The Paris prosecutor’s office said a security guard tackled the attacker who was taken into police custody following the attack at 7:35 a.m.

One of the injured was in a serious condition and the other two were more lightly hurt, police said.

The Paris police chief, Laurent Nunez, said the suspect attacked passersby with a hammer and a knife. The seriously injured person was undergoing surgery, he said.

Not ‘terror-related’

He said the attack did not appear to be terror-related and that the suspect seemed to suffer from mental health issues. The suspect was carrying residency papers delivered in Italy, he said.

Investigators are analyzing the knife and hammer, the prosecutor’s office said. The police investigation was looking at a potential preliminary charge of attempted murder.

Posting on social media, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin described the attack as an “unbearable act” and thanked those who detained the assailant.

Security in Paris is being ramped up as it prepares to welcome 10,500 Olympians and millions of visitors for the first Olympic Games in a century in the French capital.

The Games are to open with a massive open-air ceremony along the River Seine on July 26, a major security challenge in the city that has been repeatedly hit by terror attacks, most notably in 2015.

Most recently, a man targeted passersby near the Eiffel Tower in December, killing a German tourist with a knife and injuring two others.

The Gare de Lyon is one of the busiest train stations in Paris. It is a hub both for high-speed trains that link the capital to other cities and for commuter trains that serve the suburbs and towns in the Paris region.

• Paris knife attack suspect charged with terror offences

(WIth newswires)

“Government officials issued licences for gas installations in residential areas when it was very clear that it was the wrong thing to do, but because of incompetence and corruption they issued licenses,” he said.

Ruto said they should be sacked and “prosecuted for the crimes they have committed.”

The National Environment Authority (NEMA) echoed Ruto.

“Preliminary investigations have revealed that four NEMA officers unprocedurally processed the licence and are therefore, culpable,” NEMA Board Chairman Emilio Mugo said in a statement Saturday.

“The board therefore, directs that the implicated officers step aside immediately pending further investigation by the relevant government agencies,” he said.

A truck laden with gas canisters exploded just before midnight Thursday in Embakasi, a densely populated Nairobi district, unleashing a trail of destruction and sending people running for their lives.

(With newswires)

The two groups inked the deal during French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent trip to Delhi, with promises for a fully fledged assembly line in India by 2026. 

The project comes as part of Delhi’s long-running Make In India campaign. The drive is one of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship programmes to reduce dependence on imports by boosting domestic manufacturing, in turn creating 100 million jobs.

In a statement, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said: “A ‘Made-in-India’ civil helicopter will not only be a symbol of the confident new India but will also unlock the true potential of the helicopter market in the country.” 

Dated aircraft

The French company – which has already delivered its H125 helicopter to more than 2,500 operators across 133 countries – says the project will “catalyse” the Indian market, currently served by dated machines.

With only about 300 civilian helicopters in use, India last year reduced airfares by 25 percent in a bid to make rotorcraft travel more affordable.

While the country is emerging as one of the world’s largest aviation markets​​, helicopter operations are still strictly policed. There are only 46 state-approved routes despite promises to liberalise flight policies. 

Experts say that the campaign to boost passenger flight has also struggled in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, Russia-Ukraine conflict and spreading hostilities between Hamas and Israel. 

As well as transporting travellers and goods, Airbus says its six-passenger helicopters will also be used in India for “emergency medical services, disaster management, law enforcement, tourism and aerial work missions”.

Widening ties

The move is the latest big-ticket project for Tata since June, when it took control of Air India and placed orders for 250 Airbus aircraft and 220 new Boeing planes worth 65 billion euros.

It marks the second time the French aviation giant has been hired to set up an India-based assembly line, following an earlier €2.46 billion deal with Tata to build Airbus C295 military transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force. 

French engine maker Safran has also said it is willing to transfer technology to build fighter jet engines in the country. 

• India and France agree on joint defence production
• France, India promise to boost military ties in post-G20 Macron, Modi meeting

France and India want to seek out opportunities for industrial partnerships that prioritise “co-designing, co-development and co-production of military hardware”, according to Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra.

The resulting defence supply chains could also contribute to security collaborations with other countries, he added.

Space, satellite launches, clean energy research, healthcare and public administration are among the other areas of cooperation agreed with France, Kwatra said.

India and France have also decided to cooperate in the Indian Ocean, building on joint surveillance missions launched from the French island territory of Réunion in 2020 and 2022.

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music… so be sure and listen every week.

World Radio Day is just around the corner (13 February), and we’ll cook up a mighty fine banquet to celebrate. What’s the main course? Your greetings, of course! So get under your blanket with your phone – believe me, the blanket will make your recording broadcast quality – and record your World Radio Day greetings for us. Please, not too long, though. You must get it to us by 5 February. Send your recorded WRD greetings to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

Erwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr  Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!

Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you!

Our website “Le Français facile avec RFI”  has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bi-lingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard.

Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level”. According to your score, you’ll be counseled to the best-suited activities for your level.

Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you’ll get it”. She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it!

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.

There’s Paris Perspective, Spotlight on France, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.

As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our team of journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with!

To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you’ll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. 

Teachers, take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

Another idea for your students: Br. Gerald Muller, my beloved music teacher from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English – that’s how I worked on my French, reading books which were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it’s a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald’s free books, click here. 

Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. NB: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

And don’t forget, there is a Facebook page just for you, the independent RFI English Clubs. Only members of RFI English Clubs can belong to this group page, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven’t yet asked to join the group, and you are a member of an independent, officially recognised RFI English club, go to the Facebook link above, and fill out the questionnaire!!!!! If you do not answer the questions, I click “Decline”.

There’s a Facebook page for members of the general RFI Listeners Club, too. Just click on the link and fill out the questionnaire, and you can connect with your fellow Club members around the world. Be sure you include your RFI Listeners Club membership number (most of them begin with an A, followed by a number) in the questionnaire, or I will have to click “Decline”, which I don’t like to do!

We have new RFI Listeners Club members to welcome: Sami Malik from Northern Pakistan; Habib Ur Rehman Sehal, the president of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan; Pradip Chandra Kundu and Ratan Kumar Paul, both from West Bengal, India, and Mahfuzur Rahman from Cumilla, Bangladesh.  

Welcome one and all! So glad you have joined us!

This week’s quiz: On 6 January I asked you a question about Belgium, whose turn it is to hold the presidency of the European Union – each member state of the European Union holds the presidency for six months. You were to re-read our article “Belgium faces election juggling act as it takes over rotating EU presidency” because Belgium is tasked with organizing not only the European elections on 9 June but also their internal national elections, and no luck there, those elections are also on 9 June. All that and something else, quite important, falls during the time of Belgium’s presidency, and that was your question: what else is the Belgian presidency tasked with accomplishing during its six-month term? What is one of the biggest issues it also has to deal with?  

The answer is, to quote our article: “One of the big issues it will still have to deal with is the revision of what is known as the ‘multiannual financial framework’, i.e., the European budget for the coming years, and also ensuring that aid to Ukraine does not wane.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “If you could resign from anything, what would it be?”

Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to us! 

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Richard Wasajja from Masaka, Uganda. Richard is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations, Richard – and welcome back to The Sound Kitchen !

Also on the list of lucky winners this week is Mrs. Anjona Parvin, the secretary of the Shetu RFI Listeners Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh, and two RFI English Listeners Club members from India: Radhakrishna Pillai from Kerala State, and Samir Mukhopadhyay from Kolkata. Last but certainly not least, there’s RFI English listener Khondaker Shihab Uddin Khan from Bogura, Bangladesh.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: The “Scherzo” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 61 by Félix Mendelssohn, performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa; “Quand on est bien amoureux”, a traditional folk song from Belgium performed by Wör; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and “Minha Terra” sung by Ruy Mingas.

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read our article “France seeks change to EU nature laws in bid to appease farmers” to help you with your answer.

You have until 26 February to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 3 March podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

or

By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then  33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here.

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or form your own official RFI Club, click here. 

In some of the angriest protests that have spread across Europe, French farmers have been out in force for more than a week, using tractors to block key roads into Paris and other major highways nationwide.

The litany of farmers’ complaints is long, ranging from burdensome environmental rules to cheap imports of produce from outside the EU such as Ukraine, but focus on the difficulty of making ends meet in the modern world.

On Thursday, two main farming unions announced the suspension of the action, urging the protesters to take their tractors off the streets, after Prime Minister Gabriel Attal promised cash, eased regulations and protection against unfair competition.

Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said Friday that the worst of the crisis was “pretty much behind us”.

“But the issues that we have to deal with and that have emerged in this crisis are still ahead of us,” he told CNews television.

Authorities said Thursday evening that many roadblocks across the country were being lifted or eased and farmers continued to move tractors off the streets on Friday, even though some blockades remained in place.

Tractors blocking the A1 motorway near Paris Charles de Gaulle airport were heading back, farmers said.

• NGOs denounce France’s ‘pause’ on pesticide ban to placate farmers

‘Strong mobilisation’

“It was a historic, tough, strong mobilisation,” said Laurent Saint-Affre of the FDSEA union in the southern Aveyron department. But he added that a number of sticking points remained, warning authorities that farmers could take their tractors out on the streets again “in a few days”.

Speaking to RTL, Arnaud Gaillot, head of the Young Farmers (JA) union, pointed to a sense of “fatigue” after days of protests and a “desire to put things on hold”.

In Yvelines, west of Paris, the number of vehicles involved in a blockade had fallen from around twenty to seven tractors on Friday morning, police said.

The roadblocks on the A4 and A5 motorways in Seine-et-Marne east of the French capital have been lifted.

Around Lyon, all roadblocks were expected to be lifted by 2:00pm on Friday.

A police source told AFP however that some protesters wanted to stay put until Saturday, while several “isolated groups” sought to remain in place until France’s huge Salon de l’Agriculture trade fair that opens on February 24.

A roadblock was set up on Friday morning at a tollgate near the city of Saint-Quentin in northern France, according to one activist, Bruno Cardot, who called the action the farmers’ “last stand”.

• French farmers unions call off protest after PM unveils raft of concessions

‘Fundamental question’

The FNSEA, France’s biggest rural union, wants to see the first government measures implemented by the start of the trade fair and a law passed by June, its head Arnaud Rousseau said on BFMTV.

Another major union, the Farmers’ confederation (la Confederation Paysanne), said it would remain mobilised because “the fundamental question of income” was “still not being tackled head-on by the government”.

The French protests have spread across the continent and thousands of farmers from Europe gathered in Brussels on Thursday, clogging the streets with 1,300 tractors.

Protests continued Thursday in Italy, with farmers driving a convoy of tractors through the Sicilian town of Ragusa and farmers also blocking the port in Cagliari, on the neighbouring island of Sardinia.

Dutch and Belgian farmers took part in a road blockade near the Arendonk road border crossing between Belgium and the Netherlands.

French President Emmanuel Macron said after talks in Brussels Thursday with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen that France had managed to persuade the EU to “impose stricter rules” for cereal and poultry imports, including from war-torn Ukraine.

In a key announcement designed to break the deadlock, the government announced Thursday that France would pause its Ecophyto programme aimed at massively reducing the use of pesticides in farming.

Environmental groups slammed the move but government spokeswoman Prisca Thevenot sought to defend the decision on Friday, saying environmental policies should be based “on concrete realities”.

Farmers unions called for an end to blockades after they obtained significant concessions –  including an annual 150 million euros for livestock farmers and a ban on food imports treated with neonicotinoid, a pesticide already banned in France. 

The government agreed to suspend “Ecophyto 2030” – part of France’s plan to shift agricultural production towards the principles of agro-ecology. The plan aimed to halve the use of pesticides by 2030.

“We are going to put it on pause in order to rework a certain number of aspects and to simplify it,” Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said.

Ecophyto needed to be put on hold in order to find a new method of measuring the molecules in pesticides used by farmers, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said.

Agricultural organisations – including France’s largest farming union, FNSEA – are strongly opposed to Ecophyto, which measures both the quantities and strength of pesticides used. 

Threat to ecological transition

However environmental groups warned the governments concessions were at odds with France’s strategy on decarbonisation, food and agricultural planning.

The suspension of Ecophyto is “a huge step backwards”, said Nadine Lauverjat, of the Générations Futures non-profit.

“We’ve made a lot of progress over the last 15 years. Of course the Ecophyto plan had not borne the fruit we hoped concerning the initial targets of halving pesticide use, but there was nonetheless a certain dynamic and desire to reduce our dependence on pesticides,” she said.

Générations Futures said the suspension of Ecophyto would not help to put more money in the pockets of farmers.

“It will enable agriculture from the last century to continue, keeping even more dangerous products on the market, and slowing down their withdrawal,” spokesperson François Veillerette said.

• Study sounds alarm on toxic ‘forever chemicals’ used in EU pesticides

The Echophyto plan included a €41 million farmers fund distributed by the French office for biodiversity (OFB). 

“Calling this mechanism into question means no longer helping farmers in their ecological transition,” said Sandrine Bélier, head of the NGO Humanity and Biodiversity.

What’s at stake is both protecting biodiversity and the health of farmers’ health, she added, since farmers are “the main victims of the phytosanitary products they use”.

Against punitive ecology

Faced with criticism, government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot defended the decision, saying that different programmes to reduce farmers’ use of pesticides since 2009 had been “inefficient” given they offered farmers no other solution.

The pause, she said, was to make sure Ecophyto 2030 was understood to be in the interests of helping farmers and not punishing them.

“We have to move away from punitive ecology towards solutions-based ecology,” Thevenot said.

• French PM placates farmers with plan for pesticide alternatives

France was investing massively in finding those solutions, she said, adding that despite big ambitions the country’s commitment to ecology had to be anchored in reality.

In June last year, five French groups filed a law suit against the state for negligence in regulating the use of pesticides.

A final ruling will be handed down by the Paris administrative court on 15 June.

RFI: A year ago, the US launched the Vision for Suitable Crops and Soils (Vacs) programme, which promotes a return to traditional crops. What is it about?

Cary Fowler: It aims to do work in the two most fundamental aspects of food security: crops and soils. If you want to have food security and you want to have it be sustainable, you have to ensure you’ve got good, fertile soils and you have crops that are adapted to climate change.

That’s not what we have today in Africa, which is the continent that’s most in need. It will also be the most highly populated continent by the end of the century. African soils are among the poorest in the world, highly degraded and eroded.

RFI: Why is that?

CF: It’s the result of a number of things such as poor soil structure and farming methods that don’t tend to keep the soil in place. If you have that kind of rate of soil erosion and degradation, you’re not building a sustainable, productive agricultural system for the long run.

Africa has many traditional and indigenous crops that are highly nutritious. That could be used to really improve the nutrition and the health of Africans.

• Is urgent reform of world’s food system still a side dish at climate talks?

Today 40 percent of the world’s population cannot afford a healthy diet. In Africa that’s 80 percent. Yet you have marvellous indigenous crops that are very rich in qualities like iron. Fonio, a millet that’s grown in West Africa, has 10 times more iron than maize does, for example.

If we could increase the productivity of these crops, and integrate them more fully into the African diet, we could deal with issues like childhood stunting.

RFI: Fifty years ago, the World Bank and the IMF pushed African countries to cultivate monocrops for export. What changed?

CF: We’ve all realised, and certainly the African countries themselves have realised, that we need to promote more production of agricultural products – but in a way that’s more resilient. And resilience really doesn’t come from focusing on one crop to the exclusion of all the others.

We’re not saying that farmers should not be growing some of the staple crops that they’re growing today; we are saying that we should add to that food basket – particularly with legumes and essential vegetables and fruits – if we’re going to to combat the really horrific rates of childhood stunting.

They’ll be physically and mentally stunted for the rest of their lives and you can’t develop a society with that kind of handicap.

RFI: How will the Vacs programme work?

CF: A number of African scientists have been trained and work for national agricultural research programmes on these particular crops. We want to give them the kind of support to do the plant breeding necessary to increase production, decrease pest and disease problems.

RFI: You are talking about crossover. Do you mean genetically modified plants?

CF: Probably not, because most of the countries in Africa don’t allow that. It’s an expensive way of going about it. I think the approach that will mostly be used will be traditional plant breeding, as it has been over the centuries.

RFI: Does this mean that farmers will have to buy the seeds?

CF: There are going to be a number of different avenues for farmers to access these types of seeds. I think non-government organisations are going to be involved. In some of those cases, the seeds will be provided for free.

• Cop27 climate summit charts small path for global food justice

Maybe the farmers will be asked to save a certain portion of their seeds, not just for replanting the next year, but for sharing back to the programme so they can be distributed to other farmers.

There might be some small and medium-sized seed enterprises that will sell the seeds.

One thing we want to do is improve the value chain work for this so that there’s a better market that allows these types of nutritious crops to go into school lunch feeding programmes, for example, and in the processing industries. If we build up that kind of market and market demand, that will encourage the farmers to grow them.

RFI: How will you convince these farmers to grow traditional plants, after decades of monoculture? 

CF: The interesting thing is the farmers never abandoned these crops in the first place, so they’ve been grown for 10,000 years there.

They must have been doing something right. Interestingly, most of these crops are tended by women, so they don’t show up a lot in the statistics because they’re home garden crops.

We just want to make them more productive so they can compete in the marketplace and get their rightful share in the diet.

• Global climate change driving drought in Horn of Africa

RFI: It’s been a year since the program was launched. What sort of reactions have you had?

CF: The response is really good. The International Fund for Agricultural Development has set up a funding platform for this.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has said they want to mainstream this approach. We’ve gotten funding through Japan, the Netherlands, UK, Norway.

So we’re here to talk to the French officials about that. And we need both political, financial and technical support. France has research institutions that are really world class and that could help in this regard.

You need political support. What do the African countries you have approached say?

The African Union itself has said that there’s been massive underinvestment in these crops. So there’s already a lot of overall political support.

I think many of the African countries realise that given their severe problems, particularly with childhood stunting and nutrition in general, something needs to change.

They have the foundation for that change right there in their countries, in these traditional crops. So there’s a lot of support for this type of initiative.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity

“According to the Nigerien authorities, any passenger of French nationality is no longer authorised to enter Nigerien territory,” said an internal Air Burkina note seen by AFP.

“As a consequence they will not be accepted aboard our flights” to the capital Niamey.

Royal Air Maroc has also decided to follow the new rule, except for “special authorisations”, said a source close to the Moroccan carrier.

Numerous other airlines who fly to Niamey including Ethiopian Airlines, Air Tunisie and Turkish Airlines did not respond immediately when contacted by AFP.

Nigerien authorities would not confirm to AFP that the French had been declared persona non grata in the impoverished Sahel nation.

Several French nationals have already been refused entry upon arrival at Niamey airport recently.

• Ecowas’s future in jeopardy after Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso leave group

Failing relations

Relations between Paris and Niamey have gone from bad to worse since a military coup last July 26 ousted Niger’s elected president Mohamed Bazoum.

France shut its embassy in Niamey in December after ambassador Sylvain Itte was ordered to leave. The last French soldiers of 1,500 once deployed in Niger to fight jihadists withdrew on December 22.

On Monday, the European Union criticised Niger for refusing to allow entry to the head of its departing civilian crisis management mission in the country and demanded an explanation.

The Niamey authorities decided in December to order out the EU’s two security and defence missions in the country, including EUCAP Sahel Mali, which had been operating there since 2012.

After herding out French forces, the military regime has been casting about for new allies and have moved closer to Russia, which has stepped in militarily and politically.

• Diplomatic dip for France as African nations seek out stronger partners

Insecurity woes

Niamey is battling two jihadist insurgencies – a spillover in its southeast from a long-running conflict in neighbouring Nigeria, and an offensive in the west by militants crossing from Mali and Burkina Faso.

The nation’s military leaders, wrestling with high food prices and a scarcity of medicines under regional sanctions, have said they want up to three years before a return to civilian rule.

Niger has joined the military regimes in Burkina Faso and Mali in announcing their withdrawal from the West African bloc Ecowas.

In mid-December, coup leader General Abdourahamane Tiani said the security situation was “progressively normalising” after the army’s “multiple successes” in quelling unrest.

Please, no

A dispatch from the Confederaton of African Football (Caf) – the august body running the Africa Cup of Nations – says it has decided to take a tough stand against the pop-up fight clubs at matches between effervescently partisan journalists. The Caf added: “Going forward any media practitioner who is involved in wild celebrations and abuses other media colleagues will be immediately removed by security and his/her accreditation will be withdrawn.” The same fate awaits anyone using vulgar language toward coaches or players. The review spots an opening here. Before the tournament we could run behaviour seminars in which reporters are encouraged to meet their national team’s triumphs and adversities with the same raffish refrains. Repeat after me: “Top notch play. Jolly good show.”

Watch

Aware of the clampdown on brutality, the review was on its best behaviour amid the sweaty mounds of nationalistic fervour – which we’ll call the media tribune. We just got a running commentary from a couple of Nigerian hacks who were instructing the players where to pass and when. It wasn’t at all telepathic. And it was really annoying. But we remembered, stay zen and count from 1 to our accreditation number 28347.  

Chant No1

And the crowd at the Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan gave Ademola Lookman his due. When the 26-year-old Atalanta striker scored against Angola, there was general merriment and cheering. When he hit the target for his first goal against Cameroon in the last-16, everyone shouted for Victor Osimhen. Lookman is Nigeria’s top marksman with three of their six goals. Osimhen has one and so does the skipper William Ekong. The other was an own goal. Time to rethink the chanting.

Nice touch I

We thought it was a lovely gesture for the management at the Angola team hotel in Abidjan to pipe the country’s national anthem Angola Avante into the lifts. Up and down the 10 floors you travel to the stirring sounds of the song which was adopted in November 1975 after the country gained its independence from Portugal. Perhaps it was a money-grabbing effort to make the team feel so at home they won’t want to leave.

Nice touch II

As they emerged from the stadium to wend their way into the Abidjan evening, streams of Angola fans clapped the Nigeria supporters who reciprocated by chanting: “Angola, Angola.” Rather taken by the camaraderie, the Angola fans joined their new best friends for a quick rendition of: “Osimhen, Osimhen.” If the fans can do it, why can’t the reporters?   

Angola had been trying to advance to the semi-finals for the first time in the 66-year history of the Cup of Nations.

But their attempt was stifled by a Nigeria side that defended resolutely and ultimately ground them down.

“I would like to congratulate the Nigeria team,” said Angola coach Pedro Gonçalves magnanimously after his side’s defeat.

“They are very strong. The coach has put in place a solid system. They deserved their victory.”

Nigeria boss José Peseiro came under fire from pundits and commentators in Nigeria for his side’s performance in the opening game against Equatorial Guinea on 14 January which was drawn 1-1.

Plan

Though 1-0 wins over Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea Bissau followed to secure a place in the last-16, the complaints continued over the lack of goals.

But Peseiro vowed to maintain the defensive rigour that had brought the narrow victories.

They saw off Cameroon in the last-16 with a brace from Ademola Lookman and the 26-year-old was on the scoresheet at the Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny just before half-time.

Moses Simon chased a clearance, skipped over the challenge of Kialonda Gaspar and raced down the left wing.

The Nantes striker veered into the Angola penalty area and set up Lookman who swept confidently past the Angola goalkeeper Signori Antonio for his third goal of the tournament.

Nigeria also enjoyed some luck when second half-subsitute Zini broke clear and sent a shot that beat the goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali but hit the post and rolled away.

Nigeria thought they had a second when Victor Osimhen headed home but the Napoli forward was ruled offside.

“The formation helps us,” said Nigeria skipper William Ekong. “The whole team is pulling its weight defensively. We’re working very hard to try and keep them away from our goal. And if you’re playing in a tournament, that has to be the basis of winning.”

Nigeria last graced the last four in 2019 when they fell to Djamel Belmadi’s imperious Algeria side. They will play the winner of Saturday’s quarter-final between South Africa and Cape Verde.

Progress

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) came from behind to overwhelm Guinea 3-1 at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Abidjan.

DRC captain Chancel Mbemba upended Mohamed Bayo in the penalty area in the 17th minute and the striker – who scored the winner in the last-16 against Equatorial Guinea – picked himself up to lash the spot kick past the DRC goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi.

But Mbemba atoned for his misdemeanour less than 10 minutes later when he showed a striker’s aplomb to fire the ball past the Guinea goalkeeper … from a tight angle.

Yoane Wissa doubled the advantage mid way through the second half and Arthur Masuakut’s spectacular free-kick added the gloss eight minutes from time to take the DRC into the semi finals for the first time since 2015.

DRC will play whoever emerges from the clash between Cote d’Ivoire and Mali in Yamoussoukro on Saturday afternoon.

“Whether it’s Mali or Cote d’Ivoire, we have no preference,” said Wissa who was deemed man-of-the match.

“They are two great footballing nations and we have to be ready for them.”

Before such an apotheosis, the no small matter of three matches starting with a quarter-final against Mali on Saturday afternoon in Bouaké.

Cote d’Ivoire will enter the clash at the Stade de la Paix as favourites – a tag contrasting with their status for their last-16 game against defending champions Senegal.

For that match on 29 January they were in a shambles. A week earlier the Ivorians suffered their worst home defeat when Equatorial Guinea thrashed them 4-0 in the final game of their pool.

The hosts and their hordes of fans were forced to wait 48 hours as the other groups played out to discover whether they could advance to the knockout stages of their own billion dollar party as one of the four best third-placed teams.

Morocco’s 1-0 win over Zambia in San Pedro on 24 January offered them the ticket and launched huge celebrations across the land even though Senegal awaited them as victors of Group C with steely-eyed wins in all of their pool games.

Fortune

But the charges of newly installed coach Emerse Faé’s profited from an unadventurous Senegal side to score a late penalty and then claim a penalty shoot-out after the match ended 1-1.

Faé has spent the time between the two ties calming expectations that a third Cup of Nations trphy – to add to the 1992 and 2015 titles – is a mere formality.

“We beat Senegal and eliminated them. Morale is good,” said the former Cote d’Ivoire midfielder who had worked as an assistant to head coach Jean Louis-Gasset before the 70-year-old Frenchman’s departure following the drubbing against Equatorial Guinea.

“But we must not stop here,” Faé added. “We must continue working, maintain this morale and keep playing match by match.”

Mali’s course to the quarter-final has been as prosaic as Cote d’Ivoire’s has been histrionic. 

A win and two draws gave them Group E. And they were solid against Burkina Faso in Korhogo to take them past the last-16 for the first time since the Cup of Nations was expanded from 16 to 24 teams in 2019.

“I am very happy for the players,” said Mali boss Eric Chelle who was born in Abidjan.

“They deserve what they have achieved because they are a group of hard workers,” added the 46-year-old.

Mali will be looking to reach the last four for the first time since 2013.

“We know that it will be difficult against Cote d’Ivoire,” added Chelle. “But we will bring our quality and give it our best against them.”

Success would eclipse the pioneers who advanced to the last eight during an inaugural appearance at the tournament in 2013.

Back then they were undone 2-0 by a more savvy Ghana side. Two years later they went out at the group stages after drawing all three of their games.

Absent from the 2017 and 2019 competitions, they returned in 2021 in Cameroon where they fell to eventual champions Senegal in the last-16.

Eleven years on from that initial Cup of Nations adventure, they snatched a late win over an imploding Ghana side, pummelled Mozambique 3-0 and maintained their unbeaten streak with a late strike to draw 2-2 with Egypt.

They rode their luck in the last-16 against an energetic Mauritania side but prevailed 1-0. Ryan Mendes – who featured during the run to the last eight in 2013 – converted a penalty to send them through.

“I think from what we’ve done people like the football that we are playing,” said Cape Verde boss Bubista.

“And they also like the team spirit that we are showing as we’ve tried to give game time to everyone.”

Work

Team ethic defined Cameroon’s surge to the 2017 title under Hugo Broos who says he sees the same esprit de corps among his South Africa side who pulled off the biggest shock of the tournament in the last-16 when they beat the heavily fancied Moroccans 2-0 in San Pedro.

A win against Cape Verde will take South Africa into the semis for the first time since 2000.

“I’m very happy to be here,” said Teboho Mokoena who scored a sumptuous free-kick to seal the victory over Morocco at the Stade Laurent Pokou.

“I’m proud of the team because no one gave us a chance especially after the first game where we lost to Mali.

“But we’ve come back stronger. We regrouped and we’ve worked very hard to be where we are now.”

With the delayed 2023 tournament quickly becoming fabled for its surprises, none of the remaining teams have rushed to don the mantle of favourites.

The Nigeria boss José Peseiro – whose team plays Angola on Friday afternoon – said: “It’s 50-50. You start at 0-0. There is only that.”

Even still, South Africa, due to the sheer size of the population, footballing culture and Cup of Nations pedigree, will go into the game as the likelier candidates.

“I have to congratulate all my teammates and all the staff because we’ve done  a great job,” said the veteran Cape Verdean goalkeeper Vozinha,

“It’s amazing,” added the 37-year-old who has played in all but one of his country’s 13 previous matches at Cup of Nations tournaments..

“We know we are a small country, but if we are united, we can achieve many great things.”

The ICC’s Rome Statute officially entered into force for Armenia on 1 February.

“Joining the ICC gives Armenia serious tools to prevent war crimes and crimes against humanity on its territory,” according to Yeghishe Kirakosyan, Armenia’s Foreign Minister.

He said that Armenia’s integration into the court “first of all concerns Azerbaijan”, referring to two wars with the neighbouring country over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region – where Russia deploys peacekeepers.

Neither Azerbaijan nor Russia recognise the ICC, along with other countries including the United States, China and Israel.

Armenia becoming a full-fledged member of the court risks further complicating Yerevan’s relationship with Moscow.

‘Unfriendly step’

Last March, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine and the alleged illegal deportation of children to Russia.

Yerevan is now obligated to arrest the Russian leader if he sets foot on Armenian territory.

But Armenia is also home to a permanent Russian military base and part of a Moscow-led military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, which also counts other ex-Soviet republics Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as members.

Moscow called Armenia’s accession to the ICC an “absolutely unfriendly step”.

Russia’s state-owned Tass News Agency quotes Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin as saying that the ICC “has nothing to do with justice; rather, it is a highly politicised pro-Western structure that executes orders to prosecute figures who are undesirable to the West”.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has tried to reassure Russia that his country is only addressing what it says are war crimes committed by Azerbaijan in their long-running conflict, and is not aiming at Moscow.

But Western countries hailed the ratification, which marks the expansion of the court’s jurisdiction into what was long seen as Russia’s backyard.

“The world is getting smaller for the autocrat in the Kremlin,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after Armenia ratified the ICC statute in October, referring to Putin.

Deterrent effect

France also strongly backed Armenia’s membership of the ICC.

In November, when Armenia officially applied to join the court, France’s Foreign Ministry said it welcomed the move as an “important step towards fighting impunity”.

Observers say Armenia could use its membership as a form of deterrent against possible Azerbaijani aggression.

The threat of the court investigating crimes committed as part of any attack on Armenia would “serve as a sword of Damocles of sorts, making Azerbaijan more reluctant to perpetrate acts of aggression against Armenia”, legal researcher Mischa Gureghian Hall of the US-based Centre for Truth and Justice told JusticeInfo.net.

To give itself the option of pursuing Azerbaijani soldiers for war crimes allegedly committed during fighting along the border between the two countries in September 2022, the portal noted, Armenia backdated the ICC’s jurisdiction to May 2021.

Read also:

• Armenians warn ethnic cleansing risks being forgotten – again

Spectre of 1915 Armenian genocide looms over Nagorno-Karabakh

Ghannouchi, head of the Ennahda main opposition party and a fierce critic of President Kais Saied, has been in prison since April 2023.

He was serving a 15-month sentence on charges of incitement against police.

On Thursday, a Tunisian judge handed the 82-year-old a three-year term for receiving “foreign financing” for the Islamist party, according to his lawyer.

The court also imprisoned Ghannouchi’s son-in-law, Rafik Abdessalem, a senior Ennahda official and former foreign minister, to three years in prison in the same case.

Ennahda was ordered to pay a $1.1 million fine.

The Islamist party rejected what it called an “unjust sentence” saying it would continue to defend itself and strive against the injustice.

It claimed the party had never received funding from any foreign entity, and its sole account is under the supervision of all judicial and financial institutions and is fully transparent and flawless.

• Tunisia voters give President near unchecked power in low turnout referendum

Doubts over fair trial

Ghannouchi was arrested in April 2023 for inciting violence and plotting against state security after he said that eradicating differing political viewpoints from leftwing or Islamist parties might lead to a “civil war”. 

He was convicted of terrorism-related charges in May and sentenced to 12 months in jail, which was then lengthened to 15 months on appeal in October.

“Ghannouchi has been in jail for a year at the doing of the prince (Saied),” Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, leader of  Tunisia‘s main opposition coalition, the Salvation Front, told France’s AFP news agency.

“He has no guarantee of a fair trial. He has refused to present himself for trial, and he has my complete backing. All that’s happening now is those in power taking revenge on their adversaries.”

• Tunisians defy protest ban to demand release of Saied critics

Ghannouchi, whose party dominated Tunisia following the 2011 “Jasmine Revolution” that toppled the dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, is the most well-known opposition figure imprisoned since Saied’s power-grab in July 2021. 

Last year Tunisian authorities banned meetings at all Ennahda offices and police closed the Salvation Front’s headquarters in what rights groups called a de facto ban.

Rights groups have reported a crackdown on opposition figures, including politicians and business people.

(with newswires)

European Council President Charles Michel said the agreement was reached within the first hour of the summit.

It “locks in steadfast, long-term, predictable funding for Ukraine” and demonstrates that the “EU is taking leadership and responsibility in support for Ukraine; we know what is at stake”, Michel said in a post on X.

The package will plug holes in the Ukrainian government’s budget to allow it to pay salaries and services, as its soldiers battle to hold back Moscow’s forces.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also welcomed the move, calling it a “very important decision”.

Thursday’s abrupt about-face from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on the four-year funding package for Kyiv came after EU leaders offered a possible review of the spending in two years.

In December, Orban sparked fury from his 26 counterparts in the bloc by thwarting a deal on the aid.

• Hungary blocks billion-euro EU aid deal for Ukraine

Pressure

Thursday’s talks were expected again to see hours of protracted political arm-wrestling but a deal was swiftly announced after Orban met first with the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and the EU institutions.

“He gave some ground,” said one European diplomat. “He saw that people were growing irritated, that there was a line not to cross.”

The Hungarian nationalist had been accused of holding Ukraine‘s future hostage in a bid to blackmail Brussels into releasing billions of euros in frozen EU funds for Budapest.

While there was no suggestion of a direct quid-pro-quo, Orban did win assurances that Brussels would handle the question of Budapest’s blocked funds worth €20 billion with impartiality, the diplomat said.

• Macron calls for ‘full and lasting support’ for Ukraine ahead of crucial EU summit

Orban said Hungary had been worried that EU money intended for Hungary would go to Ukraine. “We finally negotiated a control mechanism to guarantee that the money would be used sensibly, and we received a guarantee that Hungary’s money would not end up in Ukraine” he said.

Give and take

“What Orban wants is not to be put in a corner,” said another European diplomat. “It was a case of give and take. This was not about strong-arming, or threats. Everyone behaved constructively.”

But Orban had kept up the pressure on the bloc right up until the last minute.

On the eve of the summit he posted a brash message on social media: “We will stand up for the voice of the people! Even if the bureaucrats in Brussels blackmail us”.

A populist leader with the closest ties to Russia, Orban is angry at the European Commission’s decision to freeze his government’s access to some of the bloc’s funds over concerns about the alleged democratic backsliding.

In response, Hungary has vetoed statements at the EU on a range of issues, including membership discussions for Sweden to join the NATO military alliance.

Political games

On the way into their meeting on Thursday, several EU leaders had lashed out at Orban, accusing him of playing political games that undermined support for Ukraine and the country’s economy.

“There is no problem with the so-called Ukraine fatigue issue. We have Orban fatigue now in Brussels,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters Thursday. 

Mounting frustration at Hungary’s role as spoiler had seen calls grow from other leaders to unleash the EU’s Article 7 and strip Budapest of its voting rights. 

That would take unanimity from all other 26 leaders and few have been willing to push publicly for this “nuclear option” just yet.

(with AFP)

The walkout is a warning to the government about teachers’ “daily life, suffering at work and lack of recognition, especially in their pay”, said primary school teachers union FSU-Snuipp, predicting that hundreds of schools will be closed.

The union said the situation has been inflamed by the appointment of a “part-time minister who has forfeited her credibility”.

With former education minister Gabriel Attal promoted to prime minister, Amelie Oudéa-Castéra was given the key education brief alongside sports, including this year’s Paris Olympics, and youth.

Thursday’s strike, which coincides with ongoing protests by agricultural workers, had been planned since before the government reshuffle that put Oudéa-Castéra in place.

But she set teachers bristling from the moment of her nomination, claiming she had put her son into an exclusive Catholic private school because there was no proper replacement teacher at his state-run primary school.

The former teacher of Oudéa-Castéra’s son then came forward to contest those claims.

‘Out of touch’

Some 47 percent of middle and high school teachers were on strike Thursday, the leading Snes-FSU union said, while FSU-Snuipp tallied 40 percent in primary schools.

Teachers had returned from the holidays to “yet another change of pilot and … the nomination of a minister who had a catastrophic start,” said Elisabeth Allain-Moreno, secretary-general of teachers’ union SE-Unsa.

Marches were due to take place in major cities including Paris, Marseille, Rennes and Nantes.

• French education minister wants to improve schools after Pisa shock

“I’ll be on the street to express my profound disagreement with … what the minister said about public schools,” said Anne, a maths teacher from Nice, who did not give her surname.

“I feel wounded and humiliated by a minister who’s completely out of touch.”

Meanwhile Benjamin Marol, a middle school history-geography teacher from Montreuil, east of Paris, complained the government was toying with ideas like imposing school uniforms and dividing classes by ability, rather than tackling more fundamental issues.

“For a long time I’ve had mixed feelings, but always anger, exasperation and incomprehension,” he said.

(with AFP)

A total of 23 countries hit their worst levels since the inception of the group’s Corruption Perceptions Index three decades ago. 

Globally most countries made little to no progress, with over two-thirds scoring below 50 out of 100 on the CPI 2023 rankings. 

High-scoring democracies such as Iceland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK, as well as authoritarian countries like Iran, Russia, and Venezuela, have seen a decline in their efforts against corruption.

Democracy is suffering

“When corruption is ignored democracy suffers,” Transparency International’s western Europe coordinator Flora Cresswell told RFI. 

The report has identified weakening justice systems, declining rule of law, and political appointments skewing decision-making as contributing factors, as well as a rise in authoritarianism.

• Far-right Le Pen to stand trial on EU embezzlement, fraud charges

In Europe, the average score dropped for the first time in a decade. With upcoming elections, Cresswell says that “governments need to take fighting corruption and upholding the rule of law more seriously”. 

The index warns that democratic European governments are adopting increasingly authoritarian behaviours.

Poor accountability or political corruption, particularly in countries like Hungary and Poland, too often undermines the rule of law, Cresswell says.

“There are also trends in countries such as Greece and Slovakia, with rollbacks in the rule of law opening the door to corruption and also damaging democratic institutions,” she adds.

France and the Sahel

Despite implementing strong measures against corruption over the last decade, France saw a one-point drop in its score.

“There’s been stagnation over the past decades because there’s a lack of political will at the highest level to combat corruption, particularly when it comes to political integrity,” Cresswell says.

“For example, the continuation of Eric Dupond-Moretti at the Ministry of Justice following a conflict of interest investigation … really doesn’t set a good example.”

The CPI score for former French colonies in Sub-Saharan Africa has remained static at 33, although the overall African region itself has seen mixed results.

• Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso quit ECOWAS regional block

A spate of military takeovers in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad does not appear to have affected their albeit low ranking.

“A CPI score drops several years after these bigger events take place,” Cresswell says.

While the African region has shown varied scores for 2023, the US remains unchanged with a score of 69.

With the upcoming US elections, the importance of an independant judiciary in the world’s biggest democracy adds a layer of uncertainty to the future of anti-corruption efforts worldwide.

The creation of an investigative committee into the candidate selection process was comfortably adopted, rousing cries of joy from parliament, RFI’s correspondent in Dakar reported.

A prominent opponent, Wade served as a minister when his father was president. He was ruled inadmissible by the Constitutional Council because of his dual French and Senegalese nationality.

Wade said he renounced the French citizenship in October 2023.

The head of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) group in parliament, Mamadou Lamine Thiam, said the investigation was paramount.

“Karim Wade was unfairly excluded from the electoral competition,” he told RFI.

“There are 900,000 voters unknown to the electoral file, nine candidates excluded from the game … So we cannot go to elections in these conditions. We need to stop and look at things.”

Wade’s supporters are hoping for a postponement of the vote to allow their candidate to return to the race.

But the other parties disagree.

The representative of the Yewwi Askan Wi opposition coalition, Ayib Dafe, voted against the commission of inquiry. He says that the demand for postponement is not in the voters’ interests.

In the presidential camp, MPs want to avoid an institutional crisis.

“We are in a state of law, Senegal is a major democracy. The institutions are functioning normally. We have not talking about postponement, we are talking about the search for peace to enlighten public opinion,” said Abdou MBow, president of the ruling Benno Bokk Yakaar group.

The first round of the presidential election is set for 25 February, with an unprecedented 20 candidates in the running.

It includes an imprisoned anti-establishment contender, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who is running in the name of popular mayor of Ziguinchor, Ousmane Sonko, also in prison, under the banner of his Pastef party.

The European Union mission on Wednesday sent observers to Senegal. They are aiming to meet with all the candidates.

Farmers from across France have been rolling their tractors towards Paris to protest against their high costs, low revenues and cheap food imports that undercut their business. The protest movement touches on several fundamental issues such as inflation and high costs, climate change policies, food sovereignty, and how France relates to the rest of the world. A farmer in Normandy talks about his soaring costs and why paperwork linked to environmental regulations is keeping him from doing his job. And economists weigh in on the underlying problem facing French farmers – how to keep their small, mostly individual farms afloat while satisfying consumer demand for cheaper food. (Listen @0′)

These are by no means the first farmer protests in France. The country has seen many memorable demonstrations over the past century – including a winegrowers’ revolt that mobilised 800,000 people, and the hijacking of British lorries carrying imported meat that caused a diplomatic incident with the UK. (Listen @9’50”)

France produces some of the world’s top mathematicians, but its elite is 80 percent male – hardly surprising given half of schoolgirls give up maths aged 17, compared to just one quarter of boys. As a recent study shows girls falling back in maths from the first year of primary, we look at what’s going wrong and what needs to change. Sociologist Clémence Perronnet, author of a new book on girls and maths, talks about the gender bias and how to help girls overcome it. We also hear from mathematician Colette Guillopé of the femmes et mathématiques association about the nonsensical idea that “maths is only for boys”.  (Listen @16’10”)

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani. 

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).

“My friends, your help is needed, a woman has just frozen to death tonight” announced the young Catholic priest Abbé Pierre on Radio Luxembourg on 1 February, 1954 “she died clutching [her] eviction order”.

His cry for help provoked what would later be called an “uprising of kindness” as donations and items for the homeless flooded in.

His appeal pushed the French government to take action – three days later it released 10 billion francs (€2.3 billion) to build 10,000 emergency homes, and approved a law forbidding evictions during the winter. 

“His 1954 appeal was an appeal to humanity; it was blatantly true and remains blatantly topical,” Laurent Desmard, Honorary President of the Abbé Pierre Foundation, told France’s AFP news agency.

“The people who listened to him had lived through exodus, the deprivations of war and were very sensitive to the pain of people living on the streets during that extremely cold period,” recalls Desmard – Abbé Pierre’s former private secretary.

An inspiration

Abbé Pierre,  whose real name was Father Henri-Antoine Grouès, founded the first Emmaus community to help homeless men in Paris, in 1949. He had been a member of the French Resistance during WWII and became an MP at the end of the war.

He died in 2007, aged 94. But his fight to defend and help the most disadvantaged continues to inspire activists and artists alike.

In 2023, a biopic, comic strip, and a reprinted biography were devoted to him.

His speeches, meanwhile, are regularly shared on social media, including by younger people on the platform TikTok.

French rapper Nekfeu included an extract of an Abbé Pierre speech from 1984 – in which the priest railed against “people empty the plates of others to fill up their own” – in the song Nique les clones (Screw the clones).

“I know what I must say to those people: you are the first to be violent and provocative,” Abbé Pierre said.

Still topical 

 In a 2021 survey,  Abbé Pierre topped the list of the most influential French figures of the last 40 years, ahead of Simone Veil, François Mitterrand and Johnny Hallyday.

“He would get really fired up whenever there was a battle to be fought,” says Desmard, “that’s what made him a sort of icon; he speaks to today’s generation.”

Abbé Pierre had the ability “to get people moving and that resonates in today’s society where people are looking to give meaning to what they do,” says Nicolas Sueur, President of Emmaüs France.

For Nathalie Latour, head of a federation of some 900 solidarity groups (FAS), the films and tributes show above all that “the issues he was fighting for are, unfortunately, still very topical”.

Shortly after becoming president in June 2017, Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to end homelessness in his first year of office, but it did not materialise.

According to the latest figures from the Fondation Abbé Pierre, 330,000 people were homeless in France in 2022 – twice as many as in 2012. The charity registered a record number of homeless children – 2,822 – in November 2023. 686 of them were under the age of three. 

Laurent Desmard believes that Abbé Pierre’s 1 February appeal is as meaningful as ever, given the “catastrophic situation” homeless people are in.

It was a D-day of sorts for the 34-year-old head of government who rose to the top job in a cabinet reshuffle aimed at injecting new life into the presidency of Emmanuel Macron.

Seeking to prove himself amid concerns over his age and relative inexperience, Attal tackled a range of priority issues that included agriculture, education, employment, security, national identity and immigration.

However the broad lines of the government’s policy were already rolled out by Macron himself during a press event on 16 January.

Attal’s speech – coming at a time when farmer blockades around Paris are generating daily headlines – was a delicate balancing act in front of a parliament in which his party governs with a minority.

The far left France Unbowed party accused Attal of delivering the “most reactionary speech in a century”, while the rightwing Republicans criticised what they called “a catalogue of small measures” that were disconnected from the country’s real needs.

The main takeaways:

► The prime minister promised the government would respond “without ambiguity” to the agricultural crisis that has seen farmers take issue with EU environmental rules they argue are hindering their capacity to produce.

Describing France’s farming industry as “our strength, and our pride”, Attal sought to calm anger as he vowed more agricultural  measures would be announced in the coming days.

The industry, Europe’s largest, not only feeds French people in the “literal sense”, Attal went on to say, but it also constitutes “one of the foundations of our identity, of our traditions”.

► Placing his speech under the banner of “sovereignty” and “independence”, Attal told MPs that he would not stand by and watch French identity become “diluted or dissolved”.

He said: “We are not just any country. France will not be, is not, has never been a nation that endures things. France is a landmark, an ideal, a moral heritage, a protective social model envied the world over.”

• France seeks change to EU nature laws in bid to appease farmers
• Reforms to address France’s ‘medical deserts’ pit doctors against nurses

► Concerning employment, Attal said he had asked his ministers to experiment with a four-day work week, with no reduction in working hours.

Attal promised to lift the salaries of more French people above the minimum wage. “Starting with the next finance bill, we will begin to reform this system,” he said. He also reiterated a commitment to a new tax cut of €2 billion for France’s middle-class taxpayers.

Other priorities included making payment of the social income conditional on working 15 hours a week, ending some benefits for the unemployed and simplifying standards for small companies.

► To tackle the problem of medical deserts, Attal confirmed that foreign doctors would be “regularised” and allowed to legally practice in France.

► As part of a “climate change adaptation plan”, the government intends to implementation an “ecological civic service” that will include 50,000 young people by 2027. Meanwhile a plastic pollution reduction plan will target the 50 sites in France that generate the most plastic packaging.

► Meanwhile an existing bill on assisted dying is to be examined before the summer, Attal said, promising to also boost the resources of palliative care units.

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music… so be sure and listen every week.

World Radio Day is just around the corner (13 February), and we’ll cook up a mighty fine banquet to celebrate. What’s the main course? Your greetings, of course! So get under your blanket with your phone – believe me, the blanket will make your recording broadcast quality – and record your World Radio Day greetings for us. Please, not too long, though. You must get it to us by 5 February. Send your recorded WRD greetings to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

Erwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr  Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!

Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you!

Our website “Le Français facile avec RFI”  has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bi-lingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard.

Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level”. According to your score, you’ll be counseled to the best-suited activities for your level.

Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you’ll get it”. She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it!

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.

There’s Paris Perspective, Spotlight on France, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.

As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our team of journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with!

To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you’ll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. 

Teachers, take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

Another idea for your students: Br. Gerald Muller, my beloved music teacher from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English – that’s how I worked on my French, reading books which were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it’s a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald’s free books, click here. 

Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. NB: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

And don’t forget, there is a Facebook page just for you, the independent RFI English Clubs. Only members of RFI English Clubs can belong to this group page, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven’t yet asked to join the group, and you are a member of an independent, officially recognised RFI English club, go to the Facebook link above, and fill out the questionnaire!!!!! If you do not answer the questions, I click “Decline”.

There’s a Facebook page for members of the general RFI Listeners Club, too. Just click on the link and fill out the questionnaire, and you can connect with your fellow Club members around the world. Be sure you include your RFI Listeners Club membership number (most of them begin with an A, followed by a number) in the questionnaire, or I will have to click “Decline”, which I don’t like to do!

We have new RFI Listeners Club members to welcome: Sami Malik from Northern Pakistan; Habib Ur Rehman Sehal, the president of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan; Pradip Chandra Kundu and Ratan Kumar Paul, both from West Bengal, India, and Mahfuzur Rahman from Cumilla, Bangladesh.  

Welcome one and all! So glad you have joined us!

This week’s quiz: On 6 January I asked you a question about Belgium, whose turn it is to hold the presidency of the European Union – each member state of the European Union holds the presidency for six months. You were to re-read our article “Belgium faces election juggling act as it takes over rotating EU presidency” because Belgium is tasked with organizing not only the European elections on 9 June but also their internal national elections, and no luck there, those elections are also on 9 June. All that and something else, quite important, falls during the time of Belgium’s presidency, and that was your question: what else is the Belgian presidency tasked with accomplishing during its six-month term? What is one of the biggest issues it also has to deal with?  

The answer is, to quote our article: “One of the big issues it will still have to deal with is the revision of what is known as the ‘multiannual financial framework’, i.e., the European budget for the coming years, and also ensuring that aid to Ukraine does not wane.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “If you could resign from anything, what would it be?”

Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to us! 

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Richard Wasajja from Masaka, Uganda. Richard is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations, Richard – and welcome back to The Sound Kitchen !

Also on the list of lucky winners this week is Mrs. Anjona Parvin, the secretary of the Shetu RFI Listeners Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh, and two RFI English Listeners Club members from India: Radhakrishna Pillai from Kerala State, and Samir Mukhopadhyay from Kolkata. Last but certainly not least, there’s RFI English listener Khondaker Shihab Uddin Khan from Bogura, Bangladesh.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: The “Scherzo” from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, op. 61 by Félix Mendelssohn, performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa; “Quand on est bien amoureux”, a traditional folk song from Belgium performed by Wör; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and “Minha Terra” sung by Ruy Mingas.

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read our article “France seeks change to EU nature laws in bid to appease farmers” to help you with your answer.

You have until 26 February to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 3 March podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

or

By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then  33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here.

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or form your own official RFI Club, click here. 

Farmers from across France have been rolling their tractors towards Paris to protest against their high costs, low revenues and cheap food imports that undercut their business. The protest movement touches on several fundamental issues such as inflation and high costs, climate change policies, food sovereignty, and how France relates to the rest of the world. A farmer in Normandy talks about his soaring costs and why paperwork linked to environmental regulations is keeping him from doing his job. And economists weigh in on the underlying problem facing French farmers – how to keep their small, mostly individual farms afloat while satisfying consumer demand for cheaper food. (Listen @0′)

These are by no means the first farmer protests in France. The country has seen many memorable demonstrations over the past century – including a winegrowers’ revolt that mobilised 800,000 people, and the hijacking of British lorries carrying imported meat that caused a diplomatic incident with the UK. (Listen @9’50”)

France produces some of the world’s top mathematicians, but its elite is 80 percent male – hardly surprising given half of schoolgirls give up maths aged 17, compared to just one quarter of boys. As a recent study shows girls falling back in maths from the first year of primary, we look at what’s going wrong and what needs to change. Sociologist Clémence Perronnet, author of a new book on girls and maths, talks about the gender bias and how to help girls overcome it. We also hear from mathematician Colette Guillopé of the femmes et mathématiques association about the nonsensical idea that “maths is only for boys”.  (Listen @16’10”)

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani. 

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).

After ten long months, the Turkish parliament on Tuesday evening overwhelmingly voted to approve Sweden’s Nato membership.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been holding up the ratification with a long list of demands from his allies, and the vote came after intensive diplomatic lobbying led by Washington. 

At the heart of the delay was Ankara’s demand that the US Congress approve the sale of American F-16 fighter jets to replace Turkey’s ageing airforce.

“Neither the United States nor Turkey trust each other on any level,” said Asli Aydintasbas, an analyst with Washington-based think tank the Brookings Institution.

“There is also no trust here in Washington vis-a-vis the actions of the Turkish government,” she continued. “They don’t want to find themselves in a situation where they deliver on their end and the other side doesn’t.”

Mutual mistrust

That distrust was exacerbated by the apparent lack of personal chemistry between Erdogan and US President Joe Biden, who in the past has described the Turkish leader as a bully.

But the impasse was broken by a rare phone call between the two leaders last month. Biden reportedly convinced Erdogan that he could only persuade Congress to allow the jet sale to Turkey if the Turkish parliament ratified Sweden’s NATO membership – a deal that goes back to last year, according to Sinan Ulgen of Edam, an Istanbul-based think tank.

“There is an agreement that was essentially struck during the last NATO summit in Vilnius whereby the US side would essentially start the formal notification of the F-16 package once the Turkish parliament ratifies the accession of Sweden to NATO,” Ulgen said.

But behind Turkey’s lengthy delay lies scepticism in Ankara whether Biden can deliver Congress.

Lame duck?

Hostility towards Erdogan over his authoritarianism and threats to neighbours, including Greece, is a rare issue that bridges the deep divide between US Democrats and Republicans.

Erdogan’s strong backing of Hamas, which he calls a “liberation movement”, has only added to that hostility.

Meanwhile, Biden is increasingly seen as a lame-duck president as 2024 elections approach.

“Now [Donald] Trump is marching on the way to triumph once more, maybe, probably. Biden cannot be exerting pressure over the Senate and House of Representatives for the sake of Turkey,” predicts Sezin Oney, a commentator with Turkish news portal Duvar.

Oney points out Biden’s failure to get Congress to sign off on funding for Ukraine can only add to Ankara’s unease.

“I mean, he couldn’t do it in the case of Ukraine; he’s struggling with that. So how can he do it on behalf of Turkey, which doesn’t deliver anything and, on top of it, supports Hamas?” she questioned.

• Turkey under fire after declaring Hamas a ‘liberation’ group
• Erdogan weighs benefits of friendlier ties with Turkey’s Western allies

From Turkey to Hungary

Such concerns could yet further delay Sweden’s membership.

While the Turkish parliament ratified NATO’s expansion, Erdogan has to sign off on the legislation and send the document to the US State Department as per the military alliance’s rules.

But political momentum is behind the deal.

“Congressional approvals really rely on key party spokespeople on the committees,” said analyst Aydintasbas. “There is still overwhelming approval for the deal – enough numbers to make it past foreign relations committees in both houses, because it is so important for transatlantic unity, not because the US Congress approves of Turkey’s foreign policy direction.”

But even if the hurdle of Turkey is finally overcome, Hungary is yet to ratify – and Prime Minister Viktor Orban, after 20 months, is now demanding unspecified concessions from Sweden.

With Erdogan a close ally of Orban, NATO may yet need Turkey’s assistance in finally bringing Sweden into the fold.

While the polls have been described as a time of reckoning for Europe given the rise of the far right, it’s unlikely the centrist conservative majority will be knocked off pole position.

The main battle for EU seats will, nevertheless, be fought between centrists and populists.

Turnout for European elections has waned since the first vote took place in 1979. The 2019 polls bucked this trend by breaking the 50 percent turnout threshold for the first time and 20 years.

In a post-Covid, economically rattled EU with two wars on its doorstep, indicators point to a significant rise in interest among Europeans in the upcoming June ballot.

The latest survey carried out by the European Parliament indicates that a record turnout of 68 percent could be expected.

Christine Verger, vice president of the Jacques Delors Institute in Paris, acknowledges the heightened interest, attributing the 2019 surge to younger people’s engagement on environmental issues.

“The protection of the environment and the fight against climate change resonated strongly with the youth, who viewed the European level as the appropriate platform for addressing such global challenges,” she told RFI.

The EU’s environmental concerns – once seen as a strong point – are also now viewed with scepticism. Agricultural protesters, in particular, accuse the bloc of creating problems rather than solutions.

Security in Europe

Verger says wider global security issues may instil a sense of fear among EU citizens, potentially impacting voter turnout and sentiment.

So how will young people react to these new challenges in June?

“This is very difficult to say, now that there are other issues which may justify the rise of participation and some positive views [regarding] the European Union. It’s linked to the state of the world and the wars in Ukraine in the Middle East,” she explains.

“This situation, and those new challenges, may lead many people in the EU towards a feeling of protection.”

• Shaping the future: What’s at stake in the 2024 EU elections?

National priorities

Verger believes new challenges such as immigration and identity issues may reshape young people’s priorities as the battle between centrists and populists intensifies.

There has a drive to encourage young voters using the Paris metro to take an interest in the workings of the European Union as a force for good.

But could this backfire, with Eurosceptic and populist parties actually mobilising the youth vote in their favour?

“The main problem with the European election is that it’s [actually] 27 national elections,” Verger says.

Past efforts to enhance European unity, such as transnational lists and political families appointing pan-European candidates, hasn’t worked so well, says Verger.

“This is because national governments and national parliaments are not inclined to accept European solutions for their campaigns,” she says.

“They are still very attached to their national environment … So in each country each situation is different.”

Verger cites France as an example: “You have the Rassemblement National, but in 2019 they got a very good score – they have 23 members in the European Parliament, they may get a few more – but this will not have an influence on the result of the European elections.”

Populists or radicals?

Concerns about the rise of far-right and populist parties has opened discussion on the political groups within the European Parliament.

Given the complexities of alliances and compromises between the parties, even if the far-right groups gain more seats, their differing views and lack of unity mean it’s unlikely they will form a credible alternative.

Then there is confusion, Verger says, between what are called “populist” parties and “radical” parties.

“They are very different – and that’s why they have difficulties. They don’t share the same opinions on many issues, for instance, in relation to Russia and the position on the war in Ukraine,” she says.

“You have the ID Group – Identity and Democracy – which is composed of two main parties, the French Rassemblement National and the German AfD [Alternative für Deutschland]

“In Germany, an AfD representative declared last weekend that there could be a referendum in Germany on leaving the European Union – what they call the Dexit – and the Rassemblement National in France is not at all in favour of leaving the European Union.”

• Is the EU facing a ‘New Right’ surge in Europe’s 2024 elections?

Another right-wing political group, the ECR Group – European Conservatives and Reformists – was led by the British Conservatives before Brexit.

Now the UK has left the EU, the main group driving the ECR is Poland’s PiS – the Law and Justice party – which recently lost elections in Poland.

“We don’t know how they are going to evolve,” Verger says.

“The far right and the populist radical parties have no chance to build a majority by themselves because in the European Parliament, everything is based on alliances and compromises.”

While acknowledging the powerful emotional tactics employed by populists, Verger says that mainstream parties can effectively counter them through strategic communication.

EU repercussions for France 2027

Meanwhile, here in France, the 2024 European elections are seen by many as a precursor to the 2027 presidential elections, where a battle between President Emmanuel Macron’s successor and the National Rally’s Marine Le Pen looks almost certain.

Past EU elections have impacted French politics, such as in 1994 when the poor EU election performance of the Socialists led by Michel Rocard ruled him out as a contender for the French presidency.

The evolution of French national politics over the next three years – particularly the shift to the right in Macron’s party and the rise of the National Rally – adds another layer to the complex dynamics that lie ahead.

Macron’s has recently appointed 34-year-old Gabriel Attal as prime minister, while the National Rally have 28 year-old Jordan Bardella at the helm to reach out to the younger generation.

It’s the interplay between European and national dynamics that will shape the narrative of the elections in June, says Verger.

“European issues will certainly play a role in the elections … but Bardella will try to make [the June polls] a 100 percent national election,” she says.

“The other parties – Renaissance and the Socialist Party – will try to make it as European as possible, in order to deconstruct it from the national context and try to show the positive aspects of the European Union for ordinary citizens.”

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music… so be sure and listen every week.

World Radio Day is just around the corner (13 February), and we’ll cook up a mighty fine banquet to celebrate. What’s the main course? Your greetings, of course! So get under your blanket with your phone – believe me, the blanket will make your recording broadcast quality – and record your World Radio Day greetings for us. Please, not too long, though. You must get it to us by 5 February. Send your recorded WRD greetings to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

Erwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr  Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.

There’s Paris Perspective, Spotlight on France, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. And there is the excellent International Report, too.

As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our team of journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with!

To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you’ll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. 

Teachers, take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

Another idea for your students: Br. Gerald Muller, my beloved music teacher from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English – that’s how I worked on my French, reading books which were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it’s a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald’s free books, click here. 

Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. NB: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

And don’t forget, there is a Facebook page just for you, the independent RFI English Clubs. Only members of RFI English Clubs can belong to this group page, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven’t yet asked to join the group, and you are a member of an independent, officially recognised RFI English club, go to the Facebook link above, and fill out the questionnaire!!!!! If you do not answer the questions, I click “Decline”.

There’s a Facebook page for members of the general RFI Listeners Club, too. Just click on the link and fill out the questionnaire, and you can connect with your fellow Club members around the world. Be sure you include your RFI Listeners Club membership number (most of them begin with an A, followed by a number) in the questionnaire, or I will have to click “Decline”, which I don’t like to do!

We have new RFI Listeners Club members to welcome: Sami Malik from Northern Pakistan; Habib Ur Rehman Sehal, the president of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan; Pradip Chandra Kundu and Ratan Kumar Paul, both from West Bengal, India, and Mahfuzur Rahman from Cumilla, Bangladesh.  

Welcome one and all! So glad you have joined us!

This week’s quiz: On 16 December I asked you a question about COP 28.  RFI English journalist Amanda Morrow was there, and in her article “Nations agree historic deal to ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels”, she explained why the agreement had to use the words “transition away” instead of “phase-out” regarding fossil fuels.  Which country objected to the term “phase-out”?

The answer is, to quote Amanda’s article: “The summit overran by a day, and the draft text put forward overnight Tuesday by the Emirati presidency was a last-minute bid to end a deadlock between crude oil producers, notably Saudi Arabia, and nations seeking a phase-out of oil, coal and gas.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “What incident changed your life?”

Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to us! 

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Rafiq Khondaker from Naogaon, Bangladesh. Rafiq is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations, Rafiq!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are RFI Listeners Club members Father Steven Wara, who lives in the Cistercian Abbey at Bamenda, Cameroon, and Hans Verner Lollike, from Hedehusene, Denmark.

We have a new listener to congratulate: Miroslav Síleš from Košice, Slovakia – welcome Miroslav! Last but certainly not least, Arundhati Mukherjee, who lives in West Bengal, India.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Seoto” by Michio Miyagi; “Winter” from The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi, performed by the Italian Baroque Ensemble conducted by Jacques Bernard; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Fantasia Impromptu” by Frédéric Chopin, arranged by Hilario Duran and performed by Hilario Duran and his Latin Jazz Big Band.

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, listen to Jessica Phelan’s story on Alison Hird and Sarah Elzas’ podcast Spotlight on France, or read her article “Françoise Giroud, a woman to be reckoned with in French media and politics” on our website to help you with the answer.

You have until 19 February to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 24 February podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

or

By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then  33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here.

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or form your own official RFI Club, click here. 

In a ceremony in Istanbul earlier this month, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania signed an agreement to clear mines that the war in Ukraine has left in the Black Sea.

“With the start of the war, the threat of floating mines in the Black Sea has arisen,” said Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler, announcing that Ankara had formed a mine task force with its Bulgarian and Romanian allies.

Guler said the tripartite agreement was the fruit of months of diplomacy.

With several cargo ships already hit by mines, they are an increasing menace to one of the world’s most important waterways for exporting grain and energy.

“These sea mines are floating on the water. They are not stationary, and there is no telling when or where they might strike a vessel,” explains Tayfun Ozberk, a former Turkish naval officer and now a defence analyst.

“This is a serious problem in terms of navigational safety, because the merchant ships can’t detect these mines as they are semi-submerged in the water,” he says.

“And when they do detect them, it might be too late for them to save themselves.”

Black Sea grain deal

Analysts say removing the threat of mines will significantly boost Ukraine’s efforts to export grain to world markets after the collapse of a deal with Russia brokered by Turkey and the United Nations.

“Mine clearing is very supportive of maritime safety and navigation. I hope it is very beneficial for the Ukraine side in order to export their grain,” says Mesut Casin, a professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Yeditepe University and adviser to the Turkish president.

Moscow is widely seen as threatening Ukrainian exports, saying it can’t guarantee the safety of ships carrying them.

But Ankara hopes increasing security for Ukrainian vessels could provide an impetus for Moscow to return to the grain deal with Ukraine.

Casin believes mine clearing could push Moscow to rethink its stance. “Perhaps Russia may come again to the table,” he suggests.

• France slams Russia’s suspension of Black Sea grain deal as ‘blackmail’
• Turkey may be key to salvaging Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports

Turkey as gatekeeper

Three mine-hunting ships from each of the coastal countries and one command ship will be assigned to the new task force, according to the Turkish defence ministry.

While the Turkish navy has modern mine-clearing capabilities, which Romania and Bulgaria will support, experts say the challenge facing the Nato allies is considerable.

“The locations and numbers of the sea mines are unknown, and you have to detect them first; you have to seek and destroy, and this will take time,” warns naval analyst Ozberk.

• How one man’s ship-spotting hobby is helping thwart Russian sanction-busting

With the Black Sea a key trade route, the United Kingdom also offered Ukraine two mine-clearing ships – but Ankara denied them permission to transit its waters.

“There is some pressure by the Nato allies, such as the UK, to assist Ukraine militarily. But in accordance with the Montreux Convention, Turkey did not give permission,” explains presidential adviser Casin.

Turkey has controlled access to the Black Sea since 1936 under the international convention and has been blocking entry to all warships since the start of the war in Ukraine. Casin says that stance won’t change, given its importance in containing the conflict.

“If you give this permission to British or American allies, then Russia will compete, saying, ‘I am part of the Montreux regime, I will send new battleships’,” he argues. “And this is the beginning of warfare in the Black Sea between Nato and Russian ships.”

While Turkey is a member of Nato, analysts say it is seeking to perform a balancing act between the two sides in the Ukrainian war in a bid to contain the conflict. Removing the danger of mines is seen as a small step towards that goal, albeit a vital one for world trade.

Madhya Pradesh is often referred to as the Heart of India. Located right in the middle of the country, the Indian region shows everything India has to offer through its abundant diversity. The IFTM trade show, which took place in Paris at the end of September, presented the perfect opportunity for travel enthusiasts to discover the region.

Sheo Shekhar Shukla, Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh’s tourism board, sat down to explain his approach to sustainable tourism.

“Post-covid the whole world has known a shift in their approach when it comes to tourism. And all those discerning travelers want to have different kinds of experiences: something offbeat, something new, something which has not been explored before.”

Through its UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Shukla wants to showcase the deep history Madhya Pradesh has to offer.

“UNESCO is very actively supporting us and three of our sites are already World Heritage Sites. Sanchi is a very famous buddhist spiritual destination, Bhimbetka is a place where prehistoric rock shelters are still preserved, and Khajuraho is home to thousand year old temples with magnificent architecture.”

All in all, Shukla believes that there’s only one way forward for the industry: “Travelers must take sustainable tourism as a paradigm in order to take tourism to the next level.”

In partnership with Madhya Pradesh’s tourism board.

Also known as the Land of the Beautiful Islands, Malaysia’s landscape and cultural diversity is almost unmatched on the planet. Those qualities were all put on display at the Malaysian stand during the IFTM trade show.

Libra Hanif, director of Tourism Malaysia, explained the appeal of the country as well as the importance of promoting sustainable tourism today: “Sustainable travel is a major trend now, with the changes that are happening post-covid. People want to get close to nature, to get close to people. So Malaysia being a multicultural and diverse [country] with a lot of natural environments, we felt that it’s a good thing for us to promote Malaysia.”

Malaysia has also gained fame in recent years, through its numerous UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which include Kinabalu Park and the Archaeological Heritage of the Lenggong Valley.

Green mobility has also become an integral part of tourism in Malaysia, with an increasing number of people using bikes to discover the country: “If you are a little more adventurous, we have the mountain back trails where you can cut across gazetted trails to see the natural attractions and the wildlife that we have in Malaysia,” says Hanif. “If you are not that adventurous, you’ll be looking for relaxing cycling. We also have countryside spots, where you can see all the scenery in a relaxing session.”

With more than 25,000 visitors at this IFTM trade show this year, Malaysia’s tourism board got to showcase the best the country and its people have to offer.

In partnership with Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board. For more information about Malaysia, click here.