French authorities are holding six men and a woman following the kidnapping and torture of the co-founder of a global cryptocurrency company and his partner.

The seven – who could face long prison terms up to life – are among 10 people who were taken into custody late Thursday as anti-gang investigators probe the case.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said that David Balland, the 36-year-old co-founder and former employee of Ledger – a world leader in security systems for crypto and digital assets – and his partner were taken from his home in Mereau in the Loire region early Tuesday.

French and Dutch police smash European gangland’s secret messaging service

Another Ledger co-founder, Eric Larcheveque, reportedly alerted police to the kidnapping after receiving a video showing a mutilated finger belonging to Balland, and a ransom demand.

Police located and freed Balland on Wednesday, and he was taken to hospital for treatment.

His partner – taken to a different location by the presumed kidnappers – was found tied up in a car.

Crypto assets seized

According to prosecutors, most of the suspects were already known to police for past criminal activities, but none had previously been involved in gang-related crime.

The kidnappers asked for “a large cryptocurrency sum”, Beccuau said, without saying how large, with part of it handed over during negotiations handled by police before most of the crypto assets were seized and frozen.

EU moves to tame the ‘wild west’ of cryptocurrencies in landmark legislation

The seven – five of whom are aged between 20 and 25 – are now being held in pre-trial detention and face charges of gang-related kidnapping, acts of torture and armed extortion.

Three others initially held have been released.

A total of 230 police and gendarmes were involved in the operation, including the GIGN elite tactical unit specialising in hostage situations, as well as cryptocurrency experts.

Founded in 2014, French company Ledger is a so-called “unicorn” – a privately held startup worth more than $1 billion – and world leader in digital wallets and vaults to safeguard crypto assets.

The curfew introduced in mid-December in the Mayotte archipelago devastated by cyclone Chido was lifted on Saturday, according to police authorities.

In a statement published by Mayotte’s prefecture on social media: “From Saturday 25 January 2025, the curfew is lifted” in the Indian Ocean territory.

“As the cyclone protection phase is still underway, everyone is asked to exercise the utmost caution when travelling to allow the internal security forces, emergency services and the various services still involved in crisis management and network restoration to take action,” the statement added.

Mayotte schools to reopen, more than a month after devastating cyclone

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

A curfew from 10pm to 4am was introduced on 17 December in a bid to prevent looting in the wake of the cyclone.

Chido – the most devastating cyclone to hit Mayotte in 90 years – killed at least 39 people on 14 December and injured more than 5,600.

The lifting of the curfew comes just two days before the start of the new school year for Mayotte’s 117,000 pupils, who are returning to classes from Monday under conditions that some teachers and parents have criticised.

The start of the new school year – initially scheduled for 13 January – was first postponed to 20 and then to 27 January to deal with the damage caused by the cyclone.

Last Monday, it was the teachers who went back to school, only to discover that some schools had been destroyed and were unfit for purpose.

Mayor Christian Estrosi, of the centre-right Horizons party, announced this week during his New Year’s address that he plans to ban cruise ships exceeding 190 metres in length and carrying more than 900 passengers, starting this summer.

The ban will apply to Nice and the Villefranche-sur-Mer bay in the Alpes-Maritimes region, on France’s Mediterranean coast.

Estrosi confirmed that a municipal order would be issued, effective from 1 July, instead of the initially planned date of 1 January, 2026.

Royal Caribbean’s ‘Icon,’ world’s largest cruise ship, sets sail

The United Nations Ocean Conference, which is to focus on conservation and sustainability, will take place in Nice from 9 to 13 June.

Estrosi emphasized that these measures are also part of a broader fight against overtourism. “Cruise ships that pollute and unload low-cost tourists who consume little but leave their waste behind, have no place here,” he said.

Some 40 cruise ships, carrying between 900 and 5,000 passengers each, are already scheduled to dock in Nice from 1 July, with the move to banning them raising concerns in the tourism sector over lost revenue.

France unveils plan to fight ‘overtourism’ at its most popular attractions

The restrictions on cruise ships in Nice follow a growing trend across Europe, where several ports have either already enacted similar measures or are planning to do so.

Venice banned cruise ships in August 2021 due to concerns over pollution and damage to the city’s historical infrastructure, and Barcelona closed its north terminal to cruises in October 2023. Santorini and Dubrovnik have also tightened restrictions on cruise companies, while cruise ships visiting Scottish ports will be charged a new tax.

Impact on climate

Cruise ships are known to be major polluters. According to Fanny Pointet of the European NGO Transport & Environment, in 2023 a total of 214 cruise ships visited European ports, emitting 7.4 million tonnes of CO2, “equivalent to 50,000 round-trip flights between Paris and New York”.

That year, Marseille ranked as the most polluted port in France in terms of cruise activity.In 2022, 50,000 people in the city signed a petition against cruise ships, according to campaign group Stop Croisières. 

Environmental protesters block French cruise liner port

Pointet added: “These emissions not only affect the climate but also degrade air quality.”

The NGO suggests one solution could be to “decarbonise the industry to accelerate the ecological transition,” and to impose taxes on passenger tickets that would fund environmental initiatives.

Meanwhile, environmentalists in Nice have praised Estrosi’s decision.

Juliette Chesnel-Le Roux, president of the Ecologist Group at the Metropolitan Council, said: “This achievement, the result of a long fight, proves that persistence pays off. It shows that the repeated warnings have finally been heard.”

However, she cautioned that the victory should not distract from “the ongoing issue of mega-yachts polluting the Villefranche bay”.

Emilia Perez – the surreal telling of the gender transition of a Mexican drug lord – picked up nominations for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay and best international film, as well as nods in the song, score and sound categories.

The movie’s star Karla Sofia Gascon became the first openly trans nominee for best actress, while her co-star Zoe Saldana was nominated for best supporting actress.

Audiard said his film, a musical interspersed with Spanish dialogue, was an example of “hybrid cinema”. “I wonder if it’s becoming a trend – a desire to make films with different linguistic elements, unique actors, and distinctive themes,” the 72-year-old told French news agency AFP.

Set in Mexico but filmed entirely in a Paris studio, the film won the Jury Prize and Best Performance by an Actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024. It also went on to win four Golden Globes earlier this month, including Best Musical. 

Eight films from the Official Selection at Cannes made the Oscars shortlist this year, in 17 categories, totalling 31 nominations. Among them is the Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anora by Sean Baker, with six nominations.

French trans gangster musical ‘Emilia Perez’ wins four Golden Globe awards

Criticism in Mexico

Despite its international success, Emilia Perez has faced criticism in Mexico, where it is accused of trivialising drug-related violence and the problem of missing people.

Audiard told reporters it was a topic “close to his heart,” but admitted he might have “handled it clumsily”.

“My intentions seem virtuous to me but I recognise there’s an issue over there.”

Audiard said he spent more than four years researching the film. “At some point you have to stop doing research because otherwise you end up doing a documentary,” he said, adding: “It’s an opera and an opera is not very realistic.”

Audacious musical Emilia Perez brings accolades for French composers

This year’s best director category features another French filmmaker, Coralie Fargeat, the only woman to be nominated for the award.

The Substance is the story of a fading movie star who is abruptly fired from her hit TV fitness show as she turns 50. It stars Demi Moore, who is nominated for best actress.

The film, which won Best Screenplay Award in Cannes in 2024, has received five Oscar nominations. 

‘The power of representation’

“I made this film with my guts and my heart, which is why it’s so visceral and uncompromising. I’m proud that it resonated with audiences and voters. It means the film was understood,” Fargeat told AFP.

“The most touching messages that I’ve received are from young women directors,” she said after her nomination. “It makes us believe it’s possible. I deeply believe in the power of representation.”

The other 2025 best director nominees are Sean Baker for Anora, Brady Corbet for The Brutalist and James Mangold for A Complete Unknown.

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

Only three women have won the best director award, beginning with American Kathryn Bigelow for her 2009 war film The Hurt Locker.

French Culture Minister Rachida Dati hailed the two French films in the category, saying they were “evidence once again of the genius of French cinema”.

Audiard has previous experience of the Academy Awards, having seen his 2009 film A Prophet nominated in the best foreign language film category. “But it wasn’t the same pressure,” he said.

The Oscars ceremony is set for 2 March.

(with AFP)

Senot said her older sister, so frail and gaunt she was barely recognisable, made her vow to pass on the memory of the camp, a macabre monument to Nazi Germany’s genocide of the Jews.

“She told me, ‘I won’t make it any further. You’re young: promise me that if you make it out, that you’ll tell this story so that we’re not the forgotten ones of history’,” Senot said.

Now nearly 97, Senot returned to the site of her captivity to fulfil her promise to her sister, handing down those memories of one of history’s darkest chapters to the children on a school trip from France.

Between 1940 and 1945 the Nazis killed more than a million people at Auschwitz – most of them Jews, but Poles, Roma and Soviet soldiers too – during Germany’s occupation of Poland.

“We’d been given figures in class but now we realised what people had gone through,” said Charlotte, 16, discussing the trip a week later at her school in Versailles.

“Being born in 2008, I didn’t think I’d have the experience of hearing a survivor,” said her classmate Raphael, also 16.

But with the ranks of survivors dwindling with each passing year, Charlotte and Raphael may be part of one of the last generations with access to these firsthand accounts.

Nazi camp survivor and Olympic torch bearer Lebranchu dies aged 102

‘Witness to witnesses’

Auschwitz has become a byword for Nazi Germany’s grim murder of six million European Jews in World War II.

Among its barbed wire-bordered barracks, the gas chambers and the crematorium ovens – not to mention the mounds of hair shaved off those heading to their fates – any suggestion of forgetting the Holocaust seemed fanciful to the teenagers.

“I was struck by the clothes, the suitcases… it brought a physical dimension to what I considered to be facts of history,” said Raphael.

Yet 80 years after the Red Army liberated Auschwitz and its prisoners, and with those still alive now in the twilight of their lives, being forgotten by their generation is precisely what Senot’s fellow survivors say they fear.

Haim Korsia, Chief Rabbi of France, which is home to Europe‘s largest Jewish community, has organised trips much like this one for more than two decades.

“That’s the whole point of taking young people to Auschwitz today,” the rabbi said. “They become witness to witnesses.”

But soon the last of those original witnesses will be gone.

Henri Borlant, the only survivor of the 6,000 Jewish children from France deported to Auschwitz in 1942, died in December at the age of 97.

For the children of the 21st century, the Holocaust will “become history, like ancient times”, worried Alexandre Borycki, president of a remembrance organisation based in Loiret, central France.

On the trail of France’s first female World War II correspondent

‘Erasing all trace’

Around 76,000 French Jews, including more than 11,000 children, were deported by the Nazis with the help of the collaborationist Vichy government.

Thousands of them, rounded up in Paris in July 1942, were interned at the nearby Pithiviers train station from where they were then deported to Auschwitz. Most never came back.

Hoping to get young people to engage with that tragic history, in 2021 Borycki launched an interactive project to bring it into the classrooms.

There, students play detective to find out as much as possible about those deported to Auschwitz via Pithiviers station given only a first name, surname and date of birth.

Borycki said their research into the archives allowed the association to fill in the gaps in the historical record.

But it also brought home the reality of the Nazi’s so-called “Final Solution”.

In some cases, “they find next to nothing. We tell them: ‘you understand what the Nazis wanted to do, in erasing all trace of these people'”, said Borycki.

Strasbourg honours liberation heroes 80 years after fall of Nazi regime

TikTok testimony

For director Sophie Nahum, the best way to reach young people is by going where the young people are: social media.

Nahum collates testimonies from the last survivors of the Holocaust into short films of up to 10 minutes to be distributed online for her series “Les Derniers” (“The Last Ones”).

With TikTok particularly popular among teenagers, Nahum has made the video-sharing app a cornerstone of her strategy.

“Young people read little or nothing in the press, and watch very little television. They don’t watch long historical documentaries on the big channels,” she said.

But with “a 10-minute episode or a two-minute extract on TikTok, they’ll go there, look at several in a row and learn something”.

“That’s really where the youngest people are, and that’s where you do the biggest business.”

But she said she had no illusions over the limitations of the platform, accused of funnelling teenagers into echo chambers and failing to curtail illegal, violent or obscene content.

“It’s clearly the most violent network, and it’s very complicated to manage,” she said – all the more so given the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

That war, triggered by the Palestinian militant group’s 7 October 2023 attack, sparked a rising tide of anti-Semitism across the world, not least on social media.

Much of that prejudice was already there but October 7 brought “virulent” hatred of Jews out into the open, Nahum said.

“Today, there are no longer any taboos, even with regards to the Holocaust: you can wish a survivor dead without any problem.”

Back in the gloom of Auschwitz, Senot issued one last plea to Charlotte and Raphael’s class before they left.

“If we, at our age, take the time to warn you, it’s in the hope that it never happens again,” she said.

Seven former French colonies have changed their cooperation policy with France in recent months. Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Gabon made the move in the past three years, followed by Senegal, Chad and Côte d’Ivoire in recent weeks.

Some have gone as far as demanding a complete withdrawal of French forces.

During his annual address to ambassadors this month, Macron criticised what he called African nations’ “ingratitude” toward France. He said leaders had failed to say “thank you” for France’s military interventions, including the 2013 operation in the Sahel.

“It’s no big matter, it will come with time,” Macron said, adding that without France’s counterterrorism efforts, “none of them” would be governing a sovereign nation today.

Angry reactions

The comments drew sharp rebukes from African leaders.

Burkina Faso’s junta leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, called Macron’s remarks an insult. “To him, we are not human beings,” Traoré said.

Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko also criticised Macron, reminding him that African soldiers had fought for France during World War II. “It was thanks to our ancestors that France exists today,” Sonko said.

Macron also claimed that the recently announced withdrawal of French troops from Chad and Senegal had been negotiated. However, leaders from both nations have publicly denied this, calling his statements inaccurate.

The loss of influence in Chad, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire – long considered French allies in Africa – marks a significant shift. Chad has played a central role in French military strategy in the Sahel, while Senegal has been one of West Africa’s most stable democracies.

Senegal and Chad rebuke Macron over ‘inaccurate’ French troop withdrawal claims

Policy backfire

Experts argue that anti-French sentiment in Africa is not new but has intensified in recent years.

In November 2024, Macron’s new envoy, Jean-Marie Bockel, told RFI that none of these African partners wanted the French to leave. The following weeks proved him wrong.

“Hostility towards the former colonial power has been shaped by a history of domination, arrogance and indifference,” said Senegalese economist Ndongo Samba Sylla.

In a recent report, he argued that resentment has been building for decades over what many see as exploitative and dismissive French policies.

“Longstanding resentment towards former colonial powers in francophone African countries has been shaped by a history of oppressive rule and disregard for local populations,” he wrote.

France’s reliance on military interventions has been described as a major policy backfire.

Thierry Vircoulon, an Africa researcher at the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI), added that Macron’s unfiltered remarks often worsen diplomatic tensions.

“He is very much used to speaking his mind publicly, which of course is not a good idea,” he said. “The problem is that, with social media now, these kinds of little sentences become the main argument.”

Roland Marchal, a researcher at CNRS and Sciences Po in Paris, told RFI: “In Mali in particular, when the French mission left, the security situation had deteriorated significantly. It was a failure, in all honesty.”

Other analysts, such as Gilles Holder, say France’s reliance on military interventions has alienated local populations.

“Unlike the British, France has not invested enough in economic and cultural fields since independence,” Holder told Le Monde.

Economic pivot

Faced with deteriorating relations in francophone Africa, France is pivoting toward stronger economic partnerships with Anglophone nations like Nigeria, but also Morocco and Angola.

Africa and defence specialist Jonathan Guiffard, of Institut Montaigne, said France cannot afford to abandon all ties in West Africa but may need to reduce its military presence.

“France will keep ties with these countries but will have to leave Chad, as the fall-out is too deep,” he said.

Experts agree that France needs to rebuild its African partnerships with less focus on military interventions. Antoine Glaser, a specialist on African politics, said France’s reliance on security pacts was anachronistic.

“France must recognise that it has remained present for too long by replacing African armies in terms of security,” Glaser told RFI.

Vircoulon said the historical reasons for France’s military presence in Africa have largely disappeared.

“Instead of demilitarising the relationship, the French government is trying to invent a new model of military partnership that is politically risky,” he said.

Marchal warned that as Sahel states transition to civilian rule, France risks missing an opportunity to build a different kind of relationship with these nations – one that is peaceful and finally more respectful.

Algeria and France have a fraught history, marked by colonial rule and an eight-year war that led to Algerian independence in 1962.

Visiting Algeria in 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron said the two countries “have a complex, painful common past [that] has at times prevented us from looking at the future”. Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune described the visit as “promising” and “constructive”.

This visit marked one of the high points of the relationship in recent years, with Macron announcing the two governments would set up a joint committee of historians to study the archives of the colonial period.

But while long-established economic, security and cultural ties have allowed the two countries to weather many a storm, the last six months have seen major turbulence – which France’s former foreign minister, and prime minister, Dominique de Villepin described as the “worst crisis between the two countries since the war”.

It began in July when France sided with Morocco over Algeria over the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Outraged, Algeria withdrew its ambassador to France in protest. 

In November, Algerian authorities arrested French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal – who is openly critical of Algiers – on national security charges. France has said the continued refusal to release him has “dishonoured” Algeria. 

Relations again plummeted in January, when Algeria refused to take back an Algerian influencer deported from France, accused of inciting violence on social media.

“Nothing gives Algeria the right to offend France,” said hardline Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau this week in an interview with French newspaper L’Express, reiterating claims that Algiers had sought to “humiliate” France. 

Algeria denies escalation or humiliation and said France’s remarks were “dishonourable”.

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

Domestic agendas

This talk of humiliation is largely “a game of ping-pong,” said Akram Belkaïd, chief editor of the Le Monde Diplomatique monthly newspaper. “It’s a game to see who can annoy the other the most. You wonder to what extent the crisis isn’t being instrumentalised for the purposes of both French and Algerian domestic policies,” he told RFI.

Both countries have their domestic headaches too. Tebboune was re-elected last year with more than 84 percent of the vote in elections that his opponents said were fraudulent. 

Meanwhile France’s fragile government is struggling to keep the far-right National Rally – now the biggest single party in parliament with 124 of the 577 seats – on side. 

“Bilateral relations are polluted by internal affairs and by internal political debates,” said Adlene Mohammedi, a researcher and lecturer on the Arab world. “In Algeria, you have a lack of democratic legitimacy and the Algerian regime is using this anti-French classic rhetoric to try to divert from the main problem of democracy. The internal French debate is polluting bilateral relations too.”

Mohammedi considers the interior minister to be on the far right, with the same ideological positions as the National Rally, particularly in terms of the party’s anti-immigration stance. 

Listen to a conversation with Adlene Mohammedi in the Spotlight On France podcast, episode 133

France retaliates

France has vowed to put relations “back on track” but is taking a tough stance. Proposed measures include suspending development, reducing visas and curbing freedom of movement for Algerian officials travelling to France.

The French interior minister is also pushing for the repeal of a 1968 bilateral agreement which gave Algerians coming to France special settlement and employment rights, following independence.

“The 1968 accords appear outdated and unbalanced…they’ve deformed Algerian immigration,” Retailleau said, insisting family settlement had taken over from the agreement’s original purpose of facilitating employment.

Mohammedi says such a measure would be very difficult to implement since it’s “basically an international treaty” so would require renegotiation. But the tough talk, he says, is designed to appeal to the hard right.

“They give the impression that because of this treaty, Algerian people in France are privileged, spoilt brats, which is certainly not the case.”

While he admits the current economic situation in France has changed since 1968, when the country needed cheap labour from Algeria, he contests the idea that Algerians are getting an easy ride.

“The general framework for foreigners in France is more advantageous than this treaty. If you are Mexican, Tunisian or Moroccan, you have the right to a multi-year residence permit, but the treaty means Algerians [do not].”

In addition, since 1986 Algerians need a visa to enter France, which, he says, many struggle to obtain. “So most of the time now, this treaty is much more of a problem than a privilege.”

France and Algeria revisit painful past in battle to mend colonial wounds

Getting back on track

France’s Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu said on Tuesday that France and Algeria had to “re-establish relations”, and Retailleau acknowledged there was “clearly a need to continue to work together against the threat of Islamist terrorism”.

The head of France’s intelligence services recently made a discreet visit to Algiers, suggesting the permafrost may be thawing slightly.

“It’s a sign of pragmatism between the two parties,” said Belkaïd, who is also a columnist with the Quotidien d’Oran daily newspaper. “Given current events, the secret services need to talk to one another”.

He cited “disorder” in the Middle East, notably in Syria following the ousting of former president Bashar al-Assad by Islamist Abu Mohammed al-Golani.

“The current situation in Syria is very uncertain and the new regime could decide to release [several dozen French-Algerian] detainees,” he told RFI. “So there’s a need for the Algerian and French authorities to continue to look at this closely.” 

And then there’s the question of France’s large Algerian diaspora, of around 2 million people. “There’s a constant flow of people, despite the issue of visas,” Belkaid noted. “A number of French small businesses realise a significant part of their turnover in Algeria.

“So the breakdown of diplomatic relations would really harm tens of thousands of people forced to stand by, powerless, and watch this decline.”

Algeria says envoy will only return if France shows ‘total respect’

Breakdown in diplomacy

For Belkaid, the roots of the current crisis predate the Western Sahara issue and reflect 20 years of “incapacity of Algiers and Paris to think about the 21st century together and to imagine what Franco-Algerian relations could be”.

A real strategy is needed, he said, and “not just memorial ornaments, discussion on memory, the war in Algeria”.

Efficient, high-level diplomacy is needed now more than ever, but France has cut its diplomatic corps in half over the last 30 years, and the interior minister is holding forth on issues that would ordinarily fall to the foreign office.

Diplomacy in France is “weakened,” said Mohammedi, partly due to its inconsistency. He gave the example of political prisoners. While France is demanding the release of Sansal, who it deems a political prisoner, three years ago when Algeria and France enjoyed good relations, the issue of Algeria’s numerous political prisoners was not publicly raised. 

Belkaid regrets the loss of “consensual figures on both sides of the Mediterranean,” meaning all the work behind the scenes “has been eroded”. 

“The institutional Franco-Algerian relationship is now characterised by an unbelievable void, because the two parties have not thought about how they could fill it,” he said.

Regardless of the issue of Western Sahara, which continues to cast a shadow, he insists that as long as the two countries are unable to find a way of redefining their relationship “we will continue to have repeated crises between Paris and Algiers”.

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 14 December, I asked you a question about Syria and the end of Bashir al-Assad’s dictatorship. Rebel forces, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, seized Damascus on 8 December; Assad fled to Russia, ending his family’s six-decade- rule.

You were to re-read our article “France’s support for Syrian transition hinges on respect for minority rights” and send in the answer to this question:  France’s outgoing Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was quoted in the article. He noted that “Assad’s fall is a ‘clear defeat for Moscow’”. Why? Why does Jean-Noel Barrot think that Assad’s fall is a “clear defeat for Moscow”?

The answer is, to quote our article: “… Russia now could lose access to military bases in Syria which allowed it to conduct operations in the Magreb and elsewhere on the African continent.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Debashis Gope from West Bengal, India: “How can we have peace amongst all people?”  

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Dia Zanib from Muzaffargarh, Pakistan. Dia is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations on your double win, Dia!

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Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Vivace” from the Piano Concerto No. 11 in D major for fortepiano and orchestra by Franz Joseph Haydn, performed by Ronald Brautigam and the Concerto Copenhagen; the first movement from the Suite for Oud Quartet by Mohammad Osman, performed by the Syrian Oud Quartet; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Kudzi Malaissane” by José Pires and Roberto Isaias, performed by Kapa Dêch.

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

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The 23 March Movement (M23) rebels are battling the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) on several fronts around key city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu, notably in Sake and Kibumba, towns 20km away.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced around the outskirts of Goma, which was briefly captured by the M23 in 2012.

Late Friday, the UK, US and France urged their citizens to leave the city, warning the situation could deteriorate rapidly.

Haguma Banga is walking with a mattress on his head. After fleeing Sake, he has had no news from his family. “I don’t know where my wife and five children are. It would be a miracle to find them again,” he told RFI’s correspondent.

Other residents – like Amina and her children – have decided to cross into neighbouring Rwanda, where many have found refuge in the border town of Rubavu.

“My husband lives here, he told me to join him to escape the panic that is gripping the city of Goma,” Amina told RFI.

Hundreds injured in shelling

Staff from humanitarian organisations have seen an increase in the number of civilians wounded by explosives in the past month.

“Since the first days of January, we have been faced with an influx of war wounded,” Doctors without Borders (MSF) representative Emmanuel Lampaert told RFI. “In the hospital centres of Masisi, Minova and Numbi, staff have counted around 400 injured,” he said, adding that Goma and Bukavu hospitals have reached capacity.

Neema Jeannette, a patient at the CBCA Ndosho hospital in Goma, said: “A bomb fell on us. We were a group of women, several died instantly. I am the only survivor.”

Throughout the week, helicopter gunships deployed by the Congolese army were seen swooping low over the plains, firing volleys of rockets as troops moved towards the front lines.

The army on Tuesday acknowledged the M23’s capture of Minova in South-Kivu province. Masisi, in North Kivu province also fell earlier this month.

At the end of 2013, the FARDC had driven the Tutsi-led armed group out of the last positions it occupied in the mountains of North Kivu.

But the M23 resurfaced at the end of 2021 and have seized key towns since April 2024 – allegedly with support from Rwandan forces, although Kigali denies involvement and says it is committed to a ceasefire and peace talks.

Rebels tighten grip on Congo mineral wealth as UN warns of long-term control

Communications down

According to information obtained by RFI, mortar shells coming from an area controlled by the M23 hit a position held by the UN peacekeeping mission Monusco in Sake on Thursday evening.

This incident caused minor injuries to three peacekeepers, sources told RFI.

The personnel deployed by the UN mission are limited to defensive actions as part of their mandate to protect civilians, and do not have a mandate for full combat.

On top of the clashes, communications were cut on Thursday in the Sake and Goma areas, RFI correspondents reported. Congolese authorities, the United States and United Nations experts have repeatedly accused Rwanda of manipulating GPS signals by jamming communications or transmitting false signals in the region.

Despite support from the Wazalendos, the allied self-defence groups from the DRC capital Kinshasa, and troops sent by the Southern African Community (SADC), the FARDC appears to be losing its grip on the region.

Remi Dodd, a sub-Saharan Africa analyst at geopolitical intelligence firm RANE Network highlighted the challenges faced by the army: “Corruption, inadequate equipment, low morale and also low discipline.”

DR Congo, Rwanda peace talks in Angola cancelled after hitting ‘deadlock’

Call for sanctions

The Congolese Communication Minister, Patrick Muyaya, told RFI that fighting has intensified since the failure to hold the Luanda peace talks between the DRC and Rwanda in December.

The DRC rejects Rwanda’s call for direct talks between M23 and the Congolese government, calling it a red line.

Muyaya says the international community, and in particular France, has a responsibility to launch “targeted sanctions” against Rwanda for its implication in the conflict.

Meanwhile this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “alarmed by the resumption of hostilities since the beginning of the year,” according to a statement released on Thursday.

“This offensive has a devastating toll on the civilian population and heightened the risk of a broader regional war,” he added, demanding the violence “immediately cease”.

The number of displacements is now over 400,000 people this year alone, Matthew Saltmarsh, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), told a news briefing in Geneva on Friday. “That’s almost double the number reported last week.”

The head of state will arrive at the Louvre on Tuesday afternoon, the Elysee said in a statement.

“The Louvre is a symbol of France, it is a source of French pride,” a presidential official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

“It would be wrong to remain deaf and blind to the risks affecting the museum today.”

Unlike most other Paris museums, which are closed every Monday, the Louvre is shut on Tuesday, meaning the president will not cross paths with the general public on his visit.

‘Poor condition’

The move was announced after it emerged this week that Laurence des Cars, the first woman head of the French landmark, had written a memo about her concerns to Culture Minister Rachida Dati earlier this month.

She warned about the “proliferation of damage in museum spaces, some of which are in very poor condition.

Louvre plagued by leaks and crumbling infrastructure, museum boss warns

Furthermore, some areas “are no longer watertight, while others experience significant temperature variations, endangering the preservation of artworks”, she added.

Despite the French government’s budget problems and the imminent closure of the Pompidou museum for renovations, des Cars said the Louvre required an overhaul that would likely be costly and technically complicated.

Double the crowds

A total of 8.7 million people visited its famed galleries last year – around twice the number it was designed for.

Des Cars expressed concern about the quality of the user experience.

The Mona Lisa, the most popular attraction in the museum, is displayed in its largest room, which frequently has long queues.

The memo stressed the need to “reassess” how Leonardo da Vinci‘s masterpiece is presented to the public. Des Cars said last year that it needed its own dedicated area.

Some 17,000 people are imprisoned in France for drug trafficking and organised crime offences.

The transfer of those deemed most dangerous will begin in March, with the renovated facility set to open by 31 July, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Wednesday.

Two more similar facilities are planned over the next two years.

“We are going to take a French prison, we will empty it… secure it with specially trained prison officers, and once isolated, we will put in the 100 biggest narco-traffickers,” Darmanin told Le Monde newspaper.

Darmanin said the inmates would be held in “an inviolable detention facility” where it will be “absolutely impossible” for them to receive phones or drugs, threaten officers, or communicate with the outside world.

The location of the facility has not been disclosed, but Darmanin stressed its goal: to stop inmates from orchestrating crimes from behind bars.

“What is unbearable is that prisons are no longer obstacles for most drug traffickers to continue their trafficking, assassinate, or threaten magistrates, prison officers, journalists, or lawyers,” he said.

French police hunt killers behind prison van ambush

Mixed reaction

The announcement has divided opinion.

The main prison unions expressed satisfaction. “It corresponds to a demand, we’ve been advocating for the creation of specialised establishments for 30 years,” said Wilfried Fonck, national secretary of the justice branch of Ufap-Unsa union.

But left-wing unions have voiced concerns.

“It looks more like a pressure cooker,” Samuel Gauthier, the general secretary of the CGT Penitentiary Union, told RFI.

“Grouping individuals involved in similar crimes into one single structure is, in our view, complicated in terms of management and will put the staff in difficult situations when dealing with this type of individual.”

Advocates of prison reform are also sceptical.

“What appears to be an innovation is, in fact, a revival of a concept abandoned in the 1980s: high-security quarters” Matthieu Quinquis, a lawyer from the International Prison Observatory, told RFI.

“They were discarded for a reason. The conditions there were a violation of the rights of detainees.”

Prisons for drug-traffickers already exist in other parts of the world, particularly in South America. But Quinquis said they were not a model to follow.

“France would be in violation of all the values and principles that we have agreed to in the European Convention on Human Rights and several UN pacts,” he said, citing “isolation, the crushing of individuals, and the negation of their rights”.

Billion-euro industry

France’s drug trade is a billion-euro industry, generating an estimated €3 to €6 billion annually, according to a parliamentary report.

The justice ministry has allocated €4 million to the new facility, which Darmanin said can be implemented without special legislation.

Earlier this week, Darmanin travelled to the United Arab Emirates to request the extradition of 27 individuals suspected of drug trafficking.

Assoumani was elected president for a third consecutive term a year ago, following a disputed election in which his opponents made accusations of voter fraud.

He cannot run again in 2029, but has already begun preparing his succession, telling his supporters on Thursday that when the time comes for him to leave power, “I will place my son to replace me as head of the state and the party”.

Last October he put his son El Fath in charge of coordinating government affairs and granted him sweeping powers over the cabinet.

“Azali has handed his son presidential and constitutional prerogatives,” Said Larifou, a lawyer and politician in exile, told RFI at the time. “He has clearly concentrated all the powers and governance of the Comoros to his family.”

Comoros President sworn in for fourth term after disputed poll

El Fath has yet to respond to the latest announcement, but previously said that Comoros – a group of three islands in the Indian Ocean, off East Africa – is not a monarchy.

Assoumani’s ruling party decisively won parliamentary elections this month, however only 16 percent of registered voters turned out after opposition parties called for a boycott.

“With this statement, he has simply made official what we already knew,” said Abdallah Mohamed Daoudou, a spokesperson for the opposition coalition.

“But Azali is deluding himself, the Comorian people and politicians will not accept the installation of a dynastic power or a monarchy in the Comoros,” he told Reuters news agency.

Broad powers given to Comoros leader’s son fuels fears of dynastic control

Constitutional reform

Comoros has a population of around 860,000. The most recent World Bank report on the country found 45 percent of the population were living just below the national poverty line.

The archipelago has witnessed around 20 coups or attempted coups since gaining independence from France through a referendum in 1974.

Assoumani first came to power in 1999 through a coup and has won four elections since 2002. He left politics in 2006, but made a comeback with a presidential win in 2016.

Constitutional reforms in 2018 extended a requirement that the presidency rotate among the three main islands from every five years to 10.

El Fath would therefore not be eligible to replace his father at the end of the presidential term in 2029 without another change to the constitution.

Why are people being driven from the postcard paradise of the Comoros?

(with Reuters)

Serge Atlaoui, who was jailed in Indonesia in 2005, will return to France on 4 February, Law and Human Rights Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra announced.

Atlaoui, a 51-year-old father of four, was arrested near Jakarta in 2005 in a secret laboratory capable of producing 100kg of ecstasy per week. He was working there as a chemist.

He was sentenced to death two years later – the only one of the nine arrested to receive the death sentence.

Atlaoui has long maintained his innocence, saying he thought he was working in an acrylics factory.

In 2015, Atlaoui was about to be executed with seven other foreign prisoners but was granted a last-minute reprieve after Paris stepped up pressure. An Indonesian court then rejected his appeal against the death sentence, leaving him with no other legal options.

Yusril will sign the repatriation agreement with the French Minister of Justice Gerald Darmanin via video teleconference on Friday, said Yusril.

Atlaoui is suffering from an illness and receives weekly treatment at a hospital.

Paris submitted an official request for his transfer last month.

Indonesian court rejects French man’s appeal against death sentence

Fate in France to be decided

France has agreed several terms proposed by Indonesia, Yusril said, including respecting the Indonesian court ruling over Atlaoui.

“After the transfer, all depends on the French government, whether they want to give him clemency or giving sentences according to the French law,” he added.

Based on French law, the maximum punishment for a similar case is 30 years in jail.

In 2019, an Indonesian court commuted the death sentence for another Frenchman convicted of drug smuggling, to 19 years. The French foreign ministry had expressed its concern when he was convicted, reiterating France’s opposition to the death penalty.

Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws and has executed foreigners in the past.

At least 530 people were on death row in the Southeast Asian nation, mostly for drug-related crimes, according to data from rights group KontraS, citing official figures.

Indonesia’s Immigration and Corrections Ministry said more than 90 foreigners were on death row, all on drug charges, as of early November.

In recent weeks it has released half a dozen high-profile detainees, including a Filipina mum on death row and the last five members of the so-called “Bali Nine” drug ring.   

(with newswires)

Rodrigues bought two tickets at 400 euros apiece as a present for her husband’s 33rd last June.

“The seats are quite high up in the arena and not exactly the best,” said the 34-year-old nurse. “But it’s cheaper than going to America to watch a game,” Macedo smiled as they prepared to attend their first NBA game.

“Neither the Pacers nor the Spurs are my team,” said Macedo. “Kobe Bryant was my idol. I’m from kind of an older generation. The Spurs are a side with lots of young players.”

One of them, Victor Wembanyama, has dominated the prelude to the clashes on Thursday and Saturday at the Accor Arena in Bercy, south-eastern Paris.

The 21-year-old grew up in Le Chesnay, some 17 kilometres west of Paris, and turned out for the club Nanterre 92 in north-western Paris between 2014 and 2021 before before moving to ASVEL Lyon-Villurbanne.

He went to the Spurs in 2023 as the top young recruit.

The Spurs have returned with the Pacers to play two regular season games as part of the NBA’s international drive to boost the popularity of its teams.

Mexico has hosted pre-season and regular season NBA games for more than 30 years. NBA superstars have also played in Britain and Japan. France has been staging games since 2020.

Star return

On Monday, shortly after jetting in from the United States, Wembanyama limbered up with his teammates on his old stomping ground at the Palais des sports Maurice-Thorez in Nanterre.

He was the star turn the following day at the inauguration of two basketball courts in his home town.

“There is a bit too much about Wembanyama,” said Macedo on Thursday evening. “He is just starting out and has lots to learn. Everybody is expecting him to do big games all the time. I’m here to see the Spurs’ old stars like Chris Paul.”

Fatima Boudlali confessed she was heading to the game simply for the ambiance.

“I saw an NBA game in Los Angeles just over a year ago. I like it when everyone supports a team, when there’s a buzz. I love it.”

Flanked by Adime Toukourou, a pal from her college days, the 23-year-old happily declared: “I really don’t know anything about basketball, I just know that there are four quarters.”

Boudlali’s original plan had been to go with her boyfriend. “But we broke up,” she explained. “But I still wanted to go to the game. I thought of asking Adime because he’s never been to an NBA game and he’s mad about basketball.”

Passion

“Absolutely adore it,” beamed the 24-year-old. “I played for several years but I got an injury. I used to watch it on TV but with the time difference between France and the United States, it was a bit complicated but I watch when I can.”

His allegiances, he said, had switched from the Oklahoma City Thunder to Lebron James and his LA Lakers as well as the Phoenix Suns.

“I’m not particularly here to see Wembanyama,” he added. “But of course I’m interested because he is a rising star and French.”

Just before the game started, Wembanyama and the Pacers’ Bennedict Mathurin thanked the 16,000 fans for coming to the game.

“It’s an immense pleasure to be here in Paris,” added Wembanyama to raucous cheers. “I hope you have a lot of fun at the game.”

With the local lad in the line-up, every point of the Spurs was acclaimed boisterously. The decibels rose further when the returning son was the author.

Spurs win

In a nod to munificence, grudging cheers accompanied points for the Pacers who were level pegging with the Spurs until they took a double digit lead mid-way through the third quarter.

The Spurs went into the final 12 minutes leading 105-80.

Just before he departed the fray, Wembanyama threw the ball up against the board behind the hoop, caught the rebound and slammed it into the basket. Each replay of the exploit on the giant screens was gleefully greeted.

With an array of former NBA stars such as Tony Parker, Pau Gasol and Boris Diaw duly dusted off and sent out to soak up the applause and love, the game ended 140-110 to the Spurs.

Wembanyama, boasting personal statistics of 30 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and five blocks was accordingly anointed the man of the match for a performance that brought praise from Spurs coach Mitch Johnson and his Pacers counterpart Rick Carlisle.

“The Spurs played a great game,” said Carlisle. “Victor is a great player. France should be very proud. He’s one of a kind. It’s just breathtaking the things that he does.” 

When he carried out the attack, 29-year-old Zaheer Mahmood wrongly believed the satirical newspaper was still based in the building, which was targeted by Islamists a decade ago for publishing cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammed.

In fact, Charlie Hebdo had moved in the wake of the storming of its offices by two Al-Qaeda-linked masked gunmen, who killed 12 people including eight of the paper’s editorial staff.

The killings in January 2015 shocked France and triggered a fierce debate about freedom of expression and religion, fuelling an outpouring of sympathy in France expressed in a wave of “Je Suis Charlie” (“I Am Charlie”) solidarity.

Radicalised

Originally from rural Pakistan, Mahmood arrived in France illegally in the summer of 2019.

The court had earlier heard how Mahmood was influenced by radical Pakistani preacher Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who had called for the beheading of blasphemers.

Mahmood was convicted of attempted murder and terrorist conspiracy and he will be banned from France when his sentence is served.

The 2015 bloodshed, which included a separate but linked hostage-taking that claimed another four lives at a Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris, marked the start of a dark period for France.

In the years that followed extremists inspired by Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group repeatedly mounted attacks, setting the country on edge and inflaming religious tensions.

Jewish leaders warn of rising hate as France remembers supermarket victims

‘Avenge the Prophet’

To mark the opening of the trial into the 2015 massacre, Charlie Hebdo republished its cartoons of Mohammed on 2 September, 2020.

Later that month, urged by the extremist preacher to “avenge the Prophet”,  Mahmood arrived in front of Charlie Hebdo‘s former address.

Armed with a butcher’s cleaver, he gravely wounded two employees of the Premieres Lignes news agency.

Throughout the trial, his defence argued that his actions were the result of a profound disconnect he felt from France, given his upbringing in the fervently Muslim Pakistan countryside.

“In his head he had never left Pakistan,” Mahmood’s defence lawyer Alberic de Gayardon said on Wednesday, conceding that “each of his blows aimed to kill”.

“He does not speak French, he lives with Pakistanis, he works for Pakistanis,” Gayardon added.

‘I saved human beings’, says Muslim man who hid Jews in Paris siege

Angry protests

Charlie Hebdo‘s decision in 2020 to republish the Mohammed lampoons triggered a wave of angry demonstrations in Pakistan, where blasphemy is punishable by death.

Five other Pakistani men, some of whom were minors at the time, were on trial alongside Mahmood on terrorist conspiracy charges for having supported and encouraged his actions.

The French capital’s special court for minors handed Mahmood’s co-defendants sentences of between three and 12 years.

None of the six in the dock reacted to the verdict.

Both victims were present at the sentencing, but did not wish to comment on the trial’s outcome.

Earlier in the trial one of the two, alias Paul, told the court of the long rehabilitation he undertook after his near-death experience.

“It broke something within me,” the 37-year-old said.

Neither he nor the other victim, named only as Helene, 32, have accepted Mahmood’s pleas for forgiveness.

Mahmood’s lawyers have yet to indicate whether their client will appeal the verdict.

The legislation, which would legalise assisted dying and improve palliative care, followed years of public consultation including a citizens’ convention that recommended comprehensive changes to both areas.

The original single bill reached parliament in early 2024 but stalled when the National Assembly was dissolved in June.

Bayrou, a devout Catholic, now wants to separate the two issues into distinct laws, a move that has exposed divisions both within parliament and the governing coalition.

Mounting criticism

“This is a way of abandoning the project to legalise assisted dying,” said left-wing lawmaker Éric Coquerel.

The move has drawn particular anger from opposition parties who see it as a tactical maneuver rather than a genuine attempt at reform.

“We know François Bayrou’s convictions on this subject. The position of a minority prime minister in a very precarious political context cannot be imposed on the National Assembly,” said Socialist MP Jérôme Guedj.

French lawmakers open tense two-week debate on assisted dying

Even within the government coalition, the plan has caused unease. Former minister Prisca Thevenot questioned the change.

“I was minister when the bill was presented as a single block. Perhaps we should also respect this desire, which is not just the will of some people but of a citizens’ convention, with citizens who worked on it for several months,” Thevenot said.

Right-wing backing

However, conservative politicians have welcomed splitting the legislation.

“The aspect everyone agrees on is the need to strengthen palliative care. On the rest, there are debates,” said Éric Ciotti from the Union of the Right for the Republic – a party aligned with the far-right National Rally.

Meanwhile government spokesperson Sophie Prima underlined assisted dying reforms would not be abandoned.

“This issue will be on the agenda as soon as possible. It’s a question of parliamentary votes on subjects that are distinct in nature,” she said.

Sources close to Bayrou said both palliative care and assisted dying would be examined in the “same parliamentary timeframe”, though no specific schedule was provided.

The lack of a clear schedule has fuelled concerns among critics that assisted dying reforms could face lengthy delays.

“We will not raise taxes on households, retirees or salaried workers,” Lombard said on France 2 public television on Thursday, rejecting an idea put forward by Labour Minister Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet to have retirees with high pensions contribute more to funding social programmes.

Such a proposal is political poison in a country where seniors make up nearly a quarter of voters, and where pensions are a perennial subject of debate.

France’s new economy, budget ministers get to work on budget for 2025

The opposition far-right National Rally and hard-left France Unbowed immediately rejected the idea of taxing pensions. The prime minister’s office kept its distance, saying the idea was a “personal” proposal from Panosyan-Bouvet.

€60 billion deficit

The 2025 budget – introduced in October by then Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who lost a confidence vote after he pushed the legislation through without a vote in the National Assembly – must address a higher than expected €60 billion deficit, through taxes and cuts.

Prime Minister François Bayrou has tasked his government with proposing a budget that includes €32 billion in savings and €21 billion in revenue, to reduce the public deficit to 5.4 percent of GDP, down from 6.1 percent expected from 2024.

The long-term goal is to reach the Brussels-mandated deficit of 3 percent by 2029.

Lombard confirmed that a one-off corporate tax on the country’s largest companies, intended to bring in €8 billion, will be limited to one year instead of two, and said that a tax on high incomes was still under consideration.

France to consider corporate tax increase to lower budget deficit

Legislative marathon

The Senate is due to vote on the budget on Thursday, in the next step on its long path through the legislative process.

It is expected to pass with the right-of-centre majority, although the Socialist group in the chamber has warned it will vote against it.

The government has already made concessions to appease Socialist MPs, including backtracking on the elimination of 4,000 teachers’ posts and agreeing to a renegotiation of the 2023 pension reform.

French PM vows to reopen pension reform talks amid growing debt crisis

The Socialists say they are waiting for the joint parliamentary committee reading of the bill, which is expected on 30 January, to make a final decision on whether or not to support the final version of the budget.

The government insists that a budget must be in place by the end of February to avoid a shutdown in public services, which are currently running under a special emergency budget law passed at the end of last year.

(with AFP)

Between 2022 and 2023, Washington contributed $1.28 billion to the World Health Organization (WHO) – more than any other country. 

But hours after taking office on Monday, Donald Trump signed an executive order announcing that the United States was leaving the WHO and taking its funding with it, citing dissatisfaction over its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the inequality of contributions.

“China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has 300 percent of the population of the United States, yet contributes nearly 90 percent less to the WHO,” the order read. 

The move has raised concerns on the African continent about how the loss of finance could impact the fight against HIV-Aids, and the growing mpox epidemic – which the African Union’s health watchdog (Africa CDC) has declared a public health emergency.

On Wednesday, the African Union expressed dismay over the withdrawal, urging the Trump administration to reconsider.

RFI spoke to Professor Yap Boum II, deputy coordinator of the CDC’s mpox response unit.

RFI: What are your thoughts on the decision announced by the new American president?

Professor Yap Boum II: The decision was anticipated, it had been in the air. Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, addressed it this week, so it’s not surprising.

However, it will have a significant impact. For instance, in responding to the mpox epidemic the WHO and Africa CDC are coordinating efforts, and out of the projected funding of $1 billion, the US contributes $500 million – half of the total. This withdrawal could have substantial consequences. We need to consider what the US’s exit from the WHO signifies. Does it imply a reduction in US support for global health? These are distinct issues. It’s crucial to understand the practical implications so that we can all adapt accordingly.

WHO regrets Trump move to pull US from organization

RFI: Historically, the US has been a significant contributor to public health emergency appeals.

YB: Yes. For instance, the US is the largest contributor to the fight against HIV-Aids in Africa and globally. In response to major epidemics like Covid-19 and now mpox, the US has provided half of the funding. The impact will be considerable, depending on how the situation unfolds.

Is the WHO all there is to health? That’s the key question. Could this open the door for other agencies, such as USAID or various organisations, to receive the funds. And, couldn’t this also be an opportunity for African philanthropists for example to contribute more to the Africa CDC? Couldn’t this lead to a reorganisation of the global health landscape? We’ll get more clarity on this in the coming weeks and months.

Number of African-born millionaires to skyrocket over next decade: report

RFI:  So you’re not dismissing the possibility of other players stepping in? 

YB: Absolutely not. As the saying goes, nature abhors a vacuum. If there are crises – and there will be – needs will continue to grow. We’ll need individuals, institutions and even nations to fill that gap. The current Davos summit presents an opportunity to discuss how certain philanthropists can take on the funding that the US might give up. I’m currently in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, focusing on how African entities, countries and member states can invest more in the health of their communities in response to mpox.

WHO reports 30,000 suspected mpox cases in Africa, mainly in DRC

RFI: Have you observed African governments being willing to increase their contributions to financing African structures, especially Africa CDC? 

YB: Absolutely. To kickstart the response to the mpox epidemic, member states were the first to invest. Here in the DRC, the government was quick to release funds to support the response efforts. There’s a strong desire for sovereignty that allows us to respond to epidemics.

However, we currently lack the critical mass to do this alone. So in some respects the pressure [stemming from the US’s withdrawal from the WHO] could act as a catalyst for member states, as well as for philanthropists and investors. We’ve never had so many African billionaires. Now is the time to invest more seriously to ensure national and even continental sovereignty.

This interview, adapted from the original in French, has been lightly edited for clarity.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday ruled in favour of the 69-year-old French woman, whose husband had obtained a divorce on the grounds that she had stopped having sex with him.

The Strasbourg-based court said that a woman who refuses to have sex with her husband should not be considered “at fault” by divorce courts, and any concept of marital duties needed to take into account consent as the basis for sexual relations.

It ruled that France had violated article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, relating to the right to respect for private and family life.

The mother of four from the suburbs of Paris, who wished to remain anonymous and was identified only as HW, welcomed the ruling. “I hope that this decision will mark a turning point in the fight for women’s rights in France,” she said in a statement.

“This victory is for all the women who, like me, find themselves faced with aberrant and unjust court rulings that call into question their bodily integrity and their right to privacy.”

The ruling comes as French society debates the concept of consent, with women’s rights advocates saying it should be added to France’s legal definition of rape.

France urged to place consent at centre of rape law reform

Grounds for divorce

The woman did not complain about the divorce, which she had also sought, but rather about the grounds on which it had been granted, the court said.

“The court concluded that the very existence of such a marital obligation ran counter to sexual freedom, (and) the right to bodily autonomy,” a statement from the court said. “Any non-consensual act of a sexual nature constituted a form of sexual violence.”

France announces new measures to combat violence against women

It added: “The applicant’s husband could have petitioned for divorce submitting the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage as the principal ground and not, as he had done, as an alternative ground.”

The couple married in 1984 and had four children, including a disabled daughter who needed the constant presence of a parent, a role that her mother took on.

Relations between husband and wife deteriorated when their first child was born. The woman began experiencing health problems in 1992. In 2002, her husband began abusing her physically and verbally, the court said. In 2004, she stopped having sex with him and in 2012 petitioned for divorce.

In 2019, an appeals court in Versailles dismissed the woman’s complaints and sided with her husband, while the Court of Cassation dismissed an appeal without giving specific reasons. She turned to the ECHR, which acts as a court of last instance where all domestic legal avenues are exhausted, in 2021.

‘Sexual servitude’

“It was impossible for me to accept it and leave it at that,” the woman said.

“The Court of Appeal’s decision condemning me was and is unworthy of a civilised society, because it denied me the right not to consent to sexual relations, depriving me of my freedom to make decisions about my body. It reinforced the right of my husband and all spouses to impose their will.”

Her case has been supported by two women’s rights group, the Fondation des Femmes (Women’s Foundation) and Collectif feministe contre le viol (Feminist Collective Against Rape).

In a joint statement in 2021, these groups said: “Marriage is not and must not be sexual servitude.”

While French criminal justice abolished the concept of conjugal duty in 1990, “civil judges continue to impose it through an archaic vision of marriage,” they said.

Delphine Zoughebi, a member of the woman’s defence team, said: “This decision is all the more fundamental given that almost one in two rapes is committed by a spouse or partner.”

The ECHR is part of the 46-member Council of Europe pan-European rights body. It enforces the European Convention on Human Rights and its rulings are legally binding and not advisory.

(with AFP, Reuters)

Trifluoroacetic acid was been found in the tap water of the majority of the cities where it was tested by the consumer protection group UFC-Que Choisir and the environmental NGO Générations Futures, which published their results on Thursday.

Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) is a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance, or PFAS – commonly known as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down naturally.

It was found in the water of 24 of the 30 cities tested, and 20 of the cities had levels higher than the 100 nanograms per litre limit that the European Union will put on 20 regulated PFAS by 2026.

Paris has the second highest concentration, with 6,200 nanograms per litre, behind the small rural town of Moussac, in the southeast, with 13,000 nanograms per litre.

Moussac is near Salindres, where a plant for the Solvay group was producing TFA for use in pesticides until September.

French water supply contaminated with untested toxic chemicals, NGO warns

‘Virtually indestructible’

Although TFA is not as dangerous as other “forever chemicals”, the study says its toxicity has not been disproved, and the chemical is “virtually indestructible in the environment”.

Furthermore, the presence of TFA is “rarely, if ever, checked by regional health agencies during drinking water controls”, according to the study.

The research involved testing for the presence of 33 PFAS in total and, other than TFA, their concentrations “remain in line with the standard chosen by France”, which is 100 nanograms per litre of the total, of 20 specific chemicals.

Study sounds alarm on toxic ‘forever chemicals’ used in EU pesticides

PFAS, because of their resistance to extreme temperatures and corrosion, are used in items as varied as automotive parts and wind turbines, cosmetics and non-stick cookware.

However, they accumulate over time in the air, soil, water sources and in the human body, and studies have found that long-term exposure can affect fertility, and cause certain cancers and other health risks.

The European Commission intends to propose a ban on the use of PFAS, a class of more than 4,700 molecules, in consumer products, with exemptions for essential industrial uses, but is facing pushback from industry groups.

How big industry ‘diluted’ the EU’s triumphant deal on packaging waste

(with AFP, Reuters)

“Solar remained the EU’s fastest-growing power source in 2024, rising above coal for the first time. Wind power remained the EU’s second-largest power source, above gas and below nuclear,” the energy think tank Ember said in its European electricity review 2025 published Thursday.

Eleven percent of the EU’s electricity was generated from solar panels in 2024, up from 9.3 percent in 2023.

Coal fell to less than 10 percent for the first time since Ember began collating the figures in 2011.

Renewables on the rise

Less favourable wind conditions meant wind power was almost flat, compared to the previous year, but the two sources together boosted the share of renewables to 47 percent, up from 34 percent in 2019.

Fossil-fuelled power, meanwhile, dipped to a “historic low”, according to the report, with gas generation declining for the fifth year in a row, to a 15.7 percent share.

“The European Green Deal has delivered a deep and rapid transformation of the EU power sector,” the think tank said.

• EU members agree to nearly double renewable energy by 2030

While nuclear remained the dominant electricity source in the EU in 2024, contributing 23.7 percent of the mix, more than half of European countries have either eliminated coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, or reduced its share to less than five percent of their energy mix.

According to Ember, these trends are widespread across Europe, with solar power progressing in all EU countries.

Need for batteries

As a result, electricity system will need to increase its storage capacity, to make the most of intermittent renewable energies, which are only produced when the sun shines or the wind blows.

“A readily available solution is a battery co-located with a solar plant. This gives solar power producers more control over the prices they receive and helps them avoid selling for low prices in the middle of the day,” the report said.

But this capacity is concentrated in just a small number of countries, with 70 percent of existing batteries located in Germany and Italy at the end of 2023.

“More storage and demand flexibility is needed to sustain growth and for consumers to reap the full benefits of abundant solar,” Ember said.

The think tank suggested consumers could reduce electricity bills by shifting usage to periods of abundance, while battery operators could earn revenue from buying power when prices are low and selling it back when demand peaks.

(with Reuters, AFP)

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 14 December, I asked you a question about Syria and the end of Bashir al-Assad’s dictatorship. Rebel forces, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, seized Damascus on 8 December; Assad fled to Russia, ending his family’s six-decade- rule.

You were to re-read our article “France’s support for Syrian transition hinges on respect for minority rights” and send in the answer to this question:  France’s outgoing Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was quoted in the article. He noted that “Assad’s fall is a ‘clear defeat for Moscow’”. Why? Why does Jean-Noel Barrot think that Assad’s fall is a “clear defeat for Moscow”?

The answer is, to quote our article: “… Russia now could lose access to military bases in Syria which allowed it to conduct operations in the Magreb and elsewhere on the African continent.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Debashis Gope from West Bengal, India: “How can we have peace amongst all people?”  

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Dia Zanib from Muzaffargarh, Pakistan. Dia is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations on your double win, Dia!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week is Omar Faruk, a member of the Shetu RFI Listeners Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh, and Alok Bain, a member of the RFI Pariwer Bandhu SWL Club in Chhattisgarh, India. There’s RFI Listeners Club member Abdul Mannan Teacher from Sirajganj, Bangladesh, and last but not least, RFI English listener Nargis Akter from Dhaka, Bangladesh. 

Congratulations, winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Vivace” from the Piano Concerto No. 11 in D major for fortepiano and orchestra by Franz Joseph Haydn, performed by Ronald Brautigam and the Concerto Copenhagen; the first movement from the Suite for Oud Quartet by Mohammad Osman, performed by the Syrian Oud Quartet; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Kudzi Malaissane” by José Pires and Roberto Isaias, performed by Kapa Dêch.

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read our article “French NGOs to quit social media platform X following Trump inauguration”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 17 February to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 22 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.   

How will 2025 shape up for African nations and their global partnerships? Will Africa secure a more central role in the global diplomatic landscape?

To understand what’s at stake on the continent, the Spotlight on Africa podcast consulted three experts in African politics and diplomacy.

Cameron Hudson from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CISC) in Washington DC discusses priorities for South Africa as it takes on the rotating presidency of the G20 group, and in particular its relationship to the United States. 

Michael Dillon from King’s College, London, UK, looks at China’s new strategy that aims to deepen its influence in Africa.

Thierry Vircoulon from IFRI in France analyses the legacy of France in Africa, notably in the Sahel where French troops have been pushed out by military juntas of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

These countries have since established their own Alliance of Sahel States and made the decision to withdraw from the West African bloc Ecowas. Set to take effect on 29 January, security experts and members of the diaspora have voiced concern over what lies ahead.

Episode mixed by Erwan Rome.

Spotlight on Africa is produced by Radio France Internationale’s English language service.

Erdogan was quick to congratulate Trump on his election victory, making clear his desire to work with him again.

“Donald Trump is a man who acts with his instincts, and Erdogan is too,” explains Huseyin Bagci, a professor of international relations with Ankara’s Middle East Technical University. 

“They are not intellectuals as we used to have, big political leaders after World War II. They are tradespeople. They are very pragmatic ones, and they are political animals. In this sense, they like transactional policies, not value-based policies.”

Syria a key focus

Erdogan’s top priority is expected to be securing the withdrawal of US forces from Syria, where they support the Kurdish militia YPG in the fight against the Islamic State.

Ankara views the YPG as a terrorist group linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency in Turkey for decades.

During his first presidency, Trump promised to pull US forces out of Syria, though this move faced strong resistance from American officials.

Sezin Oney, a commentator with Turkey’s independent Politikyol news portal, said new challenges in Syria make an early withdrawal unlikely.

“Not to have the ISIS resurgence again or this HTS presenting a threat to the United States, the Trump administration would be interested in protecting the YPG and the Kurds, their alliance with the Kurds,” said Oney.

“We already have the (US) vice president, JD Vance, pointing out the ISIS resurgence.”

Turkey steps up military action against Kurds in Syria as power shifts

Israel and Iran

The ceasefire between Hamas and Israel could ease another potential point of tension between Erdogan and Trump, as Erdogan has been a strong supporter of Hamas.

Meanwhile, both Ankara and Washington share concerns over Iran’s regional influence, which could encourage cooperation between the two leaders.

“Trump administration is coming in with a desire to stabilise relations with Turkey,” said Asli Aydintasbas, an analyst with the Brookings Institution.

“We are likely to see more and more of a personal rapport, personal relationship, which had been missing during the Biden administration,” she added. “President Erdogan and President Trump will get along famously. But it does not mean Turkey gets all of its policy options.”

Success of rebel groups in Syria advances Turkish agenda

Fighter jets and Ukraine

Erdogan is also hoping the Trump administration will lift a Congressional embargo on advanced fighter jet sales. Experts suggest Turkey could play a key role in any Trump-led efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in the Ukraine war, given Erdogan’s ties with both Russia and Ukraine.

“If Trump is pushing for a ceasefire in Ukraine between Russia and Ukraine, in this case Turkey could be very helpful as a potential mediator,” said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, head of the German Marshall Fund’s Ankara office.

But Unluhisarcikli warned of potential challenges.

“What happens in Syria could be a test for the US-Turkey relationship very early on. Turkey is actually preparing for a new intervention in northeast Syria against what Turkey sees as a terrorist organisation, and what the United States sees as a partner on the ground.”

Economic risks

Trump’s previous presidency saw tensions with Erdogan peak after Trump threatened to destroy Turkey’s economy over its plans to attack US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces. This move triggered a sharp drop in the Turkish lira.

With Turkey’s economy now weaker than before, analysts say Erdogan will need to proceed cautiously in his dealings with the new Trump administration.

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 7 December, I asked you a question about the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which had just begun to hear evidence from 98 countries and 12 organizations about climate change, and how to establish rules for rich nations to support poorer ones, who are on the frontlines of climate change.

It’s a landmark case: brought by students in 2019 from the University of Vanuatu – the Pacific Island nation heavily impacted by climate change – led to a UN General Assembly resolution in 2023, asking the ICJ for a formal opinion on the legal obligations of states to protect the climate system. The court will also consider whether large polluting nations can be held liable for damages to vulnerable countries like small island states.

You were to re-read Paul Myer’s article “Small island nations lead fight for climate justice at UN’s top court”, and send in the answer to this question: In addition to the small island states and developing countries, who else will the ICJ hear from?

The answer is, to quote Paul’s article: “The court will also hear from the United States and China – the world’s top two emitters of greenhouse gases. The oil producer group OPEC will also give its views.

The 15 judges at the ICJ will hear submissions until 13 December and deliver their decision next year.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Liton Ahamed Mia from Naogaon, Bangladesh: What do you remember about your first boat journey, and how did you feel when you were back on land?

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

The winners are: Fatematuj Zahra, the co-secretary of the Shetu RFI Listeners Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh. Fatematuj is also this week’s bonus question winner

Congratulations on your double win, Fatematju!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week is A. K. M. Nuruzzaman, the president of the RFI Amour Fan Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, and two RFI Listeners Club members from India: Babby Noor al Haya Hussen from Baripada, and Radhakrishna Pillai from Kerala State.

Rounding out the list of this week’s winners is RFI English listener Liton Islam Khondaker from Naogaon, Bangladesh.

Congratulations, winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: Hungarian Folk Dances by Bela Bartok, performed by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra; “Dance With Pennons” from Three Japanese Dances by Bernard Rogers, performed by the Eastman Wind Ensemble conducted by Frederick Fennell; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and “The Intrepid Fox” by Freddie Hubbard, performed by Hubbard and the Freddie Hubbard Quintet.

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read our article “’Exhausted’ Frenchman held in Iran since 2022 reveals identity in plea for help”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 10 February to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 15 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 often fraught relations between France and its former colony Algeria have hit an all-time low after a series of disagreements over Western Sahara, the detention of a French-Algerian writer and an Algerian blogger accused of inciting violence. Both countries have spoken of “humiliation” and “dishonour”. Arab world specialist  Adlene Mohammedi talks about bilateral relations being polluted by internal affairs – notably Algiers’ lack of democratic legitimacy and the increasing influence of the far right in France. And while the sorely needed level-headed diplomacy  is more needed than ever, it’s been run down in both countries.   (Listen @2’05”)

France’s remarkable geological diversity means the country is prime dinosaur territory – home to fossils from all three periods of the dinosaur age.  The first dinosaurs were discovered in France in the 19th century, but as paleontologist Eric Buffetaut explains, many of the major finds have been in the last 40 years, thanks to amateur paleontologists around the country. (Listen @21’25”)

France enacted a law decriminalising abortion on 17 January 1975. Ollia Horton talks about the legacy of that right and how despite being  enshrined in the constitution, access 50 years later is still not guaranteed. (Listen @14’40”)

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani. 

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

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.

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.