Fondness for Francis undimmed one year after pope's death

Chinese startup DeepSeek released "preview" versions of a new artificial intelligence model Friday, more than a year after it stunned the world with a low-cost reasoning model that matched the capabilities of US rivals.

The long-awaited DeepSeek-V4 "features an ultra-long context of one million words, achieving leadership in both domestic and open-source fields across agent capabilities, world knowledge, and reasoning performance", the company said in a statement on social media.

A "preview version" is now available, the company said.

The new DeepSeek-V4 model is released as two versions, DeepSeek-V4-Pro and DeepSeek-V4-Flash, with the latter being "a more efficient and economical choice" because it has smaller parameters.

"In world knowledge benchmarks, DeepSeek-V4-Pro significantly leads other open-source models and is only slightly outperformed by the top-tier closed-source model, (Google's) Gemini-Pro-3.1," the statement added.

ll-sam-mya/dan

CJ McCollum hit the game-winner with 12.5 seconds remaining as the Atlanta Hawks pulled off another nail-biting victory over New York to take a 2-1 lead in their NBA first-round playoff series on Thursday.

The Hawks beat the Knicks 109-108 in Atlanta, their second straight one-point triumph giving them the advantage in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference Series.

The Toronto Raptors also thrived at home, pulling away late in a 126-104 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers that cut the deficit in their series to 2-1.

The Hawks produced a fine collective effort, especially on the defensive end, to thwart the third-seeded Knicks' comeback bid.

With plenty of time after McCollum's go-ahead basket, the Knicks were unable to get a shot off as the Hawks pressured Jalen Brunson into a poor pass intended for Josh Hart and Jonathan Kuminga lunged in for a game-clinching steal.

"Picture perfect," McCollum said of the defensive display in the waning seconds. "When it was time to get a stop our guys dug deep and they did what it takes to win in these types of environments."

Jalen Johnson scored 24 points, pulled down 10 rebounds and handed out eight assists for the Hawks. McCollum added 23 points and Kuminga scored 21 off the bench.

The Hawks had led by as many as 18 in the first half but the Knicks took a 108-105 lead on a three-point play by Brunson, who was fouled by McCollum on a drive to the basket and converted the free throw with 1:03 to play.

Johnson pulled the Hawks back within one with a putback layup and, after misses by Hart and Brunson, McCollum came through.

"I got to a spot and did what I had to do to get this win," McCollum said, but he was still irked with himself for fouling Brunson.

McCollum said: "I've got to be better."

OG Anunoby scored 29 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Knicks.

Brunson scored 26 points and Karl-Anthony Towns scored 21 points with 17 rebounds for New York, who will try to turn the tables in game four in Atlanta on Saturday.

In Toronto, Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett scored 33 points apiece, and rookie Collin Murray-Boyles added 22 off the bench for the Raptors.

Barnes handed out 11 assists and the Raptors, who took a two-point lead into the fourth quarter, stormed home.

They connected on eight of nine three-point attempts in the final frame, out-scoring the Cavaliers 43-23.

"We knew we needed one," said Barnes after the Raptors avoided falling behind 0-3 -- a deficit no NBA team has come back from to win a playoff series.

James Harden scored 18 points and the Cavs got 15 from Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Max Strus.

bb/pst

Flames from raging wildfires in northern Japan were spreading towards the centre of a town Friday, with authorities urging more than 2,500 people to evacuate their homes, media reports and the government said.

As of Friday morning, fires in the mountainous areas of Iwate region had burned over 400 hectares (988 acres) since breaking out two days ago, government spokesman Minoru Kihara told reporters. 

Flames could be seen encroaching on homes in Otsuchi Town as smoke billowed from a nearby forest.

Increasingly dry winters have raised the risk of wildfires. A blaze that broke out in the Iwate city of Ofunato early last year was Japan's worst in over half a century.

Kihara said the flames prompted authorities to issue evacuation advisories to more than 2,500 people, and they were upping measures to extinguish the blaze, with around 700 firefighters and 13 aircraft mobilised.

As of 5:00 am on Friday, 329 residents were taking shelter, public broadcaster NHK said.

"The sound was crazy. All these cedar trees were cracking as they burned, sending flames and smoke soaring," a local firefighter told major broadcaster TV Asahi. 

tmo/aph/fox

Christine Li is a model and influencer, but not an actor, so when she saw herself playing a cruel character in a Chinese microdrama she felt bewildered, then angry and afraid.

The 26-year-old is one of two people who told AFP their likenesses were cast without consent in the AI-generated show "The Peach Blossom Hairpin", which ran on Hongguo, a major microdrama app owned by Tiktok parent company ByteDance.

Li plans to sue the drama makers and the platform, highlighting new legal and regulatory grey areas created by artificial intelligence.

"I was genuinely shocked. It was clearly me," said Li, who lives in Hangzhou in eastern China.

"It was so obvious that they used a specific set of photos I took two years ago" and had posted on social media, she said.

Microdramas are ultra-short, online soap operas hugely popular in China and elsewhere.

When Li's fans alerted her to the series, she was horrified to find her digital twin shown slapping women and mistreating animals.

"I also felt a deep fear. I kept wondering what kind of person would do something like this," Li said.

Hongguo hosts thousands of free, bite-sized shows -- both live-action and AI-generated -- whose episodes are two or three minutes long.

As of October, the platform had around 245 million monthly active users, according to data cited by Wenwen Han, president of the Short Drama Alliance.

A Hongguo statement in early April said it had taken the series down because the producers had violated platform rules and contractual obligations.

- 'Sleazy' antagonist -

AI's ability to mimic real people has sparked global concern for actors' jobs, and over such deepfakes being used for scams and propaganda.

Li and a man who says he was portrayed as her AI husband in the series, which became a hit last month on Hongguo, spoke out online about their separate unwelcome discoveries.

But even as their stories sparked a public outcry about AI ethics, AFP saw that "The Peach Blossom Hairpin" kept running for days before its removal, with the disputed characters quietly replaced.

The man, a stylist specialised in traditional Chinese clothing and make-up, had posted photos of himself in costume on the Instagram-like Xiaohongshu app.

Like Li, he was upset by the "ugly" portrayal of his likeness as a "sleazy" antagonist in the show.

"Will it have an impact on me, on my job, on my future work opportunities?" said the man, who asked to use the pseudonym Baicai.

To keep audiences hooked, microdramas are often full of shocking, larger-than-life moments.

Li and Baicai both showed AFP their original photos and the characters in "The Peach Blossom Hairpin", which bore a strong resemblance.

- Legal risk -

For low-budget AI microdramas, Chinese regulations say platforms must be the primary checkpoint for potentially dodgy content.

If they do not carry out mandatory content reviews, the videos will be forcibly taken down, according to the National Radio and Television Administration.

If the platforms were aware of any infringement but failed to act on it, parties affected can alert China's cyberspace authorities which can impose administrative penalties, according to Zhao Zhanling, a partner at Beijing Javy Law Firm.

Hongguo said in a second statement this month it would continue to strengthen how it reviews content and how it authorises creators, among other steps.

It said it had dealt with 670 AI microdramas that violated regulations, with most taken down, and warned it would crack down on repeated breaches.

When approached for comment, parent company Bytedance referred AFP to the two Hongguo statements.

Li and Baicai say they need more information from Hongguo to confirm the identity of the drama's creator -- with two companies potential candidates.

One is linked to a verified account on the Chinese version of TikTok that also published the series. Another is listed as the drama's producer on an official Chinese filing system.

AFP contacted both firms but received no response.

Using AI to slash costs may be tempting in the fast-growing, multi-billion-dollar microdrama market.

But featuring someone in a demeaning way without permission "may constitute an infringement of both portrait rights and reputation rights", said Li's lawyer Yijie Zhao, from Henan Huailv Law Firm.

- 'Associated with controversy' -

National regulations require microdrama makers to register to obtain a licence -- a step made mandatory for AI-generated animations from this month.

But producers could remain in the shadows by registering temporary outfits, Zhao said, while some allegedly use overseas servers to hide.

In 2024, a Beijing court ordered a company to apologise and pay compensation to a celebrity after its AI software enabled users to produce a virtual persona using his photos and name that could exchange intimate messages.

But lawyers told AFP that compensation for plaintiffs like Li likely won't amount to much due to the limited commercial value of an ordinary likeness.

Li worries that the saga may cost her opportunities in the modelling industry, as she is now "associated with controversy".

Baicai has not launched legal action, but hopes to see more measures from regulators and platforms to protect people like him.

"There are probably plenty of cases with unknown victims," he said.

sx-pr/abs

In the first four pitches that Mizzou saw, the Tigers homered twice. 

After that, the Tigers were shut down at the plate, allowing Arkansas time to come back in the seventh and eighth. This brought Mizzou to a 5-4 loss on Thursday night in Columbia, pushing the Tigers' losing streak to eight games.

The team started hot. Nothing more came until the ninth, but it was too late.

Jase Woita didn’t spend much time in the batters box. He swung at the first pitch he saw and drove it 405 feet, opposite field into Mizzou’s bullpen. Two pitches later, Kam Durnin was hit and put on base for Blaize Ward’s third home run in five games, also coming on the first pitch of the at-bat.

"Lord knows that I was not doing what he was doing as a freshman," Woita said. "That kid, he is unbelievable." 

The game started with Mizzou starter Josh McDevitt loading the bases in the top half of the inning with walks, but striking out the side to strand three Hogs. That first inning and McDevitt’s final inning saw the most action on the basepaths from the Razorbacks during his outing.

"He's just a warrior," Missouri coach Kerrick Jackson said postgame.

Following that contentious first inning, both McDevitt and Arkansas starter Hunter Dietz settled into a pitchers’ duel until the seventh inning.

McDevitt held the Razorbacks scoreless until the fifth inning where he gave up a solo home run to TJ Pompey. He held a no-hitter until the fourth inning, which saw a lead-off single get stranded.

"The same thing that always works well, his competitiveness and his fastball," Jackson said of what was working for McDevitt. "Guys just don't see it."  

This rebound performance was a much needed one from McDevitt, who was coming off an eight-run outing the weekend before.

"He's going to give you everything that he has and you can't ask for more than that," Jackson said. 

McDevitt left the mound with two runners on from a walk and a double. Reliever Trey Lawrence entered the game and gave up an RBI single two batters later. This tied the game at three apiece.

Arkansas followed it with another two-run inning courtesy of a two-out, two-run homer from Zack Stewart in the eighth to take the lead. Left-hander Ian Lohse halted the Razorbacks in the ninth, but walked two runners along the way. It was the graduate’s first scoreless inning since North Dakota State on Feb. 28.

During Dietz’s seven innings on the mound, Mizzou put seven runners on but stranded all after the first. The offense struggled to string together hits to plate another run.

"We needed to make adjustments and we never made those adjustments," Jackson said. 

They were shutout in every inning following the two home runs, until the ninth. 

The Tigers brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the ninth in Donovan Jordan, he singled up the middle to bring one run home. But Tyler Macon, pinch-hitting for Isaiah Frost, struck out to end the game. 

The Battle Line Rivalry will return for Game 2 at 7 p.m. Friday at Taylor Stadium. Mizzou lefty Brady Kehlenbrink will have the ball to start against Arkansas’s Cole Gibler.

On the facade of an apartment block in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe, a giant mosaic depicting cosmonauts and engineers celebrates the scientific triumphs of the Soviet Union.

Like so many other relics of the Soviet past in Central Asia, it is doomed to vanish amid a distancing from Russia and a top-down drive to boost national culture.

"If we could only carefully remove it and put it on the building that will be built here. That would be good," said Rakhmon Satiev, who lives in the apartment.

His wish will not come true. The block is about to be demolished to make way for a gleaming new residential complex, and the mosaic is to be torn down.

Over the past decade, Central Asia has shown little interest in preserving its Soviet heritage. Architectural landmarks and art, including mosaics, frescoes and sculptures, have been rapidly demolished.

"If a building is old and does not fit into the new city plan, it is torn down. The city is being rebuilt and renovated, and the past is vanishing," Dzhamshed Dzhuraev, a mosaic artist in Tajikistan, told AFP. 

Hidden from view in the courtyard behind his studio stands a monument to Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the USSR -- an awkward reminder of an era that no longer fits with the times.

- 'No longer necessary' - 

The five Central Asian former Soviet republics -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan -- became independent with the collapse of the Soviet Union 35 years ago. 

Their urban landscapes have since turned into a chaotic mix of new high-rises, Stalin-era neoclassicism, dilapidated shacks and stalled construction sites.

Altynai Kudaibergenova, a co-founder of Artkana, a rare initiative group working to preserve Kyrgyzstan's architectural heritage, said the number of lost monuments was "striking".

She fears for the visual future of the capital Bishkek, which still has "magnificent examples of socialist-modernist architecture".

The style is popular on social media, particularly among tourists.

This architectural overhaul is being driven by ideology, which leaves no space for Soviet remnants.

The region's largely unchallenged leaders brand themselves as the founders of a new era and are cementing their own legacies with fresh symbols of power.

Few say outright that is what's going on.

Still economically dependent on Russia -- even as China muscles into the region -- officials frame the demolition drive as cost-efficient.

They say renovating crumbling Soviet-era buildings is more expensive than starting from scratch, and that the region urgently needs more housing for its rapidly growing population of some 80 million.  

In the Tajik capital Dushanbe, the mayor -- the son of the president -- "is doing everything possible to make the buildings as beautiful and comfortable as he can," prominent Tajik sculptor Safarbek Kosimov told AFP.

Soviet-era mosaics were "no longer necessary," he added.

There are no such qualms about portraits of 73-year-old strongman leader Emomali Rakhmon -- which have replaced many of the torn-down facades.

- Ideological art -

Critics lament the campaign.

"Most Soviet mosaics were designed to convey an ideological message, but their artistic value is also important," activist Kudaibergenova said.

"Unfortunately, businesses are rarely receptive to such considerations. Their main priority is selling square metres at a high price."

Real-estate deals in the region are often marked by corruption and collusion between officials and business interests, according to several nonprofits and international organisations.

In Bishkek, painter Erkinbek Bolzhurov is worried about the fate of the House of Artists, which stands next to the former national printing house -- of which now only the walls remain.

"We want the city to develop, of course, but not at the expense of our memory," he told AFP. 

"Great artists worked inside these walls. That is what makes the building unique -- it has a history."

Freedom of expression is tightly controlled in Central Asia, and authorities rarely consult with the public. 

Despite the current trend, Tajik mosaic artist Dzhuraev wants to believe that "the time will come" when mosaics will once again adorn buildings.

"Architects and urban planners should pay them more attention," he said -- a "revival" of mosaics is still possible.

aj-bk/blb/asy/jc/yad/lga

Oil prices extended gains Friday and stocks struggled as investors worried about a lack of progress in ending the Middle East crisis, with Tehran keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed and the US maintaining a blockade of Iranian ports.

A week that started with hopes the two sides would eventually hold peace talks was set to end on a negative note, with Donald Trump saying he had "all the time in the world" despite fears about the impact of the war on the global economy.

With few developments to fuel buying, traders took a cautious approach heading into the weekend and ahead of a slew of earnings next week from Wall Street titans including Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple.

Crude has jumped about a fifth in the past week, having tumbled last week to one-month lows on optimism that a peace agreement would be reached.

Both main contracts rose more than one percent Friday, having advanced around three percent the day before, with Iran refusing to join talks while the US blockade remained in place.

Trump took to Truth Social on Thursday to announce: "I have all the time in the World, but Iran doesn't -- The clock is ticking!" 

He added that Iran's military was destroyed and "their leaders are no longer with us, the Blockade is airtight and strong and, from there, it only gets worse".

He also vowed the United States would destroy any vessel laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz but ruled out striking the country with a nuclear weapon, saying they "should never be allowed to be used by anybody".

Meanwhile, US military officials said the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier had arrived in the Middle East, bringing the number of the massive American warships operating in the region to three.

The standoff weighed on equity markets, with Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Wellington and Jakarta all down. Tokyo, Taipei and Manila edged up

"Market confidence has started to shift into a more cautious phase, as new comments from Iran suggest that a full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is not possible while US blockades remain in place," wrote Julian Pineda, market analyst at City Index.

"So far, no meaningful progress has been made in negotiations, with both sides maintaining relatively firm positions, leaving the short-term outlook unclear.

"This situation is starting to dampen the steady rise in market confidence seen in recent weeks."

Still, there was some good news as Trump said a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon would be extended for three weeks.

"I think there's a very good chance of having peace. I think it should be an easy one," he told reporters Thursday during a meeting between Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors.

He added that he plans to meet with top leadership from both countries in the next couple weeks.

The war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon has been a key sticking point in Washington and Tehran finding a breakthrough.

- Key figures at 0230 GMT -

West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.1 percent at $96.92 a barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 1.1 percent at $106.26 a barrel

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: Up 0.3 percent at 59,343.40 (break)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.8 percent at 25,715.74

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 4,071.52

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1681 from $1.1684 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3463 from $1.3465

Dollar/yen: UP at 159.79 yen from 159.72 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 86.78 pence from 86.76 pence

New York - Dow Jones: DOWN 0.4 percent at 49,310.32 (close)

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.2 percent at 10,457.01 (close)

dan/fox

The loop of Rizza Matutino's lasso sat atop the steer's head for what felt like forever.

The crowd at the Philippine home of Asia's only Western-style rodeo went silent, then roared when it finally slipped down around the animal's neck.

Rising from the dirt 60 seconds later, Rizza Matutino raised her arms after tying down a steer twice her size, celebrating a win over both the beast and the perception that women are not strong enough for the sport.

Dozens of young women like Matutino compete each year at the Rodeo Masbateno, home to the sort of rough and tumble events that necessitate stretchers and medical staff.

While larger provinces boast more livestock, the Masbate rodeo -- begun in 1993 in a bid to boost tourism -- has become synonymous with the island known as Philippine cattle country.

"There was pressure, but ... I just trusted myself," the veterinary student said of the short, violent contest.

"Every time we enter the arena or the corral, every time my teammates and I train, we try to prove this sport isn't just for men; we can do it too."

But, unlike their male counterparts, the rodeo's women competitors face a ticking clock.

While Matutino told AFP she wants to keep competing, Masbate has no professional category for women, whose careers end the day they no longer qualify as students.

- 'Imagine that's the cow' -

A few hundred yards away, at a high school turned makeshift dorm for competitors from across the Philippines, Christel Mae Firme was practicing.

The 25-year-old demonstrated her technique on a chair, something she had done thousands of times for lack of live cattle to practice with.

Her father, Clodualdo, a former rodeo champion and animal husbandry expert, watched approvingly.

"I taught her how to ride a horse. Then I combined it with lassoing," he said of the daughter he would take on visits to farms where he would treat sick animals.

"I would put a chair on top of a table and tell her, 'estimate the distance, use your imagination. Imagine that's the cow'."

Preparing her for the sport's danger was just as important.

"Whether I train women or men, if I see they're afraid of the cow, I'll position them so when the cow charges... they get hit," the weathered 60-year-old said with a grin.

Fears melt away once trainees experience contact and realise they can withstand it, he explained.

Ahead of her lassoing event, Christel conceded she had been nervous for a month leading to her moment of truth.

"Sometimes I doubt myself. Can I do it? Can I wrestle the cattle... without being gored?" she said.

"What I always keep in mind is that I should face my fears."

Despite those fears, Christel said she was "hooked" on the adrenaline rush, adding she had considered pausing her veterinary studies to give herself one more year of competition.

"When we graduate, there's suddenly no place for us to compete."

- Still burning passion -

Minutes before a herd of cattle was loosed onto the streets in a raucous recreation of a cattle drive, Edwin Du, 66, said he had been impressed by the performance of women competitors in recent years.

However, Du, a member of the rodeo's board of directors, insisted the lack of a pro category for women was down to a lack of interest.

"When women graduate, they no longer have time, because they will have babies or they will have to stay at home," he told AFP.

Lucky Udarbe, one of Matutino's trainers, begged to differ.

"What men can do, we women can do," the former competitor told AFP near a pen filled with restless cattle.

Udarbe said she would still be competing if it were allowed.

"That's the passion in my heart that's still burning."

"We can't say that this is just for men," agreed Clodualdo, who added the sport was far more technique than strength.

A day later, Christel's years of lassoing chairs would pay off against the real thing, as she set the fastest roping time on her way to claiming the title of "rodeo queen".

Clodualdo had told AFP he never cheered at rodeos, not even for his daughter.

After she roped her steer in just 7.64 seconds, he broke his rule.

cwl-pam/cms

YouTube is offering Hollywood celebrities and entertainers a free detection tool to help combat their deepfakes, expanding the Google-owned video platform's efforts to guard against AI-driven impersonations.

Last month, YouTube introduced its likeness protection tool -- which helps identify content in which a person's face appears altered or generated using AI technology -- to government officials, journalists, and political candidates.

The platform is now extending access to entertainers including actors and musicians, who face a heightened risk of having their likeness misused -- potentially harming their careers and distorting shared realities.

"We're expanding our likeness detection technology to the entertainment industry: talent agencies, management companies, and the celebrities they represent," YouTube said earlier this week.

Likeness detection "looks for AI-generated content with a participant’s likeness, like a deepfake of their face, and gives them the power to find it and request removal."

The video giant added that celebrities and entertainers were eligible to access the tool regardless of whether they have a YouTube channel.

"YouTube opening its deepfake detection capabilities to public figures reflects a turning point in how platforms approach identity protection in the age of generative AI," Alon Yamin, chief executive and co-founder of AI content detection platform Copyleaks, told AFP.

"The technology to replicate a person's face, voice, and mannerisms has advanced faster than the safeguards around it, creating a gap that bad actors are already exploiting."

- High stakes -

The move comes after hyper-realistic AI videos of dead celebrities -- created with apps such as OpenAI's easy-to-use Sora -- rapidly spread online, prompting debate over the control of deceased people's likenesses.

OpenAI's app also unleashed a flood of videos of celebrities such as Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley.

Last month, OpenAI said it was shutting down its Sora app.

In February, Irish director Ruairí Robinson created a stunningly realistic clip featuring Brad Pitt fighting Tom Cruise on a rooftop using a two-sentence prompt.

The widely circulated clip, which sparked alarm across Hollywood, was generated with Seedance 2.0, an AI video generation tool owned by the Chinese technology company ByteDance.

Robinson also created other videos depicting Pitt battling a sword-wielding "zombie ninja," and another showing him teaming up with Cruise to fight a robot.

Charles Rivkin, the chairman and chief executive of the Motion Picture Association, called on ByteDance to "immediately cease its infringing activity," accusing it of disregarding copyright law that protects creators and underpins millions of jobs.

YouTube said it was working with leading talent agencies to refine how likeness detection can protect entertainers.

The video giant is "doing the right thing by providing these tools at no cost to the talent, so they can protect their real estate," Jason Newman of the management and production firm Untitled Entertainment told The Hollywood Reporter.

"Their real estate is their face. Their real estate is their body. Their real estate is who they are, what they do, how they say it."

The expansion of the detection tool follows complaints from high-profile Americans about YouTube's cumbersome process for flagging and removing deepfakes from the platform –- especially as AI accelerates the creation of fabricated content.

"For celebrities, executives, and other high-profile individuals, the stakes are especially high as deepfakes can be used to spread misinformation, manipulate markets, damage reputations, or falsely imply endorsement. Robust detection is no longer optional," said Yamin.

"Detection systems must be highly accurate, continuously updated, and paired with clear policies and swift takedown processes to be effective. 

"This won't eliminate deepfakes entirely, but it can significantly reduce their reach and impact by making it harder for manipulated content to go undetected or unchallenged," he added.

ac/sla

Laura Jacobs thought she'd never wear animal fur, having witnessed years of protests over its use in clothing -- until suddenly she started spotting it all over New York.

Jacobs fished out the long mink her grandmother left her years ago and took it to a Manhattan furrier to give it a second act.

Fur "was stigmatized for so long," Jacobs told AFP, posing before a full-length mirror and assessing a potential crop.

But the return of real fur "fits with everything that's going on with recycling and bringing back vintage," she said.

"I never would have bought a fur coat," Jacobs said, adding that the thought of "killing animals like that" gave her pause.

But "this felt like I was recycling it," she said.

New York is thawing out after a particularly cruel winter that's included debates over fur's revival as influencers push the look and retail sites report a jump in searches for vintage pieces.

Business owners like Larry Cowit -- who inherited and runs his family's Madison Avenue Furs -- are celebrating a sales spike.

"I have girls as young as 20 years old walking in, coming in from college, and putting on a fox jacket," Cowit told AFP. "We haven't seen that in quite a while."

Noelle Sciacca -- head of fashion at the high-end resale site The RealReal -- said "interest in fur has accelerated dramatically," with searches for vintage fur on their website nearly tripling in 2025 from 2024.

The trend is "booming across the board," she told AFP, "but real fur is clearly leading the surge."

Sciacca owes part of the interest to "sustainable, accessible resale options," which she said "has made consumers feel comfortable embracing fur as both stylish and thoughtful."

- Muddled public opinion -

The global fashion industry's use of fur has been on the outs for decades. 

Synthetic, cheaper alternatives have gained traction, and animal rights activists continue to push dropping the real thing.

Demonstrators recently urged Milan Fashion Week to go fully fur-free. New York's Fashion Week fur ban goes into effect in September 2026.

Many major designers have vowed to stop using it, including Prada, Michael Kors and Saint Laurent.

The European Commission meanwhile is reviewing a citizen's initiative that drew millions of signatures urging an EU-wide ban on fur farming. A spokesperson told AFP the commission would communicate in the coming weeks whether it would propose such a prohibition.

Yet the culture's court of public opinion has grown muddled, notably as concerns about fast fashion and petroleum-based materials grow.

"I always imagine all of the faux-fur coats being produced right now melting into a puddle of plastic. The idea of reuse and recycling can include vintage fur," Vogue archivist Laird Borrelli-Persson said in comments recently published by the fashion magazine.

"The question for me is whether wearing vintage fur increases the appetite for lookalikes -- either faux or new fur."

Real fur coats demand consistent upkeep. The skins contain natural oils, and garments not kept in a temperature-controlled environment -- ideally off-season in cold vaults -- can dry out and disintegrate.

"It's biodegradable," said Cowit.

But Ashley Byrne of animal rights group PETA said buying vintage under the banner of sustainability is "well-meaning but misguided."

She told AFP that shoppers who didn't grow up exposed to footage from inside fur farms should "understand that wearing any fur that came from the back of an animal who was tortured and killed is endorsing things that we're sure they do not want to support."

- Online influence -

Cowit said their ratio of vintage to new fur sales is now approximately 70 to 30. Pre-owned coats can go anywhere from $500 to $10,000, and the average mink is $1,500 to $1,800, he said.

He credits the internet with boosting business: "The influencers on social media have really changed the whole world."

Part of the online drive stems from the "mob wife" aesthetic that's trended on TikTok in recent years, looks featuring flashy jewelry, animal prints, and -- you guessed it -- fur.

Madison Avenue Furs' Instagram features Cowit's niece posing on the shop's balcony in a variety of plush coats recalling "Sopranos"-esque fashion.

Stylist Renee May, who stopped by with shoppers looking to modernize their grandmother's coats and check out new jackets, told AFP "a lot of my clients are wearing their furs again."

Nicole Bellmier, 36, called the look "very nostalgic."

"It's something to pass down to our children," her cousin Dominique Defonte added.

mdo/mjf