European countries including France have been seeking to boost defence spending and ramp up production of weapons in the face of possible US security disengagement and Russian aggression.

Speaking during a trip to a military base in Luxeuil-les-Bains in the country’s east on Tuesday, Macron said France was going to “increase and accelerate the Rafale orders”, adding that the air and space force would benefit from more orders for the warplanes produced by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation.

The decisions on additional investments to respond to the “acceleration of events” would be announced in the coming weeks, he said.

“Our country and our continent will have to continue to defend themselves, to equip themselves, to prepare if we want to avoid war,” Macron said.

“No one can say what will happen in the coming months and years. What I want is for us to be ready. What I want is for us to be protected.”

Last year, the country’s air force had 108 Rafale jets, and the navy had 41 such warplanes. France was due to receive 56 additional aircraft before Macron’s announcement.

Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu has recently said it is necessary to acquire 30 more Rafale warplanes.

The site in Luxeuil-les-Bains will by 2035 become “the first base to receive the next version of the Rafale and its hypersonic nuclear missile”, Macron said.

He said the state would invest nearly 1.5 billion euros to adapt the base.

What would a French nuclear umbrella over Europe really mean?

According to the Elysee, the airbase plays “a central role in protecting the interests of the Transatlantic Alliance (NATO) and beyond”.

Macron stressed the importance of nuclear deterrence, vowing to “continue to strengthen each of its components”.

France and Britain are the only European countries to have nuclear weapons.

In early March, Macron said he would discuss extending France’s nuclear deterrent to European partners.

Later Tuesday, the French president was set to travel to Berlin for talks with Germany’s outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz and chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz.

(with AFP)

The complaint was submitted to the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office in Paris on Tuesday by “Restitution pour l’Afrique” (RAF), a collective of 11 NGOs from six African countries: Togo, Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Democratic Republic of Congo.

The collective accuses the French conglomerate of systematically using corrupt practices to secure lucrative port concessions in at least five African nations before selling its African logistics operations for €5.7 billion in 2022 to Swiss-Italian shipping giant MSC.

“We are trying to condemn the Bolloré method, the practices and the system that was put in place to win elections and have interests and dividends by managing ports in Africa,” said Jean-Jacques Lumumba, president of the RAF collective.

The complaint represents a new approach by targeting those allegedly paying bribes rather than the traditional focus on African officials receiving them.

“This complaint focuses on the corrupters, that is, those through whom money is injected into territories where it is later laundered,” Paris-based lawyer Antoine Vey told the French news agency AFP.

Documented allegations

The complaint details allegations across multiple countries. In Cameroon, a national anti-corruption commission report cited in the complaint claims Bolloré Group withheld €60 million in fees and fines it should have paid to the state for its operations at Douala and Kribi ports.

In Ghana, Bolloré allegedly convinced then-president John Dramani Mahama in 2014 to award a port contract “secretly and without tender” despite 56 companies competing for the project.

The complaint claims this resulted in “a net loss of $4.1 billion for Ghana”.

The 2003 no-bid award of the Abidjan container terminal in Côte d’Ivoire by then-president Laurent Gbagbo drew criticism, with the World Bank’s country director describing it as “a contract that fundamentally violates principles of good governance”.

Nearly 60 percent of African youth want to emigrate because of corruption

This is not the first time Bolloré’s African operations have faced legal scrutiny.

French authorities began investigating the company in 2013 over suspicions it used its political consulting subsidiary, Euro RSCG (now Havas), to help presidents Faure Gnassingbé and Alpha Condé win their 2010 election campaigns in Togo and Guinea in exchange for port concessions.

Bolloré settled part of the case in 2021 by paying a €12 million fine. However, in 2024, prosecutors requested a trial for Vincent Bolloré on charges of corruption and complicity in breach of trust.

“The group has already acknowledged that some of these activities took place. Is this the tip of the iceberg?” Vey asked.

Seeking restitution

The collective hopes the case will trigger the application of France’s 2021 law, which allows for the reallocation of seized assets from corruption cases to fund development projects in affected countries.

“The goal is to target dirty money taken by the corrupter and return it to the African people who were harmed,” Lumumba said.

“This money means fewer hospitals, fewer schools, fewer roads, fewer infrastructure projects. And it’s a future that we’re taking away from our young people.”

Until its 2022 sale to Swiss-Italian shipping giant MSC, Bolloré Africa Logistics employed over 20,000 people across more than 20 African countries and operated 16 port concessions along with warehouses and transportation hubs.

More than 800,000 people were displaced by extreme weather events last year – the highest yearly number since records began in 2008, according to the State of the Global Climate report released by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

The report also confirmed 2024 as the hottest year on record, with global temperatures exceeding the 1.5C threshold for the first time.

“In response, WMO and the global community are intensifying efforts to strengthen early warning systems and climate services,” said WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

The UN agency aims to ensure everyone in the world is covered by early warning systems by the end of 2027, but progress remains insufficient.

“We are making progress but need to go further and need to go faster. Only half of all countries worldwide have adequate early warning systems,” Saulo said.

France rolls out plan to prepare for 4C temperature rise by end of century

Deadly storms, record heat

The WMO report documented 151 “unprecedented” extreme weather events in 2024, meaning they were worse than any previously recorded in their regions.

In Mozambique, around 100,000 people were displaced by Cyclone Chido, while devastating floods in Valencia, Spain, claimed 224 lives. Wildfires in Canada and the United States forced more than 300,000 people to flee their homes.

Heatwaves in Japan left hundreds of thousands suffering from heatstroke, while temperatures soared to 49.9C in Carnarvon, Western Australia, 49.7C in the Iranian city of Tabas, and 48.5C during a nationwide heatwave in Mali.

The Philippines faced an unprecedented six typhoons in under a month, while Vietnam was hit by Super Typhoon Yagi, affecting 3.6 million people. Hurricane Helene became the strongest storm ever recorded to strike Florida’s Big Bend region.

“The clear signs of human-induced climate change reached new heights in 2024,” said Saulo. “Some of these consequences will be irreversible for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.”

How bolder targets, treaties and talks will steer a defining year for climate

Growing uncertainty

The report’s release comes amid growing concerns about climate policy, particularly following the return of US President Donald Trump, a known climate sceptic.

His administration has already cut hundreds of scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), raising concerns over the weakening of global climate monitoring efforts.

Trump’s reappointment of Neil Jacobs as NOAA’s head has sparked controversy. Jacobs was previously censured for misrepresenting a hurricane forecast under political pressure.

Despite political uncertainty, Omar Baddour, head of WMO’s climate monitoring and policy services, stressed the need for continued international collaboration.

“We are working together with scientists worldwide, and we hope this will continue despite political differences,” Baddour said.

Natural disaster prevention fund takes centre stage in French budget debate

Indicators worsening

The report confirmed 2024 as the warmest year in the 175-year observational record, with global mean near-surface temperature reaching 1.55C above the 1850-1900 average – the first calendar year to exceed the 1.5C threshold outlined in the Paris climate accords.

For the first time, the 10 hottest years on record all occurred within the last decade, yet global carbon emissions continued to rise.

Oceanographer Karina von Schuckmann highlighted concerning “acceleration” in key global indicators during the report’s presentation, including rapid ocean warming and rising sea levels.

“Glaciers continue to retreat, and Antarctic sea ice reached its second-lowest extent ever recorded,” Saulo said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for urgent action, saying: “Our planet is issuing more distress signals – but this report shows that limiting long-term global temperature rise to 1.5C is still possible.”

Kinshasa accuses its neighbour of supporting the M23 rebellion, which has seized large parts of the South and North Kivu provinces. These accusations are supported by several United Nations reports, but denied by Kigali.

Since then, various attempts have been made by regional organisations and mediators to revive dialogue between the two leaders. This has now been accomplished.

According to sources talking to RFI’s Africa service,  the meeting began at 4pm in Doha (1pm UTC) and lasted about 45 minutes in an atmosphere deemed “cordial,” largely thanks to the involvement of the emir, who had already tried in January 2023 to organise a meeting between the two presidents. That meeting was  cancelled at the last minute.

Tresor Kibangula of the Ebuteli Institute for Political Analysis told RFI that Western sanctions and pressure are beginning to weigh on Kagame, and that Tshisekedi has finally come around to the idea of ​​negotiating with the M23, which he had previously rejected. That is because the balance of power on the ground has changed since the armed group conquered Goma and Bukavu, he said.

Call for a ceasefire

The presidents of Rwanda and DRC have expressed their support for a ceasefire after holding the talks just hours after the planned peace talks in Angola failed.

A source close to the Congolese presidency said that the meeting was kept “secret” until Tshisekedi boarded a plane back to Kinshasa.

“The heads of state reaffirmed the commitment of all parties to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire” as agreed at an African summit last month, according to a statement issued by the three countries.

The “fruitful meeting helped build confidence in a shared commitment to a secure and stable future for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region”, it added.

Another statement from the Rwandan presidency later on Tuesday confirmed that the leaders had discussed the urgent need for “direct political dialogue” with all parties to address “the root causes of the conflict in Eastern DRC”.

It added: “President Kagame expressed his belief that with all parties working together, things can move forward faster,” the statement added.

His spokesperson Tina Salama posted on social media that an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire has just been agreed between the DRC and Rwanda”.

“The details of the implementation of what has been agreed will be worked out in the coming days”, the communication unit of the Congolese presidency later added.

Sanctions on Rwanda

Earlier Tuesday, Angola had said peace talks had been cancelled after the M23 group withdrew at the last minute.

The group on Monday had accused “certain international institutions” of “deliberately sabotaging peace efforts”, referring notably to sanctions imposed by the European Union.

“The successive sanctions imposed on our members, including those adopted on the eve of the discussions in Luanda, seriously compromise direct dialogue and prevent any advance,” it said.

The group also denounced Kinshasa’s “bellicose campaign”, saying that “under these conditions, the holding of talks has become impossible. As a result, our organisation will not be able to take part in the discussions”.

It follows the European Union sanctioning three Rwandan military commanders and its mining agency chief over their support for armed fighters in the eastern DRC as well as senior members of the M23, including its head, Bertrand Bisimwa.

Rwanda says cutting diplomatic ties with Belgium, as EU announces sanctions

Military advance 

The M23 claims to defend the interests of Congolese Tutsis in the DRC.

Since January, it has seized the key cities of Goma and Bukavu in a lightning advance that has killed more than 7,000 people, according to the DRC.

Rwandan-backed M23 gains in eastern DRC spark UN warnings and regional fears

News organisations have not been able to verify the figure independently.

A report by United Nations experts has said Kigali effectively controls the M23 and has around 4,000 troops backing it in order to exploit the region’s valuable minerals such as gold and coltan.

Rwanda denies providing the M23 with military assistance but says it faces a threat in the DRC’s east from the FDLR group, founded by ethnic Hutu leaders involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis.

The last time the Congolese government and the M23 held talks was in 2013.

 (with AFP)

President Tamas Sulyok signed the legislation on Tuesday after parliament fast-tracked its passage, approving the measure in a 136-27 vote just one day after it was proposed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s right-wing Fidesz party.

“This is not child protection, this is fascism,” Budapest Pride organisers said in a statement.

The new law bans events deemed harmful to children under Hungary‘s contentious 2021 “child protection” legislation, which prohibits the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to minors.

Protests erupt

Several thousand demonstrators gathered outside parliament following the vote, later blocking Margaret Bridge in central Budapest in defiance of police instructions to disperse.

Opposition lawmakers staged a vivid protest inside the legislature, setting off rainbow-coloured smoke bombs as the bill was debated.

“Budapest is the city of freedom, there will be Pride,” said Gergely Karacsony, the capital’s liberal mayor, who condemned the law.

Pride organisers have vowed to proceed with this year’s march, scheduled for 28 June, despite the ban. The legislation imposes fines of up to 200,000 Hungarian forints (€550) for both organisers and participants.

EU to start legal action against Hungary’s anti-LGBT law

Surveillance powers

The legislation permits authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify those attending prohibited events, with collected fines directed toward “child protection”, according to the law’s text.

Tamas Dombos, project coordinator at Hungarian LGBTQ+ rights group Háttér Society, warned that the surveillance provisions could be used beyond Pride events.

“It’s a very common strategy of authoritarian governments not to talk about the real issues that people are affected by: the inflation, the economy, the terrible condition of education and health care,” Dombos said.

International criticism

The law has drawn rebuke from European officials, with Hadja Lahbib, the EU commissioner for equality, writing on X that “the right to gather peacefully is a fundamental right to be championed across the European Union“.

Michael O’Flaherty, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, said he was “very concerned” about the new law and had urged President Sulyok to veto it.

Critics have noted similarities between Hungary’s approach and legislation in Russia, where laws prohibiting “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” have severely restricted LGBTQ+ rights.

“It’s quite terrifying, to be honest, because we had the same in Russia. It was building up step by step, and I feel like this is what is going on here,” said Evgeny Belyakov, a Russian immigrant to Hungary, during the protest.

Electoral stakes

The move comes as Orban, who has been in power since 2010, faces mounting domestic challenges ahead of elections scheduled for 2026.

Hungary’s economy has struggled with inflation and rising living costs while a new opposition party has emerged as an unprecedented electoral threat.

In 2022, the European Commission filed a case with the EU’s highest court against Hungary’s 2021 child protection law, arguing it “discriminates against people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity”.

The Hungarian government maintains its policies are designed to protect children from “sexual propaganda”, but rights advocates argue the legislation falsely conflates homosexuality with paedophilia.

Budapest Pride spokesperson Jojó Majercsik said despite Orban’s efforts to stigmatise LGBTQ+ people, the organisation has received an outpouring of support.

“Many, many people have been mobilised,” Majercsik said. “We’ve received many messages from people saying, ‘Until now I haven’t gone to Pride, I didn’t care about it, but this year I’ll be there and I’ll bring my family’.”

Coventry’s parents scrimped and saved to raise money, including selling cakes and hamburgers in the local community at weekends, to assist her training.

The Olympic Solidarity Scholarship stepped in to support the fledgling star. “That scholarship was hugely instrumental in just taking a bit of pressure off my family,” Coventry recalled 

“It gave me a little bit of income where I could travel to meetings and compete during the summertime when we weren’t in class or in school and it allowed me to pay for my coach to travel with me when we went to World Championships. And that’s a huge advantage.”

The boost yielded glories galore. She won two golds, four silvers and a bronze swimming for her country between 2000 and 2016 to become the most decorated African in the 129-year history of the Olympic Games.

“The hardest part of my journey was becoming an Olympic champion,” she told RFI on the eve of the vote to choose the planet’s most powerful sports administrator.

“That’s where I believe we should be focusing a little bit more with dedicated programmes to help support directly athletes on their journey to becoming an Olympian. So I would like to do that.”

Sebastian Coe, a rival for the top job, created controversy just before the 2024 Games in Paris when he announced that track and field gold medallists would receive 47,000 euros from his organisation World Athletics.

French metal band Gojira wins Grammy for Olympics performance

It was the first time a sports federation had decided to pay prize money at an Olympics.

Coventry says she is against such incentives. “I’m not a believer of prize money,” she added. “Again, looking at my own journey and also speaking to athletes around me, the hardest part of the journey is always before you become an Olympic champion or before you are well known.

“Once you’re well known or once and you have won medals, a lot more opportunities open up for you. So the point is how can we help develop more athletes to try to become Olympic champions? or Olympic finalists? I believe that’s the way we will be able to reach more athletes.”

Athletes’ voices

More personal experience from her eight years as chairperson of the IOC’s athletes commission, she says, will inform her presidency. 

“I also want to ensure that athletes’ voices are always heard because that is how we can get to know what they expect of us.

“So through the athletes commission, we can make sure that the IOC is hearing exactly what athletes want from us, what they need from us, and how we can work in protecting and supporting them.”

Coventry was still in her teens and a high school student when she swam in her first Olympics in Sydney in 2000.

Four years later at the Athens Games, she won gold in the 200m backstroke, silver in the 100m backstroke and bronze in the 200m individual medley.

In Beijing in 2008, she retained her backstroke title and claimed silver again in the 100m backstroke as well as silvers in the 200 and 400m individual medley.

Former skiing champion Grospiron takes on role as face of 2030 Winter Olympics

Competing for the top job

Though she took part in the 2012 Games in London and in Rio in 2016, she never recaptured her previous highs and retired in the wake of her exertions in Rio.

Nine years after stepping away from the white heat of competition in the pool, Coventry is aiming to make a splash at the Greek coastal resort of Costa Navarino as the first woman and the first African to lead the IOC since it was set up in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas.

“I want to be the best person, not just because of gender or because of where I come from,” Coventry said. “I want the IOC members to feel that they can have confidence and trust in me, that I will be the best person to lead our incredible organisation, into the future that is changing ever so quickly.”

Coventry, the youngest candidate in the field, will vie for the top job with the likes of Frenchman David Lappartient, who heads his country’s national Olympic committee as well as the international cycling federation, Juan Antonio Samaranch, the son of the seventh president Juan Antonio Samaranch, and Morinari Watanabe, the head of the International Gymnastics Federation.

If the 109 IOC members were to choose her on Thursday, she will lead the organisation from the retirement of Thomas Bach on 23 June until 2033.

Lavish Paris Olympics river ceremony cost €100m, finance report reveals

The big question

The term will embrace the Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane in 2032 as well as the Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in 2026 and the French Alps in 2030 which has come under fire from environmental campaigners in France.

After an opening ceremony along the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, the ice sports, except for the speed skating, will be staged in the city.

Some 600km away to the north, La Clusaz and Le Grand-Bornand in the Haute-Savoie section will provide the venues for the cross country skiing and biathlon.

La Plagne, Courcheval and Méribel in the Savoie cluster will host inter alia the bobsleigh, luge and the alpine skiing. Serre Chevalier and Montgenèvre in the Briançon cluster will stage the freestyle skiing and snowboarding.

Lavish Paris Olympics river ceremony cost €100m, finance report reveals

Enthusiasts wanting to experience anything approaching the full gamut of the events at the extravaganza are destined to leave a chunky carbon footprint.

“This is a huge question,” said Coventry. “I think that this also is going to come into play with the Summer Games with climate change as we see it around the world.

“We need to be very proactive about getting together all the Winter Olympics federations and other experts to really look at how we’re going to deal with this and what is it that we are going to be willing to change about the Winter Olympic Games.

“I do believe that sooner rather than later, we are going to have to have the same conversation around the Summer Games, and I would rather be proactive about it than to have to wait and be in a situation where we are caught on the back foot and we we don’t have any good solutions for identifying a way forward.”

Adapted from an interview with Christophe Diremszian

“Algiers is not respecting the 1994 agreement,” French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told France Inter on Monday, referring to an accord which mandates the automatic return of nationals.

‘Graduated response’

As a result, Retailleau announced he was launching “a graduated response”, as decided by an interministerial committee chaired by the prime minister.

One of the measures proposed is the “suspension” of the 2007 exemption which allows holders of Algerian diplomatic passports to come to France without a visa.

The Algerian foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday that the authorities would not accept a list handed over by France in recent days with the names of around 60 Algerians set for deportation.

It cited procedural requirements but also said Algeria “categorically rejects threats and intimidation attempts, as well as…ultimatums”.

With Franco-Algerian relations at an all-time low, can they get back on track?

Retailleau has said those selected for deportation were “dangerous” or former convicts and “he regrets that Algeria refuses to apply international law.”

In rejecting the French list, Algeria was “solely motivated by the wish to fulfil its duty of consular protection for its citizens” and to ensure “the rights of individuals subject to deportation measures”, the ministry’s statement said.

The Algerian authorities invited France “to follow the usual channel [for such a procedure] in this case the one established between the prefectures and the consulates.”

1968 accords

Relations between Paris and Algiers have been strained since French President Emmanuel Macron recognised Moroccan sovereignty of the disputed territory of Western Sahara in July last year.

But they have worsened since Algiers refused to accept the return of undocumented Algerian migrants from France.

In recent months, France has arrested and deported a number of undocumented Algerians on suspicion of inciting violence, only for Algeria to send back one of those expelled.

France warned it could restrict work visas as a result, as well as limit development aid.

Interviewed by TF1 television on Tuesday morning, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said that Algeria must “listen to France” when it comes to taking back their nationals, “particularly dangerous ones.”

He made reference to the 22 February attack committed in Mulhouse by an Algerian in an irregular situation who had been under obligation to leave French territory.

Algeria refused Mulhouse attacker under French deportation order ’10 times’

As well as supporting Retailleau’s proposals, Darmanin called for the recall of the French ambassador to Algeria and “an end to diplomatic visas.

“This must end. There is no reason for France to continue being generous to this country,” he said.

Algeria was a French colony from the mid-19th century until 1962 and for most of that period was considered an integral part of metropolitan France.

In late February, Prime Minister Francois Bayrou warned Paris could revoke a special status given to Algerians in France, in terms of movement, residence and employment.

French President Emmanuel Macron has since voiced his support for “renegotiating”, though not annulling, the 1968 agreement Bayrou was referring to.

(with AFP)

A simple request to an image-generating artificial intelligence (AI) tool such as Stable Diffusion or Dall-E is all it takes to demonstrate this.

When given requests such as “generate the image of someone who runs a company” or “someone who runs a big restaurant” or “someone working in medicine”, what appears, each time, is the image of a white man.

When these programmes are asked to generate an image of “someone who works as a nurse” or “a domestic worker” or “a home help”, these images were of women.

As part of a Unesco study published last year, researchers asked various generative AI platforms to write stories featuring characters of different genders, sexualities and origins. The results showed that stories about “people from minority cultures or women were often more repetitive and based on stereotypes”.

The report showed a tendency to attribute more prestigious and professional jobs to men – teacher or doctor, for example – while often relegating women to traditionally undervalued or more controversial roles, such as domestic worker, cook or prostitute.

Why the African continent has a role to play in developing AI

The broad language patterns used by these Large Language Model (LLM) tools also tend to associate female names with words such as “home”, “family” or “children”, while male names are more closely associated with the words “business”, “salary” and “career”.

As such, these models demonstrate “unequivocal prejudice against women,” warned Unesco in a press release.

“Discrimination in the real world is not only reflected in the digital sphere, it is also amplified there,” said Tawfik Jelassi, Unesco’s assistant director-general for communication and information.

A mirror of society

To create content, generative AI is “trained on billions of documents produced at a certain time,” explained Justine Cassell, director of research at France’s National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Inria). 

She explained that such documents, depending on when they were produced, often contain dated and discriminatory stereotypes, with the result that AI trained on them then conveys and reiterates these.

This is the case with image and text generators, but also for facial recognition programmes, which feed off millions of existing photos.

From breast cancer to HIV, how AI is set to revolutionise healthcare

In 2019, a US federal agency warned that some facial recognition systems were having difficulty correctly identifying women, particularly those of African-American origin – which has consequences for public safety, law enforcement and individual freedoms.

This is also an issue in the world of work, where AI is increasingly being used by HR managers to assist with recruitment.

In 2018, news agency Reuters reported that Amazon had to abandon an AI recruitment tool. The reason? The system did not evaluate candidates in a gender-neutral manner, as it was based on data accumulated from CVs submitted to the company – mainly by men. This led it to reject female applicants.

Diversifying data

AI is first and foremost a question of data. And if this data is incomplete or only represents one category of people, or if it contains conscious or unconscious bias, AI programmes will still use it – and broadcast it on a massive scale.

“It is vital that the data used to drive the systems is diverse and represents all genders, races and communities,” said Zinnya del Villar, director of data, technology and innovation at the Data-Pop Alliance think tank. 

In an interview with the UN Women agency, del Villar explained: “It is necessary to select data that reflects different social backgrounds, cultures and roles, while eliminating historical prejudices, such as those that associate certain jobs or character traits with one gender.”

One fundamental problem, according to Cassell at Inria, is that “most developers today are still predominantly white men, who may not be as sensitive to the presence of bias”.

‘By humans, for humans’: French dubbing industry speaks out against AI threat

Because they are not subject to the prejudices suffered by women and minorities, male designers are often less aware of the problem – and 88 percent of algorithms are built by men. In addition to raising awareness of bias, researchers are urging companies in the sector to employ more diverse engineering teams.

“We need a lot more women coding AI models, because they’re the ones who will be asking the question: doesn’t this data contain abnormal behaviour or behaviour that we shouldn’t reproduce in the future?” Nelly Chatue-Diop, CEO and co-founder of the start-up Ejara, told RFI.

Under-representation of women

Currently, women account for just 22 percent of people working in artificial intelligence worldwide, according to the World Economic Forum.

The European AI barometer carried out by Join Forces & Dare (JFD – formerly Digital Women’s Day) reveals that of the companies surveyed with an AI manager on their executive committee, only 29 per cent of these managers are women. Globally, women account for 12 percent of AI researchers.

“The lack of diversity in the development of AI reinforces biases, perpetuates stereotypes and slows down innovation,” warns the report.

It’s an observation echoed by Unesco, which posits that the under-representation of women in the field, and in management positions, “leads to the creation of socio-technical systems that do not take into account the diverse needs and perspectives of all genders” and reinforces “disparities between men and women”.

Could European AI create a more unified European identity?

Both organisations have emphasised the need to ensure that girls are made aware of and guided towards STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects from a young age – areas which are still too often the preserve of men, and in which high-achieving women are often invisible. 

With AI applications increasingly used by both the general public and businesses, “they have the power to shape the perception of millions of people,” noted Audrey Azoulay, director-general of Unesco. “The presence of even the slightest gender bias in their content can significantly increase inequalities in the real world.”

Unesco, alongside numerous specialists in the sector, is calling for mechanisms to be put in place on an international level to regulate the sector within an ethical framework.

But this seems a long way off. The United States, with its colossal weight in this field, did not sign the Paris Summit declaration on AI, issued last month. Nor did the United Kingdom.

While the UK government said the statement ha not gone far enough in terms of addressing global governance of AI, US vice-president JD Vance criticised what he called Europe’s “excessive regulation” of the technology.

This article has been adapted from the original version in French.

All three teams advanced on Tuesday and Wednesday to the quarter-finals of the Champions League to continue the projection of the RDB’s “Visit Rwanda” logo in European club football’s most prestigious competition.

PSG progressed at the expense of Liverpool following a penalty shoot-out at Anfield. Bayern cruised past Bundesliga rivals Bayer Leverkusen 5-0 on aggregate and Arsenal spanked the Dutch outfit PSV Eindhoven 9-3 over two legs.

In the last eight, PSG will play Aston Villa, Bayern will take on Inter Milan and Arsenal will face defending champions Real Madrid.

While the clubs battle for supremacy, their association with the RDB is coming under increasing scrutiny due to rows over the involvement of Rwandan troops in the M23 group which is fighting soldiers from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Human rights groups as well as the United Nations say they have evidence that Rwanda is actively bolstering the M23 in its sweep through Goma and Bukavu in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.

Authorities in Kigali deny providing arms and troops to M23 rebels. They say Rwandan forces are acting in self-defence against the Congolese army and militias hostile to Rwandans, especially Tutsi.

Possible deal

But as Angolan officials attempt to broker a peace deal between the Congolese president Félix Tshisekedi and M23 leaders, campaigners in Europe have called on the football clubs to terminate their contracts with a brand that they claim has become tarnished.

“Ideally, the contract should end immediately,” said Jordan Madiande who launched a petition in January with his cousin Lionel Tambwe calling for PSG’s deal with the RDB to be severed.

Arsenal’s association with “Visit Rwanda” began in May 2018. Its logo appears on the shirt sleeves of Arsenal’s men’s, women’s and youth teams and can be seen on boards at the Emirates Stadium in north London and on interview backdrops.

PSG signed its initial contract with the RDB in 2019. It was renewed in May 2023 and is scheduled to end after the 2025 season.

Under the PSG deal with the RDB, the logo “Visit Rwanda” appears on the training and warm-up kits of the men’s teams. Rwandan tea and coffee is also served at kiosks and in the suites at the PSG stadium. In both instances current and former players travel to Rwanda for promotional tours.

“If it’s not renewed, that will be acceptable,” added Madiande whose parents came to France from the DRC in the 1980s. “It will still be a victory.”

The 32-year-old social worker’s petition states that as an internationally respected club, PSG has an important role to play in promoting positive values.

It adds: “However, by maintaining this partnership with “Visit Rwanda”, our club could be perceived as ignoring the geopolitical and humanitarian realities of this situation, and risk giving the impression that it is turning a blind eye to human rights violations.”

Comment

PSG has yet to comment publicly on the petition which has amassed 73,000 signatures nor has there been a response to a letter from the DRC’s minister of foreign affairs, Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner.

In January, she called on PSG’s bosses as well as their counterparts at Arsenal and Bayern Munich to review their sponsorship deals.

“At a time when Rwanda is waging war, Rwanda’s guilt in this conflict has become indisputable,” wrote  Kayikwamba Wagner. “Your sponsor is directly responsible for this misery.”

Arsenal have maintained their links with the RDB so too Bayern Munich who dispatched a fact-finding team to Rwanda.

Congo’s government says at least 7,000 people have died in the fighting since January. According to the UN humanitarian affairs office (Ocha), at least 600,000 people have been displaced by the fighting since November.

“Maybe before, PSG’s executives didn’t really know what was going on or they didn’t understand the scale of it,” said Madiande.

“But new things are happening. Bukavu was taken since the petition began. There are the UN reports that say what is happening and there are international reports from human rights organisations. We didn’t invent it. So the question is now, can PSG go on with this?”

Contract

The controversy surrounding the 15 million-euro a year contract has also illuminated the extent and depth of Rwanda’s footprint in the world of sport.

Rwanda and South Africa are both bidding to stage a Formula 1 grand prix in 2027 – potentially the continent’s first such race since 1993. A state-of-the-art track is being built to F1 standards close to Kigali’s new Bugesera airport in the case of success.

In September, Rwanda will welcome the world cycling championships – the first time since its inception in 1921 that the planet’s elite operators will compete in Africa.

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame was also one of the strongest advocates for the establishment in 2021 of the Basketball Africa League. Critics say such promotion is sportswashing –  using sporting events to gloss over official clampdowns on political opponents and human rights abuses. 

“It is very much part of Kagame’s toolkit,” said Michela Wrong, author of several books on the region including Rwanda Assassins sans frontierès. “He does sportswashing superbly well.

“And it’s because it works in his favour, He’s also genuinely an Arsenal fan, so he likes to go and watch the matches himself.

“Rwanda is managing to get its its message out to a very particular audience. It’s a young audience. It’s a trendy audience. It’s an audience that possibly isn’t that well informed about the niceties of African politics over the last 30 years and one that can’t really be bothered to read up on that sort of detail.

“So it’s a way of sort of going over the heads of people like me and journalists. Rwanda goes over our heads and reaches a young audience that really doesn’t want to engage with those issues. So I think it’s a very effective way of marketing a certain kind of message.

“This is sportswashing taken to quite a very high level, a level that I don’t think you can see anywhere else in Africa.”

In February, the RDB, responded to queries about its sponsorship deals on social media. It claimed the DRC was undermining its international partnerships through misinformation and political pressure.

“These efforts threaten regional peace, stability, and economic cooperation,” said the message on X. “These collaborations transcend borders, inspire millions across Africa, and contribute to the continent’s socioeconomic progress.”

Madiande, a life-long PSG fan, said he would wait to see if the PSG sponsorship deal were to be renewed before deciding if the campaign should be escalated.

“We think that clubs are intelligent and that they will understand that this is serious,” he said. 

“We think that with the values defended by PSG, Arsenal and Bayern Munich and especially with their histories, that it’s going to stop. But if it doesn’t, there will be further action. It will be more visible.”

 Ligue 1 pacesetters PSG host arch rivals Marseille at the Parc des Princes on Sunday night. Victory over the visitors, who occupy second place, would extend PSG’s lead to 19 points with eight games remaining.

“I’ve been a PSG fan for as long as I can remember,” said Madiande. “But if their approach doesn’t change, I’ll have to ask myself lots of questions. That will be hard. I’ve supported them when they nearly went down to the second division and I’m still a supporter now when things are going better.

“They really can’t need this money from this source. There must be many organisations out there willing to be associated with the club.”

Aix-Marseille University launched the “Safe Space for Science” initative earlier this month, offering to take in American scientists fleeing the US after the Trump administration announced it would pull funding and putting restrictions on some areas of research.

Forty US scientists have “answered the call”, the university said in a press release this week.

They include academics from Stanford, Yale, NASA, the National Institute for Health (NIH), and George Washington University.

Most of the research topics are related to health  – LGBT+ medicine, epidemiology, infectious diseases, inequalities, immunology, etc.), the environment and climate change, plus the humanities, social science and astrophysics, the statement said.

Ex-NOAA chief: Trump firings put lives, jobs, and science in jeopardy

‘New brain drain’

“We are witnessing a new brain drain,” Benton said in the statement,issued on Wednesday.

“We will do everything possible to help as many scientists as possible continue their research.”

The first American scientist arrived at Aix-Marseille this week. Andrea, a specialist in infectious diseases and epidemics, was working on the African continent.

“The main impact of Donald Trump’s policies on my work is that it’s created a climate of utter uncertainty and fear,” she told France Info. “And even if I still have a job, and we receive funds, there is no information on whether the financing will continue.”

Aix-Marseille says it can raise €15 million to support around 13 US scientists, but insisted it would not be able to meet all the requests on its own. Benton has called on the French and other European governments to help.

French scientists join US protests in face of Trump administration’s ‘sabotage’

The Trump administration’s cuts have already had an impact. On Tuesday, UMass Chan – a public medical school in Massachusetts – announced a freeze on hiring citing “ongoing uncertainties related to federal funding of biomedical research”. Students who had already been accepted were informed by email that their admissions for autumn 2025 term were rescinded.

“The capitalist system and the bourgeois mode of thinking is in a big crisis,” says Gernot Wolfer.

Comrade Wolfer is a representative of the Berlin cell of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD), which took part in the German election under the slogan “Make Socialism Great Again”.

Wolfer, 67, is a retired metal worker who was employed by multinational companies such as Bosch and Siemens, and active in the powerful IG Metall union. 

Berlin’s public transport grinds to a halt as workers strike ahead of German elections

In the library at the MLPD Berlin office is a small bust of Karl Marx, and the bookshelves feature titles such as “The End of Socialism?”, “Trade Union and Class Struggle” and “On the Formation of Neo-imperialist countries”.

On the photocopier sits a yellow hardhat with a sticker that reads “Workers of all countries: Unite!”.

Wolfer was well prepared, bearing five A4 sheets of remarks, written in both German and English. “It’s approved by the politburo,” he told us cheerfully, “so you can quote me on it.”

“We wanted to make a counterpoint to the well-known slogan of the US president,” he said, referring to Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” maxim.

“It makes no sense to make America great again, or Germany or Russia or China. They are heading directly to a third world war,” he added. “The world will be divided again, over raw materials. If mankind is to survive, we have to overcome capitalism. We need a socialist world.”

Fragmentation of the left

But even uniting those who share this goal to fight for it could prove a daunting task.

The MLPD is one of several parties within the German political left that uses “social” or “socialist” principles in their manifestos.

The largest by far is the establishment Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) – the country’s centre-left social democrat party, which has been in power on and off since the Second World War. It is the oldest political party in Germany, and the party of recently defeated Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Much further to the left is Die Linke. It is the offspring of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) – commonly referred to in English as the East German Communist Party – which ruled East Germany for seven decades.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the SED morphed into the Democratic Socialist Party (PDS) which in 2005 changed its name to Die Linke, and attained its best election result in 2009 with 11.9 percent of the votes.

Today, the party presents itself as combining green politics with social awareness. They made a surprise comeback during the recent election, with their share of the vote (8.77 percent) meaning they’ll have 64 seats in the Bundestag.

Germany’s far-left party celebrates surprise comeback in elections

An offspring of Die Linke, led by former MP Sahra Wagenknecht, the BSW, combines left-wing economics with right-wing nationalism and cultural conservatism – it is anti-immigration and pro-Russia – but did not get enough votes to enter parliament.

Left of the left

On the far left are the Socialist Equality Party (SGP), a Trotskyist group whose slogan is “Socialism instead of War!”, and Wolfer’s MLPD.

Germany’s domestic intelligence service (the BfV) names the SGP and MLPD as “strictly ideological left-wing-extremists”, as well as “extremist structures” within Die Linke, saying that their “shared goal” is “to dismantle the democratic constitutional state and establish socialism and, proceeding from that, a classless communist society”.

But for now, Wolfer believes it is better to operate within the existing system.

Praising France’s “anti-fascist front”, the alliance led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Unbowed party, he regrets that similar election coalitions are not allowed in Germany. “You have to go to the election as one single party,” he says, something he thinks is “a restriction of democratic rights”.

He adds that his party supports “a broad anti-fascist unity under all progressive parties, not only left parties”.

He also says that they “work together with people from Die Linke” which he says has “progressive demands”, adding: “That’s good. They are an important force within the anti-fascist movement.”

“But,” he continued, “they made their deal with the capitalist society. The word ‘socialism’ is very rarely used in their leaflets or books”.

Why socialism?

The question remains: why socialism? After the failure of the USSR, the excesses of Stalin’s Gulag, the Chinese Communist Party’s experiments with the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, costing the lives of millions of people, who is still interested in socialism as an ideology?

Cannibalism in China 50 years on

“The first socialist countries of the world have been very successful for decades,” counters Wolfer. “So the plane flew before it crashed.”

And the reason for this “crash”? “We call it a betrayal of the socialist principles,” he says.

A case in point is the Berlin Wall, which was constructed by East German authorities in 1961 to prevent East Germans from fleeing to the West. 

“The Berlin wall is not a socialist wall. The main slogan of the communist movement and of Marx and Lenin was for ‘workers of all countries to unite’, not to build walls and divide yourselves against each other,” explains Wolfer.

“The Stasi dictatorship in the former East Germany and the criminal acts in the later Soviet Union are not results of a socialist mode of thinking,” he says, referring to the infamous intelligence service that arrested and tortured thousands of civilians.

He argues that today, China’s Communist party is no longer a working-class party either: “On the latest party congress, there’s a bunch of millionaires.”

He says such betrayals of socialist ideals and the experiences of socialist countries must be evaluated. “We have to build on this and we have to make socialism great again.”

The official results of the German election held on 23 February, published on 14 March show that the MLPD won just 19,551 votes nationwide – or 0.04 percent of the total of 49,649,512.

Although the party gained 1,731 more votes than in the 2021 elections, Wolfer knows his party didn’t stand a chance of reaching the 5 percent threshold to get into the German parliament. But he will keep on fighting for global socialist unity, he says.

Some time ago, he and some other MLPD members went to Israel to “find comrades”. At a demonstration against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he and his friends saw a group of Israelis waving Palestinian flags – and red flags too.

“Bingo,” they thought. Wolfer and his MLPD comrades invited this group of Israelis to Berlin, along with a group of Palestinian Marxists.

“In the beginning they were suspicious, they didn’t want to talk to each other,” says Wolfer. But after a few days of discussions in the offices of the MLDP in Berlin, the atmosphere changed. “When they parted they were hugging and crying.”

An article on the home page of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) is illustrated with an image of the Ukrainian flag alongside the Nato flag – the blue and yellow side by side with the compass rose on its blue background, representing the Atlantic Ocean and the direction towards peace.

“Nato condemns Russia’s war against Ukraine in the strongest terms. The Alliance remains steadfast in its support for Ukraine, helping to uphold its fundamental right to self-defence,” reads the text.

However, in recent weeks the actions of one member – its main contributor – have seemed distinctly out of step with that statement.

Trump’s reversals of the US position on Ukraine and the American rapprochement with Moscow represent an ideological break with Nato, in which Washington has always taken the leading role.

Created in 1949 during the Cold War, the political-military alliance that brings together 32 countries was founded on the need to guard against the expansion of the Soviet Union.

Although following the collapse of the USSR the organisation expanded its missions to include peacekeeping operations, since 2022 Russia has once again been designated a “threat” in the organisation’s “strategic concept”, which defines its doctrine.

Foundations of the Alliance shaken

With the US recently appearing more aligned with Russia than with its allies, this paradox raises questions about the future of the organisation. Trump has been increasingly critical of Nato, throughout his campaign and since his election, and has frequently cast doubt on his country’s commitment to it.

During his speech at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February, US vice-president JD Vance urged Europeans to take their defence into their own hands. At the same time, from Warsaw, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth called on Europe to “invest, because you can’t assume that the American presence will last forever”.

France hails ‘progress’ of Ukraine ceasefire deal, says onus is now on Russia

On 6 March, Trump questioned the solidarity of his allies: “My biggest problem with Nato is that if the United States had a problem and we called France or other countries that I won’t name and said we’ve got a problem, do you think they would come and help us, as they’re supposed to? I’m not sure.”

Nato’s Article 5 states that if a Nato country is the victim of an armed attack, this will be considered an attack on all members, all of whom will come to its aid, by any means deemed necessary including the use of armed force.

To date, the only time Article 5 has been invoked was by the US after the 9/11 attacks, which led to Nato’s intervention in Afghanistan. 

“For the time being, there has been no statement from the Trump administration calling into question the foundation of the Alliance, Article 5,” stressed Amélie Zima, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri) and head of the European and Transatlantic Security Programme.

Article 5 is the cornerstone of the Nato edifice. “At a recent press conference, a journalist in the Oval Office asked Donald Trump if he would defend Poland. He immediately replied ‘yes, we are committed’. He was then asked the same question about the Baltic States. There he made a sort of grimace, believing that the matter was more complex, but he concluded all the same ‘we are committed’,” Zima added.

For its part, Nato is playing down any fears. “The transatlantic partnership remains the cornerstone of our Alliance,” said the organisation’s secretary-general Mark Rutte on 6 March, asserting that he had received guarantees from the US regarding its obligations.

At the same time, he called on Europeans to follow the example of Warsaw, which spends 4.7 percent of its GDP on defence.

“If you look at the spirit of the statements and Trump’s pivot towards Russia, there is clearly a doubt that has been introduced,” said Fabrice Pothier, former director of foresight at Nato from 2010 to 2016.

‘Trump has cast doubt on Nato’s reliability’

While fears of American disengagement are tangible, for Alexis Vahlas, director of a master’s degree in European security at Sciences Po Strasbourg and a former Nato political adviser, this remains unlikely. According to him: “Nato remains a lever of influence and an essential interoperability tool for the United States.”

But the unpredictable nature of the Trump administration means that all scenarios have to be considered. Could Nato function without the US or with less American involvement? Given that the country accounts for around 70 percent of Nato’s military spending and that Article 5 is based on the premise of American military strength – particularly its nuclear arsenal – this would represent an unprecedented upheaval for the Alliance, which would consequently lose much of its credibility. 

On 7 March, a Swedish media report quoting unnamed Nato sources indicated that the US had informed its Nato allies of its decision to stop participating in the planning of future military exercises in Europe from 1 January 2026. This information has not been confirmed.

EU Commission chief calls for defence ‘surge’ in address to EU parliament

A US military source quoted by American military newspaper Stars and Stripes then said on 10 March that Nato was “continuing to prepare for military exercises involving the United States this year and beyond”.

Amidst these contradictory statements, General Jean-Paul Paloméros, former Nato Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, told RFI: “These exercises are fundamental because they are representative of the Alliance’s ability to fulfil its collective defence mission. If there are no more exercises, there is no longer any demonstration of credibility and joint training. That is Nato’s great strength.”

‘A credible alternative’

“Today, there is a feeling of anxiety that is leading to a dual attitude,” says Vahlas. On the one hand, it is a question of trying to preserve Western cohesion, while on the other, the 23 EU Member States who are Nato members – Austria, Ireland, Cyprus and Malta are not – are preparing to rely more on their own defence structures.

Brussels has validated the ReArm Europe plan, mobilising some €800 billion for European defence. “But there is no exclusivism,” insists Valhas. In other words, the idea is to keep both mechanisms operational: to safeguard Nato as far as possible, while also strengthening the European alternative. 

“Nato is not necessarily dead as an organisation, but it is less reliable, so we need to create an alternative that is sufficiently credible,” said Pothier, who believes this alternative is being built outside the usual frameworks of European security – Nato and the EU – and instead, around a coalition of key countries. 

“American developments, both in terms of support for Ukraine and rapprochement with Russia, and with the introduction of the transactional nature of the security guarantee, obviously represent a challenge for the transatlantic Alliance in a context where the threat is greater than at any time since the Cold War. But this does not prevent Nato from remaining a forum for political consultation, a planning framework for deterrence and defence, and interoperability for our armies,” said Muriel Domenach, former French ambassador to Nato.

“While we are talking, Europe’s armies are working within the Nato framework, and this cooperation is useful whatever the framework – EU, Nato or ad hoc,” she added.

Previous crises

This is not the first time Nato’s existence has been called into question. During his first electoral campaign in 2016, Trump deemed the organisation “obsolete” – before then reversing his position.

In 2019, Emmanuel Macron called the organisation “brain dead”, while in the same year, the US decided to unilaterally withdraw its troops from Syria. France in fact left Nato’s integrated command in 1966, with General de Gaulle preferring to maintain strategic independence from the US – although it was reinstated in 2009, under Nicolas Sarkozy.

“Nato has already been through some major crises,” said Zima. “In the 1960s, when we moved from the doctrine of massive retaliation to a graduated response, De Gaulle was already expressing doubts about the Americans‘ willingness to defend Europe and, in particular, to use nuclear weapons.”

Macron hosts European military chiefs to discuss Ukraine security guarantees

But the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the need to support the country, gave new weight to the organisation.

Natalia Pouzyreff, co-chair of the French delegation to the Nato Parliamentary Assembly, explained: “It is on this issue that the Europeans want to re-engage in dialogue with the United States. For us, there is a continuum. Ukraine is our shield and it is Europe’s shield, and if Europe is not secure, that is not good for the Americans.”

The Trump administration’s stance, however, has clearly deviated from the values promoted by the organisation: freedom, democracy, the rule of law. “There have always been deviations, such as with Viktor Orban’s Hungary or Turkey, but this is the first time that these deviations have been made by the world’s leading political and military power,” said Zima.  

A Nato summit is scheduled for June 2025 in The Hague. Could there be a change in the organisation’s strategic concept, in which Russia would no longer be designated “the most important principal threat” to the Allies?

“If the Americans were to push to institutionalise their position, I think we could be heading for a real institutional crisis,” says Pothier. “It’s one thing to have a spirit that is no longer that of transatlantic concord, but it’s quite another to put it into the very letter of the institution.”

This article has been adapted from the original version in French.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s already strong support for the militant group Hamas has strained relations with Israel.

Now, Syria is threatening to become a focal point of tension.

Earlier this month, Erdogan issued a widely interpreted warning to Israel to stop undermining Damascus’s new rulers.

“Those who hope to benefit from the instability of Syria by provoking ethnic and religious divisions should know that they will not achieve their goals,” Erdogan declared at a meeting of ambassadors.

Erdogan’s speech followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer to support Syria’s Druze and Kurdish minorities.

“We will not allow our enemies in Lebanon and Syria to grow,” Netanyahu told the Knesset. “At the same time, we extend our hand to our Druze and Kurdish allies.”

Gallia Lindenstrauss, an Israeli foreign policy specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv told RFI that Israel view is not very optimistic about the future of Syria, and sees it as a potential threat to Israel.

Success of rebel groups in Syria advances Turkish agenda

“The fact that Turkey will be dominant in Syria is also dangerous for Israel,” adds Lindenstrauss.

“Turkey could build bases inside Syria and establish air defences there. This would limit Israel’s room for manoeuvre and could pose a threat. Israel wants to avoid this and should therefore adopt a hard-line approach.”

Deepening rivalry

Ankara and Jerusalem’s deepening rivalry is shaping conflicting visions for the future of Syria.

Selin Nasi, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics’ Contemporary Turkish Studies Department, “Turkey wants to see a secure and stabilised unitary state under Ahmad al-Sharaa’s transitional government.

“Israel, on the other hand, wants to see a weak and fragmented Syria. Its main concern has always been securing its northern border,” added Nasi.

Israeli forces are occupying Syrian territory along their shared northern border, which is home to much of Syria’s Druze minority.

However, Israeli hopes of drawing Syria’s Kurds away from Damascus suffered a setback when the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls part of Syria, signed an agreement on 10 March to merge part of its operations with Syria’s transitional government.

Mutual distrust

As Damascus consolidates control, analysts suggest Israel will be increasingly concerned about Turkey expanding its military presence inside Syria.

“If Turkey establishes military posts in the south of the country, close to the Israeli border, presumably with the permission of the government in Damascus,” warns Soli Ozel, a lecturer in international relations at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, “then the two sides would be in close proximity, with military forces on both sides. That, I believe, would create a highly dangerous, volatile, and incendiary situation.”

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

Analysts warn that if Turkey extends its military presence to include airbases, this could threaten Israel’s currently unchallenged access to Syrian airspace.

However, some observers believe that opportunities for cooperation may still exist.

“Things can change,” says Israeli security analyst Lindenstrauss.

“Israel and Turkey could resume cooperation and potentially contribute to Syria’s reconstruction in a way that does not threaten Israel. However, this does not appear to be the path the Erdogan regime is currently taking, nor does it seem to be the direction chosen by Netanyahu and his government.”

With Erdogan and Netanyahu making little secret of their mutual distrust, analysts warn that their rivalry is likely to spill over into Syria, further complicating the country’s transition from the Assad regime.

Shortly before 6:00 am (0500 GMT) members of the anti-riot CRS police forced their way through cordons that activists had formed to prevent them from entering the Gaîté Lyrique theatre, according to reporters from French news agency AFP.

There was chaos as police forced their way into the 19th-century theatre, which is famous for performances of opera, operetta and ballet.

The occupation of the Gaîté Lyrique began on 10 December with around 200 young migrants demanding food and shelter.

The theatre cancelled all planned performances a week later, saying it condemned the occupation but also “the inaction by authorities”.

Many protesters are underage and have asked to be treated as such in their immigration process.

Parisian cultural venue closed as homeless minors occupy the building

‘Extremely violent’

On Tuesday, reporters from the French news agency AFP say they saw some migrants leaving the building carrying personal belongings, with several suitcases and bags left abandoned on the pavement.

Danielle Simonnet, a leftist lawmaker on site to protest against the police action, called it “extremely violent”, telling AFP that officers had “hit and beaten” the migrants, who she said were behaving “peacefully”.

Migrant support organisations such as Utopia 56 and the Collectif Accès au Droit (Access to Law Collective) confirmed these reports, saying police used tear gas and batons.

For the past three months, the protest has became a standoff between left-wing activists fighting for migrant rights, and the far right calling for their expulsion.

More than 2,000 children in France still sleeping rough: Unicef

‘Threat to public order’

Demonstrators and migrants chanted slogans such as “we are all the children of migrants” as they were surrounded by police in riot gear.

The eviction came a day after Paris police prefect Laurent Nunez gave the order to clear the building, occupied by up to 450 migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa.

Nunez called the occupation of the theatre a threat to “public order”. He promised that the young migrants would be offered shelter, and that their legal situation would be looked at.

French PM in hot water over migrant ‘flooding’ gaffe

According to France Info, the prefecture offered them housing options outside Paris, particularly in Rouen. Most of them refused.

Agents working for the Paris region’s emergency shelter services were on site and talking to migrants, an AFP reporter said.

“I need to go to class at 10:00 am today,” said Adama, who said he was 15 and from Côte d’Ivoire. “I don’t know what to tell my teacher. I need to leave a message saying that I won’t make it.”

He added, “We haven’t killed anybody, we don’t steal. We came here to become integrated.”

At the end of February, more than 300 cultural, political and civil society actors signed a petition calling on authorities to find a housing solution for the young people to allow the venue to resume its cultural activities.

(with AFP)

Western and regional powers are desperate to steer Syria onto the road to stability after 14 years of civil war that have sent millions of refugees over its borders.

For the first time, the Syrian authorities were represented at the annual conference in Brussels – with interim foreign minister Assaad al-Shibani attending.

But an outbreak of deadly violence this month – the worst since Assad was toppled in December – has rocked confidence in the new Islamist-led authorities.

European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said Brussels was stepping up its commitment for this year and next to almost €2.5 billion euros to help those in Syria and neighbouring countries.

The European Commission said that overall €4.2 billion were offered in the form of grants, and €1.6 billion in low interest loans.

“Syrians need greater support, whether they are still abroad, or they decide to go home,” von der Leyen told the Brussels conference.

No pledges from US

The vow from Brussels came on top of significant contributions from individual countries, including some €300 million from Germany and €192 million from Britain.

Last year’s donor drive raised €7.5 billion euros in grants and loans to help the people of Syria. 

However, efforts to top that figure were impacted by US President Donald Trump’s axing of Washington’s foreign aid budget.

Natasha Franceschi, US deputy assistant secretary for the Levant and Syria, said the United States has provided more assistance to the Syrian people than any other nation over the last 14 years, but she did not announce any pledge of money.

French and German diplomats seek fresh start with new Syrian leaders

“We will continue to provide certain assistance in line with US policies and laws, but we also now expect that other nations are going to help shoulder the financial burden,” she told the conference. The Trump administration is currently reviewing all foreign aid.

At the same time, other Western governments are cutting back on aid spending, in part to use in defence budgets.

“We will give more, but we cannot fill the gap left by the US,” EU Crisis Management Commissioner Hadja Lahbib told reporters. “We will need to share the burden.”

Syria’s new rulers – headed by former Islamist rebel commander Ahmed al-Sharaa – have been clamouring for assistance to help the country’s recovery.

Lifting sanctions

The EU has eased sanctions on key sectors of the economy, but along with other powers it insists the authorities must make good on promises for an inclusive transition.

“We do appreciate the major measures taken by the European Union, such as the lifting or suspending of the sanctions,” Shibani said.

“However, these measures did not live up so far to our expectations. We want further measures in order to help us secure our recovery.”

There have been positive moves from Damascus, including Sharaa signing a constitutional declaration laying out a five-year transitional period, and rights for women and freedom of expression.

But hopes were shaken by the violence on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, which a war monitor said saw security forces kill nearly 1,500 civilians, most of them members of the Alawite minority to which the Assad family belongs.

EU to ease some sanctions against Syria following Assad’s fall

Shibani insisted that the new authorities would bring to justice “anyone who perpetrated any crime, whose hands are stained with blood”.

“We believe in the true sense of citizenship, the citizenship of every single citizen of Syria, regardless of their ethnicity or religion,” he said.

The EU has held its annual donor drive for Syria for the past eight years but it mainly focused on supporting refugees in neighbouring countries and avoided any contacts with the Assad regime.

Syria’s needs are massive as swathes of the country lie in ruins and the economy has been ravaged by years of international isolation after Assad’s 2011 crackdown on opposition sparked the civil war.

The country still faces a dire humanitarian situation, with an estimated 16.7 million people in need of assistance, according to the United Nations.

(with AFP)

Since the start of the year, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has moved to drastically cut the country’s long-term aid commitments, aiming to save approximately $60 billion on overseas development and humanitarian assistance programmes.

The United Kingdom has also announced a deep cut in its budget for emergency and development aid, which it says it needs to do to develop its defence strategy. Other European countries have indicated that they might do the same.

France launches commission to evaluate overseas aid, amid far-right criticism

These decisions are already impacting emergency aid systems in many countries, including Sudan and Congo, as well as public health initiatives in nations such as Kenya and South Africa.

Sudan reels as US suspends aid amid ongoing war

Spotlight on Africa reached out to three experts involved in rethinking the future of aid.

Jeffrey Okoro is the executive director of the NGO CFK Africa in Kenya. He said that since the decision of the US government to freeze US Agency for International Development (USAID) spending in January, Kenyans working in healthcare have been hit hard. The decision has already disrupted efforts to stop the spread of diseases like HIV and tuberculosis.

“A sizeable portion of the Kenyan government funding for health counselling comes from international organisations from foreign governments,” Okoro told RFI from his office in Kenya.

US grant cuts could affect two million worldwide, disrupt HIV aid in Kenya

Meanwhile, Ivor Ichikowitz, chairman of the philanthropic Ichikowitz Family Foundation, based in Johannesburg, which focuses on growth and development across the African continent, says that the decrease in aid and the rise of European investment, as discussed at a conference in South Africa recently, could, in fact, have positive results.

EU flags stronger partnership with South Africa with €4.7bn investment

We also  talk to Patrick Gathara, a Kenyan columnist and senior editor at The New Humanitarian, a website covering conflicts and humanitarian issues. He argues that the aid industry has long reinforced imperial domination, and its collapse could create an opportunity to establish a new order. He explains how.

Episode mixed by Erwan Rome.

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

Ibrahime Coulibaly-Kuibiert, the president of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), said he is conducting a “mid-term review” of the electoral process.

According to data reviewed and corrected by the IEC, there are currently 8.7 million voters on the provisional list, including nearly 769,757 new registrations.

This list for electoral roll is provisional, and from Saturday, Ivorian citizens will be able to file a complaint if they find an inconsistency or error in it.

“The electoral calendar is tight and precise,” the president of the CEI said, according to RFI’s correspondent in the country. “This leaves no room for a new electoral review before the October presidential election.”

Contested figures

The opposition disagrees however.

“The timetable is a bit tight,” according to Kaza Djah, head of the PPA-CI within the IEC.

This activist from former President Laurent Gbagbo‘s party believes that the IEC “does not want to organise transparent elections,” and that “the list must be audited to give all stakeholders greater peace of mind.”

The party estimates that there should be more than 12.5 million people on the list, not 8,7 million.

“People want to register. They are the ones who refuse. So, this gives food for thought,” Djah added.

Coalitions in the making

Former President Gbagbo is not on the provisional electoral list, nor is COJEP leader Charles Blé Goudé, as they have both been declared ineligible, following convictions by the Ivorian courts.

On 10 March, 25 political parties formed the Coalition for Peaceful Change was officially launched in Abidjan, bringing together Blé Goudé’s COJEP, Tidjane Thiam’s PDCI, and Pascal Affi N’Guessan’s FPI. Their objective aims to achieve electoral reforms and political dialogue.

The IEC expects to be able to publish the final voters’ list around 20 June.

The current Ivorian President, Alassane Ouattara, has not officially declared his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election scheduled for October 2025.

But the ruling party, the Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP), has shown strong support for his potential fourth-term bid, though the official nomination and acceptance have yet to take place.

Ouattara, 83, was re-elected for a contested third term in 2020. 

“You know, everything in this life passes at an incredible speed. I didn’t see the time go by,” Salgado said, upon opening the exhibition at the Franciscaines cultural centre. “I’ve done a lot of things, I’ve travelled, I’ve captured images. And this morning, when I arrived here, I felt a summary of my life and it moved me deeply.”

The photographer, who has spent much of his life in Paris and in 2019 was given a place in France’s prestigious institution for artists, the Academy of Fine Arts, explained that he was feeling “a bit battered” due to medical reasons.

“The happiest day of my life was when I turned 80. I’ve lost so many friends. We were all together in Goma [Democratic Republic of Congo] for four years, four photographers were murdered, and I was there. So being alive at 80 is an immense privilege.”

For this exhibition, supported by the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP), Salgado took part in selecting the photos, which are being displayed in smaller formats to offer a better vision of his work.

It is a body of work spanning more than 40 years, in which he travelled to all corners of the world, capturing themes as diverse as the precarious nature of manual labour amid the transformation of the industrial world – as seen in “The Hand of Man” – and human migration, as seen in “Exodus”.

‘An immense universe’

“As a photographer, we ask ourselves questions […] about security, legitimacy, ethics, and more generally about the world,” Salgado explained.

His work has taken him to more than 130 countries, photographing gold mines, oil fields in Kuwait during the Gulf War and the genocide in Rwanda. This, he says, was his most difficult assignment, and he eventually had to stop covering it on the advice of his doctor.

After this, he returned to Brazil with his family for three months and began reconsidering his work as a photographer.

“Before, I believed in one species: mine. What made me completely lose hope in my species was discovering that we are a terrible, violent, horrible species, that we are destroying our planet. And discovering other species, I fell that I was part of an immense universe of species.”

In 1998, he created the non-profit organisation Instituto Terra with his wife Lélia Wanick Salgado to restore the ecosystem in the Rio Doce Basin in Brazil.

‘The Amazon is paradise on earth’

For his series “Genesis” (2004-2011), Salgado traveled from the Galapagos to the Amazon, via Africa and the Arctic. “It’s perhaps one of the most interesting journeys of everything I’ve done in my life. Because the Amazon is paradise on earth,” he said.

“These Amazonian populations are the prehistory of humanity. They are us from 10,000 years ago. They live in such a pleasant, gentle way, in communion with nature. There are no lies, there is no repression.”

However, contemplating what he had learned from these trips, Salgado said: “I travelled for eight years across 32 countries or regions of the world, but the greatest journeys I’ve made are within myself.”

The exhibition Sebastião Salgado: The MEP Collection runs until 1 June, 2025 at the Franciscaines venue in Deauville.

Carney, the former Bank of England governor who succeeded Justin Trudeau last week, conspicuously chose key Europe powers France and the United Kingdom, rather than the United States, for his first foreign visits after President Donald Trump ramped up the rhetoric against Canada.

Describing Canada as the “most European of non-European countries”, Carney said his nation needed to boost ties with European allies like France while trying to retain positive relations with the United States.

“It is more important than ever for Canada to reinforce its ties with reliable allies like France,” Carney said during a press conference with President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace on his first trip abroad since becoming prime minister on Friday.

“I want to ensure that France and the whole of Europe works enthusiastically with Canada, the most European of non-European countries, determined like you to maintain the most positive possible relations with the United States,” Carney said.

Carney faces threats on three fronts: a trade war with the Washington, Trump’s threats to annex his country, and looming domestic elections.

Trump unveils sweeping US tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China – EU next?

Maintain support for Ukraine

Trump’s imposition of an escalating raft of import tariffs on Canadian goods has threatened to trigger a recession, and his scorn for Canadian sovereignty sent jitters through the former ally.

Opinion polls show a large majority of Canadian voters reject Trump’s argument that their country would be better off as the “51st state of the United States”.

But the trade war is a threat to the economy of the vast country of 41 million people, which has long enjoyed a close US partnership.

Canada, France and Britain are among the NATO members that have maintained strong support for Ukraine‘s beleaguered government and military since Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022, even as Trump’s US administration has bullied Kyiv to make concessions to Moscow.

London and Paris are putting together plans for a coalition security force in Ukraine and looking for allies.

Canada and France want a “solid and lasting peace, accompanied by robust guarantees that will protect Ukraine against any further Russian aggression and ensure the security of the whole of Europe,” Macron said alongside Carney.

“It is in this spirit that we will maintain our support for Ukraine and continue to demand clear commitments from Russia,” he added.

G7 envoys unite behind Ukraine, warn Russia of further sanctions

We stand for sovereignty

Carney told Macron both nations stood for “sovereignty”.

“We both stand for sovereignty and security demonstrated by our unwavering support for Ukraine under your leadership,” the Canadian premier said, two days after both leaders took part in a Saturday morning video conference of countries backing Ukraine organised by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

France is Canada’s 11th-largest trading partner and Britain its third at a time when Trump’s tariffs and Canadian retaliatory measures are threatening trade with its huge southern neighbour — destination of three-quarters of Canada’s exports.

But Canada also has a “Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement” (CETA) with the European Union, which includes France, and is a member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which now also includes Britain.

After Paris, Carney heads for London, where he once worked as governor of the Bank Of England, for talks with Starmer and King Charles III, the monarch who is head of state in both Britain and Canada.

In his first speech as prime minister, Carney said: “Security is a priority for this government, reinforcing our security, as is diversifying our trading and commercial relationships, of course, with both Europe and the United Kingdom.”

On his return leg, Carney will visit Iqaluit, in Nunavut, the Canadian territory closest to the Danish autonomous country of Greenland – which Trump has also threatened to annex – to “reaffirm Canada’s Arctic security and sovereignty.”

(with AFP)

Rwanda said on Monday it was severing diplomatic relations with Belgian and expelling all their diplomats, amid fraught relations over the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The Government of Rwanda notified the government of Belgium of its decision to cut diplomatic ties, effective immediately, the foreign affairs ministry wrote in their statement on Monday.

“Belgium has clearly taken sides in a regional conflict and continues to systematically mobilize against Rwanda in different forums, using lies and manipulation to secure an unjustified hostile opinion of Rwanda, in an attempt to destabilize both Rwanda and the region,” the statement reads.

It added that the decision reflected “Rwanda‘s commitment to safeguarding our national interests and the dignity of Rwandans”.

All Belgian diplomats within the country will be required to leave within 48 hours, the statement added.

Fiery speech

The decision follows a fiery speech made by Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame against Brussels over the weekend.

“One of the biggest problems we faced is that we were colonised by a small country like Belgium, which cut our country up so it can be small like it,” he said Sunday.

“Belgium has killed us throughout history, and keeps coming back to kill us more.”

In response, Belgium’s foreign affairs minister Maxime Prevot said the move was “disproportionate and shows that when we disagree with Rwanda they prefer not to engage in dialogue.”

Brussels will reciprocate by declaring Rwandan diplomats persona non grata, he added.

The crisis in the DRC and the African Union response

Sanctions

The European Union on Monday imposed sanctions on three senior Rwandan military commanders and the head of Kigali’s state mining agency over the M23 offensive in DRC. 

The EU’s foreign affairs ministers were meeting this Monday to discuss including nine new Rwandan figures on a list of sanctioned personalities, for their role in the conflict in eastern DRC.

The three commanders lead Rwanda’s special forces and two divisions accused of deploying troops in eastern DR Congo to back the armed group, according to the EU’s official journal.

For several days, the EU had been discussing putting in place sanctions against Rwanda.

The United Kingdom, Canada and Germany also announced sanctions for the same reasons earlier this month.

Spiralling conflict

The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group started launching its most recent massive offensive in the mineral-rich east of the DRC earlier this year in January, taking two major cities in North Kivu and South Kivu.

A United Nations report has said that Kigali effectively controls the group and has around 4,000 troops in the country.

Kigali has denied involvement in the conflict and says it faces a threat from ethnic Hutu fighters in the DRC.

Kigali says Kinshasa is collaborating with the FDLR, a military group they accuse of persecuting Congolese Tutsi people and Tutsi refugees from Rwanda, who were pushed to leave during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Rwanda marks 30 years since genocide that horrified the world

“Both governments claim their involvement in conflicts in the eastern part of the DRC are linked to protecting ethnic populations,” according to Christopher P. Davey, visiting assistant professor at Binghamton University in New York state and a specialist in the genocide. “In reality, however, the persistent fighting is destroying economies and livelihoods,” he wrote.

 (with newswires)

While the French capital hasn’t yet experienced the extreme water shortages seen in cities like Barcelona and Cape Town – where authorities imposed tough restrictions and rationing measures – climate projections suggest conditions are set to worsen, particularly after 2050.

The study warns that a major drought could “gravely disrupt economic activity” in the Île-de-France region that surrounds Paris, with the agricultural and manufacturing sectors hit hardest.

“The robust historical infrastructure of the region could prove insufficient to cope with future droughts,” said Jo Tyndall, director of the OECD Environment Directorate, in the 200-page report.

Temperature spike

Historically considered water-rich thanks to its reservoirs and groundwater reserves, the Île-de-France has already experienced average temperature increases of 2C since 1990 – raising the probability of severe droughts.

The report warns that within 25 years, climate change could create drought conditions similar to those observed in Mediterranean regions at the end of the 20th century, which saw prolonged dry periods and significant agricultural losses.

Climate change is making rainfall patterns increasingly erratic while rapidly drying out the region’s soils.

“We know we’ll be more exposed, but we haven’t quantified the vulnerability of activities or populations,” Sophie Lavaud, the report’s lead author, told the French news agency AFP.

She explained that authorities have relied heavily on the region’s network of four major reservoir lakes, built upstream of the Seine and Marne rivers.

These reservoirs can provide up to 70 percent of river flow during drought periods – a system that has worked well historically, but has led to complacency about future risks.

Top scientists warn France will have to spend more to deal with climate change

Growing needs

Home to 19 percent of France’s population, the Île-de-France powers a third of the country’s economy while devoting half its land to agriculture. Growing development is driving up water demands across all sectors.

Agricultural water needs have “more than doubled since 2012” and are projected to “increase by 45 percent by 2050,” the report found. Water is also increasingly used for cooling systems drawing from the Seine river.

Currently, 57 percent of water withdrawals go to public water supply, 20 percent to industry, 13 percent to energy production, 7 percent to canals and 3 percent to irrigation.

A severe weather event comparable to the historic 1921 drought – the worst to hit the Paris region in the past 150 years – would force water usage restrictions for industry, agriculture and river transport “for more than 150 days” to maintain drinking water supplies for residents.

The OECD broke down the potential €2.5 billion economic damage into different categories.

Its analysis shows that immediate economic losses – such as reduced industrial production due to water restrictions and decreased crop yields from dry soil – would account for more than two-thirds of the total cost.

Manufacturing companies and farms would bear the brunt of these impacts.

France rolls out plan to prepare for 4C temperature rise by end of century

Prevention strategies

“A precise understanding of water usage is crucial,” said Lavaud. “This includes seasonal variations because what is extracted in winter impacts summer availability.”

The report recommends several preventive actions to address growing drought risks, though it does acknowledge the region is already performing relatively well in water conservation.

The OECD advocates for risk assessment of drought impacts to establish post-2030 strategies and to allocate water resources based on each user’s needs.

Current regulations allow users to make unlimited withdrawals except during drought periods, provided they can prove “that the resource or ecosystems won’t suffer”.

“Authorities must rethink water allocation strategies now, rather than waiting for a crisis,” the report said.

Infrastructure challenges

Beyond water shortages, the study looks at how drought could crack the foundations of Paris’s built environment. As clay soils beneath the city shrink during extended dry periods, buildings face structural damage – adding potentially millions to the economic toll.

“There is also a risk of conflicts over water use, particularly between urban areas and agricultural regions that may be called upon to supply additional drinking water,” Lavaud said.

The OECD’s blueprint for resilience calls for a radical rethinking of water infrastructure – from capturing rainwater to recycling industrial wastewater.

Yet the question of who pays remains unresolved.

The OECD warns that unless stronger investments are made now, future droughts could severely test the resilience of Paris and its surrounding region.

When he was asked about the possibility of rolling back the retirement age to 62 from 64, Bayrou said “no”.

The social partners involved in renegotiating the pension reform “know very well the numerical connection” between the retirement age and the deficit, he told on France Inter radio, pointing to the report commissioned from the Cour des comptes auditor showing the deficits of the pension system.

The international context – where France is planning a massive military investment to help Ukraine – does not justify taking on additional debt.

Weekly meetings

Bayrou has tasked social partners, who have been meeting weekly since the end of February, with finding a way to balance the pension system between spending and the deficit, and had promised that all options were on the table, including revising the retirement age.

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

The opposition reacted immediately to his backtracking, particularly the Socialists, for whom the renegotiation was the main reason for not censuring the Prime Minister in several votes in parliament.

“François Bayrou’s statements are completely unacceptable,” MP Arthur Delaporte said. 

“We cannot have a prime minister who on the one hand says nothing is off the table, and on the other hand, a prime minister who uses the pretext of the war in Ukraine to reverse course.”

The leader of the hard-left France Unbowed Jean-Luc Mélenchon said on X that the about-face was a slap in the face – a position close to that of the far right National Rally.

Lack of trust

On Monday, the CFTC trade union requested “clarification” from Bayrou, and the CFDT, intends to ask the Prime Minister “if he confirms his remarks” at a meeting scheduled Tuesday.

Dominique Corona, deputy secretary general secretary of the Unsa union said the statement shows that the government “does not trust the social partners”.

The CFDT and CFTC will continue to participate in the weekly negotiations, while the CGT said it would put the question to its members.

Bayrou faces the threat of censure in the National Assembly, though for it to have a chance of success the Socialists would have to change course. For now, the party is aligning itself with the government, with whom it agrees on the gravity of the threat from Russia.

Bayrou has promised to submit any agreement that comes out of the negotiations to a vote in parliament.

(with AFP)

“France was confined, but it never stopped,” Macron wrote on X Sunday to mark the fifth anniversary of his televised announcement that French people would be confined to their homes as of the next day, 17 March 2020.

France came together “in the face of the unknown, in the face of a challenge,” he wrote in the long post in which he praised France’s courage and solidarity, and paid homage to healthcare workers, teachers who kept schools open, and other essential workers who continued to go to work.

For many in France, 17 March is a key date, according to anthropologist Laëtitia Atlani-Duault who has been gathering memories of Covid, and published them in a book, Fragments de memoires (Fragments of memories).

“It comes back, like when we talk about September 11,” she told RFI. “People say ‘I remember where I was, I remember what I was doing, I remember how I found out.”

Lockdown experiences

The accounts fall into two distinct groups: those who suffered and those who managed to enjoy the confinements.

“Some wanted to talk about how much it had been, effectively, a blessed moment,” Atlani-Duault said of people who were able to use the confinements to reexamine their lives and priorities, and who were able to spend more time with their kids, for example.

Five years on from the Covid-19 pandemic, what legacy has the virus left?

But the majority of experiences were less positive, with real suffering from healthcare workers in particular.

“There was real suffering in the accounts from nurses and doctors,” she said. “Accounts also from the partners of healthcare workers. There were also people who spoke of not being able to say goodbye, and accompany those who died in retirement homes, for example, or in hospital, and be able to bury them with dignity.”

Some 69,000 people died from Covid-19 in 2020, according to the French health authority, Santé publique France, the third cause of death that year, after tumours and neuro-cardiovascular diseases.

The confinement hit young people particularly hard, and the pandemic shone a light on, and increased, incidences of depression, anxiety and other mental health problems, particularly among university students.

“The particular circumstances weakened students, isolated them and so perhaps anticipated this degradation of their mental health,” Mélissa Macali, a mental health researcher at the French national health and medical research institute, Inserm, told RFI.

Covid-19 restrictions are having detrimental impact on mental health of young French people

“And on top of that, it’s true that there are probably multiple causes: increased precariousness, the feeling of isolation, the impact of social media, but also other environmental and collective impacts, and international conflicts and the global political situation worries them a lot.”

Anthropologist Atlani-Duault and others have been calling for 17 March to be officially commemorated in France, to recognise the long-term impact of Covid and also to retain lessons learned, “for future crises”.

She highlights local solidarity, from individuals and local governments, as well as community groups.

“The Covid crisis showed what the state could do, but also the flaws in the state’s response, what it could not do, and what, for example, local solidarity could bring,” she said.

Macron, in his message said the solidarity shown during the Covid pandemic should be recalled to “inspire and guide us”.

The council meeting on Monday will also address uranium supply, amidst a global resurgence in nuclear energy.

This marks the fourth assembly since Macron underscored that nuclear power – a low-carbon energy source – is central to France’s strategy for curbing greenhouse gas emissions and combating climate change in a speech in the Alsatian city of Belfort in 2022.

France’s Macron calls for a nuclear power ‘renaissance’, building at least 6 reactors

The French president plans to deliver a progress update on Small Modular Reactors or SMRs, as he believes them to be fundamental to France’s energy strategy, aiming to commission two new plants in France by 2030.

As things stand, more than a dozen individual projects have come to the fore in France, showcasing the country’s drive towards the development of nuclear technology.

The council intends to evaluate the ventures based on recent reports into fuel and site constraints, identifying projects with the highest potential for swift completion and impact on the French electricity grid.

The goal is to ultimately direct state financial support to select projects.

Next generation reactors

Also in the spotlight are plans to build six state of the art EPR2 reactors, with the aim of kickstarting financing talks with the European Commission as soon as possible.

The second generation European pressurised reactors are nuclear generators designed to be safer, more efficient and easier to build than their predecessor – the EPR – while maintaining high power output and low carbon emissions.

The Elysée Palace has pointed to Brussels’ recent green light for the Czech Dukovany power station – secured largely through a zero-interest state loan – as an example France could follow.

At the same time, the council will tackle the rising demand for uranium, the essential fuel powering nuclear reactors, as the sector experiences renewed momentum.

With key suppliers based in Canada, Africa and Central Asia, ensuring a secure, long-term uranium supply is paramount.

French companies – Orano in particular – will need the right tools and strategies to safeguard the nation’s energy future, in light of the collapse of French influence in the Sahel region of Africa, specifically in uranium-rich Niger. 

Niger embraces Russia for uranium production leaving France out in the cold

While current stocks are sufficient, forward planning for the next 20 to 30 years will be crucial to maintaining France’s energy sovereignty.

Paris’s push for nuclear innovation is a core element of France’s wider climate ambitions, building on the country’s ongoing public consultations for France’s national low-carbon strategy and multi-annual energy programme – both of which are key stepping stones on the path towards the aim of carbon neutrality by 2050.

A simple request to an image-generating artificial intelligence (AI) tool such as Stable Diffusion or Dall-E is all it takes to demonstrate this.

When given requests such as “generate the image of someone who runs a company” or “someone who runs a big restaurant” or “someone working in medicine”, what appears, each time, is the image of a white man.

When these programmes are asked to generate an image of “someone who works as a nurse” or “a domestic worker” or “a home help”, these images were of women.

As part of a Unesco study published last year, researchers asked various generative AI platforms to write stories featuring characters of different genders, sexualities and origins. The results showed that stories about “people from minority cultures or women were often more repetitive and based on stereotypes”.

The report showed a tendency to attribute more prestigious and professional jobs to men – teacher or doctor, for example – while often relegating women to traditionally undervalued or more controversial roles, such as domestic worker, cook or prostitute.

Why the African continent has a role to play in developing AI

The broad language patterns used by these Large Language Model (LLM) tools also tend to associate female names with words such as “home”, “family” or “children”, while male names are more closely associated with the words “business”, “salary” and “career”.

As such, these models demonstrate “unequivocal prejudice against women,” warned Unesco in a press release.

“Discrimination in the real world is not only reflected in the digital sphere, it is also amplified there,” said Tawfik Jelassi, Unesco’s assistant director-general for communication and information.

A mirror of society

To create content, generative AI is “trained on billions of documents produced at a certain time,” explained Justine Cassell, director of research at France’s National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (Inria). 

She explained that such documents, depending on when they were produced, often contain dated and discriminatory stereotypes, with the result that AI trained on them then conveys and reiterates these.

This is the case with image and text generators, but also for facial recognition programmes, which feed off millions of existing photos.

From breast cancer to HIV, how AI is set to revolutionise healthcare

In 2019, a US federal agency warned that some facial recognition systems were having difficulty correctly identifying women, particularly those of African-American origin – which has consequences for public safety, law enforcement and individual freedoms.

This is also an issue in the world of work, where AI is increasingly being used by HR managers to assist with recruitment.

In 2018, news agency Reuters reported that Amazon had to abandon an AI recruitment tool. The reason? The system did not evaluate candidates in a gender-neutral manner, as it was based on data accumulated from CVs submitted to the company – mainly by men. This led it to reject female applicants.

Diversifying data

AI is first and foremost a question of data. And if this data is incomplete or only represents one category of people, or if it contains conscious or unconscious bias, AI programmes will still use it – and broadcast it on a massive scale.

“It is vital that the data used to drive the systems is diverse and represents all genders, races and communities,” said Zinnya del Villar, director of data, technology and innovation at the Data-Pop Alliance think tank. 

In an interview with the UN Women agency, del Villar explained: “It is necessary to select data that reflects different social backgrounds, cultures and roles, while eliminating historical prejudices, such as those that associate certain jobs or character traits with one gender.”

One fundamental problem, according to Cassell at Inria, is that “most developers today are still predominantly white men, who may not be as sensitive to the presence of bias”.

‘By humans, for humans’: French dubbing industry speaks out against AI threat

Because they are not subject to the prejudices suffered by women and minorities, male designers are often less aware of the problem – and 88 percent of algorithms are built by men. In addition to raising awareness of bias, researchers are urging companies in the sector to employ more diverse engineering teams.

“We need a lot more women coding AI models, because they’re the ones who will be asking the question: doesn’t this data contain abnormal behaviour or behaviour that we shouldn’t reproduce in the future?” Nelly Chatue-Diop, CEO and co-founder of the start-up Ejara, told RFI.

Under-representation of women

Currently, women account for just 22 percent of people working in artificial intelligence worldwide, according to the World Economic Forum.

The European AI barometer carried out by Join Forces & Dare (JFD – formerly Digital Women’s Day) reveals that of the companies surveyed with an AI manager on their executive committee, only 29 per cent of these managers are women. Globally, women account for 12 percent of AI researchers.

“The lack of diversity in the development of AI reinforces biases, perpetuates stereotypes and slows down innovation,” warns the report.

It’s an observation echoed by Unesco, which posits that the under-representation of women in the field, and in management positions, “leads to the creation of socio-technical systems that do not take into account the diverse needs and perspectives of all genders” and reinforces “disparities between men and women”.

Could European AI create a more unified European identity?

Both organisations have emphasised the need to ensure that girls are made aware of and guided towards STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects from a young age – areas which are still too often the preserve of men, and in which high-achieving women are often invisible. 

With AI applications increasingly used by both the general public and businesses, “they have the power to shape the perception of millions of people,” noted Audrey Azoulay, director-general of Unesco. “The presence of even the slightest gender bias in their content can significantly increase inequalities in the real world.”

Unesco, alongside numerous specialists in the sector, is calling for mechanisms to be put in place on an international level to regulate the sector within an ethical framework.

But this seems a long way off. The United States, with its colossal weight in this field, did not sign the Paris Summit declaration on AI, issued last month. Nor did the United Kingdom.

While the UK government said the statement ha not gone far enough in terms of addressing global governance of AI, US vice-president JD Vance criticised what he called Europe’s “excessive regulation” of the technology.

This article has been adapted from the original version in French.

Fifty limestone cubes – each measuring 7 centimetres by 7 centimetres and weighing nearly 800 grams – will be awarded to winners drawn at random between 7 and 11 April.

The stones come from the rubble of the cathedral, which almost burned down in 2019 but was fully renovated and re-opened last December, and each will carry a brass plaque authenticating its provenance.

La Fondation du Patrimoine (the Heritage Foundation) said the stones were too badly damaged to be used in the renovation.

Those hoping to own one of the cubes have until 4 April to make a donation of at least €40 through the organisation’s website, to help preserve France’s religious heritage.

“Beyond this emblematic monument, thousands of small Notre Dames throughout France are in danger and deserve our attention,” the organisation said in a statement. “With this competition, we want to remind people that every donation counts in preserving these treasures of religious heritage.”

Scientists build a virtual twin of Notre-Dame to help restore its glory

Saving national treasures

Around 5,000 religious buildings in France are in poor condition and require immediate intervention.

France’s culture minister Rachida Dati suggested in October last year establishing a €5 entrance fee to be paid by tourists, which would go towards the upkeep of these buildings.

The idea was met with mixed reactions from the public and politicians and is yet to be introduced.

Notre-Dame revival drives return to ancient French craftsmanship

La Fondation du Patrimoine was one of four organisations tasked with collecting money to restore Notre-Dame de Paris. 

It collected donations from 236,000 donors worldwide, raising €225 million out of a total of €850 million needed for the restoration.

After the French, Americans have been the biggest donors by far, raising some €58 million since 2019.

(with AFP)

The victory capped a dazzling dozen days for the hosts in which they twice outplayed English Premier League leaders Liverpool and advanced to the last eight of the Champions League

And in front of their faithful, they suffocated the life out of the land’s second best side.

Marseille started as if unimpressed by the 16-point gulf between the teams and that impressive surge to the quarter-finals of European club football’s most prestigious tournament.

They chivvied and chased in an attempt to dissolve the vaunted PSG patterns in midfield. 

Unable to weave their wondrousness, PSG went old school. 

From a goal kick, goalkeeper Gigi Donnarumma hit the ball high to the left, up jumped Khvicha Kvaratskhelia who nodded it on to Fabian Ruiz. The Spain international slid it on to Ousmane Dembélé who skipped around the Marseille goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli and lashed it past defender Leonardo Balerdi trying to cover on the line.

It was the France international’s 21st league goal of the season.

Just before half-time, Ruiz set up Nuno Mendes to double the advantage.

Comeback

Marseille began second-half with the same intensity and after Dembélé fluffed a chance to make it 3-0, they were let back into the contest.

Mendes gave away possession in midfield and PSG old boy Adrien Rabiot – targeted with offensive banners by PSG ultras – set up Amine Gouiri to halve the deficit after 51 minutes.

But the visitors could not find the leveller. PSG restored the two-goal advantage 14 minutes from time.

Skipper Achraf Hakimi scampered down the right wing and his ball into the box was diverted into his own net by Marseille substitute Pol Lirola.

At 3-1, PSG boss Luis Enrique opted for containment. The Spaniard brought on midfielders Joao Neves and Kang-in Lee to see out the fixture. 

“The statistics show we have been consistent this season and that’s why we’re 19 points clear,” said Enrique.

“The French first division is not easy … people say it is but it is not. We can see how well French teams have played in European competitions this season.”

PSG need to win two of their last eight games to retain the Ligue 1 crown.

Marseille will battle with Nice, Monaco and Lille to secure one of the three berths leading to next season’s Champions League.

Since the start of the year, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has moved to drastically cut the country’s long-term aid commitments, aiming to save approximately $60 billion on overseas development and humanitarian assistance programmes.

The United Kingdom has also announced a deep cut in its budget for emergency and development aid, which it says it needs to do to develop its defence strategy. Other European countries have indicated that they might do the same.

France launches commission to evaluate overseas aid, amid far-right criticism

These decisions are already impacting emergency aid systems in many countries, including Sudan and Congo, as well as public health initiatives in nations such as Kenya and South Africa.

Sudan reels as US suspends aid amid ongoing war

Spotlight on Africa reached out to three experts involved in rethinking the future of aid.

Jeffrey Okoro is the executive director of the NGO CFK Africa in Kenya. He said that since the decision of the US government to freeze US Agency for International Development (USAID) spending in January, Kenyans working in healthcare have been hit hard. The decision has already disrupted efforts to stop the spread of diseases like HIV and tuberculosis.

“A sizeable portion of the Kenyan government funding for health counselling comes from international organisations from foreign governments,” Okoro told RFI from his office in Kenya.

US grant cuts could affect two million worldwide, disrupt HIV aid in Kenya

Meanwhile, Ivor Ichikowitz, chairman of the philanthropic Ichikowitz Family Foundation, based in Johannesburg, which focuses on growth and development across the African continent, says that the decrease in aid and the rise of European investment, as discussed at a conference in South Africa recently, could, in fact, have positive results.

EU flags stronger partnership with South Africa with €4.7bn investment

We also  talk to Patrick Gathara, a Kenyan columnist and senior editor at The New Humanitarian, a website covering conflicts and humanitarian issues. He argues that the aid industry has long reinforced imperial domination, and its collapse could create an opportunity to establish a new order. He explains how.

Episode mixed by Erwan Rome.

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

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s already strong support for the militant group Hamas has strained relations with Israel.

Now, Syria is threatening to become a focal point of tension.

Earlier this month, Erdogan issued a widely interpreted warning to Israel to stop undermining Damascus’s new rulers.

“Those who hope to benefit from the instability of Syria by provoking ethnic and religious divisions should know that they will not achieve their goals,” Erdogan declared at a meeting of ambassadors.

Erdogan’s speech followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer to support Syria’s Druze and Kurdish minorities.

“We will not allow our enemies in Lebanon and Syria to grow,” Netanyahu told the Knesset. “At the same time, we extend our hand to our Druze and Kurdish allies.”

Gallia Lindenstrauss, an Israeli foreign policy specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv told RFI that Israel view is not very optimistic about the future of Syria, and sees it as a potential threat to Israel.

Success of rebel groups in Syria advances Turkish agenda

“The fact that Turkey will be dominant in Syria is also dangerous for Israel,” adds Lindenstrauss.

“Turkey could build bases inside Syria and establish air defences there. This would limit Israel’s room for manoeuvre and could pose a threat. Israel wants to avoid this and should therefore adopt a hard-line approach.”

Deepening rivalry

Ankara and Jerusalem’s deepening rivalry is shaping conflicting visions for the future of Syria.

Selin Nasi, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics’ Contemporary Turkish Studies Department, “Turkey wants to see a secure and stabilised unitary state under Ahmad al-Sharaa’s transitional government.

“Israel, on the other hand, wants to see a weak and fragmented Syria. Its main concern has always been securing its northern border,” added Nasi.

Israeli forces are occupying Syrian territory along their shared northern border, which is home to much of Syria’s Druze minority.

However, Israeli hopes of drawing Syria’s Kurds away from Damascus suffered a setback when the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls part of Syria, signed an agreement on 10 March to merge part of its operations with Syria’s transitional government.

Mutual distrust

As Damascus consolidates control, analysts suggest Israel will be increasingly concerned about Turkey expanding its military presence inside Syria.

“If Turkey establishes military posts in the south of the country, close to the Israeli border, presumably with the permission of the government in Damascus,” warns Soli Ozel, a lecturer in international relations at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, “then the two sides would be in close proximity, with military forces on both sides. That, I believe, would create a highly dangerous, volatile, and incendiary situation.”

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

Analysts warn that if Turkey extends its military presence to include airbases, this could threaten Israel’s currently unchallenged access to Syrian airspace.

However, some observers believe that opportunities for cooperation may still exist.

“Things can change,” says Israeli security analyst Lindenstrauss.

“Israel and Turkey could resume cooperation and potentially contribute to Syria’s reconstruction in a way that does not threaten Israel. However, this does not appear to be the path the Erdogan regime is currently taking, nor does it seem to be the direction chosen by Netanyahu and his government.”

With Erdogan and Netanyahu making little secret of their mutual distrust, analysts warn that their rivalry is likely to spill over into Syria, further complicating the country’s transition from the Assad regime.

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

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

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 15 February, I asked you a question about Paul Myers’ article “Namibian independence leader Sam Nujoma dies aged 95”. Sam Nujoma was Namibia’s first democratically elected president; he led Namibia’s fight for independence from South Africa.

You were to send in the answer to this question: Namibians have just elected a new president, who will be inaugurated on the 21st of this month. What is the name of their president-elect? 

The answer is: Namibia’s president-elect is Dr. Ndemupelila Netumbo Nandi – Ndaitwah. Born in 1952, Dr. Nandi – Ndaitwah will be Namibia’s fifth president and the first woman to hold the position. 

Speaking of Sam Nujoma, she, as Paul wrote in his article: “… paid tribute to Nujoma’s visionary leadership as well as his dedication to liberation and nation-building. ‘It laid the foundation for our free, united nation,’ she added. ‘Let us honour his legacy by upholding resilience, solidarity, and selfless service.’”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Hans Verner Lollike from Hedehusene, Denmark: “Describe a cultural monument or a nature site in your country that is not known to the world at large.”

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Debashis Gope from the Dakshin Dinajpur district in West Bengal, India.  Debashis is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations, Debashis, on your double win !

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Rasheed Naz, the chairman of the Naz Radio France Listeners Club in Faisal Abad, Pakistan; RFI Listeners Club member Father Steven Wara from Bamenda, Cameroon, and last but not least, two RFI English listeners from Bangladesh: Nargis Akter from Dhaka, and Sakila Musarrat from Chapainawabganj. 

Congratulations, winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Sari” by George Fenton and Tom Leach; “Gnawa Funk Rhythm”; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Mulatu” by Mulatu Astatke, performed by the composer and his ensemble.

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. 

After you’ve listened to the show, re-read our article “Macron hosts European military chiefs to discuss Ukraine security guarantees”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 7 April to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 12 April 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.   

There are some explanations for France’s 22 percent gender pay gap – women work fewer hours on average and in lower-paid jobs. But even doing the same job and putting in the same hours, women still earn 4 percent less than men, and a barrage of legal measures hasn’t managed to change that. We look at what’s going on with economist Anne Eydoux and lawyer Insaff El Hassani – founder of a company helping women negotiate salaries. El Hassani highlights negative images around wealthy women and how France’s “female wage”, dropped in 1946, still impacts the way some employers view women’s salaries. (Listen @0′)

France has downsized its ambitions to increase the amount of organic agriculture after a drop in consumer demand for organic food . After years of growth, especially during the Covid pandemic, inflation and a distrust in labelling have turned consumers away from buying organic produce, even as new farmers are drawn to the prospect of working in a different way. At the recent annual agricultural fair in Paris, farmers and others working in the organic sector talk about how they are adapting to the new economic reality, and the need to raise awareness of the value of organic food, beyond the price tag. (Listen @17′)

France is marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of composer Maurice Ravel, whose most famous piece, Boléro, is considered an avant-garde musical expression of  the machine age. (Listen @9’50”)

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).

France’s handover of its sole base in Côte d’Ivoire and a pullout in January from Chad are part of a broader reduction of the French army’s presence across the region.

“What we are living in now is a transformational age,” international relations expert Federico Donelli of Trieste University told RFI.

“Many traditional players like France, for example, in that region of Africa are downgrading their own engagement in this area. Not because they have some economic or political constraint but because the local states want them to leave the region.”

Donelli believes the door is now open to new players, such as Turkey.

“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has invested heavily in Africa, quadrupling Turkey’s embassy presence across Africa in the past two decades. Erdogan, a devout Muslim, also plays the Muslim card and reminds his African audiences of France’s colonial past,” he says.

Insurgent threats

However, Eylem Tepeciklioglu of Ankara’s Social Sciences University believes the breakthrough for Turkey came with the French military failing to deal with insurgent threats in the Sahel and broader West Africa.

“The image of France is in tatters because the regional countries criticise French missions for failing to help them fight with terrorist groups and for bringing more harm than good,” explains Tepecikoglu.

Tepeciklioglu claims Erdogan’s Africa policy caught the regional zeitgeist.

“Together with rising anti-French sentiments, this brings opportunities for other countries to step in, and Turkey has several defense or mutual cooperation agreements with Sahelian countries. And according to some sources, Turkey has deployed military advisers and drones at the Abéché base in Chad,” adds Tepeciklioglu.

Macron’s Africa ‘reset’ stumbles as leaders call out colonial overtones

Deepening Senegalese and Turkish military ties was on the agenda at an Istanbul meeting in October. Shortly after the high-profile gathering, Senegal called for the removal of French forces.

Turkey’s vibrant arms industry selling battle-proven weapons invariably cheaper than its Western competitors, as well as having few, if any, restrictions on use, is complementing Ankara’s traditional diplomatic tools in its bid to broaden its influence.

“Turkish defense products are now very popular in African markets. So this also applies to Sahelian countries,” explains Tepeciklioglu, “For example, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Chad acquired Turkish drones. While other Sahelian countries acquired other Turkish military equipment.”

Overstretch

Turkey remains a relatively small player against the giants of Russia, China, and the United States in the battle to secure economic and diplomatic influence. 

But the growing competition between Western and Eastern powers could be to Turkey’s advantage, says Donelli.

 “So, for an African state, establishing a security agreement with Turkey is less costly in political terms in comparison with relations with Russia because that doesn’t mean ‘I break with the West, but I’m doing something with a NATO member’. This is really important,” adds Donelli.

Turkey and Italy consider teaming up to seek new influence in Africa

But Turkey’s rapid expansion into Africa does not come cheap what with diplomatic representations across the continent, growing military presence, such as army and naval bases in Libya and Africa.

“Turkey is expanding too much. This is called overstretch in diplomatic language,” warns International relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara Middle East Technical University.

“So, Turkey’s military and economic capabilities are actually limited. The more you expand, the more you have to pay,” he says, adding that such a strategy would not be sustainable.

With the Turkish economy mired in crisis and Erdogan looking to improve ties with Europe, including France, analysts say Turkey could be ready for cooperation rather than rivalry in Africa.

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

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

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 8 February, I asked you a question about our article “French PM pushes through budget, faces second no-confidence vote”. That’s because French Prime Minister François Bayrou used Article 49.3 – a special executive power – to push the budget through. The Parliament does not take kindly to Article 49.3, because the executive branch can use it to bypass their votes.

After it went through, a no-confidence motion was immediately brought forward by the hard-left France Unbowed party. At that time, it was not thought the no-confidence motion would pass, because the Socialists said they would vote against it. My question to you was: Why did France’s Socialist party say they would vote against the no-confidence motion brought by the France Unbowed party? 

The answer is, to quote our article: “The Socialist Party said in a press release that it did not want to see France in an extended period of financial limbo and would therefore, ‘in a spirit of responsibility’, not back the no-confidence vote.”

They held to their word: The Socialist party did not back the no-confidence vote – France has a budget now, and the same prime minister, François Bayrou. 

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “Is the favorite child the worst child?”

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

The winners are: RFI English Listeners Club member Nasyr Muhammad from Katsina State, Nigeria. Nasyr is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations, Nasyr, on your double win !

Also on the winner’s list this week are: Reepa Bain, the secretary of the RFI Pariwer Bandhu SWL Club in Chhattisgarh, India; Mukta Banu, a member of the Shetu RFI Listeners Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh; RFI English Listeners Club member Dipita Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India, and last but not least, RFI English listener Murshida Parvin Lata, the vice – president of the Sonali Badhan Female Listeners Club in Bogura, Bangladesh.

Congratulations, winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “One Woman” by Beth Blatt, Graham Lyle, and Fahan Hassan, performed by the United Nation Women Singers; “Toy Symphony” by Leopold Mozart; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Nubian Lady” by Kenny Barron, performed by Bobbi Humphrey and her orchestra.  

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, take another listen to the first story on Alison Hird and Sarah Elzas’ Spotlight on France podcast number 124, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 31 March to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 5 April podcast. When you enter, be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In partnership with Madhya Pradesh’s tourism board.

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

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

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

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

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

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