Lecornu, 39, took over on 9 September as “Block Everything” demonstrations disrupted transport and public services in cities across the country.

He succeeded François Bayrou promising a “profound break” with previous administrations, pointing to “a gap between real life and the political situation”.

Speaking in a televised speech on Monday morning, Lecornu said “the conditions were not fulfilled for me to carry out my function as prime minister”.

He denounced the “partisan appetites” of factions who he said had forced his resignation.

He bemoaned the face that the three weeks he spent negotiating with political groups was overshadowed by personal ambitions.

Egos

“It would take very little to succeed if many were less self-interested, could show humility and perhaps sometimes step back from their egos.”

On Sunday, he came under fire after selecting 18 top politicians for the most important roles in the French government.

But the choices brought condemnation from across the spectrum.

Bruno Retailleau, the head of Les Républicains (LR) party, who retained his job as Interior Minister, hit out at the composition of the new team on social media.

“In view of the political situation created by this announcement, I am convening the Republicans’ strategic committee,” Retailleau said, ahead of a meeting on Monday morning of LR party chiefs.

Lecornu ends perks for former PMs, while balancing demands from left and right

Calls for general elections

Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally, told BFMTV on Monday: “The short-lived prime minister had no room for manoeuvre. 

“There can be no return to stability without a return to the polls and without the dissolution of the National Assembly.”

His colleague – three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen – urged snap parliamentary elections.

 “A dissolution (of parliament) is absolutely necessary”, she said, adding it would be “wise” for President Emmanuel Macron to resign, a move the president has previously ruled out.

The Paris Stock Exchange fell sharply by nearly 2 percent following the announcement of Lecornu’s resignation.

Lecornu’s new cabinet was brought together to steer France through a social and public spending crisis.

On Friday, he vowed to forgo the 49.3 article of the constitution that would have allowed him to steamroller a budget bill through parliament without a vote.

Macron names close ally Lecornu as new prime minister

Public debt climbing

Public debt has climbed to 113.9 percent of GDP, due in part to bailing out the economy during the Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

Lecornu was Macron’s fourth prime minister since snap general elections in July 2024 left the National Assembly without any of the parties boasting an overall majority.

Gabriel Attal stepped down in September after a truce was called to allow the 2024 Olympics to take place.

Veteran politican Michel Barnier replaced him but lasted 99 days which, until Lecornu’s resignation after 27 days, was the shortest tenure in the history of the Fifth Republic.

Bayrou resigned after losing a confidence vote in parliament.

Before his departure, he told the National Assembly: “The biggest risk was not to take one, to let things continue without anything changing… and have business as usual.

“You have the power to overthrow the government, but not to erase reality.” 

The 51 men, including Pelicot’s former husband Dominique, were convicted at the initial trial that ended in December 2024.

The nearly four-month trial turned Gisèle Pelicot, 72, into an international icon after she waived her right to anonymity and sat defiantly through hearings that replayed her ordeal in graphic detail.

She is back in court to attend the appeal of Husamettin Dogan, a 44-year-old construction worker who was sentenced to nine years for aggravated rape. His new trial opens on Monday afternoon in the southern city of Nimes, and is expected to last four days. 

Gisèle Pelicot will take the stand on Wednesday morning.

“She would have been happy to forgo this ordeal again,” one of her lawyers, Antoine Camus, told French news agency AFP.

“But she is taking part to make clear that rape is rape, that there is no such thing as a small rape.”

Dominique Pelicot found guilty, jailed for 20 years in historic French rape trial

Lone appeal

Dogan is the only man to maintain his appeal, after 16 others who pledged to do so dropped out.

“I’m not a rapist,” he told the first trial. “This is too much for me to bear. He’s her husband. I never thought that guy could do this to his wife.”

Gisèle Pelicot was heavily drugged by her husband over a 10-year period to be raped and sexually abused by strangers while unconscious, mostly at the family home in the southern town of Mazan.

Dominique Pelicot has not appealed his 20-year prison sentence and has no intention of doing so, his lawyer, Beatrice Zavarro, told AFP.

She stressed that her client’s first words at the original trial were: “I am a rapist and all the men in this room are rapists.”

He will be brought to court from prison, where he remains in solitary confinement, to be cross-examined as a witness on the second day of Dogan’s appeal trial.

Council of Europe demands action on sexual violence against women in France

Claimed consent

In the first trial, several of the accused claimed they were lured into believing they were taking part in a consensual sex game, an argument which did not convince the court.

Most of the men tried alongside Dominique Pelicot, aged 27 to 74, were convicted of rape. They received sentences ranging from three years in prison including two suspended – reserved for a pensioner tried for sexual assault – to 15 years in prison for a man who raped Gisèle Pelicot six times.

Gisele Pelicot’s daughter files sex abuse case against father

Dogan said that in June 2019, he had met a man online who presented himself as a member of a “libertine couple” whose wife “pretended to be asleep”.

That same evening, after abusing Gisèle Pelicot’s inert body for at least half an hour, he purportedly only realised that something was wrong when he heard her snoring. He claimed to have left in a hurry but did not deem it necessary to alert the authorities.

If Dogan loses his appeal, he risks having his sentence stiffened. A verdict is expected by Thursday.

(with AFP)

Peter Sagan managed the feat in 2016 and on Sunday in Guilherand-Granges in south-eastern France, Pogacar completed the 202km course in four hours, 59 minutes and 29 seconds.

As in the road race in Kigali at the world championships, Remco Evenepoel from Belgium finished second.

But unlike that race in Rwanda, the 19-year-old Frenchman Paul Seixas finished third.

“I saw I was losing teammates,” said Pogacar who broke for glory 75km from the finish line.

“It wasn’t the plan to go from there, but it had to be there, it was the hardest hill and that was my advantage there.”

Pogacar wins third Tour de France title in time-trial finale on French Riviera

Pogacar goes for glory

As Pogacar opened a one-minute lead, Evenepoel teamed up with Seixas to lead the resistance and they were joined by Spain’s Juan Ayuso and Italy’s Christian Scaroni.

“Second place again,” said Evenepoel who finished 31 seconds behind Pogacar.

“It’s always the same at the championships. The others didn’t want to work with me. It’s a bit frustrating but they had their team orders, you have to accept it.”

Evenepoel won the European time trial and the world championship time trial this year, while he capped 2024 with the road and time trial titles at the Paris Olympic Games.

Behind them Scaroni and Seixas duelled for third over the closing stages before Seixas won that battle for reflected glory.

France team coach Thomas Voeckler said of Seixas’ bronze: “There’s a lot of noise around him and it’s understandable.

“What he just did was massive. Let him develop, and we’ll see how far he goes.”

Pogacar’s victory gave him his 18th title of the season and the 106th in his career.

He will compete in Italy at the Tre Valli Varesine  and then in the Tour of Lombardy where he will attempt to become the first man to win a fifth consecutive title in the race’s 118-year history.

A Zambian ritual mask, a pendant from the ancient Syrian site of Palmyra and a painting by Swedish artist Anders Zorn are among nearly 250 stolen objects displayed on Unesco’s new interactive platform.

But that’s just a fraction of the some 57,000 stolen items Interpol estimates are in circulation, in a criminal trade for which the international police organisation’s database is the sole reference point.

Unesco director general Audrey Azoulay said she hoped the Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects would draw attention to this vast illegal trade network.

The initiative will inform “as many people as possible” about “a trade that damages memories, breaks the chains of generations and hinders science,” Azoulay told French news agency AFP, describing the virtual museum as “unique”.

How an RFI investigation helped return an ancient treasure to Benin

‘Identity and memory’

The online space, designed by renowned Burkina Faso-born architect Diebedo Francis Kéré, allows visitors to explore the lost objects and trace their origins and purpose through accompanying stories, testimonies and photos.

“Each stolen object takes with it a part of the identity, memory and know-how of its communities of origin,” said Sunna Altnoder, head of Unesco’s unit for combating illicit trafficking.

The initial collection will grow as more stolen artefacts are 3D-modelled, using artificial intelligence.

Interpol says 11,000 stolen artefacts seized in Europe crackdown

But the goal, Altnoder said, is for it to one day close, as Unesco hopes the pieces will instead move to a Returns and Restitutions section showcasing items recovered or sent back to their countries or communities of origin.

The initiative also aims to bring together sectors involved in tackling the trafficking of cultural property, Altnoder added.

“We need a network – involving the police, the judiciary, the art market, member states, civil society and communities – to defeat another network, which is the criminal network.”

(with AFP)

Rallied by online collectives including GenZ 212 and Morocco Youth Voices, thousands of mainly young Moroccans took to the streets in a dozen towns and cities last weekend waving placards and shouting slogans including: “Stadiums are here, but where are the hospitals?”

Although the estimated €6 billion costs of building and revamping stadiums and roads for the World Cup appear to be the main conductor for their anger, the month-long Africa Cup of Nations that starts on 20 December could bear the brunt.

“Football is much more than entertainment or sport,” said Abderrahim Boukira, professor of the sociology of sport at Hassan 1 University in Settat.

“It’s a vehicle for national pride and identity and a perfect tool for social cohesion and inclusion – if it is used in the right way.

“But also football exposes structural weaknesses such as inequality, lack of spaces and social exclusion.”

Morocco Gen Z protests enter sixth day with calls to oust government

Double hosting duties

The Confederation of African Football (Caf), which organises the biennial Cup of Nations, declined to comment about the protests which, according to the Moroccan Interior Ministry, have left at least 589 police officers as well as 50 civilians injured and led to nearly 500 arrests.

The 35th Africa Cup of Nations was handed to Morocco in September 2023, a year after Guinea was stripped of hosting duties due to its lack of progress on revamping stadiums and roads.

A week later, Morocco’s football administrators were celebrating anew. The bosses at Fifa, world football’s governing body, awarded them co-hosting duties with Portugal and Spain for the centenary edition of the World Cup in 2030.

Two years on, with protests now in their second week and GenZ 212 calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, a poser has emerged for Moroccan politicians and football tournament organisers.

Now that they have been questioned, how can they effectively appease the disaffection to ensure a friction-free Cup of Nations and show the demonstrators that they are responding?

Young and angry

Tahani Brahma, a researcher and secretary general at the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, told RFI: “Moroccan youth are taking to the streets to call for functioning hospitals, quality schools and decent jobs.

“They’re rejecting the reality of billions being spent on stadiums for the World Cup while basic services are collapsing.

“Most importantly, Moroccan youth do not want promises, they want their rights.”

People born between 1995 and 2010 make up a fifth of Morocco’s population of 38 million. In August, Morocco’s national statistics office reported unemployment rates of 35.8 percent for 15- to 24-year-olds and 21.9 percent for the 25 to 34 cohort.

The demographic’s ability to mobilise swiftly and vocally on the streets via online platforms such as TikTok and Discord has transformed them into an unpredictable mass with palpable reasons for anger – such as a string of deaths on a maternity ward in Agadir that they say are evidence of the public health sector’s shortcomings.

How Gen Z is taking the fight for their rights from TikTok to the streets

Akhannouch, who is also mayor of Agadir, responded to protests outside that hospital in early September by acknowledging that the centre had been facing problems for decades. 

The billionaire fuel and media tycoon insisted that the government was in the process of building and upgrading hospitals across all the country’s regions.

Data from the World Health Organisation suggests that quest could be long.

In 2023, WHO statistics showed Morocco having 7.7 medical professionals per 10,000 inhabitants and far fewer in certain regions, including Agadir, with 4.4 per 10,000. The WHO recommends 25 per 10,000.

Spending priorities

The government has also been accused of failing to adequately help victims of the earthquake that struck Morocco’s Atlas Mountains on 8 September 2023.

More than 2,900 people were killed and 5,500 people injured during the 6.8-magnitude tremor and its aftershocks.

Just over two years on, Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan inaugurated the 68,000-seat Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat. Amid the pomp and ceremony for the heir to the throne, officials cooed over how the old stadium was demolished and replaced within two years with a state-of-the art venue that will host the first match at the Cup of Nations as well as the final.

Ongoing hardship for Moroccan quake survivors still struggling to rebuild

A few days later, dozens of quake survivors congregated in front of Morocco’s parliament as part of a public plea to the government to take reconstruction aid as seriously as the World Cup projects.

Brandishing banners with the names of villages destroyed during the earthquake, they chanted: “Quake money, where did it go? To festivals and stadiums.”

Tourism concerns

While GenZ 212 and other organisers are urging peaceful protests, there have been reports of violence in several smaller towns over the past week, including three deaths in the village of Lqliaa near Agadir on Wednesday night.

Officers fired on protesters “in legitimate defence” after they allegedly tried to storm a police station, the authorities said.

In Sale, near Rabat, groups of young men hurled stones at police, looted shops, set banks ablaze and torched police vehicles. Security forces in Tangier faced a barrage of stones, and in Sidi Bibi, masked youths burned the commune headquarters and blocked a main road.

Gatherings since then have been largely peaceful, but the shadow of unrest may be enough to worry tourism chiefs.

Tourism contributes significantly to Morocco’s economy, accounting for 7 percent of its GDP. Between January and the end of August 2025, Morocco welcomed 13.5 million visitors, a 15 percent rise on a similar period in 2024, said the Ministry of Tourism.

The 2025 Cup of Nations is expected to improve those figures. But the numbers arriving in Rabat, Agadir, Casablanca, Fez, Marrakech and Tangier for the month-long tournament could be affected if a threat of protests and violence stalks the nine venues.

Sports sociologist Boukira suggested it was the opposite of the image the Moroccan administration hopes to project.

“Football is also a tool of soft power,” he said. “Hosting big tournaments, improving infrastructure and attracting global attention shows that football functions beyond sport: it’s a way to project a modern image and to engage internationally.”

He also pointed out the potential benefits at home: “Events like the Cup of Nations and the World Cup also create employment, bring in more tourists and investments. And all that helps in our socio-economic development.”

But with young protesters now demanding fundamental reform, there is no guarantee that logic will convince them.

“Young people in Morocco have been suffering for a long time, and not only young people, but the entire population,” said human rights campaigner Brahma.

“Young people are demanding freedom and dignity, and I think these demands will only increase.”

For media historian Barbara Laborde, of France’s Sorbonne Nouvelle University, the appeal lies in making viewers rethink how they experience time, in a media landscape that can be over-stimulating.

RFI: What is slow TV?

Barbara Laborde: Slow TV unfolds over long stretches of time, unlike most TV formats that are tightly scripted and cut to fit short slots. It can last for hours, weeks or even months.

The deer-rutting season on France Télévisions ran for three weeks – more than 500 hours in total – which is rare for TV programming.

Slow TV has no script, no storyline, no narrator. It is more like a setup: you put cameras in place, film in a single continuous shot and see what happens.

RFI: When did the first slow TV programme appear?

BL: On Norwegian television, with a train journey. A camera was fixed to the front of the locomotive and viewers watched as it travelled all the way from Bergen to Oslo – more than seven hours.

France 4 later aired Tokyo Reverse, a nine-hour show following a man walking backwards through Tokyo.

The footage was played in reverse so it looked as if the crowd was moving backwards while he moved forward. The route was set, but beyond that anything could happen. It was nine hours of watching a city stroll.

RFI: Was new technology, such as webcams, key to making this possible?

BL: Yes. Before big broadcasters picked it up, it often started with individuals who simply set up a camera and let it run. Now we have long-life batteries and recharging systems that allow extended filming of almost anything.

RFI: What recent example struck you most?

BL: I was struck by nest boxes fitted with webcams that let people watch birds laying eggs and chicks learning to fly. At home you can now observe this quietly. At this year’s CES tech trade show in Las Vegas they even showed birdhouses with AI that can identify species.

RFI: It sounds a bit like those moments in a David Lynch film, between boredom and surprise…

BL: The point is to film the everyday in a way that makes it fascinating – even art. That was the idea of the avant-gardes of the 1960s.

Andy Warhol’s Sleep simply filmed his friend sleeping for hours. There was an artistic intention behind it.

The risk is endless streams of dull images. We have to judge which settings have artistic value and which do not. Watching someone do the washing-up for hours is not necessarily compelling.

From seduction to shamanism, dance has been universal for a million years

RFI: Does slow TV change our sense of time?

BL: We live amid constant noise, images and over-stimulation. A one-hour talk show is chopped into short clips online for quick viewing. That is the frenzy of today’s media.

Slow TV takes the opposite stance. It shows that TV can offer something else. It makes viewers rethink time, and the pace of television itself.

RFI: Are fireplace loops also a form of slow TV?

BL: Yes, historically it started there. A New York channel, WPIX, realised many city apartments had no fireplaces. In 1966 it aired The Yule Log – a 17-second loop of a burning log, broadcast for three hours without ads.

TV is a window on to elsewhere. With the deer-rutting show, you might watch for hours and see nothing – perhaps a wild piglet if you are lucky.

But that is part of the experience: accepting a slower rhythm and even the possibility that nothing happens.

RFI: Is there an audience for slow TV?

BL: We live in a frantic era with calendars, online meetings and constant notifications. We are always told to be on time, to rush to the next thing.

We forget how to sit still and simply watch. That is why slow TV appeals. It also fits with the booming wellness industry.

People turn to yoga, meditation, breathing exercises. Technology has sped up our lives, yet many of us want to step back, pause and breathe.

This interview was adpated from the original version in French and lightly edited for clarity.

With nearly all ballots counted by Saturday night, Babis and his ANO (“Yes”) party had around 35 percent of the vote.

The centre-right, pro-western coalition led by the outgoing prime minister, Petr Fiala, had 23 percent. 

A total of six parties will make up the new parliament. A group of mayors known as STAN, also a member of Fiala’s bloc, had 11 percent of the vote, while another ally of Fiala, the Pirates party, reached nearly 9 percent. 

The anti-immigration, eurosceptic Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party got just short of 8 percent, and a right-wing group calling itself the Motorists won around 7 percent.

Babis said he would seek backing from both the SPD and the Motorists for an ANO government. Czech President Petr Pavel is due to meet with Babis and other party leaders on Sunday. 

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‘Czechs first’

Celebrating at his party headquarters in Prague, Babis called the result “historic”. 

An admirer of US President Donald Trump and ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the European Parliament, Babis nonetheless stressed that his party was “pro-European and pro-NATO”.

The businessman campaigned on populist policies including boosting welfare and rethinking aid for Ukraine. Describing himself as a “peacemonger” calling for a truce in the war with Russia, Babis has vowed a “Czechs first” approach.

Europe’s new right: how the MAGA agenda crossed the Atlantic

Babis was critical of some EU policies while he was prime minister from 2017 to 2021, and is on good terms with Hungary‘s Orban and Slovakia‘s Robert Fico, who have maintained ties with Moscow despite its invasion of Ukraine.

In 2024 he co-founded the far-right Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament, which includes France’s National Rally among other parties.

(with newswires)

In his report for the European Sentiment Compass 2025, Pawel Zerka, of the European Council on Foreign Relations, suggests Europe is living its own “Truman Show moment”.

The United States, he says, is no longer the ally Europeans had been accustomed to having. Instead, under Trump, Washington is not only pulling the strings in trade, defence and digital disputes – it is waging an outright “culture war” on Europe.

The big question is whether the EU has the courage to step off the set, reclaim its autonomy and begin writing its own story.

Europe’s uncertainty after Trump’s first 100 days

Trump 2.0

Transatlantic tensions are nothing new. Rows over trade, NATO spending and climate policy have flared under every president from Kennedy to Obama. But Zerka insists that Trump marks a rupture.

“There is a clear difference vis-à-vis previous presidents, and even vis-à-vis Donald Trump 1.0,” he told RFI. “Before, we had never seen a US president targeting Europe so clearly and aggressively.”

This time round, the barbs are sharper, the interventions more deliberate. Trump openly mocks Europe’s migration and climate policies, last week using the world stage of the United Nations to declare that Europeans are “going to hell” with their “crazy” ideas.

Such rhetoric, Zerka argues, is not just bluster. It is part of a deliberate strategy to humiliate Europe, a way of painting the European Union as weak, dependent and incapable of agency.

And this culture war is not confined to speeches, Zerka says – the Trump administration has moved from commentary to active interference.

In Germany, US Vice President JD Vance and former Trump advisor Elon Musk openly backed the far-right AfD party during the country’s legislative elections in February.

Similar interference was seen in Poland, Romania and Ireland, where Washington lent support to Conor McGregor, a former mixed martial arts champion who had thrown his “Make Ireland Great Again” hat in the ring for the country’s upcoming presidential election on 24 October, but withdrew from the race in September. 

McGregor’s political ambitions had been boosted by an invitation to the White House on St Patrick’s Day, with Trump calling him his “favourite” Irish person.

“We haven’t seen anything like this before,” Zerka stresses. “There’s such active involvement in domestic politics of European countries, supporting rivals of the governments in place – and very often those rivals are problematic political players.”

“There is a lot of appetite among the European public for an assertive Europe, but leaders keep finding themselves in situations where they look ridiculous and Europe gets humiliated” – Pawel Zerka

Europe’s new right: how the MAGA agenda crossed the Atlantic

A Truman moment

So what does it mean for Europe to “walk off the set”? In Truman Burbank’s case, it was about courage – daring to leave behind the artificial comfort of a staged life. For the EU, Zerka says, it is about dignity and identity.

“European leaders must be ready,” he argues. “Currently they are buying time with Trump, because they depend so much on America for security, especially with Russia’s war in Ukraine. But the danger is that by playing along, they risk repeated humiliation – whether at NATO summits or in trade negotiations – where Europe ends up looking ridiculous to its own public and to the wider world.”

The challenge, Zerka believes, is that many EU leaders still don’t grasp the true nature of the confrontation.

They treat disputes over tariffs or defence spending as technical haggles, missing the larger picture – that they are part of a cultural battle over values, sovereignty and the very meaning of the West.

Without that recognition, Europe risks stumbling from one Trump-scripted crisis to another, always reacting, never setting the agenda.

The role of the prophet

In The Truman Show, it was a character named Sylvia who first whispered the truth to Truman, that his life was staged. In today’s Europe, Zerka sees Denmark as playing that role.

Trump’s suggestion that the US might buy Greenland directly questioned Danish sovereignty, giving Copenhagen a unique impetus for defending European autonomy.

“Denmark is the one country really trying to show Europe the difference between reality and illusion,” Zerka says, adding though that Sweden and Finland, both scarred by the Russian threat and largely resistant to Trump’s personal appeal, could also be well placed to push for European autonomy.

Then there are what he calls the “door holders”, the heavyweight countries whose choices could swing the EU’s future one way or another: France, Germany and Poland.

Each stands at a crossroads. Elections in the coming years could see them drift towards the pro-Trump “director’s crew” – Hungary, Italy, Slovakia – or rally behind the prophets calling for strategic autonomy.

The outcome, Zerka warns, will determine whether Europe claims its agency or sinks deeper into dependency.

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

Walking the line

However, with Russian aggression on its doorstep, Europe cannot simply sever ties with Washington. Yet, Zerka argues, the notion that Europeans must appease Trump to preserve the transatlantic bond is a fallacy.

“It’s completely the other way around,” he says. “Only if Europe steps up in building its own capacities, and shows assertiveness, can it become a real partner rather than a subordinate.”

That means investment in defence, technology and energy resilience. It also means recognising the culture war for what it is, and refusing to be defined by Trump’s caricatures.

Trust in the EU is its strongest since 2007, with polls showing that citizens increasingly view the bloc not just as an economic club but as a community of shared values, and destiny.

Zerka believes European leaders must harness the public appetite for a more assertive Europe. The risk of inaction, he warns, is cultural subordination.

The reward of courage, by contrast, is the chance for Europe to write its own story, and participate in the transatlantic partnership as an equal.

A surge of rebellion led by young people born between 1997 and 2012 is rewriting the rules of protest, with the smartphone the new megaphone.

Over the past three years, the pace at which these movements are changing the status quo has accelerated.

In 2022, it took five months for Sri Lankan students and activists to topple the Rajapaksa dynasty, which had clung to power for nearly two decades. In 2024, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in just six weeks. In Nepal last month , it took a mere 48 hours for protests to bring down the government of Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli.

The profile of these movements is strikingly consistent, with the crowds overwhelmingly young and hyper-connected. They are members of Generation Z – the first cohort to grow up entirely in the digital age, with social media seen not as an accessory but the lens through which they interpret the world.

France accused of restricting protests and eroding democracy

‘They see everything’

If the grievances vary by country – from corruption to education to basic services – the underlying themes are universal: anger at injustice, impatience with inequality and frustration at hypocrisy.

“These young people today are acting on demands that go beyond the purely political. They have a radical need for consistency, a need for authenticity,” says Elodie Gentina, a professor at the IESEG School of Management and a specialist in Gen Z.

“They want to compare everything, they judge everything, they see everything, because they have constant access to social media. They are also very aware of the contradictions between the promises made by leaders promises and their actions. They detest institutional hypocrisy – as seen in Nepal, where leaders talked a lot about modernity but at the same time blocked access to 26 social networks.”

Anger that had been building online over the privileged offspring of the political elite flaunting their wealth on Instagram, in a country where 20 percent of 15 to 25-year-olds are unemployed, spilled over on to the streets. 

Morocco rocked by fourth day of Gen Z-led protests over public services

The ‘amplifier’ effect

“Social media plays the role of emotional and political amplifier. It allows the sharing of images that can be inspiring, but also shocking. Gen Z are constantly comparing themselves to others, and that creates emulation. The viral logic of social networks transforms isolated frustrations into collective movements that become extremely powerful,” Gentina told RFI

In Indonesia, student protests earlier this year adopted an unlikely banner: the pirate flag from One Piece, a manga series in which the hero, Luffy, fights a corrupt and tyrannical world government.

A pop culture reference quickly became a unifying symbol, with the same imagery being adopted in Madagascar and Morocco.

In Madagascar, the triggers for the unrest were blackouts, water shortages and demands for basic freedoms. In Morocco, a collective calling itself “Gen Z 212” emerged online, calling for education and healthcare reform, and questioning the billions poured into hosting the 2030 World Cup while everyday needs go unmet.

“These are purely social demands,” says Souad Brahma, president of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, speaking to RFI. “The right to a dignified life – that means education, healthcare, decent housing. And through certain slogans, they also call for an end to corruption.”

Madagascar’s president dismisses cabinet as blackout protests turn deadly

Demographic weight

“More than against [individual] governments, Generation Z is rebelling against a model of governance that no longer works for them,” explains Gentina.

“They deem it too top-down, too opaque, too slow. These young people demand transparency and concrete results. They can no longer tolerate inconsistency between words and actions.”

With more than a third of the world’s population belonging to Gen Z, demographics are on their side. In parts of Asia, they account for half the population, making their voices impossible to ignore.

As for where they might rise up next, all eyes are on India. The world’s most populous nation also has the largest Gen Z population on the Asian continent, and those hundreds of millions of young people have not been spared by the mass unemployment, inequality and corruption that plague the country.

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

The fledgling newsroom’s open-plan office sits within the new France Médias Monde (FMM) hub in the Senegalese capital of Dakar. An image of Blessing-Bili, a young singer from Congo-Brazzaville, looms large on one of its walls.

Cécile Goudou, ZOA’s deputy editor, is scrutinising subtitles, hunting for the slightest flaw. “I sometimes watch a video up to 10 times,” she laughs.

Although ZOA has only been posting content for a fortnight, its most popular videos have already racked up more than 800,000 views.

Joseph Kahongo Amutake is about to publish that day’s sports debate: “How does African cycling measure up internationally?” Several African commentators weigh in on the continent’s poor results at the World Cycling Championships.

“What I enjoy most is the dynamism we’re trying to bring to news,” says the 30-year-old Congolese journalist. “And being online, because that’s the platform young people prefer.”

Teenagers take centre stage at road world championships in Kigali

Bridge between generations

Amina Diop, a recent graduate of CESTI, one of Senegal’s top journalism schools, handles the Citizen Initiatives section.

She has just finished a feature on a young Beninese engineer who designed and built an electric scooter. “If another young person sees this story, they’ll think it’s possible to invent and innovate,” she says.

That’s why she joined ZOA – “to convey the positivity flowing through the continent and highlight the many initiatives that exist”.

For her, this means moving away from what she calls “misery journalism”. Her next story is on a Togolese fashion designer.

The channel’s mission is resolutely youthful and optimistic – but not naïve.

“ZOA tells Africa’s story from its roots, valuing those who built it, those who’re shaping it today and those imagining it tomorrow,” reads the colourful flyer announcing its launch.

Its mission: to amplify the voices of young Francophone Africans through fact-based reporting, grounded in human experience.

ZOA’s editor-in-chief, Kaourou Magassa, a journalist passionate about African cultures, likes to quote filmmaker Oumar Bayo Fall: “We are not the future, we are the present. We are also the bridge between our elders and the generations that will come after us.”

Combatting ‘fake’ news in Africa

Inspiring figures

ZOA’s first videos introduced audiences to a range of inspiring people: Aya Gueye, a former Miss Ziguinchor, who uses fashion to promote her culture and motivate young people; Ruffine Sonon, a 15-year-old Beninese athlete, who won the country’s first gold medal in the 800m at the African School Games, and Tening Faye, a young Senegalese taekwondo prodigy who has already won a world medal.

The channel also explores everyday topics… Could ataya tea – a staple of friendly gatherings – pose a health risk? How can families spot the signs of Alzheimer’s in ageing relatives? What are the real effects of sugar on health?

“The Health section is designed to produce explanatory videos on common and rare conditions,” explains Dikorou Cheick, the team’s health specialist.

“Our strength is that we inform with a relaxed tone. The idea is to provide preventative advice without frightening people, because once you’re aware of a condition, prevention becomes easy – and can even encourage recovery. Beyond that, we also want to showcase the progress made in healthcare across the continent.”

ZOA’s videos focus on daily life on the continent.

“For me, ZOA is a new approach, a new perspective,” says reporter Ibrahima Dramé. “We give the floor to ordinary Africans – people whose lives are not widely known, yet who are doing extraordinary things. That’s what makes my work here so important.

“With my mic and camera, I go everywhere: from Madina Ndiathbé in northern Senegal’s Fouta region, to Thiobon in Casamance in the south; from Pikine on Dakar’s outskirts to Koussanar in Tambacounda. I hand the mic to Senegalese voices that are rarely heard, even though they have a lot to say.”

From Goma to Cape Town, the young Congolese athlete pedalling for peace

No politics

ZOA distributes its content on all major social platforms – WhatsApp, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram – in the form of videos, photos and infographics.

“ZOA will cover practically everything: health, sports, society, culture, entrepreneurship – except politics,” says Goudou. “We believe there’s already enough coverage of politics.”

Instead, the content is resolutely “magazine”. There are features such as When I was 20, which sees elders share life lessons with younger generations; What’s your daily life? in which ordinary people talk about their routines, and Citizen Initiatives, showcasing young people working for their communities.

There is also a Heritage strand, which highlights Africa’s cultural and historical legacy. “Maybe a young Ivorian doesn’t know the history of Dakar’s Monument of the Renaissance,” notes Goudou. “Through this section, those are the kinds of stories we want to tell.”

Young Senegalese forced abroad by dual economic and political crises

Editorial independence

While ZOA is based alongside RFI’s Mandenkan and Fulfulde services in FMM’s Dakar hub, the new channel has its own distinctive style.

“RFI and France 24 provide us with technical and financial support, but editorially we’re independent,” says Magassa. “We have our own productions, our own editorial meetings and we choose our topics entirely on our own.”

The Dakar newsroom is home to 10 journalists from five African countries, with an equal number of men and women.

“The average age is 28,” notes Magassa. “So yes, we too are young Africans. This isn’t just about talking to young Africans – we are young ourselves, and we want to tell our own stories.”

The team works with a network of correspondents in 11 countries, because, as the editor-in-chief notes: “It’s vital to be as close as possible to the people – and to their stories.”

This article was adapted from the original in French.

The anniversary celebrates the political turning point of 1990, when East and West Germany became one nation after more than four decades of division.

Integration was swift, dramatic and expensive. Some estimates put the cumulative cost of reunification at more than €2 trillion between 1990 and the mid-2010s.

In the years following reunification, the federal government poured money into infrastructure, social welfare and retraining programmes in the former East. Public and private transfers to that half of the country have remained substantial, sometimes reaching €70 billion a year.

It also launched a rapid monetary union and privatised state-owned enterprises through the Treuhand agency, which oversaw one of the largest public sell-offs in modern history.

Chancellor-elect Merz outlines new coalition’s vision for Germany

Disparity between east and west

Economic activity, capital investment and productivity in the former East initially surged, reducing the prosperity gap with the west of the country. However that momentum stalled, and today economic disparity between former East and West Germany is pronounced.

In 2023, GDP per capita in the east stood at around 66 percent of that in the west.

Several studies estimate that, depending on the metric used, the east remains 20 to 25  percent poorer than the former West.

Rural parts of eastern Germany are most acutely affected, with lower wages, weaker capital stocks, slower growth and demographic decline. Even among firms of comparable size in similar industries, productivity gaps persist. 

The rise of the AfD 

In recent weeks, the political and social tensions around this persistent divide have drawn attention anew.

On 25 September, Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged that large parts of eastern Germany remain haunted by “fears of decline” as he met with state premiers from the region.

He lamented that many in the east feel like “second-class citizens” and warned that outward migration, de-industrialisation and disenchantment with politics have deepened disillusionment.

Since reunification, some 5 million people have left the east of the country for better opportunities in the west. The far-right AfD is now leading in the polls in all five eastern states.

German intelligence classifies AfD party as extremist threat to democracy

Merz stressed that there have been positive developments, pointing out that average incomes in the east now exceed those of some large European peers. He stressed a renewed focus on competitiveness, energy, transport and defence investment.

However, Merz’s personal engagement in the region has been limited – until recently he had rarely visited any areas in the east of the country outside Berlin.

From an economic viewpoint, Germany faces fresh headwinds. Growth has been sluggish, even contracting in recent years, and many analysts warn of structural malaise in Europe’s powerhouse economy.

The European Commission forecasts German stagnation in 2025, before a modest rebound in 2026. Against this backdrop, the former East’s enduring disadvantage feels especially stark, and the mood on 3 October decidedly mixed.

“The ocean is changing rapidly, with record extremes and worsening impacts,” said Karina von Schuckmann, lead author of the programme’s latest Ocean State Report, which was released this week. 

“This knowledge is not just a warning signal – it is a roadmap for restoring balance between humanity and the ocean.”

The world’s oceans are facing numerous threats: warming waters, rising sea levels and pollution, all of which are contributing to a decline in marine biodiversity.

Surrounded by oceans on two sides, the African continent is particularly affected, explains Simon van Gennip, an oceanographer at French research centre Mercator Ocean International, which contributed to the Copernicus report.

“Like South America, Africa is exposed to different climatic stressors depending on its western and eastern fronts,” he told RFI.

To the north, the Mediterranean is overheating. Between May 2022 and January 2023, surface temperatures rose by up to 4.3 degrees Celsius.

It is experiencing an increase in marine heatwaves – periods of above-average temperatures lasting more than five days in a row.

Stronger, longer heatwaves

In the North Atlantic, which is warming twice as fast as the global average, the waters off Morocco and Mauritania accumulated 300 days of marine heatwaves in 2023.

Mercator counted 250 days of marine heatwaves off the coasts of Senegal and Nigeria.

“We have never seen heatwaves of such intensity, duration and extent,” said van Gennip. “There is no part of the North Atlantic that was not affected by a heatwave in 2023. It is truly extraordinary.”

The phenomenon continued in 2024 and 2025, he noted, adding that new monitoring tools had allowed scientists to form a clearer picture of warming waters.

“We looked beneath the surface and also observed this phenomenon at depths of 50 and 100 metres,” he said.

Warmest oceans in history drive mass bleaching of world’s corals

Researchers are still trying to understand the causes. One suggestion is a dip in vast dust clouds from the Sahara, which can help cool the ocean by reflecting the Sun’s radiation.

“What worries me most is that these marine heatwave episodes are becoming more and more recurrent, stronger and longer. This trend is unsustainable and there is an urgent need for action,” warned van Gennip.

For marine organisms, prolonged thermal stress can lead to problems with growth and reproduction, or even death, he explained.

“Ecosystems are declining or fragmenting as species migrate to more favourable waters. This has consequences for the maritime economy, tourism, fisheries and aquaculture.”

Shrinking habitats

Researchers also investigated changing conditions for micronekton – small organisms that are able to swim independently of ocean currents, such as crustaceans, squid and jellyfish.

These species, ranging in size from 2 to 20 centimetres, are an essential link in the food chain. They feed on smaller zooplankton and in turn form prey for larger predators including tuna, marlins and sharks.

Researchers studied micronekton habitats across the world’s oceans, dividing them into “provinces” with comparable temperature patterns and richness in phytoplankton, the microalgae that constitute the first link in the food chain.

French scientists map plankton, the ocean’s mysterious oxygen factories

Like the Pacific coast of South America, the west coast of Africa is rich in phytoplankton because it is subject to “upwelling”, the rise of cold water that brings nutrients to the surface.

As water temperatures increase, the concentration of phytoplankton decreases, scientists found. African coasts are among the most affected, along with parts of South America.

“We observed, across all oceans, that the most productive provinces – characterised by significant production of phytoplankton and micronekton, such as upwelling regions – decreased in size between 1998 and 2023,” said researcher Sarah Albernhe. 

The regions off the coast of Africa decreased by 20 to 25 percent.

Conversely, warmer habitats that are unfavourable to micronekton have expanded over the past 26 years, Albernhe said. Some have increased by more than 25 percent of their initial size.

At the same time, remaining productive zones are moving towards the poles, where cooler waters can still be found.

The province off the coast of Mauritania – which has shrunk by about 20 percent – has shifted about 2.5 degrees northward, or the equivalent of about 300 kilometres.

Carbon exporters

Over time, these trends could lead to “either the relocation of micronekton populations that follow their preferred habitat to new latitudes, or the extinction of species that can no longer find the habitat that suits them”, Albernhe warned.

“This will have consequences for the food chains that depend on this phytoplankton, and potentially for the structure of the ecosystem.”

Fishing would be affected as boats travel ever further to fish more intensively in smaller areas.

How Europe’s appetite for farmed fish is gutting Gambia’s coastal villages

Micronekton is also a powerful carbon pump. It stores at least 15 to 30 percent of the carbon captured by the ocean, making it the largest CO2 sink on the planet. 

It helps bury carbon deeper in the ocean as organisms swim from the surface, where they feed on smaller prey at night, down to the depths during the day to hide from predators.

As they descend, they deposit excrement, scales or other carbon-laden parts of themselves. “They are responsible for a very high export of carbon to the depths. They really help us regulate the climate,” said Albernhe.

Rising sea levels, acidic oceans

Global warming has also left Africa’s coasts buffeted by fast rising waters.

Due to the Earth’s rotation, “it’s the western edges of the oceans that are generally affected by rising sea levels”, explained oceanographer van Gennip.

“In the case of the African continent, it’s the east coast of Africa – Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique – that is experiencing a much faster-than-average rise in sea levels.

“The global increase is 3.7mm per year, and in these regions, we see values ​​around 5mm per year.”

The acidity level of oceans has also increased by 30 to 40 percent in the past 150 years, according to the Copernicus report.

In Africa, this trend is especially noticeable in the Indian Ocean, particularly the area south of Madagascar and South Africa, van Gennip said. But waters off Morocco and Mauritania are also registering significant declines in pH.

More acidic waters have direct consequences for corals, havens of vital biodiversity: all African reefs, located mainly around Madagascar and as far as South Africa, are in danger or vulnerable.

This article was adapted from the original in French by Géraud Bosman-Delzons.

Just two hours after he was retained as Interior Minister, Retailleau, 64, said Lecornu’s selection did not reflect the promised break with the past.

“In view of the political situation created by this announcement, I am convening the Republicans’ strategic committee,” Retailleau said on social media.

A large majority of LR parliamentarians and ministers had voted in favour of participating in the Lecornu government following a videoconference on Sunday afternoon.

Retailleau’s move is likely to fuel speculation about a possible withdrawal of his party from the government.

On Sunday, Laurent Wauquiez, the leader of the LR deputies in the National Assembly, said: “I will respect the collective decision, but I believe that the conditions for participation are not in place.

“To participate is to endorse. Writing another blank cheque would be a mistake, given our convictions and what we want for the country.”

Although rumours had circulated during Sunday about the possible entry of François-Xavier Bellamy and Othman Nasrou, two close associates of Retailleau, the party failed to obtain the number of posts that Retailleau had demand during a meeting last Thursday with Lecornu.

Lecornu ends perks for former PMs, while balancing demands from left and right

Lecornu names his people

Lecornu has assigned 18 posts so far, with more appointments to follow in the coming days.

With Retailleau, Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot kept his job along with Labour and Health Minister Catherine Vautrin, Education Minister Elisabeth Borne and Culture Minister Rachida Dati.

Former economy minister Bruno Le Maire replaces Lecornu as minister of defence. Gérald Darmanin stays as minister of justice.

Roland Lescure takes over as finance minister, while Amélie de Montchalin reamins as Minister Delegate for the Budget – key positions as the new government takes up the challenge of passing a budget bill by the end of the year.

Who is ‘political animal’ Sébastien Lecornu, France’s latest prime minister?

Criticism of choices

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said the new cabinet lineup was “pathetic”.

Jordan Bardella, the head of Le Pen’s National Rally party, also mocked the government and reiterated the threat of censure.

“We made it clear to the prime minister: it’s either a break with the past or a vote of no confidence,” he said on social media.

Bardella said the cabinet line-up was “decidedly all about continuity and absolutely nothing about breaking with the past”.

Le Pen, whose party senses its best chance to come to power, said on Friday she is waiting to hear Lecornu’s general policy speech on Tuesday before deciding on any further course of action.

Boris Vallaud, head of Socialist lawmakers, accused Macron’s supporters of seeking to plunge France “further into chaos”.

 “They lose elections but they govern. They don’t have a majority but refuse to compromise,” he said on social media.

The head of the hard-left France Unbowed group, Jean-Luc Melenchon, hit out at what he described as a “procession of revenants” mostly hailing from the right.

 “The countdown to get rid of them has begun,” he said on social media.

Saturday’s local polls were the ruling populist Georgian Dream party’s first electoral test since a disputed parliamentary vote a year ago plunged the Black Sea nation into turmoil and prompted Brussels to effectively freeze the EU-candidate country’s accession bid.

The central election commission said Georgian Dream had secured municipal council majorities in every municipality and that its candidates scored landslide wins in mayoral races in all cities.

The normally low-key local elections have acquired high stakes after months of raids on independent media, restrictions on civil society and the jailing of dozens of opponents and activists.

On Saturday, tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators flooded Tbilisi’s Freedom Square after the opposition urged a “last-chance” election-day protest to save democracy.

A group of protesters later tried to enter the presidential palace, prompting riot police to use tear gas and water cannons to repel the crowd.

‘Attempted coup’

The interior ministry said on Saturday it had opened an investigation into “calls to violently alter Georgia’s constitutional order or overthrow state authority” and arrested five protest leaders who face up to nine years in prison.

Among those arrested was a world-renowned opera singer and activist Paata Burchuladze who read out at the rally — to loud applause — a declaration claiming “power returns to the people,” branding the government “illegitimate” and announcing a transition.

The pro-opposition Pirveli TV reported that the 70-year-old, was detained in the intensive care unit of a Tbilisi hospital, where he was being treated for a heart attack.

“Several people have already been arrested — first and foremost the organisers of the attempted overthrow,” Prime Minister Kobakhidze told journalists.

“No one will go unpunished… many more must expect sentences for the violence they carried out against the state and law-enforcement.”

The government has “foiled an attempted coup planned by foreign intelligence services,” he said earlier without giving details.

‘Severe reprisals’

“This political force — the foreign agents’ network — will be completely neutralised and will no longer be allowed to be active in Georgian politics,” he said, referring to Georgia’s main opposition force, jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement.

Saakashvili had urged supporters to stage a “last-chance” election-day protest to “save Georgian democracy.”

Georgian Dream has vowed to ban all major opposition parties.

Rights groups say some 60 people — among them key opposition figures, journalists and activists — have been jailed over the past year.

Amnesty International said the elections were “taking place amid severe political reprisals against opposition figures and civil society”.

In power since 2012, the party has faced accusations of democratic backsliding, drifting towards Russia and derailing Georgia’s EU-membership bid enshrined in the country’s constitution.

Georgian Dream rejects the allegations, saying it is safeguarding “stability” in the country of four million while a Western “deep state” seeks to drag the country into the war in Ukraine with the help of opposition parties.

Analysts say its blunt pitch — claiming that the opposition wants war, but it wants peace — resonates in rural areas and is amplified by disinformation.

A recent survey by the Institute of Social Studies and Analysis put the party’s approval rating at about 36 percent, against 54 percent for opposition groups.

© 2025 AFP

Cohen’s son Nimrod was 19 years old and performing his military service when he was kidnapped from an Israeli tank on 7 October 2023. 

His mother has become a full-time advocate for him and the other 47 hostages still in Gaza. Her priority is convincing the Israeli authorities to reach a peace agreement and allow the captives to return home.

Speaking to RFI before Hamas said it was prepared to release the hostages under a ceasefire plan drawn up by US President Donald Trump, Cohen described why she believes it’s time for Israel to end the war. 

RFI: There is talk of a US peace plan backed by Donald Trump. Are you optimistic?

Vicky Cohen: Nimrod could already be home if our government had agreed to respect the second phase of the February agreement. But it decided to restart the war. It has been almost two years now and there are still 48 hostages. My son Nimrod is one of them.

We hope that with international pressure, the time has come to end the war. It’s time for our government to agree. Our prime minister must decide whether to listen to what Donald Trump is telling him to do or to follow the extremist members of his coalition and continue to torpedo the agreement. Eighty-four percent of the Israeli population wants the war to end and the hostages to come home.

War isn’t good for anyone. It has caused losses on both sides. It’s not right. It’s better to resolve problems through diplomacy. I think it’s time for this to end. This war serves no purpose.

‘Recognition brings obligation’: How declaring genocide could reshape war in Gaza

How are the authorities supporting you?

Members of the government? None of them contact us! We are the ones who constantly ask to meet with them.

There is a department dedicated to relations with the families of the hostages and people killed. They occasionally send us messages on WhatsApp. The last one arrived when the prime minister decided to attack the Hamas leaders in Doha. So we received a message saying that the prime minister had decided on this strike “because the Hamas leaders are the ones refusing to reach an agreement”. We don’t believe it.

What’s more, I was angry, frustrated, upset, worried. It wasn’t a personal message, just a WhatsApp. It’s a very cold way to communicate.

What are the last images you have of your son?

We received a video in March. It was released by Hamas and we saw Nimrod. His face wasn’t visible, but we recognised him by the tattoo on his arm. We knew immediately that it was him, even before the intelligence services contacted us.

How did you feel at that moment?

It was the first visual sign of life we had received, so I was very excited: to see him standing, to see him moving. I was also very worried about him. I don’t know what his living conditions are like, I just know that he is alive. That’s the only information we have.

Israeli ambassador slams French recognition of Palestine as ‘historic mistake’ on RFI

Where do you stand politically? Before October 7 2023, did you support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?

I didn’t support him before, so I don’t support him now. But today it’s different because his decisions have a direct impact on what is most precious to me: my son.

I miss him so much. We will do everything we can to bring him back. I hope he knows that. I will do everything. I will protest, persuade, talk to anyone who can help. I will do everything.

You know, a large part of the population wants the hostages back, but another part thinks it is acceptable to keep the hostages captive until Hamas is defeated. They think it is acceptable to pay the price of those who will be killed. But the majority knows that without the hostages at home, we will have no future as a society sustained by values.

Some sanctify land over life. The most extremist members of the coalition, such as [Minister of National Security] Itamar Ben Gvir, dream of conquering Gaza and rebuilding settlements there. It’s a messianic dream. Is it normal for people to be killed for this dream?

My son is a soldier. He was sent to the border by the government, by the army. He wasn’t there to have fun. He was only protecting. He wasn’t attacking. He was protecting the border and the citizens who live in the kibbutzim near the border. The government has an obligation to bring him home.

This interview was adapted from the original in French by RFI’s Frédérique Misslin. 

They call themselves “wowo” after the Chinese goods trucks that are a common sight here.

“I am able to move the cargo of an entire truck,” Alphonsine tells RFI, smiling, as she stands near the crowded pedestrian corridor at the border crossing.

“We are the ‘wowo’ mothers – like the trucks that carry big loads. We work as a team. If we have to unload the truck, we do it and then we carry the cargo to its destination in [DRC], according to the owner’s instructions.”

These women haul loads of up to 30 kilograms – flour, cooking oil, soft drinks and other everyday goods – for small traders who often dodge formal customs procedures. 

Many of the women, who are of all ages, work entirely in the informal sector, according to the Association of Women Active in Cross-Border Trade (AFACT), a local group that supports female traders.

The women carrying the burden of Kenya’s rural healthcare on their backs

Hard work, small returns

Each trip pays around 1,500 Congolese francs – less than one US dollar. To earn $5 a day, a woman needs to haul roughly a tonne of goods, in several runs. The work is exhausting, but many see no alternative.

“Each of us has a quantity we must carry,” Keren told RFI as she stacked packs of soft drinks. “I have 25 packs. The trader bought 100. That’s not much. OK, let’s go for the last trip.”

Many of the traders are small shopkeepers or market sellers who buy stock in Zambia and bring it back to the DRC. They often prefer to keep a low profile and let the porters handle the border crossing.

“The small trader comes to buy all sorts of items – juice, wheat flour, vegetable oil,” said Régine Mbuyi, one of the wowo women.

“He asks me to get these products across. If he is acting in good faith, he also gives me money to pay customs and other public services. But if he has nothing, I have to manage on my own.”

Illegal logging threatens livelihoods of hundreds of Ghanaian women

Customs authorities say this informal trade costs the state nearly $3,000 in lost revenue each day.

To tackle this, Malaxe Luhanga, head of a small cross-border transporters’ association that represents local porters, wants the work to be officially recognised and taxed.

“We can apply a grouping system according to the category of goods and have them officially taxed,” he told RFI. “We can adopt this system, which is accepted by member countries of Comesa, to make trade and taxation easier for public authorities.”

Comesa – the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa – is a regional trading bloc that includes both the DRC and Zambia.

Crossing the border often means paying a chain of bribes.

“There are three barriers,” says Anto, balancing a sack of flour on her head. “At the exit from Zambia, I pay 500 Congolese francs. In the corridor, I give 1,000, and a bit further on, I pay another 1,000. Once outside the corridor, other public agents are waiting. Sometimes I negotiate and they let me pass.”

The karate grannies of Korogocho, fighting back at any age

Sexual harassment

On top of having to pay bribes, many of the women also face verbal abuse while doing their work.

“They often insult me,” says Jacquie, a young widow waiting at the end of the corridor. “These agents say: ‘Why are you here? Where is your husband? Is he incapable of feeding you?’ I don’t care – we put up with it because they don’t know my situation.”

Some women have reported more serious harassment.

“When an agent stops me, sometimes he asks for sexual favours to let the goods through,” says Régine Mbuyi. “It also happens that during the search, these agents allow themselves to touch us, even on intimate parts. It’s humiliating.”

Amnesty International has reported on this harassment, exploitation and violence faced by women working as informal cross-border traders across southern Africa. The women have no social protection or legal recourse.

AFACT has repeatedly denounced these abuses of power.

“Some girls have been humiliated and stripped, and we have proof. We also have women who have been publicly whipped. When the association wants to intervene, we are told to leave the situation as it is. Why can’t a woman do work of her choice?” says AFACT president Solange Masengo. 

RFI was unable to get a response from the mayor of Kasumbalesa or the local deputy head of customs.

Despite the exhaustion, the abuse and the risks, the wowo women of Kasumbalesa keep going, shouldering their burdens day after day to support their families and keep local trade alive.

This story was adapted from a two-part series by RFI’s Denise Maheho published and broadcast in French.

An estimated 750,000 people over 60 are living out what French charity Petits Frères des Pauvres (Little Brothers of the Poor) calls a “social death” – rarely or never seeing a friend, relative, neighbour or community worker.

The figure has soared by 42 percent in the past four years. Previous surveys put it at 530,000 in 2021 and 300,000 in 2017.

The organisation’s president, Anne Géneau, says loneliness and isolation has become far more widespread, affecting all aspects of social life.

In its latest report, published on Tuesday, the charity found that 2.5 million older people feel lonely daily and nearly 6 million say they don’t have anyone to talk to about their feelings.

Beyond family and friends, interactions with local businesses and home professionals such as caregivers or cleaners have also broken down, with 30 percent of seniors reporting less than one exchange per month.

Lasting loneliness

“We thought the worsening observed in 2021 was an accident linked to Covid, which made people withdraw into themselves,” Géneau says, referring to social distancing and lockdowns during the pandemic.

“But that is not the case. We are not back to pre-crisis levels.”

The charity points to a number of other factors behind the figures. Poverty is the main one, affecting 9 percent of those interviewed for the 2025 poll.

There are also a growing number of seniors without children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

The impact of lockdown on young people in France, five years after Covid crisis

Augmented reality

Often overlooked, isolation is a striking theme at the Photoclimat Biennale in Paris, an open-air festival that brings together artists and NGOs working to address social issues.

French photographer Sacha Goldberger spent time interviewing seniors who receive help from Petits Frères des Pauvres for his exhibition “Augmented Solitude”. Some of them hadn’t left their apartments in months or even years, he says.

Based on their conversations, he used artificial intelligence to splice together portraits of his subjects with images of someone they’d like to meet or keep them company. Spectators use their smartphones to view the augmented-reality photographs and learn the backstory.

Goldberger says that while the series exploits AI, it also shows that retreating into a virtual universe can be dangerous. “It highlights the vital necessity of human relationships in the digital age to combat isolation,” he says.

Digital isolation

The internet can also be a powerful tool against solitude, for those who can access it.

Despite declining sharply during the Covid crisis, digital isolation – being cut off from online services – is contributing to the loss of social contact.

“While the pandemic may have encouraged and sometimes even ‘forced’ the use of digital tools among elders, the rate of elderly people who never use the internet has risen from 20 percent in 2021 to 27 percent today,” said Quentin Llewellyn of the CSA institute, which carried out the poll.

Some people are sacrificing their internet subscription for financial reasons or fears over cyber security, the CSA observed.

At Photoclimat, painter Bertrand de Miollis focuses on the internet’s power to bring people together.

In collaboration with the Afnic Foundation, which strives to expand access to the internet for all, he created works that celebrate examples of people using technology to find community, stay in touch, learn new skills or explore their creativity.

Zoom on optimism

People living at the intersection of poverty and isolation are particularly in need of help, according to French charity Entourage.

“For the 5 million people who are in precarious situations and the 330,000 people without homes, the chances of getting out of their situation are almost zero,” the NGO says. “These numbers are only increasing.”

It works to promote connections between people who might not necessarily cross paths, in a bid to change the way society sees poverty and social isolation.

Intergenerational living helps relieve isolation for seniors and students

The charity invited Dutch-Croatian photographer Sanja Marusic to take portraits of both volunteers and beneficiaries involved in its social outreach programmes.

She says it was important to inject a touch of fun and colour to the project – to draw out the optimism which can help people feel empowered to make a difference.

“The most important part for me is that there’s no hierarchy [in the photos],” she told RFI. “I love that you don’t really see who is helping who. It can go both ways.”

Photoclimat Biennale is a free, outdoor exhibition in Paris and surrounding suburbs that runs until 12 October.

After a 13-year break, Turkish and Egyptian warships last week carried out a major naval drill in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The exercise is the latest step in repairing ties after years of tension that began when Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Mohamed Morsi, a close ally of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“It marks the consolidation of the improvement in relations,” said Serhat Guvenc, professor of international relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, adding the drill sent “a powerful message to Israel of a new alignment”.

Guvenc said naval drills in the eastern Mediterranean have typically involved Cyprus, Greece and Israel, but this time Egypt broke with those countries, signalling it was no longer part of the anti-Turkey camp in the region.

Erdogan’s Washington visit exposes limits of his rapport with Trump

Shift in alliances

The Turkish-Egyptian exercise follows years in which Cairo built strong ties with Ankara’s rivals in the region. The shift has not gone unnoticed in Israel.

“Definitely, this is a major event that Turkey and Egypt have conducted a naval exercise after so many years,” said Gallia Lindenstrauss, an Israeli foreign policy specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

The joint drill comes as Ankara has expanded and modernised its navy in recent years. Lindenstrauss said this has unsettled some of Turkey’s neighbours, giving Israel common ground with Greece and Cyprus.

“Some of them also have quite big disputes with Turkey, such as Cyprus and Greece,” she said. “Greece and Cyprus relations with Israel have been developing since 2010. We’ve seen a lot of military drills together. We saw weapons procurements between the three actors, and this has been going on for some time. So Israel is not alone.”

Turkey has long-standing territorial disputes with Greece and the Greek Cypriot government in the Aegean and the Mediterranean.

Guvenc said Israel has gained the upper hand over Turkey in their rivalry centred on Cyprus.

“The Greek Cypriots acquired a very important air defence system from Israel and activated it. They made life far more difficult for the Turkish military, in particular for the Turkish Air Force,” he said.

“This gives you an idea about the shifting balance of power in the Eastern Mediterranean as a result of Israel taking sides with Cyprus and Greece.”

Macron and Erdogan find fragile common ground amid battle for influence

Tensions over Gaza

Despite those rivalries, Turkey and Egypt are finding common ground in their opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza and in wider concerns over Israel’s growing regional power.

In September, Sisi reportedly called Israel an enemy.

“There is competition over who is the most dominant and important actor in the Middle East, in the Muslim world in general,” said Lindenstrauss.

“I really can’t imagine a unified Turkish and Egyptian action against Israel. I can imagine them cooperating to pressure Israel to change its position, which is what is happening now.”

Cairo and Ankara remain at odds over Libya, where they back rival governments. But analysts warn that the fallout from the Gaza conflict is increasingly shaping the region’s power calculations.

Guvenc said the outcome of peace efforts could determine the future balance in the Mediterranean.

“We see an alignment of Greece, Greek Cypriots and Israel. But once the Gaza issue is tackled, from an Israeli perspective, Turkey is strategically more important than these two countries,” he said.

“But if the strategic makeup of the region may not secure a solution, we may see deterioration in the general situation. Then outside actors will be invited by one side or the other, such as Russia, China or even India, to further complicate the issue.”

Lallican, 37, was embedded with a Ukrainian brigade near the front line in Donbas when he was killed in a drone attack on the area, the Ukrainian military said. They attributed the strike to Russia.

A Ukrainian photographer, Georgiy Ivanchenko, was wounded in the same attack. His condition is reported to be stable.

Both were wearing protective equipment marked “Press”, according to the International and European Federations of Journalists, which denounced their deaths as a “war crime”. 

Antoine Chuzeville of the French journalists’ union SNJ called for international measures to protect reporters working in Ukraine.

“This is becoming extremely serious for freedom of information,” he told RFI. “It is absolutely urgent that measures be taken at the level of international law.”

France calls for protection for journalists covering Ukraine conflict

Lallican is the 14th journalist to die while covering the war in Ukraine, Reporters Without Borders said, though some estimates put the number as high as 22.

Three others were also French nationals: Arman Soldin, a video journalist for news agency AFP; Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, a reporter for news channel BFMTV; and Pierre Zakrzewski, a cameraman for Fox News.

Sergiy Tomilenko, president of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, accused the Russian army of “deliberately hunting those trying to document war crimes”.

Seasoned reporter

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “profound sadness” at Lallican’s death in a post on X.

Based in Paris, Lallican reported from countries including Sudan, Haiti, Syria, Lebanon and Israel. 

He travelled to Ukraine regularly and knew the terrain well, according to the Hans Lucas photography agency, for which he was working at the time of his death.

His work appeared in several French and international publications. In 2024, he was awarded the Victor Hugo Prize for Committed Photography for a series on the war in Ukraine titled “Suddenly, the sky darkened”. 

Beginning in 1960, Goodall lived for long periods in what is now Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, watching wild chimpanzees at close range. She described how they used tools and hunted and their social behaviour, drawing into question the line people drew between humans and other animals.

Goodall went on to become a leading voice for conservation. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977 to support science and protect great apes and their habitats, then launched Roots & Shoots, a youth programme now active in some 100 countries.

This interview with RFI was recorded around the release of Jane, a documentary directed by Brett Morgen. It shows the young researcher in the forest and reflects on a life built from a childhood dream.

RFI: There have been many documentaries about you. What do you think this one adds to what we know about your work with chimpanzees?

Jane Goodall: It’s completely different to any other documentary in that it’s much more honest. So it basically shows things as they were. I think that Brett Morgen, the director, the way that he’s interspersed interviews with me today with that early footage is amazing. And one of the things that strikes people again and again is there’s a whole long section of Jane on her own in the forest.

And most people don’t even think, well, obviously she wasn’t on her own, she’s being filmed. And yet there’s such an immediacy about it. And even I when I’m watching it, I think yes, that’s how it was. I was alone like that. That’s exactly how it was.

Jane Goodall, pioneering primatologist and voice for wildlife, dies aged 91

RFI: This was in 1960, in Gombe National Park in Tanzania, very close to the border with Burundi. Probably quite a dangerous place to be, so close to chimpanzees. You were a 26-year-old white female. Were you aware of the dangers?

JG: I don’t think it was dangerous at all. First of all, people have said, well, being a woman must have been a disadvantage. Well actually, no, because Tanzania was becoming independent. White males were considered a sort of threat. But a young girl – innocent, defenceless – they wanted to help.

So I had a lot of help from the local people and from the government as well, once it became independent. And the dangers in the field… not really, you know.

I could have been charged by buffalo. I was, in fact, once. Chimpanzees – they’re not dangerous out in the field. They could be, but they’re not. So I didn’t consider it dangerous. And looking back on it, I don’t think it was dangerous. It became more dangerous once the Congo erupted and we got the people escaping, all the Belgians coming over the lake.

Then things became different. Then you got the genocide in Burundi and Rwanda. It became politically much less stable.

RFI: Just remind us, what made you want to go to Africa in the first place?

JG: When I was eight years old I was reading Doctor Dolittle, and there’s a story where he rescues circus animals and takes them back to Africa. I loved that particular book. And then when I was 10, I read Tarzan and Tarzan of the Apes, and that was it.

So from 10 onwards, that’s all I wanted to do. Go to Africa, live with animals and write books about them.

RFI: In the film we see you saying it was like a dream come true, I felt that this is where I belonged. So really, you felt that was your natural habitat?

JG: Yes. Once I got used to it, it was like my backyard. I knew all the little shortcuts through the forest. I got to know the different animals and the sounds. It was just what I dreamed of all my life.

RFI: Do you prefer animals to humans?

JG: I prefer some animals to some humans, and some humans to some animals. We’re animals too, remember.

Zoologist Jane Goodall warns: ‘The world is a mess’ ahead of COP16

RFI: You’ve moved from being a primatologist to more of an animal activist. You founded an educational NGO, Roots & Shoots. It’s now present in around 100 countries.

JG: Roots & Shoots began in Tanzania in 1991 with high school students. The great thing was that these students weren’t animal rights people – they were worried about poaching in the national parks and asked why the government wasn’t doing anything about it.

They were also concerned about the treatment of animals in markets, about street children sniffing glue and about illegal dynamite fishing.

I sent them back to their schools to gather friends who cared about these problems. From the start, Roots & Shoots was different from other environmental organisations. Its message was that every one of us makes a difference every day – and we choose what sort of difference we make.

We knew from the rainforest that everything is interconnected and each species has a role. So groups often focused on three areas: improving life for people, for animals and for the environment. Sometimes one group worked on all three, sometimes they divided tasks but shared results.

The programme grew naturally. It broke down barriers between people of different nations, religions and cultures – and between us and the natural world. People sometimes say they don’t understand the name, but if you picture a seed sending out little white roots and a green shoot that can grow into a mighty tree, you understand why it’s called Roots & Shoots.

RFI: Can you give us an example of something that a Roots & Shoots project has achieved?

JG: In Tanzania, we’ve got Roots & Shoots in every single part of the country because it began there, and they’re proud of it. They’ve planted between them so many hundreds of thousands of trees. They’ve really worked to improve the lives of animals. They’ve taught their parents about what’s going on with the dynamite fishing. They’ve made a huge difference in clearing trash, beach clean-ups and so forth.

In China, it’s changed the attitude of a whole generation towards animals and the environment – and the number of Chinese adults who’ve come up to me and said, well, of course I care about the environment, I was in your Roots & Shoots programme in primary school, and they showed us the documentaries about the chimpanzees.

So I’ve seen the attitude in China change, and it’s only recently I’ve realised the major role that Roots & Shoots has played in creating this change.

RFI: You travel around 300 days a year. You’re still a very active woman, even in your eighties. And you travel with this little creature called Ratty. He’s a toy, I must add, a stuffed rat. Just tell me, why Ratty?

JG: Ratty was actually given to me. He’s the symbol for a wonderful group called Doctors Against Animal Experimentation, showing that we don’t need to use animals – the rat being the most commonly used.

But I use Ratty not only to talk about the amazing intelligence of the ordinary rat, but the giant forest rat of Africa has been taught to detect landmines from the scent, even if they’re deep buried under the ground.

And they’ve helped to defuse tens of thousands of landmines in Mozambique, Angola and different African countries, and now moving into the eastern world as well.

They can identify the very earliest stages of TB before the hospital instruments, but now some of them have been taught to sniff out ivory, some rhino horn, some leopard skin, some pangolin scales so they can go up among the crates where people and dogs can’t go. And they have managed to find a whole lot of illegally smuggled products of this sort.

RFI: Just another reminder of how intelligent animals can be. Thank you for talking to us, Jane Goodall.

Both houses of parliament passed the reform on Friday, 10 days earlier than originally planned.

The vote means that Chad‘s constitution will be amended to extend the president’s term from five to seven years, renewable without limit. 

The reform was proposed by the ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) of President Mahamat Idriss Déby, who seized power in 2021 after the death of his father, long-serving president Idriss Déby Itno. 

The party used its large majority in parliament to pass the amendment by 236 to 257, a result that it said reflected “an unprecedented political and social consensus”.

Some 21 members of the opposition walked out of the vote in protest. 

Albert Pahimi Padacké, a former prime minister and leading opposition figure, complained that the ballot – initially pencilled for 13 October – had been moved forward at the last minute, a change he said was designed to “bypass legislators and present them with a fait accompli”.

Chad’s move to drop presidential term limits slammed as ‘burial of democracy’

Dynastic rule?

Robert Gam, head of the opposition Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF), claimed the government’s intention “was simply to move toward a dynasty”.

Gam, who now lives in France after being detained for eight months without charge until June of this year, told RFI that the ruling party’s MPs “are there to do the bidding of a dynasty. They simply support the ruling power, which comes as no surprise to us.”

Among other fundamental reforms that will now be signed into law are longer terms for members of parliament, who will now serve six years instead of four, and a new post of deputy prime minister.

Members of the government will also have their immunity from prosecution withdrawn. 

Chad extends detention of RFI journalist, as lawyers denounce ‘crackdown’

The opposition has argued that constitutional amendments should be submitted to a referendum, giving the public a chance to vote as well as lawmakers.

Gam insisted that, after four years of military rule followed by disputed elections that returned Déby and his party to power, popular dissent was mounting. 

“The people of Chad are beginning to wake up,” he said. “They are mobilised. We will fight with every means at our disposal to ensure that Chad can experience an era of true democracy.”

Kabila, 54, was convicted in absentia on 30 September by the Military High Court in Kinshasa for treason and war crimes.

Prosecutors accused him of being a founder of the Alliance Fleuve Congo, the political wing of the M23 rebel movement, and the leader of the armed coalition AFC/M23. He has been living abroad since 2023.

The ruling has split opinion.

In Kinshasa, the government and its supporters frame it as a landmark step in the fight against impunity. In the east of the country, where Kabila still commands loyalty, many see it as a political attack that threatens peace efforts.

“We welcome this decision of the justice system,” Christian Lumu, of President Félix Tshisekedi’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress party (UDPS) youth wing, told RFI.

“Because whether we like it or not, the rule of law we are building under President Tshisekedi’s leadership rests on a clear principle: no one is above the law.”

Former Congolese president Kabila sentenced to death for war crimes

Condemnation

However, the NGO Human Rights Watch said the move could be interpreted as a warning to political opponents that they could suffer the same fate.

The NGO’s Africa director Lewis Mudge said he believed the manner in which the trial was held and the verdict bore the hallmarks of a political vendetta and showed that “the Congolese government is moving down a more authoritarian path”.

“It was a trial with several political aspects to possibly send a warning to other political opponents,” he said. “First, they stripped him of his immunity quite quickly. Then there was the fact that a trial took place rapidly and Kabila didn’t even have a lawyer. And finally, the trial was held in a military court.”

The verdict was also condemned by Sammy Jean Takimbula, a civil society leader in the east of the country, where Kabila continues to enjoy popularity.

The eastern region of the DRC, located on the border with Rwanda and rich in natural resources, including minerals, has been the scene of conflict for 30 years.

The violence intensified in early 2025, with the M23 armed group, supported by Rwanda, and Rwandan troops capturing cities including Goma in January and Bukavu in February.

International NGOs report mass killings and sexual violence in eastern DRC

“It’s another weakening of the search for peace here in the east of the country,” Takimbula told RFI.

“We understand that the Kinshasa government is not here for the people. It’s a government here for targeting, for their own interests, not for the benefit of the population. The people of South Kivu are suffering every day.”

Asked about the potential risk Kabila’s conviction might pose to ongoing peace process, particularly talks in Qatar between DRC authorities and the AFC/M23, Lumu said: “I don’t think [there is a risk posed], because the discussions in Doha, or the upcoming [inter-Congolese] dialogues under President Tshisekedi, have only one objective: to consolidate unity, build peace and reconcile Congolese people.”

He added: “These processes cannot be manipulated to protect those who refuse to account for their actions. Real justice must be done for reconciliation to be genuine. If we allow impunity, there will be no real reconciliation.”

DR Congo and M23 rebels say they will sign peace deal mid-August

‘A distraction’

For Takimbula, Kabila – who ruled DRC between 2001 and 2019 – had been working towards this reconciliation.

“Joseph Kabila came here to South Kivu,” he said. “He held consultations with all the representative layers of civil society. And it was for peace efforts. They [the government] are accusing him of having allied with the M23. But these are the same authorities who continue negotiations [with M23], who are conducting prisoner exchanges.”

“It’s a distraction. Condemning Kabila is just creating more problems,” he added.

HRW’s Mudge said that prosecutors had not presented any credible evidence against Kabila, who he said “when he was president, was at the forefront of the fight against the M23”.

He added: “There’s also the timing: there will be elections [including presidential elections] in 2028. Joseph Kabila is seen as someone who could be very inconvenient for President Tshisekedi.”

This article was adapted from the original version in French.

The measure comes as the two main opposition parties were planning to hold a march on Saturday to “demand dialogue for inclusive, transparent, and democratic elections”.

The National Security Council (CNS) indicated that 44,000 members of the security and defence forces had been mobilised to “ensure a secure and peaceful election”, carrying out joint patrols.

The statement said that since the Constitutional Council published its final list of candidates for the 25 October presidential election, “several individuals, including political leaders, have been making xenophobic, hateful and subversive statements and spreading false information likely to disturb public order”.

Saturday’s planned march has now been banned because it posed “risks of public disorder,” according to the prefecture.

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

Risk versus reticence

For some analysts, despite the ban the risk of unrest remains.

“It’s particularly intense in Cote d’Ivoire at the moment,” researcher Paul Melly of British think tank Chatham House told RFI.

“Many young West Africans, particularly in the francophone countries, are frustrated with the political process and the political class more generally. And there’s a sense that the political class is preoccupied with its traditional disputes, its inter-partisan wrangles and tussles over power. And that they’re rather detached from the reality of people’s everyday lives.”

This all leads, he believes, to “a risk it could boil over and that there could be violence”.

Why Côte d’Ivoire’s election could be more complex than it seems

He counters, however, that Ivorians are wary of violent protests, citing the events of 2010-11 around the election in which current President Alassane Ouattara came to power and incumbent Laurent Gbagbo refused to accept the result, sparking the Second Ivorian Civil War.

“With those past crises seared deeply into the memory of many Ivorians, there is a reticence to [take] political confrontation too far and take it out on to the streets, because many people feel they never want to go back there,” he said.

The more pressing concern, according to Melly, is that young Ivorians will become disillusioned with the political process as a whole.

‘France’s last bastion’

Ouattara, 83, who has led the country since April 2011, is seeking a fourth term, having changed the constitution in 2016 to remove presidential term limits, angering the opposition.

The former economist had a career as an international civil servant, notably at the International Monetary Fund, where he became director of the Africa department, then at the Central Bank of West African States in Dakar.

As president, he has been credited with keeping Côte d’Ivoire prosperous and economically dynamic.

“I am a candidate because our country is facing unprecedented security, economic and monetary challenges, the management of which requires experience,” he said in a speech on 29 July.

However, Ouattara’s Côte d’Ivoire is also seen as “France’s last bastion”, and he maintains close ties with France’s Emmanuel Macron – which, according to political scientist Mathias Hounkpé “has diminished his ability to intervene in crises in the Sahel”.

Press freedom NGO urges Côte d’Ivoire to protect journalists ahead of election

Disqualifications

Four candidates are standing against the incumbent president: former ministers Jean-Louis Billon, Ahoua Don Mello and Henriette Lagou, and Simone Gbagbo, the former wife of former president Gbagbo.

But neither of the main opposition parties – the PDCI and PPA-CI – have been able to field a candidate, due to several being disqualified by the Constitutional Council, including Laurent Gbagbo and Tidjane Thiam, former minister of development.

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

Provisional results will be published by the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) between 26 and 30 October. To be elected in the first round, a candidate must obtain an absolute majority of the votes cast. If none of the candidates manage this, a second round could take place on 29 November.

This article was partially adapted from the original version in French.

Maritime tracking websites Marine Traffic and Vesselfinder showed the Boracay, which claims to be flagged in Benin, heading towards the Suez Canal.

The vessel, also known as the Pushpa or the Kiwala, has been blacklisted by the European Union for being part of a fleet of ageing oil tankers used to bypass sanctions on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine three years ago.

It was boarded on Saturday by French authorities who detained the captain and first mate.

The skipper, who is due to appear in a French court in February over failing to comply with navy orders, was back on the vessel on Friday along with his chief officer, a source close to the case said.

France to try Chinese captain of Russia ‘shadow fleet’ vessel

Back on board

“They were brought back to their ship after being released from custody,” a source close to the case told the French news agency AFP.

French prosecutors said on Thursday that the Boracay was stopped because of inconsistencies over its registration while it was carrying a large cargo of Russian oil bound for India.

The Boracay has been linked to mysterious drone flights over Denmark last month, including military sites. They were part of a spate of drone sightings and airspace violations in European countries blamed on Russia although Moscow denies responsibility.

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, condemned France’s detention of the vessel as “piracy” and promised to react to what he called European threats.

“We are closely monitoring the rising militarisation of Europe,” Putin told a foreign policy forum in the city of Sochi, southern Russia.

“The tanker was seized in neutral waters without any justification” adding that there was no military cargo onboard. “This is piracy,” he said.

“Retaliatory measures by Russia will not take long. The response to such threats will be very significant. Russia will never show weakness or indecisiveness.”

Moldova’s pro-EU party ahead in polls overshadowed by Russian meddling claims

Airspace incidents 

The airspace incidents are adding to tension between European nations and Moscow, already riding high over Russia’s war on Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged European countries to do more to thwart Moscow’s efforts to skirt Western sanctions.

Speaking at a summit in Denmark, Macron said Europe needed to “kill the business model” of transporting Russian oil on ageing, foreign-flagged tankers by detaining such ships.

The Boracay left the Russian port of Primorsk near Saint Petersburg on 20 September, shipping data shows.

Marine Traffic data indicates it is scheduled to arrive in the Indian port of Vadinar on 20 October.

In his report for the European Sentiment Compass 2025, Pawel Zerka, of the European Council on Foreign Relations, suggests Europe is living its own “Truman Show moment”.

The United States, he says, is no longer the ally Europeans had been accustomed to having. Instead, under Trump, Washington is not only pulling the strings in trade, defence and digital disputes – it is waging an outright “culture war” on Europe.

The big question is whether the EU has the courage to step off the set, reclaim its autonomy and begin writing its own story.

Europe’s uncertainty after Trump’s first 100 days

Trump 2.0

Transatlantic tensions are nothing new. Rows over trade, NATO spending and climate policy have flared under every president from Kennedy to Obama. But Zerka insists that Trump marks a rupture.

“There is a clear difference vis-à-vis previous presidents, and even vis-à-vis Donald Trump 1.0,” he told RFI. “Before, we had never seen a US president targeting Europe so clearly and aggressively.”

This time round, the barbs are sharper, the interventions more deliberate. Trump openly mocks Europe’s migration and climate policies, last week using the world stage of the United Nations to declare that Europeans are “going to hell” with their “crazy” ideas.

Such rhetoric, Zerka argues, is not just bluster. It is part of a deliberate strategy to humiliate Europe, a way of painting the European Union as weak, dependent and incapable of agency.

And this culture war is not confined to speeches, Zerka says – the Trump administration has moved from commentary to active interference.

In Germany, US Vice President JD Vance and former Trump advisor Elon Musk openly backed the far-right AfD party during the country’s legislative elections in February.

Similar interference was seen in Poland, Romania and Ireland, where Washington lent support to Conor McGregor, a former mixed martial arts champion who had thrown his “Make Ireland Great Again” hat in the ring for the country’s upcoming presidential election on 24 October, but withdrew from the race in September. 

McGregor’s political ambitions had been boosted by an invitation to the White House on St Patrick’s Day, with Trump calling him his “favourite” Irish person.

“We haven’t seen anything like this before,” Zerka stresses. “There’s such active involvement in domestic politics of European countries, supporting rivals of the governments in place – and very often those rivals are problematic political players.”

“There is a lot of appetite among the European public for an assertive Europe, but leaders keep finding themselves in situations where they look ridiculous and Europe gets humiliated” – Pawel Zerka

Europe’s new right: how the MAGA agenda crossed the Atlantic

A Truman moment

So what does it mean for Europe to “walk off the set”? In Truman Burbank’s case, it was about courage – daring to leave behind the artificial comfort of a staged life. For the EU, Zerka says, it is about dignity and identity.

“European leaders must be ready,” he argues. “Currently they are buying time with Trump, because they depend so much on America for security, especially with Russia’s war in Ukraine. But the danger is that by playing along, they risk repeated humiliation – whether at NATO summits or in trade negotiations – where Europe ends up looking ridiculous to its own public and to the wider world.”

The challenge, Zerka believes, is that many EU leaders still don’t grasp the true nature of the confrontation.

They treat disputes over tariffs or defence spending as technical haggles, missing the larger picture – that they are part of a cultural battle over values, sovereignty and the very meaning of the West.

Without that recognition, Europe risks stumbling from one Trump-scripted crisis to another, always reacting, never setting the agenda.

The role of the prophet

In The Truman Show, it was a character named Sylvia who first whispered the truth to Truman, that his life was staged. In today’s Europe, Zerka sees Denmark as playing that role.

Trump’s suggestion that the US might buy Greenland directly questioned Danish sovereignty, giving Copenhagen a unique impetus for defending European autonomy.

“Denmark is the one country really trying to show Europe the difference between reality and illusion,” Zerka says, adding though that Sweden and Finland, both scarred by the Russian threat and largely resistant to Trump’s personal appeal, could also be well placed to push for European autonomy.

Then there are what he calls the “door holders”, the heavyweight countries whose choices could swing the EU’s future one way or another: France, Germany and Poland.

Each stands at a crossroads. Elections in the coming years could see them drift towards the pro-Trump “director’s crew” – Hungary, Italy, Slovakia – or rally behind the prophets calling for strategic autonomy.

The outcome, Zerka warns, will determine whether Europe claims its agency or sinks deeper into dependency.

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

Walking the line

However, with Russian aggression on its doorstep, Europe cannot simply sever ties with Washington. Yet, Zerka argues, the notion that Europeans must appease Trump to preserve the transatlantic bond is a fallacy.

“It’s completely the other way around,” he says. “Only if Europe steps up in building its own capacities, and shows assertiveness, can it become a real partner rather than a subordinate.”

That means investment in defence, technology and energy resilience. It also means recognising the culture war for what it is, and refusing to be defined by Trump’s caricatures.

Trust in the EU is its strongest since 2007, with polls showing that citizens increasingly view the bloc not just as an economic club but as a community of shared values, and destiny.

Zerka believes European leaders must harness the public appetite for a more assertive Europe. The risk of inaction, he warns, is cultural subordination.

The reward of courage, by contrast, is the chance for Europe to write its own story, and participate in the transatlantic partnership as an equal.

“The ocean is changing rapidly, with record extremes and worsening impacts,” said Karina von Schuckmann, lead author of the programme’s latest Ocean State Report, which was released this week. 

“This knowledge is not just a warning signal – it is a roadmap for restoring balance between humanity and the ocean.”

The world’s oceans are facing numerous threats: warming waters, rising sea levels and pollution, all of which are contributing to a decline in marine biodiversity.

Surrounded by oceans on two sides, the African continent is particularly affected, explains Simon van Gennip, an oceanographer at French research centre Mercator Ocean International, which contributed to the Copernicus report.

“Like South America, Africa is exposed to different climatic stressors depending on its western and eastern fronts,” he told RFI.

To the north, the Mediterranean is overheating. Between May 2022 and January 2023, surface temperatures rose by up to 4.3 degrees Celsius.

It is experiencing an increase in marine heatwaves – periods of above-average temperatures lasting more than five days in a row.

Stronger, longer heatwaves

In the North Atlantic, which is warming twice as fast as the global average, the waters off Morocco and Mauritania accumulated 300 days of marine heatwaves in 2023.

Mercator counted 250 days of marine heatwaves off the coasts of Senegal and Nigeria.

“We have never seen heatwaves of such intensity, duration and extent,” said van Gennip. “There is no part of the North Atlantic that was not affected by a heatwave in 2023. It is truly extraordinary.”

The phenomenon continued in 2024 and 2025, he noted, adding that new monitoring tools had allowed scientists to form a clearer picture of warming waters.

“We looked beneath the surface and also observed this phenomenon at depths of 50 and 100 metres,” he said.

Warmest oceans in history drive mass bleaching of world’s corals

Researchers are still trying to understand the causes. One suggestion is a dip in vast dust clouds from the Sahara, which can help cool the ocean by reflecting the Sun’s radiation.

“What worries me most is that these marine heatwave episodes are becoming more and more recurrent, stronger and longer. This trend is unsustainable and there is an urgent need for action,” warned van Gennip.

For marine organisms, prolonged thermal stress can lead to problems with growth and reproduction, or even death, he explained.

“Ecosystems are declining or fragmenting as species migrate to more favourable waters. This has consequences for the maritime economy, tourism, fisheries and aquaculture.”

Shrinking habitats

Researchers also investigated changing conditions for micronekton – small organisms that are able to swim independently of ocean currents, such as crustaceans, squid and jellyfish.

These species, ranging in size from 2 to 20 centimetres, are an essential link in the food chain. They feed on smaller zooplankton and in turn form prey for larger predators including tuna, marlins and sharks.

Researchers studied micronekton habitats across the world’s oceans, dividing them into “provinces” with comparable temperature patterns and richness in phytoplankton, the microalgae that constitute the first link in the food chain.

French scientists map plankton, the ocean’s mysterious oxygen factories

Like the Pacific coast of South America, the west coast of Africa is rich in phytoplankton because it is subject to “upwelling”, the rise of cold water that brings nutrients to the surface.

As water temperatures increase, the concentration of phytoplankton decreases, scientists found. African coasts are among the most affected, along with parts of South America.

“We observed, across all oceans, that the most productive provinces – characterised by significant production of phytoplankton and micronekton, such as upwelling regions – decreased in size between 1998 and 2023,” said researcher Sarah Albernhe. 

The regions off the coast of Africa decreased by 20 to 25 percent.

Conversely, warmer habitats that are unfavourable to micronekton have expanded over the past 26 years, Albernhe said. Some have increased by more than 25 percent of their initial size.

At the same time, remaining productive zones are moving towards the poles, where cooler waters can still be found.

The province off the coast of Mauritania – which has shrunk by about 20 percent – has shifted about 2.5 degrees northward, or the equivalent of about 300 kilometres.

Carbon exporters

Over time, these trends could lead to “either the relocation of micronekton populations that follow their preferred habitat to new latitudes, or the extinction of species that can no longer find the habitat that suits them”, Albernhe warned.

“This will have consequences for the food chains that depend on this phytoplankton, and potentially for the structure of the ecosystem.”

Fishing would be affected as boats travel ever further to fish more intensively in smaller areas.

How Europe’s appetite for farmed fish is gutting Gambia’s coastal villages

Micronekton is also a powerful carbon pump. It stores at least 15 to 30 percent of the carbon captured by the ocean, making it the largest CO2 sink on the planet. 

It helps bury carbon deeper in the ocean as organisms swim from the surface, where they feed on smaller prey at night, down to the depths during the day to hide from predators.

As they descend, they deposit excrement, scales or other carbon-laden parts of themselves. “They are responsible for a very high export of carbon to the depths. They really help us regulate the climate,” said Albernhe.

Rising sea levels, acidic oceans

Global warming has also left Africa’s coasts buffeted by fast rising waters.

Due to the Earth’s rotation, “it’s the western edges of the oceans that are generally affected by rising sea levels”, explained oceanographer van Gennip.

“In the case of the African continent, it’s the east coast of Africa – Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique – that is experiencing a much faster-than-average rise in sea levels.

“The global increase is 3.7mm per year, and in these regions, we see values ​​around 5mm per year.”

The acidity level of oceans has also increased by 30 to 40 percent in the past 150 years, according to the Copernicus report.

In Africa, this trend is especially noticeable in the Indian Ocean, particularly the area south of Madagascar and South Africa, van Gennip said. But waters off Morocco and Mauritania are also registering significant declines in pH.

More acidic waters have direct consequences for corals, havens of vital biodiversity: all African reefs, located mainly around Madagascar and as far as South Africa, are in danger or vulnerable.

This article was adapted from the original in French by Géraud Bosman-Delzons.

After a 13-year break, Turkish and Egyptian warships last week carried out a major naval drill in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The exercise is the latest step in repairing ties after years of tension that began when Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Mohamed Morsi, a close ally of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“It marks the consolidation of the improvement in relations,” said Serhat Guvenc, professor of international relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, adding the drill sent “a powerful message to Israel of a new alignment”.

Guvenc said naval drills in the eastern Mediterranean have typically involved Cyprus, Greece and Israel, but this time Egypt broke with those countries, signalling it was no longer part of the anti-Turkey camp in the region.

Erdogan’s Washington visit exposes limits of his rapport with Trump

Shift in alliances

The Turkish-Egyptian exercise follows years in which Cairo built strong ties with Ankara’s rivals in the region. The shift has not gone unnoticed in Israel.

“Definitely, this is a major event that Turkey and Egypt have conducted a naval exercise after so many years,” said Gallia Lindenstrauss, an Israeli foreign policy specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

The joint drill comes as Ankara has expanded and modernised its navy in recent years. Lindenstrauss said this has unsettled some of Turkey’s neighbours, giving Israel common ground with Greece and Cyprus.

“Some of them also have quite big disputes with Turkey, such as Cyprus and Greece,” she said. “Greece and Cyprus relations with Israel have been developing since 2010. We’ve seen a lot of military drills together. We saw weapons procurements between the three actors, and this has been going on for some time. So Israel is not alone.”

Turkey has long-standing territorial disputes with Greece and the Greek Cypriot government in the Aegean and the Mediterranean.

Guvenc said Israel has gained the upper hand over Turkey in their rivalry centred on Cyprus.

“The Greek Cypriots acquired a very important air defence system from Israel and activated it. They made life far more difficult for the Turkish military, in particular for the Turkish Air Force,” he said.

“This gives you an idea about the shifting balance of power in the Eastern Mediterranean as a result of Israel taking sides with Cyprus and Greece.”

Macron and Erdogan find fragile common ground amid battle for influence

Tensions over Gaza

Despite those rivalries, Turkey and Egypt are finding common ground in their opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza and in wider concerns over Israel’s growing regional power.

In September, Sisi reportedly called Israel an enemy.

“There is competition over who is the most dominant and important actor in the Middle East, in the Muslim world in general,” said Lindenstrauss.

“I really can’t imagine a unified Turkish and Egyptian action against Israel. I can imagine them cooperating to pressure Israel to change its position, which is what is happening now.”

Cairo and Ankara remain at odds over Libya, where they back rival governments. But analysts warn that the fallout from the Gaza conflict is increasingly shaping the region’s power calculations.

Guvenc said the outcome of peace efforts could determine the future balance in the Mediterranean.

“We see an alignment of Greece, Greek Cypriots and Israel. But once the Gaza issue is tackled, from an Israeli perspective, Turkey is strategically more important than these two countries,” he said.

“But if the strategic makeup of the region may not secure a solution, we may see deterioration in the general situation. Then outside actors will be invited by one side or the other, such as Russia, China or even India, to further complicate the issue.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This week’s quiz: On 26 July, I asked you a question about Paul Myers’ article “Petition seeking repeal of new French farming law passes one million signatures”.

It was about the Duplomb law, which was passed by the French parliament on 8 July. The law would allow the pesticide acetamiprid to be used, after a ban since 2018. French farmers protested the ban because it is allowed at the European level; they say it puts them at a disadvantage with their European counterparts.

But two weeks after the bill passed, Eléonore Pattery, a young student from Bordeaux, launched a petition calling for a recall.

And that was your question: you were to write in with the number of signatures on that petition as of 20 July, and also how many signatures French law requires before the lower house of Parliament, the Assemblée Nationale, has the right to hold a public debate on the contents of the petition.

The answer is, to quote Paul’s article: “Late on Sunday, the 20th of July, the number of signatures had risen to 1,159,000.

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

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

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by RFI Listeners Club member Jocelyne D’Errico from New Zealand. She wanted to know how you feel and what you think about soulmates.

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Kalyani Basak from West Bengal, India. Kalyani is also the winner of this week’s bonus quiz. Congratulations, Kalyani, on your double win.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Akbar Waseem, a member of the RFI Seven Stars Listeners Club in District Chiniot, Pakistan; RFI Listeners Club member Rasel Sikder from Madaripur, Bangladesh, and RFI English listeners Sadman Shihab Khondaker from Naogaon and Momo Jahan Moumita, the co-secretary of the Sonali Badhan Female Listeners Club in Bogura, both in Bangladesh.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: España by Emmanuel Chabrier, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ataúlfo Argenta; “Hoe-Down” from the ballet Rodeo by Aaron Copland, performed by the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and “Mama Used to Say” by Junior Giscomb and Bob Carter, sung by Junior Giscomb.

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read our article “Moldova’s pro-EU ruling party wins majority in parliamentary elections“, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 27 October to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 4 November podcast. When you enter, be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

Click here to find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize.

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

In his report for the European Sentiment Compass 2025, Pawel Zerka, of the European Council on Foreign Relations, suggests Europe is living its own “Truman Show moment”.

The United States, he says, is no longer the ally Europeans had been accustomed to having. Instead, under Trump, Washington is not only pulling the strings in trade, defence and digital disputes – it is waging an outright “culture war” on Europe.

The big question is whether the EU has the courage to step off the set, reclaim its autonomy and begin writing its own story.

Europe’s uncertainty after Trump’s first 100 days

Trump 2.0

Transatlantic tensions are nothing new. Rows over trade, NATO spending and climate policy have flared under every president from Kennedy to Obama. But Zerka insists that Trump marks a rupture.

“There is a clear difference vis-à-vis previous presidents, and even vis-à-vis Donald Trump 1.0,” he told RFI. “Before, we had never seen a US president targeting Europe so clearly and aggressively.”

This time round, the barbs are sharper, the interventions more deliberate. Trump openly mocks Europe’s migration and climate policies, last week using the world stage of the United Nations to declare that Europeans are “going to hell” with their “crazy” ideas.

Such rhetoric, Zerka argues, is not just bluster. It is part of a deliberate strategy to humiliate Europe, a way of painting the European Union as weak, dependent and incapable of agency.

And this culture war is not confined to speeches, Zerka says – the Trump administration has moved from commentary to active interference.

In Germany, US Vice President JD Vance and former Trump advisor Elon Musk openly backed the far-right AfD party during the country’s legislative elections in February.

Similar interference was seen in Poland, Romania and Ireland, where Washington lent support to Conor McGregor, a former mixed martial arts champion who had thrown his “Make Ireland Great Again” hat in the ring for the country’s upcoming presidential election on 24 October, but withdrew from the race in September. 

McGregor’s political ambitions had been boosted by an invitation to the White House on St Patrick’s Day, with Trump calling him his “favourite” Irish person.

“We haven’t seen anything like this before,” Zerka stresses. “There’s such active involvement in domestic politics of European countries, supporting rivals of the governments in place – and very often those rivals are problematic political players.”

“There is a lot of appetite among the European public for an assertive Europe, but leaders keep finding themselves in situations where they look ridiculous and Europe gets humiliated” – Pawel Zerka

Europe’s new right: how the MAGA agenda crossed the Atlantic

A Truman moment

So what does it mean for Europe to “walk off the set”? In Truman Burbank’s case, it was about courage – daring to leave behind the artificial comfort of a staged life. For the EU, Zerka says, it is about dignity and identity.

“European leaders must be ready,” he argues. “Currently they are buying time with Trump, because they depend so much on America for security, especially with Russia’s war in Ukraine. But the danger is that by playing along, they risk repeated humiliation – whether at NATO summits or in trade negotiations – where Europe ends up looking ridiculous to its own public and to the wider world.”

The challenge, Zerka believes, is that many EU leaders still don’t grasp the true nature of the confrontation.

They treat disputes over tariffs or defence spending as technical haggles, missing the larger picture – that they are part of a cultural battle over values, sovereignty and the very meaning of the West.

Without that recognition, Europe risks stumbling from one Trump-scripted crisis to another, always reacting, never setting the agenda.

The role of the prophet

In The Truman Show, it was a character named Sylvia who first whispered the truth to Truman, that his life was staged. In today’s Europe, Zerka sees Denmark as playing that role.

Trump’s suggestion that the US might buy Greenland directly questioned Danish sovereignty, giving Copenhagen a unique impetus for defending European autonomy.

“Denmark is the one country really trying to show Europe the difference between reality and illusion,” Zerka says, adding though that Sweden and Finland, both scarred by the Russian threat and largely resistant to Trump’s personal appeal, could also be well placed to push for European autonomy.

Then there are what he calls the “door holders”, the heavyweight countries whose choices could swing the EU’s future one way or another: France, Germany and Poland.

Each stands at a crossroads. Elections in the coming years could see them drift towards the pro-Trump “director’s crew” – Hungary, Italy, Slovakia – or rally behind the prophets calling for strategic autonomy.

The outcome, Zerka warns, will determine whether Europe claims its agency or sinks deeper into dependency.

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

Walking the line

However, with Russian aggression on its doorstep, Europe cannot simply sever ties with Washington. Yet, Zerka argues, the notion that Europeans must appease Trump to preserve the transatlantic bond is a fallacy.

“It’s completely the other way around,” he says. “Only if Europe steps up in building its own capacities, and shows assertiveness, can it become a real partner rather than a subordinate.”

That means investment in defence, technology and energy resilience. It also means recognising the culture war for what it is, and refusing to be defined by Trump’s caricatures.

Trust in the EU is its strongest since 2007, with polls showing that citizens increasingly view the bloc not just as an economic club but as a community of shared values, and destiny.

Zerka believes European leaders must harness the public appetite for a more assertive Europe. The risk of inaction, he warns, is cultural subordination.

The reward of courage, by contrast, is the chance for Europe to write its own story, and participate in the transatlantic partnership as an equal.

DZ Fest is the only festival focused on Algerian culture outside the country. It has been run every year since 2022 in the United Kingdom.

This year the festival took place in the latter half of September with events in both London and Nottingham.

Spotlight on Africa travelled to London to talk to the organisers and guests of DZ Fest, and to some Algerians living in the UK

Founder and creative director Rachida Lamri – an artist, musician and member of the London-based Arabo-Andalusian orchestra – curated a programme showcasing Algerian music, traditions, and cuisine.

We also met:

• The Algerian chef Djamel Ait Idir, who runs couscous workshop in his restaurant, Khamsa, in Brixton, South London
• Fayssal Bensalah, an Algerian-born novelist and a lecturer teaching creative writing in Cardiff, Wales
• Comedian Mehdi Walker, also born in Algeria, who lives in France but performs his comedy sketches in English
• Artist and filmmaker Leila Gamaz, who lives between Bristol and Morocco. 

Episode mixed by Melissa Chemam and Nicolas Doreau.

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

Ankara is celebrating a diplomatic win after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was hosted by US President Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday.

In the Oval Office, Trump praised his guest in front of the world’s media.

“He’s a highly respected man,” Trump said. “He’s respected very much in his country and throughout Europe and throughout the world, where they know him.”

Erdogan smiled as he listened. The Turkish leader had been frozen out by President Joe Biden, who made clear his dislike for the Turkish leader.

Trump, by contrast, has long cultivated a friendship with him. But even that relationship has limits, with Israel’s war on Gaza still a source of strain.

Turkey walks a tightrope as Trump threatens sanctions over Russian trade

Restraint over Gaza

Erdogan is a strong supporter of Hamas, which he refuses to label a terrorist group, calling it instead a resistance movement. Yet he chose not to let the issue overshadow his visit.

Analysts say this restraint was deliberate.

“There’s been a concerted effort not to get into a spat about Gaza,” Asli Aydintasbas, of the Washington-based Brookings Institution, told RFI. “Uncharacteristically, he remains silent on the Gaza issue and that is by design.”

During his trip, Erdogan kept his criticism of Israel’s offensive in Gaza to remarks at the UN General Assembly, echoing broader international condemnation.

He also met French President Emmanuel Macron in New York and welcomed France’s recognition of a Palestinian state.

Erdogan is also seeking wider backing as concerns over Israel’s actions grow, an issue that also came up in his talks with Trump.

“Turkey’s concerns with Israel are not actually limited to Gaza,” said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, of the German Marshall Fund in Ankara.

He said Ankara is also uneasy about Israel’s actions in neighbouring states, adding that the two countries’ policies towards Syria clash sharply.

“Turkey wants a stable Syria and one that’s centralised,” he said. “Whereas Israel wants a decentralised and less stable Syria.”

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

Energy and Russia

Turkey’s close ties with Russia risk becoming another flashpoint.

Sitting beside Erdogan at the Oval Office, Trump called for an end to Turkish purchases of Russian energy. He also criticised Erdogan’s long-standing policy of balancing relations between Washington and Moscow.

“Trump does not want a balancing Turkey, at least today,” said Aydintasbas. “That was more obvious than ever in his rhetoric and his dealings with Erdogan.”

She said Erdogan had assumed for the past decade that his balancing act between the West and Russia was acceptable. “It must come as a surprise,” she added.

Turkey is the third-largest importer of Russian oil and gas. But in a move seen as an attempt to placate Trump, Ankara this week signed a multibillion-dollar deal to buy US liquefied natural gas over 20 years.

The two leaders also signed a strategic agreement on civil nuclear cooperation, which could pave the way for Turkey to buy US-made nuclear reactors.

As Trump rails at UN and shifts Ukraine stance, Macron urges US to end Gaza war

Limited gains

Despite these gestures, analysts said Erdogan achieved little in return. He had hoped Trump would lift a US embargo on the sale of F-35 stealth fighter jets. Instead, Trump only gave a vague promise to address the issue.

For Erdogan, however, the White House meeting itself may have been the main prize.

US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said before the meeting that Trump wanted to give Erdogan “legitimacy”.

“For Erdogan, this is a big win,” said Sinan Ciddi, of the Foundation for Defence of Democracies. The Turkish leader, he said, has long sought a White House photo-op to showcase at home.

“He gets to show that he has met the US president, has gravitas on the world stage and is signing deals with Washington,” Ciddi added.

“At a time when he is jailing leaders and dismantling democratic governance inside Turkey, he is being legitimised by the leader of the so-called free world.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This week’s quiz: On 19 July, I asked you a question about RFI English journalist Dhananjay Khadilkar’s video and article about the study of exoplanets, or extrasolar planets, which are planets outside of our solar system.

As you read in Dhananjay’s article “Swiss exoplanet pioneer reflects on Earth’s place in the cosmos”, Didier Queloz, along with Michel Mayor, discovered the first exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star in 1995, which ushered in, as Dhananjay wrote, a new era in astronomy and planetary science. The two scientists won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work.

Dhananjay met with Didier Queloz, who told him, and I quote: “Looking for exoplanets is essentially looking for us.”

What did Professor Queloz mean by that? You were to send in the answer to this question: According to Queloz, what is the essential reason for studying other planets?

The answer is, to quote Dhananjay Khadilkar’s article: “In essence, by studying other planetary systems, scientists are holding up a mirror to our own. Are the conditions that led to Earth’s habitability common or exceedingly rare? Is our solar system an outlier, or just one example among countless others?”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “Is it up to the State, the government, to decide what is fair, or what is just?”

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Dipita Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India. Dipita is also the winner of this week’s bonus quiz. Congratulations, Dipita, on your double win.

Also on the list of lucky winners is RFI Listeners Club member Pradip Basak from Kerala, India, and RFI English listeners Debashis Gope from West Bengal, India; Liton Rahaman Khan from Naogaon, Bangladesh, and Rashidul Bin Somor, the General Secretary of the Source of Knowledge Club, also in Naogaon.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: The allegro di molto from the Symphony No 38 in C Major (the “Echo” symphony) by Franz Joseph Haydn, performed by the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra conducted by Adam Fischer; “Space Ambient” produced by Space Relax; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Young at Heart” by Johnny Richards and Carolyn Leigh, sung by Connie Francis.

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read Paul Myers’ article “Dembélé and Bonmati win Ballon d’Or as PSG take team and coach prizes”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 20 October to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 25 October podcast. When you enter, be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

Click here to find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize.

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

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.