Carmaker Stellantis swings back into profit as sales climb

Thai authorities arrested a teenager at a Bangkok airport for allegedly smuggling 30 protected tortoises valued at about $9,000 that were taped under her clothing, wildlife officials said Wednesday.

Thailand is a major transit hub for wildlife smugglers who often sell highly prized endangered animals on the lucrative black market in Asia.

Authorities became suspicious of the 19-year-old Taiwanese woman's unusual movements as she prepared to board a flight to Taipei early Tuesday, Thailand's wildlife conservation department said in a statement.

A search at Suvarnabhumi airport's departure terminal uncovered the Indian star tortoises -- 29 alive and one dead -- strapped to her body, the department said.

"The suspect had used adhesive tape to immobilise the animals, packed them into cloth bags and attached them to her body to evade detection," it added.

The Thai customs department said the tortoises -- protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) -- commanded a high price on the black market, placing their total estimated value at around $9,000.

The woman was charged with illegally transporting animals and evading customs controls.

Authorities said they were investigating whether she was part of a wider smuggling network.

Indian star tortoises are classified as a vulnerable species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (ICUN), which says they have been targeted to meet international demand for use as "exotic pets".

The surviving tortoises were transferred to wildlife conservation officials for care and to serve as evidence.

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Volkswagen's future is at risk without further cost-cuts, the ailing German auto giant warned Thursday after profits plunged more than feared as headwinds mount.

The carmaker is struggling with Chinese competition, US tariffs and patchy demand for electric vehicles, and already has plans to axe 50,000 jobs across all its brands in Germany by 2030.

From January to March, the group's net profit slid 28 percent to 1.56 billion euros ($1.8 billion) and revenues dropped to 76 billion euros, worse than analyst forecasts.

"The cost reductions planned so far are not enough," said VW chief financial officer Arno Antlitz. 

"We need to fundamentally change our business model and achieve structural, sustainable improvements -- in all areas and at all levels. If we fail to do that, we will jeopardise our future."

VW, whose 10 brands range from Audio to Seat and Skoda, would have to adjust its capacity and "work on further optimising costs at our plants," he said. 

Chinese automakers were not just competing on their home turf but also gaining market share in Europe, he warned. 

Carmakers like BYD have emerged as fierce rivals to Volkswagen in China, traditionally a key source of profits for the German manufacturer, particularly when it comes to EVs. 

- 'Fundamental change' -

Antlitz also said that US President Donald Trump's tariffs, introduced a year ago, were burdening the group with an extra four billion euros in costs annually. 

Volkswagen delivered just over two million vehicles in the first quarter, down four percent from a year earlier. 

Overall deliveries slid 15 percent in China, with deliveries of EVs down 64 percent. Deliveries were down 13 percent in North America.

The group is forecasting sales to grow between zero and three percent in 2026, and for its core profit margin to come in between four and 5.5 percent. 

Possible impacts of the war in the Middle East were not included in the forecasts, as they cannot be reliably assessed, Volkswagen said. 

The woes of Volkswagen, one of Germany's best known companies, reflect a broader malaise in Europe's biggest economy, particularly among its traditional manufacturers.

The company's annual profits slid to their lowest level in almost a decade in 2025. 

On Thursday CEO Oliver Blume said VW needed to align its strategy to a new world that was "undergoing fundamental change".

"Wars, geopolitical tensions, trade barriers, tighter regulation, and intense competition are creating headwinds," he said. 

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British engine-maker Rolls-Royce maintained its full-year profit guidance on Thursday, as it expects to "fully mitigate" disruption from the Middle East war. 

Rolls-Royce supplies engines to the world's biggest aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing, leaving it exposed to severe air travel disruptions in the wake of US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28.

"The conflict in the Middle East has created uncertainty for the industry," chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic said in a trading update ahead of the group annual general meeting on Thursday.

He added, however, that "we expect to fully mitigate the current financial impact of the disruption to our business."

Erginbilgic praised the "strong start to the year" across its aerospace, defence and power systems divisions.

The group maintained its 2026 targets for an underlying annual operating profit of between £4 billion ($5.4 billion) and £4.2 billion. 

"We remain strongly positioned to deliver our mid-term targets, with substantial growth beyond the mid-term from both our existing and new businesses," Erginbilgic said.

Rolls-Royce has undergone a major turnaround since Erginbilgic took the helm in 2023 leading to repeated upgrades to its outlook. 

Net profit more than doubled last year to £5.8 billion, buoyed by strong aircraft engine performance and a favourable currency effect linked to a weaker dollar.

Rolls-Royce had benefited also from cost savings, while the group is set to profit further from government spending on defence.

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France's economy recorded zero growth in the first quarter of this year due to "sluggish" domestic demand and a "strongly" negative contribution from foreign trade, the national statistics agency INSEE said Thursday.

The first estimation of first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) shows the impact of the war in the Middle East, which began on February 28. 

As little as two weeks ago, the French central bank estimated that the country's economy could grow by as much as 0.3 percent in January through March, while INSEE had cut its forecast from 0.3 percent to 0.2 percent growth at the end of March.

France's economy had expanded by 0.2 percent in the final quarter of 2025.

Final domestic demand is "sluggish", said INSEE, with households spending declining "slightly", making a -0.1 percentage point contribution to growth in the first quarter after having provided a 0.4 percent boost in the final quarter of 2025.

Foreign trade made a "strongly" negative 0.7 percentage point contribution to growth in the quarter, with exports falling "sharply", according to INSEE.

In mid-April, France slightly lowered its full-year GDP forecast to 0.9 percent, down from a previous 1.0 percent over the economic situation linked to war in the Middle East. 

"A very moderate impact is expected on growth," Finance Minister Roland Lescure said at the time.

He also said he expected inflation to remain limited "despite the energy shocks and sharp rise in oil prices".

But INSEE on Thursday said that consumer prices rose by 2.2 percent year-on-year in April following a 1.7 percent increase in March.

This increase was driven by a sharp rise in energy prices, which surged by 14.2 percent year-on-year in April after a 7.4 percent increase in March, as the war in the Middle East sent global oil prices soaring.

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Global automaker Stellantis -- owner of the Jeep and Fiat brands -- said Thursday it had swung back into profit in the first quarter on rising sales as it fixed manufacturing and operational problems.

The 14-brand group which also include Peugeot and Chrysler posted a net profit of 377 million euros ($440 million) in January through March, compared to a loss of 387 million euros in the same period last year.

Sales rose by six percent to 38.1 billion euros, with sales volumes rising in all regions, including North America, where the carmaker has suffered in recent years.

The sales revenue figure was slightly below analyst expectations compiled by financial data provider Factset, but the 12 percent increase in sales volumes surpassed forecasts.

"The first three months of 2026 reflect the early results of our actions to return Stellantis to sustainable, profitable growth," chief executive Antonio Filosa said in a statement.

Filosa said the new vehicles it launched last year had been well received and that Stellantis hopes that it can build on that momentum with another 10 models hitting showrooms this year.

"Our priority is clear: to put our customers back at the center of everything we do," he said.

Stellantis, formed in 2021 through a merger of France's PSA Group and Italian-American company Fiat-Chrysler, booked a colossal 20-billion-euro charge on its 2025 results as it sought to pivot away from the EV sector.

The company plans to unveil a new strategy on May 21 to sustainably turn around its fortunes as Western automakers face rising competition from Chinese carmakers.

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Denmark's Soren Torpegaard Lund, one of the favourites in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, has sparked a homophobic backlash in his progressive country with his electro-pop track, but he's just trying to "stay true to myself", he told AFP in an interview. 

Torpegaard Lund, 27, will compete in Vienna on May 16th with the song "For vi gar hjem" ("Before We Go Home"), an ode to the world of nightclubs.

It "tells the story of growing up with love and temptation, and actually giving in to it, because that's what we learn from, and that's how we learn to be grown-up human beings," he told AFP on a sunny afternoon in Copenhagen.

Torpegaard Lund says one of his greatest memories is Austrian drag artist Conchita Wurst's Eurovision victory in 2014, when he was 15 years old. 

"It made a big impact on me, just growing up as a queer kid," he said, "finding out what my identity was and just putting it out there."

"That was a very cool moment."

Now, he'll not only meet Wurst -- who is one of the show's presenters in Vienna -- but will also fulfil his boyhood dream of being on the Eurovision stage.

"I'm trying to really play it cool, but it is crazy to me that I'm going to be part of this."

- Backlash -

His hip-swinging number in tight leather pants and a mesh top has however raised some eyebrows in normally liberal Denmark.

"Some people in Denmark tried to tone my act down, and I also got some homophobic backlash from Danish people," he said.

"Fag in fishnets", "homo in a box" and "HIV spreader" were among the hurtful comments he received on social media, he said. 

"I'm definitely going to channel just staying true to myself," he said.

"I hate to see that it's still happening," he sighed, referring to anti-gay attacks.

"I also loved being able to reply ... just being like, 'you can't touch me'."

"We can be here. You can be here. Everyone can be here at the same time," he said.

Originally from a small town in central Denmark, Torpegaard Lund never took to sports, setting him apart from other kids.

Instead, he turned very early to musical theatre, piano, and singing.

"There was nothing else for me that I could do so I kind of just went on that path," he said.

He attended Denmark's National School of Performing Arts, and has since played the lead role of Tony in a Danish production of West Side Story, among other things.

In February, Danes selected his song for Eurovision, with leading daily Politiken calling it "the right choice".

He is "an artist who is comfortable on stage, extroverted, with a choreography already ready that could easily fit into the Eurovision Song Contest," the newspaper wrote.

- 'Create hope' -

Another challenge for Torpegaard Lund will be to rekindle Denmark's interest in Eurovision, where it has lost some of its lustre after wins in 1963, 2000 and 2013.

"I didn't know that it was kind of cringe," he said.

"It was very, very big in the 1980s and 1990s in Denmark and then it kind of stumbled the last 10 years."

"But I feel like it's definitely having its comeback, and the music industry is realising that it's very cool for established artists to have a platform to show their music."

While focused on his performance, he's also aware of the tensions around this year's competition.

Five European broadcasters, including Ireland and Spain, are expected to boycott the 2026 edition over Israel's participation, and more than 1,000 artists have also urged a boycott. 

For the Dane, the priority is for people to pull together.

"In times of crisis, we as human beings have always come together to try to create hope in different ways, and ... celebrate some kind of hope together. And I'm proud of being part of that."

His act of rebellion? 

He has refused to translate his song into English, as is customary for smaller languages like Danish, and is proud to represent all of Denmark -- including Greenland and the Faroe Islands -- at a time when US President Donald Trump's appetite for Greenland threatens its territorial integrity.

"I'm proud of representing countries that need to fight for their own right, their own freedom."

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Jordan Adams, who ran the London marathon with a 25-kilogram fridge on his back last weekend, is now running around Ireland in a race to find a cure for a form of dementia both he and his brother are near certain to contract.

"This mission is ongoing, as is our family's devastation with dementia, one step at a time," Adams told a crowd who gathered to see him off on Wednesday in County Donegal, their latest stop.

The 30-year-old is running consecutive daily marathons for 32 days in each of Ireland's 32 counties -- north and south of the Irish border -- with the finish in Dublin on May 28. Without the fridge, though.

Assisted by his younger brother Cian, 25, who will mostly cycle the routes, the pair started in County Antrim in Northern Ireland on Monday, just a day after completing the 26.2-mile-long (42 kilometres) course in London. 

Nicknamed the FTD brothers, their mother Geraldine was diagnosed in 2010 aged 47 with a rare form of familial Frontal Temporal Dementia.

Overnight, Cian, then aged just 9, Jordan as a 15-year-old, their older sister and father became primary carers of their mum who died at 52 in 2016.

Two years later, Jordan learned he carries the MAT-T gene mutation which gives him a 99.9 percent chance of developing the same early-onset dementia. 

Soon after Cian tested positively for the same gene.

With terminal symptoms expected to aggressively emerge in their 40s, the brothers face a stark race against time.

"What makes this disease even more cruel is that we've lost twelve Irish relatives, including my mum and Nan," Jordan, from the English Midlands, told AFP.

"We wanted to come to Ireland where all the devastation started, to honour our Irish relatives," he said.

- 'A hard disease' - 

Running with a fridge on board in London was "surreal", said Jordan, who did the stunt to bring attention to the disease. 

But with Cian alongside to douse him with water, they reached the finish line together. 

"We both share the same diagnosis and the same future, so I know our mum was shining down with a lot of pride,"  Jordan told AFP.

The brothers are not new to extreme challenges. 

They ran around the United Kingdom two years ago, while Jordan has a seven-in-seven-days marathon challenge under his belt.

Undaunted by the Irish 32-in-32 test, Cian said it "comes in handy that he works as a physiotherapist.

"We've put together a good plan over the last six months, strength and conditioning, plyometrics, running training to get Jordan in the best nick possible for this challenge," Cian told AFP. 

"Touch wood, at the moment his legs feel good for it," he said.

The brothers have set themselves the goal of raising one million pounds in their mother's honour, and for research into an Alzheimer's cure that could save them.

After London, they are almost halfway there.

Carol Molloy, who helps run the local branch of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland (ASI), told AFP that around 64,000 people are living with dementia in the EU member.

An estimated one in 10 of those have a young-onset diagnosis, with that number expected to grow to around 150,000 by 2050, according to Molloy.

Some 50 percent of the proceeds of the brothers' marathon challenge will go to the ASI.

"What Jordan and Cian are doing is amazing, we are so grateful," said Molloy.

Dozens of local people joined the pair on their run, at least part of the way.

One participant Sean McFadden, a runner from Letterkenny who recently lost his father to dementia, said he would complete the full marathon route alongside the brothers in solidarity. 

"We have to hold our hearts out to the two lads and hope everything goes well," said the 50-year-old.

"It's a hard disease. For me today to be able to join in with the boys, it's quite special," he told AFP before setting off.

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There was "no meaningful shift" away from big tech platforms like TikTok and Instagram in the immediate wake of Australia's world-leading teen social media ban, government documents obtained by AFP show.

Australia in December banned under 16s from a raft of popular social media platforms, launching a world-first crackdown designed to protect children from online bullying and "predatory algorithms".

There is strong global interest in whether Australia's laws could provide a blueprint for how to rein-in increasingly powerful tech giants.

Government documents obtained by AFP using freedom of information laws give an early glimpse into how the restrictions are working.

They showed that platforms such as Instagram and TikTok were still "dominating app store rankings and downloads" one month on from the ban.

Data compiled throughout January showed "no meaningful shift away" from these platforms, noted an internal briefing from Australia's eSafety Commission.

Users dabbled with other apps not covered by the ban but "largely returned to major, established platforms", officials wrote in the briefing dated February 2.

A separate document cautioned it was hard to draw firm conclusions from app download data so soon after the ban.

"Limitations of this data are that it does not reflect usage of an app or the age of the user, however it gives early indicators if an app is rising in popularity."

One of the chief concerns driving Australia's social media ban was the desire to stamp out cyberbullying. 

Complaints of cyberbullying on banned social media platforms increased 26 percent when comparing January 2026 with January 2025, the documents said.

Complaints had largely stemmed from TikTok. 

A spokeswoman for the eSafety Commission -- Australia's online watchdog -- said the documents only covered a short period of time as the laws were bedding down.

"Continued analysis as more data becomes available will support more robust, evidence-based conclusions regarding longer-term trends, reporting behaviours and impacts of (a minimum age for social media)," the commission told AFP in a statement.

TikTok was approached for comment.

- 'Global interest' -

A raft of nations are now reportedly mulling a similar social media crackdown.

The documents showed that Israel, the United Kingdom, Norway and New Zealand met with Australian officials after expressing an "interest" in the ban.

"eSafety has experienced significant global interest in the world's first social media minimum age legislation, including implementation and compliance," the commission said.

"The internet doesn't stop at the border and nor should our efforts to minimise harm, especially to children."

Australia in March accused big tech companies of "failing to obey" their obligations under the new laws.

The eSafety Commission found a "substantial proportion of Australian children" were still scrolling banned platforms.

"Australia's world-leading social media laws are not failing. But big tech is failing to obey the laws," Communications Minister Anika Wells told reporters at the time.

"Australia will not let the social media giants take us for mugs."

Tech companies face fines of up to $33.9 million (Aus$49.5 million) under the laws.

More than five million accounts belonging to underage Australian users have been removed since the laws came into effect, according to government figures.

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New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called for King Charles to "return" the prized Koh-i-Noor diamond, which the British Empire took from the Indian subcontinent in the 1800s, on the third day of the monarch's state visit on Wednesday.

Before greeting Charles and Queen Camilla at a 9/11 memorial event, Mamdani was asked what he would discuss with the king if he had the chance.

"If I was to speak to the king, separately from that, I would probably encourage him to return the Koh-i-Noor diamond," the leftist mayor said, adding that his focus would be honoring those killed in the terror attacks.

It's unclear whether Mamdani followed through and brought up the contentious subject with Charles when the two met.

The monarch was seen laughing with Mamdani and having a brief conversation after they shook hands.

Housed in the Tower of London, the massive 106 carat stone is the star of Britain's crown jewels, adorning the Crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

The ownership of the jewel has been contested over the centuries, passing through the hands of Mughal emperors, Iranian shahs and Sikh maharajas before the Kingdom of Punjab gave it to Queen Victoria in 1849 as part of a peace treaty.

India has repeatedly and unsuccessfully sought the return of the priceless jewel.

While there is little doubt it was mined in India, its history thereafter is a mixture of myth and fact, with several countries including Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan also laying claim to the gem.

A politician from the anti-immigration Reform UK party was quick to slam the comments as an "insult to our King."

"This beautiful diamond is currently on display in the Tower of London," the party's home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said in an X post. "That is where it will stay."

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White supremacist killer Brenton Tarrant lost on Thursday an appeal seeking to overturn his conviction and sentence for shooting dead 51 people at two New Zealand mosques in 2019, court documents showed.

The 35-year-old admitted to carrying out New Zealand's deadliest modern day mass shooting before being sentenced to life in prison in August 2020.

He appealed to the Court of Appeal in February, saying "torturous and inhumane" detention conditions during his trial made him incapable of making rational decisions when he pleaded guilty.

"I did not have the mind frame or mental health required to be making informed decisions at that time," Tarrant said at the time.

The panel of three judges said the court "does not accept Mr Tarrant's evidence about his mental state."

"There were inconsistencies in Mr Tarrant's own evidence, and his evidence is at odds with the detailed observations of prison authorities and the assessments of mental health professionals at the time of him entering his pleas."

The judges found Tarrant's guilty pleas were voluntary and "he was not coerced or pressured in any way to plead guilty".

"The evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that he was not suffering any significant psychological impacts as a result of his prison conditions at the time he pleaded guilty," the court said.

The court said Tarrant's "proposed conviction appeal is utterly devoid of merit".

"The facts concerning Mr Tarrant's offending are beyond dispute. He has not identified any arguable defence, or indeed any defence known to the law."

- 'Huge relief' -

Tarrant's penalty of life imprisonment without parole was the stiffest in New Zealand history.

Armed with an arsenal of semi-automatic weapons, Tarrant attacked worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch on March 15, 2019.

He published an online manifesto before the attacks and then livestreamed the killings for 17 minutes.

His victims were all Muslim and included children, women and the elderly.

The court's decision was complicated one week after Tarrant's February hearing when he sought to abandon his appeal entirely.

The judges said the court received a notice of abandonment of appeal signed by Tarrant using a "self-styled moniker" but the document was thrown out because it was not dated or witnessed.

Tarrant filed a second notice later that week, again using a pseudonym, which was dated and witnessed.

He said he "no longer wishes to have a lawyer" and the appeal should not continue as "it would likely lead to a miscarriage of justice".

Lawyers acting for the survivors and families of victims told national broadcaster RNZ the decision had been a "huge relief".

"The law has now done its job," they said.

"The families, and frankly all of us, will be spared the trauma of reliving the 15th of March all over again in a trial.

"It is a huge relief that the difficult and often unsupported journey families are on will not now be added to by the great burden of a new trial. It would have been unimaginably traumatic."

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