The thieves broke into the world-famous Paris museum on Sunday using a crane to smash an upstairs window

International News via Reuters:

The Louvre’s cameras failed to detect burglars in time to prevent their audacious daylight heist of some of France’s crown jewels, the museum’s director said on Wednesday, amid growing anger directed at officials over major security lapses.

The thieves broke into the world-famous Paris museum on Sunday using a crane to smash an upstairs window, then stole jewels worth an estimated 88 million euros ($102 million) before escaping on motorbikes. News of the robbery reverberated around the world, and prompted soul-searching in France over what some viewed as a national humiliation.

Laurence des Cars, the Louvre director, told senators that she had offered her resignation, but it had been refused by Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who has also come under fire as recriminations flew after the robbery.

SECURITY EFFORTS ‘DEFEATED’

“Despite our efforts, despite our hard work every day, we were defeated,” Des Cars told a Senate committee.

Many in France and around the world have been baffled how four hooded assailants were able to drive up to the world’s most visited museum, smash a second-floor window and make off with a handsome booty without getting caught. Ministers have admitted serious security lapses occurred.

“We did not detect the thieves’ arrival early enough,” Des Car said, blaming it on the fact that there were not enough cameras outside monitoring the perimeter of the Louvre.

The exterior security cameras do not offer full coverage of the museum’s facade, she said, adding that the window through which the thieves broke in was not monitored by CCTV.

Des Cars said she had repeatedly warned that the centuries-old building’s security was in a dire state. “The warnings I had been sounding came horribly true last Sunday.”

She pledged to establish no-parking perimeters in areas around the Louvre, upgrade the CCTV network and ask the interior ministry to set up a police station inside the museum.

FOUR OTHER FRENCH MUSEUMS ROBBED RECENTLY

The heist, on a Sunday morning after the Louvre had already opened to visitors, has prompted an assessment of security at museums across the country. Paris is home to some of the world’s best-known cultural institutions, including museums like Orsay, Pompidou and Quai Branly which help sustain booming tourism.

At least four French museums have been robbed over the last two months, according to media reports.

On Tuesday, prosecutors said they had charged a Chinese-born woman over the theft of six gold nuggets worth about 1.5 million euros ($1.75 million) from the Museum of Natural History in Paris last month. She was arrested in Barcelona while trying to dispose of some melted gold, they said.

($1 = 0.8575 euros)

Reporting by Geert De Clercq, Benoit Van Overstraeten, Manuel Ausloos and Inti Landauro; Editing by Alexandra Hudson, Ingrid Melander and Mark Heinrich

Under reforms proposed by the operator Elia, data centres would be placed in a separate category that would allow grid capacity to be allocated specifically for them within a set limit

International News via Reuters:

Belgium’s grid operator could set an electricity allocation limit on data centres to prevent other industrial users from being squeezed out, it said, following a surge in demand from the energy-intensive facilities that power AI.

Under reforms proposed by the operator Elia, data centres would be placed in a separate category that would allow grid capacity to be allocated specifically for them within a set limit, the company told Reuters.

That would ensure other sectors are not blocked out from connecting to the network, the operator said, adding that flexible connections where access may be limited during grid congestion would remain possible.

While major tech companies splurge billions of dollars on AI technologies and the data centres that run them, countries around the world are scrambling to meet the sudden demand for energy required to run the buildings, which are expected to drive power consumption to record highs over the next two years.

In Belgium, requests from data centres have shot up nine-fold since 2022, with reserved capacity for 2034 already running at more than double the 8 terawatt-hours foreseen in national grid development plans, Elia said.

“Such volumes were not anticipated during the development of the various grid development scenarios for Belgium’s electricity network,” it said, emphasising the need to stop speculative developments that are unlikely to materialise from blocking grid capacity.

The evolution of data centre consumption will be addressed in the upcoming 2028–2038 federal grid development plan, the country’s energy minister Mathieu Bihet told parliament earlier this week.

“I will pay particular attention to this during the plan’s approval,” he said on Tuesday.

U.S. tech giant Google has plans to invest 5 billion euros ($5.80 billion) in Belgium, aiming to expand its data centre campuses to support its AI strategy.

Reporting by Alban Kacher; Editing by Muvija M

Despite an agreement in July aimed at fast-tracking shipments to Europe, China has maintained tight control over rare earth exports and earlier this month announced expanded curbs

International News via Reuters:

The EU’s top economic official said the European Commission was considering countermeasures in response to Chinese curbs on rare earth exports, according to an interview with Handelsblatt published on Wednesday.

“We are examining possible countermeasures if conditions do not improve. We have not yet named any specific instruments, but the discussion is ongoing,” EU economy commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis told the German newspaper.

“We are also coordinating this with international partners – for example at the G7 finance ministers’ meeting in Washington, where I have just been,” he added.

Despite an agreement in July aimed at fast-tracking shipments to Europe, China has maintained tight control over rare earth exports and earlier this month announced expanded curbs.

The EU’s trade chief Maros Sefcovic said on Tuesday he was due to meet Chinese authorities in the coming days to find “urgent” rare earth exports solutions.

Reporting by Rachel More; Editing by Alex Richardson

Advisory opinions of the ICJ, also known as the World Court, carry legal and political weight, but they are not binding and the court has no enforcement power

International News via Reuters:

The United Nations’ top legal body, the International Court of Justice, on Wednesday gave an advisory opinion saying that Israel is under the obligation to ensure the basic needs of the civilian population in Gaza are met.     The panel of 11 judges added Israel has to support relief efforts provided by the United Nations in the Gaza Strip, and U.N. entities, including UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

“As an occupying power, Israel is obliged to ensure the basic needs of the local population, including the supplies essential for their survival,” presiding judge Yuji Iwasawa said. He added that basic needs include food, water, shelter, fuel and medical services.

Advisory opinions of the ICJ, also known as the World Court, carry legal and political weight, but they are not binding and the court has no enforcement power.

ISRAEL REJECTS OPINION 

The opinion, which was requested by the U.N. General Assembly in December, clarified the protections states must provide for U.N. staff and is expected to have effects beyond the Gaza conflict.

In a post on X, Israel’s foreign ministry said it categorically rejected the court’s findings and added “Israel fully upholds its obligations under international law”.

Israel banned UNRWA from operating in Gaza last year, claiming that some of its employees were members of militant group Hamas, or other affiliated associations.

The ministry said that the United Nations had yet to fully probe the extent of Hamas involvement in UNRWA, and said Israel would not cooperate “with an organization that is infested with terror activities”. 

The ICJ judges on Wednesday found that Israel had not substantiated its claims that a significant number of UNRWA employees are Hamas members.

In April this year lawyers for the United Nations and Palestinian representatives at the ICJ accused Israel of breaking international law by refusing to let aid into Gaza between March and May, a time when Israel completely cut off all goods, accusing Hamas fighters of stealing aid.

Since then, some humanitarian aid has been allowed in but U.N. officials say it was nowhere near what was needed to ease a humanitarian disaster which crossed the threshold into famine. A ceasefire agreed this month calls for Israel to admit 600 trucks of aid per day, but the U.N. says far less is entering so far. 

The ICJ opinion found Palestinians in Gaza were inadequately supplied and stressed Israel cannot use starvation as a weapon of war. 

Paul Reichler, a lawyer acting for the Palestinians, said the findings meant Israel was not complying with its international law obligations.

“On the one hand, you have the court finding that starvation as a method of warfare is illegal, and on the other, the court found that Israel deliberately prevented food from reaching the civilian population in Gaza,” he said.

UNRWA, which serves millions of Palestinians by running schools and aid distribution, employs more than 30,000 people.

The U.N. said in August last year that nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 assault on Israel and had been fired. Israel says another UNRWA employee killed in Gaza in October 2024 was also a Hamas commander.

In an earlier 2024 advisory opinion, the ICJ  found that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal and should end immediately. The court also said that Israel had human rights obligations to the Palestinians because of its position as an occupying power.

Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Peter Graff

The realistic conversational abilities of such services have taken the world by storm, but have also fanned concern that a lack of guardrails exposes vulnerable individuals to dangerous content

International News via Reuters:

Australia has ordered four artificial-intelligence chatbot companies to explain their measures to protect children from exposure to sexual or self-harm material, as its internet regulator beefs up safety measures on the AI fronti

The realistic conversational abilities of such services have taken the world by storm, but have also fanned concern that a lack of guardrails exposes vulnerable individuals to dangerous content.

In a statement, the eSafety Commissioner said it sought details of safeguards against child sexual exploitation, pornography and material promoting suicide or eating disorders.

It sent notices to Character Technologies, owner of celebrity simulation chatbot tool character.ai, and rivals Glimpse.AI, Chai Research and Chub AI.

“There can be a darker side to some of these services, with many … chatbots capable of engaging in sexually explicit conversations with minors,” Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in the statement.

“Concerns have been raised that they may also encourage suicide, self-harm and disordered eating.”

Australia’s online regulatory system gives the commissioner the power to compel internet firms to report internal safety processes or face daily fines of up to A$825,000 ($536,000).

The most popular of the services queried, Character.ai, is being sued in the United States after the mother of a 14-year-old said her son died by suicide following prolonged interaction with an AI companion on the site.

Character.ai has sought to dismiss the lawsuit and says it introduced safety features, such as pop-ups directing users to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline if they express thoughts of self-harm.

Schools in Australia have reported children as young as 13 spending up to five hours a day talking with chatbots, sometimes sexually, the regulator said, adding that minors risked forming sexual or emotionally dependent ties with them, or being spurred to self-harm.

However, the regulator did not query OpenAI, owner of the world’s most popular AI search tool, ChatGPT, as its crackdown focused on companion-based tools and ChatGPT is not covered by an industry code until March 2026, an eSafety spokesperson said.

Australia has one of the world’s strictest internet regulation regimes.

From December, social media companies will be forced to deactivate or refuse accounts for users younger than 16 or face a fine of up to A$49.5 million, in a bid to safeguard young people’s mental and physical health.

($1=1.5389 Australian dollars)

Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Clarence Fernandez