France officially requests Indonesia to transfer death row prisoner

Indonesia has received a request from France to transfer the ailing French death row inmate Serge Atlaoui imprisoned since 2004, officials said on Saturday.

The 61-year-old French national has been held in Indonesia on drug charges as the authorities accused him of being a “chemist”.

“We have received a formal letter requesting the transfer of Serge Atlaoui on 19 December 2024. The letter was sent on behalf of the French minister of justice,” senior Indonesian law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra told Agence France-Presse.

The request would be discussed in “early January” after the holidays, the minister said.

Atlaoui, who had spent almost 20 years in Indonesian prison, won a last-minute reprieve in 2015 and was excluded from being executed by a 13-member firing squad.

Earlier this month, he made a last-ditch plea to be returned home, Indonesian authorities said at a time the new administration of president Prabowo Subianto planned to give pardon to 44,000 inmates nationwide.

The father of four, who turned 61 last week and is reportedly suffering from cancer, wrote to the Indonesian government requesting to serve the rest of his sentence in his home country, according to Mr Mahendra.

Atlaoui was arrested in 2005 for involvement in a factory manufacturing the psychedelic drug MDMA, sometimes called ecstasy, on the outskirts of Jakarta. His lawyers say he was employed as a welder at the factory and did not understand what the chemicals on the premises were used for.

“We are forwarding a personal request from Serge Atlaoui to the Indonesian government which of course should be responded to by the French government, because this concerns the transfer of a prisoner,” Mahendra told a joint news conference with French Ambassador Fabien Penone after a meeting last week.

In the case of Atlaoui, Mr Mahendra said it was in the initial stages and will take some time because there has been no official request from the French government.

French ambassador Penone said that Mahendra has briefed him about the case and that he is working with the Indonesian government.

Atlaoui, from Metz, has maintained his innocence during his 19 years of incarceration, claiming that he was installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylics plant. Police accused him of being a “chemist” at the site. He was initially sentenced to life, but the Supreme Court in 2007 increased the sentence to death on appeal.

His case has drawn attention in France, which vigorously opposes the death penalty “in all places and under all circumstances”.

South Korean parliament votes to impeach acting president Han Duck Soo

South Korea’s parliament impeached acting president Han Duck Soo on Friday, just two weeks after similarly punishing president Yoon Suk Yeol for briefly declaring martial law earlier this month.

“I announce that prime minister Han Duck Soo’s impeachment motion has passed,” the National Assembly speaker Woo Won Shik said following a chaotic voting session. “Out of the 192 lawmakers who voted, 192 voted to impeach.”

The National Assembly has 300 members and the motion needed 151 votes to pass.

Tensions ran high in the National Assembly as lawmakers from the ruling People Power Party protested against the impeachment process. They objected to the speaker’s ruling that a simple majority of 151 votes was required to impeach Mr Han and not 200 as was the case for Mr Yoon.

The opposition had argued that a simple majority was needed to impeach Mr Han as this is the threshold for a cabinet member. The ruling party, however, contended that a two-thirds majority was necessary since Mr Han was now acting as president.

Most of them boycotted the vote and gathered in the chamber to chant “invalid” and “abuse of power” while calling for the speaker’s resignation.

Mr Han, the prime minister who took over as acting president after Mr Yoon was impeached and suspended from office, was accused by the opposition of “actively participating in the insurrection” and of failing to finalise his predecessor’s impeachment process.

“The only way to normalise the country is to swiftly root out all the insurrection forces,” opposition leader Lee Jae Myung said ahead of the vote.

The failure of Mr Han to approve three judges nominated by the National Assembly to fill vacancies on the Constitutional Court further inflamed tensions with the opposition Democratic Party, which had warned him of impeachment if the appointments weren’t made.

The Constitutional Court, which is preparing to rule on Mr Yoon’s impeachment by the parliament, currently has only six judges instead of nine. For Mr Yoon’s impeachment to be upheld, a total of six judges must approve it, leaving the outcome precariously dependent on unanimous agreement in the absence of a full bench. One dissent could save the president from permanent removal from office.

Choi Sang Mok, the finance minister, will assume the acting presidency now. Mr Choi had cautioned lawmakers against going ahead with the impeachment of Mr Han, warning that it could damage the economy given the already fragile political situation.

The impeachment of the president and the acting president in less than a month has thrown South Korea into unprecedented political turmoil.

Mr Yoon has avoided questioning over the rebellion charges brought against him for declaring martial law, and blocked investigations into his office.

The impasse between Mr Yoon’s conservative party and the liberal opposition has stalled governance in South Korea, disrupted diplomacy, and unsettled financial markets.

Osamu Suzuki, force behind iconic Japanese carmaker, dies at 94

Osamu Suzuki, the legendary businessman who turned Suzuki Motor Corporation into a global force, has died at the age of 94.

The company announced his death on Christmas Day, attributing it to lymphoma.

Suzuki, who led the company for over four decades, was known for his frugality and ambition. He famously drove the company’s expansion beyond its initial focus on inexpensive 660cc minivehicles, originally designed for the Japanese market and benefiting from generous tax breaks.

His leadership philosophy was rooted in cutting costs wherever possible, including ordering factory ceilings to be lowered to cut air-conditioning expenses and flying economy class even in his later years.

“Forever” or “until the day I die” were Suzuki’s signature humorous replies when questioned about his tenure at Suzuki, which he tightly controlled well into his 70s and 80s.

Born Osamu Matsuda, Suzuki adopted his wife’s family name, a common practice in Japan when a male heir is absent.

After joining Suzuki Motor Corporation in 1958, he worked his way up the ranks, becoming its head two decades later.

His most significant early contribution was rescuing Suzuki Motor in the 1970s when he brokered a deal with Toyota for engines that would meet new emissions standards. Suzuki’s boldness continued to pay off as he oversaw the launch of the Alto minivehicle in 1979, a success that led to Suzuki’s partnership with General Motors in 1981.

In the 1980s, Suzuki took a monumental risk by investing a year’s worth of earnings into establishing a presence in India, a country with a minimal automotive market at the time.

His goal was to build a national carmaker and, as he later explained, to be “number one somewhere in the world”. India’s car market then was tiny, with fewer than 40,000 vehicles sold annually, and was dominated by British models.

After the Indian government nationalised Maruti in the 1970s, the company had difficulty finding a foreign partner. Negotiations with Renault faltered, and brands like Fiat and Subaru rejected Maruti’s proposals.

A chance encounter with a newspaper article about Maruti’s deal with Japanese competitor Daihatsu led to a meeting with Suzuki Motor, resulting in a partnership. The first car, the Maruti 800, launched in 1983, was an instant hit, and today Maruti Suzuki holds around 40 per cent of India’s car market.

Suzuki’s influence extended to corporate culture in India, where he promoted equality by introducing open plan offices, shared canteens, and uniforms for both executives and factory workers.

Not all of Suzuki’s ventures were without trouble, however. In 2009, he negotiated a deal with Volkswagen, but the partnership soured due to disagreements over control and acquisitions.

The conflict culminated in an international arbitration case and Suzuki eventually bought back Volkswagen’s 19.9 per cent stake.

In 2016, Suzuki handed over the CEO role to his son, Toshihiro Suzuki, but remained chairman until 2021 to advise the company.

Additional reporting by agencies.

China unveils novel advanced military aircraft

China appears to have tested novel sixth-generation stealth military aircraft as videos of the warplanes went viral on social media.

Mysterious tailless aircraft were seen flying over Chengdu city in southwest Sichuan province, though the defence ministry is yet to confirm the speculation.

Both jets are tailless, meaning they do not have vertical stabilisers to help maintain control. Such aircraft are typically kept stable by computers that interpret the pilot’s control inputs and make it impossible to detect.

The test flight coincided with the birth anniversary of Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China. The aircraft designs are separate from airframers Chengdu and Shenyang and may be among the most sophisticated manned fighters in the world.

The larger of the two designs is roughly diamond-shaped, with three air intakes for its engines, two alongside the fuselage and one on top – an extremely unusual configuration. The smaller one has a more conventional layout, but no tail.

Both have the lack of 90-degree angles typical of stealth shaping for reduced radar detection. “It really looks like a leaf,” Defence Times, a website based in Chengdu, wrote on Weibo.

The new Chinese aircraft are not the first modern tailless designs. The Northrop Grumman B-2 and B-21 stealth bombers are both flying wings, and several uncrewed aircraft, such as the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 and China’s CH-7, lack tails.

The Chinese military flaunts its new technology at the end of the Western calendar year in late December or January.

In May 2024, the military said its J-20 stealth fighter jet, also known as the Mighty Dragon, can easily reach supercruise. Beijing has reportedly deployed as many as 250 of the stealth aircraft, first introduced into service in 2017, but its capabilities are not publicly known.

At the November Zhuhai air show, China revealed the twin-engine J-35 stealth fighter jet.

As China continues to modernise its military, the designs “show the willingness of China’s aviation industry to experiment and innovate”, said Euan Graham, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

“Whatever the merits or demerits, it appears to be a highly original design,” he told Reuters. “They deserve kudos for that, and should shake off any lingering complacency that the U.S. and its allies always set the pace.”

The US defence department said it was “aware of the reports” but did not have an additional comment beyond what was included in its annual report on the Chinese military this month.

China on Friday also launched a new amphibious assault ship which is designed to strengthen the navy’s combat ability in distant seas.

The Sichuan, the first ship of the 076 type, is China’s largest yet, displacing 40,000 tonnes and equipped with an electromagnetic catapult which will allow fighter jets to launch directly off its deck, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The ship is designed to launch ground troops in landing crafts and provide them air support. It is also equipped with the “arrestor technology” that allows fighter jets to land on its deck.

China’s first amphibious assault ships, the type 075, launched in 2019.

Chinese military expert Song Zhongping compared the Sichuan to a “light aircraft carrier”, according to state media Global Times.

Israeli airstrikes kill 50 Palestinians as troops storm Gaza hospital

At least 50 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike near the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza on Thursday night.

The Israeli military subsequently stormed the hospital, Al Jazeera reported. The soldiers used loudspeakers to order patients and staff to leave within 15 minutes and cut off communication to the facility before storming it, the outlet said.

The hospital, one of the last functioning healthcare facilities in northern Gaza, has been under a sustained Israeli attack for weeks.

“There are nearly 50 martyrs, including three of our medical staff, under the rubble of a building opposite Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Beit Lahia Project area after it was bombed by Israeli warplanes,” the hospital director, Hussam Abu Safia, was quoted as saying by the Turkish news agency Anadolu.

The latest attacks on Gaza came as a wave of Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen’s main airport on Thursday just as the World Health Organization’s director general was about to board a flight there.

A crew member of a UN plane was injured when Israeli jets bombed the Sanaa airport earlier on Thursday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.

The rest of the team left the airport and were “safe and sound” in Sanaa, UN associate spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay said.

An assessment of the damage to the airport would be made on Friday to ascertain if the UN delegation could leave Yemen, she added.

Even as ceaseless Israeli attacks worsen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, an organisation monitoring food crises globally withdrew its warning of imminent famine in the northern part of the besieged Palestinian territory under Israel’s “near-total blockade” after being pressured by US officials, the Associated Press reported.

The rare public challenge from the Joe Biden administration to the work of the US-funded Famine Early Warning System, or Fews, which is meant to reflect data-driven analysis of unbiased experts, drew accusations from aid and human rights figures of possible political interference by Washington.

A finding of famine would be a rebuke of US ally Israel, which insists its war on Gaza is aimed against the Hamas militant group and not against its civilian population.

In its withdrawn report, Fews said unless Israel changed its policy, the number of people dying of starvation and related ailments in north Gaza could reach between two and 15 per day sometime between January and March.

The internationally recognized mortality threshold for famine is two or more deaths a day per 10,000 people.

US ambassador to Israel Jacob Lew this week called the warning by the globally recognised group inaccurate and “irresponsible”.

Mr Lew and the US Agency for International Development, which funds Fews, claimed the findings failed to properly account for rapidly changing circumstances in north Gaza.

The US embassy in Israel and the State Department declined to comment.

Fews confirmed on Thursday it had retracted the famine warning but expected to rerelease the report in January with updated data and analysis. The group declined further comment.

Usaid confirmed it had asked Fews to withdraw its report warning of imminent famine issued on Monday.

The dispute points in part to the difficulty of assessing the extent of starvation in largely isolated northern Gaza, where thousands of people have fled an intensified Israeli military crackdown that aid groups say has allowed delivery of only a dozen trucks of food and water since roughly October.

In publicly challenging the findings of Fews, the US envoy “leveraged his political power to undermine the work of this expert agency”, Scott Paul, a senior manager at the humanitarian nonprofit Oxfam America, said.

Mr Paul stressed that he wasn’t weighing in on the accuracy of the data or methodology of the report.

“The whole point of creating Fews is to have a group of experts make assessments about imminent famine that are untainted by political considerations,” Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said.

“It sure looks like Usaid is allowing political considerations – the Biden administration’s worry about funding Israel’s starvation strategy – to interfere.”

The US, Israel’s main backer, provided a record amount of military support in the first year of the war. At the same time, the Biden administration repeatedly urged Israel to allow more access to aid deliveries in Gaza overall and warned that failing to do so could trigger US restrictions on military support. The administration recently said Israel was making improvements and declined to carry out its threat of restrictions.

Military support for Israel’s war on Gaza is politically charged in the US, with Republicans and some Democrats staunchly opposed to limiting support over the suffering of Palestinian civilians trapped in the conflict. The Biden administration’s reluctance to press Israel for improved treatment of Palestinian civilians undercut support for Democrats in last month’s elections.

Israel’s war on Gaza has so far killed over 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to the local health ministry. The air and ground assault has caused widespread destruction and displaced around 90 per cent of the besieged territory’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times.

The assault began in October last year after a Hamas attack killed 1,200 Israeli civilians and soldiers and saw 250 taken hostage.

Additional reporting by agencies.

Possible sale of Monet on Chinese social media causes disbelief

An art gallery’s claim that they sold an original Monet work on a social media platform has sparked disbelief on Chinese internet.

Gallery Boss’s Backyard Garden posted a Monet listing on Xiaohongshu, a Chinese social media and e-commerce platform often likened to Instagram, on 9 December.

The gallery post carried a picture of the painting, apparently a 1908 work from Claude Monet’s Nymphéas series depicting the famous water lilies in his garden at Giverny, France, along with the message: “Looks like no one on Xiaohongshu has ever sold a Monet Water Lilies before.”

Gao Zhen Yu, owner of the Xiaohongshu account who runs Gao’s Fine Art gallery in Avignon in southern France, claimed in the post to have records of the seven prior owners of the painting as well as details of when it was exhibited, The South China Morning Post reported.

The website of Gao’s Fine Art says they have galleries in Beijing, Taiyuan, Xi’an, and Mauritius as well. They claim to hold more than “5,000 contemporary and modern art masterpieces”, including works by Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Jean Dubuffet, Keith Haring, and classic works by artists like Peter Paul Rubens, Eugène Delacroix, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Monet.

When the post first went up, it got over 20,000 reactions as most users thought it was a stunt. But another post on 17 December by an account called Ours Gallery said a buyer identified only by their surname Tian had reached out after seeing Gao’s post and purchased the artwork for several hundred million yuan. Gao posted screenshots of a text conversation between the two which purportedly show the buyer confirming the purchase and arranging for it to be shipped to Switzerland.

The Independent has reached out to Gao for more information on the sale.

The post led to a flurry of activity on the platform as most users were baffled by the idea that someone would buy a piece of art of such value on a social media platform.

According to the SCMP, the painting in the post matches the details that appear in the Catalogue Raisonné, an annotated listing of an artist’s works. Monet’s Catalogue Raisonné, which was compiled by the Wildenstein Institute and first published in 1996, states that the last known appearance of this painting was in 1976, at a Christie’s London spring auction.

Earlier this year, an expert in art authentication managed to detect up to 40 counterfeit paintings for sale on eBay, including pieces supposedly by the likes of Monet and Renoir.

Is it right to cut Afghanistan off from international climate funding?

The Taliban’s demand for access to global climate finance amid Afghanistan’s worsening droughts, floods, and food insecurity has sparked a global dilemma: will the hardline regime’s inclusion be seen as legitimising their brutal curbs on women and girls?

At the recent Cop29 in Baku, the Taliban delegation attending as observers for the first time since 2021, made their case for a full party status in future climate negotiations and access to international climate funds.

“It is the right of our people, who are among the most vulnerable to climate change,” Mutiul Haq Nabi Kheel, the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) chief, tells The Independent. “We should not be invited as guests [in the next COP] but as full participants.”

The plea comes as Afghanistan endures relentless climate disasters. Earlier this year, flash floods in Ghor and Badakhshan swept through villages, killing dozens, displacing thousands, and washing away farmland. Prolonged droughts left over 12 million people, nearly a third of the population, facing severe food insecurity. The climate crisis has pushed the country, which contributes less than 0.1 per cent of global emissions, into a devastating cycle of drought, floods, and hunger.

The Taliban’s return to the climate stage has sparked a debate on whether the world can deliver aid to Afghanistan without recognising a regime that stands in direct opposition to human rights values. Any participation by the Taliban has led to a global pushback in the past.

When the de facto rulers sent officials to Qatar this year for a meeting with UN officials, Human Rights Watch said the move could do “irreparable harm to the UN’s credibility as an advocate for women’s rights and women’s meaningful participation”.

The concerns persist as the Taliban continue to isolate women from public life, even closing the last few remaining avenues of work such as paramedical and midwife training recently. In a 2023 report, Amnesty described the Taliban’s actions as “relentless and targeted oppression of women and girls”.

Yet the worst brunt of Afghanistan’s exclusion from climate finance, which has stalled critical projects that could mitigate the worst impacts of the climate crisis, has also been borne by its most vulnerable people.

Humanitarian groups and climate experts argue that inaction is punishing the Afghan people, not their rulers. “Try explaining to an Afghan woman how you’re helping her by holding back,” says Graeme Smith, senior consultant for Crisis Group. “If she sees her crops failing and her children going hungry, she doesn’t care about global politics, she cares about survival.”

Before the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, the country had access to international funds such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the Adaptation Fund. However, the Taliban’s lack of international recognition halted these flows overnight.

“About $2.8bn worth of ongoing infrastructure work just stopped,” Smith says. “Water projects, irrigation systems, they’re sitting out there, rusting in the desert.”

This funding freeze has left the international community reliant on UN agencies and NGOs to deliver climate-related aid through humanitarian channels. However, experts warn that these efforts, while essential, are piecemeal and lack the scale needed to address the challenges.

Srikant Misra, Afghanistan director for ActionAid, describes the shortfall in disaster preparedness: “In Ghor, we saw floods wipe out entire villages because people had no time to respond. Simple measures like check dams, flood barriers, or rain gauges could have saved lives. But there’s no funding for even these basics.”

Misra says the lack of community education, particularly in rural areas, increases the risks. “When rains or snow come heavily, people don’t know how to react. Communities have no tools or information to anticipate disasters.”

For Afghan women, the consequences are disproportionately severe. “When disasters strike, women suffer the most,” says Shahin Ashraf of Islamic Relief. “They cannot access markets to buy food, and the rising costs of essentials like flour make survival even harder for families led by women.”

Despite the Taliban’s limited technical capacity and resources, they have attempted to address some of Afghanistan’s environmental challenges. Projects like the Kush Tepa Canal, which aims to provide irrigation to thousands, have been touted as key initiatives. Yet experts are skeptical of their effectiveness.

“They dug a trench in the desert,” Smith says, “but without technical expertise and funding, it’s unclear whether this will deliver long-term benefits.”

At the same time, climate adaptation requires national-level coordination, a challenge in Afghanistan, where the Taliban’s international isolation has left the government out of key discussions.

Smith explains that isolated, small-scale projects cannot replace the coordinated infrastructure planning needed to tackle floods, droughts, and water management. “Water flows across districts, across borders. Without a national plan, what are we really solving?”

The Taliban’s observer status at Cop29 was a start, but securing full party status at Cop30 in Brazil next year will be far more contentious.

The symbolic weight of such recognition, coupled with access to funds like the GCF, would put many governments in a political bind.

“Western decision-makers are held accountable by voters and social media outrage,” Smith explains. “If money flows into Afghanistan and the Taliban cuts ribbons on new infrastructure projects, the backlash could be immense, even if the funding saves Afghan lives.”

Despite this, humanitarian organisations stress that the international community cannot afford to ignore Afghanistan’s worsening climate crisis.

“This is not just about responding to disasters,” Misra says. “It’s about preparing communities for a future that’s already here, building infrastructure, supporting farmers, and empowering women.”

Afghanistan’s vulnerability to the climate crisis is compounded by decades of war and instability, which have eroded institutional capacity at every level. In villages across the country, families face impossible decisions. As droughts persist, crops fail, and floods destroy homes, the absence of resources leaves entire communities without a path forward.

Experts argue that solutions exist. While direct funding to the Taliban remains politically unpalatable, alternatives, such as channeling funds through UN agencies, NGOs, or regional partnerships, could allow critical work to resume.

“The people of Afghanistan cannot wait for political solutions,” Ashraf says. “We cannot punish women and children for the actions of a government they did not choose.”

Smith believes the focus must remain on results, not optics. “Climate change doesn’t care about politics. It’s hitting Afghanistan harder than almost anywhere else. If we’re serious about helping Afghan women and children, we have to find a way to act.”

India concerned as China approves world’s largest dam in Tibet

China has approved the construction of the world’s largest hydropower dam on the eastern rim of the Tibetan plateau despite protests over its ecological impact and concerns it could affect millions of people downstream in India and Bangladesh.

The dam, located in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo river, could annually produce 300 billion kWh of electricity, according to an estimate provided by the Power Construction Corp of China in 2020. That is more than triple the 88.2 billion kWh capacity of the Three Gorges Dam, currently the world’s largest, in central China.

The project is expected to play a major role in meeting China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, stimulate related industries such as engineering, and create jobs in Tibet, Chinese state media Xinhua reported on Wednesday.

A section of the Yarlung Zangbo falls a dramatic 2,000m within a short span of 50km, offering huge hydropower potential as well as unique engineering challenges.

The outlay for building the dam is expected to eclipse the 254.2bn yuan (£27.80bn) it cost to construct the Three Gorges Dam.

Constructing Three Gorges required the resettling of 1.4 million people.

Authorities have not indicated how many people the new project would displace and how it would affect the local ecosystem, one of the richest and most diverse on the plateau. The site of the project is located along a tectonic plate boundary which is a zone for earthquakes.

At least four 20km-long tunnels must be drilled through the Namcha Barwa mountain to divert half of the river’s flow to harness its power, according to reports.

But according to Chinese officials, hydropower projects in Tibet, which they say hold more than a third of China’s hydroelectric power potential, would not have a major impact on the environment or on downstream water supplies.

India and Bangladesh have nevertheless raised concerns about the dam, with the project potentially altering the river’s course downstream.

India is concerned that Chinese projects in the region could trigger flash floods or create water scarcity downstream.

An Indian lawmaker previously raised concerns over China building the dam in the bordering region of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as part of southern Tibet.

The Yarlung Zangbo becomes the Brahmaputra river as it leaves Tibet and flows south into India’s Arunachal Pradesh and Assam states and finally into Bangladesh.

“We cannot trust our ‘neighbour’. You never know what they can do,” Ninong Ering, a member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) told the parliament in July.

“They can either divert the entire river flow drying up our Siang or release water at once causing unprecedented floods and havoc downstream.”

Additional reporting by agencies