“The normalization of violence against aid workers and the lack of accountability are unacceptable, unconscionable and enormously harmful for aid operations everywhere,” Joyce Msuya, acting director of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in a statement on World Humanitarian Day.

“With 280 aid workers killed in 33 countries last year, 2023 marked the deadliest year on record for the global humanitarian community,” a 137 percent increase over 2022, when 118 aid workers died, OCHA said in the statement.

It cited the Aid Worker Security Database which has tracked such figures back to 1997.

The UN said 163 of those killed in 2023 were aid workers killed in Gaza during the first three months of the war between Israel and Hamas, mainly in air strikes.

South Sudan, wracked by civil strife, and Sudan, where a war between two rival generals has been raging since April 2023, are the next deadliest conflicts for humanitarians, with 34 and 25 deaths respectively.

South Sudan buckles from stream of refugees fleeing Sudanese war

Call to end impunity

Also in the top 10 are Israel and Syria, with seven deaths each; Ethiopia and Ukraine, with six deaths each; Somalia at five fatalities; and four deaths both in Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In all the conflicts, most of the deaths are among local, rather than visiting foreign staff.

“We demand an end to impunity so that perpetrators face justice,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

Despite 2023’s “outrageously high number” of aid worker fatalities, OCHA said 2024 “may be on track for an even deadlier outcome.”

France condemns killing of Gaza NGO workers as US pressed to toughen stance with Israel

As of 9 August, 176 aid workers have been killed worldwide, according to the Aid Worker Security Database.

Since October, when Hamas-led militants launched a deadly raid into Israel, triggering the war, more than 280 aid workers have been killed in Gaza, the majority of them employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, according to OCHA.

Against this backdrop, the leaders of multiple humanitarian organisations and UN agencies sent a letter Monday to UN member states calling for the end of “an era of impunity.”

“Attacks that kill or injure civilians, including humanitarian and health-care personnel, are devastatingly common,” said the letter, signed by groups including the World Food Programme and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“Yet despite widespread condemnation, serious violations of the rules of war too often go unpunished.”

Gratitude

Each year the United Nations marks World Humanitarian Day on 19 August, the anniversary of the 2003 attack on its Baghdad headquarters.

The bombing killed 22 people including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN special representative to Iraq, and injured some 150 local and foreign aid workers.

Marking World Humanitarian Day, the United States said “we owe humanitarian workers our gratitude for their service and our commitment.”

“We reaffirm our steadfast commitment to this work and continue to urge international partners to join us in stepping up their contributions to address growing humanitarian needs around the world,” said the statement from National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett, which did not mention the record death toll.

(with AFP)

“We are declaring a cholera epidemic because of the weather conditions and because drinking water has been contaminated,” Sudan’s Health Minister Haitham Ibrahim said in a video released on Saturday.

He said the decision was taken in conjunction with authorities in the eastern state of Kassala, United Nations agencies and experts after the “discovery by the public health laboratory of the cholera virus”.

Ibrahim said that at least 22 people have died from the disease, and that at least 354 confirmed cases of cholera had been detected across the county.

He didn’t give a time frame for the deaths or the tally since the start of the year.

The World Health Organization, however, said that 78 deaths were recorded from cholera this year in Sudan as of 28 July.

The disease also affected more than 2,400 others between 1 January and 28 July, it said.

Cholera is a fast-developing, highly contagious infection that causes diarrhoea, leading to severe dehydration and possible death within hours when not treated, according to WHO. It is transmitted through the ingestion of contaminated food or water.

The cholera outbreak is the latest calamity for Sudan, which was plunged into chaos in April last year when simmering tensions between the military and a powerful paramilitary group exploded into open warfare across the country.

The conflict has turned the capital, Khartoum and other urban areas into battlefields, wrecking civilian infrastructure and an already battered health care system. Without the basics, many hospitals and medical facilities have closed their doors.

It has killed thousands of people and pushed many into starvation, with famine already confirmed in a sprawling camp for displaced people in the wrecked northern region of Darfur.

Sudan’s conflict has created the world’s largest displacement crisis. More than 10.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes since fighting began, according to the International Organization for Migration. Over 2 million of those fled to neighbouring countries.

Devastating floods

The fighting has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the UN and international rights groups.

Devastating seasonal floods in recent weeks have compounded the misery. Dozens of people have been killed and critical infrastructure has been washed away in 12 of Sudan’s 18 provinces, according to local authorities. About 118,000 people have been displaced due to the floods, according to the UN migration agency.

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

Cholera is not uncommon in Sudan. A previous major outbreak left at least 700 dead and sickened about 22,000 in less than two months in 2017.

Tarik Jašarević, a spokesman for WHO, said the outbreak began in the eastern province of Kassala before spreading to nine localities in five provinces.

He said in comments to The Associated Press that data showed that most of the detected cases were not vaccinated. He said the WHO is now working with the Sudanese health authorities and partners to implement a vaccination campaign.

Sudan’s military-controlled sovereign council, meanwhile, said Sunday it was sending a government delegation to meet with American officials in Cairo amid mounting US pressure on the military to join ongoing peace talks in Switzerland that aim at finding a way out of the conflict.

(With newswires)

According to a statement from the emergency services, the fire in Canet-en-Roussillon, in the Pyrénées-Orientales broke out on Monday around 2:00 am local time and was fanned by winds blowing at 80 km/h.

It destroyed one mobile home. “Five others were partially affected, as well as a caravan,” the statement noted.

During the rescue and evacuation operations, “seven people were slightly injured: four civilians, two firefighters, and one police officer,” according to the same source.

The tourists were accommodated in a municipal building, but “by 7:00am, about 2,500 campers had returned to their accommodation”.

Elsewhere, a fire that started on Sunday afternoon in Frontignan – near Montpellier – was brought under control by firefighters during the night after ravaging around 350 hectares of pine forest without causing any injuries.

“The fire has been under control for two and a half hours, and we are still working on it,” Lieutenant Colonel Jérôme Bonnafoux, spokesperson for the Hérault firefighters, told French press agency AFP on Monday shortly after dawn.

‘Too hot to handle’: 2024 likely to be warmest year on record

“We’re still working on it because there are several hot spots where the risk of it flaring are high,” he added.

600 firefighters on duty

Of the 600 firefighters deployed on Sunday, “300 to 350 are still mobilized and will remain so throughout the day,” Bonnafoux stated.

Firefighters emptied the swimming pools of private homeowners to tackle the blaze, the mayor’s cabinet director added.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin visited the area on Monday morning and hailed the work done by the authorities.

“There haven’t been many forest fires since the start of the season, around 4,000 hectares burned, whereas last year, at the same date, we’d lost some 12,000 hectares,” Darmanin said, adding that “nine out of ten fires are of human origin”.

On Sunday, four Dash planes, two Beechcraft planes, five Canadair planes, a Dragon helicopter, and a water-bomber helicopter carried out over 150 drops in the area, according to authorities.

An aerial survey on Monday is expected help to clarify the scope of the affected area and determine if aircraft need to be deployed again.

How satellite technology is being used in France to fight forest fires

On Sunday evening, a further 220 firefighters from the Hérault area responded to a fire that burned 60 hectares of pine forest in Nissan-les-Ensérunes, near Béziers.

The fire was still burning as of Monday, authorities warned on social media, noting that two Morane helicopters and a Dash plane would be deployed.

Seven forest areas in southern France remain closed to the public on Monday due to the fire hazard: Alpilles massifs, Chambremont, Castillon, Montagnette, Rougadou, Sulauze and the industrial-port area of ​​Fos-sur-Mer.

(With newswires)

Delon had made it clear he did not want a national memorial event, but rather burial near his dogs on his property in Douchy in central France where he died.

He had already started sounding out the authorities and had their agreement in principle, local official Christophe Hurault told AFP.

The actor had been in poor health since suffering a stroke in 2019, rarely leaving his estate.

His three children, Anthony, Anouchka and Alain-Fabien, having squabbled bitterly for months over his medical treatment, spoke in a unified voice Sunday when they announced their father’s death.

Now they have to manage the funeral of the screen icon, deciding whether to limit it to close family or extend it to the cinema world.

Delon, naturally, dominated the front pages of France’s newspapers Monday, many of them featuring full-page portraits of the actor in his prime.

French monument

Delon’s performances in some of the greatest films of the 1960s and 70s were widely praised, his charisma on screen impossible to ignore.

He was one of the last living legends of a golden era for French cinema in the 1960s.

Fellow 60s star Brigitte Bardot, 89, told French news agency AFP Delon “leaves a huge void that nothing, nobody, can fill”.

Nathalie Baye, who starred with him in the film Our Story, said Delon was “not a fun guy” but, she added, “very endearing”.

French President Emmanuel Macron called him a “French monument” who “played legendary roles and made the world dream”.

His death was covered by newspapers around the world, with The New York Times, Washington Post and New York Post all publishing lengthy obituaries.

The Washington Post described him as the “angel-faced tough guy of international cinema”, while The Hollywood Reporter said he was the “seductive star of European cinema”.

Delon shot to fame in two films by Italian director Luchino Visconti, Rocco and His Brothers in 1960 and The Leopard in 1963.

He starred alongside venerable French elder Jean Gabin in Henri Verneuil’s 1963 film Melodie en Sous-Sol (Any Number Can Win) and was a major hit in Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 Le Samourai (The Godson).

The role of a philosophical contract killer involved minimal dialogue and frequent solo scenes, and Delon shone.

Idol in Japan

Delon became a star in France and was idolised by men and women in Japan, but never made it as big in Hollywood despite performing with American cinema giants, including Burt Lancaster when the Frenchman played apprentice-hitman Scorpio in the eponymous 1973 film.

In the 1970 film Borsalino, he starred with fellow French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, playing gangsters who come to blows in an unforgettable, stylised fight over a woman.

Crowning moments also included 1969 erotic thriller La Piscine (The Swimming Pool), where Delon paired up with real-life lover Romy Schneider, in a sultry French Riviera saga of jealously and seduction.

Businessman

Born just outside Paris on 8 November 1935, Delon started life on the back foot: he was put in foster care aged four after his parents divorced.

He ran away from home at least once and was expelled several times from boarding schools before joining the Marines at 17 and serving in then French-ruled Indochina. There too he got into trouble over a stolen jeep.

Back in France in the mid-50s, he worked as a porter at Paris wholesale food market, Les Halles, and spent time in the red-light Pigalle district before migrating to the cafes of the bohemian St. Germain des Pres area.

There he met French actor Jean-Claude Brialy, who took him to the Cannes Film Festival, where he attracted the attention of an American talent scout who arranged a screen test.

He made his film debut in 1957 in Quand la femme s’en mêle (Send a Woman When the Devil Fails).

Delon was a businessman as well as an actor, leveraging his looks to sell branded cosmetics and dabbling in race-horses with old underworld friends. He invested in a racehorse stable with Jacky “Le Mat” Imbert, a notorious figure in a thriving Marseille crime scene.

Delon’s more dubious friendships exploded to the surface when a former bodyguard-cum-confidant, a young Yugoslav called Stefan Markovic, was found dead in a bag, with a bullet in his head, discarded in a rubbish dump near Paris.

The actor was interrogated and cleared by police but the “Markovic Affair” snowballed into a national scandal.

The man police charged with the Markovic murder – he was later acquitted – was Francois Marcantoni, a Corsican cafe owner and friend of Delon who thrived in the hustle and bustle of the Pigalle district in the aftermath of World War Two.

Outspoken

Delon was outspoken off-stage and courted controversy when he did so – notably when he said he regretted the abolition of the death penalty and spoke disparagingly of gay marriage, which was legalised in France in 2013.

He publicly defended the far-right National Front and telephoned its founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, an old friend, to congratulate him when the party did well in local elections in 2014.

Delon’s lovers included German model-turned-singer Nico, with whom he had a son. In 1964, he married Nathalie Barthelemy and fathered a second son before ending the marriage and embarking on a 15-year relationship with Mireille Darc. He had two more children with Dutch model Rosalie van Breemen.

In a January 2018 interview, Delon told Paris Match that he was fed up with modern life and had a chapel and tomb ready for him on the grounds of his home near Geneva, and for his Belgian shepherd dog, called Loubo.

“If I die before him I’ll ask the vet to let us go together. He will give the dog an injection so he can die in my arms.”

Delon’s last major public appearance was to receive an honorary Palme d’or at the Cannes film festival in May 2019.

In April 2024 a judge placed Delon under “reinforced curatorship”, meaning he no longer had full freedom to manage his assets. He was already under legal protection over concerns over his health and well-being.

(with newswires)

The Democratic National Convention (DNC) which started in 1832, is a political event held every four years by the United States Democratic Party.

Since 1852, the convention has been organised by the Democratic National Committee and takes place in Chicago.

Its main objectives are to formally nominate candidates for president and vice president, adopt a party platform and unify the party.

Delegates from all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and US territories, along with “superdelegates” (unpledged party leaders and officials), attend the convention to vote on the party’s presidential candidate, as well as a delegation consisting of Americans living abroad.

Like its Republican counterpart, the RNC, which was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 15-18 July, the DNC marks the formal end of the primary season and the beginning of the general election campaigns.

• Trump makes triumphant appearance at party convention after shooting

Jim Cohen, a retired political scientist who is now with Democrats Abroad France told RFI that the Democratic convention functions like a rubber stamp.

“In terms of expectations regarding the candidacy of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, there are not too many surprises,” he says.

“The roll call vote has already taken place and Kamala Harris is already, for all practical purposes, the nominee.”

Bittersweet farewell

US President Joe Biden will no doubt give a bittersweet farewell address, Cohen goes on.

While he can expect a hero’s send-off – it will come from many of the same people who helped push him out due to age concerns.

Cohen also suggests that there will be speeches by prominent Democrats including Barack Obama, possibly Bill and Hillary Clinton.

New York Times writers like Frank Bruni and Maureen Dowd, have often been critical of the conventions, calling them “overly scripted spectacles focused on optics rather than substance”.

While others, like the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank and E.J. Dionne have described the happenings as “grandiose”, theatrical events that prioritise “messaging and party unity over real political debate.”

But there may be some surprises.

“Some delegates are uncommitted,” says Cohen, singling out “a small number, mostly from Michigan and Minnesota” who will be asking for speaking time during the convention.

They will most likely “discuss the issue of Israel-Palestine, and see what they can do to get Kamala Harris to consider strong commitments to a different policy,” he explains.

Cost of living

Just days before the convention, Harris unveiled parts of her economic program, including capping price increases for food producers and grocers, constructing three million new houses, lowering the cost of medication in the line with Biden’s recent proposals.

According to Robert Kuttner, editor of the American Prospect, there “has been a lot of chatter about whether Harris is positioning herself to the left of President Biden and whether that is a good idea.

“Supposedly, by moving left, Harris risks alienating swing voters. But swing voters also buy groceries. The only voters whom Harris risks alienating by championing consumers are large corporations and their allies.

“They have few votes,” he adds.

Critics disagree, says Cohen. “The Republicans are denouncing this as communism or as ruining the state by causing more deficits but I think that these are not wild proposals,” he says.

The Harris shock

Biden’s shock announcement on 21 July to quit the race followed by Harris’ sudden surge in popularity hit the preparation of the convention like a tsunami. Where Biden was lagging behind Trump in most polls, Harris has now taken the lead, even in some of the “battleground states” like Arizona.

With her recent campaign overhaul modelled after pop star Charli XCX’s Brat album cover and her frequent Tiktok messages, she has managed to get the attention of young people, many of them tired of politics dominated by white, ageing men.

• How does the Electoral College affect political strategy today?

“I think that we have seen an incredible turnout for Vice President Harris,” Donna Ghosh, an American studying in France who will attend the DNC as a delegate, told RFI.

At 19, she is the youngest delegate for Democrats Abroad and she thinks probably one of the youngest delegates at the convention overall.

“As a young person, especially when you’re getting involved in politics, it can feel like the space isn’t quite there for you,” she says, “because representation of young people in politics has been something that we’ve struggled with for a very long time.”

But things are improving and Ghosh is “passionate about just being able to be a part of these conversations.”

Immigration

One of the conversations that will dominate the election campaigns after the DNC is immigration.

Cohen, who is a specialist in immigration and authored the book The hunt for illegals :anti-immigrant politics and movements in the US,” originally published in French, thinks Harris’s policy on immigration won’t differ much from Biden’s.

“We’ve come through a transition in the past several years whereby the people who arrive at the US-Mexican border are no longer in the majority Mexican,” he says.

“Most people are from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, and in the last year year and half or so, [there are] people coming across the border in larger numbers than ever from Venezuela, from Cuba sometimes, from African countries, sometimes from Asian countries.

He suggests that under a Harris administration, firmer measures will be put in place to try and curb those flows but they will likely be “more humane than Trump’s measures” and notably take into account the law stipulating that asylum seekers can “formulate their demand for asylum within the territory”.

Cohen says that while Republicans are always accusing the Biden administration of allowing too many people in, “most of them are coming in legally”.

In any given year, there are “between 800,000 and a million people who come in quite legally through family reunification or through some sort of a work visa and that would probably continue under Harris,” he says.

That is “usually thought of as good for the economy, not something that’s a threat.”

The Democratic National Convention will end on Thursday, 22 August.

Polish rider Kasia Niewiadoma did just enough in a thrilling battle Sunday with rival Demi Vollering on the iconic Alpe d’Huez to win the women’s Tour de France by four seconds overall.

It was the smallest margin of victory in any Tour de France edition, including the men’s race.

“It’s so crazy, this Tour has been a crazy roller-coaster,” Niewiadoma said after the eighth and final stage. “I’ve had bad moments. I hated every moment of this last climb, but when I heard that I had won the Tour de France, I could not believe it.”

Niewiadoma sat on the road after finishing, exhausted and waiting to get the confirmation that she had won. When the news finally came, she lifted her bike in triumph and appeared overwhelmed by the magnitude of her achievement.

Knowing she still trailed Niewiadoma overall, Vollering had been part of a breakaway Sunday with fellow Dutch rider Pauliena Rooijakkers earlier in the race. Vollering accelerated powerfully in the final stretch to win the stage.

But the gap wasn’t quite enough as Niewiadoma finished fourth to narrowly clinch her first Tour title, with an overall time of 24 hours, 36 minutes, 7 seconds. Vollering’s final time was 24:36:11.

Vollering, the defending champion, had fought back after suffering a crash in the fifth stage. She was inconsolable when she learned she had finished second overall after starting the stage more than a minute behind Niewiadoma overall.

“Right now I feel really bitter that I only lost by four seconds,” Vollering said. “It’s really painful to know that I did not do enough today.”

Rooijakkers, also a title contender, finished third in the overall standings at only 10 seconds behind Niewiadoma.

• Tour de France women’s race gets underway in the Netherlands
• Vollering hails teammates for victory in women’s Tour de France

(with newswires)

A statement from the ruling Transitional Sovereign Council said the decision to go to Cairo came after contacts with the US special envoy and the Egyptian government, which is an observer in the talks, and was limited to discussing implementation of the Jeddah agreement, under which the RSF would leave civilian areas.

The Sudanese government, controlled by the army which is fighting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for control of the country, has said it would not attend the peace talks in Switzerland unless a previous agreement struck in Jeddah is implemented.

These US-led talks, which the RSF is attending, aim to end the devastating war that broke out in April 2023, and address the crippling humanitarian crisis that has left half of Sudan’s population of 50 million facing food insecurity.

High-level government sources told Reuters that the government had presented its vision on talks and other topics to US and Saudi mediators, and that its approach to further talks would be based on their response.

The sources denied media reports that the government had already sent a delegation to Geneva.

UAE involvement

Another sticking point for the army is the presence of the United Arab Emirates, which it accuses of supporting the RSF in Sudan, a charge the UAE denies.

U.N. experts have found such accusations credible.

The army on Thursday pre-empted a key topic of the talks when it said it would allow an RSF-controlled border crossing into Darfur to be used for aid deliveries.

A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had agreed to the opening during a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken the day before.

Ongoing forgotten conflict

Since April 2023, the war between Burhan’s forces and those loyal to paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted millions, and triggered a dire humanitarian crisis and warnings of famine.

Previous negotiations in Jeddah have failed to put an end to the fighting.

Both sides have been accused of war crimes – including deliberately targeting civilians – while the fighting has dealt severe blows to Sudan’s already frail healthcare system and caused many humanitarian organisations to cease operations in the country.

Both the army and the RSF have also been accused of looting humanitarian aid.

 (with Reuters)

Some 68 million people, or 17 percent of the region’s population, are in need of aid, said Elias Magosi, SADC executive secretary.

Heads of state from the 16-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) met in Zimbabwe‘s capital Harare on Saturday to discuss regional issues including food security.

“The 2024 rainy season has been a challenging one with most parts of the region experiencing negative effects of the El Nino phenomenon characterised by the late onset of rains,” Magosi said.

Countries including Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi have already declared a hunger crisis a state of disaster, while Lesotho and Namibia have called for humanitarian support.

Earlier this year, the World Food Programme (WFP) already warned that some areas had suffered their driest February in 40 years, with many as 50 million people are facing food insecurity.

• Extreme drought in southern Africa triggers hunger crisis for millions

Longest drought

It is southern Africa’s worst drought in years, owing to a combination of naturally occurring El Nino – when an abnormal warming of the waters in the eastern Pacific changes world weather patterns – and higher average temperatures produced by greenhouse gas emissions.

The region launched an appeal in May for $5.5 billion in humanitarian assistance to support the drought response, but donations have not been forthcoming, said outgoing SADC chair Joao Lourenco, President of Angola.

“The amount mobilised so far is unfortunately below the estimated amounts and I would like to reiterate this appeal to regional and international partners to redouble their efforts… to help our people who have been affected by El Nino,” he told the summit.

The drought, which started in early 2024, has hit crop and livestock production, causing food shortages and damaging the wider economies.

(with Reuters)

Blinken is making his 10th trip to the region since the war began, following the United States’ recent bridging proposals, which mediating countries believe would close gaps between the warring parties.

Diplomatic efforts to halt the Israel-Hamas conflict and secure a deal to return hostages held in Gaza have intensified in recent days.

British and French foreign ministers travelled to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories on Friday to call for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and a de-escalation of any wider conflict in the Middle East.

The visit by Britain’s David Lammy and France’s Stephane Sejourne came as a new round of Gaza ceasefire talks was underway in Doha, an effort to end 10 months of fighting in the Palestinian enclave and bring 115 Israeli and foreign hostages home.

The talks, mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar, are set to continue this week in Cairo following a two-day meeting in Doha last week.

There has also been increased urgency to reach a ceasefire deal amid fears of a regional escalation. Iran has threatened to retaliate against Israel after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on 31 July.

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

Blinken’s trip

In Israel, Blinken is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister and other senior officials.

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Saturday there was “cautious optimism” a deal could be reached and US officials have also been positive, while cautioning there was still work to be done.

However Hamas said optimistic US comments were “deceptive” and accused Netanyahu of making new conditions in an attempt to “blow up” the negotiation.

Hamas wants a ceasefire deal to end the war, while Israel wants a temporary pause.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV English on Saturday that Israel wants the right to come back to the fight even if they agreed to a prisoner exchange.

“They want to have the right to attack Gaza whenever they want.”

The war erupted on 7 October when Hamas fighters rampaged into Israel, killing around 1,200 people and seizing around 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s subsequent military campaign has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Palestinian health authorities, and reduced much of Gaza to rubble. Israel says it has killed 17,000 Hamas fighters.

After Israel, Blinken will continue onto Egypt.

Increased violence

Ten months after the war began, Palestinians in Gaza are living in constant desperation to find a safe place.

“There is nothing left to us but the sea,” said Tamer Al-Burai, who lives in Deir Al-Balah with several extended family members.

“We are tired of displacement. People are being pushed into narrow areas in Deir Al-Balah and Al-Mawasi, which have become pressure cookers,” Burai told Reuters via a chat app, adding that tanks were just 1.5 km away.

On Friday, the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of areas north of Khan Yunis and east of Deir Al-Balah where hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the fighting had been sheltering in dire conditions.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday’s orders, which included other enclaves outside the humanitarian zones, had reduced the size of the “humanitarian area” designated as safe by Israeli forces to about 11 percent of the total area of the Gaza Strip.

 (with Reuters)

Weeks after legislative elections which produced a lower-house National Assembly with no clear majority, France still does not have a new prime minister.

Macron said in July he would seek to name a new prime minister after the Paris Olympics, which ended on 11 August, stressing that parties in a fractured parliament must come together to build a broad coalition first.

While the successful Olympic Games have lifted what was a morose mood in France, analysts say that it is far from certain this could boost Macron’s embattled fortunes.

Macron must face political truths as Olympics euphoria wears off

On Friday, the Elysee presidential office said Macron invited party leaders to take part in “a series of discussions” on 23 August, with a view to attempting to form a government.

The appointment of a prime minister will follow on from these consultations and their conclusions,” the presidency said in a statement.

Noting that the French people had expressed “a desire for change and broad unity”, the Elysee hopes that the consultations will help move towards “the broadest and most stable majority possible.”

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

In late July, Macron dismissed a left-wing alliance’s push to name a new prime minister.

The left-wing New Popular Front, which emerged as the largest faction post-election, has said it wants the economist Lucie Castets, 37, to be the new premier.

The government of Macron allies, under Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, has carried on in a caretaker capacity throughout the Games.

In June, Macron shocked the nation by dissolving parliament and calling snap elections. Seats in the 577-strong assembly are now divided between three similarly-sized blocs.

Somalia’s cabinet endorsed legislation to allow a one-person-one-vote election system earlier this month.

The law aims to replace a complex clan-based indirect voting system that has been in place since 1969, when the dictator Siad Barre seized power.

“The national elections law will direct the country to (hold) one-person-one vote elections,” Somali government spokesman Farhan Jimale told a media briefing on 8 August.

“(This) will give the citizens the power to vote and elect for the first time after 55 years. It is a historic day” he said.

Islamist insurgency

Under the current political system, which faces widespread insecurity caused by an Islamist insurgency and weak state structures, it’s the lawmakers who vote for the president, while clan heads and elders elect lawmakers in both the federal government and regional states.

Somalia was scheduled to move to direct voting in 2020, but squabbling among politicians and persisting insecurity across the country forced the government stick to the indirect ballot.

Plans for universal suffrage were first announced last year by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, following a National Consultative Forum set up to discuss political reforms, with the system to be introduced with nationwide local ballots initially due to take place in June this year.

Its roll-out faces significant logistical and security challenges because of the lack of infrastructure and threats from al- Shabaab, an Islamist militant group which maintains control over large swathes of the country.

Amendments

On 30 March, a package of constitutional amendments was approved by both chambers of the Somali parliament. These are designed to significantly change the office of the president.

Currently, the Somalia has an indirect indirect electoral system, where clans select the members of the parliament, which in turn picks the president.

Under the new system, the president will be directly elected under a system of universal suffrage and the term of office will be extended to five years from the current four.

The president will now have the authority to dismiss the prime minister, previously a power held by the parliament.

Weak points

Moreover, the amendments foresee in the creation of a multi-party system with three political parties, but critics say there are considerably weak points.

The amendments also include references to children’s rights, setting the ‘age of maturity’ at 15, but New York-based Human Rights Watch says that this “puts children at risk”.

Somalia joins the East African Community, but questions remain over security

“Somalia’s parliament should resist efforts to weaken constitutional protections for children, especially girls,” said Laetitia Bader, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement on 29 March.

But overall, the time to implement political change seems ripe. According to the Global State of Democracy Initiative, “over the last five years, Somalia has maintained stability, experiencing no notable changes in performance.”

But, the group says, “economically, the country remains one of the poorest and most corrupt in the world, and has been classified by the United Nations as a “least developed country.”

Penned by Shelly Gitonga and set in Nairobi, Act of Love tells the heart-wrenching story of Juliana, a young mother struggling to keep her sanity as she faces the challenges of motherhood and the harsh realities of life.

After losing her job at a restaurant, Juliana, portrayed by Mwixx Mutinda, is forced to downsize to a single-room home in an informal settlement, where she desperately searches for new work to support herself and her two-month-old baby.

However, her situation rapidly deteriorates. A series of unfortunate events, sparked by her baby’s cries, causes Juliana to lose a promising job interview. Overwhelmed by frustration and despair, she begins to question her love for her child.

“What inspired me was my own experience with postpartum depression,” Gitonga told RFI.

“It’s pretty much me feeling alone in the dark, trying to clasp on any straws of relatability with anyone going through the same thing I’m going through,” she said.

Online searches failed to find stories story that related with what Gitonga was going through, leading her to write the story.

“After every community screening, there’s always a mum who comes up to thank me for giving a voice to what they went through,” Gitonga added.

Directed by Eric M. Mwangi, Act of Love is the result of a close collaboration between the director, the scriptwriter and the film’s producers.

Since its premiere in October 2023, it’s been met with critical acclaim, earning 18 festival selections, 24 nominations, and 10 awards within just 11 months.

This week the film was screened at the Unseen Nairobi venue in Kilimani, as part of the build-up to the 2024 Cradle Arts Festival, with support from the mental health charity Mental 360.

Raising awareness on motherhood and mental illness

“We are pleased to be able to screen the powerful Act of Love to raise awareness about postpartum depression (PPD),” said Bright Shitemi, the executive director of Mental 360.

The Cradle Arts Festival, where the film was featured, is an annual event that celebrates art and creativity in Kenya, with a particular focus on raising awareness about mental health and wellness.

Shirleen Wangari, the producer of the film at Blackwell Films, emphasised the importance of addressing this often-overlooked issue.

“In Kenya, the prevalence of postpartum depression is reported to be between 11-13 percent, impacting the well-being of mothers, newborns, families, and communities.

“In Kenya, the prevalence of the maternal mental health challenge of PPD is reported as 11-13 percent, affecting the well-being of mothers, newborns, families and communities,” she said. 

“Act of Love is breaking the silence on postpartum depression in Kenya and Africa.”

Wangari further explained the serious consequences of untreated PPD.

“The condition can impair a mother’s ability to care for her child and, in extreme cases, can lead to postpartum psychosis, suicide, or infanticide.”

Scriptwriter Shelly Gitonga highlighted the global and regional scale of the issue, adding that Act of Love is a film that makes society acknowledge the “ugly side” of motherhood.

“Statistics show that postpartum depression affects 10-20 percent of women globally – but in Africa the situation is worse, with 10-32 percent of women suffering from PPD.”

An African journey

Act of Love has garnered widespread recognition, winning multiple awards, including at the 13th Kalasha International Film and TV Awards in Kenya, the Nile Grand Prize for Best Short Film, and the 13th Luxor African Film Festival in Egypt.

It has also been selected for prestigious film festivals such as the 2023 Zanzibar International Film Festival (Ziff) in Tanzania, the 2023 Swahili International Film Festival and Awards in Kenya, and the 2024 FAME Shorts Festival in Cape Town, South Africa.

Chloe Genga, from Nairobi-based production company LightBox Africa, shared the film’s broader mission.

“We have begun special screenings for underserved communities of women and healthcare workers across Kenya and Africa to raise further awareness and spark conversations for supportive action on postpartum depression, maternal health, and mental health.”

In addition to facilitating alerts about wild elephants coming through an area, the HaathiApp, developed by conservation charity Aranyak in Assam, can also assist villagers claim state compensation following attacks.

Elephants have killed 56 people in Assam since 2014, 22 of them this year alone.

“We feel there is a mechanism required where poor villagers can apply for compensation and that is one of the main components of HaatiApp,” Aranyak’s chief elephant researcher Bibhuti Prasad Lahkar told RFI.

Haathi is the Hindi word for elephant, which is revered in India, but the animals can cause extensive damage and can be dangerous to humans.

The app can serve as an early warning system.

“Suppose one sees an elephant, he or she can then immediately alert other villagers in the area via the app,” Lahkar said, days after elephants killed two foresters and a civilian in the Assam’s Sonitpur district.

Assam, which borders Bangladesh and Myanmar, is home to 5,700 elephants, the second highest population in India, after southern Karnataka state, according to a 2017 national census.

Deadly fencings

The charity hopes the early warning system and compensation can stop elephant deaths, which are often due to electrocution, in retaliation for attacks.

“People electrocute elephants in retaliation and so if we can facilitate early compensation then that will reduce electrocutions,” Lahkar said, adding that Aranyak was also trying to replace illegal palisades with safe fencing.

In the past decade, 52 of 250 elephant deaths in Assam have been due to electrocution.

Aranyak has also started alerting Assam’s forest department of high-voltage electric wires haphazardly strung by farmers.

Elephants travel great distances, and also die in collisions with running trains after straying from forest corridors, which have shrunk due to human encroachment.

App’s footprint

Aranyak plans to introduce HaathiApp in nearby Meghalaya state, which is also grappling with face-offs between humans and elephants.

Some 1,800 wild elephants there often make their way into Bangladesh.

“Expansion of human settlements and agricultural fields across Meghalaya has resulted in widespread loss of elephant habitat, degraded forage and reduced landscape connectivity,” the state of Meghalaya said in a paper published this year.

Lahkar said the Android-based app can be used anywhere in India, which is home to 60 percent of the world’s Asian elephant population.

The 2017 census counted 29,964 pachyderms across 110,000 square kilometres, of which 65,000 square kilometres are state-protected elephant reserves.

Indian policies

India designated the elephant as a “National Heritage Animal” in 2010 and ensured the animal’s protection, including a guarantee of safe migration routes.

However, while the domestic sale of ivory, which comes from elephant tusks, was banned in 1986, 36 years later Delhi did not vote against a proposal seeking the resumption of global trade at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

India reported 90 instances of tusks and ivory seizures with 29 cases of elephant poaching between 2019 and 2022.

On Monday Prime Minister Narendra Modi underlined the elephant’s importance in India.

“We reaffirm our commitment to doing everything possible to ensure elephants get a conducive habitat where they can thrive,” he said on World Elephant Day.

“It is gladdening that over the last few years, their numbers have been on the rise” in India, Modi added.

The Geneva-based International Union for Conservation of Nature has classified Indian elephants as endangered since 1986, with their numbers declining by 11 percent over the past three decades.

“The maximum sea surface temperature record was broken in the Mediterranean Sea yesterday… with a daily median of 28.90C,” Spain’s leading institute of marine sciences said.

The previous record occurred on July 24, 2023, with a median value of 28.71C, said Justino Martinez, researcher at the Institut de Ciencies del Mar in Barcelona and the Catalan Institute of Research for the Governance of the Sea.

“The maximum temperature on 15 August was attained on the Egyptian coast at El-Arish (31.96C),” but this value is preliminary until further human checks can be carried out, he added.

These preliminary findings are taken from satellite data from the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation programme.

It means that for two successive summers the Mediterranean will have been warmer than during the exceptional summer heatwave of 2003, when a daily median was measured at 28.25C on 23 August, a record that had stood for twenty years.

“What is remarkable is not so much to reach a maximum on a given day, but to observe a long period of high temperatures, even without breaking a record,” Martinez told AFP earlier this week.

Such temperatures threaten marine life.

During earlier heatwaves about 50 species including corals and molluscs were decimated.

Global warming

The Mediterranean region has long been classified as a hotspot of climate change.

Oceans have absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat produced by human activity since the dawn of the industrial age, according to scientists.

This excess heat continues to accumulate as greenhouse gases, mainly from burning oil, gas and coal.

The overheating of the oceans is predicted to impact marine plant and animal life, including on the migration of certain species and the spread of invasive species.

This could threaten fish stocks and thus undermine food security in certain parts of the globe.

Warmer oceans are also less capable of absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2), reinforcing the vicious cycle of global warming.

Thousands of people turned out late Friday to greet Algeria’s gold-medallist, who was the centre of a gender controversy at the Olympics on her way to the women’s 66kg title.

Residents of Tiaret, a city of around 200,000 people 340 kilometres (210 miles) southwest of the capital, gave her a rousing welcome when Imane Khelif appeared with relatives aboard an open-top bus escorted by police.

“I was given a warm welcome today. Every Algerian has the right to rejoice and enjoy themselves,” Khelif said.

“Even the president is a fan of Imane Khelif, which proves that the state and the people are backers of sport,” she added.

Asked about a complaint that Khelif, 25, had filed with the Paris public prosecutor’s office for online harassment, the boxer declined to elaborate.

“This is a day for celebration,” she said. “I will address that question at the appropriate time.”

• France probes alleged cyberbullying of Olympic gender-row boxer Khelif

Ongoing case

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

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

The boxer’s coach, Mohamed Chaoua, said on Friday that Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune had taken a personal interest in Khelif’s case.

He said Tebboune “has said we will not give up on our rights”.

However, he too underlined that Khelif’s return home was “a day and a time for joy” and that legal issues would have to be addressed in their own context.

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 Paris 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.

They were cleared to compete in Paris however, setting the stage for one of the biggest controversies of the Olympics.

(with AFP)

“Ukraine has nothing to do with the Nord Stream explosions,” Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said in reaction to a report by The Wall Street Journal that claimed Ukraine’s top military commander, Valery Zaluzhny, oversaw a plan to blow up the pipelines.

The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which ran from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, started leaking in September 2022 – seven months after Russia invaded Ukraine.

They had already stopped delivering gas to Europe when investigators concluded that the leaks were caused by explosions set deliberately as sabotage.

“Such an act can only be carried out with extensive technical and financial resources… and who possessed all this at the time of the bombing? Only Russia,” Zaluzhny said.

Blame game

Russia has blamed the blasts on Ukraine as well as the United States and Britain, which denied the accusation.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Ukraine had discussed blowing up the pipelines at a meeting of senior military officers and businessmen in May 2022, soon after Russia’s invasion.

The reporting, published Wednesday, said six people directly took part in the privately financed operation, which involved a rented yacht that sailed out to the pipelines carrying divers who lay down explosives.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who reportedly approved the operation at first, called it off when the CIA asked him to stop it, but Zaluzhny said it was already underway.

Germany seeks suspect

Shortly before The Wall Street Journal’s report was published, Poland said it had received a German arrest warrant for a Ukrainian man who investigators suspected helped plant explosive devices on the pipeline.

Polish prosecutors said the man, named as Volodymyr Z, had crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border in early July.

(with newswires)

This new strain has already caused a surge in cases across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is spreading to neighbouring countries, prompting the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency (PHEIC).

Thursday health officials confirmed the first infection detected outside of Africa.

The PHEIC declaration aims to raise awareness and secure funding to contain and treat the disease.

Mpox, a virus formerly called monkeypox, infects humans and animals, and is similar to smallpox. It causes fevers, rashes and puss-filled lesions all over the body.

In severe cases, mpox provokes sepsis – a life-threatening response to infection that requires immediate medical attention.

Deadlier variant

Public health authorities are worried about mpox because of the way it spreads through direct contact with an infected person, or with contaminated materials or animals.

Someone can transmit the disease one to four days before symptoms appear.

The 2022 outbreak was triggered by clade II, one of two types of mpox, which is milder and less transmissible than clade Ib, which is behind the most recent outbreak and can kill up to ten percent of people infected.

Most cases in the 2022 outbreak were in gay or bisexual men, and containment efforts focused on changing the behavior of men having sex with men after it was established that the virus was spread through sexual contact.

The most recent outbreak has been affecting predominantly children.

The WHO has reported that 70 percent of DRC’s cases in children under the age of 15 who contracted the disease through contact with infected family members or at school.

DRC on brink

The charity Save the Children is reporting that newborn babies are getting infected in overcrowded hospitals in the DRC, and doctors have reported high rates of miscarriage among pregnant women.

In calling the outbreak a PHEIC, the WHO is opening up funding and research into the clade Ib variant to better understand how it is transmitted and how to contain it.

Authorities are concerned about the spread of the disease in areas around Goma, in the northeast of the DRC, which has reported the vast majority of cases, and which is already facing a humanitarian crisis, with millions of people displaced and moving around from camp to camp.

Goma’s international airport has allowed the virus to spread abroad.

The WHO has also alerted to the fragile state of the DRC’s healthcare system, which had been strained by past outbreaks of Ebola and Covid-19, and has been struggling to keep up with the surge in mpox cases.

Vaccines

Vaccines are an important part of controlling outbreaks, and two vaccines have been recommended for use against mpox.

Vaccines were a large part of the containment of the 2022 outbreak in the West, but barely any vaccines were available in Africa.

Last week the WHO asked vaccine manufacturers to submit requests for emergency approvals in order to ramp up vaccine production and distribution.

On Wednesday the African CDC signed an agreement with the European Commission’s health emergency authority and Bavarian Nordic, the manufacturer of Jynneos, a vaccine used against mpox, for 215,000 doses.

This is much less than the 10 million doses the needed in Africa, according to Africa CDC director-general Jean Kaseya, who this week said there was a plan to secure more by the end of the year.

“We will leave no Africans behind,” he said.

(with newswires)

Roadblocks remain widespread across New Caledonia, and police continue to clash with independence activists, who began protesting three months ago against a proposed reform of voting rights.

Indigenous Kanaks argue that the reform would dilute their voting power, making it harder to achieve independence in any future referendum.

Macron has defended the reform as necessary for improving democracy, even as the government declared a state of emergency in response to protests that escalated into violence, looting and arson.

Despite deploying thousands of police and gendarmes, the French government has struggled to fully quell the violence. On Thursday, police shot dead a suspected gunman during clashes in the eastern town of Thio, marking the 11th fatality since the unrest began.

• Deadly unrest in New Caledonia tied to old colonial wounds

Push for dialogue

In late July, Macron told a delegation of New Caledonian lawmakers that he would hold discussions with all parties involved to address the situation, but only after the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and once France has a new government.

In June, Macron suspended the electoral reform after dissolving parliament to hold elections that ended without a clear majority in the National Assembly, leaving France in political uncertainty.

Even with a new government, it remains unclear what France can offer either side in New Caledonia. Macron’s decision to suspend the voting reform in June, halting its passage but not removing it entirely, satisfied neither pro- nor anti-independence groups.

Sinking economy

Meanwhile, New Caledonia’s economy has taken a hit from the violence, with the government reporting €2.2 billion in damage. Hundreds of businesses and public buildings have been destroyed by fire or looted, leaving thousands unemployed.

One in four residents is now receiving full or part-time unemployment benefits, and a growing number of people are leaving the territory. In 2024 alone, some 6,000 people – around 2.5 percent of the population – left New Caledonia, David Guyenne, president of the local chamber of commerce, told FranceInfo on Friday.

Tourism, a key revenue source, has plummeted, and one of the territory’s three nickel factories announced it would close at the end of the month, laying off 1,200 workers.

Money can’t solve crisis

The French state has provided funding for businesses affected by the looting and has lent millions of euros to the local government, which was already in debt before the crisis began.

However, financial aid alone is unlikely to address the deeper issues plaguing New Caledonia.

“The answer is not just to inject liquidity, it is to rebuild differently,” pro-independence MP Emmanuel Tjibaou told Nouvelle-Calédonie La Première local radio on Monday.

“If we think the answer is just about cash flow, we will end up with the same issues in 30 years.”

This year’s Shanghai Ranking has placed French universities in the spotlight, with Paris-Saclay achieving the highest ever score for a French institution.

The move, praised by President Emmanuel Macron, reflects the growing international recognition of French academic standards.

France now has 25 universities in the global top 1,000, with 18 in the top 500. Notable movers include Université Paris Sciences Lettres, up to 33rd place, the Sorbonne at 41st, and Paris City University, which climbed to 60th.

Aix-Marseille, Strasbourg, and Grenoble Alpes also feature in the top 150.

Macron credits these improvements to recent reforms and investments in French higher education, including the Research Programming Law and the France 2030 initiative.

• Paris remains most expensive French city for university students

With this year’s ranking, France has become the third most-represented country in the top 20, a significant development noted by Higher Education Minister Sylvie Retailleau, who pointed out the growing interest from international students.

The Shanghai Ranking, initiated in 2003 by Shanghai Jiaotong University, focuses heavily on research achievements, such as Nobel laureates, Fields medalists, and publications in top journals like Science and Nature.

This year, Harvard, Stanford, and MIT continue to dominate the top spots, with Cambridge and Oxford also in the top 10.

More than 2,500 institutions were evaluated to determine the global top 1,000.

The landings in Provence, often overshadowed by the Normandy landings two months earlier, were crucial to the final stages of World War II in Europe.

On 15 August, 1944, around 100,000 American, British and Canadian troops landed on the beaches of the Var region along the French Riviera. They were soon joined by 250,000 Free French soldiers, predominantly recruited from France’s overseas colonies in Africa.

Their mission was to recapture the key port cities of Marseille and Toulon from German occupiers.

The Allied forces met their objectives within two weeks, facing only limited resistance from a German army that was both underequipped and exhausted.

France’s Macron launches season of WWII commemorative events

Forced march

One notable incident occurred on 16 August 1944, when Resistance fighters attacked German forces in the coastal town of Lavandou, resulting in one death and four injuries.

According to a vivid account on the Bormes-les-Mimosas town hall website, the Germans had mined the port’s piers to prevent the Allies from establishing a docking zone.

In response, the Nazis arrested 180 people – men, women, and children – accusing them of harbouring Resistance fighters and threatening them with immediate execution.

The hostages were forced to march over the hills to the inland village of Bormes-les-Mimosas, where their fate would be decided by the Kommandantur, the highest local German authority, which had set up its headquarters in the Grand Hotel.

The hostages spent the night in the homes of local families, and were to be executed on 17 August, with the Nazis warning that any escape attempt would result in the execution of the “host” family.

However, in the early morning, American paratroopers descended on the village, supported by African commandos on the ground.

Surrender

The Nazis surrendered and the hostages from Lavandou, along with their “hosts” from Bormes, were freed unharmed.

A special three-day programme has been organised to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Provence and the role of Bormes-les-Mimosas.

On 16 August, visitors can participate in a reenactment of the 40-minute walk that the 180 hostages were forced to take from Lavandou to the center of Bormes.

Macron marks 84 years since de Gaulle’s call to resist Nazi occupation

On Saturday, there will be a military parade and an air show featuring American Dakota DC3 and T6 planes, along with a jazz concert inspired by WWII icon Glenn Miller.

President Macron is expected to arrive in Bormes-les-Mimosas for his annual speech, travelling from his holiday residence at Fort de Brégançon, just 10 kilometres away.

He will be accompanied by Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu, Nice mayor Christian Estrosi, and military veterans.

The dispute centers on a controversial deal in which Somaliland would lease a portion of its coastline to Ethiopia for the establishment of a marine force base, in exchange for Ethiopia potentially recognising Somaliland’s independence.

The deal, agreed in January, has heightened tensions between Ethiopia and Somalia, with Somalia viewing it as a violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Somalia, which considers Somaliland part of its territory, has strongly opposed the agreement and has even suggested that it is prepared to take drastic measures to defend its claims.

In response to the growing tensions, Turkey has stepped in as a mediator, hosting talks between the two nations to find a peaceful resolution.

“I am pleased to announce that the number and extent of issues we discussed, has increased significantly, compared to the first round,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in a video message on Tuesday.

Fidan said both sides had shown a willingness to engage on the technical details of the dispute.

“We believe that a collaborative and constructive solution is within reach,” he said.

Fidan made the comments at the end of a second round of talks between the foreign ministers of Somalia and Ethiopia that are being mediated by Turkey.

Flanked by his counterparts from Ethiopia and Somalia, Fidan added that a third round of talks would be held on Sept. 17.

• Somalia’s spat with Ethiopia deepens over naval base plans in Somaliland

Fidan, who has held meetings with his Ethiopian counterpart, Taye Atske Selassie, and Somalia’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Moallim Fiqi since Monday, did not provide details on the discussions.

However, last week he told reporters that he had proposed an arrangement that would ensure Ethiopia’s sea access via Somalia. In return, Ethiopia would acknowledge Somalia’s territorial integrity and political sovereignty, he said.

In the video, Selassie thanked Turkey for its mediation and reaffirmed Ethiopia’s wish to “secure dependable access to and from the sea.”

“We look forward to having continued engagement that will ultimately help us resolve current differences and restore normal relations,” he said.

Fiqi said progress was made in the latest round of talks, and expressed hope that the momentum will result in a solution.

“Somalia remains committed to protecting its sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity,” he said.

A first round of talks was also held in the Turkish capital in July.

Turkey has forged close ties with Somalia, and recently signed deals toward cooperation in defence and oil and gas exploration. It also has economic and trade ties with Ethiopia.

(with newswires)

Abbas received a standing ovation in the Turkish Parliament on Thursday, where he addressed an extraordinary session. Deputies wore scarves adorned with Turkish and Palestinian flags as a show of solidarity.

With Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan watching from the balcony, Abbas praised Turkey’s unwavering support for the Palestinian cause.

“We highly appreciate Turkey’s pioneering role under the leadership of President Erdogan for its courageous and unwavering positions in defense of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to freedom and independence,” declared Abbas.

Increasing isolation

Erdogan is attempting to position himself at the forefront of international opposition to Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza, even as Turkey finds itself increasingly sidelined from global efforts to resolve the conflict.

China’s recent hosting of Palestinian faction leaders highlights Erdogan’s diminishing influence.

“Erdogan was hoping to reconcile Palestinian factions, but China stole the spotlight and acted preemptively. China had more political clout over the parties,” Selin Nasi, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics contemporary Turkish studies department, told RFI.

Abbas’s visit to Russia on Tuesday further underscores the growing importance of other nations in efforts to address the Gaza conflict.

Domestic message

Erdogan’s invitation to Abbas also serves as a way to reinforce his pro-Palestinian credentials with his domestic conservative base.

“He’s trying to keep his base intact domestically,” Sezin Oney, a commentator on Turkey’s Politikyol news portal, told RFI.

“Once upon a time, Erdogan resonated with the Arab public in general.

“The Arab Street, as it was called back then, and the Muslim population in general saw him as connected with international grassroots movements. But he doesn’t have that appeal anymore; he’s lost that appeal.”

Turkey a bridge?

Erdogan has long claimed to be a bridge between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

“This is an issue that Erdogan personally invested a lot of time and energy in,” said Selin Nasi.

However, Erdogan’s influence with Hamas has waned, particularly after the assassination of its leader Ismail Haniyeh last month, and his replacement by Yahya Sinwar, who is relatively unknown in Turkey.

“They cannot host [Sinwar], they cannot contact him, nor do they have the kind of relations that they had with Haniyeh. So they have to settle with Mahmoud Abbas at this point,” Oney said.

Abbas, however, appears to show little interest in Turkey’s playing a larger role in resolving the conflict, and Erdogan’s strong support of Hamas and his fiery rhetoric against Israel is increasingly isolating him from countries seeking to end the fighting.

Hello everyone!

Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear what Rodrigo Hunrichse, your fellow RFI English listener, has found to be true in his life. Don’t miss it!

Here’s Rodrigo’s essay:

Seize the moment, cherish loved ones, make a good impression, avoid toxicity, plant seeds, harvest in time, write/ report regularly, study/ inform yourself, make good, love, find someone to love you back, question important things, rest regularly, good deeds should return, bad ones too, don’t judge until having good understanding of facts, don’t take their words for a fact: verify, don’t mind popular opinion, save for the uncertainty, remember good/bad people in your life so you’ll be remembered similarly, find a belief and a belonging so you have peers to support and be supported, no one is perfect especially you that know yourself, take care of yourself so to age with dignity, it’s never too late!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “People Are Strange”, by Jim Morrison and Robby Krieger, performed by The Doors. 

The quiz will be back next Saturday, 24 August. Be sure and tune in! 

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.

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.