One injured in bomb attack on Colombia military base

Several proponents of artificial intelligence (AI) have become the victims of violent acts in recent days, reflecting the existential dread around the emerging technology -- and the public's growing resentment towards its advocates.

Billionaire OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is among the most prominent, with someone throwing a Molotov cocktail at his home on April 10. A suspect, 20-year-old Daniel Moreno-Gama, has been arrested. 

But the violence extends beyond Silicon Valley's elite to include local policymakers, like Ron Gibson, a city councilmember in Indianapolis who had 13 bullets shot through his front door after expressing support for a data center construction project. 

Those behind the April 6 attack also left a note reading "No Data Centers." 

"Anxiety about emerging technologies is nothing new," said researcher Nirit Weiss-Blatt, whose Substack newsletter "AI Panic" covers the growing hostility towards artificial intelligence. 

"With Artificial Intelligence, though, it feels more extreme," she added, noting that Moreno-Gama was radicalized through the "'AI existential risk' rhetoric" rather than its employment or environmental impacts. 

"We need to have a broader discussion about how the 'extinction risk' rhetoric radicalizes the most vulnerable individuals," Weiss-Blatt said. 

"The fact that some edges justify violent acts is very troubling, and it needs to be condemned as strongly as possible." 

The attacks against AI figureheads have no demonstrable ties to one another, nor do they claim affiliation with any shared organization. 

But Mauro Lubrano, a lecturer in International Relations at the University of Bath, said calling such actors lone wolves "is actually not that accurate, because these groups are embedded in some sort of digital ecosystem." 

Lubrano connects the recent string of violence to the vandalism of Tesla vehicles and dealerships in 2025 in response to founder Elon Musk's work with the administration of US President Donald Trump. 

The recent reports of violence have led to an increased demand for physical protection among tech companies.

"In recent months, we've definitely seen a clear uptick," said Rory Moran, who oversees executive security at United Security, Inc. 

"These AI and technology companies, especially the big ones, they're always in the news, and when that happens... we're going to see an uptick in interest in potential attacks," he added.

- 'Violence will not help' -

The response to the violence on the Internet has been less panicked.

Many commentators on platforms like TikTok have downplayed or justified the attacks, comparing those involved to Luigi Mangione, the suspect behind the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in 2024.

But some organizations advocating for limiting AI expansion, such as Pause AI and Stop AI, now worry they will be associated with endorsing violent acts against AI proponents.

Dean Ball, a former AI policy advisor for the Trump administration, wrote in a post on X: "The rhetoric of the pause/stop crowd is out of control and it has gotten worse with time."

"This rhetoric always had the potential to cause violence and now this seems to be no longer hypothetical," he added.

Valerie Sizemore, one of the cofounders of Stop AI, said Moreno-Gama -- the Molotov cocktail suspect -- posted on Stop AI's Discord server to ask if he could discuss violence against AI founders.

The server's moderators said posting about such subject matter would get him banned, and he never returned.

"Violence will not help," Sizemore said, instead urging people concerned about AI to opt for "non-violent actions."

"It is really my hope that this is the icebreaking moment that leads everyone to listen to the public and start trying to have the conversation we need to have," she said.

tu/bl/ube/jgc/sla/hol

German premium automaker Mercedes-Benz said Wednesday its first-quarter profit fell by almost a fifth as cutthroat competition in China shakes the world's carmakers.

Net profit for January to March came in at 1.43 billion euros ($1.67 billion), down more than 17 percent on the previous year, hit by difficulties in China.

"In China, intense competition and subdued demand continued to weigh on the market," Mercedes said.

The world's largest market, China has become a fierce battleground for carmakers amid a brutal price war and fierce competition from local players such as BYD and Geely.

Mercedes said car sales by volume in China fell 27 percent in the first three months of 2026, even as they grew in Europe and North America.

The firm's China sales were last year already at their lowest level since 2016.

Intense competition in the country, long a steady source of profits for German carmakers, has hurt Mercedes and its rivals.

The 10-brand Volkswagen Group, which includes premium marques such as Audi and Porsche, is planning 50,000 job cuts by the end of the decade.

China's BYD, the world's largest electric carmaker, meanwhile said Tuesday its first-quarter profit had more than halved amid slowing domestic sales.

Restating its commitment to China, Mercedes said it was working with local firms to develop "a new generation of China-fit vehicles", pointing to the China variant of the electric GLC compact SUV launched at the ongoing Auto China exhibition in Beijing.

vbw/jhb

Incoming Hungarian leader Peter Magyar on Wednesday pays his first visit to EU chiefs in Brussels since his election win, looking to turn the page on the bad blood of nationalist Viktor Orban's tenure.

While Orban often used trips to the city to showcase his opposition to the European Union, Magyar is looking to kickstart a new dawn of cooperation with Brussels that could start by unlocking billions of euros for Budapest.

Euphoric EU leaders feted conservative Magyar's crushing election victory this month, which ended Kremlin-friendly Orban's 16 years in power.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said Magyar's win made the bloc "stronger, more united".

Since then, the two sides have not hung around as they push to move beyond blockages and bickering in the Orban era that stalled key EU initiatives, most notably on supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia's 2022 invasion.

While Magyar will only take office next month, his team has already held two rounds of talks with high-ranking EU officials as they look to bring black sheep Budapest back into the fold.

"We've never seen such a level of commitment from a government that isn't even in office yet," EU lawmaker Daniel Freund, a fierce Orban critic, told AFP.

"It's practically as if Hungary is rejoining the European Union."

Wednesday's meetings with von der Leyen and European Council head Antonio Costa will look to propel the work forward -- as Brussels lays out the changes it expects Magyar to make.

The new leader is desperate to show his promise to reset ties can bring quick benefits, and wants to convince Brussels to release around 18 billion euros ($21 billion) in funding that was frozen over rule-of-law concerns under Orban.

"We have no time to waste," Magyar posted online.

The clock is indeed ticking: the incoming government has until the end of August to start pushing through reforms to try to secure 10 billion euros left over from Covid recovery funds, or lose them for good.

EU officials hope Magyar will be able to move fast after securing a super-majority in parliament that will make it easier to ram through laws.

"We want to engage in a very structured, in a very focused way with the incoming Hungarian government to make sure that at the earliest stage every action that needs to be taken is taken," said EU spokesman Olof Gill.

The quickest way for Brussels to give Magyar a win could be to wave through a separate 16 billion euros in preferential loans for defence that were held up as the standoff with Orban worsened ahead of the Hungarian polls.

- 'Wait and see' -

While Brussels is setting out the nitty-gritty of the reforms it wants from Magyar, leaders will also be pushing for a new approach on Ukraine.

Even before Magyar takes power, Orban's defeat has already helped unblock some of the major points of contention.

The 27-nation bloc last week approved a mammoth loan for Ukraine and new package of sanctions on Russia that Hungary had been stalling for months.

Hungary's EU counterparts now want to see Magyar free up EU funds used to arm Ukraine that have been stalled for years, and expect him to lift Orban's veto preventing Kyiv from moving to the next step in its bid to join the bloc.

Officials insist that Ukraine deserves to move ahead in the painstaking process, although there is little appetite among major EU powers to rush Kyiv towards full membership anytime soon.

So far, officials in Brussels are hopeful that Magyar -- who once served under Orban, before turning on his former boss -- will genuinely launch a new chapter in ties.

But wary of celebrating too soon, they insist they need to see concrete moves and not just kind words.

"So far, wait and see," one EU diplomat said, on condition of anonymity, summing up the attitude toward Magyar. "But that might change, considering all the good things he says and does."

cjc-del/raz/jhb

The agency that regulates the US airwaves on Tuesday ordered an early review of the license of broadcaster ABC after President Donald Trump and his wife demanded it fire comedian Jimmy Kimmel.

The order from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) affects Disney, which owns ABC, and its television subsidiaries.

It comes after both Donald and Melania Trump demanded the network cancel Kimmel's late-night comedy show over a joke they described as a call to violence, days before an alleged attempt to assassinate the US president.

The comedian said the response was "ridiculous" and that the administration was "making a big thing of this joke" during his "Jimmy Kimmel Live" show on Tuesday.

Trump had demanded Kimmel be fired for likening the first lady to an "expectant widow."

In a show last week, Kimmel had portrayed himself as MC of the upcoming White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington on Saturday, addressing the first lady and saying "Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow." 

Trump turns 80 in June and is the oldest president to take office in the United States. His wife, a former model who was born in Slovenia, is 56.

The first lady also lashed out at Kimmel in a statement, calling on broadcaster ABC to "take a stand" against the late-night host.

Kimmel brushed off the criticism on his show Monday, saying the gag was "obviously... a joke about their age difference."

"It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am," Kimmel said. "It was not by any stretch of the definition a call to assassination, and they know that."

The White House went back on the attack Tuesday, with communications director Steven Cheung on X describing Kimmel as a "shit human" for "doubling down on that joke instead of doing the decent thing by apologizing."

The suspect accused of attacking Saturday's media gala was charged in court Monday with trying to assassinate the president.

- Penalizing comedians -

At his Tuesday show, Kimmel played a clip of Trump joking about his own age in a speech as he welcomed King Charles III earlier in the day.

Noting that his parents were married for 63 years, Trump turned to Melania during the speech and remarked: "That's a record we won't be able to match, darling, I'm sorry."

"Wait a minute, did he just make a joke about his death?" Kimmel asked during his program.

"Only Donald Trump would demand I be fired for making a joke about his old age, and then a day later, go out and make a joke about his own old age."

As a prominent late-night comedy host, Kimmel has been at the heart of the debate over constitutionally protected speech.

He was briefly suspended from his show in September following government pressure after he said Trump's hard-right MAGA movement was trying to gain political capital from the assassination of influencer Charlie Kirk.

The Trump administration has sought to penalize media outlets and comedians who challenge him, while the Republican leader's rhetoric toward political opponents has been criticized as polarizing and sometimes violent.

Network CBS last year axed Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show" in a "financial decision" that critics say smacks of censorship.

Trump's appointee to chair the FCC, Brendan Carr, turned heads when he told a Congressional hearing that "the FCC is not formally an independent agency," implying that his actions could justifiably be aligned with the political priorities of the White House.

bur-aks/hol

With her four-year-old nestled nearby, doctor Saniya Jafri consults from home in Karachi with a patient on the other side of Pakistan via her laptop.

She is one of thousands of Pakistani female doctors returning to practice through "telemedicine" after leaving the profession because of family obligations and workplace barriers to women in the conservative society.

Although women outnumber men in Pakistan's medical registrations, many stop practicing after marriage, exacerbating the fast-growing nation's shortage of doctors.

Jafri, a mother of three, gave up cardiology after marriage.

"I did not want to choose long working hours and be away from home for a long time," she told AFP. 

But an initiative by digital health firm Sehat Kahani helped her back into the workforce by providing a digital platform to connect home-based, mostly female doctors, with patients in underserved communities.

Private clients are also catered for.

The initiative has brought 7,500 doctors back into practice, its co-founder says, and aims to boost healthcare for disadvantaged areas in Pakistan that face a dearth of services -- especially female patients who often feel more comfortable speaking with women medical staff about health issues.

Gallup surveys and doctor associations suggest more than a third of Pakistan's female medical graduates never enter the profession -- or leave it after marriage -- due to lack of family support, poor childcare facilities, and harassment.

The situation is symptomatic of wider challenges for women in Pakistan who face significant economic and social disparities, with the World Economic Forum ranking the nation second-to-last for gender equality.

- 'Doctor Brides' –

Jafri now balances caring for her children and household chores with attending to patients online.

"I wanted to stay with my children," the 43-year-old said of the flexible arrangement.

An overwhelming majority of the tens of thousands of aspirants who compete for places in government-run medical universities are women -- a rare instance in Pakistan of female student admissions outnumbering men.

Yet working at hospitals and clinics is widely seen as incompatible with family life for women, especially those with young children.

"The lady doctor who advises mothers to exclusively breastfeed for six months does not have such a facility at her own workplace," said Zakiya Aurangzeb, President of the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association.

She said long hours and the risk of sexual harassment and mob violence from the families of patients who suffered poor outcomes also put off women and their families.

Seeing those challenges as well as Pakistan's dismal healthcare access in poor communities, doctor Sara Saeed Khurram set up Sehat Kahani, a digital network that includes 80 clinics where patients visit for a remote consultation with a doctor, guided by an in-person nurse.

She hoped to realise the full benefits of the years of training and government subsidies for degrees that many families seek for their daughters due to the social status they confer in Pakistan society, where a "Dr" honorific is considered to improve marriage prospects for women.

"When that wedding card goes out that you're marrying a doctor... it just raises the social stature of the entire family," said Khurram.

"Once that purpose is done... then it becomes very difficult for you to challenge the societal norms that exist in that family to let her work."

Khurram understands the situation first-hand.

"I also became what we call the doctor bride or the 'doctor bahu'," she said, using the Urdu term for "daughter-in-law".

Though she remained in the workforce, Khurram watched her mostly-female medical school cohort drop out of work one by one, facing pressure from in-laws to focus on tending the home.

- Healthcare gap –

The lack of female doctors is deepening the strain on Pakistan’s healthcare, a mix of public and private systems with sharp disparities between cities and rural areas in the country of 250 million people and poor outcomes for urban working-class neighbourhoods.

Around 70,000 women -- almost a fifth of the 370,000 total registered doctors -- are listed in official registries but not practicing, according to medical associations.

Ushering female doctors back to the workforce online also provides better options for patients.

In an impoverished neighbourhood of Karachi, Muhammad Adil was able to take his eight-year-old son to a nearby Sehat Kahani–run health unit because it saves him time and money.

"When we come here, we are able to save our daily wage because it's close," he said, after a free consultation with Jafri on his son's chickenpox.

Digital healthcare improved flexibility and could help women back into the workforce, Jafri said, but cautioned that ultimately family backing was key. 

"If a woman doctor receives support from her husband, parents, and in-laws, she can excel," she said.

"Those who get it go on to succeed, but many who don't are forced to give up".

zz/ceg/fox

The San Antonio Spurs punched their ticket to the second round of the NBA playoffs on Tuesday, leading wire to wire in a 114-95 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.

Victor Wembanyama scored 17 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and blocked six shots to help the Spurs wrap up a 4-1 win in their best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series.

In the East, Philadelphia star Joel Embiid scored 33 points and handed out eight assists as the 76ers fended off elimination with a 113-97 victory over the Boston Celtics.

The Spurs, who clawed back from a 19-point deficit to win game four, burst out of the blocks and pushed their lead to as many as 28 before taking a 65-45 lead into half-time.

Portland unleashed an 11-0 run that cut a 20-point fourth-quarter deficit to nine, but the Spurs responded.

De'Aaron Fox scored 13 of his 21 points in the final period and Wembanyama -- playing his second game after missing one with a concussion -- delivered two massive blocks as San Antonio won a playoff series for the first time since 2017.

"It did feel like we let our foot off the gas," Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. "NBA games are long, it's not an excuse. That means we've got to be better, but zero lead changes is zero lead changes.

"We have a lot of things we can be better at," Johnson added of his young team, who had six players score in double figures. "But we're ready to step up to the plate and swing."

Seeded second in the West, they are chasing a sixth NBA title and their first since 2014.

They will face either the Denver Nuggets or Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference semi-finals.

The Timberwolves lead the Nuggets 3-2 in their series.

- Embiid in rhythm -

In Philadelphia, a dominant second half by Cameroon-born big man Embiid -- playing just his second game since an April 9 emergency appendectomy -- enabled the Sixers to cut the series deficit against Boston to 3-2.

"It's kind of hard. I only had one chance to go up and back (on the court) before I came back," Embiid said. 

"Using this game and last game to kind of get back into it.

"I found my rhythm in the second half. We adjusted some stuff at half-time. I feel OK. I feel good. We got a win. That's all that matters."

The series shifts back to Philadelphia for game six on Thursday with a seventh game, if needed, in Boston on Saturday.

"We did our job," Embiid said. "We're going to need everybody to come back to Boston."

Tyrese Maxey added 25 points and 10 rebounds for the 76ers, who also had 16 points and nine rebounds from Paul George.

Jayson Tatum had 24 points and 16 rebounds for the Celtics, and Jaylen Brown added 22 points.

Boston were outscored 28-11 in the fourth quarter, producing their fewest points in any quarter this season with the series clincher up for grabs.

The Celtics, who have missed the playoffs only once since 2007, are trying to reach the second round for the fifth year in a row.

The Sixers have not won a playoff series since sweeping Brooklyn in the first round in 2023.

The Celtics, chasing a second NBA title in three seasons, or 76ers will face either the New York Knicks or Atlanta Hawks in the second round.

The Knicks seized a 3-2 lead in their series with a 126-97 home victory over the Hawks.

Jalen Brunson scored 17 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter and added eight assists while Karl-Anthony Towns had 16 points and 14 rebounds for the hosts.

Atlanta must win at home in game six on Thursday to force a winner-take-all game seven in New York on Saturday.

bb/pst

The pace of tropical forest destruction slowed in 2025 after record losses the year before but remained at worrying levels equivalent to 11 football fields per minute, researchers said Wednesday.

The world lost 4.3 million hectares (10.6 million acres) of tropical primary rainforest last year -- down 36 percent from 2024, said researchers from the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the University of Maryland.

"A drop of this scale in a single year is encouraging -- it shows what decisive government action can achieve," said Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of WRI's Global Forest Watch platform.

"But part of the decline reflects a lull after an extreme fire year," Goldman said.

The researchers also warned that fires fuelled by climate change have become a "dangerous new normal" which threatens to reverse the recent gains made by government efforts to tackle deforestation.

The warming El Nino weather phenomenon is expected to return in the middle of the year, which could push global temperatures even higher, raising the threat of heatwaves, droughts and wildfires.

The researchers, who used satellite data for their report, noted that last year's forest loss was still significant -- about the size of Denmark and 46 percent higher than a decade ago.

Despite last year's progress, global forest loss remains 70 percent above the level required to meet the 2030 goal of halting and reversing forest loss, the researchers said.

"A good year is a good year, but you need good years forever if you're going to conserve, for example, the tropical rainforest," Matthew Hansen, director of the GLAD Lab at the University of Maryland, said in a media briefing.

- Government policies -

Much of last year's slowdown was due to sharp declines in Brazil, home to the biggest rainforest in the world.

Brazil's forest loss, excluding fires, was 41 percent lower than in 2024 -- its lowest rate on record.

"Brazil's declines are associated with stronger environmental policies and enforcement since President Lula took office in 2023," Goldman said in a news briefing, referring to Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Lula relaunched an anti-deforestation action plan and increased penalties for environmental crimes, she said.

But the country's forests are still threatened by agriculture, which remains the largest driver of forest loss to make room for soy fields and cattle ranches.

Some states in the Amazon have passed legislation to weaken environmental protections, the researchers said.

"Several countries showed that strong policy action can reduce forest loss quickly," Goldman said.

Forest loss in neighbouring Colombia fell 17 percent, the second lowest year on record since 2016, thanks to government policies and agreements limiting forest clearing.

Government policies also helped to limit forest loss in Indonesia, where it increased by 14 percent but was well below the highs seen a decade ago.

In Malaysia, government efforts have helped to stabilise forest loss in the country.

Tropical forest loss remained high in other parts of the world, including in Bolivia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Madagascar, the researchers said.

- 'Near-permanent state of emergency' -

Global tree cover loss fell by 14 percent last year.

While agricultural expansion is still the leading driver of tree cover loss across the tropics, fires played a major role worldwide, accounting for 42 percent of the destruction.

"For the past three years, fires burned more than twice as much tree cover as they did two decades ago," Goldman said.

While humans cause most fires in the tropics, climate change is intensifying natural fire cycles in northern and temperate regions, the researchers said.

Canada had its second-worst fire year on record last year as wildfires tore through 5.3 million hectares of forest.

"Climate change and land clearing have shortened the fuse on global forest fires," Hansen said. "They are turning seasonal disturbances into a near-permanent state of emergency."

dep-lt/sbk

Angel Correa's goal in the 33rd minute delivered Mexico's Tigres UANL a 1-0 victory over host Nashville of MLS in Tuesday's CONCACAF Champions Cup semi-final first leg match.

The teams meet again next Tuesday in Mexico in the second leg of the home and home series to determine which club advances to the May 30 final.

Los Angeles FC and Mexico's Toluca begin the other semi-final tie on Wednesday.

After the start of the match was delayed by an hour due to a severe thunderstorm, Argentine right wing Correa scored the only goal just after the half-hour mark on a left-footed blast from outside the box into the lower left corner.

Nashville, which leads the MLS Eastern Conference, ousted Lionel Messi's Inter Miami in the round of 16 and beat Club America at Estadio Azteca in the quarter-finals.

Nashville began the MLS season 7-1-1 and leads Messi's squad by three points in the East.

js/bb

New Zealand officials rejected on Wednesday an application to install a statue commemorating so-called "comfort women" enslaved by Japan before and during World War II after Tokyo suggested it could harm diplomatic relations.

Japan forced up to 200,000 women from Korea, China and southeast Asia into sexual slavery from 1932 until 1945 and the issue remains a sore point in Tokyo's relations with its neighbours.

The Korean Garden Trust had sought to install a statue honouring the survivors at Barry's Point Reserve in the Auckland suburb of Takapuna.

But after public consultation the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board declined an application to install the statue.

"This was a difficult decision, and one we did not make lightly," board chair Trish Deans said.

"We carefully considered staff advice and the feedback received from the community through a formal consultation process."

Among the submissions was a letter from Japanese Ambassador Makoto Osawa, which claimed it could "cause division and conflict within New Zealand's wonderful multi-ethnic and multicultural society and between Japanese and Korean communities".

Wellington's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade also said the Japanese government had made "formal representations" about the proposed statue.

Deans said many submitters had supported the statue as an opportunity to learn and reflect on what happened during the war.

"We recognise the significance of the history the statue represents, and we acknowledge the survivors whose stories it seeks to honour," said Deans.

bes/oho/abs

A worn-out Pikachu plushie, tired teddy bear or stained stuffed animal can all get a new lease on life at a Japanese laundry service making beloved toys squeaky clean again.

Masakazu Shimura, a cleaning professional with three decades of experience, gave one stuffed Pokemon already in good condition a steam shower, carefully brushing it after a gentle bubble scrub, almost as if caring for a newborn baby.

Videos of the meticulous care the cuddly toys receive at his workplace, Cleaning Yonmarusan, have mesmerised plushy fans on social media, awarding the high-end fabric care viral fame and attracting customers from around the world.

Relying on his expertise and experience cleaning everything from dress shirts to camping tents, Shimura washes and restores the delicate fabric of soft toys.

"While hand-washing, I carefully feel what kind of material it is and assess the condition of the material and so on, gently massaging it with my hands as I wash it," he told AFP.

Shimura is among a dozen certified cleaning professionals at Yonmarusan, a regional chain in Yamanashi, west of Tokyo.

While the firm has been cleaning soft toys for decades, business has boomed thanks to viral social media posts in recent years on the back of a Gen Z adoration for plushies and Japan's love for everything cute and cuddly.

Today, the service cleans more than 10,000 soft toys every year, compared to roughly 1,200 annually a decade ago.

And some people even "come to Japan specifically for the purpose of having their soft toys cleaned", said Hisako Mori, the firm's public relations manager.

"While the cleaning is being done, they enjoy travelling around Japan. At the end of their trip, they pick up their stuffed animals before heading home."

Shimura said some clients wish to keep specific scratches or scribbles on their toys, as those marks sometimes carry precious memories.

"These items hold special memories. That's true for clothing as well, but even more so for stuffed animals, which we recognise our customers see as members of the family," he said.

"It's a process where we truly cannot let our guard down... When our customers are happy with the results, that's really the moment when we feel a strong sense of fulfilment."

hih/ami/abs