The Russian paramilitary group Wagner has left behind a troubled record in Mali, according to a report published by the United States-based war crimes watchdog The Sentry.

The organisation assessed Wagner’s impact in the Sahel country between January 2022 and June 2025 – when its mercenaries were replaced by the Africa Corps, a new force directly under Moscow’s command.

When the Wagner Group announced its departure earlier this year, it claimed its “mission was accomplished”.

However, the report’s findings detail three and a half years of insecurity and strategic failure.

How Moscow is reinventing its influence machine across Africa

‘A triple failure’

The report outlines what it calls Wagner’s “triple failure”.

The first is a military one: the Russian fighters proved unable to secure northern and central Mali, despite high expectations from Bamako’s transitional authorities.

Secondly, their arrival coincided with a “significant increase” in attacks against civilians.

And third, far from strengthening ties between the army and local populations, their actions “gravely undermined” confidence, creating fertile ground for jihadist groups to boost recruitment.

Wagner’s presence, the Sentry argues, also destabilised the Malian security apparatus.

“The fighters of Wagner sowed chaos and fear within the military hierarchy,” the report notes, describing a chain of command now plagued by mistrust and poor communication.

Malian army and Wagner Group abduct and execute Fulani civilians, NGO claims

Fragile partnership

Speaking to RFI, Justyna Gudzowska, executive director of the Sentry, said Malian authorities turned to Wagner believing the Russian mercenaries would “take greater risks and truly commit to fighting terrorists”.

Instead, she explained, “Wagner fighters refused to act without payment, refused to help without financial compensation, and in some cases flatly refused to take risks“.

What was intended to be a partnership with the Malian armed forces quickly soured, she said. “Wagner treated Malian soldiers as subordinates, perpetrated grave abuses, and instilled such fear that even Malian troops were afraid to speak out.”

These issues culminated in a decisive defeat in July 2024, when rebels from the Azawad region of northern Mali and jihadists from the al Qaeda-linked JNIM group ambushed Malian and Wagner forces at Tinzaouatène, killing more than 80 Russian mercenaries and around 50 Malian soldiers.

This blow, according to Gudzowska, tarnished Wagner’s reputation well beyond Mali’s borders: “More than a year later, it has still not recovered.”

Five years after the 2020 coup, where is Mali today?

While Wagner has departed and Russia’s Africa Corps has stepped into its shoes, Mali’s security crisis shows little sign of abating.

Jihadist groups remain active across wide swathes of the country. Earlier this week, they reportedly seized the strategic town of Farabougou in central Mali, days after forcing the army to abandon one of its largest camps in the region.

JNIM fighters now control the town, imposing their rule on returning residents, including bans on secular music, alcohol and cigarettes.

Raanti A, who is 27, says she was repeatedly raped between 2018 and 2022 by various men at the invitation of her late father’s cousin – a 47-year-old public servant working at the Ministry of Planning.

One of the men she accuses of participating in the rapes is the Comorian Minister of Justice and Islamic Affairs, Anfani Hamada Bacar.

She told RFI she recognised him last April when she saw that he had been appointed as a minister.

She says this shock led her to file complaints two months later, in June 2025, in both France and in the Comoros.

In these documents, which RFI has seen, Raanti A says that around 10 people subjected her to rape, sexual assault, acts of deliberate violence, false imprisonment, human trafficking and forced abortions.

Bacar told RFI that he knows the victim, but “categorically denies” the rape allegations.

“These allegations are completely false and without any basis. I have no idea what could have motivated this person to accuse me of these alleged rapes,” he said in a written response.

‘I just had to keep quiet and endure’

Raanti A says that her ordeal began in 2018, when her mother suggested she ask her late father’s cousin for money to pay her university admission fees. The man is regarded as an influential figure in the community. She says she went to meet him at his home.

“He said that he would help me, but that he wanted something in return. Suddenly, he pushed me on to a mattress and positioned himself on top of me. I panicked, I screamed, I cried. He kept saying ‘it’s going to be OK, relax’,” she told RFI. She said he then raped her.

“When I got home, I took a shower immediately and scrubbed my body to try and get rid of his smell,” she continued.

She said she attempted suicide the following day.

‘A very difficult ordeal’: Gisèle Pelicot’s statement after mass rape trial

In the complaint registered by the police, Raanti A alleges that he subjected her to several sexual assaults and also handed her over to other men who raped her.

“He would ask people he met by chance or people he knew if they wanted a girl or a woman to have sex with. And most of the time, people accepted,” she said.

According to Raanti A, the man was present during the alleged rapes by other men, which she says took place in isolated houses, huts and cars, in the town of Moroni, on the island of Anjouan and in Tanzania.

She also alleges that the man forced her to terminate eight pregnancies resulting from rape, including one at six months that required surgery. Abortion is illegal in the Comoros, except in cases of serious medical reasons confirmed in writing by two doctors.

Raanti A told the police officer who took her statement in France: “It wasn’t just sexual violence, it was an attempt to completely dominate my body, my will, my freedom. “

She continued: He deleted my social media accounts, changed my passwords, confiscated my phone and my credit card. Then he forbade me from seeing friends or going to university. I felt possessed. I followed him without asking questions. I had to keep quiet and endure. I think he was afraid I would end up talking about it.”

RFI contacted the man several times in order to put the allegations to him, but received no response.

France set to include consent in legal definition of rape

‘You’re not alone’

Raanti A has lived in France as a refugee since 2022.

After she arrived in the country, she says she moved three times, because the man always managed to track her down. She also alleges that he raped her in France.

On one occasion, French police intervened on grounds of physical assault, but the case did not progress.

She showed RFI two psychological reports from examinations carried out in June and in July, which conclude that she is suffering from “post-traumatic generalised anxiety disorder, which may be linked to the repeated assaults, particularly sexual, that she reports”.

After Raanti A filed the complaints, she claims her mother was intimidated into attempting to convince her to withdraw them.

She also says that her partner received messages from an unknown person with offers of €10,000 to take her to Italy.

The lawyer representing her also claims to have been intimidated by “judicial authorities”, saying: “Certain people have an interest in seeing this case buried.”

Raanti A believes that the case has a better chance of being heard in France than in the Comoros.

She added that her mother and brothers have assured her of their support and that her mother told her: “Do what you can, you’re not alone, we must prevent other women from going through what you’ve been through.”

According to the United Nations, 17 percent of women in the Comoros have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence.

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

“This is an important message and we welcomed it,” Macron said on social media after speaking with Lebanon’s president Joseph Aoun and prime minister Nawaf Salam.

“I welcomed the courageous decisions taken by the Lebanese executive to re-establish the monopoly of force. I encourage the Lebanese government to adopt the plan that will be presented to the cabinet to this end.”

The UN Security Council voted on Thursday to extend the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) by 16 months.

Unifil was created in 1978 to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon. Its ‘blue helmets’ are tasked with enforcing Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the war between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in 2006.

“The complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and an end to all violations of Lebanese sovereignty are essential conditions for the implementation of this plan,” Macron said.

“France has always indicated that it is prepared to play a role in the transfer of points still occupied by Israel.

“Lebanon’s security and sovereignty must be in the sole hands of the Lebanese authorities.”

Macron said his special envoy to Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, will travel there to prepare for two international conferences. One will focus on supporting the Lebanese Armed Forces, the other on reconstruction.

“Restored security, asserted sovereignty, built prosperity: this is the future we want for Lebanon, in the image of the eternal strength of its cedars,” Macron said.

‘Expensive failure’

Washington has pushed for the mission to be scaled back, echoing Israeli complaints that UNIFIL has failed to weaken Hezbollah’s hold on southern Lebanon. Senior US officials describe it as an expensive failure.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently backed a plan to wind down the mission within six months, as part of a broader retreat from UN commitments and funding.

But France – supported by Italy and Britain – led a diplomatic effort to stop an abrupt withdrawal. European diplomats warned it would create a dangerous security vacuum.

Paris has pointed to the example of Mali, where the UN pulled out before local forces were ready, leaving space for armed groups to expand.

“If you leave too soon, others will rush to fill the space – and not the kind of actors anyone wants,” one French diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The first injection came from Heidelberg Materials’ cement plant in Brevik, in southeastern Norway.

“We now injected and stored the very first CO2 safely in the reservoir,” Northern Lights managing director Tim Heijn said in a statement. “Our ships, facilities and wells are now in operation.”

Northern Lights is run by oil companies Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies.

The scheme collects CO2 from smokestacks across Europe, liquifies it and ships it to the Oygarden terminal near Bergen on Norway’s west coast. From there it is pumped through a 110-kilometre pipeline into a reservoir about 2.6 kilometres beneath the seabed.

The project is intended to stop emissions entering the atmosphere and help limit climate change.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is backed by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) as a tool to cut pollution from heavy industries like steel and cement.

Norway launches world’s first commercial carbon storage vault

A smokescreen?

But environmentalists fear it could become a smokescreen.

“I think it’s worrisome because we’ve previously seen that the oil industry which is a very powerful industry in Norway, has used the carbon capture and storage [to justify] prolonging the extraction of oil and gas,” Halvard Raavand, deputy programme manager for Greenpeace Norway, told RFI.

“In itself, storing isn’t necessarily bad, but what we’ve seen so far is that the potential in CCS is overhyped. Even the International Energy Agency has come out and warned against a kind of overoptimism on CCS.”

“This cannot end up as a sleeping pill for Norway and other countries when talking about climate action, because what’s most urgently needed is just to phase out fossil fuels.”

The technology is also complex and costly.

Without subsidies, industries often find it cheaper to buy “pollution permits” on the European carbon market than to pay for capture and storage.

‘Costs are huge’

“The costs are huge. At Greenpeace, we think it would be better if this money were invested in real solutions,” Raavand said.

“We need more investments in offshore wind power. Especially Norway which has a huge potential.”

Northern Lights has signed three commercial contracts so far: with a Yara ammonia plant in the Netherlands, two Orsted biofuel plants in Denmark and a Stockholm Exergi thermal power plant in Sweden.

The project is largely funded by the Norwegian state. Its current storage capacity is 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 a year, with plans to reach five million tonnes by 2030.

Countries including the United States, India and Japan are also moving ahead with carbon capture and storage projects.

(with newswires)

For the past six months, 3,500 people in around 20 towns across the Meuse and Ardennes departments have had to rely on bottled water for drinking and cooking.

“I need to buy more, I’m running out,” says Marion, a foster carer in Malandry, pointing to four packs of bottled water stacked in her garage.

With the taps off limits, she now stocks up at the supermarket each week.

“I don’t have a choice, especially as I look after very young children. There’s no way I’ll let them drink the tap water,” she tells RFI.

In early July, the prefectures of Meuse and Ardennes formally banned tap water after high levels of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) were found.

An investigation by Disclose and France 3, published 4 July, showed concentrations were three to 27 times higher than the health authority limit of 100 nanograms per litre. The EU plans to impose this limit on 20 types of PFAS from 2026.

PFAS – commonly known as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down naturally – are synthetic compounds used in items as varied as automotive parts and wind turbines, cosmetics and non-stick cookware.

They build up in air, soil, water and the human body. Studies show long-term exposure can affect fertility and raise the risk of certain cancers and other illnesses.

French farmland tainted by widespread microplastic pollution, study finds

‘Will this make his illness worse?’

“When you choose to live in the countryside, you expect a good quality of life – and then you realise that’s not the case,” says Annick, another Malandry resident. She’d never even heard of PFAS before the scandal broke out.

Neither had Aurore, who lives a few streets away. Mother of four children, she’s deeply worried about the health risks, particularly for her husband, who has a genetic condition.

“His illness means he’s more prone to developing a tumour in the kidneys and jaw. He’s always drunk tap water. Will this make his genetic condition worse? We just don’t know.”

Malandry’s mayor Annick Dufils has recorded contamination three times higher in her local commune than the limit set by the health authorities.

“How can these tiny rural villages be affected like industrial sites?” she asks.

From the high plateaux surrounding the village, there’s no factory in sight – only woodland and maize fields.

The source of the pollution has not yet been confirmed. But local officials suspect the former Stenpa paper mill in Stenay, 15 kilometres from Malandry. Before shutting at the end of 2024, the plant discharged PFAS-contaminated sludge, which was spread on farmland as fertiliser.

Mayors of the affected villages says the sludge spreading began in 1995.

Dufils and Richard Philbiche, mayor of the contaminated commune of Villy, have recovered the spreading plan for 2000-2013. In total, 23,000 tonnes of industrial sludge were to be spread on farmland in Villy and neighbouring Olizy-sur-Chiers “with a limit of 30 tonnes per hectare every three years”, says Philbiche.

He shows a satellite photo, taken in June 2000, of a farm plot near Malandry and Villy’s water catchments.

“The little white dots you see are sludge heaps. About 1,500 tonnes. But the plot is only about 10 hectares. With the 30-tonne-per-hectare limit, it should only have held 300 tonnes. So where did the other 1,200 tonnes go?”

The two mayors suspect the sludge was buried, contaminating their water catchments through runoff.

France cracks down on ‘forever chemicals’ in cosmetics, clothing

Mayors left to handle the situation

“I was stunned to learn about the pollution, especially as the annual water reports had always been excellent,” says Dufils.

The mayor was informed of the contamination on 19 May 2025 after an analysis by the Grand Est Regional Health Agency. A few days later, during a meeting convened by the sub-prefect, Dufils was shocked to discover that PFAS had been “detected in our water by the health authorities since 2016”.

The prefectures of Meuse and Ardennes say the health agency carried out “exploratory analysis campaigns” in 2023 and 2024. Tests in Villy in late 2024 confirmed PFAS in the water. “Further investigations” were made in 2024 and 2025. But PFAS monitoring was only added to sanitary checks this year.

“They hid this pollution from us!” says Dufils, adding that she has personally lost confidence in the health authorities.

Local officials also feel abandoned since the scandal broke.

“The authorities are leaving it to us to deal with the problem, even though we’re not to blame. But we’re totally powerless,” says Philbiche.

Both he and Dufils are legally obliged to provide residents with bottled water. They reimburse households via bank transfer – the equivalent of two litres of water per person per day for the last six months.

In Malandry, that has cost around €3,500 over six months, out of a yearly budget of €200,000. “It’s an enormous expense that wasn’t in our forecasts. There are things we won’t be able to do in the commune because we’ll have to pay for the water,” says Dufils.

Her requests for state aid have failed. “The authorities’ recommendation is ‘increase the price of water’. But our residents aren’t going to pay more for water they can’t even drink!” she says.

Other options include finding another water source or linking to a neighbouring commune. But the work is far too expensive.

On 21 July, two activated carbon filtration units were installed in the water towers of Malandry and Haraucourt, about 30 kilometres away. The system traps PFAS particles on carbon surfaces.

The cost of the €20,000 units must be paid by the communes. Early results look promising, but no one knows how long the filters will last.

For now, the mayors are relying on each other. “We’re standing together as mayors affected by this pollution,” says Philbiche. He and Dufils are considering legal action.

This article was adapted from the original version in French by Baptiste Coulon

A report by Unicef France and the Federation of Solidarity Actors (FAS), a network of organisations supporting homeless and vulnerable people, said child homelessness has risen by 6 percent in a year and 30 percent since 2022.

On 18 August, 2,159 children – including 503 under the age of three – had no place to sleep.

The count is likely an underestimate, as it only covers children whose parents called 115, the emergency number for homeless people.

“There are all kinds of children, but what worries us most is the rising number of very young ones,” said Adeline Hazan, president of Unicef France, speaking to RFI.

“Between 500 and 600 children are under three, and that number is increasing fast, as is the number of single mothers with children.”

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

Need for ‘political will’

For 11-year-old Jayyed, who arrived in Lyon from Italy five years ago, life on the streets was a daily struggle. “We slept on bits of cardboard. I had trouble falling asleep, I was afraid we’d be attacked,” he told the French news agency AFP.

“To go to school, I couldn’t take a shower, just wash my hands in fountains.”

His family has since found temporary shelter in a house lent by an association, thanks to the collective Jamais sans toit (Never Without a Roof), a grassroots group in Lyon that campaigns to secure housing for homeless pupils and their families.

Campaigners say many children face similar experiences.

Eléonore Schmitt of the Abbé Pierre Foundation, a leading French housing NGO, told RFI the rise in child homelessness “shows that nothing has been done.

It is obviously a lack of political will. We are calling for strong measures now, because this situation has gone on far too long. Pupils are about to start school and many may spend the entire year without a roof over their heads.”

Homeless deaths in France reach ‘unprecedented level’

‘Lasting scars’

Child homelessness leaves deep scars. It can lead to delayed schooling, health problems and, in some cases, dropping out altogether. “It’s about their future – and it’s about ours too,” said Juliette Murtin of Jamais sans toit.

Associations are calling on the state to create at least 10,000 new shelter places, including 1,000 for pregnant women and new mothers. The regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Occitanie and Île-de-France are among the hardest hit.

The housing ministry has defended its record, saying the number of emergency accommodation places has been stable since 2021 “despite budgetary pressures”. But official reports point to chronic underfunding and weak management.

French NGO warns situation is getting worse for homeless people

Europe-wide issue

Across the European Union and the UK, at least 400,000 minors are homeless and millions more live in inadequate housing, according to the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (Feantsa).

Unicef says the situation is especially alarming in Britain, Germany and France.

Campaigners stress that solutions exist. “It’s a scandal, but it’s not inevitable,” said Hazan.

In the face of the threat from Russia and NATO requirements to increase defence spending, the European Union is aiming to produce more weapons.

But the sector is fragmented, and each country has a tendency to favour its own industry, making fast and efficient production a challenge.

To address this and attempt to streamline production, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, along with their foreign and defence ministers, are to meet on Friday for a Franco-German council on security and defence.

They will meet in the southern French city of Toulon, where the two governments are also holding their annual joint cabinet meeting.

France faces rearmament strain as NATO steps up defence demands

‘Best athlete’ approach

On the agenda will be whether the EU can implement what has been called the “best athlete” model of producing defence systems, by which each weapon is built by the company with the most relevant expertise – requiring member states to cooperate and shift national security priorities.

The war in Ukraine has highlighted the need for such streamlining.

With different countries sending different weapons systems, this means extra training for soldiers on the ground, and knowledge of how to service a wide range of equipment.

France, Germany agree deal to develop Europe’s next generation of tanks

New fighter jet

The approach is being put to the test with current projects between Germany and France, who have teamed up to build a new tank and a next-generation fighter jet known as the Future Combat Air System (FCAS).

Production costs for the €100 billion FCAS project were to be split equally between France and Germany, but the project has stalled because France’s Dassault aviation has requested a larger share in order to establish clearer leadership and to move faster.

Merz said on Wednesday that he has agreed with Macron to make a decision on the future of the FCAS programme by the end of the year, adding that it will not be part of the discussions on Friday.

Abu Dhabi was the first Gulf capital to join the United States-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020, establishing diplomatic relations with Israel. Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan later followed suit.

At the time, Emirati officials said the deal would help bring peace and stability to the region. But critics saw things differently.

“The justifications presented by the Emirati regime for signing the Abraham Accords have proven to be blatant lies,” Muhammad Jamil, director of the Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK, told the Middle East Monitor.

He said Israel’s actions after 2020 – such as settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, illegal under international law – had undermined the UAE’s justifications for the accords, yet Emirati leaders still chose to deepen their relations with Israel.

Growing links with Israel

Despite the war in Gaza, trade and business links between Israel and the Emirates have grown. In 2024, bilateral trade rose 43 percent to reach €2.76 billion.

Nearly 600 Israeli companies have opened offices in the Emirates, and around 1 million Israeli tourists visited last year. The only flights to and from Israel not suspended during the Gaza war were those from the UAE.

“In this alliance with Israel, I believe there is both a desire to please the Americans… and also a kind of similarity between two countries that are ‘artificial’,” Middle East researcher Marc Lavergne, of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), told RFI.

Gaza’s largest hospital struggles to function in ‘catastrophic’ health situation

Support for Palestinians

The Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, 2023 – and Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza – put the UAE’s dual role under new pressure.

In response, Abu Dhabi launched its “Valorous Knights” humanitarian campaign. In November it opened a field hospital in Rafah, and it has since hosted thousands of Palestinians evacuated for medical treatment at the “Humanitarian City“.

More recently, the UAE announced a project to bring desalinated water from Egypt into southern Gaza.

“The humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached a critical and unprecedented level,” foreign minister Abdullah bin Zayed wrote on social media in July. “The UAE remains at the forefront of efforts to provide vital aid to the Palestinian people… whether by land, air or sea.”

When several Western governments suspended funding for UNRWA in January 2024, the UAE doubled its contribution to the UN agency.

NGOs accuse Israel of ‘weaponising’ aid to Gaza as France readies airdrop

Palestinian statehood and US ties

The UAE has at times toughened its language in support of a future Palestinian state, while also sticking closely to Washington.

In February 2025 – less than a week after Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled a plan to relocate 2 million Palestinians and turn Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” – UAE ambassador Yousef al-Otaiba told the World Government Summit in Dubai that he saw “no alternative” to the US-backed proposals.

State news agency WAM later reported that Abu Dhabi opposed the forced displacement of Palestinians.

The Emirates have also hosted Mohammed Dahlan, a rival to Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas – a move seen as undermining Abbas’s position.

“The UAE may pay for this stance in terms of image and political clout,” said Lavergne.

In September 2024, then-US president, Joe Biden elevated the UAE to the status of “major defence partner “of the US.

Hunger, disease and no escape: Gaza aid worker’s account of life under siege

Domestic sensitivities

The war in Gaza and illegal Israeli settlement growth in the West Bank are highly sensitive issues for the Emirati leadership.

Demonstrations in support of Palestinians are banned, and at Cop28 in Dubai in November 2023 pro-Palestinian protests were tightly monitored.

“How can we maintain relations with Israel when there is no two-state solution? And how can we say that Hamas is a terrorist group without calling the settlers and everything they do terrorists?” a senior Emirati official told the Times of Israel.

Lavergne said Emirati leaders “have chosen the West, or at least globalisation”. But he added they are also “dancing on a volcano” as public opinion grows, especially in the poorer, more pro-Arab emirates.

In 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, the European Union imposed a ban on most oil imports from Russia.

But the Druzhba pipeline was temporarily exempted from this, in order to give landlocked Hungary and Slovakia time to diversify their supply.

But when Ukrainian drone strikes hit a “fuel infrastructure facility” in Russia’s Unechsky district in mid-August, according to Aleksandr Bogomaz, the governor of the country’s western Bryansk region where the district is located, this forced temporary shutdowns of pumping stations, bringing crude deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia to a halt.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó responded by accusing Ukraine of using an “attack on [Hungary’s] energy security” as a threat to sovereignty.

“The war, to which we have no connection, is not a legitimate justification for violating our sovereignty,” Szijjártó posted online.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday that he had complained to United States President Donald Trump after Ukraine’s military actions against Russia’s invasion disrupted oil supplies.

He did not directly name the pipeline, but an important pumping station for Druzhba — Russian for “friendship” — is in the district and has been targeted many times.

“I asked for the help of the American president. The Ukrainians keep shelling the Friendship oil pipeline,” Orban said, according to a Facebook post by his Fidesz party on Friday. He added that Trump had replied, expressing support.

Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar called on Brussels to intervene and guarantee stable energy supplies, saying: “The attacks by the Ukrainian army on the Druzhba oil pipeline not only contradict the national interests of Slovakia, but they do not benefit Ukraine itself.”

Soviet symbol

The Druzhba pipeline was completed in 1964 as a symbol of Soviet bloc unity and strategic control, and is one of the world’s longest oil pipelines and one of its largest oil pipeline networks.

Stretching more than 5,500 kilometres from Russia to Central Europe, it has survived the Cold War, the collapse of the USSR and decades of shifting energy policy to remain an energy backbone for Hungary and Slovakia.

Yet the reliability of Druzhba is increasingly called into question – most recently by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who suggested on Sunday that the pipeline’s future depends on Hungary’s position regarding Ukraine’s EU accession.

“We always supported the friendship between Ukraine and Hungary. And now the existence of the friendship depends on what Hungary’s position is,” Zelensky said — in a possible indication that pipeline attacks may serve as leverage in the increasingly complex diplomacy surrounding Ukraine’s place in Europe.

Analysts see Ukraine’s strikes as part of a wider campaign to dent Russia’s war chest.

“Every disruption is not just about shortages, but about leverage, in Brussels and Moscow alike,” said Radovan Potocar, a Slovak energy analyst in an interview with Radio Slovakia International. 

Hungary and Slovakia, for now, continue to insist that Russian energy is crucial and resist broader EU moves to phase out Moscow’s oil and gas by 2027.

Nord Stream II

The attacks on the Druzhba are not the first time during the Russia-Ukraine conflict that crucial Russian energy infrastructure has been targeted.

In 2022, the explosion of the Nord Stream II gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea reverberated across Europe. An investigation by German weekly Der Spiegel pointed at Ukrainian involvement, which was supported by German and Swedish intelligence services.

American journalist accuses US Navy of Nord Stream pipeline attack

While the investigation implicated Ukrainian special forces, the Ukrainian government denied involvement, and the report noted the attack was allegedly conducted without the knowledge of President Zelensky

That attack, like the recent Druzhba strikes, highlighted the vulnerability of cross-border energy networks, and the ability of energy warfare to reshape Europe’s strategic landscape.

(with newswires)

The 82nd edition of the festival – known as the “La Mostra” – opens Wednesday evening with La Grazia – a love story from Venice regular Paolo Sorrentino, starring longtime collaborator Toni Servillo and set in their native Italy.

Two-time Oscar winner and Sideways American director Alexander Payne takes over from France’s Isabelle Huppert to head this year’s jury, tasked with awarding the Golden Lion best film to one of the 21 main competition contenders on 6 September.

He is joined by French director Stéphane Brizé, Italian director Maura Delpero, Romanian director and producer Cristian Mungiu, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, Brazilian actress and screenwriter Fernanda Torres, and Chinese actress Zhao Tao.

The 2024 Golden Lion went to Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, The Room Next Door, starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.

Frenchies on the frontline

French director Olivier Assayas has chosen a prestigious international casting for his film The Wizard of the Kremlin (Le Mage du Kremlin), an adaptation of Giuliano da Empoli’s best-selling novel.

It chronicles Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in the 1990s from the perspective of one of his closest advisors. Jude Law plays the Kremlin strongman on screen beside Paul Dano as the spin-doctor Vadim Baranov accompanied by Alicia Vikander.

François Ozon has taken on the task of adapting Albert Camus’ classic novel L’Etranger (The Stranger), to the screen in black and white, with Benjamin Voisin as the young Meursault beside Rebecca Marder, Swann Arlaud, Pierre Lottin and Denis Lavant.

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

Valérie Donzelli’s new film A pied d’oeuvre (On the job) is also in competition, starring Bastien Bouillon. Based on a novel by Franck Courtès, Donzelli’s seventh feature follows a successful photographer who abandons everything to devote himself to writing.

The festival’s closing film is dystopian thriller Chien 51 (Dog 51) by Cédric Jimenez with Gilles Lellouche and Adèle Exarchopoulos. Set in a futuristic Paris divided by social class and dominated by artificial intelligence, it also stars Louis Garrel, Romain Duris, and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi.

French director Julia Ducournau, who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2021 for Titane, will chair the parallel Orizzonti section, a competitive section geared towards young talent and independent productions.

Gaza on and off screen

International film festivals have become places of protest and drawing attention to causes and Venice is no exception. 

The Voice of Hind Rajab by two-time Oscar nominee French-Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania, set in Gaza, is likely to grab a few headlines due to its link to current affairs.

It revisits the death, in early 2024 in Gaza, of a Palestinian girl who “was trying to flee with her family during an Israeli attack” and features the original recordings of emergency calls.

Before the start of the festival, a group of Italian film professionals Venice4Palestine, called on organisers not to remain silent on the Gaza war, and a protest on the Lido is scheduled for Saturday.

‘I want a loud death’: Cannes Film Festival to honour slain Gaza journalist

“In Venice, all the spotlight will be on the world of cinema, and we all have a duty to make known the stories and voices of those who are being massacred, even with the complicit indifference of the West,” read an open letter signed by directors and actors including Matteo Garrone and Alice Rohrwacher.

The group called for the festival to disinvite actors Gerard Butler and Gal Gadot – appearing in Julian Schnabel’s In the Hand of Dante – who it said “ideologically and materially” support Israel’s actions.

The festival’s artistic director, Alberto Barbera, told French news agency AFP that “the festival is obviously not closed in a bubble” and directors today are “reflecting on the major problems that afflict us daily on a global level, from wars to the return of nuclear anxiety, obviously the occupation of Gaza and Palestine but also the many dictatorships resurging throughout the world.”

Hollywood Streaming

Venice, a highlight of the international film circuit, will serve up a healthy dose of big budget films – such as Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as an ageing wrestler.

Greece’s Yorgos Lanthimos teams up with Emma Stone (Poor Things) for sci-fi Bugonia about a high-powered executive kidnapped by people who think she is an alien.

Jim Jarmusch makes his debut in the main Venice lineup with Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, which he has called “a funny and sad film” starring Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver and Tom Waits.

Hollywood megastar Julia Roberts will make her Venice debut in Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt, about a sexual assault case at a prestigious American university. The film is playing out of competition.

Often considered a launching pad for the Oscars, the Mostra offers a large space for Hollywood films and streaming platforms, unlike its Cannes competitor, which champions theatrical releases.

Three Netflix films are competing for the Golden Lion: Guillermo del Toro‘s Frankenstein, starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi; Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite, a White House thriller with Idris Elba; and Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, starring George Clooney as an actor in crisis facing an identity crisis, flanked by Laura Dern and Adam Sandler.

Special Awards

During the opening ceremony, German director Werner Herzog, 82, will receive a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement from director Francis Ford Coppola.

Herzog’s latest documentary, Ghost Elephants about a lost herd in Angola, debuts at the festival.

The festival also plans to pay tribute midway through to American actress Kim Novak, 92, the star of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, as well as to American director Gus Van Sant, who will present an out-of-competition premiere of his latest film, Dead Man’s Wire.

(with newswires)

Trump announced during his electoral campaign that he intended to deport “one million people a year”. But while imposing new global tariffs, the White House is also scrambling to find countries willing to take in those who Washington is forcing out.

Liberia, Senegal, Mauritania, Gabon and Guinea-Bissau have all refused to cooperate. The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration even approached Ukraine, without success.

Some proposals, however, have found takers in Latin America and Africa. But are these agreements motivated by lucrative rewards, or made under duress?

On the American continent, Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica, Venezuela and El Salvador have agreed to take in individuals deported by the US. For most, the economic balance tips in Washington’s favour, with the 2004 CAFTA free trade agreement between Central America, the United States and the Dominican Republic serving as the main lever.

Three African nations – South Sudan, Eswatini and Rwanda – have also agreed to take in US deportees. According to Thierry Vircoulon, of the French Institute of International Relations think tank, these are countries that want to “get into Washington’s good books”. “Most of them also want to avoid being victims of a total visa ban,” he added.

However, motivation to answer Trump’s call looks different for each of the three.

South Sudan

On 8 July, South Sudan received eight men – only one of whom was South Sudanese – who had been deported from the US. Juba has expressed its willingness to accept more deportees, but has reportedly set certain conditions, according to Politico.

A legal challenge in the US had halted their removal, but a Supreme Court ruling cleared the way.

The country is asking Washington to reverse the revocation of visas for its nationals, which came into effect in April 2025.

South Sudan is also seeking the lifting of sanctions on several senior officials, including Vice President Benjamin Bol Mel, who has been accused of corruption by the US.

It has further requested American support in prosecuting First Vice President Riek Machar, accused of inciting rebellion to block elections due in December 2026.

None of these demands have yet been met, but South Sudan continues to present itself as an ally of the US – with accepting deportees from the US seen as one way to do this.

South Sudan turns US deportations to its diplomatic advantage

Eswatini

The small monarchy of Eswatini has followed South Sudan’s lead by signing a similar agreement with the US, announced on 16 July. Only five people have so far been sent to this landlocked state in Southern Africa.

The five deportees – who are originally from Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos – are all said to be criminals “of unparalleled barbarity”, said Tricia McLaughlin, spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security.

The men are being held in solitary confinement until they can be deported to their home countries, which could take up to a year.

The government of Eswatini, like South Sudan, cited its close ties with the US as a key motivator for the agreement.

According to Jean-Claude Katende, lawyer and vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the country is seeking to “polish its image in the eyes of the United States and also attract financial income”.

Outcry mounts in Eswatini over ‘illegal aliens’ deported from US

Rwanda

Rwanda is preparing to receive 250 people deported by the US – but this is not Kigali’s first attempt at such an agreement.

In 2022, a similar deal with the United Kingdom was announced, but was then invalidated the following year by the UK Supreme Court, which ruled it unlawful. This did not prevent Rwanda from receiving part of the promised financial compensation – some €280 million.

According to Katende, there is a similarly “purely financial reason” for Kigali to accept the US proposal, but also an interest in “benefitting from an easy workforce paid low wages”.

Rwanda agrees to take migrants from US in deal that includes cash grant

According to Vircoulon, Kigali is also “trying to appease the Trump administration in the context of negotiations between Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United States” to end the conflict between the DRC and Rwanda – negotiations in which Rwanda is far from being in a position of strength.

“It’s about giving Trump something, while the Congolese government is offering him access to its mining sector,” said Vircoulon.

South Sudan, Eswatini and Rwanda, he added, “are among the poorest countries in the world and are also the source of migratory flows“.

“It goes without saying that the deportees they take in will leave these ultra-poor countries and return to the illegal immigration trails.”

Uganda

The latest country to sign an agreement with Washington, a Ugandan Foreign Ministry official announced on Thursday that the country had agreed to accept third-country nationals who had not been granted asylum in the US but were unable to return to their home countries.

However, there are some caveats. Uganda stressed that this was a temporary arrangement and that it would not accept anyone with a criminal record or unaccompanied minors.

It also added in its statement Uganda would prefer to receive people with African nationalities.

Uganda, a US ally, is home to 1.8 million refugees – the largest number on the African continent – mostly hailing from neighbouring South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, although Sudan’s civil war has in the past year triggered a sharp spike in arrivals.

The US embassy in Uganda declined to comment on what it called diplomatic negotiations, but the US State Department said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken by phone with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni about migration.

The department said the call focused on “migration, reciprocal trade and commercial ties” and that Rubio had “thanked Uganda for providing a model of regional stability including its valuable contributions to peacekeeping in East Africa”.

Ugandan opposition MP Muwada Nkunyingi suggested that the deal with the US would give the Ugandan government legitimacy ahead of elections, and urged Washington not to turn a blind eye toward what he described as human rights and governance issues in Uganda.

Uganda’s leaders will rush into a deal to “clear their image now that we are heading into the 2026 elections,” he said.

Uganda has had challenges with the US after it passed an anti-homosexuality bill in 2023 that punishes consensual same-sex conduct with penalties including life imprisonment. Washington threatened consequences and the World Bank withheld some funding.

In May 2024, the US imposed sanctions on Uganda’s parliamentary speaker, her husband and several other officials over corruption and serious abuses of human rights.

Human rights lawyer Nicholas Opio likened the deportee deal to human trafficking, and said it would leave status of the deportees unclear. “Are they refugees or prisoners?” he said.

“The proposed deal runs afoul of international law. We are sacrificing human beings for political expediency, in this case because Uganda wants to be in the good books of the United States,” he said. “That I can keep your prisoners if you pay me… how is that different from human trafficking?”

(with newswires and partially adapted from this article by RFI’s French service)

Yuliia Panina, Maryna Berezniatska and Svitlana Holovan made their way to the stage to loud applause from the audience of a few dozen, gathered for a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.

The three women were introduced by Liudmila Huseynova, director of the NGO Numo Sisters and herself a survivor of Russian prisons, having endured three years of torture in the illegal Izolyatsia detention centre.

She told the audience: “Not long before joining us, [these women] wondered if they would ever be able to speak Ukrainian again, after being forced to speak Russian throughout their captivity.”

In Russian detention centres, prisoners are forbidden from speaking their own language, under threat of torture.

‘Tears and joy are all mixed together’

The three women, all civilians, were arrested in 2019 in their respective cities, facing unfounded charges of espionage, extremism and terrorism.

Yuliia Panina was abducted by Russian security services while taking her 13-year-old daughter to school in the city of Donetsk.

She was the first to speak, sharing her first impressions after her release: “When we crossed the border and arrived in the Chernihiv region, we saw Ukrainian flags. People were waving at us. It was wonderful to see that – a huge relief.”

Yuliia too was held at Izolyatsia, a former cultural centre in the city of Donetsk, now used as a prison – a place where Russian guards commit atrocities against Ukrainian prisoners of war.

“For us, it was a miracle, and we are here. But back there, in detention, there are still women, at least six, who have been held for a long time,” she said.

Svitlana Holavan, a worker in a fish-curing factory in Novoazovsk, a town on the Russian border a few kilometres from Mariupol, on the shores of the Sea of Azov, was arrested at her home – because some of her relatives live in independent Ukraine.

This was enough to mark her as suspicious in the eyes of the illegal occupation authorities.

France accuses Russia of stalling peace efforts as massive strikes hit Ukraine

“I still can’t believe that this hell, which has ruled my life for six years, is over. When I saw all the people who welcomed us when we arrived by bus, I felt positive emotions that I hadn’t felt in six years,” she said.

“I prayed so hard for this to happen, and my ordeal is finally over. We waited a very long time for this moment, survived torture, but hope always endured. Soon, I will be able to see my children again, who have grown so much, which is why my emotions – tears and joy – are all mixed together.”

Svitlana’s daughters, Anna and Sofia, first found refuge in Mariupol then in the west of the country and finally in Germany, where they are still living. A family reunion is planned for the coming days.

Interrogations, isolation and sexual abuse

Maryna Berezniatska, who was the director of a dog shelter, was arrested on suspicion of cooperating with Ukrainian secret services.

She said: “I’m still trying to come to terms with everything that happened. When I was released, I couldn’t express my feelings, and I still can’t. It’s hard to immediately understand that it’s true, that it’s all over, that a new life is beginning, that all of that is behind us. The worst part was the suffering of our families while they waited. We were all strong, but it was difficult.”

All three spoke in hushed tones about the torture they endured – although without going into detail.

What they were unable to put into words, others – including Liudmyla – have spoken about before: endless daily interrogations, isolation, humiliation, physical and sexual abuse, mock executions, and deprivation of the most basic rights such as access to water, food, hygiene and medicine.

French researcher imprisoned in Russia faces new charges of espionage

They also testified as to what they need now – and what is lacking.

Liudmyla highlighted the urgent practical support required for the three women, and many other former detainees.

“You have to build yourself up psychologically and physically. I remember that for the first six months after my release, I still had adrenaline rushes. You feel strong, you think you can overcome it on your own, but after a few months, all the physical and mental health problems start, and they overwhelm you,” she said.

“Psychologists help us, and I’m grateful for that, but when you have nowhere to sleep, it doesn’t help… People have been coming back from captivity for 11 years and this problem still hasn’t been solved.”

From the audience, representatives of various organisations supporting former prisoners promised help, while Viktor Missak, the representative of the attorney general, took the floor to assure the women that justice will be done.

“We are doing everything we can to record and bring to justice all those responsible. Many people have committed war crimes, including Russian soldiers and the directors of illegal detention centres,” he said.

“We are identifying them and charging them in absentia, and one day they will sit in the dock before a Ukrainian or international court and be tried.”

‘Russia appears to have abandoned the rulebook’

Since 2022, more than 60 prisoner exchanges have taken place between Russia and Ukraine.

The most recent exchange saw “146 Russian servicemen” and “146 prisoners of war of the Ukrainian Armed Forces” transferred on Sunday, according to the Russian defence ministry – although Kyiv did not confirm any figures for the release.

But while Ukraine has opened the doors of its detention centres to international institutions, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, to show that the human rights of prisoners are being respected, in accordance with international conventions, the fate of thousands of Ukrainian prisoners – men and women, civilians and military personnel – in Russia remains extremely precarious.

Russia has been accused of systematically torturing civilians in occupied regions of Ukraine.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, last week sent a dossier of torture allegations to Russia – highlighting in particular the use of sexualised torture and detailing the cases of 10 Ukrainian civilians abused in occupied regions of Ukraine.

The cases involved rape, threats of rape, and electric shocks administered to the genitals. The 10 civilians – four women and six men – were also beaten, kicked, blindfolded and subjected to simulated drownings and mock executions.

Russia and Ukraine exchange POWs, civilians

“They represent however only a small snapshot of a wider, well-documented pattern of risks of torture to civilians in occupied areas,” Edwards said in a statement.

“A rudimentary rule of international warfare is that civilians are to be protected. Russia appears to have abandoned the rulebook entirely. It is high time that they were held to account for these unlawful practices and more pressure brought to bear by all States with influence over them.”

Edwards also noted that arbitrary arrests and detentions and enforced disappearances were being used in Ukraine’s occupied territories – particularly in Kherson, Kharkiv and Zaporizhia.

One of the women concerned remains detained in Russia and an appeal for her urgent release has been launched, according to the statement.

Ukraine is demanding the return of all its prisoners, but so far Russia has not agreed to an “all for all” exchange. For now, Yuliia, Svitlana and Maryna are among the lucky ones.

(with newswires, and adapted from this story and this story by RFI’s French service)

European and US military chiefs last week reportedly presented ideas to their national security advisers on how to guarantee Ukraine’s security if there is a peace deal with Russia.

The discussions followed a summit of European leaders in Washington with US President Donald Trump on ending the conflict.

“It’s going to be a big challenge, but they will find ways of tackling that challenge without the US troops on the ground,” said Serhat Guvenc, professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.

“It will be a novelty because Europe has never carried out any peacekeeping or stabilization operation of this magnitude before.”

Turkey, with NATO’s second-largest army, is seen as a possible option.

“Turkey is an option, you know. And it seems that there is some talk of Turkish contribution,” Guvenc added.

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Ankara signals readiness

On the same day, French President Emmanuel Macron held a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss Ukraine’s security.

Ankara has already signalled it could take part in monitoring any peace deal, but Moscow’s approval would be necessary.

“If the parties agree, Turkey may send our troops to peacekeeping operations,” said Mesut Casin, a former presidential adviser and professor at Istanbul’s Yeditepe University.

Casin pointed to Turkey’s past record in UN operations.

“Turkey joined many UN peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, and Korea, and in many other peacekeeping operations. The Turkish army is very powerful,” he said.

“Also, remember Putin is talking many times with Erdogan, and at the same time, Zelensky is visiting Ankara.”

Turkey and Italy boost cooperation in bid to shape Libya’s political future

Balancing Moscow and Kyiv

Since the start of the war, Erdogan has kept good relations with both Russia and Ukraine.

Ankara has refused to apply most international sanctions on Moscow, while at the same time selling vital military hardware to Kyiv. That balancing act has raised questions among European partners.

“Turkey ought to have been at the Washington meeting,” said Soli Ozel, an international relations scholar at the Institute for Human Studies in Vienna.

Even though Turkey borders both Ukraine and Russia, Erdogan was excluded from this month’s summit between Trump and European leaders.

“The fact that it wasn’t backs the observation that the bigger players or the major partners are not bringing Turkey center stage, they’re sidelining it,” Ozel added.

Despite this, Ankara remains strategically important.

“They keep it in the play, it’s important because if you’re going to need troops, you’re going to need Turkey. If you’re going to talk about the Black Sea security, you need Turkey. And so you cannot really dismiss Turkey,” Ozel said.

But he warned that mistrust is limiting Ankara’s role.

“You’re not making it part of the process that will hopefully lead to a conclusion or a peace treaty between Ukraine and Russia. There is a lack of trust, and I think that has something to do with the way Turkey has conducted its diplomacy,” Ozel said.

Peace or politics? Turkey’s fragile path to ending a decades-long conflict

Doubts over influence

Some analysts suggest Ankara hopes Europe’s reliance on Turkish forces or its navy for Black Sea security could help restore influence. But others see limited gains.

“There is no automatic increase in Turkey’s influence and credibility as a result of taking part in such operations,” said Guvenc.

“It does have a certain impact, but on the other hand, such contributions do not change other Western partners’ views of Turkey.”

Rather than a reset with Europe, Guvenc sees a continuation of the current dynamic.

“What might happen is yet another manifestation of transactionalism on both sides. And if Turkey contributes to peacekeeping in Ukraine, probably President Erdogan expects concrete benefits that will help him manage the deteriorating economic situation in Turkey.

“Therefore, you cannot build a comprehensive and sustainable relationship built on that transactionalism on both sides.”

The decision follows a report from the Controller General of Places of Deprivation of Liberty (CGLPL) submitted on 31 July. Darmanin said he had asked the General Inspectorate of Justice to investigate the site.

“One to two units of the prison will be closed in September for the gradual refurbishment of the cells,” said Darmanin.

“This is a very rare recommendation, but I can see no other option than to close in order to reopen in better conditions,” Dominique Simonnot, an inspector from the CGLPL, told the French news agency AFP.

A five-person CGLPL team entered La Valentine without warning between 7 and 11 July. The centre holds inmates aged 13 to 18. Inspectors said they found serious breaches of the teenagers’ rights.

The walls of the cells were covered in graffiti that appeared to be written with excrement or blood. Bathrooms had no doors, mattresses were damaged and bedding was sometimes only a piece of foam with no cover or sheet.

‘Youths locked up for 23 hours’

Inspectors said some youths were confined to their cells for 23 hours a day because of a lack of guards or teachers.

Phone calls were charged at what they called prohibitive rates. Curtains were banned on cell windows, even during heatwaves in Marseille where summer temperatures often pass 30C. Only the poorest inmates could apply for a free fan.

The CGLPL team also reported complaints about food.

“Due to the serious nature of the conditions of incarceration, urgent measures must be taken to remedy,” said Simonnot.

“On the one hand, there is the indignity of the material conditions under which juveniles are being held and, on the other hand, the catastrophic consequences of the absence of prison and educational staff.”

‘Work carried out’

Darmanin said some repairs had already been made between 2024 and 2025 after inmates damaged the buildings.

Prison authorities said the health unit had not raised concerns about diet. But inspectors criticised a procedure where a minor could be locked in a barred room without water, toilets or seating, and no constant supervision, for 30 minutes to five hours.

“It was an exceptional response to the absence, within the units, of a waiting room enabling minors to be separated in the event of incidents,” said Darmanin.

He added that the practice, described as “a local one”, was halted on 20 August.

Opened in 2007, La Valentine is one of six centres across France meant to place education at the heart of detention.

But both the CGLPL and the International Prison Observatory warned that staff shortages were leaving teenagers confined for too long and without schooling.

“There are no more teachers, there are no more guards, there’s nothing left,” said Simonnot. “Those in authority must give the staff the means to meet the needs of detained minors.”

(with newswires)

Over the last 10 days, 24 bodies have been exhumed from Kwa Binzaro, a small village near Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast and not far from the Shakahola forest – where 450 bodies were found in 2023.

These were followers of self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie’s Good News International Church.

Mackenzie, a former taxi driver, is alleged to have incited his acolytes to starve to death in order to “meet Jesus” in one of the world’s worst cult-related massacres.

Autopsies on the bodies discovered in 2023 found that while starvation appeared to be the main cause of death, some victims – including children– had been strangled, beaten or suffocated. Previous court documents also said that some of the bodies had had their organs removed.

Kenya to release bodies of cult victims found in mass forest graves

Police have taken 11 people into custody in connection with the newly discovered graves, although three of them are being treated as victims, investigator Robert Kiinge told French news agency AFP.

According to a sworn statement submitted to the court in Malindi on 22 August, seen by RFI, Alfred Mwatika of the anti-terrorism police said that the 11 people arrested were followers of Mackenzie and had stayed in Shakahola.

According to Mwatika, the suspects recruited followers across Kenya and had funds “to rent houses in Malindi for their victims before they reached Kwa Binzaro”.

‘Abusing scripture’: The rise of Kenya’s Christian cults

Once in the village, the followers were locked up and starved, as per Mackenzie’s instructions.

Mackenzie has been charged with manslaughter and terrorism. His trial in a Mombasa court was adjourned this month, because of new evidence.

(with newswires)

Inspectors from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived in Iran on Wednesday without a clear mission or knowing if they would be allowed into nuclear sites.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told lawmakers that Tehran had not reached an agreement on how it would resume cooperation with the watchdog.

Iran suspended its cooperation with the IAEA after it failed to condemn Israeli and American strikes on the country’s nuclear facilities in June.

It is unclear how much damage the 12-day war launched by Israel did to Iran’s nuclear facilities, and its large stock of enriched uranium has not been verified since.

Iran nuclear sites suffered ‘enormous damage’, IAEA chief tells RFI

The Institute for Science and International Security, a research group headed by David Albright, a former UN nuclear inspector, said on Thursday that a satellite image showed a clean-up operation at a nuclear-related site in northern Iran, which will likely remove evidence of any nuclear weapons development.

In order to pressure Iran into cooperating with IAEA inspectors, France, the United Kingdom and Germany – an informal security cooperation arrangement known as the E3 – will begin the process of re-imposing UN sanctions on Thursday, according to European diplomats.

After a meeting with Iran on Tuesday, the E3 concluded that Iran had not upheld its commitments under the 2015 agreement, in which it agreed to dismantle much of its nuclear programme and open its facilities to more extensive international inspections.

Iran and Europe hold Geneva nuclear talks as sanctions deadline looms

The snapback mechanism for imposing sanctions was put in place alongside this nuclear agreement – which fell apart when US President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the deal in May 2018, following which Iran resumed uranium enrichment, in violation of the commitments.

“This mechanism allows countries that are still signatories [to the 2015 agreement] to reimpose sanctions that were lifted by the UN,” Héloise Fayet, a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations told RFI.

The mechanism cannot be overturned by a UN Security Council veto, meaning neither Russia nor China could come to Iran’s rescue.

The E3 face a mid-October deadline, when their ability to trigger the mechanism will expire.

“These are therefore the last few weeks for Western countries to activate the snapback in order to put additional economic pressure on Iran,” said Fayet.

The E3 will transfer a letter to the UN Security Council later on Thursday, with the goal of pushing Iran to provide commitments within the 30 days it will take the snapback mechanism to take effect.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen addressed the press in Brussels following the strike, calling it proof “the Kremlin will stop at nothing” and vowing to uphold “maximum pressure” on Russia.

The overnight drone and missile strike “was an attack also on our delegation”, the European Commission president said.

“It shows that the Kremlin will stop at nothing to terrorise Ukraine, blindly killing civilians, men, women and children, and even targeting the European Union,” she told reporters.

France accuses Russia of stalling peace efforts as massive strikes hit Ukraine

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced on X that the bloc was “summoning the Russian envoy in Brussels,” warning: “No diplomatic mission should ever be a target.”

Von der Leyen said she had spoken with the EU’s deputy ambassador on site, and was “relieved that none of our staff were harmed.”

But she said the attack struck in “close proximity” to the bloc’s diplomatic mission, two missiles hitting within 50 metres of the delegation in the space of 20 seconds.

Grim reminder

EU officials shared a picture of the inside of an office with the windows blown out, ceiling partially hanging down and debris scattered on the floor, as well as an aerial view showing an obliterated building in the vicinity.

Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper told reporters the EU delegation was still “fully operational” and that “our staff will remain present in the country”.

But von der Leyen said the damage was “another grim reminder” of the need to keep “maximum pressure on Russia“.

“That means tightening our sanctions regime” with a 19th package of measures against Moscow, and “advancing” work on how best to exploit hundreds of billions of euros in frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, she said.

EU hits Russia with sweeping new sanctions over Ukraine war

EU countries are currently using interest earned from the assets to help arm Ukraine and finance its post-war reconstruction, a windfall worth between €2.5 billion and €3 billion a year.

Von der Leyen also announced she would be travelling from Friday to seven countries on the EU’s eastern flank “that are strengthening and protecting our external borders, with Russia and Belarus.”

The figures come as Germany’s largest weapons producer, Rheinmetall, opened a new ammunition plant in northern Germany on Wednesday in a ceremony attended by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and senior German officials.

NATO members agreed in 2014 to spend at least 2 percent of national output on defence. For years many fell short. But the alliance said that in 2025 all 32 members will meet the benchmark, with seven at the minimum of 2 percent and others only slightly above.

Spending has risen since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, alongside pressure from US President Donald Trump for European allies to pay more for their own security, NATO said.

Dutch are first to buy US arms for Ukraine under NATO scheme

Poland is spending the most on defence relative to its economy at 4.48 percent, followed by Lithuania at 4 percent and Latvia at 3.73 percent. They are the only countries already above the new 3.5 percent goal agreed at a June summit in The Hague.

Leaders pledged to hit that target by 2035, alongside a wider aim of spending 5 percent of GDP on defence and security-related investments. That includes cybersecurity and upgrades to roads and ports to handle heavy military equipment, NATO said.

“Cash alone doesn’t provide security,” Rutte said on Wednesday at the Rheinmetall factory in Unterluess. “Deterrence doesn’t come from 5 percent. Deterrence comes from the capability to … fight potential enemies.”

New ammunition plant

The Rheinmetall facility will focus on 155mm artillery shells, a weapon in high demand for Ukraine. The company said production would rise to 350,000 shells per year by 2027.

“With this we’re opening a new chapter both in our company’s history and that of our site at Unterluess with regard to artillery production,” Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said.

Rheinmetall invested about €500 million in the site, which will also produce rocket motors. The wider complex already makes tanks and other artillery systems.

Macron names top military aide and ex-fighter pilot as new armed forces chief

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil joined Rutte for the ceremony, the company and officials said.

On the same day, activists from the Disarm Rheinmetall alliance staged a sit-in outside a Bundeswehr career centre in Cologne, part of days of action against militarisation, police and local media said.

Rheinmetall has grown rapidly as demand for weapons has risen in Europe.

The group has reported record orders this year, and its share price has climbed from below €100 after the 2022 invasion to peaks near €1,900 earlier this year, market data showed.

(with newswires)

The trip to the former Soviet republic, which borders Ukraine, came on the eve of campaigning for next month’s parliamentary elections amid claims of Russian interference.

Standing alongside President Maia Sandu, the three leaders praised Moldova’s resilience against what they said was a campaign of meddling from Russia.

“Kremlin propaganda tells us that Europeans want to prolong the war and that the European Union oppresses people,” Macon said about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“These are lies. Unlike Russia, the European Union threatens no one and respects everyone’s sovereignty.”

European leaders are concerned that Russia has troops stationed in a largely Russian-speaking region that broke away from Moldova’s control in a brief war in the early 1990s.

Sandu’s pro-European allies face a stiff challenge in the election on 28 September.

The country has seen power alternate between pro-Western and pro-Russian political groups for decades.

Moldovans voted narrowly in favour of pursuing EU integration in a referendum last year, but Sandu’s opponents are mounting a strong challenge.

(with Reuters, AFP)

Teams will be divided into five regional groups and play round robin matches between September and January. The winner of the each pool will advance to the quarter-finals.

At that stage, the three French sides involved in the 2025/26 Champions League – OL Lyonnes, Paris FC and Paris Saint-Germain – will enter the competition.

“We wanted to increase the number of matches for clubs not playing in Europe by offering more competitive matches throughout the season,” said a spokesperson for the Women’s Professional Football League (LFFP) which is organising the competition.

“It will also provide the platform for new players to emerge by giving them an additional competitive framework in which to prove themselves.”

Tournament rules

Under the rules of the competition, the winner of a match in 90 minutes earns 3 points and the loser 0 points.

If a match were to finish in a draw, a penalty shoot-out ensues to determine the winner who gets 2 points while the loser receives 1 point.

The opening round of games will take place on 13 September. Further pool matches are scheduled for 11 October, 15 November, 10 December and 7 January.

The quarter-finals and semis will be in February and the final will be played on 14 March.

OL Lyonnes will be favourites to lift the inaugural trophy. The club has won 18 of the last 19 top flight championships.

PSG interrupted the hegemony in 2021 and in an effort to arrest OL Lyonnes’ dominance, PSG drafted in Rasheedat Ajibade from Atletico Madrid on Tuesday on a two-year deal to bolster their attack.

The 25-year-old was named player of the tournament at the delayed 2024 Africa Cup of Nations in July in Morocco where she skippered Nigeria to their 10th continental title.

Starting on Monday, Bayrou will begin talks with party leaders. In an interview with TF1, he stressed that “the prerequisite is that we agree on the importance of the effort” to reduce the debt – the question that lawmakers will be asked to decide in the confidence vote.

He warned it would be impossible to move forward with any budget discussions “if there is not a basic agreement on the importance of this choice”.

In mid-July Bayrou presented a draft budget for 2026 aimed at saving nearly €44 billion through spending cuts and a freeze on social benefits. The plan has been strongly criticised by opposition parties, with the left demanding higher taxes on the wealthy instead.

“I am ready to discuss all issues… measure by measure,” Bayrou said on Wednesday, “except for one, which is the effort we must make to ensure that France can choose the path out of excessive debt.”

Asked why he had not met political groups before announcing the confidence vote, he replied “because they were on holiday”, adding that he had “in one way or another” been in contact with them directly or through intermediaries.

Bayrou has the backing of President Emmanuel Macron, who gave his “full support” to the initiative during Wednesday’s weekly ministerial council, government spokesperson Sophie Primas said.

The prime minister added that he “did not believe” dissolving the National Assembly and calling snap elections – something Macron could do if Bayrou loses the vote – “would allow us to have stability”.

(with AFP)

In a new report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reveals that Mauritanian security forces have carried out “serious human rights violations” against migrants and asylum seekers – ranging from torture to rape – over the past five years.

Mauritania has become a key staging post for undocumented migrants from across Africa who risk the perilous Atlantic crossing from West Africa to Europe, with many aiming to reach Spain.

The NGO added that these abuses had been “exacerbated” by the European Union and by Spain, which continue to outsource elements of their migration management to Mauritania, including support for its border and migration control authorities.

The 142-page report documented violations committed between 2020 and early 2025 by Mauritania’s police, coastguard, navy, gendarmerie and army during border and migration operations.

The victims were largely migrants and asylum seekers from West and Central Africa “seeking to leave or transit the country”.

Worst year for migrant deaths on Spanish maritime routes, NGO warns

‘Catalogue of abuses’

“For years, Mauritanian authorities followed an abusive migration control playbook – sadly common across North Africa – by violating the rights of African migrants from other regions,” said Lauren Seibert, an HRW researcher on refugee and migrant rights.

The report cites a catalogue of abuse including torture, rape, beatings, sexual harassment, arbitrary arrest and detention, theft and collective expulsions.

HRW did, however, note that Mauritania’s government has recently taken steps that “may improve protection for migrants and their rights”.

It has urged the EU and Spain to put human rights and saving lives at the forefront of their cooperation with Mauritania.

Spain faces record surge in migrants reaching Canary Islands

Influx to Canary Islands

Thousands of people have died in recent years attempting the dangerous journey from North Africa to Spain, particularly when aiming for the Canary Islands off Africa’s northwest coast.

For its report, HRW interviewed 223 people, including more than 100 migrants and asylum seekers, and examined documentary evidence as well as visiting detention centres.

In total, it documented abuses against 77 migrants and asylum seekers – men, women and children – along with one Mauritanian national.

According to Spanish government figures, a record 46,843 people reached the Canary Islands by boat in 2024.

Arrivals slowed in 2025, with around 11,500 arrivals recorded between January and July.

Mauritania’s government has rejected many of the report’s findings, while the EU insists its partnership with the country is “solidly anchored” in respect for human rights.

(with newswires)

No subject was taboo for the meeting, which came just weeks after France closed its last military bases in Senegal, ending more than six decades of permanent presence.

One of the most delicate questions on the agenda is Thiaroye – the 1944 massacre of Senegalese soldiers by French forces.

Dakar has long called for the full release of military and judicial archives and for recognition of the scale of the killings. Progress here would be seen in Senegal as a sign of greater balance and transparency in relations.

Bullets unearthed in Senegal cemetery could shed light on Thiaroye massacre

Economic ties

Economic disputes are also on the table, including a row over the Dakar-Diamniadio express project. French construction company Eiffage is seeking about €150 million in unpaid bills.

At the same time, both governments want to highlight common goals in sustainable development, education and healthcare.

Beyond bilateral matters, Macron and Faye were expected to exchange views on regional crises and global challenges, from instability in the Sahel to international trade.

Later in the day Faye was due to take part as guest of honour at a major gathering of French business leaders hosted by Medef, the country’s largest employers’ organisation, in a sign of France’s push to position Senegal as a key partner for investment in Africa.

French military to leave Senegal amid ongoing withdrawal from Africa

French military withdrawal

The meeting takes place against the backdrop of France’s military departure from Senegal.

In July, the final French installations in Dakar – the Geille camp and a base at the capital’s airport – were handed over to Senegalese command.

Marked by flag-raisings and a symbolic exchange of keys, the ceremony closed a chapter that dated back to the colonial era.

The withdrawal followed negotiations launched in 2022 and sped up after Faye’s election, with his Pastef party promising to end foreign military bases on Senegalese soil.

It also fits into France’s wider reshaping of its military footprint in Africa, with troop withdrawals this year from Chad and Côte d’Ivoire.

Both governments insist this does not mean an end to security ties. Training missions and cooperation in fields such as maritime surveillance and cybercrime will continue, though without French troops permanently based in Dakar.

“We must reinvent our partnerships in response to the aspirations of a young generation – we no longer need bases to do that,” General Pascal Ianni, France’s commander for Africa, said at the July handover.

Senegal has become the first French-speaking sub-Saharan country to adopt such a law, according to the Platform for the Protection of Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF).

The text, adopted on Tuesday by members of parliament, aims to protect individuals who, in the course of their professional activity, report or disclose information relating to a crime, financial offence or harm to the public interest.

Whistleblowers can report their information anonymously if they wish, through internal channels within government departments or externally to the relevant authorities, the parliamentary report states.

Those who report information that leads to the recovery of illicit funds or assets will receive a reward of 10 percent of the amount recovered, or an amount determined by the relevant authorities.

Senegal calls on US to withdraw sanctions against ICC magistrates

Jimmy Kande, PPLAAF’s West Africa director, called it “a historic moment for Senegalese democracy and for the entire continent” – although he said that he regretted the bill’s limited scope.

“Whistleblowers seem to be limited to matters of corruption and economic crimes, whereas the scope would usually be much broader, covering environmental, health or human rights issues,” he told RFI.

PPLAAF has published a critical analysis of the bill, highlighting key areas for improvement – including broadening the scope of protection, clarifying the notion of “Good Faith”, distinguishing whistleblowers from nominees, protection against retaliation and the creation of a special fund for whistleblowers.

The organisation also wants the new law to distinguish between whistleblowers and “nominees”, who are fronts or proxies used by corrupt individuals to hide stolen assets, launder money or evade legal scrutiny.

A corrupt official might place assets in the name of a nominee to disguise their ownership, making them someone acting s a cover for illicit interests rather than exposing them.

France and Senegal look to reset ties as Macron hosts Faye in Paris

However, PPLAAF remains optimistic and hopes the move will inspire other African countries to do the same.

“Adopting a whistleblower protection law is a strong signal,” Kande said. “It’s there to encourage other countries in the region and other French-speaking countries to adopt laws that protect whistleblowers.”

The National Assembly of Senegal also adopted three other laws aimed at strengthening transparency in the country: one on access to information, another on the creation of a body to combat fraud and corruption, and a third that extends asset declarations to magistrates and investigating judges.

 (with newswires)

Wembanyama, 21, will miss the tournament as he continues his recovery from the a blood clot on his right shoulder that ended his 2024-25 season in February.

Gobert, 33, who has played for 12 seasons in the NBA, stepped away from international duties to ensure full fitness for the launch of the NBA season in October.

In their absence, France head coach Frédéric Fauthoux will look to NBA star Guerschon Yabusele to guide a crop of youngsters through the Group D games against Slovenia, Israel, Poland and Iceland.

“If we want to go far, the players will have to be at their best.” Fauthoux said in an interview with the French basketball federation’s website after Sunday night’s final warm-up match against Greece.

“We get results when the top players are playing well.”

Greece led France 49-43 at half-time in Athens but a strong third quarter put the visitors ahead 71-61.

France maintained their dominance to win 92-77. The success furnished them with a 100 percent record from their five warm-up games.

On 4 August in Mouilleron-le-Captif, France beat Montenegro 81-75 and three days later in Pau, they overcame Great Britain 74-67. Back-to-back wins in Badalona and Paris over Spain followed, before the victory over Greece.

In the afterglow of the preparation games, Fauthoux warned that his squad would not fall to overconfidence.

“I don’t think winning the games will be a trap,” the 51-year-old Frenchman told the sports newspaper L’Equipe.

“We’ve built up confidence by the way we’ve been playing. That’s very important. And of course, it’s always better to win.

“But winning doesn’t stop us from seeing everything we did wrong like in the first-half against Greece. These are things which we can work on.”

The tournament starts on Wednesday night with the three games in Group A at the Xiaomi Arena in the Latvian capital Riga and three Group B ties at the Tampere Deck Arena in Finland.

Spain begin the defence of their title on Thursday night in the Group C clash against Georgia in Limassol, Cyprus. They will also play Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Italy and Greece.

The top four teams in the four pools advance to the last-16 knockout stages. The final will be played on 14 September in Riga.

It said ticket sales to see the Sarajevo Haggadah, one of the most precious religious manuscripts of the Middle Ages, would be donated to “support the people of Palestine who suffer systematic, calculated and cold-blooded terror, directly by the state of Israel“.

The move drew intense criticism earlier this month from Jewish organisations, with some abroad accusing the museum of antisemitism.

But museum director Mirsad Sijaric, 55, stood by the decision and said he had received numerous messages of support from Jewish people around the world.

“Did we choose one of the sides? Yes, we chose one of the sides,” Sijaric told AFP.

RSF says journalists ‘targeted’ in Israeli strike on Gaza hospital

‘Politicisation’

The museum’s donation will also include sales from a book about the Haggadah.

Sijaric insisted the move was “absolutely not” directed against Jewish people, but was instead a message of opposition to what was happening in Gaza.

“Feigning neutrality is siding with evil. In my opinion, this is pure evil, and one must oppose it.”

Several Jewish organisations criticised the museum’s announcement, including the New York-based Anti-Defamation League, which labelled it a “politicisation” of a “symbol of heritage, survival, and coexistence”.

Sitting in a glass cabinet in a specially designed room in the museum, the Haggadah has long been a treasured symbol of Sarajevo‘s diversity.

The majority-Muslim city is also home to just under a thousand Jewish people.

France slams leisure park ban on Israeli teens as ‘unworthy of the Republic’

Symbol of ‘shared life’

The Haggadah’s illuminated and well-preserved parchment pages narrate the creation of the world and the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt.

Dating back to 1350, the intricately illustrated manuscript is believed to have been written near Barcelona, and brought to Sarajevo by Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492.

It survived Nazi occupation and was kept safe during intensive shelling in the Bosnian War of the 1990s.

Jakob Finci, president of the Bosnian Jewish community, described the move as “bizarre” and “a bit offensive”.

“It tarnishes Sarajevo’s reputation and that of the Sarajevo Haggadah, the book that for many years has borne witness to Sarajevo’s multiethnic character and our shared life,” Finci said.

“I’ve heard a lot of criticism (of the move)… I have not seen any praise.”

Long kept in a safe and rarely displayed, the book has been more accessible since the special room opened in 2018 after a renovation paid for by France.

Its rich history and rarity continue to draw visitors and academics to the museum.

Hunger, disease and no escape: Gaza aid worker’s account of life under siege

“I think it’s a way to support the situation of the Palestinians in Gaza,” said Italian Egyptologist Silvia Einaudi after viewing the manuscript.

“Gaza, why not?” said French visitor Paul Hellec. “It’s a tough topic at the moment. But there are also many other places where people are suffering.”

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Out of 251 hostages seized by Hamas, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 62,819 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

Invited by President Maia Sandu, the three leaders will join her for official statements at the Presidential Palace before addressing citizens at a public concert on Chisinau’s Great National Assembly Square.

The “Weimar Triangle” leaders aim to underline support for Moldova’s sovereignty and European path, at a time when EU capitals are weighing whether to open the first round of accession talks with Chisinau.

The grouping, formed by France, Germany and Poland in 1991 in the German city of Weimar, promotes itself as “playing a significant role as the driving force of the enlarged European Union”.

The Elysée Palace said the visit will “reaffirm full support for Moldova’s security, sovereignty and European path”.

French support, Russian meddling and the fight for Europe’s frontier in Moldova

Parlimentary polls

The trip comes one month before Moldova’s parliamentary elections on 28 September, amid fears of Russian interference.

Moldova’s security services have warned that Moscow is stepping up efforts to influence voters at home and abroad through disinformation, cyberattacks and the financing of disruptive protests.

Sandu, re-elected last year in a contest already marred by allegations of foreign meddling, has called the current threats “unprecedented election interference”.

Russia’s efforts to sway Moldova’s politics follow last year’s referendum, when Moldovans voted narrowly in favour of joining the EU.

Romania’s new president Nicușor Dan pledges to counter Russian influence

EU member states are now considering opening the first negotiating cluster for accession talks with Chisinau as early as next month – a move that could strengthen pro-EU voters but frustrate Ukraine, whose own membership bid remains blocked by Hungary’s opposition.

Opinion polls suggest Sandu’s centre-right Action and Solidarity Party is in the lead with about 39 percent support, well ahead of the pro-Russian Socialist Party PSRM on just under 15 percent.

Macron has already condemned what he described earlier this year as Russia’s “increasingly uninhibited” attempts to destabilise Moldova and its democratic institutions.

Romanian President Nicușor Dan is also due in Chisinau on 31 August for Romanian Language Day, in another sign of regional backing for Moldova’s European ambitions.

(with newswires)

European and US military chiefs last week reportedly presented ideas to their national security advisers on how to guarantee Ukraine’s security if there is a peace deal with Russia.

The discussions followed a summit of European leaders in Washington with US President Donald Trump on ending the conflict.

“It’s going to be a big challenge, but they will find ways of tackling that challenge without the US troops on the ground,” said Serhat Guvenc, professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.

“It will be a novelty because Europe has never carried out any peacekeeping or stabilization operation of this magnitude before.”

Turkey, with NATO’s second-largest army, is seen as a possible option.

“Turkey is an option, you know. And it seems that there is some talk of Turkish contribution,” Guvenc added.

Armenia and Azerbaijan peace deal raises hopes of Turkish border reopening

Ankara signals readiness

On the same day, French President Emmanuel Macron held a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss Ukraine’s security.

Ankara has already signalled it could take part in monitoring any peace deal, but Moscow’s approval would be necessary.

“If the parties agree, Turkey may send our troops to peacekeeping operations,” said Mesut Casin, a former presidential adviser and professor at Istanbul’s Yeditepe University.

Casin pointed to Turkey’s past record in UN operations.

“Turkey joined many UN peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, and Korea, and in many other peacekeeping operations. The Turkish army is very powerful,” he said.

“Also, remember Putin is talking many times with Erdogan, and at the same time, Zelensky is visiting Ankara.”

Turkey and Italy boost cooperation in bid to shape Libya’s political future

Balancing Moscow and Kyiv

Since the start of the war, Erdogan has kept good relations with both Russia and Ukraine.

Ankara has refused to apply most international sanctions on Moscow, while at the same time selling vital military hardware to Kyiv. That balancing act has raised questions among European partners.

“Turkey ought to have been at the Washington meeting,” said Soli Ozel, an international relations scholar at the Institute for Human Studies in Vienna.

Even though Turkey borders both Ukraine and Russia, Erdogan was excluded from this month’s summit between Trump and European leaders.

“The fact that it wasn’t backs the observation that the bigger players or the major partners are not bringing Turkey center stage, they’re sidelining it,” Ozel added.

Despite this, Ankara remains strategically important.

“They keep it in the play, it’s important because if you’re going to need troops, you’re going to need Turkey. If you’re going to talk about the Black Sea security, you need Turkey. And so you cannot really dismiss Turkey,” Ozel said.

But he warned that mistrust is limiting Ankara’s role.

“You’re not making it part of the process that will hopefully lead to a conclusion or a peace treaty between Ukraine and Russia. There is a lack of trust, and I think that has something to do with the way Turkey has conducted its diplomacy,” Ozel said.

Peace or politics? Turkey’s fragile path to ending a decades-long conflict

Doubts over influence

Some analysts suggest Ankara hopes Europe’s reliance on Turkish forces or its navy for Black Sea security could help restore influence. But others see limited gains.

“There is no automatic increase in Turkey’s influence and credibility as a result of taking part in such operations,” said Guvenc.

“It does have a certain impact, but on the other hand, such contributions do not change other Western partners’ views of Turkey.”

Rather than a reset with Europe, Guvenc sees a continuation of the current dynamic.

“What might happen is yet another manifestation of transactionalism on both sides. And if Turkey contributes to peacekeeping in Ukraine, probably President Erdogan expects concrete benefits that will help him manage the deteriorating economic situation in Turkey.

“Therefore, you cannot build a comprehensive and sustainable relationship built on that transactionalism on both sides.”

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear musical requests from your fellow listeners Heimer Sia, Hossen Abed Ali, and Debashis Gope. 

Be sure you send in your music requests! Write to me at thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Angelina” by Pierre Perez-Vergara, Stéphane Planchon, and Yassine Dahbi, performed by PSY; “Like Jesus to a Child”, written and performed by George Michael, and the traditional 18th-century French drinking song “Chevaliers de la Table Ronde”, sung by the Quatre Barbus with André Popp and his ensemble.

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 a unique bridge between a person and the world.

Join the ePOP community and make reality vibrate!

Click here for all the information you need.

https://concours.epop.network/en/

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

The quiz will be back next Saturday, 30 August. Be sure and tune in!

The deal, brokered by US President Donald Trump, commits both countries to respect each other’s territorial integrity – the issue at the centre of bloody wars.

The agreement is seen as paving the way for Turkey to restore diplomatic ties with Armenia.

“Ankara has been promising that once there is a peace agreement, it will open the border,” says Asli Aydintasbas, of the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

“There was a brief period in the post-Soviet era when it [the border] was opened, but that was quickly shut again due to the Armenian-Azeri tensions.”

Aydintasbas says reopening the border could have wide-reaching consequences.

“Armenia and Turkey opening their border and starting trade would be a historical moment in terms of reconciliation between these two nations, which have very bitter historic memories,” she adds.

“But beyond that, it would help Armenia economically because it’s a landlocked country entirely dependent on Russia for its protection and its economy.”

Turning point

In June, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul. The meeting was seen as a turning point in relations long overshadowed by the memory of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, which Ankara still officially denies.

“There’s now a degree of personal chemistry between the Armenian prime minister and Erdogan. This was seen in a June historic meeting, the first ever bilateral contact, a face-to-face meeting,” says Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Centre, a think tank in Yerevan.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 after ethnic Armenians in Azerbaijan seized the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.

The enclave was retaken by Azerbaijani forces in 2022. Giragosian says the peace deal, along with warmer ties between Pashinyan and Erdogan, could now help Yerevan reach a long-sought goal.

“In the longer perspective for Turkey and Armenia, this is about going beyond the South Caucasus. It’s about Central Asia. It’s about European markets, potentially a new Iran in the future,” he says.

Erdogan congratulated Pashinyan on Monday over the deal, but made no official pledge on reopening the border. That decision may lie with Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev.

“They [Ankara] will be looking to Baku. Baku is basically able to tell Turkey not to move on normalisation with Armenia, not to open the border,” says Aydintasbas.

“Part of the reason is that Turkey has developed an economic dependency on Azerbaijan, which is the top investor in Turkey. In other words, little brother is calling the shots, and I think that Ankara, to an extent, does not like it, but has come to appreciate the economic benefits of its relationship with Azerbaijan.”

Azerbaijani demands on Armenia

Azerbaijan is also pushing for changes to Armenia’s constitution, which it claims makes territorial claims on Nagorno-Karabakh.

“The Armenian constitution refers to the Declaration of Independence of Armenia, which has a clear clause on the unification with Armenia, with Nagorno-Karabakh,” says Farid Shafiyev of the Centre for Analysis of International Relations, a Baku-based think tank.

Shafiyev warned that without reform, the peace deal could unravel.

“Let’s say, imagine Pashinyan losing elections, a new person says: ‘You know, everything which was signed was against the Armenian constitution.’ For us, it is important that the Armenian people vote for the change of the constitution,” Shafiyev says.

Analysts note that changing the constitution would require a referendum with more than 50 percent turnout – a difficult and time-consuming process.

Time, however, may be running short. Russia is seen as the biggest loser from lasting peace in the Caucasus. For decades Moscow exploited the conflict to play Armenia and Azerbaijan against each other.

Pashinyan is now seeking to move away from Russian dominance and closer to Europe.

Giragosian warned that Armenia’s window of opportunity is limited.

“There is a closing window of opportunity – that is Russia’s distraction with everything in Ukraine. We do expect a storm on the horizon, with an angry, vengeful Putin reasserting or attempting to regain Russia’s lost power and influence in the region.”

Weakening Russia’s grip remains key, he adds. “Armenia, after all, is still a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Russian-dominated trade bloc.

“But it’s also a country that has a Russian military base. Russia still manages the Armenian railway network, for example. This is why, for Armenia, the real key here is going to be Turkey and normalising relations with Turkey.”

At present, Armenia’s only open land borders are with Georgia and Iran – both close to Russia. Opening the Turkish border would give Armenia a vital new route, while also benefiting Turkey’s economically depressed border region.

But for now, Azerbaijan may seek further concessions before allowing any breakthrough.

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear three different versions of a song requested by Jayanta Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India.

Be sure you send in your music requests! Write to me at thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” by Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Frank Wilson, Berry Gordy, in three versions: Brenda Holloway, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Alton Ellis.

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 a 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!

Earlier this month, the leaders of Italy, Turkey and Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) met in a tripartite summit – the latest sign of growing cooperation between the three Mediterranean nations.

“Turkey and Italy have both differing interests, but interests in Libya,” explains international relations professor Huseyin Bagcı of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

“Particularly, the migration issue and illegal human trafficking are big problems for Italy, and most of the people are coming from there [Libya], so they try to prevent the flow of migrants.

“But for Turkey, it’s more economic. And Libya is very much interested in keeping the relations with both countries.”

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

Migration, legitimacy concerns

Turkey is the main backer of Libya’s GNA and still provides military assistance, which was decisive in defeating the rival eastern-based forces led by strongman Khalifa Haftar. An uneasy ceasefire holds between the two sides.

Libya security analyst Aya Burweilla said Turkey is seeking Italy’s support to legitimise the Tripoli government, as questions grow over its democratic record.

“What it means for the Tripoli regime is very positive. This is a regime that has dodged elections for years,” she says.

“Their job was to have democratic elections, and one of their ways to make sure they stay in power was to get foreign sponsors, like Turkey… Now, with this rubber stamp from Meloni in Italy, they can keep the status quo going at the expense of Libyans.”

Years of civil war and political chaos have turned Libya into a major hub for people smugglers. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, elected on a pledge to curb irregular migration, sees stability in Libya as key to that goal.

“The migration issue has become very, very urgent in general for Europe, but of course for Italy too,” says Alessia Chiriatti of the Institute of International Affairs, a think tank in Rome.

Trump and Erdogan grow closer as cooperation on Syria deepens

Mediterranean ambitions

Chiriatti said Meloni’s partnership with Turkey in Libya also reflects broader foreign policy goals.

“There is another dimension – I think it’s directly related to the fact that Italy and Meloni’s government want to play a different role in foreign policy in the Mediterranean space,” she says.

“Italy is starting to see Africa as a possible partner to invest in … But what is important is that Italy is starting to see itself as a new player, both in the Mediterranean space and in Africa, so in this sense, it could have important cooperation with Turkey.”

She points out that both Italy and Turkey share a colonial past in Libya. That legacy, combined with the lure of Libya’s vast energy reserves, continues to shape their diplomacy.

Ending the split between Libya’s rival governments is seen as vital for stability. Moscow’s reduced military support for Haftar, as it focuses on its war in Ukraine, is viewed in Ankara as an opening.

“Russia is nearly out, and what remains are Turkey and Italy,” says Bagcı.

He added that Ankara is making overtures to the eastern authorities through Haftar’s son Saddam, a senior figure in the Libyan military.

“The son of Haftar is coming very often to Ankara, making talks. It’s an indication of potential changes… But how the deal will look like I don’t know, we will see later. But it’s an indication of potential cooperation, definitely.”

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

Shifting alliances

Libya was discussed when Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo on Saturday.

Sisi backs Haftar’s eastern government. Libya had been a source of tension between Turkey and Egypt, but with relations thawing, both say they will work together on the country’s future.

Turkey’s position in Libya is strengthening, says Burweilla.

“Saddam is pro-Turkey – there is a huge difference between son and father – and the younger generation is pro-Turkey,” she says.

Such support, Burweilla said, stems from Ankara allowing Libyans to seek sanctuary in Turkey from fighting in 2011, when NATO forces led by France and the United Kingdom militarily intervened against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

“I think the Europeans underestimated the political capital that gave Turkey. Turkey is winning the game in Libya,” Burweilla says.

She adds that Ankara’s rising influence is also due to a shift in tactics towards the east.

“What they [Ankara] realised was that you can’t conquer the east of Libya by force; they tried and they failed. And the Turkish regime is very much motivated by business… They don’t care about anything else, and they’ve realised they want to make a business,” Burweilla says.

They’ve reached out more to the east, and the east, in turn, has realised that if they don’t want to be attacked by Turkey and its mercenaries, they need to make peace with Turkey as well.”

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear musical requests from your fellow listeners Hossen Abed Ali from Rangpur, Bangladesh and a composition written by SB Leprof from Winneba, Ghana.

Be sure you send in your music requests! Write to me at thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Epitaph” by Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald, Greg Lake and Michael Giles, to lyrics by Peter Sinfield, performed by King Crimson, and “Ginger Milk” by SB Leprof.

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 a 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!

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.