The central African country in late November abruptly ended military cooperation with its former colonial ruler, and French troops began leaving the country in late December.

“Today… marks the handover of the Abéché base,” Defence Minister Issaka Malloua Djamouss said during an official ceremony on Saturday.

He called it a key step “leading to the final and total withdrawal of this army in our country”.

Around 100 troops left the Abéché base on Saturday, after equipment convoys departed Friday evening.

The French army had around 1,000 personnel in Chad.

Djamouss added that the 31 January deadline for France to remove forces for good was “imperative”, “irreversible” and “non-negotiable”.

French soldiers and fighter aircraft have been stationed in Chad almost continuously since the country’s independence in 1960, helping to train the Chadian military.

The planes also provided air support that proved crucial on several occasions in stopping rebels moving to seize power.

Mid-December, the jets were the first to go, followed by a contingent of 120 soldiers and the handover of the Faya base in northern Chad.

Chad orders French troops to leave within six weeks as relations sour

“Partnerships evolve but the friendship remains between our two nations, as does the solidarity between two sovereign nations that will continue to move forward side by side as they always have,” French embassy representative Fabien Talon said at the event.

The central African country, one of the poorest in the world, was the last Sahel nation to host French troops.

Paris at one point had deployed more than 5,000 soldiers as part of its anti-jihadist Barkhane operation.

Last foothold for France 

Chad had been a key link in France’s military presence in Africa and its last foothold in the wider Sahel region after the forced withdrawal of French troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in the wake of military coups.

The military authorities in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have pivoted towards Russia in recent years.

Chad’s leader General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno has also sought closer ties with Moscow in recent months, but talks to strengthen economic cooperation have yet to bear concrete results.

Diplomatic dip for France as African nations seek out stronger partners

Deby described the agreement as “completely obsolete” and no longer aligned with the “political and geostrategic realities of our time”.

His election in May brought an end to a three-year political transition triggered by his father’s death in clashes with rebels in 2021.

Longtime ruler Idriss Deby Itno had received support from the French army to quell rebel offensives in 2008 and 2019.

(with AFP)

Overseas Territories Minister Manuel Valls told BFM TV on Saturday that a current orange alert would become a red alert in the evening, as weather conditions were set to worsen overnight.

The decision came after an emergency cabinet meeting in Paris, coordinated by the Interior Ministry.

National weather bureau Météo France published its forecast saying cyclone Dikeledi would cross Madagascar during the course of the day and pass by approximately 75km from the southern tip of Mayotte on Sunday, where it would be classified as a “strong tropical storm”.

Winds of 50 to 60 km/h on average are expected on the whole island and possibly more intense in the south, with gusts between 100 and 120 km/h, the bureau said.

There would also be risk of some coastal flooding on the west and south coasts, the police said, adding that local ferry transportation would be suspended.

Thousands displaced

The new storm alert comes less than a month after the passage of Cyclone Chido, the most devastating storm to hit the small archipelago in the Indian Ocean in 90 years.

At least 39 people were killed, 124 seriously injured and over 5,000 injured.

Aid flows from French cities to Mayotte a month after devastating cyclone

 

Thousands more lost their homes and have been relying on donations and temporary accomodation to get by.

Mayors have been ordered to reopen accommodation centres such as schools, municipal facilities and gymnasiums, which accommodated some “15,000 people” during Chido.

The police have also requested “positioning of forces, particularly firefighters” especially in shanty towns around the capital Mamoudzou.

Prefect Francois-Xavier Bieuville, the top Paris-appointed official on the territory said that potential mudslides were “a major risk.

“Chido was a dry cyclone, with very little rain,” he added. “This tropical storm is a wet event, we are going to have a lot of rain.”

Residents were advised to seek shelter and stock up on food and water.

Mayotte’s population stands officially at 320,000, but there are an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 more undocumented inhabitants living in shanty towns that were destroyed by the cyclone in December.

France has suffered more deadly terror attacks since 2012 than any other EU country.

In 2018, three years after the deadly November 2015 attacks that claimed 130 lives, Macron vowed to honour victims by creating a museum to put their stories “at the heart of our memories“.

The €95 million memorial, set to open in Suresnes, west of Paris, was designed as a tribute to all victims of terrorism, in France and abroad.

The museum’s opening had been planned for 2027, with €10 million already spent on its development. But in December, it was abruptly axed “for financial reasons” amidst budget cuts under Michel Barnier’s government.

Barnier was ousted shortly after in a vote of no confidence.

Victims’ associations denounced the decision as “brutal” and “incomprehensible”.

On Tuesday, as France commemorated the attacks on satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo that claimed 12 lives, the French president took back control of his project.

He reassured the MMT memorial committee of his “investment” and support to see the memorial through “as it was initially conceived”, the committee’s president Henry Russo wrote on social media.

“It’s good news for all the victims of terrorism… to see the state keep its word,” Russo added.

Place of remembrance

The memorial aims to pay homage to all victims of terrorism and is being designed in partnership with others museums including the 11 September memorial in New York and the one dedicated to victims of the Utoya massacre in Norway.

It will include thousands of exhibits –  family souvenirs such as yarmulkes worn by children killed in the 2012 attack on a Jewish school; tables and chairs from “La Belle Equipe” bar pitted with bullet holes received during the 13 November Paris attacks; clothes worn by victims of the 2016 Nice attacks.

The memorial will also retrace the history of terrorism since the 1970s and the emergence of a new type of international terrorism, with a retrospective going back to the 19^th century, states the MMT website.

“The museum memorial will be both a place of remembrance, recognition and justice for all victims of terrorism,” François Molins, public prosecutor during the 2015 terror attacks, told FranceInfo on Tuesday.

“It will also be a place of culture, reflexion and exchange around the values of being good citizens,” he added.

Remembering France’s Oradour-sur-Glane massacre, one heirloom at a time

Controversial location

The memorial’s location, however, is proving controversial.

Mont-Valerien houses a memorial marking the place where the German army executed members of the French Resistance and prisoners during WWII.

Last year, groups memorialising the Shoah and the Resistance voiced opposition to the location, fearing that remembrance of terrorism risked erasing that of World War II.

According to FranceInfo, Culture Minister Rachida Dati is lukewarm about the project. 

Her entourage said there was “consensus in calling for the project to be reoriented”.

But for Guillaume Denoix de Saint Marc, head of the French association for victims of terrorism,  the decision to go ahead with the project at Mont-Valerien marks the “restart of considerable hope”.

Humbert ended 2024 by reaching the final at the Paris Masters, one of the most prestigious events on the circuit after the four Grand Slam championships at the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

Last week, of his intent for 2025, Mpetshi Perricard literally served notice. He unleashed a barrage of aces from his 2.03m frame on his way to the semis at the Brisbane International.

Fils advanced to the quarter-finals at the Hong Kong Open where he was beaten by compatriot Alexandre Müller who went on to claim the title.

As a result of his success, Müller rose 11 places in the ATP lists to 56 in the world and the 27-year-old will start in Melbourne against Nuno Borges from Portugal.

Humbert, France’s top tennis player at number 14, will begin his seventh visit to the Australian Open against the 23-year-old Italian Matteo Gigante who came through the three qualifying rounds to attain the main draw.

Fils will play Otto Virtanen from Finland and Mpetshi Perricard will start in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament as a seed for the first time against his experienced compatriot Gael Monfils.

Last year, Humbert reached the third round in Melbourne. Fils went down to the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor in the second round and Mpetshi Perricard failed to make it out of the qualifying tournament.

“Humbert is for the second time in his life inside the top 16 in the world rankings and that means you can’t play a better ranked player before the second week,” explained Julien Reboullet, tennis correspondent for the French sports newspaper L’Equipe.

“The first time it happened to him was at Wimbledon last July and he got to the fourth round where he played against Carlos Alcaraz.

“Although he lost in four sets, it was quite a fight. So I think the fact that he has this ranking right now is a very good point.”

That Humbert beat Alcaraz on his way to the final at the Paris Masters should instil him with confidence. And so should the fast conditions on the cushion acrylic hard courts in Melbourne.

Speed

“The courts in Melbourne suit his game,” Reboullet added. “During December, Humbert worked very hard on his physical condition. He plays on the front foot and doesn’t wait for his opponent’s faults. If he manages to find his form and to handle the heat in Australia, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the second week in Melbourne.”

The journey of Fils and Mpetshi Perricard will be as intriguing. Fils won his first title on the tour at the ATP 250 event in Lyon in May 2023 when he was still in his teens. 

Under the guidance of the French former top 10 player Sébastien Grosjean, Fils finished 2023 in the top 40 and flaunting the accolade of the circuit’s breakthrough player of the year.

In July 2024, barely 20, Fils scooped the biggest prize of his career when he upset defending champion Alexander Zverev to claim the ATP 500 crown on the clay at the Hamburg Open in July. Another ATP 500 trophy followed in Tokyo in September.

Fils, who lost to Zverev at the Paris Masters in the last-16, ended the 2024 season at number 20 in the ATP rankings.

“After last year, Fils clearly has to be targeting the top 10,” said Reboullet. “And I think he is giving himself all the chances because he is already working with Grosjean and he has added another coach to his team.

“I think looking for another piece of expertise is really the sign that he is in the process and the mood to get better and better.”

Fraternity

That thirst for improvement will likely keep Mpetshi Perricard as aspirational. He and Fils have been firm friends since meeting 10 years ago at the training centre in Poitiers, western France. They’ve holidayed together and teamed up to win the doubles at the French Open junior event in 2021, a few days before Fils’ 17th birthday.

“I want to thank Gio for the birthday present,” said Fils after a straight sets victory over Martin Katz and German Samofalov. “Playing and winning with your mate … there’s really nothing better than that.”

Three and a half years on from such giddiness, Mpetshi Perricard, the elder of the duo at 21, will be able to lean on his chum’s experience on the senior circuit to negotiate what will be a complicated campaign after rocketing up the rankings in 2024 from 200 to 30 in the world courtesy of victories in Lyon in May and the ATP 500 event in Basel in October.

On his way to the last four in Brisbane, Mpetshi Perricard served 87 aces in his four matches before succumbing to the equally big-serving American Reilly Opelka.

“It will not be so easy to be a surprise,” said Reboullet. “Because now the public and the other players are expecting something from him. But his serve will be a huge weapon and it will mean every opponent will have to stay very focused during the whole game.

“They will have to be very confident because they know that if they lose their own serve, they will have a very good chance of losing the set.”

Sensibly, the France Davis Cup captain, Paul-Henri Mathieu, has drafted the trio to represent their country in the first round of the 2025 Davis Cup against Brazil in February in Orléans, central France.

“Ugo did so well to reach the final at the Paris Masters,” said Mathieu, himself a former top 20 player. “Arthur won in Tokyo and Gio won in Basel. All three of them play well on a fast indoor surface.”

But how they operate on a fast outdoor court in searing heat will be the question as they and the 125 other players in the first round draw jostle for one of the sport’s most coveted accolades.

Contenders

World number three Carlos Alcaraz enters the Australian Open hoping to add the crown to his titles from the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

Should the 21-year-old Spaniard triumph, he will become only the sixth man since tennis was opened up to professionals in 1968 to win the prize at all four sites.

After the retirement of Rafael Nadal last September, Novak Djokovic bestrides the circuit as the only active player to have achieved the exploit.

The 38-year-old, who was beaten in the semis in 2024 by the eventual champion Jannik Sinner, will go into the 2025 tournament seeking a record-extending 11th Australian Open trophy and an unprecedented 25th singles crown at a Grand Slam tournament with a new coach in the shape of former world number one Andy Murray.

“I think it was a move of a genius,” said Reboullet who has been reporting on tennis for 25 years. “The message for the other ones is: ‘Hey, I’m not dumb. And now I have a big guy with me, and you will have to beat Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray this year if you want to go further.’

“Djokovic is telling everyone that he’s not done yet and he still wants to win something big.”

Sinner, who won at the US Open in September 2024 and the season-ending championships in November, appears more than capable of stopping Djokovic’s dream for a second successive year.

And while the Serb goes into battle for legend, France’s top three will fight for credibility.

Lebranchu was a member of the French rowing eight who finished fourth in the 1948 London Games.

He was also national eight champion of France twice, the first time in 1946 when both his brothers were in the same crew.

“It is a huge honour,” he said of carrying the torch. “I bring peace.”

He lit the cauldron during the torch relay as it passed through the famed monastery of Mont-Saint-Michel, in May, 2024.

‘See you later’

Lebranchu was arrested in 1943 as he tried to escape to North Africa and join General Charles de Gaulle’s Free French Army after refusing to go to Germany as a forced labourer.

“I did not want to go to Germany, I wanted to fight them,” he told Ouest France newspaper in September 2023.

He glimpsed his father as he was being herded towards a cattle wagon to be transported to Buchenwald Camp in Germany and despite efforts to prevent them addressing each other they were able to mouth: “See you later.”

His journey lasted three days, he told Ouest France. Half the people in his wagon died and the rest slaked their thirst by “licking the bolts on the doors”.

Along with several others, Lebranchu escaped from a ‘Death March’ in April 1945 and was picked up safely by the US Army.

His father honoured the promise of ‘see you later’ by greeting him at a Paris metro station when he returned to France shortly afterwards.

RFI’s coverage of the Paris Olympics 2024

“I fought for France to be liberated and I fought for France in sport afterwards,” he told BFM TV last year.

With his passing, Israel’s Shaul Ladany is believed to be the only remaining Olympic athlete alive to have survived a Second World War concentration camp.

Ladany, 88, was in Bergen-Belsen camp and also survived the terror attack on the Israeli team at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

(with AFP)

Forests act as the planet’s lungs and are unique havens for biodiversity. But Africa lost nearly 4 million hectares of forest in the last decade, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned.

Agriculture remains the biggest threat to forest conservation, as communities clear land to feed growing populations. Other pressures come from urban development, mining and logging.

Preserving forests while meeting the needs of local populations is a challenge. 

Family farming provides two-thirds of the continent’s jobs. But, faced with soil degradation and a growing population to feed, agricultural land is gradually eroding forests hectare by hectare. 

Protected areas 

Protected areas are one solution. Africa already has more than 9,300 protected zones, covering nearly 15 percent of the continent’s surface.

The global goal is to expand this to 30 percent. Yet many of these areas lack funding, skilled staff, and effective governance.

Alternative management models are proving successful, such as community-based initiatives that involve local populations.

Public-private partnerships between governments and conservation groups are emerging as an effective solution.

Scientists found 127 such partnerships across 16 countries rich in biodiversity, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Madagascar.

Zambia leads solar shift amid southern Africa’s hydroelectric drought

Research shows these partnerships cut deforestation by 55 percent in protected areas.

Rwanda’s Akagera National Park demonstrates this success. The park had lost much of its wildlife in the late 1990s but has since recovered.

“The park is now managed by a South African NGO, African Parks Networks,” said Sébastien Desbureaux, environmental economics researcher at INRAE in France.

“This has succeeded in strengthening management and implementing significant ecotourism since the mid-2000s. So much so that today, the park is financially self-sufficient thanks to tourism revenue, and its wildlife population has really recovered, reaching record numbers.”

Scientists say developing alternative income sources to agriculture could help reduce pressure on natural environments while supporting local communities.

---

This story was adapted from the original article reported in French by RFI’s climate journalist Jeanne Richard.

The Paris region already produces its own beer, wine and cheese. Thanks to the ambition of residents in the southern suburb of Malakoff, it can now add olive oil to that list – a modest 50 litres, but it marks a beginning.

“Born to be Olive” isn’t available in the shops but has been shared out between the olive growers and those who supported the fundraising operation, says Vincent Chévrier, the brains behind the project.

He invites me to dip a piece of bread into the yellow liquid with a hint of green. It’s light and fruity.

“I think it’s quite complex,” says Chévrier. “It’s not filtered so it’s a pure, natural, organic product with a hint of acidity which is very pleasant. And what’s incredible is that it’s the result of all the olives we received – over 40 different varieties.” 

Chévrier struck on the “slightly absurd” idea of making local olive oil about a year ago while walking through his home-town of Malakoff and noticing that many houses had olive trees like his own.

“We don’t have a mill so we can’t process them here in Paris,” he explains. “It’s a bit daft to lose your fruit, and since we can’t do anything individually with a handful of olives, a few kilos at most, I thought we should try and get everyone together.”

He began knocking on people’s doors whenever he saw a tree in the front garden. “To date, we’ve counted more than 120 trees in two square kilometres.”

A Facebook page helped to spread the word and the Malakolives collective was formed. A few months ago they launched a crowdfunding project to buy equipment to both harvest and press the fruit.

The €1,900 raised was enough to buy an electric rake, nets, a grinder and an olive press.

More on this story in the Spotlight on France podcast, episode 121, listen here.

The harvest began in late October.

“I’ve never done it before,” says Géraldine Deschamps, combing the branches of her tree with the electric rake. It’s hardly a bumper crop but she says there’s a certain “magic” knowing her olives will be transformed into oil.

Further down the road, Catherine and Michel’s garden is carpeted with olives. The retired couple planted their tree when they moved to Malakoff 20 years ago. This year it’s produced around 10 kilograms.

“I don’t even like olives,” Catherine admits. “My husband puts them in brine each year and I don’t eat them. But I do like cooking with olive oil, usually from Greece. Now I’ll be able to use homemade oil.”

Parisian olive trees

Chévrier identified olive trees not just in Malakoff, but in neighbouring towns like Vanves and Chatillon – places where there are still houses (and therefore gardens), and stable communities to keep them going.

While olive growing is typically Mediterranean, the trees adapt well to northern France’s often damp and grey climate.

“You can plant olive trees in very arid climates with little soil, that’s why they were adapted to the Mediterranean climate,” Chévrier explains. “But in the rich soil in the north of France it could be even better. You can have very successful olive production around Paris and the more water they have the more fruit they’ll produce!”

Pressing the oil

The collective gathered 550 kilograms from 80 trees. On a Saturday in mid-December, locals brought olives of all shapes, sizes and hues to Malakoff’s urban farm for pressing.

On the forecourt, the fruit is ground into a sludgy paste, then heated to help release the oil.

Inside the wooden chalet, the paste is spread out on wicker type mats known as scourtin then pressed until the oil and olive liquid seep out.

“It’s very slow,” laughs Chévrier, watching drops of glistening oil drip down into a jerry can. 

Getting to this point involved a lot of trial and error and “testing in the basement” to iron out difficulties, but he says he can now help train others in making olive oil the artisanal way.

Guillaume Vens is all ears for insider tips. He brought along 80 kilograms of olives from 15 neighbours in La Garenne Colombes, 10 kilometres away. 

Tired of putting his olives in brine, Vens discovered the Malakolives project – which “opened the door” to oil-making.

He hopes to improve on the “nails and bamboo” fork he made for harvesting. “They have better equipment here,” he jokes.

Community spirit

Learning to make olive oil is a learning curve, but people are also drawn to working together as a community and developing the circular economy.

“If we want to be food self-sufficient, we have to produce locally,” says David Fayon, plumping down bag of olives from his two trees. “This project has a lifecycle, from the concept to the realisation and you harvest the fruit in every sense. On a human level there’s something really attractive about it.”

Harvesting ‘Red Gold’ on the rooftops of Paris

For Joanna Delaney, an instructor at the Malakoff urban farm, the project creates links between people locally in a way ordinary commerce doesn’t. “This is a different type of consumption because you’re consuming something you made together with your neighbours. That’s what I love about it,” she says.

Chévrier named the oil “Born to be Olive” – a play on words on the Patrick Hernandez disco hit “Born to be Alive” – and he hopes for increased production next year through better pruning.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to reach industrial production levels in Malakoff,” he admits. “But at least everyone will be able to have a few litres of olive oil in the future.

“The idea is above all to have a good time and meet up with your neighbours.”

---

Find more on this story in the Spotlight on France podcast, episode 121 listen here.

Syrian refugee Hasan Sallouraoglu and his family have carved out a new life in Istanbul with a thriving pastry shop in Istanbul‘s Sultanbeyli district, home to around 60,000 Syrians.

With Assad gone, the question of whether to return to Syria now looms. “It’s been 10 years, and my shop has been open for the last eight years. We can start a shop there in Syria, too,” explained Sallouraoglu.

However, Sallouraoglu, with an ironic smile, acknowledges returning to Syria is a hard sell for his family. “There is not much excitement in my family. We see the news and we see that our country is completely destroyed on the ground. Ninety percent of it has been destroyed, so we need time to think,” said Sallouraoglu.

Across the road from Sallouraoglu’s pastry shop, the owner of a clothes shop, Emel Denyal, is considering returning to her home in Aleppo but says such a move could mean breaking up her family.

Nostalgia

“We are all thinking about returning. But the children aren’t interested. They love being here. They want to stay here,” said Denyal.

 ‘We still feel nostalgic for our land. We are still missing Syria because we were raised in Syria,” added Denyal, “The Syrian generation growing up in Turkey doesn’t think about going back. The elderly and my husband are considering returning, but my children aren’t. Can we find a solution?”

Since Assad fled Syria, Turkish authorities claim about 35,000 Syrians out of the nearly four million living in Turkey have gone home.

The Refugee Association in Sutlanebeyli provides assistance to some of Istanbul’s 600,000 Syrian refugees. Social welfare director Kadri Gungorur says the initial euphoria over Assad’s ousting is making way to a more pragmatic outlook.

“The desire to return was very strong in the first stage but has turned into this: ‘Yes, we will return, but there is no infrastructure, no education system, and no hospitals,’ said Gungorur.

Gungorur says with only 12 families from Sultanbeyli returning to their homes, he worries about the consequences if Syrians don’t return in large numbers. “If the Syrians do not return, the general public may react to the Syrians because now they will say that ‘Syria is safe. Why don’t you return?'”

Over the past year, Turkish cities, including Istanbul, have witnessed outbreaks of violence against Syrians amid growing public hostility towards refugees.

 Turkish authorities have removed Arabic from shop signs in a move aimed at quelling growing resentment made worse by an ailing economy.

Concerns for women

Turkish presidential adviser Mesut Casin of Istanbul’s Yeditepe University claims the government is aware of the Turkish public’s concern.   

“We all saw the civil war in Syria. Four million immigrant people in Turkey and that has brought a lot of problems in Turkey …even criminal actions. There’s also the problem of border security. Turkish public opinion is opposed to the Syrian people today,” said Casin.

Erdogan is promising to facilitate the quick return of Syrian refugees. However, such aspirations could well be dependent on the behaviour of Syria’s new rulers,

“The Syrians you have in Turkey are mostly women and children. So it has to be a government and administration friendly to women and children, specifically women,” says analyst Sezin Oney of the independent Turkish news portal Medyascope. 

“But we don’t know with these, Islamist, jihadist groups. Will they be really friendly towards these othe groups? So I don’t see the return of the Syrians who are in Turkey, really,” added Oney.

Erdogan is pledging that the return of the Syrians will be voluntary. However, analysts suggest more decisive action may be necessary, as the Turkish leader knows if the refugees do not return home quickly, it could have political consequences.

Maintaining a 35-year tradition which sees China’s top diplomat visit Africa on the first overseas trip of the year, Wang Yi – who is also a member of the all-powerful Standing Committee of China’s Communist Party – will this week visit Namibia, the Republic of the Congo, Chad and Nigeria. 

“This is a pillar of the relationship between China and Africa,” said Eric Olander, CEO of the China-Global South Project, an NGO which monitors China’s relations with the African continent. “It is surprising that other countries like the United States, France, the UK, and others have not emulated this tradition, because it’s so easy and it is so effective.”  

Currently, China is at loggerheads with the European Union. After Brussels imposed high tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, Beijing took measures to restrict the activities of foreign car makers in China, hitting EU car giants such as Volkswagen, which have massive joint-venture operations in the country.

• Beijing accuses EU of slapping unfair restrictions on Chinese firms

US tariffs

Beijing is also anxiously awaiting the upcoming second US presidency of Donald Trump.

The US has imposed 100 percent tariffs on some Chinese products, while Trump fulminates against US companies that have outsourced their operations to the country, criticising the massive China-US trade deficit and claiming repeatedly that China is “ripping off” the US. 

African relations may help ease China’s worries. “China’s relationship with Nigeria is pivotal,” says Olander. The latter competes with South Africa for the position of Africa’s biggest economy.

“Nigeria is a 200 million plus super-market, like Brazil and Indonesia,” Olander added. “They are going to be increasingly important for China as they get shut out of the US and Europe, as well as Japan and the G7 markets.”

Nuclear energy

Namibia too is interesting for China, as a source of uranium, which is essential to feeding China’s growing nuclear energy industry.

“China has made climate commitments, and it is going to be very difficult for them to meet those without nuclear energy,” explained Olander. 

Beijing’s Africa trips, however, are primarily based on continental geography, rather than targeting specific countries.

“If they went to the east last time, they will focus more on the west this time. There is always the idea to have a mix of large and small countries. They also make sure that they visit as many countries as possible over the course of the years. Chad hasn’t come up before, so they went there,” Olander told RFI. 

Political support

While the focus is off the multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative – a Chinese infrastructure project that aims to connect Asia, Africa and Europe through land and sea routes – due to China’s internal economic problems, over the past 10 years Beijing has looked more to Africa for political support, according to Olander. 

“Africa, more than any other region in the world, votes as a bloc in the United Nations,” he said. “African countries have been very enthusiastic supporters of China’s new alternative international governance architecture, the Global Civilization Initiative, the Global Defence Initiative and the Global Development Initiative.”

In addition, most African countries support China in major international forums such as the United Nations Human Rights Council. They have signed up alongside China on sensitive issues including the autonomous region of Xinjiang and disputes over the South China Sea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Tibet.

Mutual interest

“It is consistency, building up a long-term relationship, which is what the Chinese have always insisted on,” said Michael Dillon, a history professor affiliated with the Lau China Institute at King’s College London.

“The Africans don’t like people who come in and make promises and then go out again. They want people who are prepared to take the rough with the smooth and to accept that a long-term relationship is the only way of developing mutual interest.”

This is in contrast to the old model under colonial powers such as the UK and France. Wang’s visit includes former French colonies the Republic of Congo and Chad, with the Chinese targeting countries where they perceive the West is pulling out.

“France is having particular difficulty maintaining a presence” in Africa, said Dillon. “It is moving its military out of Chad. And [China is] looking to be targeting the Francophone African areas, and they will want to be able to push out European sales.”

• Chad orders French troops to leave within six weeks as relations sour

But China will not send its troops to Africa, unless it is under the auspices of the UN. During his visit, Wang Yi announced military aid to Nigeria, but this will not involve sending troops.

“You will never see Chinese troops replace French or American troops in the Sahel,” said Olander. “But first and foremost, we can expect a pretty robust diplomatic presence and engagement, the continuation of Chinese financial engagement with many of the West African countries.”

Beijing deftly handled the political transition in Guinea and Niger, while Western powers had issues with the new governments.

According to Olander: “The Chinese went in there and they said, we’re not interested in telling you what to do. We just want to make sure that our investments stay stable, and also that Chinese nationals in the country are not targeted for attack.

“And for the most part, the different junta leaders across the Sahel said, if you stay out of our business, we’ll stay out of yours. And that’s what’s happened. And it allowed the Chinese a certain level of continuity in the Sahel that the Europeans and the Americans have not had.”

Disruption versus stability 

Meanwhile, Russian influence has been growing in several African countries from which Western – predominantly French – forces are departing, with Russian state-funded private military company the Wagner Group taking a prominent position in their place.

But Western fears about a possible association between Russia and China in Africa are misplaced, according to Olander. 

“In many respects Russia is a disruptive power in Africa and elsewhere,” he said. “That does not benefit the Chinese in places like Africa. China prefers stability. China wants to do business and trade.”

“China does support Russia when it comes to challenging the Western-led international system,” Olander said, adding that Chinese interests are not served by the disruption caused by the Wagner Group or by Russian disinformation campaigns.

“Russia’s presence in Africa is quite minimal. Their main exports are oil and minerals. You’re not going to sell oil and minerals to Africa. Russia wants to sell nuclear power stations, weapons, but for the most part, Russian economic engagement is a mere fraction of [that of] the Chinese.”

• Former Wagner media operative lifts the lid on Russian disinformation in CAR

Algerian influencer “Doualemn” was arrested on Tuesday, 7 January in the southern French city of Montpellier, after posting a video on social media platform TikTok allegedly calling for violence against an Algerian anti-regime protester.

Doualemn was put on a plane to Algiers on Thursday afternoon, according to his lawyer Jean-Baptiste Mousset.

However, the French interior ministry said on Thursday evening that Algiers had “refused entry” to the 59-year-old, who is now in an administrative detention centre near Paris.

Three other influencers supportive of the Algerian authorities have also been arrested in recent days, over videos allegedly calling for violent acts in France.

Algerian social media influencers arrested in France for calling for violence

Paris and Algiers were already at loggerheads over the fate of French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who has been in detention since mid-November in Algeria, accused of “attacking territorial integrity”.

“Algeria is seeking to humiliate France,” Retailleau said on Friday. “Algeria is currently holidng a great writer – Boualem Sansal – who is not only Algerian but also French. Can a great country, a great people allow itself to keep in detention for the wrong reasons someone who is old and sick?”

On the matter of the influencers, Retailleau said it was “out of the question to give a free pass to these individuals who spread hatred and anti-Semitism,” adding that he believed France had reached an “extremely worrying threshold with Algeria”.

Algeria summons French ambassador over accusations of interference

Influencers in the crosshairs

French authorities accuse Doualemn of “calling for the torture of an opponent of the current regime in Algeria“. This led to the withdrawal of his French residence permit and his expulsion from the country, the Hérault department prefect said on Thursday.

His lawyer Mousset claims the French government “precipitated his expulsion” to prevent its examination by a judge. He denounced the expulsion as an exceptional measure used to “gag” his client, who was due to stand trial for the offence in Montpellier on 24 February.

The three other Algerians recently arrested over posting content online calling for violent acts, often against opponents of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s regime, include French-Algerian Sofia Benlemmane, who has more than 300,000 followers on TikTok and Facebook.

She was taken into custody on Thursday for “death threats and public incitement to hatred” as well as making insulting statements about France, according to police.

Diplomatic relations between France and its former colony Algeria have been strained in recent years, but worsened considerably in October when President Emmanuel Macron sided with Morocco over the long-disputed territory of Western Sahara, also claimed by Algeria.

One month ago, Cyclone Chido wreaked havoc on the French overseas territory of Mayotte, with 39 people confirmed dead and more than 5,000 injured in the most devastating cyclone to hit the island in 90 years.

Thousands of families were left homeless after high winds flattened the shanty towns where between 100,000 and 200,000 of the population of 300,000 lived – among them many undocumented migrants from neighbouring Comoros.

On Monday, volunteers in Marseille and Toulon were busy preparing donations to ship to Mayotte.

“We’re heading toward Toulon. We’re going to pick up food supplies,” said Naer Abdallah from the Ambre organisation.

“We’re currently loading water and milk. After that, we’ll load other food items like pasta, rice, canned goods and couscous.”

Cyclone-hit Mayotte reopens airport but displaced families remain in limbo

French PM Bayrou unveils ‘Mayotte standing’ reconstruction plan

With one truck already packed with more than 60 large boxes, Abdou Ouirdani, president of the Mahoran union of Toulon, said they were looking for a second truck to transport the remaining supplies.

“We’re going to try to find a second truck to fit everything in. We have a lot of food, a lot of clothing, but there’s everything, really. Toys, hygiene products, toothpaste… you name it,” Ouirdani said.

Donations have been steadily arriving in Toulon for weeks. Kassim, a volunteer, said the aid will continue for as long as necessary.

“The crisis won’t end today. If we need to organise donations once a month, we will. Mayotte’s reconstruction won’t happen overnight.”

At a warehouse in Marseille, volunteers are taking stock of the collected items.

“We have almost seven to eight tonnes of food, along with clothing and medical supplies,” Abdallah said.

The latest shipment of donations from Marseille and Toulon is set to leave for Mayotte on 24 January.

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.

WORLD RADIO DAY is coming up – it’s on 13 February. As we do every year, we’ll have a feast in The Sound Kitchen, filled with your voices.

Send your SHORT recorded WRD greetings to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr by 1 February. This year’s theme is “Radio and Climate Change”, but you don’t have to talk about the theme – if you just want to say “hello!”, that’s fine, too.

Be sure you include your name and where you live in your message.

Most importantly, get under a blanket to record. This will make your recording broadcast quality.

Bombard me with your greetings!!!!

The RFI English team is pleased to announce that Saleem Akhtar Chadhar, the president of the RFI Seven Stars Listening Club in District Chiniot, Pakistan, won the RFI / Planète Radio ePOP video contest, in the RFI Clubs category. Bravo Saleem! Mubarak ho!

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: On the 23rd of November, I asked you a question about the legislative elections in Senegal, which were won by a comfortable margin by Pastef, the ruling party.

The win came just a few months after President Bassirou Diomaye Faye secured the presidency, pledging economic transformation, social justice, and a fight against corruption, so now the way is cleared for Faye and Pastef to carry out ambitious reforms. May they succeed!

You were to re-read our article “Senegal’s ruling Pastef party on track to get large majority in elections”, and send in the answer to these questions: How many registered voters are there in Senegal, how many members are there in the Parliament, and for how long do those MPs serve?

The answer is, to quote our article: “Senegal’s roughly 7.3 million registered voters were called to elect 165 MPs for five-year terms.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “What is the best thing to wake up to?”

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Kashif Khalil from Faisalabad, Pakistan, who is also this week’s bonus question winner.

Congratulations on your double win, Kashif!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Nafisa Khatun, the president of the RFI Mahila Shrota Sangha Club in West Bengal, India, and Nahid Hossen, a member of the Shetu RFI Listeners Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh. There’s RFI Listeners Club member Sunil Dhungana from Braga, Portugal, and last but not least, RFI English listener Renu Sharma from Rajasthan, India.

Congratulations, winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: Slavonic Dance op. 46 No. 6 by Antonin Dvorak, performed by the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George Szell; “Jarabi”, written and performed by Toumani Diabaté and Sidiki Diabaté; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “La Musette” by Léojac and René Flouron, performed by Berthe Sylva with the Orchestre des Concerts Parisiens conducted by André Cadou.

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 Melissa Chemam’s article “France’s ex-president Sarkozy on trial over alleged Gaddafi pact”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 3 February to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 8 February 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 FPOe won parliamentary elections in September for the first time ever, with almost 29 percent of the vote.

While other parties initially refused to form a cabinet with the FPOe, the conservative People’s Party (OeVP) reversed its position this week and agreed to negotiations.

The talks begin Friday, with the FPOe holding a strong bargaining position.

Fears for democracy

In Vienna, thousands gathered late Thursday to oppose the potential coalition. Protesters held signs reading “Fight fascism” and “Nazis out”.

Authorities estimated the crowd at 25,000, while organisers said it was closer to 50,000. Some demonstrators formed a human chain around the chancellery and shone their mobile phone lights at the building.

“I find it very dangerous to see that right-wing extremism has reached the centre of our society,” retiree Veronika told RFI, adding she worried about the normalisation of the far right.

“Nobody is ashamed anymore, people get used to it so quickly. I’m afraid for our democracy, I don’t want things to turn out like they did in Hungary.”

Hungary’s populist leader Viktor Orban has been criticised for rolling back democratic freedoms and aligning with Russia.

EU launches punitive measures against Hungary over ‘anti-democratic’ laws

The far right has been a member of Austria‘s government several times but has never led the country’s nine million inhabitants.

Student Ines is horrified by such a prospect.

“I believe many individual freedoms are under threat. It’s the case for people from the LGBTQ+ community, for anyone from an immigrant background, for women, but also for all disadvantaged social groups,” she said.

Racism towards black people is growing in Europe, report finds

Others underlined the radicality of FPOe leader Herbert Kickl, who has tapped into voter anxieties over migration, the war in Ukraine and the Covid pandemic. 

“Kickl spoke of keeping refugees in centres in a ‘concentrated’ way – it brings back one of the most terrible chapters in our history,” said Felix, another demonstrator.

“Someone who is prepared to polarise and provoke using words like that is prepared to do a lot of things.”

The rallies, which also took place in Innsbruck, Salzburg and Graz, were called by more than 30 organisations including anti-racism groups and Greenpeace.

The far right has had a strong presence in Austrian politics since the 1980s. In 2000, the FPOe, under Joerg Haider, joined a coalition government – a first in the European Union.

Today the party leads one regional government and participates in four others.

But just months after being created, it finds itself fighting two enemies – Russians across the battlefield and an internal scandal that has shocked the Ukrainian military establishment.

Kyiv has been rocked by reports that hundreds of troops deserted the unit – most before being sent into conflict and a handful while undergoing training in France.

The controversy is being seen as a snapshot of familiar issues that have plagued Ukraine‘s army since Russia invaded three years ago, and comes at a critical political and military juncture for Kyiv.

“Yes, there are problems, we are aware of them,” Land Forces Commander Mykhailo Drapaty said of the 155th Mechanised Brigade, the brigade’s official name, in comments to media including AFP during a press tour to the unit.

“There are problems and there have been problems with staffing, training, and partly with the command staff,” Drapaty said, referring to “the negative things that came out in the public domain”.

Russians who refuse to fight in Ukraine see hope of sanctuary in France

‘Unique’

French President Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of the Anne of Kyiv brigade – named after a Middle Ages Kyiv princess that married into the French royal family – during last year’s commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings.

Paris hailed it as a “unique” initiative and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he wanted to form a dozen other NATO-trained and equipped units.

But that image was shattered in December, when military blogger Yuri Butusov alleged that 1,700 of the brigade’s soldiers had deserted, including 50 while training in France.

Paris has confirmed that “several dozen” desertions took place during the training but called it a “marginal” phenomenon.

Butusov also said the unit suffered losses and “organisational chaos” in its first days of a deployment near Pokrovsk, a vital frontline city that Russian forces are trying to capture.

He alleged they had too few drones and that some artillery had been transferred to other units to plug equipment shortages.

The revelations were an embarrassing setback for the army, struggling to hold back Russia’s forces, and for Zelensky’s ambitions for deeper cooperation with NATO.

During a press tour to the brigade in early January – hastily organised by the army amid the scandal — commander Taras Maksimov appeared tense.

“Everything that is said in the media is false,” he claimed.

Speaking a few hours later, Drapaty, his superior, acknowledged the problems.

But they were not “on the scale” that had been alleged and he said the army was taking “measures” to ensure the Anne of Kyiv’s fighters were “ready to complete missions.”

France says Ukraine using missiles inside Russia an ‘option’ after US authorisation

‘Systemic’

Desertions and morale are sensitive topics for the Ukrainian army, facing manpower shortages and controversy around unpopular recruitment tactics.

Citing the State Bureau of Investigation, local media reported Thursday that more than 7,000 soldiers who left their units without authorisation had voluntarily returned.

Drapaty said the problems faced by the Anne of Kyiv brigade were “systemic for other brigades” in a military that has historically been plagued by corruption.

“This is not a secret,” he said.

Amid the Russian invasion, civilian officials have long complained of communication problems with the army, lamenting the style of Soviet-trained generals.

In November, Pavlo Palisa – a highly respected Ukrainian commander trained at a US military academy – was appointed deputy head of Zelensky’s cabinet, largely to help the presidency get first-hand real-time information from the front.

Analyst Franz-Stefan Gady told AFP such problems were a hangover of the Soviet system, with its “highly centralised command where decision-making power rests firmly and almost totally with high-ranking commanders, often far removed from the battlefield.”

Kyiv had been trying to bring its army up to NATO standards since Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and fomented civil war in the east with pro-Moscow separatists.

While a new generation of officers has been trained, the system itself has not been radically changed. Reports of corruption scandals and abuse of power by senior army officials are routine.

“The higher your rank is, the less the law applies to you,” soldier and influencer Valery Markous said in a recent video on social media.

Even commander Drapaty admitted that Ukraine’s soldiers are often “scared” of their superiors.

“The post-Soviet spirit must be eradicated,” he said.

Abou Sangaré won rave reviews as the lead actor in last year’s film L’Histoire de Souleymane (Souleymane’s Story) in which he played a food delivery cyclist in Paris who is preparing for an immigration interview.

He won the prize for best male performance in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, for a role that mirrored many of his own experiences as an undocumented migrant living in France.

After making three unsuccessful requests for work visas and being subject to a deportation order, he succeeded on Monday, 6 January in obtaining a one-year permit for the first time, according to his lawyer Claire Perinaud, having been offered a job as a mechanic.

“He will ask for renewals and will be able to move to longer-term visas at a later date,” she said.

‘I can’t wait to start working in the garage’

Sangaré told the newspaper Libération that he intended to take up the mechanic’s job, rather than pursue a career in film.

“There might be offers but I’m a mechanic, that’s my trade,” he said. “I can’t wait to start working in the garage.”

Despite having no acting experience, Sangaré was picked by director Boris Lojkine after he attended a casting call in his hometown of Amiens in northeast France, in between off-the-books jobs fixing cars and helping out at a local education charity.

The double life of Abou Sangaré, undocumented migrant and Cannes award winner

He left Guinea as a teenager, seeking to make enough money to pay for medical care for his mother, who has epilepsy.

His journey took him across the Sahara to Algeria and Libya, then across the Mediterranean in an inflatable boat to Italy and finally France.

“When we chose Sangaré to play the main role in the film, it was a big responsibility,” Lojkine said in October, when his film was released in France. “It’s only when he has his papers that I will [feel like I have] finished my film.”

(with AFP)

JANUARY 

50 years since France’s abortion law passed 

In a watershed moment for women’s rights in France, parliament passed the Veil Law on 17 January 1975, decriminalising abortion. Coming eight years after the Neuwirth Law legalised contraception, the legislation followed campaigns where 343 women publicly declared having had abortions and 331 doctors admitted performing them. The law, championed by Health Minister Simone Veil, was made permanent in 1979. 

80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz  

On 27 January 1945, Soviet soldiers reached Auschwitz concentration camp, home to just a few thousand surviving prisoners, including future writer Primo Levi. The soldiers stumbled upon the camp by chance, and its immense scale shocked them. In the following days, filmmakers and investigators documented the survivors’ harrowing experiences. For years, the Jewish identity of most victims remained underacknowledged, often overshadowed by broader references to “victims of fascism”. 

FEBRUARY 

80 years since the Yalta Conference  

The future of post-war Europe was decided at the Yalta Conference in Crimea, opening on 4 February 1945. With Nazi Germany’s impending defeat, the meeting between Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to divide Germany into zones of occupation and shift Poland‘s borders eastward. General Charles de Gaulle of France, however, was excluded from the talks, underscoring France’s precarious position as it recovered from years of occupation and collaboration. His absence from the famous photographs long remained a sore point in France. 

35 years since Mandela’s release  

Nelson Mandela walked free after 26 years in prison on 11 February 1990, raising his fist in victory alongside his wife Winnie. His party, the African National Congress, was unbanned days later. The apartheid system, in place since 1948, was abolished the following year. Mandela and President Frederik de Klerk shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize before Mandela became South Africa‘s first black president in 1994. 

MARCH 

80 years since Anne Frank’s death  

Around 1 March 1945, Anne Frank died aged 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Born in Frankfurt, she had lived in Amsterdam since 1933 when her family fled Nazi persecution. From 1942 to 1944, while hiding in a secret apartment, she wrote her famous diary. Her father Otto, the family’s sole survivor, published it in 1947. 

60 years since first spacewalk  

Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov made history on 18 March 1965 as the first human to conduct a spacewalk. Floating 200 kilometres above Earth for precisely 12 minutes and nine seconds, he had prepared with 1,000 kilometres of cycling, 150 practice sessions and 117 parachute jumps. He risked gas embolism during re-entry, and his spacecraft landed 400 kilometres off target. 

APRIL 

50 years since Lebanon’s civil war began  

On 13 April 1975, attacks between Palestinian fighters and Christian militias launched Lebanon into 15 years of civil war. The violence began when Palestinian fedayeen attacked a Maronite church, followed by Christians targeting a bus carrying Palestinian fighters and civilians. The country, once nicknamed the “Switzerland of the Middle East” for its prosperity and stability, emerged from the conflict devastated and under the influence of Syria and Israel.

50 years since the Khmer Rouge takeover  

After five years of civil war, the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975, overthrowing General Lon Nol‘s US-backed government. They immediately forced the population to leave the capital as part of their rural revolution. In under four years, their genocidal regime killed one in four Cambodians. 

MAY 

80 years since VE Day and the Setif massacre  

Nazi Germany formally surrendered to the Allied forces on 8 May 1945, marking the end of World War II in Europe. The same day, French colonial forces violently suppressed protests in Sétif, Guelma and Kherrata, killing thousands of Algerians. These massacres are now seen as precursors to the Algerian war of independence, which began nine years later. 

70 years since the Warsaw Pact  

On 14 May 1955, the Soviet Union and its eastern European allies signed the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance formed in response to NATO. The pact symbolised the division of Europe during the Cold War. 

JUNE 

80 years since Germany was divided  

On 5 June 1945, the four victorious Allied powers formalised the division of Germany into four occupation zones controlled by the US, the UK, the Soviet Union and France. Berlin sat within the Soviet sector. This laid the groundwork for the Cold War and Germany’s later split into East and West. 

700 years since Ibn Battuta’s pilgrimage 

On 14 June 1325, Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta, hailed “the greatest medieval Muslim traveller”, embarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca. His voyage spanned 24 years and over 120,000 kilometres, taking him across Africa, the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia. Ibn Battuta’s detailed accounts remain invaluable records of medieval life and cultures.  

50 years since Mozambique’s independence 

Mozambique declared independence from Portugal on 25 June 1975 after a decade-long war of liberation. The end of Portuguese colonial rule across Africa was hastened by Portugal’s Carnation Revolution in 1974. 

JULY 

30 years since Srebrenica massacre 

Bosnian Serb forces overran the town of Srebrenica, a UN-designated safe zone, on 11 July 1995. Over the following days, they carried out the systematic massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys, making it Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II. About 30,000 people fled to Potocari seeking protection at the Dutch UN base, but found little safety. The victims’ bodies were buried in mass graves across the region, and the International Criminal Court later ruled the killings a genocide. It became a symbol of the world’s failure to prevent mass atrocities in the Bosnian War. 

80 years since first nuclear test  

The first nuclear weapons test took place on 16 July 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico, as part of the Manhattan Project. Los Alamos scientists developed the plutonium fission device nicknamed “Gadget”. Project leader J Robert Oppenheimer chose the codename Trinity from a John Donne poem. The blast, equal to 20 kilotons of TNT, was heard 160 kilometres away. 

AUGUST 

80 years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs 

At 8:15am on 6 August 1945, a US B-29 bomber dropped “Little Boy“, the first atomic bomb used in warfare, on Hiroshima. Exploding 500-600 metres above ground, it generated power equivalent to 15,000 tonnes of TNT. Nearly one-third of the city’s 245,000 residents died instantly, while thousands more perished in the following months from radiation exposure. Three days later, on 9 August, a second atomic bomb named “Fat Man” devastated Nagasaki, instantly killing an estimated 40,000 people. 

SEPTEMBER 

80 years since the end of World War II 

Japan formally surrendered aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945, bringing World War II to an official close.  

80 years since Vietnam’s independence 

Also on 2 September 1945, Vietnam declared independence from French colonial rule. This followed a brief period of Japanese occupation during World War II. The declaration by Ho Chi Minh marked the start of Vietnam’s struggle to achieve full sovereignty, which would take decades to realise. 

OCTOBER 

90 years since the Italian invasion of Ethiopia  

Benito Mussolini‘s forces invaded Ethiopia from Italian Somalia and Eritrea on 3 October 1935. It took seven months to conquer Emperor Haile Selassie‘s empire. This colonial war, seen as anachronistic by other European powers, exposed the failure of the League of Nations, the world’s first international peacekeeping body, to prevent conflict. It also saw the widespread use of poison gas against civilians. 

80 years since the UN’s founding  

The United Nations was established on 24 October 1945 after China, the US, France, Britain, the Soviet Union and 45 other member states ratified its charter. The global body was created to promote peace and prevent conflicts after the devastation of World War II. 

NOVEMBER 

100 years since France’s first radio news  

On 3 November 1925, French journalism entered the modern era when Maurice Privat delivered the country’s first regular radio news bulletin from the Eiffel Tower. This historic broadcast came just three years after Radio Tour Eiffel began transmitting as France’s pioneering radio station. The station, which operated until the Nazi occupation in June 1940, revolutionised how French citizens received their news. In a significant shift toward media independence, the government had already begun separating state control of radio frequencies from programme content in 1924, allowing independent associations to shape what went on air. This early commitment to editorial freedom helped establish France’s enduring tradition of public broadcasting.

10 years since the Paris attacks  

On 13 November 2015, coordinated terrorist attacks by Islamic State struck Paris and its suburb of Saint-Denis, killing 130 people and hospitalising 413. The attackers targeted the Bataclan concert hall, several busy cafes and restaurants, and the national stadium during a France-Germany football match. The Bataclan suffered the heaviest toll, with 90 people killed during a two-hour hostage situation. The attacks remain the deadliest in modern French history. They marked the tragic peak of a year that began with January attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher supermarket, which killed 17 people. 

80 years since the Nuremberg trials  

The Nuremberg trials of 24 top Nazi leaders opened on 20 November 1945, establishing the first international criminal court. Eleven defendants were hanged on 16 October 1946, while Hermann Göring committed suicide the night before. Three were acquitted, one died before trial and another was deemed medically unfit. 

50 years since Franco’s death  

Spanish dictator Francisco Franco died in Madrid on 20 November 1975, aged 82, ending his 36-year grip on power. His death followed a month-long illness that gained international attention. His son-in-law helped extend Franco’s survival through artificial means to delay the inevitable succession crisis. Known as El Caudillo (the Leader), Franco made his final public appearance on 12 October. His death marked the end of Western Europe’s longest-running dictatorship and paved the way for Spain‘s return to democracy. 

DECEMBER 

10 years since the Paris climate agreement  

On 12 December 2015, 196 nations adopted the Paris Agreement to combat climate change. While legally binding, the agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to “well below” 2C remains increasingly challenging. The US withdrew in 2020 but rejoined the following year. The UN has warned the world is on track for far higher temperature increases by the end of the century. 

40 years of Les Restos du Coeur  

French comedian Coluche founded Les Restos du Coeur (Restaurants of the Heart) on 21 December 1985, creating what is today one of France’s most vital food charities. It was launched during a period of harsh economic austerity, when many French families struggled to afford food. Inspired by singer Daniel Balavoine, who sponsored the first campaign, the charity began by offering free meals to those in need. Four decades later, it has grown into a national institution. In 2022-23, amid rising living costs and inflation, the organisation set a new record by distributing 170 million meals to France’s most vulnerable citizens.  

80 years since establishment of the CFA franc  

On 26 December 1945, France officially established the CFA franc as the currency for its African colonies, though it had been in use since 1939. Originally the “French Colonies in Africa” franc, the currency survived decolonisation and is still used today in 14 African nations. France’s ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements brought the currency into the International Monetary Fund’s parity system, pegging it first to the French franc and later to the euro. The arrangement has sparked ongoing debate, with critics seeing it as a tool of French economic control in Africa, while supporters argue it provides monetary stability. The currency stands as one of the most enduring legacies of French colonialism in Africa. 

80 years since founding of the IMF and World Bank  

Two institutions that would shape the post-war economic world opened their doors in Washington on 27 December 1945: the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Created at the Bretton Woods Conference in July 1944, the IMF emerged as the guardian of global financial stability, helping countries manage currency crises and economic challenges. On the same day, its sister institution, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), began its mission to rebuild war-torn economies. The IBRD later evolved into today’s World Bank Group, becoming the world’s largest development bank.

Ponga was named on Wednesday, 8 January, following the collapse of New Caledonia’s first pro-independence government in December.

Like his predecessor Louis Mapou, Ponga is an indigenous Kanak. But unlike the majority of Kanaks, he’s also a French loyalist.

New Caledonia government falls, headache for Manuel Valls

Hailing from the Le Rassemblement party – which is affiliated to the French conservative party, Les Republicains – his political family is in favour of keeping New Caledonia within France. 

“What I feel above all is the weight of responsibility,” Ponga said on Wednesday, after receiving the support of six of the newly installed government’s 11 members.

“We all know the situation New Caledonia has been in for the past seven months,” he said, referring to the deadly riots that broke out in May 2024, following a deeply contested electoral reform increasing the number of French nationals eligible to vote.

“What Caledonians now expect is for us to be able to work together and give a signal of hope.”

Family heritage

Ponga, 49, comes from Kouaoua, a mining village in the north of the archipelago.

He was born into a prominent Kanak family – his mother served in local government and his uncle was an MEP. His grandparents were involved in fighting for Kanak rights, but supported remaining part of France.

He studied political science in mainland France and made a career in the nickel industry before going into politics in 2014 when he became mayor of Kaouaoua – the first non-independence candidate in a largely pro-independence region.

New Caledonia’s mining sector is in crisis, but remains the largest employer on the archipelago.

Key dates in New Caledonia’s history

Challenges ahead

Ponga is charged with trying to restore some political stability to the Pacific territory following the deadly violence that broke out in May.

The constitutional reform that sparked this unrest was viewed by many Kanaks – who make up just over 40 percent of the population – as a way for Paris to dilute their electoral clout, and threaten decades of work towards independence.

The legislation was abandoned following the dissolution of the National Assembly in June last year.

Deadly unrest in New Caledonia tied to old colonial wounds

During the violence, 13 people were killed – mainly Kanaks, along with two police officers – and almost 3,000 arrested. An estimated €2 billion of damage was caused.

Ponga faces major challenges in trying to get the archipelago’s economy back on track, and the health sector is also in crisis. Close to 40 percent of hospital beds have been lost, mainly due to staff departures, health professionals said on Thursday.

Oil exports make up 80 percent of Nigeria’s revenue, with current production at 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd), placing the country among the world’s largest oil producers.

The Niger Delta, where most of the country’s oil is extracted, has long been a hotspot for illegal refineries and theft, costing Nigeria millions each month.

Chief of defence staff General Christopher Musa said security forces have been relying on technology, in land and air operations, to monitor and protect the region.

“We have drones and helicopters that fly [over], [and] patrols that go on water,” Musa said.

The government has also been tackling illegal operations that, in 2022, cost an estimated $23 million per day, according to Nigeria’s Senate. Losses continued into 2023, with $1.43 billion reported in the first quarter alone.

The country suffers frequent blackouts due to load shedding – the interruption of the electricity supply to avoid excessive load on its electricity plants. 

“We have the challenge of energy security in Nigeria… We must increase electricity generation and distribution throughout the country,” President Bola Tinubu said in June 2024.

“As a nation, it is so shameful that we are still generating 4.5 gigawatts of electricity.”

Institutional criminality

“The issue of theft would have been far more successfully tackled decades ago, had so many people not been profiting from it,” said Jon Marks, editorial director of energy consultancy and news service African Energy.

He told RFI that criminality has become embedded in Nigeria’s regional and national politics, as well as its business world.

“Oil theft has become institutionalised, with gangs tapping into pipes and often exporting via small ships that offload to bigger ships. This has been achieved by local gangs becoming very powerful, but even more so by the connivance of local politicians and the military – who, in turn, have become very rich.”

He believes that nothing much has changed since a 2013 report by think tank Chatham House, carried out under Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency, which concluded that no concerted action against illegal oil operations could be expected soon.

Change within the military

“The big potential change under Tinubu – who desperately needs more formal revenue for an ailing economy – comes with changes within the army. He has appointed new top brass, more in tune with his thinking and factional alliances,” added Marks.

In June 2023, following a meeting with Tinubu, Asari Dokubo, Ijaw leader of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, declared that: “The military is at the centre of oil theft in Nigeria.”

Prominent Nigerian businessman Tony Elumelu, chairman of Heirs Holdings and a member of the Presidential Economic Coordination Council, has also chimed in, saying that the government should be able to tell Nigerians who is stealing the country’s crude oil. “Our security agencies should tell us who is stealing our oil. You bring vessels into our territorial waters, and we don’t know?”

Foreign interference

According to Marks, the authorities may be “looking the other way” because they are in on the deal. He also claims that the Russians too have become involved in the oil theft business.

“By providing more ships, the Russian shadow fleet and other players – who use unregistered carriers – transport illegally obtained crude oil offshore where bigger ships wait to pick it up,” he said.

Any action taken by Tinubu and the military chiefs he has recently appointed may be limited, Marks argued, by their concern not to upset existing power balances within Nigeria, where powerful factions would suffer from any disturbance to the oil theft business, and other sectors where reform is vital.

Bathily was 24 and stacking shelves when gunman Amedy Coulibaly stormed the Hypercacher store at Porte de Vincennes on 9 January 2015, two days after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

The narrative of a Muslim saving Jews from a jihadist made him a strong symbol of fraternity in a traumatised France.

“I’m just a good, simple citizen who reacted at the right time,” Bathily told RFI, denying he’s a hero.

However, a decade on, he’s still “scarred” by what was the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in modern French history.

Huddled in a cold store

Bathily was winding up his shift in the late afternoon, unpacking frozen items in the basement, when he heard shots fired upstairs.

Coulibaly, who claimed to be working in the name of Islamic State, had shot dead three shoppers and taken 17 others hostage.

He threatened to kill them unless the Kouachi brothers – who had carried out the Charlie Hebdo attacks two days earlier and were holed up in a printworks outside Paris – were allowed to go free.

“At first I thought it was an accident outside. But when the shots were repeated and then I saw all these customers, about 20 people, coming down towards me, I started to understand what was happening,” Bathily said.

He ushered them into the cold store, holding the door. After a few minutes he suggested they try and escape by using the goods lift to reach the emergency exit.

“They didn’t want to, they said it would put our lives in danger. I told them our lives were already in danger and we had to try something, but they didn’t want to follow me,” Bathily added.

So he cut off the motor, told them to put their phones on silent mode, and took the delivery lift alone.

Looking back, Bathily said the hostages had made the right decision. Colleagues later told him that Coulibaly had heard a noise near the emergency exit and went to investigate.

He would almost certainly have fired on a crowd.

Paris terror attacks trial recalls ‘terror’ and ‘cruelty’ of kosher store rampage

Seen as an accomplice

Outside, police mistook Bathily for an accomplice.

“They thought I had explosives on me so they shot at me,” he said. “They treated me badly in the beginning. They kept me handcuffed for an hour and a half.”

Once they realised he was a supermarket employee, Bathily used his knowledge of the store to map out the layout, helping police to prepare their raid.

Elite forces stormed the supermarket, killing Coulibaly and rescuing 15 hostages. Four hostages were found dead.

French police kill suspects in Charlie Hebdo attack and hostage taker

A reluctant hero

Bathily’s actions drew national attention, and the media celebrated him as a hero. A BFMTV video of him went viral.

“It was very difficult because I gave my first interview at 2 or 3 in the morning,” the now 34-year-old said. “Then the next day my face was everywhere and everyone was talking about me. People started criticising me, too.”

Some said that media and politicians in need of a feel-good story after three days of terrorist violence had exaggerated Bathily’s role.

“The media and officials wanted to paint this pretty picture, that he helped us escape downstairs, that he hid us, and so on,” one of the hostages told the daily Liberation a year after the attacks.

“It wasn’t really true, but that’s not Lassana’s fault.”

Bathily maintains he “didn’t invent anything” but was out of his depth and overwhelmed. 

“A Muslim working with Jews, who saved Jews, became a strong symbol,” he said. “No one was expecting it. I’ve always said Jews are my brothers.”

He had practised his faith freely at work, praying daily and observing Ramadan. One of the victims who died, Yohan Cohen, had been his good friend.

“I always say I saved human beings, whether Jews, atheists, or whatever. We’re all human beings, and we have to help one another when needed,” he added.

Pain endures for French Jews a decade after Toulouse shootings

‘Long live France’

Eleven days after the supermarket siege, Bathily was granted French nationality by then president François Hollande.

Having arrived in France in 2006 aged 16 as an unaccompanied minor, he had become, in the words of Hollande, “my favourite Frenchman”.

‘Long live freedom, long live friendship, long live France’, Bathily said in his acceptance speech.

The recognition has helped Bathily to build a normal life.

He now works at Paris city hall organising events, and goes into schools to talk about his experience and the importance of fighting against both Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.

“I’ll continue to tell my story, to talk about how we can continue to live together, whatever our religion,” Bathily said – though his hope to become an ambassador for fraternity remains unfulfilled.

Back in his home region of Kaï in southern Mali, some still speak of his actions. “They say: ‘Oh it’s Bathily the guy who saved people in France’,” he said.

“But in my own village we’ve moved on. I’m just Lassana. Lassana of the past, Lassana of the present. Still the same.”

The Tutsi-led rebels, active in North and South Kivu provinces, have seized key towns since April 2024 – allegedly with support from Rwandan forces, though Kigali denies involvement and says it is committed to a ceasefire and peace talks.

A report by the UN Security Council’s Group of Experts accuses M23 of setting up shadow administrations to explot strategic mines and trade routes.

“This constitutes the most important contamination of supply chains with ineligible minerals recorded in the Great Lakes region over the last decade,” they said in their report, released Wednesday.

The rebels are also accused of using forced labour to expand roads, and patrolling mining areas to make sure minerals were only sold to authorised Congolese and Rwandan traders.

The UN said M23 was financing its operations by exporting minerals from areas under its control, including coltan, a resource used in electronics like smartphones and computers.

It added that M23 had created a “mining ministry” to oversee coltan exports from Rubaya, home to one of the world’s largest deposits of the mineral.

“In this way, the militants collected at least $800,000 per month in taxes on coltan production and trade in Rubaya”, the report said.

The ongoing territorial expansion has continued despite agreed ceasefires, suggesting M23’s true aim is long-term occupation and exploitation of conquered areas, the UN experts added.

Macron urges Rwanda to end support for DRC M23 rebels, withdraw troops

A global issue

The UN report highlights concerns about how M23’s actions could affect global electronics manufacturers, which face pressure to ensure conflict-free supply chains.

Congo has filed criminal complaints against Apple subsidiaries in France and Belgium, accusing the tech firm of using conflict minerals in its supply chain.

Apple disputes the claims, saying it requires its suppliers to avoid sourcing from the region.

Conflict-mineral laws in the US and EU require companies to trace the origins of minerals from regions like eastern Congo. However, a 2022 Global Witness report said such regulations have failed to stop irregular trade.

Meanwhile the renewed violence has displaced more than 100,000 people in North Kivu since early 2025, reaching levels not seen in over a decade. This adds to the millions already displaced since M23’s resurgence in 2021.

DRC case against Apple brings new hope in conflict minerals crisis

Protests

Meanwhile, several hundred people demonstrated in Bukavu, South Kivu, on Wednesday to protest illegal mining in the country’s east, where authorities are investigating claims of widespread illicit Chinese involvement.

The gathering followed the announcement on Sunday of the arrest of three Chinese nationals found in possession of gold bars and large sums of cash, according to South Kivu Governor Jean-Jacques Purusi.

Local authorities in the resource-rich province say hundreds of mining companies, mainly Chinese, extract gold without declaring profits and often without valid operating permits.

“South Kivu minerals should serve the development and well-being of communities,” read one banner held aloft at the demonstration, called by pro-democracy movements and unions.

(with newswires)

“The speaker announces that the president is Joseph Aoun,” speaker Nabih Berri said, reporting that Aoun received 99 out of 128 votes after failing to get a required majority in a first round earlier in the day.

A source close to Hezbollah and ally Amal said representatives of the blocs met with Aoun after the first round.

The Mediterranean country has been without a president since the term of Michel Aoun – not related – ended in October 2022, with tensions between the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and its opponents scuppering a dozen previous votes.

But international pressure had mounted for a successful outcome with just 17 days remaining in a ceasefire to deploy Lebanese troops alongside UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon after a Hezbollah-Israel war last autumn.

Lebanon’s divided political elite usually agrees on a consensus candidate before any successful parliamentary vote is held.

US, Saudi and French envoys have visited Beirut to increase pressure in the run-up to the vote.

From protector to onlooker: how France lost its influence in Lebanon

Reduced powers

Aoun, who will turn 61 on Friday, was widely seen as the preferred pick of army backer the United States, as well as regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia.

In the commander’s home village of Aishiyeh in south Lebanon, residents had gathered from the morning in front of the church, adorned with several Lebanese flags and his portrait.

The president’s powers have been reduced since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

But filling the position was key to overseeing consultations towards naming a new prime minister to lead a government capable of carrying out reforms demanded by international creditors.

Under Lebanon’s constitution, any presidential candidate must have not held high office for at least two years.

Aoun faces daunting challenges, with the truce to oversee on the Israeli border and bomb-damaged neighbourhoods in the south, the east and the capital to rebuild.

Since 2019, Lebanon has been gripped by the worst financial crisis in its history.

The Hezbollah-Israel war has cost Lebanon more than $5 billion in economic losses, with structural damage amounting to billions more, according to the World Bank.

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.

WORLD RADIO DAY is coming up – it’s on 13 February. As we do every year, we’ll have a feast in The Sound Kitchen, filled with your voices.

Send your SHORT recorded WRD greetings to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr by 1 February. This year’s theme is “Radio and Climate Change”, but you don’t have to talk about the theme – if you just want to say “hello!”, that’s fine, too.

Be sure you include your name and where you live in your message.

Most importantly, get under a blanket to record. This will make your recording broadcast quality.

Bombard me with your greetings!!!!

The RFI English team is pleased to announce that Saleem Akhtar Chadhar, the president of the RFI Seven Stars Listening Club in District Chiniot, Pakistan, won the RFI / Planète Radio ePOP video contest, in the RFI Clubs category. Bravo Saleem! Mubarak ho!

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: On the 23rd of November, I asked you a question about the legislative elections in Senegal, which were won by a comfortable margin by Pastef, the ruling party.

The win came just a few months after President Bassirou Diomaye Faye secured the presidency, pledging economic transformation, social justice, and a fight against corruption, so now the way is cleared for Faye and Pastef to carry out ambitious reforms. May they succeed!

You were to re-read our article “Senegal’s ruling Pastef party on track to get large majority in elections”, and send in the answer to these questions: How many registered voters are there in Senegal, how many members are there in the Parliament, and for how long do those MPs serve?

The answer is, to quote our article: “Senegal’s roughly 7.3 million registered voters were called to elect 165 MPs for five-year terms.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “What is the best thing to wake up to?”

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Kashif Khalil from Faisalabad, Pakistan, who is also this week’s bonus question winner.

Congratulations on your double win, Kashif!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Nafisa Khatun, the president of the RFI Mahila Shrota Sangha Club in West Bengal, India, and Nahid Hossen, a member of the Shetu RFI Listeners Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh. There’s RFI Listeners Club member Sunil Dhungana from Braga, Portugal, and last but not least, RFI English listener Renu Sharma from Rajasthan, India.

Congratulations, winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: Slavonic Dance op. 46 No. 6 by Antonin Dvorak, performed by the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George Szell; “Jarabi”, written and performed by Toumani Diabaté and Sidiki Diabaté; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “La Musette” by Léojac and René Flouron, performed by Berthe Sylva with the Orchestre des Concerts Parisiens conducted by André Cadou.

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 Melissa Chemam’s article “France’s ex-president Sarkozy on trial over alleged Gaddafi pact”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 3 February to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 8 February 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.   

This week, we focus on the fight against the exploitation of ‘blood minerals’ or ‘conflict minerals’ in Central Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Conflic minerals is the term used by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to describe minerals sourced from conflict-affected and high-risk areas, such as tantalum, tin, tungsten (referred to as the ‘3Ts’), gold, cobalt, coltan, and lithium.

These minerals are essential for high-tech applications, including smartphones, electric batteries, and other advanced technology such as appliances, cars, and even wind turbines. They are predominantly found in the African Great Lakes region, especially in eastern DRC.

In an effort to combat the illegal and exploitative trade of these minerals, the NGO Global Witness established a transition team several years ago.

The May 2022 a report from Global Witness revealed that these minerals are used in products by international brands such as Apple, Intel, Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, and Tesla.

Now, with a trial underway in France and Belgium accusing Apple, many observers are hopeful that it could bring about meaningful change.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has filed a criminal case against European subsidiaries of the tech giant Apple, alleging the company has illicitly used conflict minerals in its supply chain.

The American company claims it no longer sources conflict minerals from Central Africa, but is it doing enough?

DRC case against Apple brings new hope in conflict minerals crisis

The complaints filed against Apple have been described by lawyers involved as a matter of significant public interest.

European countries, consumers, and non-governmental organisations are increasingly scrutinising the international supply chains of minerals, with calls for highly profitable companies to be held accountable.

This complaint could mark the beginning of a broader wave of legal actions targeting technology companies linked to the sourcing of conflict minerals.

To examine the implications of this trial, this week’s guest is Gregory Mthembu-Salter, a researcher specialising in Africa’s political economy and a former consultant to the UN Group of Experts on the DRC on due diligence regarding conflict minerals. He is based in South Africa.

---

Episode mixed by Erwan Rome.

Spotlight on Africa is a podcast from Radio France Internationale.

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.

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Be Our Guest” by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman; “Auld Lang Syne”, performed by the Glenn Miller Orch, and “New Year Resolution” by M. Cross, R. Catron, and W. Parker, performed by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas.

The quiz will be back next Saturday, 11 January, with the answer to the question about the legislative elections in Senegal. Be sure and tune in! 

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

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Butterfly Lovers” by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang, performed by the National Cinema Symphony Orchestra.

Next week, be sure and tune in for a special program featuring your New Year Resolutions and Wishes for 2025.

 

   

The Syrian National Army, supported by Turkish air power, is pushing against the US-supported People’s Defense Units (YPG), which Ankara claims is linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK, which has been fighting Turkey for decades. 

The YPG controls a large swathe of Syria bordering Turkey, which Ankara says poses a security threat.

Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan says Turkey is determined to prevent the YPG and its affiliate the PKK from exploiting a power vacuum following the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

As Erdogan celebrates Turkish role in ousting Assad, uncertainty lies ahead

“We are in communication with the groups to make sure that terrorist organisations, especially Daesh [Islamic State] and the PKK, are not taking advantage of the situation,” he said. “Turkey is committed to continuing the fight against terrorism. All minorities – non-Muslims, Christians, non-Arabs, Kurds – should be treated equally.”

Opportunity for Ankara

Ever since the YPG took over control of the Syrian territory at the beginning of the Syrian civil war, Ankara has been seeking to remove it. 

With the ousting of the Assad regime and the withdrawal of its Iranian and Russian backers, which had in the past blocked Turkish military interventions, analysts say Ankara now sees an opportunity to finally remove the YPG threat.

“The current situation creates an opportunity for its [Turkey’s] fight against PKK and YPG because there is now no Russia, there is no Iran,” explains Bilgehan Alagoz, a professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Marmara University.

“Turkey was facing the Russian forces, the Iranian forces, and Assad’s regime forces while it was combatting the PKK and YPG,” she added. “We can name it as an opportunity for its fight against PKK and YPG.”

Success of rebel groups in Syria advances Turkish agenda

However, the YPG is still being supported by a small US military force, as part of the war against the Islamic State (IS). The YPG is also detaining thousands of IS militants.

‘The Euphrates is a line’

With the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army now approaching the Euphrates River, analysts say further eastward advances could put Ankara on a collision course with both Washington, and Syria’s new rulers – Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. 

“The Euphrates now is like a line perhaps for the US military,” explains Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat who served in the region and is now a foreign policy analyst for Turkey’s independent Medyascope news outlet.

“If that [military advance] goes on as such, it could bring Turkey indirectly head to head with the US, with even perhaps HTS, and it could put Ankara in a delicate diplomatic position again,” warned Selcen.

Tensions with Israel

The Israeli military’s advance into Syria is adding to Ankara’s concerns over the threat posed by the PYG and its political wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD). Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar last month described the Kurds as a “natural ally” of Israel, a comment that came amid growing Israeli-Turkish tensions.

Turkey seeks Gaza ceasefire role despite US criticism over Hamas ties

“Israel is now carving out a corridor [in Syria] between the PKK/PYD-controlled territories, and its own territories,” explained Hasan Unal, a professor of international relations at Ankara’s Baskent University.

“That suggests that this is what they [Israel] are trying to do – [to create] a Kurdish puppet state east of the Euphrates. And this is something that is likely to create lots of problems with Turkey,” he added.

With Israel’s presence in Syria, Ankara is likely to step up pressure on the YPG, and on the incoming Trump administration to end US military presence in Syria.

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.

The RFI English team is pleased to announce that Saleem Akhtar Chadhar, the president of the RFI Seven Stars Listening Club in District Chiniot, Pakistan, won the RFI / Planète Radio ePOP video contest, in the RFI Clubs category. Bravo Saleem! Mubarak ho!

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: Himangshu Mukharjee from West Bengal, India. Welcome, Himangshu! So glad you have joined us!

This week’s quiz: Paris Photo – the largest international art fair dedicated to photography – is held every November at the magnificent Grand Palais. RFI English journalist Isabelle Martinetti wrote an article about it: “Paris Photo fair focuses on photo books and their publishers”.

You were to re-read Isabelle’s article and send in the answers to these questions: What is the name and nationality of the photographer who won the First Book prize at this year’s Paris Photo fair?

The answer is, to quote Isabelle: “The first book prize was awarded to Taiwanese photographer Tsai Ting Bang for “Born From the Same Root”, a self-published work, awarded with a $10,000 cash prize.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question:  “What do you like to eat in the winter? Why?” The question was suggested by Liton Hissen Mia from Naogaon, Bangladesh.

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Dipita Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India. Dipita is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations, Dipita!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Ferhat Bezazel, the president of the Butterflies Club Ain Kechera in West Skikda, Algeria, and Zaheer Ayiaz, a member of the Naz Radio France and Internet Fan Club in Faisal Abad, Pakistan. There’s also RFI Listeners Club member Shaira Hosen Mo from Kishoreganj, Bangladesh, and last but not least, RFI English listener Sadman Shihabur Rahaman, from Naogaon, Bangladesh.

Congratulations, winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, performed by Johnny Bregar; “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, performed by the Dexter Gordon Quartet; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Un flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle”, attributed to Nicolas Saboly and Emile Blémont, performed by Les Petits Chanteurs de Mont-Royal.

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, listen to Melissa’s 15 December International Report podcast – “Gaza’s powerful war narratives make their way to the Oscars”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 27 January to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 1 February 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.   

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.