The explosive growth of generative artificial intelligence, which creates content like text, images, audio and synthetic data, is expected to add millions of metric tonnes of electronic waste annually by the end of the decade, a study in Nature Computational Science has said.

This rise in e-waste is due to the rapid expansion of AI applications and data centres, which demand frequent upgrades of high-performance computing hardware.

Short life cycles for advanced processors and storage equipment mean devices are replaced often to meet rising demand, resulting in a surge of discarded electronics.

If left unchecked, researchers warn that e-waste could spiral, further contributing to environmental pollution and resource depletion worldwide.

Resource-intensive

Generative AI models, such as large language models, are highly resource-intensive, requiring powerful servers, processors and storage solutions to operate effectively.

As big-tech companies race to develop more sophisticated models and hardware, e-waste from discarded equipment is piling up.

At the current adoption rate, e-waste from generative AI could reach between 1.2 and 5 million metric tonnes annually by 2030 – a thousand-fold increase over today’s levels.

Researchers estimate that this jump in waste is largely tied to applications like ChatGPT, which run on hardware with an expected lifespan of only two to five years.

AI-related e-waste often contains hazardous materials like lead, chromium and mercury, which pose severe health and environmental risks if not properly managed. Globally, just over 12 percent of e-waste is recycled.

• AI development cannot be left to market whim, UN experts warn

Towards a circular economy

To address the rising tide of e-waste, researchers recommend moving towards a circular economy by extending hardware life, remanufacturing components and recycling materials from old devices.

Implementing these practices could reduce AI-related e-waste by up to 86 percent.

Asaf Tzachor, co-author of the Nature report, told the MIT Technology Review that extending the lifespan of technology by using equipment for longer is one of the most effective ways to reduce e-waste.

“Refurbishing and reusing components can also play a significant role, as can designing hardware in ways that make it easier to recycle and upgrade,” Tzachor said.

“For companies and manufacturers, taking responsibility for the environmental and social impacts of their products is crucial. This way, we can make sure that the technology we rely on doesn’t come at the expense of human and planetary health.”

This shift would require grassroots e-waste collection and recycling initiatives to keep valuable metals – like gold, copper, and silver – out of landfills. By refurbishing older devices and designing easily recyclable hardware, tech companies can help curb AI’s environmental impact.

• AI steals spotlight from Nobel winners who highlight Its power and risks

Barriers to reducing e-waste

Reducing e-waste generated by artificial intelligence is not without its challenges.

Data security is a major barrier, as companies often destroy used devices to protect sensitive information. Secure data erasure technology could allow for safe reuse without compromising privacy.

Recycling also remains expensive due to the cost of safely handling hazardous materials, even though recycled metals hold significant economic value.

The Global E-Waste Monitor estimates that only 22 percent of electronic trash is formally recycled, with much of it ending up in informal recycling systems in lower-income countries, where safe processing methods are usually unavailable.

This looming crisis calls for sustainable AI development. According to the Nature report, as AI technologies advance, manufacturers and companies need to take responsibility for the social and environmental impacts of their products.

Researchers say industry standards for sustainable hardware use and cross-border cooperation in waste management will be key to addressing the issue.

Speaking to Morocco’s parliament in the capital Rabat on the second day of his state visit, Macron pledged French investment in the largely Moroccan-controlled territory.

Deals with Morocoo involving Western Sahara have been a problem for European governments.

In October, the EU’s top court upheld the cancellation of trade deals allowing Morocco to export Sahrawi products to the 27-nation bloc.

“French companies will support the development of Western Sahara,” said Macron. “Their present and future belong under Moroccan sovereignty.”

Macron’s comments come a day after the two countries signed several energy and infrastructure deals worth an estimated €10 billion.

Disputed territory

The Algerian-backed Polisario Front has campaigned for independence of Western Sahara since before Spanish government forces pulled out of their former colony in 1975.

The United Nations considers Western Sahara a “non-self-governing territory” and has had a peacekeeping mission there since 1991 with the aim of organising a referendum on the territory’s future.

But Morocco has repeatedly rejected any vote in which independence is an option.

France’s stance on the issue has been ambiguous in recent years, which – in addition to Macron’s efforts to improve links with Algeria – strained ties between Morocco and France.

Ties

The two governments have also clashed over other issues, including migration. In 2021, France halved the number of visas granted to Moroccans.

However, Macron began easing tensions when he said in July that Morocco’s offer of autonomy for the territory under its sovereignty was the only basis to resolve the conflict.

France’s diplomatic U-turn had been awaited by Morocco. The United States recognised Morocco’s annexation of Western Sahara in return for Morocco normalising ties with Israel in 2020.

But the stance has come at a cost. After Macron endorsed Morocco’s autonomy plan, Algeria withdrew its ambassador to Paris and has yet to send a replacement.

And a state visit to Paris by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was called off earlier this month following several attempts to reschedule.

(with newswires)

Tests carried out by NGOs Bloom and Foodwatch showed all 148 cans tested positive for mercury contamination. The samples were bought in France, Germany, England, Spain and Italy.

Mercury is “one of the 10 substances of greatest concern in the world, like asbestos or arsenic,” said the organisations. Its derivative, methylmercury, is classified as a “possible carcinogen” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

More than half the tested cans contained mercury levels higher than those permitted for other fish species.

While mercury content in fish like pollack or cod must not exceed 0.3 mg/kg, the limit for tuna is set at 1 mg/kg.

Banned pesticides found in imported foods in France, data shows

‘Most eaten’ fish in Europe

The NGOs criticised this discrepancy and called for authorities to impose the lower 0.3 mg/kg limit on tuna – Europe’s most consumed fish.

According the groups, tuna remains the most consumed fish in Europe.

“This metal is a powerful neurotoxicant and low doses consumed regularly are enough to cause serious disorders of the nervous system in children and attack the brain functioning of adults,” said the NGOs.

The highest concentration was found in French brand Petit Navire at 3.9 mg/kg. Spain’s Carrefour products followed with 2.5 mg/kg, while Italian brand As do Mar showed levels up to 1.5 mg/kg.

Bloom and Foodwatch demanded authorities stop the sale of tuna products exceeding 0.3 mg/kg of mercury. They also called for bans in nurseries, hospitals, maternity wards, retirement homes and school canteens.

Entire French population contaminated with heavy metals, study warns

Petition

The NGOs launched a petition urging retailers to implement stricter controls, stop promoting tuna and inform consumers about health risks.

France’s food safety agency Anses backed these concerns last Thursday, warning that “at high doses, methylmercury is toxic to the central nervous system of humans, particularly during in utero development and early childhood”.

The agency advised eating fish no more than twice weekly and limiting “predatory fish” like tuna. It specifically warned pregnant women to avoid predatory fish including tuna, skate, sea bream and monkfish, which are known to be most contaminated.

The 16th so-called Conference of Parties (Cop16) to the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has the urgent task of coming up with monitoring and funding mechanisms to achieve 23 nature protection goals agreed in Canada two years ago.

Themed “Peace with Nature,” the summit has been bogged down in disagreement about modalities of funding, as well as sharing the profits of digitally sequenced plant and animal genetic data – used in medicines and cosmetics – with the communities they come from.

Delegates have no time to waste.

There are only five years left to achieve the 23 UN targets, which include placing 30 percent of land, water and ocean under protection by 2030.

A report issued by nature watchdogs said Monday that only 17.6 percent of land and inland waters, and 8.4 percent of the ocean and coastal areas, are within documented protected and conserved areas.

“This leaves a land area roughly the size of Brazil and Australia combined, and at sea an area larger than the Indian Ocean, to be designated by 2030 in order to meet the global target,” said the Protected Planet Report.

Also on Monday, an update of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of threatened animals and plants found more than one in three species of tree are at risk of extinction worldwide.

These include many that provide humans with timber, medicine, food and fuel.

More than 46,000 plant and animal species out of more than 166,000 assessed for the Red List were found to be threatened with extinction.

Ecosystems hang in the balance as Colombia hosts crucial biodiversity talks

‘More money’ needed

The Cop16 has attracted a record 23,000 registered delegates and some 1,200 journalists to Cali, according to organizers, making it the biggest yet.

Thousands of activists and residents have flocked to its so-called “green zone” set up for cultural activities, demonstrations and celebrations.

COP president Susana Muhamad, Colombia‘s environment minister, told AFP on Monday the summit had placed biodiversity loss “on an equal footing” with the climate change crisis.

But she lamented that a Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) created to help bring about the targets set out two years ago “needs more money.”

So far, countries have made about $400 million in commitments to the fund set up to give effect to the targets under the so-called Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed in 2022.

This included pledges of $163 million announced Monday by Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the Canadian province of Quebec.

The Kunming-Montreal framework determined that countries must mobilise $20 billion per year by 2025 from rich nations to help developing ones. The GBFF is just part of this funding.

Of the $20 billion goal, $15 billion a year was reached for 2022, according to the OECD.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Guterres will join the heads of state of Colombia, Armenia, Bolivia, Guinea Bissau, Haiti and Suriname as well as 115 government ministers and 44 deputies in Cali.

The ministers will hopefully “help us make movement on some of these issues,” said CBD spokesman David Ainsworth.

If an issue is “really tight and intractable, negotiators would normally go back to their capitals but if the minister is there, decisions can be made fairly quickly.”

The Cop16 runs until Friday.

After successive starts outside France in Copenhagen in 2022, Bilbao in 2023 and Florence in 2024, the 2025 Grand Depart is in the northern French city of Lille, with fans expected to flood over the nearby Belgian border.

“We decided to bring the Tour home, it was high time after all the foreign starts,” race director Christian Prudhomme said.

Entirely absent from the 2024 route due to the Olympics, the 2025 edition has eight stages in the North and West and ends with eight laps along the cobbles of the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

The Olympics enjoyed a huge success with a long, arduous race around Paris but organisers said it was too soon for the Tour to attempt that.

“We are in talks with the city hall and the police about the possibility of doing that some time,” Prudhomme told AFP.

A fierce struggle for the first yellow jersey accorded to the overall race leader will be decided on a 185km race around Lille.

Cross-border Belgian fans can support a potential winner in double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel, who finished third in the 2024 Tour.

“Evenepoel proved last year he is also a man of the Tour and we expect him to be active this year too,” Prudhomme said.

D-Day beaches

The three-week extravaganza visits the sites of the D-Day landings around Dunkirk and Boulogne.

Largely destroyed during the Battle of Normandy in 1944, a time-trial around the city of Caen will pay homage to the fallen on stage five.

Organisers were keen to explain the first week was tough.

“A week in the plains is not the joy ride it was in the old days,” Prudhomme said. “We have cut the sprint stages and layed traps everywhere.”

The race also makes a rare incursion into Brittany visiting the gothic city of Saint Malo with its giant granite walls.

That stage ends on the short steep climb on the Mur-de-Bretagne where in 2021 Mathieu van der Poel, the grandson of Raymond Poulidor – 12 times on the podium but never a winner or leader of the Tour – avenged the family debt.

“If only he were here,” he screamed, punching the tarmac with an unforgettable show of emotion.

“We need stages like this, going back over legendary ground so that children can dream of the Tour as we once did,” Prudhomme said.

Wine lovers will spot Chinon on stage 10, and the Rhone Valley on stage 17, but there is no Burgundy, Bordeaux or Champagne on the map at all.

Tradition holds that the Tour de France is won and lost in the Alps and this edition has been stacked with mountains in the third week.

The first mountains come as late as stage 10 in the massive Central on July 14, France’s national holiday.

A day off in Toulouse on stage 11 is followed by three blockbuster climb stages in the Pyrenees, then three more in the last week in the Alps with a plethora of legendary Tour mountains on the menu.

Defending champion Tadej Pogacar has proven too hot to handle in stages with a single mountain, but is beatable where there are four or five, especially in the heat.

After being beaten into second twice by Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard, Pogacar towered above the Tour in 2024, winning six stages in a crushing triumph

Evenepoel won the white jersey for best young rider in his first Tour and has promised to show up in 2025 better primed for climbing after focussing on his triumphant Olympics.

Several deals were signed in the presence of Macron and King Mohammed VI, with more expected on Tuesday, including on energy and infrastructure.

Macron has also been invited to address parliament on Tuesday and will attend a state dinner in the evening.

The French leader’s trip was at the king’s invitation late in September, but also follows years of tense ties with Rabat.

A delegation of French ministers and business leaders accompanied Macron, while French and Moroccan flags flew alongside each other in the city’s main thoroughfares.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, Economy Minister Antoine Armand and Culture Minister Rachida Dati – herself of Moroccan origin – all travelled with the president.

Trains, renewables

Though specific contract details were not disclosed, French rail manufacturer Alstom is set to supply up to 18 high-speed train cars to Morocco according to the deals signed on Monday.

Energy company Engie and the Moroccan Phosphates Office meanwhile signed a renewables agreement with potential investments reaching up to €3.5 billion, according to reporters from the AFP news agency.

France’s TotalEnergies also inked a deal to develop “green hydrogen” production in the north African country.

Macron’s visit follows years of strained relations between Paris and Rabat over a range of issues.

Those include France’s ambiguous stance on the disputed Western Sahara region and Macron’s quest for rapprochement with Algeria.

Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, is largely controlled by Morocco but claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which in 2020 declared a “self-defence war” and seeks the territory’s independence.

It is considered by the United Nations to be a “non-self-governing territory”.

Rabat and Paris have also been at odds after France in 2021 halved the number of visas it granted to Moroccans.

Tensions with Algeria

In July, Macron eased tensions by saying Morocco’s autonomy plan for the territory was the “only basis” to resolve the decades-old conflict.

France’s diplomatic turnabout had been awaited by Morocco, whose annexation of Western Sahara had already been recognised by the United States in return for Rabat normalising ties with Israel in 2020.

Algeria recalls ambassador after France backs Moroccan plan for Western Sahara

Monday’s visit also comes after Macron’s rapprochement efforts with Algeria appear to have hit a dead end.

A state visit to Paris by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was rescheduled multiple times before being called off by Algiers earlier this month.

After Macron endorsed Morocco’s autonomy plan, Algeria promptly withdrew its ambassador to Paris and has yet to send a replacement.

(with AFP)

 The EU and Switzerland have said they want to seal an agreement to “stabilise and develop” their relations by updating and expanding a set of more than 120 agreements by the end of the year.

Despite continued disagreement over central issues like immigration and Swiss wage protections, President Viola Amherd told reporters that she remains optimistic.

“It is possible that we won’t make it, but I am optimistic,” she said, speaking at an event hosted on Monday by Switzerland’s foreign press association, APES.

And “if we don’t succeed, it is obvious that we have to continue trying,” she said.

When it comes to immigration and wage protections, the main challenge will be to shift positions at home, she acknowledged.

“We are working on that a lot, we are discussing that a lot,” she said, adding that “we don’t yet have a final solution, but I think that we have the possibility” to find one.

Patchwork of agreements

EU-Swiss ties are currently governed by a patchwork of agreements, and for years the two have been striving to nail down a broader cooperation agreement.

But their relations have been strained since Bern – without warning – slammed the door on the negotiations with its main trading partner in 2021.

And after the talks tentatively resumed this year, Switzerland‘s efforts to secure an exemption to a central EU tenet – the free movement of people between countries – threw another spanner in the works.

Swiss hard right largest in elections, pledges pragmatism

Earlier this month, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel slammed that position, stressing that “Europe is not an a la carte menu”.

But Amherd said “the European Commission understands that there must be a solution” that addresses Swiss concerns, since Swiss citizens in the end will be called on to vote on the final deal under the country’s direct democracy system.

Obstacle

A main obstacle, she acknowledged, is the opposition from Switzerland’s largest party, the hard-right, anti-EU Swiss People’s Party (SVP).

“It will be very difficult to find an agreement that satisfies the SVP,” she said.

“It is almost impossible.”

Swiss parliament votes to ban extremist symbols and gestures

Faced with that reality, Amherd, from The Centre party, said it would be necessary to “work with other forces in the country”, including unions, to try to secure the popular backing needed for an agreement.

Mechanisms could be found to counter a drop in wages and unlimited migration, she said.

“I am convinced we will find a solution.”

(with AFP)

According to results announced by the electoral commission, the Georgian Dream party of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili won 54.08 percent of the vote.

The pro-EU coalition claimed 37.58 percent and has refused to concede defeat to a party it accuses of pro-Kremlin authoritarianism. 

“We expect the Georgian authorities to investigate the irregularities observed before and during the vote,” said a French foreign ministry spokesperson.

France’s call followed a demand from EU chief Ursula von der Leyen for an independent investigation into the vote. 

“For so many years now, the people of Georgia have been striving and fighting for democracy,” she said in a speech at the College of Europe in the Belgian city of Bruges.

“They have a right to know what happened this weekend. And they have a right to see that electoral irregularities are investigated swiftly, transparently and independently.

In an interview with the French news agency AFP on Monday, Georgia’s President Salome Zourabishvili, who is pro-Western and opposed to the government, hit out at what she called a sophisticated system of fraud based on a Russian methodology.

She said it had enabled the ruling party to win the legislative elections. 

Sophistication

“This sophistication, this accuracy in the targets that were taken, is more than a traditional government here has been able to defraud in order to stay in power.

“Given the relationship between the party in power and Russia, and the fact that their election propaganda was totally modelled on Russian propaganda and that they have PR specialists who also come from Russia, this is a Russian methodology,” she added.

Zourabichvili claims the fraud was perpetrated through electronic voting, which was being used for the first time in Georgia. She said the same identity card numbers were sometimes found corresponding to 17 votes, 20 votes, in different regions.

She says the alleged fraudsters bought votes, put pressure on public officials and on the families of prisoners who could be promised release.

She claims that money was visibly distributed in minibuses as people left the polling stations.

Protest

Zourabichivili had urged people to take to the streets after the results were announced.

“You did not lose the elections,” she told protesters many of whom were draped in the flags of Georgia and the European Union.

“Your vote was stolen and they tried to steal your future as well. 

“Together, peacefully, as we are today, we will defend what is ours: your constitutional right to have your vote respected.”

Under its constitution, Georgia officially aspires to join the EU and Nato.

But since the enactment in May of a law on ‘foreign influence’ targeting civil society and copied from Russia’s legislation on ‘foreign agents’, Brussels has frozen the EU accession process and the United States has imposed sanctions on Georgian officials.

The result will give Georgian Dream 91 seats in the 150-member parliament – enough to govern but short of the supermajority it had sought to pass a constitutional ban on all main opposition parties. 

“Our victory is impressive,” Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said in a statement, accusing the opposition of undermining the country’s constitutional order by questioning his party’s victory.

However, international observers said Saturday’s election was “marred by an uneven playing field, pressure and tension”. 

An EU parliament mission also expressed concern about democratic backsliding. It reported instances of ballot box stuffing and the physical assault of observers. But as the US and EU said they were concerned about the legitimacy of the vote, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrived in the country to show his support to Georgian Dream.  

• Hungary’s Orban clashes with EU leaders over Ukraine, migration policies
• Georgia thrown into political turmoil after disputed vote

Orban, whose country is the current holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, congratulated Georgian Dream for an overwhelming victory on Saturday after one exit poll showed the government in the lead and before preliminary results were published.

Just before Orban’s arrival, other EU leaders condemned the vote. “The President of Georgia has announced that the parliamentary elections were falsified. Europe must now stand with the Georgian people,” Poland’s foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on X.  

• Macron, Scholz voice ‘deep concern’ at Georgia foreign influence law

Opposition parties have lined up to denounce the vote. “This is an attempt to steal Georgia’s future,” said Tina Bokuchava, leader of Saakashvili’s United National Movement.

Nika Gvaramia, leader of the liberal Ahali party, denounced the way the vote was held as a constitutional coup.

Manchester City midfielder Rodri and the Barcelona playmaker Aitana Bonmati provided the panache with the men’s and women’s crowns respectively for their performances with their clubs and the Spain national team.

Spanish champions Real Madrid injected the petulance. Executives of the outfit announced during Monday afternoon that their players and coaches would snub the event after learning that their star players Vinicius Junior and Dani Carvajal had not been anointed for the top men’s prize.

Hours after their boycott, George Weah, the former president of Liberia and the 1995 Ballon d’Or winner, presented the men’s award to a visibly moved Rodri.

“It’s an incredible night for me,” said the 28-year-old Spaniard who is out for the season with a knee injury.

Gratitude

“Thank you to everyone who voted for me,” he added as he choked back the tears. “And thanks to my family for the values they transmitted to me.”

Rodri, hailed by his club coach Pep Guardiola as the best midfielder in the world, paid tribute to the Barcelona maestros Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez who controlled the flow and tempo of games with mesmerising effiency during their storied careers but never claimed the accolade. 

“This trophy is my victory,” added Rodri. “But it is the victory of so many Spanish players, of Iniesta, of Xavi. It is a victory for Spanish football and for the figure of the midfielder.”

Rodri becomes only the third Spanish man to lift the Ballon d’Or since the inception of the prize in 1956.

Two Spanish women, though, have claimed four of the six titles.

“Thank you for this award,” said 26-year-old Bonmati, who won in 2023.

“It’s not an indiviual award. I’m lucky to be surrounded by so many great players.

“Without these people, I wouldn’t be able to get these things,” she added. “Thanks to the staff, to the club workers, without you we would not achieve so much success.”

Bonmati emulates her Barcelona and Spain teammate Alexia Putellas, who won back-to-back Ballon d’Or awards in 2021 and 2022.

Barcelona wunderkind Yamine Lamal notched up another notable accolade.

Not only the youngest player to have played and scored for Spain and win the European championships, he became at 17 years and 107 days the youngest man to win the Kopa award for best player under 21.

“It makes me very proud to get this award,” said Lamal who has been compared with the Barcelona legend Lionel Messi.

“I would like to thank my coaches and teammates who have made this possible.”

Madrid’s withdrawal seemed all the more rancorous and myopic with Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham just behind Rodri in the votes of journalists from the top 100 countries in the rankings of world football’s governing body Fifa.

 “If the award criteria doesn’t give it to Vinicius as the winner, then those same criteria should point to Carvajal as the winner,” Madrid told the French news agency AFP.

 “As this was not the case, it is clear that Ballon d’Or-Uefa does not respect Real Madrid. And Real Madrid does not go where it is not respected.”

Organisers France Football magazine insisted before the prize-giving ceremony that Madrid’s move was premature.

Secret

“No player or club knows who has won the Ballon d’Or,” said a spokesperson.

In previous years, the winner was informed of the impending honour. But for the 2024 ceremony, organisers said they wanted to preserve the element of suspense.

“All clubs and players are in the same situation,” organisers added. “So Real Madrid cannot know whether one of its players will be crowned or not.”

Luis de la Fuente, who steered Spain to glory at the 2024 European championships, condemned Madrid’s stance.

“It’s not good for football that an entity like Real Madrid is not present at a gala of this dimension,” said the 63-year-old Spaniard who lost out in the race for coach of the year prize to the Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti.

Award

The 65-year-old Italian was hailed for guiding Madrid to a 36th La Liga title in 2024 and the 2024 Champions League – European club football’s most prestigious trophy.

 In a further irony, Madrid’s double-winning side was awarded the prize for the best men’s team of the year for their exploits between August 2023 and July 2024.

In their absence, a video was shown of their brilliance to a dazzling array of the most famous faces in world football.

In other awards, Emilio Martinez was handed the Lev Yashin prize for best goalkeeper. The 32-year-old was saluted for helping his English Premier League team Aston Villa back into European football’s top club competition for the first time since 1982 and his role in Argentina’s World Cup and Copa America sucesses.

England skipper Harry Kane shared the Gerd Muller award for best striker in Europe with his France counterpart Kylian Mbappé. The men hit the net 52 times. 

Mbappé won Ligue 1, the Coupe de France and the French Super Cup during his exploits with Paris Saint-Germain before moving to Madrid.

Kane, for all his potency in front of goal, ended the season without silverware at Bayern Munich.

Depardieu is the highest-profile figure to face accusations in French cinema’s version of the #MeToo movement, triggered in 2017 by allegations against US producer Harvey Weinstein.

The judge ordered a medical to be held in early March to see if Depardieu would be fit to stand trial towards the end of that month.

His lawyer, Jeremie Assous, had said earlier that the 75-year-old actor was “extremely affected” by ill health, and that he had asked for proceedings to be delayed until he could attend in person.

“Unfortunately his doctors have forbidden him from appearing here today,” the lawyer said, arriving at the courthouse.

He said would ask the court for a suspension of the trial, which comes after numerous other assault complaints and with a possible second court case already lying in wait.

The actor, who has denied ever abusing a woman, faces charges of sexual assault during a 2021 film shoot.

The names of the two women accusing him have not been made public.

No special treatment

One of the plaintiffs, a set dresser now aged 55, reported in February that she had suffered sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexist insults while filming director Jean Becker’s Les Volet Verts (The Green Shutters) in a private house in Paris.

“I expect the justice system to be the same for everybody and for monsieur Depardieu not to receive special treatment just because he’s an artist,” the plaintiff’s lawyer Carine Durrieu-Diebolt told French news agency AFP.

Assous said that Depardieu’s defence would offer “witnesses and evidence that will show he has simply been targeted by false accusations”.

French museum removes Depardieu wax sculpture as family denounces ‘conspiracy’

The actor’s lawyer accused the plaintiff of attempting to “make money” by claiming €30,000 ($32,500) in compensation.

The plaintiff told French investigative website Mediapart that Depardieu had started loudly calling for a cooling fan during the shoot because he “couldn’t even get it up” in the heat.

She claimed the actor went on to boast that he could “give women an orgasm without touching them”.

The plaintiff alleged that an hour later Depardieu “brutally grabbed” her as she was walking off the set.

The actor pinned her by “closing his legs” around her before groping her waist and her stomach, continuing up to her breasts, she added.

She described the actor’s bodyguards dragging him away as he shouted: “We’ll see each other again, my dear”.

‘Salacious nonsense’

“My client expects that the justice system will find Gerard Depardieu to be a serial sexual assaulter,” Durrieu-Diebolt said.

The second plaintiff in Monday’s case, an assistant director on the same film, also alleges sexual violence.

French actor Depardieu stripped of Quebec honor over misogynistic comments

Anouk Grinberg, an actor who appeared in The Green Shutters, has told AFP that Depardieu used to offer “salacious nonsense from morning to night”.

“When producers hire Depardieu to work on a film, they know they are hiring an assaulter,” she added.

Grinberg said that in her experience, Depardieu had “always used sexual, smutty language” – but that his behaviour had become “much, much worse, with permission from his profession, that pays him for it and covers up his offences”.

Around 20 women have now accused Depardieu of various sexual offences.

(with AFP)

According to the government and local sources, an attack by the jihadist group Boko Haram on the Chadian army killed around 40 people overnight Sunday near the Nigerian border. 

In a statement, the Chadian presidency said the attack struck near Ngouboua in the west of the country, “tragically leaving about 40 people dead”.

President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno visited the scene early on Monday – a garrison housing more than 200 soldiers – and launched an operation “to go after the attackers and track them down in their furthest hideouts”, the statement added.

The attack reportedly struck at 10:00 pm local time, when Boko Haram members took control of the garrison, seized weapons, burnt vehicles equipped with heavy arms, and left. 

Jihadist insurgency

A vast expanse of water and swamps, Lake Chad’s countless islets serve as hideouts for jihadist groups, such as Boko Haram and its offshoot Islamic State in West Africa, who make regular attacks on the countries’ army and civilians.

Boko Haram launched an insurgency in Nigeria in 2009, leaving more than 40,000 people dead and displacing two million, and the organisation has since spread to neighbouring countries.

In March 2020, the Chadian army suffered its biggest ever one-day losses in the region, when around 100 troops died in a raid on the lake’s Bohoma peninsula.

The attack prompted then-president Idriss Deby Itno – the current president’s father – to launch an anti-jihadist offensive.

• Dozens of Chadian soldiers killed in Boko Haram surprise attack
• Boko Haram and ISWAP are kidnapping children to train as soldiers and merciless killers

Epicentre of terrorism

In June, the International Office for Migration recorded more than 220,000 people displaced by attacks from armed groups in Lake Chad province.

Chad is an important ally for French and US forces aiming to fight jihadists in the Sahel, which has become the epicentre of global terrorism under attack by factions loyal to al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have ended military operations with the US and France in recent years and have turned to Russia for support instead.

(with newswires)

In a report released ahead of the Cop29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, the WMO said the peak in greenhouse gas levels already locks in future temperature rises, even if emissions are cut to net zero. 

Carbon dioxide climbed to 420 parts per million (ppm), a concentration that has not existed for three to five million years. During that era, temperatures were 3C warmer and sea levels up to 20 metres higher than today. 

“Another year. Another record. This should set alarm bells ringing among decision makers,” said WMO secretary-general Celeste Saulo. “We are clearly off track to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below 2C.”  

Last year’s rise of 2.3ppm in atmospheric CO2 marked the 12th consecutive year with an increase above 2ppm – bringing overall levels to 151 percent higher than pre-industrial times.

Ecosystems hang in the balance as Colombia hosts crucial biodiversity talks

Wildfires and El Nino

Natural phenomena like El Nino, combined with large vegetation fires and persistent fossil fuel emissions, helped drive up CO2 levels, the WMO report found.  

The effectiveness of carbon sinks such as forests and oceans has been reduced, creating what scientists call a “vicious cycle”. 

“Climate change itself could cause ecosystems to become larger sources of greenhouse gases,” said WMO deputy secretary-general Ko Barrett.  

“Wildfires could release more carbon emissions into the atmosphere, whilst the warmer ocean might absorb less CO2. Consequently, more CO2 could stay in the atmosphere to accelerate global warming.” 

Global fire carbon emissions were 16 percent above average in 2023, including record-breaking wildfire seasons in Canada. Australia experienced its driest three-month period on record from August to October, with severe bushfires. 

The report showed methane levels reached 1,934 parts per billion – 265 percent above pre-industrial levels. Nitrous oxide hit 336.9 parts per billion, up 125 percent. 

Analysis reveals that just under half of CO2 emissions stay in the atmosphere, with about one quarter absorbed by oceans and just under 30 percent by land ecosystems.  

However, this varies yearly due to El Nino, which reduces carbon uptake by plants, and La Nina, which can increase it. 

Ice loss and plant growth mark new era for warming Antarctica

Long-term warming impact

Greenhouse gases are warming the Earth 51.5 percent more than they did in 1990, with CO2 driving four-fifths of that increase, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Scientists emphasised that CO2’s extremely long lifetime means temperature increases will persist for decades, even with rapid emissions cuts.  

Carbon dioxide accounts for approximately 64 percent of climate warming, mainly from fossil fuel burning and cement production. 

With the concentration of CO2 at its highest in millions of years, the WMO emphasised the urgent need for global action.  

“Every part per million and every fraction of a degree temperature increase has a real impact on our lives and our planet,” Saulo said. 

The WMO’s findings serve as a key publication ahead of next month’s discussions at Cop29 in the Azeri capital Baku. 

Speaking to journalists at the Palace of the Republic ahead of the launch of electoral campaigns, Faye said: “I invite all Senegalese people, and in particular political players from all sides, to avoid any excesses in their speeches and actions”.

“Over the past few days, we have observed comments and behaviour that smack of communalism, as well as verbal and physical threats in the public arena and in the media on social networks. This is not the way to express our differences,” he added.

The Senegalese president called on those involved to show “responsibility, restraint and moderation,” assuring that the “elections will be free, democratic and transparent”.

• Senegal’s president dissolves parliament, calls snap November election
• Senegal unveils 25-year development plan aiming for economic sovereignty

A break with the past

The people of Senegal will elect a new parliament on 17 November, just eight months after the presidential election in which Faye won the first round with 54 percent of the vote.

Campaigning got underway on Sunday.

Faye, elected on the promise of a break with the past, social justice and the fight against corruption, and his Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, have been battling for months with a hostile parliamentary majority following legislative elections in 2022.

In order to secure a new majority, Faye dissolved the national assembly in September – as soon as the constitution allowed him to do so – paving the way for early elections.

The president also affirmed that Senegal was on the road to recovery, saying: “The fruits of our reforms are beginning to be felt in the form of concrete results”.

(with AFP)

The 2023 Cup of Nations runners-up were due to land at Benghazi airport for the Group D encounter in the city but the pilot of their aircraft was instead told to head for Al Abraq Airport in Bayda, some 200km to the east.

After landing, Nigerian players and members of their technical staff remained in the departures lounge for more than 16 hours before returning to Nigeria and boycotting the game.

Players posted videos on social media of the conditions in the lounge.

Regret

The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) said it regretted the flight diversion. “It is essential to note that such incidents can occur due to routine air traffic control protocols, security checks or logistical challenges that affect international air travel,” a spokesperson added.

But the Nigerian federation lodged a complaint for what it called inhumane treatment with the Confederation of African Football, (Caf) which organises the biennial Cup of Nations.

Africa Cup of Nations bosses investigate Nigeria squad’s Libyan airport debacle

Its disciplinary committee ruled that Libya had breached several articles of the Caf code.

“The Libya-Nigeria match is declared lost by forfeit by Libya (with a score of 3-0),” Caf added.

The decision to award the game to Nigeria extinguishes Libya’s slim hopes of reaching the continent’s most prestigious national team tournament.

Libya have not taken part in the finals since the 2012 competition in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. 

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is set deep inside a mountain on Norway’s Spitsbergen island, about 1,300 kilometres from the North Pole, where it can withstand disasters ranging from nuclear war to global warming.

Often referred to as the “Noah’s Ark” of food crops, it acts as a backup for gene banks around the world that store the genetic code for thousands of plant species.

Launched in 2008 with funding from Norway, the three cold chambers are today home to some 1.3 million varieties of seeds that their owners can withdraw at any moment.

Since its launch in 2008, funded by Norway, the vault’s three cold chambers have housed around 1.3 million seed varieties that can be withdrawn by their owners at any time.

The vault plays a critical role in preserving plants needed to feed a growing global population facing the impacts of climate change.

On Tuesday, more than 30,000 samples from 23 organisations in 21 countries were deposited, the Crop Trust, a partner in the project, said in a statement.

“This marks the largest number of depositors since the Seed Vault received samples from a record-breaking 35 genebanks in 2020, underscoring the urgent global effort to conserve crop diversity in the face of escalating climate change, conflict and other crises,” the statement read.

Among the latest deposits are seeds from vegetables, legumes and herbs sent by the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The trust also expects new seed samples from Sudan in February – another country suffering from war and famine.

Why reviving old crops is key to saving Africa’s degraded soils

‘Protecting culture’

Bolivia made its first contribution to the vault through the Universidad Mayor Real y Pontificia de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca, a 400-year-old institution. The seeds were collected by 125 farming families from local communities.

“This deposit goes beyond conserving crops; it’s about protecting our culture,” said the project coordinator for the Norway-funded Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods and Development in Bolivia.

Chad, also making its first deposit, sent 1,145 samples of sesame, rice, maize and sorghum, crops crucial to the country’s food security and adapted to withstand high temperatures and unpredictable rainfall.

“Climate change and conflict threaten infrastructure and impact food security for over 700 million people in more than 75 countries worldwide,” Crop Trust director Stefan Schmitz said.

The vault’s chambers are only opened two or three times a year to limit exposure to the outside world.

Even if the refrigeration system were to fail, the vault would maintain its cold temperature thanks to the permafrost around it.

(with newswires)

The battered book and Saint-Exupery’s passport, issued by the French culture ministry, will go on sale at the Abu Dhabi Art 2024 fair which opens on 20 November, with an expected price of at least $1.25 million.

It was acquired earlier this year for an undisclosed sum by rare books specialist store Peter Harrington.

The typescript also contains numerous drawings by the author as well as his famous phrase “One only sees clearly with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes”.

Sammy Jay, of Peter Harrington Rare Books, said it was one of three known versions of the transcript, one of which is held by the National Library of France (BNF).

“Unlike the other two which were given to people, he kept this one and it was his own working copy of the typescript so that’s what makes it extra special,” Jay said.

In addition to the handwritten corrections, the version due to be sold includes passages that were later edited out.

Unusual offering

Such a book is extremely unusual in the rare books market, where sky-high prices are not the norm.

“You don’t usually get something of this status,” Jay said, citing the example of the scroll typescript for Jack Kerouac’s novel “On The Road”, which sold for $2.4 million in 2001.

“The market for rare and ancient books is very different from any other market in the sense that you don’t often sell for millions,” he said.

“The Little Prince” remains one of the world’s best-selling books having sold more than the first “Harry Potter” and “The Hobbit” combined, according to Jay.

Love story set in fascist Italy wins France’s top literary prize

The typescript, he said, had generated a lot of interest and was expected to be snapped up by a museum or private collection, possibly in Asia or the Arab world.

Saint-Exupery wrote his tale about an alien prince and his interstellar travels while in exile in the United States in 1942, having fled France after the Nazi invasion.

The pilot-explorer left the United States in 1943 to fight on the north African front and the book was published the same year in the United States only.

Saint-Exupery disappeared during a flying mission over the Mediterranean in July 1944, and never saw his book’s worldwide success.

October and November are peak months for art fairs worldwide, especially in France.

On the weekend of 19-20 October, most art galleries gathered in Paris for Art Basel and regional events like AKAA, which focuses on African arts, and Asia Now.

However, curators Jenn Ellis and Emie Diamond chose Beaune, in Burgundy, to launch Terra, with help from producer Milena Berman, who has lived in the region for years.

Around 50 international artists are participating, including renowned German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, Mariana Hahn, British painters Rebecca Halliwell Sutton and Jodie Carey, New York-based German-American artist Nick Mauss, South African artist Mia Chaplin, and French artists Emmanuelle Rosso and Antoine Langenieux-Villard.

Singaporean artist Wyn-Lyn Tan also features in the exhibition.

The exhibitions offer a variety of visual interpretations of territory, space and beauty.

Displayed in villas, châteaux and heritage sites in and around Beaune, Terra invites artists to reflect on the history of the locations, combining French tradition with an international perspective on nature and culture.

Terra is on view until 17 November.

He says mining has spoilt the town which lies in South Kivu province, polluting rivers and destroying fields.

Hundreds of foreign companies, most of them Chinese-owned, mine gold in the mineral-rich province often without permits and without declaring profits, according to local authorities.

For a long time, civil society groups and members of the church in Kitutu, have been the only people taking a stand against the powerful mining businesses, who often have friends in high places.

“From the deputies, to the village chief, everyone receives something (from the companies), money or shares (in businesses),” Marcheselli told AFP.

In July, South Kivu governor Jean-Jacques Purusi suspended “illegal” mining activity in the province until companies could comply with Congolese mining laws.

Under the legislation, companies would have to renew their mining permits, some of which have been expired for decades.

Since the ban, firms, which normally operate in the shadows, have come in hordes to the governor’s office in an attempt to get authorisation to resume business.

“In place of the 117 illegal companies we invited, 540 showed up here overnight”, Purusi said.

DR Congo seeks justice and reparations for Rwanda’s role in conflict

Access denied

In the town of Kamituga, some 40 kilometres from Kitutu, gold mining is in full throttle.

In one site mined by Congolese cooperative Mwenga Force, around 400 people delve into vast open pits hoping to make a few dollars a day.

The president of an association for artisanal diggers, Felicien Mikalano, says local operators “don’t have the same means” as Chinese firms, such as machinery and cash.

Artisanal mining refers to small-scale mining, carried out by individuals without big machinery and not employed by big businesses.

The practice is forbidden to foreigners by the country’s mining code, but Chinese companies use local cooperatives as “partners” to circumvent the ban.

Around half of the Congolese cooperatives in the province are partnered with Chinese companies, according to the bureau of scientific and technical study (BEST), a Congolese NGO specialising in mining governance.

A few kilometres from Kamituga, at the end of a dirt track, access to a mine operated by one of these cooperatives is controlled at three checkpoints.

AFP was not allowed to pass them.

Officials employed to control and inspect mining sites are also refused entry.

“It is difficult to monitor these companies,” said inspector Ghislain Chivundu Mutalemba.

“These Chinese partners mine (and) the cooperatives sell the product over the counter. We don’t know what percentage the Chinese take, or how much they produce”, he said.

“All that I know is that the bosses take the gold and bring it to Bukavu, I don’t dare ask questions,” says gold buyer Siri Munga Walubinja.

“But I have never seen a Chinese person, it is uniquely the Congolese buying,” he adds.

Gold bought in Kamituga is transported to South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu by “big traders”, most of them Congolese.

Once they arrive in the provincial capital, some declare only a fraction of their merchandise and sell the rest illegally in DRC, which is then transported by smugglers to Rwanda, according to BEST.

In December 2022, the government granted a monopoly on gold exports from South Kivu to Congolese state-owned business Primera Gold.

The move aimed to “break the ore export routes to Rwanda”, and “to target political opposition business”, according to a note from the French Institute of International Relations published in February 2024.

Gold exports out of South Kivu have boomed from 42 kilograms (92 pounds) in 2022 to more than five tonnes (11,200 pounds) in 2023 — about a sixth of the officially declared national production.

But Primera Gold now lacks the liquidity to buy the mineral and has failed to curb the black market, according to BEST.

The channels used by the Chinese companies, none of which responded to AFP’s requests for comment, remain unknown to the authorities and NGOs.

Even Purusi is having trouble getting answers from businesses.

“Their representatives put you through to this general (telephone line) or a minister in Kinshasa on the phone, to tell you not to bother them,” says the provincial governor.

Kwoyelo was convicted of dozens of war crimes in August, the first time an officer of his seniority had been tried by Uganda‘s judiciary.

Founded in the late 1980s with the aim of overthrowing the government, the LRA brutalised Ugandans under the leadership of Joseph Kony for nearly 20 years as it battled the military from bases in northern Uganda.

The insurgents carried out horrific acts of cruelty, including rapes, abductions, hacking off victims’ limbs and lips and using crude instruments to bludgeon people to death.

“The convict played a prominent role in the planning, strategy and actual execution of the offences of extreme gravity,” Justice Duncan Gasagwa, one of the four judges, said.

“The victims have been left with lasting physical and mental pain and suffering.”

Kwoyelo avoided the death sentence because he was recruited by the LRA at a young age, was not one of the top-ranking commanders, and has expressed remorse and a willingness to reconcile with the victims, Gasagwa said.

Kwoyelo had denied the charges during the trial. His lawyer, Caleb Alaka, told the court he would appeal against both the verdict and the sentence.

In around 2005, under military pressure, the LRA fled to the lawless jungles of South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic, where it also unleashed waves of violence against civilians.

Splintered elements of the group, including Kony, are believed to still live in those areas, although attacks are now infrequent.

The Ugandan military captured Kwoyelo in 2009 in northeastern Congo and his case crept through the Ugandan court system until he was convicted in August.

He was found guilty on 44 charges, 31 were dismissed as duplications of others while he was acquitted on three.

An arrest warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) against Kony in 2005, making him the court’s longest standing fugitive.

The LRA’s original aim was to create a state based on Kony’s interpretation of the Ten Commandments.

 (Reuters)

“Across Europe, people have to pay to get into the most remarkable religious buildings,” Culture Minister Rachida Dati told conservative daily Le Figaro in an interview on Wednesday.

She proposed “a symbolic charge for all tourist visits to Notre-Dame with the money totally dedicated to a major plan for conserving religious heritage” in a conversation with the Catholic archbishop of Paris.

Notre-Dame, gutted by a fire in 2019, is set to reopen on 7 December following an extensive reconstruction. A €5 entrance fee could generate around €75 million annually, Dati estimated.

“That way, Notre-Dame would be saving every church in Paris and across France. It would be a magnificent symbol,” she said.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau supported the idea, noting that visitors are charged €5 to enter the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

“If for five euros we can save religious heritage that people cherish, whether they believe or not… it’s just part of the French landscape,” Retailleau told France Inter.

Criticism

However, not everyone agrees. Historian Alexandre Gady, a member of the National Commission for Architecture and Heritage, called the proposal “a money-making plan in the wrong place”.

Gady suggested increasing the tourist tax slightly instead, pointing out that charging for entry clashes with the principle of “cultural democratisation” initiated by Culture Minister André Malraux in 1959.

Parisians also have mixed feelings. Christine, in her 70s, called it “a very big disappointment” but added: “If we can maintain the church, why not, but it’s still shocking.”

Vincent, another local, said the idea was acceptable as long as the money goes directly to repairing the cathedral and not into the state coffers.

Five years after devastating fire, race to rebuild Notre-Dame gains pace

Non-EU visitors to pay more?

Dati also proposed charging higher fees for tourists from outside the European Union to visit French national monuments and museums.

“The French public shouldn’t have to pay for everything by themselves,” she said.

Tourists near Notre-Dame mostly welcomed the idea, saying they were used to paying for church visits in countries like Italy and England.

However, what bothers Anna, a German tourist, is the idea of ​​having a fixed price: “You shouldn’t force people to pay, it would be better to let them choose what they give. If you can give two euros, you give two euros, and if you can give 10 euros, you give 10.”

France was the world’s most visited country in 2023, according to the UN’s World Tourism Organisation, with around 100 million arrivals – beating out Spain, the US, Italy, and Turkey in the top five.

(with AFP)

Slavery and the threat of climate change were major themes for representatives of the 56 countries in the group, most with roots in Britain’s empire, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting that began in the Pacific Islands nation on Monday.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose country has long rejected calls for financial compensation for nations affected by slavery, said summit discussions were not “about money”.

On slavery, the leaders said in a joint statement they had “agreed that the time has come for a meaningful, truthful and respectful conversation towards forging a common future based on equity”.

The push for ex-colonial powers such as Britain to pay reparations or make other amends for slavery and its legacies has gained momentum worldwide, particularly among the Caribbean Community and the African Union.

The statement also made reference to “blackbirding”, a term for people from places including the Pacific Islands being deceived, coerced or kidnapped to work on plantations in Australia and elsewhere.

Remorse over slavery grows in Europe, but reparations are slow to follow

Those opposed to reparations say countries should not be held responsible for historical wrongs, while those in support say the legacy of slavery has led to vast and persistent racial inequality.

The joint statement did not mention what form reparations should take.

Global South amplifies calls for compensation for historical injustices 

Starmer told a press conference the joint statement did two things: “It notes calls for discussion and it agrees that this is the time for a conversation.

“But I should be really clear here, in the two days we’ve been here, none of the discussions have been about money. Our position is very, very clear in relation to that,” he said.

Professor Kingsley Abbott, director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London, said the statement was a sign of a potentially historic breakthrough on the issue.

“The commitment to conversations on reparatory justice wedges open the door for dialogue, and now the hard work really begins,” said Abbott, who attended the summit.

The joint statement also referred to concern about “the severe consequences of the climate crisis, including rising temperatures and sea levels”.

More than half of the Commonwealth’s members are small nations, many of them low-lying islands at risk from rising sea levels caused by climate change.

New Chief

The Commonwealth members selected Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey as the group’s new secretary-general.

Botchwey, a supporter of reparations for transatlantic slavery and colonialism, takes over from Britain’s Patricia Scotland, who has been in the job since 2016.

King Charles and Queen Camilla, who both attended the summit, flew out of Samoa after a visit in which the monarch acknowledged the Commonwealth’s “painful” history.

Before leaving, the royal pair attended a farewell ceremony in heavy rain in the village of Siumu.

Charles said in a speech to the summit on Friday that he understood “from listening to people across the Commonwealth how the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate”.

“It is vital, therefore, that we understand our history, to guide us towards making the right choices in future,” he said.

The king and queen’s time in Samoa followed a six-day tour of Australia, where a large crowd turned out to see them at the Sydney Opera House.

Charles also met with Indigenous elders in Sydney, after being heckled by an Indigenous senator in Canberra.

 (Reuters)

Libya resumed oil exports this month after a pause caused by a dispute over control of the country’s central bank, which oversees oil exports.

“This was a serious crisis,” said Jalel Harchaoui from the Royal United Services Institute. “And while it’s partly fixed, there are still issues that need attention.”

The row between Libya’s two rival administrations which led to the temporary halt, was only resolved by intense negotiations, but Harchaoui claims the conflict’s repercussions continue.

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

“A lot of players, including armed groups in Tripoli, are trying to take advantage of whatever has happened over the last several weeks. So I’m not describing a scenario of war, but I’m describing a more volatile environment,” he said.

Turkish-Egyptian relations

However, a recent rapprochement between Egypt and Turkey could offer hope of easing Libyan tensions.

“We agreed to consult between our institutions to achieve security and political stability,” pledged Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at a press conference last month in Ankara with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Libya once was a point of Turkish-Egyptian rivalry, with Cairo backing the eastern Libyan administration in Benghazi of Khalifa Haftar and Ankara supporting the western Tripoli-based Government of National Unity. Now, Egyptian-Turkish collaboration is key to resolving the latest Libyan crisis.

“Both countries can push the Tripoli-based government at least to accept something or come to the least terms that they can agree,” said Murat Aslan of the SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, a pro-Turkish government think tank. “So it’s a win-win situation for both Egypt and Turkey.”

Economic crises

With both the Turkish and Egyptian economies in crisis, the economic benefits of cooperating in Libya are seen as a powerful force behind the country’s rapprochement and Libyan collaboration.

Fighting between rival militias in Libya kills dozens

“These two countries are very important to one another,” said Aya Burweila, a Libyan security analyst

“They’ve figured out a way to divide spheres and work together. Even in the east now, Turkish companies have cut lucrative deals, infrastructure deals, just as Egypt has.

“So economy and money drive a lot of these political friendships and reapportionment.”

Ankara is looking to Cairo to use its influence over Hafta to support an agreement it made with the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity to explore widely believed energy reserves in Libyan waters.

Libya’s stability at greater risk with turmoil in Niger and Sudan, UN warns

At the same time, Cairo is pressing to remove Ankara-supported Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh of Libya’s Government of National Unity. Despite differences, Harchaoui says Cairo and Ankara are committed to cooperation.

“What has already been decided is that they are going to speak and they are going to speak on a daily basis,” said Harchaoui.

“And then at every crucial moment, they are going to make sure and Turkey, specifically, is going to make sure that Egypt is on board.

“But we need more tangible results from the dialogue that has already been in place,” he added.

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.

It’s time for you to start thinking about your New Year’s resolutions for our annual New Year’s Day show. If you’ve already made up your mind about what you’ll aim for in 2025, go ahead and send it to us … if not, be sure you send us your resolution – or resolutions if you are really ambitious! – by 15 December.

Mark your calendars now for 12 December, 6 PM Paris time – that’s when the winners of the ePOP video competition will be announced, live on the ePOP Facebook page. My good pals Max Bale and Gaël Flaugère, who run the Planète Radio department that sponsors ePOP, invited me to come on the show and talk to you for a few minutes, in English. So plan to stay up late or get up early on 12 December, beloved listeners!

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

Facebook: 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 Spotlight on France, Spotlight on Africa, The International Report, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We also have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. 

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 Alison Hird and Sarah Elzas’ Spotlight on France podcast no 115, Alison produced a piece on France’s current governmental crisis, and the lack of an ability in the French political landscape to compromise – as Alison noted: “France does not have the tradition of coalition building more commonly found in Germany, Switzerland and the Nordic countries.”

As social scientist Loïc Blondiaux told Le Monde: “The idea of deliberation – organised, reasoned debate in the form of an exchange of arguments – has never had the force and legitimacy in France that it has in other countries … a specific trait of our political culture is, on the contrary, contempt for consensus. Compromise is often seen as synonymous with giving in and weakness.”

I asked you to re-listen to Alison’s report, and send in the answer to this question: How many political groups are there in France’s National Assembly?

The answer is: As Laure Gillot-Assayag, a researcher in political science and philosophy told Alison: “There are 11 political groups in the National Assembly, it’s a record … a culture of compromise is more necessary than ever if the government is to function in such a deeply divided political landscape.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “What is the most wonderful thing you’ve ever seen in a museum?”

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

The winners are: Saleem Akhtar, the president of the RFI Seven Stars Radio Listening Club in District Chiniot, Pakistan. Saleem is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations, Saleem!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Sakirun Islam Mitu, a member of the RFI Amour Fan Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh; also from Rajshahi, RFI English listener Sumaiya Akter, a member of the World Dx International Radio Fan Club.

Rounding out this week’s list of lucky winners are Ferhat Bezazel, the president of the RFI Butterflies Club Ain Kechera in West Skikda, Algeria, and finally, RFI English listener Abdul Rehman, a member of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan.

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Take a Hike” by Rik Carter and Phil Brown; “Galerie” by Bruno Letort; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Identité” by Gaël Horellou, performed by Horellou and his ensemble.

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 Amanda Morrow’s article “Ecosystems hang in the balance as Colombia hosts crucial biodiversity talks”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 18 November to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 23 November 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

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.   

On October 11, Fitch’s decision to downgrade France’s economic outlook to “negative” serves as a warning to Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who is struggling to push his 2025 budget through parliament. The credit agency’s assessment signals a potential downgrade if the government fails to take swift action to improve public finances.

France’s fiscal situation appears increasingly precarious. The deficit, now at €167 billion (5.5 percent of GDP), could  surpass 6 percent  by year’s end. With national debt projected to hit €3.5 trillion, or 114.7 percent of GDP, France is far beyond EU limits.

France braces for economic judgment amid political turmoil and record debt

EU rules require member states to keep budget deficits below 3 percent of GDP and debt under 60 percent of GDP.

Fitch predicts that the deficit will hover around 5.4% in both 2025 and 2026 due to ongoing political uncertainty and the challenges in implementing fiscal reforms. The agency believes the budget could pass before the year’s end, but the government may need to make concessions to win support from opposition parties. 

All eyes are now on Moody’s which will reveal its judgement on France’s economy and credit-worthiness on 25 October. 

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Antoine Armand emphasised the government’s commitment to improving the economy following Fitch’s assessment, but will that be enough?

RFI spoke to Erik Norland, Chief Economist with the Chicago-based CMEGroup about the possible scenarios France’s economic planners are facing.

Over 405,000 people – both Lebanese and Syrian – have crossed into Syria from Lebanon since the start of Israel’s offensive, according to figures from UN refugee agency UNHCR.

Approximately 60 percent are under 18, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said on Thursday, and most are struggling to meet basic needs.

The returnees are mainly people who had sought sanctuary in Lebanon from the civil war in Syria, now in its 13th year. “In Lebanon, there have been nearly one million Syrian refugees just since 2011,” says Metin Corabatir of the Research Centre on Asylum and Migration, an Ankara-based NGO.

He warns this could be just the beginning of the exodus if the fighting in Lebanon continues, threatening to overwhelm Syria.

“We are not talking only about Syrian refugees going back to Syria, but the Lebanese population is moving, crossing the border to Syria. And Syria would either try to close the borders or force them to go north to the Turkish borders,” Corabatir told RFI.

“This really would lead to a catastrophic situation for people, for countries and may pull Turkey into more tensions with Israel.”

Anti-refugee backlash

People fleeing Lebanon have been arriving at refugee camps in north-east Syria, close to the Turkish border. But Turkey, already hosting an estimated five million refugees, including over three million Syrians, is facing growing public backlash over their presence.

“Turkey basically cannot handle more refugees,” warns Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, head of the Ankara office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, an international think tank.

Earlier this year, tensions spilled over into violence against refugees in the provincial city of Kayseri. The issue has become a significant political liability for the government, with opinion polls routinely finding large majorities wanting refugees to leave.

Even if the country has the practical capacity to take more people in, “I don’t see Turkey accepting a massive new wave of refugees”, predicts Unluhisarcikli. 

Turkey’s Syrian refugees face local hostility as economic problems mount

Border barricades

In the last couple of years, Ankara has constructed a wall along its border with Syria in a bid to prevent more refugees from entering Turkey. 

Murat Aslan, of the pro-government Seta Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, believes such efforts will only continue as the war in the Middle East threatens to trigger a new exodus.

“Turkey does not want any further waves coming from another region because Turkey is just experiencing and mending an economic crisis,” he says. “Inflation is currently under control, and we expect a decrease in it.

“What does another wave of refugees mean? A lot of spending, a lot of inflation, and other than this, societal insecurity. That’s why Turkey will not tolerate another wave.”  

But such a stance will likely be tested if Israel continues its offensive, creating more refugees and with them, the risk of Turkey facing a humanitarian crisis on its border.

Turkey continues to host more refugees than anyone else, but for how long?

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.

It’s time for you to start thinking about your New Year’s resolutions for our annual New Year’s Day show. If you’ve already made up your mind about what you’ll aim for in 2025, go ahead and send it to us … if not, be sure you send us your resolution – or resolutions if you are really ambitious! – by 15 December.

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

Facebook: 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 21 September, I asked you a question about a gender equality plan at France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  We reported on that plan in our article “France’s foreign ministry unveils two-year gender equality strategy”.

You were to re-read the article and send in the answer to this question: What is the Foreign Ministry’s goal for promoting women to important posts? What is the percentage they are aiming for?

The answer is, to quote our article: “According to the ministry, this year more than 45 percent of ambassadors appointed for the first time will be women, while among newly-appointed consuls-general, over 40 percent will also be women.” 

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “How would you define a truly happy person?”, which was suggested by Sabah Binte Sumaiya from Bogura, Bangladesh:

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Hans Verner Lollike from Hedehusene, Denmark. Hans is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations, Hans, on your double win.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are RFI Listeners Club members Samir Mukhopadhyay from Kolkata, India; Mizanur Rahman from Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Faiza Zainab – who’s also a member of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan.

Last but certainly not least, RFI English listener Tafriha Tahura from Munshiganj, Bangladesh.

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Mazurka no. 4″ by Frédéric Chopin, arranged by Serge Forté and performed by the Serge Forté Trio; “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima” by Krzysztof Penderecki, performed by Antoni Wit and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra; “La Grande Galerie de la Zoologie” by Philippe Hersant, performed by the Ensemble Bestiaire Fabuleux; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin, performed by McFerrin.

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read Paul Myers’ article “Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich sets women’s world record at Chicago Marathon”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 11 November to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 16 November 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,  

Ghana is being swamped by millions of unwanted clothes from the West, creating an environmental disaster as textile waste piles up across the country.

The scale of damage to public health and the environment has been laid bare in a new Greenpeace report that exposes the devastating impact of discarded clothing on communities and ecosystems in Ghana. 

About 15 million items of second-hand clothing arrive in Ghana each week. Nearly half cannot be resold.

The unsellable clothes end up in informal dumps or are burned in public washhouses, contaminating the air, soil and water.

“The situation is catastrophic. These clothes are literally poisoning our communities,” said Sam Quashie-Idun from Greenpeace Africa, speaking to RFI.

The report shows how Ghana has become a dumping ground for the world’s unwanted textiles, with devastating consequences for local ecosystems.

“What we’re seeing is environmental racism. The Global North is using Ghana as its trash can,” said Hellen Dena of Greenpeace Africa.

The flood of cheap, disposable fashion reflects broader problems with global waste management and environmental justice.

To explore this issue further, RFI spoke to Sam Quashie-Idun and Hellen Dena from Greenpeace Africa.  

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani.

Spotlight on Africa is a podcast from Radio France Internationale.

Madhya Pradesh is often referred to as the Heart of India. Located right in the middle of the country, the Indian region shows everything India has to offer through its abundant diversity. The IFTM trade show, which took place in Paris at the end of September, presented the perfect opportunity for travel enthusiasts to discover the region.

Sheo Shekhar Shukla, Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh’s tourism board, sat down to explain his approach to sustainable tourism.

“Post-covid the whole world has known a shift in their approach when it comes to tourism. And all those discerning travelers want to have different kinds of experiences: something offbeat, something new, something which has not been explored before.”

Through its UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Shukla wants to showcase the deep history Madhya Pradesh has to offer.

“UNESCO is very actively supporting us and three of our sites are already World Heritage Sites. Sanchi is a very famous buddhist spiritual destination, Bhimbetka is a place where prehistoric rock shelters are still preserved, and Khajuraho is home to thousand year old temples with magnificent architecture.”

All in all, Shukla believes that there’s only one way forward for the industry: “Travelers must take sustainable tourism as a paradigm in order to take tourism to the next level.”

In partnership with Madhya Pradesh’s tourism board.

Also known as the Land of the Beautiful Islands, Malaysia’s landscape and cultural diversity is almost unmatched on the planet. Those qualities were all put on display at the Malaysian stand during the IFTM trade show.

Libra Hanif, director of Tourism Malaysia, explained the appeal of the country as well as the importance of promoting sustainable tourism today: “Sustainable travel is a major trend now, with the changes that are happening post-covid. People want to get close to nature, to get close to people. So Malaysia being a multicultural and diverse [country] with a lot of natural environments, we felt that it’s a good thing for us to promote Malaysia.”

Malaysia has also gained fame in recent years, through its numerous UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which include Kinabalu Park and the Archaeological Heritage of the Lenggong Valley.

Green mobility has also become an integral part of tourism in Malaysia, with an increasing number of people using bikes to discover the country: “If you are a little more adventurous, we have the mountain back trails where you can cut across gazetted trails to see the natural attractions and the wildlife that we have in Malaysia,” says Hanif. “If you are not that adventurous, you’ll be looking for relaxing cycling. We also have countryside spots, where you can see all the scenery in a relaxing session.”

With more than 25,000 visitors at this IFTM trade show this year, Malaysia’s tourism board got to showcase the best the country and its people have to offer.

In partnership with Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board. For more information about Malaysia, click here.