Routine returns but Iranians struggle to afford daily life

The US Supreme Court on Monday temporarily lifted a lower court's ban on mail delivery of the widely used abortion drug mifepristone.

The top court's order restores mail access to mifepristone, which is used in the majority of abortions in the United States, until at least May 11.

A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals had halted mail delivery of mifepristone on Friday in a lawsuit brought by the southern state of Louisiana, which has some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country, against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Danco Laboratories, which manufactures mifepristone, asked the Supreme Court for a one-week pause on the appeals court order while it prepares to bring an emergency case to the top court.

The Supreme Court agreed without explanation to block the appeals court ruling until at least May 11 while the parties file legal briefs.

The 5th Circuit ruling requires women seeking abortions anywhere in the United States to obtain mifepristone in person from health clinics and bans delivery by mail or through a pharmacy.

The conservative-dominated appeals court overturned a lower court ruling that allowed mifepristone to continue to be delivered by mail while the FDA conducts a review of its regulations regarding the drug.

Mifepristone has been approved by the FDA since 2000 and is also routinely used for managing early miscarriages.

Anti-abortion activists, however, have called the drug's safety into question, with some citing a study conducted by a conservative think tank that never underwent a formal peer review.

Mifepristone, which prevents pregnancy progression, and misoprostol, which empties the uterus, are approved to terminate a pregnancy up to 70 days of gestation in the United States.

Some 20 states have banned or restricted abortion since the Supreme Court in June 2022 overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that enshrined the constitutional right to abortion for half a century.

Polls show a majority of Americans support continued access to safe abortion, even as conservative groups push to limit the procedure or ban it outright.

In 2024, the US Supreme Court rejected a bid to restrict mifepristone, ruling that anti-abortion groups and doctors challenging the medication lacked the legal standing to bring the case.

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At least three people were killed and 38 injured at a Colombian monster truck show when a vehicle veered out of control during a stunt and ploughed into a group of spectators, local authorities said Monday.

A young girl was among the dead at Sunday's exhibition in the southwestern city of Popayan, which was packed with families, local media reported.

Images circulating on social media showed the truck performing a wheelie before swerving off the track and crashing into the barriers separating the public from the track. 

"We are deeply pained by the accident...which has preliminarily left more than 38 people injured and 3 dead," Popayan mayor Juan Carlos Munoz wrote on X.

Local media said several children were among the injured.

Francisco Arboleda, head of the Popayan fire department, said some of the spectators rushed to hospital were in serious condition.

Andres Hurtado, a paramedic who was standing close to the scene when the crash occurred, said he treated three people who were badly injured, including a girl.

Munoz ordered an investigation into the disaster, which he said "should never have happened."

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(The Center Square) – The U.S. Supreme Court will temporarily allow women to obtain abortion pills through the mail, without visiting an in-person doctor. 

Justices on the court blocked a ruling out of Louisiana that would have restricted a woman's ability to access a pill through the mail. Louisiana already has a ban on the abortion drug mifepristone, but sought to prevent its access through the mail from other states. 

An order, finalized by the Joe Biden administration in 2023, allowed for women to access mifepristone without an in-person doctor's visit. A federal judge ruled in favor of Louisiana last week, blocking access to the pill through the mail. 

Danco and GenProBio, two abortion drug makers, filed emergency requests to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking relief from the order. The high court's temporary order, from Justice Samuel Alito, will give time to weigh the requests for one more week.

“Making it a federal crime to mail drugs for lawful medical purposes contravenes nearly a century of precedent and all indicia of Congressional intent,” Danco Laboratories wrote. “It would also significantly interfere with states’ traditional power to enact their own ‘health and welfare laws.’”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said removing the in-person doctor's visit requirement causes undue harm to women. She said the lack of an in-person doctor's visit facilitates potential abuse an coercion for women who do not want abortions. 

"We will continue to pursue enforcement of our laws, both civilly and criminally, against anybody who has facilitated the distribution of these drugs for the purposes of causing an abortion,” Murrill said. “It is a violation of our criminal laws, and we will pursue them and hold everyone accountable.”

Louisiana is not the only state challenging either the approval of mifepristone or subsequent actions easing the restrictions for mailing abortion pills. Missouri, Idaho, Kansas, Florida and Texas have also challenged the ease of restrictions. 

Justices on the nation's highest court will hold the ban in place until May 11, while they further consider the restrictions and weigh whether to take up the emergency petitions. 

Shareholders in Italy's UniCredit approved on Monday an increase in share capital that enables the Italian bank to mount a 35-billion-euro ($41-billion) hostile bid for its German rival Commerzbank

UniCredit shareholders approved a motion to issue additional shares to raise share capital by up 6.7 billion euros at an extraordinary meeting, the bank said in a statement.

UniCredit plans to formally launch on Tuesday its offer to Commerzbank shareholders of 0.485 UniCredit shares per Commerzbank share.

At the share prices of the banks on Monday, that offer represents a loss of around three euros per share for Commerzbank shareholders.

Italy's second-largest bank is already the leading shareholder in Commerzbank with a stake of 25 percent.

Under German market rules, if it increases its holding above 30 percent it has to make other shareholders an offer to acquire their shares.

UniCredit has wooed Commerzbank shareholders with promises of higher returns by refocusing its activity on the German market to spur faster growth.

However Commerzbank has said its strategy offers shareholders better perspectives, and is set to provide an updated growth trajectory through 2030 when it presents first quarter results on Friday.

"Our opinion remains unchanged" about the value of the UniCredit offer, a Commerzbank spokesman told AFP.

The German government has also repeatedly voiced its opposition to a takeover of Commerzbank.

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A tiny, little-known world beyond Pluto appears to have an atmosphere, Japanese astronomers said Monday, defying what had been thought possible for icy objects in our cosmic backyard.

If confirmed, the roughly 500-kilometre-wide (310-mile) rock would become just the second world past Neptune in our Solar System to host an atmosphere -- after only Pluto itself.

Formerly classified as a planet, Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet status in 2006, in part because astronomers were discovering other similar objects in a distant region called the Kuiper Belt.

While NASA under US President Donald Trump has floated the idea of restoring Pluto's planet status, the discovery of another atmosphere nearby could undermine the argument for its reinstatement.

For the new discovery, Japanese researchers and an amateur astronomer pointed their telescopes at an object with the unwieldy name of (612533) 2002 XV93.

The icy world is nearly 40 times further from the Sun than Earth -- or roughly six billion kilometres away.

These dark objects can only be seen when they pass in front of a distant star. 

When this happened in January 2024, the astronomers observed that the starlight did not immediately reappear, suggesting a thin atmosphere was filtering some of the light.

They estimate that the world has an atmosphere five to 10 million times thinner than Earth's, according to a new study in Nature Astronomy.

"This is important because, until now, Pluto was the only trans-Neptunian object with a confirmed atmosphere," lead study author Ko Arimatsu of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan told AFP.

Such small worlds had not been thought capable of hosting an atmosphere.

"This discovery therefore challenges the conventional view that small icy worlds in the outer Solar System are mostly inactive and unchanging," he added.

- Ice volcanoes or comet smash? -

The researchers could not say for sure what created the atmosphere, which is nowhere near thick enough to support life.

But they suggested it could have been made by gas being shot out from the world's interior by erupting ice volcanoes. 

Or it could have been kicked up by a comet smashing into the world, which would mean it will gradually disappear.

Jose-Luis Ortiz, a Spanish astronomer not involved in the research who studies dwarf planets beyond Neptune, said the results were interesting, but urged caution.

"I still doubt that it is an atmosphere. We need more data," he told AFP.

An alternative explanation for the observations could be that the object has a ring close to its body, Ortiz said.

Ko Arimatsu acknowledged that he could not rule out "exotic alternatives" to an atmosphere.

However, "a nearly edge-on ring does not seem consistent with the main features of our observations," he added. 

Both astronomers called for further observations to reveal more about this strange world -- particularly with the James Webb space telescope.

There have also been suggestions that a dwarf planet called Makemake, which is slightly smaller than Pluto, could have a very thin atmosphere, though some scientists are sceptical.

Last week, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman suggested the US space agency was considering reinstating Pluto as a fully-fledged planet.

Isaacman made the comments while endorsing a proposal to halve NASA's science budget, riling some astronomers, Nature reported.

"It's wild to 'make Pluto a planet again' while decimating the careers of those of us that study it!" planetary scientist Adeene Denton wrote on Bluesky.

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What might France's greatest playwright have written had he not died of tuberculosis in 1673?

A team of French scholars, researchers and artists have joined forces to tap into the power of artificial intelligence to create a play they say Moliere himself might have written.

"The Astrologer, or False Omens" is the result of three years of collaboration between the Sorbonne University and Obvious, a French trio of artists and researchers, who have trained AI to imitate Moliere's style and mastery of satire.

The playwright, considered the father of modern French comedy, is as central to the nation's culture as Shakespeare to the English-speaking world -- so much so that French refer to their native tongue as the "language of Moliere".

Written in 17th‑century French, the AI creation will hit the stage at the Royal Opera of Versailles on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The three‑act farce tells the story of a credulous father whose obsession with astrology leads him to force his young daughter to marry an old wigmaker.

Fidelity to Moliere's creative process and scholarly rigour were at the heart of the project, said Pierre‑Marie Chauvin, a vice president at the Sorbonne.

"There is no existing protocol for creating a play in the style of Moliere, so we had to devise one, but in the most rigorous way possible, and above all the most faithful," he told AFP.

The Sorbonne has said the "Moliere Ex Machina" project was aimed at "bringing to life a world that never was, but could have been", and acknowledged its attempt to imitate Moliere "was bold, almost sacrilegious".

Chauvin said the success of the project would be measured by its effect on the audience.

"Does it make people laugh?" he said.

- AI music and costumes -

The project is being billed as the first theatrical play written by AI.

It cost one million euros ($1.2 million), funded by North American donors and a handful of French patrons.

Researchers worked with Le Chat, a generative AI tool developed by the French start‑up Mistral, training it on Moliere's body of work, as well as dialogues and philosophical treatises.

The generated text was then reviewed during writing workshops with Coraline Renaux, a doctoral student in literature, and Mickael Bouffard, head of the Theatre Moliere Sorbonne, which seeks to revive theatrical techniques of the 17th century.

The work was subsequently submitted to reading committees, tasked with checking its syntax and overall coherence.

"In creating this piece, there were at least 20,000 back-and-forth exchanges between the algorithms and the creative team," said Gauthier Vernier of Obvious.

The AI was also trained to create about 15 costumes, as well as music and sets.

"For each costume, we'd go through around 50 iterations," said Hugo Caselles‑Dupre, also of Obvious.

"We had a huge number of back-and-forth discussions."

- 'Very human skills' -

The theme of astrology emerged fairly quickly, as Moliere was interested in "denouncing human credulity", Bouffard said.

"The plot is very Moliere-esque," said the Quebec native, adding that the name of the father's astrologer, Pseudoramus –-- a pseudo-Nostradamus -- was "a clever invention by AI".

For the costumes and sets, the technology was trained using sketches by Henri de Gissey, a costume designer and decorator for the court of King Louis XIV.

Musicologists guided the AI's musical output using sheet music.

The stage production involves nine actors, two dancers and four musicians. It showcases wigs, hand-sewn costumes and sets made using period techniques.

AFP attended a recent rehearsal at the Theatre des Trois Pierrots in Saint-Cloud, west of Paris.

The plot and dialogue appeared plausible.

The actors' use of Classical French and historically faithful declamation could however disorientate some viewers.

Generative AI tools have surged into prominence in recent years, dramatically reshaping the world.

The use of artificial intelligence remains one of the most sensitive issues in the entertainment industry and has generated debate.

But the teams behind the Sorbonne project defend it as an innovative cultural experiment.

"AI gives us superpowers we don't have: a universal memory and the ability to write quickly," said Bouffard.

Chauvin stressed that humans were still at the heart of the production.

"We actually saw some truly impressive effects from AI at times, but the overall structure was achieved thanks to human work and very human skills."

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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz took office a year ago vowing to revive the political centre, but the far-right AfD party has risen to the top of the polls while his own coalition's popularity is falling.

The conservative chancellor, who came to power on May 6 last year at the head of a coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), had argued that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) could be weakened by effective governance.

But after a year beset by public squabbles within his government and growing criticism of his failure to halt an economic slump, the AfD is more popular than ever.

The AfD, which finished second in the 2025 elections with 20.8 percent, is now approaching 28 percent in polls -- the result Merz's centre-right CDU/CSU alliance achieved in the vote.

The anti-immigrant AfD is now firmly entrenched in German politics and cannot be viewed merely as the beneficiary of protest votes, according to political scientist Benjamin Hoehne of Chemnitz University.

"The AfD now has a very loyal electorate that remains faithful regardless of current events or party leaders," he told AFP.

More worryingly for Merz, the "the core electorate" for Germany's mainstream centrist parties is "disappearing", Hoehne added.

- Mainstream parties fading -

For decades, the CDU/CSU and SPD dominated German politics, but Merz's CDU party is now polling below 25 percent -- and the SPD has slipped under 15 percent.

This change is particularly pronounced in former communist states of eastern Germany, where the AfD appears certain to come top in two regional elections in September -- and might even claim outright majorities.

But the AfD has also been on the rise in the more prosperous west. In two regional elections there this year, the party hit new highs, with nearly 20 percent of the vote.

For AfD politicians and supporters, those results prove that Merz's conservatives are making a mistake by allying with the centre left rather than with the far right, where they contend there is more common ground.

But Merz and his party remain committed to the so-called "firewall", a consensus across much of the German political world against allying with the AfD, which is seen by mainstream parties as anti-democratic and racist.

The AfD accuses the ruling coalition of incompetence.

"With his coalition with the SPD, Friedrich Merz won't be able to win back a single AfD voter," Bernd Baumann, leader of the AfD's parliamentary group, told AFP.

"Merz will continue to lose a massive number of voters to the AfD, because incompetent governments get voted out," he added, referring to the disputes that are paralysing decision-making within Merz's governing coalition.

- Sliding poll numbers -

The chancellor had vowed to diminish the AfD's appeal with two main strategies: a tough stance on immigration to outflank the far right on the issue, and bold reforms to prove that centrist parties are still capable of acting.

Tighter immigration rules have led to a significant decrease in arrivals -- but the chancellor does not appear to be benefitting politically.

Meanwhile, his reform drive has stalled because of constant bickering between the CDU and SPD, with the long-struggling economy making a slower-than-expected recovery.

Political scientist Marc Debus of the University of Mannheim said Merz's decision to focus on immigration may have backfired.

"Studies show that, generally speaking, right-wing populists are strengthened when the issue of immigration is raised up the political agenda, when positions are aligned with those of right-wing populist parties, and when their rhetoric is adopted," he told AFP.

A poll at the weekend in the Bild daily showed just 16 percent of Germans are satisfied with the government -- with only 24 percent believing the coalition will survive until the end of its term in 2029.

The previous German government, headed by Olaf Scholz, collapsed in 2024 amid bitter infighting between his SPD and its two coalition partners.

Public dissatisfaction, Debus said, "significantly improves the electoral chances of right-wing populist parties".

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America's NATO allies put a brave face Monday on a US decision to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany, but warned it was proof Europe needs to step up for its own security, and fast.

US President Donald Trump cast fresh doubts over the future of the alliance as he announced Washington was to scale back its largest troops contingent in Europe, after a spat with Berlin over the Iran war.

But, gathered in Yerevan, Armenia, for a meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), European leaders and Canada's Mark Carney said they were ready to step up.

"Europeans are taking their destiny into their own hands, increasing their defence and security spending, and building their own common solutions," said France's President Emmanuel Macron.

Trump has vowed to slash US troop numbers in Europe during both his White House terms, saying he wants the continent to take on greater responsibility for its defence rather than depending on Washington.

Faced with Trump's wavering commitment and Russia's assault on Ukraine, America's NATO allies have been surging security and defence investments. Last year they pledged to boost national defence spending to five percent of GDP, under pressure from Washington. 

But divisions over the Iran war seem to have precipitated events -- although German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has insisted there was "no connection" between the troop cuts and his recent row with Trump over the conflict.

"There has been a talk about withdrawal US troops for a long time from Europe," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters in Yerevan. "But of course, the timing of this announcement comes as a surprise."

"It shows that we have to really strengthen the European pillar in NATO, and we have to really do more," Kallas said, while stressing that "American troops are not in Europe only for protecting European interests, but also American interests".

The Pentagon said last week the 5,000-troop reduction would take place within the next year. Trump has told reporters, without elaborating, that cuts would go "a lot further". 

- 'Heard the message' - 

Trump has suggested in particular he might pull troops also from Italy and Spain over them not getting behind the US-Israeli operations against Iran.

As of the end of 2025 there were 36,436 active-duty US troops in Germany, 12,662 in Italy and 3,814 in Spain.

NATO chief Mark Rutte, who was also in the Armenian capital, conceded there had "been some disappointment on the US side" over Europe's reluctance to support the US-Israeli campaign against Iran.

But Europeans had "heard the message", were now providing logistical support to US operations and pre-positioning "key assets close to theatre, for the next phase", he told reporters.  

"Europeans are stepping up -- a bigger role for Europe and a stronger NATO," Rutte said ahead of the EPC meeting, dominated by the twin security threats posed by the Ukraine and Middle East wars.

Following talks with Rutte, Canada's Carney said that while there was "some concern" around adjustments in US personnel, these had to "be put against the backdrop of very, very, very considerable American resources" dedicated to NATO. 

About 68,000 US troops are permanently stationed in Europe, according to figures from the US Department of Defense, with thousands of others deployed on a rotational basis, primarily in countries on NATO's eastern flank.

Total troop numbers surged to more than 100,000 following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, under Joe Biden's presidency, but have fallen gradually back since then.

In an interview with public broadcaster ARD on Sunday, Merz, who did not take part in the Armenia talks, appeared to confirm that a planned deployment of US long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Germany -- announced by Biden -- was also being called off.

He cited depleted arsenals because of the wars in Iran and Ukraine as the reason.

"We have to step up our military capabilities to be able to defend and protect ourselves," EU chief Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Armenia. 

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(The Center Square) – The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case over whether the government can discipline doctors for what they say publicly.

The case, Stockton v. Brown, challenged the Washington Medical Commission and the Washington Attorney General over its COVID-19 information policies. 

Two doctors who filed the lawsuit were disciplined by the Washington state government for "unprofessional conduct" after they said vaccines were unsafe, COVID-19 tests are inaccurate and alternative treatments, like ivermectin, are effective, according to a brief filed to the high court. 

"Physicians 'who generate and spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation or disinformation are risking disciplinary action by state medical boards,'" the Washington attorney general's office wrote. 

The attorney general also argued that the state did not engage in mass harm by disciplining the doctors. They asserted granting relief in the case would open the door to wide-ranging First Amendment challenges. 

"The court pointed to 'strong indicators that the claim is not ripe,' including that it 'involves hypothetical, future prosecutions, largely against unnamed and unknown doctors' engaged in unknown speech and subject to unknown discipline," lawyers for Washington wrote. 

John Stockton, a former NBA player, wrote a letter to the high court on April 6 urging the justices to take up the case. He pointed to Chiles v. Salazar, a case where the Supreme Court upheld a Colorado therapist's ability to engage in talk therapy for clients with unwanted same-sex desires or gender dysphoria. 

Stockton said discipline against the doctors would violate First Amendment protections afforded to medical professionals. 

"The state has no legitimate interest in enforcing an unconstitutional program of viewpoint-based discipline against physicians for their public speech," a lawyer for Stockton wrote. 

In a brief order, the nation's highest court denied the petition and will leave in place a lower court's order upholding the disciplinary action and COVID-19 information policies. 

Separatists who want oil-rich Alberta to break away from Canada head to the provincial capital Edmonton on Monday to submit a petition that they say has enough signatures to force a referendum.

The pro-independence camp in the western province of five million people had existed on the margins for decades, but the movement has gathered pace in recent months and is closer than ever to triggering a vote.

Polls put separatist support at roughly 30 percent, but even if the federalist side wins a prospective referendum, leaders on both sides say the process has left Canada permanently changed.

Standing outside the provincial legislature on a grey Sunday evening, former Alberta deputy premier and activist for the federalist side, Thomas Lukaszuk, told AFP he now struggles to look at the blue provincial flag of Alberta fluttering behind him, saying it has been co-opted by separatists.

"It stands for something that most of us Albertans and Canadians don't stand for. It's a form of treason," said Lukaszuk, who moved to Canada as a child when his family sought refuge from communist Poland.

Lukaszuk concedes that some separatists have legitimate grievances Ottawa should work to address, including demonization of an oil industry that remains an important source of livelihood in the province.

Lukaszuk, who is spearheading Alberta's Forever Canadian campaign, said the ongoing separatist movement has been helped by a right-wing premier, Danielle Smith, who has sought closer ties with President Donald Trump's Republican Party.

Tacit support from Washington, including several State Department meetings, has also helped, he said.

"The separatists are not elected members. They're just citizens of Canada residing in Alberta, and they actually formed delegations and are received by the highest levels of US administration. That must be very empowering to them," he told AFP.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also drew Canadian furor in January when he said Alberta and the United States would make "natural partners".

- 'Fabric' divided -

The group coordinating the separatist effort, Stay Free Alberta, had until the beginning of May to collect 178,000 signatures.

Their leader, Mitch Sylvestre, told AFP last week they had comfortably cleared that threshold.

Separatists are planning to enter Edmonton in a convoy on Monday before Sylvestre tries to deliver his petition to provincial officials.

Alberta's First Nations -- indigenous groups who signed treaties with Britain before Canada won independence -- have filed a court challenge, arguing that separating Alberta would violate their treaty rights, a case that could render the entire process moot.

But Michael Wagner, an independent historian and long-standing supporter of Albertan independence, said last week that the impact of the separatist effort will be enduring.

"Even if we lose the referendum, (this) is not going to just disappear," he told AFP. "I think this is going to be a permanent change in our political culture."

Lukaszuk said he has lived in Alberta for 46 years and has "never seen this province as divided as it is right now."

"Neighbors don't talk to neighbors, family members don't talk to family members, and that is extremely damaging to the fabric of our province."

- Oil politics -

Alberta joined the Canadian confederation in 1905 and resentments towards eastern political leaders in Ontario and Quebec fuelled marginal separatist movements at various points over the last century.

But anger at Ottawa intensified in protest against former prime minister Pierre Trudeau's 1980 National Energy Program, which broadened Ottawa's control over the oil industry.

The program included new taxes giving Ottawa more revenue from Alberta's oil as a safeguard following the oil price shocks of the 1970s.

Wagner called the program a "game-changer" which entrenched the idea of independence.

Fast-forward 35 years, and Trudeau's son Justin was elected prime minister with a climate-conscious agenda reviled by many in Alberta.

Some independence supporters want Alberta to join the United States, but the group's leaders say they are merely seeking support from Trump to help secure an exit from Canada.

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