The huge celebrations following Paris Saint-Germain‘s 5-0 victory over Inter Milan in Germany on Saturday were marred by numerous incidents and acts of vandalism in Paris and the rest of France.

Police arrested 563 people on Saturday night, the interior ministry said, after more than 200 cars were torched and police clashed with youths.

In the southwest town of Dax, a 17-year-old boy died after being stabbed in the chest.

A 23-year-old man riding a scooter in central Paris also died after a vehicle hit him.

Dozens of police officers and firefighters were injured in the unrest. 

France faces steep cost of victory after PSG post-match violence, vandalism

Authorities detained 79 others on Sunday night, including for allegedly firing fireworks at security forces, trying to vandalise shops and blocking traffic.

Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin wrote on social media platform X on Tuesday that magistrates needed better legal tools to deal with the fallout of such events.

Some of those arrested appeared in court on Monday, with three hearings resulting in suspended sentences of two to eight months, along with a 500-euro ($570) fine, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

Around 20 more suspects were set to be tried on Tuesday.

Radical change needed

Darmanin, who has expressed interest in standing in the 2027 presidential election, argued the first court sentences were not tough enough.

“Some of the sentences for violence – including against law enforcement officers and for destruction of property – are not proportional to the level of violence our country is experiencing,” the former interior minister said.

“The law needs to radically change,” he added.

Record 10,000 French gendarmes injured in the line of duty, says chief

Darmanin called for an end to obligatory adjustments for jail terms of fewer than six months, which for example allow detainees to serve time at home with an electronic bracelet.

He called for an end to suspended sentences in such cases and a law to set up a “systematic minimum sentence” for those found guilty.

He suggested “a minimum of three months in jail for any assault against a representative of the state or a very steep fine for any destruction”.

‘Ruin the party’

While the weekend’s excesses sparked a controversy over security among MPs on the far-right and far-left, Darmanin’s statement also sparked a reaction in political circles.

“Clearly, the French want exemplary sanctions and an end to sentence reductions for the rioters who ruined the party on Saturday. The only hope is that this violence, this vandalism, WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN in the future,” wrote Valérie Pécresse, President of the Île-de-France region, on X.

Olivier Faure, First Secretary of the Socialist Party, told TF1 television warned against getting carried away.

“The justice system’s role is to examine each case and not to manage it based on collective emotion,” he commented.

“It’s about ensuring that justice is fair and that it seeks to understand the circumstances.”

Receiving the triumphant team at the Elysee palace on Sunday, President Emmanuel Macron condemned what he called “unacceptable” violence during the celebrations.

(with AFP)

The man who killed Hichem Iraoui Saturday in the Var department in southern France “posted two videos on his social networking account with racist and hateful content before and after his murder”, the public prosecutor of Draguignan, Pierre Couttenier, told the AFP news agency Sunday.

The suspect, who was apprehended in his car full of weapons, was being interviewed Monday by the national anti-terrorist police, which took over the investigation and are considering a race-based motive.

The man, who is French, is suspected of shooting dead Miraoui and injuring another man, of Turkish nationality.

‘Racist crime’

Retailleau said Monday that this was a “racist crime, given the evidence we currently have”, adding that “racism in France and elsewhere is a poison, and a poison that kills. Every racist act is an anti-French act”.

He was meeting the Tunisian ambassador Tuesday morning.

In a phone call with Retailleau, Tunisian Interior Minister Khaled Nouri insisted on ‘the need to ensure the protection of the Tunisian community on French territory”, according to a statement posted on the ministry’s Facebook page.

He also called on the French Interior Minister to “adopt a proactive approach to prevent such crimes and ensure that they do not happen again’.

Muslim worshipper’s murder in mosque raises concern over Islamophobia in France

Critics point to racist atmosphere

The anti-racism advocacy organisation SOS Racisme denounced an atmosphere in France that has legitimised racism, and resulted in hate crimes like Iraoui’s death.

“These crimes are flourishing in a poisonous climate: racist rhetoric has become commonplace, the media are complacent towards the far right, and there are worrying institutional signals,” the group said on X.

The lawyer representing Iraoui’s family, Mourad Battikh, said on France Info that the murder is “the result of an atmosphere that has existed in the country for several months now, even years, which is becoming a bit harsher by the day”.

Many on the left regularly accuse Retailleau of racism for targeting immigrants and Muslims.

The Secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure on Monday told TF1 that while Retailleau did denounce this murder as a racist crime, “he is taking part in the public debate with those on the far right who are trying to trivialise racism, to show that there is some kind of threat created by our fellow citizens of foreign origin”.

Pyromaniacs putting out the fire

This weekend Retailleau used the word “barbarians” to describe those who took part in the violence on the fringes of the celebrations of PSG’s Champions League victory – a word the left denounced, saying it targets foreigners.

Battikh, however, insists he is not singling out individuals.

The lawyer who also represented the family of Aboubakar Cissé, the Malian man who was stabbed to death while praying in a mosque in April , pointed to “the political context and climate that prevail in France today”, which he says is like watching “pyromaniac firemen who have come to put out a fire that they themselves started”.

(with newswires)

The far-right Italian prime minister will host a one-on-one meeting on Tuesday evening with the French president, in what Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper called a “turning point summit”.

“Meloni reconciles with Macron,” added the Il Messaggero daily, describing the meeting as a “thaw”.

It was Macron who proposed the visit, according to his team, “because it is his role to bring Europeans together and he is also keen to work with her.”

The meeting comes just weeks after the tense relations between the pair were exposed at a summit of European leaders in Albania on 16 May.

Meloni was in Tirana but was notably absent from a meeting between Macron and the leaders of Germany, Britain and Poland with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, that was followed by a joint call to US President Donald Trump.

Meloni said she did not join them because she opposes the idea of sending Italian troops to Ukraine to enforce any eventual peace in the war with Russia.

Macron later said the Italian was operating under a “misunderstanding”.

“The discussion we were having was a discussion to achieve a ceasefire,” he said, adding that there was no mention of sending troops in the call to Trump.

Unity of the West

During a joint press conference in Rome the next day with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Meloni called on her European counterparts to “abandon selfishness” and focus on “the unity of the West”.

There have been tensions between Paris and Rome since Meloni took over in October 2022, including an early spat over migration and another at the G7 summit in Italy last year over abortion rights.

Macron, Meloni meet in Rome amid tensions over migration

But the European Union’s second and third-largest economies are both facing similar challenges in the Ukraine war and Trump’s sweeping tariffs against the bloc.

Commentators note that both Macron and Meloni have different strengths that could prove useful to the other – making reconciliation advantageous.

Italy has less influence on the diplomatic stage than France, which has nuclear weapons and a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

But Meloni has a significant asset in her favour in her privileged relationship with Trump and US Vice President JD Vance, both of whom have referred to her as a “friend” who shares their conservative values and hostility to immigrants.

‘Bridgebuilder’

On 18 May, Meloni hosted talks in Rome between Vance and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the first at such a high level since Trump began imposing tariffs.

Italy’s Meloni heads to White House seeking EU tariff deal

Opening the meeting, which came after the inauguration mass for new Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, Vance hailed Meloni’s role as a “bridge-builder between Europe and the United States”.

That will not have escaped Macron, who at home is unpopular and faces a hostile parliament, and for whom diplomacy has become one of the only areas where he can still hope to exert influence before the end of his term in 2027.

As for Meloni – whose approval ratings are at more than 45 percent percent even after two and a half years in power – she too has an interest in reconciling with Macron, whose verbal sparring undermines the international stature she has worked hard to project.

(with newswires)

The lower-house National Assembly unanimously approved the legislation, which is seen as a symbolic step in the fight against antisemitism in modern France.

The draft law was put forward by former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who leads President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance party.

For the promotion to take effect, it still has to be approved by the upper house Senate at a date that has yet to be fixed.

All 197 deputies present voted in favour in the lower house.

The rapporteur of the proposed law, Renaissance lawmaker Charles Sitzenstuhl, said the vote “will go down in history” and called on senators “to quickly adopt the text”.

The symbolic promotion of Dreyfus, whose condemnation came amid rampant antisemitism in the French army and wider society in the late 19th century, comes at a time of growing alarm over hate crimes targeting Jews in the country.

Recognition of merits

“Promoting Alfred Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general would constitute an act of reparation, a recognition of his merits, and a tribute to his commitment to the Republic,” said Attal, who was France’s youngest prime minister during a spell in office that lasted less than eight months last year.

 “The anti-Semitism that hit Alfred Dreyfus is not a thing of the past,” said Attal, whose father was Jewish, adding that France must reaffirm its “absolute commitment against all forms of discrimination”.

France urges collective EU response to ‘explosion’ in anti-Semitism

Dreyfus, a 36-year-old army captain from the Alsace region of eastern France, was accused in October 1894 of passing secret information on new artillery equipment to a German military attache.

The accusation was based on a comparison of handwriting on a document found in the German’s wastepaper basket in Paris.

Dreyfus was put on trial amid a virulent anti-Semitic press campaign. But novelist Emile Zola then penned his famous “J’accuse” (“I accuse…”) pamphlet in support of the captain in 1898.

Despite a lack of evidence, Dreyfus was convicted of treason, sentenced to life imprisonment in the infamous Devil’s Island penal colony in French Guiana and publicly stripped of his rank.

But Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart, head of the intelligence services, reinvestigated the case in secret and discovered the handwriting on the incriminating message was that of another officer, Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy.

When Picquart presented the evidence to the general staff of the French army, he himself was driven out of the military and jailed for a year, while Esterhazy was acquitted.

In June 1899, Dreyfus was brought back to France for a second trial. He was initially found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison, before being officially pardoned – though not cleared of the charges.

Only in 1906, after many twists, did the high court of appeal overturn the original verdict, exonerating Dreyfus.

He was reinstated with the rank of major. He served during World War I and died in 1935, aged 76.

Call for place in Pantheon

The backers of the bill believe that had Dreyfus been able to pursue his career under normal circumstances, he would have risen to the top of the French army.

Sitzenstuhl had also suggested while the bill was being debated at parliament’s defence committee — where it won overwhelming approval – that Dreyfus could be entombed in the Pantheon, the Paris mausoleum reserved for France’s greatest heroes.

Tracing the history of France’s hallowed Panthéon temple for national heroes

Such a decision rests with Macron but a source close to him, asking not to be named, told AFP that his priority “at this stage is to bring to life the values of Dreyfusism, a fight that is still relevant today for truth and justice, against antisemitism and arbitrariness”.

Macron opened a museum dedicated to the Dreyfus story in October 2021.

France is home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States, as well as one of the largest Muslim communities in the European Union.

There has been a rise in reported attacks against members of France’s Jewish community since Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, 2023 and the Israeli military responded with a devastating military offensive on the Gaza Strip.

France’s Holocaust memorial, three Paris synagogues and a restaurant were vandalised with paint overnight at the weekend, in what the Israeli embassy denounced as a “coordinated antisemitic attack”.

(with AFP)

European far-right leaders welcomed the election of the 42-year-old Nawrocki, a fan of US President Donald Trump who has said he will oppose the government’s progressive agenda on abortion and LGBTQ rights.

He won Sunday’s runoff in the highly polarised EU and NATO member state with 51 percent of the vote to 49 percent for Tusk’s liberal ally Rafal Trzaskowski.

In a televised address, former EU chief Tusk said on Monday he wanted the confidence vote “soon” and vowed to stay on, adding that the election “will not change anything”.

His comments came shortly after opposition leader Jaroslaw Kacynski of the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party said that Poles had shown him the “red card”.

Kacynski called for a “technical” government of experts to replace the current one.

Nawrocki said that he wanted Poland to be “a state that matters in international, European and transatlantic relations”.

“I will represent you with dignity on the international state, ensuring Poland is treated as an equal,” he wrote on social media.

Nawrocki could revive tensions with Brussels over rule-of-law issues and complicate ties with Ukraine as he opposes NATO membership for the war-torn country and wants to cut benefits for Ukrainian refugees.

“Nawrocki’s presidency will be a rough ride for the Tusk government,” said analyst Piotr Buras, adding that the president-elect “wants to overthrow” Tusk.

He told French press agency AFP that the election result could lead to “early parliamentary elections, maybe not this year, but next” year.

EU welcomes Poland back into the fold by unfreezing billions in funds

Reforms planned by Tusk, who came to power in 2023, have been held up by a deadlock with the current president, who endorsed Nawrocki.

There have also been divisions in his governing coalition, which analysts said could be exacerbated by the election result.

Polish presidents hold a crucial veto power over legislation.

(With newswires)

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) found a “profound deterioration” in workers’ rights in its annual rights index published on Monday, based on 97 indicators laid out by the United Nations and international treaties.

Workers’ rights, which the report measured in 151 countries, particularly declined in Europe and the Americas – with the worst results for the two regions since the index was launched in 2014.

In total, 87 percent of countries violated the right to strike and 80 percent violated the right to collective bargaining, the ITUC said.

“The right to collective bargaining was restricted in 80 percent of countries (121),” the ITUC said.

Paris violence against Socialist MPs mars huge May Day rallies in France

In France, for example, “nearly four in every 10 collective agreements were imposed unilaterally by employers, without union representation”.

The report also said outlined “persecution” against union leaders.

“In France, more than 1,000 union leaders and members of the Confederation generale du travail (CGT) were facing criminal charges and disciplinary measures for their roles in mass protests against pension reforms,” it said.

Europe face sharpest decline

The ITUC gives each country a maximum score of one and a minimum score of five for their respect for workers’ rights, such as the right to strike, demonstrate and participate in negotiations.

Only seven countries – including Germany, Sweden and Norway – were awarded the maximum score, compared to 18 a decade ago. Italy and Argentina saw their scores drop in 2025.

“If this pace of decline continues, in ten years there will be no country left in the world with the highest rating for its respect for workers’ rights,” ITUC head Luc Triangle said in a statement.

In 2025, Europe experienced the sharpest decline of any region in the world over the past 10 years.

The summer France got its first paid leave and learned to holiday

The ITUC also said trade unionists or workers were killed in five countries in 2025: South Africa, Cameroon, Colombia, Guatemala and Peru.

And Nigeria joined the list of the 10 worst countries for workers’ rights for the first time.

Only a handful of countries saw an improvement in workers’ rights.

Reforms strengthened trade union rights in Australia, while in Mexico, labour law changes improved access to justice for workers.

(with AFP)

The NATO summit in Vilnius on 2 June brought together the alliance’s eastern flank members – the Bucharest Nine –along with Nordic countries.

The one-day summit focused on strengthening security and defense amid ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine. The meeting comes ahead of the full NATO summit later this month in The Hague.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who attended the Vilnius summit, reiterated his demand to be invited to the June NATO summit, warning that excluding Ukraine would be “a victory for Putin, not over Ukraine, but over NATO.”

The NATO summit coincided with the second round of direct peace talks between representatives from Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul, Turkey.

“The key to lasting peace is clear, the aggressor must not receive any reward for war. Putin must get nothing that would justify his aggression,” Zelensky told a press conference in Vilnius.

No breakthrough

Ukraine wants concrete Western-backed security guarantees – like NATO protections or troops on the ground – that have been ruled out by Russia.

Moscow has made sweeping demands such as calling for Ukraine to cede territory it still controls, a ban on Kyiv joining NATO, limiting Ukraine’s military and ending Western military support.

Zelensky on Monday again rejected those demands, with Kyiv and the West casting Russia’s assault as nothing but an “imperialist land grab”.

Russia and Ukraine hold first peace talks since 2022

While Ukraine and Russia agreed another large-scale prisoner exchange at talks in Istanbul on Monday, their representatives failed to make a breakthrough on an immediate halt to the fighting.

Ukraine said Moscow had rejected its call for an unconditional ceasefire, offering instead a partial truce of two to three days in some areas of the frontline.

Sharing the burden

Since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, NATO has bolstered its eastern defences, with Finland and Sweden overhauling their security policies to join the alliance. Eastern members like Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia – former Soviet republics now in the EU – remain particularly concerned about Russian threats.

France and UK rally allies for potential security force in Ukraine

The push for increased defence spending reflects growing concerns for regional security, but has also fuelled debates within NATO about burden-sharing and the pace of military modernisation.

While 22 of NATO’s 32 members currently meet the existing 2 per cent GDP defence spending target, none meet the proposed 5 per cent goal, which would include both direct military costs and broader security infrastructure such as cybersecurity and logistics.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned Monday that NATO’s target to boost defence spending by 2032 would come “too late,” as countries in the region rapidly increase their military budgets in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Frederiksen addressed the proposal to raise defence and security spending to 5 per cent of GDP by 2032 – a goal pushed by former US President Donald Trump but not currently met by any NATO member, including the United States.

“I hope that during the NATO summit in the Hague from 24 to 26 June, we will agree on 3.5 per cent for the armed forces and 1.5 per cent on broader defence-related spending,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster DR. “The question now is whether we will accomplish this before 2032. In my opinion, this is too late.”

As Europe pours money into defence, reliance on US remains a sticking point

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has proposed this phased target of 3.5 percent of GDP on direct military spending plus 1.5 per cent on wider security-related expenditures, aiming to finalise the agreement at the upcoming summit in June.

Since taking office in 2019, Frederiksen has significantly increased Denmark’s defence budget – from 1.3 percent of GDP at the start of her term to over three per cent today – but she stressed that more investment is necessary. “That’s not enough. We need to increase defence spending in the years to come,” she said.

‘Unpredictable threats’

Meanwhile, on Monday the UK published its “Strategic Defence Review” announcing that Britain will build 12 new attack submarines to move the country to “war-fighting readiness” in the face of “Russian aggression” and the changing nature of conflict.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned that “the threat we now face is more serious, more immediate and more unpredictable than at any time since the Cold War,” as he launched the review in Glasgow, insisting that UK defence policy will “always be NATO first,”  and that the UK “will innovate and accelerate innovation at a wartime pace so we can meet the threats of today and of tomorrow.”

(with newswires)

Despite the thousands of languages, just 20 or so dominate the global linguistic landscape. Mandarin, Spanish, English, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, Japanese, Javanese, German, Wu, Korean, French, Telugu, Marathi, Turkish, Tamil, Vietnamese and Urdu are the mother tongues of more than 3 billion people.

The vast majority of languages on Earth – 95 percent – are actually spoken by just 5 percent of the world’s population. And these are the ones that are in danger – threatened with extinction because they are often based solely on oral tradition and struggle to spread or survive beyond their region or ethnic group of origin.

The most alarming studies say that a language disappears every fortnight, while others, more measured, estimate it to be one every three months.

Unesco, the UN agency for culture and education, estimates that if nothing is done, half of all languages could vanish by 2100.

This warning comes from its World Atlas of Languages. The atlas is based on data from national governments, universities and language communities. It shows the type, structure, situation and usage of every known language.

The scale of the problem

Unesco considers a language to be “endangered” when it is “no longer taught to children as a mother tongue at home” and the youngest speakers are their parents.

It is “seriously endangered” when it is only spoken by grandparents, and parents understand it “but no longer use it with their children or among themselves”.

The last stage before extinction – what Unesco calls the “critical situation” stage – is when “the last speakers are from the great-grandparents’ generation” and the language is “not used in everyday life”.

The research centre for linguistic intelligence, Ethnologue, uses another tool in its research – the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale, which uses 13 stages to determine the status of a language.

But its conclusions are similar to those of Unesco: 3,170 languages (44 percent of those in use) are currently endangered. It says a language is under threat as soon as “users begin to transmit a more dominant language to the children of the community”.

The Asia-Pacific region is the most affected, with Indonesian and New Guinean languages at the top of the list, followed by Aboriginal languages in Australia. The Americas too rank high, with many indigenous languages in danger of extinction in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil.

Africa is the third most affected continent, particularly Nigeria and Cameroon. But Europe is not immune to the phenomenon, with Russia notably affected.

Hundreds take to the streets to protest in support of French regional languages

Linguistic domination

European colonisation is one of the major factors that explains the trend, having “led to the deaths of millions of indigenous people, disrupting the transmission of languages from one generation to the next,” says linguist Evangelia Adamou, senior researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).

Massacres and epidemics led to the disappearance of entire peoples, and colonial policies added insult to injury by “devaluing indigenous languages” and “forcing children to move away from their families”, she continued.

The residential schools set up by colonisers – such as those in Canada, the United States and Australia – were designed to separate indigenous children from their parents and cut them off from their mother tongue.

Local languages found it very difficult to withstand the pressure from colonial languages and racist and discriminatory policies.

The formation of nation states has also contributed significantly to these disappearances. The idea of a single people speaking the same language, united under the same flag and the same values, has led in many countries “to monolingual mass education, usually in the national language,” said Adamou, leading to “the linguistic displacement of minority languages towards the dominant languages”.

This is how Breton, Basque and many of the languages of New Caledonia and French Guiana have come close to disappearing.

In France and elsewhere, the lack of recognition of traditional languages has led and continues to lead to their abandonment in favour of languages considered more “prestigious” – synonymous with academic and professional success.

Climate change

The other major factor, according to Adamou, is any period of crisis which “profoundly disrupts the use and transmission of languages”. During conflicts, pandemics and natural disasters, “people are fighting for their survival, so the traditional organisation of their society suffers greatly”, she explained. 

Climate change is having a major impact in this regard. Untenable living conditions are pushing people to leave their home regions, often to move to urban areas where they are forced to integrate, losing their traditions and language in the process.

The issue of climate change is all the more important because its consequences are felt most acutely in the regions of the world where there is the greatest linguistic diversity.

Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are under threat from rising sea levels. The Amazon is increasingly affected by deforestation. Nigeria, with its 500 languages, is facing rising temperatures, pollution and coastal erosion. All of these factors are leading to the displacement of populations and threatening the survival of local languages.

Senegal launches English lessons in nursery and primary schools

‘A major impact on health’

This loss has far-reaching consequences. With every language that disappears, cultural identity and traditional knowledge are extinguished.

“A language, through its words, etymology and syntax, conveys a philosophy. Toponyms [place names derived from a topographical feature] carry the characteristics of the region. And cosmology – how the universe was conceived – is conveyed through myths in the ancestral language,” said Adamou.

The extinction of a language takes this heritage with it, impoverishing the heritage of humanity. But it also has very real consequences for the speakers.

Being cut off from one’s language means a reorientation of one’s relationship with the world, losing one’s bearings. This can lead to difficulties functioning in mainstream society, isolation, depression and alcoholism, often compounded by racism and social pressure.

“Studies show that not speaking one’s own language has a major impact on health. People need this traditional framework to be healthy, both physically and mentally,” Adamou explained.

Alsatian dialect taught in French state schools for the first time

Reclaiming identity

Several initiatives are attempting to preserve languages in danger of disappearing, as awareness of the issue and its consequences grows. Unesco has proclaimed 2022-2032 the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, in order to promote preservation and rehabilitation programmes.

Institutions are making available archives of information on endangered languages – such as the CNRS’s Pangloss website and the catalogue of the Endangered Language Project. This is material that is invaluable for local communities embarking on language revitalisation projects.

“There is currently a real movement to reclaim one’s culture and identity, often driven by young indigenous people, who are stepping up their efforts and attempts to revitalise their language all over the world,” said Adamou. These young people, she says, are railing against the pessimism engendered by statistics and the use of expressions such as “the last speakers”.

“We can act before it’s too late and, even when a language is no longer spoken, there is always hope,” Amadou insists. She feels it is more accurate to talk about “dormant” languages rather than “dead” ones  – after all, languages can be revived. 

This phenomenon has been witnessed, for example with Wampanoag in the United States and Livonian in Latvia. But the most striking example is undoubtedly Hebrew. After disappearing for centuries, it is now the official language of a state and the mother tongue of several million people. We haven’t necessarily heard the last of those languages in danger now. 

This article was adapted from the original version in French.

For more than 10 years, Lucia has been the closest thing to a doctor many here have seen.

She is a Community Health Worker, or CHW – part of a vast but often overlooked network of women who quietly sustain Kenya’s rural healthcare system.

Every day before sunrise, she walks up to 20 kilometres on dusty paths and rocky hills to visit people in their homes – checking on pregnant mothers, tending to sick children and referring emergency cases to distant health centres.

Women in rural Kenya urged to shun old ways and use antiseptic on umbilical cord

In places where clinics are scarce and roads barely exist, CHWs like Lucia are a lifeline. People know her, and they trust her – some owe their lives to her.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Lucia says. “I’m not paid much, but I do it because these are my people. They have no one else to rely on.”

A life-changing gift

Lucia used to spend hours walking between homes, which meant fewer visits and longer days. Then she received a gift that changed everything: a bicycle.

It was given to her by World Bicycle Relief, a global charity working to empower remote communities through mobility. It has distributed more than 24,000 bicycles across Kenya to support health workers, schoolchildren and displaced individuals.

With her new bike, the time Lucia once spent trekking between appointments could now be spent reaching more patients, and getting to them faster.

“This bike is a lifesaver,” she says. “Before, I could visit maybe five homes a day. Now I can reach 15, sometimes 20. Every minute counts.”

“A good quality bicycle means a health worker can serve more patients, and it requires almost no maintenance,” Maureen Kolenyo, regional director of World Bicycle Relief in  East Africa, told RFI.

Goats for healthcare –  an initiative for pastoralists in Kenya

Government support in Kenya is often lacking, leaving organisations such as World Bicycle Relief to step in and fill the gaps.

Esther Mwangi, a county health official, knows how crucial such interventions are. “People often underestimate how transformative a bicycle can be, especially in developing regions where the infrastructure supports it,” she said.

“We’re working closely with Kenya’s Ministry of Health to identify high-need areas. The pressing question now is: who will invest, and help scale up the solution?” Kolenyo added.

‘I carry my people’

Lucia’s relationship with her community is intimate, born of countless hours spent listening, checking and comforting.

“We can always count on her. She saved my baby,” Nthenya, a mother of four, said

An elderly man who receives weekly check-ups calls her “more reliable than the dispensary”, while one young woman in her final trimester of pregnancy said she sees Lucia as “a second mother”.

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

At the end of another long day, she mounts her bicycle and begins the steep, uneven ride home. The light is fading and the road is rough, but she is still smiling.

“Before, my legs would be shaking by now,” she says. “But this bicycle – it’s like my partner. It carries me, and I carry my people.”

The French buy an average of 48 items of new clothing per year per person, but two thirds of those garments remain in the wardrobe, while others are thrown away and pollute the environment. Thirty-five garments are thrown away every second, according to Ademe – France’s environmental agency. 

On Monday, lawmakers in the upper house begin debating a proposed law to “reduce the environmental impact of the textile industry” – estimated to be responsible for 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide

In March 2024, MPs voted unanimously to define and regulate imports of low-cost, high-turnover clothing – known as ultra-fast fashion – embodied by Chinese online retailers like Shein and Temu. 

“Today, these giants of ultra-disposable fashion are invading the market without any oversight. We need to set rules and hit them as effectively and as hard as possible,” said Sylvie Valente Le Hir, a senator with the conservative Republicans and rapporteur of the bill.

Under the legislation, the legal definition of “fast fashion” would be based on factors such as production volume, product lifespan and repairability.

Companies falling under this definition would face new obligations, including environmental transparency and potential penalties through a bonus-malus system indexed to environmental labelling. It would reward virtuous production methods and penalise companies that adopt wasteful, fast-fashion practices.

Advertising for fast fashion would also be limited. 

French parliament votes to slow down fast fashion

Weakened proposals

However, following amendments by a Senate commission in February, the text put before senators is weaker than the original.

The proposed ban on advertising will now apply only to influencers, after senators argued it could infringe on economic freedom. 

Environmental labelling as the basis for the bonus-malus system has also been dropped. 

For Impact France, an NGO that spearheaded advocacy efforts for the law, the latest version is no longer aligned with France’s ecological transition goals.

“What made the first version of the text so strong was that it contained two measures that worked well. The first was a ban on advertising, and the second was a bonus-malus system based on the environmental impact of clothing,” said Impact’s co-president Julia Faure.

“The combination of these two measures made it possible to change the paradigm of the textile industry. If you take away half of the measures, you halve the effectiveness of such a text,” she told RFI.

Fashion and climate: why the greenest garment is the one you already own

Protecting France-based business

The amendments follow Shein’s intense lobbying of the French parliament. The Chinese giant hired former minister Christophe Castaner as a consultant. French media reported that Castaner had presented himself to MPs as a defender of low-income consumers.

The bill now targets mainly Asian ultra fast-fashion giants such as Shein and Temu. Critics such as the Stop Fast Fashion coalition fear this could turn the legislation into “an empty shell with no deterrent effect” by letting large European and French fast fashion platforms off the hook.

However, senator Sylvie Vallin, of the conservative Republicans party, defends the idea of excluding European fast fashion chains.

“Ephemeral fashion brands such as Zara, H&M and Kiabi are found in our shopping centres and city centres. And these brands and shops pay their taxes and employ people,” she told RFI. “I’m not going to green the entire textile industry with a bill like this one. However, we are seizing this opportunity to have an impact on the biggest Chinese giants, and then we are working at European level.”

The European Commission is considering introducing a tax on small parcels entering the EU – most of which come from China. In late May it urged Shein to respect EU consumer protection laws and warned it could face fines if it failed to address the EU’s concerns over the sale of unsafe and dangerous products sold on the sites of both Shein and Temu.

Donated clothes an environmental disaster in disguise for developing world

Impact France is calling for four key provisions to be reinstated in the fast fashion legislation – environmental labelling, inclusion of multi-brand platforms, a comprehensive ad ban, and extending producer responsibility on an international level.

“The fashion industry needs rules that reflect the scale of its impact,” Faure said. “We have an opportunity to set a global standard, France shouldn’t miss it.”

While the Senate opposes a blanket ban on fast fashion advertising, the government has said it will try and reintroduce it into the bill, with backing from the left.

“Demat!” Greetings echo through the corridors of the Diwan secondary school in Vannes. In the entrance hall, Gabriella and her classmates are filling a whiteboard with words of farewell and thanks – “kenavo” and “trugarez” – for someone who is leaving.

Here, with the exception of French and the foreign languages taught, the 145 secondary school pupils and 45 high school students take all their lessons in Breton, and the use of the language is strongly encouraged during breaks, at lunch and in activities.

Diwan – meaning “seed” in Breton, which is a Celtic language – is a network of Breton language immersion schools, founded in 1977.

Gabriella, who is in her last year of middle school, is looking forward to continuing her studies in the high school here next year. “I’m so happy, it’s a big family,” she says.

She loves the fact that she can “talk in the street with her friends without others being able to understand” – although her parents do speak Breton.

Alsatian dialect taught in French state schools for the first time

But while the mood in school on the eve of the spring holidays may be light, the atmosphere in the wider Breton-speaking community is a little heavier.

According to the results of a survey by the TMO research institute, published on 20 January, there are now just 107,000 Breton speakers left – or 2.7 percent of the population of the five départements concerned. The last survey in 2018 put the figure at 200,000.

“It’s a culture, an identity that’s in danger of disappearing,” said Mathilde Lahogue, director of the Diwan network.

Fulup Jakez, director of the Public Office for the Breton Language (OPLB), responsible for developing and promoting the use of the language, agreed, and added that the results were not surprising. “It’s demographics – the last generations raised in the Breton language until after the Second World War are dying out.”

A very French linguistic history

Like half of France’s regional languages, Breton is considered to be “seriously endangered” by the United Nations’ cultural arm Unesco.

Rozenn Milin, a historian and journalist, and author of La honte et le châtiment – Imposer le français: Bretagne, France, Afrique et autres territoires (“Shame and Punishment – Imposing French: Brittany, France, Africa and other territories”) says this is the result of the country consistently encouraging the use of French as the sole language, to the detriment of local languages.

“At the time of the Reign of Terror [a period of violence and repression during the French Revolution in which those perceived as enemies of the revolution were arrested and executed en masse, from September 1793 to July 1794] it was decided that everyone had to learn French and that dialects and idioms – as they were called – which were considered to be linked to the clergy and counter-revolutionary ideas, had to be wiped out,” she explained.

With the arrival of compulsory education in 1882, French became the language of schools, and the use of local languages was banned.

The last word: why half of the world’s languages could vanish this century

“In Brittany, children who used Breton words were given a sabot [a wooden clog] to wear around their necks. At the end of the day, the last one to be wearing the sabot was punished,” Milin explained.

“So even though it was still the family language, they were gradually made to feel ashamed of speaking Breton. As a result, in the 1950s and 1960s, Breton stopped being passed down.”

It wasn’t until a handful of activists set up the Diwan network in 1977, followed by bilingual courses in state and Catholic education, that Breton began to be reclaimed. But the break had caused irreparable damage, and today, the Breton-speaking population is shrinking.

But it is also getting younger. The number of speakers is rising in the 25-39 age group. “This shows that long-term teaching policies are bearing fruit,” said Jakez.

The future of Breton today indeed depends essentially on education, with only 16 percent of current speakers having learnt the language at home, while 78 percent have learnt it at school.

But for the time being, this trend is far from offsetting the decline.

At the start of the school year in September 2024, 20,280 pupils were enrolled in Breton-French bilingual streams (across public, private Catholic and private Diwan schools), according to figures from the OPLB – representing less than 7 percent of children in the Rennes education authority.

‘Diwan is not a factory for political activists’

“We’re developing media, there are texts and books published in Breton, we’re working on voice recognition, but we need to develop teaching more generally,” said Paul Molac, MP for Morbihan, a department of Brittany.

Molac proposed the law that was passed in 2021 to allow instruction in France’s regional languages in the country’s state schools. It was passed by 247 votes to 76, however the provision on immersive learning included in the law was censured by the Constitutional Council, on the grounds that the Republic is one and indivisible and that this could be seen as calling into question the teaching of French.

France allows immersive teaching of regional languages in schools

This decision has prevented the consolidation of the teaching method offered by Diwan, which is now “financially and legally fragile” according to the director of the network, even though it has proved its worth.

“The State is much more opposed to regional languages than it is in other European countries,’ points out Milin, citing the examples of Switzerland and the United Kingdom: “[In France] they confuse a common language with a single language.”

“Diwan is not a factory for political activists,” insists Diwan president Marc-Yver Le Duic, adding that Breton education is “secular, free and open to all” and comparing the Diwan schools to French lycées abroad, a network of French secondary schools around the world which adhere to the French national curriculum, where French is the primary teaching language.

Responding to another oft-cited fear, he added: “Breton does not make our pupils bad French speakers. This is borne out by the good overall results achieved by our students in national exams.”

Florian Voyenne, headmaster of the Vannes Diwan school and a former classics teacher who grew up learning Breton, points to the success of the education system in Wales.

The teaching of Welsh has been made compulsory from the first to the fourth year of secondary school – a model that has helped to increase the number of Welsh speakers. According to the 2021 census, there are 538,300 in the country, almost 18 per cent of the population.

‘We don’t force it’

“I think that in the next 10 to 20 years, we’ll hit rock bottom at around 50,000 speakers,” predicted Milin. Jakez, however, remains optimistic: he sees the future of the language revolving around “a minority of speakers but who, unlike their ancestors who were not literate, will have access to reading and writing in the Breton language”.

Senegal launches English lessons in nursery and primary schools

Elouan is in his final year of secondary school, having done all his schooling at Diwan. His parents don’t speak Breton, although they did try a few lessons.

For Elouan, who wants to study history, “speaking a language from our regions is important, to know where we come from and who we are”. He would like to “link his future to Breton, to keep Breton alive” – maybe as a teacher.

According to the latest research, 19 percent of Breton-speakers are aged between 15 and 39 – amounting to around 20,000 people. How many of them will pass on the language?

“We just want them to enjoy speaking Breton. We don’t force it,” says David Le Gal, who teaches Breton and music, and whose wife and five children are all Breton speakers too. He’s part of the generation that reappropriated the language later in life, when his parents had written it off.

“If two out of 10 of them pass on the language, that’ll be good. For me, Breton opens doors to the world. It’s just one more way of enjoying life.”

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

The move, led by President Brice Oligui Nguema, was announced at the weekend as part of a broader national strategy to industrialise Gabon’s economy and add more value to its abundant natural resources.

Eramet, the main shareholder in Comilog – Gabon’s leading manganese mining firm – said it has acknowledged the government’s decision and will continue to engage with officials “in a spirit of constructive partnership and mutual respect”.

The French firm also committed to preserving the 10,460 local jobs sustained by Comilog and its transport arm, Setrag.

Gabon military leader Oligui Nguema elected president by huge margin

‘Upskilling’ Gabon’s workforce

President Oligui, who took power following a 2023 coup and was elected in April 2025 with nearly 95 percent of the vote, is seeking to reshape Gabon’s economic model.

Manganese – a key ingredient in steelmaking and increasingly in electric vehicle batteries – is one of Gabon’s top export earners alongside oil and timber.

The export ban on unprocessed manganese, which will take effect from 1 January 2029, is designed to encourage local processing, upskill the workforce, and boost tax revenues.

“Gabon is giving the mining sector three years to prepare,” the government said in a statement on Saturday, outlining plans to support the transition with a new public-private investment fund.

Push for domestic refining

The policy shift echoes a growing trend across Africa, with countries such as Guinea, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania also moving to retain more value from their mineral wealth by restricting raw material exports and encouraging domestic refining and processing.

Eramet – which operates the world’s largest manganese mine at Moanda – processes some ore locally in Gabon but still relies heavily on exports to international markets including China, Europe, and the United States.

The company had temporarily suspended operations in Gabon during the 2023 coup and scaled back production targets in 2024 amid market headwinds.

What’s at stake for French businesses after the coup in Gabon?

Stock market turbulence

Shares in Eramet fell by over five percent in Paris on Monday following news of the ban, before recovering slightly to trade 4 percent lower by mid-morning.

Analysts say the impact of the export restrictions will depend on how quickly Gabon and its partners can develop local processing capacity.

Despite its natural wealth, around one-third of Gabon’s 2.3 million people live in poverty.

The government hopes that keeping more of the value chain within the country will change that.

While the path ahead presents challenges, there are signs of optimism, as  Eramet has already shown its willingness to adapt in Indonesia, where it recently signed a memorandum of understanding to invest in local nickel processing – a similar transition, after Jakarta banned raw nickel exports.

On Wednesday, a suburb of Istanbul witnessed the latest demonstration in support of the city’s detained mayor. Despite the protest taking place in a traditional electoral stronghold of President Erdoğan, tens of thousands attended.

İmamoğlu masks

In a recent attempt to quell the unrest, Istanbul’s governor’s office issued a decree ordering the removal of all images, videos, and audio recordings of İmamoğlu from state buildings and public transport across the city. Within hours, social media was flooded with footage of people wearing İmamoğlu masks while riding public transport.

Turkey’s youth rise up over mayor’s jailing and worsening economy

“Up to 75% are against İmamoğlu’s arrest, as the aversion to Erdoğan’s attempt to sideline his opponent with foul play was widely distributed by all parties,” claimed political analyst Atilla Yeşilada of Global Source Partners, citing recent opinion polls.

Yeşilada argues that the poll’s findings underscore the opposition’s success in winning over public opinion.

“There is a strong reaction. This is not a temporary thing. It’s a grievance that will be held and may impact the next election whenever they are held,” he added.

Recent opinion polls also show İmamoğlu enjoying a double-digit lead over Erdoğan in a prospective presidential race, with a majority of respondents believing the corruption charges against the mayor are politically motivated—a claim the government denies.

Erdogan’s jailed rivals

Political analyst Sezin Öney of the independent Turkish news portal Politikyol suggests Erdoğan may have expected İmamoğlu to follow the same fate as other jailed rivals, whose influence faded once imprisoned. “The government is counting on the possibility that İmamoğlu is jailed, is out of sight, out of mind, and the presidency will have his ways,” explained Öney.

Further arrests as Turkey cracks down on protests over jailed Istanbul mayor

Turkish authorities have persistently sought to curtail İmamoğlu’s presence on social media. His accounts on X (formerly Twitter) and Bluesky have been frozen following court rulings.

The fate of opposition journalists

Similar actions have been taken against opposition journalists and their supporters. “The operation goes deeper and deeper in recent months; it’s just a very concerted policy to create a blackout in this vibrant society,” claimed Erol Önderoğlu, Istanbul representative of the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.

The legal crackdown on the Istanbul municipality continues, with further waves of arrests extending even to İmamoğlu’s personal bodyguard. His party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), is also under investigation for alleged irregularities at its party congress.

Analyst Öney predicts that further crackdowns are likely, given the potential implications for Erdoğan’s political future. “I am sure this is being calculated and recalculated every day—whether it’s beneficial to throw more cases at him (İmamoğlu), by weakening his party, the Republican People’s Party, weakening him personally, or whatever is convenient. But the sky is the limit,” explained Öney.

Nevertheless, each new crackdown appears only to fuel the momentum behind opposition protests, which continue to attract large crowds across the country—including in Erdoğan’s own political bastions.

Protest movement

The leader of the main opposition CHP, Özgür Özel, has earned praise for his energetic performances and has won over many former sceptics. However, analyst Yeşilada questions whether Özel can sustain the protest movement.

“I feel in the summer months, it’s very difficult to keep the momentum; the colleges are closed, and people are shuffling through the country, so if that (protests) is the only means of piling the pressure on Erdoğan, it’s not going to work,” warned Yeşilada.

Istanbul’s mayorial elections mean more than just running the city

Yeşilada believes the opposition leader must elevate his strategy. “Özel needs to find new tricks. It will take two things: A) hearing what the grassroots are saying, in particular the younger generation, and B) being able to reshuffle the party rank and file so true activists are promoted—so they can energise the base,” he added.

In 2013, Erdoğan weathered a wave of mass protests which largely dissipated with the closing of universities and the arrival of the summer holidays. This year, he may again be relying on summer to quieten dissent. For the opposition, the challenge is to ensure that Erdoğan’s summer is anything but peaceful.

The French buy an average of 48 items of new clothing per year per person, but two thirds of those garments remain in the wardrobe, while others are thrown away and pollute the environment. Thirty-five garments are thrown away every second, according to Ademe – France’s environmental agency. 

On Monday, lawmakers in the upper house begin debating a proposed law to “reduce the environmental impact of the textile industry” – estimated to be responsible for 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide

In March 2024, MPs voted unanimously to define and regulate imports of low-cost, high-turnover clothing – known as ultra-fast fashion – embodied by Chinese online retailers like Shein and Temu. 

“Today, these giants of ultra-disposable fashion are invading the market without any oversight. We need to set rules and hit them as effectively and as hard as possible,” said Sylvie Valente Le Hir, a senator with the conservative Republicans and rapporteur of the bill.

Under the legislation, the legal definition of “fast fashion” would be based on factors such as production volume, product lifespan and repairability.

Companies falling under this definition would face new obligations, including environmental transparency and potential penalties through a bonus-malus system indexed to environmental labelling. It would reward virtuous production methods and penalise companies that adopt wasteful, fast-fashion practices.

Advertising for fast fashion would also be limited. 

French parliament votes to slow down fast fashion

Weakened proposals

However, following amendments by a Senate commission in February, the text put before senators is weaker than the original.

The proposed ban on advertising will now apply only to influencers, after senators argued it could infringe on economic freedom. 

Environmental labelling as the basis for the bonus-malus system has also been dropped. 

For Impact France, an NGO that spearheaded advocacy efforts for the law, the latest version is no longer aligned with France’s ecological transition goals.

“What made the first version of the text so strong was that it contained two measures that worked well. The first was a ban on advertising, and the second was a bonus-malus system based on the environmental impact of clothing,” said Impact’s co-president Julia Faure.

“The combination of these two measures made it possible to change the paradigm of the textile industry. If you take away half of the measures, you halve the effectiveness of such a text,” she told RFI.

Fashion and climate: why the greenest garment is the one you already own

Protecting France-based business

The amendments follow Shein’s intense lobbying of the French parliament. The Chinese giant hired former minister Christophe Castaner as a consultant. French media reported that Castaner had presented himself to MPs as a defender of low-income consumers.

The bill now targets mainly Asian ultra fast-fashion giants such as Shein and Temu. Critics such as the Stop Fast Fashion coalition fear this could turn the legislation into “an empty shell with no deterrent effect” by letting large European and French fast fashion platforms off the hook.

However, senator Sylvie Vallin, of the conservative Republicans party, defends the idea of excluding European fast fashion chains.

“Ephemeral fashion brands such as Zara, H&M and Kiabi are found in our shopping centres and city centres. And these brands and shops pay their taxes and employ people,” she told RFI. “I’m not going to green the entire textile industry with a bill like this one. However, we are seizing this opportunity to have an impact on the biggest Chinese giants, and then we are working at European level.”

The European Commission is considering introducing a tax on small parcels entering the EU – most of which come from China. In late May it urged Shein to respect EU consumer protection laws and warned it could face fines if it failed to address the EU’s concerns over the sale of unsafe and dangerous products sold on the sites of both Shein and Temu.

Donated clothes an environmental disaster in disguise for developing world

Impact France is calling for four key provisions to be reinstated in the fast fashion legislation – environmental labelling, inclusion of multi-brand platforms, a comprehensive ad ban, and extending producer responsibility on an international level.

“The fashion industry needs rules that reflect the scale of its impact,” Faure said. “We have an opportunity to set a global standard, France shouldn’t miss it.”

While the Senate opposes a blanket ban on fast fashion advertising, the government has said it will try and reintroduce it into the bill, with backing from the left.

On Wednesday, a suburb of Istanbul witnessed the latest demonstration in support of the city’s detained mayor. Despite the protest taking place in a traditional electoral stronghold of President Erdoğan, tens of thousands attended.

İmamoğlu masks

In a recent attempt to quell the unrest, Istanbul’s governor’s office issued a decree ordering the removal of all images, videos, and audio recordings of İmamoğlu from state buildings and public transport across the city. Within hours, social media was flooded with footage of people wearing İmamoğlu masks while riding public transport.

Turkey’s youth rise up over mayor’s jailing and worsening economy

“Up to 75% are against İmamoğlu’s arrest, as the aversion to Erdoğan’s attempt to sideline his opponent with foul play was widely distributed by all parties,” claimed political analyst Atilla Yeşilada of Global Source Partners, citing recent opinion polls.

Yeşilada argues that the poll’s findings underscore the opposition’s success in winning over public opinion.

“There is a strong reaction. This is not a temporary thing. It’s a grievance that will be held and may impact the next election whenever they are held,” he added.

Recent opinion polls also show İmamoğlu enjoying a double-digit lead over Erdoğan in a prospective presidential race, with a majority of respondents believing the corruption charges against the mayor are politically motivated—a claim the government denies.

Erdogan’s jailed rivals

Political analyst Sezin Öney of the independent Turkish news portal Politikyol suggests Erdoğan may have expected İmamoğlu to follow the same fate as other jailed rivals, whose influence faded once imprisoned. “The government is counting on the possibility that İmamoğlu is jailed, is out of sight, out of mind, and the presidency will have his ways,” explained Öney.

Further arrests as Turkey cracks down on protests over jailed Istanbul mayor

Turkish authorities have persistently sought to curtail İmamoğlu’s presence on social media. His accounts on X (formerly Twitter) and Bluesky have been frozen following court rulings.

The fate of opposition journalists

Similar actions have been taken against opposition journalists and their supporters. “The operation goes deeper and deeper in recent months; it’s just a very concerted policy to create a blackout in this vibrant society,” claimed Erol Önderoğlu, Istanbul representative of the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.

The legal crackdown on the Istanbul municipality continues, with further waves of arrests extending even to İmamoğlu’s personal bodyguard. His party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), is also under investigation for alleged irregularities at its party congress.

Analyst Öney predicts that further crackdowns are likely, given the potential implications for Erdoğan’s political future. “I am sure this is being calculated and recalculated every day—whether it’s beneficial to throw more cases at him (İmamoğlu), by weakening his party, the Republican People’s Party, weakening him personally, or whatever is convenient. But the sky is the limit,” explained Öney.

Nevertheless, each new crackdown appears only to fuel the momentum behind opposition protests, which continue to attract large crowds across the country—including in Erdoğan’s own political bastions.

Protest movement

The leader of the main opposition CHP, Özgür Özel, has earned praise for his energetic performances and has won over many former sceptics. However, analyst Yeşilada questions whether Özel can sustain the protest movement.

“I feel in the summer months, it’s very difficult to keep the momentum; the colleges are closed, and people are shuffling through the country, so if that (protests) is the only means of piling the pressure on Erdoğan, it’s not going to work,” warned Yeşilada.

Istanbul’s mayorial elections mean more than just running the city

Yeşilada believes the opposition leader must elevate his strategy. “Özel needs to find new tricks. It will take two things: A) hearing what the grassroots are saying, in particular the younger generation, and B) being able to reshuffle the party rank and file so true activists are promoted—so they can energise the base,” he added.

In 2013, Erdoğan weathered a wave of mass protests which largely dissipated with the closing of universities and the arrival of the summer holidays. This year, he may again be relying on summer to quieten dissent. For the opposition, the challenge is to ensure that Erdoğan’s summer is anything but peaceful.

 According to a police source, two women and a man entered the Grévin Museum posing as tourists and, once inside, changed their clothes to pass for workers.

The activists slipped out through an emergency exit with the 40,000-euro-statue, which they had covered with a blanket.

The Greenpeace activists then placed the figure in front of the Russian embassy in a stunt meant to urge France to stop gas and fertiliser imports from Russia.

“For us, France is playing a double game,” said Jean-Francois Julliard, head of Greenpeace France.

“Emmanuel Macron embodies this double discourse: he supports Ukraine but encourages French companies to continue trading with Russia.”

Greenpeace report reveals France’s double standards in dealing with Russia

Julliard said Greenpeace targeted Macron because he had a particular responsibility, adding that the French president “should be the first” among European leaders to end trade contracts with Russia.

France has been one of the most vocal supporters of Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Macron has taken the lead in seeking to forge a coordinated European response to defending Ukraine, after US President Donald Trump shocked the world by directly negotiating with Russia.

Ceasefire talks

In the latest developments in the conflict, Russia proposed a partial ceasefire of “two to three days” at talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on Monday, Moscow’s top negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said. 

“We have proposed a specific ceasefire for two to three days in certain areas of the front line,” Medinsky said, “so that commanders can collect the bodies of their soldiers.” Ukraine is pushing for a full and unconditional ceasefire.

Ukraine on Monday proposed to hold a next round of talks with Russia before the end of June.

Russia and Ukraine hold first peace talks since 2022

“We propose to the Russian side to hold a meeting by the end of this month, from 20th to 30th of June,” Ukraine’s Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said after talks, adding that the delegations should try to agree a meeting between presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday also reiterated his willingness to host a meeting between the American, Russian and Ukrainian leaders in an effort to end the war in Ukraine.

“My greatest wish for both sides is to bring both (Russia’s) Vladimir Putin and (Ukraine’s Volodymyr) Zelensky together in Istanbul or Ankara, and even to bring (US President) Mr (Donald) Trump to their side, if they accept,” he said, adding that Turkey would “take steps” to facilitate such a meeting.

(with AFP)

Playing for the first time on centre court, the world number 361 prevailed 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and 40 minutes to emulate the feats of Kristina Mladenovic and Caroline Garcia in 2017.

“It’s all down to you,” said Boisson gesturing to the packed stands during her on-court interview with Alizé Cornet.

“Thank you. It was a wonderful atmosphere.”

The 22-year-old provided the feel-good fodder for the partisans after levelling the encounter and matching the vastly more experienced Pegula in the decider.

Serving for a 5-4 lead, Pegula squandered three separate occasions to edge ahead and staved off three break points.

Boisson took the 11-minute long game with her fourth chance when a Pegula forehand slapped into the net.

Serving for the match at 5-4 up, she moved to within two points of victory and then wobbled.

Chances

Pegula had four separate chances to level at 5-5. Twice Boisson robbed her of parity with bold shot-making and twice Pegula botched makeable winners for a player of her calibre.

On her first match point, Boisson’s serve stretched Pegula out wide to the left and she moved in to claim the scalp with a forehand winner.

“I never thought I’d keep up with her in the final set,” Boisson said. “But I had the confidence to play my shots and I never gave up.”

Boisson, who returned to the circuit in March after an 11-month break for injury, will play the sixth seed Mirra Andreeva in the quarter-finals.

The 18-year-old Russian dispensed with Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 7-5 to reach the last eight for the second consecutive year. 

Target

Second seed Coco Gauff advanced to the last eight for the fifth time in six visits.

The 21-year-old American beat the 20th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-0, 7-5.

“It feels great to be back in the quarter-finals here. I am really happy with how  I played today and hopefully can keep going,” she said.

Gauff will play her fellow American Madison Keys for a place in the semi-finals. 

Keys, who won the Australian Open in January, dispatched her compatriot Hailey Baptiste 6-3, 7-5 in 95 minutes.

In the top half of the men’s draw, last year’s beaten finalist Alexander Zverev moved into the quarter-finals following the retirement of the Tallon Griekspoor in the second set with a stomach muscle injury.

Zverev was leading 6-3, 3-0 when the 28-year-old Dutchman threw in the towel.

“It’s a tough one to take,” said Griekspoor. “Especially since I felt very good coming into the second week physically even after playing two four-setters and one five-setter.

“I didn’t feel too tired. I felt pretty good. I felt mentally pretty fresh, So that hurts.”

Zverev will play the sixth seed Novak Djokovic.

The 38-year-old Serb, who is seeking a record 25th singles title at a Grand Slam tournament, beat Cameron Norrie 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 in two hours and 14 minutes to register his 100th victory at the tournament in his 21 visits to the Roland Garros Stadium.

“One hundred is a nice number,” said Djokovic. “But 101 is a better number. The journey is not finished yet. I want to continue to make history in this sport that has given me so much.”

PSG’s unprecedented 5-0 triumph over Inter Milan in Munich on Saturday night – their first-ever European title – should have been a unifying moment for the French nation.

The performance was hailed as “sublime” by President Emmanuel Macron, and 11.5 million fans across the country tuned in to watch history unfold.

But as fireworks lit the skies, flames erupted on the streets.

By Monday, the post-match glow had faded, replaced by a sombre national reckoning.

French president Macron hails PSG’s Champions League triumph at Elysée reception

Two killed, hundreds arrested

Nearly 600 arrests were made across the country, with 79 people detained in Paris alone during a second wave of disorder on Sunday.

In total, more than 200 vehicles were torched, businesses vandalised, and fireworks turned into dangerous projectiles – including one that left a police officer in an induced coma.

The violence claimed two lives: a 17-year-old boy was fatally stabbed in Dax in the southwest, and a 23-year-old man died after being struck by a vehicle in central Paris.

Dozens of police officers and firefighters were injured in the unrest. 

‘Malicious intent’

Ahead of the match, Paris police prefect Laurent Nunez went to the Avenue des Champs-Élysées to “inspect the system and to greet the law enforcement and emergency services put in place,” as posted on X.

However, speaking to RTL radio after the game, Nunez said that many of those arrested had no real connection to PSG or football at all.

The Paris police chief mentioned “four or five incidents of looting” during the weekend, specifying that the services are in the process of compiling an exhaustive inventory of the damage to businesses, “and there is quite a lot of it.”

“We saw a resurgence of individuals driven by malicious intent,” Nunez said. “Public order was restored by dawn, but the damage had been done.”

Thousands expected along Champs-Elysées for PSG’s Champions League victory gala

President Macron, hosting the PSG squad at the Élysée Palace on Sunday, did not hold back in his condemnation.

“The violent clashes are unacceptable and have come at a heavy cost,” he said. “We will pursue, we will punish, we will be relentless.”

He praised the team for speaking out swiftly against the violence, and made a point of recognising the “exemplary” behaviour of most fans.

RN look to score ‘political points’

Even so, political tensions have surged in the wake of the chaos.

Far-right leader Jordan Bardella accused Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau of gross mismanagement, calling the scenes in Paris a “fiasco” and accusing the government of underestimating the risks.

The National Rally (RN) claims the police presence – though numbering over 5,400 officers – was “insufficient”.

Retailleau fired back, insisting that policing alone cannot solve deeper societal problems.

“The response cannot be solely security-based,” he said, accusing the RN of exploiting the moment for political gain.

For their part, the far-left group France Unbowed (La France Insoumise) demanded “accountability” from the government over its handling of the events.

The move, led by President Brice Oligui Nguema, was announced at the weekend as part of a broader national strategy to industrialise Gabon’s economy and add more value to its abundant natural resources.

Eramet, the main shareholder in Comilog – Gabon’s leading manganese mining firm – said it has acknowledged the government’s decision and will continue to engage with officials “in a spirit of constructive partnership and mutual respect”.

The French firm also committed to preserving the 10,460 local jobs sustained by Comilog and its transport arm, Setrag.

Gabon military leader Oligui Nguema elected president by huge margin

‘Upskilling’ Gabon’s workforce

President Oligui, who took power following a 2023 coup and was elected in April 2025 with nearly 95 percent of the vote, is seeking to reshape Gabon’s economic model.

Manganese – a key ingredient in steelmaking and increasingly in electric vehicle batteries – is one of Gabon’s top export earners alongside oil and timber.

The export ban on unprocessed manganese, which will take effect from 1 January 2029, is designed to encourage local processing, upskill the workforce, and boost tax revenues.

“Gabon is giving the mining sector three years to prepare,” the government said in a statement on Saturday, outlining plans to support the transition with a new public-private investment fund.

Push for domestic refining

The policy shift echoes a growing trend across Africa, with countries such as Guinea, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania also moving to retain more value from their mineral wealth by restricting raw material exports and encouraging domestic refining and processing.

Eramet – which operates the world’s largest manganese mine at Moanda – processes some ore locally in Gabon but still relies heavily on exports to international markets including China, Europe, and the United States.

The company had temporarily suspended operations in Gabon during the 2023 coup and scaled back production targets in 2024 amid market headwinds.

What’s at stake for French businesses after the coup in Gabon?

Stock market turbulence

Shares in Eramet fell by over five percent in Paris on Monday following news of the ban, before recovering slightly to trade 4 percent lower by mid-morning.

Analysts say the impact of the export restrictions will depend on how quickly Gabon and its partners can develop local processing capacity.

Despite its natural wealth, around one-third of Gabon’s 2.3 million people live in poverty.

The government hopes that keeping more of the value chain within the country will change that.

While the path ahead presents challenges, there are signs of optimism, as  Eramet has already shown its willingness to adapt in Indonesia, where it recently signed a memorandum of understanding to invest in local nickel processing – a similar transition, after Jakarta banned raw nickel exports.

Polish nationalist opposition candidate Karol Nawrocki has narrowly clinched victory in the second round of Poland’s presidential election, securing 50.89 percent of the vote.

Poland’s electoral commission confirmed early on Monday, with the result marking a significant setback for the pro-European government’s reform efforts.

His opponent, Warsaw’s liberal mayor and former MEP Rafal Trzaskowski – a close ally of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government – garnered 49.11 percent.

A closely watched exit poll on Sunday had suggested a slim win for Trzaskowski, adding an extra twist to an already tense contest.

Poland braces for knife-edge presidential run-off in wide open election

‘Poland first’

42-year-old Nawrocki – a historian and former head of a national remembrance institute – ran on a nationalist platform pledging to prioritise Poles in economic and social policy, including ahead of refugees from neighbouring Ukraine.

A keen amateur boxer, Nawrocki overcame controversy in the final days of the campaign, including scrutiny over how he acquired an apartment from a pensioner and his admission of involvement in organised fights during his youth.

Although executive power lies largely with Poland’s parliament, the presidency carries the power to veto legislation.

As such, the election outcome is being closely monitored not only in Poland but also in Ukraine, Russia, the United States, and across the European Union.

Poland’s Trzaskowski on course for tight presidential election win

Congratulations

Nawrocki, backed by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, is expected to follow in the footsteps of outgoing President Andrzej Duda – also a PiS ally – by resisting government moves to liberalise abortion laws or reform the judiciary.

President Duda took to social media platform X to express his gratitude to voters, celebrating a record second-round turnout of over 71 percent.

“Thank you! For taking part in the presidential elections. For turning out in such numbers. For fulfilling your civic duty. For taking responsibility for Poland. Congratulations to the winner! Stay strong, Poland!” Duda posted.

Hungary’s Viktor Orban has hailed Nawrocki’s win as a “fantastic victory”, while European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen also offered congratulations on X, saying she was convinced the EU could continue its “very good cooperation” with Poland, adding: “We are all stronger together in our community of peace, democracy, and values. So let us work to ensure the security and prosperity of our common home.”

France’s national medicines safety agency (ANSM) has been alerted to shortages of 14 psychiatric medications since the start of the year – including sertraline, an antidepressant sold under brand names including Zoloft and widely prescribed to treat depression and anxiety disorders.

Patients prescribed sertraline and some other psychiatric drugs have had to visit multiple pharmacies to have their prescriptions filled – if they are able to at all.

“We’re having a lot of trouble getting these drugs. We don’t have zero stock, but we do have very, very tight stocks and we cannot fill all prescriptions,” pharmacist Christine Bihr told RFI.

Overloaded services

For people with depression and other disorders such as schizophrenia, a break in medication can lead to mental health crises.

“Each break in treatment is likely to cause acute decompensation and unbearable mental suffering,” a group of psychiatrists and other healthcare professionals wrote in a letter published in mid-April in French newspaper Le Monde, warning of the impact of medication shortages.

Drugs shortage sees France restart local production, target antibiotics use

France’s already stretched healthcare system has had to contend with an increase in emergency psychiatric admissions, and the letter warned that a lack of access to medication will “further overload already overburdened psychiatric services”.

It added that: “It is estimated that around 20 percent of untreated bipolar patients die by suicide.”

The group has called for transparency on stocks and supplies so that doctors and pharmacists can anticipate needs.

The group, along with other healthcare advocates, has called on France’s health authorities to “take urgent measures to resolve this crisis”.

Worldwide issue

There are several reasons behind the shortages – which have also impacted other medications, including drugs for diabetes and asthma as well as antibiotics and painkillers.

The problem is being seen worldwide. The European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & Healthcare, which sets drug quality standards in the European Union, says drug shortages were already an issue prior to 2020, but were “exacerbated by events related to the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and an unstable geopolitical situation”.

In France, production problems have intersected with a growing consumption of psychiatric drugs over recent years.

Antidepressant consumption increased by 60 percent among French 12 to 25-year-olds between 2019 and 2023, according to a report by the country’s public health insurance scheme.

However, production has not kept up either demand. Many drugs are produced outside of France, and psychiatrists say the French public health system keeps the prices too low to interest manufacturers, who sell elsewhere for more profit.

France launches campaign to curb overuse of anxiety and sleep medications

Temporary setbacks have also impacted some drugs, such as quality control issues that slowed down a production plant in Greece which supplies 60 percent of the French market for quetiapine – sold under the brand name Seroquel and used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression.

Other factors in the shortage include European regulations that require some laboratories to export part of their production even if there is demand at home, and French restrictions put in place to protect hospital stocks.

Alternative solutions

The situation has been improving for some medications, including quetiapine, although the ANSM said at the end of April that activity at the plant in Greece had “not yet returned to normal levels”.

Supplies of teralithe – lithium salts used to treat bipolar disorder – are expected to return to normal in June. But the situation remains critical for SSRI antidepressants such as sertraline and venlafaxine.

French drug giant Sanofi plans massive US investment to counter Trump tariffs

To address the shortages, the ANSM has introduced measures such as prescription restrictions and allowing pharmacists to issue single tablets instead of entire packages.

Last week the agency made it possible for pharmacists to make magisterial preparations – custom-made medicines prepared by a pharmacist by mixing compounds – as an alternative.

However, the pharmacists’ union has refused to endorse this procedure, saying that the price set for such preparations is too low to be worth it for pharmacists.

Anderson was appointed after last week’s departure of Italian Maria Grazia Chiuri, who had presided over its women’s collections for the last nine years.

Anderson had already been named as artistic director of the men’s collection in April, and will now become the first person to run both collections at Dior, which is owned by French luxury giant LVMH.

“Jonathan Anderson is one of the greatest creative talents of his generation,” said Bernard Arnault, LVMH’s billionaire chief executive.

Italian designer Chiuri revisits the past in possible Dior farewell

“His incomparable artistic signature will be a crucial asset in writing the next chapter of the history of the House of Dior,” Arnault said.

Anderson, 40, quit Loewe in March after more than a decade in which he turned around the fortunes of the heritage Spanish brand, which is also owned by LVMH.

Son of a rugby man

An influential tastemaker with many A-list fans, Anderson made the previously rather sleepy label, best known for its handbags, hot.

“It is a great honour to join the House of Dior as Creative Director of both women’s and men’s collections,” Anderson said in the company statement.

“I have always been inspired by the rich history of this house, its depth, and empathy. I look forward to working alongside its legendary ateliers to craft the next chapter of this incredible story,” he said.

Chanel’s signature fragrance: the sweet smell of success 100 years on

Anderson will present his first collection, Dior Men Summer 2026, at the Paris Fashion Week on 27 June.

There had been much speculation that Anderson, renowned for his creative flights of fancy, might take over both Dior’s men’s and women’s collections, which some observers had seen as needing fresh impetus.

Anderson, the son of former Irish rugby international Willie Anderson, is known as a low-key figure, who often appears dressed casually at the end of his shows.

Modern vision

He trained at the London College of Fashion and began his career in Prada’s marketing department before launching his own brand, JW Anderson, in 2008.

At Loewe, he built a reputation for sharp tailoring and generous use of luxurious materials such as leather and metal. He launched a new modern classic bag – the Puzzle – and dressed celebrities from Beyonce to Rihanna.

Dior boomed after Chiuri took over the women’s collection in 2016, with the Italian designer praised for her modernity and feminist activism.

Some observers, however, had suggested the classic French house was growing stale.

Its growth is of crucial financial and dynastic importance to Arnault, who placed his daughter Delphine in charge of Dior in February 2023.

“I am delighted to welcome Jonathan Anderson to lead the women’s and men’s creations of the House,” Delphine Arnault said.

“I have followed his career with great interest since he joined the LVMH group over 10 years ago. I am convinced that he will bring a creative and modern vision to our House,” she said.

(with AFP)

During a visit to the Armenian capital Yerevan last Monday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot made an impassioned call for Armenia and Azerbaijan to “quickly” finalise and sign a long-awaited peace treaty.

The two neighbours – long at odds over the contested Karabakh region – appeared on the cusp of reconciliation in March when they agreed on a draft deal.

However, negotiations have since stalled, with Azerbaijan demanding constitutional amendments from Armenia before signing the agreement.

Speaking alongside his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan, Barrot said: “It is essential that this treaty be signed.”

His words underscored France’s deepening engagement in the South Caucasus, where global powers – including Russia, the European Union, the United States and Turkey – vie for influence.

Armenia signs arms contract with France amid boost in military ties

Support for Armenia

France has been vocal in its support for Armenia’s sovereignty and security – a stance that has ruffled feathers in both Baku and Moscow.

In recent years, Paris has bolstered defence cooperation with Armenia, supplying equipment such as CAESAR self-propelled howitzers.

“All this is solely aimed at helping Armenia acquire the means to defend its population, its territorial integrity and its sovereignty,” said Barrot.

But this show of solidarity has not gone unnoticed by Russia. During a visit to Armenia the previous week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov voiced concern over Yerevan’s pivot towards France, casting doubt on the motivation behind the alliance.

Barrot pushed back, stating that France and Europe are not at war with Russia, but are resisting what he termed “the Putinisation of the world” – a veiled warning against territorial aggression.

French artist pardoned

France’s diplomatic efforts bore fruit on another front this week, with the return of street artist Théo Clerc, who was pardoned and released by Azerbaijan after spending more than 400 days behind bars for graffiti art he painted in a metro station.

France slams Azerbaijan’s ‘discriminatory’ jailing of graffiti sprayer

Barrot hailed the release as “the honour and pride of French diplomacy”.

Franco-Azeri relations have been strained due to France’s support for Armenia, criticism of Azerbaijan’s human rights record and accusations that Baku has orchestrated a disinformation campaign targeting French institutions.

Stand-off over French detainees

However, it wasn’t all diplomatic triumphs for Paris. On the same day Barrot stood with Armenian leaders in Yerevan, Tehran issued a scathing rebuke of France’s legal action at the International Court of Justice over the detention of two French nationals – Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris – on charges of espionage.

France sues Iran at top UN court over citizens detained in Tehran

Iranian authorities blasted the case as “pointless” and accused France of “exploiting” legal institutions.

The pair – arrested in 2022 during a holiday in Iran – are among roughly 20 Europeans being detained in what critics say is a strategy of leverage by Tehran.

France alleges that the couple have been held in conditions amounting to torture and has accused Iran of violating international obligations.

“You’ve not only stirred and thrilled Parisians during the victory but the entire country over the past few weeks,” said Macron.

“You’ve also fired the dreams of thousands of youngsters who have been looking up to you.”

PSG claimed European club football’s most prestigious trophy for the first time after a 5-0 annihilation of Inter Milan at the Allianz Arena in Munich.

Désiré Doué set up Achraf Hakimi for the opener in the 12th minute and the 19-year-old extended PSG’s advantage eight minutes later.

Midway through the second-half, Doué effectively killed off the final with a sumptuous finish past the Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer into the bottom right hand corner.

Surge

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia made it 4-0 after 73 minutes and academy graduate Senny Mayulu thrashed home the the fifth in the closing stages to give PSG a record win in the final in the 70-year history of the competition.

“The only thing I’d wish for is to be able to welcome you again next year with a second victory,” said Macron. “I know it is possible and that you have this hunger and desire for success.”

The party at the presidential palace followed a parade along a Champs-Elysées lined by an estimated 110,000 people.

The team headed to the procession directly from Roissy airport after flying in from Munich.

To the cheers and adulation of the serried ranks of fans, the players, all wearing shirts with ’25’ on it, brandished the Champions League trophy and addressed the supporters as they drove along the route.

“Lets’ all sing together,” shouted the PSG skipper Marquinhos.

After Macron’s reception, the squad travelled to the Parc des Princes where around 40,000 fans awaited the presentation of the trophy.

“The objective now is to win again,” said PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi. “It has taken 14 years of hard work but we are building something for the future.”

Violence

In the aftermath of victory, police made nearly 600 arrests across France, the interior ministry said on Sunday. More than 200 cars were torched across the country and police clashed with youths.

In Dax in south-western France, a 17-year-old boy died after being stabbed in the chest. A 23-year-old man riding a scooter in central Paris also died after being hit by a vehicle.

A policeman was put in an induced coma after being injured by a firework.

Macron and PSG condemned the violence.

“These isolated acts are contrary to the club’s values and in no way represent the vast majority of our supporters, whose exemplary behaviour throughout the season deserves to be commended,” a PSG spokesperson added.

“There are 65 million people in France. If each gives one hour, imagine what we could do? We can change the world,” says Atanase Périfan.

He is behind L’Heure civique (the Civic Hour), a project that recruits people to volunteer an hour of their time each month to do tasks in their communities – tending to someone’s garden, helping with grocery shopping or giving homework help, for example.

Surveys show that about a quarter of the French population takes part in some volunteer activity, but in an organised way, through an organisation.

Filling the gap

“In France, the state is very present – maybe too much – but it cannot do everything,” Périfan said, reflecting on France’s social model and pointing out that volunteers fill in the gap between what families do for each other and institutional support from the state.

“When the three levels – family, state and neighbours – work together, it makes everything better.”

Eye on France: Feeling lonely?

The Civic Hour aims to get neighbours involved with helping each other.

Neighbourhoods are a particular focus for Périfan, who is at the origin of the now annual Fête des voisins – “neighbours’ party” – which sees apartment buildings or neighbourhoods organise an event to get to know each other.

The first was a gathering of Périfan’s own neighbours in Paris’s 17th arrondissement. He organised it after being horrified to learn that an elderly woman in his neighbourhood had died and her body had not been found for four months.

Listen to the history of the Fête des voisins in the spotlight on France podcast, here: 

After a successful gathering, Périfan decided to try and spread the concept.

A local councillor in the arrondissement at the time – he is a now a deputy mayor, charged with social issues – he was no stranger to organising and picked up the phone to call round his colleagues to get them on board.

By the following year he had recruited 20 cities. Now, 25 years later, 5,000 cities across France officially endorse the Fête des voisins, with millions of people organising the gatherings each year.

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‘Helping others brings happiness’

Périfan’s association, Voisins solidaires (“Neighbours Together”), launched the Civic Hour initiative in 2021, in the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic, when people began helping each other out during lockdowns.

As he did with the neighbours’ party, he began at home in his Paris neighbourhood. He then tested the idea in the Charente-Maritime department where he has a second home, before taking it to four other departments.

Today, more than 200 cities are taking part, with nearly 20,000 volunteers signed up – most of them young retirees, who had hesitated to get involved in an association.

Volunteering has dropped in recent years among older people, while it is on the rise with younger people. But the Civic Hour, with fewer constraints than other commitments, is appealing.

“Helping others brings a lot of happiness,” Périfan says. “Happiness is not just about having money – happiness comes from relationships, helping others.”

The French state has recently filed an appeal against the decision of a Paris court of 11 March, which ruled that the state should compensate people who have been exposed to chlordecone.

The move has angered victims in the French overseas departments of Martinique and Guadeloupe.

“I used to make boxes to pack bananas and stick the labels on,” said one woman, who has always lived among the banana plantations in Martinique, a few steps from the warehouse where she worked.

5 questions about chlordecone pesticide use in French Antilles

Every day she handled bananas treated with chlordecone by the hundreds, she told RFI.

“My fingers swelled up, my fingers and thumbs became deformed. It was after the occupational doctor came and I showed him my hands. He told me I couldn’t continue working.”

She continued: “And then one day, when I was going shopping with my children, I said to my daughter ‘I can’t see anything at all’. And the doctor said I needed immediate surgery.”

An emergency operation prevented the damage from spreading to her brain, but she lost her sight. Today, she is demanding accountability from those responsible and asking for further treatment.

“I want to get my eyes back and for justice to know that it was the chlordecone that did this to me,” she said.

Thousands protest in Martinique against ‘insecticide impunity’ in chlordecone case

Workers say no one spoke to them about the dangers of chlordecone.

Another woman remembers her years working in the banana plantations. She says that workers were given a bucket to spread fertiliser and pesticides by hand, without any protection or explanation.

“One day, I arrived in the middle of the fields, and I felt something was really wrong. Dizziness, weakness, trembling. And I collapsed with the bucket,” she recalled.

“They need to admit that they poisoned us. When I call all my friends, all my aunts, all my cousins, everyone is dying because of that poison they used. I’m asking for justice.”

Paris court dismisses probe into mass poisoning of French West Indies

“I carry all the rage of the people from Martinique, and this rage is directed at the state and at the poisoners… because they did this intentionally, they already knew,” said Yvan Sérénus, president of the group of agricultural workers poisoned by pesticides.

Chlordecone has been classified as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization since 1979 and was banned in the United States in 1977.

In the French Caribbean, it continued to be used until 1993, despite being officially banned in 1990 in mainland France.

Today, more than 90 percent of the adult population in Guadeloupe and Martinique has been contaminated by chlordecone, according to France’s public health body.

This report was adapted from RFI’s podcast Reportage France, produced by Jeanne Richard.

“Demat!” Greetings echo through the corridors of the Diwan secondary school in Vannes. In the entrance hall, Gabriella and her classmates are filling a whiteboard with words of farewell and thanks – “kenavo” and “trugarez” – for someone who is leaving.

Here, with the exception of French and the foreign languages taught, the 145 secondary school pupils and 45 high school students take all their lessons in Breton, and the use of the language is strongly encouraged during breaks, at lunch and in activities.

Diwan – meaning “seed” in Breton, which is a Celtic language – is a network of Breton language immersion schools, founded in 1977.

Gabriella, who is in her last year of middle school, is looking forward to continuing her studies in the high school here next year. “I’m so happy, it’s a big family,” she says.

She loves the fact that she can “talk in the street with her friends without others being able to understand” – although her parents do speak Breton.

Alsatian dialect taught in French state schools for the first time

But while the mood in school on the eve of the spring holidays may be light, the atmosphere in the wider Breton-speaking community is a little heavier.

According to the results of a survey by the TMO research institute, published on 20 January, there are now just 107,000 Breton speakers left – or 2.7 percent of the population of the five départements concerned. The last survey in 2018 put the figure at 200,000.

“It’s a culture, an identity that’s in danger of disappearing,” said Mathilde Lahogue, director of the Diwan network.

Fulup Jakez, director of the Public Office for the Breton Language (OPLB), responsible for developing and promoting the use of the language, agreed, and added that the results were not surprising. “It’s demographics – the last generations raised in the Breton language until after the Second World War are dying out.”

A very French linguistic history

Like half of France’s regional languages, Breton is considered to be “seriously endangered” by the United Nations’ cultural arm Unesco.

Rozenn Milin, a historian and journalist, and author of La honte et le châtiment – Imposer le français: Bretagne, France, Afrique et autres territoires (“Shame and Punishment – Imposing French: Brittany, France, Africa and other territories”) says this is the result of the country consistently encouraging the use of French as the sole language, to the detriment of local languages.

“At the time of the Reign of Terror [a period of violence and repression during the French Revolution in which those perceived as enemies of the revolution were arrested and executed en masse, from September 1793 to July 1794] it was decided that everyone had to learn French and that dialects and idioms – as they were called – which were considered to be linked to the clergy and counter-revolutionary ideas, had to be wiped out,” she explained.

With the arrival of compulsory education in 1882, French became the language of schools, and the use of local languages was banned.

The last word: why half of the world’s languages could vanish this century

“In Brittany, children who used Breton words were given a sabot [a wooden clog] to wear around their necks. At the end of the day, the last one to be wearing the sabot was punished,” Milin explained.

“So even though it was still the family language, they were gradually made to feel ashamed of speaking Breton. As a result, in the 1950s and 1960s, Breton stopped being passed down.”

It wasn’t until a handful of activists set up the Diwan network in 1977, followed by bilingual courses in state and Catholic education, that Breton began to be reclaimed. But the break had caused irreparable damage, and today, the Breton-speaking population is shrinking.

But it is also getting younger. The number of speakers is rising in the 25-39 age group. “This shows that long-term teaching policies are bearing fruit,” said Jakez.

The future of Breton today indeed depends essentially on education, with only 16 percent of current speakers having learnt the language at home, while 78 percent have learnt it at school.

But for the time being, this trend is far from offsetting the decline.

At the start of the school year in September 2024, 20,280 pupils were enrolled in Breton-French bilingual streams (across public, private Catholic and private Diwan schools), according to figures from the OPLB – representing less than 7 percent of children in the Rennes education authority.

‘Diwan is not a factory for political activists’

“We’re developing media, there are texts and books published in Breton, we’re working on voice recognition, but we need to develop teaching more generally,” said Paul Molac, MP for Morbihan, a department of Brittany.

Molac proposed the law that was passed in 2021 to allow instruction in France’s regional languages in the country’s state schools. It was passed by 247 votes to 76, however the provision on immersive learning included in the law was censured by the Constitutional Council, on the grounds that the Republic is one and indivisible and that this could be seen as calling into question the teaching of French.

France allows immersive teaching of regional languages in schools

This decision has prevented the consolidation of the teaching method offered by Diwan, which is now “financially and legally fragile” according to the director of the network, even though it has proved its worth.

“The State is much more opposed to regional languages than it is in other European countries,’ points out Milin, citing the examples of Switzerland and the United Kingdom: “[In France] they confuse a common language with a single language.”

“Diwan is not a factory for political activists,” insists Diwan president Marc-Yver Le Duic, adding that Breton education is “secular, free and open to all” and comparing the Diwan schools to French lycées abroad, a network of French secondary schools around the world which adhere to the French national curriculum, where French is the primary teaching language.

Responding to another oft-cited fear, he added: “Breton does not make our pupils bad French speakers. This is borne out by the good overall results achieved by our students in national exams.”

Florian Voyenne, headmaster of the Vannes Diwan school and a former classics teacher who grew up learning Breton, points to the success of the education system in Wales.

The teaching of Welsh has been made compulsory from the first to the fourth year of secondary school – a model that has helped to increase the number of Welsh speakers. According to the 2021 census, there are 538,300 in the country, almost 18 per cent of the population.

‘We don’t force it’

“I think that in the next 10 to 20 years, we’ll hit rock bottom at around 50,000 speakers,” predicted Milin. Jakez, however, remains optimistic: he sees the future of the language revolving around “a minority of speakers but who, unlike their ancestors who were not literate, will have access to reading and writing in the Breton language”.

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Elouan is in his final year of secondary school, having done all his schooling at Diwan. His parents don’t speak Breton, although they did try a few lessons.

For Elouan, who wants to study history, “speaking a language from our regions is important, to know where we come from and who we are”. He would like to “link his future to Breton, to keep Breton alive” – maybe as a teacher.

According to the latest research, 19 percent of Breton-speakers are aged between 15 and 39 – amounting to around 20,000 people. How many of them will pass on the language?

“We just want them to enjoy speaking Breton. We don’t force it,” says David Le Gal, who teaches Breton and music, and whose wife and five children are all Breton speakers too. He’s part of the generation that reappropriated the language later in life, when his parents had written it off.

“If two out of 10 of them pass on the language, that’ll be good. For me, Breton opens doors to the world. It’s just one more way of enjoying life.”

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

On Wednesday, a suburb of Istanbul witnessed the latest demonstration in support of the city’s detained mayor. Despite the protest taking place in a traditional electoral stronghold of President Erdoğan, tens of thousands attended.

İmamoğlu masks

In a recent attempt to quell the unrest, Istanbul’s governor’s office issued a decree ordering the removal of all images, videos, and audio recordings of İmamoğlu from state buildings and public transport across the city. Within hours, social media was flooded with footage of people wearing İmamoğlu masks while riding public transport.

Turkey’s youth rise up over mayor’s jailing and worsening economy

“Up to 75% are against İmamoğlu’s arrest, as the aversion to Erdoğan’s attempt to sideline his opponent with foul play was widely distributed by all parties,” claimed political analyst Atilla Yeşilada of Global Source Partners, citing recent opinion polls.

Yeşilada argues that the poll’s findings underscore the opposition’s success in winning over public opinion.

“There is a strong reaction. This is not a temporary thing. It’s a grievance that will be held and may impact the next election whenever they are held,” he added.

Recent opinion polls also show İmamoğlu enjoying a double-digit lead over Erdoğan in a prospective presidential race, with a majority of respondents believing the corruption charges against the mayor are politically motivated—a claim the government denies.

Erdogan’s jailed rivals

Political analyst Sezin Öney of the independent Turkish news portal Politikyol suggests Erdoğan may have expected İmamoğlu to follow the same fate as other jailed rivals, whose influence faded once imprisoned. “The government is counting on the possibility that İmamoğlu is jailed, is out of sight, out of mind, and the presidency will have his ways,” explained Öney.

Further arrests as Turkey cracks down on protests over jailed Istanbul mayor

Turkish authorities have persistently sought to curtail İmamoğlu’s presence on social media. His accounts on X (formerly Twitter) and Bluesky have been frozen following court rulings.

The fate of opposition journalists

Similar actions have been taken against opposition journalists and their supporters. “The operation goes deeper and deeper in recent months; it’s just a very concerted policy to create a blackout in this vibrant society,” claimed Erol Önderoğlu, Istanbul representative of the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.

The legal crackdown on the Istanbul municipality continues, with further waves of arrests extending even to İmamoğlu’s personal bodyguard. His party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), is also under investigation for alleged irregularities at its party congress.

Analyst Öney predicts that further crackdowns are likely, given the potential implications for Erdoğan’s political future. “I am sure this is being calculated and recalculated every day—whether it’s beneficial to throw more cases at him (İmamoğlu), by weakening his party, the Republican People’s Party, weakening him personally, or whatever is convenient. But the sky is the limit,” explained Öney.

Nevertheless, each new crackdown appears only to fuel the momentum behind opposition protests, which continue to attract large crowds across the country—including in Erdoğan’s own political bastions.

Protest movement

The leader of the main opposition CHP, Özgür Özel, has earned praise for his energetic performances and has won over many former sceptics. However, analyst Yeşilada questions whether Özel can sustain the protest movement.

“I feel in the summer months, it’s very difficult to keep the momentum; the colleges are closed, and people are shuffling through the country, so if that (protests) is the only means of piling the pressure on Erdoğan, it’s not going to work,” warned Yeşilada.

Istanbul’s mayorial elections mean more than just running the city

Yeşilada believes the opposition leader must elevate his strategy. “Özel needs to find new tricks. It will take two things: A) hearing what the grassroots are saying, in particular the younger generation, and B) being able to reshuffle the party rank and file so true activists are promoted—so they can energise the base,” he added.

In 2013, Erdoğan weathered a wave of mass protests which largely dissipated with the closing of universities and the arrival of the summer holidays. This year, he may again be relying on summer to quieten dissent. For the opposition, the challenge is to ensure that Erdoğan’s summer is anything but peaceful.

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear musical requests from your fellow listeners Jayanta Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India, Alan Holder from Isle of Wight, England, and Karuna Kanta Pal from West Bengal, India.

Be sure you send in your music requests! Write to me at thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all.  

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme:  “A Million Roses” by Raymond Pauls and Leon Briedis, performed by L’Orchestre Dominique Moisan; “Anak” by Freddie Aguilar, performed by Aguilar and his orchestra, and “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira, Wyclef Jean and Archie Pena, performed by Shakira and Wyclef Jean.

The quiz will be back next Saturday, 7 June. Be sure and tune in! 

On 26 May, pro-EU centrist Nicușor Dan was sworn in as President of Romania, having vowed to oppose “isolationism and Russian influence.”

Earlier, Dan had emerged victorious in a closely contested election rerun, widely viewed as pivotal for the future direction of the NATO and EU member state of 19 million people, which shares a border with war-torn Ukraine.

The vote followed a dramatic decision by Romania’s Constitutional Court five months prior to annul a presidential election, citing allegations of Russian interference and the extensive social media promotion of the far-right frontrunner—who was subsequently barred from standing again.

Although nationalist and EU-sceptic George Simion had secured a commanding lead in the first round, Dan ultimately prevailed in the second-round run-off.

RFI speaks with Claudiu Năsui, former Minister of Economy and member of the Save Romania Union, about the pressing challenges facing the country—from economic reform and political polarisation to the broader implications of the election for Romania’s future, including its critical role in supporting Ukraine amid ongoing regional tensions.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met with Donald Trump in Washington last Wednesday.

The meeting took place amid tensions over several issues, including the United States’ resettlement of white Afrikaners – whom President Trump has controversially described as victims of “genocide” – and South Africa’s ongoing land reform.

South Africa’s Ramaphosa to meet Trump on high-stakes White House visit

However, the US President defied all expectations of diplomacy by repeating allegations against Ramaphosa and accusing South Africa of the alleged killing of white farmers.

President Ramaphosa remained composed, however, and the visit continued the following day with further discussions on bilateral relations and trade.

To discuss, the recent evolution of the relations between the two countries, Spotlight on Africa has two guests this week:

• Cameron Hudson, senior fellow at the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in Washington DC
• Ivor Ichikowitz, founding director of the Ichikowitz Family Foundation and keen observer of South Africa’s foreign affairs.

We also visit the Paris Noir exhibition, currently on display at the Pompidou Centre  in central Paris. It showcases the largest collection ever assembled of works by Black artists who created art in the French capital from the 1950s onwards.

Paris Noir is at the Pompidou Centre in Paris until 30 June, 2025.

‘Paris Noir’ exhibition showcases work made in French capital by black artists

Finally, we go on a tour with the black British photographer, writer and broadcaster Johny Pitts, who has himself documented the black and Afropean communities all over Europe for over ten years. 

Episode mixed by Erwan Rome.

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

The pledge was made during a meeting of the US-Turkey Working Group in Washington, where diplomats committed to “increasing cooperation and coordination on the security and stability of Syria”.

Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, who heads the German Marshall Fund office in Ankara, said this signals progress.

“I think it shows us that Turkey and the US can get on the same page when it comes to Syria,” he said. “Disagreements in Syria were part of the problem between Turkey and the United States. There are other issues, but this one was one of the core issues.”

Unluhisarcikli believes the good chemistry between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Donald Trump is playing a role.

“I think it’s significant President Erdogan is one of the leaders that President Trump likes working with and trusts. But of course, this is the case until it’s not,” he said.

Macron urges Syrian leader to protect minorities after deadly clashes

Israeli pushback

The move comes despite a warning from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who told Trump during his February visit to Washington that Turkey was a security threat in Syria.

Both countries have troops in Syria and see each other as rivals.

Trump appeared to dismiss Netanyahu’s concerns, speaking to the international media from the Oval Office with the Israeli leader at his side.

“I told the Prime Minister: Bibi, if you have a problem with Turkey, I really think I can be able to work it out,” Trump said. “I have a really great relationship with Turkey and its leader.”

Erdogan, along with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is credited with helping persuade Trump to lift sanctions on Syria. Israeli foreign policy analyst Gallia Lindenstrauss said the decision went against Israel’s position.

She explained that Israel wanted any easing of sanctions to be linked to concessions by Damascus.

“I think the fact the US ambassador to Turkey has been appointed as the envoy to Syria also means the Turkish position will get more attention from the US side,” Lindenstrauss said.

“That in itself makes some concern in Israel. Because here Israel has its priorities with regards to Syria, it wants someone pushing Turkey to be more flexible and not, of course, to build bases throughout Syria. That would be a very threatening scenario regarding Israel.”

Turkey’s rivalry with Iran shifts as US threats create unlikely common ground

Turkish airbases

Israeli warplanes recently destroyed a Syrian airbase that Turkish forces were preparing to take over. Turkey says its growing military presence, including control of airbases, is aimed at helping Syria’s new rulers fight insurgent groups like the Islamic State.

“For Turkey, Syria’s security and stability are of the utmost importance, and Turkey is devoting resources to keep Syria stable because Syria’s stability is so important for Turkey’s security, and that’s what Israel should understand,” Unluhisarcikli said.

But Turkish airbases equipped with missile defences would restrict Israel’s freedom to operate in Syrian airspace.

“Israel has just found an opportunity, an air corridor towards Iran (via Syrian airspace), which it can use without asking for permission from any third party,” Unluhisarcikli said. “If Turkey takes over the bases, then Israel would need to get permission from Turkey, which it doesn’t want to, and I think that’s understandable.”

Azerbaijan has been mediating talks between Israel and Turkey to reduce tensions. The two sides have reportedly set up deconfliction systems, including a hotline.

“There has been progress between Israel and Turkey over Syria. There have been at least three announced talks in Azerbaijan which is positive,” Lindenstrauss said.

PKK ends 40-year fight but doubts remain about the next steps

Iran and the F-35s

Iran’s nuclear programme is another source of friction between Israel and Turkey.

Unluhisarcikli said Trump seems to be leaning more towards Erdogan’s view than Netanyahu’s.

“For Turkey, military conflict with Iran is a very bad scenario. I am not entirely sure that’s how Trump feels, but for him, any conflict should be just a second choice because conflict is not good for business,” Unluhisarcikli said.

“It seems Israel has made the judgment that it is time for military action, the time for talking is over. There should be military action. Trump disagrees. He thinks he does have a chance of negotiating.”

US and Iranian negotiators met in Rome on Friday for the fifth round of talks. Erdogan supports the talks and has also claimed that Trump is open to lifting the US embargo on selling F-35 fighter jets to Turkey. That would remove Israel’s technical advantage in the air.

Trump’s increasingly close relationship with Erdogan comes amid reports that he is uneasy about Israel’s war in Gaza. But Lindenstrauss warned that Israel is counting on Trump’s unpredictability.

“We know that Trump has a basic favourable view towards Erdogan. This was already in his first term, and it is continuing now. But we also know that Trump can be tough towards Turkey, and he did implement sanctions against Turkey in his first term,” she said.

“So this good relationship depends on whether Turkey is in line with US interests. But of course, Israel is watching.”

However, with Israel’s war in Gaza showing little signs of ending, threatening further diplomatic isolation, Erdogan for now appears to have Trump’s ear, with the two leaders sharing similar agendas.

“Trade, not aid, is now the pillar of our policy in Africa,” said United States ambassador Troy Fitrell, from the Bureau of African Affairs, in a speech on 14 May at business summit in Abidjan.

The declaration settles any doubts over the Trump administration’s position on aid towards Africa. The US – the world single largest aid donor in the world, according to the United Nations – no longer wants to disburse billions in foreign aid, despite the fact that it represents a small percentage of its entire budget.

In 2023, the US spent $71.9 billion in foreign aid, which amounts to 1.2 percent of its entire budget for that fiscal year.

President Donald Trump repeatedly stated that aid is a waste. For years, Africa has been the region receiving more funding from the United States than any other.

Across the African continent, Trump’s executive orders were initially met with shock, anger, and despair — but also with a renewed determination to change course and place African resources at the heart of African healthcare.

In February, at an African Union summit, Rwandan President Paul Kagame announced that the AU’s health institutions, including the Centres for Disease Control, would take the lead in seeking alternatives to US funding.

“Africa now finds itself at a crossroads. The health financing landscape has shifted dramatically.

“I propose that, over the next year, we work together to define new mechanisms for concrete collaboration on healthcare among governments, businesses, and philanthropies,” he told African leaders.

“The work of building our continent, including our healthcare systems, cannot be outsourced to anyone else.”

To untangle what is going on, for this edition of Interntional Report, RFI interviewed Eric Olander, editor-in-chief of the China-Global South Project; Chris Milligan, former foreign service officer at USAID, in Washington; Mark Heywood, human rights and social justice activist in South Africa, co-founder of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC); Onikepe Owolabi, vice president of International research at the Guttmacher institute in New York; Monica Oguttu, founding executive director of KMET, Kisumu Medical and Education Trust, in Kenya.

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.