents that seem irrational to us human beings," Heilig said.

He added that since AI models are increasingly used to judge each other's work as companies develop new systems, this and similar effects could be passed on through multiple versions -- as he found in his testing.

His research, which is yet to be peer-reviewed, tested OpenAI's latest GPT models, from GPT-5 -- released in August -- to the very latest GPT-5.4.

After publishing details of a similar experiment in August, Heilig said he noticed GPT calling some of his specific test phrases a "literary experiment" -- suggesting someone at OpenAI had taken notice and modified the chatbot to recognise them.

- 'Ripe for exploitation' -

"This is a way in which AI can have its rational judgment short circuited," said Henry Shevlin, associate director of the University of Cambridge's Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, who was not involved in the research.

"But it's just not clear to me that it's so very different for human beings," he added.

"We should expect LLMs (large language models) to have reasoning and cognitive biases and limitations... because almost all forms of intelligence, almost all forms of reasoning are going to exhibit blind spots and biases." 

The specific effect found by Heilig could mean that "processes with little human oversight" of AI work are left "ripe for exploitation", Shevlin said -- giving the example of academic journals that use LLMs to review submissions.

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(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump hosted his second cabinet meeting of the year, the first since strikes on Iran, highlighting ongoing negotiations with the Islamic Republic.

Trump kicked off the Thursday cabinet meeting by providing an update on the conflict with Iran, underscoring that the Islamic regime is eager to make a deal to end the 26-day conflict.

“They are begging to work out a deal. I don’t know if we’ll be able to do that. I don’t know if we’re willing to do that. They should’ve done that four weeks ago,” said the president. “They now have the chance, that is Iran, to permanently abandon their nuclear ambitions, and to chart a new path forward…if they don’t, we’re their worst nightmare. In the meantime, we’ll just keep blowing them away.”

Trump called out NATO for not offering to help sooner, calling the conflict “a test for NATO,” adding that “we will remember … never forget.”

“We’re very disappointed with NATO. NATO has done absolutely nothing,” said Trump.

Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed that the U.S. is working with Pakistan as an intermediary to deliver the proposed 15-point peace plan.

Witkoff described the talks with the Islamic regime as “sensitive diplomatic discussion.” He added that “we will see where things lead,” hoping to avoid further death and destruction.

“The Iranians said they have the ‘inalienable right to enrich.’ Then we heard they possessed enough 60% enriched material, 460 kilograms to make 11 atomic bombs. Also, they would not give up diplomatically what we could not win militarily,” Witkoff added.

Witkoff addressed the peace talks that led up to the strikes, arguing he and Jared Kushner “exhausted all efforts,” believing Iran was trying to buy time. He warned Iran not to “miscalculate again.”

Trump also announced Iranian officials “gifted” the U.S. 10 boats of oil as a way to reassure U.S. officials that they are negotiating with the right people, adding they sailed under the Pakistani flag.

Despite ongoing peace talks, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the “Department of War will continue to negotiate with bombs.”

The president added there are still targets remaining in Iran that he would like to hit, but wouldn’t indicate which ones.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio claims Iran is at its weakest point, but underscored that the country remains a threat. He added that every one of the president’s objectives in Iran is being “effectuated.”

The secretary reiterated Iran’s threat to the world, pointing to countries unhappy with the operation.

“I think countries around the world, even those that are out there complaining about this a little bit, should be grateful that the United States has a president that’s willing to confront a threat like this and not allow it to continue to persist,” said Rubio.

In an effort to address rising oil prices, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the U.S. is working to ensure oil shipments get through the Strait of Hormuz.

“We are starting to see more and more movement in and out of the Gulf today,” Bessent added.

(The Center Square) – A second federal appeals court has sided with the Trump administration’s effort to detain illegal immigrants without bond.

In a split decision released Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled that illegal immigrants arrested anywhere in the United States can be considered “seeking admission.” That classification allows federal authorities to hold them without a bond hearing while deportation proceedings continue.

The ruling overturned a lower court’s ruling and followed a similar decision last month from the Fifth Circuit, which also upheld the Department of Homeland Security’s authority to deny bond hearings to immigrants arrested across the country.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi applauded the decision, calling it a “massive court victory” on social media.

The case centered on Joaquin Herrera Avila, a Mexican national arrested in Minnesota in August 2025 for lacking legal documents, despite having lived in the United States for more than 20 years.

A federal district judge had previously ruled that he should be eligible for a bond hearing, finding he was not “seeking admission” under the law.

But the Eighth Circuit reversed that ruling, with Judge Bobby E. Shepherd writing for the majority.

“Being ‘admitted’ does not merely mean being present in the United States,” he said in the 11-page ruling. “Under immigration law, it signifies having made a lawful entry into the country.”

Shepherd added that an “applicant for admission” is also an illegal immigrant “seeking admission,” meaning the government may detain such individuals without bond.

Judge Leonard Steven Grasz joined Shepherd in the majority, while Judge Ralph R. Erickson dissented.

Erickson criticized the ruling as “a novel interpretation” of federal law. He noted that, aside from a single DUI conviction, Avila had lived “a law-abiding life” in the United States.

The Trump administration hailed the ruling as a big win for its immigration agenda.

“MASSIVE COURT VICTORY against activist judges and for President Trump’s law and order agenda,” Bondi said. “The law is very clear, but Democrats and activist judges haven’t wanted to enforce it. This administration WILL. Imagine how many illegal alien crimes could have been averted if the left had simply followed the law?”

With federal judges split on the issue, this newest ruling could set up a potential Supreme Court showdown.

British pop legend and former Beatle Paul McCartney on Thursday released a new single and announced his first album in over five years, examining his life in Liverpool before global stardom.

The 83-year-old, one of the most successful artists of all time, announced the 14-track album titled "The Boys Of Dungeon Lane", taking listeners on a trip down memory lane in the northern English city.

It will include early adventures with his late bandmates George Harrison and John Lennon, prior to Beatles fame, according to the singer's website.

"The Boys of Dungeon Lane is his most introspective album to date and takes the listener back to where it all began," McCartney's website states. 

McCartney named the album, which will be released on May 29, after Dungeon Lane, a place close to his childhood home in the Liverpool suburb of Speke.

It is referenced in the newly released single "Days We Left Behind", which the songwriter described as a "memory song" that inspired the album title.

The record will also feature new love songs and memories of life before the Beatles.

"I do often wonder if I'm just writing about the past but then I think how can you write about anything else?" McCartney said in a statement on his website. "It's just a lot of memories of Liverpool."

"We didn't have much at all but it didn't matter because all the people were great and you didn't notice you didn't have much."

The announcement comes ahead of two live performances in Los Angeles this weekend, his first since the November 2025 finale of his over three-year-long "Got Back Tour".

Formed in 1960, the Beatles -- McCartney, Lennon, Harrison and Ringo Starr -- went on to become the best-selling musical act of all time.

McCartney wrote or partnered with Lennon to write many of their biggest hits, including "Yesterday", "Hey Jude", "Let it Be" and "Yellow Submarine".

Following the band's split in 1970, the Beatles bassist continued writing and performing with hits including "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Live and Let Die" and "Band on the Run".

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A newly discovered hat believed to have been worn by Napoleon Bonaparte during his exile on the island of Saint Helena is set to go on display outside Paris later this year, historians said on Thursday.

The black felt bicorne was presented to the media on Thursday and will be exhibited at the Chateau de Chantilly, north of Paris, later in the year.

Mathieu Deldicque, director of the Conde Museum, where the headdress will go on display, said the find was a "true miracle", stressing that all of its parts were well preserved.

"This hat is a revelation," he said. "We know every stage of its history, from Napoleon's exile on Saint Helena right up to the present day."

Jean‑Guillaume Parich of the Army Museum, who confirmed the beaver felt hat's authenticity, said it was one of the four headpieces taken by the deposed emperor into his final exile on the island of Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.

"There are even some rather moving, rather touching details -- namely, its silk lining shows clear signs of perspiration," he said.

"One can really picture the emperor in his final years."

In his will, written shortly before his death in 1821, Napoleon left several imperial keepsakes -- including two of his last hats -- to his son, the King of Rome.

But the gifts never reached Napoleon II, who died of a lung infection in 1832.

The imperial estate, brought back from Saint Helena, was awarded in 1836 to Napoleon's sister Caroline Murat.

The hat eventually entered the Conde Museum collections in 1904.

But it was quickly placed in the storeroom and was for a long time "unknown to all specialists and enthusiasts of the Napoleonic era," said Deldicque.

It was only in 2025, while preparing an exhibition, that Parich managed to trace the hat's journey and confirm its authenticity.

Made by Poupard, Napoleon's official hatmaker, the headpiece displays all the hallmark features of an authentic imperial bicorne, including its distinctive proportions, a small tricolour cockade, and a silk‑taffeta lining, Parich said.

Napoleon is believed to have ordered between 60 and 80 such hats, he said.

Unlike most other officers at the time, Napoleon wore his hat sideways, which gave him a distinct silhouette easily recognised by his troops in battle.

Around 15 of such hats have been fully authenticated, most of them now held in museum collections, said Parich.

The newly authenticated hat will serve as the centrepiece of an exhibition devoted to the art collections of Napoleon's sister, opening in early June.

Napoleonic memorabilia fetch sky‑high prices at auctions. In 2023, a hat belonging to Napoleon when he was French emperor sold for a record of nearly two million euros.

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Scientists have used a tiny plastic "obstacle course" to test how much sperm would struggle to navigate during sex in the weightlessness of space.

Some particularly resilient sperm still made it through the course, suggesting that conceiving children in space will still be possible, according to research published on Thursday.

However a bigger problem could be that the development of embryos after fertilisation was harmed by a lack of gravity, the Australian team of researchers found.

With humanity setting its eyes on colonising space -- next week NASA hopes to launch its first crewed mission around the Moon in half a century -- scientists have been studying how difficult it will be to procreate on spaceships or other worlds.

One of the biggest challenges is that sperm will no longer be pulled downwards by Earth's gravity.

"Sperm need to actively find their way to an egg, and this study is the first to put that ability to the test under space-like conditions," Nicole McPherson, a researcher at Adelaide University in Australia, told AFP.

The scientists used a plastic chamber that resembles the female reproductive tract to act as a "miniature obstacle course", the senior author of the new study said.

"Think of it as a tiny race track... sperm are introduced at one end and have to swim their way through to the other."

- Filtering out weak runners - 

Both human and mice sperm were sent down the course, which was inside a device that uses constant rotation to simulate the microgravity of space.

The sperm was about 50 percent worse at navigating through the course compared to how they perform under Earth's gravity.

This worked out to be roughly a 30-percent drop in successful fertilisation, according to the study in the journal Communications Biology. 

However the sperm that did make it through seemed to produce better-quality embryos, which could turn out to be "beneficial", McPherson said. 

It appeared that the stress of microgravity acted as a "filter" that effectively cleared the field, "leaving only the most capable sperm in the running," she explained.

A bigger problem came in the first 24 hours after sperm had fertilised the eggs.

"The results reversed sharply, with fewer embryos formed, and those that did were of poorer quality," McPherson said. 

This suggests that microgravity "may not be the deal-breaker we feared, but protecting the embryo from weightlessness in those critical first hours will likely be essential for reproduction in space," she added.

Some including billionaire SpaceX founder Elon Musk have ambitious plans to make humans an interplanetary species by establishing settlements on the Moon then Mars.

There has also been speculation that the first baby conceived outside the bounds of Earth could be the result of a couple having sex on a flight launched by the booming space tourism industry.

McPherson emphasised that much more research is needed to understand how reproduction works in space, adding that fertilisation is "only one small piece of a very long and complex puzzle".

"We are still a long way from seeing the first space baby."

dl/ach 

US President Donald Trump said Thursday that the Iran war was "extremely" ahead of schedule, as he pushed Tehran to make a deal at his first cabinet meeting since the conflict began nearly a month ago.

As Tehran publicly rebuffed negotiations, Trump again cited the original timeframe of four to six weeks that he gave early on in the joint US-Israeli military offensive.

"They're lousy fighters, but they're great negotiators, and they are begging to work out a deal," Trump said at the White House alongside top officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth.

"We estimated it would take approximately four to six weeks to achieve our mission. Twenty-six days in we're extremely, really, a lot ahead of schedule," added Trump.

"The Iranian regime is now admitting to itself that they have been decisively defeated."

Trump has been saying for days that Iran wants to make a deal, amid growing signs he is seeking a quick end to the conflict. Iran, however, says there are no direct negotiations. 

The US leader also launched a fresh attack on NATO allies after they rejected his appeals to send naval assets to secure the Strait of Hormuz, the oil chokepoint Iran has effectively closed in response to the US-Israeli attacks.

"I'll say it publicly. We're very disappointed with NATO, because NATO has done absolutely nothing," Trump said.

He particularly lambasted Britain, saying it had offered to send aircraft carriers too late and describing the UK ships as "toys" compared to their US equivalents.

- 'Inflection point' -

During the meeting, roving US envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed for the first time from the US side that Washington had sent a 15-point "action list" to Iran via mediator Pakistan.

Businessman Witkoff, who led failed negotiations with Iran in the weeks before the US-Israeli strikes began, said there were indications Tehran was ready to make a deal.

"We will see where things lead, and if we can convince Iran that this is the inflection point with no good alternatives for them, other than more death and destruction," Witkoff said.

"We have strong signs that this is a possibility."

In his usual style for his lengthy cabinet meetings, Trump let officials around the table have their say. 

Vice President JD Vance, previously a staunch anti-interventionist who was widely reported to be against the Iran operation, said Trump was ensuring that Iran "didn't get a nuclear weapon."

Noting that Easter is approaching, Catholic convert Vance said US forces were "fighting at a time... that celebrates the return of Jesus Christ to Jerusalem."

Top US diplomat Rubio appeared to quote rappers Public Enemy as he praised Pentagon chief Hegseth, saying that "every day, the Department of War lets the drummer get wicked over every portion of Iran."

Hegseth launched an attack on the media for failing to support Trump's war, before hailing for "doing the work of the free world."

"We pray for a deal, and we welcome a deal," Hegseth said. "But in the meantime... the Department of War will continue negotiating with bombs."

dk/sms

Here are facts and figures about the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a crucial passage into the Red Sea that Iran has threatened to target if US forces launch a ground assault on its territory.

- Gateway to Red Sea -

Known as the "Gate of Tears" in Arabic, the Strait of Bab al-Mandeb is a narrow waterway at the southern tip of the Red Sea, connecting it with the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean.

About 100 kilometres (62 miles) long and 30 kilometres (18 miles) wide, it separates Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula from Djibouti and Eritrea on the Horn of Africa.

- Strategic trade route -

With the Red Sea acting as a key link between Europe and Asia, the strait is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

Oil tankers and cargo ships arriving from the Indian Ocean pass through it to reach the Red Sea and then the Suez Canal, where they enter the Mediterranean, and vice versa.

Around 26,000 ships transited through the Suez Canal in 2023, according to a Suez Canal Authority report -- but this fell to 12,700 by 2025 after Huthi rebels attacked ships in the Red Sea.

- Key oil passage -

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said 12 percent of world oil shipments passed through Bab al-Mandeb in the first half of 2023, before the Huthi attacks later that year.

Data published by the EIA indicates that the volume of oil transiting through Bab al-Mandeb in the first half of 2025 was less than half of the total volumes in 2023.

With Iranian forces closing off access to the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz, exports via the Saudi Red Sea port of Yanbu meanwhile have approximately tripled to a record high of around four million barrels a day, according to analysts, including research group Rystad Energy.

- Militarised zone -

The region is one of the most highly militarised zones in the world.

The United States and France have major military bases in Djibouti and China in 2017 also opened its first such overseas base there.

After the conflict between Israel and Hamas militants erupted in Gaza in October 2023, the Huthis threatened to attack any ship heading to Israeli ports and stepped up their raids.

In response the European Union in 2024 launched a naval operation dubbed Aspides to protect shipping in the Red Sea.

US and UK forces also carried out strikes on Huthi targets in response to their attacks.

- Iranian threat -

The latest Middle East war erupted on February 28 when the United States and Israel began bombing Iran, prompting Tehran to retaliate with strikes across the region.

Iran's threat to Hormuz has driven up tanker traffic slightly through Bab al-Mandeb, said Rico Luman, a transport economist at ING bank.

"We're talking about three to four tankers more per day, which is still a notable difference," he told AFP.

Iranian news agency Tasnim on Wednesday quoted an unnamed military official as saying that Iran would target shipping in the Red Sea if the United States "attempts a ground operation... or if it seeks to impose costs on Iran through naval manoeuvres" in the Gulf region.

"The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is among the most strategic straits in the world, and Iran has both the will and the capability to pose a fully credible threat against it," the official said.

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Portuguese police have arrested a former French police officer suspected of killing his partner and his ex-girlfriend after kidnapping them and their children.

Cedric Prizzon, a one-time member of the Paris police and a former rugby league youth international, is also a fathers' rights activist who had been involved in a bitter public custody battle with his former partner.

He had been stripped of his custody rights and had already been convicted of harassing his former partner, after he illegally took their son to Spain for several weeks in 2021.

Portuguese police said they had found "two bodies buried... in an isolated place" late Wednesday, a day after stopping the 42-year-old Prizzon in a car near Meda in the north of the country with his two children, a boy of 12 and an 18-month-old baby girl.

Officers found a pump-action shotgun, fake documents and number plates, and 17,000 euros ($19,600) in cash in the vehicle.

Portuguese police said the two bodies they found were of the "partner and ex-partner" of the suspect, but that "procedures to identify the victims and consolidate the evidence are ongoing".

The suspect appeared before a judge on Thursday in Vila Nova de Foz Coa, not far from where he was detained. Bystanders chanted "Killer! Killer" after him as he made his way to the small provincial court, an AFP journalist saw.

The two children are to be returned to France, authorities said.

- 'Unhinged' -

French police have been hunting Prizzon since the women disappeared from their homes in the Aveyron area of south central France last week.

The manhunt for the powerfully built rugby prop forward, began after his former partner disappeared on Friday.

The 40-year-old did not show up for work in an insurance company and her son was not at school.

Prizzon, his new partner, aged 26, and their baby daughter were also missing from their home in the nearby village of Savignac. 

Detectives quickly suspected that Prizzon was behind the abductions.

As part of his bitter battle against his ex-partner over their son, Prizzon had mounted a campaign against her on social media, accusing her of endangering their son in local media.

He also took part in protests along with other fathers who had lost custody of their children.

Locals in the two villages where the women lived were horrified by their deaths.

One woman in her 60s told AFP that although she thought Prizzon was "unhinged", she "thought he would never go so far".

ap-dmc/sbk/jj

Abdul Hai Hamidi gently opened each of the dozens of coffins, hoping to recognise one of his relatives who was killed in a Pakistani strike on a Kabul drug treatment centre. 

But it left him none the wiser and like other loved ones, he prepared to carry on his search.

"He's the son-in-law of my brother. We've been searching for him after the strike but we haven't yet found him," he told AFP in front of the Eidgah mosque before a funeral for the victims on Thursday.

"We went to the hospitals but we weren't given any clue about him. His name is Samiullah and he was 30 years old."

The airstrike -- just days before the end of Ramadan -- hit a drug rehabilitation centre in the Afghan capital on March 16, prompting international condemnation.

Islamabad, which has been in conflict with Afghanistan for months, maintains that it hit a military target. 

The force of the blast left many bodies torn apart, and it was difficult to identify some of the victims, the Norwegian Refugee Council, a humanitarian NGO, said after visiting the site shortly afterwards.

According to the spokesperson for the Afghan health ministry, Sharafat Zaman, the toll now stands at 411 dead and 263 wounded.

Two people died of their injuries and another person's body was found in the destruction since the Taliban government's first preliminary toll.

The UN mission in Afghanistan said its provisional toll was 143 dead and 119 wounded but added that was "very likely to increase".

"There are still bodies missing and hundreds of family members are contacting us," said Zaman. "There were rooms in the hospital where around 20 young people aged 18 or 19 were together.

"But everything was destroyed and their bodies have not been found."

- Reduced to ashes -

Samira Muhammadi went to the mosque to mourn her son, Aref Khan, 20, who dreamed of "becoming a good person, to help others", before he fell prey to drugs.

"They told me his body was completely burned, in ashes," she said. He had only been in the centre for a little over two weeks.

Muhammadi was not allowed to go onto the mosque forecourt where more than 50 wooden coffins were placed because she was not accompanied by a man, as required by the Taliban authorities' laws.

But later, at the cemetery where the victims were buried in mass graves, she looked in each coffin, hoping to find her son's remains. She couldn't find him.

In all, about 100 bodies have been buried in a mass grave in Kabul, according to the Afghan government. About 50 were interred last week. Others will be buried by their families privately.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have been in conflict for months, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of harbouring extremists who have carried out cross-border attacks on their territory.

The authorities in Kabul deny the accusation.

The conflict intensified on February 26, a few days after Pakistani airstrikes followed by a ground offensive by Afghan forces.

Both sides announced a truce for the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan, but that ended on Monday evening.

Burhanuddin Kamali also came to the mosque hoping for answers. He has been looking for news of his 21-year-old nephew, Mohammed Issa, who was working in an emerald mine in Panjshir province until he got into drugs.

"I haven't succeeded in finding his body," he said, showing a photo of a smiling young man on his phone.

"Everyone in the family, his mother and father, are sad," he added. "When someone is missing in the family, it's a different feeling."

str-iw/phz/mjw