Shots reportedly fired, Trump evacuated from press dinner in Washington

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

sla/aks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- 'Huge relief' -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

bes/oho/abs

Oil prices held around four-year highs Thursday while stocks fell after Donald Trump warned the US blockade of Iranian ports could last months as peace talks remained stalled.

While Tehran submitted a fresh proposal this week to reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz, the US president reportedly did not believe it was not negotiating in good faith.

The Wall Street Journal said he had told national security officials to prepare for a long blockade to compel the Islamic republic to give up its nuclear programme.

At a meeting of oil executives Tuesday, he discussed efforts "to alleviate global oil markets and steps we could take to continue the current blockade for months if needed and minimise impact on American consumers", a White House official said on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, Trump told Axios: "The blockade is somewhat more effective than the bombing. They are choking like a stuffed pig. And it is going to be worse for them. They can't have a nuclear weapon."

He added that the naval action would not end until he had secured a deal with Tehran to address its nuclear programme.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said: "Iran can't get their act together. They don't know how to sign a nonnuclear deal. They better get smart soon!"

He posted an illustration of himself holding an assault rifle alongside the caption "NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!" 

The prospect of the strait -- through which a fifth of world oil and gas passes -- being closed for months more sent crude surging to the highest level since 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Brent for June delivery, which hit a peak of $122.53 Wednesday, was sitting around $120 in Asian trade, while West Texas Intermediate was around $108.

Analysts said traders were beginning to shift to the view that the crisis will not be as short as initially hoped.

- Tech's AI rally -

Stock markets also struggled, with Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Seoul, Manila and Jakarta all down. There were gains in Singapore, Wellington and Taipei.

The dollar, seen as a safe haven during the crisis, rose against its peers.

However, equity traders remain relatively upbeat thanks to a revival of the AI trade, which has helped push Seoul's Kospi index to multiple record highs.

The country's Samsung Electronics reported a 750 percent surge in operating profit to a record high on Thursday, thanks to strong sales of chips crucial for artificial intelligence, while it also forecast healthy demand in the next three months.

That came after Microsoft, Meta and Google-parent Alphabet posted forecast-busting earnings.

US stock futures rose.

SPI Asset Management's Stephen Innes warned that the positive mood on stock markets could change.

"History tells us that this widening divide between stocks, oil, and rates can only stretch so far before the physical shock bleeds into the real economy," he wrote.

"Expensive energy is not abstract. It moves quietly through the system, from the pump to logistics to margins, eventually surfacing in the data that central banks respond to after the fact."

Investors were also assessing the outlook for the Federal Reserve's policy actions after four members of its decision-making body dissented on a vote, the most since 1992.

While it voted to hold interest rates owing to fears of a spike in inflation caused by surging energy costs, three "did not support inclusion of an easing bias in the statement at this time." 

A fourth voting member, Trump-appointee Stephen Miran, had sought a quarter-point cut.

The meeting was the last with Jerome Powell as Fed boss, with Kevin Warsh -- the president's pick -- to take over next month.

Trump spent much of his second term blasting Powell for not cutting borrowing costs quickly enough.

- Key figures at 0300 GMT -

West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.9 percent at $108.92 a barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 2.9 percent at $121.48 a barrel

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 1.0 percent at 59,304.62 (break)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 1.3 percent at 25,763.07

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 4,104.67

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1668 from $1.1695 on Wednesday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3476 from $1.3489

Dollar/yen: UP at 160.34 yen from 160.23 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.58 pence from 86.71 pence

New York - Dow: DOWN 0.6 percent at 48,861.81 (close)

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 1.2 percent at 10,213.11 (close)

dan/cms

The first global conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels wrapped up on Wednesday -- but what progress was made in Santa Marta, a coal port on the Caribbean coast?

Here are a few takeaways:

- Roadmaps -

France made headlines on the opening day of the conference when it published a "roadmap" detailing its path to eliminating the use of all fossil fuels for energy by 2050.

Analysts said no other country had published such a clear and comprehensive phaseout plan and it sent an important signal from a major economy about its direction on fossil fuels.

The splash caused some grumbling in Santa Marta as some pointed out that France was not announcing new policy but existing pledges under a different title.

Other nations contested that there was no widely accepted definition of a roadmap, and that they too had timelines to phase out coal and other planet-heating fuels, as well as renewable energy targets and plans for decarbonizing heavy industry.

Leo Roberts from the E3G climate change think tank said a roadmap should be guided by science and make a fossil fuel phaseout a "central planning principle" around which other policies gravitate.

- 'Spaghetti' science -

One of the key outcomes was the creation of an expert scientific panel to advise governments, cities or regions in planning their own pathways away from fossil fuels.

Carlos Nobre, a Brazilian climate scientist and one of the driving forces behind the panel, told AFP: "It will provide all the solutions -- to implement them, and to finance them." 

The Scientific Panel for the Global Energy Transition was amusingly dubbed the "Spaghetti" group because of its acronym -- SPGET.

- Fossil Free Zones -

Popular among grassroots movements, the concept of "Fossil Free Zones" is slowly gaining traction in international meetings and found fertile ground in Santa Marta.

These zones aim to encompass territories that -- due to their ecological importance, from the Amazon to the Congo Basin and Indonesian rainforest -- are protected by governments that prohibit all hydrocarbon exploration and extraction within them.

The Earth Insight expert group estimates that there are 58 such protected areas worldwide. 

Colombia, for example, banned the extraction of fossil fuels and minerals in the Colombian Amazon last year to "stop the expansion of the extractive frontier," said Colombia's Environment Minister Irene Velez Torres, host of the Santa Marta conference.

- New hosts -

Colombia passed the baton to Tuvalu, a tiny island nation in the Pacific Ocean that will host the next fossil fuel phaseout conference in 2027.

The low-lying island is seriously threatened by rising sea levels, and has been a strong voice on the international stage for impoverished countries imperiled by climate change.

"This journey that began here in a coal port of the Caribbean Sea, now voyages to the Pacific Ocean," said Tuvalu's Climate Minister Maina Talia.

Activists urged countries to turn up in numbers, despite the distance.

"I think the fact that the Pacific is far away cannot be an excuse," Nikki Reisch, from the Center for International Environmental Law, told AFP in Santa Marta.

"The Pacific Island countries are constantly bearing the burden of coming to other fora and trying to get their voice heard."

np-app/aks

A centuries-old festival that heralds spring drew hundreds of worshippers to a mountain in Tokyo on Wednesday, as robed Shinto priests led a procession to a sacred shrine at the summit.

The Hinode Sai, or Sunrise festival, is believed to have started when wandering ascetics climbed Mount Mitake in search of enlightenment. Each spring, it attracts devotees from across Japan to the still largely untouched mountaintop about 55 kilometres (30 miles) from Tokyo's metropolitan area.

The annual two-day ritual sees the shrine's deity -- carefully wrapped in white silk and hidden from public view -- brought from the summit down to a temporary "resting place" at the mountain's base before being returned in a celebratory ascent.

Shrine officials say participants receive the deity's blessing, offering protection for households and freedom from illness for the year ahead.

The ritual, which has continued since the Middle Ages, according to the shrine's website, also symbolises the arrival of spring.

The silent procession began Tuesday evening, winding through a mountain village past devotees and shuttered shops bestowing blessing as it went.

Guided by lantern light, priests took the wrapped deity down to its overnight resting place believed to be where it originally descended from the heavens.

At dawn, the Shinto priests in court robes -- joined by people dressed as armoured samurai warriors and children in ceremonial attire -- set off on a kilometre-long climb back to the summit shrine.

Their pilgrimage culminated with the echo of conch shells through the forest as the procession completed its final ascent of 330 stone steps to the mountaintop.

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An epic Cade Cunningham performance kept top-seeded Detroit's NBA playoff run alive in a crucial 116-109 victory over the Orlando Magic on Wednesday.

Cunningham scored a Pistons playoff-record 45 points to drag his side through a must-win game, pulling Detroit back to a 3-2 deficit in the best-of-seven series.

The Pistons star man, having recently returned from a collapsed lung, played nearly 44 minutes as Detroit avoided a stunning first-round ouster at the hands of eighth seed Orlando.

"We dug ourselves a big hole, it's going to be a tough one to climb out of, but we handled business tonight," said Cunningham.

"We're at our best when our backs are against the wall," he added.

Having dominated the Eastern Conference during the regular season, Detroit has faltered badly at the start of the post-season.

Needing to win three in a row to escape the first round, the Pistons came out of the blocks fast in front of a home crowd Wednesday.

Playing with a high energy bordering on desperation, Jalen Duren scored seven of the Pistons' first 11 points.

Detroit owned the glass with 17 rebounds in the first quarter, building a 12-point lead.

Cunningham exploded into the game with 20 points in the second quarter alone.

But the gap closed to six points by half-time. Wendell Carter Jr. and Desmond Bane both missed go-ahead three-pointer attempts for Orlando soon after the break.

The Pistons took advantage and powered clear, building a double-digit lead by the end of the third quarter.

Orlando refused to quit, mounting a late charge including a pair of Paolo Banchero three-pointers and a Carter Jr dunk that narrowed the lead to three points.

But a Cunningham three-pointer with barely 30 seconds remaining sealed the win.

Banchero top-scored for Orlando with 45 points.

The Magic -- who only qualified for the playoffs via the play-in tournament -- will have another chance to finish a surprise series win on Friday back in Orlando.

A possible decider would take place in Detroit on Sunday.

Elsewhere, the Cleveland Cavaliers pulled off an impressive comeback victory to take a 3-2 lead over the Toronto Raptors.

Having twice trailed by 12 points, Cleveland powered back in the second half with a much stronger defensive performance, to win 125-120.

Evan Mobley led the rally with 10 points in the third quarter, while Dennis Schroder added 19 off the bench.

It was the fifth straight win of the series for the home team, and means all four Eastern Conference first-round playoff series are now 3-2.

In the West on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Lakers have a chance to finish their series against the Houston Rockets, which they lead 3-1.

amz/pst

Nearly 60 nations hailed progress in the fight to exit fossil fuels as a breakaway conference wrapped up in Colombia on Wednesday -- but now face the harder work of turning words into action.

Ministers and envoys gathered in the coal port of Santa Marta in the hope of speeding the shift away from planet-heating fossil fuels and breaking a stalemate at the UN climate talks.

The conference was announced last year after nations failed to include an explicit reference to fossil fuels in the final deal reached at the UN COP30 climate summit in Brazil. 

But organizers say it gained momentum after the US-Israel attacks on Iran ignited a global energy crisis -- underscoring the risks of reliance even as some nations looked to fossil fuels to plug supply gaps.

From tiny island states to European powers and emerging markets, nations attended the conference voluntarily after an effort to tackle fossil fuels head-on at last year's COP30 failed.

"Countries are taking steps," said Dutch Climate Minister Stientje van Veldhoven, whose country co-hosted.

"Everybody who is here is here because they want to move further than where they are right now, and they think that we can be stronger together.

"Together we can be stronger -- and we can go further."

No binding commitments were expected but Colombian Environment Minister Irene Velez Torres said "big results" were achieved nonetheless.

She pointed to the creation of an expert panel of world-renowned climate scientists tasked with helping governments on their own transitions -- a daunting task in particular for developing nations dependent on oil and gas.

She thanked nations for coming together "to talk about the challenges (and) to talk about the taboos."

"When they look back at us from the future...They will remember that we were there and working on the challenges of our time," she said.

The climate-threatened Pacific nation of Tuvalu was also named as host of next year's conference with Ireland in what was seen as a crucial signal that the momentum would carry on beyond the first edition.

- 'Good atmosphere' -

Many major fossil fuel producers turned out for the event, from wealthy economies like Canada and Norway to developing oil giants like Angola and Brazil.

The United States, China, Saudi Arabia and Russia -- among other major producers and consumers of fossil fuels -- did not show up.

The conference bypassed the United Nations climate process altogether, reflecting a growing impatience with its failure to tackle fossil fuels, the main driver of global warming.

Many nations spoke of the relief at not having to cobble an agreement by consensus between nearly 200 nations -- a process that takes nearly two weeks at the annual COP climate summits and often ends in bitter disappointment.

"You could really feel it there -- that it's somehow a new beginning or a wake-up call, like things can't go on this way," German environment state secretary Jochen Flasbarth told reporters, noting "a very good atmosphere here."

Away from the conference rooms on the Caribbean coast, oil prices surged Wednesday to their highest level since early 2022, underlining the risk of fossil fuel reliance.

The global energy crisis triggered by the Middle East war dominated the talks, with fossil fuels cast as a threat to energy independence as much as the climate.

- Tough message -

For many nations -- particularly developing fossil fuel producers -- phasing out a major source of state revenue is easier said than done.

"Not phasing out -- phase down. That is the message," Onuoha Magnus Chidi, an adviser to Nigeria's regional development minister, told AFP in Santa Marta.

"People are going to lose their jobs...How are you trying to re-engage them in other sectors?" said the delegate from one of Africa's biggest oil and gas producers.

Nearly 200 countries agreed at COP28 in 2023 to transition away from fossil fuels, but efforts to turn that pledge into action have stalled.

The discussions in Santa Marta would feed into a voluntary "roadmap" aimed at moving the world away from fossil fuels being compiled by Brazil, said Ana Toni, CEO of last year's COP30. 

np-app/sla

Viral posts of an Australian street dubbed the country's "most beautiful" have enticed coachloads of visitors to a picturesque seaside town -- and locals have had enough of it.

Just a two-hour drive south of Sydney, Gerringong is much like many other photogenic hamlets along Australia's east coast, with multi-million-dollar properties set against stunning views of the azure blue sea.

But recent posts on Instagram, TikTok and as far afield as China's RedNote showing the town's Tasman Drive have left residents fuming that their little slice of paradise has turned into an internet sensation.

"It's getting beyond a joke for a small country town," Peter Hainsworth, 81, told AFP as tourists frolicked on the rolling hills nearby.

"You've got people who are trying to do three-point turns, they're standing in the middle of the road taking photographs, they're leaving their rubbish.

"Everyone's fed up."

Nearby, tourists posed in the middle of the road for selfies to the fury of a sweary local resident on a bicycle who declined to speak to AFP.

Overtourism concerns have sparked backlash in many hotspots worldwide, from European cities Barcelona and Venice to Japan -- where officials erected a barrier to block a popular view of Mount Fuji in 2024 because of the disruptive behaviour of unruly tourists.

Some Gerringong residents have resorted to extreme measures, turning on garden sprinklers to prevent tourists from taking pictures on their lawns.

Others are setting up a committee to demand the road be declared a one-way street -- a bid to halt the seemingly endless stream of cars slowing to a halt as they film the viral view.

One neighbour reportedly sold their house to escape the furor.

"It's nice to see people enjoying it, but really, it's just getting a bit too much," resident Linda Bruce, 76, told AFP on a hill next to the viral view.

"It's just so weird to see so many people coming all this way for the view."

Thanks to the massive reach of the posts, which have racked up millions of views, tourists have come from across Asia -- an "unusual" sight in Gerringong, Bruce said.

"I mean, it's an amazing country, and it's there to share... it's just a bit much for the locals."

- 'Totally stunned' -

Some of the tourists have had less far to travel.

Sagar Munjal, a 28-year-old taxi driver living in Parramatta, near Sydney, drove down with friends to see the view after spotting it on Instagram.

"My eyes were totally stunned," he said.

"You can enjoy the coastal drive with the beach plus beautiful mountains."

"I was amazed to see that."

Andy Liao, a property developer originally from Chengdu, China who now lives in Sydney, told AFP he and his family had driven down after seeing the street on RedNote.

"The landscape is so beautiful," he said. "That's why I drove two hours."

But Andy said he understood why locals might be annoyed with the attention.

"If I'm living here, I don't want too many people coming to my backyard."

Others were less sympathetic to the residents' plight.

Kevin Medina, a 22-year-old cook from Colombia, provoked a string of expletives from one local when he took selfies on the roadside.

"They should be really happy, because are they getting more people to know this beautiful place."

- 'Why are they doing this?' -

Chief among the locals' complaints is that the tourists are not spending money in the area -- they simply show up, snap their selfies and leave.

Deputy mayor and local business owner Melissa Matters told AFP the financial impact was mixed.

"Some businesses are experiencing not a lot of uptake," but others "are doing quite well out of it", she said.

And while many residents had moved down from the big city seeking a quiet life, Matters said Gerringong was hardly a stranger to outsiders.

"We've always been about tourism here."

Back on Tasman Drive, tourists excitedly posed for pictures next to a speed bump sign as a grumbling resident glared at them.

"You sort of wonder, why are they doing this?" Bruce said.

"Is it because they really, really love the area and think it's so wonderful to see the view, or are they just ticking off another box on their to-do list?"

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Juan Jose Guilarte is like any other 10-year-old as he races around a park in Cuba's capital Havana.

But one detail distinguishes the sports-mad youngster who dreams of Olympic glory: his prosthetic leg.

Juan Jose was born with a congenital malformation which resulted in his left leg developing only as far as the femur and the kneecap. 

His condition has never held back the effervescent youngster, who lists off a plethora of career ambitions, from "Youtuber, scientist and teacher" as well as elite athlete.

Twice a week he practises pentathlon -- running, obstacle racing, swimming, shooting and fencing -- and kung-fu.

In his bedroom, a Spiderman figurine occupies pride of place on his desk.

"I like him a lot because he is very fast and jumps a lot," he confided.

"He loves to dream, create and tell stories," his mother Sheila Guilarte said, noting that his condition never gets him down because he brims with self-confidence.

While no hurdle seems too high for Juan Jose to clear, his sporting ambitions have been thrown into flux by Cuba's worst economic crisis in decades, aggravated by a US oil blockade.

Since January, the Havana native has been waiting for an operation to prevent his thigh bone, which is still growing, piercing the skin of his stump, which would cause him unbearable pain.

Since the age of two he has already undergone three such procedures, after which he is fitted with a new prosthesis, adapted to his height and weight.

But a shortage of the anaesthetics used to sedate patients during surgery combined with recurring power outages have led to his latest operation being indefinitely postponed.

- 96,000 awaiting surgery -

Cuba's health care system -- long a source of pride on the communist-run island -- was already in crisis before US President Donald Trump cut off oil exports to the cash-strapped island in January.

The move, coming on top of a six-decade-old US trade embargo, is part of a pressure campaign on the Cuban regime, which Trump has said is next in his crosshairs after Venezuela and Iran.

Faced with crippling shortages of both fuel and medication, hospitals have had to drastically reduce elective surgeries. 

According to the health ministry, 96.000 people, including 11,000 children, are on waiting lists for operations.

Before each sports session Juan Jose clips on a lightweight carbon-fibre prosthetic limb designed for running.

Getting his thigh into his prosthesis is more and more of a squeeze.

"It really hurts," he confided, adding: "I want to be operated on now."

- From an American, with love -

His carbon-fibre leg was a gift from a American boy with the same disability, who travelled to Cuba in 2023 to give away one of his artificial limbs after himself being on the receiving end of a donated prosthesis a few years earlier.

Juan Jose's neighbors saw the offer advertised on social media and immediately notified his family.

A few days later, the two children met in Havana and Juan Jose came away with a new spring in his step.

His prosthetist personalized the new appendage with a little Cuban flag -- which one day Juan Jose hopes to fly for his country.

"Since he was little he has said he's going to the Paralympics to win a medal," his mother said.

Juan Jose makes clear which podium place he's aiming for.

"I want to win gold!"

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Buckets of blooms adorn Yuvita Anggi Prinanda's sidewalk flower stall in Bali, but their perfume can't mask the stench of accumulating trash bespoiling parts of the resort island famed for its natural beauty. 

Bali's largest landfill was declared off-limits for organic waste from the beginning of April, as the government moves to enforce a longstanding ban on open tips.

But with no immediate alternatives provided, trash is piling up in the streets and attracting rats, or being set alight by frustrated residents, causing acrid smoke that has prompted health concerns.

"As a business owner, this is a real nuisance," Yuvita told AFP.

She has dipped into her meagre profits to pay a private company to remove the trash from near her stall.

"Some customers, perhaps bothered by the smell, ended up not making a purchase," the 34-year-old told AFP.

Her shop alone generates about four large black bags full of waste every day, mostly leaves and flower cuttings -- adding to the island's estimated 3,400 tons of daily garbage output.

On paper, Indonesia has banned open landfills since 2013, but it is only now attempting to fully implement the measure.

- 'Not a good look' -

At Kuta beach, a popular tourist spot regularly inundated with plastic debris that washes ashore, rubbish bags are piled up waist-high in a parking lot.

"You have many rats here at nighttime. The smell is not very good... it's not a good look," said Australian visitor Justin Butcher.

Around seven million tourists visited Bali last year, vastly outstripping the island's native population of around 4.4 million, and contributing to Bali's waste output. 

People caught dumping or burning trash risk up to three months' jail time and a 50-million rupiah (nearly $3,000) fine, according to I Dewa Nyoman Rai Dharmadi, the head of Bali's public order agency, but many feel they have no other choice.

On April 16, hundreds of sanitation workers drove waste-filled trucks to the governor's office in protest.

"If we don't collect our client's trash, we are in the wrong, if we collect it, where do we dispose it?" said protester I Wayan Tedi Brahmanca.

In response, the local government said it would allow limited disposal of waste at Suwung as a temporary measure until the end of July.

But from August, the government has vowed to end all open landfills nationwide, though it is unclear what alternatives will be in place by then.

- 'People need guidance'  - 

Nur Azizah, a waste management expert at Gadjah Mada University, told AFP the Suwung landfill received about 1,000 tons of waste per day and has been overcapacity for years.

Up to 70 percent is organic waste that "is dangerous because over time it generates methane, which could explode and cause landslides".

This has happened several times, including a March collapse at Indonesia's largest landfill outside Jakarta that buried trucks and food stalls, killing seven people.

Nur said the only long-term solution was a mass campaign to educate people on managing organic waste, mainly through composting. 

Yuvita agreed. 

"People need guidance. It's like when someone cannot swim, they shouldn't be told to jump right in," she said. 

The head of Denpasar's environment and forestry agency Ida Bagus Wirabawa told AFP the government has been running awareness campaigns since last year, and handing out composting containers.

Indonesia's 284 million people produce more than 40 million tons of rubbish per year, nearly 40 percent of it food waste and nearly a fifth plastic, according to the environment ministry.

Only about a third gets "managed", meaning recycled or processed, according to Nur. 

The rest ends up in nature.

Fewer than a third of the country's 485 landfills have shuttered since the ban on open dumping came into force on paper about 13 years ago.

"We have not been managing waste properly, resulting in an emergency in all cities and regencies," then-environment minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq told reporters recently. He has since been replaced.

The government aims to break ground on several waste-to-energy projects in June, including one in Bali that could process about 1,200 tons of waste daily, but these could take years to come online.

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