Tens of thousands gathered in St Peter’s Square erupted in cheers as Prevost appeared on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, smiling warmly, waving with both hands, and bowing to the assembled crowd.

“Peace be with you,” he declared, offering his first words as pope.

White smoke from Sistine Chapel

White smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel in the early evening on the second day of voting, signalling his election in the secret conclave. Simultaneously, the bells of St Peter’s Basilica and churches throughout Rome rang out in celebration.

Crowds surged toward the square, eager to witness the traditional appearance from the basilica’s red-draped balcony — the first address to the world by the new leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

Pope Leo XIV succeeds Argentine reformer Pope Francis, who died last month aged 88 after a 12-year papacy characterised by his progressive reforms and focus on compassion, though not without controversy.

The new pope was formally introduced in Latin, with his chosen name, amid jubilant scenes. One priest was seen atop another’s shoulders waving a Brazilian flag, while another raised a crucifix aloft in exultation.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” said a delighted Joseph Brian, a 39-year-old chef from Belfast, who travelled to Rome with his mother. “I’m not an overly religious person, but being here with all these people just blew me away,” he told  French news agency AFP.

Secret oaths and blacked-out windows: what happens inside the papal conclave?

‘Habemus Papam’

“Habemus papam, woooo!” cried Bruna Hodara, 41, from Brazil, repeating the words traditionally spoken as the new pope is announced, AFP reported.  She, like many, recorded the historic moment on her phone, while others waved flags and shouted “Viva il Papa!” – Italian for “Long live the Pope!”

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness this,” said Florian Fried, 15, from Munich. “It’s really special… I’m excited!”

The new pontiff faces formidable challenges ahead. Beyond the spiritual and symbolic role, he inherits a deeply divided Church and a world beset by conflict, with the added burden of ongoing fallout from the global clerical sexual abuse scandal.

The election was decided by 133 cardinals — the largest and most internationally diverse conclave in history, with participants from five continents. Sworn to absolute secrecy under threat of excommunication, their only signal to the outside world came via the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.

Black smoke on Wednesday evening and again at midday Thursday had indicated inconclusive ballots. But shortly after 6pm local time, white smoke confirmed that a new pope had been chosen.

Although the exact number of ballots remains confidential, the process was concluded in less than two days — consistent with recent precedent. Pope Benedict XVI was elected in four rounds in 2005; Francis in five rounds in 2013.

To be elected, the new pope required a two-thirds majority vote. Following tradition, he would have entered the so-called Room of Tears to don the papal vestments for the first time and compose himself before returning to the chapel to receive the cardinals’ pledge of obedience.

He then emerged on the balcony, accompanied by a senior cardinal who proclaimed, “Habemus Papam” – “We have a pope” – followed by Pope Leo XIV’s first Urbi et Orbi (To the City and the World) blessing.

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies aged 88

Challenges ahead

The election took place amid global instability — a factor believed to have weighed heavily on the electors’ minds, along with deep rifts within the Church itself.

While Francis was admired by many for his compassionate leadership, particularly his focus on migrants and environmental issues, he often drew criticism from conservative quarters who viewed him as doctrinally lax.

Though around 80 percent of the cardinal electors were appointed by Francis, their vote was by no means guaranteed to continue his legacy.

In choosing the next pope, the Church was faced with a pivotal decision: to elect a pastor or a diplomat, a liberal or a conservative, someone versed in the workings of the Curia or an outsider from a region where Catholicism is growing.

World leaders and mourners gather in Rome to honour Pope Francis

Before the conclave began, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the College of Cardinals, urged his peers to select a candidate capable of safeguarding the unity of the Church during what he called a “difficult and complex turning point in history”, referencing global conflicts and the rise of ultranationalism.

The Catholic Church also continues to struggle with modernisation, including dwindling priestly vocations and declining attendance in Western nations.

Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration is expected to take place within a week. During the ceremony, a grand Mass will be celebrated in St Peter’s Square, attended by religious and political leaders from around the world. He is also expected to greet the faithful aboard the popemobile before delivering a homily outlining the vision and priorities of his papacy.

“No agreement was reached,” Valls told reporters on Thursday after a three-day “conclave” held in a secluded hotel away from the capital Nouméa failed to produce any white smoke.

The talks were aimed at reaching a compromise on defining New Caledonia’s political future.

The archipelago has been in political deadlock since the last referendum in 2021, boycotted by the pro-independence side, left the process of self-determination without a clear outcome.

Two proposals were examined during this last round of talks.

One, backed by Paris, involved continued sovereignty with France. The other, promoted by the anti-independence Loyalists, called for a federal system within the French Republic.

Neither plan won support from both sides. Valls said the Loyalists’ proposal “called into question, in our view, the unity and indivisibility of New Caledonia” by suggesting “a de facto partition plan”.

This deadlock has blocked progress on a key issue – the makeup of the electoral roll. That debate helped trigger deadly riots in May 2024, which left 14 people dead and caused more than two billion euros in damage.

Key dates in New Caledonia’s history

‘Disaster avoided’

Talks to resolve New Caledonia’s political future resumed in early 2025. This was Valls’ third visit to the territory this year, and the first time in months that both sides had sat at the same table.

The French government’s proposal included “dual nationality, French by right and New Caledonian,” and “the transfer and immediate delegation of sovereign powers”. That sparked anger from pro-independence groups, who saw it as a backdoor recognition of New Caledonia’s independence.

“Transfer of sovereign powers to New Caledonia was the main sticking point,” said Loyalist MP Nicolas Metzdorf.

“We remain committed to our proposal of a federated state with enhanced powers for the provinces,” he added.

Sonia Backès, another Loyalist leader, said she had “avoided disaster for New Caledonia,” stating that the lack of agreement “is not chaos”.

France warns of ‘chaos’ if New Caledonia independence deal not reached

Crucial vote head

New Caledonia is due to hold high-stakes provincial elections that will shape its next local government.

Originally planned for 2024, the elections were delayed due to last year’s unrest. They must now take place by 30 November 2025, following a ruling by France’s Council of State.

Since 2007, the electoral roll has excluded most people who moved to New Caledonia after November 1998 – the date of the Nouméa Accords between the French state and the territory.

Many Indigenous Kanaks oppose changing that rule, saying it would weaken their push for self-determination.

Despite the lack of agreement, Valls welcomed what he described as a respectful debate and said “points of convergence” had emerged. A monitoring committee will keep discussions going in the months ahead.

“I continue and will continue to work to prevent a return to violence,” Valls said. He called on all sides to “engage with the State for peace, dialogue, and reconstruction.”

A group of 30 left-wing French politicians travelled to Algeria this week to take part in commemorations and call on France to acknowledge its responsibility.

“It’s important on this symbolic date to have a French delegation to show that in France there are not only enemies of Algeria, as we have seen with the heated debates of the past few months,” greens MP Sabrina Sebaï told RFI, referring to the degradation of diplomatic tensions between France and Algeria.

She said the visit aimed “to send a message also to say that there is a deep work to do on issues of memory and reconciliation”.

But for the French right, such a visit is a provocation.

“The day of 8 May, which is a day of national pride, you have French elected officials who go to Algeria to participate in self-flagellation and humiliation,” said Laurent Wauquiez, the president of the right-wing Les Republicains.

Listen to a history of what happened in Algeria on 8 May 1945 in the Spotlight on France podcast, episode 128: 

The events being commemorated began on 8 May, 1945. As people gathered in the northern Algerian city of Sétif to celebrate the Allied victory, some brought out Algerian flags and banners calling for independence.

French authorities ordered the banners be removed. When some refused, troops opened fire on the crowd.

News of the shootings spread to nearby towns, including Guelma and Kherrata, where rioting broke out. Around 100 French settlers were killed.

In response, French authorities launched a brutal crackdown.

Charles de Gaulle, who led France at the time, gave the green light for “all necessary measures to repress all anti-French acts”.

Backed by army troops and the air force, colonial forces bombed villages and carried out summary executions across the region. Civilians – men, women and children – were killed throughout May and June.

France’s official silence

There is still no agreed figure for how many people died. Algeria says 45,000 were killed. Historians have estimated between 15,000 and 20,000.

“Eighty years later we do not know exactly the number of people who died in May and June 1945 because there was a code of silence,” said filmmaker Mehdi Lallaoui, who made a documentary on the Sétif massacre.

“The survivors of the killings were thrown in prison, and the state wanted to hide this event.”

De Gaulle reportedly said to “bury the whole affair”, and officials referred to it only as “the events”.

But in Algeria the Sétif, Guelma and Kherrata massacres helped spur on the emerging movement for self-determination – energising, perhaps even uniting, what had been a fractured independence movement until then. 

Over the next few years, resistance groups became more organised. On 1 November 1954, Algerians started their revolution against the French, who were eventually forced to grant the colony its independence in 1962.

Recognition and reconcilliation

Algeria made 8 May an official day of commemoration in 2020. Some in France want the same – a move that would involve officially acknowledging France’s role in the killings. So far, that has not happened. 

“Algeria’s independence remains a trauma in the French public opinion,” historian Nils Andersson told RFI.

“There is an anti-Algerian feeling in France – the colonising country – and I think the role of political leaders is to have the courage to recognise the facts about colonialism, which is neither an act of contrition of repentance, but just a moral and truthful act.”

In 2005, France’s ambassador to Algeria called the massacre an “inexcusable tragedy”. A decade later, a French minister visited the massacre’s commemoration site.

This week, a group of left-wing MPs submitted a proposal to officially recognise the massacres as a “state crime perpetrated against an unarmed civilian population”.

The MPs’ visit and the proposed resolution come at a time of high tension between France and Algeria. Interior Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told RTL radio on Tuesday that relations were currently “blocked”.

For the centrist Senator Raphaël Daubet, a member of the delegation, reopening dialogue with Algeria involves “the recognition of these massacres” that happened in Sétif, Guelma et Kherrata.

The Nazi surrender did not end World War II because the war against Japan continued in the Far East. However, it was a moment of celebration for the servicemen and women who had battled Adolf Hitler’s army, as well as for people across Europe who had been bombed, invaded and subjugated since the invasion of Poland in 1939.

When the surrender was announced, people poured into the streets of London, New York and Paris to celebrate in what the BBC described at the time as a “mood of thanksgiving”.

In France, the day is known as 8 mai 1945, and is a public holiday. Later on Thursday French President Emmanuel Macron was to preside over a wreath-laying ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe.

The commemoration will also see a parade of veterans’ associations, and music performed by military bands from France, the UK, Canada, the US, Cameroon and Germany.

UK kicks off party to mark 80 years since end of WWII

When is VE Day?

While most Western countries celebrate the anniversary on 8 May, General Dwight Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe, actually accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany at 2:41am local time on 7 May in a ceremony at Reims, in eastern France.

Although the news had leaked by that evening, the official announcement was delayed until the following day. The United States, the United Kingdom and France were trying to work out differences with the Soviet Union, which felt the surrender did not recognise the sacrifices its troops had made in securing victory.

A revised surrender agreement was signed around midnight on 8 May in Berlin, satisfying Soviet concerns. Russia celebrates what it calls Victory Day on 9 May, as do many former Soviet states.

This year, Russian President Vladimir Putin has unilaterally ordered a three-day truce with Ukraine – which he called a “humanitarian” gesture – from Thursday, to coincide with Russia’s Victory Day parade on Friday. 

The Kremlin said the move would test Kyiv’s readiness for peace, but Ukraine has dismissed it as theatrics and instead called for a 30-day ceasefire. 

It was not clear whether either side was observing the ceasefire, even with world leaders – including China’s Xi Jinping, Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Serbia’s Aleksandar Vucic – in Moscow for the Victory Day commemorations.

It appeared relatively quiet overnight, although Ukraine’s military said early on Thursday that Russian forces had launched air strikes in the eastern Sumy region. Kyiv did not report any damage or casualties.

The Netherlands celebrates Liberation Day on 5 May, marking the 80th anniversary of its liberation by Allied troops from Nazi occupation, after a brutal five-year occupation. Similarly, Italy celebrates what it too calls Liberation Day on 25 April.

The US has not historically celebrated VE Day, as the country remained at war with Japan for several months after the conflict came to an end in Europe. 

In Berlin, events on 8 May centre on commemoration of those who fought against Nazism as members of the German resistance.

The road to victory

By the time France fell to the Nazi Blitzkrieg on 25 June, 1940, Hitler’s forces controlled most of Europe and were threatening to invade Britain.

But the war in Europe began to turn in early 1942, when the Soviet Red Army defeated German forces attempting to take Moscow. Hitler suffered another crushing defeat in February 1943, when German forces surrendered at the Battle of Stalingrad.

Invading the Soviet Union was “”probably not Hitler’s best idea,” said Rob Citino, distinguished fellow at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans. “They were counterpunched in front of Moscow, and in a war [in which] the Germans had taken very few casualties up to now, they suddenly had added a million and they never recovered from it.”

Then in 1944 the Western Allies and the Soviet Union launched twin offensives that forced Germany to fight for survival on two fronts. The Allies began their march across Europe with the D-Day landings in northern France on June 6, 1944. Two weeks later, the Soviets began their push toward Berlin.

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As 1944 turned to 1945, “victory [was] all but certain,” Citino said. “But something else is certain: there’s still a lot of soldiers, a lot of military personnel, on both sides who are going to die.” The Red Army alone lost around 3 million soldiers in 1945 – or about 70,000 a day – he estimated.

Soviet forces began their assault on Berlin on 16 April, 1945, while the Allies were still fighting their way across western Germany.

With the city in ruins and the Red Army advancing street by street, Hitler retreated to his bunker under the Reich Chancellery, where he died by suicide on 30 April.

The first surrender had come on April 29 at the Palace of Caserta, outside Naples, where British Field Marshal Harold Alexander accepted the surrender of German and Italian forces in Italy and western Austria. Five days later, Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery accepted the surrender of German forces in northwestern Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands at Luneberg Heath, south of Hamburg.

Finally, there was the unconditional surrender of all Nazi forces in Europe, which was signed first at Reims and again in Berlin.

A bittersweet celebration

“[VE Day] was just a big letting off of steam and a massive relief for so many people,” said Dan Ellin, a historian at the University of Lincoln in England. “But then, of course, for others, there wasn’t an awful lot to celebrate. For thousands of people, the victory was tinged with sadness because for them, their loved ones were not going to come home.”

The world also had to confront the reality of the Holocaust, after the advancing Allied armies had uncovered the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps where millions of Jews had been slaughtered.

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Furthermore, VE Day did not bring with it the end of the war. The Japanese were still fighting ferociously to defend their home against any invasion, and many Allied soldiers expected that they would be deployed to the Far East as soon as the war in Europe ended.

“I bet you every single Allied soldier in Europe, after toasting victory in Europe, they sat down and said, ‘I’m going to Japan. This isn’t over yet’,” Citino said.

In the end, most were spared another fight when Japan surrendered on 2 August, after the US dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing an estimated 214,000 people.

Voices of the veterans

This year’s VE Day events have taken on increased significance because they are likely to be the last major commemoration to include significant numbers of Second World War veterans.

With even the youngest of those men and women approaching their 100th birthdays, many have said they feel impelled to tell their stories and honour their fallen comrades.

Mervyn Kersh, who is 100, said VE Day should be a reminder to today’s leaders that they must stand up to bullies and despots, wherever they may be. “You can’t have peace without strength,” he said. “It’s no good just remembering. You’ve got to do something.”

Thousands of UK children write to WWII veterans ahead of VE Day

Renée Guette, 98, and 97-year-old Andrée Dupont both joined the French resistance in 1943, aged 16. Dupont became a liaison officer, transporting messages and weapons, using only her bicycle. Guette was a postal worker who smuggled ration coupons and messages to resistance fighters.

In April 1944, Dupont was arrested along with other members of her village’s resistance network, including her father and her aunt. “I was folding the laundry at around 10 at night. I heard knocking on the doors and knew what was happening right away,” she remembered.

Guette was caught four days later by a French agent of the Gestapo. “He told me, ‘So, a young girl from a good family who took a turn for the worse,'” Guette recalled. “And I told him that he hadn’t turned out any better. And he slapped me.”

The two teenagers met at a prison in Romainville close to Paris. They heard the news about D-Day, but the glimmer of hope it offered was soon crushed.

“We thought we were saved. But the Germans needed us to work in the war factories,” explained Guette. Both girls were transferred to the HASAG Leipzig sub-camp linked to the Buchenwald concentration camp. It held 5,000 women forced to manufacture weapons.

France, Germany to cooperate more closely on defence

By mid-April 1945, weeks before the Allies accepted Germany’s surrender, the Nazis evacuated the Leipzig camp, and inmates began the so-called “death marches” – intended to keep concentration camp prisoners out of Allied hands.

Guette spoke of walking all day and night with bloody feet, surviving on rapeseed and potatoes. She recalled washing for the first time in months in the Elbe river – and a bullet whizzing past her left ear during fighting between German and American soldiers.

When victory in Europe was formally declared, the pair found themselves back in France. Guette headed home on the train, while Dupont went to Paris, where she found her mother. Her father eventually returned from the camps, but her aunt had been killed in the gas chambers.

Alan Kennett, 100, a British army mechanic who worked on Spitfire planes, landed in northern France on D-Day. He said he was proud to represent the veterans.

“I just remember those that didn’t come back. That’s the thing that sticks in my mind,” he said. “I’m lucky. I got out. There’s a lot that didn’t, believe me. Luck of the draw. It shouldn’t be forgotten.”

(with newswires)

It was not clear whether either side was observing the ceasefire, even with world leaders – including China’s Xi Jinping, Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Serbia‘s Aleksandar Vucic – in Moscow for commemorations of the end of World War II.

It appeared relatively quiet overnight, though Ukraine’s military said early Thursday that Russian forces had launched air strikes in the eastern Sumy region. Kyiv did not report any damage or casualties.

Putin unilaterally ordered the temporary truce to coincide with Moscow‘s Victory Day parade on Friday.

Ukraine never agreed to the proposal, has dismissed it as theatrics and called instead for a 30-day ceasefire.

US President Donald Trump has sought to end Moscow’s three-year military assault on Ukraine since his inauguration in January, but has failed to ease hostilities between the enemies.

Hours before Putin’s order was scheduled to enter force, Moscow and Kyiv staged aerial attacks, prompting airport closures in Russia and leaving at least two dead in Ukraine.

Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod airport in the west was closed for about one-and-a-half hours early Thursday “to ensure flight safety of civil aircraft”, according to a Federal Air Transport Agency spokesperson.

The Kremlin has said Russian forces will honour Putin’s order for the duration of the holiday period, but will respond “immediately” if attacked.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed his call for a 30-day ceasefire in his evening address on Wednesday.

“We are not withdrawing this proposal, which could give diplomacy a chance. But the world is not seeing any response from Russia,” he said.

Push for direct talks

Putin announced the truce last month, calling it a “humanitarian” gesture, after pressure from the United States to halt Russia’s assault on Ukraine.

Putin rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional ceasefire in March.

Ukraine has said it does not believe Russia will adhere to the truce and accused Moscow of hundreds of violations during a previous, 30-hour ceasefire Putin ordered for Easter.

Russia, which launched a full-scale military offensive on Ukraine in 2022, fired over 100 drones and multiple ballistic missiles at its neighbour between late Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, killing a mother and her son, Kyiv said.

The White House has become increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress towards a peace deal between the warring sides, despite Trump’s efforts.

US Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday called on the two to enter direct talks.

‘Peaceful atmosphere’

Russia marks Victory Day with a grand parade of military equipment on Red Square and an address from Putin.

More than 20 world leaders were expected in Moscow for the May 9 parade.

“Our military and special services are taking all necessary measures to ensure that the celebration of the great victory takes place in a calm, stable and peaceful atmosphere,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

He also said authorities had jammed internet connections ahead of the parade, citing the threat from Ukraine.

“As long as guests are here, until May 10, we need to be ready for restrictions,” he added.

Russian forces occupy one-fifth of Ukraine, and this spring hit the country with a string of deadly attacks on civilian areas.

‘Nothing scares us’

Russians from outside Moscow visiting the heavily policed capital on Wednesday ahead of the parade appeared unfazed.

“We are from Rostov-on-Don. Nothing scares us,” said 22-year-old student Valeria Pavlova. The southern city serves as a command and logistics hub for the Ukraine offensive and has regularly been targeted.

“It’s much calmer here,” she added.

But scenes at airports in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and other cities were more chaotic on Wednesday.

Ukraine launched a barrage of drones at Russia earlier in the day, forcing airports to halt traffic. Around 60,000 people’s flights were disrupted, according to Moscow.

Kyiv’s drone attacks disrupted about 350 flights Tuesday and Wednesday, Russia’s Association of Tour Operators said.

Social media videos showed people sleeping on the floor and airports with rows of over a dozen planes queuing on the tarmac.

Ukraine’s airspace has been forced to close since Russia launched its offensive in February 2022.

The French president said he had raised concerns over recent violence against the Druze and Alawite minorities.

“You must do everything to assure the protection of all Syrians without exception,” Macron told Sharaa, adding, “The crimes have profoundly shocked the friends of Syria.”

He also urged Sharaa to prosecute those responsible for the attacks.

More than 1,700 people were killed in March, mostly from Assad’s Alawite sect, during sectarian clashes that drew international condemnation.

Further unrest involving Druze fighters and claims of abuses by NGOs have cast doubt on the interim government’s ability to contain extremist violence.

Sharaa, a former Islamist rebel, has been criticised by some in France as a “jihadist-turned-politician”. His visit has sparked debate, but Macron defended the meeting, saying engagement was essential.

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‘Gradual lifting of sanctions’ 

The French president said lifting sanctions on Syria could be possible if the new authorities managed to restore order.

He also said the United States should delay any plans to withdraw its troops.

Macron described Israeli airstrikes in Syria as counterproductive, including one that hit near the presidential palace in Damascus on Friday.

“As for bombings and incursions, I think it’s bad practice,” Macron said. “You don’t ensure your country’s security by violating the territorial integrity of your neighbours.”

Speaking at a joint press conference at the Elysée Palace, Sharaa confirmed that indirect talks with Israel were under way, using unnamed mediators.

He said the goal was “to try to contain the situation so it does not reach the point where it escapes the control of both sides.”

Sharaa also pushed back against European sanctions.

“There is no justification for maintaining European sanctions,” he said, arguing they were imposed on the previous regime because of its crimes.

Before the meeting with Macron, Sharaa held a private discussion with Farid al-Madhan, known as “Caesar” – a former Syrian military photographer who smuggled out tens of thousands of images showing torture and abuse under Assad.

Madhan revealed his identity in February in an interview with Al Jazeera. He fled Syria in 2013 with about 55,000 photos, including pictures of emaciated bodies and victims with their eyes gouged out.

(with newswires)

Leading 1-0 from the first leg in north London on 29 April, PSG extended their aggregate advantage to 2-0 after 27 minutes of the second leg at the Parc des Princes.

Spain international Fabian Ruiz thrashed home from the edge of the penalty area to calm the nerves of the hosts.

Midway through the second-half Vitinha fluffed a penalty that would have given PSG a 3-0 aggregate lead.

But minutes after his weak kick, substitute Ousmane Dembélé set up Achraf Hakimi for the strike that brought an explosion of joy from the PSG faithful.

As the home fans sang about their impending excursion to the final in Munich on 31 May, Mikel  Merino outmuscled PSG skipper Marquinhos on the left wing and drove towards the PSG penalty area.

His cross was deflected into the path of Bukayo Saka who rounded the PSG goalkeeper Gigi Donnarumma to halve the deficit on the night after 76 minutes.

Arsenal pushed for the goals to force extra-time but PSG held firm to seal a 3-1 aggregate success and second trip to the final in five years.

“I said from the first day that our goal was to work hard enough to be in a position to make history and that remains our goal,” said PSG boss Luis Enrique.

Progress

“This is a project that has evolved since last year, and I feel very comfortable here as a coach because I have the freedom and support from the president to build what we want, adapting to the market to put together a team that improves every day.”

PSG have already secured the French Super Cup and the Ligue 1 title this season. On 24 May, they take on Reims in the final of the Coupe de France before attempting to hoist European club football’s most prestigious for the first time trophy a week later.

“We believe in our coach and we believe in our talented, young, hungry players,” PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi told CBS Sports.

“They fight for the team. They die for the jersey. That’s the most important, for the city, for the club. There’s still one match to go. We are not done.”

Arsenal will return to domestic duties in the English Premier League this weekend to secure a berth in next season’s Champions League 

“Sometimes you have to lose a few in order to win and you have to overcome some of these setbacks and mentally grow as a person and as a player and as a group,” said Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice.

“We’re going through that at the moment, a few losses, in terms of losing out in the league and coming close in the Champions League in back-to-back years.

“PSG have gone through and we’re absolutely gutted but this doesn’t define us for sure.”

At stake with the election of a new pope is the direction of the Catholic Church, a 2,000-year-old institution with huge global influence but which is battling to adapt to the modern world, and to recover its reputation after the scandal of child sexual abuse by priests.

The process of this election – the conclave – however, is one element not in line for modernisation. Shrouded in secrecy, its name is derived from the Latin cum (with) and clavis (key) – meaning a “room that can be locked”.

This secrecy has seen the conclave enshrined in the popular imagination. The film Conclave, based on the bestselling novel by British author Robert Harris, picked up an Oscar, four BAFTAs and a Golden Globe during this year’s awards season.

‘Princes of the Church’

The 133 cardinals – the so-called “Princes of the Church” – who will vote will gather on Wednesday afternoon under the frescoed splendour of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican.

A cardinal (from the Latin cardinalis or principal) is a high dignitary of the Catholic Church chosen by the pope to assist him in his government. They form the top echelon of the Catholic Church, with their scarlet robes representing the blood of Christ.

The creation of cardinals reflects the political views of the pontiff, who normally uses this power to shape the selection of his own successor. The current College of Cardinals is a diverse group, thanks to Pope Francis appointing figures from far-flung diocese, some gaining a cardinal for the first time – such as Brunei, Mongolia and South Sudan.

This diversity means some observers are predicting a protracted process. Vatican affairs specialist Marco Politi told French news agency AFP that, given the unknowns, this conclave could be “the most spectacular in 50 years”.

Oath of secrecy

During the conclave, the cardinals are forbidden from contacting the outside world. They will stay at the Santa Marta guesthouse – although prior to 1996 they slept on camp beds in the Apostolic Palace, which is connected to the Sistine Chapel.

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All windows in the conclave zone are darkened to guarantee privacy. Ahead of the vote, technicians deactivate all technological devices installed in recent years in the Sistine Chapel and sweep for secret recording devices.

The day before the conclave they will install “approximately 80 lead seals at all entrances to the perimeter”.

The extreme secrecy required extends to these technicians too, and all support staff – cleaners, cooks, doctors and nurses, drivers and elevator operators. All took an oath of secrecy on Monday. The punishment for breaking it? Automatic ex-communication.

Twelve technicians and maintenance craftspeople will remain inside the Sistine Chapel for the duration of the conclave, maintaining temperature, lighting and electrical systems, and assisting with ceremonial logistics such as operating the famous stove – which is now activated by remote control. 

The vote

On Wednesday, the day the conclave begins, the cardinal electors take part in a morning mass in St Peter’s Basilica. They will then gather in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace at 4:15pm and invoke the assistance of the Holy Spirit in making their choice.

They proceed at 4:30pm to the Sistine Chapel, where the election will be held, and take an oath vowing secrecy and promising that, if elected, they will conduct the role faithfully.

The master of ceremonies gives the order extra omnes (“everybody out”) and all those not permitted to vote leave the chapel.

The masters of ceremonies then distribute ballots to the electors. Lots are drawn to select three to serve as “scrutineers”, three infirmarii to collect the votes of cardinals who fall ill and three “revisers” who check the ballot counting by the scrutineers.

Cardinals are given rectangular ballots inscribed with the words Eligo in Summum Pontificem (“I elect as supreme pontiff”), with a blank space underneath. They write down the name of their choice for future pope, preferably in handwriting which cannot be identified, and fold the ballot paper twice.

Is the Catholic church ready for its first African Pope?

Each cardinal takes turns to walk to the altar, carrying his vote in the air so that it can be clearly seen, and says aloud the following oath: “I call as my witness Christ the Lord, who will be my judge, that my vote is given to the one who before God I think should be elected.”

The electors place their folded paper on a plate, which is used to tip the ballots into a silver urn on the altar, in front of scrutineers. They then bow and return to their seats.

Once all ballots are collected, scrutineers shake the urn to mix the votes up, transfer them into a second container to check there are the same number of ballots as electors and begin counting them.

Two scrutineers note down the names while a third reads them aloud, piercing the ballots with a needle through the word Eligo and stringing them together. The revisers then double-check that the scrutineers have not made any mistakes.

If no one has secured two-thirds of the votes, there is no winner and the electors move straight on to a second round. There are two pairs of votes per day, morning and afternoon, until a new pope has been elected.

The ballots and any handwritten notes made by the cardinals are then destroyed, burnt in a stove in the chapel. It emits black smoke if no pope has been elected and white smoke if there is a new pontiff.

The smoke is turned black or white through the addition of chemicals – potassium perchlorate, anthracene (a component of coal tar) and sulfur to produce black smoke, or potassium chlorate, lactose and chloroform resin to produce the white smoke.

If voting continues for three days without a winner, there is a day of prayer, reflection and dialogue. If after another seven ballots there is no winner, there is another day of pause.

If the cardinals reach a fourth pause with no result, they can agree to vote only on the two most popular candidates, with the winner requiring a clear majority.

Cassocks competition: whose outfit will new pope wear?

In 2013, the conclave lasted 27 hours, and in 2005 it was 26 hours. The shortest on record took place in 1503, when it took cardinals just 10 hours to elect Pope Pius III.

As for the longest, in the 13th century it took almost three years, beginning n 1268 – 1,006 days to be exact – to choose Pope Clement IV’s successor.

From late 1269 the cardinals allowed themselves to be locked in to try to reach a decision.

When they still hadn’t managed this by June 1270, frustrated locals tore the roof off in a bid to speed things along – inspired by a quip by an English cardinal that without the roof, the Holy Spirit could descend unhindered.

When a cardinal is elected pope, the masters of ceremonies and other non-electors are brought back into the Sistine Chapel and the cardinal dean asks the winner: “Do you accept your canonical election as Supreme Pontiff?”

As soon as he gives his consent, he becomes pope – and is free to celebrate, as John Paul II did in 1978, reportedly walking around pouring Champagne for the cardinals and singing Polish folk songs.

Controversies 

Conclaves have seen their share of controversy over the centuries. This year, United States President Donald Trump last week posted an AI-generated image of himself dressed as the pope on his Truth Social platform, after joking that he would be his own first choice for the next pontiff, drawing the ire of the Church. 

The New York State Catholic Conference wrote in a post on X: “There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr President. We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St Peter. Do not mock us.”

Last week, France’s President Emmanuel Macron was accused by Italian media of attempted interference in the conclave, after he held a series of meetings with cardinals and Church officials while in Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral. 

Wait for Vatican white smoke fires up social media

In 2013, so convinced were they of his success, upon sight of the famous white smoke signal the Italian bishops’ conference sent out a press release congratulating Italian Cardinal Angelo Scola – when Pope Francis had just been elected.

In the days leading up to the conclave, Italian newspapers openly promoted Scola as the next pope, appearing to have missed the warning contained in a traditional Italian saying that front-runners at a papal conclave are often disappointed: “He who enters a conclave as a pope, leaves it as a cardinal.”

In 1241, when the conclave was dragging on, the head of Rome’s government locked the cardinals into a dilapidated building and refused to clean the lavatories or provide doctors for those who fell ill.

According to Frederic Baumgartner in his Behind Locked Doors: A History of the Papal Elections, the cardinals only reached a decision – electing Celestine IV – after one of them died and the Romans threatened to exhume his corpse and have it make decisions.

(with newswires)

Since Francis’s death over Easter, one name gaining attention in the Vatican is Ghana’s Cardinal Peter Turkson.

In 2010, Turkson said he wasn’t ready to become pope and that the church might not be ready either. “I wouldn’t want to be that first black pope. I think he’ll have a rough time,” he said.

But Africa’s share of the Catholic population is growing. The continent is now home to 20 percent of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, as the church struggles to hold on to followers in increasingly secular Europe.

Some now believe the time could be right for the first black pope.

A spiritual leader

Cardinal Peter Turkson, 76, grew up in a small town in what was then the Gold Coast, under British rule. He was the fourth of 10 children. His father worked in a mine and as a carpenter, while his mother sold vegetables at the market.

Turkson studied in seminaries in Ghana and New York, was ordained in 1975, then taught in Ghana. He later completed advanced Biblical studies in Rome.

Pope John Paul II made him archbishop of Cape Coast in 1992 and, in 2003, the first cardinal in Ghana’s history.

His rise continued under John Paul’s successor, Benedict XVI, who brought him to the Vatican in 2009 and made him head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

There, he became one of the pope’s closest advisors, working on issues like climate change and economic justice.

Turkson is seen as having both a strong connection to local congregations in Ghana and experience leading Vatican offices. His communication skills have also been praised.

Other African contenders

Turkson is not the only African name being mentioned as the church prepares for a conclave to choose its next leader. He would also not be the first African pontiff – Pope Victor I, from North Africa, led the church from 189 to 199.

“There has been this sense which has built up that the pope, if he is going to be a global authority, needs to come from the global church,” said Miles Pattenden, a historian of Catholicism at Oxford University.

But Pattenden also said there is no reason to believe the next pope will follow Francis’s more liberal approach.

Francis often called for reform but didn’t always deliver. That middle ground might appeal to African candidates, some of whom have been called too conservative by critics, said Cristina Traina, a religious studies professor at Fordham University in New York.

One example is Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, a traditionalist who compared abortion, “Islamic fanaticism” and homosexuality to Nazi ideology. He could attract support from more conservative cardinals.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo has been mentioned. He led efforts to oppose the blessing of same-sex couples in Africa after Francis encouraged acceptance of such unions elsewhere.

A long time coming

Francis, who was from Argentina, worked to make the Vatican reflect the diversity of its members. African cardinals now make up 12 percent of those eligible to vote in the conclave, up from eight percent at the last papal election.

“It would be almost impossible to imagine the world accepting an African pope without this transition of Pope Francis having been from Argentina,” said Traina.

Africa still has fewer voting cardinals than some think it should.

Some African Catholics also feel left out. A Congolese priest, who did not want to be named, told the French news agency AFP: “Even if it isn’t obvious among our European brothers, discrimination is still a reality that we often don’t talk about.”

He said the church has made progress, but there is a reason no African has been pope in 1,500 years.

An African pope could bring new ideas to the church’s current challenges, including the ban on married priests, said Traina.

“It has always been on our lips how we wish to have an African pope,” said Father Paul Maji, a priest in Abuja, Nigeria. But he added that Africans should not be “sentimental” about where the next pope comes from.

Sylvain Badibanga, dean of the theology faculty at the Catholic University of Congo, told AFP: “We shouldn’t think ‘it’s our turn’. It’s God’s turn.”

Archbishop Dieudonné Nzapalainga of Bangui, made a cardinal in 2016 after Francis visited the Central African Republic, will vote in a conclave for the first time.

“This is not about regional, continental, or even personal interests,” he told RFI, adding that cardinals must think about the broader interests of the Catholic church.

As his name came up again before the 2013 conclave that chose Francis, Turkson said he could become pope “if it’s the will of God”.

(with newswires) 

“They are at the end of their strength. Jacques’s face is more and more marked by the detention – you can feel he is dying slowly in that cell,” Noémie Kohler told RFI. “Cécile and Jacques are increasingly desperate and are less and less optimistic.”

Kohler, 40, and Paris, who is in his seventies, were arrested on 7 May 2022 at the end of a tourist trip to Iran. They are accused of spying – charges they strongly deny.

They are being held in section 209 of Tehran’s Evin Prison, an area reserved for political prisoners. They are the last known French citizens still detained in Iran and are considered “state hostages” by the French government.

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Conditions ‘equivalent to torture’

France’s foreign ministry says the couple are being held in conditions that “amount to torture under international law”.

They have no furniture and continue to sleep on the floor. The lights remain on 24 hours a day and they are allowed outdoors just two or three times a week, for no more than 30 minutes at a time.

Whether they are allowed out depends on prison guards and weather. Phone calls are rare, short and tightly monitored. The most recent, on 5 May, lasted just eight minutes.

“She told us she writes poems in her head,” Noémie said. “She repeats them every night so she doesn’t forget them, because after three years, she still has nothing to write with.”

Noémie also described the mental pressure her sister and Jacques are under.

“For several months they have been told that a verdict is imminent, that it will be extremely severe. They are given deadlines each time and nothing ever happens,” she said. “It’s psychological torture.”

A few months after their arrest, Iranian state television broadcast “confessions” by the pair, which France said were forced.

Their lawyers have still not been granted access to their case files. “Their right to a defence has been completely denied,” Noémie said. “We have no reliable information about the legal process.”

French citizens jailed in Iran since 2022 ‘must be freed’ says Macron

Campaign for freedom

French President Emmanuel Macron marked the anniversary with a message on social media, saying France was working “tirelessly” to free them.

“I assure their families that our support is unwavering,” Macron posted on X.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot also posted a video message describing Kohler and Paris as “hostages” and “victims of the Iranian regime”.

“They are kept in inhumane conditions that amount to torture,” Barrot added. He also urged French nationals not to travel to Iran.

France has said it will file a formal complaint against Iran at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. While the move has been welcomed by the families, it is not expected to lead to a breakthrough in the short term.

Frenchman Olivier Grondeau freed after more than two years in Tehran prison

Diplomatic tensions

The case comes amid worsening ties between Paris and Tehran.

In February, an Iranian woman was arrested in France on terrorism-related charges. A Franco-Iranian influencer is also due to go on trial on similar accusations. France has threatened new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.

The couple are among several Europeans held by Iran. Some European governments say these detentions are politically motivated.

One of the others still in prison is Swedish-Iranian academic Ahmadreza Djalali, who was sentenced to death in 2017 on spying charges his family says are false.

Dozens of rallies were planned across France on Wednesday to draw attention to Kohler and Paris’s case.

“They’ve become pawns in something far bigger than them,” Noémie said. “We just want them home.”

Traoré, known as “the King”, leads the Alternatives for Mali party and is part of the opposition coalition Jigiya Koura. He was arrested on 24 April and transferred to Dioïla prison, 160km from the capital. His trial is set for 12 June.

Traoré is charged with “undermining the credit of the state” and “spreading knowingly false news likely to disturb public order”.

The charges stem from an interview posted online on 22 April in which Traoré accused members of the National Transition Council – appointed by the junta – of enriching themselves at public expense.

He claimed they were receiving “billions” in salaries intended for elected MPs, while working “for their personal interest and not for the homeland”.

Traoré also questioned the legitimacy of the 2023 constitutional referendum and condemned the council’s silence over threats to ban political parties. “Not keeping your word is an insult to the honour of Malians,” he said during the interview.

Mali forum backs five-year presidency for junta leader Assimi Goïta

Widening crackdown

This is not Traoré’s first run-in with the authorities. Last year, he was jailed for more than five months along with 10 other political leaders after holding a meeting during a nationwide suspension of political activity.

In April, another member of his party was sentenced to one year in prison and fined 650,000 CFA francs after calling Mali’s military rulers “juntas” and urging resistance to what he called the “anarchic regime of Assimi Goïta”.

Goïta seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021. Last month, a government-backed national dialogue recommended naming him president for a renewable five-year term. The same forum also proposed dissolving all political parties – a move that has fuelled anger among opposition groups.

First major rally 

On Saturday, hundreds of activists defied threats and gathered in Bamako in the first major pro-democracy demonstration since the 2020 coup. Protesters met outside the Palais de la Culture after police blocked access to the venue, which had been occupied earlier by pro-military supporters.

“Any attempt to limit, suspend or dissolve political parties is a direct attack on the constitution and the sovereignty of the Malian people,” protest organisers said in a statement.

The following day, civic and political leaders held a press conference demanding a “rapid and credible return to constitutional order through the organisation of transparent, inclusive and peaceful elections”, said organiser Cheick Oumar Doumbia.

Police forced them to leave, citing risks of confrontation with junta supporters.

Opposition parties are now planning another rally in Bamako on 9 May. “We are taking it up a notch to demonstrate our capacity for mobilisation,” one party leader told local media.

Sahel ministers in Russia for talks after breaking with western allies

Rising alarm

Last week, Mali’s transitional government issued a decree in the Council of Ministers to repeal the law governing political parties. The move followed the conclusions of the national dialogue and has drawn warnings from rights groups.

“There is a real risk of increased tensions if political parties continue to face pressure,” Mamouni Soumano, a political analyst at Kurukanfuga University in Bamako, told the Associated Press.

The opposition coalition has called for the release of all political prisoners and a return to civilian rule by 31 December 2025.

Human rights organisations including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) have condemned what they describe as repeated attacks on basic freedoms during the transition period.

They say arrests, censorship and legal pressure are being used to silence dissent.

Mali’s military-led government has also cut ties with traditional Western partners and forged closer relations with Russia.

The three-year expedition will take Plastic Odyssey around Africa, South East Asia and South America. 

Its current four-month mission in the Indian Ocean is part of a partnership programme led by the Indian Ocean Commission (COI) – an intergovernmental project involving France, Madagascar, the Seychelles, Comoros and Mauritius, with support from France’s development agency, the AFD.

“The main goal is to empower more local entrepreneurs and accelerate their plastic waste recycling programme,” Alaric de Beaudrap, stopover coordinator for Plastic Odyssey, told RFI.

For this, the Plastic Odyssey crew – mostly made up of engineers – holds an intensive three-day training session called “On-board laboratory”.

More than 25 Malagasy entrepreneurs have already applied for the programme, beginning on 30 April in the Tamatave harbour, 300 kilometres away from the capital Antananarivo.

Local engagement

One company Plastic Odyssey is in touch with is Andao, which makes school tables from recycled plastic bottle caps. 

“There is a huge problem of school furniture in Madagascar. They’re doing it locally at their own level. They would love to produce more of those recycled plastic tables for schools,” explains de Beaudrap.

Plastic Odyssey is a 40-metre vessel equipped with low-tech machines used to recycle plastic waste.

Once collected and processed, this recycled plastic can be used for building structures, irrigation for agriculture, flooring and furniture. 

The idea is to create local jobs with machines that can be built on-site. “All those machines are easy to operate and to maintain, and can be easily replicated,” explains de Beaudrap.

“We have been in more than 30 countries so far, where we stopped with the boat and we can exchange knowledge and good practices.”

Plastic Odyssey sets off on round-the-world mission to fight marine pollution

Plastic Odyssey also runs an education programme, with children aged between eight and 15 invited on board for a lesson on plastic pollution. “The main goal is to promote a plastic-free world to young people,” says de Beaudrap.

Waste mismanagement

According to a report published in 2020 by the COI, “it seems that 92 percent of waste is mismanaged in Madagascar,” says de Beaudrap, “and less than half of this plastic waste is collected”.

There are several illegal dumping sites on the Indian Ocean island, most of them near residential areas.

“We are not yet talking about recycling in Madagascar, only collecting,” he added. “There is an urgent need to prevent this waste from reaching the rivers and the sea because, in the end, this waste will pollute the Malagasy coastlines and ecosystems.”

Global plastic recycling rates ‘stagnant’ at under 10%: study

The second major component of the stopover in Madagascar is a five-day mission around the Sainte-Marie coastal area, during which the vessel will be made available to scientists from the oceanographic institution Ifremer and the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development, as well as universities of the Comoros and Madagascar.

“Our vessel will allow them to carry out surveys and observations of micro and macro plastics off the coast, and also to study the drift of these plastics, and what we call the link between plastics and megafauna,” explained de Beaudrap.

“This scientific approach will provide a foundation for policymakers and research centres to better identify and understand the role of plastic pollution on ecosystems – as well as its sources.”

After Madagascar, Plastic Odyssey will sail to Seychelles and the Comoro Islands, reaching Kenya in August, before its expected return to France in April 2026.

The talks, which opened on Monday and will run until 9 May, are being held under the Basel Convention, which controls the movement and disposal of hazardous waste. They will also cover chemical pollution under the Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions.

Africa, one of the regions hardest hit by toxic dumping, is expected to feature prominently.

In 2022, the world produced 62 million tonnes of electronic waste – enough to fill a line of trucks around the equator. That figure is expected to rise to 82 million tonnes by 2030. Yet only 22 percent is properly recycled, according to the United Nations Global E-waste Monitor.

Most of the rest ends up dumped or burned, releasing dangerous toxins into soil, water and air.

Africa bears the brunt

A large share of this waste is sent to Africa, with shipments often labelled as second-hand goods – even when the equipment is broken or near the end of its life.

In many cases, this discarded equipment ends up being recycled informally, using dangerous methods such as open burning or acid baths that release toxic chemicals into the environment.

“Many Western countries continue to export hazardous waste by presenting defective equipment as second-hand appliances,” Edem d’Almeida, founder of the Togo-based Africa Global Recycling, told RFI.

These exports have been banned since the Basel Convention came into force in 1992, yet the practice continues through loopholes and lack of enforcement.

D’Almeida warned that the true volume of waste on the continent is “largely underestimated” because much of it moves through informal channels. “It’s up to states to monitor what enters their territories, so that Africa doesn’t become the planet’s dumping ground,” he said.

AI boom risks flooding planet with ‘millions of tonnes of e-waste’

Children, mothers most exposed

The impact of informal recycling is especially dangerous for vulnerable groups.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says children and pregnant women face the greatest risks. Toxins such as lead, mercury and dioxins are released when waste is burned, stripped or soaked in acid baths. These chemicals can damage the brain, lungs and nervous system.

“E-waste recycling activities may release up to 1,000 different chemical substances,” the WHO warned in a 2021 report on e-waste and child health. Children, it said, are often directly involved in dismantling electronics at dumpsites, exposing them to serious health risks.

The damage from e-waste does not stop at human health. It can pollute water sources, harm crops and put extra strain on land in regions that are already vulnerable.

“Hazardous materials in electronic scrap can contaminate soil and water, affecting the environment and food security,” said Oleg Zaitsev, who runs an e-waste recycling company in Kazakhstan that works on projects supported by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

‘Forever chemicals’ and plastic

In Geneva, delegates are debating whether to restrict several long-lasting chemicals under the Stockholm Convention, including PFAS – or “forever chemicals” – found in food packaging and cosmetics.

Listing PFAS would be “a useful first step”, said Giulia Carlini, a lawyer with the Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL), an NGO participating as an observer in the Geneva talks.

“But what’s really needed is full prohibition,” she told RFI. 

She added that many of the same delegates will soon return to Geneva to negotiate a global plastics treaty, making these discussions a chance to examine wider links between different forms of waste.

Progress could be slow, with every country holding an effective veto under the rules and strong lobbying from industry groups.

Obsolete electronics pile up as e-waste outstrips recycling efforts, UN warns

Strengthening African defences

Several African nations are introducing measures to address the growing burden of e-waste.

Nigeria has set up a system where electronics importers and manufacturers contribute to recycling costs. Ghana has imposed a levy on imports of used and end-of-life electronics. Rwanda has partnered with private companies to build a national e-waste recycling centre.

UN experts say that if global collection and recycling rates reached 60 percent by 2030, the benefits would outweigh the costs by more than $38 billion – improving health, protecting ecosystems and creating jobs.

But today, less than 1 percent of Africa’s e-waste is formally recycled.

“Chemicals are an integral part of the modern world,” said Jacqueline Alvarez, head of chemicals and health at UNEP. “But too often, exposure to harmful chemicals through food, consumer products, and the environment can have severe consequences for people and the planet.”

The three were hit in a side street near the Champs Elysées when a black saloon car ploughed into them.

Videos on social media showed several PSG fans chasing the vehicle into an adjacent road and eventually setting it alight after the occupants fled.

Police said they had launched an investigation. Nearly 50 people were arrested for vandalism and for carrying flares and fireworks.

More than 2,000 officers were deployed around PSG’s Parc des Princes stadium in western Paris for the game.

Ruiz and Hakimi on target as PSG muzzle Arsenal to reach Champions League final

Leading 1-0 from the first leg in north London on 29 April, PSG extended their aggregate advantage when midfielder Fabian Luiz scored his first goal in the Champions League tournament.

Minutes after PSG midfielder Vitinha missed a penalty, Achraf Hakimi added PSG’s second.

Though Bukayo Saka halved the deficit for the visitors after 76 minutes, PSG held on for a 3-1 aggregate win and a place in the final on 31 May at the Allianz Arena in Munich against Inter Milan.

The final whistle brought an explosion of joy in scores of bars and cafes around the city as well as outside the Parc des Princes, where dozens of fans attempted to stage an impromptu party on the ring road passing near the stadium.

Police quickly broke up the festivities.

Ever since US President Donald Trump started defunding and dismantling US scientific institutions, France has made a push to get scientists to move. In March the French minister in charge of research asked universities to fund programmes to attract American scientists. In 2017, after Trump first pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accords, Macron launched a recruitment drive aimed at climate scientists working in the US. Two of those grantees, Ben Sanderson and Philip Shulz, talk about the experience of leaving the US for France, and what the current environment is like for climate scientists today. (Listen @1’10)

With 87 percent of France considered a “medical desert”, lawmakers and the government are looking to tackle doctor shortages. But the proposals – to regulate when specialists can open their private practices and require health professionals to work two days a month in areas with chronic shortages – have met with strong opposition from GPs, trainee doctors and students. Yassine Bahr, vice-president of the French junior doctors union (ISNI), and Anna Boctor, president of France’s Jeunes Medecins (young doctors) union, talk about why the proposals won’t solve the problem and the sense of injustice at being held responsible for a situation that is not of their making. (Listen @20’20)

On 8 May 1945, during a celebration of the end of WWII in Europe in the Algerian city of Setif, French colonial authorities shot at Algerians holding pro-independence signs. The ensuing riots then spread to neighbouring cities where the authorities  unleashed a campaign of reprisals to crush the unrest – indiscriminately killing tens of thousands of Algerian men, women and children. France has yet to officially acknowledge its role in the massacres. (Listen @15’00)

Episode mixed by Cécile 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).

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, with days of repeated gunfire along their border escalating into artillery shelling.

“We will avenge each drop of the blood of these martyrs,” Sharif said, in an address to the nation.

India said it had destroyed nine “terrorist camps” in Pakistan in “focused, measured and non-escalatory” strikes, two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing an attack on tourists in the Indian-administered side of disputed Kashmir – a charge Pakistan denies.

At least 45 deaths have been reported from both sides of the border following Wednesday’s violence, including children.

Islamabad said 31 civilians were killed by Indian strikes and firing along the border.

New Delhi said 13 civilians and a soldier had been killed by Pakistani fire.

Pakistan’s military also said five Indian jets had been downed across the border, but New Delhi has not responded to the claims.

An Indian senior security source, who asked not to be named, said three of its fighter jets had crashed on home territory.

‘Screamed’

The largest Indian strike was on an Islamic seminary near the Punjabi city of Bahawalpur, killing 13 people according to the Pakistan military.

Madasar Choudhary, 29, described how his sister saw two children killed in Poonch, on the Indian side of the frontier on Wednesday.

“She saw two children running out of her neighbour’s house and screamed for them to get back inside,” Choudhary said, narrating her account because she was too shocked to speak.

“But shrapnel got to the children – and they eventually died.”

Muhammad Riaz said he and his family had been made homeless after Indian strikes hit Muzaffarabad, the main city of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

India signs multi-billion-dollar deal with France for 26 Rafale jets

“There is no place to live,” he said. “There is no space at the house of our relatives. We are very upset, we have nowhere to go.”

On Wednesday night, Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry reported firing across the Line of Control – the de facto border in Kashmir – and said that the armed forces had been authorised to “respond in self-defence” at a “time, place and manner of its choosing”.

India’s army on Thursday morning reported firing “small arms and artillery guns” in multiple sites overnight, adding that its soldiers had “responded proportionately”, without giving further details.

India and Pakistan have fought multiple times since the violent end of British rule in 1947, when colonial officers drew straight-line borders on maps to partition the nations, dividing communities.

Muslim-majority Kashmir – claimed by both India and Pakistan – has been a repeated flashpoint.

‘No pushover’

India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the operation was New Delhi’s “right to respond” following an attack on tourists in Pahalgam in Kashmir last month, when gunmen killed 26 people, mainly Hindu men.

New Delhi blamed the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba – a UN-designated terrorist organisation, and the nations traded days of threats and diplomatic measures.

India on Thursday braced for Pakistan’s threatened retaliation.

“Border districts on high alert,” The Hindu newspaper headline read, adding that “India must be prepared for escalatory action” by Pakistan.

In an editorial, the Indian Express wrote “there is no reason to believe that the Pakistan Army has been chastened by the Indian airstrikes”, adding that Indian military experts were “aware that Pakistan’s armed forces are no pushover”.

Diplomats and world leaders have pressured both countries to step back from the brink.

Rebel gods take centre stage in Kerala’s fight against inequality

“I want to see them stop,” US President Donald Trump said Wednesday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is slated to meet his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Thursday in New Delhi, days after visiting Pakistan, as Tehran seeks to mediate.

Analysts said they were fully expecting Pakistani military action to “save face” in a response to India.

“India’s limited objectives are met,” said Happymon Jacob, director of the New Delhi-based think tank Council for Strategic and Defence Research.

“Pakistan has a limited objective of ensuring that it carries out a retaliatory strike to save face domestically and internationally. So, that is likely to happen.”

Based on past conflicts, he believed it would “likely end in a few iterations of exchange of long-range gunfire or missiles into each other’s territory”.

Europe is seeking to build up its defences as the war in Ukraine continues and as doubts grow over how committed the United States will remain under President Donald Trump.

“We will set up a French-German defence and security council to meet regularly to bring operational responses to our common strategic challenges,” Macron said at a joint press conference.

Merz, who became chancellor on Tuesday, has backed closer ties with Europe and the United States and is a strong supporter of Ukraine. He has promised to put Germany back on the international stage after months of political stalling.

“We will take joint measures to further enhance Europe’s security and defence capabilities,” said Merz, before leaving for Poland later in the day.

France and the United Kingdom are leading talks among a group of 30 countries looking at the possible deployment of troops to secure any future ceasefire in Ukraine.

Asked on Tuesday about how Germany could influence peace talks, Merz said there was already “a proven format” for cooperation between Germany, France and the UK.

Merz added that he would “consult intensively” with both countries, and said, “If we can include the Poles, then it will be even better.”

France and Germany must ‘overcome difficulties’ to prevent rise of populism, Attal says

Cornerstone

The Franco-German relationship became the cornerstone of the European Union and was first symbolised by the 1963 Élysée Treaty, signed by then French President Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer, the German Chancellor.

The document symbolized reconciliation between two European superpowers that were at opposite sides during both world wars, and from then on, the Franco-German axis would shape the EU’s political, economic, and security landscape.

Historically, the partnership was succesful in driving European integration, fostering common markets, and aligning policies on defense and foreign affairs.

But, in recent years, relations were marred by disagreements over defence policy, energy strategy, and fiscal policies.

Notably, Berlin’s unilateral €200 billion energy relief package and differing approaches to European defense have tested the alliance, culminating in diplomatic friction between leaders Emmanuel Macron and Merz’s predecessor, the social-democrat Olaf Scholz.

The new German leadership under Friedrich Merz, a staunch supporter of the European Union, is set to revitalise the partnership with Paris. 

Both leaders advocate for a stronger, more autonomous Europe that is less dependent on an increasingly unreliant US. Franco-German cooperation is seen as vital for advancing collective European defense initiatives, fiscal integration, and political cohesion.

The 2019 Aachen Treaty further deepened cooperation in areas such as innovation, energy transition, and cultural exchange.

The success or failure of Franco-German cooperation significantly influences the EU’s capacity to maintain stability, promote economic growth, and ensure security across the continent.

(with newswires)

Another drone strike targeted Port Sudan on Wednesday morning, according to an army source, marking the fourth straight day the seat of the army-backed government has come under attack.

The drones “were met with anti-aircraft missiles,” the source said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

A series of explosions were heard in the city, near the Flamingo base, just north of the city, the country’s largest naval base in the wartime capital Port Sudan, followed by a cloud of smoke.

War has raged since April 2023 between Sudan’s regular armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which the government has called a “proxy” of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Nationwide, the war has already killed tens of thousands of people in two years and uprooted 13 million.

Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast had until this week been a safe haven for civilians, hosting hundreds of thousands of displaced people and United Nations offices. But on Sunday a first drone strike began, blamed on the RSF.

New front

Drones struck Port Sudan all day on Tuesday, hitting the main port, the city’s power station and the country’s last functioning international airport.

Witnesses also told AFP they heard explosions from anti-aircraft missiles west of the city, which has also come under repeated attack this week.

The city on the Red Sea coast had become the base for the army-aligned government after the RSF swept through much of the capital Khartoum at the start of the conflict.

These drone strikes on Port Sudan opened a new front, targeting the army’s main stronghold in eastern Sudan after it drove the RSF back westwards across much of central Sudan, including Khartoum, in March.

Sudan’s RSF, pushed out of Khartoum, says war is not over

Rupture with the UAE

This Wednesday’s attack comes a day after the Sudanese authorities cut ties with the UAE, accusing it of supplying weapons used by the RSF to strike Port Sudan and declaring the Gulf country an “aggressor” state.

The UAE has long denied supporting the RSF, despite reports from UN experts, US politicians and international organisations.

But Sudan’s army continues to accuse the UAE of supplying both makeshift and highly advanced drones to the RSF. 

Sudan’s army-aligned information minister, Khalid al-Aiser, on Tuesday pointed the finger at the UAE again, saying it was supplying “its proxy” the RSF.

The International Court of Justice on Monday threw out a case brought by Sudan against the UAE, accusing it of complicity in genocide by supporting the RSF.

The army-aligned foreign ministry said it “respected” the ruling based on the ICJ’s lack of jurisdiction, adding that it “cannot legally be interpreted as a denial of the violations”.

International Court of Justice throws out Sudan genocide case against UAE

Disruption

The strikes on Port Sudan have raised fears of disruption to humanitarian aid across Sudan, where famine has already been declared in some areas and nearly 25 million people are suffering dire food insecurity.

The city had until last week provided “a haven for artists: musicians, actors, directors, and so on,” Mohammed Hassan told RFI’s special reporter in Port Sudan, from the Al Shourta School, next to Port Sudan’s central market.

UN relief chief Tom Fletcher said he was “very concerned by ongoing drone strikes on Port Sudan, a hub for our humanitarian operations and key entry point for aid”.

Nearly all aid into Sudan flows through the port city, which the United Nations has called “a lifeline for humanitarian operations”. It has warned of more “human suffering in what is already the world’s largest humanitarian crisis”.

Podcast: Two years of devastation: Sudan’s war claims thousands and displaces millions

The United States on Tuesday condemned the drone attacks “on critical infrastructure and other civilian targets in Port Sudan and throughout the country”. These attacks represent “a dangerous escalation in the Sudan conflict,” the State Department said.

Spain also condemned the attacks, calling them a “violation of international law and a threat to peace efforts”.  

The war has effectively split Sudan in two, with the army controlling the centre, north and east while the RSF holds nearly all of Darfur in the west and parts of the south.

 (with newswires)

The deal is the latest step in an ambitious bid by the Trump administration in the US to end a decades-long conflict in the central Africa region, rich in minerals including tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper and lithium.

The two countries’ foreign ministers had agreed last month, at a ceremony in Washington alongside US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to submit the draft proposal by 2 May.

Rwanda and DR Congo hopeful for peace talks this week under US mediation

Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said on RFI’s sister television channel, France 24, on Monday evening that the peace agreement talks are moving forward smoothly and on time, as the Congolese authorities are now fully involved in the discussions.

US strategy

Trump’s new senior adviser for Africa and the Middle East, Massad Boulos, said on social media on Monday that he welcomed “the draft text on a peace proposal received from both the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda,” describing it as “an important step” towards peace.

Boulos told news agencies last week that Washington wants to move quickly, and that the plan was for Rubio to meet again with his Rwandan and Congolese counterparts in mid-May in Washington, to agree on a final draft peace accord.

But Rwanda and Congo must finalise bilateral economic agreements with Washington before the accord can be signed, Boulos added.

The US and Western companies thus plan to invest billions of dollars in Congolese mines and infrastructure projects to support mining in both countries, including the processing of minerals in Rwanda.

The hope is that all three agreements can be signed in about two months, and on the same day, at a ceremony attended by Trump, according to Boulos.

Rwanda in ‘initial’ talks to receive migrants deported from the US

Continuous fighting  

Meanwhile, on the ground, the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels are still advancing in eastern Congo, with fighting killing thousands and displacing hundreds of thousands more.

Congo’s army on Saturday accused M23 of seizing the town of Lunyasenge on Lake Edward, according to Mak Hazukay, a spokesperson, who added that DRC “reserves the right to retaliate”.

The United Nations and Western governments say Rwanda has provided arms and troops to M23, which Rwanda denies. Kigali says its military has acted in self-defence against Congo’s army and a militia founded by perpetrators of the 1994 genocide.

Last month the DRC and the rebels had agreed to work towards peace, but sources in the two delegations have expressed frustration with the pace of negotiations.

Congo M23 rebels say they will withdraw from seized town to support peace push

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi’s government is also engaged in separate talks with M23 facilitated by Qatar. Both parties have restarted these peace talks, sources said on Tuesday.

M23 is involved in these peace talks but not in the ones in Washington, though the spokesperson for the rebel alliance that includes M23, Lawrence Kanyuka, told Reuters last week that the group encourages “any peace initiative.”

 (with newswires)

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has launched an unprecedented crackdown on media freedoms, making it illegal to criticise the army and its war against Ukraine.

Journalist and film critic Ekaterina Barabash was arrested in February on allegations of spreading “false information” about the Russian armed forces in several posts she made on social media.

She was detained soon after attending the Berlin film festival in February and fled house arrest in April.

Speaking in an interview with French news agency AFP at the media watchdog’s headquarters in Paris on Monday, Barabash, 64, said she even considered suicide to avoid going to prison.

“I began looking for some poison,” said Barabash, who faces up to 10 years in prison for criticising Moscow’s military action in Ukraine.

“Russian prison, it’s not a life. It is worse than death.”

Speaking to reporters at the news conference, Barabash said her journey to France was “difficult” and took around two-and-a-half weeks.

Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF, helped bring her to safety.

Resilience

The journalist, whose only son lives in Ukraine, had written for several news outlets, including the Russian service of Radio France Internationale (RFI).

Her 96-year-old mother stayed behind in Moscow.

Barabash said “many” people were involved in her escape, including Leonid Nevzlin, an ally of self-exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who “financed” her evacuation.

“I crossed all borders by myself,” said Barabash, who was born in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv when it was still part of the Soviet Union.

France demands release of Russian journalists jailed after covering Navalny case

RSF earlier helped the escape of former Russian state television journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who protested against the Ukraine conflict during a live broadcast in 2022.

Barabash said she removed her electronic bracelet when she fled house arrest.

“It’s somewhere in the Russian forest,” she said.

She said she hid “for two weeks” during her escape and crossed the border on her birthday on 26 April.

RSF director Thibaut Bruttin praised her resilience.

“Several times, we thought she had been arrested or was in danger of being arrested. Several times, the plan changed. Once, we thought she was dead.”

Bruttin said it had become more difficult to help journalists escape Russia after the media watchdog smuggled out Ovsyannikova.

‘We became more Russian than we were,’ says Moscow-born artist in Paris

Message of hope

He also said Barabash’s escape was a “message of hope” for Russian reporters.

“There are forces that are willing to help you in your difficult situation,” he said.

“There is no despair, there is no inevitability and RSF stands with all those who embody independent journalism.”

Both RSF and Barabash said they could not disclose all the details of her escape.

RSF said Barabash’s stay in France is being “monitored” by the French authorities, “using “a protocol that allows us to ensure her safety,” Bruttin said.

Reporters Without Borders launches news platform to counter Russian propaganda

“I am going to ask for political asylum,” Barabash said, adding that she hoped to continue working for RFI.

Barabash has been an outspoken critic of Moscow’s military offensive against Ukraine.

In 2022, she wrote on Facebook that Russia had “bombed the country” and “razed whole cities to the ground”.

Days before her arrest, she wrote of her “hatred, hatred, hatred for those who started all this”.

“So many lives have been destroyed, so many families torn apart,” she said on Facebook.

Barabash said on Monday she was optimistic, even though she would have to start a new life in a foreign country from scratch.

“I don’t know a single person who has died of starvation in exile,” she said.

(with AFP)

The survey shows that 67 percent of women have personally experienced a discriminatory or sexist situation within their company, reveals the survey led by the #StOpE collective (Stop Ordinary Sexism in the Workplace), supported by the AFDM. 

Women paid less

The results also show that more than one in two women say they are paid less than their male colleagues for work of equal value. And more than six in ten feel they have to do more to be recognised for their work. 

Sexism in the workplace also seems to manifest through “humor”: over seven in ten women say they have heard “jokes about women” at work.

And 73 percent of respondents believe being a mother is an obstacle to career advancement.

France struggles to shake off everyday sexism, particularly among young men

Faced with a sexist work environment, the women surveyed report adopting avoidance strategies, such as not wearing certain clothing (31%), avoiding being alone with some people (25%), or not speaking in public (18%). 

Only half believe that companies are doing enough to reduce these inequalities. 

The survey also highlights resistance among men: 40 percent believe they are discriminated against due to efforts promoting gender equality.

(with newswires)

Romania’s pro-EU Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu stepped down on Monday after a far-right candidate topped the first round of a tense presidential vote rerun.

With over 40 percent of the votes, far-right EU critic George Simion topped Sunday’s election first round, while the ruling coalition’s candidate narrowly lost out to Bucharest’s mayor for the second spot.

Ciolacu’s resignation comes just two weeks ahead of the presidential vote runoff on May 18 in the EU and NATO member, which has gained in strategic importance since Russia invaded Ukraine, neighbouring Romania.

Far right candidate takes the lead in Romania’s presidential race

Ciolacu said his Social Democrats (PSD) party would leave the ruling coalition but they are expected to remain in the government on an interim basis until after the election run-off.

Predoiu, 56, is a former justice minister who already served as interim premier in 2012.

Predoiu, who practiced as a lawyer in the past, is also the current interim president of the liberals (PNL.)

Predoiu told reporters on Monday that the liberals have “sworn-in ministers in the government, they will carry out their duties”.

“As long as these mandates are in office, the PNL does its duty,” he said.

Closely watched rerun 

In Sunday’s first round, Simion, who leads the nationalist AUR party, got twice as much votes as the pro-EU Mayor Nicusor Dan, an independent.

A far-right victory in the second round, closely watched by Brussels and Washington, could mark a shift in the country’s foreign policy.

The president represents Romania at EU and NATO summits and can veto EU votes. He also appoints the premier and other government posts.

Campaigning on a vow to “put Romania first,” Simion, a fan of US President Donald Trump, has criticised “Brussels’ unelected bureaucrats”, accusing them of having “meddled in the Romanian elections,” a claim repeated by US Vice-President JD Vance during his speech at the Munich Security Conference. 

In December, Romania’s constitutional court in a shock move scrapped the presidential ballot after far-right politician Calin Georgescu unexpectedly won the first round.

The annulment followed allegations of Russian interference and a massive TikTok campaign that emerged in favour of Georgescu.

Simion has called the annulment “a coup d’etat”. Georgescu was barred from the rerun but two major far-right parties decided to back Simion instead.

Romania’s top court annuls presidential vote amid Russia interference fears

(With newswires)

The seven accused, of whom only one was present in court, were found guilty of sending hate messages, and even a death threat, to Thomas Jolly, 43, over a controversial scene in the ceremony.

Jolly filed a legal complaint over the cyberbullying shortly after the open-air spectacular on the Seine that drew mostly praise.

However, some Christians and far-right groups took offence at one of its scenes incorporating LGBTQ performers that they claimed mocked Christian values.

In his complaint Jolly, who is openly gay, said he was being targeted “by threatening and insulting messages” that he said criticised his sexual orientation and “wrongly assumed Israeli origins”, according to prosecutors.

Paris Olympic opening creator rebuffs anti-Christian criticism

Ceremony organisers said they were portraying feasting Olympian gods in a nod to classical paintings, with a blue-painted French pop star and actor, Philippe Katerine, playing Dionysus (also referred to as Bacchus), the father of Sequana, the goddess of the River Seine.

But some interpreted it as a disrespectful parody of the Last Supper, the final meal between Jesus and his apostles.

US President Donald Trump called the ceremony “a disgrace”.

Proud moment

But Jolly received the full support of French President Emmanuel Macron who said he was “outraged” by the cyberbullying, adding that “the French were very proud of this ceremony”.

Jolly went on to win an honorary Molière trophy for his contribution to the Paris Olympics ceremonies, at the 36th annual theatre awards on 28 April.

The fines in Monday’s sentencing went up to €3,000 and the suspended sentences up to four months.

France recorded significant rise in cyberattacks linked to Paris Olympics

All seven of those found guilty were also ordered to pay a symbolic euro to Jolly, and undergo a five-day civic training programme.

Investigators have also been looking into similar complaints from Barbara Butch, a French DJ and lesbian activist who starred in the controversial scene.

Her lawyer said she had been “threatened with death, torture and rape”.

Five people are to stand trial in that case in September, prosecutors told French news agency AFP in March.

(with AFP)

On Monday Israel’s security cabinet approved the military’s plan for expanded operations, which an Israeli official said would entail “the conquest of the Gaza Strip and the holding of the territories”. 

“It’s unacceptable,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said in an interview with RTL radio, adding the Israeli government was “in violation of humanitarian law.”

Israeli military spokesman Effie Defrin said the planned offensive will include “moving most of the population of the Gaza Strip… to protect them”.

The decision by the security cabinet, which includes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several ministers, came after the army called up tens of thousands of reservists.

Israel’s decision comes as the United Nations and aid organisations have repeatedly warned of the humanitarian catastrophe on the ground, with famine again looming after more than two months of a total Israeli blockade.

UN spokesman said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “alarmed” by the Israeli plan that “will inevitably lead to countless more civilians killed and the further destruction of Gaza”.

The European Union also voiced concern and urged restraint from Israel.

French medics continue hunger strike as Gaza humanitarian crisis worsens

Nearly all of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during the war, sparked by Hamas militants’ October 2023 attack on Israel.

Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on 18 March amid deadlock over how to proceed with a two-month ceasefire that had largely halted the war with Hamas.

Israeli officials have said that the renewed fighting was aimed at defeating Hamas and securing the return of hostages held by militants since the 2023 attack.

‘Hunger war’

But a senior Hamas official said Tuesday the group was no longer interested in truce talks with Israel and urged the international community to halt Israel’s “hunger war” against Gaza.

“There is no sense in engaging in talks or considering new ceasefire proposals as long as the hunger war and extermination war continue in the Gaza Strip,” Basem Naim told French news agency AFP.

He said the world must pressure the Netanyahu government to end the “crimes of hunger, thirst, and killings” in Gaza.

Israeli officials said that the security cabinet had approved the “possibility of humanitarian distribution, if necessary” in Gaza, “to prevent Hamas from taking control of the supplies and to destroy its governance capabilities”.

Israel has accused Hamas of diverting humanitarian aid – which Hamas denies – and said its blockade was necessary to pressure the militant group to release Israeli hostages.

Macron slams Trump’s Gaza relocation plan as ‘unviable and unlawful’

A grouping of UN agencies and aid groups in the Palestinian territory has said Israel sought to “shut down the existing aid distribution system… and have us agree to deliver supplies through Israeli hubs under conditions set by the Israeli military”.

The plan “contravenes fundamental humanitarian principles and appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic”, the bodies said in a statement.

“Humanitarian aid should not be politicised. The level of need among civilians in Gaza right now is overwhelming, and aid needs to be let in immediately,” International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokesman Christian Cardon told AFP in Geneva.

“Our deliveries into Gaza are conducted in full transparency with all relevant authorities. We recognise safety concerns but given the immense need for humanitarian assistance we urgently insist that the authorities speed up the process to deliver life-saving aid to the people in Gaza and help facilitate a safe environment for delivery.”

Hamas said the proposed aid framework amounted to “political blackmail”.

(with AFP)

Over 1,000 researchers, doctors, and healthcare professionals published an open letter on Monday addressed to France’s Ministers of Health, Agriculture, Labour, and the Environment — the four government bodies overseeing the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (Anses). 

The letter, according to French public broadcaster France Inter, strongly criticises a proposed law by Senator Laurent Duplomb. The signatories warn that the bill could significantly weaken Anses’ authority and jeopardise public health by paving the way for the reintroduction of long-banned pesticides. 

Supported by organisations such as Médecins du Monde and Alerte des Médecins sur les Pesticides, the letter is being circulated as lawmakers begin debating Duplomb’s bill.  

The legislation, which is scheduled for review by the National Assembly on Tuesday, includes controversial measures such as the creation of an agricultural advisory board with powers to prioritise certain pesticides — even without safer alternatives. 

Under the bill, the Agriculture Ministry could bypass Anses’ evaluations, effectively sidelining the agency’s independent scientific oversight. This has raised alarm bells among public health experts.  

Anses Director General Benoît Vallet warned during a parliamentary hearing on 25 March that he would resign if the law passes in its current form.

‘Step backward for public health’

The signatories argue this represents “a fundamental threat to the role of scientific expertise in pesticide approval processes” and stress that since 2015, it has been Anses — not the Agriculture Ministry — charged with overseeing these assessments under strict ethical and scientific standards.

They say that establishing this new advisory body would be “a step backward for public health,” particularly if it leads to the reintroduction of harmful substances such as neonicotinoids — insecticides banned in France since 2016 due to their devastating impact on bee populations and broader ecological risks. 

“We oppose the creation of an agricultural advisory council that would strip Anses of part of its scientific oversight and responsibility,” the letter states. 

The bill is expected to be debated at the end of May.

(with newswires)

Sudan had taken the UAE to the International Court of Justice, saying its alleged support for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) was contributing to a genocide – accusations strongly denied by the Emiratis.

But the ICJ said it “manifestly lacked” jurisdiction to rule on the case and threw out it out.

A UAE official hailed the judges’ ruling.

“This decision is a clear and decisive affirmation of the fact that this case was utterly baseless,” Reem Ketait, Deputy Assistant Minister for Political Affairs at the UAE foreign ministry, said in a statement sent to French news agency AFP.

Before the ruling, Ketait had accused Sudan of lodging the case in a “cynical attempt to divert attention from their own brutal record of atrocities against Sudanese civilians”.

Sudan files case against UAE at UN court over ‘complicity in genocide’

When the UAE signed up to the UN’s Genocide Convention in 2005, it entered a “reservation” to a key clause that allows countries to sue others at the ICJ over disputes.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The war has triggered what aid agencies describe as the world’s largest displacement, and hunger crises. Famine has officially hit five areas across Sudan, according to a UN-backed assessment.

Human tragedy

The North Darfur region has been a particular battleground, with at least 542 civilians killed in the past three weeks, according to the United Nations.

The ICJ said it was “deeply concerned about the unfolding human tragedy in Sudan that forms the backdrop to the present dispute”.

“The violent conflict has a devastating effect, resulting in untold loss of life and suffering, in particular in West Darfur,” the court added.

Sudan war is world’s ‘worst humanitarian crisis’, the African Union says

As the court found that it lacked jurisdiction to go forward with Sudan’s legal action, it did not rule on the fundamental merits of the case.

The court noted that: “Whether or not states have accepted the jurisdiction of the court… they are required to comply with their obligations (to the Genocide Convention).”

Countries also “remain responsible for acts attributable to them which are contrary to their international obligations”.

A handful of pro-Sudan protesters staged a demonstration outside the Peace Palace, the seat of the ICJ in The Hague, shouting and brandishing banners including one that read “UAE kills Sudan”;

“We feel completely disappointed…. We only ask for justice,” said one protester, Hisham Fadl Akasha, a 57-year-old engineer.

Demand for reparations

During hearings on the case last month, Sudan’s acting justice minister Muawia Osman told the court the “ongoing genocide would not be possible without UAE complicity, including the shipment of arms to the RSF”.

“The direct logistical and other support that the UAE has provided and continues to provide to the RSF has been and continues to be the primary driving force behind the genocide now taking place, including killing, rape, forced displacement and looting,” said Osman.

Khartoum had urged the ICJ judges to force the UAE to stop its alleged support for the RSF and make “full reparations”, including compensation to victims of the war.

While the ICJ has rejected Sudan’s case, the bloody conflict in Sudan shows no sign of easing.

On Sunday, the RSF struck Port Sudan, the army said, in the first attack on the seat of the army-aligned government during the country’s two-year war.

(with AFP)

“We are in discussions with the United States,” Nduhungirehe said in an interview with the state broadcaster Rwanda TV, late on Sunday.

“It has not yet reached a stage where we can say exactly how things will proceed, but the talks are ongoing…still in the early stages.”

US President Donald Trump launched a sweeping crackdown on immigration and attempted to freeze the US refugee resettlement program after the start of his second term in January.

Rwanda has in recent years positioned itself as a destination country for migrants that Western countries would like to remove, despite concerns by rights groups that Kigali does not respect some of the most fundamental human rights.

Kigali notably signed an agreement with Britain in 2022 to take in thousands of asylum seekers from the UK before the deal was scrapped last year by then newly-elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

UK uses funds from scrapped Rwanda deportation plan to boost border security

US plans for migrants

During his electoral campaign, Trump had promised to carry out the “largest deportation operation” in US history.

His administration has now pushed aggressively to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally and other non-citizens since coming to power in January. 

Many have already been deported to El Salvador and elsewhere, with ongoing legal action questioning the legality of some ICE arrests, detentions and removals.

UN rights chief deeply worried about ‘fundamental shift’ in direction in US

The Great Lakes nation in Africa is often viewed as an island of stability in a turbulent region, but the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) warned there was a risk some migrants sent to Rwanda could be returned to countries from which they had fled. Kigali accused UNHCR of lying, denying the allegations.

Last month, the US already deported to Rwanda a resettled Iraqi refugee whom it had long tried to extradite in response to Iraqi government claims that he worked for the Islamic State, according to a US official and an internal email.

The US Supreme Court in April temporarily blocked Trump’s administration – which has invoked a rarely used wartime law – from deporting a group of Venezuelan migrants it accused of being gang members.

Unfinished deal

Rwanda’s Foreign minister Nduhungirehe confirmed that the two nations were engaged in “ongoing” talks, he said “they are not yet conclusive to determine the direction this will take”.

“I would say the discussions are in their initial stages, but we continue to talk about this problem of migrants,” he said, without giving further details.

Global aid in chaos as Trump proposes to slash funds and dismantle USAID

When contacted by news agencies about the talks he said: “You will be informed when the discussions will be finalised.”

The African nation of roughly 13 million people has been criticised by rights groups over its human rights record and increasingly diminished freedom of speech.

Rwanda has also faced mounting pressure over its involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as the east of the country has been re-engulfed in conflict after a lightning strike by the Rwandan-backed military group M23.

 (with newswires)

Ever since US President Donald Trump started defunding and dismantling US scientific institutions, France has made a push to get scientists to move. In March the French minister in charge of research asked universities to fund programmes to attract American scientists. In 2017, after Trump first pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accords, Macron launched a recruitment drive aimed at climate scientists working in the US. Two of those grantees, Ben Sanderson and Philip Shulz, talk about the experience of leaving the US for France, and what the current environment is like for climate scientists today. (Listen @1’10)

With 87 percent of France considered a “medical desert”, lawmakers and the government are looking to tackle doctor shortages. But the proposals – to regulate when specialists can open their private practices and require health professionals to work two days a month in areas with chronic shortages – have met with strong opposition from GPs, trainee doctors and students. Yassine Bahr, vice-president of the French junior doctors union (ISNI), and Anna Boctor, president of France’s Jeunes Medecins (young doctors) union, talk about why the proposals won’t solve the problem and the sense of injustice at being held responsible for a situation that is not of their making. (Listen @20’20)

On 8 May 1945, during a celebration of the end of WWII in Europe in the Algerian city of Setif, French colonial authorities shot at Algerians holding pro-independence signs. The ensuing riots then spread to neighbouring cities where the authorities  unleashed a campaign of reprisals to crush the unrest – indiscriminately killing tens of thousands of Algerian men, women and children. France has yet to officially acknowledge its role in the massacres. (Listen @15’00)

Episode mixed by Cécile 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).

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 winners’ 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!

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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 3 April I asked you a question about Marine Le Pen, the president of the far-right French party the National Rally (RN). She, along with eight other RN Parliament members, was judged guilty of embezzling 4.4 million euros in European Union funds to pay France-based RN party staff who worked only for the RN and not on EU issues.

Le Pen and her fellow lawmakers have been banned from running for office for five years. This ban, which had previously been a rare sentence, has become commonplace since the Sapin 2 law was adopted in 2016, which made it the standard sentence for cases involving the embezzlement of public funds and was roundly supported by RN lawmakers – until now.

You were to re-read our article “RN leader Le Pen battles for political future after embezzlement conviction”, and send in the answer to this question: Aside from the ban on running for office, what else was included in Le Pen’s sentence?

The answer is, to quote our article: “Le Pen was also sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, two of which will be served under an electronic bracelet, and a fine of 100,000 euros.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by the late Muhammad Shamim who lived in Kerala State, India: “Would you rather be rich but not famous, or famous but not rich?”   

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Lata Akhter Jahan, the co-president of the Sonali Badhan Female Listeners Club in Bogura, Bangladesh. Lata is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations, Lata, on your double win.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are RFI Listeners Club members Shaira Hosen Mo from Kishoreganj, Bangladesh; Nasyr Muhammad from Katsina State, Nigeria; John Yemi Sanday Turay from Freetown, Sierra Leone, and last but not least, Saleha, who is also a member of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan.

Congratulations, winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme:  “Les Jardins de L’Alhambra” by Gérard Torikian; “Stacatto” by René Aubry; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and “Aýa döndi” by Nuri Halmamedov and Mahtumkuli, performed by baritone Atageldi Garýagdyýew.

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 “How French women won, and used, their right to vote in 1945”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 2 June to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 5 June 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.   

In the last three months, Trump has presented the world with “a ding-dong of measures and counter-measures,” as Nigerian finance analyst Gbolahan Olojede put it.

With such measures including increased tariffs on US imports from African nations (as elsewhere), this new regime has effectively called into question the future validity of preferential trade agreements with African states – such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which allows duty-free access, under strict conditions, to the US market for African goods.

“The reciprocal tariffs effectively nullify the preferences that sub-Saharan Africa countries enjoy under AGOA,” South Africa’s foreign and trade ministers said in a joint statement on 4 April.

Jon Marks, editorial director of energy consultancy and news service African Energy, echoed this climate of uncertainty: “With the Trump presidency lurching from policy to policy, no one knows where they are. And it’s very difficult to actually see order within this chaos.”

Africa braces for economic hit as Trump’s tariffs end US trade perks

He told RFI he expects long periods of stasis, in which nothing actually happens, when people have been expecting immediate action.

“That’s going to be, I think, devastating for markets, devastating for investment. The outlook really is grim,” he added.

Commodities

In 2024, US exports to Africa were worth $32.1 billion. The US imported $39.5 billion worth of goods from Africa, the bulk of these being commodities such as oil and gas, as well as rare minerals including lithium, copper and cobalt.

“The focus of the Trump administration is on critical minerals now, particularly in the [Democratic Republic of Congo], which is the Saudi Arabia of cobalt,” said Eric Olander, editor-in-chief of the China Global South Project news site.

The US is aiming to build non-Chinese supply chains for its military technology.

“The F-35s, supersonic fighter jets, need cobalt. When they look at critical minerals, they’re not looking at that for renewable energy. They’re looking at it specifically for weapons and for their defence infrastructure,” Olander explained.

Collateral damage

On 2 April, President Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs on US imports worldwide, declaring that the US “has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far” and calling this date a “Liberation Day” which will make “America wealthy again”.

Stock markets immediately plummeted as a result of his announcement.

On 9 April, Trump announced a 90-day pause – until mid-July – on these tariffs. Instead, a flat 10 percent rate will be applied on exports to the US.

The exception was China, whose goods face even higher tariffs – 145 percent on most Chinese goods. Beijing retaliated with 125 percent levies on US imports.

According to Olander, most African nations have so far been “insulated from the harsh impact of these tariffs” and from the consequences of what is, in effect, a trade war between two economic giants – China and the US.

“South Africa, which accounts for a considerable amount of Africa’s trade with the United States, is much more exposed to the effects of these tariffs than the rest of the continent,” he said.

Africa First

But what if Trump’s “America First” agenda was to be copied, asks Kelvin Lewis, editor of the Awoko newspaper in Sierra Leone.

“Just like Trump is saying America First, we should think Sierra Leone First,” he told RFI. “He is teaching everyone how to be patriotic. We have no reason to depend on other people, to go cap in hand begging, because we have enough natural resources to feed and house all 9 million of us Sierra Leoneans.”

He added: “If Africa says we close shop and we use our own resources for our benefit like Trump is telling Americans, I think the rest of the world would stand up and take notice.”

Meanwhile, Trump believes his imposition of these increased tariffs has succeeded in bringing countries to the negotiating table.

“I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. They are dying to make a deal. Please, please sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, sir,” Trump said on 8 April at a Republican Congress committee dinner in Washington.

New markets

Olander believes that the trade war instigated by Trump has resulted in more risks than opportunities for Africa’s vulnerable countries.

“But, there is a lot more activity now diplomatically between African countries and other non-US countries,” he added.

“Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed from Ethiopia was in Vietnam, as was Burundi’s president. There’s more engagement between Uganda and Indonesia, more trade activity and discussions between Brazil and Africa.”

Foreign ministers from the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) met in Rio de Janeiro on 28 April to coordinate their response to Trump’s trade policy.

However, securing markets for non-US exports is a challenging task. It took Kenya 10 years “of steady diplomacy” to get China to fund the extension of the Standard Gauge Railway to the Ugandan border, according to Olander.

Kenyan president visits China as country pivots away from the US

“Whether it’s in China, Indonesia, Brazil or elsewhere, it takes time. Exporting into developed G7 markets means facing an enormous number of hurdles, like agricultural restrictions,” he continued. “Then, in the global south, Angola is not going to sell bananas to Brazil, right?”

“Trump’s trade policies have actually been to depress the oil price,” said Marks. “The price has been under the psychologically low threshold of $70 a barrel.

He explains it is because of the demand destruction Trump’s policies have placed on global trading.

Demand destruction means that people are not investing, “ Marks said. “It’s really a period of wait-and-see.”

“This will affect prices very profoundly. One of the ironies is that although a lower dollar means that African economies should be able to export their goods for more money, a declining dollar amidst market uncertainties means that investors are not going to be rushing to come into Africa.”

With Trump’s administration wasting no time in rekindling the “America First” doctrine, this time with fewer diplomatic niceties, tensions over trade, diplomacy and the long-term stability of the transatlantic alliance quickly arose. 

From the imposition of sweeping tariffs on EU goods – 20 percent across the board, covering all exports from France and other member states – to a reduction in support for Ukraine, Trump’s early moves have sent a clear message: Washington’s priorities have shifted – and not in Europe’s favour.

Brussels’ response, while restrained, has been firm, and the sense that Europe can no longer rely fully on Washington is taking root.

Trump’s tariffs come into force, upending economic ties with Europe

Retreat, rather than reform

One of the most striking aspects of Trump’s second term so far is his rapid dismantling of traditional US diplomatic structures.

Former US diplomat William Jordan warns that the institutional capacity of American diplomacy is being hollowed out. “The notion of America First risks turning into America Alone,” he said.

“Everything that’s been happening since 20 January has largely demoralised and damaged the State Department.”

There has been an exodus of seasoned diplomats, alongside a wave of politically motivated “loyalty tests” handed out to charities, NGOs and United Nations agencies as part of the State Department’s review of foreign aid – asking them to declare whether they have worked with “entities associated with communist, socialist, or totalitarian parties, or any parties that espouses anti-American beliefs”.

European allies rally behind Ukraine after White House clash

The cumulative effect of this threat to the impartiality of America’s foreign service, Jordan notes, is a profound erosion of trust – not just within US institutions but among global partners.

“There are worries in the intelligence community that longstanding partners can no longer share sensitive information with the United States,” he added, raising concerns about the durability of intelligence alliances such as Five Eyes, comprising the US, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Trump’s decision to scale back overseas missions and USAID funding has also left vast vacuums of influence – particularly in Africa, where both China and Russia are stepping in to fill the void.

“It’s not just that it’s being done – it’s how it’s being done. Brutally. Recklessly. Slashing and burning institutions that have taken decades to build,” Jordan told RFI.

Amid this weakening of America’s traditional soft power influence, however, Jordan also cautions that the country’s soft power strategies have not always been effective, pointing to congressional inertia and overlapping funding mandates which have dulled strategic impact.

Still, he maintains, a haphazard retreat does more harm than reform.

A dressing-down in Munich

Europe’s discomfort was visible in February at the Munich Security Conference, where US Vice President JD Vance delivered a remarkable rebuke to European leaders, accusing them of wavering on democratic values.

The message was harsh, and the delivery even more so – an unprecedented public dressing-down in a diplomatic forum. The reaction in Munich embodied Europe’s growing unease.

European fears mount at Munich conference as US signals shift on Ukraine

“Certainly the language was something that you wouldn’t expect,” Mairéad McGuinness, the former EU Commissioner for Financial Stability told RFI.

“This is somebody coming to our house and telling us they don’t like how we run it. It’s not what you expect between friends and allies. Was it a surprise? Maybe not,” she added. “But it’s not normal.”

The incident underscored an increasingly assertive US posture under Trump 2.0, and the deepening fissures within the Western alliance, reflected in the new administration’s willingness to publicly challenge long-standing relationships.

European allies rally behind Ukraine after White House clash

‘Confidence in the US is eroding’

The EU has responded with a measured approach – “how the European Union tends to do its business,” according to McGuinness.

“What is problematic is trying to understand exactly what the US side wants,” she continued. “We’re hearing not just about tariffs, but also about food safety, financial regulation – areas where Europe leads globally.”

Rather than caving to pressure, the EU is showing signs of a more confident and coordinated strategic posture – in a similar vein to its response during the Covid-19 crisis and its rapid support for Ukraine following Russia’s 2022 invasion.

One consequence of these shifting diplomatic sands has been a rise in investment in European defence, following the US decision to suspend military aid to Ukraine.

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

With EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announcing that, under the Rearm Europe plan announced by  on 6 March, EU member states can boost defence spending, European arms manufacturers are seizing the opportunity to compete against their US rivals.

While not a wholesale pivot away from the US, it signals a broader awareness that over-reliance on any single partner carries risks.

William Jordan put it bluntly: “Confidence in the US as a reliable partner is eroding, and not just in Europe.”

For him, this moment could present an opportunity for Europe to build a more independent and robust security architecture – one less vulnerable to the whims of any one American president.

Praised by supporters for his pledges to “restore faith in government” and “secure borders,” his tenure has also provoked widespread concern among Democrats and political analysts, who criticise his erratic style and sweeping executive orders that have disrupted established institutions and international alliances.

Trump’s first 100 days: Revolution or destruction? The view from France

The Trump administration has issued over 130 executive orders, including mass dismissals, aggressive immigration enforcement, and withdrawal from climate accords—measures that have had profound social and economic consequences.

Critics warn that such actions erode democratic norms and due process, while grassroots protests and public demonstrations have surged across the country in response to policies widely viewed as damaging to communities and public services.

Trump’s first 100 days: Grassroots pick up Democratic slack as ‘chaos’ unfolds

In this international report, we look ahead to the 2026 midterm elections, with experts suggesting that Trump’s confrontational approach and divisive policies could ultimately backfire on the Republican Party—potentially costing it crucial support.

When Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term on 20 January, he returned to the helm of the world’s most powerful nation pledging to Make America Great Again – again.

He vowed to shake things up with lightning speed and, on that front, he has delivered in spades, turning the political status quo on its head, at home and abroad.

For his detractors, Trump has been a whirlwind of destruction: eroding civil liberties, disregarding court authority, censoring university libraries accused of leftist bias, empowering tech oligarchs, disenfranchising minorities and throwing global markets into uproar with harsh new tariffs.

For his supporters, he’s a force of nature: fulfilling promises, unpicking the entrenched “deep state”, challenging intellectual elites and forging a path towards peace.

EU readies response to new US tariffs, France braces for fallout

‘He’s not wasting time’

Speaking to Nicolas Conquer, the president of Republicans Overseas France, it is clear that Trump’s dynamism has thrilled his supporters.

“I’ve seen it first-hand,” Conquer said. “He campaigned on a platform, and promises made are promises kept. Ever since day one, and now as we reach the 100-day mark, he’s been literally flooding the zone – making fast decisions and driving through much-needed reforms. Whether it’s government efficiency or the culture wars, he’s not wasting time.”

Trump’s flurry of executive orders – from immigration reforms to tariffs – has left no doubt about his intention to move fast and make changes.

Conquer suggests that Trump’s second-term energy stems from knowing he has just four years left to leave his mark: “He knows it’s now or never.”

However, criticism has been fierce – particularly of what many see as an authoritarian drift. Trump is accused of trampling on the courts, cracking down on dissent in education and bolstering oligarchic power structures.

Conquer, however, does not agree. “Looking at the political lawfare in the States,” he said, “there’s been massive obstruction by district judges interfering in executive branch policies. Historically, over the last 100 years, about 200 presidential decisions have been blocked by judges. Half of them concern Donald Trump. That’s a staggering number.”

He points to cases such as Harvard University’s reluctance to implement Trump’s executive orders targeting “wokeism” and anti-Semitism on campus, while still receiving considerable federal funding.

“You can’t have it both ways,” Conquer argued. “You can’t demand taxpayer money without adhering to government policies.”

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

Legal resistance

Bob Valier of Democrats Abroad France paints a very different picture. For him, Trump’s victory was less about a failure of Democratic Party messaging and more about a broader systemic problem: voter apathy.

“We had the second highest turnout of my lifetime,” Valier said, “but we still lost. Not because our message wasn’t right, but because about 38 percent of eligible voters stayed home. If we bear any responsibility, it’s that we couldn’t motivate them to get out and vote.”

Valier acknowledges that Trump’s “shock and awe” approach has made coherent Democratic opposition harder. “It’s exhausting trying to fight back,” he admitted. “But that doesn’t mean we’re not doing it.”

Valier highlights the quiet, but significant, legal battles being waged. “From day one, lawsuits have been filed against executive orders. Courts move slowly, but many are finding in favour of the Democrats and placing restraining orders on Trump’s initiatives.”

Valier concedes that the Democrats have struggled to adapt to the new media landscape, where traditional platforms such as television no longer dominate.

“Young people are getting their news from podcasts, Discord servers and niche platforms,” he said. “The Democrats have largely been absent from these spaces. Kamala Harris, for example, turned down an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast – the most listened-to podcast in the country at the time. That was a huge missed opportunity.”

However, figures such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are drawing mammoth crowds with their focus on working-class issues – healthcare, housing and the soaring cost of basics such as eggs.

‘Free Le Pen’: US conservatives rally behind French far-right leader

Trumpism abroad

When it comes to the potential for Trump-esque politics to reshape European politics, Conquer believes this is entirely possible, but with a caveat.

“It’s not about copy-pasting Trumpism into Europe. Each country has its own institutions, cultures and political dynamics. We need to localise it. What works in America might not work as quickly or in the same way elsewhere.”

In France, for example, while anti-elitist sentiment and nationalism are on the rise, the political landscape is distinct enough that any Trump-style movement would need a tailored approach.

Bardella ready to lead National Rally if Le Pen barred from 2027 elections

Looking ahead to 2028, according to Valier the next Democratic star will likely come from the party’s left wing.

“The message Bernie Sanders is delivering – about the working class, about economic inequality – that’s the message the party must embrace. People are hurting, and they want leaders who recognise that. It’s not just about identity politics anymore. It’s about whether ordinary Americans can afford eggs, healthcare, housing.”

Whether the Democrats can unite under the banner of addressing these issues remains to be seen. But if Trump’s first 100 days have demonstrated anything, it’s to expect the unexpected.

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.