“X believes that this investigation is distorting French law in order to serve a political agenda and, ultimately, restrict free speech,” the social network said.

It added that it “has not acceded to the French authorities’ demands” to access its recommendation algorithm and real-time data, “as we have a legal right to do”.

Earlier this month, Paris prosecutors stepped up a preliminary probe into X for suspected algorithmic bias and fraudulent data extraction, enlisting police to investigate alleged wrongdoing by the company or its executives.

Cybercrime prosecutors announced the opening of the probe on 11 July into suspected crimes including manipulating and extracting data from automated systems “as part of a criminal gang”.

Musk, a former ally of US President Donald Trump, has accused European governments of attacking free speech and has voiced support for some of the region’s far-right parties.

The French probe could deepen a rift between Washington and European capitals over what sort of discourse is permitted online, with senior officials from Trump’s administration alleging the censoring of right-wing voices around the world.

‘ Foreign interference’

The move also followed two complaints received in January about “foreign interference” in French politics via X, one of them from Eric Bothorel, an MP from President Emmanuel Macron‘s centrist party.

Bothorel had complained of “reduced diversity of voices and options” and Musk’s “personal interventions” on the network since his 2022 takeover of the former Twitter.

The Tesla and SpaceX chief has raised hackles in Europe with political sallies, including vocal backing for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of February legislative elections.

“Democracy is too fragile to let digital platform owners tell us what to think, who to vote for or even who to hate,” Bothorel said after the investigation was announced.

The company responded Monday saying, “Mr Bothorel has accused X of manipulating its algorithm for ‘foreign interference’ purposes, an allegation which is completely false.”

Prosecutors have not confirmed whether they are also investigating under a French law against foreign interference in politics passed last year.

French bias?

X also complained of bias in French authorities’ choice of experts to examine its algorithm, including mathematician David Chavalarias and computer scientist Maziyar Panahi.

Both have been involved in a scheme called “HelloQuitteX“, designed to make it easier for users to migrate their X presence to other social networks.

Picking them “raises serious concerns about the impartiality, fairness and political motivations of the investigation”, the company said.

It also objected to the use of the “organised gang” aggravating circumstance.

The characterisation “is usually reserved for drug cartels or mafia groups” and “enables the French police to deploy extensive investigative powers… including wiretapping the personal devices of X employees,” the company said.

Panahi denied any involvement in the investigation. “My name was mentioned by mistake, based on my previous research projects with David Chavalarias, none of which have ever had any hostile intent toward X,” he said in an email.

“The fact my name has been mentioned in such an erroneous manner demonstrates how little regard they have for the lives of others … I will not hesitate to pursue legal action for defamation should I receive any form of hate speech.”

 (With newswires)

Barrot reached Kyiv a few hours after a barrage of drones and missiles hit the capital killing at least one person and causing several fires around the city, officials said.

“I will participate in the ambassadors’ conference and reaffirm, on behalf of France, our unwavering support for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and freedom of the Ukrainian people,” Barrot said on social media.

Barrot is expected to meet his counterpart Andriy Sybiga, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and newly-nominated Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

On Friday, the EU adopted new measures against Russia by lowering its price cap on Russian oil exported to third countries around the world to 15 percent below market value.

“In the wake of the unprecedented sanctions adopted by France and the European Union against Russia, the minister will take stock of France’s support for Ukraine,” the French foreign ministry said on Monday

Barrot is expected to tour Chernobyl nuclear power plant during his visit.

France has contributed to help repair a radiation cover at the plant in Ukraine allegedly hit by a Russian drone in February.

(With newswires)

La Loi Duplomb – named after one of its advocates Laurent Duplomb – was passed in the French parliament on 8 July.

It paves the way for the reintroduction of acetamiprid – a pesticide outlawed in France since 2018 but used throughout the rest of the European Union.

But two days after politicians sanctioned Duplomb’s brainchild, Eléonore Pattery, a 23-year-old student from Bordeaux, south-western France. started a petition calling for the law to be scrapped.

Pattery’s claims Duplomb’s new law is a scientific, ethical, environmental and health aberration. Beekeepers claim acetamipri is lethal for bees.

Debate in parliament

On Saturday, the number of people backing Pattery’s proposals passed the 500,000 signature mark.

Under French rules, once a petition crosses that threshold and has verified signatures from throughout the country, the Assemblée Nationale has the right to hold a public debate on the contents of the petition.

The regulations also state that even if a petition gathers 500,000 names, it does not mean that the legislation will be reviewed or repealed.

Late on Sunday, the number of signatures had risen to 1,159,000.

Farmers, particularly of beetroot and nuts, insist that they need to use the pesticide against the insects and animals attacking their crops. They say that not being allowed to deploy the chemical is unfair as competitors throughout Europe can use it.

‘Realigning French rules with Europe’

Frank Menonville, a UDI senator for the Meuse region in north-eastern France and one of the law’s principal backers, told BFMTV: “There’s nothing revolutionary in this law. We’re aligning French rules with everything that it is legal on a European level.

“If the National Assembly wants to reopen the debate, that’s not a problem for me. The measures were debated in the senate and adopted at the end of January.

“In the National Assembly there seems to be a policy of activism and creating fear.”

Last month just before the law went through parliament, several thousand demonstrators – including farmers, environmental organisations and scientists – rallied across France calling for the bill to be withdrawn.

Olivar Calvo, agriculture campaigner at Greenpeace France, said: “We are all going to be affected by the consequences of this deadly and toxic law. 

“For weeks now, civil society has been united in its opposition to this proposed law: farmers, scientists, environmental protection organisations and organisations of pesticide victims.

“We are deeply worried about the future but we remain determined and will continue to fight to defend an agricultural model that respects health, farmers and the environment. “

The three Parisian bathing sites at Bras Marie, Grenelle and Bercy have seen more than 50,000 bathers, despite being closed for several days due to bad weather from the day after their inauguration, sports minister Marie Barsacq told Franceinfo on Saturday.

She added that swimming in the Seine has been “a great success”.

Seine swimming to return to heart of Paris after century of bans

After just 10 days, Paris City Hall had counted nearly 20,000 bathers in the Seine, despite four days of closure due to bad weather on 15 July.

The red flag was raised after heavy rain, which raised fears of bacteriological pollution of the water.

The three Paris pools will remain open until 31 August. Swimming sites have also been set up in the Marne, at Joinville-le-Pont and Maisons-Alfort.

To improve water quality upstream of the river, more than €1.4 billion has been invested in wastewater evacuation works to prevent it from flowing into the river.

(with newswires)

Accoridng to the minister of trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, who chaired a forum in Yaoundé assessing the country’s readiness for the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which comes into effect on 30 December 2025.

The EUDR will ban the import of key commodities – such as cocoa, coffee, soy, palm oil, wood, rubber, and cattle products – into the EU if they are linked to land deforested after 2020.

Officials say 24,800 cocoa farmers have been registered in Cameroon’s traceability system, covering more than 28,000 cocoa plots that have been geo-located and mapped. These efforts are built on a geo-referenced data-sharing agreement signed on 28 August 2024 by Cameroon’s cocoa and coffee inter-professional body.

Chocolate and rice among key EU imports facing climate threats

The traceability tools allow exporters to identify the origins of cocoa and prove compliance with EU sustainability standards.

To support this, the Cameroon Coffee and Cocoa Inter-professional Council (CICC), in collaboration with the Sustainable Cocoa Programme, has launched a free, user-friendly traceability platform.

“All exporters now have access to the coordinates of the cocoa plots they source from,” said Omer Gatien Maledy, executive secretary of the CICC.

“The software is simple, easy to use, and freely available. It enables any exporter to verify and document the physical origin of their product.”

Another tool – GEOSHARE – has also been developed by the CICC. It provides parcel-level information to help exporters meet the EUDR’s traceability requirements.

Minister Mbarga Atangana welcomed the progress and reaffirmed the government’s commitment to inclusive compliance: “No farmer will be left behind. We are working to ensure that no cocoa is unfairly denied access to the European market.”

The EU postponed enforcement of the EUDR from 1 January 2025 to 1 January 2026 after appeals from producing countries like Cameroon.

The delay is seen as critical: the EU is Cameroon’s main export destination, receiving 78 percent of its cocoa and 87 percent of its coffee, according to official data.

As the world’s fifth-largest cocoa producer, Cameroon’s compliance with the EUDR is essential. The regulation requires adherence to seven key principles, including land rights, environmental protection, respect for labour and human rights, and obtaining free, prior, and informed consent from indigenous communities. It also demands compliance with rules on taxation, anti-corruption, trade, and customs.

European Union adopts law to ban products driving deforestation

Structural and policy obstacles

Despite significant progress, officials admit that major challenges remain. Chief among them is institutional fragmentation, with overlapping responsibilities and poor coordination between the ministries of agriculture, forestry, environment, and land Tenure. This lack of clarity creates loopholes and delays.

Moreover, many smallholder farmers lack formal land titles, making it difficult to invest in long-term sustainable practices. This also leaves them vulnerable to land grabs and evictions by speculators.

Cameroon also supports cocoa agroforestry—a practice that combines cocoa cultivation with forest conservation—as a sustainable model. However, the EU has yet to fully recognise agroforestry within its definition of deforestation-free agriculture.

“We strongly advocate for agroforestry, which we see as sustainable and beneficial,” Maledy said. “Unfortunately, the current EU regulation does not recognise its value. We intend to actively participate in upcoming review processes to ensure this approach is properly acknowledged.”

In the meantime, the CICC has intensified its efforts to raise awareness among farmers. NGOs have joined the campaign. In Ntui – a major cocoa-growing area – Agro Produce Management Services (AMS), a local NGO involved in cocoa certification, is training farmers in best practices such as pruning, fertiliser use, and environmental compliance.

AMS enforces a strict no-deforestation policy for its members. “We believe nearly all of our farmers are now aware of the EU regulation,” said Jacobel Ndam Mofor, a senior AMS official. “We do not accept new farmers who clear forest land to establish cocoa farms.”

West Africa hopes to strengthen cocoa prices with new members Cameroon, Nigeria

Production ambitions vs. environmental commitments

Cameroon’s plan to triple cocoa production to 640,000 metric tonnes by 2030 risks clashing with the EU’s sustainability standards. Experts warn that this goal is unlikely to be met through yield improvements alone.

“Climate change and ageing cocoa trees are limiting productivity across West Africa,” said Vignesh Kamath, Associate Programme Officer at UNEP-WCMC. “Cameroon will likely need to expand the area under cocoa cultivation to meet its targets.”

However, such expansion could contravene the EUDR’s deforestation rules, leaving producers with cocoa that may not be eligible for the EU market.

Of the 1,000 people interviewed on 16 and 17 July, only 190 of them said they were are quite satisfied or very satisfied with Macron, while 330 said they were quite dissatisfied and 480 said they were very dissatisfied.

In June, 230 people said they were satisfied with Macron.

Eighteen percent of the sample said they are content with the job Bayrou is doing – 2 percent less than the previous month.

Captains of industry appear to be drifting away from Bayrou too. Sixteen percent more business leaders said they were dissatisfied with the 74-year-old.

The survey of the two most powerful players in French politics was conducted a day after Bayrou presented the 2026 budget to the French parliament.

French PM Bayrou to push budget through without vote and face confidence vote

Measures in 2026 budget

Bayrou said two public holidays out of France’s total of 11 could go, suggesting Easter Monday as well as 8 May, a day that commemorates the end of World War II in Europe.

Branding May a month riddled with public holidays, Bayrou said the measure could generate several billion euros in revenue. He added he was open to other suggestions.

Opening his address he said: “We are at a critical moment in our history.”

He explained that France’s public deficit reached 5.8 percent of GDP in 2024 and that public debt climbed to nearly 114 percent – the third-highest in the eurozone after Greece and Italy.

Citing Greece’s debt crisis in the 2010s, he said: “We must never forget the story of Greece.”

Bayrou, who heads a minority government, is likely to face choppy waters trying to steer his proposals through parliament.

He wants to cut debt while boosting production, though military spending will rise by €6.7 billion in 2026 in the face of growing international tensions.

He says the goal is to reduce the deficit to 2.9 percent of GDP by 2029. “It is the  threshold at which, in a country like ours, the debt no longer grows.”

To achieve this, Bayrou said: “The state must not spend a single euro more in 2026 than it does in 2025.” He added that this was with the exception of debt repayments and military funding.

According to the Ifop survey, Bayrou’s political opponents are also faring badly.

Dissatisfaction with the Socialists was up 11 percent. Respondents in the survey said they were unhappy about the party’s decision to table a motion of censure on the government after the failure of talks on pension reforms.

The 22-year-old Frenchwoman beat the defending champion Anna Bondar from Hungary 7-5, 6-3 to brandish the trophy after five matches on the clay courts at the Am Rothenbaum stadium.

“It’s really tough to win a tournament, so when we did it, I’m really happy with that,” Boisson said. “Just happy, and I hope it will continue like this.”

In the WTA world rankings published on Monday, Boisson will sit at 44th on the ladder. Just before the French Open in Paris in May, she languished at 361.

Her exploits at the French Open in which she beat two players in the top 10, gave her the ranking points to propel her 300 places up the listings and the status as France’s top female player.

She failed to replicate the scintillating form from Paris on grass where she lost in the first round of the qualifying tournament for Wimbledon.

But in Hamburg, she was back on her favourite surface.

In Sunday’s final, Boisson lost the first four games but Bondar failed to exploit her advantage. She served for the set at 5-2 up but fluffed her attempt to take the opener.

The 28-year-old also botched her second chance when serving at 5-4. 

And then she squandered three opportunities to win Boisson’s service game when they were at 5-5.

Boisson completed the turnaround to claim the set 7-5 and showed similar resolve in the second set to reel off five consecutive games to win it 6-3.

Boisson, who received an invitation from the French Open organisers for the main draw following an injury- blighted year, will, with her newly elevated status, gain direct entry into the draws for the leading hard court tournaments in the United States as well as the US Open which starts on 24 August.

France produced a staggering 15.4 billion eggs in 2024, more than any other EU country. Yet there are regular gaps on supermarket shelves.

“Demand for eggs has gone up a lot, especially over the past few months,” says Alice Richard, head of the National Committee for the Promotion of the Egg (CNPO).

Egg consumption jumped 4-5 percent in 2023 and 2024, with the trend accelerating in early 2025. French consumers now eat an average of 240 eggs per person annually, whether as whole eggs or in processed foods – a 20-year record.

This love affair is largely driven by economic factors. France sells different categories of eggs – barn, free range, red label and organic – and the average price per egg is around 26 cents. A two-egg omelette could cost as little as 50 cents – far cheaper than a burger or chicken wing – making eggs an affordable option in a cost of living crisis.

“It really started two years ago, during the surge in inflation,” Richard notes. “Eggs are the cheapest source of animal protein, so naturally people turned to them when prices were rising across the board. And now, those habits have kind of stuck.”

The surge in demand has been compounded by psychological factors, she adds. Recent images of empty egg shelves in the United States, where bird flu has devastated poultry farms, triggered panic buying and some stockpiling among French consumers.

Cracking for imports 

But unlike the US, where avian influenza decimated 15 percent of laying hens, France has largely avoided production disruptions thanks to a vaccination programme for ducks – the primary spreaders of bird flu. “Only two minor outbreaks have been reported this year on relatively small farms,” Richard notes.

However, countries such as Poland and Hungary, hard hit by bird flu, began importing cheap eggs from Ukraine. With demand outweighing production, France has also turned to imports, which now account for 20 percent, and many are from Ukraine. 

That’s a problem, Richard says, since France and Ukraine have very different production costs and animal welfare standards.

“Around 75 percent of French hens are now raised in free-range, organic or in barn systems rather than in cages, but in Ukraine almost all hens are raised in cages or in barns and the standards aren’t the same. Their health and safety standards are different too, especially around things like salmonella.”

Listen to a conversation about egg production and animal welfare in the Spotlight on France podcast, episode 130

Increasing production

The CNPO aims to meet the rising demand through domestic production rather than imports and has hatched a €300 million plan to build 300 new henhouses by 2030. 

Richard says demanding norms in France means it takes an average of two years to set up a farm. To facilitate the process and encourage more young farmers, the industry is pushing for regulations to be eased, including raising the environmental review threshold from 40,000 to 60,000 hens and streamlining red tape.

“All we’re asking is that the same threshold applies across Europe,” Richard argues. “It doesn’t make sense that France is the only one with this strict limit, especially when we have to import eggs from countries that aren’t following the same rules.”

The proposed new hen houses would average around 30,000 hens each – the minimum size the industry considers economically viable for farmers to make a living solely from egg production. Importantly, all new facilities are to be cage-free, in line with the latest French legislation.

“Farmers are ready to meet this growing demand, but they are coming up against clearly identified obstacles,” MP Nicole Le Peih, herself a farmer, recently told France’s Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard in parliament.

“Building projects, even those that comply with standards and are open-air, are slowed down, contested or even blocked,” Le Peih said, referring to animal rights groups that have succeeded in blocking the expansion or construction of huge egg farms.

Genevard praised the CNPO project, saying it was an “ambition within reach, as long as we allow the construction of poultry houses”. She underlined the government’s commitment to simplifying procedures, as shown in recently approved legislation on food and farming sovereignty.

Which came first? French biologists crack an entirely chicken-free egg

Animal welfare concerns

The easing of red tape is already under way, much to the concern of animal rights groups.

An egg farm in the Oise region recently got the green light to expand from 900,000 to 1.2 million hens, despite strong opposition from locals and the L214 animal rights association, which described it as “not a farm but a factory” and vowed to take legal action.

Another project in Sergines, south-east of Paris, to build a brand new 38,000-strong hen farm finally got the go ahead in March after a six-year battle, supported by L214.

Hens on such huge farms are kept in the dark, with little space to roam, animal welfare groups say. And while French law stipulates that any new farms must be cage-free, that doesn’t apply to extensions.  

Cages can still be used for eggs produced for the food industry – which accounts for roughly half of French production. EU-wide legislation passed in 2012 banned battery cages in favour of “enriched” ones which provide a little more space and allow for natural behaviours, including elements such as a nesting area and perch.

“They’re still cages,” says Cyril Ernst from Anima, an organisation focused on accelerating the movement towards cage-free egg production.

“Some 12 million hens are still in cages in France … hens are probably the most mistreated animals on earth and in cage systems they suffer horribly because they are deprived of everything that matters for them.”

While he understands the need for farmers to make a profit, he says this must not come at the expense of animal wellbeing. “Price is important, and that’s why we’re not against funding this transition, maybe new farms need to be built, but the question is what type of farms are we heading towards and investing in?

“We need higher-welfare farms. Building farms on very large scales, with 1 million hens for example, is not a solution,” he insists.

Global egg industry investigation reveals widespread abuse of caged hens amid bird-flu pandemic

Interests aligned

Under the 2018 EGAlim law, France’s egg farmers have had to transition away from cages – 81.7 percent of French eggs are now produced in alternative systems, either free-range, organic or on the ground in barns. The vast majority of cage eggs are used in catering, he explains, with around 20 percent still sold in shops.

Meanwhile on the European level, the move towards a total ban on cages, while slow, is gaining ground, Ernst notes, so it makes long-term economic sense for French farmers not to roll back their efforts.

“New farms should meet high welfare standards, or else they will just be obsolete again in 15 years or so because norms will progress again.”

Despite their different priorities, Anima and the CNPO are working together and both sides are counting on changes at the European level.

“I think our interests are uniquely aligned in this case,” the campaigner notes, “because French farmers are making the transition to cage-free.”

He calls on France to join Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Slovenia and Sweden in backing the proposed EU-wide ban on cages. “French farmers wouldn’t have to compete with cage eggs from other EU countries [such as Poland and Spain] if a ban were to be taken up by the European Commission.”

In light of increasing imports from Ukraine, Richard echoes a similar sentiment. “Ukrainian eggs are so cheap to produce that even with tariffs, they’re still very competitive,” she says. “So we’re asking the EU to rethink how these imports are managed. To us, it’s unfair competition.”

The brainchild of the Paris Colors Ourq association, the work is one of several murals in the neighbourhood to promote community spirit and celebrate diverse cultural figures.

Born in St Louis, Missouri, on 3 June 1906, Baker eschewed conventions from an early age and rose to become a star singer and dancer in the 1930s, especially in France.

She later deployed that aura and her itinerant lifestyle as a cover to spy on the Nazis for the French Resistance during World War II.

She was later a fervent advocate for the civil rights movement in her homeland marching alongside Martin Luther King Jr in his campaigns for equality.

Baker an iconic figure

“Josephine Baker has always been, for me, a somewhat iconic figure of that era,” said urban artist FKDL who created the mural.

“She was both wild and free-spirited, but also deeply connected to music, musicals, and dance,″ he added. ’’She was an extraordinary character, an incredible woman. The mural is also about bringing women back into the urban landscape.”

Baker’s zest for the alternative took her to a chateau in southern France where she raised 12 adopted children from around the world.

‘’I feel moved and I feel happy, because this is part of a memory of my mother,” her son Brian Baker told the Associated Press news agency at the unveiling of the mural.

In November 2021, Baker became the first black woman to be inducted into the Panthéon, joining luminaries as philosopher and writer Voltaire, scientist Marie Curie and the writer Victor Hugo.

’’My mother wouldn’t have liked words like iconic, star, or celebrity,” said Brian Baker. “She would have said: ‘No, no let’s keep it simple.'”

Two years ago in Colombes on the western fringes of Paris, artists unveiled a mural of Baker. Spanning more than 200 square meters, the mural salutes various scenes from her life.

Baker died on 12 April, 1975, a few days after starring in a retrospective revue at the Bobino in Paris to celebrate her 50 years in show business.

At a ceremony in northern Iraq, PKK commander Bese Hozart announced that the disarmament by 30 fighters – 15 men and 15 women – was undertaken freely and in line with the group’s commitment to pursue a democratic socialist society through peaceful means. The fighters’ weapons were burned as part of the symbolic event.

The move came just days after the release of a video message from imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who reiterated his call for an end to the armed struggle and the formal dissolution of the group. It was the first time the Turkish public had heard Öcalan’s voice since his incarceration in 1999.

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

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan responded by telling supporters that the country had reached a historic moment. Ankara now expects a complete disarmament of the remaining PKK fighters by autumn.

Since the beginning of the peace process last year, Erdoğan has ruled out making concessions, insisting the rebels are unilaterally surrendering. However, the high-profile nature of the disarmament ceremony is increasing pressure on the government to respond in kind.

“This is a historic moment; this is a conflict that has been going on for nearly half a century. Now it’s the government’s turn to actually open up the political space,” said Aslı Aydıntaşbaş of the Brookings Institution in Washington.

“Both the Kurdish side and the Turkish side are telling their own constituencies that they’re not giving up much—trying to convince their bases, which, in both cases, seem unprepared for such a radical shift,” she added.

Kurdish leader Ocalan calls for PKK disarmament, paving way for peace

Opaque negotiations, rising distrust

As a gesture of goodwill, the government has reportedly improved Öcalan’s prison conditions and allowed communication through a so-called “secretariat.”

However, the PKK continues to press for broader concessions, including an amnesty for its members and the right for ex-fighters to return to Turkey. There have also been calls for Öcalan’s release, alongside the release of tens of thousands of individuals jailed under Turkey’s broad anti-terror laws.

Yet concerns are mounting over the transparency of the peace negotiations. “It’s really difficult even to assess it because we don’t really know what’s going on,” said Zeynep Ardıç, an expert on conflict resolution at Istanbul’s Medeniyet University. “Some negotiations don’t need to be public, but the public should still be informed,” she said.

Ardıç warned that the current polarization in Turkish politics and a legacy of mistrust built over decades of conflict make transparency essential. “There should be a bit of transparency, because people don’t trust state institutions, people don’t trust each other, people don’t trust the government or the judiciary.

So, it’s not easy to succeed under these circumstances. The government needs to reinstall trust – not just among Kurdish people, but among Turkish people as well.”

Politics could undermine fragile progress

Following the disarmament ceremony, Erdoğan announced the formation of a parliamentary commission to oversee the process, including members from his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), his coalition partner the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and the pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM). Notably absent was the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), whose exclusion is fueling fears that Erdoğan is politicizing the peace process.

Erdoğan requires the support of Kurdish parliamentarians to amend the constitution and potentially remove presidential term limits—allowing him to remain in power indefinitely.

Turkey’s Saturday Mothers keep up vigil for lost relatives

“Erdoğan is trying to juggle two conflicting priorities,” noted analyst Atilla Yeşilada of U.S.-based consultancy Global Source Partners. “A: give the Kurds the least of what they want in return for a constitution that allows him to run again, and B: broaden his war against the CHP. I don’t know how he can finesse that.”

While Erdoğan speaks of a new era of unity between Turks, Arabs, and Kurds, he is simultaneously escalating a legal crackdown on the CHP, even going so far as to label the party a terror threat. This is a risky move, given that the pro-Kurdish DEM party has previously supported CHP candidates in both presidential and mayoral elections.

Kurdish analyst Mesut Yeğen, of the Center for Social Impact Research in Istanbul, warned that Erdoğan may be overplaying his hand. “If Erdoğan’s pressure on the CHP continues, then it’s likely that DEM’s electorate, members, and cadres could grow discontent,” Yeğen predicted.

“They’ll think that if Erdoğan succeeds against CHP, he’ll start a similar campaign against the DEM. So I think they will strike a kind of balance.”

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

Despite the uncertainty, powerful incentives remain on both sides to pursue peace. With the PKK largely pushed out of Turkish territory and facing military defeat, and Erdoğan in dire need of parliamentary support, momentum for a resolution is strong.

But with negotiations shrouded in secrecy, many remain skeptical about what kind of peace this process will ultimately deliver.

Amsterdam-based street artist Judith de Leeuw described her giant work in the northern French town of Roubaix, which has a large immigrant community, as “a quiet reminder of what freedom should be.”

She said “freedom feels out of reach” for migrants and “those pushed to the margins, silenced, or unseen.”

Explaining what she was aiming to achieve, she wrote on a post on Facebook on 4 Jul on Facebook: “I painted her covering her eyes because the weight of the world has become too heavy to witness. What was once a shining symbol of liberty now carries the sorrow of lost meaning.”

Her depiction of the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the French people in the late 1800s, has inspired some sharp criticism.

How Gustave Eiffel’s Statue of Liberty contribution cemented France-US relations

Tim Burchett, a Republican lawmaker from Tennessee, wrote in an angry post on X that the work “disgusts me.” He said he had an uncle who fought and died in France, where US forces saw combat in both World War I and World War II.

“I’m not offended to be hated by the Donald Trump movement. I am not sorry. This is the right thing to do,” she said.

‘Political message’

The town stood by the work, with its deputy mayor in charge of cultural affairs, Frédéric Lefebvre, telling broadcaster France 3 that “it’s a very strong and powerful political message.”

Since returning to the White House amid anti-immigration sentiment, Trump has launched an unprecedented campaign that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him.

People from various countries have been deported to remote and unrelated places like South Sudan and the small African nation of Eswatini.

Polling by Gallup released last week showed an increasing number of Americans who said immigration is a “good thing” and decreasing support for the type of mass deportations Trump has championed since before he was elected.

Fear in US border city as Trump launches immigration overhaul

The mural in Roubaix is part of an urban street culture event – the URBX festival – backed by the town. Roubaix is one of the poorest towns in France. It was economically devastated by the collapse since the 1970s of its once-flourishing textile industry that used to attract migrant workers from elsewhere in Europe, north Africa and beyond.

(with newswires, AP)

“People now prefer smaller families, and fertility will probably continue to fall,” Milan Bouchet-Valat, a sociologist and co-author of the study, told French news agency AFP.

Using data from two major national surveys carried out in 2005 and 2024, the study reveals a fundamental trend: younger generations want fewer children than their elders.

Among women under 30, the average number of children desired has fallen from 2.5 to 1.9 in 20 years.

Global fertility rate to plunge by end of century, study says

Two-child maximum

Large families too are losing ground, with just 29 percent of French people thinking that having three or more children is the ideal number – compared with half in 1998.

The ideal number of children per family is now 2.3 on average, compared with 2.7 in 1998. The two-child family is still the norm, with 65 percent of 18-49 year olds now considering two the ideal number, but this is now seen as a maximum, rather than a minimum.

Among young adults aged 18 to 29, the intention to have just one child, or none at all, outstrips that of having three or more. Only 10 percent of young men and 16 percent of young women want three children, while 20 percent and 14 percent respectively want to have just one.

This decline in the desire to have children is reflected in the country’s birth rate, which last year was at its lowest since 1945 – with 663,000 births recorded. 

Between 2014 and 2024 the fertility rate fell from two to 1.6 children per woman – still above the European Union average of 1.4. 

France’s ageing population is having fewer babies and living longer than ever

Fears for the future

This falling desire to have children is seen in people of all backgrounds, regardless of gender, level of education, occupation, country of birth or income.

The factors that influence this desire – or lack of – include fears over climate change and future prospects, and views on gender equality. 

Egalitarian concepts of the roles of men and women are associated with a lower desire to have children, particularly among men – a link that didn’t exist in the 2005 survey results. Men with more traditional views want more children, and are less likely to anticipate that parenthood will have an impact on their careers.

France’s Macron seeks to carry baby-making plan to term

“The price of professional inequality between women and men accentuates the fear of having children,” Minister for Equality Aurore Bergé told TV channel France 2 last Wednesday, in reaction to the results. “What we need to do is guarantee women total freedom: to have or not to have children, and to be able to welcome them in the best possible conditions.”

Meanwhile, 35 percent of those surveyed who said they were “very worried about future generations” in terms of the climate crisis, the future of democracy and economic prospects want fewer children than other respondents – and almost half of respondents aged 25–39 reported being “very” worried.

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

One morning on Marseille’s main shopping street, Rue Saint-Ferréol, a group of around 20 people gathered around the artist Mariam Benbakkar for what she calls a “colonial downtown walk”.

This neighbourhood, with its grand, imposing buildings, was constructed in 1848, when, after 20 years of war, Algeria was divided into three French departments.

“All the resources exploited in Algeria, but also in other colonies, arrived through the port of Marseille. This neighbourhood became a showcase for ship owners,” explains Benbakkar.

She passes around a photo book … Marseille, the first city to organise a colonial exhibition in 1906 … Marseille and its colonial museum … Marseille, the “gateway to the Orient”.

The night of rebellion that changed France and Algeria forever

‘History made invisible’

Colonial history remains almost hidden in the city of Marseille. A small stained-glass window with a ship here, a faded pediment there – but no plaques or explanations.

Benbakkar leads the small group into the flamboyant Uniqlo store, whose dome is as high as that of the prefecture.

The reason for the building’s grandeur? It used to be a branch of the Compagnie Algérienne, a French investment bank with operations in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon.

The letters C and A embedded in the wrought iron railings, and a heavy armoured door in the fitting rooms provide clues to the building’s past, but this isn’t explicitly acknowledged.

“There used to be a magnificent painted ceiling, showing the colonised cities, but it was covered up by Uniqlo’s air conditioning,” Benbakkar told RFI.

“This is knowledge that has been made completely invisible,” notes Anne, one of the participants on the tour. Despite having grown up in these streets, she admits: “I know little about the hidden stories behind these buildings.”

For Pauline, another young woman in the group, the tour is an opportunity to reflect on France’s colonial past. “I’m not from an immigrant background, but I still feel it concerns me,” she says.

For Benbakkar, everyone has, in one way or another, a personal history with the French colonies.

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

She reminds people that she is neither a sociologist nor a historian, but she chooses to talk about the history of her city. 

“For me, the best way of changing people’s mentality is to pass it on through speaking about it, in the streets,” she says.

She has been working with post-colonial imagery for several years, through her feminist collective Filles de Blédards (“Daughters of North African Immigrants”) and her Instagram account Marseille Coloniale.

She says she iis fascinated by public spaces, architecture, land registries and private construction.

‘These images affect us today’

“Marseille is a key city when it comes to France and migration. It has an extremely rich culture, but it’s not represented in cultural institutions,” explains Benbakkar.

She mentions the names of forgotten industrialists and politicians: Jules Charles-Roux, a wealthy ship owner whose granddaughter married Marseille’s mayor, Gaston Defferre; Édouard Marie Heckel, the founder of the colonial museum; Paulin Talabot, founder of the Paris-Lyon-Marseille railway and a lobbyist for the creation of the Suez Canal.

“There was a working bourgeoisie that made fortunes from the colonial empire. To this day, the redistribution of looted wealth is still not being done properly,” she points out, referring to private enclaves in the city’s wealthy neighbourhoods.

Equatorial Guinea accuses France of ‘neo-colonialism’ in Paris mansion row

Another stop on the tour is the C&A store – formerly the Grand Hotel du Louvre et de la Paix. It features four massive statues representing four continents.

The figures representing Europe and the Americas, draped in togas, carry a winged machine symbolising progress, while Asia and Africa, bare-chested, carry an elephant and a camel.

“These images, which were installed in the 19th century, still affect us today. It’s as if the urban space has a subconscious – eventually, we internalise those images,” says Benbakkar.

“We need reparations for the damage caused by 19th-century capitalism and imperialism, which still impacts the banking, economic and private property systems today. And for that, we need to recognise that we have been robbed of our common property and demand our fundamental rights: access to the sea, to nature, to decent housing, to streets for all.”

This article was adapted from the original version in French.

Pogacar, who is seeking a fourth title that will take him joint fifth on the all-time winner’s list, claimed the 12th and 13th stages to open up the gap on Vingegaard.

The wins on Thursday and Friday also furnished him with his 20th and 21st stage victories.

Friday’s 10.9 km time trial for the 13th stage was completed in 23 minutes.

“I really wanted to go all out from start to finish, smashing the pedals as much as possible,” said Pogacar. “I almost blew out in the end but I saw the time on the finish arch and it gave me an extra push because I saw I was going to win.”

Pogacar, the UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader, cemented his grip on the race during Thursday’s first big mountain stage on the slopes of Hautacam, where he destroyed the field to reclaim the yellow jersey after it had adorned the back of the Irish rider Ben Healy for two days

“So far, so good,” said Pogacar. “We’re just a bit over halfway now and it’s still a long way to Paris but if we keep riding like this and don’t do any mistakes, then we can be satisfied with this margin.”

Vingegaard says he will fight on

Vingegaard, who won cycling’s most prestigious race in 2022 and 2023, vowed to keep fighting.

“The Tour is far from over,” insisted the 28-year-old Dane. “We have to keep believing we can do something here in the race.”

Tim Wellens, Pogacar’s teammate took stage 15 on Sunday.  The 34-year-old Belgian completed the 169.3km between Muret and Carcassonne in three hours, 34 minutes and nine seconds.

Victor Campenaerts was second and Julien Alaphilippe was third.

“I had the opportunity, I took it, and I had legs to finish it,” said Wellens who ended the course 88 seconds ahead of Campenaerts.

“I knew that I had to enjoy the moment,” Wellens added. “I kept riding until the finish line because I wanted a big gap to fully enjoy it and maybe put my bike in the air after the finish. But I was so happy to win that I forgot to do it.”

The tour resumes on Tuesday with a 171.5km run between Montpellier and Mont Ventoux and concludes on Sunday along the Champs Elysées in Paris.

Germany were reduced to 10 players only 13 minutes into the game at St Jakob Park in Basel.

Kathrin Hendrich pulled Griedge Mbock’s hair in the penalty area and referee Tess Olofsson awarded a spot kick and dismissed Hendrich for her foul play.

Grace Geyoro thrashed her shot past the Germany goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger. 

The French, who scored 11 goals in their three games in Group D, failed to exploit their early advantage.

And within a quarter of an hour, Germany were level at 1-1.

From Klara Bühl’s corner, Sjoeke Nüsken guided a header over the France goalkeeper Pauline Peyraud-Magnin.

Delphine Cascarino thought she restored France’s lead just before half-time but it was ruled out for offside.

France had another strike chalked off after the break following a lengthy review by the video assistant referees.

Both sets of players were waiting to restart proceedings when Olofsson ruled out Geyoro’s strike for an offside in the build-up.

Germany miss penalty

Nüsken could have given Germany the lead midway through the second half but the 24-year-old Chelsea striker saw Peyraud-Magnin fly to her left to parry the effort.

In extra-time, it was Berger’s turn for heroics.

The 34-year-old appeared to have been caught out by Janina Minge’s misdirected header but she back-pedalled and leaped to scoop away the ball off the goal-line.

The acrobatics kept the score level and saved Minge’s blushes.

Both players converted their spot kicks during a shoot-out that went to sudden death after both teams missed one of the regulation five penalties.

After Buhl and Melween Ndongala converted for Germany and France respectively, Nüsken atoned for her earlier miss with an emphatic finish to give Germany a 6-5 lead.

Fittingly, Berger saved Alice Sombath’s shot to launch the German celebrations.

They will take on the world champions Spain on Wednesday night in Zurich for a place in the final on 27 July.

.

The looting of Ukrainian cultural property by Russia is “systematic, widespread and organised,” the association Pour l’Ukraine, pour leur liberté et la nôtre (“For Ukraine, for their freedom and ours”) said in its complaint to the ICC.

It is calling for arrest warrants to be issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin and eight high-ranking Russian officials, alleging that this mass plundering is “planned at the highest level of the Russian state” and has been enabled “by a well-oiled Russian organisation”.

According to Sylvie Rollet, president of the association and professor emeritus at the University of Poitiers: “Everything was in place at the time of the large-scale invasion [in February 2022].”

Ukrainian officials have also claimed that Russian forces looted the “largest and most valuable” collections of Scythian artefacts in Ukraine, in Melitopol.

Cultural establishments in the city of Mariupol, where a siege took place at the start of the war, have also been emptied of their works of art.

At the Kherson art museum, which had one of the richest collections in Ukraine, more than 10,000 works were stolen by the Russians during their occupation of the city.

According to the Ukrainian Minister of Culture, Mykola Tochytskyi, Russia has stolen more than 1.7 million works of art and cultural properties from the occupied territories of Ukraine since the start of the war.

How the Russian invasion has sparked a renaissance of Ukrainian culture

A legislative arsenal

Russia has created a legal framework allowing it to carry out these thefts. The federal law of 18 March, 2023 allowed it to incorporate “the collections of 77 Ukrainian museums into the country’s catalogue of museums”.

In December 2023, another new law extended the concept of a “museum collection” and stipulated that “any collection, until it is included in the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation, will be recognised as a valuable asset and thus placed under the protection of the Russian State” – “thus enshrining the systematic appropriation of the aforementioned assets by the Russian Federation,” notes the complaint.

Such acts of looting are considered war crimes under international conventions.

According to the Pour l’Ukraine association, Putin bears “full and primary responsibility for the adoption of legislation aimed at facilitating Russia’s appropriation of Ukraine’s cultural heritage”.

Russia sees France as its ‘chief enemy’ in Europe, says head of French army

Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova is also accused of having actively participated in “drafting the federal law governing the registration of museum collections from the annexed Ukrainian territories”.

Olga Lyubimova, the Russian Minister of Culture, is also suspected of being “directly involved in implementing the policy of despoiling the cultural heritage of the annexed Ukrainian territories,” as is her deputy Sergei Obryvalin.

“All of these individuals were kept informed of the planning, organisation and implementation of the joint plan to despoil Ukraine’s cultural heritage,” the complaint states.

Gaza’s ancient past revealed as artefacts survive destruction and exile

‘A new line in Russian history’

As for the fate of the looted art and artefacts, Rollet says: “Most of the works were sent to Russia. The aim is to show that this land has always been Russian, that Ukrainian artists are Russian, that the people are Russian, and so on.”

She added: “The historical societies, the directors of the major museums and the Inter-musées working group were also mobilised for the looting of museums in the occupied zones and for the transfer of these works either to annexed Crimea or to Russia, in order to ‘Russify’ them.”

“It’s about appropriating Ukrainian cultural heritage to turn it into a new line in Russian history, in the great Russia. This is a war crime,” Emmanuel Daoud, the association’s lawyer, told FranceInfo.

This operation was made all the more feasible because “Crimea served as a laboratory,” Rollet believes. According to data from the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, by July 2024 there were fewer than 1.2 million museum pieces left in Crimea, compared with 12 million before the Russian annexation.

Thirty-eight paintings from the collection of the I.K. Aïvazovsky National Art Gallery, located in Feodossia, Crimea were transferred to Russia to be shown at an exhibition organised at the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow in 2016.

Russian journalist exiled in Paris has ‘no regrets’ over criticising Ukraine war

Similarly, several works from museums in the Luhansk region were exhibited as part of the major Novorossiya exhibition held at the Russian Historical Museum in Moscow in autumn 2023 – and have never been returned to Ukraine.

Sergei Naryshkin, who holds the dual roles of director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service and head of the Russian Historical Society, has organised exhibitions “justifying the annexation of Ukrainian territories by Russia and conveying a falsified narrative about the ‘inextricable historical link’ between the Donbas and Russia,” according to Rollet. “It’s really a project to rewrite history.”

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

The 24-year-old man has been sentenced to surgical castration and life imprisonment with hard labour – the first time the law will be applied since it was voted through in parliament more than a year ago.

“Today’s decision is a strong and significant response from the justice system, intended also to serve as a warning to anyone with similar malicious intentions,” said Didier Razafindralambo, attorney general at the Court of Appeal.

According to Madagascar’s justice ministry, 133 cases of the rape of a minor were reported in January 2024 alone – more than four per day.

The offender in this case took the six-year-old girl to his home in March 2024, where he beat, raped and strangled her and burnt her with cigarette butts.

Permanent punishment

Surgical castration is a permanent procedure involving the removal of the testicles, or ovaries, to stop the production of sex hormones.

It is a rare form of punishment, only used in Germany, the Czech Republic, the state of Louisiana in the United States and that of Kaduna in Nigeria – and now Madagascar.

Chemical castration involves the use of drugs to stop the production of sex hormones. The punishment has been introduced in several US states, and several countries.

Lone migrant children face ‘care gap’ in France, with some left on streets

Madagascar’s Justice Minister Landy Mbolatiana Randriamanantenasoa said that the introduction of the law enabling surgical castration was necessary due to increasing cases of child rape.

Surgical castration will be the default punishment for those found guilty of raping a child under the age of 10, according to the new law. Cases of rape against children between the ages of 10 and 13 will be punished by either surgical or chemical castration. The rape of minors between the age of 14 and 17 will be punished by chemical castration.

‘Cruel and inhuman’

The country’s Catholic bishops have condemned the law, saying it goes against ethics and morality. They described castration as an act of “torture”, contrary to human rights and the principles of the Church.

“The human body, as the work of God, is sacred,” they said in a statement. “So nothing and no one has authority over it, not even the law.”

The law has also drawn criticism from several rights groups. At the time of the law’s proposal, Amnesty International called castration a “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” and said it was “inconsistent with Malagasy constitutional provisions against torture and other ill-treatment, as well as regional and international human rights standards”.

France among EU states to test age-check app to protect children online

However, Jessica Lolonirina Nivoseheno of Women Break the Silence – a movement against rape culture in Madagascar – told RFI that the punishment will act as a deterrent.

“Rape culture is so present in Madagascar. Sexual violence is normalised. The punishment is a way of telling potential offenders that there are consequences for their crime.”

One morning on Marseille’s main shopping street, Rue Saint-Ferréol, a group of around 20 people gathered around the artist Mariam Benbakkar for what she calls a “colonial downtown walk”.

This neighbourhood, with its grand, imposing buildings, was constructed in 1848, when, after 20 years of war, Algeria was divided into three French departments.

“All the resources exploited in Algeria, but also in other colonies, arrived through the port of Marseille. This neighbourhood became a showcase for ship owners,” explains Benbakkar.

She passes around a photo book … Marseille, the first city to organise a colonial exhibition in 1906 … Marseille and its colonial museum … Marseille, the “gateway to the Orient”.

The night of rebellion that changed France and Algeria forever

‘History made invisible’

Colonial history remains almost hidden in the city of Marseille. A small stained-glass window with a ship here, a faded pediment there – but no plaques or explanations.

Benbakkar leads the small group into the flamboyant Uniqlo store, whose dome is as high as that of the prefecture.

The reason for the building’s grandeur? It used to be a branch of the Compagnie Algérienne, a French investment bank with operations in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Lebanon.

The letters C and A embedded in the wrought iron railings, and a heavy armoured door in the fitting rooms provide clues to the building’s past, but this isn’t explicitly acknowledged.

“There used to be a magnificent painted ceiling, showing the colonised cities, but it was covered up by Uniqlo’s air conditioning,” Benbakkar told RFI.

“This is knowledge that has been made completely invisible,” notes Anne, one of the participants on the tour. Despite having grown up in these streets, she admits: “I know little about the hidden stories behind these buildings.”

For Pauline, another young woman in the group, the tour is an opportunity to reflect on France’s colonial past. “I’m not from an immigrant background, but I still feel it concerns me,” she says.

For Benbakkar, everyone has, in one way or another, a personal history with the French colonies.

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

She reminds people that she is neither a sociologist nor a historian, but she chooses to talk about the history of her city. 

“For me, the best way of changing people’s mentality is to pass it on through speaking about it, in the streets,” she says.

She has been working with post-colonial imagery for several years, through her feminist collective Filles de Blédards (“Daughters of North African Immigrants”) and her Instagram account Marseille Coloniale.

She says she iis fascinated by public spaces, architecture, land registries and private construction.

‘These images affect us today’

“Marseille is a key city when it comes to France and migration. It has an extremely rich culture, but it’s not represented in cultural institutions,” explains Benbakkar.

She mentions the names of forgotten industrialists and politicians: Jules Charles-Roux, a wealthy ship owner whose granddaughter married Marseille’s mayor, Gaston Defferre; Édouard Marie Heckel, the founder of the colonial museum; Paulin Talabot, founder of the Paris-Lyon-Marseille railway and a lobbyist for the creation of the Suez Canal.

“There was a working bourgeoisie that made fortunes from the colonial empire. To this day, the redistribution of looted wealth is still not being done properly,” she points out, referring to private enclaves in the city’s wealthy neighbourhoods.

Equatorial Guinea accuses France of ‘neo-colonialism’ in Paris mansion row

Another stop on the tour is the C&A store – formerly the Grand Hotel du Louvre et de la Paix. It features four massive statues representing four continents.

The figures representing Europe and the Americas, draped in togas, carry a winged machine symbolising progress, while Asia and Africa, bare-chested, carry an elephant and a camel.

“These images, which were installed in the 19th century, still affect us today. It’s as if the urban space has a subconscious – eventually, we internalise those images,” says Benbakkar.

“We need reparations for the damage caused by 19th-century capitalism and imperialism, which still impacts the banking, economic and private property systems today. And for that, we need to recognise that we have been robbed of our common property and demand our fundamental rights: access to the sea, to nature, to decent housing, to streets for all.”

This article was adapted from the original version in French.

The horde descended on the RN141 on the outskirts of Limoges city centre and tried to block the road during a battle with police in which nine officers were injured

“They’re organised, structured, there’s a plan, weapons,” said Limoges mayor Émile Roger Lombertie.

“This was not a spontaneous protest to complain about something. No pretext, nothing. It’s about destroying things and showing the territory belongs to you.

“They’re an urban guerrilla group,” Lombertie added.

The clashes came during one of the busiest weekends on roads throughout France as holidaymakers set off for their summer breaks or make the journey back home to resume work.

“None of the motorists were physically assaulted. However, several are particularly shocked,” Limoges prosecutors said in a statement.

“The investigation is continuing into armed participation in an assembly, violence against national police officers and organised gang damage to other people’s property,” the prosecutors office added.

On the night of 14 July, France’s national holiday to celebrate one of the most significant events during the French Revolution in 1789, clashes erupted in the Val de l’Aurence district of Limoges between gangs of youths and police that left two officers injured.

“Val de l’Aurence has become a lawless zone,” added Lombertie.

After the match ended goalless at the Honneur Stadium in Oujda, South Africa triumphed 4–1 in the shoot-out to set up a semi-final date with Nigeria at the Stade Larbi Zaouli in Casablanca.

Following crucial saves towards the end of the encounter, South Africa’s goalkeeper Andile Dlamini emerged as the heroine.

The 32-year-old dived to her left to palm away Senegal’s second penalty taken by Nguenar Ndiaye and she sprang to the right to block Méta Kandé’s next effort.

Those feats left Bambanani Mbane with the chance to secure a place in the semi-final and the 35-year-old defender thrashed high into the top left hand corner to spark South African celebrations.

“I said the game was not going to be easy,” South Africa boss Desiree Ellis told reporters after the match.

“I said it was going to be a difficult game because of the group Senegal were in and how they got out – and we didn’t expect anything less.

“I don’t have enough words to describe my team – the resilience, the courage, the never-say-die attitude, the willingness to fight for each other. No matter what they threw at us we were able to withstand that.”

Ghana continue surge

Ghana’s game against Algeria in Berkane also finished goalless after extra-time and the west Africans set up their semi-final showdown with hosts Morocco after seeing off Algeria 4-2 in the shoot-out.

Goalkeeper Cynthia Konlan saved efforts from Marine Dafeur and Inès Belloumou to give her side the advantage and a place in the last four for the first time since 2016.

“Obviously a lot of emotions for me,” said Ghana boss Kim Lars Björkegren who took over in January.

“But most of all I’m happy for the players and for the other coaches, the staff, everybody that works so hard around the team.

“They’re doing a great job. It’s so many that deserve this victory. So I’m really happy for them and proud of their girls. I really like the hard work that they’re putting in.”

Ghana will take on Morocco at the Stade Olympique on Tuesday evening attempting to reach the final for the first time since 2006.

On 26 May, the Heritage Foundation, the influential United States conservative think tank, chose Paris as its platform to speak to Europe.

Kevin Roberts, the foundation’s president, delivered a keynote address at a closed-door gathering of European nationalists and conservatives, stressing unity against “globalist institutions” and a desire for “sovereign cooperation” over centralised governance.

One day later, the US State Department’s Substack channel published an article by Samuel D. Samson, “Senior Advisor for the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor”, entitled The Need for Civilizational Allies in Europe. 

The article argues that the US–Europe alliance must be rooted in shared Western values such as natural law and national sovereignty. It warns that “rising censorship and political repression” in Europe risk “eroding democracy,” thus weakening this vital partnership.

For those tracking transatlantic conservative networks, this was just the latest sign of a deepening alliance.

In February, in Madrid, key members of the European Parliament’s far-right Patriots for Europe coalition, including Spain’s Vox party, the Netherlands’ PVV, France’s National Rally, and Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, met to consolidate their agenda.

Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, took centre stage, urging “true Europeans” to reject the “Brussels elite” in favour of a new, sovereign-focused Union.

National Rally host far-right leaders at ‘Patriots for Europe’ event

Behind the scenes of these gatherings lie two quietly influential institutions: the Ordi Iuris Institute for Legal Culture in Poland, and the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) in Budapest.

Both are close collaborators of the Heritage Foundation, sharing strategy, ideology and, according to critics, a vision for dismantling liberal democratic safeguards in favour of nationalist governance.

These institutions are strongly inspired by Heritage’s “Presidential Transition Project 2025, a Mandate for Leadership” – a comprehensive blueprint for a second Trump presidency.

Can Europe withstand the ripple effect of the MAGA political wave?

The European outlets followed their own policy manifestos aimed at reshaping the European Union. They argue not for reform, but for a structural reinvention of the EU, one that re-empowers nation-states and neuters the authority of central bodies such as the European Commission.

“We diagnosed the European Union as a failed organisation,” said Zbigniew Przybylowski, development director at Ordo Iuris.

“It has promised to deliver number one status in economics … and it failed. This is not by accident, it is because of how the European Union functions, and we want to fix it,” he told RFI. 

That “fix” takes the form of a sweeping plan: eliminate the Commission, empower the European Council, and reframe Europe as a consortium of sovereign, competitive states – “a new beginning” according to Rodrigo Ballester of the MCC.

“You may say we want to create a ‘tabula rasa’,” he says. “We’ve presented this report in Washington, Madrid, Budapest and Brussels. And it hit a nerve, because it’s the first coherent alternative to the European consensus since Maastricht.

But critics see more than just policy realignments.

US Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, argues that Trump’s ideological ties to European strongmen reveal a deeper ambition: to emulate Orban’s “quasi-autocratic” model at home.

“It’s an open secret that Trump’s political infrastructure has been working with Viktor Orban’s political infrastructure and other enemies of democracy in and around Europe,” Murphy warned. “He’s copying what they have done.”

US – Europe partnership must remain strong, says visiting US Senator

And that influence goes both ways. According to Kenneth Haar, a campaigner with Corporate Europe Observatory: “The Heritage Foundation spearheaded Project 2025 to prepare the first 100 days of a Trump presidency. What we’re seeing in Europe now – joint reports, lobbying efforts in Brussels, an anti-centralisation crusade – you can trace it back to the same playbook.”

Indeed, Ordo Iuris organised a major international summit in Warsaw last autumn, bringing together conservative figures from across Europe and the United States. Heritage took a prominent seat.

“They have a choice of calling us Putin agents or Trump agents,” Przybylowski says. “But these carry no meaning. What we want is a discussion about our countries falling… We want to restore healthy competition and dismantle technocratic over-reach.”

While the goals may seem rooted in ideology, the tactics reveal a pragmatic, coalitionist approach.

MCC and Ordo Iuris both emphasise their preference for national sovereignty, democratic mandates, and “bottom-up” governance – and their hostility to what Przybylowski of Ordo Iuris describes as a “Soviet Union II”, referring to what they perceive as EU centralisation.

Trump says EU, Mexico to face 30 percent tariff from 1 August

Great Reset

In 2024, MCC and Ordo Iuris jointly published “The Great Reset“, a 41-page report calling for sweeping EU reforms to restore national sovereignty and curb Brussels’ power.

Alarmed by 267 proposed treaty amendments, the report advocates limiting EU competences, reinstating unanimity voting, elevating national leaders over supranational bodies and allowing member states greater autonomy through “à la carte integration”.

It proposes either a major institutional rebalancing or, failing that, the replacement of the EU with a looser alliance of nations. Critics argue the plan threatens democracy, minority rights and the stability of European integration. 

This overlapping of American and European radical-right networks raises concerns. “They are active players in everyday politics,” Haar told RFI. “They push anti-LGBT and anti-abortion sentiment not only in their own countries, but at the European level too.”

He added that Ordo Iuris was instrumental in limiting the right to abortion in Poland a few years ago. “They do that through work in the courts and they do that through political connections,” he said. 

Critics such as Haar fear that for these organisations, democracy is a means to power, not necessarily a principle.

As Murphy puts it: “Trump doesn’t want American democracy to persevere. He wants to transition America … and he’s learned from people like Viktor Orban and Erdogan who have engaged in that transition.”

Poland’s border clampdown highlights EU tensions as leaders gather in London

Yet MCC’s Ballester counters that his project is neither anti-European nor anti-democratic, but rather corrective. He sees Brussels as dominated by a “dogmatic” culture, resistant to criticism.

“Too many see the EU as a cult,” he said. “Any criticism is treated like blasphemy.”

Whether one views these initiatives as a long-overdue radical rethink or as a Trojan horse for democratic backsliding, it is clear that the MAGA movement’s nationalist template is being eagerly adopted and adapted across Europe.

The result could be a continent less interested in integration and more committed to divergence – one where the language of sovereignty increasingly trumps solidarity.

India now has more than 600,000 French speakers, according to the International Organisation of Francophonie (OIF) and French is the most widely studied foreign language in the country. 

For Kannan, her love of the French language began at the Alliance Française of Madras in India, from the moment she had her first lesson at the age of 19.

“French is my love. It changed my life. It gave me my career,” she told RFI. 

She teaches masters students at the University of Madras who aspire to become French teachers or translators. like her.

“It’s often said in language learning that when you’re multilingual, with each language you speak you gain a new personality. And it’s true for me, in my mother tongue I’m not the same person. I’m more confident in French,” she says.

“And sharing this language and the culture that comes with it with my students, that’s my greatest joy.”

Will young people be the saviours of France’s endangered Breton language?

Use of AI

Kannan teaches literature, translation and theory and tries to make her classes as interactive as possible. 

“We use new technologies to create interactive exercises like crosswords or quizzes, or even an activity where you can match a word with its definition or with a sound.”

She also deploys artificial intelligence (AI) in her classes, saying: “It’s kind of like my teaching assistant.”

She uses it to create exercises, and also utilises AI-generated content – for example, a podcast that analyses the classic French novel The Red and the Black by Stendhal. 

“The question is whether AI can create a teaching guide as well as I can. Will I even have a job in the future?” she wonders, but concludes: “The teacher won’t be replaced by AI, but by a teacher who knows how to use AI. I’m still the one leading the class.”

The French-American duo reviving Louisiana’s francophone heritage

This report was adapted from the podcast Reportage France produced by Lucie Bouteloup.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was told Europe would reactivate UN sanctions if Tehran does not make progress on a deal by the end of August.

A “snapback” mechanism – which allows for the reimposition of all international sanctions against Iran – could be deployed, said the French Foreign Ministry.

“It could be used In the absence of concrete progress towards a deal on the nuclear programme by the end of the summer,” said a French Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

“Pressure is being applied to convince Iran of the urgency of returning to the diplomatic path without delay, in order to reach a robust, verifiable, and durable agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme.” the spokesperson added.

The state of Iran’s nuclear programme has come under intense scrutiny since Israeli and US strikes on Iranian military and nuclear facilities in June.

 A clause in Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement says UN sanctions against Tehran can come back if the country fails to comply with the terms of the deal.

European diplomats want to make headway during the summer as the agreement is due to expire in October.

Rounds of negotiations

Since April, Iranian and American officials have held several rounds of negotiations through Omani mediators. On 13 June, Israel launched an attack on Iran. American forces also carried out  strikes on Iran.

Since the end of the hostilities on 24 June, both Iran and the US have signalled that they are willing to return to the negotiating able.

However, a sticking point remains. Tehran says it will not renounce its right to the peaceful use of nuclear power.

The American administration is opposed to Iran possessing the means to build a nuclear bomb.

At a ceremony in northern Iraq, PKK commander Bese Hozart announced that the disarmament by 30 fighters – 15 men and 15 women – was undertaken freely and in line with the group’s commitment to pursue a democratic socialist society through peaceful means. The fighters’ weapons were burned as part of the symbolic event.

The move came just days after the release of a video message from imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, who reiterated his call for an end to the armed struggle and the formal dissolution of the group. It was the first time the Turkish public had heard Öcalan’s voice since his incarceration in 1999.

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

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan responded by telling supporters that the country had reached a historic moment. Ankara now expects a complete disarmament of the remaining PKK fighters by autumn.

Since the beginning of the peace process last year, Erdoğan has ruled out making concessions, insisting the rebels are unilaterally surrendering. However, the high-profile nature of the disarmament ceremony is increasing pressure on the government to respond in kind.

“This is a historic moment; this is a conflict that has been going on for nearly half a century. Now it’s the government’s turn to actually open up the political space,” said Aslı Aydıntaşbaş of the Brookings Institution in Washington.

“Both the Kurdish side and the Turkish side are telling their own constituencies that they’re not giving up much—trying to convince their bases, which, in both cases, seem unprepared for such a radical shift,” she added.

Kurdish leader Ocalan calls for PKK disarmament, paving way for peace

Opaque negotiations, rising distrust

As a gesture of goodwill, the government has reportedly improved Öcalan’s prison conditions and allowed communication through a so-called “secretariat.”

However, the PKK continues to press for broader concessions, including an amnesty for its members and the right for ex-fighters to return to Turkey. There have also been calls for Öcalan’s release, alongside the release of tens of thousands of individuals jailed under Turkey’s broad anti-terror laws.

Yet concerns are mounting over the transparency of the peace negotiations. “It’s really difficult even to assess it because we don’t really know what’s going on,” said Zeynep Ardıç, an expert on conflict resolution at Istanbul’s Medeniyet University. “Some negotiations don’t need to be public, but the public should still be informed,” she said.

Ardıç warned that the current polarization in Turkish politics and a legacy of mistrust built over decades of conflict make transparency essential. “There should be a bit of transparency, because people don’t trust state institutions, people don’t trust each other, people don’t trust the government or the judiciary.

So, it’s not easy to succeed under these circumstances. The government needs to reinstall trust – not just among Kurdish people, but among Turkish people as well.”

Politics could undermine fragile progress

Following the disarmament ceremony, Erdoğan announced the formation of a parliamentary commission to oversee the process, including members from his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), his coalition partner the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and the pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM). Notably absent was the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), whose exclusion is fueling fears that Erdoğan is politicizing the peace process.

Erdoğan requires the support of Kurdish parliamentarians to amend the constitution and potentially remove presidential term limits—allowing him to remain in power indefinitely.

Turkey’s Saturday Mothers keep up vigil for lost relatives

“Erdoğan is trying to juggle two conflicting priorities,” noted analyst Atilla Yeşilada of U.S.-based consultancy Global Source Partners. “A: give the Kurds the least of what they want in return for a constitution that allows him to run again, and B: broaden his war against the CHP. I don’t know how he can finesse that.”

While Erdoğan speaks of a new era of unity between Turks, Arabs, and Kurds, he is simultaneously escalating a legal crackdown on the CHP, even going so far as to label the party a terror threat. This is a risky move, given that the pro-Kurdish DEM party has previously supported CHP candidates in both presidential and mayoral elections.

Kurdish analyst Mesut Yeğen, of the Center for Social Impact Research in Istanbul, warned that Erdoğan may be overplaying his hand. “If Erdoğan’s pressure on the CHP continues, then it’s likely that DEM’s electorate, members, and cadres could grow discontent,” Yeğen predicted.

“They’ll think that if Erdoğan succeeds against CHP, he’ll start a similar campaign against the DEM. So I think they will strike a kind of balance.”

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

Despite the uncertainty, powerful incentives remain on both sides to pursue peace. With the PKK largely pushed out of Turkish territory and facing military defeat, and Erdoğan in dire need of parliamentary support, momentum for a resolution is strong.

But with negotiations shrouded in secrecy, many remain skeptical about what kind of peace this process will ultimately deliver.

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

The ePOP video competition is open!

The ePOP video competition is sponsored by the RFI department “Planète Radio”, whose mission is to give a voice to the voiceless. ePOP focuses on the environment and how climate change has affected “ordinary” people.

The ePOP contest is your space to ensure these voices are heard. 

How do you do it?

With a three-minute ePOP video. It should be pure testimony, captured by your lens: the spoken word reigns supreme. No tricks, no music, no text on the screen. Just the raw authenticity of an encounter, in horizontal format (16:9). An ePOP film is a razor-sharp look at humanity that challenges, moves, and enlightens.

From June 12 to September 12, 2025, ePOP invites you to reach out, open your eyes, and create that unique bridge between a person and the world.

Join the ePOP community and make reality vibrate!

Click here for all the information you need. 

We expect to be overwhelmed with entries from the English speakers!

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

Facebook: Be sure to send your photos to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr for the RFI English Listeners Forum banner!

More tech news: Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Just go to YouTube and write “RFI English” in the search bar, and there we are! Be sure to subscribe to see all our videos.

Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you!

Our website “Le Français facile avec RFI” has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bilingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard.

Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level” and you’ll be counselled to the best-suited activities for your level.

Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service, told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you’ll get it.” She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it!

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

In addition to the news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.

There’s Spotlight on France, Spotlight on Africa, The International Report, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We also have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. 

Remember, podcasts are radio, too! As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Please keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with!

To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you’ll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. 

Teachers take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. N.B.: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

This week’s quiz: On 21 June, I asked you a question about our article “Togo suspends French broadcasters RFI, France 24 for three months”. We were informed on June 16th.

Togo has accused us of biased and inaccurate reporting.

The shutdown followed protests in the country’s capital, Lomé, in early June.

You were to send in the answers to these two questions: What is the name of Togo’s president, and what is the reason for the protests?

The answers are: The name of Togo’s president is Faure Gnassingbé. The reason for the protests is due to, to quote the RFI English article:  “… increasing pressure from critics over recent changes in the constitution that could effectively keep Gnassingbé in power indefinitely. Critics have called the changes a constitutional coup.”

Faure Gnassingbé was elected in 2005. He’s the son of Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who was president for 38 years. At the time of his death, Gnassingbé Eyadéma was the longest-serving leader in modern African history.

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “Have you ever made a mistake that ended up saving you?” It was suggested by Jayanta Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India.

Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

The winners are: Sultan Mahmud Sarker, the president of the Shetu RFI Fan Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh. Sultan is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations, Sultan, on your double win.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Ferhat Bezazel, the president of the RFI Butterflies Club Ain Kechara in West Skikda, Algeria, and RFI Listeners Club members Rubi Saikia from Assam, India, as well as Nasyr Muhammad from Katsina State, Nigeria. Last but not least, there’s RFI English listener Kalyani Basak from Kerala State, India.

Congratulations, winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Raga Charu Keshi” played by Ravi Shankar; traditional music from Togo performed by the Flutistes Kotokoli; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and the Quartet in F major by Maurice Ravel, performed by the  Alban Berg Quartet.  

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, watch the video and re-read Dhananjay Khadilikar’s article “Swiss exoplanet pioneer reflects on Earth’s place in the cosmos”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 22 September to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 27 September podcast. When you enter, be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

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

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

Christensen, who was 13 years old at the time of the sinking, remembers being inspired by the courage of the crew, who sailed into danger to protest French nuclear testing in the Pacific.

The bombing, which killed photographer Fernando Pereira, revealed the extreme lengths to which governments were willing to go to protect their interests – and the power of peaceful resistance in the face of aggression.

You still can’t sink a rainbow, Greenpeace boss says 40 years after bombing

The slogan “you can’t sink a rainbow” became a symbol of defiance and resilience for Greenpeace.

Christensen argues that the bombing ultimately gave the movement greater momentum and visibility, proving that when governments attempt to crush protest they often strengthen it instead.

Today, Greenpeace faces new threats – from SLAPP suits to fossil fuel giants using legal action to intimidate activists. But just as in 1985, Christensen says Greenpeace will not be silenced.

The Rainbow Warrior’s legacy lives on in every campaign, every act of mobilisation and every young activist who refuses to look the other way.

Forty years after the Rainbow Warrior bombing, activists still under attack

Thousands marched through the streets of the Mediterranean city of Adana in protest at the arrest of its mayor on alleged corruption charges. The mayors of Antalya and Adiyaman have also been detained on similar charges. More than a dozen mayors of Turkey’s main opposition CHP have now been jailed.

The legal crackdown began in March with the jailing of Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, and on Wednesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed there would be no letting up.

“We launched an investigation into the largest theft ring in the history of the Republic, the most reckless organised crime organisation ever,” Erdogan told his parliamentary deputies.

“Those who took bribes, those who practically held cities under extortion, those who put people in a difficult situation and then robbed them were all CHP people,” he continued.

A battle for survival 

Erdogan further ratcheted up the pressure on the CHP with a presidential motion calling for the lifting of parliamentary immunity from 61 out of CHP’s 121 deputies.

CHP leader Ozgur Ozel is also under investigation for allegedly inciting public hatred and insulting the president.

Ozel is at the forefront of leading anti-government protests across the country, which continue to attract large crowds as the party builds a significant lead in opinion polls over Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The CHP claims their growing success is what is motivating the recent prosecutions, rather than corruption. “These are politically driven arrests and investigations,” declared party spokesman Ilhan Uzgel. “Not a single government party mayor is even investigated.”

Uzgel admits that with more than 500 of its officials having been arrested, the party is facing a battle for survival. “The government has all the instruments of the state. They control the judiciary, they control the police force etc etc. So it’s very difficult to stop it.”

Despite mounting pressure, however, Uzgel insists they will not back down.

“We are organising rallies twice a week, our leader is very energetic. He [Ozel]… said we are not going to back down. The government, they don’t want the opposition party to challenge Erdogan’s authority. This is the core of the issue right now.”

Turkey walks a fine line as conflict between Israel and Iran cools

Broadcasting bans

However, the political noose around the neck of the CHP continues to tighten. This week, the opposition Sozcu TV station was banned for 10 days by regulatory authorities for “inciting public hatred” after broadcasting protests against the jailing of the Istanbul mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu.

Another opposition TV station, Halk, is facing a similar ban. The two are among the few media outlets that continue to report on the ongoing CHP protests against the waves of arrests.

The broadcast bans are being seen as a sign that the days of critical media could be numbered.

“I believe by the end of this year we might be hearing of the start of the liquidation of critical TV channels,” claims Erol Onderoglu, Istanbul representative of the Paris-based NGO Reporters Without Borders.

Fears are growing too that the threat against independent media is part of a much more worrying process of the dismantling of the pillars of democracy.

Turkey steps into EU defence plans as bloc eyes independence from US

Opinion polls

However, the government appears to be losing the battle for people’s minds, with several opinion polls reporting that more than 60 percent of people polled believe the legal crackdown on CHP is politically motivated.

Anger against the government also continues to grow over 40 percent inflation.

Sezin Oney, an analyst for the independent Poltiyol news outlet, fears a political showdown is looming. “Turkish democracy is on its deathbed, actually. Erdogan envisions a political stage where we don’t have a really challenging opposition. [Arrests] will escalate and escalate. They will go as far as they can until they reach their target.”

While Erdogan remains in a strong position, the opposition is still a threat to the president. “He does have most of the cards,” said Oney, “but he doesn’t have the support of the public in general. So, at the end of the day, at one point it will be the people versus Erdogan.”

“What matters is where the security forces stand,” he added, “When it comes to a point when the people take to the streets en masse, will the security bureaucracy go against their own people?”

Neither the CHP nor Erdogan are showing any signs of capitulating, with protests expected to continue and likely to intensify in September, coinciding with the reopening of universities and the return of people from summer holidays. Court cases against the CHP are also scheduled to resume then.

With both sides insisting they are fighting for the future of their country, it could well be a fight that leaves only one side standing.

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

The ePOP video competition is open!

The ePOP video competition is sponsored by the RFI department “Planète Radio”, whose mission is to give a voice to the voiceless. ePOP focuses on the environment and how climate change has affected “ordinary” people.

The ePOP contest is your space to ensure these voices are heard. 

How do you do it?

With a three-minute ePOP video. It should be pure testimony, captured by your lens: the spoken word reigns supreme. No tricks, no music, no text on the screen. Just the raw authenticity of an encounter, in horizontal format (16:9). An ePOP film is a razor-sharp look at humanity that challenges, moves, and enlightens.

From June 12 to September 12, 2025, ePOP invites you to reach out, open your eyes, and create that unique bridge between a person and the world.

Join the ePOP community and make reality vibrate!

Click here for all the information you need. 

We expect to be bombarded with entries from the English speakers!

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

Facebook: Be sure to send your photos to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr for the RFI English Listeners Forum banner!

More tech news: Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Just go to YouTube and write “RFI English” in the search bar, and there we are! Be sure to subscribe to see all our videos.

Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you!

Our website “Le Français facile avec RFI” has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bilingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard.

Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level” and you’ll be counselled to the best-suited activities for your level.

Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service, told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you’ll get it.” She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it!

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

In addition to the news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.

There’s Spotlight on France, Spotlight on Africa, The International Report, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We also have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. 

Remember, podcasts are radio, too! As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Please keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with!

To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you’ll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. 

Teachers take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. N.B.: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

This week’s quiz: On 14 June, I asked you a question about the 2025 One Ocean Summit, which was held in the French city of Nice. There was very good news on the opening day: French Polynesia’s President Moetai Brotherson announced that his country is on track to create the world’s largest marine protected area.

You were to re-read our article “French Polynesia unveils world’s largest marine protected zone”, and send in the answer to this question: What is the size of France’s maritime domain?

The answer is: 11 million square kilometers. As noted in our article: “Polynesia’s announcement alone allows France, whose maritime domain covers 11 million square kilometers, to increase the proportion of its waters under protection to 78 percent, a broad term that includes areas where activity restrictions are minimal.

Of this area, 14.8 percent is now considered highly protected, compared to 4.8 percent before Polynesia’s announcement.

Just eight percent of global oceans are designated for marine conservation, despite a globally agreed target to achieve 30 percent coverage by 2030.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “Which season of the year do you like the most, and why?” The question was suggested by Rafiq Khondaker.

Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

The winners are: Saleem Akhtar, the president of the RFI Seven Stars Radio Club in District Chiniot, Pakistan. Saleem is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations, Saleem, on your double win.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week is RFI Listeners Club member Sahadot Hossain, who, as an Assistant Professor of Geography and Environment at the Gurudayal Government College in Kishoreganj, Bangladesh, can probably recite every country’s maritime domain in his sleep! There are two more RFI Club members on the list this week, and they’re both from Assam, India: Deekay Dimple and Karobi Hazarika. Last but assuredly not least, there’s RFI English listener Lata Yeasmin Jahan, the co-chairwoman of the Sonali Badhan Female Listeners Club in Bogura, Bangladesh.

Congratulations, winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Dawganova”  by David Grisman, played by the David Grisman Quintet; “Le coucou” by Louis-Claude Daquin, performed by Ruth Laredo; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Scar Tissue”, written by Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante, and Chad Smith, and performed by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read our article “Seven Nobel laureates urge France to adopt tax on ‘ultra-rich’”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 25 AUGUST (yep, summer vacation is coming up!) to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 30 August podcast. When you enter, be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

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

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

This week, we begin in Harlem, New York City, USA, with Rico Speight, a film and theatre director.

His film, Rediscovering Fanon, was screened in Paris on 5 July in partnership with the Frantz-Fanon Foundation, as this year marks the centenary of one of the inspirational figures of the anti-colonial movement. The film will also be screened acorss France and in Martinque later in the year.

According to Speight, Frantz Omar Fanon (1925–1961), whose ideas have stirred the hearts of progressives since the 1950s, continues to inspire even decades after his death.

With Speight’s latest documentary, the filmmaker said he “aims to reveal the man behind the legend and analyse the relevance of his prolific theories in a globalised, post-racial millennium.”

Biopic explores the life and legacy of Frantz Fanon, a century after his birth

We also head to Unesco in Paris, where Spotlight on Africa spoke to Caroline Munier about the UN agency’s new report on the state of the publishing industry on the African continent. 

Episode mixed by Melissa Chemam and Erwan Rome.

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

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.