On Wednesday, prosecutor Olivier Christen said the plots included plans to attack “Israeli institutions or representatives of Israel in Paris” during the Olympic Games.

The prosecutor told broadcaster FranceInfo that “the Israeli team itself was not specifically targeted,” but he did not give any further details.

In all, five people – including a minor – were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the three foiled plots against the Summer Games, which were held against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The suspects are facing various terrorism-related charges while they remain in pre-trial detention.

France was on its highest security alert in the months ahead of the Olympics and Paralympics, which wrapped up last week.

During preparations for the Games, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin repeatedly warned that security threats included those from Islamic extremist groups, violent environmental activists, far-right groups and cyberattacks from Russia or other adversaries.

Olympic security jitters rise as French police deal with string of attacks

Influence of Islamic State

In May, members of France’s DGSI General Directorate of Internal Security arrested an 18-year-old man from Chechnya on suspicion of being behind a plan to attack Olympic soccer events that were held in the southern city of Saint-Etienne.

The planned attack was to target “bar-type establishments around the Geoffroy stadium,” the prosecutor said.

The suspect is accused of planning “a violent action” on behalf of the Islamic State armed group’s jihadist ideology.

According to the prosecutor, jihadist threats dominated the foiled plots and 80 percent of legal proceedings against suspects include the extremist ideology that still influences France’s youth.

France says multiple Olympic accreditation requests rejected over security fears

The Islamic State group continues to “spread propaganda,” he added.

Preventive measures included increased house searches and house arrests before the start of the Olympics, with police and other security personnel having conducted 936 house searches to date in 2024, compared to 153 last year. 

“We’re going to do things methodically and seriously,” Barnier told reporters in the eastern city of Reims, adding that he was “listening to everybody” in a political scene split into three broad camps since July’s inconclusive snap parliamentary election.

“We’re going to name a government next week,” he said.

Barnier, who has served as environment, foreign and agriculture minister and was the EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator, was named last week by President Emmanuel Macron as his compromise pick for head of government.

With no longer even a relative majority in parliament following his decision to dissolve the National Assembly, Macron delayed picking a PM for weeks over the summer as he tried to find someone who would not suffer an immediate no-confidence vote.

French left protests against appointment of new conservative PM

The chamber is largely divided between Macron’s centrist supporters — now loosely allied with Barnier’s rump conservative party – the left-wing NFP alliance and the far-right National Rally (RN).

NFP leaders have vowed to vote no confidence in any government not headed by them after they secured the most votes, but fell well short of a majority.

Meanwhile Macron appears to have taken care to find a candidate in Barnier who does not immediately raise the hackles of the RN.

Rumours are swirling in Paris about who might claim key ministries after Barnier said he was open to working with people on the left or right.

Who is France’s new prime minister Michel Barnier?

“For now, the names in circulation seem to be just wish lists of people wanting to receive a ministerial portfolio,” Politico’s French edition wrote Wednesday.

One prominent Socialist, Karim Bouamrane, mayor of the Paris suburb of Saint-Ouen, said he had turned down an invitation to serve.

“We have a right-wing prime minister approved of by the RN, a prime minister under supervision,” Bouamrane told Franceinfo radio.

An October 1 deadline to file a draft government budget for 2025 has Barnier under pressure to get moving and sets him and his new team up for a fierce battle over taxes and spending.

In particular, both the NFP and RN promised ahead of the July elections to overturn last year’s unpopular pension reform that increased the official retirement age to 64 from 62.

The company water subsidiary, Nestlé Waters, reached a settlement known as a judicial public interest agreement (CJIP) on Tuesday with the prosecutor in Epinal, in eastern France.

The fine comes after two investigations revealed that Nestlé had been drilling without permits and using unapproved purification methods, including ultraviolet treatment and charcoal filters, in its water production.

The company acknowledged these actions and has since stopped the unauthorised treatments.

Prosecutor Frédéric Nahon said the fine must be paid within three months. He described the agreement as “the most significant environmental CJIP ever signed in France”.

Damage repair

Unlike a full trial, a CJIP does not result in a formal conviction but allows for the payment of fines and reparations without a declaration of guilt.

Alongside the fine, Nestlé Waters has committed to investing €1.1 million in an environmental restoration plan for two local rivers, the Petit-Vair and the Vair.

This plan will also focus on restoring wetlands in Vittel and Contrexéville, two towns closely linked to the company’s water production. The project will be supervised by the French Office for Biodiversity for the next two years.

In addition to the fine, Nestlé Waters will pay €516,800 in compensation to environmental groups. These include Vosges Nature Environnement, Foodwatch, and Eau 88, which were behind the complaints leading to the investigation.

‘Limited justice’

Some organisations, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the settlement.

This agreement allowed those with money to avoid a full trial and a criminal record, said Bernard Schmitt of Eau 88.

“Without this agreement, we would have faced a lengthy legal battle, possibly lasting five to 10 years, with minimal consequences,” he said.

Marie-Amandine Stévenin, president of UFC-Que Choisir, said the case highlights “the unfortunate limits of the French justice system”.

Despite the criticisms, the Epinal prosecutor emphasised that Nestlé Waters had fully cooperated with both the judicial and administrative authorities.

Fishing club files complaint against Nestlé for pollution in Ardennes river

The company ceased the unauthorised treatments in 2023 and there were no health risks to the public.

Nestlé Waters also agreed to conduct an impact study on water levels in the affected aquifers, addressing concerns raised by environmentalists.

We demanded that an impact study be part of the agreement because we no longer have the luxury of waiting when facing urgent climate and resource challenges,” said Eau 88 lawyer François Zind.

This isn’t the first time Nestlé has faced environmental issues.

In 2022, it settled another CJIP after being blamed for a pollution incident in the Aisne River, which killed six tonnes of fish.

Although the company contested its role, it paid a €40,000 fine.

In a performance that earned her the endorsement of pop superstar Taylor Swift, the Democrat clashed with the “extreme” Republican on hot-button issues from abortion to democracy and accused him of being a friend to dictators.

Trump repeatedly raised his voice as he hit back at the vice president on immigration and the economy, branding her a “Marxist” and blaming her for what he said were the failings of President Joe Biden‘s administration.

The former president claimed after that the ABC News-hosted clash in Philadelphia was his “best debate”, while Harris’s campaign also claimed victory and challenged him to a second debate in October.

With less than two months until the election, Harris, 59, was under pressure to deliver in front of an audience expected to run into the tens of millions after her sudden replacement as the Democratic candidate in place of Biden.

She started on the front foot by surprising Trump by approaching him to shake his hand before they took to their lecterns.

Then the niceties ended.

Trump, who only a few weeks ago had believed himself to be cruising to victory, reacted to pressure from Harris by resorting to the kinds of finger-jabbing insults and meandering invective that he uses at his rallies.

Harris responded by looking on in amusement and occasionally exclaiming “c’mon”, before declaring that she represents a fresh start after the “mess” of the Trump presidency – and saying: “We’re not going back.”

Riding high on DNC momentum, Kamala Harris faces a fierce fight to the finish

‘Eat you for lunch’

One of their most intense exchanges was on abortion.

Trump insisted that while having pushed for the end of the federal right to abortion, he wanted individual states to make their own policy.

Harris said he was telling a “bunch of lies” and called his policies “insulting to the women of America.”

Within minutes, Trump hammered at the Democrat’s weak spot on immigration by falsely claiming that she and Biden had allowed “millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, from mental institutions and insane asylums.”

Harris pointed out that Trump is a convicted felon, called him “extreme” and said it is “a tragedy” that throughout his career he had used “race to divide the American people.”

The rivals also clashed on foreign policy, with Harris telling Trump that Russian President Vladimir Putin would “eat you for lunch” when it came to the war in Ukraine and that foreign dictators were “laughing” at him.

Trump shot back by accusing Harris of being weak on the war in Gaza, saying she “hated Israel” and that Israel would be “gone” within two weeks if she was president.

Another jarring clash came as Trump doubled down on his unprecedented refusal to accept losing to Biden in the 2020 election, before trying to overturn the result.

Harris responded by mocking his catchphrase as a reality TV star, saying that Trump had been “fired by 81 million people.”

Team USA brings Paralympics magic to small French town

Swift endorsement

Taylor Swift broke her silence on US politics minutes after the debate, backing Harris as president and praising her as a “steady-handed, gifted leader.”

Her message on Instagram – which received 3.6 million likes in the space of an hour – was signed off “childless cat lady” in a jibe at an insult that Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance directed at Democrat-supporting women.

The last presidential debate in June had resulted in a crushing victory for Trump, after Biden delivered a catastrophic performance that ended up dooming his reelection campaign.

Biden said the Harris-Trump debate “wasn’t even close”, in a post on X.

Trump had long seemed invulnerable. He has been convicted of falsifying business records to cover up an affair with an adult film star, found liable for sexual abuse, and faces trial on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election – and still is polling neck-and-neck with Harris.

But Harris clearly needled him on one of his favourite, if less serious topics: the size of his trademark rallies.

Attendees, she said, prompting an angry retort, were leaving early out of “exhaustion and boredom.”

At another moment where Trump appeared to be losing his cool, he talked at length about a debunked conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants have been eating local people’s pets in Ohio.

“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” he said before being corrected by the ABC News moderator that the authorities in the town of Springfield have said this did not happen.

Abbé Pierre, who died in 2007, was long celebrated in France for his dedication to the poor and homeless.

However, his reputation suffered a severe blow in July when Emmaus, the anti-poverty movement he founded in 1949, revealed allegations of sexual assault from seven women.

On Friday, the charity disclosed an additional 17 testimonies, including accusations of rape and abuse of a young girl.

In a joint statement, the Abbé Pierre Foundation, Emmaus France and Emmaus International reiterated their “total support for the victims”, praising the “courage” of those who had come forward.

“We believe them and we stand by them,” it said.

Emmaus has acted decisively to distance itself from its founder. The Abbé Pierre Foundation is to change its name, and the Abbé Pierre memorial centre in Esteville, Normandy, where the late priest resided for many years, will close permanently.

Meanwhile the board of Emmaus France is to vote on whether to remove the priest’s name from its logo.

With 425 branches in 41 countries, the allegations will have repercussions far beyond France.

“Each branch will have to reflect on how much space to give to Abbé Pierre,” Adrien Caboche, head of Emmaus International, told RFI.

“We’re not giving instructions but we encourage people to be responsible in the choices they make since Abbé Pierre’s image is now also that of a sexual predator.”

Sexual abuse from 1950s to 2000s

Caboche said he first heard of the accusations in June 2023 when Emmaus was contacted by a woman claiming the priest had sexually assaulted her.

The charity set up a support centre and hired independent consultancy Egaé to gather and verify further testimonies, leading to the publication of the seven allegations in July.

A hotline was set up allowing other women to come forward – “essentially the listening ear [the victims] should have had a long time ago,” Caboche said. 

While the first seven allegations involved mainly non-consensual breast-touching and unwanted advances, the most recent are more damning.

They include “repeated sexual contact with a vulnerable person”, “repeated penetrative sex acts” and “sexual contact with a child”, the report said.

One woman – referred to as “J” in the report – had written to France’s committee investigating sexual abuse in the Catholic church that she had been “forced to watch Abbé Pierre masturbate and to perform oral sex in a Paris apartment” in 1989. “J” has since died and her testimony was passed on by her daughter.

Another charge relates to a girl who was just eight to nine years old in the mid-1970s when the priest allegedly kissed her “with his tongue” and touched her chest.

A further witness reported forced physical contact while Abbé Pierre was serving as an MP in France’s National Assembly in 1951.

The alleged abuse spans from the 1950s to the 2000s, with the most recent claims dating back to when the priest was 92.

While most of the abuse took place in France, some was in the United States, Morocco and Switzerland.

The testimonies are from current or former Emmaus volunteers, workers in places where Abbé Pierre stayed, members of families with close ties to the priest or people he met at public events, Egaé said.

Church and charity knew

Abbé Pierre, born Father Henri-Antoine Grouès in 1912, was ordained in 1938. He was a member of the French Resistance during WWII and became an MP at the end of the war.

He founded the first Emmaus community to help homeless men in Paris in 1949, and turned into a household name when, in the winter of 1954, he made a passionate plea for France not to turn its back on homeless people.

Just last year, he was the subject of an adulatory biopic marking the 70th anniversary of his famous speech.

Caboche said the charity has set up a commission of historians and researchers to understand “how such a well-known man was able to do what he did for so many years, without being stopped”.

Le Monde revealed in July that both the Church and Emmaus were aware of Abbé Pierre’s predatory behaviour as early as 1955, when he was visiting the US and Canada.

Following complaints, French Catholic theologian Jacques Maritain cut the trip short to prevent a scandal.

An investigation by Radio France, published Monday, revealed extracts of Abbé Pierre’s correspondence threatening an American student who had warned the church of the priest’s behaviour with reprisals if he went public.

In 1957, the church sent the priest to a clinic in Switzerland, officially for exhaustion recovery. In reality, it was to keep him out of the newspapers, Le Monde reported.

French priest’s 1954 appeal to fight homelessness still topical 70 years on

Compensation for victims

France’s Catholic bishops’ conference (CEF) has expressed its “pain” and “shame” over the accusations and announced full cooperation in the investigation.

The church has been shaken by a 2021 report by the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, which identified more than 3,000 cases of sex abuse by priests since 1950.

Véronique Margron, head of the umbrella group of Catholic religious orders in France (Corref), has called for “a process of justice, recognition and reparation”, similar to that undertaken after the 2021 report.

French Catholic Church expected to outline compensation plans for clerical sex abuse victims

Caboche said Emmaus is exploring how to compensate the victims. “It’s a long, difficult process. We’re very aware we have to address this issue, so we’re working on it,” he told RFI.

As for the charity, Caboche said that Abbé Pierre remains “a very important figure for us, historically and symbolically”, but they would have to start rebuilding and “presenting themselves in a different way”.

Despite the “shock and dismay” among volunteers, some have said: “It’s painful for us, it impacts us, but it won’t stop us from continuing our actions, continuing the fight as before,” Caboche said.

The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed the judgment of 14 September 2022, which had sanctioned the company with the maximum fine provided for by law at the time, notably 225,000 euros.

The court upheld the involuntary homicide and injuries verdict against Yemenia Airways over the 2009 crash that killed nearly everyone onboard except a 12-year-old girl who miraculously survived.

Comoros crash

Flight Yemenia 626 was on approach to Moroni, the capital of the Comoros islands that lie between Mozambique and Madagascar, on 29 June 2009, after departing from the airport in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

Among the 142 passengers and 11 crew were 66 French citizens heading to France’s overseas territory of Mayotte, part of the Comoros archipelago.

Just before 11pm, the Airbus A310 plunged into the Indian Ocean with its engines running at full throttle, killing everyone on board except Bahia Bakari, then just 12 years old.

Investigators and experts found there was nothing wrong with the aircraft, blaming instead “inappropriate actions by the crew during the approach to Moroni airport, leading to them losing control.”

Prosecutors accused the company of pilot training programs “riddled with gaps” and of continuing to fly to Moroni at night despite several non-functioning landing lights.

The presiding judge in 2022 found that, even though the airline had complied with all regulations, there were “two cases of carelessness directly linked to the accident.”

She faulted the continued night flights to Moroni despite the light outages, and the assignment of a co-pilot with “weak spots” in his training.

Complaint

Around 560 people had joined the suit as plaintiffs, many of them from the region around Marseille in southern France, home to many of the victims.

The presiding judge of the appeals court on Tuesday confirmed the 2022 verdict.

She added as a sanction that the ruling should be publicly displayed at the airports of Paris Charles de Gaulle and Marseille for two months.

The sole survivor of the crash, Bahia Bakari, was en route from Paris to attend a wedding in the Comoros with her mother, who died in the crash.

After blacking out following the plane’s impact with the water, she found herself surrounded by wreckage in the sea, where she drifted for 12 hours before being rescued.

 (AFP) 

France, placed under formal procedure in July for violating the EU’s budget rules, has been given until September 20 to outline its plan to address the breach.

But the EU executive said the bloc’s rules allow for the deadline to be extended by a “reasonable period”.

“The Commission will agree with member states on a new deadline that will allow for a timely assessment of the plan, taking into consideration all relevant factors put forward by each member state requesting an extension,” a spokesman told French news agency AFP.

New government

France is currently awaiting the formation of a new government after President Emmanuel Macron appointed the centre-right Michel Barnier as prime minister last week, following inconclusive elections in July.

Europe’s second biggest economy is one of seven countries placed by the EU in a so-called “excessive deficit procedure”.

• French finance ministry warns budget deficit higher than expected

This kickstarts a process forcing a country to negotiate a plan with Brussels to get their debt or deficit levels back on track.

EU rules demand a deficit below three percent of a country’s GDP, while France’s deficit reached 5.5 percent in 2023.

Paris has pledged to bring it back below 3 percent by 2027 but some analysts deem that implausible as local government expenditure has surged while tax revenue decreased.

Eric Coquerel, the head of the finance committee in the National Assembly, the French parliament’s lower house, said the public sector budget deficit could reach 5.6 percent this year and would rise to 6.2 percent next year if budgetary cuts of 60 billion euros are not made.

 (AFP)

“The figure is really chilling,” Laura Furones, senior adviser to Global Witness’ land and environmental defenders campaign, said in a statement, adding that the report’s findings were conservative and figures are likely to be incomplete.

Latin America

The annual report from the UK advocacy group found Latin America remains the most dangerous part of the world for environmental and land defenders, accounting for 85 percent of the 196 murders documented last year.

The majority were concentrated in just four countries: Colombia, Brazil, Honduras and Mexico.

Colombia had the worst record in  2023, with a total of 79 killed, according to the report.

The findings on Colombia are a sharp contrast to promises by the government of President Gustavo Petro, who took office in 2022 and who has pledged to end the country’s 60-year conflict and pursue environmental justice for communities.

The country is also the host nation for this year’s United Nations COP16 biodiversity conference.

Peace negotiations with various armed groups – some of which are linked to the killings of environmentalists – have also stalled.

Colombia was the most dangerous country for environmentalists in 2022, with at least 60 reported killings, according to last year’s Global Witness report.

“[This year’s] figure is very embarrassing for us in the country,” said Astrid Torres, coordinator for Somos Defensores, a Colombian human rights group.

Torres said the issue was not just the responsibility of the sitting government but also of state institutions, such as prosecutors and local authorities.

 ‘Crackdown on activists’

The report also sounds the alarm on a “crackdown on environmental activists across the UK, Europe and the US”, warning “laws are increasingly being weaponised against defenders”.

It pointed to legislation in Britain and in the United States allowing harsher penalties for protesters and activists facing “draconian levels of surveillance” in the European Union.

In Britain, it highlighted the case of activist David Nixon, who served four weeks in jail after defying a judge’s order barring him from using climate change as a defence.

“We should be allowed to mention the climate crisis wherever we go, especially in front of a jury,” he told news agencies.

Global Witness urged “decisive action” from governments to protect defenders.

• NGO finds 177 environmental activists murdered worldwide in 2022

Dangers in Asia

In Asia, the Philippines continued to be the most dangerous place for with 17 murders. The report also highlighted a growing number of abductions across the region.

This “has emerged as a critical issue, reflecting broader systemic efforts by power holders to suppress dissent and maintain control over land and resources”, it said.

Among those affected were Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano, two young activists opposed to land reclamation projects in Manila Bay in the Philippines.

They have accused the military of abducting them, though authorities claim the women belonged to a communist insurgency and had sought help after leaving the movement.

“Since our release, the threats have continued,” the pair said in the report.

Underestimated figures

In Africa, Global Witness recorded just four deaths, but warned the figure was likely a “gross underestimate” given the challenge of collecting information.

Across the world, Indigenous Peoples, who have accumulated wisdom, knowledge, and practices for millennia, are also targeted.

Global Witness warns that, all over the globe, governments and corporations are increasingly wielding the law to suppress environmental activism.

“Activists and their communities are essential in efforts to prevent and remedy harms caused by climate damaging industries,” said the report’s lead author Laura Furones.

“We cannot afford to, nor should we tolerate, losing any more lives,” she added.

 (with newswires)

The court said it “annul[ed] the judgement of 24 May 2023” and sentenced the 62-year-old former Oxford University professor to three years in prison, two of them suspended.

The verdict, first reported by public broadcaster RTS, was slightly more lenient than the three years prison – half suspended – requested by the prosecutor in the case.

Tariq Ramadan, considered a charismatic but controversial figure in European Islam, has always maintained his innocence.

Ramadan’s accuser, a Muslim convert identified only as “Brigitte,” had testified before the court that he subjected her to rape and other violent sex acts in a Geneva hotel room during the night of 28 October 2008.

Swiss court acquits Tariq Ramadan of rape, but he still faces charges in France

Accusations 

The lawyer representing Brigitte said she was repeatedly raped and subjected to “torture and barbarism”.

Ramadan said that Brigitte invited herself up to his room. He let her kiss him, he said, before quickly ending the encounter.

He claimed he was the victim of a “trap.”

Brigitte was in her forties at the time of the alleged assault. She filed a complaint 10 years later, telling the court she felt emboldened to come forward following similar complaints filed against Ramadan in France.

She filed a complaint 10 years later, telling the court she felt emboldened to come forward following similar complaints filed against Ramadan in France.

Successful appeal

The appeals verdict overturns a lower court finding last year acquitting Ramadan of rape and sexual coercion, citing a lack of evidence, contradictory testimonies and “love messages” sent by the plaintiff after the alleged assault.

During their appeal, Brigitte’s lawyers alleged that Ramadan had exercised significant “control” over the woman, suggesting she had suffered something akin to Stockholm syndrome.

The three appeals court judges pointed to “witness testimony, certificates, medical notes and private expert opinions consistent with the facts presented by the plaintiff”.

“Elements collected during the investigation have thus convinced the chamber of the guilt of the accused,” the court said in a statement.

Other cases

Ramadan was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford and held visiting roles at universities in Qatar and Morocco.

He was forced to take leave of absence in 2017 when rape allegations surfaced in France at the height of the “Me Too” movement.

In France, he is suspected of raping three women between 2009 and 2016.

His large defence team is fighting a Paris appeals court decision in June that ruled the cases can go to trial.

 (AFP)

Following multiple delays over the past year, the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission finally landed on Haitian soil in June to reclaim the streets from gangs and set the stage for elections – the first since 2016.

The mission’s mandate – outlined in UN Security Council Resolution 2699 – is to provide operational support to the Haitian National Police to counter gangs, secure infrastructure, and ensure safe access to humanitarian aid.

Nearly 580,000 people have been internally displaced by the conflict, hundreds of thousands who fled the country have been deported back to Haiti, and close to 5 million people are facing severe hunger.

• Kenyan security forces begin patrols in Haitian capital Port-au-Prince

Kenya, which has sent police officers experienced in operations against al-Shabaab at the Kenya-Somalia border is confident in its contribution.

Godfrey Otunge, head of the Multinational Security Support mission, expressed gratitude for the warm reception the Kenyan officers have received since their arrival on 25 June.

“Kenya, as the lead country for the MSS mission in Haiti, is happy with the reception and trust we have received from the local people and the support we have received from various organisations, both local and international,” he said at a joint press conference in Port-au-Prince.

“There is no room for failure on our part”.

Funding shortfall

However, Kenyan officers have been confronting serious challenges as they work to restore order amid the widespread gang violence.

As part of the MSS mission, the officers have been dealing with significant shortages of equipment and resources.

Many of their vehicles lack adequate armour, and some are missing crucial communication radios.

Despite a $369 million (€334 million) contribution from the United States, the UN fund for the mission still falls $220 million (€199 million) short of the $589 million (€533 million) required for the first year.

The estimated cost of the mission is $600 million (€543 million) per year.

Delays in the payment of promised bonuses have further affected morale.

Africa-led mission to Haiti ‘urgently needed’, according to the UN

Blinken urges renewal of UN mandate

Late last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for the renewal of the United Nations mandate for the security mission during a visit to Haiti. 

“At this critical moment you need more funding, you need more personnel to sustain and carry out the objectives of this mission,” Blinken told a press conference in Port-au-Prince.

He said the US – the mission’s largest financial backer – plans to convene a ministerial meeting at the UN General Assembly this month, to encourage more financial contributions and renew the mandate.

With just under a month left on the mandate, Kenya remains the only country to have deployed, with around 400 police officers – far short of the 1000 promised. 

A handful of other countries – including France, Benin and Canada – have together pledged at least 1,900 more troops, and hundreds of millions of dollars in support.

Accountability Measures

Given the history of abuses in previous foreign interventions in Haiti, accountability also remains a pressing concern.

The UN resolution calls for robust compliance mechanisms to prevent and address violations, but scepticism lingers about their effectiveness.

History of Kenyan police violence raises concerns for Haiti mission

Kenya’s own track record of police abuses and the lack of clearly defined oversight has raised questions about how the mission will be held accountable for its actions on the ground.

These issues will be under scrutiny when the MSS mandate comes up for renewal on 2 October 2024. 

(with newswires)

Sandwiched between Colombia and Peru – the world’s top cocaine producers – once-peaceful Ecuador has seen violence explode in recent years as gangs with links to Mexican and Colombian drug cartels vie for control.

As the gangs have gained ground, homicides in Ecuador soared from six per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 to 47 per 100,000 in 2023.

Multi award-winning photojournalist John Moore obtained rare access to military and police raids in Guayaquil and in Esmeraldas province, entering neighborhoods previously controlled by armed gangs.

“When I arrived [in Ecuador], the military and the police had started very serious anti-gang operations, and they were fine with me going along with them because they wanted to show really what kind of progress they were making against the gang violence,” Moore told RFI.

The result is a photo series entitled “Internal Armed Conflict” referring to earlier this year when Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa granted extended powers to security forces to battle the powerful gangs.

“The state of emergency really gave the military, in some ways, a free hand to operate, and what they referred to as the Mano Dura,” Moore explains.

“It’s tough. Many people have accepted that they have to give up some of their personal liberties in order to defeat this violence that’s happening in their country,” he says.

As a special correspondent for Getty Images, Moore spent 17 years posted overseas, first in Nicaragua, then India, South Africa, Mexico, Egypt and Pakistan.

Since returning to the US in 2008 he has focused on immigration and border issues.

His book “Undocumented: Immigration and the Militarization of the United States-Mexico Border“. was published in 2018 by powerHouse Books.

► Visa pour l’Image runs from 31 August to 15 September 2024.

The Beijing Action Plan is China’s blueprint for the next three years, committing a staggering €46 billion in aid, investments and credit lines.

Building on the Dakar Action Plan – signed in the Senegalese capital in 2021 to strengthen cooperation in trade, infrastructure and development – the new deal promises African countries €27 billion in credit, €10 billion in assistance and €9 billion in direct investment from Chinese companies.

Its unveiling, made during the ninth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) held last week in Beijing, marks a key moment in the strengthening relationship between the two regions.

But while the numbers sound promising, questions linger about the true impact on Africa.

“Monitoring these commitments is difficult, and it is not certain whether or when these targets will be met,” says Ibrahima Xalil Niang, an economist at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar.

He warns that a lack of clear oversight and evaluation is one of Focac’s biggest weaknesses.

Politics and security

Beyond financial aid, China’s strategy this time extends into new territory: political and security cooperation.

The plan also includes promises of training African military forces, participating in peacekeeping efforts and combatting terrorism.

Beijing has also expressed a desire to foster “exchanges between political parties”, generating concern that China may be encouraging African governments to adopt elements of its own authoritarian model.

At the same time, China’s so-called Global Security Initiative promotes an alternative to the US-backed “rules-based order” by emphasising territorial sovereignty and noninterference.

This initiative, which advocates for less external influence in African countries, resonates particularly in regions frustrated by Western interference.

The Beijing Declaration issued at the end of the forum went even further – tapping into anti-colonial sentiments across the continent.

It referenced a February 2024 African Union statement on reparations, demanding that the US and other Western nations end sanctions on countries like Zimbabwe, Eritrea and Sudan.

These nations, the declaration said, “have the right to decide the future of their own country”.

‘Historical injustices’

In a keynote address, China’s President Xi Jinping spoke of what he described as the shared struggle of China and Africa against colonialism.

“Modernisation is an inalienable right of all countries,” Xi said, adding that the Western approach to development had caused “immense suffering” to nations in the Global South.

“Since the end of World War II, developing nations, represented by China and African countries, have achieved independence … and have been endeavouring to redress historical injustices…”

Like many African nations, parts of China were colonised in what Beijing’s propaganda calls the “century of humiliation” – referring to the period that colonial powers Portugal, Britain, Russia and Japan occupied sometimes large swaths of Chinese territory.

After the Opium Wars with London in the 1850s, China’s rulers were also forced to sign “unequal treaties” that granted Britain and other foreign powers substantial control over its trade.

China became completely free of foreign occupation only with the return of the British and Portuguese enclaves of Hong Kong and Macau in 1997 and 1999 respectively.

Shift in strategy

The Focac process is part of a longer trend that began during the Cold War with the non-aligned movement of the 1950s, when Beijing emerged as a leader of a bloc independent from both the US and the USSR.

Today China is seeking to position itself as the leader of the Global South, a catchphrase for the developing world – a group of nations often at odds with the US and its allies.

Its message of rewriting the international, US-dominated, order resonates with African nations that often feel abandoned by their traditional Western partners.

By presenting itself as an alternative, China has gained considerable influence on the continent says the economist Niang – pointing out that this partnership is all about strategy.

“States don’t have friends, they only have interests,” he said, adding that China’s engagement is as much about securing its own strategic goals as it is about helping Africa.

African expectations

For African nations, China offers much-needed access to finance, infrastructure and technology.

“African countries stand to gain from China in terms of easier access to finance and technology, and in terms of narrowing the infrastructure gap,” says Niang.

“That’s why China is becoming indispensable. China has the money and the technology, and Africans need that money and technology. This is why any other discourse that does not meet the expectations of Africans will not be heard.”

But, as living costs and inequality continue to rise across the continent, African governments will need to tread carefully.

“Today, the traumas of colonisation and post-colonial exploitation have developed anti-French sentiment in West Africa,” he adds.

“African streets are abuzz with demonstrations hostile to government decisions.”

Anti-Western sentiment is growing, particularly toward countries like France, and this dynamic could affect how Africa engages with global powers, including China.

How the Beijing Action Plan plays out will shape the future of Africa-China relations – and reveal whether this evolving partnership will truly benefit both sides.

Pape Samb is looking for his 17-year-old nephew who has not returned since the shipwreck. “I came to get information but we haven’t found him yet,” he told RFI. He had left on Monday.

The pirogue was “involved in irregular emigration” and capsized on Sunday off the coast of the western town of Mbour, the navy said in a post on social media.

Cheick, a Senegalese man who knew twenty people who were in the canoe added: “What is happening in Mbour is disastrous.

Human catastrophe

The pirogue had at least 150 passengers on board.

The navy said it had launched a search involving three vessels and a Spanish maritime patrol aircraft.

“Nine lifeless bodies were discovered and three survivors were identified. An unknown number of people have been rescued by local fishermen”, it said, without giving the number of missing.

The search is ongoing along the coast.

Several locals said the boat was carrying dozens of migrants.

Onlookers and relatives of the victims gathered on the shore for news of the missing.

“It’s a real catastrophe that we’re currently experiencing…unfortunately [it is] going to continue…because young people are so determined to leave,” Mohamed Barro, a local councillor, told French news agency AFP.

He said he lost his 38-year-old nephew, who was married with two children in the shipwreck and had been waiting five hours to recover his body from the morgue at a local hospital.

Migration route

Senegal‘s coast is one of the main departure points for thousands of migrants heading to Europe.

• Young Senegalese forced abroad by dual economic and political crises

The Atlantic route is particularly perilous due to the strong currents. There are  thousands of deaths and disappearances every year on overloaded, often unseaworthy boats.

Over 22,000 migrants have already landed in Spain’s Canary Islands so far this year, more than double the number from the previous year.

During a three-day West African tour at the end of August, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez signed a new agreement with Senegal aimed at regularising migration.

• Spanish PM visits Mauritania, Senegal to address migration surge

The accord covers new economic initiatives and includes training for Senegalese who settle in Spain.

 (with newswires)

Last year, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen asked Mario Draghi – a former Italian prime minister and European Central Bank chief – to report back on how the 27-country bloc can increase competitivity amid rising global insecurity and economic challenges.

His report published this Monday calls for additional yearly investment of at least €750 billion, amounting to almost five percent of the EU’s gross domestic product.

Draghi acknowledged this would be “unprecedented”, representing a bigger boost than the post-World War II Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, arguing that it was justified by an “existential challenge” facing the bloc.

“For the first time since the Cold War, we must genuinely fear for our self-preservation, and the reason for a unified response has never been so compelling,” Draghi told a press conference in Brussels to present his report.

‘Punching under our power’

Draghi’s blueprint for “radical change,” based around some 170 proposals, emphasises the need to close an “innovation gap” with both the United States and China.

It advocates “massive” investment to fund Europe’s priorities – from bolstering its defence industry to meeting ambitious decarbonisation targets – while avoiding a reliance on Chinese clean tech, through targeted support for parts of the sector.

It noted the EU’s weakness in the emerging technologies that will drive future growth, with only four European companies among the world’s top 50 tech firms.

“Europe must become a place where innovation flourishes,” Draghi said, saying the bloc was “punching under our power”.

“We lack focus on key priorities. We don’t combine our resources to generate scale. And we do not coordinate the policies that matter”.

For example, the report notes that the EU makes 12 types of tanks compared to only one in the United States, citing better harmonisation between EU states as one way to strengthen the industry.

“We could do much more if all these things were done as if we acted as a community,” Draghi said.

• Ursula von der Leyen is re-elected, vows to advance EU’s green ambitions

Money, money, money

Citing the EU’s historic Covid recovery fund, Draghi said the bloc should issue new “common debt instruments … to finance joint investment projects that will increase the EU’s competitiveness and security”.

The European Union resorted to joint borrowing for an €800 billion fund to support member states’ economies hit hard by the pandemic, but the concept remains controversial.

The idea’s biggest supporter is France, but other countries including Germany and the Netherlands oppose such action, fearing they will be forced to contribute disproportionately to other member states.

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner was quick to reject the idea.

“Joint borrowing by the EU will not solve the structural problems,” he said.

• France targeted in EU crackdown on excessive spending

‘Wide gap’ between US, EU

Von der Leyen, who won a second five-year term at the helm of the bloc’s executive arm in July, hopes to use the 400-page report to shape the priorities of her cabinet – known as a college of commissioners – which she is expected to unveil this week.

She did not directly address common borrowing during the press conference with Draghi, instead pointing to national contributions or other revenue sources that would go into the EU budget.

In his report, Draghi pointed to the “wide gap” in economic growth that has opened up between the EU and the US, “driven mainly by a more pronounced slowdown in productivity growth in Europe”.

With Europe’s economy largely stagnant since the end of the Covid pandemic, he warned that “China has been rapidly catching up”.

“If Europe cannot become more productive, we will be forced to choose,” the report said. 

“We will not be able to become, at once, a leader in new technologies, a beacon of climate responsibility and an independent player on the world stage. We will not be able to finance our social model. We will have to scale back some, if not all, of our ambitions,” Draghi wrote.

“This is an existential challenge”.

(With newswires)

Youth unemployment rates, inflation, lack of infrastructure and a growing public deficit are all major issues that await newly re-elected President Tebboune.

Since the beginning of his campaign, Tebboune has made many promises, among them, the creation of 450,000 jobs by 2026 and an increase in unemployment benefits from 15,000 (€102) to 20,000 Algerian dinars per month.

He also said he would increase civil servants’ salaries and create four million social housing units.

For some time, Algeria‘s economy has been relying on oil and gas revenues, which are doing well, but many Algerians expect other strategic sectors to take off again, especially industry, which represents just a tiny part of the country’s economy.

Tebboune promised to double the gross domestic product within three years, declaring that he would make Algeria “the second economy in Africa”, behind South Africa.

Algeria’s recent integration in the BRICS development bank is also seen as an opportunity to mobilise more resources for investment projects.

Socio-economic challenges

Mohamed Loucif, a professor of economics and public finance in Algeria says the country is experiencing too much dependence on oil to diversify the economy.

“The lack of diversification of the economy results in a declining industrial sector. That is the Algerian paradox. What could be considered a comparative advantage is counter-intuitively something that can obstruct the development of an economy.”

For instance, “cereal imports exceed 60 percent for example,” he told RFI, while Algeria could produce much more food.

Algeria’s president re-elected with nearly 95 percent of vote

What could boost the industrial sector would be direct foreign investment, but this has been in sharp decline for several years.

Despite this, businessman Slim Othmani says that there is definitely an interest in Algeria as an investment destination.

“However, I think that international investors expect more stability from the legal framework,” he says.

While Algerians hoped the Hirak protest movement of 2019 and the departure of former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika would offer them more freedom, the first mandate of President Tebboune saw a clampdown on civil liberties and seen the army take on a more important role.

In an interview with French daily Le Monde in 2023, researcher Mouloud Boumghar underlined that recent constitutional changes made any criticism of the army almost impossible.

“What is criminalised here is the very demand of the Hirak, namely the radical change of the political system,” he said.

Any critic is met with “accusation of terrorism”, which has “a dissuasive effect”.

This issue has been decried by rights group Amnesty International in a recent report.

• Listen to our ‘SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICA’ podcast on Algeria and rights concerns

Army support

Another issue of concern is the increasing presence of the army in the political sphere.

A few days before Tebboune’s declaration of candidacy, in August, a decree was published to legalise the transfer of the senior civil administration under the direct authority of the army.

The Algerian army magazine, El Djeich, published an editorial late in 2023 praising Tebboune.

“All the achievements obtained so far have confirmed the correctness of the option chosen by the President of the Republic as a reformist path for the construction of a new Algeria,” it read.

For many observers, this statement was a signal that the army command supported Tebboune’s second term.

For Ali Bensaad, analyst and university professor at the French Institute of Geopolitics in Paris VIII, the weight of the army in this election was decisive.

“The army tends to replace civil society on many levels,” he told RFI’s Christophe Boisbouvier. And it wants, beyond governing, to also administer the country directly,” according to Bensaad.

But for Hasni Habidi, Algerian analyst and director of the CERNAM research centre, based in Geneva, the past few years have shown that the Algerian society is changing, and this is visible in the dynamic growth in small businesses and social enterprises.

It would therefore be difficult to deny people’s aspiration for a freer political life for too long.

France could see its budget deficit spiral unexpectedly higher this year and next if extra savings are not found, the Finance Ministry said in a letter to lawmakers earlier this month.

The deteriorating state of public finances has put Paris into EU disciplinary proceedings and left incoming Prime Minister Michel Barnier facing tough questions as he looks to form a new government and prepare a budget by 1 October with the threat of a parliamentary vote of no-confidence hanging over him.

“France has asked for such an extension,” the Finance Ministry was quoted as saying in the weekly La Tribune Dimanche economics newspaper, without specifying how long it had asked for.

This was to “ensure the coherence of the plan and the 2025 draft budget,” the ministry said.

‘Tough choices’

A commission spokesperson said that a 20 September deadline was foreseen in the rules, but member states can agree with the Commission to extend that deadline by a reasonable period of time.

“We cannot confirm at this stage whether we have received the request,” the EU spokesperson said.

The financial shortfall means Barnier’s new government could face tough choices between cutting spending and hiking taxes or losing credibility with France’s EU partners and financial markets.

Macron named 73-year-old Barnier – a conservative and the former Brexit negotiator for the European Union – as Prime Minister on Thursday, capping a two-month search following his decision to call a legislative election that eventually delivered a hung parliament.

On Saturday, Barnier said that he could not perform miracles and he wanted to put order back into France’s finances.

• Macron names ex-Brexit negotiator Barnier as French PM
• France’s new PM welcomed by Brussels but faces uphill struggle at home

Far-right ‘kingmaker’

The leftist New Popular Front alliance (NPF), the largest bloc in parliament, and the far-right National Rally (RN) together have a majority and could oust the prime minister through a no-confidence vote should they decide to collaborate.

The RN gave its tacit approval for Barnier, citing a number of conditions for it to not back a no-confidence vote, making it the de facto kingmaker for the new government.

Speaking on Sunday, Marine Le Pen said her party wanted to see Barnier implement measures that would respect the 11 million people who had voted for it.

“If in the coming weeks the French are forgotten or badly treated we won’t hesitate to vote against the government,” she said at a public meeting in northern France.

The French are largely satisfied with the appointment of the centre-right Michel Barnier as Prime Minister, but believe he will not last long in his new post, a poll said on Sunday.

According to the Ifop poll for the Journal du Dimanche, 52 percent of people polled said they were satisfied with the appointment of Barnier as head of government.

By comparison, 53 percent of respondents approved the nomination of Barnier’s predecessor, Gabriel Attal, when he was appointed prime minister in early January, becoming France’s youngest-ever prime minister at 34.

But 74 percent of respondents polled believe he would not last long in the post, according to the survey.

(with newswires)

The first Games held in France in their 64-year history ended on Sunday night with a spectacular closing ceremony in front of 70,000 spectators at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.

On 28 August, more than 4,000 Paralympians paraded along the Champs Elysées before the opening extravaganza on the Place de la Concorde.

“It was an incredible setting,” said Andrew Parsons, boss of the International Paralympic Committee, which oversees the event.

“It was a gigantic hug that the city of Paris, that the country of France was giving to the Paralympic movement, and the athletes felt embraced and supported. It set the right tone.

“In terms of the athlete experience, it has been amazing. The services to them at the Paralympic village, at the venues and the crowds have been amazing.

“Quite simply, Paris 2024 is the new benchmark for Paralympic Games in every aspect, in every single point of the organisation.”

Paris seeks to make athletes’ village an accessible ‘paradise’ for Paralympians

Medal mission complete

French sports chiefs were also satisfied. Before the event, Marie-Amélie Le Fur, the head of the French Paralympic sports committee, said its 237 Paralympians had been set a goal of 20 gold medals across the 22 sports and an eighth place finish.

France achieved the latter, but fell just shy of its gold medal target with 19. The delegation also picked up 28 silvers and 28 bronzes.

Ukraine were seventh with 22 golds in their haul of 81 medals. Paying tribute to the Ukrainian effort amid its war with Russia, French sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said France would share some of its glory.

“We’re not too happy about them finishing just above us,” Oudéra-Castéra joked. 

“We were able to provide some material needs to support that delegation and I would like to say to my counterpart in Ukraine, how proud France is to have supported Ukraine.”

Italy, Netherlands and second-placed Britain finished further up the medal chain than the French, who nonetheless surpassed their medal tally from Tokyo of 55 where they finished 14th.

“What remains for us to do is to make sure that this success lasts,” said Le Fur, who highlighted the haul of five medals – none gold – in track and field as an area for improvement.

The French para-cycling federation will be, by contrast, bullish. It was set a goal of between 20 and 30 medals, and the cyclists brought in 28.

Meanwhile France’s swimmers collected 14 medals in total, two of them gold.

‘Not just a happy ending’

Michael Jeremiasz, the French former wheelchair tennis star who won gold in Beijing along with two bronzes and a silver in Athens, Beijing and London between 2004 and 2012, struck a note of caution amid the euphoria.

“We have to make sure that it’s not just a happy ending,” said the 42-year-old. “That would be more serious than if we hadn’t organised the Games at all.

“I hope the Paralympics will help us to look at each other more kindly and that the state and the government will feel obliged to do the job to speed up this transformation.”

Amid grandstanding about ticket sales of 2.5 million and a record 165 international broadcasters covering the event, poor accessibility for people with disabilities across the Paris metro network has tempered outright self-congratulation.

Paris metro accessibility a ‘weak spot’ ahead of Paralympics

“Although we’re now at London’s level of accessibility with 56 percent, we can’t be satisfied with that,” said Valérie Pécresse, governor of the greater Paris region.

“And that’s why I’ve taken advantage of these Paralympic Games to launch the idea of a metro for all.”

Pécresse said the capital would open four new metro lines in the coming years. “We’ll also be opening a whole series of tramway lines. What we don’t have, however, is the regeneration of the old lines. That’s metro lines 1 to 13.”

Structural engineers say revamping the city centre stations will cost hundreds of millions of euros and potentially endanger the same historic buildings used as glittering backdrops for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

‘A great adventure’

Pécresse says she wants local authorities and the government to look into a plan which she claims will be a win-win.

The progress of her campaign will be one of the salient features of the post-Paralympics landscape.

The next step of Tony Estanguet, chief of the Olympic and Paralympic organising committee, will be as intriguing.

The former Olympic canoeing champion has, as the face of the Games, consistently struck the right tone between cheerleading, concern and cajoling.

“We wanted to move the lines with the Paralympic Games,” he said. “It has been obvious that they have affected people ever since the opening ceremony.

“We wanted to send out a strong message about inclusion and we’ve done that. It’s been a great adventure and we’ve shown what the country is capable of.”

StreetNav app plots path to accessible city travel beyond Paris Paralympics

In a press release issued on Sunday, the Association of Descendants of Gustave Eiffel (Adge) reaffirmed its “unfavourable position” to the “definitive perpetuation of the rings … beyond the Olympic year 2024, with no clear date announced for their removal”.

On Friday, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo reiterated her wish to see the rings attached to the famous tower, which belongs to the city, remain on the iconic monument until the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, “and even beyond”.

This position, already expressed shortly after the opening of the Games and reaffirmed a week ago, triggered an outcry from heritage defenders and opponents of the Socialist mayor.

“We are very happy that the rings have been associated with the Eiffel Tower for the duration of the Olympic Games,” the descendants of the famous engineer explained on Sunday, while reaffirming their opposition to the project.

“As the heirs of Gustave Eiffel, the members of Adge … may be led to oppose any alteration that would undermine respect for the work of their ancestor,” they said, explaining that they had consulted a law firm.

• Eiffel Tower given the Olympic treatment as ring display unveiled
• Paris Olympics medals to include metal from Eiffel Tower

Olympic ‘imbalance’

In their view, hanging the Olympic rings “substantially alters both the visual and symbolic aspects of the Eiffel Tower”. 

“Coloured, large and placed in the main access axis to the Tower, creating a strong imbalance, the rings substantially alter the very pure forms of the monument”, they added.

The presence of the rings on the Tower beyond the duration of the Games also contradicts “the neutrality and meaning acquired over the years by the Eiffel Tower, which has become the symbol of the city of Paris and indeed of the whole of France throughout the world,” they argue, adding that there is “no prior thematic or historical link between the Tower and the Games”.

Saying that they were at the mayor’s disposal for discussions, they in turn have proposed that the City of Paris “after having passed on the Olympic flame to the City of Los Angeles … could symbolically pass on the Olympic rings to Los Angeles by the end of 2024, which marks the end of the Olympic year”.

At the weekend, Hidalgo told reporters: “She dazzled us here in Paris. We saw her. Her beauty, her strength, her freedom, and it was in all likelihood her beauty, strength and freedom which were intolerable for the person who committed this murder”.

“Paris will not forget her. We’ll dedicate a sports venue to her so that her memory and her story remains among us and helps carry the message of equality, which is a message carried by the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Hidalgo added.

Taking to social media platform X, the Paris city hall posted, “Paris joins forces with Parisian elected officials to express its support for the family of the athlete, victim of femicide a few weeks after her participation in the Olympic Games”.

‘Violent murder’

33-year-old Cheptegei made her Olympic debut in the women’s marathon at the Paris Games, where she finished 44th.

Police and doctors say she was left with 80 percent burns after being attacked in front of her two children the previous Sunday by her Kenyan partner, Dickson Ndiema Marangach.

Her death – which the United Nations has described as a “violent murder” – triggered widespread condemnation.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: “Our sport has lost a talented athlete in the most tragic and unthinkable circumstances.

“Rebecca was an incredibly versatile runner who still had lots left to give on the roads, mountains and cross country trails”.

• Women in Kenya demand justice for femicide amid spate of killings
• Thousands march in France to denounce violence against women

Protecting athletes from abuse

Coe said he was in discussions with members of World Athletics’ governing Council “to assess how our safeguarding policies might be enhanced to include abuse outside of the sport, and bringing together stakeholders from all areas of athletics to combine forces to protect our female athletes to the best of our abilities from abuse of all kinds”.

Janet Museveni, Uganda’s First Lady and Education Minister, posted on X: “The news of our daughter Rebecca Cheptegei’s tragic death due to domestic violence is deeply disturbing.” 

Kenyan Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said it was a “stark reminder” that more must be done to combat gender-based violence.

The Paris Olympics organisers voiced their “profound indignation and sadness” at the runner’s death. 

Cheptegei’s funeral will be held on 14 September in Kongasis sub county in the Bukwo district of eastern Uganda, a member of the funeral organising committee told French news agency AFP on Sunday.

Bukwo is the location of Cheptegei’s family home and lies on the border with Kenya about 380 kilometres northeast of the Ugandan capital Kampala.

Beekeepers say 2024 has proved a disastrous year for honey production. The spring honey harvest fell by as much as 80 percent in some parts of France, with many bees dying from starvation.

The primary culprit is poor weather: cold temperatures and relentless rain have left colonies unable to forage, forcing some beekeepers to supplement their diets with sugar and adding significant costs in an already struggling industry.

When it rains, bees stay inside their hives instead of flying out to collect nectar. During these periods, they consume their reserves of honey, depleting the very resource they are supposed to produce.

Compounding the problem are cooler-than-usual temperatures, which prevent flowers from producing the nectar essential for bees’ survival and honey making.

This year, the impact has been widespread across France, with unseasonable weather affecting almost every region.

National weather service Météo France reported that spring rainfall was 45 percent above the annual average, with nearly 20 percent less sun than in previous years.

In the run-up to this summer, temperatures remained well below the 18°C needed for flowers to produce nectar.

As the bee population increased in June, colonies required more resources – but with no nectar coming in, many bees starved to death.

‘Bees starving’ in disastrous year for French honey

Market challenges

France’s honey production is down between 20 and 80 percent depending on the region, and in some cases, the loss has been severe enough to threaten beekeeping businesses’ survival.

It’s the latest blow for the apiculture industry after several years of crisis. Some beekeepers have seen their annual honey production drop from 2 tonnes to a mere 100 kilos over the past decade.

French beekeepers protested earlier this year against what they called “unfair competition” from cheaper foreign honey imports.

In response, the government released €5 million in aid to support the struggling sector. However, beekeepers continue to face difficulties in marketing their products and managing large stockpiles.

France’s demand for honey is substantial, with the country consuming an estimated 45,000 tonnes annually. Yet domestic production meets less than half of this demand, averaging only 20,000 tonnes a year.

Imported honey lands French beekeepers in sticky situation

Colony collapse

The decline in honey production is more than just an economic issue – it reflects a broader environmental crisis.

Bees are among the most crucial pollinators in the world, responsible for pollinating 90 percent of flowering plants.

That makes them critical not just for biodiversity but food security. Globally, 75 percent of food crop production depends at least partially on pollinators – including about 20,000 bee species, 850 of which are found in France alone.

In recent years, the weakening and mortality of bee colonies has become a global concern. 

While bee mortality is a normal occurrence in apiaries – with 5 to 10 percent of colonies typically dying each winter – the problem has intensified since the mid-1980s, when unusual colony losses began to be observed worldwide.

EU efforts on biodiversity

The European Commission adopted a 10-year biodiversity strategy in 2020, aiming to restore the continent’s natural environment by 2030.

The plan includes specific measures to halt and reverse the decline of pollinators.

The EU proposes expanding protected areas, enhancing the protection of regions with high biodiversity and climate value, and restoring landscapes that capture carbon and mitigate natural disasters.

In June, the Council of the European Union approved additional legislation to bolster these biodiversity efforts.

However, experts warn that these measures alone may not be enough. Without urgent action to address climate change, pesticide use and habitat loss, bees could continue to decline – or even face extinction.

The complaint covers the period 1948-1961 and concerns the entire policy of placing mixed-race children in religious institutions managed by the Church, but which in fact resulted from a racial policy instaurated by the Belgian colonial administration in the Congo.

The five women – now in their 70s – accuse Belgium of crimes against humanity in their native Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

They want justice, compensation, and the recognition of these crimes.

The Belgian authorities recognise that between 14,000 and 20,000 children are involved in this case, but, despite their considerable number, their fate has long been ignored, according to RFI’s correspondent in Brussels.

In 2021, the judges rejected the motivation brought by the five plaintiffs, saying: “No one can be punished for a crime that did not exist at the time of the alleged facts”.

The women appealed the decision and a new trial opened on Monday.

Colonial policy

At the time, Belgium had claimed that the placements of these mixed-race children were meant to give them a so-called “European” education, in order to create a caste of Congolese people who were favorable to the colonial regime.

But in reality, a concerted policy to tear these children, called “mulattoes,” from their mothers (even if their father had not recognised them) was put into place, and to make them somehow invisible, because their very existence challenged the racial supremacy of the colonial order.

These children were marginalised from both African and colonial society.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers will argue on appeal that this was in fact a crime against humanity even then – and that the same principles that the Nuremberg Tribunal used for crimes against humanity against the Nazi regime should be applied to post-war colonial policy.

“They were abducted, mistreated, ignored, expelled from the world. They are living proof of an unacknowledged state crime,” the lawyers said in 2021.

‘Deep regrets’

In 2019, Belgium apologised for kidnapping these thousands of mixed-race children in the DRC between 1959 and 1962, in a move to address the legacy of its often brutal 80 years of colonisation.

“In the name of the federal government, I present my apologies to the metis of the Belgian colonial era and their families for the injustices and the sufferings they have endured,” Prime Minister Charles Michel told Parliament as dozens of former abductees looked on.

The apology was the first time Belgium officially acknowledged responsibility for the policy of segregation under which ‘metis’ children were abducted from Congo and put in schools and orphanages in Belgium run by the Catholic Church.

In 2022, Belgium’s King Philippe also expressed his “deepest regrets” for the pain inflicted during his country’s colonisation of the DRC, but he stopped short of formally apologising for exploitation, racism and acts of violence.

Belgium’s King Philippe ‘regrets’ colonial-era abuses in DRC

“Even though many Belgians were sincerely committed to loving the Congo and its people deeply, the colonial regime was based on exploitation and domination,” he said, during a first visit to Congo since taking the throne in 2013.

Many want the King to go a step further.

“We were expecting reparations,” said opposition MP Geneviève Inagosi.

“I think Congo’s money also built Belgium. Logically, we are expecting Belgium to use its power to rebuild the DRC. Just expressing regrets and saying that we are turning the page is too easy.”

The Egyptian president received a full diplomatic reception, with military bands and horses parading the Egyptian flag through the streets of the Turkish capital on Wednesday.

Erdogan did not hold back in welcoming a man he once dubbed a “brutal dictator”, and signalled a new era of partnership between the two countries.

“With our joint declaration, we confirmed our will to advance our cooperation in all fields, including industry, trade, defence, health, environment and energy,” the Turkish president declared.

String of bilateral agreements

The two leaders signed no fewer than 17 agreements to deepen bilateral trade, diplomatic and military cooperation.

The goal is to expand their annual commercial exchanges to over €13 billion in five years, from a little over €9 billion now.

They also discussed their concerns linked to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the shared desire to see a ceasefire there – part of a wider trend of converging regional interests.

Sisi’s visit follows Erdogan’s trip to Cairo in February, which resulted from years of efforts to mend damaged relations.

Ankara and Cairo cut ties in 2013 after Sisi, then defence minister, ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi – Turkey’s ally and part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

• Turkey and Egypt turn page on decade of friction with show of friendship

Question of Somaliland

Despite the decade of estrangement, trade between the two countries never ceased: Turkey is Egypt’s fifth-largest trading partner, while Egypt is Turkey’s largest in Africa.

With the Egyptian and Turkish economies in difficulty, the need to increase bilateral trade is seen as a powerful impetus towards rapprochement and a driving force for cooperation.

It could also ease tension in oil-rich Libya, which has been in a state of civil war for over a decade and where Cairo and Ankara back rival governments.

Libyan security analyst Aya Burweila says that Libya has become an important arena for both countries.

“Because the lines in the sand are so set – and each country has its sphere of influence – this has helped both countries realise that it’s much more lucrative if they cooperate rather than fight each other,” she told RFI.

Sisi and Erdogan also discussed tensions between Somalia and Ethiopia over the breakaway state of Somaliland, following reports that Egypt has started deploying weapons to Mogadishu.

The deployment is part of Egypt‘s bitter dispute with Ethiopia over its Grand Renaissance Dam, which Cairo claims seriously threatens vital water supplies from the Nile River.

• Newly reconciled, Turkey and Egypt could be a force for stability in Africa

Rivalry paused, not ended?

However, analysts suggest Egypt could also be seeking to challenge Turkey’s influence in Somalia – in which it has heavily invested – as well as complicating Ankara’s efforts to mediate between the Somali and Ethiopian governments.

Elem Eyrice-Tepeciklioglu, a professor of African studies at the Social Sciences University of Ankara, acknowledges the danger – but predicts Erdogan and Sisi will initially seek common ground.

“Both Egypt and Turkey can cooperate in Somalia, especially in terms of security,” she observes.

“They can implement joint anti-terrorism initiatives. They can combine their efforts in development projects. They can involve themselves in political stabilisation initiatives, and so on.

“But they can also compete with each other for a more significant role and influence in Somalia.”

For now, though, most experts seem to agree that with the spectre of a wider regional conflict and increasing economic pressures, Erdogan and Sisi are fully aware that cooperation, rather than rivalry, is in both their interests. 

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

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

Only a few days are left to submit your video to the ePOP competition. 

The ePOP video competition is sponsored by the RFI department “Planète Radio”, whose mission is to give a voice to the voiceless. ePOP focuses on the environment and how climate change has affected “ordinary” people. You are to create a three-minute video about climate change, the environment, pollution – told by the people it affects.

You do not need expensive video equipment to enter the competition. Your phone is fine.  And you do not need to be a member of the RFI Clubs to enter – everyone is welcome. And by the way – the prizes are incredibly generous!

Go to the ePOP page to read about past competitions, watch past videos, and read the regulations for your entry.  You can also write to us at thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr, and we’ll forward your mail to Planète Radio.

The competition closes 12 September. We expect to be bombarded with entries from the English speakers!

Facebook: Be sure to send your photos to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr for the RFI English Listeners Forum banner!

More tech news: Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Just go to YouTube and write RFI English in the search bar, and there we are! Be sure to subscribe to see all our videos.

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

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

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

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

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

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

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

Remember, podcasts are radio, too! As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Please keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with!

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

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

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

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

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

This week’s quiz: On 13 July I asked you yet another question about France’s snap legislative elections.

As you know, the left coalition New Popular Front won the most seats, followed by Macron’s centre-right alliance, with the far-right National Rally in third place. None of the parties have an absolute majority.

There’s been something of a “cease-fire” during the Olympic Games, so not much has been done. However, the French constitution sets strict deadlines for when key positions must be filled; one of these is the appointment of chairs for each of the eight standing parliamentary committees. That was your question – what are those eight standing committees, and by which date must the chairs of each committee be decided?

The answer is: Finance, foreign affairs, defence, economy, social affairs, culture, sustainable development, and law. The date for deciding the chairs was 20 July. So that has happened: six of the eight committees are headed by the centre-right coalition, and the other two were taken by the left coalition.

The centre-right and the left coalition joined forces and no position was allocated to the far-right National Rally.

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “What was your biggest life-changing decision, and how did it change your life?”

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Malik Allah Bachaya Khokhar from the Sungat Radio Listeners Club in Muzaffargarh, Pakistan. Malik is also the winner of this week’s bonus question – congratulations, Malik!

There are two winners from India this week: Nafisa Khatun, the president of the RFI Mahila Shrota Sangha Club in Hariharpara, and Mousumi Khatun, a member of the RFI International DX Radio Listeners Club in Murshidabad. Moving over to Bangladesh, there’s Shrabonty Shermin, a member of the RFI Surfers’ Society Bangladesh in Rajshahi, and RFI English listener Rowshan Ara Labone from Dhaka.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Pendulum” by Eberhard Weber, performed by the composer and Paul McCandless; “Contrapunctus 1” from J.S. Bach’s The Art Of Fugue, BWV 1080, performed by the Emerson Quartet; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and “Street Life” by Joe Sample and Will Jennings, performed by The Crusaders.

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read our article “Golden glory for French para-triathletes despite delays over Seine water quality”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 30 September to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 5 October podcast. When you enter be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

or

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

Click here to learn how to win a special Sound Kitchen prize.

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

This week, we focus on the presidential election in Algeria, scheduled for 7 September, with a potential second round two weeks later, if none of the candidate reaches 51 percent in the first round.

The campaign ended on Tuesday, 3 September. Most experts expect incumbent Abdelmadjid Tebboune to win again, while only two challengers have been allowed to run: Abdelaali Hassani of the moderate Islamist party, the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), and Youcef Aouchiche of the centre-left Socialist Forces Front (FFS). 

• Few surprises in store as Algeria’s presidential election nears

The opposition has, however, complained of intimidation with dozens of people arrested last month over alleged election fraud.

Opposition leader Fethi Ghares was even detained  during the last week of the campaign, accused of “insulting the president” and spreading disinformation online.

Meanwhile, Algerian officials are tightening restrictions on civil liberties, Amnesty International reports. The human rights group says that the authorities’ actions aim to limit citizens’ rights to free speech, peaceful protest, and form associations.

To understand how opponents, political parties and civil society navigate the civic space, RFI spoke to Nadège Lahmar, the consultant on Algeria for Amnesty. 

Episode mixed by Nicolas Doreau. 

Spotlight on Africa is a podcast from Radio France Internationale. 

Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan described August’s second round of indirect talks in Ankara between his Ethiopian and Somali counterparts as constructive and positive.

“We were able to focus on the details and technicalities of concrete steps that are important convergences on some major principles and specific modalities”, Fidan said.

“This constitutes notable progress.”

While there was no breakthrough, all sides agreed to meet again in September.

Controversial deal 

Ethiopian-Somali tensions have escalated since January, when Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding with Somaliland, a breakaway state from Somalia.

Under the agreement, Ethiopia would secure sea access in exchange for recognising Somaliland, a deal condemned by Somalia as an infringement on its territorial integrity.

“Ethiopia needs access to a coastline”, said Dubai-based geopolitical consultant Norman Ricklefs.

“It’s the second-largest country in Africa. It’s a booming economy. And, somehow, that deal needs to be made, but it’s not going to be easy because of the previous deal earlier this year with Somaliland.”

Ricklefs predicts that finding a solution will require considerable diplomatic finesse.

“It’s not going to be easy to convince the Somalis to grant that [Ethiopian demands], feeling that they’re under pressure right now because of the deal that was previously done with Somaliland,” he said.

“But I think Turkey is probably best placed, as they have a very close relationship with both Ethiopia and Somalia.”

Somalia recently threatened to block access to Ethiopian Airlines in the latest bout of diplomatic tensions. Meanwhile, Egypt could reportedly deploy soldiers to Somalia, a move that threatens to further escalate and broaden tensions, given existing Ethiopian-Egyptian conflicts.

Ethiopia and Somalia move closer to resolving Somaliland dispute

Deepening influence

The situation between Somalia and Ethiopia is expected to be discussed during Wednesday’s summit in Turkey, where Egyptian President Sisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are set to meet.

Africa expert Elem Eyrice-Tepecikoglu from the African studies department of Ankara’s Social Sciences University said Turkey’s historical and deepening economic and military ties with both Somalia and Ethiopia give it an advantageous position in its mediating efforts.

“Somalia has a very important place in Turkey’s Africa policy. Turkey has established its largest embassy in Somalia’s capital, and it also established its largest military training facility, again in Somalia,” said Tepecikoglu.

“But Turkey also has old and established relations with Ethiopia as well. There are several investments of Turkish companies in the country, and Turkey also signed a military cooperation agreement with Ethiopia. Reportedly, Turkish drones were used against the Tigray rebel forces.”

Growing military buildup in Azerbaijan and Armenia a concern for peace talks

Economic, military stakes

Earlier this year, the Somali parliament ratified a naval agreement with Turkey to protect its territorial waters and a deal to search for hydrocarbons. Turkey is second only to China in investment in Ethiopia, including selling its military-proven drones.

Analysts suggest that there is more than diplomatic prestige at stake for Ankara in resolving Ethiopian-Somali tensions, given the region’s potential and geostrategic importance as a critical world trading route.

“There’s a reason why the Horn of Africa has American military bases and Chinese military bases. The Japanese even have a base in that area. All of them think the Horn of Africa is a pretty significant region for global shipping,” Ricklefs said.

“It’s a region that has not been developed. It has hydrocarbon resources and other resources like agricultural resources that have not been developed and would need networks and infrastructure that a country like Turkey could provide if there was security and stability.”

Ethiopian and Somali talks are set to resume in September. Success would underline Turkey’s growing influence in a region of increasing international competition, while failure could threaten two decades of Turkish investment in the region.

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

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

The ePOP video competition is open!

The ePOP video competition is sponsored by the RFI department “Planète Radio”, whose mission is to give a voice to the voiceless. ePOP focuses on the environment and how climate change has affected “ordinary” people. You are to create a three-minute video about climate change, the environment, pollution – told by the people it affects.

You do not need expensive video equipment to enter the competition. Your phone is fine.  And you do not need to be a member of the RFI Clubs to enter – everyone is welcome. And by the way – the prizes are incredibly generous!

Go to the ePOP page to read about past competitions, watch past videos, and read the regulations for your entry.  You can also write to us at thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr, and we’ll forward your mail to Planète Radio.

The competition closes 12 September. We expect to be bombarded with entries from the English speakers!

Facebook: Be sure to send your photos to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr for the RFI English Listeners Forum banner!

More tech news: Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Just go to YouTube and write RFI English in the search bar, and there we are! Be sure to subscribe to see all our videos.

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

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

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

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

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This week’s quiz: On 6 July, I asked you a question about France’s snap legislative elections, called by President Emmanuel Macron after his centrist party was severely trounced by the far-right National Rally Party in the European legislative elections.

The first round of voting was on 30 June; voter turnout was quite high. You were to consult RFI English journalist Jessica Phelan’s article “The three-way factor that makes France’s election results so unusual” and send in the answer to these two questions: What was voter turnout on Sunday 30 June, and in which year was it last that high? 

The answer is: As Jessica wrote in her article: “The last three parliamentary elections have seen turnout of roughly 48 percent (2022), 49 percent (2017) and 57 percent (2012) in the first round, which effectively meant parties had to win a higher share of ballots cast to get across the threshold.

On the 30th of June turnout reached almost 67 percent – its highest since 1997.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “Given unlimited resources, what scientific or medical problem would you investigate, and why?”

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Lata Akhter Jahan from Bogura, Bangladesh. Lata is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations, Lata, on your double win.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Ras Franz Manko Ngogo, the president of the Kemogemba RFI Club in Tarima, Tanzania, and Nirupa Bain, a member of the RFI Pariwer Bandhu Shortwave Club in Chhattisgarh, India.

Last but not least, two RFI Listeners Club members: Sakawat Hossain from Sylhet, Bangladesh, and Solomon Fessahazion from Asmara, Eritrea.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Polovtsian Dances” from the opera Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin, arranged for marimba ensemble by Fumito Nunoya and performed by the Nunoya Marimba Ensemble; “I’ve Got Rhythm” by George Gershwin, performed by Django Reinhardt and the Quintette du Hot Club de France; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and  “Un jour tu verras” by Georges van Parys and Marcel Mouloudji, sung by Mouloudji.

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read our article “Paralympic torch arrives in France ahead of opening ceremony”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 23 September to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 28 September podcast. When you enter be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

or

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

Click here to learn how to win a special Sound Kitchen prize.

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

Azerbaijan showcased its military might in a grand parade in Baku last year to celebrate its victory in recapturing the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave from Armenian-backed forces.

Azerbaijan, buoyed by its oil wealth, is continuing its aggressive rearmament programme, heavily relying on Turkey for military support.

“The Turkish defence industry and Turkish military equipment will be providing further arms to protect Azerbaijan,” predicts Huseyin Bagci, a professor of international relations at Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.”

However, Bagci noted that Azerbaijan is also turning to another ally for advanced weaponry.

“Israel is much better in this respect. Azerbaijan buys the highest technology from Israel, and Israel is providing it.”

Turkish and Israeli arms played a crucial role in Azerbaijan’s recent military successes, overwhelming Armenian-backed forces that relied on outdated Russian equipment.

Armenia’s response

In response to its loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia is also ramping up its military capabilities, with France leading the supply of new, sophisticated weaponry.

Paris argues that this support helps Armenia shift its focus away from Russian reliance and towards Western alliances.

Yerevan maintains that its rearmament is purely for self-defence.

“Right now, there is no military parity between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” says Eric Hacopian, a political consultant in Armenia.

“The goal is to create deterrents to make any aggression against Armenia more costly. In the medium term, we aim for equality, and in the long term, superiority.”

Stalled peace talks

The rearmament comes amid stalled peace talks, with Baku concerned that Yerevan’s military buildup might indicate ambitions to retake Nagorno Karabakh.

“The truth is our territory was under occupation, so we worry that in five, 10 years, Armenia will rearm its military, strengthen military capacities, and will come back,” warned Farid Shafiyev, chairman of the Baku-based Centre of Analysis of International Relations.

Yerevan maintains that its rearmament is purely for self-defence.

“Right now, there is no military parity between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The goal is to create deterrents in the short run to make any aggression against Armenia far more costly than it has been in the past,” says Eric Hacopian, a political consultant in Armenia.

“Two is to create equality in the middle term and in the long term superiority. You can’t have any other goal when your country is constantly under threat, or attack is the only way to respond to it.”

Hacopian also notes: “The moment Armenia can defend itself, then the game is up because Ilham Aliyev is not going to risk a war that he is not guaranteed to win; Armenia rearming means he is not guaranteed to win a war which he means he won’t launch one.”

However, Hacopian acknowledges that the coming year will be dangerous for the region as Yerevan seeks to close the military gap with Azerbaijan.

“Next year is the year of living dangerously because next year is the last year that they can do a major aggression against Armenia without having to face the consequences because the gap is closing. Once it closes, the game will be up,” he says.

Ongoing tensions

Earlier this month, Armenian and Azerbaijani forces exchanged fire in a border skirmish, underscoring the ongoing tensions between the two nations.

Both Baku and Yerevan insist their military enhancements are for defensive purposes.

However, Bagci warns that the arms race is turning the region into a potential flashpoint.

“Armenia and Azerbaijan are like two children; they play with fire, and the house is burning, and everybody is asking the big powers why the house is burning and who has done it. They have done it together,” he says.

Despite their rearmament, both Armenia and Azerbaijan claim to remain committed to the US-backed peace process.

Analysts, however, warn that the escalating arms race could deepen mutual suspicions and further complicate efforts to achieve lasting peace.

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.