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Jewels stolen from Louvre museum in Paris valued at $102m: Prosecutor

More than $100 million (some 88 million euros) have been stolen from the Louvre museum in Paris as a blatant daylight robbery over the weekend, according to a French prosecutor.

In an interview on Tuesday, Paris public prosecutor Laure Beccuau said, “It is important to remember that this damage is an economic damage, but it is nothing compared to the historical damage caused by this theft.”

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According to Beccuau, “the Louvre curator estimated the damages to be 88 million euros.” That works out to $102m.

A tiara and earrings from the early 19th-century television series Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense were among the eight stolen jewelry. Empress Eugenie’s crown was discovered outside the museum, which the thieves allegedly dumped while they were escaping.

Four masked thieves used a crane to break into an upstairs window at the Louvre, one of France’s remaining crown jewels, and steal jewelry during a quick robbery that involved a motorcycle getaway. The heist involved a getaway on motorcycles and took place on a break in the afternoon.

The Louvre curator estimated the damage to be worth 88 million euros. Laure Beccuau, the prosecutor in Paris, speaking with Anne-Sophie Lapix.

As anger grows over the lack of security in the nation’s museums, director of the Louvre, Laurence des Cars, is scheduled to appear before the French Senate’s culture committee on Wednesday.

Des Cars in January had warned Rachida Dati, France’s Culture Minister, about the museum’s “worrying level of obsolescence,” citing the urgent need for significant renovations.

Criminals duped into Paris’s Natural History Museum last month, seizing gold nuggets worth more than $1.5 million.

After being detained in Barcelona while attempting to dispose of nearly 1 kg (2. 2 pounds) of melted gold pieces, French authorities announced on Tuesday that a 24-year-old Chinese woman had been detained in that case.

Last month, thieves allegedly stole two dishes and a vase from a museum in Limoges, and they also allegedly stole $ 7.6 million from the same establishment.

In a document that covers the Louvre’s 2019 to 2024 time period, with only a quarter of one wing of the museum being subject to video surveillance, France’s Court of Auditors reported.

Following a two-day police investigation and the museum’s regular weekly closure on Tuesday, The Louvre is expected to reopen on Wednesday.

Despite rising attendance at the world-famous museum, whose extensive collections include the Mona Lisa, which has been slashed, labor unions have complained that security staff at the Louvre have been hired.

The Louvre’s website states that “very top of the list of the world’s greatest heritage and museum sites” is the museum, which had 8.9 million visitors last year and 8.9 million in 2023.

‘Illegal in own homes’: Afghan refugees caught in Pakistan-Taliban tensions

The millions of Afghans who fled their home countries after the then-Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 were a part of Allah Meer’s family in Islamabad, Pakistan.

In Kohat, in northwest Pakistan, his family made their home. Meer, now 45, was born there. More than 200 members of his extended family have traveled to Pakistan, Meer claims, from Afghanistan to Pakistan, where they have resided ever since.

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The family has feared for its future over the past two years because Pakistan has returned hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees, but they have escaped Islamabad’s dragnet.

As part of the campaign it started in 2023 to expel what it calls “illegal foreigners,” Pakistan announced last week that it would close all 54 Afghan refugee villages nationwide. Among these are the Kohat villages where Meer and his family reside.

“In my entire life, I only went to Afghanistan once, for two weeks in 2013. None of my family has ever returned, Meer told Al Jazeera. When we were born here, lived here, married here, and buried here, how can I ruin everything?

Families like Meer’s are caught in a jumble of uncertainty as a result of increased tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban, which re-established control of Afghanistan in 2021.

Early in October, fighting broke out between Afghan and Pakistani forces along the border, causing tense relations to turn into open hostility. Officials from both parties met on Sunday in Qatar’s capital, Doha, and agreed to a ceasefire. The next round of negotiations is scheduled for Istanbul on October 25.

However, tensions continue to be high. And Meer’s family worries that border neighbors could use them as diplomatic pawns in a border conflict.

From welcome to expulsion

Since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan has housed countless Afghan refugees. Afghans fled across the border as the Taliban first came to power in Afghanistan in 1996, and successive waves of Afghans did so.

Following the September 11 attacks on the US, the Taliban’s fall led to the return of thousands of Afghans. However, their return was brief.

Another 600, 000 to 800, 000 Afghans sought refuge in Pakistan after the Taliban’s stunning comeback in August 2021.

Pakistan, which was once the Taliban’s top ally, claimed that Afghanistan held armed organizations responsible for the cross-border attacks as relations between Kabul and Islamabad deteriorated over the past four years. Even those who have resided in the country for decades, like Meer, were hampered by the government’s stance toward Afghan refugees.

As he prepares to travel to Afghanistan in August to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) repatriation center in Nowshera, Pakistan [Fayaz Aziz/Reuters]

Meer, a 10-year-old father, founded a vocational training program for Afghan refugee children funded by the UNHCR. She graduated from a university in Peshawar with a degree in education.

To document Afghan citizens living in Pakistan, the UNHCR has issued Proof of Registration (PR) cards since 2006. They have access to some government services, including bank accounts, as well as some legal residence with these cards, which also restrict their freedom of movement.

However, the Pakistani government has discontinued and invalidated existing PoR cards as of June 30 this year.

We all have Proof of Residence cards issued by UNHCR, but with the current drive, Meer said, “I don’t know what will happen.”

Afghan nationals who are undocumented in the country were first given Afghan citizenship cards (ACC) in 2017 and were given identification credentials to give them temporary legal status.

However, the ACC no longer offers deportation protection.

Between the start of the campaign in 2023 and the middle of October 2025, more than 1.5 million Afghans voluntarily or by force left Pakistan, according to the UNHCR.

“Illegal in our home,” the phrase.

According to Qaiser Khan Afridi, the UNHCR’s representative in Pakistan, there are approximately 1.2 million PoR card holders, 737, 000 ACC holders, and 115, 000 asylum seekers.

Their status has become more precarious as a result of Pakistan’s tensions with the Taliban.

Afridi claimed that Pakistan has exhibited extraordinary generosity by hosting millions of Afghan refugees for over 45 years. However, the government’s decision to ban refugee camps throughout Pakistan and to encourage their relocation to Afghanistan is deeply concerning.

“Many of the people affected have lived here for years and are now concerned about their future.” We advocate that any return be gradual, ostensibly carried out, and in a sense of dignity and security.

More than 100 000 people live in seven refugee villages in Kohat alone, according to Meer, who has worked for the UNHCR for years. He claimed that Pakistan and Afghanistan both abused their political leverage to influence the refugee situation.

Our family members have sat down to discuss options in light of the most recent circumstance. We considered sending some of our young men to Afghanistan to look for homes and ways to conduct business, but the problem is that we have no connections there, he said.

His PoR card has been removed from all public places because the Pakistani government has now declared it invalid, making it difficult for him to even use medical facilities when his children need medical care.

He claimed that “we are, in the best way, considered illegal in a nation where I and my children reside.”

entangled between borders

Late in 2023, Pakistan’s plan to expel Afghan residents came about as rebe attacks increased. Since then, there has been a rise in violence, with 2025 likely to be the year with the highest level of violence.

Afghan refugees are a security risk, according to Pakistani authorities, who accuse the Taliban government of abridging armed groups. Kabul refutes this claim.

Sarfraz Bugti, Pakistan’s then interior minister, claimed that Afghan nationals carried out 14 of the country’s 24 suicide bombings in 2023. He did not elaborate on whether the individuals were Afghan nationals who had crossed the porous border between the two nations or refugees who were living there.

Given the hostility between the neighbours, Meer fears that Afghan refugees in Pakistan will also be misunderstood there.

He predicted that “we will also be seen as Pakistanis and as enemies there.”

Pakistan should reconsider its repatriation drive, according to Afridi, the UNHCR spokesperson.

UNHCR calls on the government to take steps to prevent Afghans from returning to their homes without permission, he said.

India’s Kohli, Rohit will regain form after Perth ODI defeat, says Ponting

AI models misrepresent news events nearly half the time, study says

According to a study, AI models like ChatGPT frequently misrepresent news events, giving incorrect answers to questions almost always.

The accuracy of more than 2,700 responses from OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Copilot, and Perplexity was evaluated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the BBC on Wednesday.

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Between late May and early June, 22 public media outlets, each representing 18 nations and 14 languages, posed a set of common questions to the AI assistants.

According to the research, 45 percent of responses were accompanied by at least one “significant” issue.

The most frequent issue was sourcing, with 31 percent of responses, among others, citing incorrect or unverifiable attribution or sources that were not supported by the cited source.

20% of responses were impacted by a lack of accuracy, followed by a lack of appropriate context, which was a 14% higher percentage.

According to the study, 76 percent of responses were impacted by Gemini, which had a major impact on sourcing.

Basic factual errors were made by all AI models studied, according to the study.

The errors include ChatGPT’s designation of Pope Francis as the sitting pontiff months after his death and Perplexity’s claim that surrogacy is prohibited in Czechia.

OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Perplexity did not respond to inquiries for comment right away.

In a foreword to the report, Pete Archer, the BBC’s head of AI, and Jean Philip De Tender, the EBU’s deputy general, called on tech companies to do more to reduce errors in their products.

De Tender and Archer remarked that they must prioritize this problem right away.

China accuses Australia of covering up South China Sea airspace incursion

In response to Canberra’s earlier allegations that the two countries’ military aircraft were flying over the South China Sea, China has accused Australia of covering up an incursion into Chinese airspace.

Jiang Bin, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, stated to reporters on Tuesday that China had “solemn” complained to Australia about what he claimed was Australia’s “attempts to cover up the egregious illegal intrusion of its military aircraft into Chinese airspace.

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Jiang argued that an Australian Defense Force statement on Monday “shifts the blame to China” and demanded that Australia “restrain the actions of its frontline naval and air forces, and prevent deteriorating China-Australian relations.”

A day after the Australian government’s ministry of defense issued a statement about an “unsafe and unprofessional” incident on Sunday, in which it claimed a Chinese Air Force fighter aircraft “released flares in close proximity” to an Australian Air Force plane conducting a “maritime surveillance patrol in the South China Sea,” the response from China’s defense ministry came a day later.

The Australian Defence Force has been conducting maritime surveillance in the area for decades, according to the Australian statement.

Jiang claimed the incident occurred in airspace over “China’s Xisha Islands,” Beijing’s name for the Paracel Islands, but Australia’s statement did not specify where the alleged incident occurred in the South China Sea.

Vietnam and Taiwan also claim the group of islands known as Paracel.

China and Australia exchanged similar accusations in February of this year regarding another incident.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea, despite a 2016 international tribunal ruling that found its claim to be unsupported by law.

The busy waterway marks one of China’s and America’s diplomatic climes, which include a trade war, US sanctions, and Hong Kong and Taiwan issues. China and several of its neighbors, who claim some of its territory, are also at odds with one another over the South China Sea.

In response to China’s recent restrictions on its own exports, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday to sign an agreement allowing Australia to supply rare earth and crucial minerals to the US.

The two leaders also discussed Australia’s agreement with the United Kingdom and the US to acquire and build nuclear-powered submarines in accordance with the AUKUS security pact.

After Washington had earlier stated earlier this week that it was reviewing the agreement for at least three Virginia-class nuclear attack submarines signed by former US President Joe Biden, “the submarines that we’re starting to build for Australia are really moving along,” Trump told reporters on Monday.

Following Albanese and Trump’s meeting in Beijing, the Chinese government’s position on the agreement was reiterated.

We “always oppose” creating a “blockbuster,” raising the threat of nuclear proliferation, and bringing on a “arms race,” according to Guo Jiakun, a spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs.