#UN chief condemns dehumanization of migrants for political gain. Migrants are being “dehumanized” and “pushed into danger” around the world “to score political points, with devastating human consequences,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday, adding that they’re “not criminals.”

“Instead of responding with cooperation, the global reaction has too often been driven by fear, division and rank opportunism,” Guterres told an informal meeting of the General Assembly on migration.

Guterres did not point to a specific country, instead noting this harm occurs “across continents.”

Guterres also presented his latest biennial report on migration to member states Friday, which found an estimated 3.7 percent of the global population were migrants in 2024.

That amounts to an estimated 304 million people worldwide -- with children accounting for up to 42 million of them.

“Safe and regular pathways are becoming ever more restrictive -- especially for families and low-wage workers who face the steepest barriers,” Guterres said.

But migrants don’t disappear when countries block legal pathways.

Instead they are “pushed into danger, exploitation and the hands of smugglers,” Guterres said.

“It is a moral outrage that thousands of men, women and children die or go missing every year because no safe alternative exists.”

“Migration is a story as old as humanity: a story of courage, resilience and mutual benefits. Our task is to ensure that it never becomes a story of death and despair."

Macron to visit top-secret sub base as some Europeans worry about U.S. nuclear guarantees.

French President Emmanuel Macron, the person with the power to unleash France’s nuclear arsenal, will on Monday update French thinking on the potential use of warheads carried on submarines and planes, if it ever came to that. This in the context of concerns in Europe that Russian war-making could spread beyond Ukraine, and uncertainty about U.S. President Donald Trump’s steadfastness as an ally.

For decades, Europe has lived under a protective umbrella of U.S. nuclear weapons, stationed on the continent since the mid-1950s to deter the former Soviet Union and now Russia. Lately, however, some European politicians and defence analysts are questioning whether Washington can still be relied upon to use such force if needed.

As the only nuclear-armed member of the 27-nation European Union, the questions are particularly pertinent for France.

Possible revisions to France’s nuclear deterrence policy, sure to be carefully calibrated and scrutinized by allies and potential enemies alike, could be among the most consequential decisions that Macron makes in his remaining 14 months as president, before elections to choose his successor in 2027.

That Macron feels a need to bare France’s nuclear teeth, in what will be the commander in chief’s second keynote speech laying out the country’s deterrence posture since his election in 2017, speaks to his concerns, voiced multiple times, about geopolitical and defence-technology shifts that threaten the security of France and its allies.

Those voicing doubts about Washington’s reliability include Rasmus Jarlov, chair of the Danish parliament’s Defence Committee.

“If things got really serious, I very much doubt that Trump would risk American cities to protect European cities,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We don’t know but it seems very risky to rely on the American protection.”

He and others are turning to France for reassurance. In the longer term, Jarlov argues that other European nations also need to arm themselves with nuclear weapons — an almost unfathomable prospect when U.S. protection seemed absolute in European minds.

“The Nordic countries have the capacity. We have uranium, we have nuclear scientists. We can develop nuclear weapons,” he said. “Realistically, it will take a lot of time. So in the short term, we are looking to France.”
Adjusting to geopolitical risks

The world has changed dramatically since Macron’s first policy-making nuclear speech in 2020, with new uncertainties shoving old certainties aside.

The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, now entering its fifth year, brought war to the EU’s door and repeated threats of possible nuclear use from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

China is expanding its nuclear arsenal. So, too, is North Korea’s nuclear-armed military. In October, Trump spoke about U.S. intentions to resume nuclear tests for the first time since 1992, although U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright later said that such tests would not include nuclear explosions.

Russia revised its deterrence policy in 2024, lowering its bar for possible retaliation with nuclear weapons. The United Kingdom has announced plans to buy nuclear-capable U.S.-made F-35A fighter jets, restoring a capacity to deliver nuclear airstrikes that it phased out in the 1990s, leaving it with just submarine-based nuclear missiles.

The chosen site for Macron’s speech on Monday — the Île Longue base for France’s four nuclear-armed submarines — will drive home that French presidents also have nuclear muscle at their disposal in an increasingly unstable world. They each can carry 16 M51 intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with multiple warheads.

“There are high expectations from the allies and partners, and maybe also the adversaries, about how the French nuclear doctrine could evolve,” said Héloïse Fayet, a nuclear deterrence specialist at the French Institute of International Relations, a Paris think tank.

Speaking in an AP interview, Fayet said she’s hoping for “real changes.”

“Maybe something about a greater and a clearer French commitment to the protection of allies, thanks to the French nuclear weapons,” she said.
France’s nuclear force

Macron said in 2020 that France has fewer than 300 warheads — a number that has remained stable since former President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a modest reduction to that level in 2008.

Macron said the force is sufficient to inflict “absolutely unacceptable damage” on the “political, economic, military nerve centers” of any country that threatens the “vital interests” of France, “whatever they may be.”

Nuclear specialists will be watching for any hint from Macron that he no longer considers the French stockpile to be sufficient and that it might need to grow.

The language of deterrence is generally shrouded by deliberate ambiguity, to keep potential enemies guessing about the red lines that could trigger a nuclear response. Officials from Macron’s office, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the nuclear policy changes that Macron might make, were extremely guarded in their wording, not least because deterrence is a strictly presidential prerogative.

“There will no doubt be some shifts, fairly substantial developments,” one of the officials said.
Protecting Europe

Again with careful wording, Macron in 2020 said the “vital interests” that France could defend with nuclear force don’t end at its borders but also have “a European dimension.”

Some European nations have taken up an offer Macron made then to discuss France’s nuclear deterrence and even associate European partners in French nuclear exercises.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says he’s had “initial talks” with Macron about nuclear deterrence and has publicly theorized about German Air Force planes possibly being used to carry French nuclear bombs.

European nations engaging with France are seeking “a second life insurance” against any possibility of U.S. nuclear protection being withdrawn, says Etienne Marcuz, a French nuclear defence specialist at the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research think tank.

“The United States are unpredictable — have become unpredictable — because of the Trump 2 administration,” he said. “That has legitimately raised the question of whether the United States would truly be prepared to protect Europe, and above all, whether they would be willing to deploy their nuclear forces in defence of Europe.”

___

John Leicester, The Associated Press

Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed.

#Sweden intercepts suspected Russian #drone during visit by French aircraft carrier.

The armed forces said Thursday that a Swedish naval ship observed the suspected drone during a patrol in the Öresund strait, which divides Sweden from Denmark. They said that unspecified countermeasures were taken to disrupt the drone, and that contact with it was then lost.

The French nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is in the southern Swedish city of Malmö this week as part of regular NATO exercise activities. Malmö is located on the Öresund, opposite Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen.

French military spokesperson Guillaume Vernet told The Associated Press that the drone was detected on Wednesday and handled by Swedish forces integrated into a security system around the carrier. He said Friday that the drone was more than 10 kilometres (6 miles) from the Charles de Gaulle.

“This system showed it is robust, and this event had no impact on the activity of the aircraft carrier battle group,” Vernet said.

Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson told public broadcaster SVT Thursday evening that the suspected violation of Swedish airspace by a drone happened in connection with a Russian military ship being in Swedish territorial waters. Asked what country he thinks the drone belongs to, he replied: “Probably Russia.”

The Russian ship continued into the Baltic Sea, and Swedish authorities have been in close contact with Denmark about the incident, Jonson said. The armed forces said that no further drones were observed.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said during a visit to the French ship on Friday that “everything implies that it is a Russian violation of Swedish airspace,” but he wouldn’t go into detail. He added that “it is serious and maybe not surprising,” as Russia dislikes Western exercises and the West dislikes Moscow’s actions.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, who also visited the Charles de Gaulle, emphasized that the security of the aircraft carrier wasn’t threatened.

“If indeed ... there is a potential Russian origin for this incident, it would be a ridiculous provocation,” he said. He said that he had no information of his own on the source of the drone.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he didn’t know about the incident. Asked by reporters about Swedish officials linking the drone to the Russian ship, Peskov said that “it’s quite absurd” to claim that the drone was Russian just because a Russian ship was nearby.

Western officials say Russia is masterminding a campaign of sabotage and disruption across Europe. An Associated Press database has documented well over 100 incidents. Not all of them are public and it can sometimes take officials months to establish a link to Moscow.

While officials say the campaign — waged since Russia launched an all-out war against Ukraine in 2022 — aims to deprive Kyiv of support, they believe Moscow is also trying to identify Europe’s weak spots and divert law enforcement resources.

A genetic analysis reveals new details on ancient couplings between humans and Neanderthals.

A new genetic analysis offers some ancient gossip: The pairings were more often female humans with male Neanderthals.

How exactly this happened remains a huge question mark. Did human women venture into Neanderthal populations, or were the Neanderthal males drawn to larger human enclaves? Were these interactions peaceful, confusing, secretive or even violent?

“I don’t know if we’ll ever get a definitive answer to how this happened, since we can’t travel back in time,” said population genetics expert Xinjun Zhang with the University of Michigan, commenting on the new analysis.

But the study, published Thursday in the journal Science, shows “that whenever Neanderthals and modern humans have mated, there has been a preference for male Neanderthals and female modern humans, as opposed to the other way around,” said author Alexander Platt, who studies genetics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Scientists know that Neanderthals and humans mated because there is a small but important percentage of Neanderthal DNA in most modern humans outside of sub-Saharan Africa — including genes that can help us fight some diseases and make us more susceptible to others.

But they have also known that the Neanderthal DNA is not distributed evenly throughout the human genome.

In particular, there is a surprising lack of Neanderthal DNA in the human X chromosome, one of the bundles of genes in each cell known as a sex chromosome, compared with the amount of Neanderthal DNA in the other, non-sex chromosomes in the cell.

Scientists thought that maybe the genes in those locations were simply not beneficial – or even harmful. Perhaps people with those gene patterns didn’t survive as well so those genes were filtered out by evolution over time.

Or, they thought, maybe the difference could be explained by how the two species intermingled.

To try to solve the riddle, Platt and colleagues looked instead at the Neanderthal genome and the human DNA that got interspersed during a “mating event” 250,000 years ago.

When comparing these genes, they found more of a human fingerprint on the Neanderthal X chromosome – the same chromosome that, in humans, has less Neanderthal DNA than would be expected.

The most likely explanation for this mirror image pattern is mating behavior. That’s because of the way sex chromosomes are passed from parents to children, explained Platt. Because genetic females have two X chromosomes and genetic males have one X and one Y chromosomes, two out of every three X chromosomes in a population, on average, are inherited from people’s mothers.

If more human females mated with Neanderthal males than the other way around, over thousands of years you would expect to see just what they found: more human DNA in Neanderthal X chromosomes and less Neanderthal DNA in human X chromosomes.

“I think that they’ve taken some really important steps in filling missing pieces to the puzzle,” said Joshua Akey, who studies evolutionary genomics at Princeton University and wasn’t involved with the new study.

The study can’t totally rule out other explanations. For example, Zhang said, it’s possible that the offspring of human males and Neanderthal females just didn’t survive as well.

But the simplest and most likely, explanation, the study found, is also the most interesting: “It’s not the result of a strictly Darwinian survival of the fittest,” Platt said. “It’s really the result of how we interact with each other, and what our culture and society and behavior is like.”

—-

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Adithi Ramakrishnan, The Associated Press

Peru declares a state of emergency for hundreds of districts after severe rains and flooding.

Signed by interim President José María Balcázar and published in the country’s official gazette, the decree aims to fast-track funding for local and regional authorities to secure vital infrastructure — including bridges, roads, water and electricity — while protecting the life and health of residents. More than 700 districts across the Pacific coast, the Andes and the Amazon are now under a state of emergency.

Although rains have intensified in the past days, the new government was unable to implement the decrees until now. President Balcázar only swore in his Cabinet on Tuesday, ending a period without ministers that began on Feb. 17 following the removal of his predecessor, José Jerí, who faces an investigation into corruption and influence peddling.

Peru’s ministry of transportation said Wednesday that about 931 kilometers (580 miles) of roads have been damaged nationwide, with the destruction concentrated in the four regions hardest hit by rainfall. These vital routes serve more than half a million people every week.

Authorities also updated the death toll, noting that 68 people have died due to rain-related causes since December. Among the recent victims were a father and son swept away by a landslide in Arequipa, as well as a police officer in Lima who drowned in the Rimac River while attempting to rescue a dog trapped by the Andean floods.

According to authorities, Pacific waters are warming and El Nino Costero is expected to strengthen slightly in March. The warming of ocean waters leads to high evaporation rates and extreme rainfall, as well as increased river flows.

U.S. unveils new #Iran sanctions in ‘maximum pressure’ effort. The United States on Wednesday announced fresh sanctions targeting Iran, pressing on with what Washington calls its “maximum pressure” campaign ahead of talks between both sides in Geneva.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened strikes if Iran does not cut a deal on its nuclear program.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s latest sanctions take aim at more than 30 individuals, entities and vessels said to be enabling “illicit Iranian petroleum sales,” as well as its weapons production.

In particular, vessels operating “as part of Iran’s shadow fleet, which transport Iranian petroleum and petroleum products to foreign markets” were targeted as a means to strike at authorities’ revenue sources, the Treasury said.

“Iran exploits financial systems to sell illicit oil, launder the proceeds, procure components for its nuclear and conventional weapons programs, and support its terrorist proxies,” charged U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a statement.

He vowed that the Trump administration will continue to push for “maximum pressure on Iran to target the regime’s weapons capabilities and support for terrorism.”

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, Trump accused Tehran of “sinister nuclear ambitions” after he ordered a massive military deployment around the Gulf.

But for now, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that he had a favourable outlook for talks between both sides.

CIA offers tips to potential informants in Iran as Trump considers military action.

WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency offered help to potential informants in Iran on Tuesday, providing Farsi-language instructions on ways to safely contact the U.S. spy agency as President Donald Trump mulls possible military strikes.

The post is the latest in a series of recruitment pitches in Farsi, Korean, Russian and Mandarin that offered secure ways to contact the CIA. The Farsi-language message posted Tuesday to X, Instagram and YouTube, however, comes at an especially uneasy time in U.S.-Iran relations and as the Iranian theocracy faces new protests at home.

The U.S. has assembled its largest military force in the Mideast in decades as tensions with Iran have risen. Trump threatened military action in January in response to the government’s fierce crackdown on national protests before shifting his focus to Iran’s disputed nuclear program and warning it to make a deal. Another round of nuclear talks is planned for later this week.

In a sign of new unrest in Iran, students held anti-government protests at universities in Tehran on Monday.

“Hello. The Central Intelligence Agency hears you and wants to help,” the agency wrote in the message, according to an English translation. “Here are some tips on how to make a secure virtual call with us.”

The Farsi-language post racked up millions of views within just a few hours.

The agency won’t say if earlier recruitment videos have resulted in tips or new sources, but Director John Ratcliffe has said the posts are having an impact.

“Last year, CIA’s Mandarin video campaign reached many Chinese citizens, and we know there are many more searching for a way to improve their lives and change their country for the better,” Ratcliffe said earlier this month when a new Mandarin video was posted.

The #CIA’s tips include using a virtual private network, or VPN, to circumvent internet restrictions and surveillance, and the use of a disposable device that can’t easily be traced back to the user. The CIA also urged potential informants to use private web browsers and to delete their internet history to cover their tracks.

The instructions include ways to reach the CIA on its public website or on the darknet, a part of the internet that can only be accessed using special tools designed to hide the user’s identity. The CIA has also posted similar instructions in Russian.

A spokesperson for Iran’s Mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment about the new video.

Associated Press writer Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report from New York.

David Klepper, The Associated Press

Sudanese paramilitary forces kill at least 28 people in an attack in Darfur, group says.

CAIRO — An attack by the Sudanese paramilitary forces on a stronghold of a Darfur tribal leader left at least 28 people dead, a doctors group said on Tuesday.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Monday rampaged through the town of Misteriha in North Darfur province, according to the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s ongoing war.

The town is a stronghold of Arab tribal leader Musa Hilal who also hails from the Rizeigat Arab tribe as the majority of the members of the paramilitary RSF.

At least 39 people, including 10 women, were wounded in the attack, the medical group said.

Sudan’s war erupted in 2023 after tensions between the Sudanese army and the rival RSF escalated into fighting that began in Khartoum and spread nationwide, killing thousands, triggering mass displacement, disease outbreaks, and severe food insecurity. Aid workers were frequently targeted.

The medical group said RSF shelling hit the town’s healthcare center on Monday, after which the RSF fighters assaulted medical staff and detained at least one of them. The paramilitaries began their offensive on the town over the weekend with drone strikes that hit Hilal’s guesthouse. On Monday, the RSF launched a major ground offensive and took over the town.

The seizure of Misteriha has asserted RSF control of Darfur. However, it risks escalating tribal tensions in an area long known for violence and war.

Trump denies top U.S. officer warned of Iran strike risks. President Donald Trump on Monday denied reports that the top U.S. military officer had flagged the risks of a major operation against Iran, saying Washington would “easily” beat Tehran in any war.

U.S. media reported that General Dan Caine, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, had warned of various risks associated with strikes against Iran including a long-term entanglement.

But Trump said on his Truth Social network that it was “100 percent incorrect” that Caine was “against us going to war with Iran.”

“General Caine, like all of us, would like not to see War but, if a decision is made on going against Iran at a Military level, it is his opinion that it will be something easily won,” Trump wrote.

“He has not spoken of not doing Iran, or even the fake limited strikes that I have been reading about, he only knows one thing, how to WIN and, if he is told to do so, he will be leading the pack.”

The Washington Post said Caine had expressed concern at the White House and Pentagon that munition shortages and a lack of allied support could increase danger to U.S. personnel.

And the Wall Street Journal said both the top general and other Pentagon officials have warned of risks such as U.S. and allied casualties as well as the danger of U.S. air defenses being depleted if its forces strike Iran.

The Axios news outlet meanwhile said Caine had warned of the United States “becoming entangled in a prolonged conflict.”

Trump’s roving negotiator Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner had also been urging the president to hold off attacks and give diplomacy a chance, Axios said.

The U.S. president however accused the media outlets of writing “incorrectly, and purposefully so.”

“I am the one that makes the decision, I would rather have a Deal than not but, if we don’t make a Deal, it will be a very bad day for that Country and, very sadly, its people,” Trump added.

Trump, who ordered strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last year, has repeatedly threatened Tehran with further military action if ongoing talks do not reach a replacement for the nuclear deal the U.S. president tore up in 2018, during his first term in office.

Washington has deployed a massive military force to the Middle East, sending two aircraft carriers as well as more than a dozen other ships, a large number of warplanes and other assets to the region.

But negotiations are still set to continue, with a U.S. official saying the next round of talks with Tehran would take place on Thursday.