The final round of negotiations by the UN committee aimed at addressing plastic pollution got underway this Monday in the South Korean city of Busan, with representatives from 175 countries.

Their talks over the next week will focus on the urgent need to combat the escalating dangers posed by plastic production.

The meeting opened not long after a chaotic end to the Cop29 climate talks in Baku, which agreed to a boost in climate funding that developing countries slammed as insufficient.

Plastic pollution is so ubiquitous that it has even been found in clouds, the deepest ocean trenches and even human breastmilk.

And while almost everyone agrees it is a problem, there is less consensus on how to solve it.

Threshold surpassed

Among the most contentious issues are whether the treaty should cap plastic production, a possible ban on chemicals feared toxic to human health, and how to pay for implementation.

Researchers have warned that the global threshold for plastic and chemical pollution was surpassed in 2022, already highlighting the urgency of the situation.

In Busan, delegates face the challenge of bridging two diverging viewpoints: on one side are nations advocating for strict measures to reduce plastic production, while the opposing faction – primarily composed of oil-producing countries – favours less stringent guidelines that allow for continued production growth.

High ambitions

The “high ambition coalition” – spearheaded by France, Norway, and Rwanda – is a collective of around 75 countries united in their goal to end plastic pollution by 2040.

The scope of the coalition has broadened over time and includes nations like Germany, Senegal, and Peru, with their agenda focusing on reducing problematic chemicals, promoting responsible plastic usage, and upholding the principle that polluters should bear the costs of their actions.

Conversely, oil-exporting countries view plastics as a promising investment avenue, particularly as the shift from fossil fuels to greener energy sources intensifies.

Global plastic production has surged to approximately 460 million tonnes – double the amount produced two decades ago – and is projected to triple by 2060 according to OECD forecasts.

Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, India, Iran, and Brazil heavily support the continued production of plastics, pitching their arguments around enhanced recycling and improving waste management instead of reducing manufacturing.

While countries advocating for reduced plastic production are facing significant lobbying efforts from oil-rich nations and petro-chemical industries.

They argue that efforts should centre on the entire lifecycle of plastics, including collection and recycling, rather than strictly on production limits.

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The ‘3Rs’

However, according to Sylvie Lemmet, France’s Ambassador for the Environment, the coalition is also focusing on the ‘3Rs’ – reduce, reuse, recycle – as essential steps in addressing the global plastic crisis.

Currently, a mere 9 percent of the plastics circulated globally are recycled, emphasising the need for systemic change in plastic waste management.

Philippe Bolo, a member of the French Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices, maintains that improving recycling technologies is insufficient without concurrently diminishing plastic output, saying: “Even in a country like France, where waste management is well established, we still come across issues of plastic-related pollution. So for countries that don’t have the infrastructure we do, it’s even more of a problem”.

France, is especially lagging behind in the treatment of its plastic waste, having paid €1.5 billion in fines to the European Union in 2023 alone.

A key aim for France and its allies at the negotiations is to ensure any negotiated text explicitly calls for a reduction in plastic production.

Scientists in the French delegation are set to highlight that failing to address rising production levels jeopardises the planet’s ecosystems and human health.

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An end to ‘virgin plastic’ ?

At the recent Cop16 biodiversity conference in Colombia, French Minister for Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, underlined the gravity of the situation.

“If we do nothing, the use of plastic will triple by 2060,” she said. “You don’t need to have done a lot of scientific studies to understand that, even if we become champions of recycling and waste collection, we won’t crack the plastic pollution problem if we don’t reduce the use and production of virgin plastic”.

As an agreement on plastic production enters its final round of negotiations in Busan, uncertainty looms.

A draft document circulated prior to this latest session disappointed the French delegation for its vague references to “sustainable production” instead of clear reduction targets.

France will be actively pushing for explicit language on production cuts, but the possibility of failing to reach an agreement remains if those “high ambition” commitments are not made.

“The maximum sentence is 20 years, which is a lot… but at the same time … too little in view of the seriousness of the acts that were committed and repeated”, Laure Chabaud, one of the two public prosecutors, told the court in the southern city of Avignon on Monday.

Dominique Pelicot has admitted to drugging his wife and recruting dozens of men online over a decade to rape her while she lay unconscious in their home in Mazan, Provence.

Despite video evidence against the other 50 men on trial, only 14 of them have admitted rape.

The others have said they did not realise they were raping her, did not intend to rape her or put all the blame on her husband, whom they said had manipulated them.

In her closing statements, 72-year-old Gisèle Pelicot said the case has laid bare a “macho society” in which rape is “trivialised”.

France’s Gisele Pelicot says ‘macho’ society must change attitude on rape

The 11-week trial, which has prompted demonstrations in France and attracted worldwide attention, has turned into an examination of the pervasiveness of sexual violence.

Public prosecutor Jean-François Mayet told the court on Monday that what’s at stake in the Mazan trial is to “fundamentally change the relationship between men and women…not a conviction or an acquittal”.

Mayet praised the “courage” and “dignity” of Gisèle Pelicot and thanked her for allowing hearings to be held in public and allowing some of the approximately 20,000 photos and videos taken without her knowledge by Dominique Pelicot to be shown.

 “You were right, madam: the past few weeks have shown the importance of showing this, so that shame changes sides,” he added.

The court is expected to deliver its verdicts before 20 December. 

(with newswires)

Globally, an intimate partner or family member was responsible for the deaths of more than 51,000 women and girls in 2023 – an increase from an estimated 48,800 victims in 2022 – UN Women and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.

The report released on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women found the increase was largely the result of more data being available from countries and not more killings.

However the agencies stressed that “women and girls everywhere continue to be affected by this extreme form of gender-based violence and no region is excluded”.

“The home is the most dangerous place for women and girls,” it added.

Africa sees highest toll

The highest number of intimate partner and family killings was in Africa – with an estimated 21,700 victims in 2023, the report said.

There were also high rates last year in the Americas with 1.6 female victims per 100,000 and in Oceania with 1.5 per 100,000, it said. Rates were significantly lower in Asia at 0.8 victims per 100,000 and Europe at 0.6 per 100,000.

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Based on data from 107 countries, UNOCD found that the majority of femicides in Europe and the Americas were perpetrated by partners, while in the rest of the world it was more likely to be family members.

In contrast, the vast majority of male homicides take place outside homes and families, it said.

France sees surge in domestic violence as cases double since 2016

Despite efforts made in several countries to prevent the killing of women and girls, feminicide “remains at an alamingly high level”.

“They are often the culmination of repeated episodes of gender-based violence, which means they are preventable through timely and effective interventions,” the two agencies said.

The head of UN Women, Sima Bahous, has called on countries to strengthen their legislation and improve data collection. 

25 years on

Activists have observed 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women since 1981.

This date was selected to honour the Mirabal sisters, three political activists from the Dominican Republic who were brutally murdered in 1960 by order of the country’s ruler, Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).

The UN is launching a special series of events for awareness: UNiTE campaign, held between 25 November and 10 December. The initiative of 16 days of activism will conclude on the day that commemorates the International Human Rights Day, on 10 December.

The 2024 campaign aims to draw attention to the alarming escalation of violence against women to revitalise commitments, call for accountability and action from decision-makers.

(with newswires)

Calin Georgescu, who ran as an independent for Romania’s presidency, will face off against reformist Elena Lasconi in a runoff in two weeks time.

By this Monday morning, 62-year-old, pro-Russian Georgescu, was ahead after nearly all ballots were counted with almost 23 percent of the vote.

Elena Valerica Lasconi of the progressive Save Romania Union party followed with just over 19 percent, beating the incumbent Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu of the Social Democratic Party by a slim margin of only a fraction of a percentage point. 

George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians garnered just under 14 percent. 

It is the first time in Romania’s 35-year post-communist history for the Social Democrats not to have a candidate in the second round of a presidential race, serving a huge blow to the country’s most powerful party and underscoring voters’ anti-establishment sentiment.

‘Prayer for the nation’

After polls closed on Sunday, 9.4 million people – over 52 percent of eligible voters – had cast their ballots, according to the Central Election Bureau.

The second round of the vote will be held on 8 December. 

Romania’s president serves a five-year term and has significant decision-making powers in areas such as national security, foreign policy and judicial appointments. 

After casting his ballot on Sunday, Georgescu said that he voted “For the unjust, for the humiliated, for those who feel they do not matter and actually matter the most … the vote is a prayer for the nation” he wrote in a post on Facebook.

“Tonight, the Romanian people cried out for peace. And they shouted very loudly, extremely loudly,” he said.

Despite not having a clear political agenda, his videos on TikTok calling for an end to the aid for Ukraine are popular, amassing 1.7 million likes.

He has also sounded a sceptical note on Romania’s NATO membership. 

According to his website, Georgescu holds a doctorate in pedology – a branch of soil science – and held different positions in Romania’s environment ministry in the 1990s.

Between 1999 and 2012, he was a representative for Romania on the national committee of the United Nations Environment Programme. 

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The Ukraine question

But Georgescu’s rising popularity will be tested when he faces Lasconi in two weeks time.

Lasconi – a former journalist and the leader of the Save Romania Union – has been running on an anti-corruption reformist agenda.

Ahead of the vote, she told the media that she saw corruption as one of the biggest problems Romania faces and expressed support toward increased defence spending and continued aid to Ukraine.

The stakes are high for Romania, which has a 650-kilometre border with Ukraine and has become more important since Russia invaded its neighbour in 2022.

The Black Sea nation plays a vital strategic role for NATO – as it is a base for more than 5,000 soldiers – and the transit of Ukrainian grain, the New Strategy Center think tank said.

If Lasconi wins the final vote, she will be the first female president in Romania’s history.

Romania will also hold parliamentary elections on 1 December that will determine the country’s next government and prime minister. 

“There’s the time factor, and there are a lot of things to do,” said the former youth and sports minister. 

“What we need to do now is get all the teams together and set the objectives. There’s also the sports organisation itself.”

The IOIG will be held in Comoros for the first time in the 45-year history of a gala created to improve regional cooperation through sport.

More than 2,000 athletes from seven countries featured in 17 disciplines during the 2023 IOIG in Madagascar.

After 10 days of competition, the hosts topped the medal table with 121 golds in their haul of 272 prizes.

It was fitting recompense for Madagascar who stepped in after the Maldives pulled out of staging the event.

Comoros, who finished much further down the medal table, were awarded hosting rights on 31 August, 2023, a few days before the end of the Games.

Fifteen months later, President Azali Assoumani installed Issimaila as the man responsible for preparing, coordinating and supervising the meeting.

It is understood Chinese contractors will be drafted in to construct a 50-metre length basin for the 40 events planned in the swimming pool. Accommodation for the athletes and tourists will also be high on the agenda.

“We need deeds more than words,” warned Assoumani, who claimed a fourth term as president last January. “We have no right to make mistakes.”

The 12th IOIG will fall mid way through a reign which started with allegations of ballot rigging and days of protests in which one person died and dozens were injured.

Comoros, a group of three islands off the coast of Mozambique with a population of 800,000, has experienced 20 coups or attempted coups since its independence from France in 1975.

It has also gained notoriety as a source of illegal migration to the nearby French island of Mayotte, which has been a participant at the IOIG since 2003.

The 2027 Games will include athletics, badminton, handball, weightlifting and boxing, as well as para athletics and para swimming.

Inspection

They will be a far cry from the inaugural event in 1979 in Réunion where 1,000 athletes from the host country as well as Comoros, Maldives, Mauritius and Seychelles competed. The Games charter – drafted with Sri Lanka scheduled to take part – stipulated an event every four years. 

But that fell instantly by the wayside along with Sri Lanka.

Madagascar joined up for the second IOIG in 1985 in Mauritius. Mayotte’s appearance for the first time at the sixth Games in 2003 increased the number of countries to seven.

Inspection teams sanctioned by the International OIympic Committee are expected to tour Comoros early next year to gauge the progress of the work.

“I dare to hope that we will put aside our differences and contradictions, and unite for this event that will honour the country today and tomorrow,” said Assoumani.

“Our duty now is to accomplish them successfully and, above all, with pride.”

(with additional reporting Abdallah Mzembaba in Moroni)

The agreement, clinched in overtime at the two-week conference in Azerbaijan’s capital, was meant to provide momentum for international efforts to curb global warming in a year destined to be the hottest on record.

Some delegates gave the deal a standing ovation in the Cop29 plenary hall. Others lambasted wealthy nations for not doing more and criticised the Azerbaijan host for hurriedly gavelling through the contentious plan.

“I regret to say that this document is nothing more than an optical illusion,” Indian delegation representative Chandni Raina told the closing session of the summit, minutes after the deal was gavelled in. “This, in our opinion, will not address the enormity of the challenge we all face. Therefore, we oppose the adoption of this document.”

United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell acknowledged the difficult negotiations that led to the agreement but hailed the outcome as an insurance policy for humanity against global warming.

“It has been a difficult journey, but we’ve delivered a deal,” Stiell said. “This deal will keep the clean energy boom growing and protect billions of lives.

“But like any insurance policy, it only works if the premiums are paid in full, and on time.”

The agreement would provide $300 billion annually by 2035, boosting rich countries’ previous commitment to provide $100 billion per year in climate finance by 2020. That earlier goal was met two years late, in 2022, and expires in 2025.

The deal also lays the groundwork for next year’s climate summit, to be held in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil, where countries are meant to map out the next decade of climate action.

The summit cut to the heart of the debate over financial responsibility of industrialised countries – whose historic use of fossil fuels has caused the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions – to compensate others for worsening damage from climate change.

It also laid bare divisions between wealthy governments constrained by tight domestic budgets and developing nations reeling from costs of storms, floods and droughts.

Negotiations had been due to finish on Friday but ran into overtime as representatives from nearly 200 countries struggled to reach consensus. Talks were interrupted on Saturday as some developing countries and island nations walked away in frustration.

“We are leaving with a small portion of the funding climate-vulnerable countries urgently need. It isn’t nearly enough, but it’s a start,” said Tina Stege, Marshall Islands climate envoy.

Nations have been seeking financing to deliver on the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – beyond which catastrophic climate impacts could occur.

Podcast: Africans push food systems and climate justice at Cop29

The world is currently on track for as much as 3.1 C of warming by the end of this century, according to the 2024 UN Emissions Gap report, with global greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuels use continuing to rise.

Sunday’s deal failed to set out detailed steps for how countries will act on last year’s UN climate summit pledge to transition away from fossil fuels and triple renewable energy capacity this decade. Some negotiators said Saudi Arabia had attempted to block such a plan during the talks.

“There’s definitely a challenge in getting greater ambition when you’re negotiating with the Saudis,” said US climate adviser John Podesta.

A Saudi official did not immediately provide comment.

What counts as developed nation? 

The roster of countries required to contribute – about two dozen industrialised countries, including the US, European nations and Canada – dates back to a list decided during UN climate talks in 1992.

European governments have demanded others pay in, including China, the world’s second-biggest economy, and oil-rich Gulf states. The deal encourages developing countries to make contributions but does not require them.

The agreement includes a broader goal of raising $1.3 trillion in climate finance annually by 2035 – which would include funding from all public and private sources and which economists say matches the sum needed to address global warming.

Countries also agreed on rules for a global market to buy and sell carbon credits that proponents say could mobilise billions more dollars into new projects to fight global warming, from reforestation to deployment of clean energy technologies.

Securing the climate finance deal was a challenge from the start.

Donald Trump’s US presidential election victory this month has raised doubts among some negotiators that the world’s largest economy would pay into any climate finance goal agreed in Baku. Trump, a Republican who takes office in January, has called climate change a hoax and promised to again remove the US from international climate cooperation.

President Joe Biden congratulated the Cop29 participants for reaching what he called an historic agreement that would help mobilise needed funds, but said more work was needed.

“While there is still substantial work ahead of us to achieve our climate goals, today’s outcome puts us one significant step closer. On behalf of the American people and future generations, we must continue to accelerate our work to keep a cleaner, safer, healthier planet within our grasp,” Biden said in a statement.

Western governments have seen global warming slip down the list of national priorities amid surging geopolitical tensions, including Russia’s war in Ukraine and expanding conflict in the Middle East, and rising inflation.

The showdown over financing for developing countries comes in a year scientists predict will be the hottest on record. Climate woes are stacking up, with widespread flooding killing thousands across Africa, deadly landslides burying villages in Asia, and drought in South America shrinking rivers.

Developed countries have not been spared. Torrential rain triggered floods in Valencia, Spain, last month that left more than 200 dead, and the US so far this year has registered 24 billion-dollar disasters – just four fewer than last year.

 (Reuters)

In the coastal commune of Saint-Augustin, dozens of makeshift toilet blocks have sprung up near family homes, marking a significant shift in local practices. One such structure, shared between three households, serves 17 people.

“After using them, we must throw ashes in the hole to avoid odours. And when that’s done, we close it with the lid,” said Linah, a local mother, demonstrating the new routine.

For her, this change means no more 15-minute walks to the river mouth.

“We people here have always defecated in the open. It’s cultural. But they explained to us that it causes diseases when we do that. So two months ago, we decided to change. We pooled our money together. Who built this? We did!” she said.

This enthusiasm signals a fresh approach to tackling Madagascar‘s sanitation crisis.

The latest demographic and health survey, conducted in 2021, shows that just one-third of Madagascar’s population has access to basic sanitation facilities – but communities are increasingly taking matters into their own hands.

Rather than providing ready-made solutions, a Unicef-funded programme launched in 2022 has put communities in charge of building their own facilities.

Building ownership

“Our approach is that we don’t want to build toilets for people. We don’t donate them either,” said Jean-Claude Vorimasy, director of awareness activities at the NGO Sahi in the Atsimo-Andrefana region. “We realised that if communities didn’t pay anything, they wouldn’t get involved and would quickly return to their old practices.”

“Our technique is to convince them they have the capacity to change and build themselves. We explain how to dig the pit, construct the slab with local materials. And they do everything themselves,” he explained.

While the NGO has reported success with this system in other regions, the long-term impact in the Grand South remains to be seen. However, Linah is already planning ahead, saying she will definitely build new toilets once the current pit is full.

Wider challenge

However, this is a challenge that extends far beyond Madagascar’s borders. Globally, one in three people lacks access to proper toilets and has to resort to open defecation – which not only promotes the spread of diarrhoeal diseases and infectious illnesses but also poses significant safety risks, particularly for women and girls.

Madagascar has committed to eliminating open defecation by 2030. The success of community-led initiatives suggests that engaging local populations in both the construction and maintenance of sanitation facilities could be the key to achieving this ambitious goal.

In villages such as Saint-Augustin, where new wooden structures now dot the landscape, change is quite literally taking shape from the ground up.

This story was adapted from the orginal article reported in French by RFI correspondent Sarah Tétaud.

Negotiators worked through the night in a windowless sports stadium in the Caspian Sea city of Baku in a search for compromise as the two-week UN climate talks dragged into an extra day.

In a year set to be the hottest ever recorded, developing nations bearing the brunt of rising drought and disasters flatly rejected on Friday an initial offer of US$250 billion per year by 2035.

Two negotiators said the EU was urging that wealthy countries – whose ranks also include the United States, Britain and Japan – raise the sum to US$300 billion.

But this came with conditions in other parts of the broader climate deal under discussion at the COP29 conference in Azerbaijan, the negotiators added.

The Europeans in particular want an annual review of global efforts to phase out fossil fuels, which are the main drivers of global warming.

This has run into opposition from Saudi Arabia, which has sought to water down a landmark pledge to transition away from oil, gas and coal made at COP28 last year.

Irish climate minister Eamon Ryan said he was “hopeful” for a deal but that a clearer picture would emerge later in the day when a new text is expected.

“We need to get an agreement. This is really important that we give hope to the world, that multilateralism can work, that we are responding to the climate crisis,” Ryan told AFP.

He said there was a recognition of the need for more money for the developing world, “but also we have to put a halt to the advance of fossil fuels”.

Ali Mohamed, chair of the African Group of Negotiators, told AFP that there had been “good discussions” on finance after the initial US$250 billion offer which he called “a big mockery”.

He said that developing nations had made clear that a lack of movement would “lead to a failure of COP”.

“No deal is better than a bad deal,” he said.

‘Billion of people’ at risk

The stance of Mohamed, who is also Kenya’s climate change envoy, was backed by a coalition of more than 300 activist groups that urged developing nations to stand firm.

In a letter, the non-governmental organisations accused developed nations of seeking to avoid legal obligations for climate finance.

“You claim to champion a rules-based system, yet flout the rules when they don’t suit your interests, putting at risk billions of people and life on Earth,” they wrote.

Wealthy nations counter that it is politically unrealistic to expect more in direct government funding.

The US earlier this month elected President-elect Donald Trump, a sceptic of both climate change and foreign assistance, and a number of other Western countries have seen right-wing backlashes against the green agenda.

The draft deal posits a larger overall target of US$1.3 trillion per year to cope with rising temperatures and disasters, but most would come from private sources.

Even US$250 billion would be a step up from the US$100 billion now provided by wealthy nations under a commitment set to expire.

A group of developing countries had demanded at least US$500 billion, with some saying that increases were less than met the eye due to inflation.

 (AFP)

This annual event marks the official release of the Beaujolais Nouveau, the region’s famed first wine of the season. 

Once dismissed for its often subpar quality, Beaujolais has become the second most recognised wine globally, trailing only Champagne.

According to Inter Beaujolais, Beaujolais Nouveau now accounts for 30 percent of the global Beaujolais production, with 15 million bottles exported to 110 countries each year, including 2 million bottles to Japan.

Once known for prioritising volume over quality, the region’s reputation has suffered. But now, a new generation of winemakers is changing the game, focusing on quality and sustainability rather than quantity.

Enhancing the soil

One such winemaker is Marine Descombe, who took over her family’s estate in Saint-Étienne-des-Oullières near Lyon.

She has transformed her vineyard by planting cover crops to enhance the soil’s fertility. “The sun is great, but we also need freshness, and that’s something we’re lucky to have in Beaujolais,” she told franceinfo.

Descombe has introduced clover to the vineyard to help restore nitrogen to the soil, retain water and regenerate the organic matter beneath the surface.

“Maintaining vegetation on the plots, such as hedges and fruit trees, also helps keep the vineyard cool,” she added.

Climate change

While climate change has had a negative impact on many wine regions, Beaujolais has in fact seen benefits.

Arnaud Aucœur, a winemaker in Villié-Morgon, suggests that global warming may actually be an advantage for the region. 

“We are now seeing vintages with consistently high quality, thanks to sun-soaked grapes and fewer problems with fungal diseases, like mildew and oidium ” he explained. “Global warming is a problem, but it’s also a discovery for us.”

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Sales of Beaujolais are on the rise, especially among younger generations.  

“They would say they didn’t want Beaujolais anymore, that it was a ‘small’ wine,” said Évelyne Roy, a wine merchant in Lyon. “But the younger generations are rediscovering it. They like it for its easy-drinking qualities, its freshness and its fruity notes.”

2024 vintage

This growing popularity is reflected in the 2024 vintage, which boasts aromas of red fruits such as strawberry, raspberry, blackcurrant and morello cherry.

According to Bertrand Chatelet, director of the Sicarex Beaujolais, a research institute for viticulture and oenology, this year’s vintage promises “fresh and light Gamay wines that meet the expectations of modern consumers”.

However, despite its promising quality, the 2024 harvest is expected to be slightly smaller – after a year in which winemakers had to cope with rainy weather – with a projected yield of 14 million bottles, down from 15.6 million in 2023.

(with newswires)

Prosecutors will in the coming week ask the court in the southern city Avignon to sentence 51 men, one who drugged his wife over the course of a decade and dozens of others who accepted his invitations to abuse her at their home.

Out on the street, “the more of us there are, the more visible we are, this is everyone’s business, not just women,” said Peggy Plou, a local elected official from the Indre-et-Loire region in western France who had made the trip to Paris.

Thousands of people marched in the capital alone, mostly women but including some children and men.

And there were hundreds-strong demonstrations in other major cities including Marseille in the south, Lille in the northeast and Rennes in the northwest.

Many demonstrators carried signs with variations on the slogan “shame must switch sides”, popularised by the plaintiff in the Avignon trial, Gisele Pelicot.

She has been celebrated for accepting public hearings in her case rather than a trial behind closed doors, despite their painful content.

“A law about consent must be put in place very quickly. Just because someone doesn’t say something, doesn’t mean that they agree” to sexual contact, said Marie-Claire Abiker, 78, a retired nurse also marching in Paris.

Mass rape trial revives question of consent within French law

France’s legal definition of rape calls it “any act of sexual penetration… by violence, constraint, threats or surprise” but includes no language about consent – a key demand of women’s rights groups especially since the MeToo movement launched in the late 2010s.

“In 2018, there were basically only women (demonstrating). Today there are, let’s say, 30 percent men. That’s really great news,” said Amy Bah, a member of the NousToutes (all of us women) feminist group protesting in Lille.

“I feel like this is my business too, we each have our role to play, especially men,” said Arnaud Garcette, 38, at the Marseille demonstration in the city’s touristy historic port with his two children.

“We’re at the source of the problem, and at the source of the solutions too,” he added.

The demonstrations called out by more than 400 campaign groups come two days before Monday, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

Equality Minister Salima Saa has promised “concrete and effective” measures to coincide with the global day.

As France grapples with the topic of immigration in its political chambers, on a cultural level there is a current push to embrace diversity, and put names and stories to faces.

This is the aim of the exhibition “Every Life is History”, on display at the National Museum of Immigration History in Paris – to celebrate this collective experience. It brings together 13 contemporary artists from different horizons, each tasked with creating new pieces.

Meanwhile, in parallel, curators have selected 200 items from the museum’s permanent collection on the theme of personal stories: a mix of artefacts, testimonials, multimedia pieces, artworks and photographs.

From international journeys taken by choice, to forced exile and economic migration, the exhibition aims to weave a comprehensive historical tapestry.

‘The more you know, the less you are afraid’

“The role of this collection is to show that these people are like you and me, in fact,” co-curator Elisabeth Jolys-Shimells told RFI.

As director of the museum’s heritage collection, she oversees the gathering of testimonials and documents that pertain to ordinary people and their experiences. These range from telephone cards and letters to a suitcase used as a symbol at a protest, to video interviews with child migrants and the NGOs who help them.

The museum’s role is not to pass judgement or make political statements, but to let the documents speak for themselves. However, by bringing the personal into the mix, Jolys-Shimells says it broadens the scope of stories that are heard, in the hope that empathy will emerge.

“Obviously, it is from a positive perspective in the sense that knowing each other better means living together better,” she said. “It’s about saying the more you know, the less you are afraid and the less you tend to judge by this fear.”

Shared experience

The museum is housed in the Palais de la Porte Dorée – “the palace of the golden gate” – and has had a long and varied history. Built for the 1931 Paris Colonial Exhibition, the elegant, sand-coloured Art Deco structure with its imposing columns was designed by Alfred Janniot.

Museum dedicated to history of immigration in France reopens

Inside, rooms are adorned with giant frescoes depicting France’s colonies and their inhabitants – a testament to another time.

Among the artists taking part in the exhibition are Nge Lay and Aung Ko from Myanmar, who were forced to flee their home when a military junta seized power in a coup in 2021.

African displacements and the search for refuge, in life and art

Both have created interactive spaces which invite museum-goers to share in the artistic experience and create a “home away from home”. 

Lay’s semi-transparent black, silk tents, suspended from the ceiling, are embroidered with poems in golden silk thread. There are cushions on the floor, encouraging people to sit and take a moment with the artwork and meditate on its meaning.

The name of her work, “Anchoring”, refers to the importance of ancient banyan trees in her culture. Their roots latch on wherever they may be, just as migrants try to make new homes for themselves.

History in the making

Aung Ko has created two works for the exhibition, one a temporary shelter in the shape of a traditional Burmese house, built from recycled clothing. He invites the public to add a piece each time they pass by, adding new layers of memories to what thus becomes a collective home.

The other is a giant fresco he is adding to each day, with portraits of passersby. He began with the faces of museum staff and curators and hopes to paint the faces of children and their parents coming to see the exhibition, allowing them to become a part of it.

The museum began its permanent collection in 2005, and in 2008 opened a public donation fund so that people could hand over artefacts or personal objects they felt would augment its archives. Combined with acquired pieces by contemporary artists, the collection is a perpetual work in progress – history in the making.

Constance Rivière, director of the museum, says that in the 20 years since the permanent collection was started, questions of migration have become increasingly central to contemporary creation, regardless of the medium.

The question of climate change and how it has affected the global movement of people is also being addressed more widely by artists, not only in this collection but in other art shows in France and around the world, she said. The theme of this year’s Venice Biennale, for example, is “Foreigners Everywhere”.

“What artists teach us is to what extent immigration is an opening to the world, to other points of view.”

“Every Life is History: 200 Views on Immigration” (Chaque vie est une histoire) runs until 9 February, 2025.

Saâda Arbane, now 30, survived a brutal attack when she was six years old during Algeria’s “black decade”, between 1992 and 2002. 

Her village in Tiaret was raided in 1993, leaving her with a partially slit throat and damaged vocal cords. Many of her neighbours were killed, and her family was decimated

Arbane says she recognised her own life story in the novel’s protagonist, Aube. Daoud published the novel without her permission, she claims, despite her repeated refusals to let him adapt her story.

“I don’t like talking about my story, it’s something that disturbs me in life,” said she told RFI.

Arbane also alleges that her psychiatrist, Aïcha Dahdouh – who is Daoud’s wife – violated medical confidentiality by sharing details of her treatment with her husband.

Legal battle

Daoud and Dahdouh are now facing legal action in Algeria’s Oran court. Arbane’s lawyer, Fatima Benbraham, told RFI that her client has evidence to back her claims.

“If the evidence did not exist, the claim would have been inadmissible,” said Benbraham. “My client’s rights will never remain violated, by anyone. We want justice.”

The complaints, filed in August, accuse the couple of using Arbane’s personal story without consent and violating Algerian laws on medical confidentiality.

“Right after the publication of the book, we filed two complaints against Kamel Daoud and his wife, Aïcha Dahdouh, the psychiatrist who treated the victim,” Benbraham told journalists this week.

African writers celebrated with prestigious French literary prizes

Horrific story

In a recent interview with an Algerian television channel, Arbane described the similarities between her life and the novel’s plot.

These include her physical scars, a tattoo, her medical history, and her personal experiences, such as her love of horses and her career as an equestrian champion.

Arbane says she was shocked by what she read in Houris.

Daoud’s publisher, Gallimard, has denied the allegations, calling them “defamatory attacks” against the author.

In a statement, Gallimard said the novel’s plot and characters are “purely fictional”, despite being inspired by the events of Algeria’s civil war, during which up to 200,000 people were killed.

Daoud himself has dismissed the claims as part of “violent defamatory campaigns organised by media close to the Algerian regime”.

He also noted that Houris is banned in Algeria.

The head of the Gallimard was forbidden from presenting his works at the Algiers International Book Fair, which ended on 17 November.

Arbane’s lawyer has further accused Daoud of defaming victims of terrorism and violating Algeria’s national reconciliation laws, which prohibit publishing details about the so-called black decade.

Despite the controversy, Houris was widely regarded as a frontrunner for the Goncourt Prize, which it won earlier this month.

The complaints were filed in August, before Daoud won the prize. “We didn’t want to talk about it so it wouldn’t be said that we wanted to disrupt the author’s nomination,” said Benbraham.

Conservative background

Daoud, who was born in Algeria, initially supported Islamist parties before breaking ties and becoming a columnist.

His first novel, The Meursault Investigation, was published in 2013. He moved to France in 2023 and has often sparked controversy with his outspoken views.

For a decade, he wrote for the French weekly magazine Le Point, frequently facing criticism for what some called anti-Arab racism.

In 2016, he published an op-ed in The New York Times titled The Sexual Misery of the Arab World, following reports of sexual assaults by Arab migrants in Cologne, Germany.

He has also been linked with French far-right intellectuals.

Hugging a bay in Finistère, where northern France juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, the picturesque port of Douarnenez doesn’t look like an obvious hotbed of industrial revolt. But the town’s jumbled alleyways are the legacy of a boom that packed the town with working women and opened a new chapter in the movement for their rights.

A hundred years ago, Douarnenez was a town in flux. Fishing had been its lifeblood for centuries, but with the invention of canning, suddenly its sardine catches could reach markets previously unimaginable.

The ports of Brittany became the beating heart of France’s tinned fish industry, Douarnenez chief among them. In the space of 50 years its population soared from around 2,000 inhabitants to more than 14,000, with dozens of new canneries drawing in labourers from inland.  

Most of these workers were women. While men and boys caught the fish, women and girls were responsible for cleaning, frying and packing it. It was wet, noisy, reeking, back-breaking work, and it continued around the clock.  

Listen to this story on the Spotlight on France podcast:

“There was no refrigerated storage like we have today, so when the sardines arrived you had to get to work right away,” says Arlette Julien, the head of local history organisation Mémoire de la Ville, whose grandmother Augustine was employed in one of the canneries. 

In high season that meant 18-hour workdays, back to back. Augustine’s children remember seeing her sprawled on a chair between shifts: “She wouldn’t even take the time to change, she’d rest a little for two or three hours and then there would be a knock on the windowpane to tell her it was time to go back,” says Arlette. 

None of this was fairly compensated. Lacking the protection of unions or effective labour laws, women were a cheap workforce for factory bosses – who were known to employ girls as young as nine or ten as well as adults in their eighties.

Young or old, day or night, they all got the same pay: 80 centimes an hour, a little less than the price of a litre of milk. 

United front

The town’s Penn Sardin – “sardine heads”, as they were known in Breton – had already had to fight for that much. 

In February 1905, they launched one of the largest women’s strikes to date to demand payment by the hour rather than per thousand sardines tinned. Cannery owners gave in within days, and the triumphant workers began laying the foundations of their first union. 

Two decades later, their colleagues remembered that lesson when seeking a higher wage. 

What began as a demand at one cannery on 20 November, 1924 was soon repeated at other factories and quickly became a strike that brought hundreds of workers on to the streets of Douarnenez in daily protests.

They found an ally in the town’s mayor, Daniel Le Flanchec, one of the first Communist mayors in France and the second in Douarnenez. He and his supporters reached out to national networks and, within a week, organisers from other parts of the country began arriving to help spur the sardine workers on.

Arlette remembers her grandmother telling her about one union representative in particular: Lucie Colliard, a former teacher who travelled to Douarnenez from Paris and later wrote a book about the events.  

She was influential in helping women like Augustine see the larger dynamics at play, Arlette says. Colliard “began to explain the economic aspect, to say: ‘you earn such and such, while the boss makes this much’ – things she hadn’t necessarily realised before. So it was also a chance to learn, in fact.”

Augustine, 38 at the time and mother to four children, in turn helped inform older workers who only spoke Breton, not French. She also joined the support committee, gathering donations of food from local farms and distributing it among the striking workers.

Combined with funds sent by sympathisers from all over France and even abroad, these supplies helped the women hold out for more than six weeks.

By December they had been joined by fishermen, who refused to go out to sea in recognition of the canners’ crucial role in getting their catch to market. 

Used to singing together in the factories, the strikers took a new song on to the streets: Pemp real a vo, Breton for “Five reals we’ll get” – the equivalent of 1.25 francs an hour. 

It wasn’t an outlandish demand. Sardine workers were underpaid even by the standards of the day, but bosses refused to negotiate.  

They called in strikebreakers, bringing matters to a head on 1 January 1925. As the mayor and others celebrated the new year in a local café, a brawl broke out and several shots were fired. Le Flanchec was hit and the rumour tore through town that he’d been assassinated on the factory owners’ orders. 

In fact he survived, but it was enough to start a short-lived riot and set left-wing newspapers denouncing a “fascist” plot. Fearing worse, the regional prefect ordered the factory owners to enter mediation.

By 6 January, they had reached a deal: one franc per hour for the sardine canners, extra pay for working past midnight, recognition of the right to unionise, and an assurance that the strikers wouldn’t be fired in retribution. 

Forty-six days after they first walked out, the women agreed the terms.

A legacy of resistance 

“I think aside from the result – because they got a small raise, not everything they asked for, but a bit – afterwards the unions were established, and they got used to the idea of saying to themselves, ‘we can still do better’,” says Arlette.

She cites her grandmother as an illustration. When her husband – a WWI veteran – died a few years after the strike, Augustine fought to obtain the war widow’s pension she believed she was owed, Arlette recounts.

“I always knew her as someone who spoke freely, who had a desire for dignity, a desire to move forward, to follow the news, form opinions and so on… I heard my grandma say, ‘we learned we were citizens’.” 

Another former striker, Joséphine Pencalet, even went on to stand in local council elections the following spring – becoming one of the first women in France to do so. However, though elected, she was disqualified a few months later. Since women could not vote, the courts ruled, nor could they hold public office. 

“But it was still a kind of empowerment, to say: ‘we’re going to take things into our own hands’,” Arlette believes.

That legacy has become a point of pride not just for descendants of the strikers, but the whole town of Douarnenez and Brittany more broadly. As the area celebrates the centenary of the strike, Arlette says she’s heartened to see new generations embracing it as a story of resistance. 

“There’s still this attachment to the fact that at a certain point, women took their own destiny in hand.” 

“The EU has therefore decide to recall its ambassador to Niamey for consultations in Brussels,” an EU spokesperson said.

It has asked for an audit of the way the funds were managed.

The European Union will recall its ambassador from Niger after the country’s ruling military questioned an EU delegation’s management of humanitarian aid meant for flood victims, the European External Action Service (EEAS) said on Saturday.

Niger‘s junta issued a statement on Friday accusing the EU ambassador in the West African country of dividing a 1.3 million euro fund to assist flood victims between several international NGOs in an non-transparent manner, and without collaborating with the authorities.

It ordered an audit into the fund’s management as a result.

“The European Union expresses its profound disagreement with the allegations and justifications put forward by the transitional authorities,” the EEAS said in a statement.

“Consequently, the EU has decided to recall its ambassador from Niamey for consultations in Brussels.”

Niger has been under military rule since the junta seized power in a coup in July 2023.

Since taking power, the Sahel nation’s military rulers have turned their backs on former colonial ruler France and have grown increasingly frosty towards the European Union. 

(with AFP and Reuters)

Grapes have been grown for centuries in Manisa, western Turkey. It is here that Fulya Akinci and her Spanish husband, Jose Hernandez Gonzalez, decided they wanted to be a part of the transformation of the country’s wine industry.

“In 2005, in 2006, maybe when you went to a restaurant, you would order red wine or white wine, that was it,” explains Akinci. “In the last 15 years, there has been a real boom. We have so many, we say, boutique wineries. Now, with these small wineries, the quality has changed a lot.”

With their wine label Heraki, Akinci and Hernandez Gonzalez are part of this surge of new, small producers – a group which has grown to number around 200, from only a handful a decade ago. The couple trained at a wine school in Bordeaux and have worked in vineyards around the world. Hernandez Gonzalez explained that it was Turkey’s untapped potential that persuaded him and Akinci to produce their own wine there.

“As a foreigner, when I came to Turkey I was really surprised about the biodiversity of different grape varieties,” he said. “This is a country with many different grape varieties. Also, [there was] the potential of the soils and the climate. We have mountains, we have the coasts – many different climates to make grapes. And the potential of those grapes to make wine is huge.”

France asks for EU help to destroy ‘unprofitable’ Bordeaux vines

Government restrictions

Hernandez Gonzales explained that rather than making wine from vines used worldwide, they decided to use indigenous grapes. “One of our main ideas here at Heraki was to make wines from those local grapes.”

In five years, their production has increased from a couple of thousand to 20,000 bottles. But the couple says this has been an uphill struggle. “We have some difficulties because of the bureaucracy – so much paperwork – and some pressures over tax… so huge pressures on us. It’s not easy at all,” explained Akinci.

Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AK), which enjoys large support among Muslims, has, since coming to power in 2002, hiked alcohol taxes to 65 percent, among the highest in the world. There are also growing restrictions on wine production, sales and advertising. “We love making wine, but it’s not easy at all. It’s hard, and every day is getting worse and worse,” said Akinci.

Turkey’s broadcasting authorities banned images of alcohol on television back in 2013, and in much of the country securing alcohol licences is difficult.

Turkish radio ban is latest attack on press freedom, warn activists

But meanwhile, government adverts promoting Turkey as a tourist destination abroad often highlight the country’s wines as an attraction. With much of the wine industry based in tourism centres, experts say tourists are helping to drive demand and grow the reputation of Turkish wines.

International interest

“Wine producers have started to get better prices for their wines. They can now make money, against all the odds. There is international interest,” said wine consultant Sabiha Apaydın Gonenli. Through her Kok Koken Toprak Conference (Root Soil Wine Conference) international symposiums, she promotes Turkey’s wine industry internationally.

However, she warns the industry still has a long way to go. “It’s not that economically viable at the moment because it is very small. In order to market this, you need support. You can’t do this alone, wine producers need to come together.”

Police break up French-Italian wine fraud ring

As for Heraki wines, they are now being stocked at a top European restaurant and have secured a German distributor. But despite such successes, Akinci says wine-making in Turkey remains a bittersweet experience.

“One day, we are so happy to make wine here, and we are thinking about increasing the volume and making other things. Then another day, we’re thinking about closing up and going to Spain.”

The objects, dating to the 19th century, are symbols of governance, chiefship and royal heritage.

Originally crafted by Asante court artisans, they include swords, linguist staffs, palace security locks, rings, necklaces and gold weights.

The artefacts were authenticated by historian and associate director of the Manhyia Palace Museum, Ivor Agyeman-Duah.

“This is a significant cultural moment for Ghana and Africa,” he said.

Speaking to AFP, he described the regalia as “masterpieces of gold smithery reflecting the sophistication of Asante court governance”.

The presentation will take place at a mini-durbar at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the return from exile of the king’s grand-uncle, Nana Agyeman Prempeh I.

The event will also honour the visiting president of Seychelles, Wavel Ramkalawan, according to a statement from the palace.

Agyeman-Duah said the restitution follows a direct appeal that the Asante king – the Asantehene – made earlier this year to AngloGold Ashanti, a South African mining company, to hand back the artefacts.

Ghana loses historic forts along its coastline to climate change

Blood and Bronze: unveiling the British Empire’s brutality in Nigeria

Stolen goods

The objects had been part of the company’s Gold of Africa Museum in Cape Town, South Africa, before being transferred to the Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria.

Their return to Kumasi was approved three weeks ago by the Reserve Bank of South Africa, the statement added.

The objects will be housed in a new contemporary gallery recently added to the Manhyia Palace Museum.

This restitution brings the total number of cultural objects returned to the Asante Palace this year to 67, the largest repatriation of artefacts in Africa in recent years.

Earlier this year, seven items looted during the 1874 Anglo-Asante War were returned by the Fowler Museum at UCLA in California.

A further 32 were restituted from the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

An AngloGold Ashanti delegation will attend the ceremony in Kumasi.

Neighbouring Nigeria is also negotiating the return of thousands of 16th- to 18th-century objects looted from the ancient kingdom of Benin and held by museums and art collectors across the United States and Europe.

And, two years ago, Benin received two dozen treasures and artworks stolen in 1892 by French colonial forces.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was speaking a day after President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had fired the new missile – the Oreshnik or Hazel Tree – at a Ukrainian military facility in response to Kyiv striking Russia with US-made and British-made missiles this week for the first time after the US granted its approval.

“The main message is that the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries that produce missiles, supply them to Ukraine, and subsequently participate in strikes on Russian territory cannot remain without a reaction from the Russian side,” Peskov told reporters.

“The Russian side has clearly demonstrated its capabilities, and the contours of further retaliatory actions in the event that our concerns are not taken into account have been quite clearly outlined,” he said.

Moscow has said it regards Ukraine’s firing of ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles into Russia as proof of direct US and British involvement in the war.

It says satellite targeting data and the actual programming of the missiles’ flight paths must be done by NATO military personnel because Kyiv does not have the capabilities itself.

Putin said Moscow had struck a missile and defence enterprise in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, where missile and space rocket company Pivdenmash, known as Yuzhmash by Russians, is based.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Friday that all of the missile’s warheads had hit their targets and hailed what it said was its first successful use of an intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile with conventional warheads in combat.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Russia’s use of the new missile amounts to “a clear and severe escalation” and has called for strong worldwide condemnation.

Peskov said Russia had not been technically obliged to warn the United States about the strike because the missile used had been intermediate-range rather than intercontinental, but he said Moscow had informed the US 30 minutes before the launch anyway.

He said Putin remained open to dialogue, but that the outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden “prefers to continue down the path of escalation” and urged it to heed a warning Putin issued in September.

Putin said at the time that the West would be directly fighting with Russia if it allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles, a move he said would alter the nature and scope of the conflict and force Moscow to take “appropriate decisions” based on the new threats.

In his televised remarks on Thursday, Putin said that Russia had fired its new missile after Ukraine, with approval from the Biden administration, had struck Russia with six US-made ATACMS missiles on Tuesday and with British Storm Shadow cruise missiles and US-made HIMARS on Thursday.

Peskov said he hoped that the US had received and understood Moscow’s message.

“As for openness to dialogue, even in yesterday’s statement the president stressed his readiness for any contacts – both with a view to de-escalation, to avoiding further escalation, and to reaching a peaceful trajectory,” said Peskov.

“Yesterday’s statement (from Putin) was very comprehensive, clear, and logical. We have no doubt that the current administration in Washington had the opportunity to familiarise itself with this statement and understand it.”

 (Reuters)

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.

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, in English. So plan to stay up late or get up early on 12 December, beloved listeners! And we are so pleased that “one of our own” has made it into the running: Saleem Akhtar Chadhar, the president of the RFI Seven Stars Listeners Club, is one of the 10 nominees in the RFI Clubs category! 

It’s time for you to start thinking about your New Year’s resolutions – or wishes – for our annual New Year’s Day show. If you’ve already made up your mind about what you’ll aim for in 2025, or what you hope to see happen in 2025, go ahead and send it to us. We’ll need your resolutions and/or wishes 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 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!

We have a new RFI Listeners Club member to welcome: Jahangir Alam from Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Jahangir is also the president of the World DX International Radio Fan Club in his fair city. Welcome, Jahangir!

This week’s quiz: On 26 October, I asked you a question about The COP16 Biodiversity Summit, which opened on  21 October and ran through the first of this month, November. Held in Cali, Columbia, it was attended by leaders and delegates from over 200 countries.

RFI English journalist Amanda Morrow wrote about what was at stake at this COP, in her article “Ecosystems hang in the balance as Colombia hosts crucial biodiversity talks”.

Not much has happened since COP15 – as Amanda noted, as of this date, only 17 percent of land and about 8 percent of oceans are protected – a far cry from the 30 percent committed to at COP15.

Money pledged is also far behind schedule: and that was your question. You were to re-read Amanda’s article and send in the answer to this question: How much money was promised by wealthy nations to support biodiversity protection in developing countries, and how much has actually been secured?   

The answer is, to quote Amanda: “Talks at Cop16 will focus on pressuring wealthy nations to deliver the promised US 30 billion annually to support biodiversity protection in developing countries. So far, pledges to a new biodiversity fund have fallen far short, with only about 400 million secured – and even less disbursed. Countries like China may also be called on to play a larger financial role.”  

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “Imagine that France’s president Emmanuel Macron came to visit your city. Which three places would you take him?”

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Malik Shoaib Ahmad Khokhar from Muzaffargarh, Pakistan. Malik is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations, Malik!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are our brand-new RFI Listeners Club member Jahangir Alam from Rajshahi, Bangladesh, as well as RFI English listeners Kripa Ram Kaga from Sirajganj, Bangladesh; Bari from the Friends Radio Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh, and last but assuredly not least, our brother journalist Suresh Agrawal, from Odisha, India.

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Les Pommes de Grand-Mère” from Le Grand Cahier by Alexander Litvinovsky, performed by the Metamorphose String Orchestra conducted by Pavel Lyubomudrov; “Zingaro” by Rene Aubrey; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and  “Intro” by Alan Braxe and Fred Falke.

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 “Senegal’s ruling Pastef party on track to get large majority in elections”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 6 January to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 11 January 2025 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.   

The warrants – issued late Thursday – mark the first time a sitting leader of a major Western ally has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by a global court of justice.

Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant are accused of “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid and targeting civilians during Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza since 7 October 2023.

Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif is accused of war crimes, including orchestrating the October attack on Israel and “sexual and gender-based violence” against hostages.

Israel said it killed Deif in July, but Hamas has not confirmed his death.

The ICC‘s 124 member states must arrest suspects on their territory, though the court has no power to enforce this.

France backs ICC after arrest warrant for Israeli, Hamas leaders

Mixed reactions

The ICC decision has sparked starkly different reactions across the globe. US President Joe Biden condemned the move, calling it “outrageous.”

He said: “There is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”

European countries have, for the most part, expressed their willingness to fall in line with the court’s decision.

France offered a measured response, acknowledging the court’s independence but declining to comment on potential enforcement.

“True to its long-standing commitment to supporting international justice, it reiterates its attachment to the independent work of the court,” the foreign ministry said.

But Christophe Lemoine, a ministry spokesman declined to say whether France would arrest Netanyahu if he came to the country, saying it was “legally complex”.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell defended the court’s authority, stating: “It is a decision of a court of justice… and has to be respected.”

Austria rejected the warrants as “absurd”, while Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a staunch ally of Netanyahu, described them as “outrageously impudent” and invited the Israeli leader to visit Hungary.

Hungary holds the European Union‘s rotating presidency and Orban is one of Israel’s closest partners in the 27-country bloc. He is also the only EU leader to have maintained close ties with Vladimir Putin after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Netanyahu on Friday thanked Orban for showing “moral clarity” and “standing by the side of justice and truth”.

He denounced the ICC’s actions as “anti-Semitic” and “absurd and false”, rejecting all allegations. Israeli officials have firmly denied the charges.

Hamas, meanwhile, welcomed the move as a step towards justice. Senior official Basem Naim said it was “an important step” but warned that it must be “backed practically by all countries” to have real impact.

UN rapporteur says Israel’s war in Gaza is ’emptying the land completely’

Historical ties

France and Germany, mindful of their historical ties to Israel, are treading carefully.

German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit reiterated Berlin’s support for the ICC, calling it a product of “German history”.

However, he acknowledged that Germany’s unique relationship with Israel demands careful consideration of the warrant’s implications.

“At the same time, it is a consequence of German history that we share unique relations with and a great responsibility towards Israel,” Hebestreit said in a statement.

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said they were examining exactly what the warrant means for “implementation in Germany”.

In France, Israeli ambassador Joshua Zarka criticised the ICC decision as “entirely arbitrary” and urged President Emmanuel Macron to reject it.

“This decision to equate a democratic country with a terrorist organisation is an offence to all victims of this war, whether Israeli or Palestinian,” Zarka said.

Meanwhile South Africa praised the ICC’s actions as “a significant step towards justice for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Palestine.”

The country is also pursuing a case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, which it claims violates the UN Genocide Convention.

As nations around the world continue to weigh in on the ICC warrants, chief prosecutor Karim Khan urged the body’s members to act on them, and for non-members to work together in “upholding international law”.

Of the 56 warrants issued since the creation of the ICC in 2002, only 21 have been executed.

At the Cop29 talks in Azerbaijan, developing nations are demanding a bigger commitment from historic polluters most responsible for warming, but rich countries insist that massive financial pledges are not politically realistic.

In a draft text revealed hours before two weeks of fraught bargaining were set to end, Azerbaijan said wealthy nations had committed to providing $250 billion a year by 2035.

The text also sets an ambitious overall target to raise at least $1.3 trillion per year by 2035 from not only developed countries but the private sector.

But a red line for many climate-imperilled nations at Cop29 had been securing a new commitment from developed nations well above their existing pledge of $100 billion a year.

‘Inadequate’

The new target “is totally unacceptable and inadequate”, said Ali Mohamed, chair of the African Group of Negotiators.

“$250 billion will lead to unacceptable loss of life in Africa and around the world, and imperils the future of our world,” he said.

The Alliance of Small Island Developing States, for which climate change is an existential threat, said the target showed “contempt for our vulnerable people”.

But the United States signalled it was not looking to negotiate a higher figure. President-elect Donald Trump takes office in two months and is expected to pull the world’s largest economy again out of climate diplomacy.

Plastic-eating mealworms found in Kenya offer hope for waste crisis

“It has been a significant lift over the past decade to meet the prior, smaller goal. $250 billion will require even more ambition and extraordinary reach,” said a senior US official, whose team in Baku comes from outgoing President Joe Biden‘s administration.

Germany, a longtime leader on climate where elections are due next year, said any final deal was inevitable to include debt restructuring and other financial tools to raise the money, not just government money.

Europe wants to “live up to its responsibilities, but also in a way that it doesn’t make promises it can’t live up to”, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters.

Cop29 lead negotiator Yalchin Rafiyev said negotiations would press on and that $250 billion “doesn’t correspond to our fair and ambitious goal”.

Less than needed

Activists point to studies that show that far more is needed for poor countries, which bear little responsibility but are disproportionately affected by record-high temperatures and rising disasters.

Jasper Inventor from Greenpeace called the $250 billion offer “inadequate, divorced from the reality of climate impacts and outrageously below the needs of developing countries”.

But Avinash Persaud, special advisor on climate change to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, said that the offer showed the talks were “within sight of a landing zone” for the first time.

“There is no deal to come out of Baku that will not leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth,” said the former advisor to Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

The United States and European Union have wanted newly wealthy emerging economies like China – the world’s largest emitter – to chip into the pot.

French NGO calls for international protection zone for whale sharks

China, which remains classified as a developing nation under the UN framework, provides climate assistance but wants to keep doing so on its own voluntary terms.

Apart from splits over money, many nations fear the climate deal in negotiation does not reflect the urgency on phasing out coal, oil and gas – the main drivers of global warming.

Last year’s Cop28 summit in Dubai made a landmark call on the world to transition away from fossil fuels after long negotiations in Dubai.

But a Saudi official speaking on behalf of the Arab Group said the bloc would “not accept any text that targets any specific sectors, including fossil fuel” in Baku.

Top German diplomat Baerbock singled out Saudi Arabia and warned that its goal was “turning back the clock”.

Criticism of Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, an authoritarian state that relies on oil and gas exports, has been accused of lacking the experience and bandwidth to steer such large and complex negotiations.

“This is the worst Cop in recent memory,” said Mohamed Adow of the Climate Action Network.

The EU had also called for stronger leadership from Azerbaijan, whose leader, Ilham Aliyev, opened the conference by railing against Western nations and hailing fossil fuels as a “gift of God”.

The annual UN-led climate talks come on what is already poised to be the hottest year in history and as disasters rise around the world.

Just since the start of Cop29 on November 11, deadly storms have battered the Philippines and Honduras, while Ecuador has declared a national emergency due to drought and forest fires and Spain has been reeling after historic floods.

Sources told RFI that plainclothes security officers took Sansal, 75, from his car in Dar El Beida, east of the capital, shortly after he travelled to Algiers international airport from France. They said he was being held in police custody.

Family members and local media say he has not answered his phone for six days.

He is reportedly awaiting a summons before the public prosecutor in either Algiers or his hometown of Boumerdès, 50 kilometres away.

While the specific charges remain unclear, the writer could face accusations of “undermining national unity” – a crime that carries a prison sentence under Algerian law.

Sansal obtained French nationality earlier this year, and French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “very concerned” about the writer’s disappearance.

“The services of the state are mobilised to clarify his situation,” Macron’s office said. The president “expresses his unfailing attachment to the freedom of a great writer and intellectual”.

Algeria recalls Paris ambassador over airing of ‘revolution’ documentaries

Openly critical

Sansal is known for his defence of free speech and his criticism of Algeria’s government. His debut novel, The Oath of the Barbarians, examined the rise of fundamentalists who helped drive the country into a brutal civil war between 1992 and 2002, claiming at least 200,000 lives.

His 2015 dystopian novel 2084: The End of the World, a critique on the alleged Islamisation of France, won the Grand Prix du Roman from the Académie Française.

While his books are available in Algeria, the author remains controversial there, particularly after a 2014 visit to Israel, which drew sharp criticism from Algerian authorities.

While the writer’s arrest has not yet been officially announced, sources say the criminal proceedings brought against him are linked to recent statements made to the far-right French media outlet Frontières.

Sansal is quoted as saying: “When France colonised Algeria, the entire western part of Algeria was part of Morocco: Tlemcen, Oran and even as far as Mascara. This whole region was part of the kingdom.”

The comments, widely circulated in Morocco, will likely have angered Algiers.

Sansal’s arrest comes amid heightened diplomatic tensions between France and Algeria. Algeria recently recalled its ambassador from Paris after France recognised Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region.

“Boualem Sansal’s views on the Algerian regime are well known, he’s highly critical,” political analyst Arnaud Benedetti told RFI.

Algeria’s Tebboune refuses France visit in snub to former colonial ruler

Wave of support

A number of mainly right-wing French politicians have expressed concern and support for Sansal.

“He embodies everything we cherish: the call for reason, freedom and humanism against censorship, corruption and Islamism,” said former prime minister Edouard Philippe.

Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the conservative Republicans party, said France should use all means to push for the release of the “great writer Boualem Sansal”.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally described him as a “freedom fighter and courageous opponent of Islamism”.

Sansal faces potential charges of “undermining national unity” and “inciting division within the country.” These allegations are punishable by prison sentences under Algeria’s penal code.

Sansal is not the only writer facing scrutiny.

French-Algerian author Kamel Daoud, winner of the latest Prix Goncourt, is also under investigation in Algeria, accused of exploiting a civil war survivor’s story in his latest novel.

Grapes have been grown for centuries in Manisa, western Turkey. It is here that Fulya Akinci and her Spanish husband, Jose Hernandez Gonzalez, decided they wanted to be a part of the transformation of the country’s wine industry.

“In 2005, in 2006, maybe when you went to a restaurant, you would order red wine or white wine, that was it,” explains Akinci. “In the last 15 years, there has been a real boom. We have so many, we say, boutique wineries. Now, with these small wineries, the quality has changed a lot.”

With their wine label Heraki, Akinci and Hernandez Gonzalez are part of this surge of new, small producers – a group which has grown to number around 200, from only a handful a decade ago. The couple trained at a wine school in Bordeaux and have worked in vineyards around the world. Hernandez Gonzalez explained that it was Turkey’s untapped potential that persuaded him and Akinci to produce their own wine there.

“As a foreigner, when I came to Turkey I was really surprised about the biodiversity of different grape varieties,” he said. “This is a country with many different grape varieties. Also, [there was] the potential of the soils and the climate. We have mountains, we have the coasts – many different climates to make grapes. And the potential of those grapes to make wine is huge.”

France asks for EU help to destroy ‘unprofitable’ Bordeaux vines

Government restrictions

Hernandez Gonzales explained that rather than making wine from vines used worldwide, they decided to use indigenous grapes. “One of our main ideas here at Heraki was to make wines from those local grapes.”

In five years, their production has increased from a couple of thousand to 20,000 bottles. But the couple says this has been an uphill struggle. “We have some difficulties because of the bureaucracy – so much paperwork – and some pressures over tax… so huge pressures on us. It’s not easy at all,” explained Akinci.

Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AK), which enjoys large support among Muslims, has, since coming to power in 2002, hiked alcohol taxes to 65 percent, among the highest in the world. There are also growing restrictions on wine production, sales and advertising. “We love making wine, but it’s not easy at all. It’s hard, and every day is getting worse and worse,” said Akinci.

Turkey’s broadcasting authorities banned images of alcohol on television back in 2013, and in much of the country securing alcohol licences is difficult.

Turkish radio ban is latest attack on press freedom, warn activists

But meanwhile, government adverts promoting Turkey as a tourist destination abroad often highlight the country’s wines as an attraction. With much of the wine industry based in tourism centres, experts say tourists are helping to drive demand and grow the reputation of Turkish wines.

International interest

“Wine producers have started to get better prices for their wines. They can now make money, against all the odds. There is international interest,” said wine consultant Sabiha Apaydın Gonenli. Through her Kok Koken Toprak Conference (Root Soil Wine Conference) international symposiums, she promotes Turkey’s wine industry internationally.

However, she warns the industry still has a long way to go. “It’s not that economically viable at the moment because it is very small. In order to market this, you need support. You can’t do this alone, wine producers need to come together.”

Police break up French-Italian wine fraud ring

As for Heraki wines, they are now being stocked at a top European restaurant and have secured a German distributor. But despite such successes, Akinci says wine-making in Turkey remains a bittersweet experience.

“One day, we are so happy to make wine here, and we are thinking about increasing the volume and making other things. Then another day, we’re thinking about closing up and going to Spain.”

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.

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, in English. So plan to stay up late or get up early on 12 December, beloved listeners! And we are so pleased that “one of our own” has made it into the running: Saleem Akhtar Chadhar, the president of the RFI Seven Stars Listeners Club, is one of the 10 nominees in the RFI Clubs category! 

It’s time for you to start thinking about your New Year’s resolutions – or wishes – for our annual New Year’s Day show. If you’ve already made up your mind about what you’ll aim for in 2025, or what you hope to see happen in 2025, go ahead and send it to us. We’ll need your resolutions and/or wishes 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 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!

We have a new RFI Listeners Club member to welcome: Jahangir Alam from Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Jahangir is also the president of the World DX International Radio Fan Club in his fair city. Welcome, Jahangir!

This week’s quiz: On 26 October, I asked you a question about The COP16 Biodiversity Summit, which opened on  21 October and ran through the first of this month, November. Held in Cali, Columbia, it was attended by leaders and delegates from over 200 countries.

RFI English journalist Amanda Morrow wrote about what was at stake at this COP, in her article “Ecosystems hang in the balance as Colombia hosts crucial biodiversity talks”.

Not much has happened since COP15 – as Amanda noted, as of this date, only 17 percent of land and about 8 percent of oceans are protected – a far cry from the 30 percent committed to at COP15.

Money pledged is also far behind schedule: and that was your question. You were to re-read Amanda’s article and send in the answer to this question: How much money was promised by wealthy nations to support biodiversity protection in developing countries, and how much has actually been secured?   

The answer is, to quote Amanda: “Talks at Cop16 will focus on pressuring wealthy nations to deliver the promised US 30 billion annually to support biodiversity protection in developing countries. So far, pledges to a new biodiversity fund have fallen far short, with only about 400 million secured – and even less disbursed. Countries like China may also be called on to play a larger financial role.”  

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “Imagine that France’s president Emmanuel Macron came to visit your city. Which three places would you take him?”

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Malik Shoaib Ahmad Khokhar from Muzaffargarh, Pakistan. Malik is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations, Malik!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are our brand-new RFI Listeners Club member Jahangir Alam from Rajshahi, Bangladesh, as well as RFI English listeners Kripa Ram Kaga from Sirajganj, Bangladesh; Bari from the Friends Radio Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh, and last but assuredly not least, our brother journalist Suresh Agrawal, from Odisha, India.

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Les Pommes de Grand-Mère” from Le Grand Cahier by Alexander Litvinovsky, performed by the Metamorphose String Orchestra conducted by Pavel Lyubomudrov; “Zingaro” by Rene Aubrey; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and  “Intro” by Alan Braxe and Fred Falke.

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 “Senegal’s ruling Pastef party on track to get large majority in elections”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 6 January to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 11 January 2025 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.   

The Academie Française, guardian of the French language since 1635, has issued the 9th edition of its official dictionary, with 21,000 new words compared to the 8th edition of 1935. President Macron has praised the academy’s steady pace, which “prevents it from giving in to the temptations of ticks and trends”. Writer Frederic Vicot, one of the “immortels” on the dictionary commission, talks about how writers, historians and scientists have pooled their talents over the decades to get the best definitions possible. But the dictionary has its detractors – a group of  linguists have slammed the opus as useless and outdated given the time it takes to publish. Florent Moncomble from the “Community of Appalled Linguists” outlines why both the choice of terms, and the academy’s methodology, are problematic. (Listen @0′) 

Donald Trump’s recent election to a second term as President of the United States came as a shock to many in France, who’d been less than enthusiastic about his first term in office. Trump’s intent to impose import tariffs is set to impact the economies of both France and Europe more widely, and his approach towards Ukraine runs against France’s unwaving support. Celia Belin, head of the Paris office of the European council on Foreign Relations, talks about what France needs to do to face a second Trump presidency, and reflects on the impact his election will have on France’s far right. (Listen @19’50”) 

The collapse of the Malpasset dam in the south of France, on 2 December 1959, decimated the Reyran river valley. More than 400 people died and the town of Frejus was cut off for days. The disaster prompted a wave of fundraising and solidarity, in what is considered the first example of international solidarity following a catastrophe. (Listen @15’30”) 

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompéani. 

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).

Turkey’s media regulator, RTUK, revoked the station’s licence, claiming it had failed to comply with an earlier fine and suspension.

That order came after a guest earlier this year referred to the 1915 killings of Armenians by Turkey’s then-Ottoman rulers as a genocide.

RTUK ruled that the comment incited public hatred. While Acik did pay the fine, it didn’t come off air, saying it was appealing the initial ruling in court.

The revocation of its broadcasting licence has drawn international condemnation and alarm. “Acik Radio has always adopted a moderate language, reflecting various political views,” Erol Onderoglu, the Turkey representative for Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) told RFI. 

Onderoglu warns that banning Acik is part of a wider trend in the country of “eliminating media pluralism and weakening remaining minority voices”. He continued: “It is in line with a political mission to impose a single official view on society, what they call national and patriotic journalism.”

‘Cultural hub’

In Istanbul’s Kadikoy district, listeners have been chanting in protest over Acik Radio’s removal from the airwaves.

Elif Unal, an avid listener, said the station has been an important part of everyday life for a long time. “They ban everything that makes us smile, that makes us feel happy,” she said. “Most of the people in Istanbul, across Turkey, open their eyes listening to Acik Radio. Acik Radio is important because it’s a cultural hub and also a political supporter of many organisations, NGOs and activists.”

Armenians warn ethnic cleansing risks being forgotten – again

Protestor Mete Atature said he grew up listening to Acik. “Whichever programme you are listening to, you’ll learn something. Not like a lecture, not like an education programme, but there’s always something it leaves you with, and I miss that.”

He added: “From one side, of course, it’s a shock. From another side, it’s not unexpected, given the way the whole country is going. There is less and less free speech, and there’s more oppression, and this is another example.”

Diverse voices

Since its launch in 1994, Acik Radio has sought to bridge Turkey’s deep cultural and political divides. Volunteers produce and present social and cultural programmes that represent the country’s diverse population, including minorities.

Yetvart Danzikyan hosted Acik’s show “Radio Agos,” a programme aimed at Turkey’s Armenian minority.

“We tried to make the unheard voices of not only the Armenian community but also all the other minorities, the Greek, Jewish, and Suryani communities,” he said, adding that they were trying to bring even more unheard voices to the station’s programmes.

Turkey’s embattled civil society fears worst as foreign funding dries up

Turkey’s main opposition parties are supporting the station, and say the closure is a government attempt to further tighten its grip on the country’s media.

For now, Acik has returned to broadcasting via the internet, securing a licence under the new name of APACIK Radio. 

But those who run the station feel they are fighting an uphill battle. “The general atmosphere is getting towards more repression in Turkey,” Acik’s co-founder Omer Madra said wearily. “But we are very determined to fight on, and we’ve had some magnificent support from all the regions of the country.”

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! And we are so pleased that “one of our own” has made it into the running: Saleem Akhtar Chadhar, the president of the RFI Seven Stars Listeners Club, is one of the 10 nominees in the RFI Clubs category! 

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 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: In mid-October, our beloved sportsman Paul Myers wrote about yet another speedy Kenyan: Ruth Chepngetich. Chepngetich not only won the Chicago Marathon on 13 October, she set a world record, too. She finished the 42-kilometer course in two hours, nine minutes, and 56 seconds – beating the previous long-distance record set by almost two minutes. That record was set by Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa at the 2023 Berlin Marathon. 

Chepngetich also became the first woman to win the Chicago Marathon three times, since its inception in 1977.

You were to re-read Paul’s article “Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich sets women’s world record at Chicago Marathon”, and send in the answers to these questions: What are the names and nationalities of the women who took second and third place in the 2024 Chicago Marathon race?

The answer is: Ethiopian Sutume Kebede came second in two hours, 17 minutes and 32 seconds. Irine Cheptai from Kenya was third, with two hours, 17 minutes, and 52 seconds.

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “How do you describe real friendship? Give an example.” The question was suggested by Lata Akhter Murshida from Bogura, Bangladesh.

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Pradip Chandra Kundu from West Bengal, India. Pradip is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations, Pradip, on your double win.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Ali Shahzad, a member of the RFI Seven Stars Radio Listeners Club in District Chiniot, Pakistan, and RFI Listeners Club members Shaira Hosen Mo from Kishoreganj, Bangladesh as well as Samir Mukhopadhyay from West Bengal, India.

Last but assuredly not least, RFI English listener Tesha Akhter from Rajshahi, Bangladesh.  

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Sanoftob” by Thierry David; “Virtual Lifestyle” by Jean-Paul Merkel; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and In the Steppes of Central Asia by Alexander Borodin, performed by Evgeny Svetlanov and the USSR State Symphony Orchestra.

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 Isabell Martinetti’s article “Paris Photo fair focuses on photo books and their publishers”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 16 December to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 21 December 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

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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.   

Zitouni Ould Dada, representing the FAIRR Initiative – a network raising awareness of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks in the food sector – underscores the need to transform global food systems.

“Since Cop15 in Paris and Cop26 in Glasgow, good progress has been made towards building sustainable and resilient agri-food systems,” he said. “Cop29 is a key moment to accelerate the transformation of food production.”

He calls on policymakers to strengthen climate commitments, integrate agriculture into national plans, and create policies to attract sustainable investment.

Financing green energy and addressing climate disasters are key issues at this year’s summit.

Seyni Nafo, spokesperson for the African negotiators group and chair of the Green Climate Fund, coordinates the African Union Adaptation Initiative. He shared his perspective with RFI’s Christophe Boisbouvier.

Speaking from Baku, Nafo explored the question of responsibility for funding climate recovery in the most affected regions.

The negotiations come during what is expected to be the hottest year on record, underscoring the urgency of Cop29’s agenda.

Episode mixed by Erwan Rome.

Spotlight on Africa is a podcast from Radio France Internationale.

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

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

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

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

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

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

In partnership with Madhya Pradesh’s tourism board.

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

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

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

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

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

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