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Tariff hikes 'hurt the vulnerable and the poor' -UN

By - Apr 05,2025 - Last updated at Apr 05,2025

GENEVA — Increased global trade tariffs will hurt the most vulnerable and poor people, the UN's trade and development agency said Friday, after US President Donald Trump's measures sparked global alarm.

 

The ensuing trade turbulence "hurts the vulnerable and the poor", said UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan in a statement.

 

"Trade must not become another source of instability. It should serve development and global growth," Grynspan said.

 

Trump unveiled a barrage of import duties against dozens of countries on Wednesday, prompting China to retaliate in kind and raising the risk that other countries will follow, hurting the world economy.

 

"Global trade rules must evolve to reflect today's challenges, but they must do so with predictability and development at their core, protecting the most vulnerable," Grynspan added.

 

"This is a time for cooperation, not escalation."

 

Migrant boat sinking kills seven in Greece -coast guard

By - Apr 03,2025 - Last updated at Apr 03,2025

A Greek coast guard vessel and a helicopter take part in a search and rescue operation, after an inflatable boat carrying migrants capsized off on the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos Thursday (AFP photo)

ATHENS — Seven people, including three children, died and 23 others were rescued Thursday when an inflatable boat carrying migrants capsized off the Greek island of Lesbos, the coast guard said.

 

The coast guard initially said four bodies had been discovered in the Aegean Sea but after a search by patrol boats, three others were found, a spokeswoman told AFP.

 

The boat was carrying about 30 people and capsized in mild weather a short distance from the coast of neighbouring Turkey.

 

The dead adults included three women and one man, the coast guard said. The 23 survivors were from Syria and Afghanistan and were taken to a reception centre for migrants in Lesbos, they added.

 

Greece's location in the far southeast of Europe in the eastern Mediterranean Sea makes its islands a common passage for undocumented migrants from Asia and the Middle East trying to reach western Europe.

 

Deaths are commonplace during the perilous crossing. The UN said nearly 2,333 people were reported to have died last year.

 

Last month, Greek maritime police said one migrant died and 18 others were rescued after a smuggler abandoned them as they tried to cross from Turkey.

 

According to the UN refugee agency, nearly 9,000 people have entered Greece since the start of the year, most of them by sea.

 

There were over 54,000 entries in 2024, according to the agency's figures.

 

Greece's conservative government has hardened the country's stance on migration.

 

"If you want to enter Greece illegally and are not entitled to asylum, we will do whatever we can to send you back where you came from," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in parliament on Wednesday.

 

"Smugglers and NGOs cooperating with them will not determine who enters our country," he said.

 

UN rights chief says 'appalled' by reports of Khartoum executions

By - Apr 03,2025 - Last updated at Apr 03,2025

A Sudanese army soldier gestures from the back of a vehicle as it drives past damaged cars lying along a street in Khartoum yesterday (AFP photo)

 

GENEVA — UN rights chief Volker Turk said Thursday that he was "appalled" by reports of extrajudicial killings of civilians in Sudan's capital Khartoum last week after its recapture by the army from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

 

"I am utterly appalled by the credible reports of numerous incidents of summary executions of civilians in several areas of Khartoum, on apparent suspicions that they were collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces," Turk said in a statement.

 

The RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has been battling the army, led by Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, since April 2023.

 

Last week the army said it had retaken full control of Khartoum after weeks of attacks on the capital by the paramilitaries, though Daglo said his forces had only "repositioned". 

 

An activist group, the Sudanese resistance committee, said Wednesday that at least 85 people had been killed in one week during the fighting.

 

"I urge the commanders of the Sudanese Armed Forces to take immediate measures to put an end to arbitrary deprivation of life," Turk said.

 

He said his office had reviewed "horrific videos" on social media since March 26 apparently showing armed men "executing civilians in cold blood" in southern and eastern Khartoum. 

 

"In some videos, perpetrators state that they are punishing supporters of RSF," the statement said.

 

Trump jolts allies, foes and markets with tariff blitz

By - Apr 03,2025 - Last updated at Apr 03,2025

Cars and other vehicles for export are seen at a port in Yantai, in eastern China's Shandong province on April 3, 2025 (AFP photo)

Paris — Countries vowed on Thursday to hit back at US President Donald Trump's global tariffs onslaught, but left the door open to negotiations as markets tumbled over fears his trade war would damage the world economy.
 
Trump spared almost no nation on his "Liberation Day", hitting friends and foes alike and reserving some of the harshest tariffs for major trade partners, including the European Union and China.
 
Separate tariffs of 25 per cent on all foreign-made cars and light trucks also went into effect, with auto parts due to be hit by May 3.
 
Holding up a chart of the sweeping measures in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, Trump said this was "one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history."
 
"It's our declaration of economic independence," he said.
 
The tariffs announcement triggered immediate anger around the world, with rival China warning they could "endanger" global economic development.
 
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed Europe was "prepared to respond" to the tariffs, calling them a "major blow to the world economy."
 
But the 27-nation bloc and other countries also said they were ready to negotiate.
 
The tariff announcements sent a shockwave through stock markets.
 
In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei closed 2.8 per cent lower while Hanoi shares dropped more than seven percent after Vietnam was targeted with tariffs of 46 percent.
 
European equities opened in the red, with Frankfurt the biggest faller at 2.2 per cent, while US futures plummeted and safe haven gold hit a new record as investors took fright.
 
Trump reserved some of the heaviest blows for what he called "nations that treat us badly." 
 
That included an additional 34 per cent on goods from China -- bringing the new added tariff rate there to 54 percent. 
 
Beijing swiftly vowed countermeasures and called for dialogue, warning the levies would "seriously harm" those involved. 
 
The figure for the European Union was 20 per cent, and 24 per cent on Japan, whose trade minister called the tariffs "extremely regrettable."
 
For the rest, Trump said he would impose a "baseline" tariff of 10 per cent, including another key ally, Britain, which will come into effect on Saturday while the higher duties will kick in on April 9.
 
The 78-year-old Republican brushed off fears of turmoil, insisting that the tariffs would restore the US economy to a lost "Golden Age."
 
"For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike," Trump said.
 
‘Master of the world' 
 
The French government warned that the EU could target US tech firms with taxes on online services.
 
"We have a whole range of tools and we are ready for this trade war," French government spokeswoman Sophie Primas told broadcaster RTL, adding that Trump "thinks he is the master of the world".
 
But Germany, a major exporter of cars to the US, said it backed a "negotiated solution".
 
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a close Trump ally, said the levies on the EU were "wrong" but pledged to seek a deal.
 
Britain escaped relatively lightly after a diplomatic offensive, but Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned there would still be an "economic impact" from the 10 percent tariff on UK goods.
 
Canada and Mexico are not affected by the new levies as Trump has already punished them for what he says is their failure to stymie drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
 
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed to "fight" the existing levies.
 
Trump's announcement is the culmination of a long love affair with tariffs, which he has seen for decades as a cure-all for America's trade imbalances and economic ills.
 
‘Make America wealthy again' 
 
A hand-picked audience of cabinet members, as well as workers in hard hats from industries including steel, oil and gas, whooped and cheered as Trump promised tariffs would "make America wealthy again."
 
Trump labeled Wednesday's tariffs "reciprocal" but many experts say his administration's estimates for levies placed on US imports by other countries are wildly exaggerated.
 
The US president had telegraphed the move for weeks, sparking fears of a recession at home as costs are passed on to US consumers.
 
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned against countermeasures, saying on Fox News: "If you retaliate, there will be escalation."
 
Some of the worst-hit trading partners were in Asia, including 49 per cent for Cambodia, 46 percent for Vietnam and 44 per cent for military-ruled Myanmar, recently hit by a devastating earthquake.
 
Russia was not affected because it is already facing sanctions over the Ukraine war "which preclude any meaningful trade," a White House official said.
 
Certain goods like copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, lumber and gold will not be subject to the tariffs, according to the White House.

Myanmar quake victim rescued after 5 days as aid calls grow

By - Apr 02,2025 - Last updated at Apr 02,2025

MANDALAY, Myanmar — Rescuers on Wednesday pulled a man alive from the rubble five days after Myanmar's devastating earthquake, as calls grew for the junta to allow more aid in and halt attacks on rebels.

The shallow 7.7-magnitude earthquake on Friday flattened buildings across Myanmar, killing more than 2,700 people and making thousands more homeless.

Several leading armed groups fighting the military have suspended hostilities during the quake recovery, but junta chief Min Aung Hlaing vowed to continue "defensive activities" against "terrorists".

UN agencies, rights groups and foreign governments have urged all sides in Myanmar's civil war to stop fighting and focus on helping those affected by the quake, the biggest to hit the country in decades.

Hopes of finding more survivors are fading, but there was a moment of joy on Wednesday as a man was pulled alive from the ruins of a hotel in the capital Naypyidaw.

The 26-year-old hotel worker was extracted by a joint Myanmar-Turkish team shortly after midnight, the fire service and junta said.

Dazed and dusty but conscious, the man was pulled through a hole in the rubble and put on a stretcher, video posted on Facebook by the Myanmar Fire Services Department shows.

Call for peace

Min Aung Hlaing said Tuesday that the death toll had risen to 2,719, with more than 4,500 injured and 441 still missing.

But with patchy communication and infrastructure delaying efforts to gather information and deliver aid, the true scale of the disaster has yet to become clear, and the toll is likely to rise.

Relief groups say that that response has been hindered by continued fighting between the junta and the complex patchwork of armed groups opposed to its rule, which began in a 2021 coup.

Julie Bishop, the UN special envoy on Myanmar, called on all sides to "focus their efforts on the protection of civilians, including aid workers, and the delivery of life-saving assistance".

Even before Friday's earthquake, 3.5 million people were displaced by the fighting, many of them at risk of hunger, according to the United Nations.

Late Tuesday, an alliance of three of Myanmar's most powerful ethnic minority armed groups announced a one-month pause in hostilities to support humanitarian efforts in response to the quake.

The announcement by the Three Brotherhood Alliance followed a separate partial ceasefire called by the People's Defence Force -- civilian groups that took up arms after the coup to fight junta rule.

But there have been multiple reports of junta air strikes against rebel groups since the quake.

"We are aware that some ethnic armed groups are currently not engaged in combat, but are organising and training to carry out attacks," said Min Aung Hlaing, mentioning sabotage against the electricity supply.

"Since such activities constitute attacks, the Tatmadaw (armed forces) will continue to carry out necessary defensive activities," he said in a statement late Tuesday.

Thailand toll rises

Australia's government decried the reported air strikes saying they "exacerbated the suffering of the people".

"We condemn these acts and call on the military regime to immediately cease military operations and allow full humanitarian access to affected areas," Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.

 

Amnesty International said "inhumane" military attacks were significantly complicating earthquake relief efforts in Myanmar.

"You cannot ask for aid with one hand and bomb with the other," said the group's Myanmar researcher Joe Freeman.

Hundreds of kilometres away, in the Thai capital Bangkok, workers continued to scour a pile of rubble that formed when Friday's tremors collapsed a 30-storey skyscraper.

The structure had been under construction at the time, and its crash buried dozens of builders -- few of whom have come out alive.

The death toll at the site has risen to 22, with more than 70 still believed trapped in the rubble.

Russia slams 'insane' UK rules targeting Russian influence

By - Apr 02,2025 - Last updated at Apr 02,2025

MOSCOW — Russia on Wednesday sharply criticised new UK rules forcing those working for the Russian state in Britain to declare themselves or face jail, saying there was little clarity about who would be affected.

 

The British government announced Tuesday it was placing Moscow on its "Foreign Influence Registration Scheme", meaning anyone directed by the Russian government, or by an entity linked to it, would have to register on a new list launching in July or risk five years in prison.

 

"On April 1, the day of jokes, laughter and fools, Britain's Home Office and Foreign Office celebrated together," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram.

 

Describing the new rules as "truly insane", Zakharova jokingly suggested that British museums covering the UK's past cooperation with the Soviet Union would have to register and accused London of paranoia.

 

The UK's Home Office said anyone working for Russian government agencies, armed forces, intelligence services and police force, parliaments and their judiciaries would be subject to the measures.

 

Relations between Moscow and London have been strained by intelligence scandals throughout Russian President Vladimir Putin's quarter-century in power.

 

Last month, a jury at a British court convicted three Bulgarians for their part in a sophisticated UK-based spy ring that targeted journalists and passed sensitive information to Russia over three years.

 

In 2018, Britain and its allies expelled dozens of Russian embassy officials they said were spies over the attempted poisoning of a former double agent, Sergei Skripal, with Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.

WHO facing $2.5-bn gap even after slashing budget- report

By - Apr 02,2025 - Last updated at Apr 02,2025

a sign of the World Health Organisation displayed at their headquarters in Geneva on March 13, 2025 (AFP photo)

GENEVA — The World Health Organisation is facing a gaping deficit this year and through 2027 following the US decision to withdraw, even after dramatically slashing its budget, a media report indicated Wednesday.

 

As the United Nations health agency has been bracing for the planned full US withdrawal next January, it has gradually shrunk its two-year budget for 2026-2027 from $5.3 billion to $4.2 billion.

 

But even after the dramatic scaling back, it remains $1.9 billion short towards that budget, Health Policy Watch reported Wednesday.

 

That figure, which the publication said had been provided to staff during a town hall meeting on Tuesday, comes on top of the nearly $600 million the agency had already warned was missing towards this year's budget, it said.

 

WHO did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment on the report, which comes as the organisation is grappling with the looming departure of its historically biggest donor.

 

Besides announcing the US pullout from the WHO after returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump decided to freeze virtually all US foreign aid, including vast assistance to health projects worldwide.

 

The United States gave WHO $1.3 billion during its 2022-2023 budget period, mainly through voluntary contributions for specific earmarked projects rather than fixed membership fees.

 

But Washington never paid its 2024 dues, and is not expected to respect its membership obligations for 2025, the agency acknowledged.

 

Altogether, the United States owes $260 million in membership fees alone for 2024-2025, according to a WHO overview.

 

Only Friday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had informed staff of the $600-million hole in this year's budget, warning in a message seen by AFP that the agency had "no choice" but to start making cutbacks.

 

"Dramatic cuts to official development assistance by the United States of America and others are causing massive disruption to countries, NGOs and United Nations agencies, including WHO," Tedros said in his email.

 

He said that even before Trump triggered the one-year process of withdrawing from the WHO, the organisation was already facing financial constraints.

 

"Despite our best efforts, we are now at the point where we have no choice but to reduce the scale of our work and workforce," said Tedros.

 

"This reduction will begin at headquarters, starting with senior leadership, but will affect all levels and regions," he told staff.

 

Last month, Tedros asked Washington to reconsider its sharp cuts to global health funding, warning that the sudden halt threatened millions of lives.

 

He said disruptions to global HIV programmes alone could lead to "more than 10 million additional cases of HIV and three million HIV-related deaths".

Myanmar quake toll passes 2,700, nation halts to honour victims

By - Apr 02,2025 - Last updated at Apr 02,2025

Heavy machinery is used to clear the debris at the site of an under-construction building collapse in Bangkok on April 2, 2025, five days after an earthquake struck central Myanmar and Thailand (AFP photo)

Mandalay, Myanmar — Emergency workers in Myanmar rescued a woman on Tuesday who had been trapped for more than 90 hours under the rubble of a building after a devastating earthquake that has killed at least 2,700 people.
 
The woman, around 63 years old, was found alive and transferred to a hospital, the Myanmar Fire Services Department said, a rare moment of hope as the country held a minute's silence to honour the dead.
 
Four days after the shallow 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck, many people in Myanmar are still sleeping outdoors, either unable to return to ruined homes or afraid of further aftershocks.
 
The head of the ruling junta, Min Aung Hlaing, said 2,719 people were confirmed dead so far, with more than 4,500 injured and 441 still missing.
 
The toll is expected to rise significantly as rescuers reach towns and villages where communications have been cut off by the quake.
 
At 12:51:02 (0621 GMT) -- the precise time the quake struck on Friday -- sirens wailed to bring the country to a standstill to remember those lost.
 
Mandalay, the country's second-biggest city with 1.7 million inhabitants, suffered some of the worst destruction.
 
Outside the Sky Villa apartment complex, one of the city's worst-hit disaster sites, rescue workers stopped and lined up with hands clasped behind their backs to pay their respects.
 
Officials and attendants stood behind a cordon, watching relatives further back, as the sirens wailed and a Myanmar flag flew at half-mast from a bamboo pole tied to a rescue tent.
 
The moment of remembrance is part of a week of national mourning declared by the ruling junta, with flags to fly at half-mast on official buildings until April 6 "in sympathy for the loss of life and damages".
 
More than 1,000 foreign rescuers have flown in to help and Myanmar state media reported that nearly 650 people have been pulled alive from ruined buildings around the country.
 
Sleeping in the open 
 
Hundreds of Mandalay residents have been forced to sleep in the open, with their homes destroyed or fearing aftershocks would cause more damage.
 
"I don't feel safe. There are six or seven-floor buildings beside my house leaning, and they can collapse anytime," Soe Tint, a watchmaker, told AFP after sleeping outside.
 
Some have tents but many -- including babies and children -- have been bedding down on blankets in the middle of roads, staying as far away as possible from damaged buildings.
 
At an examination hall, where part of the building collapsed on hundreds of monks taking an exam, book bags were piled on a table outside, the uncollected belongings of the victims.
 
The smell was "very high", one Indian rescue worker said. The stench of bodies rotting in the heat was unmistakable at several disaster sites around the city.
 
On the outskirts of Mandalay, a crematorium has received hundreds of bodies for disposal, with many more to come as victims are dug out of the rubble.
 
International aid effort 
 
Even before Friday's quake, Myanmar's 50 million people were suffering, the country ravaged by four years of civil war sparked when the army ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's civilian government in 2021. 
 
At least 3.5 million people were displaced by the conflict before the quake, many of them at risk of hunger, according to the United Nations. 
 
The junta says it is doing its best to respond to the disaster but there have been multiple reports in recent days of the military carrying out air strikes on armed groups opposed to its rule, even as the country reels from the quake's devastation.
 
UN special envoy to Myanmar Julie Bishop called Monday for all parties to cease hostilities and focus on protecting civilians and delivering aid.
 
An alliance of three ethnic minority armed groups that have been fighting against the junta announced a one-month pause in hostilities to support humanitarian efforts in response to the quake.
 
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing issued an exceptionally rare appeal for foreign assistance, breaking with the isolated ruling generals' customary practice of shunning help from abroad in the wake of major disasters.
 
Hundreds of kilometres away, Bangkok authorities said the death toll there had risen to 20, the vast majority killed when a 30-storey skyscraper under construction collapsed.

Trump says believes Putin will 'fulfill his part' of Ukraine deal

By - Apr 01,2025 - Last updated at Apr 01,2025

This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian State Emergency Service on March 31, 2025, shows a firefighter manning a hose as they work to extinguish a fire following an aerial guided bomb (KAB) in Zaporizhzhia region (AFP photo)

Washington — Donald Trump on Monday said he expects Russian President Vladimir Putin "to fulfill his part" of a deal to end the Ukraine war, after the US president voiced doubts over Moscow's commitment.
 
"I want to make sure that he follows through," Trump told reporters in the White House. "I think he's going to live up to what he told me, and I think he's going to fulfill his part of the deal now."
 
Trump on Sunday criticized both Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, as he pushes to end more than three years of conflict in Ukraine.
 
Trump told NBC he was "very angry" at Putin for questioning Zelensky's credibility as someone to negotiate with and for calling for new leadership in Ukraine.
 
Putin earlier this month rejected a US proposal of an unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine -- that Zelensky backed -- and has upped his rhetoric on Moscow wanting to install new leadership in Ukraine.
 
On Sunday, NBC News journalist Kristen Walker said Trump had called her to say he was "pissed off" with Putin and threatened tariffs on firms dealing with Russian oil.
 
The US leader later turned his ire on Zelensky, warning him Ukraine would have "big problems" if it got cold feet over a deal to sign over mineral rights to the United States.
 
The Kremlin on Monday said that Putin was still open to speaking to Trump.
 
There was no phone call scheduled between the two leaders, but that one could be "organized promptly," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
 
"We are... working on implementing some ideas, linked to resolving the Ukrainian (conflict)," Peskov said. "This process is time-consuming."

France's Le Pen defiant after five-year election ban

By - Apr 01,2025 - Last updated at Apr 01,2025

President of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) parliamentary group Marine Le Pen is seen on monitors during a televised interview broadcasted on the evening news of French TV channel TF1, in Paris, on March 31, 2025 (AFP photo)

Paris — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Monday slammed a "political decision" and insisted she had not abandoned hope of standing in presidential elections in 2027 after a court handed her a five-year ban on running for office.
 
The verdict as part of a conviction for creating fake jobs at the EU parliament on behalf of her National Rally (RN) party -- charges she vehemently denied -- stunned Le Pen as the judge ordered the ban come into force with immediate effect.
 
If it stands, this would mean she would be unable to launch a fourth campaign to capture the Elysee, where analysts believe she had her best-ever chance of becoming president.
 
In a febrile international climate, the verdict was condemned by the Kremlin, billionaire tycoon Elon Musk and hard-right European politicians ranging from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Geert Wilders of the Netherlands.
 
Le Pen was also given a four-year prison term by the Paris court but will not go to jail, with two years of the term suspended and the other two to be served outside jail with an electronic bracelet.
 
She was convicted over a scheme to take advantage of European Parliament expenses to employ assistants who were actually working for her far-right party in France.
 
Twenty-four people -- including Le Pen -- were convicted -- all of them RN party officials or assistants. 
 
‘Reserved for authoritarian regimes' 
 
Le Pen said she would appeal the "political decision", and vowed that in "no way" would she retire from political life, in a combative interview with the commercial French television network TF1.
 
"I'm not going to let myself be eliminated like this. I'm going to pursue whatever legal avenues I can. There is a small path. It's certainly narrow, but it exists," she said.
 
She said that the appeal would be lodged "as quickly as possible" and said that the judiciary should "get a move on" so it is heard in time.
 
Describing herself as the "favourite" to win the 2027 presidential elections, Le Pen characterised the judge who delivered the verdict as saying: "'I do not want Marine Le Pen elected'" and lashed out at "'practices we thought were for authoritarian regimes".
 
"I am going to appeal because I am innocent," Le Pen said, while acknowledging that as things stood now "I am eliminated" from the presidential race.
 
‘At the ballot box' 
 
Le Pen dramatically left the courtroom before the judge announced the prison sentence, and a crisis meeting was convened at the party's Paris headquarters.
 
With her RN emerging as the single largest party in France's parliament after the 2024 legislative elections, polls predicted Le Pen would easily top the first round of voting in 2027 and make the second round two-candidate run-off.
 
Incumbent President Emmanuel Macron cannot run in that election because of a constitutional two-term limit.
 
"It's disgraceful! They've destroyed her," Jacqueline Bossuyt, 78, said in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont, the far-right's stronghold.
 
The reaction from Moscow was swift, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying: "More and more European capitals are going down the path of violating democratic norms."
 
Tesla's billionaire owner Musk, who has backed a far-right party in Germany and plays a major role in Trump's administration, said the move would "backfire, like the legal attacks against President Trump".
 
US President Donald Trump compared Le Pen's conviction to his own legal battles, telling reporters Monday: "She was banned from running for five years and she was the leading candidate. That sounds like this country."
 
There was also unease within the political mainstream in France, with the leader of MPs in parliament of the right-wing Republicans, Laurent Wauquiez, saying "political debates should be decided at the ballot box".
 
Prime Minister Francois Bayrou was meanwhile "troubled" by the verdict, a person close to him told AFP, asking not to be named.
 
‘Fictitious' posts' 
 
If Le Pen is unable to run in 2027, her backup plan is her 29-year-old protege and RN party leader Jordan Bardella, who is not under investigation in the case.
 
But there are doubts even within the RN over whether Bardella has the experience needed.
 
Le Pen took over the then-National Front (FN) from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2011 and set about de-toxifying its image with voters. Her father, who died in January, was often accused of making racist and anti-Semitic comments. 
 
During the court case, prosecutors said the RN used the 21,000-euro ($23,000) monthly EU parliament allowance to pay staff in France, hiding the scheme behind "fictitious" posts in the European legislature's offices.
 
"It was established that all these people were actually working for the party, that their MEP had not assigned them any tasks," said the judge.

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