“We are all worried about the regional situation,” Sejourne said after meeting parliament speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.

France “supports Lebanon, and in this context and in the context of regional peace, we hope for the ceasefire… in the Gaza Strip, which… will be necessary to guarantee peace in the region,” he said.

Hezbollah has traded near daily fire with the Israeli army since the Palestinian militant group Hamas‘s 7 October attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.

Fears of an all-out conflict have spiralled since an Israeli strike killed a top Hezbollah commander last month.

Hours later, an attack blamed on Israel killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, prompting both Hezbollah and Iran to vow retaliation.

Supporting diplomacy

Before his arrival, Sejourne said in a statement on X that his visit aimed to “support ongoing diplomatic efforts towards de-escalation in the region”.

His trip comes a day after US envoy Amos Hochstein visited Beirut and said there was “no more time to waste” for a Gaza ceasefire, noting it would “also help enable a diplomatic resolution” in Lebanon and prevent a wider war.

In Beirut, Sejourne met with other senior officials including Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.

He said he carried a “very simple” message of de-escalation addressed to Lebanese authorities “and which will also be addressed to other countries in the region”.

France, Germany, Britain call for Gaza ceasefire ‘without delay’

Sejourne also expressed support for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, saying France was working to “reinforce and provide a mandate” for the peacekeepers for the next 12 months, as its expiry approaches at the end of August.

He also said France supported “reinforcing the Lebanese army” in the country’s south.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 ended a 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and called for the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers to be the only armed forces deployed in south Lebanon.

Calls have increased for the full implementation of the resolution as a way of ending the current violence.

The cross-border clashes since October have killed some 570 people in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters but also including at least 118 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.

Two Rafale fighter jets returning to a military base after a supply mission to Germany crashed into each other around noon, according to the French Air and Space Force.

Two pilots in one of the aircraft were killed. They were identified as Captain Sebastien Mabire, a flight instructor, and Lieutenant Matthis Laurens, who was being trained.

The pilot of the other plane was able to eject and was found near the plane’s wreckage in Colombey-les-Belles, in north-eastern France.

French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu is expected to travel Thursday to the Saint-Dizier Air Force base, where all the pilots were based.

Accidents involving Rafale fighter jets, which France sells to militaries around the world, are rare.

In December 2007, a Rafale crashed near Neuvic in southwestern France after the pilot became disorientated, according to investigators.

Another pilot died in September 2009 when two Rafale jets went down as they were returning to the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier off Perpignan after a test flight.

(with newswires)

“India will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to organise the Olympics in India in 2036,” Modi said in his 11^th annual address to the South Asian nation.

“This is the age-old dream of 140 crore (1.4 billion) Indians … it is their aspiration … This dream has to be built with your cooperation and support,” the 73-year-old added.

The declaration of intent came on the heels of India initiating a dialogue with the Future Host Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in a first step towards the bidding process, the government has told parliament.

Modi’s pitch

Modi, kicking off India’s 78th Independence Day celebrations, argued the country’s successes in hosting global events established its capacity.

“India organising the G20 Summit (last September) has proven that we have the capability to organise large-scale events,” he said in Hindi language as the day was celebrated in several countries.

Besides India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, which hosted the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and Turkey are strong contenders for the 2036 Games.

Modi’s potential bid is expected to draw the backing of India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani who runs the 100-billion-euro Reliance Industries group,  media reported.

IOC President Thomas Bach has said India had a “strong case” to stake its claim for the 2036 Games.

The 2028 Games will be held in Los Angeles while Brisbane will host the 2032 fixture.

India’s image took a battering during the shambolic 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi amid allegations large scale corruption was a cause for the chaos.

India offer jobs and perks worth billions in first budget after polls

India’s struggle

A total of 117 Indian athletes competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics but won a single silver and five bronze while the hunt was on for 69 medals in 16 sporting events.

Analysts say India must sponsor unproven talent to transform into a sporting nation before hosting the Games 12 years from now.

“Our elite athletes now get the facilities that they want… while at the grassroots level, sport still craves for attention and support..” sports writer Sashank Shekhar said in comments published in the Times of India a day after the Paris Games ended on 11 August.

In 2017, Modi set up centres in 679 districts and handed out millions of euros to promote sports in cricket-crazy India, which has so far won 41 Olympics medals with athlete Norman Pritchard opening the account with dual silver in Paris 1900.

Modi also extended his wishes to athletes scheduled to participate in the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games which kicks off on 28 August.

India fields its largest-ever contingent of 84 athletes who will compete in 12 events.

2047 dream

On Thursday, Modi also pledged to continue on his government’s “path of reform” to turn India into a developed nation by 2047 – the year the country marks its 100^th year of freedom from British colonial rule.

“Before independence, 400 million Indians showed courage, dedication and bravery and broke the shackles of colonial rule despite all adversaries.

“If 400 million Indians could do this, then 1.4 billion Indians could do wonders. Despite all challenges we can make India into a developed nation by 2047,” he added in a 90-minute speech that stressed India’s economic boom.

Last year, India overtook Britain as the fifth largest economy and it is set to surpass Japan and Germany and grab the third slot by 2027, according to Morgan Stanley global financial services firm.

But critics say a brutal lockdown during the pandemic, reckless project in 2016 to trash 86 percent of cash and taxes have pushed unemployment to record heights, crashed small businesses, hit India’s middle class and pushed the poor deeper into poverty.

Thursday’s commemoration is an “unbreakable recognition” of the heroes of 15 August 1944, Macron said Thursday in a speech commemorating the 80th anniversary of Operation Dragoon, which has was overshadowed by the Normandy landings two months earlier, but that was key to ending World War II in Europe.

In Boulouris-sur-Mer, on the coast where close to 500 soldiers who died for France lay buried, Macron spoke to an audience that included African heads of state as part of an homage to the contribution of soldiers recruited, often forcibly, from France’s colonies.

Soldiers were “conscious of fighting for a cause much larger than the cliffs, the danger or their lives,” Macron said, adding that they were “ready to die so that France can live freely”.

• France honours overlooked heroes of 1944 Provence landings, 80 years on

‘Foreigners were key’

“There would not have been an Allied victory without the contribution of other people, without foreigners,” Cameroonian President Paul Biya said in a speech.

“Africans paid a large price for the Allied victories,” he said, adding that the fight was “fought together, to defend the universal values and ideals of peace and justice”.

Biya was one of only six African heads of state who accepted the invitation to attend the commemoration – Cameroon Central African Republic, Comoros, Gabon, Morocco and Togo – as several stayed away over diplomatic tensions, including Niger, Mali and Algeria.

Burkina Faso sent an envoy. Tunisia, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal sent ministers, where as Chad and Benin sent their ambassadors.

The commutation was interrupted by the risk of violent storms along the coast, and nearly all of the events were cancelled, including a reenactment of the landing on Lido beach in Toulon and a parachutist landing.

Macron was to hold a working meeting with the heads of state after the ceremony.

(with newswires)

The unrest broke out over plans to expand the electoral roll, which indigenous Kanak people fear would diminish their chances for independence, leading to widespread protests, roadblocks, arson and looting.

Paris responded by deploying thousands of troops and police to the territory.

French police shot and killed an alleged gunman during clashes in New Caledonia on Thursday, local prosecutors said, upping to 11 the toll during three months of unrest in the French Pacific territory.

The shooting occurred in the eastern town of Thio as police were clearing a bridge, according to prosecutor Yves Dupas. 

An officer was hit in the face by a rock and then police were shot at several times, Dupas said.

• Deadly unrest in New Caledonia tied to old colonial wounds
• Key dates in New Caledonia’s history

‘Numerous investigations’

They shot back and wounded two protesters, one of whom died on his way to a hospital, he said, adding that “numerous investigations” have been opened into the incident and that he expected to announce more details later in the day. 

In mid-July another alleged gunman was killed in similar circumstances, when police allegedly came under gunfire while clearing roadblocks in the Mont-Dore district outside the capital Noumea and shot back, killing a man. 

Unrest broke out in mid-May in New Caledonia, almost 17,000 kilometres from Paris, over a planned expansion of the electoral roll that indigenous Kanak people fear would leave them in a permanent minority, crushing their hopes for independence.

Some barricaded roads and burned or looted cars, businesses and public buildings, prompting Paris to send thousands of troops and police in response.

The electoral change – which requires altering the French constitution – has effectively been in limbo since President Emmanuel Macron dissolved parliament for new elections that in July produced a lower house with no clear majority.

Arrests of pro-independence figures on June 19 have further stirred discontent and unrest.

“Today, the emergency committee met and advised me that in its view, the situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted that advice,” the WHO’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists after a meeting of experts on Wednesday.

A public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) is the WHO’s highest level of alert, and it triggers emergency responses in countries around the world and aims to accelerate research, funding and public health measures and cooperation to contain the disease.

The decision follows the African Union’s health authority declaring its own public health emergency Tuesday over the outbreak that has been spreading at an alarming rate.

Surge in cases

More than 17,000 suspected cases and more than 500 deaths have been reported this year, mainly among children in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Cases have now been detected in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda in the past month.

Mpox, previously called monkeybox, was first discovered in humans in DRC in the 1970s, and has since spread.

Endemic to central and western Africa, the mpox virus is transmitted to humans by infected animals, but it can also be passed between humans through close physical contact.

Usually mild, it causes fever, muscular aches and large pus-filled skin lesions, but it can be fatal.

Second emergency

A PHEIC over mpox was declared from July 2022 to May 2023 over a different, less deadly strain of the virus – Clade II.

Cases were reported across Europe and north America, with over 2,000 people infected in France.

Clade IIb, which has been surging in the DRC since September 2023, causes more severe illness, with a higher fatality rate.

Vaccines and behaviour change among men who have sex with men helped stop the spread of Clade II, which was mostly passed through sexual contact and affected mostly gay and bisexual men

The WHO said transmission routes of the new strain require further study.

Funding, action

Tedros said on Wednesday that WHO had released $1.5 million in contingency funds and plans to release more in the coming days, calling on donors to help raise the initial $15 million needed for the agency’s response plan.

The Red Cross, whose international federation expressed “profound concern” over the spread of the virus, said it was scaling up preparedness measures across Africa, notably in eastern DRC.

With its broad network, the IFRC said it was prepared to “play a crucial role in containing the spread of the disease, even in the hard-to-reach areas where the need is the greatest”.

(with newswires)

The fear of Iran striking back and provoking an unprecedented escalation of violence in the Middle East has prompted a flurry of diplomacy in the region.

Major western powers on Monday urged Iran and its allies to “refrain from attacks that would further escalate regional tensions and jeopardise the opportunity to agree [to] a ceasefire [between Israel and Hamas] and the release of hostages”.

In a joint statement France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy expressed support for the defence of Israel against Iranian aggression and against attacks by Iran-backed terrorist groups.

They also told Iran to “stand down its ongoing threats of a military attack against Israel and discussed the serious consequences for regional security should such an attack take place”.

Following up, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned Iran’s new reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian in a telephone call that there was “a serious risk of miscalculation and now was the time for calm and careful consideration”.

Pezeshkian rebuffed the message.

“A punitive response to an aggressor is a right of nations and a solution for stopping crimes and aggression,” Pezeshkian said.

Pezeshkian has acknowledged he will follow the orders of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who already said Israel “paved the way for a severe punishment upon itself with this action”.

• Hezbollah, Iran condemn Israeli killing of Hamas leader in Tehran strike
• Macron says war in Gaza ‘must stop’, backs mediation efforts

Just days before the Hamas leader was killed, French President Emmanuel Macron had phoned to Pezeshkian to congratulate him after he was sworn in as Iran’s new president.

The French leader had told Pezeshkian that “all must be done to avoid a military escalation” between Israel and Lebanon after a deadly rocket strike in the Golan Heights blamed on Tehran-backed Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the Majdal Shams rocket attack, which killed 12 youths on Saturday, though the group claimed multiple strikes on Israeli military positions that day.

Boiling point

Macron asked Iran to call for restraint, saying that a new war would have “devastating consequences for the region”, which is already on edge as a result of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

Tensions have risen to a boiling point after Haniyeh’s assassination.

This week, the US military instructed the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to sail more quickly to the area.

The US also has ordered the USS Georgia guided missile submarine into the Mideast, while the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group has been in the Gulf of Oman.

• France intercepted Iranian drones during attack on Israel

Additional F-22 fighter jets have flown into the region, while the USS Wasp, a large amphibious assault ship carrying F-35 fighter jets, is in the Mediterranean Sea.

France already showed that it will stand by Israel militarily, when French jets intercepted Iranian drones and missiles over Jordan’s air space in April.

Israel managed to stop almost all of these missiles and drones. Only seven drones landed,” Macron said in an interview with BFM TV, 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, which Tehran blamed on Israel.

(with newswires)

The controversy has rapidly become a hot-button issue outside the ring, with politicians and celebrities including Donald Trump and Elon Musk weighing in.

The investigation was opened Tuesday into “cyberharassment” following the high-profile gender row at the Games, the Paris public prosecutor’s office told AFP.

The athlete’s lawyer Nabil Boudi said last week that Khelif, 25, had filed a complaint for online harassment, calling it a “fight for justice.”

“The investigation will determine who was behind this misogynist, racist and sexist campaign, but will also have to concern itself with those who fed the online lynching,” he said at the time.

The Central Office for Combating Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes has been tasked with the investigation.

‘Born a woman’

According to US magazine Variety, billionaire entrepreneur Musk and Harry Potter author JK Rowling have been named in the complaint.

Former US President Trump, who is the Republican party’s nominee in the 2024 presidential race, would also be part of the investigation, Variety said, citing the lawyer.

Khelif won the women’s 66kg final against China’s Yang Liu in a unanimous points decision, having been the focus of intense scrutiny in the French capital during the Olympics.

Together with Taiwan‘s Lin Yu-ting, who won the 57kg women’s final, Khelif was disqualified from last year’s world championships after they failed gender eligibility testing.

However they were cleared to compete in Paris, setting the stage for one of the biggest controversies of the Games.

The row in Paris erupted after Khelif won her bout against Italy‘s Angela Carini in just 46 seconds with two strong punches to the Italian’s nose.

Trump said he would “keep men out of women’s sports” and his running mate JD Vance described the bout as a “grown man pummelling a woman in a boxing match”.

Rowling also weighed in, saying on X that the Paris Olympics would be “forever tarnished by the brutal injustice done to Carini”.

The International Boxing Association’s Russian president and Kremlin-linked oligarch, Umar Kremlev, has targeted both athletes, claiming that Khelif and Lin had undergone “genetic testing that shows that these are men”.

Macron must face political truths as Olympics euphoria wears off

The IBA were responsible for the world championships in 2023 that Lin and Khelif were thrown out of, but the IOC cleared them to box in Paris.

Khelif said she is “a woman like any other”.

“I was born a woman, lived a woman and competed as a woman,” she told reporters about her eligibility.

“They hate me and I don’t know why,” she said of the IBA.

‘Defamation campaign’ 

Russia‘s team has been banned from the Paris Olympics over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

On Monday, Khelif received a hero’s welcome at Algiers airport, with crowds cheering the boxer with chants of “Tahia Imane” (Long live Imane).

An editorial in government daily El Moudjahid praised Khelif.

“Imane’s victory is also a victory for the oppressed and the excluded, but above all it is a victory for the law, which for too long has been trampled by the logic of the powerful, who are greedy for domination and adept at double-standard policies.”

Asked if the International Olympic Committee was prepared to consider reviewing the gender issue, its president Thomas Bach has said: “If someone is presenting us a scientifically solid system how to identify men and women, we are the first ones to do it.

“But what is not possible that someone is saying this is not a woman just by looking at somebody or by falling prey to a defamation campaign by a not credible organisation with highly political interest.”

The four-year Ukraine Facility plan went into force on 1 March of this year.

The EU will provide up to €50 billion in grants and loans, aiming to play a significant role in Ukraine’s recovery, reconstruction and modernisation.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Tuesday that the government expected to receive one more tranche from the Ukraine Facility by the end of the year, and would channel the funds to finance social and humanitarian spending.

The announcement comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged his country’s incursion into Russia for the first time in a video message.

On Monday Zelensky said the military operation in the Kursk region was an attempt to stop Russian shelling.

“It is only fair to destroy Russian terrorists where they are, where they launch their strikes from,” he said.

Ukraine summit strives for broad consensus to lean on Russia to end war

Zelensky added that this tactic can be useful for bringing peace closer and that “Russia must be forced into peace”.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy said Kyiv was not interested in “taking over” Russian territory and defended Ukraine’s actions as “absolutely legitimate”.

“The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace… the sooner the raids by the Ukrainian defence forces into Russia will stop,” Tykhy told a press conference.

Negotiating position

An analysis by French news agency AFP of data provided by the Institute for the Study of War indicated that Ukrainian troops had advanced over an area of at least 800 square kilometres of Russian territory as of Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to “dislodge” Ukrainian troops. He told a televised meeting with officials on Monday that “one of the obvious goals of the enemy is to sow discord” and “destroy the unity and cohesion of Russian society”.

Putin also said Ukraine wanted to “improve its negotiating position” for any future talks with Moscow.

The European Union is not involved in Ukraine’s military offensive in Russia but notes that they support Ukraine’s right to defend itself, according to Nabila Massrali, an EU Commission spokesperson.

“The EU is not involved and not commenting on the operational developments on the front line,” Massrali said.

“We are fully standing behind Ukraine’s legitimate exercise of its inherent rights for self-defence and efforts to restore its territorial integrity and sovereignty and to push back and fight the illegal aggression by Russia.”

(with newswires)

War has raged since April 2023 between the Sudanese army under the country’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

“The talks have started,” a spokesman for the US mission in Geneva told AFP, adding that there was “no change” to the non-participation of the Sudanese government.

The brutal conflict has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

While the RSF is taking part in the talks, the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) are unhappy with the format arranged by Washington.

“The RSF delegation has arrived in Switzerland. Our US delegation, and the collective international partners, technical experts and Sudanese civil society, are still waiting on the SAF. The world is watching,” Tom Perriello, the US special envoy for Sudan, said before the talks began.

He urged the government to “seize the opportunity”, saying after the opening session that it was “high time for the guns to be silenced”.

Humanitarian access

The talks, which could last up to 10 days, are being held behind closed doors in an undisclosed location in Switzerland.

They are co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, with the African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations acting as a steering group.

Sudanese Media Minister Graham Abdelkader said ahead of the talks that the government was rejecting “any new observers or participants” – after Washington “insisted on the participation of the United Arab Emirates as an observer”.

The Sudanese army has repeatedly accused the UAE of backing the RSF.

Sudan at ‘cataclysmic breaking point’ amid multiple crises, UN warns

Without the SAF, other attendees will press on with the talks’ agenda.

The fighting has forced one in five people to flee their homes, while tens of thousands have died. More than 25 million across the country – more than half its population – face acute hunger.

“Our focus is to move forward to achieve a cessation of hostilities, enhance humanitarian access and establish enforcement mechanisms that deliver concrete results,” Perriello said.

Pressure on Burhan

Previous talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah came to nothing.

Ramtane Lamamra, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ personal envoy on Sudan, held separate meetings in Geneva last month with the warring parties to discuss humanitarian aid and protecting civilians.

He is leading the UN observer delegation and wants “tangible progress towards an immediate ceasefire”, urging both sides to “commit to genuine dialogue”, the United Nations said.

Alan Boswell, the Horn of Africa project director at the International Crisis Group, said Burhan was facing “serious internal divisions”, with some in his camp in favour of talks and others “fiercely opposed”.

“Restarting the talks at all would be a breakthrough, given that there have not been formal talks since last year,” he told AFP.

Notably, with the United States in charge, and Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt present, “that puts all the main outside actors with leverage over the warring parties in one room together”, he added.

A government no-show leaves Burhan under mounting external pressure, if he is seen as “the main obstacle to ending the war”, Boswell said.

No let-up in fighting

Cameron Hudson, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Africa programme, said Washington had “tried to create the illusion of momentum” to force the SAF’s hand, “but it was a bluff and the SAF saw through it.”

“They know that Washington does not have the stomach to impose real consequences on them for non-compliance,” he told AFP.

“The only way to get them to talk is through brute force: either the risk of losing the war on the battlefield, the risk of real diplomatic isolation and the risk of real economic devastation for them. None of that pressure currently exists.”

There has been no let-up in the fighting.

The Emergency Lawyers – a group of volunteer lawyers who have documented human rights violations during the war – reported “increased indiscriminate artillery shelling by the RSF on civilian areas” this week, particularly in El-Fasher and Omdurman, where they report strikes on a school, a bus carrying civilian passengers and a hospital.

An eyewitness in Omdurman, across the Nile from the capital Khartoum, reported to AFP “heavy artillery shelling from the RSF for the seventh day straight”.

The International Organization for Migration said famine and floods were adding to a catalogue of challenges facing millions of people in the war-torn country, amid the world’s largest displacement crisis.

“Make no mistake: these conditions will persist and worsen if the conflict and restrictions on humanitarian access continue,” Othman Belbeisi, IOM Middle East and North Africa director, said in a statement.

“Without an immediate, massive, and coordinated global response, we risk witnessing tens of thousands of preventable deaths in the coming months. We are at breaking point – a catastrophic, cataclysmic breaking point.”

War has raged since April 2023 between the Sudanese army under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The conflict has left tens of thousands dead, according to the UN.

The IOM said new figures showed more than 10.7 million people are internally displaced within Sudan, with many uprooted several times over.

Meanwhile 2.3 million have fled across the borders into neighbouring countries.

Infrastructure washed away in floods

Flooding has displaced more than 20,000 people since June across 11 of Sudan‘s 18 states, the IOM said, adding that critical infrastructure had been washed away, disrupting the delivery of vital supplies.

Overall, more than 45,000 people have been displaced over the last two weeks, with more than 38,000 of them fleeing across the borders.

Deadly floods in Sudan displace thousands, hinder aid delivery

The conflict has pushed the Zamzam camp near the besieged Darfur city of El-Fasher into famine, according to the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) review.

The IOM said humanitarian and protection conditions in Sudan were “among the worst in the world”.

Sudan could soon have 10 million internally displaced people, UN agency says

“Restrictions on humanitarian access, including impediments imposed by parties to the conflict, have severely curtailed the ability of aid organisations to scale up and save lives, especially during the current rainy season,” the Geneva-based agency said.

“Urgent funding” is required for “those still in desperate need of food, shelter, water, health services, and specialised protection.”

(with AFP)

Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe and his Deputy Tundu Lissu – both former presidential candidates – were “seriously beaten during the arrest” on Monday, the party’s deputy secretary general Benson Kigaila said on Tuesday.

Secretary general John Mnyika and the head of the party in the southern Nyasa region Joseph Mbilinyi were also beaten, Kigaila said.

Lissu, who survived an assassination bid in 2017 and had previously lived in exile for several years, “was dragged by the officers before he was thrown to the vehicle”, Kigaila told reporters.

Mbowe, 62, was detained on Monday at the airport in Mbeya, the day after Lissu and other officials were arrested.

Tanzania arrests top opposition figure Lissu in mass round-up

The detained opposition leaders had been escorted from Mbeya to Dar es Salaam where they were released on Tuesday, Kigaila said.

“After their release this morning, they individually went to hospital and we will give their health status in future,” he added.

Over 500 arrests

As many as 520 people were arrested across the country, according to a police statement, before the Chadema youth wing’s rally that had been expected to draw thousands of young people.

Rights groups and government opponents have raised fears the arrests could signal a return to the authoritarian policies of Tanzania’s late president John Magufuli, who died suddenly in March 2021.

His successor President Samia Suluhu Hassan had vowed a return to “competitive politics” and eased some restrictions on the opposition and the media, including lifting a six-year ban on opposition gatherings.

Samia Suluhu Hassan sworn in as Tanzania’s first female president

Awadh Haji, police chief of operations and training, confirmed the Chadema releases but warned that police would “take strict legal action against any individual or group involved in disrupting peace”.

Officers will continue to closely monitor the situation, he said, and will “strengthen security in the city of Mbeya and all other regions of Tanzania to prevent any planned acts of violence”.

Hundreds of youth supporters were also rounded up by police as they travelled into the city, according to the party. About 10,000 had been expected to meet in Mbeya to mark International Youth Day on Monday.

But police accused Chadema of planning violent demonstrations and made reference to widespread anti-government protests in neighbouring Kenya, led largely by young activists.

Worrying signs

Rights groups and government opponents voiced alarm at the developments as Tanzania gears up for local and national elections.

“The mass arrests and arbitrary detention of figures from the Chadema party, as well as their supporters and journalists, is a deeply worrying sign in the run-up to local government elections in December 2024 and the 2025 general election,” Amnesty International said.

Tanzania’s opposition rallies against ‘cosmetic’ electoral reforms

“The Tanzanian authorities must urgently respect people’s rights to freedom of expression and association.”

Tanzania’s Legal and Human Rights Centre also denounced the arrests, noting that the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and another opposition party ACT Wazalendo had been able to hold youth day rallies at the weekend without any issues.

Lissu, 56, a fierce critic of the CCM, returned to Tanzania in 2023 after Hassan lifted the ban on opposition rallies. He had spent the previous five years largely in exile in Belgium, returning only briefly to run for the presidency in 2020.

Mbowe was also previously arrested in July 2021 ahead of a Chadema meeting to demand constitutional reforms but was freed the following March after prosecutors dropped terrorism charges against him.

(with AFP)

While smaller nations on the continent came home with multiple medals, the “giant of Africa” left empty-handed for the first time since the 2012 London Olympics.

Despite fielding continental champions like 100m hurdles record holder Tobi Amusan, Africa’s most populous nation did not live up to Olympic expectations.

A day after the Olympics closed, former and current Olympians lashed out at the country’s sporting federations calling for a shakeup in organisations they say failed their athletes.

“I must apologise to our compatriots and reflect on what went wrong,” Sports Minister John Owan Enoh said on social media after Paris.

He said when he assumed the ministry less than a year before the Games, he learned that Nigeria’s Olympics preparations had not even started.

“As a country, we deserve more,” he said. “Let’s turn the disastrous outcome of the 2024 Olympics to a huge positive for Nigerian sports.”

• Africa and the 2024 Paris Olympic Games
• Who are the African athletes to watch out for at Paris Olympics?

Nigeria’s best haul in the Olympics was in Atlanta in 1996 when the team won two golds, one silver and three bronzes. Beijing brought five medals in 2008, but there were zero in London four years later.

Atlanta Olympics gold medal winner in the long jump, Chioma Ajunwa, said Nigeria’s sporting federations needed a shakeup to bring in sports people who knew what they were doing.

“One thing I think the people in the helm of affairs should do is to overhaul the sports department in Nigeria. They should stop recycling the old administrative officers that never know what they are doing,” she told Arise News channel.

“When you put people who know their onions, we would not be speaking in this manner.

“Our problem is that we are using those that never knew what sports is, those that never did sports in their life. When you go to the ministry of sports, before 3pm, they have all gone home.”

​​​​​(with newswires)

In the run-up to the Games, snap elections called by Macron plunged the country into an execpected political crisis.

Macron, who is yet to appoint a new prime minister, said on Monday that the Olympics had shown the world “the true face of France”.

He added: “We don’t want life to get back to normal.”

It was a sentiment echoed in the media. Le Monde said the Games had “offered the capital and the entire country more than two weeks of fervour and happiness”.

In The Times, sportswriter Owen Slot wrote that for 17 days “the stereotype of the indifferent, grumpy Frenchman went missing”. 

Paris, he added, had made the Olympic Games “look more beautiful than ever before”.

Paris Olympic fortnight sets high standard for future Games

Punitive measures

After two weeks of bread and games, the pressure is on Macron to act rapidly.

The first major deadline is deciding the 2025 budget. In normal times, a major outline is usually ready by mid-August to be submitted to parliament for review on 1 October.

This year marks an exception.

Outgoing economy minister Bruno Le Maire did submit his recommendations (including significant credit reductions) to the prime minister’s office. But in absence of a PM, ministries are in the dark as to the credit allocations they can expect in the coming year.

The French constitution provides mechanisms to avoid the local equivalent of a government shutdown, but the scope for manoeuvre is limited, especially since no party gained an absolute majority, creating the need for a coalition of sorts.

To add insult to injury, the EU is likely to launch punitive measures against France because it exceeded Brussels’ deficit targets.

EU member states are not permitted to have a deficit of more than 3 percent of their GDP; France registered a massive 5.5 percent over 2023.

Busy schedule

The president’s agenda leaves little wiggling space.

This week he’ll attend two commemorative ceremonies marking 80 years since the end of World War II. On 15 August Macron will be in Saint-Raphaël for the allied landing in Provence – a ceremony that will be attended by African heads of state.

Two days later, he will head to Bormes-les-Mimosas for a ceremony marking the liberation of Fort de Brégançon.

Next week, on the eve of the Paralympic Games that start on 28 August, candidacy announcements and potential agreements on key legislative texts between political parties could accelerate the process.

NFP pressure

Meanwhile, the left-wing New Popular Front is turning up the heat, with PM candidate Lucie Castets sending a letter to several lawmakers with proposals, including raising the minimum wage and repealing pension reforms.

But Macron has already dismissed the possibility of selecting an NFP prime minister, pointing out that this group does not have a parliamentary majority.

Macron dismisses left-wing demand for new PM, urges post-Olympics unity

With time running short and options limited, Macron has remained vague, setting “mid-August” as the deadline to build a “solid majority” among national forces – his own party in combination with centre-right elements of the Republicans Party and possibly moderate Socialists.

(with newswires)

The French armed services produced 21 medallists in judo, fencing and shooting, as well as in disciplines less connected to traditional military skills, like BMX or surfing.

They included four gold medallists: Army sergeants Manon Brunet and Althéa Laurin (fencing and taekwondo); air force aviator Nicolas Gestin (canoe-kayak); and the mixed judo team of Sergeant Major Clarisse Agbégnénou, navy seaman Joan-Benjamin Gaba, navy petty officer Shirine Boukli and army private Luka Mkheidze.

‘Army of champions’

Of the 571 French athletes competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics, 78 were members of the “Army of Champions”, a programme to support high-level athletes that the Defence Ministry calls the “main state contributor to high-level sport”.

The programme has integrated some 200 high-level athletes into the different branches of the armed forces and the gendarmerie.

Para athletes are given civilian jobs in the ministry’s administration, and 19 athletes will be among the 237-strong French delegation competing in the 2024 Paris Paralympics, which start on 28 August.

Financial security

High-level athletes benefit greatly from the backing of an institution or company, which allows them to focus on training and not worry about making a living.

Speaking about France’s commitment to growing its Olympic record and supporting high-level athletes, Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra highlighted the importance of jobs.

Preparing athletes to win medals involves “supporting them materially and giving them the socio-professional support so they can build something, and have the ability to manage their university studies and open doors to companies and public sector jobs for the future”, she said.

Some athletes can cobble together a living through contracts with sports clubs or sponsorships. Others, like swimmer Léon Marchand, who won a record four gold individual medals at the Paris Olympics, is on a scholarship at the University of Arizona in the United States.

However, France has recognised that most high-level athletes need institutional support.

Public sector support

The Defence Ministry offers two-year renewable contracts of up to six years for athletes, providing them with a salary and professional support as they train.

In communicating about the programme, the ministry says this support offers an “essential balance for high performance” which “allows the athlete to be free of administrative constraints and focus fully on their sport objectives”.

Four other ministries have signed agreements to hire high-level athletes, including the Interior Ministry, in charge of the national police, which supports 65 high-level athletes.

“In exchange for financial support, training and perspectives for their post-sporting career, the members of the national police team have as a mission to represent the institution on the sports fields,” the Interior Ministry said of its programme.

Nineteen members of the police team competed in the Paris Olympics and four won medals, including surfer Kauli Vaast, who officially became a police reservist in 2023.

Private companies can secure special work contracts for athletes, allowing them to work part time, but enjoying the salary and benefits of full time employment, but the public sector can be more flexible, with official support on a national level.

The national rail company SNCF supported 11 athletes in the Olympics, along with other public companies such as electricity provider EDF and public hospitals.

The Defence Ministry remains the largest supporter of high-level athletes, with the most resources and a built-in physical component in its own programmes.

However not all athletes stay in the armed forces after the end of their sporting careers.

Since 2008, only 15 decided to continue in the military after retiring as athletes, according to Le Monde.

The outbreak has swept through several African countries, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“With a heavy heart but with an unyielding commitment to our people, to our African citizens, we declare mpox as public health emergency of continental security,” Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said during an online media briefing.

• WHO to convene experts on mpox virus as cases surge in East Africa

“Mpox has now crossed borders, affecting thousands across our continent, families have been torn apart and the pain and suffering have touched every corner of our continent,” he said.

According to CDC data as of 4 August, there had been 38,465 cases of mpox and 1,456 deaths in Africa since January 2022.

“This declaration is not merely a formality, it is a clarion call to action. It is a recognition that we can no longer afford to be reactive. We must be proactive and aggressive in our efforts to contain and eliminate this threat,” said Kaseya.

(with newswires)

An estimated 47,690 people in Europe died in 2023, according to the Barcelona Institute for Global Health’s annual report, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine.

Only 2022 was deadlier, with over 60,000 heat-related deaths.

Taking temperature and mortality records from 35 countries across the continent, the study showed that countries in southern Europe – Greece, Italy and Spain, as well as Bulgaria – were worst affected by the heat, and older people were most at risk.

More than half the deaths occurred during two periods of high heat in mid-July and August 2023, when Greece battled deadly wildfires.

The report found that heat-related deaths would have been 80 percent higher were it not for action taken by European governments to adapt to hotter summers.

“Our results highlight the importance of historical and ongoing adaptations in saving lives during recent summers,” said the authors, pointing to early warning systems and healthcare improvements that can help reduce heat-related deaths.

• Twenty years after deadly 2003 heatwave, what has France learned?

The report also showed the “urgency for more effective strategies to further reduce the mortality burden of forthcoming hotter summers”, they added, urging more proactive measures to combat global warming.

Scientists say that climate change is making extreme weather events like heat waves more frequent, longer and more intense.

Europe, where the United Nations says temperatures are rising faster than the rest of the globe, has experienced a growing number of heat waves since the turn of the century.

(with newswires)

The Senegalese Council of Press Distributors and Publishers (CDEPS) said that freedom of the press was threatened in Senegal in an editorial published on Monday.

“For nearly three months the Senegalese press has experienced one of the darkest phases of its history,” the organisation of editors of both private and public media companies wrote.

It said the media blackout was to call attention to threats including the “freezing of bank accounts” of media companies for non-payment of tax, the “seizure of production equipment”, or the “unilateral and illegal termination of advertising contracts” with the government.

Sonko, who took office in early April, has denounced what he called the “misappropriation of public funds” in the sector, alleging some media chiefs were failing to pay social security contributions.

Threat to the sector

The government’s “hostile acts” against media organisations pose a threat to the sector, CDEPS president Mamadou Ibra Kane told RFI. “Today the situation is that most media companies are nearly bankrupt.”

At the end of last month, the company behind two of the most widely read sports dailies suspended publication after more than 20 years due to economic difficulties.

Media organisations had hoped the new government would help find solutions out of the crisis, “but unfortunately this is not the case,” Kane said.

“On the contrary, by trying to asphyxiate, economically and financially, private media, the new government thinks it can create new media to spread their positions,” he added, nothing that dismantling critical media is “a threat to freedom of the press and freedom of expression”.

Control of information

In late June Sonko said news outlets were writing whatever they wished without reliable sources in the name of press freedom – comments which many in the media took as a threat.

“The aim is none other than the control of information and the taming of media professionals,” the CDEPS said.

“We are seasoned enough to have experienced the methods of previous powers to understand what is happening.”

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has urged Senegal’s new president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, to take action to promote press freedom after three years of arrests and violence against journalists under the presidency of Macky Sall.

Senegal is in 94th place on the group’s world press freedom index, having slipped down from 49th place in 2021.

France has sent 180 firefighters, 55 trucks and a helicopter to help fight the fires, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Monday.

The EU said that France, along with Italy, the Czech Republic and Romania sent aid under the EU’s civil protection mechanism after Greece formally requested assistance.

Help from Spain and Turkey is also being “finalised”, the Greek civil protection ministry said.

Over 700 firefighters with nearly 200 fire engines and over 30 aircraft have been trying to contain the fire, which started Sunday afternoon in the town of Varnavas near Lake Marathon, some 35 kilometres northeast of Athens.

Winds pushed it across Mount Penteli, burning pine forests left dry from repeated heat waves this summer, towards the capital’s northern suburbs.

Fire brigade spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said the winds rekindled the fire in 40 different locations on Monday.

Flames reached more than 25 metres high in places along the front line, according to state TV ERT.

Television footage showed dramatic images of the roofs of stately homes in the leafy suburbs burning as water-bombing helicopters roared overhead.

The fire has forced residents to leave their homes, and authorities opened the Olympic stadium in northern Athens and other stadiums to house thousands of people evacuated from the path of the blaze.

A children’s hospital and a military medical facility in Penteli were evacuated at dawn, Vathrakogiannis said. Another hospital was evacuated during the day.

Meteorologists warned that high temperatures and winds would continue through Thursday, increasing the danger of wildfires. Dozens of smaller fires broke out in several parts of the country on Monday.

Summer wildfires are frequent in Greece, but this year, after the warmest winter and hottest June and July on record, has seen dozens of daily fires, whose frequency and intensity authorities say have been fueled by climate change.

(with AFP)

Paris 2024 organisers had planned to redistribute unconsumed products from the 13 million meals and snacks served on the Olympic sites, in order to limit food waste.

They signed agreements with three French charities – Restos du Cœur, Chaînon Manquant and Banque Alimentaire, the French Federation of Food Banks – to help collect the food.

François Gras, the president of the Banque Alimentaire of Paris and Île-de-France (Bapif) welcomed the success of this “great operation”, which made it possible to “collect quality products”.

He said that the organisations were able to recover “a lot of fruits and vegetables, breakfasts, dairy products and quite a few salads or pre-packaged snacks”.

These fresh products were a welcome addition to the “dry or frozen products” that European funds help the charity to buy.

“It’s a great addition for people in real precarious situations,” Gras said.

Paris’s eco-friendly Olympic Village gets mixed reviews from athletes

Charter

Gras told Franceinfo that the 60 tonnes of food collected during the Olympics will be passed on to food banks across France throughout the month of August.

The quantity represents “roughly the equivalent of more than 100,000 meals,” he said.

Man behind recycled plastic seats in Olympic venues plots ways to stop the trash

Although the charity could have continued to function without the newly-collected food this summer, Gras says it is nevertheless extremely welcome to have the extra stock for organisations that have trouble meeting demands.

Limiting food waste was one of the six key goals included in a social and environmental charter published by Paris 2024 organisers prior to the Games.

They promised to halve the event’s carbon footprint compared to previous Games by cutting down on plastic use and designing recyclable equipment and infrastructure.

The Louvre saw a drop of 22 percent in the number of visitors during the two weeks of the Olympic games, from 27 July to 11 August, it announced Monday.

In the ten days leading up to the opening ceremony, from 15 to 26 July, when access was limited by security protocols and the museum was closed for two days, 45 percent fewer people visited compared to the same period the year before.

The Orsay museum said it had a drop of 29 percent in the number of visitors during the Games, and the Orangerie, which houses Claude Monet’s Water Lilies and is located at Concorde, the plaza hosting the Olympic BMX, breaking and 3×3 basketball events saw 31 percent fewer visitors.

The drop in visits was expected, as the museums are along the River Seine, whose access was limited in the days leading up to the opening ceremony, and visitors to Paris prioritised sporting events over cultural visits.

The Louvre is counting on its exhibition ‘Figures du Fou’ (Figures of madness) that opens on 16 October to bring back the crowds.

While visits to the museum dropped, visitors flocked to the Tuilleries gardens and the Carrousel around it to see the Olympic cauldron rising above the city on a helium balloon each night.

And one museum benefited from the Olympics: the Monnaie de Paris, the former site of the national mint, which produced the Olympic medals.

With an exhibition about the Olympics, and selling commemorative medals, the museum saw an increase of 62 percent of visitors during the two weeks of the Games compared to the two weeks preceding them.

(with AFP)

In a ceremony attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, China’s BYD car company signed an agreement to build a billion-dollar factory in Turkey.

The factory will produce 150,000 vehicles annually, mainly for the European Union market.

Analysts say the July deal marks a turning point in Turkish-Chinese relations.

“The significance of this deal is Turkey would be considered as a transition country between China and the EU,” Sibel Karabel, director of the Asia Pacific department of Istanbul’s Gedik University told RFI.  

“This deal has the potential to reduce the trade imbalance, the trade deficit, which is a detriment to Turkey,” he adds, “Turkey also wants to reap the benefits of China’s cutting-edge technologies by collaborating with China.”

Sidestepping tariffs

China’s pivot towards Turkey, a NATO member, is also about Beijing’s increasing competition for global influence, especially with the United States.  

Karabel says the planned BYD factory offers a way for China to avoid the EU’s new tariffs on vehicles.

Turkey is already a part of China’s global investment strategy through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Beijing has shown interest in Turkey becoming a trade route from China to Europe through Ankara’s Middle Corridor Intiative.

But until now, such collaborations have until been just empty words, claims Ceren Ergenc a China specialist at the Centre for European Policy Studies.  

Turkey set on rebuilding bridges with China to improve trade

“When you look at the press statements after meetings, you don’t see Chinese investments in Turkey, and the reason for that is because China perceives Turkey as a high political risk country in the region,” Ergenc explains.

One of the main factors widely cited for Beijing’s reluctance to invest in Turkey is Ankara’s strong support of China’s Muslim Uyghur minority.

Ankara has been critical of Beijing’s crackdown on Uyghurs, offering refuge to many Uyghur dissidents. Their Turkish supporters fear Beijing’s billion-dollar investment in Turkey could be part of an extradition deal struck during Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s recent visit to China.

“There are rumors, of course, that the Chinese side is pressing for the ratification of this extradition agreement, that they would want Uyghurs in Turkey, some of them at least, to be returned to China to be tried in China,” warns Cagdas Ungor of Istanbul’s Marmara University, referring to people China considers to be dissidents or “terrorists”.

Common ground over Gaza

Elsewhere, Ankara and Beijing are finding increasing diplomatic common ground, including criticism of Israel’s war on Hamas.

“If you take, for instance, the Gaza issue right now, Turkey and China, and even without trying,” observes Ungor, “they see eye to eye on this issue. Their foreign policies align, overlap, and their policy becomes very much different from most of the other Western countries.”

Carmakers unhappy after EU hits China with tariffs on electric vehicles

For example, Ankara welcomed last month’s decision by Beijing to host Palestinian leaders amid an escalation of threats and bombardment by Israel.

Such a move can provide common ground, Ungor suggests, and this could be the basis for future cooperation.

“There are certain issues at a global level, at the regional level, that China seems to be a much better partner(to Turkey) than the Western countries,” he concludes.

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear musical requests from your fellow listeners Hossen Abed Ali, Karuna Kanta Pal, and Jayanta Chakrabarty.

Be sure you send in your music requests! Write to me at thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “How Long”, written and performed by Jackson Browne; “Top of the World” by John Bettis and Richard Carpenter, performed by The Carpenters, and “Mademoiselle Chante le Blues” by Didier Barbelivien, sung by Patricia Kaas.

Be sure and tune in next week for a “This I Believe” essay written by RFI Listeners Club member Rodrigo Hunrichse.   

In this episode we hear from the artist and from Hoor Al-Qasimi, director of the Sharjah Art Foundation and the president of the Africa Institute, Sharjah, UAE, who helped organise the London retrospective.

Jantjes’s formative years in Cape Town coincided with the early years of South African apartheid, and his journey has since embodied a quest for artistic emancipation, with a freedom not bound by the Eurocentric gaze or expectations of black creativity.

For Jantjes, this quest has meant a life of itinerant exile manifesting in multiple careers.

Structured into chapters, To Be Free! explores his engagement with anti-apartheid activism from the 1970s to the mid-1980s, his transformative role at art institutions in Europe, his compelling figurative portrayals of the global black struggle for freedom, and his recent transition to non-figurative painting.

This retrospective also provides insights into Jantjes’ curatorial initiatives, written contributions, and wider advocacy, which had a significant impact on both African and African diaspora art on the global contemporary art scene.

It coincides with the 30th anniversary of the end of apartheid in South Africa.

The exhibition is at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (12 June – 1 September 2024), after opening at the Sharjah Art Foundation from 18 November 2023 to 10 March 2024, and was organised in collaboration with The Africa Institute, Sharjah.

Episode mixed by Erwan Rome. 

Spotlight on Africa is a podcast from Radio France Internationale. 

July saw major military drills in Armenia between Armenian and United States forces.

“Politically, it is exceptionally relevant; they are four or five times larger than last year,” explains Eric Hacopian, a political analyst in Armenia, who notes the range of US divisions mobilised for the drills. “It’s not about peacekeeping.”

The military exercise, dubbed “Eagle Partner“, is part of Yerevan’s wider efforts to escape its Russian neighbour’s sphere of influence, Hacopian believes.

“These are serious exercises, and they were followed up with the news that there is going to be US permanent representation in the Ministry of Defence of Armenia as advisors to join the French who are already there,” he noted.

“Essentially, there is no other play but to join the West.”

France, Russia stand on opposite sides of Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict

Armenia is also seeking to reduce its economic dependence on Russia, pressing Turkey to open its border and providing a new gateway to Western markets for the landlocked country.

Ankara closed the frontier in 1993 after ethnic Armenian forces seized the contested Azerbaijani enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. However, with Azerbaijani forces recapturing the enclave last year, analysts say the opening of the border could now align with Turkey’s goals to expand its regional influence.

“The normalisation of the relationship with Armenia would allow Turkish policy in the Cacasus to acquire a more comprehensive dimension today. That’s the missing element,” said Sinan Ulgen, an analyst with the Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, a think tank in Istanbul.

“Turkey obviously has very strong links to Azerbaijan and very good relations with Georgia, but not with Armenia,” he explained. “And that’s a predicament, as we look at Turkey’s overall policy in the Caucasus.”

Leverage

Washington is working hard to broker a permanent peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. “A deal is close,” declared US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of July’s NATO summit in Washington.

Last week, Turkish and Armenian envoys held their fifth meeting aimed at normalising relations. However, with critical issues between Armenia and Azerbaijan unresolved, Baku sees Turkey’s reopening of the Armenian border as important leverage.

In principle, both Azerbaijan and Turkey are in favour, claims Farid Shafiyev, an Azeri former diplomat and now chair of the Centre of Analysis of International Relations in Baku.

“However, we believe at this stage, as we have not signed a peace agreement, it might send a wrong signal to Yerevan and Armenia that we don’t need to come to an agreement about the core issues – the mutual recognition of territorial integrity,” he said.

Can Turkey tip the balance of power in the Caucasus conflict?

Meanwhile Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has developed close ties with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, and is ruling out opening the border until Baku’s demands are met.

Turkish arms were key to Azerbaijan’s recent military successes against Armenian-backed forces. “Azerbaijan is where it is, in good part because of Turkey’s military assistance, intelligence assistance and all that,” argues Soli Ozel, who teaches international relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.

But Ozel says Baku is dictating Ankara’s Caucasus policy. “It is befuddling to me that Turkey cannot open the borders with Armenia, which Armenia both needs and wants, because of Azerbaijan’s veto,” he said. “Especially if indeed Azerbaijan, for one reason or another, believes that its interests are once more in turning toward Russia.”

With Azerbaijan’s Socar energy company Turkey’s biggest foreign investor, Baku retains powerful economic leverage over Ankara – meaning any hope of reopening the Turkish-Armenian border appears dependent on the wishes of Azerbaijan’s leadership.

Hello everyone!

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear a “My Hero” essay by listener Bidhan Chandra Sanyal from West Bengal, India.  I hope you’ll be inspired to write an essay for us, too!

If your essay goes on the air, you’ll find a package in the mail from The Sound Kitchen. Write in about your “ordinary” heroes – the people in your community who are doing extraordinarily good work, quietly working to make the world a better place, in whatever way they can. As listener Pramod Maheshwari said: “Just as small drops of water can fill a pitcher, small drops of kindness can change the world.”

I am still looking for your “This I Believe” essays, too. Tell us about the principles that guide your life … what you have found to be true from your very own personal experience. Or write about a book that changed your perspective on life, a person who you admire, festivals in your community, your most memorable moment, and/or your proudest achievement. If your essay is chosen to go on-the-air – read by you– you’ll win a special prize!

Send your essays to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

Or by postal mail, to:

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Here’s Bidhan Chandra Sanyal’s essay: 

Hello, I am Bidhan Chandra Sanyal from West Bengal, India. Today I would like to share with you the story of a man whom I greatly admire, Kailash Sharma.

Kailash Sharma was born on January 11, 1954, in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, India.  He is an electrical engineer by profession, but he did not work as an engineer – instead, he engaged in social service work.

Appalled by the plight of child slavery across South Asia, in 1980 Sharma founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan – the Save Childhood Movement – to fight against the evil of child labor and slavery which has been socially accepted and widely practised in the region for generations.

As the saying goes: “The farmer’s child or the king’s potter all have work in this world.”  But a child’s work should be tailored to children, in the home.

Far too often, harsh reality takes them on another path. Disrespect, neglect or severe rule towards children are not right. When a child is forced to take the lead in financial hardship, to meet the family’s food needs, he frequently endures inhuman torture through child labor. They become the victims of malnutrition, illiteracy, and poor education. They cannot enjoy what should be a normal childhood – instead, childhood is a burden.

The goal of Kailash Sharma’s Bachpan Bachao Andolan movement is to create a child-friendly society, where all children are free from exploitation and receive a free and quality education. It aims to identify, liberate, rehabilitate and educate children in servitude through direct intervention, child and community participation, coalition building, consumer action, promoting ethical trade practices and mass mobilisation.

It has so far freed close to 100,000 children from servitude, including bonded labourers, and helped in their re-integration, rehabilitation and education.

Due to Sharma’s hard work, the Child Protection Act came into effect in India in 2012.  India’s Supreme Court ordered that any complaint of torture against child laborers be registered immediately.  Kailash Sharma has received many awards in recognition of his work: the Achina National Peace Prize, the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Prize, the Alfonso Comin National Prize and a medal from the Italian Senate.

And then, in 2014, he received the world’s highest award: The Nobel Peace Prize.

There is hope: Light can come from darkness. A total of 365 villages in our 11 states in India are now child labor free.  Kailash Sharma’s work has inspired and created change not just in India, but all across the globe. 

Kailash Sharma is my true hero.

Thank you for listening.

The music chosen by Bidhan is “Brishtir Gaan”, written and performed by Aditi Chakraborty.

Be sure and tune in next week for a special “Music in the Kitchen”, featuring your musical requests. Talk to you then!

Under controversial legislation currently passing through parliament, local authorities would be responsible for rounding up stray dogs, which would be killed after 30 days if an owner can not be found for them.

Opponents claim as many as eight million street dogs could be at risk.

“They are planning to round them up into shelters, which we call death camps,” said Zulal Kalkandelen, one of the animals rights activists taking part in a recent protest against the plan in Istanbul.

“For some time, there has been a campaign to fuel stray animal hatred,” she declared.

“Our people, who have been living with street dogs for many years, in fact for centuries, are now being brought to the point where all these animals will be erased.”

Street dogs have been a part of Istanbul life for centuries. The proposed legislation evokes memories of a dark chapter in the city’s past when, in 1910, street dogs were rounded up and left on a nearby island to starve.

It has provoked emotive arguments in parliament, with MPs jostling one another and exchanging insults – opening another deep divide in an already fractured political landscape.

But President Erdogan insists something must be done to control stray animals that, he argues, have become a menace to society, causing traffic accidents and spreading disease.

Humane alternatives

Addressing parliament, Erdogan claimed he was answering the call of the “silent majority”.

“The truth is that a very large part of society wants this issue to be resolved as soon as possible and our streets to become safe for everyone, especially our children,” he declared.

“It is unthinkable for us to remain indifferent to this demand, this call, even this cry. Our proposals are no different from those of other countries in Europe.”

Mixed reactions as France prepares to simplify wolf culling rules

Lawyer Elcin Cemre Sencan, who has helped organise protests against the proposed legislation, argues there are more humane ways to address people’s concerns.

“There is a group of people who are disturbed by these stray animals or who are afraid even to touch them,” she acknowledges. “But even if there are these concerns, the solution is not to put the dogs to sleep.

“Scientific studies have shown that sterilising animals, especially dogs, reduces not only their numbers but also attacks on people.”

Veterinary organisations have also pointed out that the cost of euthanising a dog is many times higher than sterilisation and vaccination.

Diversion tactic?

Some critics suggest politics could be behind the move.

With Erdogan’s conservative AK Party suffering heavy defeats in local elections this spring and Turkey grappling with near 100 percent inflation, opponents claim the Turkish president could be calculating that objections to his street dog legislation comes mainly from the secular opposition and hoping the issue will consolidate his religious base.

“We know our problems in this country; the world knows our problems. There is an economic crisis, and we have human rights problems everywhere. But they want to change the main topics to these animals,” said Eyup Cicerali, a professor at Istanbul’s Nisantasi University, at a recent protest against the legislation.  

“They want to kill them all,” he claimed. “We are here to protect our values, values of respect and dignity for human and animal rights. Life is an issue for all groups.”

According to one recent opinion poll, less than 3 percent of the Turkish public support the culling of street dogs.

Some of Erdogan’s MPs have even started speaking out against the law in the media, albeit anonymously. “This law makes us dog killers,” one unnamed deputy was quoted as saying.

Despite such misgivings, the legislation is expected to pass parliament later this month.

But with the protests drawing together secular and religious animal lovers, and opposition-controlled local authorities declaring they won’t impose the law, the stray dog legislation could prove a risky move for Erdogan.

Where will Gaza stray dogs find shelter?

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.