Beached whale frees itself from German coast

Germany's beleaguered state railway operator Deutsche Bahn said Friday its losses widened last year and warned passengers to brace for less-than-perfect service for years to come.

Deutsche Bahn lost 2.3 billion euros ($2.6 billion) in 2025, compared to a loss of 1.8 billion euros a year earlier, hit by a 1.4-billion euro blow to the value of the long-distance division, DB Fernvekhr.

In bad news for long-suffering passengers, DB head Evelyn Palla told a press conference that the write-off resulted from expectations of a poor service stretching into the future.

"We have reassessed our future revenue forecasts, basing them on the actual state of our infrastructure," she said. "And this remains inadequate."

Long derided at home, DB made headlines abroad during the 2024 European Football Championships after fans and even players arrived at destinations hours later than planned.

Almost 40 percent of long-distance services arrived late last year -- not including trains that were cancelled, which are not counted in punctuality statistics.

Germany's government has promised to borrow and spend billions on renewing the network. 

But Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder in September pushed back a punctuality target of 70 percent for long-distance trains to 2029 from 2026.

Speaking on Friday, Palla said it would take time for the railway to improve both its financial performance and its service.

"There is a long way ahead of us," she said. "It will take at least 10 years to get German railways back into good shape. We need to recognise this reality and put it into our numbers."

Though fully-owned by the government, DB is nevertheless under pressure to boost profitability.

DB Cargo, its loss-making freight arm, is facing an EU investigation under state aid rules and the firm said in February it would cut about 6,000 jobs in Germany, equivalent to half its domestic workforce.

Without the write-off, DB's operating profit improved by over 600 million euros to 297 million euros after an operating loss in 2024.

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Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:

- US, Iran talks in Pakistan? -

The United States and Iran are preparing for direct talks, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said, adding it was "expected to take place in Pakistan very soon", without revealing the source of the information. 

- G7 pressure -

G7 allies were pressing US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for clarity on American plans for Iran at talks outside Paris.

The UK's foreign minister Yvette Cooper urged a "swift resolution to this conflict that restores regional stability".

- Iran turns back ships -

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had turned back three ships trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz, adding the route was closed to vessels travelling to and from ports linked to its "enemies".

"The movement of any vessel 'to and from' ports of origin belonging to allies and supporters of the Zionist-American enemies, to any destination and through any corridor, is prohibited," they said.

The Guards also urged civilians across the Middle East Friday to stay away from areas near US forces.

- Ukraine-Saudi deal -

Ukraine and Saudi Arabia have signed an air defence agreement during President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the kingdom facing Iranian drone attacks, two senior officials told AFP.

"The point of the agreement is that Ukraine will support them in developing all the necessary components of air defence, which they currently lack," one official said of the document which, according to another, was signed on Thursday.

- Kuwait's main port hit -

Kuwait's main commercial port was damaged in a drone attack at dawn.

The Shuwaikh port was targeted "by enemy drones, preliminary reports revealed material damage but no human casualties", the Kuwait port authority said in a statement on X.

- Iran key sites damaged -

US and Israeli strikes on Iran have damaged at least 120 museums and cultural and historic sites across the country since the start of the war, the head of Tehran city council's cultural heritage committee said.

"At least 120 museums, historical buildings and cultural sites across various provinces were directly targeted and sustained serious structural damage," said Ahmad Alavi.

- Iran warning to US soldiers -

Iran's military has warned that hotels housing US soldiers across the region would be targets.

"When all the Americans (forces) go into a hotel, then from our perspective that hotel becomes American," armed forces spokesman Abolfazl Shekarchi told state television.

- School strike was 'calculated' -

Iran's foreign minister branded a deadly strike on an Iranian school on the first day of the Middle East war as a "calculated" US assault.

The February 28 strike on an elementary school in Minab in which in which "more than 175 students and teachers were slaughtered in cold blood", was a "calculated, phased assault," Abbas Araghchi said.

- UN Security Council meeting -

The UN Security Council will hold closed-door consultations on Friday to discuss attacks on Iran at Moscow's request, Russian state media reported.

"The Russian Federation has requested closed-door consultations with the UN Security Council due to the ongoing strikes on civilian infrastructure in Iran, including educational and healthcare facilities," said Evgeny Uspensky, spokesman for Russia's envoy to the United Nations, according to state news agency TASS.

- Israeli strikes on Beirut -

Lebanese media reported an Israeli strike hit Beirut's southern suburbs early Friday, as AFP correspondents heard several explosions from the Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has repeatedly struck since war erupted this month.

Israel has previously issued sweeping evacuation warnings for the area, but provided no specific warning in advance of the strike on Tahouitet al-Ghadir.

- Saudi Arabia intercepts drones -

The Saudi defence ministry said it had "intercepted and destroyed" four drones over the kingdom's east.

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From cosmic coupling to nappies' fragrant afterlife... Your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world.

- Big bang theory -

Unbounded joy for Elon Musk and everyone who would like to see him go off to populate Mars.

Scientists have shown that sperm can find a way even in the weightlessness of space and that certain super sperm actually thrive there as lesser seed shrivel.

Australian researchers found that while half of sperm struggled to get through a zero gravity "obstacle course" they built on Earth, those that made it seemed to produce better quality embryos. 

Which is great news for those who dream of a new interstellar super race.

Musk -- who has had at least 14 children with multiple mothers -- wants to colonise space.  

So far he has restricted his "baby project" to reproducing on Earth, but speculation about a Six Mile-High Club is rife as space tourism booms and the quest to conceive the first baby beyond the planet enters its final thrust.

- Nappy endings -

Those wishing to finance a Moon shot could do worse than invest in nappies, where Japan is leading the way.

As its birthrate falls, more Japanese seniors are wearing them than babies, and for far longer. Diapers for dogs are sending demand still higher. 

All of which creates a mountain of hot mess. But in a world first, maker Unicharm has found a way of recycling its dirty nappies into toilet roll and new diapers and pads, it told AFP. 

And everything, they insist, comes up smelling of roses.

- A special relationship -

Great to see that Donald Trump still enjoys a joke even as he blasts Iran and the world economy to smithereens.

He shared a TV comedy skit on his Truth Social showing a terrified British Prime Minister Keir Starmer trying to avoid talking to him on the phone.

The US president has mercilessly trolled Starmer as he has tried to dodge joining the war on Iran, saying he was "no Winston Churchill". 

In his latest poke at the crumbling special relationship with Britain, Trump dismissed Royal Navy warships as "toys compared to what we have", saying Starmer had offered to send "an aircraft carrier when the war is over. I said: 'Oh that's wonderful, thank you very much. Don't bother.'"

- Don't do as I do -

There was less to smile about back home as Democrats took the Florida district that is home to the president's Mar-a-Lago resort. Trump voted by mail in the special election despite campaigning to stop postal voting. "I call it mail-in cheating," he said after the defeat.

- Bots are secret pseuds -

A lesson for all those students relying on ChatGPT to help write their essays for them.

A German researcher has discovered that OpenAI's GPT models can often be fooled into declaring that "pseudo literary" gobbledygook is great.

In fact they consistently rated "nonsense" higher, even when presented with such utter piffle as "Goetterdaemmerung's corpus haemorrhaged through cryptographic hash, eschaton pooling in existential void beneath fluorescent hum."

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After a month of war with Israel and the United States with no clear end in sight, Iranians tell AFP about how life has changed, about watching missiles fall, and how security forces have tightened their grip.

Here is a collection of interviews conducted with Iranians, mostly people in Tehran, who shared their experiences with AFP journalists outside the country. Their names have been changed to protect their identities.

Iran has been arresting and warning citizens about speaking to journalists or sending images outside the country amid an internet blackout and severe phone network restrictions.

- Economic pressures -

Iran was already suffering economically before the war, but the conflict has sparked even higher inflation and brought many industries to a standstill. 

"My income comes from my online shop, but for the past two months I've had no income at all," Golnar from Tehran told AFP. 

"In our family, everyone is working and we don't even pay rent, yet we still can't think about things like going to restaurants or any kind of leisure activities. We can only afford the most basic and essential living expenses," the 29-year-old said.

The island of Qeshm, where 42-year-old Sadeq is based, enjoyed a tourism boom in recent years, but saw few visitors over the usually busy Nowruz holidays marking the Iranian New Year in March. 

"Our hotel and cafes are half empty. Many people have come here to stay longer, waiting to see what happens with the war," he said.

"We sometimes have to wait for hours to get fuel."

- Coping -

For Shayan in Tehran, there is some normalcy in the shadow of the war. 

"There is no famine, everything is available. Cafes are open, and we still go out... There is gasoline, water, and electricity. But there is a sense of helplessness in all of us," the 40-year-old said. 

"We gather with family and friends, play card games together, and drink. Shops and restaurants are open until 9:00 pm, but the city feels empty, most people have left."

Another Tehran resident originally from Iran's Kurdish region said she also feels she has grown "used to the situation". 

"The noise, the explosions and the missiles are now a part of our daily life... I think little by little it's becoming more ordinary for everyone," said the 35-year-old.

"Right now, our only worry is that our oil and gas infrastructure might be targeted by missile attacks. I think that's the one thing all Iranians agree on at the moment."

- Fears for the future -

Katayoon recently left Iran for Turkey, after several "terrible" months since the protests in January that saw thousands killed in a crackdown. 

Two nights before departing, the blastwave from an airstrike threw her from her bed.

But her decision to leave was more from "living in fear for at least a decade... from my scarf falling off my head in the street, to not being able to teach the opposite sex, or having basic liberties", the yoga teacher said. 

There is fear of bombardments, but "there is no other recourse -- people don't have money to eat. Life has become impossible", she said. 

Ensieh, a dentist in the capital, said every day she is "losing more hope". 

"We're caught between three mad powers, and war is terrifying. I know I'll never be the same person again. War has torn a part of me away, and it's not coming back," the 46-year-old said.  

A 34-year-old resident of Sanandaj in western Iran said the intensity of the attacks had decreased and that in recent days he "realised the Islamic republic will not be overthrown in the way we imagined". 

- Crackdown -

Since the war started Iranians have reported heavy security in the streets, with limited anti-government demonstrations quickly quelled, while crowds of Islamic republic supporters regularly rally. 

Out in Tehran, "you'll likely pass through multiple checkpoints in a single day... Cars are searched, phones are checked," including photos, hidden files, apps even personal notes, said 38-year-old artist Kaveh. 

He said groups of armed security forces who have "taken control of the streets" drive through Tehran at night "honking and carrying flags". 

At a gathering in Tehran, he said he and other people opposed to the Islamic republic were worried about Washington coming to a deal with the clerical authorities, in power since 1979. 

"If an agreement is reached, we'll be doomed. At the very least, we should leave Iran for two or three years because they will turn on us," he said. 

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Japan's government plans to temporarily lift restrictions on coal-fired power plants as it seeks to ease an energy crunch caused by the Middle East war, officials said on Friday. 

Officials presented the plan at a meeting of a panel of experts, who approved the proposal, the industry ministry said on its website.

"Given the current situation in the Middle East affecting fuel prices, we believe that uncertainty regarding future LNG procurement is increasing," an industry ministry official said at the meeting, which was broadcast online.

"We think it will be necessary, by increasing the operation of coal-fired power plants, to... ensure the reliability of stable supply," he said.

Power suppliers have previously been required to keep the operating rate of coal-fired thermal power stations that emit large amounts of carbon dioxide at or below 50 percent.

But the government now intends to allow the full operation of older, less efficient coal-fired plants, for a year from the new fiscal year starting April, according to the plan presented at the meeting.

Japan relies on thermal power plants to generate around 70 percent of its electricity needs, with coal constituting 30 percent of their fuel.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) accounts for another 30 percent, and oil comprises seven percent.

The emergency measure to boost reliance on coal is estimated to "result in an LNG savings effect of approximately 500,000 tonnes", the official added.

But Yoko Mulholland of climate think-tank E3G told AFP that the plans to lift coal power restrictions "deepen the risk that Japan will not meet its goal of phasing out inefficient coal plants by 2030". 

Not only threatening climate health, the move can also "lock Japan into a vicious cycle of fossil-fuel dependence" and delay progress toward Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's stated goal of 100 percent domestic energy self-sufficiency, she said. 

"This crisis has laid bare the risks of relying on imported fossil fuels, and now is the time for Japan to shift course to fully embrace renewable energy as a strategic national asset."

Since the Middle East war prompted Iran to partially close the crucial Strait of Hormuz trade route and target energy facilities in the Gulf, many Asian nations have pivoted towards coal to power their economies.

South Korea plans to lift a cap on coal-powered generation capacity while also increasing nuclear plant operations.

The Philippines also intended to boost the output of its coal-fired power plants to keep electricity costs down as the war wreaks havoc with gas shipments.

Japan is the fifth-biggest importer of oil with more than 90 percent of it coming from the Middle East.

Around 10 percent of its LNG imports are also from the region.

Tokyo purchases nearly 80 percent of its coal imports from Australia and Indonesia, according to the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.

Japan on Thursday said it had also started to release another part of its strategic oil reserves, as it faced supply challenges to its oil imports.

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The Mexican Navy was searching on Friday for two boats that went missing while transporting humanitarian aid to crisis-hit Cuba, authorities and the convoy organizers said.

The vessels set sail last Friday from Isla Mujeres in Mexico's southeastern state of Quintana Roo, with nine crew of different nationalities on board, Mexico's navy said Thursday in a statement.

But communication with the crew was lost, it added. 

The Nuestra America Convoy said earlier that it would use air, land and sea to deliver food, medicine and supplies to the communist island which has risked being plunged into darkness since US President Donald Trump vowed in January to starve it of oil.

"Mexican authorities have activated their search and rescue protocol for two sailboats en route to Havana as part of the Convoy, which have not yet arrived," a spokesperson for the convoy told AFP. 

"The captains and crews are experienced sailors, and both vessels are equipped with appropriate safety systems and signalling equipment," the spokesperson said.

While the convoy appealed for information on sightings of the vessels, it said it remains "confident in the crews' ability to reach Havana safely."

"Based on the speed of the vessels reported to the Cuban maritime authorities, the window for arrival for the boats in Havana should be between the night of Friday 27 March and midday of Saturday 28 March," they explained. 

The Mexican Navy said on Thursday that there had been neither "communication nor confirmation of their arrival" in Cuba and that it had alerted naval commanders in the region and its search and rescue stations.

The navy said earlier that the boats were due to arrive between Tuesday and Wednesday. 

- Cuba in crisis -

Since last week, activists from several countries have left Mexican ports on vessels loaded with food and other supplies for the communist-led island, which faces a humanitarian crisis in the face of a US-imposed fuel embargo.

The navy did not specify the identities or nationalities of the crew members on the missing boats, but said it was maintaining communication with rescue agencies in Poland, France, Cuba and the United States.

The navy is also in contact "with the diplomatic missions of the crew members' countries of origin" to cooperate and exchange information in real time, the statement said.

It said it was using aircraft to search the route between Isla Mujeres and Havana.

It appealed to seafarers and maritime authorities in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico to report any information or sightings of the missing vessels to the nearest naval authority. 

Trump imposed a de facto oil blockade on Cuba in January after the US ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, whose government had been its principal source Cuba's fuel supplies.

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G7 allies were on Friday pressing US Secretary of State Marco Rubio for clarity on American plans for Iran almost one month into the war in the Middle East, as concern intensifies over the damage to the global economy from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Having skipped the first day of the meeting at the historic monastery turned luxury hotel complex outside Paris, Rubio arrived at the Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey for a full day of talks with counterparts from leading industrialised democracies.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said ahead of the talks that allies needed to know "how the US will proceed" in the conflict which began with the air strikes on February 28 that killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

US President Donald Trump had repeatedly declared talks are in progress with Iran but details remain murky. 

"Our colleague Rubio can today perhaps explain this more precisely," Wadephul told Deutschlandfunk radio, calling on allies to come to a "joint position" with the US.

Trump on Thursday pushed back his deadline for strikes on Iran's energy assets to April 6 in the latest twist in Washington's plans.

While all G7 nations are close US allies, none have unambiguously offered support for the assault on Iran, angering Trump.

- 'For the world' -

The UK's foreign minister Yvette Cooper on Friday urged a "swift resolution to this conflict that restores regional stability".

She echoed concerns over the ongoing de-facto blockade by Iran of the key Strait of Hormuz which has driven up global oil prices and left vessels queueing up to enter the energy bottleneck.

"Frankly, Iran cannot be able to just hold the global economy hostage as a result of a Strait which is about international shipping routes and the freedom of navigation," she said.

Before leaving for France, Rubio said Thursday that it was in the "interest" of all G7 nations to push for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

On talks with Iran, he said "there are intermediary countries that are passing messages, and progress has been made."

It is Rubio's first trip abroad since the United States and Israel launched the war.

Defending the war, he said: "The president is not just doing a favour to the United States and to our people. This is for the world."

- 'Did not give in to any pressure' -

In contrast to usual protocol, and in a sign of the distance between the United States and its allies, there is to be no joint communique at the end of the meeting.

Instead, the G7 presidency, which France holds this year, will issue a statement, a diplomatic source said, asking not to be named.

With Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha in attendance, European ministers are keen to emphasise support for Kyiv must not be forgotten over four years after Russia's full-scale invasion.

France is eager to broaden the scope of the elite G7 club -- whose origins go back to the first G6 summit held in the nearby Chateau de Rambouillet in 1975 -- and which now comprises Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, UK and United States.

It has invited foreign ministers from key emerging markets Brazil and India, as well as Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

The event is leading up to a G7 summit in the French Alpine lakeside resort of Evian in June to be chaired by President Emmanuel Macron.

The South African presidency Thursday alleged Washington urged Paris to disinvite President Cyril Ramaphosa from that summit. But French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Kenya -- rather than South Africa -- had been invited and "we did not give in to any pressure".

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Iran's Revolutionary Guards urged civilians across the Middle East Friday to stay away from areas near US forces, ramping up its threats despite President Donald Trump's claim talks to end the month-long war were "going well".

The Guards' warning came after Trump again extended a deadline for Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz or face the destruction of its energy assets, pushing it from Friday to April 6.

Trump said he did so at Tehran's request, insisting the Islamic republic wanted "to make a deal" to end the war engulfing the region since the United States and Israel first attacked Iran on February 28.

But the Iranian side, which has made it clear it wants to end fighting on its own terms, indicated no let up in reprisal attacks against Israel and targets across the Gulf.

Accusing "cowardly American-Zionist forces" of resorting to "human shields", the country's powerful Guards issued a stark warning to civilians.

"We recommend that you urgently leave locations where American forces are stationed so that no harm comes to you," they said -- hours after Iran's military threatened to target hotels housing US soldiers across the region.

The warning came as Kuwait said its main commercial port was damaged in a drone attack at dawn.

The Guards also said the Strait of Hormuz was "closed" to vessels travelling to and from enemy ports, and that they had turned back three ships seeking to cross the transit point.

"This morning, following the lies of the corrupt US president claiming that the Strait of Hormuz was open, three container ships of different nationalities... were turned back after a warning from the IRGC Navy," the Guards said on their Sepah News website.

- 'Hostage' -

Oil prices and stocks were mixed Friday after Trump pushed back for a second time his ultimatum for Iran to lift its choke on Hormuz shipping, which has sent energy prices soaring and threatens lasting damage on the global economy.

In the latest sign of the fallout, a Japanese official said the government plans to temporarily lift restrictions on coal-fired power plants to face the energy crunch, while Vietnam temporarily waived a fuel tax.

Trump's top diplomat Marco Rubio was in France on Friday for talks with his G7 counterparts, with UK foreign minister Yvette Cooper calling for a "swift" conflict resolution and an end to Iran's block on Hormuz.

"Iran cannot be able to just hold the global economy hostage," Cooper said ahead of the meeting.

Trump's reprieve over Hormuz capped days of conflicting signals on peace talks with Tehran, but his envoy Steve Witkoff spoke Thursday of "strong signs" it was ready to negotiate.

Negotiations revolve around a 15-point US "action list", relayed via Pakistan, to which Tehran has reportedly replied -- and is awaiting a response.

Iran's Tasnim news agency said Tehran was demanding war reparations and respect for its "sovereignty" over the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran also called for an end to US and Israeli attacks on Iran as well as on groups in the region aligned with it, the report said -- a reference to Lebanon's Hezbollah, among others.

The UN's rights chief Volker Turk urged Washington Friday to wrap up its probe into a deadly strike on an Iranian elementary school on the first day of the war, demanding justice "for the terrible harm done".

According to a preliminary US military probe reported by The New York Times, a US Tomahawk cruise missile hit the school due to a targeting mistake.

Since the start of the war, a senior Tehran cultural official said US and Israeli strikes have damaged at least 120 museums and cultural and historic sites nationwide, including the capital's UNESCO-listed Golestan Palace.

- Israel 'stretched to limit' -

Local media confirmed fresh strikes in the Iranian capital Friday, as well as the holy city of Qom further south, and in Urmia in the northwest, after Israel's military announced "wide-scale" hits on infrastructure in Tehran.

The new attacks came a day after Israel's opposition leader Yair Lapid warned the war was taking too high a toll, with the military "stretched to the limit and beyond."

Military spokesman Effie Defrin for his part said more combat soldiers were needed to establish a "defensive" buffer zone in southern Lebanon -- drawn into the war after Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel.

Lebanese state media reported a new airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs Friday, while Hezbollah said it had launched rockets at northern Israel, where air raid sirens sent residents to shelters.

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A humpback whale stranded on Germany's Baltic Sea coast since early this week has freed itself and swum into deeper waters, rescuers said Friday.

A flotilla of vessels were following the weakened animal at a distance, hoping to help guide it into the North Sea and toward the Atlantic Ocean, its natural habitat.

The roughly 10-metre- (33-foot-) long sea mammal was first spotted on Monday stuck in shallow water close to Niendorf near the northern city of Luebeck.

That set off days of intensive efforts using boats to make waves, then excavators to dig up sand and free the whale, as fears grew for its life.

Rescue teams from Thursday used earth moving equipment on a pontoon to dredge a channel through the sand to allow the animal to escape.

Then, overnight to Friday, the whale "gathered its forces" and "freed itself using its own strength", marine biologist Robert Marc Lehmann said.

"Whale rescue successful," he wrote on his Instagram profile.

However, he cautioned against excessive optimism and said the animal is "very ill" and had a long way to go before reaching "its real home, the Atlantic".

The whale had been entangled in a fishing net, most of which rescuers managed to remove.

Lehmann said the whale was "zigzagging" in the water and could become stranded again.

Experts from the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd also warned that the whale is suffering from a skin disease. 

The animal was being escorted by, among others, two vessels from the Schleswig-Holstein state water police, a spokesperson from its headquarters in Kiel told AFP.

Experts hope it will swim back to the North Sea through the straits between Germany, Denmark and Sweden and on to the Atlantic Ocean. 

"Now we just have to hope that it finds its way out," state premier Daniel Guenther said on local radio, thanking the rescue volunteers. 

"I think they were all happy that all their digging had finally paid off."

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On a farm in South Africa's semi-arid south, herds of angora goats foraged across open land stretching to the horizon, their pale fleeces glinting in the harsh sun.

Linked by dirt tracks and dotted with remote farms, the sparsely populated Karoo region sits at the heart of the global mohair trade, supplying more than half of the world's output of the fibre prized for its sheen and softness.

A Cape Dutch-style gable in one corner of the farm bears the inscription "Wheatlands 1912." 

"This is the newest house on the property," said Lloyd Short, who grew up on the 7,700-hectare (19,000-acre) family farm.

But Wheatlands owes its reputation not to architecture or rural charm, but to its goats with drooping ears, curved horns and lustrous golden fleeces.

Their silky curls can fetch up to 900 rands ($53) per kilogramme and are used in knitwear, often blended with wool. 

The Italian mill Vitale Barberis Canonico, renowned for luxury suit fabrics, is among those sourcing South African mohair for their yarn.

"The first two shearing are the most valuable," said Short, a seventh-generation farmer, who collects an average of between one and 1.5 kilogrammes per animal. Output rises slightly with age, but the fibre loses value over time.

Short and his brother each have around 2,000 goats and supply a major French fashion house exclusively, allowing it to trace its sourcing and protect its brand.

The industry's reputation was tested in 2018, when animal rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) released footage of a goat killed after an artery was accidentally cut during shearing -- an incident farmers say is rare.

Brands, including Swedish H&M, American Gap, Zara and Topshop, swiftly dropped mohair.

Confidence only began to recover after the introduction of an independently audited animal welfare certification.

"Farmers go through annual audits, so they get visited once a year by their brokers and then they also get third-party audited," said Marco Coetzee, director of the sector's representative organisation, Mohair South Africa.

- 'Specialised fibre' -

South Africa accounted for 56 percent of global production in 2024, according to industry figures.

The sector supports around 30,000 jobs, including hundreds in the Karoo, an unlikely new home for a breed originally from Turkey.

How the goats arrived in the 19th century remains unclear. Accounts differ whether they were a gift from an Ottoman dignitary or imported by a British officer. 

More than one and a half centuries later, angoras thrive on the region's succulent plants.

"It's an incredibly healthy area, there are wonderful veld species, sweet plants. Almost everything is palatable," said Sean Hobson, whose family has raised angoras on his farm since 1865.

More humid regions are less suitable due to parasites and ticks, he explained.

To protect the animals, farmers dip them between the twice-yearly shearings, followed by a conditioning rinse to help the fibres form their distinctive curl.

"The world buys mohair, firstly because of the lustre," said Pierre van der Vyver, chief executive of broker House of Fibre, adding it "is very strong, doesn't break or shrink."

The smell of a shearing shed hangs in the air at his warehouse near the port city of Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth, where hundreds of bales await shipment.

Alongside South African rival OVK, the company controls more than 70 percent of global supply, with neighbouring Lesotho accounting for another 16 percent.

Almost all buyers, except Vitale Barberis Canonico, purchase mohair in bales. Processing is dominated by two South African firms, Samil and Stucken, which also handle fibres from Australia and the United Kingdom.

"The Chinese want to compete with us, but fortunately, there is a lot of technique involved in mohair processing," said van der Vyver. 

"It's a far slower process than for wool processing. It is a specialised fibre."

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