US begins Philippines war games in thick of Middle East conflict

Oil prices surged Monday on a re-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East war after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz at the weekend, just a day after reopening it, citing the United States' blockade of its ports.

However, lingering hopes that a deal to end the seven-week crisis continued to support equities, even as Tehran said it was not currently planning to attend peace talks.

Crude plunged while US and European stocks rallied Friday after the Islamic republic said it would again allow ships to pass through the waterway -- through which a fifth of global oil and LNG gas usually passes -- citing the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

President Donald Trump told AFP that "we're very close to having a deal", adding that there were "no sticking points at all" left with Tehran, though Iran quickly pushed back, saying its stockpile of enriched uranium would not be transferred "anywhere".

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate dived more than 11 percent and Brent shed nine percent.

But both contracts jumped sharply Monday, days before the end of a two-week ceasefire, owing to the ongoing US blockade and after an American destroyer fired on and seized an Iranian ship that tried to evade it. Tehran warned it would retaliate.

The blockade of Iranian ports has been a significant sticking point in negotiations between the two countries, and state broadcaster IRIB cited Iranian sources as saying "there are currently no plans to participate in the next round of Iran-US talks" in Pakistan.

The Fars and Tasnim news agencies had earlier cited anonymous sources as saying "the overall atmosphere cannot be assessed as very positive", adding that lifting the US blockade was a precondition for negotiations.

WTI jumped more than seven percent at one point, while Brent piled on more than six percent.

There has so far been only a single, 21-hour negotiating session held in Islamabad on April 11 that ended inconclusively, though groundwork for fresh talks continued afterwards.

"We're offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it," Trump said in a social media post Sunday, while also renewing his threats against Iran's infrastructure if a deal is not made.

But Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned that any attempt to pass through the strait without permission "will be considered cooperation with the enemy, and the offending vessel will be targeted".

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the blockade was "a violation" of the ceasefire.

Still, equities rose, tracking another record close for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq in New York.

Tokyo, Seoul and Taipei led the gains thanks to a resumption of the tech rally that characterised markets before the war began on February 28.

Hong Kong, Shanghai, Wellington and Manila were also well up.

The dollar, which has been a key safe haven during the crisis and fell sharply Friday, advanced against its main peers.

Chris Weston at Pepperstone said traders were assessing "whether the ceasefire can be salvaged through this week’s diplomatic talks, with recalibration on the probability of military escalation".

"Trump's weekend social media posts raised the prospect of military re-escalation, though given the bar for this response is now set higher, some viewed this as a pure hawkish negotiating tactic ahead of this week’s diplomatic talks," he added. 

"Market participants understand that the path to a formal agreement (is) unlikely to be linear and remains vulnerable to sudden changes, so market players won't be wholly surprised by a sentiment shift. 

"However, without a comprehensive agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme, the ceasefire remained fragile."

- Key figures around 0230 GMT -

West Texas Intermediate: UP 5.3 percent at $88.31 a barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 4.8 percent at $94.67 a barrel

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.0 percent at 59,045.45 (break)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.5 percent at 26,281.92

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.6 percent at 4,073.76

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1757 from $1.1776 on Friday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3500 from $1.3530

Dollar/yen: UP at 158.89 yen from 158.49 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 87.09 pence from 87.02 pence

New York - Dow Jones: UP 1.8 percent at 49,447.43 (close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.7 percent at 10,667.63 (close)

dan/fox

Hong Kong residents who lost their homes in a massive fire at an apartment complex last year began returning on Monday for the first time to collect what is left of their belongings.

The city's deadliest fire in decades killed 168 people when it ripped through seven of the eight apartment blocks at the Wang Fuk Court complex in November.

For the first time since then, around 6,000 residents are being given three-hour windows to enter their homes from Monday and get their belongings.

With 1,700 flats to pick through, authorities hope the process will be completed by early May.

An AFP reporter saw residents stepping out from government-organised shuttle buses as they arrived at the estate.

Officials have advised residents to prepare mentally, with the fire department warning that more than 920 homes had been damaged and some completely destroyed by the blaze.

Images released by government officials show the ceilings and walls of some flats have collapsed or been charred black, and the interiors littered with debris.

Damaged areas of the residential complex in Hong Kong's Tai Po district have been cordoned off as "danger zones", while reinforcement works have been carried out where the building structure was compromised.

Upon returning to their flats, residents were required to wear face masks, hard hats and gloves.

A 50-year-old resident surnamed Chung told reporters that he had prepared a screwdriver, scissors and plastic bags before returning to his flat on Monday.

"Once I'm up there, some places like the keyhole might be full of dust, and I'm worried I won't have the tools (to deal with it) if some parts need to be taken apart," he said.

- 'Wouldn't want to leave' -

Survivor Harry Leung, one of the last residents to leave the complex on the day of the blaze, told AFP that he had mixed emotions about his return.

While keen to see the flat where he had spent most of his life, he said he was disappointed by the short time frame he was allowed to spend there.

Three hours, he said, was not enough time.

Hong Kong officials have offered to buy the apartments back around the pre-fire market price, despite the damage, but said that rebuilding the complex on the same site was "not feasible".

"I believe there are actually quite a few people who don't want to accept (the government's offer), but have no other options. They've been forced to accept it," Leung told AFP.

"If I had a choice, I really wouldn't want to leave (Wang Fuk Court)," he said.

Betty Ho, who plans to return in May to the flat she lived in for more than 30 years, told AFP that what she wants most to retrieve are the photo albums of her childhood.

Her family's "entire life's possessions are inside that building", Ho said.

After the fire -- the world's deadliest residential building blaze since 1980 -- Ho relocated to temporary housing set up for Wang Fuk Court residents near the estate.

For now, she is allowed to stay there until the end of the year, but she told AFP she felt anxious and powerless when faced with the uncertainty of her future accommodation.

"Will we be evicted?" she asked. "Where will I find somewhere to live?"

twa/dhw/abs

Australia's in-form Hannah Green birdied the first hole of a three-way playoff to capture her third LA Championship title on Sunday on the LPGA Tour.

Green curled in a long birdie putt at the first hole of sudden death to edge South Koreans Kim Sei-young and Im Jin-hee for her eighth LPGA crown.

She had muscled her way into the playoff with a four-under-par 68 that included five birdies on the back nine.

The victory in the last event before the first women's major of the year, next week's Chevron Championship in Houston, is Green's fourth worldwide this year.

"I felt like I was doing what I said I wanted to do yesterday, hit more greens," said Green, who started the day two shots off Kim's lead and admitted that after a birdie and two bogeys on the front nine "I honestly didn't think I was in the tournament still."

"I'm just fortunate that I at least got into the playoff," said Green, who joined Kim and Im on 17-under 217.

"I had that putt, very similar line, in regulation. It still was a tough putt so really glad it went in the hole."

Green is in red-hot form, winning the HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore and the Women's Australian Open and Australian WPGA this year.

Although it's her third LA Championship crown, Green couldn't lean on familiarity with the course.

She won in 2023 and 2024 at Wilshire Country Club, while this year's edition was played at El Caballero for a second straight season because of course renovations at Wilshire.

Kim, a 13-time LPGA winner, started the day with a two-shot lead after a rollercoaster third round that saw her eight-shot advantage evaporate with four straight bogeys.

With the help of a chip-in eagle at the par-five 11th she was up by one with two holes to play but bogeyed the par-three 17th on the way to a two-under 70.

"Just a little disappointed because I had a good chance for the win," she said.

Im's chances of a second LPGA title looked dim after a double bogey at the 10th but she powered back with a five-under 67, joining the leaders with an eagle at the par-five 16th.

They returned to 18 for the playoff, where Im missed the green with her second shot and Kim missed her birdie attempt to set the stage for Green.

bb/pst

The Oklahoma City Thunder and the Boston Celtics launched their NBA playoff campaigns with big wins on Sunday as Orlando shocked the Detroit Pistons.

The Thunder, trying to become the first team since Golden State in 2017 and 2018 to repeat as champions, routed the Phoenix Suns 119-84.

The Celtics, seeded second in the Eastern Conference behind Detroit, dominated the Philadelphia 76ers 123-91, but the Pistons trailed all the way in a 112-101 loss to the Magic.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player and Finals MVP, scored 25 points, connecting on just five of 18 from the field but drilling 15 of his 17 free throw attempts for Oklahoma City.

He added seven assists and two blocked shots before sitting out the entire fourth quarter.

Jalen Williams added 22 points and Chet Holmgren scored 16 for the Thunder, who wasted no time in seizing control in game one of their best-of-seven Western Conference series in front of a revved-up crowd at the Paycom Center.

Devin Booker scored 23 points for Phoenix but the Suns, who scraped through the play-in to claim the Western Conference eighth seed, were largely helpless against a Thunder team that amassed the best record in the league with 64 regular-season wins.

"It was a great defensive performance," Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. "I thought the guys were really competitive, played on a string, great communication, covered for each other. (It) wasn't perfect, but we had each other's backs.

"We forced them to earn everything."

While the well-rested Thunder came out firing, the Pistons looked rusty after having a week off and the Magic, who beat Charlotte on Friday to secure their playoff spot, took full advantage.

Paolo Banchero scored 23 points and Franz Wagner scored 11 of his 19 in the fourth quarter as the Magic withstood a 39-point performance from Pistons star Cade Cunningham.

Detroit trailed by as many as 13 in the first quarter and by 11 early in the third. A Cunningham three-pointer tied it with 7:04 left in the third, but the Magic pulled away again.

"I liked our composure the whole game, our energy," Wagner said after the Magic handed the Pistons an 11th straight home playoff defeat, a skid dating back to 2008.

- 'Incredible feeling' -

In Boston, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined for 51 points as the Celtics led wire to wire against the Sixers, who have lost their last six post-season series against Boston.

Tatum led the charge, racking up 21 of his 25 points in the first half. Brown poured in 16 of his 26 in the third quarter alone.

"It's an incredible feeling," said Tatum, whose unexpected late-season return from a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered in last year's playoffs has plenty of pundits picking Boston, not Detroit, to emerge from the East.

"Not too long ago I wasn't even sure if I was going to be able to play this season, let alone get an opportunity to play in the playoffs," Tatum said.

The San Antonio Spurs -- with Victor Wembanyama getting his first taste of NBA playoff action -- hosted the Portland Trail Blazers in the day's final game.

bb/pst

A new Michael Jackson biopic will shortly arrive in cinemas telling the story of the King of Pop's early career, but it's a tightly controlled story that avoids any reference to the child sex abuse allegations that dogged his later life. 

Titled "Michael" and beset by production and legal problems, it spans his childhood in Gary, Indiana, and climaxes with the moonwalking megastar performing in London during his Bad World Tour.

Distributors Lionsgate are hoping for global revenues of $700 million from a production budget of $200 million, which would push it close to the $910 million earned by "Bohemian Rhapsody" in 2018 -- a record for a musical biopic.

Made by the same producer as the Queen biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody", Graham King, it features Jackson's nephew Jaafar Jackson in the main role, a 29-year-old with no previous acting experience.

"They threw me right in the deep end," Jaafar told US talkshow host Jimmy Fallon earlier this month, adding that he had been helped with the dancing by his uncle's real-life choreographers.

"It was really a surreal, spiritual moment," he said of playing one of the most recognisable characters in pop music. 

- 'Controlled narrative' - 

Jaafar Jackson delivers a strong performance as the gloved and thrusting singer, while the concert scenes are sure to delight fans of the "Thriller" and "Bad" albums.

At the Berlin premiere on April 10, Jackson's sons Prince and Bigi were joined on the red carpet with his brother Jermaine -- Jaafar's father.

All the surviving Jackson siblings are credited as executive producers, meaning they all had a right to review the film before its global release from Wednesday.

But the involvement of the family has led to accusations that the film sugar-coats the image of a man who was dogged by sexual abuse allegations before his death by overdose in 2009, aged 50.

His daughter Paris, who had no involvement, has been one of the most outspoken critics.

"A big section of the film panders to a very specific section of my dad's fandom that still lives in the fantasy, and they're gonna be happy with it," the actress and singer wrote on Instagram last September.

"The narrative is being controlled and there's a lot of inaccuracy and there's a lot of just full-blown lies."

- 'Human story' -

A third of the original film exploring allegations against the star had to be cut and re-shot.

Lawyers for the Jackson estate realised there was a clause in a settlement with one of the singer's accusers, Jordan Chandler, that barred any mention of him in a film, Variety film magazine reported.

Although Jackson was never convicted in criminal or civil court, other alleged victims filed lawsuits after his death, several of which are still active.

The film was originally scheduled for release in April 18, 2025 before being pushed back by a year.

Several documentaries including 2003's "Living with Michael Jackson" and 2019's "Leaving Neverland" focused on his habit of inviting children to spend nights with him.

"I would love that the film would tell the most human story about Michael Jackson possible," Mark Anthony Neal, professor of African and African American Studies at Duke University, told AFP recently.

"But I also realise that we're in a period of time where Hollywood does not deal with celebrities in that way."

The film is almost certain to give another boost to the money-spinning family franchise. 

"MJ: The Musical" opened on Broadway in 2022 and has been staged in other countries, while the Cirque du Soleil production "Michael Jackson ONE" has been running in Las Vegas since 2013. 

adp-agu-burs/pdw/jxb/ane

Over a feverish few days of diplomacy, Pakistan's military and civilian politicians successfully divided the Middle East between them to push for a second round of US-Iran peace talks expected to take place in Islamabad this week.

The country's powerful military chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, headed to Tehran on Wednesday for what would become a three-day trip, where Iranian leaders said he carried US proposals for a second round of peace talks.

Simultaneously, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his foreign minister conducted a whirlwind diplomatic tour across regional allies Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.

The twin trips illustrate the coordination at play in what is often described as a "hybrid regime" in Pakistan, and Munir's central role in the negotiating process.

"The synergy that is going on right now is giving results, and to take this momentum forward all this synergy will be needed," said Sheharyar Khan, executive director of the Islamabad-based National Dialogue Forum.

Munir was one of two Pakistani mediators in the room during face-to-face talks between the United States and Iran in Islamabad on April 11.

"It's not political leadership that takes the decision in these kinds of situations, but the military leadership," said a Pakistani official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official described Munir's visit to Iran as "important" in bringing both sides back to the negotiating table.

"The deal is almost done. He is the only person who can convince Iranians for a deal -- that's because of the trust level."

- 'Who is the strong man?' -

While a first round of peace talks between the United States and Iran did not yield an agreement, it did lead to the highest-level face-to-face negotiations between the two sides in decades, and communications channels remained open -- through Pakistan.

Building on that momentum, Pakistan's leaders have been pushing for a second round of talks in Islamabad, with security being stepped up across the capital on Sunday in anticipation.

Munir's rise on the global stage has coincided with a consolidation of military power in Pakistan, which has seen him given unprecedented legal immunity and an extended term.

The military as a whole has also taken a more prominent role in governance.

Critics and the political opposition say the moves, as well as sweeping constitutional reforms, have eroded democracy in the country.

However, the military has repeatedly denied meddling in the civilian domain -- even though it ruled Pakistan for nearly half its existence through a series of coups since independence in 1947.

The National Dialogue Forum's Khan said that, while both civilians and military leaders were working closely together in the current system, it was Munir who had the authority to call the shots.

"Who is the person who can give the results? Who is the strong man? Who is controlling? Who is in the lead? That is obviously Mr. Field Marshal," Khan said.

Munir has also built a close relationship with US President Donald Trump -- who often refers to him as his "favourite field marshal" -- since a brief but intense war with India last year.

Adam Weinstein, deputy director of the Middle East programme at Washington's Quincy Institute, said that relationship was crucial.

"Munir focused on Iran because it's the key stakeholder and he's seen as having the closest relationship with Trump," he said. 

"... the prime minister focused on regional states with more traditional foreign policy bureaucracies, whose buy-in matters, but is less critical."

Muhammad Saeed, a retired Pakistani general, told AFP that Munir was in "direct communication" with the US leadership to negotiate through sticking points in the dialogue with Iran.

"His presence is bringing both the sides to a middle ground," he said.

aha-sma/je/pbt

Thousands of American and Philippine troops, joined for the first time by a significant contingent of Japanese forces, began annual military exercises Monday set against the backdrop of the Middle East war.

The war games will feature live-fire exercises in the north of the country facing the Taiwan Strait, as well as a province off the disputed South China Sea, where the Philippines and China have engaged in repeated confrontations.

The Japanese military, which is contributing 1,400 personnel, will use a Type 88 cruise missile to sink a target ship off northern Paoay, Philippine exercise spokesman Colonel Dennis Hernandez said.

More than 17,000 soldiers, airmen and sailors are taking part in the 19-day Balikatan, or Shoulder to Shoulder, exercises -- about the same number as last year's edition -- including contingents from Australia, New Zealand, France and Canada.

"Balikatan... represents an opportunity to showcase our ironclad alliance with the Philippines and demonstrate our commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," US exercise spokesman Colonel Robert Bunn said ahead of Monday's opening ceremony.

Bunn added that US troop levels he described as "one of the largest deployments" in years would be unaffected by the ongoing Middle East war his country is waging, while declining to provide specific numbers.

Balikatan comes as Iran and the United States, along with Israel, are just days away from the end of the two-week ceasefire that halted the Middle East war, ignited by surprise US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

The conflict has sparked a global energy crisis that has left import-dependent Philippines reeling.

The drills also come as Beijing ramps up military pressure around Taiwan, which it considers part of its territory and has threatened to use force to seize.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said last November that given his country's proximity to the self-ruled island and its surrounding waters, "a war over Taiwan will drag the Philippines, kicking and screaming, into the conflict".

In February, US, Japanese and Philippine aircraft patrolled over the Bashi Channel separating the Philippines from Taiwan to test what Manila called their "ability to operate seamlessly together in complex maritime environments".

Marcos considers Manila's 1951 mutual defence pact with Washington a bedrock of national security and has been building up security ties with Western nations to deter China.

Over the past two years, Manila has signed visiting forces or equivalent agreements with Japan, New Zealand, Canada and France, deals aimed at facilitating their participation in joint military exercises in the Philippines.

Bunn said American forces would have the option of firing Tomahawk and NMESIS anti-ship missiles, without confirming they would.

Integrated air and missile defence systems will also be put to the test, including technology for countering drones, Philippine spokesman Hernandez said.

Week-long naval exercises will also take place in so far unspecified waters off the main Philippine island of Luzon, he added.

Japan is deploying a tank landing ship, a destroyer, and a helicopter destroyer, while the US will use a cutter and a dock landing ship.

They will join two Philippine frigates and another from Canada.

cgm-cwl/fox

Billionaire Elon Musk has been summoned for a voluntary interview in Paris on Monday as part of a French probe into his social media platform X, though it remains unclear if he will appear.

French authorities issued a summons for Musk in February as part of an investigation, launched in January 2025, into allegations that X's algorithm was used to interfere in French politics.

The probe was later expanded to include an investigation into X's AI chatbot Grok's dissemination of Holocaust denials and sexual deepfakes.

In early February, French prosecutors searched the Paris offices of X, in what the social media giant -- which has denied any wrongdoing -- slammed as "politicized" raids and an "abusive judicial act".

At the time, Paris prosecutors also summoned Musk and then-CEO Linda Yaccarino for voluntary interviews as the "de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events", a move Musk called a "political attack".

Yaccarino resigned as CEO of X in July last year after two years at the helm of the company.

In February, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said X employees had also been summoned to appear between April 20 and 24 "to be heard as witnesses".

But whether or not those invited for voluntary questioning appear would not be "an obstacle to the continuation of the investigation," the Paris prosecutor's office said on Saturday.

Officials have not offered any details on the location or time of Musk's scheduled interview.

The French investigation focuses on several suspected criminal offences including complicity in possessing child sexual abuse material and denial of crimes against humanity.

The social media company in July called the probe "politically motivated".

-'Serious concerns'-

The French investigation comes as part of a broader international backlash against Grok after it emerged that users could sexualise images of women and children using simple text prompts such as "put her in a bikini" or "remove her clothes".

It generated an estimated three million sexualised images -- mostly of women, though also 23,000 that appeared to depict children -- in 11 days, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit watchdog, said in late January.

In a separate investigation, Britain's data regulator in February launched investigations into Musk's X and xAI over "serious concerns" regarding whether the companies complied with personal data laws when it came to Grok's generation of sexualised deepfakes.

In late January, the European Union also hit X with a probe over Grok's generation of sexualised deepfake images of women and minors.

bur-fbe/ekf/rh/ane

More than 50 nations are attending a world-first conference on phasing out fossil fuels in Colombia next week as the Iran war underscores how dependent countries remain on planet-heating coal, oil and gas.

Ministers arrive in the Caribbean city of Santa Marta against a backdrop of wartime fuel shortages, soaring prices and a scramble for energy security in what the International Energy Agency has called the biggest oil supply shock ever.

The gathering was born out of frustration with consensus-based United Nations climate talks, where efforts to negotiate a fossil fuel exit strategy have stalled.

But organisers say the energy shock caused by Iran's chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the key transit point for Gulf oil and gas shipments, has strengthened the case for a fossil fuel phaseout, even as some countries look to coal in the short-term to secure supplies.

Concerns over energy security are expected to shape the high-level discussions over April 28 and 29 as much as climate priorities, analysts say.

The meeting was announced months ago but has taken on "greater relevance" with the energy crisis, said Colombia's environment minister Irene Velez Torres, whose country is co-hosting with the Netherlands.

Major fossil fuel producing nations Australia, Canada and Norway are expected along with developing oil giants Angola, Mexico and Brazil and coal-reliant emerging markets Turkey and Vietnam. 

They will join dozens of other countries from small-island developing states to major economies Germany, France and the UK.

However the world's biggest coal, oil and gas producers -- notably the United States, China, Saudi Arabia and Russia -- are skipping the event.

- 'Honest space' -

It will be closely watched for political signals from an emerging coalition of fossil fuel producers and consumers pushing for a phaseout outside the UN process.

Colombia -- a coal and oil exporter -- said the "strategically important" participating countries accounted for one-fifth of global fossil fuel production and nearly one-third of consumption.

Fossil fuel interests have been accused of influencing UN negotiations on climate change and some governments and activists have questioned the involvement of producer nations in Santa Marta. 

"The larger the group of countries, the more diffused the interests are and the less chance you've got of getting a sharp outcome," climate scientist Bill Hare, founder of Climate Analytics think tank, told AFP.

Velez Torres said, however, it was a "major step forward" to have producer countries present tackling this "taboo".

"We need to start a more honest space where we can discuss this more openly, and bring all cards to the table. Nobody is saying that the way to eliminating fossil fuels is easy. But we need to bring these people together," she said.

For some, the conference's appeal is partly its distance from the UN climate talks.

"I think the Santa Marta meeting is long overdue," Maina Talia, climate minister of low-lying Tuvalu, told reporters.

- Energy bind -

Roughly twice as much investment goes into clean energy as fossil fuels, which are the primary driver of human-caused climate change.

But heat-trapping emissions from burning coal, oil and gas rose again in 2025 to a record high.

In response to the energy crisis, some countries intend to ramp up coal use to plug short-term supply gaps, underlining the challenge of reducing reliance on fossil fuels even in advanced economies.

Vanuatu's Climate Minister Ralph Regenvanu, whose Pacific Island nation is highly reliant on energy imports, told reporters the crisis was "unequivocally a call to lessen dependence on fossil fuels for everyone".

"We're very much looking forward to being first movers in this space," said Regenvanu.

Nearly 200 countries agreed at COP28 in 2023 to transition away from fossil fuels but efforts to turn that pledge into action have faced strong resistance since.

Tensions boiled over at COP30 in Brazil in November when nations could not even agree to include an explicit reference to fossil fuels in the final deal.

Santa Marta was less a rival to the UN talks than an opportunity for motivated nations "to take concrete steps forward", said Beth Walker, an analyst from the E3G think tank.

"There's a lot of difficult questions and issues to grapple with, but this is an important conversation and I think can start to create its own legitimacy and momentum in the long run," Walker told AFP.

No major announcements are expected but the conference's recommendations will feed into a voluntary "roadmap" away from fossil fuels being led by Brazil.

np-app/lt/ach/ane

Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as leader of the United Nations, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis.

Chile's Michelle Bachelet, Argentina's Rafael Grossi, Costa Rican Rebeca Grynspan, and Senegal's Macky Sall will each face grillings by 193 member states and NGOs for three hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

It is only the second time the UN has held a public Q&A, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. 

Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN's top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the global organization as its secretary-general. 

US President Donald Trump's envoy to the Manhattan-based UN, Mike Waltz, has warned the next chief must align with "American values and interests" and that Washington would back the best candidate -- not necessarily a Latin American woman, as some countries are demanding.

All four candidates to take over the embattled UN when Guterres departs on December 31, 2026 pledge to grow trust in the bitterly divided organization that faces financial Armageddon because of Washington's refusal to pay its bills.

Here is a look at the contenders:

- Michelle Bachelet - 

A Chilean socialist brutally tortured by the regime of Augusto Pinochet, Bachelet became her country's first woman president in 2006.

She went on to be the UN rights chief, a sensitive role in which she alienated some countries, especially China, which mauled her for reporting on alleged abuses of the Uyghur people.

Bachelet, 74, has said that she is "convinced" she has the experience "to confront a moment" marked by unprecedented crises and conflicts. 

She is backed by Mexico and Brazil -- but Chile withdrew its backing after far-right President Jose Antonio Kast took office.

- Rafael Grossi - 

The 65-year-old Grossi, a career diplomat, has led the International Atomic Energy Agency since 2019, propelling him into the middle of the battle over Iran's nuclear program as well as the Russian occupation of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. 

His handling of the two situations has drawn close scrutiny from the United States and Russia, which both have veto power on the Security Council.

Grossi has called for the UN to "return to its founding promise -- to save humanity from the scourge of war."

- Rebeca Grynspan -

Less well-known than her opponents, Grynspan -- Costa Rica's former vice president -- leads the UN trade and development body UNCTAD, pulling off a diplomatic feat by brokering the Black Sea Grain Initiative between Moscow and Kyiv to allow grain exports following Russia's invasion.  

In her pitch to world leaders, the 70-year-old plays up her personal story as the daughter of Jewish parents.

She said they "barely survived" the Holocaust before emigrating to Costa Rica, stressing her attachment to the UN Charter, calling the document signed as World War II came to an end a "standing warning against the perils of dehumanization, distrust and fragmentation."

- Macky Sall - 

Macky Sall, 64, is the only candidate who does not come from Latin America, from where the next UN boss should come, according to convention. 

The former Senegalese president has stressed the link between peace and development in his pitch to lead the UN.

He said peace can never be "sustainable" if development is undermined "by poverty, inequality, exclusion and climate vulnerability." 

Proposed by Burundi, the current chair of the African Union, Sall is supported neither by the regional African bloc -- 20 of its 55 members oppose him -- nor by his own country. 

Senegalese authorities accuse him of bloodily repressing violent political demonstrations that left dozens dead between 2021 and 2024.

abd-gw/sst