As France prepares to recognise Palestine at the UN, town halls across the country are caught up in a row over whether or not to raise the Palestinian flag in solidarity.

Macron is due to recognise a Palestinian state on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, following up on a pledge he made in the summer that angered Israel.

Many mayors are sticking to their plan to hoist the flag in spite of stern warnings from the France’s Interior Ministry and early rulings from administrative courts.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who is also leader of the right-wing Republicans Party, last week instructed police prefects to enforce the principle of political neutrality in public services.

“The principle of neutrality in public service prohibits such displays,” the Interior Ministry said, adding that any decisions by mayors to fly the Palestinian flag should be referred to courts.

In Malakoff, just south of Paris, Communist mayor Jacqueline Belhomme has said the flag will stay put “until Tuesday” – despite an order from the local administrative court to take it down after a complaint from the Hauts-de-Seine department’s police prefecture.

Double standard

The police prefect has already gone back to court, this time seeking a financial penalty. An administrative court on Monday announced this would be a sum of €150 per day. 

“I symbolically placed a flag on the town hall facade in solidarity with the Palestinian people, whose state will finally be recognised on Monday at the UN by the President of the Republic,” Belhomme told RFI.

“This is absolutely not a provocation. The law does not forbid it.”

Belhomme underlined that when Malakoff had put a Ukrainian flag on its town hall after the Russian invasion, “there was no controversy at the time”.

“I think there’s a double standard,” she said.

France’s Interior Ministry clamps down on public display of Palestinian flags

‘Symbolic choice’

The black, white, red and green banner is also expected to fly over other town halls in the Paris suburbs, including Nanterre, Bagneux, Gennevilliers, Ivry-sur-Seine and Corbeil-Essonnes.

For Mathieu Hanotin, Socialist mayor of the suburb of Saint-Denis, north of Paris, the gesture is deliberately time-limited rather than a permanent statement: “It’s not an act of long-term militancy,” he told French news agency AFP, but a symbolic choice timed to coincide with President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement at the UN General Assembly confirming France’s recognition of the State of Palestine.

Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure attended a flag-raising ceremony in Saint-Denis, saying he opposed Retailleau’s order and said he had written to Macron asking the president to rescind it.

“This flag is not the flag of Hamas, it is the flag of women and men who also have the right to freedom and self-determination,” Faure said.

Karim Bouamrane, mayor of nearby Saint-Ouen is following the same line, with Bouamrane even planning to raise both Palestinian and Israeli flags.

The mayors of Lyon, Lille, Rennes and Nantes are also taking part.

France spearheads UN drive to recognise Palestinian statehood

Directive from Interior Ministry

Elsewhere, however, some are retreating under pressure. In Mauléon-Licharre, a small town of 3,000 in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, the Communist mayor who had raised the Palestinian flag on Friday removed it the following day after a court challenge by the local prefect.

That line was echoed in the Cergy-Pontoise court’s decision and underlined by Interior Ministry secretary general Hugues Moutouh: “The state not only does not ask for flag displays, it explicitly asks for non-displays.”

Centrists, conservatives and the far right are backing the ministry’s stance.

But the issue is splitting the left. In the Créteil suburb of Paris, Socialist mayor Laurent Cathala has refused to raise the flag, arguing that his priority must be to preserve social cohesion in his community.

Other mayors are finding creative workarounds. In Brest, the city hall – which has flown the Ukrainian flag since 2022 – will instead light up its façade in the colours of Palestine.

In Marseille, mayor Benoît Payan promised a “strong gesture”, saying he wanted to go further than to raise a flag.

On Monday afternoon, he announced a sister-city link between Marseille and Bethlehem, in the West Bank, a project he launched some months ago.

The flags of both Israel and Palestine, as well as peace images of a dove and olive branch, were displayed late Sunday at the Eiffel Tower, which was illuminated in celebration of the recognition of the Palestinian state.

“Paris reaffirms its commitment to peace, which more than ever requires a two-state solution,” Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo wrote on Bluesky.

Acknowledging the impassioned responses caused by his decision, which have included anger from within France’s Jewish community, Macron posted a video on X on Sunday saying France wanted “peace, an immediate ceasefire and the release, without delay” of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

(With AFP)

French long-distance cyclist Sofiane Sehili, who has been held in Russia since early September after allegedly crossing the border illegally, has lodged an appeal against his detention. 

The 44-year-old rider was stopped in Russia’s Far East, at what should have been the final leg of his record attempt to pedal across Eurasia.

Sehili set out from Lisbon in July, aiming to cover 17 countries and finish in Vladivostok by early September – a journey of more than 60 days and many thousands of kilometres.

But his record-breaking ride ran into bureaucratic trouble at the Russian border with China.

According to officials, Sehili first attempted to enter at a checkpoint restricted to Russian and Chinese nationals.

He then tried another crossing, only to find that the rules required travellers to enter by train or bus – a move that would have disqualified his world record attempt.

Determined to stick to his bike, he presented himself to border guards in the hope they would wave him through. Instead, he was detained.

French cyclist arrested in Russia to be detained until October

Pre-trial detention appeal

On Monday, Russian lawyer, Alla Kouchnir, told French news agency AFP that she had appealed his arrest with the regional court in Primorye, based in Vladivostok.

“I have spoken with investigators. In general, the investigation is already complete, and it’s unlikely that new details will appear,” she said.

Kouchnir has requested that Sehili’s pre-trial detention be replaced with a less restrictive measure that does not involve isolation.

For now, Russian courts have ordered that the Frenchman remain in custody until at least 4 October.

State news agency Ria Novosti reported that the appeal specifically challenges this provisional detention.

Despite the setback, supporters say Sehili is in good spirits.

A Russian prison monitoring official, Vladimir Naidin, reported that he had visited the cyclist in jail and found him in good health.

French researcher imprisoned in Russia faces new charges of espionage

‘Ultra-cyclist’ challenge

Back in France, his partner, Fanny Bensussan, told regional channel France 3 Occitanie that his only focus had been on the athletic feat itself.

“He thought only about his sporting achievement,” she said, explaining that he believed the border guards would make an exception.

Sehili is no stranger to gruelling challenges. A former archivist at cultural magazine Télérama, he reinvented himself as an “ultra-cyclist”, specialising in rides stretching hundreds or even thousands of kilometres.

His Eurasia crossing was to be his most ambitious undertaking yet.

His arrest, however, comes against a fraught backdrop – since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, several Western nationals have been detained in the country, amid continuing tensions between Moscow and Paris.

(With AFP)

Standing for the centre-right Les Républicains (LR), Michel Barnier claimed more than 45 percent of the vote on Sunday in the capital’s second constituency – a seat traditionally considered safe for the right.

He will face Socialist candidate Frédérique Bredin in next weekend’s run-off.

Turnout, however, has been exceptionally low, with almost three in four voters staying away from the ballot box, with abstention close to 75 percent.

Barnier himself admitted it reflected “worry, frustration and fatigue” with France’s national political climate.

The result puts the 74-year-old, who briefly held the premiership last year before being toppled by a budgetary censure motion, on course to become Les Républicains‘ only MP in Paris.

Since 2022, the capital’s 18 parliamentary seats have been split between President Emmanuel Macron’s centrists and the left.

French PM meets Macron to resign after no-confidence vote

Duel between left and right

Bredin – a former minister under socialist president François Mitterrand – secured about 32 percent of the vote.

She was the sole left-wing standard-bearer in a crowded field of 17 candidates.

The far-right National Rally’s Thierry Mariani trailed far behind in third place.

Barnier sought to frame the choice ahead as a straightforward duel: “On the one hand, our united candidacy of the right and centre; on the other, the left’s candidate, backed by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and France Unbowed,” he told supporters.

Bredin hit back, calling Barnier’s performance “a historic failure for the right, with less than 50 percent in this constituency”, which spans Paris’ upmarket 5th, 6th and 7th district on the Left Bank – long considered bastions of conservatism.

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‘Shotgun’ by-election

The by-election was triggered in July when Macronist deputy Jean Laussucq’s victory was annulled by the Constitutional Council over irregularities in his campaign accounts.

The tight campaign calendar frustrated Bredin, who unsuccessfully demanded a postponement, calling the timetable “scandalously short”.

Barnier’s path to the ballot was not without turbulence, as his candidacy was initially threatened by Rachida Dati – outgoing culture minister and combative mayor of the 7th district – who suspected Barnier of eyeing the office of Paris mayor.

Dati pulled out only at the last minute, after securing LR’s official nomination for next year’s municipal elections.

Barnier’s ‘Paris credentials’

Though know internationally as the EU’s chief negotiator during Brexit, Barnier is best known in France for representing Savoie for decades – as MP, senator and local council chief.

Throughout his campaign, the former prime minister has been shoring up his Paris credentials, saying he has lived in the constituency for the past 12 years.

Eyebrows were raised, however, when it emerged he had to cast his ballot by proxy, as he is not registered on Paris’s electoral rolls.

Next Sunday’s duel now promises a symbolic showdown, with Barnier bidding to replant Les Républicain’s flag in the capital, while Bredin hopes to pull off an upset for the left in one of Paris’s most traditionally conservative constituencies.

On 22 September 2020, the opposition party had called for peaceful demonstrations to promote national dialogue, reform of the electoral system, and an end to the conflict in the English-speaking regions.

However, 36 opposition supporters remain in detention in Kondengui prison in Yaoundé, after being sentenced by a military court to between five and seven years’ imprisonment.

They were found guilty of “rebellion” or “attempted insurrection” against the state.

Some of those arrested are now nearing the end of their sentences, while others will have to wait several more years, such as Alain Fogué, treasurer of the MRC, or Olivier Bibou Nissack, spokesperson for the opposition leader Maurice Kamto.

Amnesty International has condemned these arbitrary detentions. Fabien Offner, researcher at Amnesty International’s regional office for West and Central Africa, calls for their release. 

“Unfortunately, there has been no change in recent years with regard to respect for fundamental rights,” Offner told RFI.

“This is despite calls from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and an alarming report from the Committee Against Torture on what is happening in prisons, police stations and gendarmeries in Cameroon.”

Arbitrary arrests

“The Cameroonian authorities must immediately release 36 opposition supporters arbitrarily detained for five years for exercising their right to peaceful assembly and put an end to arbitrary detention in the country,” Amnesty said on the fifth anniversary of their arrest.

They “have committed no crime other than to express their opinion,” Marceau Sivieude, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa said.

The NGO also pointed about that trying civilians in military courts is “incompatible with the right to a fair trial and therefore in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.”

Fears over divided opposition and instability, as Cameroon heads to the polls

Among the 36, one has suffered three strokes but has not been released on medical grounds despite requests, according to the lawyer Hippolyte Meli Tiakouang, coordinator of a collective defending detained opposition supporters.

Thirty-six appeals have been lodged since 2022 with the Supreme Court of Cameroon, which has not yet ruled on any of them.

“The delays are unreasonable,” said lawyer Tiakouang. “One might think that the judiciary drags things out so that the sentences handed down will be carried out.”

On 4 November 2022, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention published a report which found that the detention of 15 of the MRC leaders and activists was arbitrary.  

“We are deeply disappointed that the authorities have failed to recognise the arbitrary nature of the ongoing detention of these protesters,” Sivieude said.

Rising fears ahead of election

The presidential election will take place in Cameroon on 12 October, with President Paul Biya running for an eighth term.

Biya, 92, has been in power in Cameroon for nearly 43 years, will face 11 other candidates, as the opposition didn’t manage to present a united front.

In July, Cameroon’s electoral commission barred Kamto because he was running under the banner of the MANIDEM party, which also supported a second candidate.

At the start of this month, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) voiced concern at restrictions on Cameroon’s “civic space” as the election nears and also expressed fears about the voters’ ability to freely express their choice.

Cameroon’s forgotten crisis displaces nearly a million people

On 4 August, at least 54 MRC supporters were arrested next to the Constitutional Council in Yaoundé during pre-election dispute hearings, according to Tiakouang. All of them are now on bail.

Twenty-three are facing prosecution for allegedly inciting revolt and disturbing public order, and if convicted face several years in prison.

Amnesty’s Marceau Sivieude says the arrests point to “an alarming crackdown on freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in Cameroon” and that the charges should be dropped. 

He says the alarming trend is only likely to intensify as the elections get closer.

“In recent years, anyone who dares criticise the authorities, whether a human rights defender, a journalist, a political activist or a protester, runs the risk of being arbitrarily arrested and detained, tortured or otherwise ill-treated, and tried by military courts. Unfortunately, this trend increases as the presidential election approaches. This travesty of justice must end,” he says.

The Pompidou Centre, with its brightly coloured pipes, external escalators and unmistakably futuristic silhouette, will close its doors to the public on Monday 22 September for a €460 million overhaul that promises to reimagine the building from top to bottom.

Since opening in 1977, the Pompidou has become as famous for its radical architecture as for the treasures inside.

Conceived by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, the building flipped convention on its head, with structural guts and service ducts proudly displayed on the outside.

It earned a number of nicknames over the years including “Notre-Dame des Tuyaux” or “Our Lady of the Pipes”, the “Gasworks” and “The Shack”.

Its boldness – named in tribute to former French president Georges Pompidou, who died in office three years before the centre’s inauguration – was initially divisive.

But over the years it has cemented its place in Parisian life, drawing millions annually who come to marvel at masterpieces by the likes of Francis Bacon, Frida Kahlo, Niki de Saint Phalle and Marcel Duchamp, or simply to ride the snaking escalators for panoramic city views.

The permanent collection has already been off-limits since March, as specialists began carefully removing priceless works for safekeeping.

Temporary exhibitions have kept the spirit alive, but the final curtain will fall on Monday evening with a closing-night retrospective of German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans.

To soften the blow, the centre will stay open until 11pm, with free entry for all.

And while the building itself will fall silent for years, the Pompidou Centre has set up the “Constellations” programme, establishing key partnerships to ensure its collections remain accessible during the renovation work over the years to come.

One of those partners is the Grand Palais in Paris, which will host all of the Pompidou Centre’s temporary exhibitions until 2030.

A new branch of the Pompidou Centre is set to welcome visitors at the end of 2026 in Massy, in the greater Paris region. Its aim is to attract a wide range of visitors to a new site half an hour from Paris, where there’s enough space to restore artworks and to stage exhibitions and events.

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The state of Paris’ museums

The Pompidou’s renovation comes as Paris takes a hard look at its cultural heavyweights.

Earlier this year, the Louvre’s director issued a stark warning about leaks, queues and creeping neglect at the world’s most-visited museum.

President Emmanuel Macron quickly weighed in with promises of a sweeping renovation programme there too – price tag: up to €800 million.

For the Pompidou Centre, the to-do list is equally ambitious. Asbestos removal, accessibility upgrades, tighter security and a complete interior rethink are all part of the plan.

Paris to close iconic Pompidou Centre for five-year facelift

Who’s footing the bill?

The centre’s president, Laurent Le Bon, says the changes will also tackle climate concerns, with new waterproofing and insulation expected to slash energy bills by 40 percent.

“We’re keeping the exterior framework, but from the basement to the top floor, we’re changing everything,” he told reporters, hinting at a panoramic terrace on the seventh floor with knockout views across Paris. “We hope that visitors will feel a bit of the same shock as when the Centre opened in 1977.”

The French state is covering the lion’s share, with €280 million pledged.

A further €100 million has already been secured from other sources, including a sizeable €50 million contribution from Saudi Arabia, leaving around €80 million still to raise over the next five years.

If all goes to plan, the Pompidou Centre will reopen in 2030 – refreshed, revitalised and ready to wow a new generation.

The stage was set on 12 September when the UN General Assembly adopted the so-called New York Declaration, a text designed to give fresh impetus to the peace process – with one crucial caveat: the exclusion of Hamas.

With 142 votes in favour and 10 against – including Israel and the United States – plus 12 abstentions, the resolution demands Hamas lays down its arms.

French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot hailed the adoption as the “definitive international isolation of Hamas” – a moment he argued would give political cover to countries preparing to recognise the Palestinian state at the 2025 General Assembly.

President Emmanuel Macron has already pledged that France will make that recognition official on 22 September.

UN gathers to advance two-state solution to Israel-Palestine conflict

France’s ‘crucial role’

On Sunday, Britain, Australia, Canada and Portugal recognised a Palestinian state in a coordinated, historic shift in decades of Western foreign policy, triggering swift anger from Israel.

Belgium and Canada are preparing similar announcements this Monday, but according to Richard Gowan, director of UN and multilateral diplomacy at the International Crisis Group, Paris’s stance on Palestine has been a game-changer.

“France has played a really crucial role bringing a group of countries together to recognise Palestine at the same time,” he told RFI.

“If President Macron had not announced France’s intention back in July, no one else would have done so. France really has been the orchestrator of this process.”

However, he also notes that France has drawn strength from the United Kingdom’s stance.

“Having both Britain and France – two veto powers from the Security Council – working in parallel reassures other countries that they can take the step. There’s safety in numbers. States that felt nervous about recognising Palestine alone due to likely blowback from the US feel more confident doing it in a coordinated fashion.”

Why is France recognising Palestinian statehood and will it change anything?

What’s on the table

The New York Declaration calls explicitly for an end to the war in Gaza, nearly two years on from the 7 October, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas that triggered it.

It also calls for a “just, peaceful and durable settlement” based on two states, with Israel and Palestine living side by side.

Crucially, the text envisages a handover of authority in Gaza from Hamas to the Palestinian Authority, supported by the international community.

The declaration aims to guarantee a sovereign, independent State of Palestine, with credible institutions and security guarantees both for Palestinians and for Israel.

Looking ahead to a possible ceasefire, the resolution floats the deployment of a temporary international stabilisation mission under a UN Security Council mandate. Such a force would be tasked with protecting civilians, helping to build up Palestinian state structures and providing security assurances on both sides.

Gowan, however, is sceptical over how realistic such proposals are.

“The idea of a stabilisation force in Gaza only makes sense if there is a ceasefire. Ceasefire has to come first. There is absolutely no way the Security Council would authorise a military intervention without a really credible ceasefire beforehand,” he said.

He added that while Arab states may be pressed to provide troops,”if I were an Egyptian or Saudi general, I would be nervous about the risks involved in going into Gaza”.

“The French have done quite a good job in persuading the Arab group of states to finally condemn Hamas, and the General Assembly endorsed the demand that Hamas should leave power in Gaza this month,” Gowan said, adding that this was a deliberate move.

By condemning Hamas directly, the text allows governments to argue that recognising Palestine does not equate to condoning Hamas but rather signals support for an internationally backed state under the Palestinian Authority.

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Israel pushes back

Israel has reacted with fury, with its Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein calling the General Assembly’s decision “shameful” and accusing the UN of being a “political circus detached from reality”.

Israel argues that the resolution ignores Hamas’s refusal to disarm and to release Israeli hostages, and claims it only encourages further violence. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on 11 September: “There will be no Palestinian state“

According to Gowan, this rejection was inevitable. “No one expected Israel to welcome these recognitions,” he said.

“The original French plan had actually been to do some diplomatic magic and have Saudi Arabia offering formal recognition of Israel alongside the recognition of Palestine. But that idea has fallen by the wayside, because there’s no way the Saudis can politically recognise Israel while the war in Gaza continues.”

The bigger risk however, he warns, is escalation.

Netanyahu is expected to speak later in the UNGA week. “He could announce more settlements in the West Bank, or he could really escalate and announce that Israel will formally annex parts of the West Bank or Gaza,” Gowan said.

“Diplomats and UN officials have been very nervous about an Israeli annexation declaration for much of the last year.”

France condemns Israel’s west bank settlement plan as serious breach of international law

Palestinian expectations

Palestinian leaders have hailed the vote as a historic step. Hussein al-Sheikh, vice-president of the Palestinian Authority, called it “an important stage towards ending the occupation” and realising a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

But Gowan cautions against assuming Hamas can simply be written out of the equation.

“The idea of simply obliterating Hamas is not realistic,” he told RFI. “The declaration is more about offering those Palestinians who want to see a peaceful pathway to statehood some encouragement – a political horizon. But the details of what post-war Gaza will look like and how it will be ruled still need a lot of thought.”

Macron warns on Israeli TV that Gaza war is ‘destroying Israel’s credibility’

Roughly three-quarters of UN member states already recognise Palestine. What makes this September session different is the role of Western powers. “Leaders from the Global South will look at this event and say: what took you so long?” said Gowan.

“France and other countries are just catching up with the views of the global majority. But it is important that some really significant Western powers and US allies are finally stepping up.”

Recognition at the UN will not make Palestine a full member state – Washington’s veto at the Security Council rules that out – but, Gowan said: “This is really an example of the UN being a useful platform for states to send strong signals about their views.”

He concludes that: “Even states that on many issues desperately want to avoid offending the US feel that the situation in Gaza has now gone so far that they have to take at least symbolic action.”

Portugal was also set to recognise Palestinian statehood later Sunday, with other countries, including France, due to follow Monday at the annual UN General Assembly opening in New York.

Israel has come under huge international pressure over its war against Hamas in Gaza launched in the wake of the October 7, 2023 militant attack, which has sparked a dire humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory.

Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the statehood moves and vowed “it will not happen. No Palestinian state will be established west of the Jordan River.”

He slammed the move as “absurd” and said it would “endanger” Israel’s existence, later vowing to expand Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Belgium to join France and other countries to recognise Palestinian state

Netanyahu spoke after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain was formally recognising the State of Palestine “to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two-state solution”.

The UK and Canada became the first members of the Group of Seven advanced economies to take the step, with Australia following suit.

Three-quarters of UN members now recognise Palestinian statehood, with at least 144 of the 193 member countries having taken the step, according to an AFP tally.

Canada “offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future”, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote on X.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the move “recognises the legitimate and long held aspirations of the people of Palestine to a state of their own”.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas hailed the recognitions as “an important and necessary step toward achieving a just and lasting peace”.

It is a watershed moment for Palestinians and their ambitions for statehood, with the most powerful Western nations having long argued it should only come as part of a negotiated peace deal with Israel.

Although a largely symbolic move, it puts those countries at odds with the United States and Israel.

France’s Macron repeats warning on Netanyahu’s military plan for Gaza

US President Donald Trump said last week after talks with Starmer during a state visit to the UK that “one of our few disagreements” was over Palestinian statehood.

And French President Emmanuel Macron insisted in an interview with a US television network that releasing the hostages captured in 2023 would be “a requirement very clearly before opening, for instance, an embassy in Palestine”.

‘Special burden’

A growing number of longtime Israeli allies have shifted their long-held positions as Israel has intensified its Gaza offensive, which began almost two years ago with Hamas’s 2023 attack.

The Gaza Strip has suffered vast destruction, with a growing international outcry over the besieged coastal territory’s spiralling death toll and a UN-declared famine.

The UK government has come under increasing public pressure to act, with thousands of people rallying every month on the streets. A poll released by YouGov on Friday showed two-thirds of British people aged 18-25 supported Palestinian statehood.

Macron warns on Israeli TV that Gaza war is ‘destroying Israel’s credibility’

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy had said at the United Nations in July that “Britain bears a special burden of responsibility to support the two-state solution”.

 The UK was pivotal in laying the groundwork for the creation of the State of Israel through the 1917 Balfour Declaration.

Starmer said on Sunday that Britain was acting “in the face of the growing horror in the Middle East”.

He renewed calls for a ceasefire and again demanded Hamas release its remaining hostages.

Branding Hamas a “brutal terror organisation”, Starmer also confirmed plans to bolster sanctions on the militants, denying recognition was a “reward”.

(with newswires)

“I think we had this complex in France – I certainly did and many other athletes with disabilities did too,” said Jean-Christophe Rambeau, one of the leading lights in France’s sitting volleyball team that made its debut at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.

Moments after addressing early-morning visitors to the French Paralympic Committee’s third annual Paralympic Day last weekend, he explained: “Before the Games, we were seen more as people with disabilities.

“And thanks to the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, French society realised that we were actually athletes. And that’s really what struck me the most about these Games, the way people looked at us by the time we got to the closing ceremony.”

France raked in 75 medals, 19 of them gold, during the 11-day extravaganza – its best haul at the Paralympics since the 86 prizes harvested at the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney.

Though Rambeau’s team finished without a victory in its four matches, he said he was still hailed in the streets for his efforts.

“People stop me and say: ‘I saw you on the TV,'” he beamed as he surveyed the burgeoning throng of para athletes and public moving around the Communale venue in Saint-Ouen, one of the suburbs north of Paris that helped host the 2024 Games.

“I realise that with this experience of the Paralympic Games, we have become a bit like ambassadors,” added Rambeau.

“We’ve become role models. And that’s something that I would really like to push… to effectively democratise disability.”

The 43-year-old added: “We need to normalise it so that people with disabilities come to a place like La Communale and try lots of sports and for them to be seen as fully fledged athletes and no longer different because they have a disability.”

Budget cuts

That shift, however, could be set back as France cuts back on its sports spending in a bid to rein in public debt. 

In January, then Prime Minister François Bayrou announced that the sport budget would be slashed from €1.7 billion to €1.4 billion as part of broader cutbacks in public spending.

A petition signed by 400 leading athletes hit out at the plans. In a statement to sports newspaper L’Equipe, President Emmanuel Macron said that he agreed with the athletes.

“Since 2017, I have ensured that the sports budget has increased every year,” he said. “We must keep our commitments and provide the necessary resources for our athletes so that the legacy of the Games benefits everyone.”

As France’s sports budget faces cuts, are Olympic promises being broken?

In June, the government came under further attack when it announced changes to the Pass Sport scheme, established in 2021 under Macron’s aegis to help children from low-income families join sports clubs. 

Nearly 1.7 million youngsters between six and 17 were benefitting from the €50 payment when Sports Minister Marie Barsacq outlined the amendments.

Under the new system, which is set to come into effect this month, the payout will be upped to €70 – but limited to young people who already qualify for certain other types of income support.

‘No going back’

“Obviously, without money, you can’t do much,” commented Rambeau. “That’s for sure. But I think that thanks to the Games, there will be no going back.

“In fact, French society, France itself, has taken a new look at disability and we are on the right track, even if there are still obstacles, such as budget restrictions.”

In another corner of La Communale dedicated to para archery, Vincent Hybois, who trains the archers in the national team, agreed.

He recounted how he was sized up and down as a teenager when his disabled parents introduced him as their son. 

“The person stared at me for what seemed like ages trying to look for my disabilities,” he recalled.

“Things have changed from that point of view and so has the amount of money coming into the sport.”

How exoskeleton suits are breaking barriers for athletes with disabilities

Visible and accessible

Hybois, whose mother, Marie-Francoise, won bronze in para archery at the 1980 and 1996 Paralympic Games, added: “When she went to her first Paralympics in 1980, she had to pay for her own tracksuit top if she wanted it as a souvenir.

“By the time she finished at the Sydney Games, the tracksuits were being given out for free.

“Of course we always want and need more money… but there have been some advances.”

After testing her skills at para badminton and boccia alongside Barsacq, French Paralympic Committee president Marie-Amélie Le Fur hailed the 15 federations who had sent coaches and advisors.

“Paralympic Day illustrates our commitment to making sport accessible to everyone, regardless of their background or disability,” Le Fur said.

“With the mobilisation of those involved in sport, we reaffirm that parasport must be visible, inclusive and open.”

Paralympics legacy spurs push for inclusive sports in Paris

No ‘ghettoising’

At the end of the month, Le Fur’s executives will unveil a study on the impact of the French Paralympic Committee’s push for sports clubs to be more accessible to people with disabilities.

“I’m all in favour of open clubs or clubs where we mix Paralympics and Olympics,” said Cécile Hernandez, who won gold in the snowboard cross at the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing.

“Sport is something that should break down all barriers,” added the 51-year-old, who said she aims to compete at the 2026 Winter Paralympic Games in Milan-Cortina.

“I’m in favour of diversity and I’m not in favour of ghettoising Paralympics.

“In a way, the more we welcome Paralympic sport into a mixed structure, the better it will be for everyone.”

Ouattara, 83, has been in power since 2011 and changed the constitution in 2016 to remove presidential term limits. 

Four candidates are standing against him, having been ruled eligible by the country’s constitutional court: former ministers Jean-Louis Billon, Ahoua Don Mello and Henriette Lagou, and Simone Gbagbo, who is a former first lady.

Neither of the main opposition parties are in the race, after the court disqualified several other candidates including former president Laurent Gbagbo – Simone’s ex-husband – and Tidjane Thiam, a businessman and former minister of development.

Excluded candidates have denounced the ruling as unfair and several are considering contesting it.

Meanwhile thousands of people took to the streets last month to protest the ban.

Thousands in Côte d’Ivoire protest exclusion of opposition leaders from election

Relative calm

Previous elections in Côte d’Ivoire have been fraught with unrest and clashes. When Ouattara stood for a third term in 2020, several people were killed in election violence.

Rinaldo Depagne, West Africa director at the International Crisis Group (ICG), says the situation remains remarkably calm compared to earlier campaigns.

“If you compare with what happened in 2020, mid September, the country already had a death toll of more than 15 people killed during violent protests. So this time, it is quite reassuring,” he told RFI.

“We don’t have any notable violence reported. The only incident was in August, an attack on a bus in Yopougon [a suburb of Abidjan].”

Several members of Laurent Gbagbo’s African People’s Party – Côte d’Ivoire were arrested after a public bus was set alight last month. They denied all involvement and the party slammed the arrests as politically motivated.

Human rights issues

Meanwhile, on 15 September Amnesty International launched a manifesto setting out six key priorities for the next administration. 

“Over the next five years, the president should address violations of the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly,” Marceau Sivieude, Amnesty International‘s regional director for West and Central Africa, wrote.

“They should end forced evictions and support affected people, ensure respect for the right to truth, justice and reparation for victims of electoral violence, protect the rights of women and children and the right to a healthy environment.”

The recommendations aim to provide the future president with a human rights roadmap.

“These elections offer an opportunity to strengthen respect for human rights in Côte d’Ivoire. We call on all candidates to commit to this,” Sivieude added.

Switching off

Regarding participation, Depagne says the main parties have shown “a certain sense of responsibility” in not calling for violence, yet the calm may also be a sign that voters are switching off from politics.

“Young people don’t expect much from politics; they don’t want to be killed or harmed for a result that won’t give them a job or a better life,” he said.

“So on the one hand, this is reassuring because we have so far had quite a peaceful pre-campaign… But on the other hand, people are not really involved in political life.”

No presidential election since 1995 has resulted in a peaceful change of power, ICG notes in its latest report on Côte d’Ivoire.

One of the issues, according to the think tank, is that the candidates are well-known politicians who have been on the scene since the 1990s.

“In a way, I’m not sure that many Ivorians believe in them anymore,” Depagne says. “The turnout could be low.”

Ouattara confirms fourth term run as Ivorian opposition cries foul

Furthermore, the violence surrounding previous elections means that “politics for many people is something dangerous”, according to Depagne. 

“For many people, going in the street to demonstrate could be dangerous,” he told RFI. “This is also why you don’t see massive protests, I think.”

The Ivorian government should hold formal talks with the opposition as soon as possible, the ICG recommends, while parties whose candidates have been disqualified should resist the temptation to boycott.

The election campaign officially kicks off on 10 October and will end on 23 October, two days before voting begins.

Under negotiation since 2001, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies was adopted in June 2022, and enough countries ratified it for it to officially come into force on Monday, 15 September.

Subsidies to fishing fleets are a key factor in the depletion of fish stocks around the world. Critics have long argued that they incentivise boats to catch fish faster than stocks can replenish.

Around 35 percent of global fish stocks are overfished, compared to just 10 percent in 1974, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, and almost all stocks are fished at their maximum sustainable level.

‘Game changer’

The WTO deal, the first to address an environmental issue, is a “game changer”, according to Tristan Irschlinger, an expert on the issue at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, a Canada-based think tank.

“States will no longer implement their subsidy policies in a legal vacuum – they will need to keep sustainability in mind,” he told RFI.

In 2018, states granted fisheries €30.1 billion ($35.4 billion) in public subsidies, according to one study, with China, the European Union, the United States, South Korea and Japan in the lead.

Of that sum, “governments spend around €18.7 billion ($22 billion) on harmful subsidies that contribute to overfishing and the depletion of marine resources”, said WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

The new rules aim to address both environmental concerns and the well-being of fishing communities.

“No one has an interest in financially supporting illegal fishing, or harvesting of already overfished stocks,” Irschlinger said. But there needed to be a mechanism for countries to stop doing so, he suggested, “without losing face in front of other states”.

France defends tuna policy as critics warn of overfishing in the Indian Ocean

Rooting out illegal fishing

The first part of the WTO agreement, called Fish 1, targets illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices, whether carried out deliberately or not.

“The agreement specifically targets industrial fishing activities that profit illegally because they know the risks are generally quite low,” explains Irschlinger.

IUU practices include vessels operating without authorisation or in violation of the law, such as fishing in protected waters, catching protected species, or using banned gear like dynamite.

Quantifying the effects of IUU fishing is difficult.

A 2009 study determined the practice accounted for between 11 and 19 percent of all fish caught globally in the 2000s — between 11 and 26 million tonnes of fish. The numbers are almost certainly much higher today.

Beyond its environmental impact and the effects on food security, IUU fishing also intersects with crime, according to French ocean conservation organisation Fondation de la Mer.

IUU is “linked to corruption, mafia practices, modern slavery and organised crime”, it said in a report on the practice last year.

Help for developing countries

The WTO agreement prohibits states from granting subsidies to vessels and operators in three cases: when fishing activities are illegal; when fish stocks are overexploited; or when fishing takes place on the high seas, which are not regulated by any single state.

The UN’s High Seas Treaty, which is expected to come into force next week, will reinforce the WTO agreement, particularly through the creation of marine protected areas where some or all forms of fishing would be banned.

French Polynesia unveils world’s largest marine protected zone

Developing countries are given a two-year grace period to comply with the agreement, and 17 members have pledged more than €15 million ($18 million) to a fund to help fisheries transition to more sustainable practices.

In theory the agreement would be enforced through the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body, which resolves conflicts between states – but because the United States has blocked the appointment of judges, it has remained unable to handle new cases since 2019.

The agreement also does not specify the kinds of sanctions that could be imposed.

Aiming to avoid the need for penalties, a fisheries subsidies committee will be tasked with monitoring implementation, while states are also expected to scrutinise each other.

Looking ahead to Fish 2

There is hope that the first part of the agreement will build momentum for the second part, Fish 2, currently under negotiation, to be finalised within four years.

Fish 2 focuses specifically on fishing fleets themselves, which Irschlinger says is “the root of the problem”.

The Fondation de la Mer says that even when fishing fleets are not fishing illegally, or when stocks are not yet overfished, subsidies can still be harmful: “They often promote the development of oversized fishing fleets and encourage excessive fishing pressure, which can ultimately lead to overexploitation or even stock collapse.”

The second part of the agreement sets out a general list of prohibited subsidies, and removes the need to detect illegal fishing or assess fish stocks in order to enforce the rules. Instead it is up to states to prove that they have put management measures in place.

Fish 2 depends on ratification by the United States, which ratified Fish 1 under the previous administration.

The new administration is taking a more ambitious and hardline stance in negotiations, aligned with India and Indonesia, which argue that the text is not strict enough on states that subsidise the most.

Negotiations will likely restart in earnest in March of next year at a WTO meeting in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

This article was adapted from the original version in French by RFI’s Géraud Bosman-Delzons.

Now in its third edition, Photoclimat brings together 47 artists from around the world. Their installations trace the work of non-profit groups tackling climate change, protecting biodiversity and defending communities on the frontlines.

The Biennale was created in 2021 by French photographer Nicolas Henry, a member of Le tour d’un monde (A Journey Around a World), a cultural association that develops artistic projects with a social focus.

He says the idea is to use art as a bridge to the work of NGOs.

“The idea of this project is to combine the strength of artistic talent together with the stories of the work done by NGOs. We want to really wake people up – raise awareness,” he told RFI.

He hopes visitors will go further – learning more about the organisations, volunteering or donating.

“But it’s also all about giving meaning to what we do, bringing joy and a good mood that can transform people’s lives. It gives us a sense of direction and a sense of community,” he says.

A powerful tool

Henry believes photography, along with art and design, can open the door to difficult issues, especially for younger audiences. 

“It’s a way to introduce these NGOs to the younger generation who may not have heard of them – encouraging them to become ‘actors of society’ when it comes to ecology and social progress,” he says.

One of the headline works sits at Place de la Concorde. It is “Les Voix des Fôrets” (Voices of the Forest), a series by young Filipino photographer Gab Mejia. His black-and-white portraits are displayed on a circular wooden pavilion that doubles as a meeting space for artists.

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Mejia worked with Laure d’Astorg from the French NGO Alliance pour la Préservation des Fôrets (Alliance for Forest Preservation) to find a way to celebrate the people behind the mammoth task of saving the world’s endangered forests.

“I wanted the work to share their messages and to transmit a call to action of what we can do to preserve the forests all across the world,” Mejia told RFI.

He says the Philippines, one of the world’s most biodiverse countries, has vast primary forests under threat. “It’s part of our identity; we have indigenous communities and local communities who really rely on the forest in the Philippines and the islands.”

Among his subjects was Hernando Chindoy, a Colombian leader working with the Alliance to fight deforestation. Mejia combined photography with digitally rendered sketches to portray the activists.

For d’Astorg, there’s the public message battle, and then there’s the legal one behind the scenes.

Her organisation strives to make sure raw materials derived from the forests, like wood, coffee, cacao are sustainably sourced.

“Forests are in danger, forests in Europe, but also in Amazonia and Basin of Congo and Southeast Asia,” she says.

“The planet is burning and we really need to bring this message and this fight can only be won together with the businesses and the NGOs. We really need to work together to stop deforestation.”

Beauty and the blight: a photographer’s quest to expose an ecological disaster

Elsewhere at Photoclimat, visitors can see British photographer Tim Flach’s portraits of animals, the bold colours of Ghanaian artist Prince Gyasi and the abstract work of Dutch photographer Sanja Marusic.

On the banks of the Seine, other installations focus on oceans and rivers, underscoring the efforts of people and organisations working to protect them.

For Nicolas Henry, Photoclimat is just the beginning of a conversation: a wake-up call he hopes will transform awareness into meaningful action.

Photoclimat runs until 12 October – spanning 6 locations in central Paris and several locations in the Paris suburbs.

The presence of spirits is deeply woven into daily life in Madagascar, where people regularly honour their ancestors through ritual practices.

“In our everyday lives, we constantly think about our ancestors, because Malagasy philosophy believes that doing good for them, honouring them, helps maintain a form of balance within society,” says Rijasolo, whose series “Madagascar, land of spirits” is currently showing at the Visa pour l’image photo festival in southern France.

“This spirituality sustains people with a kind of resilience in the face of the economic situation and the prevailing uncertainty.”

At the core of this belief system is the practice of hasina, “a kind of universal energy that Christians might call the Holy Spirit, or others might call Gaia”, he told RFI.

This energy is found in nature – in mountains, trees and rivers.

“There are certain people we call ‘mpanazary’ – they are shamans who have this ability to use this ‘hasina’ to heal people or predict the future and to be in contact with ancestors,” explains Rijasolo.

Filipino photographer honours activists saving the forests

To document these intimate and often secretive practices, as he began doing in 2009, the photographer had to gain the trust of local communities.

He himself took part in some rituals in order to be accepted, while using his camera to maintain distance: “It was a way to keep my rational mind intact to be able to document what was happening.

“My camera was a kind of psychological shield.”

While this spirituality remains vibrant, it now faces threats, particularly as global warming and biodiversity loss erode the island’s unique environment.

“We know that 80 percent of Madagascar’s flora and fauna are endemic to the island,” says Rijasolo. “And this is precisely what gives strength to the ‘hasina’.”

► “Madagascar, land of spirits” is on show as part of the Visa pour l’Image photo festival in Perpignan until 14 September 2025.

France has not run a budget surplus in over fifty years. The last time was before the 1973 oil crisis.

“Since then, our deficit has not stopped increasing, and so our debt has not stopped increasing,” François Ecalle, a former member of France’s high council on public finance and an honorary senior adviser to the Cour des Comptes public auditors, told RFI.

France’s debt at the end of the first semester of 2025 was €3,345 billion, according to the Insee statistics institute, and it has grown over the last two decades to reach 113.9 percent of GDP this year.

“Each year the public debt goes up because we have a deficit: overall, the state and local authorities and the social security system have revenue that is less than what they spend,” Ecalle says.

Crises feed the debt

That deficit – the difference between revenue and spending – comes from yearly spending, but has also gone up with various crises, most recently the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid pandemic, when the government spent money to bail out businesses and support the healthcare system and other public services.

Like many states, France borrows money to cover the deficit, which costs more money, as there is interest to pay – the cost of servicing the debt.

Retirement benefits – which continue to rise, with an ageing population – are the largest item in the 2026 budget, but they are followed by the cost of servicing the debt, which Bayrou said is expected to cost €75 billion – more than the cost of healthcare or education.

Servicing the debt

Because interest rates have been on the rise, Bayrou said the cost of servicing the debt could become the single largest line item in the budget by 2029, which he says represents a serious and immediate danger.

“An immediate danger weighs on us, which we need to face, not tomorrow or after tomorrow, but today, without any sort of delay, without which our future will be denied us and the present will be made severely worse,” the Prime Minister said during the press conference on 25 August in which he announced the confidence vote he would put to parliament on 8 September.

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The Cour des comptes public auditor agrees that reducing the debt is necessary. In July last year, the head of the institution, Pierre Moscovici, called it a “burning obligation”.

Keeping France’s yearly deficit within the European Union’s limit of 3 percent of GDP is “imperative to the sustainability of the debt”, the auditor wrote this July – if the deficit goes up, lenders will no longer trust France to pay back its loans.

Debate over how to reduce the debt

The debate – and subsequent vote in parliament – will focus on “the overall plan, its necessity and usefulness,” Bayrou said, even as the political disagreements are more on the substance of Bayrou’s particular proposals, rather than the concept of the deficit itself.

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“There is a growing consensus among experts, politicians, and the French people, particularly around the idea that something must be done to reduce deficits and regain control of the debt,” said Ecalle.

“But there is no consensus on how to get there. And when one government starts saying how to do it, the response is to look elsewhere.”

What to tax, what to cut?

Bayrou’s draft budget has €21 billion in spending cuts, plus a pension freeze and a cap to all social benefits to 2025 levels.

Taxation is a red herring – French President Emmanuel Macron’s governments have promised no new taxes on households.

Ecalle says at some point the government needs to find new sources of revenue, through taxes – on inherited property or high pensions – but he recognises the difficulty in getting people to support such measures: taxes, like budget cuts, are never popular.

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“The debates we are having today over how to balance the books – whether they involve spending cuts or tax increases – are debates that we have been having for decades. When I was at finance ministry 30 years ago, these were the same debates,” he says, adding that his not optimistic that the current period will be any different.

“We put off these the conflicts over taxes and public spending that we are unable to resolve today, to some point in the future.”

“It will be, for us, a requirement very clearly before opening, for instance, an embassy in Palestine,” Macron told CBS News in an interview that was recorded on Thursday.

The comments emerged as leaders of Britain, Australia and Canada announced they would formally recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on social media: “Today, to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two-state solution, the United Kingdom formally recognises the State of Palestine.”

Mark Carney, the Canadian premier, said: “Canada recognises the State of Palestine and offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future.”

His Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, said Canberra’s move “recognises the legitimate and long held aspirations of the people of Palestine to a state of their own”.

Portugal was also set to recognise Palestinian statehood.

British PM Starmer says UK to recognise Palestinian state at UN General Assembly

Displacement plans

Macron also spoke out against any plans to displace Palestinians from Gaza – which they want to be part of a future sovereign state – when rebuilding the territory.

“But if the precondition of such a plan is to push them out, this is just a craziness,” Macron said on “Face the Nation.”

“We should not be – for the credibility of the United States, for the credibility of France – we cannot be implicitly or explicitly complacent with such a project.”

Mahmud Mardaw, a senior Hamas official, hailed the move to recognise a Palestinian state.

“These developments represent a victory for Palestinian rights and the justice of our cause,” he told the French news agency AFP.

“And it sends a clear message: no matter how far the occupation goes in its crimes, it will never be able to erase our national rights.

In a communique issued on Sunday, Hamas said the recognition must be accompanied by “practical measures”.

These, it said, should include an immediate halt to “the genocidal war being waged against our people in the Gaza Strip and confronting the ongoing annexation and judaisation projects in the West Bank and Jerusalem.” 

Macron warns on Israeli TV that Gaza war is ‘destroying Israel’s credibility’

Israeli reaction

The roster of countries stating their intention to recognise a Palestinian state brought an angry response from Israeli politicians.

Isaac Herzog, Israel’s president, said the acknowledgement would be detrimental ntal to those seeking peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

“It will not help one Palestinian, it won’t help free one hostage,” said Herzog in a statement. “And it will not help us reach any settlement between Israelis and Palestinians.

“It will only embolden the forces of darkness. This is a sad day for those who seek true peace.”

In a message addressed to Starmer, Albanese and Carney, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said there would be no Palestinian state.

 “I have a clear message for those leaders who recognise a Palestinian state after the horrific massacre on October 7: you are granting a huge reward to terror,” he said.

“And I have another message for you: it will not happen. No Palestinian state will be established west of the Jordan River.”

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‘One-sided recognition’

Before Netanyahu’s statement, Israel’s foreign ministry rejected what it called the “one-sided” recognition of a Palestinian state.

“This declaration does not promote peace, but on the contrary further destabilises the region and undermines the chances of achieving a peaceful solution in the future,” it added.

“Instead, if the countries that signed this declaration truly wish to stabilise the region, they should focus on pressuring Hamas to release the hostages and to disarm immediately.

“The declaration not only rewards the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust by a terror organisation that is calling and acting for the annihilation of Israel, but also solidifies the support Hamas enjoys.

 “This move goes against all logic of negotiation and reaching a compromise between two sides, and it will push the desired peace further away,” the ministry said.

“In any case, Israel will not accept any detached and imaginary text that attempts to force it to accept indefensible borders,” it added.

In an effort to seize Gaza City, the territory’s largest urban centre, the Israeli military has recently intensified its air assaults and launched a major ground offensive.

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

Efforts to flee Gaza City

So far more than 550,000 people have fled the city and moved southward, the military said on Sunday.

On Sunday, at least 32 people were killed in Gaza City in Israeli strikes, according to the territory’s civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority.

Mohammed Abu Khousa, a resident of Deir el-Balah, told AFP that he hoped that other countries would also follow the lead of Britain, Canada and Australia in recognising a Palestinian state.

“It chips away at Israel’s legitimacy and gives our cause a new spark of hope,” he said. “This could push more countries to recognise us, and hopefully bring an end to the war.”

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

 The assault resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

During the raid, Palestinian militants also took 251 hostages, of which 47 still remain in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military response has left at least 65,000 people dead in Gaza, ccording to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, figures which the United Nations finds reliable.

The match was scheduled to start at 845pm on Sunday at the Vélodrome in Marseille city centre.

But during the afternoon, police chiefs in the Bouches-du-Rhône department – the region in which Marseille is situated – said there was a significant risk of flooding in and around the 65,000-seat stadium.

The Ligue de Football Professionnel, which runs the top two professional divisions in France, said the match would be played at 8pm on Monday night.

The game, nicknamed Le Classique, as a nod to the rivalry between the clubs and the cities, is one of the highlights of the top flight calendar.

The fifth game of the 2025/2026 season will give Marseille the chance to arrest PSG’s perfect start to the campaign.

Luis Enrique’s charges have won all four of their games to sit top of Ligue 1 with 12 points.

Marseille lie seventh with six points following two wins and two losses. 

It will take place as a host of star players and coaches gather in Paris for the Ballon d”or awards ceremony.

Nine PSG players are among the list of nominees for the sport’s most prestigious individual award. 

Enrique is also nominated for leading PSG to a domestic treble of Ligue 1 title, Coupe de France and French Super Cup as well as the Champions League crown.

Reusser completed the 31.2 kilometre course between the BK Arena in Kigali and the Kigali Convention Centre in 43 minutes and nine seconds.

Anna van der Breggen from the Netherlands was second – 52 seconds behind – and her Dutch compatriot Demi Vollering was third.

Although she has won golds in team events, Reusser, who turned 34 on Saturday, had never brandished an ITT.

“I can almost not believe it,” she said. “I know it’s real and it happened but I tried so many times and it didn’t work out. And now I made it and it’s really special, but it was such an effort.”

The world title caps an impressive season for Reusser who joined the Movistar team last winter. She won the Tour of Burgos in May and in June claimed the Tour of Switzerland for the second time.

“I went really hard on the climbs,” she said. “Then the final climb, maybe even I went too hard in the beginning, so I was full of lactic acid but I think it was the right way to pace it and I think also I have an advantage, I’m quite a heavy rider, so without a lot of effort, I still go down pretty fast, and then I can put all my effort in the climb. So I did this, and it was super hard. It was so hard. But yeah, I made it.”

Kigali hosts historic first road world cycling championships in Africa

First championships in Africa

In a salute to the first staging of the road world championships in Africa, Rwanda’s Xaverine Nirere was the first of 44 competitors to start the course from inside the BK Arena.

She finished 27th, almost seven minutes behind Reusser.

For the third consecutive year, Evenepoel won the men’s event.

The 25-year-old dominated at 40.6-kilometre stretch between the same venues as the women’s race in 49 minutes, 46.03 seconds.

Jay Vine from Australia was second, 74 seconds off the pace and Ilan van Wilder from Belgium was third.

At last year’s Olympics in Paris, Evenepoel became the first rider to win the time trial and the road race at the same Games.

He will be seeking to reproduce such pyrotechnics when he competes in next Sunday’s 267km road race, where defending champion Tadej Pogacar is the hot favourite.

“I was on great form today,” beamed Evenepoel. “I hope I feel like this again next Sunday.”

The victory in Kigali, following last year’s triumph in Zurich and glory in Glasgow in 2023, allows him to emulate Tony Martin, Fabian Cancellara and Michael Rogers as the only riders to have brandished the world championships ITT crown at least three times.

Approximately 1.4 million people in France are affected by Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders – amounting to 8 percent of people over 65.

Around 225,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, with the disease representing 70 percent of all age-related neurocognitive disorders.

By 2050, an estimated 2.2 million people in the country are expected to be living with the disease, out of a population of 68 million.

“Cognitive disorders are now the leading cause of loss of autonomy in France,” said Lorène Gilly from France Alzheimer, the country’s leading patient advocacy organisation for the disease. “We must be able to respond to this major public health challenge.”

Budget cuts

France established itself as a global leader in Alzheimer’s policy through groundbreaking national plans launched in the early 2000s.

The 2008-2012 Alzheimer Plan, featuring 46 measures and a €1.6 billion budget, was “recognised worldwide and is still cited as an example internationally,” according to Gilly.

The plan created specialised Alzheimer teams and established a comprehensive network of Centres de mémoires (memory centres) and expert centres.

But momentum has slipped. The 2014-2019 neurodegenerative diseases plan contained “more than double the measures of the Alzheimer plan for a third of its budget,” explained Gilly.

Insufficient resources have also slowed down access to the system, she says. “You have to wait between six and 12 months now to get on to the pathway to care. That’s too long for a neurodegenerative disease.” 

Progress in treatment and diagnosis

Early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is key to slowing its progression. Progress in that regard has been made thanks to biomarkers – proteins in spinal fluid – and PET scans showing amyloid plaques, both of which enable earlier, more accurate diagnosis. 

Specialist centres such as the ICM in Paris and others in Montpellier, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Strasbourg and Lille are particularly strong in this field, said Dr Rémy Genthon, head of research at the Alzheimer Research Foundation.

This breakthrough has revolutionised clinical trials. “We can now make studies a bit more interesting because we conduct clinical studies on patients that we know have the right amyloid target,” said Genthon.

Freedom, dignity in French Alzheimer’s ‘village’

There is still no cure for Alzheimer’s, but hopes are high for new treatments – namely the drugs Leqembi and Donanemab, the first disease-modifying drugs for Alzheimer’s disease.

Rather than merely treating symptoms, they target the underlying amyloid plaques believed to cause the disease, offering a 30 percent reduction in disease progression for patients treated early, said Genthon.

“Imagine someone who is 70 years old starting the disease. If you remove 30 percent of its progression, they might gain two or three years of being better, of being able to talk to their grandchildren… be a real grandfather rather than a mummy in a chair.”

Already approved in the United States and by the European Union’s European Medicines Agency, Germany and Austria have recently given Leqembi the green light, but France declined to.

Earlier this month the country’s High Authority for Health (HAS) refused early access to Leqembi, citing “very insufficient benefits” against “significant side effects,” including risks of brain haemorrhages and oedema.

“It’s tragic, a catastrophe for the entire medical community,” said Genthon.

He acknowledges the gravity of potential side effects but maintains that they remain rare. For him the decision contradicts European approval and relegates France to a “little Gallic village saying no” whilst other countries move forward.

He also points to a culture of “Alzheimer-denial”, where some still see the disease as basically dementia and therefore “not worth making a fuss about”.

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Budget crisis

Research into Alzheimer’s disease remains severely underfunded. Cancer research receives 100 times more funding, according to Genthon.

It’s a situation that is unlikely to improve given France’s huge budget deficit, and the resulting need to find €44 billion in savings for next year.

Genthon fears the decision to refuse authorising Leqembi was driven by cost concerns rather than clinical merit. The country’s “dramatic economic situation” has made authorities “even more cautious” about such expensive treatments, he said.

He raised the prospect of a two-tier system, in which private clinics in France would import the drug from Germany and provide it to their fee-paying patients.

Gilly, meanwhile, points to chronic underfunding of the healthcare system as a whole, which is resulting in stark geographical inequalities. Rural areas are particularly underserved, creating additional burdens for family carers.

“You’re better off having the disease diagnosed in one territory rather than another,” she said, adding that France Alzheimer’s network of 102 departmental organisations sees these disparities first-hand.

The organisation’s goal is for all of France’s nursing homes to be equipped with a specialised Alzheimer’s unit – currently, only 26 percent are.

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International pressure

Specialised units are particularly critical for younger Alzheimer’s sufferers. When you’ve been diagnosed at the age of 42, Gilly says, “it’s troubling to be told that the only solution is to go to a nursing home”.

While France had built excellent foundations, she added, it “left them aside for far too long” as patient numbers increased. This has resulted in “very big problems at every stage of the care pathway”.

Alzheimer France’s volunteers support families who are left to do the caring when there is no available place in a specialised unit, but Gilly warns the system is under great strain. “We can no longer consider carers as the moving part in a public policy struggling to respond to this challenge.”

As France prepares to host the 37th International Alzheimer’s Disease Conference in Lyon next April, advocates hope international pressure will galvanise politicians.

The new 2025-2030 Alzheimer’s strategy has ambitious goals, including making France “the world leader in terms of innovation and research”.

For Gilly’s part, she says: “We’re going to be very watchful regarding its deployment, the timeline, and the budget dedicated to implementing each measure.”

With France under pressure to reduce its €44 billion debt pile and budget deficit, Gabriel Zucman has suggested that the ultra-rich pay at least a 2 percent tax on their fortune.

“This is clearly not a technical or economic debate, but rather a clearly stated desire to destroy the French economy,” said Bernard Arnault in a statement to the British newspaper The Sunday Times.

 Arnault, whose family fortune is estimated at $157 billion by Forbes, described Zucman as “first and foremost a far-left activist … who puts at the service of his ideology … a pseudo-academic competence that is itself widely debated”.

Zucman says his plan could raise around €20 billion euros per year from 1,800 households.

“We can have fundamental disagreements, and Arnault is entitled, like all citizens, to his opinions. But this debate must take place with respect for the truth and the facts,” Zucman told the French news agency AFP.

Attac activists give black marks to LVMH and other ‘shameless billionaires’

International posts   

 Zucman, who has held academic posts in London, the United States and Paris, said: “Mr Arnault is wrong to question my professional qualifications by referring to me as having ‘pseudo-academic competence.'”

He compared such statements to the language used by President Donald Trump and his allies in the US where concern is growing over academic freedoms.

“With the rise of Trumpism, I have seen this rhetoric flourish, denigrating knowledge and research in the United States,” warned Zucman.

Zucman, a professor at France’s École Normale Supérieure and the University of California, Berkeley, rejected the accusations of political partisanship.

“I’ve never been an activist for any movement or party,” he said on social media, adding his work was grounded in research, not ideology.

No business like shoe business: LVMH-backed tycoon buys Birkenstock

Political support

The 38-year-old received support from left-wing leaders who expressed shock at the comments from 76-year-old Arnault whose LVMH conglomerate includes brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior and Moet Hennessy. 

Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure wrote on social media: “What destroys our economy and even more so our society is the absence of any form of patriotism on the part of the ultra-rich who beg for help from the state but refuse to submit to any form of solidarity.”

Greens leader, Marine Tondelier, said: “We’re close to the goal and he’s getting nervous.”

But Zucman came under fire from the right where politicians fear that such a scheme would drive the wealthy to flee France.

“Zucman’s tax idea is intellectually very weak,” said Jean-Philippe Tanguy, an MP for the Rassemblement National during an interview on Sunday  with France Inter and franceinfo TV.

“When you look at the work that has been done on tax justice and the increase in income and wealth inequality since the opening of the capital markets in the 1980s and 1990s and the unfortunate globalisation, to say that the outcome of this reflection is to target the richest – those with more than €100 million in assets – and impose a 2 percent tax, seems to me to be a very simplistic solution, a bit like a slogan.” 

(With newswires)

Four years after a coup upended Guinea’s fragile democracy, the country is heading to the polls.

On Sunday, more than 6.7 million registered voters will have their say on a draft constitution which promises to clear the way for long-awaited elections – but also opens the door for the country’s strongman, General Mamady Doumbouya, to run for president.

For many Guineans, this referendum is about more than constitutional clauses and legal frameworks.

It will be the first nationwide ballot since 2021, when Doumbouya toppled elected president Alpha Condé and installed himself at the helm of the resource-rich but poverty-stricken nation.

Hopes of a return to civilian rule soon faded as the junta banned protests, silenced its critics and suspended opposition parties.

Guinea’s junta sets September vote on new constitution after missed deadline

‘A dynamic of change’

The draft text, containing 199 articles, carries the title A New Constitution – a Constitution that Reflects Us and Unites Us.

It posits that a High Court of Justice would be set up to try presidents and ministers, plus a Senate to balance the power of the National Assembly, and suggests a mandatory quota of 30 percent women in decision-making posts to boost gender parity.

Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah is keen to present the charter as a vehicle for national renewal. “Guinea aspires to a dynamic of change and unity,” he told reporters, adding that the reforms address decades of civic and political demands.

But there are some provisions that critics say are tilted firmly in Doumbouya’s favour, notably the absence of the transition charter stipulation barring junta leaders from contesting elections.

The main opposition coalition, Forces Vives de Guinée, has denounced this as a direct violation of Article 46 of the Transitional Charter.

In addition, the age and residency rules which state that candidates must be aged between 40 and 80 and living in Guinea effectively bar Condé, now 87 and living in exile in Istanbul, and 73-year-old former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo, who is also living abroad, from taking part.

When he first seized power, Doumbouya promised he would not cling to it. However, posters of the general dominate Conakry’s streets, football matches have been organised in his honour, and ministers have fanned out across the country to campaign for a “yes” vote.

Asked directly whether Doumbouya would run for the presidency, Prime Minister Bah replied: “Why not? Any citizen who meets the minimum criteria can stand.” 

Avoidance tactic

The referendum comes amid mounting international pressure from Western powers and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) for a return to civilian rule.

Guinea’s junta failed to meet a transition deadline set for the end of 2024, which had been agreed with Ecowas.

While no new sanctions have been announced since those imposed by Ecowas in 2022 were lifted in 2024, the West African bloc is among the international organisations that have repeatedly raised concerns about Guinea’s failure to meet transition deadlines, and its clampdowns on opposition figures.

According to Franklin Nossiter of the International Crisis Group, the junta’s pushing through of a constitutional vote before announcing a timeline for elections “looks like movement, but it’s really a way of avoiding the hard deadline of elections”.

He added: “Although when he took power Mamady Doumbouya was very clear that he was not going to hold on to power… it seems pretty clear [a run for office is] the direction where things are going.”

Bah insists presidential and legislative elections will happen before the end of 2025, although no dates have been set.

Guinea opposition groups challenge military rule after missed deadline

A silenced opposition

The opposition is calling for a boycott of the referendum, branding the exercise a power grab in disguise. On Monday, exiled opposition leader Diallo urged Guineans to abstain from voting in what he called a “masquerade”.

The opposition’s campaign, however, is barely visible. Demonstrations have been banned since 2022, and three of the country’s main opposition parties were suspended in August. Several prominent figures are either behind bars, in exile or have simply disappeared.

Human rights groups say Guinea is living under a blanket of silence, with journalists harassed and media outlets shut down. According to Reporters Without Borders, the banning of broadcasters “has created a media vacuum, silencing dissenting voices in Guinea”.

Bah has brushed off such concerns, telling French news agency AFP that some opponents are trying to destabilise the country and that the government is acting in a “fragile context” to maintain “national security” and protect the “major interests of the country”.

Bah added that he did “not deny” the disappearance of opposition figures, but said he hopes those missing are “alive and well”.

(with AFP)

While the body of Notre-Dame cathedral reopened to the public in December 2024, the iconic twin towers of Notre-Dame cathedral have been closed since the devastating fire of 15 April 2019.

Flames destroyed much of the belfry of the north tower, and while the south tower was somewhat spared, its rotting beams needed to be replaced anyway.

The cathedral’s eight giant bells were removed and sent for inspection at a foundry in the Manche region in the north of France.

The restoration of the Gothic towers mobilised more than 2,000 workers and a large number of companies across the country.

From ashes to innovation: 3D scanning powers Notre-Dame’s restoration

‘Inspiring experience’

After more than five years of painstaking work, the towers were inaugurated by French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday morning.

They reopened to the public on Saturday, coinciding with the annual European Heritage Days – a continent-wide event that sees historic monuments, companies and workshops open their doors to the public.

French artist to give Notre-Dame’s stained-glass windows a modern makeover

The Notre-Dame towers visit has been completely reorganised to make it “an inspiring experience”, according to Marie Lavandier, president of the National Centre for Historic Monuments (CMN).

The tour, which lasts approximately 45 minutes, begins at the south tower with an ascent of 424 steps to the belfry, previously hidden behind a large double-spiral staircase made of solid oak.

Visitors then reach the terraces, at a height of 69 metres, to discover stunning 360-degree views of Paris.

Emmanuel, the bell

In the belfry visitors can see the cathedral’s two main bells – including one named “Emmanuel” and weighing over 13 tonnes – which ring only for major events.

The tour then passes through the Cistern Courtyard, which separates the two towers and offers a glimpse of the “forest”, the wooden framework that underpins the cathedral’s lead roof and was devastated by the flames. The descent is via the north tower.

New equipment has been installed to facilitate visits and enhance safety, particularly for fire protection, CMN said.

The work on the towers was funded as part of the second phase of the restoration project, at a cost of €552 million, according to France’s court of financial auditors.

Notre-Dame: archaeological discoveries reveal centuries of history beneath cathedral

Visitor numbers capped

Access to the towers has been limited to a capacity of 400,000 visitors per year, a relatively small amount compared to the approximately 30,000 who people enter the Gothic building each day for free.

Tickets to the towers costs €16 and must be purchased online. A maximum of 19 people can enter at a time.

Tickets for both days of the opening weekend sold out in 24 minutes, according to the CMN. 

Since Notre-Dame de Paris reopened on 7 and 8 December last year, it has recorded more than eight million visitors, becoming “the most visited monument in France”, according to the president’s office.

More work to come

The project to rebuild Notre-Dame cost around €700 million in total, financed by donations.

While the opening of the towers marks the final major stage in the reconstruction process, there is still more work to be done. The apse at the eastern end of the cathedral is the next part to be renovated.

“The work we have undertaken includes repairs that the cathedral needed, which are not related to the fire and which will take us into the post-reopening period,” said Philippe Jost, who is overseeing the reconstruction project. 

“Our ambition now is to complete a full restoration of the cathedral, addressing everything that will enable it to look its best.” 

(with AFP)

Since its creation in 1981, the event, which takes place every second year, has brought together kite enthusiasts from around the world. This year they have come from as far afield as Russia, Israel, Malaysia, Indonesia and Canada.

“In today’s geopolitical climate, that’s important,” Gérard Clément, artistic director of the festival, told RFI. “We don’t want to get caught in conflicts that aren’t ours. That’s why we always say [there are] no borders in the sky. The wind unites us.”

For Clément, another thing that makes Dieppe’s festival special is its enduring commitment to artistic creation. 

“We’ve stayed true to the festival’s original spirit. While kites have become more commercial and visually spectacular elsewhere, we continue to focus on creativity,” he said.

This year, only artists who design and build their own kites were invited to participate.

Archaeological discoveries

Kite flying has a long and complex history, with its origins most commonly traced back to China more than 2,000 years ago.

But recent archaeological discoveries in Indonesia suggest the practice may be even older and more widespread than previously thought.

“It’s possible the Chinese didn’t invent the kite,” Clément says cautiously. “There’s evidence of kite-like images in cave paintings on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Maybe during their voyages, the Chinese discovered and developed the tradition further.”

In Asia the tradition of using natural materials for kite construction such as paper and bamboo continues, while in the West there is a focus on modern, synthetic materials such as fibreglass and carbon fibre or spinnaker cloth – two approaches Clément says co-exist in Dieppe.

‘Talibanned’: From kite-running to breakdancing, Afghan pastimes again under threat

‘A rich tradition’

Among the artists featured at this year’s festival is Kadek Armika, an Indonesian kite flyer from Bali whose work bridges tradition and modernity.

“Kadek’s creations are deeply rooted in Balinese culture. But as an architect who has travelled widely, he also brings a modern, even Western influence into his work. He manages to preserve the Balinese spirit and craftsmanship while incorporating contemporary design,” said Clément.

While kite designs vary around the world, some shapes are commonly seen across various cultures. 

“In North Africa and around the Mediterranean, there is a rich tradition of kite flying,” Clément said.

“You’ll find hexagonal kites with long tails in Spain, called ‘cometas‘. The same shape appears in Greece, Lebanon, across the whole Mediterranean basin, even in Egypt.”

Clément says that no matter where the participants have come from, the festival provides a unique opportunity.

“For one week, we step away from the news, the conflicts and the noise.”

“We are fighting for the future of Turkey‘s democracy,” said party leader Ozgur Ozel to tens of thousands of supporters at a rally in Ankara on Saturday.

Ozel has been travelling the country since March, when Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested on graft charges. The case marked the start of a legal assault on the CHP. Ozel now speaks at rallies twice a week, despite his often hoarse voice.

The party is also defending itself in court over alleged voting irregularities at a congress two years ago that elected Ozel as leader. If the court rules against them, Ozel and the rest of the party leadership could be removed and replaced by state-appointed trustees.

“It’s unprecedented,” said political analyst Sezin Oney of the Politics news portal. “There has not been such a purge, such a massive crackdown on the opposition, and there is no end in sight, that’s the issue.”

Macron and Erdogan find fragile common ground amid battle for influence

Arrests and polls

On Wednesday, another CHP mayor in Istanbul was jailed, bringing the total to 16 detained mayors and more than 300 other officials. Most face corruption charges.

The arrests come as the CHP’s new leadership is stepping up its challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Recent opinion polls give Imamoglu and other CHP figures double-digit leads over the president.

Oney said the prosecutions are part of Erdogan’s wider strategy.

“He’s trying to complete the transformation, the metamorphosis as I call it, of Turkey to become a full authoritarian country,” she said.

“There is an opposition but the opposition is a grotesque opposition, that can never have the power actually to be in government. But they give the perception as if the country is democratic because there are elections.”

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‘Multi-front attack’

Ilhan Uzgel, the CHP’s foreign affairs coordinator, said the party is under siege.

“We are under a multi-front attack from all directions at almost every level, running from one court case to another,” he said.

He argued that Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is using fear to force defections. “Sixteen of our mayors are in jail right now, and they threaten our mayors. You either join our party or you face a jail term,” Uzgel said.

Erdogan rejects any suggestion of coercion and insists the judiciary is independent. Since he came to power more than 20 years ago, however, not a single AKP mayor has been convicted on graft charges – though on Friday at least two local mayors from the ruling party were detained as part of a corruption investigation.

Turkey warns Kurdish-led fighters in Syria to join new regime or face attack

Political risks

Despite appearing dominant, Erdogan may face a backlash. Atilla Yesilada, a political analyst with Global Source Partners, said the crackdown is fuelling public anger.

“You look at recent polls, the first complaint remains economic conditions, but justice rose to number two. These things don’t escape people’s notice; that’s what I mean when I say Erdogan took a huge political risk with his career,” he said.

Erdogan currently trails behind several potential challengers, but elections are still more than two years away.

Yesilada said much depends on the stance of Erdogan’s ally Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party.

“It’s quite possible at some point, Bahceli will say enough is enough, you are destroying the country, and may also end the coalition,” he said.

Bahceli formed an informal alliance with Erdogan in 2018, when Turkey switched to a presidential system. Erdogan relies on Bahceli’s parliamentary deputies to pass constitutional reforms needed to secure another term.

Bahceli has voiced concern about the pressure on the CHP, which has been trying to win his support. But with the court expected to rule next month on the party’s leadership, the CHP says it will keep fighting.

“The only thing that we can do is rely on our people, our electorate, and the democratic forces in the country. We are not going to give up,” said Uzgel.

The suspects were detained after the Malawi Congress party (MCP) of the outgoing president Lazarus Chakwera said they were suspicious about the way votes were being counted in 13 of the country’s 28 districts.

“The MCP has lodged a formal complaint with the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) to conduct a physical audit, particularly in areas where we have discovered serious anomalies,” said Chakwera’s running mate. Vitumbiko Mumba at a press conference.

Police said that eight employees responsible for entering election data had been arrested in the capital Lilongwe on suspicion of manipulating data.

How Malawi’s first fully solar-powered village became a beacon for energy access

In a statement, police service spokesperson Peter Kalaya said the arrests followed inquiries into the behaviour of an MEC returning officer for Lilongwe Nkhoma district. 

Kalaya added that police were pursuing similar cases in the districts of Mangochi, Chikwawa, Blantyre, Machinga and Rumphi.

On Thursday, the MEC said it had counted the majority of the votes from Tuesday’s poll but has not declared any results.

“The commission will not hurry the results management process just because some political party leaders and candidates are piling up pressure,” said MEC chairperson Justice Annabel Mtalimanja.

She told parties and their candidates to respect the counting procedures.

Chakwera, 70, is seeking a second successive term. The one-time evangelical pastor beat the former law professor Peter Mutharika in 2020 after losing to him in the previous presidential poll in 2014.

From ruin to revival as Malawi’s banana growers plant a new future

‘Media under pressure’

Malawi’s main television stations stopped broadcasting live coverage of the general election results, prompting a media advocacy organisation to condemn the pressure being exerted on journalists.

At least four television stations, including the public broadcaster MBC, withdrew without explanation the tables compiling the results they had collected from polling stations.

Golden Matonga, president of MISA Malawi, an organisation that advocates freedom of information, told the French news agency AFP: “The media have been under pressure from various quarters to stop live broadcasts, including the results tables.

“This will create a vacuum. Misinformation can fill that vacuum, and the public may be misinformed.“

Malawians not only voted for a president but also for the composition of the parliament and more than 500 local government representatives.

Whoever wins will face the challenge of invigorating an economy that suffers from a lack of foreign currency and inflation.

According to the World Bank, around 70 percent of the 21 million inhabitants live on less than €2 a day.

Chakwera and 85-year-old Mutharika were vying for supremacy in presidential elections in 2019. The then-incumbent Mutharika was declared the winner only for a court to nullify the results months later because of widespread irregularities that included vote tally sheets being altered with correctional fluid.

(With newswires)

Popescu served as foreign minister in 2019, then as deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs between 2021 and 2024, when he resigned citing personal reasons.

He is now co-director of the European Security Programme and distinguished policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, as well as an associate professor at Sciences Po Paris.

In July, he announced that he would be re-joining the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) and standing in the election in September, which he called “the most important in the recent history of the Republic of Moldova”.

Despite the shadow of Moscow looming large and the economic shock of the war in Ukraine, Popescu tells RFI he remains confident that Moldova will uphold stability and maintain its pro-European direction.

RFI: How stable is Moldova’s democracy at the moment?

Nicu Popescu: Moldova has had an uninterrupted democratic track record since its independence in 1991. That’s 34 years of orderly, calm, democratic changes of government. So, Moldova has a good record.

But it is also true that in recent years, in the context of Russian aggression against Ukraine, the shocks and pressures on Moldova have increased dramatically. Moldova has nevertheless maintained peace, stability, and its democratic process.

In recent years, presidential elections were complicated, but nonetheless reconfirmed Moldova’s democratic functioning. I am sure the same will happen this time.

So, yes, the pressures are there. There is a lot of Russian interference through illegal party financing. Russia switched off gas supplies a few years ago. But Moldova has found solutions to stay the course, to preserve stability and to remain democratic until now. And I am sure it will continue to do so.

RFI: What could the Moldovan government do better to counter Russian disinformation?

NP: Disinformation is a large-scale attempt to influence and sway voters in many countries. It mostly comes through digital tools and digital means, and we have seen Russian interference in France, the UK, Central Europe, Romania – and many others.

That is also happening in Moldova. There are large-scale operations on TikTok and other social media which are essentially strengthening and amplifying the messaging of pro-Russian political players.

‘Unprecedented interference’: how Russia is attempting to shape Moldova’s future

Besides that, there is a lot of non-digital interference. The Russians have been trying to buy votes on a large scale. Last year, roughly 140,000 people from Moldova – representing around 10 percent of the normal electorate – received Russian bank cards, and many of them were paid through these cards in order to vote as instructed by Russia.

There have been multiple instances of large amounts of cash being seized from pro-Russian political activists. In just one day in April 2024, for example, at Chisinau airport, police detained people trying to bring in roughly €1 million in cash.

So there are many attempts to buy votes and to finance political operatives, journalists, and influencers with vast amounts of completely illegal money. This is a wide spectrum of activities that Russia has been undertaking – and they are completely illegal, going well beyond the digital sphere.

RFI: Moldova received European Union candidate status on 22 June. What progress has been made since then?

NP: In 2023, the European Commission assessed that Moldova had demonstrated very good progress on eight of the 35 chapters, which at the time placed Moldova among the EU candidate countries with the fastest rate of adoption of the Acquis Communautaire. 

Moldova has made significant progress towards energy independence and the green transition. Throughout most of the summer, about a third of Moldova’s energy came from renewable sources – wind and solar power. On some days, Moldova even covered 100 percent of its electricity needs from renewables, which is a good rate by European standards.

There has also been significant progress in infrastructure development, including road building in villages. Many villages still need better access to drinking water, and there have been hundreds of projects with concrete benefits for the population, upgrading Moldova’s infrastructure [to be] closer to EU standards.

RFI: When Ukraine wanted to sign a trade deal with the EU in 2013, Russia was fiercely against it. How do you think Russia will react if Moldova joins the EU?

NP: Russian hostility towards Moldova is nothing new. Russia has opposed Moldovan sovereignty and independence since the late Soviet period, from the late 1980s.

Since independence in 1991, Russia has supported separatism in Moldova, maintained an illegal presence in Transnistria, and imposed blockades on dairy products, fruit and vegetables, while using energy as a tool of pressure. With the aggression against Ukraine, the risks have certainly grown.

There have been multiple incidents of Russian drones and missiles transiting Moldovan airspace. Moscow’s energy blackmail has grown. Gas supplies were cut off two years ago, which shocked domestic prices.

But each time Russia sought to pressure Moldova, the country managed to soften the blow by finding alternative markets – with the support of European partners as well as the US, UK, Canada and Japan.

RFI: How does Moldova assess the Russian presence of some 5,000 military “peacekeepers” in Transnistria?

NP: It is clearly important to overcome this separatist conflict. It is also clear that Russia has maintained this illegal military presence since the 1990s, despite having previously committed to withdrawing the troops and weapons by the end of 2002. Moscow has not respected its obligation to withdraw, which is a problem.

At the same time, Moldova has managed to preserve peace, calm and stability around the separatist region. There have not been significant security incidents. The country is at peace. That region is not currently in a tense security situation. Differences with the separatist area are managed through talks, negotiations and peaceful means.

Moldovans living on both banks of the River Dniester have made a real effort since the full-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine three and a half years ago not to import war into Moldovan territory, but instead to resolve their differences peacefully. This must continue.

RFI: To what extent does the Transnistria situation affect the EU accession talks?

NP: It is much better to join the EU without a separatist conflict. At the same time, the EU would not be facing such a situation for the first time. Germany, a founding member of the European Coal and Steel Community, was divided for more than three decades but still co-founded the European project. Later on, there was the case of Cyprus.

Of course, separatist areas always pose problems. But Europe’s history shows there are ways to minimise the impact on the rest of the Union. In the case of Moldova, the hope is that by joining the EU, reintegration of the country will in fact be made easier and more sustainable.

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

RFI: French President Emmanuel Macron has been very vocal in supporting Moldova’s EU accession. How significant has the French backing been?

NP: France, together with other partners, has played an extremely important role. The Moldova Support Platform, launched by Romania, France and Germany, has been fundamental in keeping Moldova stable economically and in security terms. France’s investment and commitment to Moldova’s peace are deeply appreciated.

Just recently, on Independence Day, 27 August, the Weimar Triangle leaders – the president of France, the chancellor of Germany and the president of Poland – came to Chisinau and spoke to 100,000 people in the city’s main square. President Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk addressed the crowd in Romanian, a gesture of respect warmly received by the Moldovan people.

RFI: Are you worried about US foreign policy, given President Donald Trump’s softer line towards Russian President Vladimir Putin?

NP: We have seen many statements, but we have also seen NATO remain strongly committed, with allied states continuing to invest seriously in security and defence. I believe the EU, NATO and the US are now on track to strengthen their shared security capacity and maintain peace in Europe.

It is very clear that Washington wants peace in Europe to be underpinned by greater European investment in defence, which would also allow the US to reposition some of its forces. That is a legitimate and longstanding demand – it predates President Trump. I think the alliance is on track to meet it.

And as long as NATO remains united and militarily modern, it will continue to act as a strong factor for peace in Europe.

Chad’s revised constitution was overwhelmingly approved by the National Assembly on Monday and is due for a final vote by the Senate on 13 October. If it passes there too, then the president will sign the constitution into law.

Among other changes, the reform extends the president’s term from five to seven years, renewable without limit. 

Malloum Yoboïdé Djeraki, head of the opposition Social Democratic Party for a Change of Power (PDSA) and a member of the special parliamentary committee tasked with examining the proposed revisions, told RFI he was taken aback by the scope of the changes. 

“They talked about a technical revision. But when we started work, we were surprised, because it wasn’t a technical revision on the table but a profound modification of the Constitution,” he said.

The MP was one of 16 who boycotted Monday’s vote, which saw the reform passed by 171 out of 188 lawmakers. One other MP abstained.

Leading opposition figure Albert Pahimi Padacké, a former prime minister and presidential candidate, said Chad was “choosing to abandon the democratic path”.

“The government seems to want to move too quickly,” he told RFI’s correspondent Nadia Ben Mahfoudh. “We risk seeing the burial of democracy in our country.”

‘Stronghold on power’

The reform favours President Déby, who seized power in Chad in 2021 after his father, long-serving President Idriss Déby Itno, was killed as he was visiting troops fighting militias in the north of the country.

He claimed victory following a disputed election held after three years of military rule in May 2024. Parliamentary elections followed in December, granting the vast majority of seats to the ruling party.

Remadji Hoinathy, a senior researcher at the Africa-focused Institute for Security Studies, told Reuters that the revised constitution was virtually certain to pass the final vote next month. 

“There are fewer and fewer dissenting voices,” he said. “This clearly opens the possibility for the president and ruling party to establish a long-term stronghold on power.”

How Moscow is reinventing its influence machine across Africa

‘Normal process’

A spokesperson for the president’s ruling MPS party, Abdel Nasser Garboa, insisted that the reform was merely “technical”. 

“The politicians who say they are surprised, that’s just their perspective,” he told RFI, stating that the revisions had been reviewed by legal experts and a technical committee before being passed by lawmakers. 

“I think this is a normal process,” he said. 

After last year’s presidential election, opposition leader and then prime minister Succès Masra also claimed victory.

Previously one of the fiercest critics of the ruling authorities, he stepped down after the vote and was sentenced last month to 20 years in jail for inciting violence.

Fourteen people from various countries in West Africa landed in Ghana on 6 September, after the government in Accra agreed to take in third-country nationals expelled from the US.

Ghanaian authorities say all the deportees have since been sent back to their countries of origin. But lawyers for 11 of the deportees claim they are still being detained in a military camp.

The lawsuit alleges that Ghana is in breach of its constitution and international treaties in holding the deportees without charge and demands their release – as well as their right not to be sent to their home countries where their life is at risk.

Conflicting accounts

At the request of the deportees’ families and their lawyers in the US, a Ghanaian law firm, Merton & Everett, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday for unlawful detention against Ghana’s attorney general, the chief of staff of the armed forces and comptroller general of the immigration service.

Speaking to RFI, the lawyers said that they are satisfied, having cross-checked information provided by the deportees, that their clients are indeed in Ghana. They believe they are detained at Bundase military camp, 70km from Accra, under military surveillance restricting access to them.

Information about the deportees has been difficult to come by, according to Oliver Barker-Vormawor, a lawyer at Merton & Everett.

“We reached out to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who insisted that all of them have been repatriated. We contacted the Ghana Armed Forces, which said they have no idea about the issue and said they were not holding the people,” he told RFI’s Victor Cariou in Accra.

Testimonies

The West African nationals, 10 men and four women from Nigeria, Liberia, Togo, Gambia and Mali, landed in Ghana on 6 September. They said they were taken from their cells in Louisiana, in the middle of the night on 5 September, shackled in chains and put on a military cargo plane without being informed where they were being taken. 

Four of them were placed in straitjackets because they refused to get on the plane without speaking to their lawyers.

According to court documents seen by RFI, three of the deportees were removed to their countries of origin between 6 and 10 September.

In a statement filed to the Accra court, a deportee from Gambia said he was placed on a flight back home on 10 September, accompanied by two Ghanaian immigration officials. He was then released, but is living in hiding because of his bisexuality, punishable by law in Gambia.

“I’d won protection from being returned to Gambia under the Convention against Torture. I told them [Ghanaian immigration officials] that I wanted to stay in Ghana for my safety,” he testified.

Being LGBTQ+ in South Africa and Senegal: one continent, worlds apart

Another deportee from Nigeria also said he feared for his life if he was forced to return. He won protection in the US from being returned to his home country and is married to a US citizen. The deportee was a politician in Nigeria and said he had been beaten up by political rivals and tortured by the police before he fled his country.

“If I go back to Nigeria, I will be tortured and possibly killed,” he said.

He claims that neither US immigration officers nor Ghanaian and Nigerian officials heeded his efforts to explain the potential danger.

“They told us they did not care and that we will be sent back to Nigeria anyway,” he said.

Out of US hands

Lawyers in the US also filed a lawsuit, on behalf of five of the deportees, to immediately halt deportations to their countries of origin.

US federal judge in Washington, Tanya S. Chutkan, ruled that now the deportees are in Ghanaian custody, her “hands are tied”.

The judge said she is alarmed and dismayed by the circumstances under which these removals are being carried out.

“It [the court] is aware of the dire consequences Plaintiffs [the deportees] face if they are repatriated… to countries where they face torture and persecution,” she wrote on Monday.

Speaking to journalist Bernard Avle on Channel One TV in Ghana on Wednesday 17 September, Foreign affairs minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said that Ghana is not doing the US a favour, but doing fellow Africans a favour.

“The choice is theirs really. For 90 days, if they want to stay, they can stay but so far all of them have indicated that they want to go back and we’ve been facilitating that,” he added.

More deportees to come

According to the minister, another 40 West African deportees are expected in Ghana in the next few days.

Ghana is one of the five African states, along with, Rwanda, Uganda, Eswatini and South Sudan, to accept people deported from the US as part of the Trump’s administration crackdown on illegal migration.

Ghana’s opposition has demanded the immediate suspension of the pact. It also demands to see the memorandum of understanding between the US and Ghana which has not been ratified by parliament.

How Trump’s ‘deportation campaign’ is reshaping ties with Africa

Minister Ablakwa, insisted that his government’s decision to accept West African deportees from the US “is grounded purely on humanitarian principles and pan-African solidarity”.

“It is important to stress that Ghana has not received and does not seek any financial compensation or material benefit in relation to this understanding [with the United States],” he told journalists on Monday.

Arguing that the deal was designed to “offer temporary refuge when needed”, he rebutted critics’ claims that Accra was aligning itself with the anti-immigration administration in Washington.

“This should not be misconstrued as an endorsement of the immigration policies of the Trump administration,” he said.

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear musical requests from Erwan, Paul, and me.

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: “Picadillo de Soya” by José Luis Cortés, performed by José Luis Cortés and NG La Banda; “Electricity” by Paul Humphreys and Andrew McCluskey, performed by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and “One Life to Live” from Lady in the Dark by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin, performed by Teresa Stratas with the Y Chamber Symphony conducted by Gerard Schwarz.

The quiz will be back next Saturday, the 27th of September. Be sure and tune in! 

“We are fighting for the future of Turkey‘s democracy,” said party leader Ozgur Ozel to tens of thousands of supporters at a rally in Ankara on Saturday.

Ozel has been travelling the country since March, when Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested on graft charges. The case marked the start of a legal assault on the CHP. Ozel now speaks at rallies twice a week, despite his often hoarse voice.

The party is also defending itself in court over alleged voting irregularities at a congress two years ago that elected Ozel as leader. If the court rules against them, Ozel and the rest of the party leadership could be removed and replaced by state-appointed trustees.

“It’s unprecedented,” said political analyst Sezin Oney of the Politics news portal. “There has not been such a purge, such a massive crackdown on the opposition, and there is no end in sight, that’s the issue.”

Macron and Erdogan find fragile common ground amid battle for influence

Arrests and polls

On Wednesday, another CHP mayor in Istanbul was jailed, bringing the total to 16 detained mayors and more than 300 other officials. Most face corruption charges.

The arrests come as the CHP’s new leadership is stepping up its challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Recent opinion polls give Imamoglu and other CHP figures double-digit leads over the president.

Oney said the prosecutions are part of Erdogan’s wider strategy.

“He’s trying to complete the transformation, the metamorphosis as I call it, of Turkey to become a full authoritarian country,” she said.

“There is an opposition but the opposition is a grotesque opposition, that can never have the power actually to be in government. But they give the perception as if the country is democratic because there are elections.”

Armenia and Azerbaijan peace deal raises hopes of Turkish border reopening

‘Multi-front attack’

Ilhan Uzgel, the CHP’s foreign affairs coordinator, said the party is under siege.

“We are under a multi-front attack from all directions at almost every level, running from one court case to another,” he said.

He argued that Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is using fear to force defections. “Sixteen of our mayors are in jail right now, and they threaten our mayors. You either join our party or you face a jail term,” Uzgel said.

Erdogan rejects any suggestion of coercion and insists the judiciary is independent. Since he came to power more than 20 years ago, however, not a single AKP mayor has been convicted on graft charges – though on Friday at least two local mayors from the ruling party were detained as part of a corruption investigation.

Turkey warns Kurdish-led fighters in Syria to join new regime or face attack

Political risks

Despite appearing dominant, Erdogan may face a backlash. Atilla Yesilada, a political analyst with Global Source Partners, said the crackdown is fuelling public anger.

“You look at recent polls, the first complaint remains economic conditions, but justice rose to number two. These things don’t escape people’s notice; that’s what I mean when I say Erdogan took a huge political risk with his career,” he said.

Erdogan currently trails behind several potential challengers, but elections are still more than two years away.

Yesilada said much depends on the stance of Erdogan’s ally Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party.

“It’s quite possible at some point, Bahceli will say enough is enough, you are destroying the country, and may also end the coalition,” he said.

Bahceli formed an informal alliance with Erdogan in 2018, when Turkey switched to a presidential system. Erdogan relies on Bahceli’s parliamentary deputies to pass constitutional reforms needed to secure another term.

Bahceli has voiced concern about the pressure on the CHP, which has been trying to win his support. But with the court expected to rule next month on the party’s leadership, the CHP says it will keep fighting.

“The only thing that we can do is rely on our people, our electorate, and the democratic forces in the country. We are not going to give up,” said Uzgel.

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear musical requests from Erwan, Paul, and me.

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: “Picadillo de Soya” by José Luis Cortés, performed by José Luis Cortés and NG La Banda; “Electricity” by Paul Humphreys and Andrew McCluskey, performed by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and “One Life to Live” from Lady in the Dark by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin, performed by Teresa Stratas with the Y Chamber Symphony conducted by Gerard Schwarz.

The quiz will be back next Saturday, the 27th of September. Be sure and tune in! 

Cameroonians are set to go to the polls for the presidential election on 12 October, but the opposition remains fragmented, despite efforts to unite behind a single candidate to challenge President Paul Biya, who, at 92, is seeking an eighth term.

In the first week of September, the United Nations raised concerns over whether rising tensions in the country could jeopardise the possibility of free and fair elections.

According to Enrica Picco, Central Africa director for the International Crisis Group (ICG), this lack of unity, combined with the perception of an absent or weak opposition, could lead to low voter turnout. The ICG also warns that ongoing instability in the country may further depress participation.

On Saturday, Issa Tchiroma Bakary was named the opposition’s “consensus candidate” for the October vote. But will this be enough to galvanise voters?

The 10 other opposition candidates, who remain officially in the race, have yet to comment on Tchiroma Bakary’s appointment.

We have Enrica Picco on the line to discuss the potential flashpoints and the ICG’s recommendations ahead of the election.

Fears over divided opposition and instability, as Cameroon heads to the polls

 Oil pollution in Nigeria

In Nigeria, major oil companies are facing allegations that they have abandoned decades of pollution in the Niger Delta without addressing the environmental damage.

A UN-appointed panel of experts has written to Shell, Eni, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies, warning that the firms cannot simply sell off their assets to evade their responsibilities to local communities.

We’ll hear the reaction of community member Celestine AkpoBari, an Ogoni-born activist who coordinates the Ogoni Solidarity Forum and leads the Miideekor Environmental Development Initiative (MEDI).

Oil giants accused of dodging Niger Delta clean-up as UN panel intervenes

South Africa and the US

Finally, in South Africa, since Donald Trump assumed office in the United States, companies, business leaders and diplomats have been working behind the scenes to strengthen relations, particularly for the hundreds of South African seasonal farmers who spend a few months each year in the US to supplement their income.

One prominent advocate for these farmers is Neil Diamond, president of the South African Chamber of Commerce in the US, based in Atlanta.

We discuss the importance of these work opportunities in the US for South Africans, as well as the final three months of South Africa’s G20 presidency — a historic first for an African nation.

Episode mixed by Melissa Chemam and Erwan Rome.

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

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear musical requests from your fellow listeners Ali Shahzad, Jocelyne D’Errico, and a composition by B. Trappy.  

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: “Love is Stronger”, written and performed by B. Trappy; “Coups et Blessures” written by Adrien Gallo and performed by BB Brunes, and “Misty”, by Erroll Garner and Johnny Burke, performed by Sarah Vaughan with Quincy Jones and His Orchestra.

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!

French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing for the creation of a military force to secure any peace deal made between Russia and Ukraine.

Turkey, which boasts NATO’s second-largest army, is seen as a key player in any such move – especially given that Washington has ruled out sending US troops.

For its part, Ankara has said it is open to joining a peacekeeping mission.

“Macron finally came to terms [with the fact] that Turkey is an important player, with or without the peace deal. Turkey will have an important role to play in the Black Sea and in the Caucasus,” said Serhat Guvenc, professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.

Macron last month held a lengthy phone call with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, focused on the Ukraine conflict, and thanked him for his diplomatic efforts to end the war.

Turkey eyes Ukraine peacekeeping role but mistrust clouds Western ties

Turning point

For Professor Federico Donelli of Trieste University, this marks a dramatic turnaround. Previously, the two leaders have frequently exchanged sharp words, especially over Turkey’s rising influence in West Africa and the Sahel.

“In Paris, public opinion and the press criticised this move by Turkey a lot,” said Donelli. “At the same time, the rhetoric of some Turkish officers, including President Erdogan, was strongly anti-French. They were talking a lot about the neocolonialism of France and so on.”

Donelli added that cooperation over Ukraine has pushed France to reconsider its Africa stance.

“As a consequence of Ukraine, the position of France has changed, and they are now more open to cooperating with Turkey. And they [understand] that in some areas, like the Western Sahel, Turkey is better than Russia, better than China,” he said.

Analysts also see new openings in the Caucasus. A peace agreement signed in August between Azerbaijan, which was backed by Turkey, and Armenia, which was supported by France, could provide further common ground.

Macron last month reportedly pressed Erdogan to reopen Turkey’s border with Armenia, which has been closed since 1993. Turkish and Armenian officials met on the countries’ border on Thursday to discuss the normalisation of relations.

Turkey walks a tightrope as Trump threatens sanctions over Russian trade

‘Pragmatic cooperation’

But clear differences remain, especially when it comes to Syria. The rise to power of Turkish-backed President Ahmed al-Sharaa is seen as undermining any French role there.

“For Erdogan, the victory of al-Sharaa in Damascus on 24 December is the revenge of the Ottoman Empire, and Ankara doesn’t want to see the French come back to Syria,” said Fabrice Balanche, a professor of international relations at Lyon University.

Balanche argued that France is losing ground to Turkey across the region.

“It’s not just in Syria, but also in Lebanon – the Turks are very involved, and in Iraq, too. We [the French] are in competition with the Turks. They want to expel France from the Near East,” he said.

Despite this rivalry, Guvenc predicted cooperation will continue where interests align.

“In functional terms, Turkey’s contributions are discussed, and they will do business, but it’s going to be transactional and pragmatic cooperation, nothing beyond that,” he said.

One such area could be the Palestinian territories. Both Macron and Erdogan support recognition of a Palestinian state and are expected to raise the issue at this month’s United Nations General Assembly.

For now, shared interests are likely to outweigh differences – even if only temporarily.

For many critics of French President Emmanuel Macron, his nomination of close ally Sebastien Lecornu to replace François Bayrou as prime minister is a slap in the face, and further proof that the government is ignoring people’s wishes.  Participants in a movement to shut down the country on Wednesday talk about feeling unheard, and draw comparisons with the anti-government Yellow Vest movement from 2018-2019. (Listen @0′)

Tourists have long been drawn to the “village” of Montmartre, with its famed Sacre Cœur basilica, artists’ square, winding cobbled streets, vineyards and pastel-shaded houses. But the rise of influencers and instagrammers who post picture-postcard decors, as featured in hit films and Netflix series, have turned it into a must-see destination. With tourists now outnumbering residents by around 430 to one, the cohabitation is under strain. Béatrice Dunner, of the Association for the Defence of Montmartre, is calling on local authorities to follow the example of Amsterdam and tackle overtourism before it’s too late. (Listen @13′)

On 15 September 1635, a group of French colonists claimed the Caribbean island of Martinique, establishing a plantation economy reliant on slavery. Its economic and cultural legacy continues to shape the island today as an overseas department. (Listen @6’35”)

Episode mixed by Cécile Pompeani

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).

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.