The operation to evict people from a disused factory in Vitry-sur-Seine reportedly took place without incident, with some occupants already having left the premises in anticipation of the arrival of police.

Some 250 officers were mobilised according to the Val-de-Marne prefecture. Shelters were planned for those evicted, both in the Ile-de-France area surrounding Paris and other regions, such as Bordeaux.

Carrying their belongings, the 300 or so remaining occupants – men, women and children – left the premises shortly after 8am. 

Some had been living at the site for several months, either unable to find accommodation in the private sector or still awaiting social housing.

According to the United Migrants NGO, which regularly provides assistance, 80 percent of migrants are legally residents of France.

The Revers de la Médaille (Flip Side of the Coin) group, which brings together NGOs that help people living on the streets, has for months warned of the plight of the homeless, whose makeshift camps are being dismantled as the Olympic Games approach.

Mohammed Sayed, an Eritrean, had been living in the squat for three years.

He has refugee status and works in electrical maintenance for the construction company Eiffage on a permanent contract, but has been unable to find accommodation.

“It’s not that I’m happy to be here, but where am I going to go?” the 40-year-old asked the AFP news agency, his large suitcase beside him.

• Rights body to probe Paris homeless ‘clean-up’ before Olympics
• Migrant transfers from Paris ahead of Olympics anger French mayors and NGOs

Several squats evacuated

Once the headquarters of a bus company, the building in Vitry-sur-Seine has gradually been taken over by people who have been evicted from other squats in the Paris region.

At the end of March, residents said they were unable to find accommodation elsewhere and were forced to set up beds and mattresses on the floors of the near-derelict, multi-storey building.

In 2023, police evacuated the disused former headquarters of Unibéton in Seine-Saint-Denis – close to the future athletes’ village for the Paris Olympics – where 500 migrants were living.

In July, a further 150 people who had taken refuge in an abandoned retirement home in a suburb in Val-de-Marne were also evicted.

Since December 2021, a six-kilometre slice of the River Seine has been the hallowed venue for a sound and light spectacular involving the 11,000 athletes and a flotilla of barges ferrying them along past some of the world’s most famous monuments.

Preening over the first opening ceremony to take place outside a main stadium, has been evident from the announcement of the extravaganza

But less than a week after Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin highlighted fears over a terrorist attack at Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League match against Barcelona, President Emmanuel Macron raised the prospect of taking the Opening Ceremony back indoors to the Stade de France.

In a TV interview on Monday, Macron said: “There are plan Bs and plan Cs; we are preparing them in parallel. We will analyse this in real time.” 

• Olympic flame begins long journey from Greek birthplace to Paris

Seine the preferred option

With appropriate decorum, organising committee chief Tony Estanguet said the status symbol outdoor splash was the very probable option.

“The main objective is to achieve a very beautiful, absolutely unique Opening Ceremony, the first time that it will be held outside a stadium, in the centre of Paris on the Seine,” said Estanguet, who was attending the lighting of the Olympic flame in Olympia, Greece.

“All of our energy and all of the means at our disposal are being employed to make this very beautiful ceremony a success.

“In parallel to that, we are looking at all the contingency plans to adapt to the context, because that is our responsibility.”

The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, appeared equally malleable. 

“The only plan I know is Plan A,” she said. “The message I prefer to send is that we are ready and we are going to welcome the world.”

• Macron calls for ‘Olympic truce’, presents alternatives for opening ceremony

Countdown

With 100 days to go before the official start – the event gets underway a few days earlier with some games in the football tournament – organisers are at pains to ensure that the country is mobilised and ready to receive visitors.

“It’s my role to explain that it’s a fantastic opportunity for our country to host this event,” said Estanguet.

“We all know that before this kind of big event, there are always many questions, many concerns.”

The construction work is on track and the budget looks set to be relatively contained compared to the huge blow-outs seen at the Athens, London or Rio de Janeiro Games.

Before proffering a change of opening venue, Marcon hailed the wondrousness of the engineers and designers who have been restoring Le Grand Palais.

Built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900, it is into the third year of a four-year restoration project.

Work will stop to allow the venue to be deployed as the site for the fencing and taekwondo from 27 July. 

“Four years ago, we were told that it was still crazy,” said Macron of the restoration project. “But now the whole world will rediscover the Grand Palais as a place of creation, of exhibition, of knowledge, and of welcoming the public.”

It will be formally handed over to the Paris Olympics organising committee on Friday.

Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra has been as effusive as her boss on her peregrinations for handovers of infrastructure to the organising committee.

• Architecture students design Olympic fan zones for Paris suburbs

Salute

Late last month – some 20 kilometres north of Paris – for the inauguration of the apartment blocks which will house foreign technical staff in Dugny as well as a new gymnasium in adjacent Le Bourget, she saluted the efforts of the teams involved in the 650 million-euro transformation of some 70 hectares.

“What you have done is absolutely exemplary,” Oudéa-Castéra told the 200-odd workers who had gathered inside the gymnasium which will be used for sports such as badminton, handball and volleyball as well as sport climbing during and after the Games.

Flanked by the industry minister Roland Lescure, she added: “You’ve worked very hard over the years and you’ve delivered a whole complex on time and a whole extraordinary area that will enable us to be extremely proud to welcome people from all over the world.”

But for all such crescendos, fears remain that the Olympic flag-waving for the start of the 100-day countdown will merely increase the animosity over issues such as the official Games poster, to the choice of artists for the Opening Ceremony.

The prospect of an appearance by the Franco-Malian singer Aya Nakamura caused an uproar among conservatives who have denounced her for being vulgar.

Veteran sociologist Hervé Le Bras said he was sceptical that the Olympics could serve as a moment of national celebration.

“Instead, there are lots of suggestions that they will underline the major fractures in France – notably the fracture between Paris and the rest of the country,” he told the French news agency AFP.

In another era during the decades of post-war expansion in France, the country might have been more ready to celebrate the Olympics, Le Bras suggested.

Regional crises

The Olympics will come in a 100 days while a war in Ukraine continues to rage and the bellicosity in the Middle East rises.

On a parochial level, it seems almost skittish some trade union leaders are suggesting strikes over more pay.

Although past polls have shown majority support for the Olympics, a survey on 25 March by the Viavoice group found that 57 percent of respondents felt little or no enthusiasm about the Games in Paris.

Twenty kilometres north in Dugny, such souls would be outliers.

“The Olympic Games has been the project that has made the regeneration happen,” said Quentin Gesell, mayor of Dugny.

“And it’s something to be proud of. In the town where I grew up, we’re going to welcome the whole world here.”

With 100 days to go, the venues have been built and kitted out for the hordes.

Around 13 million are expected. The site and grandeur of the Opening Ceremony will be of little concern to the vast majority of them.

The 29-year-old was part of the stellar delegation as boss of Le Pavé – the company that produced the 11,000 recycled plastic seats that will be used during the competitions at the venue in Saint Denis, as well as a few kilometres to the south at the La Chapelle Arena.

“I knew that I would have to make a presentation to the president so that was really great to get the opportunity. Something you do once in a lifetime,” he beams.

“But afterwards … walking behind the president … I didn’t know that I would have to stay with everyone.

“It was surprising for me to be there. But I was grateful to see that the message that what we’ve been trying to put across has been heard and acknowledged.”

Countdown

As Macron contemplates a whirl of launches during the 100-day countdown to the start of the Olympic Games, Hamelot can look back and smile wryly at his post-presentation gawkiness.

His own 100-day countdown to the launch of the Olympic extravaganza on 26 July offers, he says, a period of reflection and projection.

Just six years out of the Versailles School of Architecture, the rising son of architects from Argentré-du-Plessis in Brittany will, in just over three months, see the fruits of his labours beamed into millions of homes around the planet.

Thousands of spectators will profit from his innovations during the summer as they sit enthralled at the action unfolding in front of them.

“Of course I’m proud,” he says as he perches on a recycled plastic seat around a recycled plastic table in a downstairs meeting room at Le Pavé’s bustling headquarters in Aubervilliers on the northern fringes of Paris.

Young team

“I felt like the inauguration of the Aquatics Centre was the end of five years of hard work for this project. It was the end of a really important step for the company.

“But I feel like there is so much to do still.”

Having launched Le Pavé in 2018 with childhood chum Jim Pasquet and Judith Sebban, the staff has grown during nearly a dozen moves around Paris to embrace 35 souls.

“It’s a really young team,” Hamelot says. “And I feel like everyone is motivated to work and to solve the problems we’re finding.”

Marketing won’t be one of the bugbears. During the production of the seats for the Olympic venues, 60 collection points were set up in the region around Paris.

“We asked the inhabitants to bring plastic caps,” Hamelot explains. “So that was a part of the project.”

The next generation was also drafted in and acquainted with the environmental benefits of recycling, with collecting points in schools around Aubervilliers.

Of the 100 tonnes of plastic collected for the 11,000 seats, 80 percent hails from the area around the capital.

Plastic mix

In the Aquatics Centre, the white seats have come from a mix of the plastics from shampoo and washing up liquid bottles. The tinge of yellow arrives courtesy of bottle caps.

The black seats in La Chapelle Arena? A simple witch’s brew of coloured plastics.

The upshot is pure magic. Trash sticks around. “This is really important,” Hamelot says.

“Countries don’t want to see trash and so we send it to other countries but then since we do that, we are participating. We are creating something that is everywhere.

“It’s a nonsense. What we want to do with the project is recycle the trash that is local.” 

To that end, a factory has been set up near Chalon-sur-Saône in Burgundy, some 300 kilometres to the south of Paris. Plants are planned for the south and west of France as the company attempts to operate at a national level.

Future benefits

“The seats was a really interesting project because it was kind of a manifesto of what we wanted to show on a national and international scale,” Hamelot says.

“And we were speaking about something with both sustainable impact and social impact.”

Such features chime with the ethos of the Paris Olympics. Organisers have highlighted that new buildings – such as the 180-million euro Aquatics Centre – will have enduring validity once the Games have left town. 

Macron underlined the point during his eulogy to the workers who constructed the pools which will serve an area of 1.6 million people where statistics had revealed that nearly half of 11-year-olds could not swim. 

“We’ll have the Olympic Games,” he told around 1,000 people congregated in the stands around the main pool. “But after that this centre will be yours. That’s how we wanted it and that’s how we planned it.”

Hamelot says Le Pavé will benefit too.

Giving back

“After this summer, we’ll be able to go to the Aquatics Centre and to the La Chapelle Arena and show our clients how our material can be used.

“It’s a part of the heritage of this event in an area that really needs some of this infrastructure.

“We’re located in this area so I feel like we’re bringing something that we will also benefit from for a long time.”

Rarely has such ado about plastic sounded so fantastic. But it is founded on busy times. “Not only because of the seats but because of the demand of our clients,” Hamelot says. “At the moment we’re distributing the product everywhere in France.”

So much for Hamelot’s next 100 days.

“When we had the first conversation with the architects, it was really challenging because we had just created the company.

“We didn’t have any anything, it was just an idea but the more we passed from prototype to prototype we understood that maybe we will do it and then it became a bit stressful because it was the Olympics.

“So we really had to be on time because it was the reputation of the company that we were creating.

“But getting the opportunity to do just a small part of such an event – it’s once in a lifetime.” 

But there’s a snag amid the Olympic idyll: no places for the outfit that created the seats.

“At one point it was was like, yeah, we we did the seats, so maybe we deserve to have a ticket.

“But then I just realised that hundreds of people worked days and night on the buildings and that they deserved it more than us.”

That really is putting the friendly into eco.

The debt burden on developing countries, most of which are suffering disproportionate climate shocks, is an issue that’s gained traction at successive climate talks – with a Loss and Damages Fund hailed as a major success at last year’s Cop28 conference in Dubai. 

Finding the trillions of dollars needed for broader climate finance is a challenging question that will be addressed at the Washington meetings, which come as the World Bank and IMF – the Bretton Woods institutions – mark 80 years of promoting international monetary cooperation. 

Created by 44 Allied nations in the aftermath of World War II to prevent the sort of economic instability that contributed to the Great Depression as well as the war, the institutions are now tasked with modernising themselves as fresh challenges threaten the global economy. 

‘Quantum leap’

The head of the UNFCCC climate body, Simon Stiell, last week warned that a “quantum leap” in climate finance was needed to avoid a scenario in which the world’s economy is brought to a devastating halt. 

Without this revolutionary progress, he said, many countries will be unable to implement strong new climate plans in early 2025, when the next round of NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) is due.  

“It’s hard for any government to invest in renewables or climate resilience when the treasury coffers are bare, debt servicing costs have overtaken health spending, new borrowing is impossible and the wolves of poverty are at the door,” Stiell said in a speech at London’s Chatham House think tank. 

• Extreme drought in southern Africa triggers hunger crisis for millions

Climate finance traditionally means rich nations and multilateral development banks allocating money – drawn from public, private and alternative sources – to developing countries to help them cut emissions and adapt to climate change. 

The World Bank, which was chosen to manage the Loss and Damages Fund, and the IMF will be instrumental in determining whether poorer nations can access the finance they need. 

“That’s why the collaboration of the IMF and multilateral development banks is so important,” former French diplomat Laurence Tubiana, now chair of the European Climate Foundation, told a recent press conference.

Ensuring poorer countries have speedy access to debt-free financing was crucial, she added. 

Fresh tactics

Both the IMF and World Bank have sought to draw in private capital at much higher levels because donations from wealthy nations will never be able to cover the burgeoning cost of the climate crisis.

At Cop28, the World Bank set itself an objective to devote 45 percent of its financing to climate-related projects by 2025. To make that happen, president Ajay Banga is calling on the private sector. 

The institution has estimated that developing countries will need about $2.4 trillion each year between now and 2030 in order to meet challenges that include conflict and pandemics as well as climate change.

Steill urged the World Bank to step up the pace on climate finance solutions – including by looking at alternative funding sources such as a levy on frequent flyers and taxing shipping emissions. 

• Staff at France’s EDF question involvement in futuristic Saudi city

Internal change

An overall reform of development banks was crucial, he said, such as changing their lending practices to allow for debt relief.

Steill called for a new target that meets the needs of developing countries to be agreed at the Cop29 climate talks in Baku later this year – where financing for energy transition and climate adaptation will be central themes – before adding that this too would fall short. 

“It’s not enough to agree a target. We need a new deal on climate finance between developed and developing countries,” Stiell said.  

“The spring meetings are not a dress rehearsal. Averting a climate-driven economic catastrophe is core business. It can’t slip between the cracks of different mandates.” 

Speaking after an emergency online meeting of EU foreign ministers on Tuesday, Borrell said the bloc would look to toughen measures against Iran’s supplies of weaponry – including drones – to Russia and proxy groups around the Middle East.

“Some member states propose the adoption of expanded restrictive measures against Iran,” Borrell said.

The EU’s top diplomat said he was requesting his service “start the necessary work related to the sanctions”.

EU foreign ministers held urgent talks after Iran’s unprecedented weekend drone and missile onslaught against Israel, which caused little damage.

‘Move away from the abyss’

Their meeting came on the eve of a two-day EU leaders’ summit in Brussels, during which the dangerous escalation in the Middle East will loom large on the agenda.

Tehran’s first-ever direct assault on Israeli soil came in response to a deadly attack on its consulate in Damascus widely blamed on Israel.

Borrell said that EU countries roundly reiterated their condemnation of Iran’s attack and backed Israel’s right to self-defence. 

“We have to move away from the edge of the abyss,” Borrell said. 

• France joins other countries condemning Iranian drone attacks on Israel
• ‘Nobody will win from regional conflict’ warns EU’s Borrell during Lebanon visit

Posting on social media, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz welcomed the “positive trend towards the adoption of sanctions against Iran“.

The EU has already imposed sanctions on Iran for supplying drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine and has threatened to punish Tehran if it provides missiles to Moscow.

Borrell said that some member states had raised the possibility of adding Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to the EU’s terrorist blacklist, but he noted this first required a legal ruling in a member state.

More than 21 million people need urgent aid in Ethiopia, where a food crisis is deepening.

Organisers said ahead of the conference they did not expect to raise the full amount by Tuesday, but rather to begin closing the gap between needs and funding.

“We understand this is just the beginning, and we hope for continued and increased support throughout the year,” UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya said in a statement.

Twenty countries made new pledges, with Ethiopia’s top donor – the United States – saying it had pledged an additional €145 million.

Britain, which co-hosted Tuesday’s conference, pledged over €117 million, while the European Union said that with member states it had pledged more than €131 million.

Funding gap

Ethiopians are facing ongoing internal conflicts amid economic and climate shocks and an increasingly dire food and malnutrition crisis.

The UN has said over €3 billion is needed this year alone, including to assist some four million internally displaced people.

But before Tuesday’s event, that rescue plan was less than 5 percent funded.

“The gap remains very wide … We have really to act before it is too late,” Shiferaw Teklemariam, commissioner of the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission, told reporters in Geneva before the start of the conference.

The UN said an initial billion-dollar sum was needed for an urgent aid response through to the end of June.

It is also needed to prepare for the so-called “lean season” from July to September, when around 11 million people are projected to be critically food insecure.

• A year after the ceasefire in Tigray, Ethiopia is little closer to peace
• UN’s World Food Programme resumes food aid delivery in Ethiopia

‘Very fragile’

“The humanitarian situation in Ethiopia is critical – but there is a window to act right now to break the downward spiral,” the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA said.

Britain’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrew Mitchell said the situation was “extremely worrying“, but added the international community, working closely with the Ethiopian government, was “in a position to head it off”.

Washington also stressed the need for rapid action.

“We have millions and millions of people in Ethiopia facing very severe food insecurity,” USAID deputy administrator Isobel Coleman said ahead of the conference, warning “the humanitarian situation in the country remains very, very fragile”.

Without more aid “the consequences could be very dire”, she said.

‘Not enough aid to distribute’

Coleman also stressed that strong measures would be needed to ensure the aid reaches its intended destination.

Last year, USAID and the UN’s World Food Programme temporarily halted all food aid to Ethiopia, alleging a “widespread and coordinated” campaign to divert donated supplies – something Ethiopia’s government denied.

Authorities in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region warned last December it was on the brink of famine. 

“So much of this food insecurity is being driven by conflict,” Coleman said.

“Until we have peace and security in the country, which allows full access for humanitarian players we’re really not going to be able to get a full handle on this humanitarian crisis.”  

The annual fundraiser, now in its ninth year, is the first such event to address all issues related to oceans.

This year’s three-day conference began Monday with delegates from around 120 countries.

The European Union has pledged €3.5 billion to protect the world’s oceans and promote sustainability through a series of initiatives.

In Greece, 21 initiatives with a budget of €780 million are underway as part of a structured strategy for the protection of Greek marine biodiversity.

The government also announced the creation of two new national parks, one in the Ionian Sea for marine mammals and turtles, and another in the Aegean Sea for seabirds.

The aim of the conference is to promote and support the idea of the “blue economy”, which the World Bank defines as “sustainable use of ocean resources to benefit economies, livelihoods and ocean ecosystem health.”

• Oceans break record for highest temperatures five years in a row
• UN adopts first-ever treaty to protect high seas marine life

Reducing plastics

“Concrete initiatives are urgently needed on all major issues such as climate change, marine protected areas, sustainable fisheries, sustainable blue economy, maritime safety and marine pollution,” said Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis.

This year’s summit highlights issues of sustainable tourism in coastal and island regions, green maritime transport, reducing plastics and microplastics, and the green transition of the Mediterranean.

Last year’s conference, hosted in Panama, saw participants pledge $19 billion toward projects addressing sustainable fishing, pollution, maritime security and protected.

​​​​​(with newswires)

A host of world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, are expected to attend the 6 June commemoration marking the 80th anniversary of the 1944 Normandy landings.

“In view of the circumstances, President Putin will not be invited to take part,” the Liberation Mission organising committee said, referring to Russia’s “war of aggression” in Ukraine.

“Russia will however be invited … to honour the importance of the commitment and sacrifices of the Soviet people, as well as its contribution to the 1945 victory.”

A representative of the Russian embassy in Paris said they would not comment at this stage.

In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin on the war crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.

• Macron joins Trump, Queen in moving D-Day commemorations
• D-Day veteran remembers Sword Beach 70 years on

‘Not a game-changer’

The Russian leader was also not invited to attend ceremonies for the 75th anniversary of D-Day in 2019.

At the time, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the Normandy landings were “not a game-changer” for the outcome of WWII and the Great Patriotic War”, as it is called in Russia.

The spokesperson said the outcome was instead determined by the Red Army’s victories in Stalingrad and Kursk.

A 2019 poll by French daily Le Figaro found that 81 percent of the 92,000 respondents thought Putin should have been invited.

The Russian leader did get an invitation for D-Day’s 60th anniversary in 2014, when he also discussed a possible ceasefire in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian rebels fought against Ukrainian troops.

The talks between Putin and former French, German and Ukrainian leaders François Hollande, Angela Merkel and Petro Poroshenko became known as the “Normandy Format”, but in the end yielded no results.

​​​​​​(with newswires)

Macron’s trip to the small village in the Drôme mountains, which was completely destroyed during World War II, is part of a series of commemorative visits to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of France from Nazi occupation.

Earlier this month, the French president visited the Plateau des Glières – the site of another Maquis guerrilla force that was decimated – and the Maison d’Izieu, where Jewish children were rounded up by the Gestapo.

The climax of the commemorations will take place in June in Normandy, in memory of the D-Day landings by Allied forces – the largest seaborne invasion in history. 

• France’s Macron launches season of WWII commemorative events

The two-part ceremony, got underway at 3pm at the Resistance cemetery and then in front of a monument to the martyrs – a bas-relief listing the names of the victims in the main square – where the president gave a speech, emphasising the “exemplary” nature of the Maquis, that has been praised as “the embodiment of a France inseparable from Republican values”.

Exposing ‘grey areas’ of WWII history

Tuesday’s commemoration was a unique event, as Macron became the first French president to pay tribute there.

While the remembrance of the Vercors Maquis is traditionally celebrated on 21 July – the date of the final assault by German troops in which 840 Resistance fighters and civilians were killed – the choice of 16 April marked the first attack by the French militia.

The commemoration was also seen as an opportunity to revisit “a time when the French didn’t like each other … which means exposing all the grey areas”, a source close to the presidency told the AFP newswire.

The Maquis was formed when the Vichy-led “free zone” was invaded by Nazi and Italian fascist forces in November 1942, in response to the Allied invasion of French North Africa.

• France pays tribute to ‘youngest resistant’ who has died aged 91

Initially made up of people looking to avoid the compulsory labour service set up by the Vichy Government for the benefit of the occupying forces, the Maquis reportedly numbered some 4,000 men – including around 50 Senegalese riflemen and around 30 Polish high school students.

Vassieux-en-Vercors is one of five French towns to have been awarded the title of Compagnon de la Libération, along with Paris, Nantes, Ile de Sein and Grenoble.

Barcelona went into the second leg at the Estadio Olimpico Lluis Companys with a 3-2 lead from last week’s first leg at the Parc des Princes in Paris.

On the eve of the clash in Barcelona, the PSG boss Luis Enrique said his players would overcome the setback and dispatch his former club.

His boast soon appeared ill-judged. Raphinha, author of a brace in the first leg, opened the scoring in the 12th minute to give the hosts a 4-2 aggregate advantage.

But with nearly half an hour gone, they imploded. Ronald Araujo was given a straight red card for a foul on the PSG winger Bradley Barcola.

Though nothing came of the subsequent free-kick, Barcola set up Ousmane Dembélé for PSG’s equaliser on the night and his second goal of the tie just before half-time.

Change

Nine minutes after the restart, it was 2-1 and all square on aggregate. Vitinha, who like Dembélé scored in the first leg, fired home from the edge of the Barcelona penalty area after being set up by Achraf Hakimi.

A couple of minutes later, the Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez was dismissed and on the hour mark his team was behind.

Joao Cancelo upended Dembélé in the penalty area and Mbappé rifled the spot kick high past the Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen to make it 3-1.

At 5-4 on aggregate, a Barcelona goal would have taken the tie into extra-time but they could not engineer the levelly amid the fury.

Mbappé killed them off in the 89th minute following a counter-attack.

“Everyone believed in it and we didn’t give up,” Dembélé told Canal+

“We knew we were going to score goals. It was great work from the whole team. The coach’s tactics were perfect. We made a great effort after conceding the first goal.

“Qualifying for the semi-final is a big thing,” the France international added.

“We’re crossing our fingers to make it to the final.”

PSG will face Borussia Dortmund in the semi-finals after they beat Atletico Madrid 4-2 at the Signal Iduna Park to advance 5-4 on aggregate.

Some 600 dignitaries attended the flame-lighting ceremony headed by Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach.

The ceremony was held at the ruins of the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera, and sets off the Olympic torch relay that marks the countdown for each Games.

Actresses in the role of ancient priestesses coaxed the flame into life with the help of a parabolic polished mirror in Olympia, south-western Greece, where the Games were born in 776 BC.

American mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato delivered the Olympic anthem.

Sacred tradition

The torch harks back to the ancient Olympics, when a sacred flame burned throughout the Games. The tradition was revived in 1936 for the Berlin Games.

The first relay runner was Greece’s 2020 Olympics rowing champion Stefanos Douskos.

The Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) confirmed Monday that retired French swimmer Laure Manaudou, who won her first gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, will follow Douskos as France’s first torchbearer in Olympia.

European Commission vice president Margaritis Schinas will follow as the third torchbearer, the HOC said.

For the first time since the Covid pandemic imposed toned-down events for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, spectators will be able to attend the torch relay events.

During the 11-day relay on Greek soil, some 600 torchbearers will carry the flame over a distance of 5,000 kilometres through 41 municipalities.

• A dozen people excluded from Paris Olympic torch relay for drugs, Islamism

Carried by ship

The Olympic flame will be handed over to Paris 2024 organisers in a ceremony at the all-marble Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, site of the first modern Olympic Games of 1896, on 26 April.

Nana Mouskouri, the 89-year-old Greek singer with a worldwide following, has been invited to perform at the ceremony.

On 27 April, the flame will begin its journey to France on board the 19th-century three-masted barque Belem, which was launched just weeks after the Athens 1896 Games.

A French historical monument, the Belem carried out trade journeys to Brazil, Guyana and the West Indies for nearly two decades.

France’s last surviving three-mast steel-hulled boat, it is expected to arrive in Marseille on 8 May.

• Hundred-year-old French cycling champion to take part in Olympic torch relay

Ten thousand torchbearers will then carry the flame across 64 French territories.

It will travel through 400 towns and dozens of tourist attractions during its 12,000-kilometre journey through mainland France and overseas French territories in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific.

In the French capital, the Olympic flame will pass by the site of the 2015 Islamist attack on the Bataclan concert hall as well as the Shoah Memorial, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Tuesday from the Olympia ceremony.

“This torch is a message of peace, a message of friendship between peoples, which is all the stronger at a time when the world is in such bad shape,” Hidalgo told France 2 TV.

On 26 July, the flame will form the centrepiece of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony on the river Seine – the first time it has not been held inside the Games’ main stadium.

(with AFP)

Some 1,700 gendarmes, police and soldiers will be deployed in the clean-up operation dubbed “Mayotte Place Nette” (Clean Up Mayotte), which will last 11 weeks.

It follows on from last year’s Operation Wuambushu (“Take Back” in Mahorian), aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration, delinquency and destroying shanty towns.

The Minister for Overseas Territories, Marie Guévenoux, told France 2 television that two operations involving 400 police officers and gendarmes began early Tuesday morning at two different locations on the island.

She said a hundred “specialised” reinforcements – notably border police officers and judicial police officers – would assist in the operation.

“We must show that Mayotte is the [French] republic. This is the first message,” Guévenoux said.

• Money from France will not help Comoros swallow the Wuambushu pill

Gang activity

Known as the 101st French department, Mayotte is also the poorest and has seen months of unrest linked to gang activity despite the presence of 1,600 gendarmes and police officers stationed there on a regular basis.

According to national statistics office Insee, 77 percent of the 310,000 inhabitants live in poverty. That’s five times the national average.

The Indian Ocean archipelago is also facing the fallout of its worst drought since 1997, exacerbated by a lack of infrastructure and investment.

According to the Overseas Territories Ministry, police aim to arrest 60 gang leaders during the operation and destroy around 1,300 bangas, or unsanitary makeshift shelters in which many undocumented migrants live.

The government estimates that around 30 percent of housing is considered unsanitary.

The ministry said €5 million have been earmarked for the emergency accommodation of migrants arrested as part of the operation, while those living illegally would be deported.

Criticized for its lacklustre results after the start of Wuambushu, the central government wants to show that it is not giving up on the situation.

• How overseas Mayotte became ‘a department apart’ within France

Clear signal

In February, François-Xavier Bieuville was appointed as the new police chief to oversee Mayotte Place Nette. 

“For a month, we have been doing preparation work with the actors who experienced Wuambushu,” he told French news agency AFP.

“We learned lessons from it. We brought in teams from mainland France to reinforce our actions.”

Guévenoux also indicated that the controversial project to end access to birthright citizenship in Mayotte was still on the table.

Once the reform takes effect, only children born to French parents in Mayotte will have the right to French nationality. 

The change, confirmed by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin during a visit in February, is part of efforts to stem migration from the neighbouring Comoros islands amid flaring tensions between locals and immigrants. 

“We need a very clear and very firm signal sent to the countries of the area,” she said.

(with AFP)

Scholz also told Xi the potential use of nuclear weapons in the two-year war should not be spoken of, German media reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned last month that Russia was ready to use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty or independence was threatened.

Scholz told Xi that Germany’s “core interests” were impacted by the war against Ukraine, which has threatened to spread into a regional conflict while disrupting energy and global food supplies and other trade.

Russia’s actions “violate a principle of the United Nations Charter and the principle of the inviolability of national borders”, Scholz was quoted as saying by German media.

China has refused to criticise the invasion and has maintained ties with Russia. While China says it is not sending military aid to Moscow, it has provided it with an economic lifeline to help it cope with sanctions from the West.

‘Unfair support’

Scholz’ visit coincided with EU concerns about the threat to European businesses from Chinese goods, including electric vehicles and other green technologies, flooding its markets.

EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has complained about China’s overproduction being unfairly supported by “massive” state subsidies.

“China’s exports of electric vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products have not only enriched global supply and alleviated inflationary pressure, but also contributed greatly to the response to climate change and green and low-carbon transformation,” Xi told Scholz.

“(Germany and China) should be vigilant against rising protectionism, look at the issue of production capacity objectively and dialectically from a market-oriented and global perspective,” Xi said.

• Brussels aims to remove Chinese energy giants from the EU market
• Germany’s Chancellor Scholz travels to China to discuss trade and Ukraine

Top trading partner

Despite the political and trade frictions, China was Germany’s top trading partner for the eighth straight year in 2023, with €254.1 billion in goods and services exchanged between the sides, slightly more than what Germany traded with the U.S. but a 15.5 percent contraction from the year before.

This is Scholz’s second trip to China since he became chancellor in late 2021. His previous visit was in November 2022 and essentially was a one-day trip because of the strict Covid restrictions still in place at the time.

It is his first visit since the German government last year presented its China strategy, which met with criticism from Beijing. Premier Li and a delegation of senior officials visited Berlin in June.

Human rights

On the eve of the visit, Human Rights Watch wrote an open letter to Scholz urging him to tell China to release hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs, as well as end its “relentless repression” of peaceful activists across China.

The rights body also said China must revoke the “two draconian national security laws it imposes in Hong Kong”.

Given the thin line Germany walks between criticising China and maintaining good trade relations, however, criticism on China’s human rights record may not have been high on the agenda.

(with newswires)

Damien Guerot has been dubbed “bollard man” and a “hero” of Saturday’s attack that killed six people and wounded a dozen more.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese singled Guerot out for praise, thanking him for his “extraordinary bravery” in confronting Joel Cauchi on an escalator and preventing the 40-year-old from reaching more victims.

“I say this to Damien Guerot, who is dealing with his visa applications, that you are welcome here. You are welcome to stay for as long as you like,” Albanese said.

“This is someone who we would welcome becoming an Australian citizen, although that would of course be a loss for France. We thank him for his extraordinary bravery.”

“It says a lot about the nature of humanity at a time when we are facing difficult issues, that someone who is not a citizen of this country stood bravely at the top of those escalators and stopped this perpetrator from getting onto another floor and potentially inflicting further carnage on citizens,” Albanese said.

French President Emmanuel Macron also took to social media to congratulate two French nationals who intervened. Guerot was at the mall with compatriot Silas Despreaux, who reportedly also confronted Cauchi with a bollard. 

“Two of our compatriots behaved like true heroes. A source of great pride and gratitude,” Macron wrote on X, addressing his “condolences” to the “Australians struck by the attack”.

Australians have been shocked by the Saturday attack that took place in a busy shopping mall in the city’s eastern suburbs.

Five women and one Pakistani security guard were killed during the rampage, which has not been blamed on terrorism.

Police are investigating whether Cauchi, who had a history of mental illness, targeted women specifically.

But Australians and Albanese took some succour from strangers aiding each other during the attack and from the bravery of policewoman Amy Scott, who tracked Cauchi down and shot him dead.

“I think that on Saturday we saw some of the best of human character at the same time as we saw such devastating tragedy,” Albanese said.

Second knife attack

Meanwhile, locals in a different suburb, west of Sydney, are reeling after a separate knife attack.

Two people were stabbed when a 16-year-old suspect rushed the dais at an Assyrian church in Wakeley late Monday, injuring a bishop who was giving a sermon.

The teen was immediately subdued by outraged congregants and taken into police custody.

Australian police on Tuesday said it was a religiously motivated “terrorist” act, as they urged calm from the angered local community.

The alleged perpetrator was “known to police” but was not on any terror watchlists, senior officers said.

(with AFP)

“This support will be able to respond to the most urgent needs” for Sudan’s population ranging from a food crisis to education, Macron said late Monday, adding that European Union countries had pledged nearly half the humanitarian aid total.

“It is a conflict imposed on the people that only produces grief and suffering, provoking one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world,” Macron also said.

“There is a terrible cynicism behind this war,” he added, accusing regional powers of seeking to exploit the situation for their own interests.

With the conference “our duty was to show that we are not forgetting what is going on in Sudan and there are no double standards” as the world focuses on other crises.

Macron, who in May 2021 had hosted a conference in Paris on Sudan’s democratic transition, paid tribute to the 2018 uprising against authoritarian rule that many hoped would usher in a new future for the country.

“No one forgot the revolution of 2018 which raised up so much hope. It was ruined by cynicism… We will get there,” he said.

Act together now

The EU has pledged €350 million, while France has added €110 million, three sources said.

Germany already pledged €244 million earlier on Monday.

The United States said it will invest a total of $147 million (€138 million).

• Sudan conference opens in Paris to try and fix ‘forgotten’ crisis

“We can manage together to avoid a terrible famine catastrophe, but only if we get active together now,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said, adding that, in the worst-case scenario, one million people could die of hunger this year.

The internal conflict has killed over 14,000 people and displaced over 10 million people, according to the UN.

Humanitarian catastrophe

Efforts to help millions of people driven to the verge of famine by the war have been held up by continued fighting, restrictions imposed by the warring sides for a year, and demands on donors from other global disasters.

• Sudan on its knees after one year of brutal civil war
• France pledges billion euro loan to Sudan’s transitional government

Yet, this conflict in Sudan is threatening to expand, with fighting heating up in and around al-Fashir, a besieged aid hub and the last city in the western Darfur region. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge in the area.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are among the many NGOs that have been raising alarm.

“It is obvious that the series of crises – I am thinking of Gaza and Ukraine – have pushed the Sudanese crisis into the background,” French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said at the Paris conference.

The United Nations is seeking $2.7 billion (€2.5 billion) this year for aid inside Sudan, where 25 million people need assistance. An appeal that was just 6 percent funded before the Paris meeting.

It is seeking a further $1.4 billion for assistance in neighbouring countries that have housed hundreds of thousands of refugees.

The international aid effort also faces obstacles in gaining access to the country due to problems obtaining visas and permits from the army and allied government authorities, and the risk of looting in RSF-controlled areas.

The UN chief added at the end of the conference that “crimes against humanity” may have been committed in the acts of war.

 (with newswires) 

French jets at an air force base in Jordan intercepted Iranian drones and missiles over Jordan’s air space, “at Jordan’s request”, Macron said in an interview with BFM TV on Monday.

Israel “managed to stop almost all of these missiles and drones. Only seven drones landed,” Macron said, calling the operation a “victory for Israel.”

He called Iran’s attack, sending more than 300 drones, cruise and ballistic missiles towards Israel, a “disproportionate response” to a strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, earlier this month, which Tehran blamed on Israel.

“Instead of targeting Israeli interests outside Israel, they went after Israel on its soil, and attacked from their own soil, which is a first,” he said, calling it a “deep rupture”. 

Edge of a cliff

However, he said France does not want to see Israel retaliate, and “will do everything to avoid a conflagration” in the region.

Announcing plans to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu later Monday, Macron said Israel “should not respond by escalating, but rather by isolating Iran, convincing countries in the region that Iran is a danger, increasing sanctions, reinforcing pressure on nuclear activities, and then finding a path to peace in the region”.

“We need to be by Israel’s side to ensure its protection to the maximum, but also to call for a limit to avoid an escalation,” Macron said.

Iran claimed the attack “achieved all its objectives”.

The United States, which Macron tasked with “containing” Iran, has already warned Israel that it would not take part in any retaliatory action.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief joined calls for restraint.

“We’re on the edge of the cliff and we have to move away from it,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, told the Spanish Onda Cero radio station. “We have to step on the brakes and reverse gear.”

(with newswires)

“We will do everything to have an Olympic truce, we will work on it,” Macron said in an interview with BFM television on Monday, just over 100 days before the Games’ opening ceremony on 26 July.

The idea of a an Olympic truce dates back to ancient Greece, when warring rulers agreed to lay down arms – ékécheiria – during the games so that athletes and spectators could travel safely to and from the host country.

“The Games are also a time for diplomacy, for peace,” said Macron.

• International sports stars join forces in Paris to promote peace

“We will work on an Olympic truce. It is something on which I will actually try to engage many of our partners,” he said, referencing Israel’s war in the Gaza strip, the war in Ukraine and the ongoing conflict in Sudan.

Opening ceremony ‘plan B’

Macron, who was being interviewed from the Grand Palais exhibition hall, which has just reopened after three years of construction to get it ready to host the fencing and taekwondo competitions, also announced that France has alternatives to the opening ceremony, planned to be held on the Seine river, if there are security concerns.

The planned ceremony will have some 160 barges set off on a six-kilometre route on the river through the heart of the capital, in front of thousands of spectators, the first opening ceremony to be held outside a stadium setting.

• France seeks help from allies to bolster security during Paris Olympics

Macron said security forces will be mobilised at an exceptional level to ensure security, but he said that France is not naïve.

“If we think there are security risks we’ll have plan Bs, and even plan Cs,” he said.

In the face of security concerns, organisers could decide to shorten the itinerary of route, and just hold the ceremony around the Eiffel Tower, or even change the venue, and hold the ceremony indoors, in the Stade de France stadium.

Swimming in the Seine

Regardless of what happens on the Seine with the opening ceremony, Macron said he would still swim in the river, which he promised would be clean enough for the Olympics.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has also promised to swim in the Seine, despite sewer problems that have cancelled or delayed pre-Olympic events.

(with newswires)

“We are meeting deadlines and budget,” Philippe Jost, who heads the public body overseeing the project, told a French Senate committee last week.

Jost praised the work of the 250 companies and artisan groups involved in the reconstruction, which began in spring 2022 after rubble had been cleared and the foundations secured.

Signs the that project is nearing completion are clear. In February, some of the scaffolding was removed to unveil the cathedral’s new spire, adorned with a golden rooster and a cross.

The rooster, reimagined as a dramatic phoenix with licking, flamed feathers, symbolises resilience amid destruction after the devastating fire, officials said.

An anti-fire misting system is also being added under the cathedral’s roof.

The installation of the lead roof itself, which melted during the fire, is ongoing. The outer layer will be laid on a solid oak frame, rebuilt with dowelled wood and no metal bolts using techniques dating back hundreds of years.

Behind the remaining scaffolding, hundreds of workers are still racing against the clock to restore the rest of the cathedral in time for it to reopen its doors to the public.

• Notre-Dame fire revealed hidden marvels of Gothic building technique

Multiple delays

Rebuilding was delayed by decontamination efforts, after more than 300 tonnes of lead from the roof melted in the fire.

Authorities then had to halt work several times over the first winter due to high winds, before France went into Covid lockdown in early 2020.

Another setback came when the French army general in charge of the restoration, Jean-Louis Georgelin, died suddenly in August 2023 during a mountain hike. Jost replaced him last year.

• France pays tribute to General Georgelin, who led reconstruction of Notre-Dame

The budget for the reconstruction is expected to stay below the €550 million allocated, leaving another €150 million unspent.

The surplus will go towards “urgent” restoration of the cathedral’s stone exterior to be carried out from 2025, Jost said.

Unforgettable fire

The cathedral was built over two centuries between 1163 and 1345.

It was first restored in the 19th century under the planning of French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who also helped design the internal structure of the Statue of Liberty.

The fire broke out on the evening of 15 April 2019, beginning in the roof space and raging for around three hours.

More than 400 firefighters battled to save the monument. While they couldn’t save the spire from collapsing, the cathedral’s two towers remained standing.

• Notre-Dame fire: ‘I never expected to see something like this’

Major religious and artistic treasures kept inside the cathedral were carried to safety as the fire began.

Authorities have not found any evidence to suggest that the blaze was anything other than an accident.

An initial investigation conducted in the months after the fire concluded it may have been caused by an electrical malfunction. 

In a telegram sent to police prefects, Darmanin asked for “static and visible” security forces to be stationed in front of synagogues and the most “sensitive and emblematic buildings”, to be reinforced by the military’s Sentinelle mission.

The decision was made in the context of a “very high level of terrorist threat”, wrote Darmanin, and the presence of a “high level of anti-Semitic acts” as well as “international tensions”, including Iran’s attack on Israel on Saturday night.

As of Monday, “static, systematic guards” will be posted in front of Jewish schools at opening and closing times, and police will regularly patrol kosher stores and other “specialised businesses”.

A week ahead of the start of Passover, on 22 April, Darmanin asked for particular vigilance around locations that traditionally bring in crowds for the Jewish holiday.

(with AFP)

Tsitsipas began the tournament as world number 12 but produced sustained sequences of the dazzling tennis that have taken him as high as number three and to the French Open and Australian Open finals.

He claimed one of the most prestigious crowns on the men’s tour on Sunday with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Casper Ruud.

The 25-year-old Greek swept through the opening set in 36 minutes on the back of punishing forehands.

He stayed strong towards the end of the second set as his Norwegian opponent increased his intensity in an effort to level the encounter.

The triumph over the two-time French Open finalist moved Tsitsipas up five places in the ATP listings to seventh – his highest ranking since February. Ruud also rose four slots to sixth following his surge to the final.

“It’s been very difficult,” said Tsitsipas who has not won a tournament since beating Alex de Minaur in the final at Los Lobos in Mexico in August 2023.

Return

“So, to be back on the podiums and winning tournaments, it just feels amazing. I can’t thank enough my family, my friends for making this moment possible.”

During his run, Tsitsipas beat world number five Alex Zverev in the last eight and the world number two Jannik Sinner in the semi-final.

“Winning a third title is even more special than the first or the second time,” Tsitsipas added. “This is unbelievable for me.”

His victory in 96 minutes also allowed him to join Ilie Nastase, Bjorn Borg, Thomas Muster and Rafael Nadal as the only players to have won three or more titles in Monte Carlo since the tournament was inaugurated in 1968.

“I had to go out onto the court and show my tennis as I promised every single one of my team that I would make the most out of the occasion,” Tsitsipas added.

“I am glad I could do that. I showed some ruthless tennis. From the beginning to the end my play was cohesive and I was able to blend in a lot of different shots.”

The war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has sparked widespread hunger in the country after destroying infrastructure and markets and displacing more than eight million people.

The InterAgency Working Group (IAWG), a consortium of both local and international humanitarian organisations, is alerting the international community to the unfolding crisis as France hosts an international summit in Paris.

• France to host humanitarian conference for Sudan

The United States  has already promised to add more than a hundred million dollars in additional funding to spur an international response at the donor conference, the US Special Envoy to the North African country Tom Perriello said on Wednesday.

Sudan’s vast western region of Darfur was still struggling with the aftermath of the conflict which started in 2003 and only finished with a peace agreement in August 2020. This new war broke out in April 2023.

The first salvos were exchanged on 15 April 2023 between Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s army and Mohammed Hamdan Daglo’s (RSF).

Diplomats and aid workers immediately left Sudan.

More than 10 million children in Sudan have been caught in an active warzone and less than five kilometres away from gunfire and shelling during the past year of war, according to the NGO Save the Children.

Looting, fighting, air strikes between warring factions have isolated every region of the African country located in the northeast of the continent and which is more than three times the size of France.

Refugees and displaced people

The conflict has uprooted eight million people in Sudan, displacing 6.7 million inside the country, and 1.8 million in neighbouring countries.

Some 3.4 million refugees are now in urgent need of humanitarian help in Chad alone following the arrival of large numbers of Sudanese fleeing war.

• Chad, WFP warn of ‘catastrophic’ food insecurity amid influx of Sudan refugees

In all, more than 400,000 Sudanese refugees had already fled to Chad between 2003 and 2020, according to the UN.

“Provinces in the east of Chad are among the country’s most vulnerable zones with poor access to basic services, and the arrival of refugees drastically exacerbates the need,” French NGO Action Contre La Faim (ACF, or Action Against Hunger), said in a statement in April.

“It is urgent for donors to guarantee sustainable financing of the humanitarian response,” said ACF’s Chad director Henri-Noel Tatangang.

Only 4.5 percent of requirements are currently covered, he added.

Chad‘s transitional president Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno declared a “state of food and nutritional emergency” throughout the country in February.

Hundreds of thousands refugees are also fleeing the conflict to South Sudan and even Egypt. 

The United Nations had warned in March that life-saving food aid for hundreds of thousands of people pouring out of war-torn Sudan would grind to a halt in April without international funding.

It added it has been able to reach only ten percent of Sudan’s 48 million people, with the country on the brink of famine.

‘Catastrophic hunger’

The World Food Programme (WFP) recently said it had negotiated the delivery of the first two convoys of food aid into Sudan’s Darfur region in months.

One convoy, with 1,300 tonnes of supplies, has already arrived via the Adre border crossing with Chad into West and Central Darfur, two areas already experiencing ‘catastrophic hunger’ after being overrun by the Rapid Support Forces. Catastrophic hunger is the the term used for famine conditions by aid agencies.

Catastrophic hunger is also expected in Khartoum and West Darfur, which have seen the fiercest fighting, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS Net), as well as in many other areas of Darfur that house millions of displaced people.

More than 18 million people facing acute hunger need assistance, the WFP says.

“I fear that we will see unprecedented levels of starvation and malnutrition sweep across Sudan this lean season,” said WFP Sudan Country Director, Eddie Rowe, said in his latest statement, referring to the upcoming planting months.

The last cereal harvest only produced half of previous levels, the Food and Agriculture Organisation said, while prices of some goods have doubled.

Complicated access to aid

The belligerents are accused of using hunger as a weapon of war and diverting humanitarian aid.

This worries donors around the world, and could impact the quantity of aid obtained by humanitarians, according to Anette Hoffmann, an international relations researcher in The Hague, Netherlands.

She told RFI that she asks actors to adapt their methods. 

After decades of Omar al Bashir rule, which saw the manipulation and diversion of large amounts of aid, NGOs have learned lessons. 

“Channeling aid to local responders minimises the risk of seeking aid weaponised by both parties, which is definitely a practice that is ongoing,” she said.

“Using multiple entry points through the various borders by, cutting out middlemen, working with smaller portions or less concentration of aid, are all mechanisms that can, maybe not eliminate but mitigate the risk of aid diversion and starvation as a weapon of war.”

“This is the positive note on the 30 years of al-Bashir’s dictatorship, these learnings and this is the time to apply them.”

Meanwhile, drones hit the Sudanese city of al-Gadaref during the second week of April, eyewitnesses and the local governor said, bringing the country’s devastating war to a calm farming state.

Almost half a million displaced people have taken refuge in around Gadaref, the capital of al-Gadaref State.

Eyewitnesses said at least two drones had targeted military installations in Gadaref, which is located just to the east of Gezira.

They said they heard explosions as well as anti-aircraft missiles being fired from the ground.

The RSF has taken control of the capital Khartoum, neighbouring Gezira state as well as most of the Darfur and Kordofan regions in the west, while the army holds the north and east of Sudan including its main Red Sea port.

 (with newswires) 

Turkish Airlines announced that it will not resume flights to Israel until March next year.

At the same time, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced sanctions on Israel after aid deliveries to Gaza were blocked by Israel.

“We have submitted our request to join this aid operation with cargo planes belonging to our air force. We learned today that our request – which had been approved by Jordanian authorities – was rejected by Israel,” Fidan told a press conference.

“There can be no excuse for Israel preventing our attempts to send aid from the air to our Gazan brothers who are fighting hunger. In response to this situation, we have decided to take a series of new measures against Israel,” he said.

Ankara has banned the export of 54 products to Israel, including aviation fuel, steel, and cement.

Fidan said the export ban would remain in force until Israel declares a ceasefire and allows aid to be delivered unhindered.

• Turkey under fire after declaring Hamas a ‘liberation’ group
• Iran leader to visit Turkey as rapprochement continues over Gaza war

‘Hypocritical stance’

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz condemned the Turkish sanctions, accusing Ankara of supporting Hamas, and warned of retaliation.

The trade restrictions come amidst growing criticism in Turkey of the ruling AKP party’s stance of condemning Israel’s war on Hamas but maintaining trade relations, which the opposition claims supports the Israeli military war effort.

The government’s stance had become untenable, argues Soli Ozel, a lecturer in international relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.

There is “pressure from the public over this hypocritical stance on Israel”, he says. “You have all these AKP-related businesses or AKP politicians very closely, intimately trading with Israel and stuff. They [the government] had to respond somewhat; they had to show that they were doing something.”

Suspending Turkish Airlines flights was the “best, most effective, and most visible way of doing it”, according to Ozel.

“I think there must be over 30 daily flights, and this was supposed to be one of the most profitable lines that Turkish Airlines operate.”

Electoral meltdown

Last month, President Erdogan‘s AKP suffered its worst electoral defeat to date in nationwide local elections.

The Islamist Yeniden Refah Party – led by Fatih Erbakan, son of Erdogan’s former political mentor Necmettin Erbakan – targeted the AKP’s religious base, focusing his campaign on condemning the Turkish president for continuing to trade with Israel.

“Fatih Erbakan is once again an important figure apparently,” observes Istar Gozaydin, a specialist on Turkish religion and state relations at Istanbul’s Istinye University.

“I think the sort of end is near for AKP, but I guess it will be replaced by the Yeniden Refah Party,” he adds.

Crucial relations

Protests in Turkey are continuing against relations with Israel. However, Israeli analysts say trade and travel are vital to maintain bilateral ties at times of diplomatic tension. 

“It’s unprecedented; there’s for so long no flights from Turkey to Israel and from Israel to Turkey, and that’s a damage to the relationship,” warns Gallia Lindenstrauss, an expert with the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

“Also for business relationships, it’s very important to have a regular transport route.” 

• With spy raids, Turkey warns Israel not to seek Hamas revenge on Turkish soil
• Turkey talks tough on Israel but resists calls to cut off oil

“There were things that kept the relations going, even though the political relations were in crisis,” she explains.

“And one element was the economic relations, and part of this was also the travel connections and the transport connections between Turkey and Israel, and the fact that people-to-people relations were enabled.”

All eyes on Gaza

Even when Israeli forces in 2010 killed 10 Turkish citizens delivering aid by ship to Gaza, flights and trade between the countries were unaffected.

But analysts warn given the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas, this time could be different.

“This is a goddamn massacre that’s going on for six months that people are watching live,” says international relations expert Ozel.

“People are watching live, and this is truly unconscionable; that’s why the level of protest on this particular issue of trading with Israel has increased as the devastation became even worse.”

With Israeli forces poised to launch a new offensive into Gaza, protests against ongoing Turkish trade with Israel are predicted to grow – and add further pressure on Erdogan.

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.

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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!

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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 that 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 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. N.B.: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

This week’s quiz: On 24 February, I asked you to listen to the Spotlight on France podcast 106 – Alison Hird did a story on French girls and mathematics, and how they are not doing well in the subject – in fact, they’re failing maths at an astonishing rate.

As Alison noted, the reasons for girls not doing as well in maths as boys are multitudinous, most having to do with taught gender roles – but also because there are so few role models.

She cited a recent but rare type of film about a young Frenchwoman working on her doctorate in mathematics, in a film that made it to Cannes. You were to write in with the name of that film.

The answer is: The name of the film is Marguerite’s Theorem. It’s about a brilliant young female mathematician; she’s the only girl in a class of boys. A French-Swiss film co-written and directed by Anna Novion, and starring Ella Rumpf as Marguerite Hoffmann, it was featured at the 76th Cannes Film Festival in 2023.

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Kashif Khalil from Faisalabad, Pakistan: “What human quality, or characteristic, do you think is necessary to equip you to live a full and honest life?”

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Helmut Matt from Herbolzheim, Germany. Helmut is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations, Helmut!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Ferhat Bezazel, the president of the RFI Butterflies Club, Ain Kechera in West Skikda, Algeria; Hasina Zaman Hasi, a member of the RFI Amour Fan Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh; RFI Listeners Club members Anju Regmi from Biratnagar, Nepal; Zenon Teles, the president of the Christian – Marxist – Leninist – Maoist Association of Listening DX-ers in Goa, India, and RFI English listener Sima Paul from West Bengal, India.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Monta Re” by Amit Trivedi and Amitabah Bhattacharya, performed by the Hamelin Instrumental Band; The minuets I and II from French Suite No. 1 in d minor, BWV 812 by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Murray Perahia; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and the traditional “El Suïcidi i el Cant”, arranged by Marta Torrella and Helena Ros, and performed by Tarta Relena. 

Do you have a music request? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read Paul Myers’ article “History of Olympic gold, silver and bronze glitters in Paris museum”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 6 May to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 10 May 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,orform your own official RFI Club, click here. 

Turkey’s main opposition CHP (Republican People’s Party) gains in nationwide local elections are a significant reversal of the party’s fortunes after Erdogan’s resounding reelection last May.

“After the opposition’s loss in the May elections, everybody thought the opposition was in a state of despair,” explains Can Selcuki, head of Istanbul polling firm Economics Research.

“But that doesn’t seem to be the case, and it’s a turning point for the Turkish political landscape.

“It’s the first time since 1977 that CHP has managed to come out number one in the popular vote.”

Threat of authoritarianism

With much of the media under his control and the judiciary targeting dissent, critics claim Erdogan’s grip on power is tightening.

Addressing supporters on election night Ekrem Imamoglu, the re-elected CHP mayor for Istanbul who Erdogan personally tried to unseat, claimed his victory was a stand against the global threat of authoritarianism.

“Today is a pivotal moment not only for Istanbul, but for democracy itself. As we celebrate our victory, we send a message that will reverberate worldwide,” Imamoglu told thousands of jubilant supporters.

“Democracy’s decline is now ending,” continued the mayor, “Istanbul stands as a beacon of hope, a testament to the resilience of democratic values in the face of growing authoritarianism.”

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Muted reactions

Despite this,Turkey’s Western allies’ response to the CHP’s resounding victory was muted.

“There were no congratulations extended, even to Turkey’s democracy, let alone to the opposition itself,” Sezin Oney, a commentator for Turkey’s Politikyol news portal, said.

“[This] is a big contrast compared to the May elections because right after the May elections, the Western leaders, one after the other, extended their congratulations to Erdogan.

“So there is a recognition that Erdogan is here to stay, and they don’t want to make him cross. And given that there is the Ukraine war on one side and the Gaza war on the other, they want a stable Turkey.”

Turkey’s location, bordering the Middle East and Russia, makes Ankara a critical ally for Europe and the United States in international efforts to control migration and contain Russia.

Ahead of the March polls, Erdogan had been engaged in rapprochement with his Western allies, with Washington even inviting the Turkish President for a summit in May.

However, Erdogan could still pose a headache to his Western allies as he ramps up his nationalist rhetoric in the aftermath of his defeat.

“We are determined to show that terrorism has no place in the future of Türkiye and the region,” Erdogan said Thursday. “With the recent elections, this determination has been further strengthened.”

Massive military offensive

Meanwhile, Erdogan has warned that his army is poised to launch a massive military offensive into Northern Iraq and Syria against the Kurdish group PKK, including affiliates that work with American forces in fighting the Islamic State.

A crackdown on the PKK, analysts say, will play well with conservative nationalist voters. Those voters were the ones with which the opposition scored its biggest successes in Central Turkey – a region known as Anatolia – for the first time in a generation.

“CHP has never been successful in those places before. These are places that are considered to be religiously conservative, or at least conservative,” Istar Gozaydin, a Turkish religion and state relations expert at Istanbul’s Istinye University, said.

“And that’s also valid for Central Anatolia. Central Anatolia is usually much more nationalist and much more religiously sensitive, but for the first time, they’ve been successful.”

It is not the first time Erdogan has sought to play the nationalist card. After the 2015 general election in which the president’s AK Party lost its parliamentary majority, Erdogan launched military operations against the PKK across Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish region, leveling many city centres.

Erdogan’s action resulted in his AK Party taking power in a second election later that year.

Fix the economy

“I’m sure there’s a temptation,” said analyst Can Selcuki, “but the facts on the ground do not allow it. Erdogan needs to fix the economy.”

Turkey’s near 70% inflation and 50% interest rates, were widely seen as key factors in AK Party’s defeat. But analyst Sezin Oney of Turkey’s Politikyol news portal says a new conflict could change the political rules of the game.

“The economy is a concern, but there is a war psyche, then he [Erdogan] might be propagating,” Oney added..

Some Turkish analysts say the opposition victory will be viewed privately as inconvenient by some of Turkey’s Western allies coming at a time of growing cooperation with Erdogan, with the fear now that Erdogan’s resounding defeat could make the Turkish leader unpredictable at a critical time in both the Middle East and Russia’s war with Ukraine.

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.

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!

Facebook News: There’s a “new and improved” Facebook page for you, the RFI English Listeners Forum. 

It’s for everyone who reads and listens to us and wants to connect with others, so ask to join, and I’ll sign you up!

The RFI Listeners Club page and the RFI English Clubs page no longer exist; if you belonged to the RFI English Clubs page and not the RFI Listeners Club page, you’ll need to ask to join. I promise I won’t click “Decline” 😊 

Here’s your job: send me your photos for the banner! Send them to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

More tech news: Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Just go to YouTube and write RFI English in the search bar, and there we are! Be sure and subscribe to see all our videos, and Erwan has even made a weekly Sound Kitchen promo for you to hear. Don’t miss out!

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 counselled 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 staff 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 that 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 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. N.B.: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

This week’s quiz: On 17 February, I asked you a question about Paul Myers’ final article on the Africa Cup of Nations, which he had been covering for us for a month in Côte d’Ivoire. Côte d’Ivoire won their third “continental crown”, as Paul put it – they beat Nigeria 2-1 in the final.

You were to send in the answer to this question: “What is the name of the Côte d’Ivoire player who was the first to hold the Africa Cup of Nations 2023 trophy?”

The answer is: Max Gradel. As Paul wrote in his article: “It was also a nice touch to allow Max Gradel – the oldest player in the Cote d’Ivoire squad – the honour of being the first player to hoist the 2023 Cup of Nations trophy.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Debashis Gope from West Bengal, India: “What are you doing to prevent climate change?” 

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

The winners are: Hari Madugula, the president of the Young Stars Radio Club in Hyderabad, India. Hari is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations, Hari!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week is Kolimuddin, a member of the RFI International DX Radio Listeners Club in West Bengal, India, and RFI English listeners Bidhan Chandra Sanyal, also from West Bengal; Faiza Zainab, a member of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan, and Tara Regmi from Biratnagar, Nepal.  

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Joy” by Avishai Cohen, performed by the Avishai Cohen Trio; “Smoking Guns” by Steve Shehan, performed by Steve Shehan and Friends; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Setembro” by Gilson Peranzzetta and Ivan Lins, performed by the Ivan Lins Orchestra.

Do you have a music request? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read our article “French Foreign Minister expects ‘clear messages’ from China to Russia on Ukraine”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 29 April to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 4 May 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,orform your own official RFI Club, click here. 

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.

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!

We have a new RFI Listeners Club member to welcome: Orlando Teamah from Monrovia, Liberia.

Welcome Orlando! So glad you have joined us!

This week’s quiz: On 3 February, I asked you a question about the French farmers and their political action campaign – which has not cooled off. You were to re-read our article “France seeks change to EU nature laws in bid to appease farmers” and answer this question: in which other European countries are farmers striking?

The answer is, to quote our article: “While farmers in Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Belgium have also taken to the streets, those in France – Europe’s largest agriculture producer – complain they are being further penalised by restrictions on pesticides that are harsher than in neighbouring countries.”

Farmers in other countries than those above have been striking, too – Hans Verner Lollike noted that Denmark’s farmers were, but that there was too much snow for them to drive their tractors to the capitol or block roads!

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Rodrigo Hunrichse from Ciudad de Concepción in Chile: “For you, which age is the best? Childhood? Teenager? Young Adult? Adult? Middle Age? Senior? Old Age? Why?” 

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Nasyr Muhammad from Katsina State, Nigeria. Nasyr is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations, Nasyr!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Saleem Akhtar Chadhar, the president of the RFI Seven Stars Radio Listeners Club in District Chiniot, Pakistan, and Nuraiz Bin Zaman, who’s a member of the RFI Amour Fan Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh.

There’s also RFI Listeners Club member Habib ur Rehman Sehal, who is also the president of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan.  Last but not least, RFI English listener Adiba Ava, from Munshiganj, Bangladesh.  

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: The “Prelude” to the Partita for Violin Solo No. 3 in E, BWV 1006 by Johann Sebastien Bach, performed by Philippe Honoré; “Take me home, country roads” by John Denver, arranged by Graham Byrd; “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 “Hommage aux Chanteuses Kabyles Anciennes” by Ferroudja Saidani, performed by Saidani and her ensemble.

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read our article “Scaled-back opening ceremony for Paris Olympics to offer 326,000 tickets” which will help you with the answer.

You have until 1 April to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 6 April 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. 

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear about a European “cook-off”: 20 young chefs from Europe compete for the chance to make it to the international finals of the cooking competition founded by the beloved French chef, Paul Bocuse. 

The quiz will be back next Saturday, 6 April. Be sure and tune in! 

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.