French leader responds in diplomatic row that erupted after Macron said France would recognise a Palestinian state.
President Emmanuel Macron has rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for accusing him of fuelling anti-Semitism, calling the comments an “offence to France as a whole”.
The French leader responded to his Israeli counterpart in a letter published on Tuesday in several newspapers, in which he said Netanyahu’s recent accusations aimed at Macron were “unacceptable” and warned that the battle against anti-Semitism “must not be weaponised”.
“Accusations of inaction in the face of a scourge that we are fighting with everything in our power are unacceptable and are an offence to France as a whole,” Macron wrote in the letter.
“The fight against antisemitism must not be weaponised and will not fuel any discord between Israel and France.”
The French leader also appealed to Netanyahu to bring the “murderous and illegal permanent war” in Gaza to an end, saying it was “causing indignity for your country and placing your people in a deadlock”.
The accusation was contained in a letter which claimed that anti-Semitism had surged in France since Macron’s recent announcement that he would recognise Palestine as a state at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly next month.
The French president’s office responded by labelling the remarks “abject” and “erroneous”.
“This is a time for seriousness and responsibility, not for conflation and manipulation,” the French presidency said last week, adding that violence against the Jewish community was “intolerable” and asserting that France “protects and will always protect its Jewish citizens”.
The row has widened to draw in Israel’s chief ally, the United States, after Washington’s ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, published an open letter to Macron in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, echoing the allegation that France was failing to take sufficient action against anti-Semitism.
Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law, was summoned to the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs over the accusations, which France said were “unacceptable”, but the US embassy’s charge d’affaires went in his place, as Kushner was absent.
In Arizona’s borderlands, the desert is already deadly. People crossing into the United States face blistering heat, dehydration, and exhaustion. But for years, another threat has stalked these routes: Armed vigilante groups who take it upon themselves to police the border – often violently, and outside the law. They have long undermined the work of humanitarian volunteers trying to save lives.
Now, a new artificial intelligence platform is actively encouraging more people to join their ranks. ICERAID.us, recently launched in the United States, offers cryptocurrency rewards to users who upload photos of “suspicious activity” along the border. It positions civilians as front-line intelligence gatherers – doing the work of law enforcement, but without oversight.
The site opens to a map of the United States, dotted with red and green pins marking user-submitted images. Visitors are invited to add their own. A “Surveillance Guidance” document outlines how to capture images legally in public without a warrant. A “Breaking News” section shares updates and new partnerships. The platform is fronted by Enrique Tarrio – a first-generation Cuban American, far-right figure and self-styled “ICE Raid Czar”, who describes himself as a “staunch defender of American values”.
I have been researching border surveillance since 2017. Arizona is a place I return to often. I’ve worked with NGOs and accompanied search-and-rescue teams like Battalion Search and Rescue, led by former US Marine James Holeman, on missions to recover the remains of people who died attempting the crossing. During that time, I’ve also watched the region become a laboratory for high-tech enforcement: AI towers from an Israeli company now scan the desert; automated licence plate readers track vehicles far inland; and machine-learning algorithms – developed by major tech companies – feed data directly into immigration enforcement systems.
This is not unique to the United States. In my book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, I document how similar technologies are being deployed across Europe and the Middle East – from spyware in Greek refugee camps to predictive border enforcement by the EU’s border agency, Frontex. These tools extend surveillance and control. They do not bring accountability or safety.
Since Donald Trump’s re-election in 2024, these trends have accelerated. Surveillance investment has surged. Private firms have flourished. ICE has expanded its powers to include unlawful raids, detentions and deportations. Military units have been deployed to the US-Mexico border. Now, ICERAID adds a new layer – by outsourcing enforcement to the public.
The platform offers crypto rewards to users who upload and verify photographic “evidence” across eight categories of alleged criminal activity. The more contributions and locations submitted, the more tokens earned. Surveillance becomes gamified. Suspicion becomes a revenue stream.
This is especially dangerous in Arizona, where vigilante violence has a long history. Paramilitary-style groups have detained people crossing the border without legal authority, sometimes forcing them back into Mexico. Several people are known to have died in such encounters. ICERAID does not check this behaviour – it normalises it, providing digital tools and financial incentives for civilians to act like enforcers.
Even more disturbing is the co-optation of resistance infrastructure. ICERAID’s URL, www.iceraid.us, is nearly identical to www.iceraids.us, the website of People Over Papers, a community-led initiative that tracks ICE raids and protects undocumented communities. The similarity is no accident. It is a deliberate move to confuse and undermine grassroots resistance.
ICERAID is not an anomaly. It is a clear reflection of a broader system – one that criminalises migration, rewards suspicion, and expands enforcement through private tech and public fear. Public officials incite panic. Corporations build the tools. Civilians are enlisted to do the job.
Technology is never neutral. It mirrors and amplifies existing power structures. ICERAID does not offer security – it builds a decentralised surveillance regime in which racialised suspicion is monetised and lives are reduced to data. Recognising and resisting this system is not only necessary to protect people on the move. It is essential to the survival of democracy itself.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
Children as young as 10 and 11 have been reported to police forces in England for suspected cyberstalking offences.
Children being drawn into a world of cyberstalking need to be educated about healthy relationships in the digital age, says Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips.
Her comments came in response to a BBC investigation that found some children as young as 10 and 11 had been reported to police forces in England for suspected cyberstalking offences.
Charities say constant monitoring online is becoming normalised from a young age.
Phillips told the BBC: “We really need to be out there educating young people on what healthy relationships look like and that will be part of the government’s violence against women and girls strategy.”
Cyberstalking is defined as using digital tools to harass, send threats or spread false information.
Just like physical stalking it is fixated, obsessive, unwanted, and repetitive behaviour that causes fear, distress, or alarm in the victim.
“Young people are told they should be flattered by this sort of behaviour, but it’s very serious and can really control lives, making them anxious and nervous,” said Phillips.
‘My heart sank’
Charlotte Hooper, who works for The Cyber Helpline, which supports victims of online abuse, knows first-hand how psychologically damaging cyberstalking can be.
At 19, pictures from her social media profiles were posted across pornographic websites and other forums filled with explicit comments.
“My heart sank,” she recalled. “I didn’t really know what was going on or who had done this.”
But Charlotte had first become a victim of cyberstalking when she was much younger.
Charlotte was stalked by a stranger on the internet for four years
As a teen, Charlotte had tens of thousands of followers on X – many of them older men. But there was one who became disturbingly persistent.
“He messaged me daily: ‘Hi,’ ‘How are you?’ ‘I wish we could talk more’,” she said.
Eventually, she discovered he was behind the posts on the pornographic sites.
The man was cautioned by the police for malicious communications and the messages stopped. But the experience left Charlotte anxious and hyper-aware, especially in public spaces.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales found people aged 16 to 19 were most likely to be victims of stalking in the year ending March 2024.
But the survey does not gather data on under-16s, and new police figures suggest stalking is also affecting younger children.
Charlotte believes the “normalisation of digital surveillance” – especially among young people – is fuelling concerning behaviours.
“Sharing locations, checking online activity, and constant messaging are often seen as signs of love and care – especially when their parents are doing it for safety,” she said.
“But it also sets precedents for their other relationships.”
In Kent, the national charity Protection Against Stalking has expanded its workshops in schools to meet demand.
“We’ve got so many younger people now being referred in from schools, with the youngest being 13,” said operations manager Alison Bird.
“It’s quite concerning that we are getting referrals from children that age and the perpetrators themselves are equally just as young.”
Popular social media platform Snapchat features an interactive map where users can share their location with friends on the app
The Suzy Lamplugh Trust – which runs the National Stalking Helpline – said cyberstalking among under-16s remained “significantly under-researched” and underfunded, despite its growing relevance and impact.
At Mascalls Academy secondary school in Kent, students said Snapchat was their most-used app. Its Snap Map feature lets users constantly share their live location with friends.
“When I first got with my girlfriend, pretty quickly we both had each other on Snap Map,” one student told the BBC.
“It wasn’t really a big deal – I already had it with all my friends, so why not her as well?”
Snapchat shared their safety features with the BBC, which include allowing teenagers to set location-sharing to private as the default, and restricting messaging.
Collett Smart, family psychologist and partner in tracking app Life360, says “location sharing can be a valuable tool for both kids and parents but even well-intentioned digital tools should be introduced and managed with care”.
She stressed the importance of being clear about meaningful consent, adding: “Teach your child that location sharing should always be a choice, never a condition of trust or friendship, whether with parents, friends, or future partners.”
‘Risk of exploitation’
For Jo Brooks, principal of Mascalls Academy, one of the biggest challenges was the disconnect between students’ online behaviour and their behaviour in the classroom.
“Some young people feel confident online and see the internet as a shield,” she said. “It makes them braver and sometimes more hurtful with their words.”
Emma Short, professor of cyberpsychology at London Metropolitan University, agrees anonymity can be both protective and harmful.
“It lets people explore identities they might not feel safe expressing in real life,” she said.
“But it also carries the risk of exploitation.”
In November 2022, the National Stalking Consortium submitted a super-complaint to the Independent Office for Police Conduct and the College of Policing, raising concerns about how stalking was handled in the UK.
In response, the College of Policing has urged for better tracking of online offences.
“Every force now has an action plan to properly record all stalking – including online,” said Assistant Chief Constable Tom Harding.
“That’s really important, because we need to be able to track and monitor these offences.”
If you have been affected by the issues raised in this article, help is available from BBC Action Line.
The BBC contacted 46 police forces across the UK and among the 27 that responded, 8,365 cyberstalking offences had been recorded in 2024.
Only eight forces were able to provide an age breakdown, with the youngest alleged victim recorded as an eight-year-old boy in Wiltshire in 2024 and the youngest suspect was a 10-year-old in Cheshire in 2021.
The Metropolitan Police had also recorded two victims under the age of 10, but did not specify how old they were.
MP Jess Phillips has been a victim of stalking and says prevention should be the priority
Anonymity is a common feature in cyberstalking cases, where perpetrators can create multiple accounts to evade detection.
To tackle this, the government introduced the Right to Know statutory guidance in December, allowing victims to learn their stalker’s identity as quickly as possible.
New measures have also expanded the use of Stalking Protection Orders (SPOs), which can restrict alleged stalkers from contacting their victims. But charities warn court delays are limiting their effectiveness.
“Delays are a big concern,” said Phillips. “We’re working to strengthen SPOs so victims stay protected – even after sentencing.”
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says that US President Donald Trump’s tariffs have increased global financial stability risks.
This warning was part of the IMF’s Global Financial Stability Report released on Tuesday, as world financial leaders meet in Washington to discuss the uncertainty caused by the tariff policies.
The IMF pointed out that Trump’s tariff rate surged past levels reached during the Great Depression, which saw tariffs rise as high as 60 percent during one of the worst economic periods in modern history, a downturn that led to more than 12 million Americans losing their jobs.
Global ripple effect
The global ripple effect took the spotlight in the IMF’s report. “Global financial stability risks have increased significantly, driven by tighter global financial conditions and heightened economic uncertainty,” the IMF said.
The fund projects a slump in US economic growth at 1.8 percent for the year — a downturn from its previous forecast of 2.7 percent and down a full percentage point from this time last year.
China is also forecast to grow more slowly because of imposed US tariffs, looming additional tariffs on goods including pharmaceuticals, and Beijing’s reciprocal tariffs on US goods. The IMF now expects it will expand 4 percent in 2025, which is more than a half-point decrease from previous forecasts.
In Europe, the IMF forecasts that the 20-country eurozone will see 0.8 percent growth this year and 1.2 percent in 2026. The new report is a 0.2 percent decline from its forecast at the beginning of the year.
The IMF also forecasts a decrease in Mexico for the year, with growth falling by 0.3 percent for 2025. But it expects that it will rebound next year with 1.4 percent growth. Across Latin America and the Caribbean, the organisation of 191 member nations is expecting a 1.4 percent decrease in growth from its 2024 forecasts, but it does expect growth to bounce back in 2026.
“I don’t recall another instance in my professional life where a single act by a president or prime minister has resulted in such a sudden downgrade in growth in a matter of weeks,” Stuart Mackintosh, executive director of the financial think-tank Group of Thirty, told Al Jazeera.
The bond markets recently surged in the US earlier this month after Trump’s tariffs went into effect. As a result, interest rates went up in other countries around the globe, causing borrowing to become more expensive in other countries, too.
“Emerging market economies already facing the highest real financing costs in a decade may now need to refinance their debt and fund fiscal spending at higher costs,” the IMF said.
The IMF also said that other geopolitical risks such as military conflicts could further spur uncertainty.
An economist consensus
The concerns echo those of other prominent economists around the globe who expect a downturn. Goldman Sachs said it expects “very low US growth of 0.5 percent” and said chances of a recession next year are 45 percent, according to the investment bank’s “tariff induced recession risk” report released on Monday.
Earlier this month, a survey of macroeconomic forecasts conducted by the National Association for Business Economics showed that more than half of respondents believe the probability of a recession in 2025 could be as high as 49 percent. Economists at JPMorgan now believe that the chances of recession are 60 percent.
“The increased likelihood of a global recession and the likelihood of an American recession is up. It’s gone up. We have to deal with that. When you think about the consensus position of US economists, that shifted dramatically,” Mackintosh added.
“In the fall of last year, a majority of US business economists thought that there would be no recession this year. Indeed, most consensus positions viewed the US economy as the strongest advanced economy in the world, and that could only get better. Unfortunately, after ‘Liberation Day’, they got worse.”
The US Federal Reserve has also forecast that growth will weaken this year, to 1.7 percent. This comes as the president has pushed for the central bank to cut interest rates, which Fed Chair Jerome Powell has refused to do. Last week, Trump said that Powell’s exit can’t come soon enough and asserted that if he asked Powell to leave the role, he would. Powell has continually said that he would serve out the remainder of his term, which ends in May 2026.
Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF’s chief economist, pushed back on Trump’s increased rhetorical attacks on Powell, saying “central bank independence remains a cornerstone”, to a group of reporters.
Thousands of Israelis have taken part in antigovernment protests after Netanyahu resumed strikes in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the opposition of fuelling “anarchy” in Israel, after mass antigovernment protests in recent days, while the opposition leader Yair Lapid has called for a “revolt” if the government refuses to accept verdicts issued by the country’s Supreme Court.
Addressing the opposition during a speech in parliament on Wednesday, Netanyahu said, “You recycle the same worn-out and ridiculous slogans about ‘the end of democracy’. Well, once and for all: Democracy is not in danger, it is the power of the bureaucrats that is in danger.”
“Perhaps you could stop putting spanners in the works of the government in the middle of a war? Perhaps you could stop fuelling the sedition, hatred and anarchy in the streets?” he added.
Thousands of Israelis have taken part in several days of antigovernment protests, accusing Netanyahu of undermining democracy by removing Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet internal security agency and resuming strikes in Gaza without any regard for captives held in the besieged enclave.
Netanyahu is locked in a battle with the Shin Bet chief, who is running a bribery investigation into the prime minister’s office, citing a lack of “trust”. The two men have been at loggerheads, fuelled by bitter recriminations over the failure to prevent the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.
The demonstrations, which erupted last week, have been organised by a broad coalition of anti-Netanyahu groups who say the Israeli leader is trying to stay in power at any cost.
The Supreme Court froze Bar’s dismissal after several appeals were filed, including by opposition leader Yair Lapid’s centre-right Yesh Atid party.
The opposition’s appeal highlighted what critics see as the two main reasons Netanyahu moved against Bar.
The first was his criticism of the government over the security failure that allowed Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the deadliest day in the country’s history.
The second was what the opposition appeal said was a Shin Bet investigation into Netanyahu’s close associates on suspicion of receiving money linked to Qatar.
Netanyahu’s office has dismissed the accusations as “fake news”.
Calling for a ‘revolt’
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called for a “revolt” against the government of Netanyahu if it refused to accept verdicts issued by the country’s Supreme Court.
“A government that doesn’t obey the court is a criminal government that should not be obeyed,” Lapid told local radio 103FM.
“If the government does not comply with the Supreme Court, we must shut down the country, and that would be the end of everything.”
Israel’s cabinet also passed a vote of no confidence on Sunday against the country’s attorney general, Baharav-Miara, the first step in a process to dismiss her.
Netanyahu’s office pointed to “significant and prolonged differences between the government and the government’s legal adviser,” a key part of the attorney general’s job.
Following the Supreme Court’s initial ruling in the Bar case, Baharav-Miara said Netanyahu could not name a new internal security chief and was “prohibited to take any action that harms” his position.
