Education department starts portal disclosing foreign funding

British charities and disability advocates have slammed a trend for using AI to generate "fetishised" images of women with disabilities and genetic conditions including Down syndrome, vitiligo and albinism.

The photo-realistic sexualised images, which have gained millions of views on social media, are deceptive as they are often not labelled as AI-generated.

Some account owners use artificial intelligence to manipulate real images of non-disabled women, making them appear to have Down syndrome, a genetic condition caused by an extra chromosome.

One such TikTok video of a young woman dancing in shorts and a cropped top has had 4 million views since last year.

The British Down's Syndrome Association condemned the "alarming trend". 

"This is a scam and is not only in bad taste but is potentially offensive and hurtful to people who have Down's syndrome," the charity said in comments sent to AFP.

Disabled women and girls already face a higher risk of sexual violence globally.

In Britain, women with disabilities are nearly twice as likely to be sexually assaulted, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The images show "very fetishised bodies" and "very sexual content", said Aisha Sobey, a University of Cambridge researcher studying generative AI.

Kamran Mallick, CEO of Disability Rights UK, said the images are "exploitation" and recall "historical freak shows of people being wheeled out for the amusement of others".

These AI influencers "are mostly young white women," said Emanuel Maiberg of the 404 Media tech news outlet who has covered the trend.

"It certainly seems like content that is more outrageous, novel, or weird, gets more engagement."

Higgsfield, a platform for generating virtual models, gives creators options to add scars, burns, albinism -- a lack of melanin pigmentation -- and vitiligo, which causes white patches on the skin. 

"The internet doesn't want a perfect face. It wants character. So give them scars, give them style," says a promotional video for Higgsfield, adding "AI influencers with vitiligo have been really popular lately".

- 'Harmful and unacceptable' -

The AI images are often medically unlikely or impossible.

One creator labelled as based in Germany shows an AI model with albinism in a strappy vest top driving a car without glasses -- despite the fact that many with the condition have poor eyesight.

An Instagram account with millions of views shows a woman in swimsuits and gymwear whose body is bisected by vitiligo so she is exactly half white and half brown.

"This form of AI use is harmful and unacceptable," the Vitiligo Society told AFP.

"When AI creates fictional individuals with vitiligo and portrays them as authentic members of the community, this crosses into the territory of misinformation," said the British charity.

Real influencers with albinism told AFP that most AI-generated content fetishises the condition and is inaccurate.

US influencer Kayla Ludlow, who has 857,000 followers on TikTok, said in a video responding to AFP's questions that she could understand people trying filters out of curiosity.

But "especially with the AI model content, that just seems like it's a fetish," she said.

Unlike real influencers, the models "don't have a personality or a life or something for you to be invested with", she said.

"It just feels wrong to fetishise albinism in that way," said British influencer Mio, 22, who posts about makeup and skincare to her more than 47,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok. 

"I think the main reason is to make money, which is so intensely wrong."

AI images perpetuate "misinformation", for example that people with albinism have red eyes, she said.

Other AI models trivialise and sexualise severe medical conditions.

One Instagram page with 400,000 followers, apparently based in the United States, shows conjoined twins in bikinis on the beach. 

am/rhb/jkb/sbk/ane

Oil prices fell Friday after Donald Trump again pushed back a deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, though most equities also dropped as traders shrugged at the news following a series of conflicting messaging from the White House.

The US president had warned last Saturday he would obliterate the Islamic republic's energy sites if it did not unblock the crucial waterway within 48 hours, but pushed that back five days citing positive peace talks, which Tehran denied had taken place.

But after days of strikes by both sides and mixed reports of negotiations -- including the trading of multi-point demands -- he announced Thursday that he would again delay the attacks to April 6 after a request from Tehran.

"Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others, they are going very well," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. 

"As per Iranian Government request... I am pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 Days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M., Eastern Time," he posted.

Trump had earlier denied he was desperate for a deal to end the war, despite the Islamic republic's cool response to an American peace plan and fears the spike in oil prices would fan inflation.

Trump later told a cabinet meeting Iran had allowed 10 oil tankers passage through the Strait of Hormuz -- through which about a fifth of world oil and gas pass -- to show it was serious about talks. 

The Iranian news agency Tasnim said the country's response to Washington's 15-point plan to end the war "was officially sent last night through intermediaries, and Iran is awaiting the other side's response".

The report, citing an unnamed official, said officials had called for an end to US-Israeli attacks on Iran and Tehran-backed groups elsewhere in the region.

It also called for war reparations and Iran's "sovereignty" over the Strait of Hormuz be respected.

However, Trump's announcement came as the Wall Street Journal cited Department of Defense officials as saying the Pentagon was considering sending as many as 10,000 extra ground troops to the Middle East.

Oil prices fell more than one percent Friday, though that only partially pared the previous day's surge amid growing anxiety that the conflict will last far longer than first thought.

Brent is up almost 50 percent since the war began on February 28, while West Texas Intermediate has risen around 40 percent.

Equities struggled following hefty losses in Wall Street.

Tokyo and Seoul, which had been the standout performers in the first two months of the year, were among the biggest losers, while Hong Kong, Sydney, Wellington, Taipei Jakarta and Manila were also sharply lower.

Shanghai and Singapore fluctuated.

Investors are also increasingly sceptical about the messaging from the White House, with Trump often flipping between threats and talk of peace.

"A ten-day extension sounds like breathing room, but in market terms, it feels more like a trader rolling a losing position forward, hoping the next candle delivers what the last one refused to give," said SPI Asset Management's Stephen Innes referring to an investors analysis tool.

"Time has been purchased, not clarity. And the market knows the difference."

And National Australia Bank's Ray Attrill said: "Whether peace talks are taking place between the US and Iran remains debatable, Iran insisting that exchanges of letters via a friendly intermediary (presumed to be Pakistan) does not constitute talks."

Meanwhile, the World Trade Organisation warned the global trading system was experiencing the "worst disruptions in the past 80 years", while the World Bank said it was prepared to provide immediate financial assistance to emerging market countries.

That came as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned US inflation could hit more than four percent this year as a result of the spike in crude prices. That compares with its previous projection of 2.8 percent.

The prospect of another spike in the cost of living led several Federal Reserve officials to express concern about the outlook for the world's top economy and suggested interest rates were unlikely to come down any time soon.

With the economic impact worsening, governments around the world are being forced to act.

Spain approved a sweeping $5.8 billion package including steep cuts to energy taxes, while Poland's prime minister announced a series of measures to address soaring fuel costs, including reduced taxes and price ceilings.

And South Korea said it will roll out a $17 billion "wartime" supplementary budget and expand fuel tax cuts.

- Key figures at around 0230 GMT -

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 53,145.33 (break)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.3 percent at 24,787.31

Shanghai - Composite: FLAT at 3,888.09

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.5 percent at $93.07 a barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.8 percent at $106.12 a barrel

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1537 from $1.1523 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3339 from $1.3313

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 159.58 yen from 159.83 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.50 pence from 86.55 pence

New York - Dow: DOWN 1.0 percent at 45,960.11 (close)

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 1.3 percent at 9,972.17 (close)

dan/ane

US President Donald Trump issued an executive order Thursday prohibiting companies doing business with the federal government from having policies meant to combat racism or sexism in the workforce.

The order, to come into effect in 30 days, is Trump's latest move against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, a series of often decades-old measures meant to combat racism and sexism across the United States.

The Republican president and many of his hard-right supporters say they believe diversity measures keep capable Americans out of jobs that instead go to minorities.

"My Administration has made significant progress in ending racial discrimination in American society, including so-called "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI) activities," Trump wrote in the order.

He claimed that DEI policies also raise costs for employers, who then pass those on to the federal government when bidding for contracts. 

Companies now hoping for government contracts will have to include on their contracts a seven-paragraph clause pledging that "The contractor will not engage in any racially discriminatory DEI activities."

Shortly after re-entering the White House for a second term last January, Trump put US federal employees working in diversity offices on paid leave after ordering the programs shut.

In August, his administration said it would "review" certain displays and exhibitions at the Smithsonian museums in Washington, looking to remove "divisive or partisan narratives" as part of his war on "woke" racial and gender viewpoints. 

js/sla

© Agence France-Presse

World number one and defending champion Aryna Sabalenka powered past second-ranked Elena Rybakina 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday to line up a Miami Open title clash with Coco Gauff.

Sabalenka, who fell to Rybakina in the Australian Open final  before turning the tables on the Kazakh in the Indian Wells title match this earlier this month, broke the big-serving Rybakina twice in each set to come out on top in the blockbuster semi-final and keep her bid for the "Sunshine Double" of Indian Wells and Miami on track.

"I think I did everything right," said Sabalenka, who applied ruthless pressure on Rybakina's serve while delivering a sterling service performance that featured nine aces -- including four in a row across the seventh and ninth games of the opening set.

"She's an incredible player, always pushes me to the limit," Sabalenka said. "With her, you have to bring your best tennis and that's why I was able to pull out such great tennis today."

Sabalenka had to save a match point to beat Rybakina in Indian Wells, but she was on the front foot on Thursday, seizing a break for a 3-1 lead in the opening set.

Rybakina recouped the break immediately, but Sabalenka broke again to pocket the set and took command in the second with a break for 2-0 in a game which Rybakina led 40-0.

Trailing 0-4, Rybakina clawed back a break for 4-1 but Sabalenka wouldn't flinch again. Rybakina saved one match point on her own serve before Sabalenka served it out with a love game punctuated by a fierce forehand winner.

The match marked the first time outside the WTA Finals that the world's two top-ranked players met before a final since Martina Hingis and Jana Novotna in the 1998 US Open semi-finals.

It could only come about because Rybakina was seeded third, her rise to second in the rankings on Monday coming a day after the Miami draw was made.

bb/rcw

The colourful residents of Copenhagen's libertarian Christiania enclave, long a refuge for anarchists, hippies and artists, fear new housing within its borders could spell the end of the freetown's identity. 

The so-called "Christianites" last month begrudgingly agreed to a new public housing development for 300 people. 

But some residents question whether the new arrivals will buy into Christiania's freetown identity.

"If a lot of people move in here and only want to have peace and want to close the workshops and the bars, then it is really dangerous for Christiania," said Charlotte Steen, a 60-year-old resident and founder of Women's Smithy blacksmiths.

"We have always been here because we had the culture."

Nestled in the heart of Copenhagen, Christiania was for many years seen by some as a progressive social experiment, while others simply saw it as a den of drugs.

Its famed Pusher Street, where cannabis was once sold freely, was torn up in 2024.

The new housing plans are part of a longstanding deal struck between the city of Copenhagen and the Christiania foundation, as residents seek full ownership of the 34-hectare (84-acre) enclave in the centre of the Danish capital.

In 1971 a group of hippies founded the "Free City of Christiania" in abandoned military barracks to create a municipality which, according to its statute, "belongs to everyone and to no one" and where every decision is taken collectively.

The self-proclaimed freetown is still home to many artists and activists, along with restaurants, cafes and shops popular among the half a million or so tourists who stroll through its green areas and cobblestone streets every year.

To some of the area's 900 residents, the housing plans represent the latest surrender of the original Christiania spirit to pressures from the outside world.

"They just wanna build, they wanna tear it down, they wanna make us into like everywhere else," sighed artist and gallery owner Marios Orozco, who moved from Boston to Christiania in 1981 to be with all the other "long-haired hippies".

"When I came here, people were building their own homes... But slowly, they're tearing down those buildings," he said.

The hippie paradise was tainted by drug trafficking violence over the years, prompting the closure of Pusher Street.

"Slowly, incrementally, they're just chopping away at everything that is Christiania and what's going to be left? That's what I'm worried about," added Orozco.

- 'New energy' -

Residents live in converted, historic brick barracks or self-constructed wooden homes, some dotted along the island's leafy waterfront.

In 2012, they became legal landowners, securing a bank loan for several million euros to buy part of the land from the Danish state. 

Christiania is now run by an independent foundation. 

Resident Risenga Manghezi, who heads the project to transform Pusher Street, said the housing development may begin in 2029, with the first new residents arriving two years later.

"I think having 300 new people to help us develop our creativity and to infuse new energy in Christiania can really be a good thing," argued Manghezi.

A spokeswoman for the residents, Hulda Mader, who has lived in the enclave since 1994, disagreed.

"Christiania does not really need it. It's the government who needs this, because we are out of cheap housing in Copenhagen," she declared.

- Housing shortage -

Line Barfod, Copenhagen's mayor for climate, environment and technology, defended the plans, saying the Danish capital was in dire need of 40,000 new apartments over the next 12 years, with many new developments planned across the city.

"Very few public housing (projects) have been built in Copenhagen for many, many decades," she told AFP, adding city hall was working closely with Christiania on the plans.

"We need housing that is affordable for the people who work here, the people who work in our kindergartens, in our homes for the elderly, in our schools, the people who work in the shops."

The project is still in an early planning phase, and it is not yet agreed where the development will be located or how it will fit in with Christiania's ramshackle and graffiti-covered buildings.

str/po/fg/ane

Kon Knueppel scored 26 points as the Charlotte Hornets maintained their late-season charge for an NBA playoff berth with an emphatic 114-103 defeat of the high-flying New York Knicks on Thursday.

Charlotte forward Knueppel rattled in six three-pointers as part of an impressive all-round team shooting display to help the Hornets extend their winning streak to five games as they chase a postseason ticket.

LaMelo Ball finished with 22 points, six assists and five rebounds, one of five Charlotte players to finish in double digits.

The Hornets have now won 23 of their last 29 games since late January, and are firmly in the thick of the Eastern Conference race for the playoffs.

With sixth-placed Toronto occupying the last automatic playoff spot at 40-32, Charlotte are part of a cluster of teams jostling for position just below them.

Philadelphia occupy seventh place on 40-33 while Charlotte, Orlando and Miami all have identical 39-34 records.

Charlotte's blistering form is part of a remarkable turnaround this season for the franchise, who finished just one place off the bottom of the Eastern Conference last season with just 19 wins.

Orlando kept pace with Charlotte on Thursday with a 121-117 defeat of the Sacramento Kings, thanks to 30 points from Paolo Banchero and 23 from Desmond Bane.

In Thursday's other game, the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons bounced back from Wednesday's overtime defeat to Atlanta with a comfortable 129-108 defeat of the New Orleans Pelicans.

With Cade Cunningham still absent as he recovers from a collapsed lung, Jalen Duren took on the offensive duties with 30 points and 10 rebounds. 

Kevin Huerter added 22 points while Daniss Jenkins chipped in with 19.

The Pistons improved to 53-20 and enjoy a comfortable four-and-a-half game lead at the top of the East.

rcw/bb

While the world frets about surging energy prices pushed up by the Middle East war, one small German village has been reaping the benefits of its turn to climate-friendly renewables.

Surrounded by wind turbines and studded with solar panels, Feldheim, population 130, boasts its own electricity and heating networks, supplied entirely by cheap local energy, also including biogas.

When it comes to keeping the lights on, "what's happening in the rest of the world doesn't really interest us," 56-year-old Michael Knape, who served as Feldheim mayor for almost a quarter-century, told AFP.

Feldheim, 80 kilometres (50 miles) southwest of Berlin, started its move towards clean renewables in the 1990s after German unification and by 2010 was boasting of its "energy self-sufficiency".

The small village has since attracted attention from across the world as an example of Germany's decades-old energy transition project away from fossil fuels and nuclear power.

The process has benefited from unique local conditions and significant investments.

Like much of the eastern state of Brandenburg where it is located, Feldheim sits on a flat, windswept plain, meaning the tens of nearby wind turbines generate plenty of energy.

While one of them provides enough power for the whole village, the others earn it money through taxes and charges levied on the operators.

As for heating, a biogas plant runs on slurry and leftover grain from an agricultural cooperative. On very cold evenings, the village gets a boost from a woodchip-fired heating plant.

Excess energy is stored in a battery for use in periods with little sun or wind, so-called "dark lulls".

"We hope it always stays like this, this model makes us happy," said Petra Richter, 62, a long-time resident of Feldheim.

Like her neighbours, she pays an average of 12 cents before tax per kilowatt hour of electricity, less than half the price usually paid elsewhere in Germany.

Her oil-powered boiler was replaced 15 years ago with pipes carrying communal hot water and a heat exchanger, and the same system has been in place ever since.

- 'Economically it works' -

According to Knape, who has just handed over the mayor's post, the municipality saves several hundred thousand euros a year by doing without fossil fuels.

"Obviously I can't compare a small village with a big city, but economically it works," he said.

The Middle East war has once again highlighted Germany's dependence on foreign energy imports, with the government taking steps to limit price rises at petrol stations.

Europe's top economy is still suffering from the cut-off of plentiful and cheap Russian gas imports after the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In this context, Knape argued, Feldheim could become "a successful export product" for Germany, just as the mighty automobile once was. 

The village has made energetic efforts to publicise its model, attracting visitors including former chancellor Olaf Scholz but also professionals and politicians from the United States, India and even North Korea.

An information centre welcomes more than 3,000 people a year, schoolchildren come from across the state, and the technically curious can explore the inner workings of a wind turbine.

However, even in Feldheim, there are limits to how far residents can be truly insulated from the global energy shock. 

Although the village has an e-car charging station, Richter is among the locals who do not have an electric vehicle and for whom petrol remains a crucial resource.

"We have to use the car every day," she said, adding that the spike in prices at the pump was "no longer bearable".

Richter pointed out that the village's energy independence may not be guaranteed in the long term, with the biogas plant nearing the end of its service life.

"We have to think about new solutions," she said.

kas/jsk/fz/sbk/abs

The United States is set to come under scrutiny Friday on day two of the World Trade Organization's ministerial conference, with Washington wanting to shake up the multilateral trade system.

In the corridors of the WTO gathering in Cameroon's capital Yaounde, which runs until Sunday, a lot of the talk is about the United States.

"The Americans are highly awaited; without them, we can't move forward," confided one delegate from a Southeast Asian country, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The other members primarily expect the United States to clarify its intentions, and are asking it to demonstrate its continued commitment to the WTO through concrete actions," Sebastien Jean, an associate director at the French Institute of International Relations think-tank, told AFP.

Yaounde marks the WTO's first ministerial conference since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, unleashing a barrage of attacks on multilateralism and WTO rules with sweeping tariffs and bilateral trade deals, violating WTO rules along the way, according to many experts.

Trump has made tariffs a central instrument of his economic and foreign policy.

"US trade policy measures are a corrective response to a trading system, embodied by the WTO, that has overseen and contributed to severe and sustained imbalances," US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Wednesday.

Under successive presidents, Washington is also accused of blocking the appointment of judges to the WTO's Appellate Body -- a mechanism for resolving trade disputes between countries -- which has been paralysed since late 2019.

Many observers, however, are pleased that the United States has not quit the WTO, thus avoiding major upheaval in the international trading system.

- 'Ultimatum' -

The US position, however, seems rigid. Washington has issued two documents, the latest on Monday, on reforming the WTO, contesting some of its fundamental rules.

"The US is setting down an ultimatum, and that ultimatum is that the current global order no longer suits the objectives" of the White House, said Jane Kelsey, a law specialist from the University of Auckland, who came to the conference with a coalition of NGOs, experts and activists.

"And the US threatens to relegate the organisation to even greater irrelevance if it doesn't get what it wants," she told AFP.

"So that kind of threat is hovering over this ministerial." 

A chief US demand is revision of the WTO's fundamental "most favoured nation" principle, which aims to extend any trade advantage granted to one country to all trade partners.

This system directly contradicts Trump's approach to trade.

The United States also wants the WTO to establish criteria to determine whether a country should be considered as developing, given that such countries benefit from certain advantages in the way rules are applied.

Here, Washington is targeting China, which despite its economic heft is classified as a developing country at the WTO.

- Uncertainty in the air -

The United States also wants measures encouraging countries to be more open in reporting subsidies.

WTO members are required to do so, but again, Western countries accuse Beijing of lacking transparency.

Like many other members, the United States is also calling for the development of plurilateral agreements within the WTO, something India categorically rejects, preferring to stick with the current full consensus system.

Washington is also demanding that WTO rules do not infringe upon countries' national "security".

This demand is being met with resistance, as other countries think the concept remains vague when it comes to justifying, for example, additional tariffs.

But according to Sebastien Jean, "great uncertainty remains" about what the United States is seeking at the WTO.

"Is it reform to improve its functioning, or is it disorganisation, or even lasting paralysis?

"Recent statements by Jamison Greer suggest that they wouldn't mind prolonging the uncertainty and paralysis" when it comes to institutional reform, he said. 

"This could lead them to make very minimal concessions, on procedural points or on very specific issues."

apo/ag/vk/rjm/abs

For a decade, President Donald Trump has been the gravitational force of the American right, but at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference a pressing question is animating conversations in the hallways: who comes next?

At what is billed as the world's largest conservative meeting, there is no clear consensus -- but an early contest is taking shape.

For the first time in years, the 79-year-old second-term president is skipping the conference -- typically held in Washington, but this year staged in the Dallas suburbs -- allowing other Republican stars to step out of his shadow.

Across conversations with attendees, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood out as the main contenders to lead a post-Trump Republican Party, with support split in a race that remains wide open.

Polling suggests Vance holds a comfortable national lead among Republican voters. 

But on the ground in Texas, the divide appeared more even -- with roughly half backing Vance and a significant share favoring Rubio or considering him at least as capable.

"I have the utmost confidence in both JD Vance and Marco Rubio to lead the country," said Suzy Phillips, 68, a retired nurse from Dallas. 

"They would be my top two."

- Two-horse race -

For many, the choice reflects a balance between continuity and experience.

Vance's appeal lies in his alignment with Trump's movement and personal story -- growing up in poverty in an Appalachian community beset by opioid addiction.

"I loved JD Vance before he ever went into politics...I just loved his rags-to-riches story -- that it was somebody who saw a better way and went the better way," said Phillips.

Others pointed to his communication skills and ideological fluency.

"He's very articulate, very educated," said Laura McGarraugh, 52, an emergency room nurse from Austin. 

"He has a great grasp of any kind of questions he can field. He's a little more diplomatic than Trump. I mean, I like Trump too, but I feel like JD Vance is a little more clean-cut."

Even Vance's past criticism of Trump -- once a potential liability -- was brushed aside.

"People change. People evolve. I haven't kept the same opinions my whole life," McGarraugh said.

Rubio's supporters, by contrast, emphasized experience and steadiness -- particularly on the world stage.

"Marco Rubio is an outstanding statesman," said Brian Su, 60, a consultant from Chicago. 

"He has a very clear vision of dealing with international relations. So personally, I love him."

Phillips said she would ultimately lean toward Rubio, citing "his international diplomacy" and background as the son of immigrants.

- Loyalty still matters -

Despite the split, both candidates are judged through the same lens: their relationship to Trump and the movement he reshaped.

Neither is seen as a break from Trumpism. Instead, they are viewed as competing heirs.

That dynamic leaves little room -- for now -- for alternative figures to gain traction.

Levi Mikula, 35, a media assistant from Dallas, said he would prefer Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, even as he acknowledged that Rubio was more likely to prevail.

"I didn't trust (Rubio) early on, but he's been a lot stronger," Mikula said. "And I think Donald Trump is the reason for it. But on foreign policy, he's amazing right now."

A handful of attendees floated other possibilities, including candidates in Trump's anti-establishment mold -- or even, in some cases, a return by Trump himself, despite the constitutional barrier to a third term.

That lingering focus on Trump underscores the central tension shaping the race.

Even as activists begin to weigh successors, many are not ready to move on.

“We're hoping he will go for four more years," Phillips said. "But we have to face the fact that we’re facing the end of the Trump era."

ft/msp

A cyclone off Australia triggered outages at two of the world's largest LNG plants, energy giant Chevron said Friday as Middle East turmoil stoked soaring demand for the fuel.

The Gorgon and Wheatstone gas plants in Australia collectively supply more than five percent of the world's liquefied natural gas, according to Chevron figures. 

Both suffered outages on Thursday afternoon as Tropical Cyclone Narelle lurked off the coast of Western Australia. 

"Chevron Australia is working to restore production at the Gorgon and Wheatstone gas facilities following production outages," Chevron said in a statement. 

"We will resume full production at both facilities once it is safe to do so."

The Gorgon gas plant -- which is the larger of the two  -- was continuing to operate at a reduced capacity, Chevron said.

It was not immediately clear to what extent supply might be impacted.

Tropical Cyclone Narelle was inching towards the coast of Western Australia on Friday morning, according to the government Bureau of Meteorology.  

The category four system was forecast to bring "destructive wind gusts and heavy rainfall" to some coastal areas, the bureau said. 

A sprawling industrial complex sitting just off Australia's western coast, the Gorgon plant is capable of pumping out more than 15 million metric tonnes of gas each year. 

At full capacity, the smaller Wheatstone project produces almost nine million metric tonnes.

- Major disruptions -

Australia is one of the world's largest LNG exporters -- and is a particularly crucial supplier to import-reliant northern Asia. 

Some 40 percent of Japan's LNG comes from Australia, according to the Asia Natural Gas and Energy Association. 

The US-Israel war on Iran has caused major disruptions to global supplies of both oil and LNG. 

Qatar, the world's second-largest LNG producer, has seen LNG exports plunge as fuel tankers steer clear of the Strait of Hormuz.

LNG prices in some parts of Asia have more than doubled.

Chevron is one of two major natural gas producers in Western Australia, alongside Woodside Energy.

Between them, the two companies account for more than 15 percent of international natural gas exports.

With LNG profits set to soar on the back of the Middle East crisis, Australia is reportedly mulling a new windfall tax on fuel exporters.

sft/ane