Less than three weeks before the 10 September presidential debate between the US vice president and the Republican ex-president, and only a month before early voting kicks off, polls show the race for the White House is neck and neck.

Former senator and prosecutor Harris leaves the DNC in Chicago with the wind in her sails, having erased the polling leads Trump was enjoying before she replaced President Joe Biden atop the Democratic ticket last month.

• Harris vows ‘new way forward’ for America as she accepts nomination

But in one of the many speeches at the DNC, Michelle Obama, wife of former president Barack Obama, struck a sober note. In spite of all the “enthusiasm and positivity” generated by the convention, she cautioned, the race for the White House will be an “uphill battle”.

One of the main challenges, believes Gretchen Pascalis, a spokesperson for Democrats Abroad France, may be low turnout. She is also concerned about voter suppression, pointing to Harris’s remarks on “protecting the right to vote”.

She is particularly worried about Trump’s recent, puzzling remark that his Christian supporters would never need to vote again if they elected him, a statement Pascalis calls “very dangerous and frightening”.

• Democratic convention catapults Harris into US presidential race

Show of unity

Overall, Pascalis thought that the DNC was a show of “new energy, of very democratic ideas, and of a real desire to improve the life of everyday, middle-class Americans”.

She was particularly impressed by the performance of television icon Oprah Winfrey (“What an energy she has!”), and says she supports Harris’s choice of Tim Walz as her vice-presidential running mate. 

“He complements her in many ways. And he really represents rural America. And he can appeal to certain undecided voters,” she told RFI. 

Contrasting the DNC to its rival, the Republican National Convention that was held in July, Pascalis noted: “Unlike the Republican convention, at the Democratic convention, all former living presidents actually spoke, except for Jimmy Carter, who’s unwell.”

Indeed, in the past week, former US presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both took the stage to give speeches supporting Harris, as well as sitting president Biden.

But at the RNC, neither George Bush nor former Republican vice-president Dan Quale, nor party heavyweights Dick Cheney and Mitt Romney, showed up. Even Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president, did not make an appearance. 

In spite of the show of unity and positivism at the Democratic convention, however, there were sharp controversies as well. 

Palestinian question

Pro-Palestinian protesters who gathered outside the convention centre were supported by a group of 30 delegates inside, who are described as the “uncommitted” movement.

According to political magazine Mother Jones, they “represent the hundreds of thousands who voted uncommitted in lieu of supporting President Joe Biden’s primary campaign”.

During the four days of the convention, these delegates tried, in vain, to secure a slot on the main stage for either Ruwa Romman, the representative for the state of Georgia and the first ever Palestinian-American to be elected as a delegate to the DNC, or a doctor who has volunteered in Gaza.

Both requests were refused.

Members of the uncommitted movement point out that while Israeli parents Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg were invited to make a moving speech from the main stage about their son Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken hostage during Hamas’ attack on 7 October, Palestinian speakers were only offered speaking time on the sidelines of the main venue. 

“It is quite disappointing to see that, even with our protest vote, we did not get a Palestinian speaker to be at the DNC,” says Ali Hallal, who canvassed for uncommitted candidates in Detroit.

‘Not guaranteed my vote’

“(Harris) does not have a guarantee of my vote at this point,” he told RFI. “You can’t expect an uncommitted voter to vote for Kamala without a level of guarantee of a policy change.”

Hallal points out that uncommitted voters make up a large portion in some swing states such as Michigan and Georgia.

But the prospect of people voting for a third candidate, such as the Green Party’s Jill Stein, or not voting at all, is not attractive either.

“We are dealing with the rising risk of another Trump presidency, which could drastically change the material conditions of the US at an accelerated rate for working-class people and people of colour,” Hallal says.

Pascalis, the Democrat Abroad, did not want to comment, but stressed that Harris “did talk about both protecting Israel and their right to exist” but also about “really trying to do everything to eliminate the suffering in Gaza”, and indicated that she is looking to secure a ceasefire as soon as possible.

Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko announced the move as part of the government’s broader push to ensure that Senegal’s newfound energy wealth benefits its people, fulfilling a key campaign promise made by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Sonko.

The commission, comprised of legal, tax and energy sector experts, was officially established on Monday.

It will scrutinise contracts in Senegal’s oil, gas, and mining sectors to identify areas where terms can be renegotiated in favour of the national interest. The commission has the authority to bring in additional expertise from abroad if necessary.

This move follows President Faye‘s landslide election victory, in which he promised to audit and, if needed, renegotiate contracts with foreign operators in strategic sectors.

While details of the audit and any specific renegotiation plans have not been disclosed, the establishment of this commission marks a significant step towards fulfilling that commitment.

Promises

Sonko emphasised the government’s dedication to honouring its pledge to the Senegalese people.

“As an opposition political party, we vigorously denounced the way in which agreements and conventions were concluded to the detriment, most of the time, of the strategic interests of Senegal and its people,” Sonko said.

Now in power, he promises to do better.

He said the commission will have sufficient resources to look into the contracts and hire experts from abroad if necessary.

• Senegal joins oil-producing nations with launch of first offshore field

The commission’s work comes at a pivotal time for Senegal, which became an oil producer for the first time earlier this year.

Australia’s Woodside Energy announced in June that its Sangomar oil and gas field had produced its first oil in Senegal.

Additionally, gas production is expected to begin by the end of the year at the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, operated by BP.

Despite the commission’s formation, Sonko did not specify how long the contract review process would take.

Challenges

Former Senegalese MP Oumar Sy praised the decision to renegotiate the contracts but cautioned that it could be a lengthy and challenging process.

“These types of contracts are very heavy and hard to change. It might take years to do so,” Sy told RFI in Dakar.

In addition to the contract review, Sonko also announced plans to develop a restructuring and reconfiguration plan for the Port of Dakar, further indicating the government’s focus on strengthening national control over key resources and infrastructure.

This latest move follows another milestone for Senegal: the launch of its first satellite from California last Friday.

The satellite launch makes Senegal one of 12 African nations with their own surveillance and telecommunications satellites in space, a development that Faye hailed as a major step towards the country’s “technological sovereignty”.

“We were not neutral from day one, we have taken a side, and we stand firmly for peace,” Modi said.

Modi is paying the first visit to Ukraine by an Indian prime minister.

As he pushed for a way forward on ending the Ukraine war, Modi urged Zelensky to sit down for talks with Russia and offered to act as a “friend” to help bring peace.

The two leaders shook hands and exchanged a warm hug at the entrance of the Martyrologist Exposition at the Ukraine National Museum, before talks at the Mariinsky presidential palace.

“Conflict is particularly devastating for young children. My heart goes out to the families of children who lost their lives, and I pray that they find the strength to endure their grief, Modi wrote on X.

Zelensky plans to discuss a summit on peace in Ukraine with Modi and also called for strengthened trade and military cooperation with India.

Four agreements between India and Ukraine are planned to provide for cooperation in agriculture, medicine, culture and humanitarian assistance, Indian officials said.

• India’s Modi visits Ukraine in bid to rebalance diplomatic ties

Putin hug ‘disappointing’

Modi’s arrival in Kyiv – a day ahead of Ukraine’s independence day – follows his two-day trip to Poland.

It also comes on the back of his trip to Moscow in July, where he hugged Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky said of Modi’s trip to Russia: “It’s a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day.”

Friday’s talks come at a crossroads in the war, with Ukrainian forces launching an attack on Russia’s western Kursk region on 6 August.

Russian troops are also grinding out slow but steady advances in Ukraine’s east.

But it remains unclear if Modi could really become an effective dealmaker.

“No problem can be resolved on a battlefield,” Modi said in Poland on Wednesday before heading to Ukraine.

(with newswires)

The situation has left France in political limbo for 47 days, following the elections on 7 July, which failed to give any party a working majority.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who resigned after the defeat of Macron’s Renaissance party, has continued to lead a caretaker government at Macron’s request to see through the Paris Olympics.

With the Games ending on 11 August, the so-called “Olympic truce” is over, and Macron now faces pressure to appoint a new prime minister capable of forming a stable government.

“Article 8 of the French Constitution states that the president names the prime minister, but it doesn’t fix a time frame,” said Arnaud Le Pillouer, a public law specialist at Paris Nanterre University.

Although theoretically France could remain without a premier for one or two years, Le Pillouer told RFI the constitution must be interpreted in light of democratic principles.

“He could name Brigitte Macron as PM, but would that be acceptable in terms of democracy? I doubt it.”

Macron must face political truths as Olympics euphoria wears off

Building a stable majority

The leftist New Popular Front (NFP) coalition, which united the Socialist, Communist, Green, and hard-left France Unbowed parties for the election, emerged as the largest faction, winning 193 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly.

The NFP is pushing for economist Lucie Castets to be appointed as the new prime minister.

Macron will meet with NFP leaders, including Castets, on Friday morning, followed by representatives from his own centrist Ensemble (Together) camp and the conservative Republicans.

Meetings with the far-right National Rally and its affiliates are scheduled for Monday.

Macron’s goal, as stated in July, is to build “the largest and most stable majority” before appointing a new premier.

What is the New Popular Front, surprise winner of France’s election?

Macron has ruled out including figures from France Unbowed or the National Rally in the government, preferring an alliance with the traditional right and parts of the centre-left.

Names circulating as potential prime ministers include former PM Edouard Philippe, Xavier Bertrand (head of the northern Hauts de France region), and Socialist former foreign minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

“The President is on the side of the French people, the guarantor of institutions and above all the expression of their vote on 7 July,” said the Elysée Palace on Thursday.

However, the NFP insists that the election results clearly went in their favour, with the France Unbowed faction even threatening to launch impeachment proceedings against Macron.

Meanwhile the presidential camp, the right and the National Rally have threatened a no-confidence motion if an NFP-led government included members from the hard left.

Paris politics heats up as left pushes for power and impeachment

Presidential discord

Friday’s talks follow apparent cracks within Macron’s centrist Renaissance party. Former PM Elisabeth Borne has announced her candidacy for the leadership of Renaissance, positioning herself as a unifying force.

Borne told Le Parisien on Wednesday that the party “was not meant to be a presidential stable” and stressed the need to focus on “in-depth reflection and mobilising its members”.

She added: “We need to give French people hope again, to develop a vision and a plan for the country.”

Her candidacy could tread on the toes of Gabriel Attal, who is head of the Renaissance group within the National Assembly and is looking to redefine his role after stepping down as prime minister.

Asked about Attal’s ambitions, Borne said: “Traditionally, it’s not customary to be group chairman at the same time as leading the party.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that cases of mpox Clade 2 have been reported in Côte d’Ivoire.

According to national health officials, at least 28 cases of mpox and one death have been recorded in the West African country.

“The National Public Hygiene Institute [INHP] recorded 28 confirmed cases, including one death across the country as of Tuesday,” said INHP doctor Daouda Coulibaly.

He added that monitoring for mpox had been strengthened.

“We have to break the chains of transmission, identify the contacts of cases, isolate them and monitor them.”

Cases rise in Central Africa

The number of mpox cases continues to increase in Central Africa, notably in the Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.

According to RFI’s correspondent in CAR, Rolf Steve Domia-Leu, nearly 100 suspected cases of monkeypox have been detected throughout the country over the past four weeks.

The main areas affected by the disease so far are Mbomou in the east, Kemo in the centre, Lobaye in the south-east and the capital, Bangui.

The disease is nonetheless under control, according to Valentin Nebanga, head of the health promotion department at the Ministry of Public Health.

“We have recorded 92 suspected cases, not only in Bangui, but in some provincial towns as well,” he said.

“Of the 92 suspected cases, samples were taken and nine cases came back positive,” he added.

“The positive patients were all hospitalised in dedicated treatment centres at the Bangui General Hospital, and the good news is that the nine patients have all been declared cured and have already been discharged from the hospital.”

France to donate 100,000 mpox vaccines as it prepares for outbreak at home

New strain reaches Asia

Meanwhile Thailand on Thursday confirmed Asia’s first known case of a new, deadlier strain of mpox, Clade 1b, in a patient who had travelled to the kingdom from Africa.

The patient landed in Bangkok on 14 August and was sent to hospital with mpox symptoms.

The Department of Disease Control said laboratory tests on the 66-year-old European confirmed he was infected with mpox Clade 1b.

“We have monitored 43 people who have been in close contact with the patient and so far they have shown no symptoms, but we must continue monitoring for a total of 21 days,” the department said in a statement, adding that the WHO would be informed of the development.

Anyone travelling to Thailand from 42 “risk countries” must register and undergo testing on arrival, the department said.

Dangerous variant

The WHO declared a global public health emergency over the new variant of mpox in mid-August, urging pharmaceutical companies and governments to work on increasing the current production of vaccines.

Mpox cases and deaths are surging in Africa, where outbreaks have been reported in the DRC, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and other countries since July.

More than 18,700 mpox cases detected in Africa since January

Cases were also reported in Sweden and Pakistan last week.

The disease is caused by a virus transmitted by infected animals and passed from human to human through close physical contact. It causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.

Mpox has been known for decades, but the new strain known as Clade 1b is deadlier and more transmissible. It has driven the recent surge in cases.

Clade 1b causes death in about 3.6 percent of cases, with children more at risk, according to the WHO.

(with newswires)

The 59-year-old sought to strike a presidential tone as she delivered a message of unity and patriotism for Americans after one of the most extraordinary turnarounds in US political history.

“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past – a chance to chart a new way forward,” Harris said to huge cheers from tens of thousands of pumped-up supporters.

“And I want you to know: I promise to be a president for all Americans.”

The convention became a giant party to celebrate Harris’s astonishing ascent from something of a political afterthought to Democratic standard bearer upon President Joe Biden‘s surprise decision to end his reelection bid.

A sea of waving Stars and Stripes flags and chants of “USA” filled the arena as jubilant Democrats anointed Harris.

She was later joined on stage by her running mate Tim Walz and their families, as they held their arms aloft while 100,000 red, white and blue balloons tumbled from the ceiling.

Country act The Chicks sang a version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” while pop star Pink also performed as the Democrats rolled out a list of celebrity backers.

‘President who unites us’

But it was Harris’s time to shine on the biggest night of her political life, after becoming the first Black woman to be nominated by a major US party.

She reached out to voters across America’s bitter political divide, promising to bring economic opportunity and protect their personal freedoms on key issues like abortion.

“I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations,” she vowed.

Harris then launched a broadside at 78-year-old Trump, whose campaign has been upended by having to face a woman two decades younger, rather than the increasingly frail Biden, 81.

“We know what a second Trump term would look like,” she said, saying he wanted to “pull our country back to the past.”

She laid out her personal story as a child of a single working mother, and her career as a prosecutor, saying she has the background and experience to serve the country in contrast to Trump who she said only works for himself and “his billionaire friends.”

Turning to foreign policy, she accused Trump of trying to “cozy up” to foreign autocrats like Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Harris pledged instead to “stand strong” with Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion and support NATO allies — again all in stark contrast to Trump’s isolationist stance.

On the hugely divisive issue of Israel‘s war in Gaza, Harris went further than the rhetoric of her boss Biden by calling the scale of suffering in the Palestinian enclave “heartbreaking”.

She vowed to get a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, and cheers erupted when she vowed “self-determination” for the Palestinian people.

Pro-Palestinian protesters have demonstrated throughout the Democratic convention, with several thousands rallying outside it again on Thursday.

‘Ready on day one’

The Democrats have been riding a wave of energy and enthusiasm since Harris stepped up. She has wiped out former president Trump’s lead in the polls, drawn enormous crowds and raised record funds.

The torch having well and truly been passed, Biden gave a farewell speech on the first day of the convention and said he had called Harris to wish her luck.

“I am proud to watch my partner Kamala Harris accept our nomination for president. She will be an outstanding president because she is fighting for our future,” Biden, who is on holiday in California, said on X.

Barack Obama, who along with his wife Michelle delivered rousing support for Harris at the convention on Tuesday, said Harris had “showed the world what I have known to be true.

“She is ready on day one to be President and represents the best of America. Let’s get to work.”

Yet Democrats will also be trying to temper their hopes.

Harris told reporters after her speech that the Democrats were the “underdogs” in the election, with a nail-biting sprint to November against a combative opponent.

As he struggles to recalibrate his own campaign, Trump is increasingly resorting to personal insults, racially charged attacks, and dark rhetoric.

He gave a play-by-play commentary on Harris’s speech on his Truth social platform, accusing her of making the United States a “failing nation” while part of the Biden administration.

“She’s done nothing for three and a half years but talk, and that’s what she’s doing tonight, she’s complaining about everything but doing nothing!” he wrote.

“I think that we’ve already had a great transfer window, and we’re not in any rush to add any more players,” said Enrique who lost star striker Kylian Mbappé at the end of last season.

“I have huge faith in every player in our squad,” the 54-year-old Spaniard added.

“Obviously, we’ll keep an eye open until the end of the transfer window but it’s very hard to find an opportunity that will strengthen the team.”

Enrique took over at PSG in July 2023 and steered the club to a domestic treble of French Super Cup, Coupe de France and Ligue 1 title.

Following Mbappé’s departure to Real Madrid, PSG supremos signed the 22-year-old Ecuador international defender Willian Pacho from the German Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt and 19-year-old Désiré Doué from Rennes to bolster the options in midfield.

“We looked for reinforcements in the transfer window,” said Enrique. “But we already had a good squad last season. I don’t look at the ages of our signings but at their performances and where we can improve.

Simplicity

“It’s obviously easier for a French player to adapt because there isn’t that language barrier,” said Enrique of Doué’s arrival.

“I think that Désiré is a versatile player who can play either in attack or in midfield and either centrally or out wide. He’s a real reinforcement and I’m really happy that he wanted to join us.”

PSG started the defence of their Ligue 1 crown last Friday with a 4-1 win at Le Havre during which striker Goncalo Ramos was injured. The 23-year-old is likely to be out until just before Christmas. Marseille enjoyed the most impressive result of the opening round of games. Former Manchester United striker Mason Greenwood bagged a brace as Roberto de Zerbi’s charges walloped Brest 5-1.

Without European football this season after finishing eighth, Marseille are expected to be among the main challenges to PSG’s attempt for an 11th top flight crown in 13 years.

Montpellier, who finished 12th last season, began their campaign on Sunday with a 1-1 draw against Strasbourg.

“You know what it will be like at the Parc des Princes against PSG,” said Montpellier goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte.

“You have to concentrate for 90 minutes and right up until the final whistle because if PSG are looking for something they’ll play for it.

“It’s up to us to do whatever we have to do to thwart them. We’ll have to play well defensively and to make the most of the opportunities that we have in front of goal.”

Depardieu, 75, has been under investigation since 2020 after actor Charlotte Arnould said he raped and assaulted her on two occasions in 2018 at his Paris home.

Although the probe was initially dropped in 2019, Arnould pushed successfully for its reopening the following year and Depardieu was charged in December 2020.

Following the in-depth investigation into the rape and sexual assault claims, it will now be up to an investigating magistrate to decide whether he will face trial.

A lawyer representing Depardieu did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.

Arnould’s lawyer Carine Durrieu-Diebolt said the move was “the result of a long investigation which was able to gather evidence corroborating the words of my client”.

Durrieu-Diebolt added that it was “a huge step forward filled with hope” for Arnould, now aged 28.

Arnould herself wrote on X that she was “extremely relieved and moved” at the news a trial had been requested.

“This gives me hope for what’s next, even though I’m staying extremely cautious” before the magistrate’s decision, she added.

French celebrities distance themselves from Depardieu, accused of rape

‘Manhunt’

Depardieu, a monument on the French cinema landscape for decades, has denied a string of rape and sexual assault allegations in recent years.

“Never, but never, have I abused a woman,” he wrote in a letter published in conservative daily Le Figaro last October in reference to Arnould’s allegations.

“A woman came to my home… coming up to by bedroom of her own free will. Today she says she was raped,” Depardieu wrote.

“There was never constraint, violence or protest between us,” he added.

President Emmanuel Macron unexpectedly weighed into the debate in December, saying that Depardieu faced a “manhunt” and should benefit from the presumption of innocence.

He sought in a May interview to soften those remarks, saying he had “no indulgence” towards Depardieu but insisting that “our principles” – including the presumption of innocence – “will allow the judiciary to make a decision in October”.

The actor already faces a trial that month for alleged sexual assaults against two different women during a film shoot in 2021.

In January, a former production assistant filed a criminal complaint against Depardieu for alleged sexual assaults during a shoot in 2014.

That investigation was closed as the alleged crime had passed the statute of limitations, along with a complaint from actor Helene Darras for an alleged 2007 sexual assault.

Dozens of French actors denounce ‘lynching’ of Depardieu

Directors and bigwigs

A broader reckoning with sexual assault allegations in French cinema has only slowly been making its way through the justice system since the late 2010s and the emergence of the worldwide #metoo movement.

Last month, well-known film director Benoit Jacquot, 77, was charged with raping actors Julia Roy, 34, and Isild Le Besco, 41.

The allegations emerged after 52-year-old actor Judith Godreche accused Jacquot of raping her during a years-long relationship in the 1980s, which began when she was aged 14.

Prosecutors did not charge Jacquot in Godreche’s case because the allegations were past the statute of limitations.

Another director, 80-year-old Jacques Doillon, was released from questioning for medical reasons after himself being accused by Godreche of assaulting her when she was underage.

And in June Dominique Boutonnat, the head of France’s National Centre of Cinema (CNC), was given a three-year jail term for sexually assaulting his godson in 2020.

Boutonnat – who will likely serve only a year under house arrest – immediately stepped down from leading the country’s top film institution, part of whose role is overseeing measures to curb sexual violence in the industry.

Anti-abuse training has become obligatory for films seeking public funding via the CNC.

In a first reaction, Tran’s lawyer Bertrand Repolt told journalists: “We are not surprised, but obviously disappointed.”

He said that the decision reflected a “bad interpretation” of jurisprudence when it comes to corporate immunity, showing that the companies in question have a lot of leeway.

Like in 2021, the Paris appeals court ruled that it did not have jurisdiction to judge a case involving the wartime actions of the United States government, on whose orders the chemical companies supplied Agent Orange.

Repolt stressed that the judgement is not “final” and that the battle will continue in the Court of Cassation, France’s top appeals court.

Meanwhile a spokesperson for Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry, quoted by the daily Vietnam News, said that Hanoi found the ruling “very regrettable”.

“While the war in Vietnam has long ended, its tremendous implications continue to linger on the country and people of Vietnam, including the long-term severe consequences of Agent Orange,” spokesperson Pham Thu Hang told reporters.

Through the generations

Tran, who was born in Vietnam when it was under French occupation, has been battling the chemical giants in court for a decade.

She was exposed to Agent Orange at age 24, when it was used by the US military to destroy the forests that sheltered Vietcong guerrilla fighters.

Her first daughter died of a heart defect after 17 months, while her two other daughters and grandchildren suffer from serious health conditions that she ascribes to her exposure to the defoliant.

Now 82, Tran herself suffers from “recurrent tuberculosis, cancer, and type II diabetes”, according to Vietnam Dioxin, a collective that fights for the rights of the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange.

In 2014 Tran filed a lawsuit in Paris against 14 firms that allegedly made or sold the highly toxic chemical, including the Dow consortium and Monsanto, now owned by German giant Bayer.

Backed by several NGOs, Tran accuses the companies of being responsible for injuries sustained by her, her children and countless others, as well as for damage done to the environment.

But in 2021 a court dismissed the case, ruling that the companies were protected from prosecution because they had acted on behalf of a sovereign government.

• French court dismisses case over Agent Orange defoliant use in Vietnam War

Millions of victims

According to a 2003 study published in the journal Nature, “between 1961 and 1971, the American army dumped some 80 million litres of chemicals on the country by air, above the forests of former French Indochina”.

The aim was to destroy Vietnam’s dense jungle vegetation where communist fighters of the Vietcong were thought to hide.

According to the study, data revealed that “millions of Vietnamese were likely to have been sprayed upon directly”. Vietnam Dioxin estimates that the chemical caused more than three million victims.

Apart from human casualties, Vietnam’s ecology was also badly affected.

According to some estimates, a fifth of South Vietnamese forests were chemically destroyed, and more than a third of mangroves disappeared.

In 1984, 15,000 American veterans who said they suffered from cancer, liver disease and nervous disorders after being exposed to Agent Orange were awarded the equivalent of €225 million in compensation in a settlement with Monsanto and Dow Chemical, the main producers of the substance.

But Vietnamese victims were never compensated. In 2005, petitions filed by an association representing them were dismissed by US courts and eventually by the Supreme Court, which argued that Agent Orange was a herbicide and not a chemical weapon.

“We strongly support the efforts of Agent Orange victims to urge chemical companies in charge of producing and supplying Agent Orange or dioxin to the US in this war against Vietnam, which has caused millions of Vietnamese people to become victims, to take responsibility, and address their relevant consequences,” commented Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pham after Thursday’s ruling.

(with newswires)

In a joint letter, the three countries denounced the “open and assumed support of the Republic of Ukraine for terrorism internationally, particularly in the Sahel”.

The countries asked the UN to “take responsibility” for Ukraine’s actions and to prevent “subversive acts” that threaten regional and continental stability.

The letter was dated 19 August and circulated to the 15-member Security Council the following day, diplomats told Reuters news agency.

The text was also posted on the Malian foreign ministry’s social media account.

The complaint marks a new stage in the deterioration of relations between these countries and Ukraine, according to experts.

Accusations

The row arose over comments by a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency about fighting in northern Mali that killed dozens of Malian soldiers and mercenaries from the Russian Wagner group in late July.

Both ethnic Tuareg separatists and jihadist insurgents operate in the region.

Speaking to Ukrainian media, spokesperson Andriy Yusov said rebels had received “all the necessary information they needed” to conduct “a successful military operation against Russian perpetrators of war crimes”.

Mali interpreted the remarks as an admission of Ukraine’s direct involvement in the conflict, accusing the country of supporting terrorist groups.

Mali’s military government consequently cut diplomatic ties with Ukraine in early August, followed days later by Niger.

Along with Burkina Faso, the neighbours are allied by a mutual defence pact signed last year.

• Niger follows Mali, cutting ties with Ukraine over support to rebel groups

Russian presence

Ukraine said it regretted the “short-sighted and hasty” decision by Mali and Niger to sever ties.

The Ukrainian government has since repeatedly called the allegations groundless, while an alliance of Tuareg rebels denied receiving its support. 

But a Western security source confirmed to French news agency AFP this week that contacts exist between Ukrainian military authorities and Malian separatists, without specifying the nature of Kyiv’s possible support.

The source also ruled out a Ukrainian presence on the ground.

Ukraine has been locked in heavy fighting with Russia for more than two years, while Moscow has become a strong ally of the three juntas in power in the Sahel.

Russia has stepped up its diplomatic efforts in Africa in recent years in a bid to compete with the West in countries traditionally viewed as its allies.

• Concerns mount as Russian troops take over US base in Niger

Public pressure

The UN Security Council does not have a mandate to manage disputes between states.

For their complaints to be successful, the three West African countries would have to go instead to international courts, Johann Soufi, a lawyer specialising in international relations, told RFI.

The letter to the UN aims primarily to put more pressure on Ukraine, he believes, as well as speaking to the population at home. 

“I don’t think it’s going to achieve anything,” he said.

(with newswires)

As they finalise their preparations for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, members of the Refugee Paralympic Team have been training in Reims, eastern France.

Organised by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the training camp is the first time the athletes have come together as one team.

“It has been fantastic to bring the team together for the first time to benefit from such world-class sport facilities,” Paralympian and mission leader Nyasha Mharakurwa told the IPC.

“I’m really proud of how quickly the athletes have come together,” he said.

“On paper, we thought this might be a challenge bearing in mind the diversity of the team and the differences in language and culture.

“In reality, however, they have built relationships and shown support for each other from day one, united by the fact that at Paris 2024 they are part of something much bigger than themselves.” 

Refugee Olympic Team flies the flag for resilience at Paris Games

‘Message of perseverance’

The team of eight athletes and two guide runners is the largest Refugee Paralympic Team in history. They will compete in six different sports: para-athletics, para-powerlifting, para-table tennis, para-taekwondo, para-triathlon, and wheelchair fencing.

Among them is Ibrahim Al Hussein, a Syrian athlete who will be competing in para-triathlon. Al Hussein lost his right foot and parts of his left foot in 2012 during the civil war that ravaged his country and forced him to flee to Greece.

“I left Syria in a wheelchair and I want to send a message of perseverance and hope to everyone who feels miserable or bad about themselves,” Al Hussein told the Associated Press in Reims.

Living in refugee camps for years with little or no access to training centres, Al Hussein and his teammates overcame many obstacles to reach top sporting competitions.

“We are all proud to be members of the Refugee Paralympic Team and representing not just ourselves but the 120 million displaced people from around the world and the more than one billion people with disabilities,” he told the IPC.

Paris suburb gets France’s first inclusive sports complex thanks to Olympics

Zakia Khudadadi, who won the 2023 European Taekwondo Championship in the 47kg category, will be the first team member to compete on the opening day of competition on 28 August.

Like every athlete, she is hoping to land a podium place – something no other refugee Paralympian has done yet.

“It would be a dream come true to be the first to ever win a medal for the Refugee Paralympic Team,” Khudadadi, who is originally from Afghanistan and has been based in Paris since 2021, told the IPC.

“If that happens, I know how much inspiration and hope that would give to millions of people around the world, especially women and girls.  

“It will show them that no matter how difficult the struggles they face, they should never give up.”

(with newswires)

The EU on Tuesday revised its proposed punitive duties on imports of Chinese EVs to 36.3 percent from an initial planned duty of 37.6 percent, but fell short of abandoning them, as Beijing had called on Brussels to do.

The revision drew rebuke from China’s commerce ministry, which in response said it is “firmly opposed to and highly concerned” about the findings, and vowed to take all necessary measures to protect Chinese firms.

The anti-subsidy investigation on dairy announced by China’s commerce ministry on Wednesday, the latest in a series of Chinese probes this year into EU agricultural goods, will focus on various types of cheeses, milks and creams intended for human consumption.

It was prompted by a complaint submitted by the Dairy Association of China and the China Dairy Industry Association on July 29 on behalf of the domestic dairy industry, the ministry said.

EU struggles to come out on top in systemic rivalry with China

EU defends dairy industry

China will examine 20 subsidy schemes from across the 27-strong bloc, specifically those from Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Ireland, and Romania, it said in a statement.

European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said the bloc “will firmly defend the interests of the EU dairy industry and the Common Agricultural Policy, and intervene as appropriate to ensure that the investigation fully complies with relevant World Trade Organization rules”.

The European Dairy Association, meanwhile, said it was confident that EU farm subsidies were compatible with World Trade Organization rules and would seek to clarify “the dairy part of the rather complex trade relation between China and the EU today”.

Of the EU countries listed by China’s commerce ministry, Ireland is by far the biggest exporter of dairy products to China, having sold $461 million worth of goods to the Asian nation last year.

French dairy sector body CNIEL said France was also part of the EU-wide Chinese probe, adding that the country was China’s second-largest supplier of cream after New Zealand.

The EU was China’s second-largest source of dairy products with at least 36 percent of the total value of imports in 2023, behind only New Zealand, according to Chinese customs data.

The EU exported 1.7 billion euros in dairy products to China in 2023, down from 2 billion in 2022, according to data from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, which cited Eurostat.

Pork, dairy worth less than EVs

China already launched an anti-dumping probe into imports of EU pork in June, which mainly affects Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, following an anti-dumping investigation into EU brandy announced in January that was almost exclusively related to France.

Macron thanks China’s Xi for not imposing duties on French cognac

“The combined value of EU pork and dairy exports to China – areas of goods potentially affected by tariffs – are smaller than the value of China’s battery EV exports to the EU, which we estimate to stand at around $13.5 billion in 2023,” Chim Lee, senior China analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said.

“Domestic economic pressures, alongside the increasingly important role played by external demand in supporting China’s economy, will keep Chinese policymakers cautious about invoking an overly confrontational approach to trade,” Lee added.

(Reuters)

Police launched a manhunt on Tuesday after Collins Jumaisi, who is accused of murdering and dismembering dozens of women, broke out of a police station in an upmarket area of the Kenyan capital along with 12 Eritreans.

Five officers appeared in court on Wednesday suspected of aiding Jumaisi’s escape and have been freed on a 200,000 Kenyan shilling ($1,500) bond, despite prosecutors seeking an order to keep them in custody for 14 days.

The 33-year-old Jumaisi, described by police as a “vampire, a psychopath”, was arrested last month after the gruesome discovery of a number of mutilated female bodies in a rubbish dump in Mukuru slum area in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

Police say he has confessed to murdering 42 women over a two-year period from 2022, with his wife his first victim, but the suspect has claimed he was tortured after his arrest.

Kenyan film explores the struggles of motherhood and mental health in Africa

Reward offered

Officers said Jumaisi and the other men escaped by cutting through a wire mesh roof where he was being held, before scaling a perimeter wall.

“A significant cash reward will be provided to anyone with credible information leading to the suspect’s arrest,” the Directorate of Criminal Investigations said, without specifying an amount.

It is the second time in barely six months that a suspect in a high-profile case has escaped from custody in Nairobi.

The latest twist to the grisly story has infuriated many Kenyans, with the country appalled over the discovery of the butchered women.

It has also thrown a spotlight on police as the bodies were found just 100 metres from a police station.

Kenya‘s police watchdog, the Independent Police Oversight Authority, has said it was looking into whether there was any police involvement or a “failure to act to prevent” the killings.

Kenyan police are often accused by rights groups of carrying out unlawful killings or running hit squads, but few have faced justice.

“These doses will be distributed through the European Union to regions where the virus is circulating widely,” Attal posted on X.

The World Health Organization, which has declared the surge of mpox cases in Africa a global health emergency, and the United States will donate 50,000 mpox vaccine doses to Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UN health agency has called for a major increase in vaccine production and said that a vaccination campaign must be a key priority for affected countries.

Last week, the African Union health agency said some 200,000 vaccines would be deployed across Africa thanks to agreements with the EU and Danish drug company Bavarian Nordic, whose vaccine was approved in 2019.

• DR Congo on standby for first vaccines to fight mpox outbreak

Vaccination sites in France

Some 232 vaccination sites are in place in case of an eventual outbreak in France.

“We aim to be ready to face all scenarios and all risks,” Attal wrote.

No mpox cases have yet been reported in France. Sweden’s Public Health Agency announced last week it had registered a case of the more dangerous Clade 1b variant of mpox.

While that was the first case in Europe, the patient had been infected during a visit to an affected African country.

The virus has swept across the DRC, killing more than 570 people so far this year.

Outbreaks have been reported in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda since July.

(with AFP)

In a whirlwind quarter-hour address, Walz raced through the story of his middle-class upbringing in small town Nebraska, where he worked on the family farm, and described his experience teaching students who inspired him to go into politics.

“They saw in me what I had hoped to instill in them: a commitment to the common good, an understanding that we’re all in this together, and the belief that a single person can make a real difference for their neighbors,” he said as the crowd chanted “Coach Walz!”

The gloves came off as the 60-year-old Minnesota governor turned his fire on Republican nominee Donald Trump, accusing him of spending “all day insulting people and blaming others.”

But Walz devoted much of his speech at the United Center in Chicago to making the case for Harris.

“From her day as a prosecutor, as a district attorney, as an attorney general, as a United States senator and then our vice president, she’s fought on the side of the American people,” he said.

“She’s taken on the predators and fraudsters. She’s taken down the transnational gangs… She has never hesitated to reach across that aisle if it meant improving your lives, and she’s always done it with energy, with passion and with joy.”

The relatively unknown state-level official brings a Midwestern everyman vibe to Harris’s surging campaign against Trump that was central to his speech.

Introduced by Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz, the former National Guard soldier was cheered boisterously as he took to the stage for the biggest speech of his political career, ahead of Harris’s big night Thursday.

In a moment that brought the audience to its feet, former students marched onstage to introduce Walz — a football coach in his teaching days — after a musical interlude by Grammy Award-winning musician John Legend.

Democratic convention catapults Harris into US presidential race

‘Fight for your freedom’

A surprise appearance by Oprah Winfrey and a rousing rendition of “Higher Ground” by Stevie Wonder made for a glitzy night, alongside turns from comic actors Mindy Kaling and Keenan Thompson.

Walz’s main job was to tee up Harris’s speech and the climax of a convention that has defied predictions of disunity or even chaos in the wake of President Joe Biden‘s decision to drop his reelection bid on July 21.

“No matter who you are, Kamala Harris is going to stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life that you want to lead, because that’s what we want for ourselves and it’s what we want for our neighbors,” he said.

On Tuesday, it was Democratic superstars Michelle and former president Barack Obama who spoke, following up on Biden’s emotional speech Monday, where he passed the torch to his vice president.

The convention has seen intense enthusiasm, buoyed by Walz’s appearances at sideline events, where he has been mobbed by supporters seeking selfies and chanting, “Tim! Tim! Tim!”

He has made a name for himself as an able communicator and is credited with coming up with one of the sharpest attack lines on Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance, whom he labeled “weird.”

As a folksy, white son of the US heartland, Walz balances Harris’s California background and barrier-breaking status as the first Black woman nominee.

The chemistry between 59-year-old Harris and Walz and the noisy energy generated at their rallies is fueling Democratic hopes that they can defeat Trump, 78, in November.

Polls show the election remains close, but Harris is moving slightly ahead — a remarkable turn of events, given that only a month ago Trump seemed to be gaining a steadily tightening grip on the race.

On the convention floor, delegates praised Walz’s keynote address.

“I thought his speech was perfect,” New York delegate Edwina Martin, 60, told AFP.

Before Walz lit up the arena, the crowd heard from a galaxy of the party’s biggest names, from Pennsylvania governor and rising Democratic star Josh Shapiro to former president Bill Clinton.

“In 2024, we have a clear choice: ‘We The People’ versus ‘Me, Myself, and I,'” Clinton said.

Britain said 100 new “specialist intelligence and investigation officers” would be recruited to the National Crime Agency (NCA) to help dismantle smuggling gangs that run the dangerous Channel crossings.

The government also aims over the next six months to achieve the highest rate of deportations of failed asylum seekers for five years.

The goal is to remove more than 14,000 people by the end of the year, according to The Times.

The new Labour government intends to increase detention capacity at removal centres and sanction employers who hire people with no right to work in the UK, the ministry said.

“We are taking strong and clear steps to boost our border security and ensure the rules are respected and enforced,” interior minister Yvette Cooper said in a statement.

Stopping the small boat arrivals was a key issue in the 4 July election, in which Labour won a thumping majority.

Within days of taking power, Prime Minister Keir Starmer scrapped a controversial scheme to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda, which had been a flagship policy of the last Conservative government.

People-smuggling gangs

Starmer has instead pledged to dismantle the people-smuggling gangs who organise the crossings and are paid thousands of euros by each migrant.

The interior ministry is recruiting a so-called Border Security Commander who will work with European countries against the people-smuggling gangs.

Starmer has also pledged with French President Emmanuel Macron to strengthen “cooperation” in handling the surge in undocumented migrant numbers.

But the Conservatives, who are now the country’s main opposition party, have attacked Labour on the issue since the handover of power.

Small boat arrivals

Former interior minister James Cleverly, who is running to be the party’s new leader, accused new ministers of failing to “get a grip” on small boat arrivals.

More than 200 people crossed the Channel in three boats on Monday, taking the provisional total for the year so far to 19,294, according to Home Office figures.

• Record number of migrants cross Channel to UK in single day this year

This is a 10 percent increase on the number recorded last year, which was 17,620, but down on the 21,344 crossings recorded in the same period of 2022.

The interior ministry said the NCA is pursuing about 70 investigations against criminal networks involved in people trafficking.

It said the government would issue financial penalty notices, business closure orders and bring possible prosecutions against anyone employing illegal workers.

Failed asylum seekers

The department also said it was adding 290 beds to two removal centres and redeploying staff to try to remove failed asylum seekers at the highest rate since 2018. The ministry did not give figures on the numbers involved.

But Enver Solomon, of the Refugee Council, accused the government of “wasting taxpayers’ money on expanding detention places” and said it should be investing in voluntary returns programmes.

“If you treat people with respect, humanity and support them to return, many more people return,” he told BBC Radio.

Enver also urged ministers to focus on providing safe routes to deter small boat crossings, arguing “unless the government also provides safe routes, it won’t succeed”.

(with AFP)

“It’s very good news, because we’ll have full stadiums for the events,” said Michaël Aloïsio, one of top officials on the organising committee.

“The vast majority of French people were enthusiastic about the Olympic Games, and we’re going to see the same ingredients again, the same competition venues that made such a lasting impression.

“We’ll find the same openness in the city and the same atmosphere in the stadiums, with French athletes trying to go for the medals.”

Aloïsio’s optimism came on the day that the first of the 4,4000 athletes arrived in Paris for the events.

After the opening ceremony around the Place de la Concorde and Champs Elysées, they will compete in 22 para sports at the same sites used during the Olympic Games in which the French athletes racked up their best haul of gold medals for 100 years.

“We’re going to find all that atmosphere again,” added Aloïsio. “We’re obviously urging all the French fans to come along and get involved in the events.”

Breakdown

A breakdown of ticket sales for the Paralympic Games shows nearly 75 percent of sales have gone to fans from the Ile de France – the 12,000 square kilometre area housing more than 12 million people aorund Paris.

Aloïsio added: “In terms of foreign countries, we’re where we were with the Olympics, with people from Britain, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands buying most of the tickets.”

An advertising campaign titled “Game is not over” was launched as the Olympics was coming to an end with the aim of highlighting French paralympic athletes and wooing people returning from summer holidays, who may have regretted leaving Paris during the Olympics.

“The Paralympic Party is going to be even louder and more fun for everyone in Paris,” said Andrew Parsons who heads the International Paralympic Committee.

“After witnessing the Olympics, I am even more confident than ever before that Paris 2024 is going to stage the most spectacular Paralympic Games in history.

“In terms of preparation, pretty much everything is ready.”

The 47-year-old joked: “The test event – as we call the Olympic Games – has resolved some of the operational issues which are always experienced in the first days of a major event.

“For certain, the sport is going to be incredible and highly competitive. The world’s best Paralympians are coming to Paris not to participate, but to compete.

“They are not playing games here. They are going to show that by training, just as hard as their Olympic counterparts, they can deliver sporting performance that are off the scale and that will blow your mind.”

Paralympic organisers say they are hoping to entice families preparing for the start of the new school year to events via evening sessions in athletics and swimming at the Stade de France and La Defense Arena respectively.

“You can go back to work and experience an Olympic final in the evening, or you can take your family and your children back to school and experience an Olympic final, it’s completely possible,” added Aloïsio.

The 18-nation Pacific Islands Forum said last month its leadership would visit the archipelago to try to help resolve three months of deadly violence.

Eleven people have been killed since the unrest broke out, sparked in part by indigenous Kanaks’ thwarted struggle for independence.

The visit had been planned for this week, ahead of an annual Pacific forum meeting in Tonga from August 26-30.

But the mission is being postponed because New Caledonia‘s local government raised “issues regarding due process and protocol that will need to be addressed”, the forum said in a statement.

The Pacific body includes sovereign countries as well as territories such as New Caledonia and French Polynesia.

‘Humiliation’

The delay follows allegations by a senior New Caledonia lawmaker that France is seeking to dictate the purpose of the forum’s mission.

“We consider this as an unacceptable form of humiliation,” the president of New Caledonia’s law-making congress, Roch Wamytan, was quoted as saying by New Zealand radio RNZ.

A source close to the French government said the French state was ready to welcome the Pacific forum’s visit “at any time”, denying any responsibility for the delay.

Can France solve the economic collapse and unrest plaguing New Caledonia?

President Emmanuel Macron had agreed to the mission within certain “guiding principles”, the source told AFP this week, listing the themes of public order, security, governance, and economic and social stability.

The head of New Caledonia’s government – pro-independence Kanak, Louis Mapou – had rejected Paris’ invitations to help organise the Pacific body’s visit, the French source said.

Unrest broke out in New Caledonia in mid-May over a planned expansion of the electoral roll that Kanaks feared would dilute their vote and put independence forever out of reach.

France sent thousands of troops and police to the archipelago, almost 17,000 kilometres (10,600 miles) from Paris, to restore order as cars, local businesses and public buildings went up in flames .

Macron suspended the electoral reform in June.

Morocco is a major cannabis producer and has allowed the cultivation, export and use of the drug for medicine or in industry since 2021 – but it does not allow it to be used for recreational purposes.

The pardon by King Mohammed VI would encourage farmers “to engage in the legal process of cannabis cultivation to improve their revenue and living conditions”, Mohammed El Guerrouj, head of Moroccan cannabis regulator ANRAC, told Reuters.

Morocco’s first legal cannabis harvest was 294 metric tons in 2023, according to official figures. Legal exports since 2023 so far stood at 225 kilograms, Guerrouj said.

This year it is expected to be higher as the number of farming permits increases and ANRAC allows the cultivation of the local strain known as Beldia.

Nearly a million people live in areas of northern Morocco where cannabis is the main economic activity.

It has been publicly grown and smoked there for generations, mixed with tobacco in traditional long-stemmed pipes with clay bowls.

The 2021 legalisation was intended to improve farmers’ incomes and protect them from drug traffickers who dominate the cannabis trade and export it illegally.

Morocco is also seeking to tap into a growing global market for legal cannabis, and awarded 54 export permits last year.

Former president Obama was greeted with rapturous applause and cheers at the packed arena hosting the party’s nominating convention, then said Vice President Harris would fight for Americans.

He called her November poll rival Donald Trump “dangerous.”

“Kamala Harris is ready for the job. This is a person who has spent her life fighting for people who need a voice,” he said.

Obama called Harris “someone who sees you and hears you and will get up every single day and fight for you.”

“Yes she can,” Obama said of Harris, prompting the boisterous crowd to repeatedly chant the phrase, recalling his own “Yes we can” campaign slogan from 2008.

Before his stardust performance, his wife and former US first lady Michelle Obama had told convention goers “something magically wonderful is in the air.”

“It’s the contagious power of hope,” she said, calling Harris “my girl” and saying that hope – another rallying cry of her husband’s successful 2008 campaign – “is making a comeback.”

‘Joy and toughness’

Obama’s speech amped up the already buoyant mood in Chicago where President Joe Biden delivered his own emotional speech late Monday less than a month after ending his reelection bid.

“They shared with us how they felt, and we were able to resonate with them,” said Mae Beale who wore a hat in the colours of Maryland, her home state.

“They were so real… I could identify with everything they were saying.”

In deeply personal remarks shifting the focus onto Harris’s qualities, her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, told the convention “she is ready.”

“She brings both joy and toughness to this task,” he said to cheers.

“At this moment in our nation’s history, she is exactly the right president.”

With the party united and Harris polling strongly, Democrats are making clear they believe they can defeat Trump.

The Republican nominee had seemed set to regain power in November’s election until Biden upended the race by dropping out and endorsing his vice president.

Comparisons are already being made by Democratic faithful to Obama’s historic 2008 campaign, where a tidal wave of enthusiasm carried him to the White House.

Bullish delegates symbolically nominated Harris as their candidate in a boisterous roll call, following a paper exercise to confirm her as their standard bearer earlier this month.

“Thank you… see you in two days, Chicago,” she said to delegates via video link from her event in Milwaukee.

Trump’s attacks

Harris, who was received rapturously in America’s third largest city at her debut appearance before Biden spoke, travelled to Milwaukee Tuesday for an event at the basketball arena where Donald Trump attended the Republican National Convention just a month ago.

The choice of the 18,000-seat arena will rile Trump, who has been rattled that 59-year-old Harris, unlike Biden, is able to draw the kinds of crowds the Republican has long attracted to his events.

Addressing both crowds simultaneously highlighted that she had filled the DNC and RNC venues.

Trying to pry media attention away from the Democratic convention, Trump is holding events all week, and on Tuesday he spoke about what he says is Harris’s “anti-police” stance.

At an event in Howell, in the battleground state of Michigan, he attacked what he called “the Kamala crime wave.”

“You can’t walk across the street to get a loaf of bread – you get shot,” he said flanked by police officers and their cars, falsely claiming there has been a 43 percent increase in violent crime.

While allies have pleaded publicly for Trump to focus on policies and stop his barrage of personal insults against Harris, he has not stopped.

(AFP)

Emilia Perez wowed audiences in Cannes this year with its experimental hybrid form in which the entire cast sings, dances and speaks in Spanish.

Set in Mexico but filmed entirely in a studio near Paris, the film blends drama, romance, comedy and thriller elements, swinging between the incredible and the convincing.

The plot is anything but conventional. It follows Manitas, a powerful Mexican cartel boss played by transgender actress Karla Sofia Gascon, who embarks on a dangerous quest to become a woman – keeping the transformation secret from his wife (played by Selena Gomez) and children.

Daring plotline

Enter Rita (Zoe Saldana), a disillusioned lawyer roped into Manitas’s plan for a hefty sum, leading to the birth of Emilia Perez (also played by Gascon) and the unfolding of a surprise love story involving Epifania (Adriana Paz).

This unpredictable and daring scenario convinced musicians Clément Ducol and Camille to join Audiard’s ambitious project.

Although they didn’t know Audiard personally, they were recommended by a friend familiar with Ducol’s work on the Annette soundtrack, the opening film at Cannes in 2021.

“I love trying new things,” Ducol told RFI after the premiere in May. “In this job you have to bounce back and learn all the time … again and again, it was a crazy adventure.”

Room for experimentation

Ducol recalls how the project began with just the outline of an idea inspired by Boris Razon’s story Ecoute (Listen).

“None of us had ever made a musical,” Ducol admitted, but the team found their way, benefiting from Audiard’s (Palme d’Or in 2015 for Dheepan) collaborative approach, with plenty of room for exploration.

Erotic dancer comedy-drama wins top prize at Cannes Film Festival

Working closely with scriptwriter Thomas Bidegain, the team watched classic film musicals and spent hours experimenting in the studio. As the script evolved, so did the music, with melodies and lyrics crafted to complement the storyline.

“These are people are so inspiring. We can innovate with them thanks to the way they merge dance, music, staging and image together,” Ducol enthuses.

“These are people so inspiring, allowing us to innovate by merging dance, music, staging and image,” Ducol enthused.

Camille echoed this sentiment, saying she was immediately drawn to the story’s Shakespearean echoes, particularly its themes of transformation – whether emotional, metaphorical or physical.

“I believed in the project immediately because it fundamentally shows what theatre is all about,” she says.

“And transsexuality for me speaks so much about the freedom that there is in theatre and in deciding to change within our bodies. It really fits into the history of humanity. Within the body, you decide, you change.”

Postcard from Cannes #4: the curveball of cinema

Despite not speaking Spanish, Ducol found the language’s musicality and rhythm helpful in composing the score. Camille, with only high school-level Spanish, convinced Audiard she could manage, even singing a song in Spanish at their first meeting.

She worked closely with a Mexican translator on set and credited the diverse cast – Gomez, Saldana, Gascon, and Paz – with enriching the film’s cultural authenticity.

The collective effort paid off, with Emilia Perez winning the Jury Prize and Best Actress Award (shared by the four lead actresses) at Cannes.

The film also took home the Cannes Soundtrack prize, a sidebar award chosen by a panel of independent journalists.

Represented by Sacem, the French copyright agency, Ducol and Camille were thrilled to highlight the role of music in the film’s success.

Emilia Perez would certainly not be the same without the score.

Guiding the audience with a lament, a lullaby or a punchy dance number, the infectious energy lingers long after the final notes.

Emilia Perez was released in France on 21 August, 2024.

In a world increasingly dominated by Western beauty standards promoted through pop culture and the global beauty industry, the Decolonising Beauty campaign seeks to challenge narrow perceptions and showcase the multifaceted beauty traditions in Africa.

The campaign uses a multi-platform approach to reach a broad audience of English and French speakers in Africa and around the world.

A series of initiatives from the campaign will be announced until the end of the year involving photographers, artists, poets, media makers and content creators.

Zikora Media & Arts founder Chika Oduah tells us more.

• Read also: French lawmakers vote in favour of bill to ban hair discrimination

Episode mixed by Cécile Pompéani

Spotlight on Africa is a podcast from Radio France Internationale

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. 

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.