The president’s office made the announcement late Friday after a day of talks with party leaders.

“I accept – out of duty – the mission entrusted to me by the President of the Republic to do everything possible to provide France with a budget by the end of the year and to address the daily life issues of our fellow citizens,” Lecornu wrote on X.

“We must put an end to this political crisis that exasperates the French people and to this instability that is harmful to France’s image and its interests.”

In naming Lecornu, Macron risks the wrath of his political rivals, who have argued that the best way out of the country’s deepest political crisis in decades was for Macron to either hold snap parliamentary elections or resign.

Lecornu’s immediate task will be to deliver a budget to parliament by the end of Monday.

Opposition parties have already announced their intention to censure the government.

Leftists upset

Macron earlier convened a meeting of mainstream party leaders to rally support around his choice. The far-right National Rally (RN) and hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) were excluded from the talks.

Leftist leaders expressed dismay after Macron made it clear he would not be picking a prime minister from their ranks.

If the next government collapses it will raise the likelihood of Macron calling a snap election – a scenario seen benefitting the far right the most.

“We’re not looking for parliament to be dissolved, but nor are we afraid,” Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure told reporters as he left the meeting.

What’s behind France’s current political crisis?

No-confidence motion

France’s political turmoil was in large part triggered by Macron’s decision last year to hold snap parliamentary elections – a gamble that delivered a hung parliament split between three blocs, none of which has a working majority.

The country’s push to get its finances in order, requiring budget cuts or tax hikes that no party can agree on, has deepened the malaise. 

If the National Assembly cannot find common ground on a budget in the time given, emergency legislation may be needed to keep the country running next year on a roll-over budget. 

RN president Jordan Bardella said following Lecornu’s reappointment that the party would immediately seek to vote the new government out of office.

Labelling the move by an “isolated and disconnected” Macron to reappoint Lecornu a “bad joke”, Bardella said his party would “immediately of course censure this coalition which does not have any future” through a no-confidence motion in parliament.

Macron admits snap elections created more instability for France

Race to deliver budget

The country’s central bank chief, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, forecast on Friday that the current political uncertainty would cost the economy 0.2 percentage points of gross domestic product. 

“Uncertainty is … the number one enemy of growth,” Villeroy told RTL radio.

Fraught budget negotiations this year and last as France seeks to rein in its public finances and reduce its deficit have cost Macron three prime ministers in less than 12 months.

Central to the most recent budget negotiations have been the left’s desire to repeal Macron’s 2023 pension reforms that raised the retirement age from 62 to 64, and increase taxes on the very wealthy. Those demands have been hard to square with the conservatives, whose support Macron also needs to pass a budget.

France hit with credit downgrade as new government faces budget squeeze

In Friday’s meeting, Macron offered to delay raising the retirement age as far as 64 by a year to 2028. Green Party leader Marine Tondelier described the concession as insufficient.

For many voters, the centre-right government of incumbent Petr Fiala had failed to tackle inflation, energy costs and stagnating wages.

That disillusionment paved the way for a populist comeback. “It was an easy path for Babis to take power,” Ondracka told RFI, referring to parliamentary elections held on 3 and 4 October.

Without a clear majority, Babis needs junior partners for a coalition government. The likely candidates are two smaller right-wing parties, the anti-immigration, eurosceptic Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and the conservative, anti-Green Deal Motorists for Themselves.

Meanwhile, Babis’s personal dominance in the government is expected to be total.

Whatever coalition Babis chooses, he will wade into a “monstrous conflict of interest, because he is milking the state funds and subsidies”, claims Ondracka, a long-time critic of the billionaire agriculture tycoon.

He views Babis less as a geopolitical threat than as a self-interested pragmatist: “He is not a pro-Russian politician. He is pro-European, because that’s where he sees the most money for his own pocket.”

‘Trumpist’ billionaire wins Czech election, spelling shift on Ukraine

Opportunist

While some compare Babis to Hungary’s Viktor Orban or France’s Marine Le Pen, Ondracka sees him as more opportunistic than ideological: “Babis is not right-wing or left-wing. He tells you whatever you want to hear. What really matters for him is his own pocket and business interests.”

For Ondracka, this absence of ideology is “on one hand scary, on the other hand maybe even a relief”.

That ambiguity may end up working in favour of the status quo. Although Babis often positions himself against domestic elites and Brussels bureaucrats, he knows that EU membership, and crucially, EU funds, underpin his own economic power base.

Babis’s fortune, estimated at more than €3.7 billion, comes from the Agrofert conglomerate. Founded as a fertilizer company, it now has interests in multiple industries from construction to energy to media, and operates in both Europe and China.

Babis was its sole proprietor until 2017, when he was forced to transfer ownership to trusts controlled by his family to comply with conflict of interest rules.

He is embroiled in a legal battle against allegations that he fraudulently claimed €2 million of EU subsidies earmarked for small businesses, charges he rejects as a smear campaign.

European trend

Ondracka sees the Czech election results as part of a wider European pattern. “The elections reflect the very same societal divisions as we see in basically every European country,” he told RFI. “There are the city elites, and then you have people who simply feel betrayed by these elites, and they don’t trust them.”

This erosion of trust, he thinks, has fuelled resentment across the continent, with populists and nationalists offering “simple solutions” to voters seeking a break from liberal centrism.

Even if Babis’s populism is pragmatic rather than ideological, his win reinforces the EU’s broader rightward turn. The ANO victory also highlights the weakening of traditional party structures that once anchored Czech politics in predictable coalitions.

Europe at a crossroads as democratic erosion deepens, report warns

Meanwhile, the Visegrad Four – the alliance that unites the Czech Republic with Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – is unlikely to gain new momentum from Babis’s return.

“It seems that Babis will agree on some issues with Orban and [Slovak Prime Minister Robert] Fico,” Ondracka said, “but there is also huge opposition from Poland and from [Polish Prime Minister Donald] Tusk, so I don’t think the Visegrad Four will be a very actionable group. It will remain politically irrelevant within the EU.”

Still, cooperation inside the group will continue “because these are our neighbours, and we have to collaborate on many issues”, he says.

Outside influences

Babis has invited comparisons with United States President Donald Trump, declaring he wants to “make the Czech Republic great again”.

While some Czech politicians may “take inspiration and try to have a similar vocabulary” to hard-right US populists, Ondracka says the impact on the country’s politics is modest: “People simply vote according to their vital economic interests.”

From Washington to Warsaw: how MAGA influence is reshaping Europe’s far right

Russian influence, by contrast, remains a persistent undercurrent, amplified by disinformation networks.

Yet the election showed voters’ resistance to pro-Kremlin narratives. “Czech elections actually showed that majority of the Czech population doesn’t buy that narrative and they don’t want to come back to Russian influence at all,” Ondracka told RFI. “Most of the parties who were clearly pro-Russian actually lost.”

The Czech Republic bears tangible costs from the war in Ukraine, he added, including some half a million refugees in a country of 10 million. This has strained public services, but also deepened solidarity with Kyiv.

There is reason to believe, then, that the country’s pro-European mainstream remains intact, Ondracka concludes – even with Babis’s populist touch.

Machado, the democracy activist who fronted the campaign to end President Nicolas Maduro’s authoritarian rule in last year’s elections, has become a “unifying” figure in Venezuela, the jury said.

She has refused to leave despite threats against her life.

She dedicated her award to the “suffering people of Venezuela” and, in a surprise move, to Trump, who had long coveted it, citing his “decisive support of our cause”.

“More than ever we count on President Trump,” she wrote on X, a month into a major US military buildup near Venezuela’s shores and a campaign of deadly strikes on suspected drug boats.

Machado, 58, told Nobel Institute director Kristian Berg Harpviken, who called her with news of her prize, she was confident of a peaceful transition to democracy in Venezuela.

“I’m sure that we will prevail,” she said in the call, which was filmed and posted to X.

Example of civilian courage

The trained engineer, in hiding for the past year, is “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times”, said Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes.

Venezuelan opposition figurehead, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who lives in exile in Spain, hailed her win as “a well-deserved recognition of the long struggle of a woman and an entire people for freedom and democracy”.

EU refuses to recognise Maduro victory in disputed Venezuelan elections

Within Venezuela, however, some people were openly critical of the award.

“That woman has done nothing for peace in Venezuela,” Pedro Gonzalez, a 68-year-old pensioner in Caracas grumbled.

“All she has done is call for protests, call for riots, and all that sort of thing.”

Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations joked that Machado was no more qualified to win a Peace Nobel than a Physics Nobel.

But in Argentina, home to some of the millions of Venezuelans who have fled the country’s economic meltdown under Maduro, there were celebrations.

Maria Angel Navas, a 31-year-old Venezuelan lawyer and activist, called the prize an “endorsement and recognition of a struggle that has been ongoing for years.”

Blocked candidacy

Machado was the opposition’s presidential candidate for Venezuela’s 2024 elections, but Maduro’s government blocked her candidacy.

She then backed the reluctant, little-known ex-diplomat Gonzalez Urrutia as her stand-in, accompanying him on rallies where she was welcomed like a rock star.

Maduro claimed electoral victory, but only a handful of countries recognised his win.

Caracas-born Machado entered politics in 2002 at the head of the association Sumate (Join us), pushing for a referendum to recall Maduro’s mentor, the late socialist leader Hugo Chavez.

The call led to treason accusations and death threats, prompting her to send her three children to live abroad.

Seven Nobel laureates urge France to adopt tax on ‘ultra-rich’

The committee said it was aware Machado might not be able to attend the Oslo ceremony on 10 December.

The award comes a month into a US campaign of military pressure on Maduro’s government, including strikes on boats in waters near Venezuela alleged to be carrying drugs.

Washington accuses Maduro of leading a drug cartel, which he denies.

Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia have backed the US pressure on his government as a “necessary measure” towards the “restoration of popular sovereignty”.

Machado was not among those mentioned as possible laureates in the run-up to Friday’s announcement.

Investigation into leak

Yet, hours before the prize was awarded, the odds of her getting it soared from 3.75 to nearly 73 percent on the predictive betting platform Polymarket – triggering an investigation by the Norwegian Nobel Institute into a possible leak.

Once a relatively democratic and prosperous petro-state, Venezuela is now a “brutal authoritarian state that is now suffering a humanitarian and economic crisis”, Frydnes said.

Nobel prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa dies aged 89

Over seven million Venezuelans – around one-quarter of the population – have fled the country’s economic meltdown under Maduro.

Since returning to the White House for his second term in January, Trump has repeatedly insisted that he “deserves” the Nobel for his role in resolving numerous conflicts – a claim observers say is broadly exaggerated.

His office called the committee’s decision a sign of “politics over peace”.

The committee had, however, made its choice days before the announcement of the deal he brokered to end the fighting in Gaza.

(with AFP)

Erdogan said this week that Turkey would work with the United States on civil nuclear energy, in a new signal to Washington that Ankara is looking west for its energy needs.

Turkish companies last month signed a 20-year, multibillion-dollar deal with American firms to buy liquefied natural gas.

The agreement came during Erdogan’s visit to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump in late September. During that meeting, Trump urged Erdogan to reduce ties with Moscow and end Turkey’s reliance on Russian oil and gas.

“In a sense, he [Trump] is offering a grand bargain to Erdogan,” said Asli Aydintasbas of the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

She summed up the deal: “Stop the hedging, stop the stuff with Russia, stop the geopolitical balancing, and then let’s re-establish the partnership, and then we can move along and can really become key partners in the region.”

Turkey walks a tightrope as Trump threatens sanctions over Russian trade

Economic pressure

Trump often praises Erdogan as a “friend”, but the US leader has shown he is willing to use economic pressure. During his first term, he triggered a collapse in the Turkish lira over the jailing of an American pastor.

He could again target Ankara with secondary sanctions if Turkey keeps importing Russian energy.

Russian fossil fuels still provide nearly half of Turkey’s total energy. Zaur Gasimov, a Russian-Turkish expert with the German Academic Exchange Service, said Europe’s experience shows how costly a sudden break with Moscow could be.

“It was the case with some Western European countries in 2022 that caused an augmentation of the prices,” said Gasimov. “And the Turkish economy is struggling with inflation that would immediately and heavily affect the life of the average citizen. No party power in Turkey would take such a decision.”

Ankara has ruled out ending its Russian energy contracts, but oil imports from Russia have fallen to their lowest levels in a year.

Some gas deals, signed decades ago, are due for renewal. Analysts say Turkey may use that moment to slowly cut its dependence on Moscow – a move that would deal a serious blow to Russia, which now relies on Turkey as its last major European gas customer.

Druzhba pipeline: dependence, diplomacy and the end of Russian leverage in Europe

Strategic balancing

Energy trade has long been at the heart of Erdogan’s personal relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The partnership has survived the war in Ukraine, despite the fact Turkey also supplies arms and support to Kyiv.

Turkey’s balancing act helps keep regional rivalries under control, said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, who heads the Marshall Fund office in Ankara.

“Turkey and Russia have been fighting proxy wars in the Caucasus, in North Africa, in the Levant,” he said. “Turkey is getting the upper hand in the end. But Turkey could still manage its relationship with Russia.”

Unluhisarcikli added that Ankara would want guarantees from the West before distancing itself from Moscow, since “it would have security implications on Turkey”.

Turkey would have to be “certain” that it would be welcomed back to Europe and have assurances from the United States, he suggested.

Erdogan spoke with Putin by phone this week, though such contacts have reportedly become less frequent as their once-close relationship cools.

Ankara remains aware of the risks: when Turkey accidentally shot down a Russian bomber near the Syrian border in 2015, Putin responded with sanctions that hit Turkish exports and tourism, and several Turkish soldiers in Syria were later killed in what Moscow called an accident.

Turkey eyes Ukraine peacekeeping role but mistrust clouds Western ties

Declining leverage

With Russia weakened by sanctions and isolation over its war in Ukraine, analysts say its influence on Turkey is diminishing.

“It is the window to Europe. It is a way to the outside world,” Gasimov says. “The number of flights to Turkey is getting bigger and bigger.

“For Russia, Turkey remains a very, very important partnership. So the leverage Moscow once possessed over Ankara is getting less and less.”

As Israel started pulling back troops from sectors of Gaza City and areas in the south of the Gaza Strip, thousands of displaced Palestinians began the slow and difficult process of returning to what remains of their homes.

“We’re going home and we’re facing a pile of rubble,” Muhanad, displaced from Tal al-Hawa in Gaza City and now living further south in Deir el-Balah, told RFI.

“What remained of our house has been destroyed, so we’re returning to a harsh and exhausting reality.”

The United States has confirmed that Israel has completed the first phase of a pullback laid out in President Donald Trump’s peace plan, but Israeli forces still hold around 53 percent of Palestinian territory.

“The ceasefire stages are only theoretical,” Muhanad said. “They haven’t yet been applied.”

Afnan Hijazzi, also in Deir el-Balah, dared to be more optimistic. “We have so much hope… but even now, it’s still unbelievable,” he said while admitting people were nervous that Israel might not stick to its side of the bargain.

“Our greatest fear is that they’ll break the agreement… that after taking back their prisoners, they’ll simply say ‘goodbye’ to us and carry on as before.”

She said she hoped their houses would be rebuilt “so we can live in peace again rather than in tents – we’re really tired of the war”.

Gazans hail Trump ceasefire call as Hamas agrees to free hostages

‘Mixed feelings’

Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned that the humanitarian situation remains critical.

MSF found that one in four children examined this summer was suffering rom malnutrition, and in August the United Nations confirmed a famine in northern Gaza.

Claire San Filippo, MSF’s emergency coordinator, said the situation had slightly improved with “a few fruit and vegetables” seen on the market on Friday “at less exorbitant prices”, but stressed it was by no means enough.

“It is absolutely vital that this ceasefire should be lasting, but also that there should be the possibility of food aid entering Gaza immediately, unconditionally and on a massive scale.”

RFI’s correspondent in Gaza, Rami el Meghari, described talking to one woman on Friday morning who was weary from repeated displacement.

“She was crying. She said, ‘tell the people who are negotiating that they should save what dignity we have left, the dignity that was taken from us with this war’.”

El Meghari stressed that 2 million Gazans “want to get their lives back as soon as possible after their lives have been turned upside down by two years of war”.

Eyad el Amawi, director of a Gaza-based NGO, called the ceasefire announcement a “great moment”, but stressed the ambivalence many Palestinians feel.

“We have mixed feelings between worry, sadness and happiness,” he told RFI, on the line from Ramallah. Despite the ceasefire he said they’d “heard some bombs” and that Israeli forces “had not yet fully withdrawn from all areas of incursion”.

Israeli settlements a threat to Palestinian state, Macron warns

Hope for hostages

After two years of conflict, the families of Israel’s remaining hostages in Gaza were also hoping the truce would hold and allow for the release of 48 Israeli hostages – living and dead – still being held, out of the 251 abducted during the 7 October attack by Hamas two years ago.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged their release within 72 hours. An international team from the US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey has been set up to oversee the process.

In Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Thursday evening, former hostage Amit Soussana, who suffered sexual abuse while being held by Hamas, addressed the crowd.

“We will not rest until the last hostage comes home. So we must carry on a bit longer and it will be over,” she said. “I feel we’re at the beginning of something new. Just a bit longer, and they’ll be here.”

Families of the deceased were anticipating being able to mourn them. Dan Golan, a relative of Inbar Haiman, the last female hostage and among the 28 dead, held up a photo of her, urging that the remains of those killed not be forgotten. 

“We’ve had no news of Inbar since we had confirmation of her death in December 2023,” he said. “She had been killed on 7 October. And that’s our greatest worry, because the authorities said it would be difficult to find all the bodies.”

‘It’s time for this to end’: Israeli mother’s two-year quest to free her son

Prisoner swap

Israel, meanwhile, has published the list of the 250 Palestinian prisoners it plans to release – along with 1,700 Gazans it has detained since 7 October.

In the West Bank, a Palestinian man imprisoned for 17 years for his role in the second intifada voiced concern over the fate of those due to be released from Israeli jails, particularly those convicted of violent crimes.

“The mind cannot comprehend what they’re living through, the way they’re humiliated, insulted and beaten inside the prison, especially after 7 October,” he told RFI’s correspondent in Ramallah, on condition of anonymity.

Like many Palestinians, he hopes for the release of Marwan Barghouti, whose presence on the list remains shrouded in mystery. But he doubts that once free Barghouti and other Palestinian figureheads will be allowed to be active in the Palestinian cause.

“The detainees who come out of prison will live in a permanent state of terror, they’ll be targeted 24 hours a day, they won’t be able to move freely,” he said.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission, numerous detainees released during previous prisoner swaps have been re-arrested. 

“We were treated like animals,” said Yacine Haffaf, a French surgeon. “It was three and a half days of daily humiliation, intimidation and abuse.”

Haffaf, 69, heads Waves of Freedom, which led the French contingent of the Global Sumud Flotilla. He was on board Jeannot III, one of the vessels intercepted by the Israeli military on 3 October, and among the 31 French citizens later expelled to Athens.

“Soldiers would suddenly storm into our cell when we were sleeping, pointing guns with green laser dots at us and ordering us into a corner,” he said. “We realised after a while that they didn’t intend to shoot but wanted to terrify us.”

The Global Sumud Flotilla left Barcelona in September to challenge Israel’s blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. The mission involved 42 boats carrying 462 civilians from 57 countries.

Most of the activists have since been released from Ketziot, a high-security prison in Israel’s Negev desert. The facility is mainly used to detain Palestinians accused by Israel of terrorist activity.

Israel said the flotilla’s “true goal was provocation in the service of Hamas, not humanitarian assistance”.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called the participants “terrorists” in a video shared online.

He said he is “proud that the flotilla activists are being treated as terrorists”. In a second video, he said that they should not be sent home immediately.

“I think we must keep them in Israeli prison for a few months so they can get a taste of the terrorist wing,” he added.

French lawyers representing those expelled from Israel said legal proceedings are under way.

“We will file, in the coming weeks, a criminal complaint to the French public prosecutor for arbitrary detention and mistreatment of the French nationals who were in the Global Sumud Flotilla,” said Lucie Simon, one of five lawyers representing them.

Gaza flotilla boarded by Israeli navy amid calls to lift blockade

Claims of abuse in custody

Haffaf said the detainees were denied essential medicine.

“One of our comrades suffered an asthma attack. We hammered on the cell door to demand medicine, but it only came 48 hours later,” he said. “Despite the inhumane treatment, we refused to bow down and would chant ‘Free Palestine’ to the soldiers.”

Several other activists described similar treatment. Tabea Zaug, a Swiss national, said detainees were treated differently depending on their skin colour and passport.

“I have white skin, blue eyes, I have a Swiss passport. They treated me much better than other passengers on board,” she said after her release.

Zaheera Soomar, a South African activist, said her hijab was forcibly removed and she was stripped naked in front of Israeli soldiers. The South African group said they received harsher treatment than others.

French activist Lyna Altabal said dogs were released into the cell where she was held. French–Palestinian Rima Hassan, a member of the European Parliament for France Unbowed (LFI), told RFI she was beaten by soldiers.

French nationals on Gaza aid flotilla deported from Israel, sent to Greece

Shahd Hammouri, a lecturer in international law at the University of Kent, said Israel’s actions were illegal.

“The humiliating mistreatment of civilians illegally detained in an Israeli prison is a violation of their human rights and of the torture convention,” she told RFI.

Hammouri added that Israel acted unlawfully by seizing the ships in international waters and transferring the detainees to Israeli territory. “Israel does not have the authority to cross the borders with them,” she said.

“Under the law of occupation, you should never hold people you catch outside the territory where you caught them.”

She also rejected Israel’s claim that Palestine has no recognised borders.

“The International Criminal Court, one of the highest courts in the world, rejected these claims in a 2021 judgment and confirmed that Palestine is a sovereign state under international law,” Hammouri said.

Return to Greece

Thirty-one French nationals were expelled from Israel to Greece on 6 October. During their detention, they received consular protection from the French government.

A French diplomatic source said the Consulate General in Tel Aviv stayed in contact with Israeli authorities and the families of those detained. In Athens, consular staff met the group at the airport to help arrange their return home.

The source said officials helped them find flights, contact relatives, and, if needed, book accommodation for the night.

But Haffaf disputed this account.

“They brought chocolates and protein bars and explained that the French government would not pay for the plane fare to Paris,” he said.

“We were left to fend for ourselves in Greece. Thank God for the wonderfully generous Greeks who came to greet us with music at the airport.”

He said Greek supporters brought food and clothes, since the group was still wearing prison uniforms, and hosted them overnight. “We had nothing, no money, no phone, nothing,” he said.

“It is true that we knew the risks, but I thought our government would step forward and take care of us in our hour of need.”

Possible action against France

Lawyer Simon said that her team is considering taking the French state before the administrative court of justice for failing to protect French citizens wrongfully arrested in international waters and arbitrarily detained in an Israeli prison.

She argued that the government should have done more.

“Consular protection means protection before their arrests, protection through diplomatic channels or by sending a vessel like Spain and Italy to escort the flotilla and more specifically the French nationals,” she said.

Warning them of the risks before they travelled to Gaza is not enough, she added.

She compared the government’s stance to what she called “the short skirt theory”.

“You’re wearing a short skirt, so you know that you might get raped. It’s the same theory. I cannot understand that a state bound by international law can behave like that towards its citizens,” Simon said.

Meanwhile, MEP Rima Hassan is calling for strikes and blockades – similar to those in Italy and Spain – to increase pressure on the French government over its response to events in Palestine.

Looking ahead

Back in Paris, Haffaf – who has carried out humanitarian work in conflict zones such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Yemen – said that while he usually manages to return to normal life after a mission, this time is different.

“I am completely exhausted, both mentally and emotionally. It has been a roller coaster of emotions. Staring down the barrel of a gun is not the same as operating under bombs in Gaza,” he said.

Like most of the activists, he plans to volunteer again.

“This mission created a huge impact in mobilising the hearts and minds of citizens across the world,” he said. “We may not have succeeded in breaking the blockade this time, but we opened a way. We mobilised more people and more resources for future flotillas to Gaza.”

The investigation found that Hungarian intelligence services recruited Hungarians working in the EU’s institutions to spy on them, in a bid to ascertain whether its policies or decisions could threaten Orban and his ruling party, Fidesz.

The report – written by Szabolcs Panyi of the Budapest-based independent publication Direkt36, alongside Belgian journalist Lars Bové of De Tijd and Hannes Munzinger and Elisa Simantke of Germany’s Paper Trail Media – details how Orban’s intelligence service set up a network hidden in plain sight between 2012 and 2018.

It cites unnamed Hungarian EU officials and other sources familiar with the operation.

The EU said on Thursday that it would probe the report’s allegations. Spokesman Balazs Ujvari said: “We remain committed to protecting Commission staff, Commission information and networks from illicit intelligence gathering actions. We will be setting up an internal group to look into these [allegations].”

“Hungary, under Viktor Orban’s government, built a spy network in Brussels in the 2010s, operating covertly. Hungary dispatched intelligence officers under diplomatic cover to the Hungarian Permanent Representation to the EU,” according to Panyi.

At least half a dozen operatives – working under diplomatic cover – were active. Their mission, according to Panyi, was broad.

“They tried to recruit Hungarian citizens working within the EU institutional system as secret collaborators or informants to provide information about any countermeasures against, for example, the Orban government’s crackdown on media freedom, rule of law, or judiciary independence,” he told RFI, “as well as any steps the EU Commission was preparing regarding the embezzlement of EU funds in Hungary.”

These operatives were also reportedly asked to “rewrite” or remove sections of drafts “to ensure the texts reflected Orban’s government’s worldview”, according to the report.

Between 2015 and 2019, the mission was headed by Oliver Varhelyi, who has since become a member of the European Commission, the EU’s executive body.

The Commission spokesman indicated the EU’s executive was not aware of the allegations at the time Varhelyi was vetted to be a commissioner, saying: “I don’t think we had this type of information at that moment.”

EU strips Hungary of €1bn in frozen funds over corruption concerns

Incentives

Hungary’s methods resembled those of several notorious intelligence services, said Panyi. “Hungary acted in a manner similar to Russia’s, China’s and Iran’s agencies. They created a covert spy ring in Brussels.”

This operation involved mapping every Hungarian citizen in Brussels with access to information, conducting in-depth background checks and identifying those most likely to cooperate – and their tactics were direct.

“They offer money and career advancement, and appeal to patriotic duty,” Panyi explained, noting that several EU staff members resisted these recruitment attempts.

But not every effort failed. In one case uncovered by Panyi and colleagues, “a large media company” under pressure from the Hungarian government sought help from the European Commission.

However, a Hungarian citizen representing the Commission allegedly leaked details to the Hungarian government almost immediately. The affected company suspects confidential details ended up on Orban’s desk within days, according to Panyi.

Security weaknesses

In 2017, the network unravelled. Its leader – identified only by the initial “V” – and his agents “acted too recklessly” and were reported to EU security, leading to identification by Belgium’s intelligence service, VSSE.

“It was a serious affair. Practically everyone was burned. The entire [Hungarian intelligence] network had to be rebuilt from scratch,” recalled a source who was familiar with the Hungarian intelligence service’s operations at the time in the report.

While Panyi said it is unclear if the operations spying on EU institutions continued after this, he added that: “We know through our Belgian partners that the Hungarian government has bought a very prestigious building in central Brussels, right across the street from the Belgian prime minister’s office… and Belgian intelligence is paying special attention to it.”

The report exposes profound weaknesses in the EU’s ability to protect its institutions. A security system designed around trust between member states has proved vulnerable.

“The EU is utterly unprepared for the scenario in which a member state goes rogue or becomes hostile,” says Panyi.

He notes shortcomings in the bloc’s vetting process – in particular, a flawed system that alerts national agencies when citizens gain access to sensitive documents, which inadvertently flagged targets for Hungarian intelligence.

What can Europe learn from Orban’s victory in Hungary’s elections?

In response to the report, Belgian foreign minister Maxime Prévot said: “It is unacceptable to spy in Belgium, and we do everything possible to prevent it and to defend EU institutions against espionage.”

The Hungarian government has not so far responded to French news agency AFP’s request for comment.

Hungary’s nationalist leader Orban has been at loggerheads with Brussels since his return to power in 2010 over what the EU says is his undermining of democratic institutions and divisive foreign policy stance.

(with newswires)

The plan, announced by the European Commission in Strasbourg, comes as Europe’s steelmakers face what officials call “crushing” competition from China.

It still needs approval from the 27 EU governments and the European Parliament – a process that could take several months.

At the Parliament, many lawmakers welcomed the move as overdue.

“It was time,” said Belgian socialist MEP Kathleen Van Brempt. “It is a good first step. It is essential that we have a plan. We want our own steel because we want reliable green steel. For that, we need a new, full recovery plan. So today is a first step, yes, but we need more.”

EU-US trade deal averts tariff hikes, but sparks unease in Europe

Push for fair trade

Some members of the European Parliament raised concerns that the plan could amount to protectionism and end up hurting European manufacturers that rely on imported steel.

That view was rejected by French centrist MEP Marie-Pierre Vedrenne of the Renew group, who told RFI the EU’s approach was different from the unilateral tariffs seen in the United States.

“Protectionism, in my view, is what Donald Trump can do and it is deadly,” she said. “So no, we are bringing everyone together to work on trade that is fair and that is win-win for everyone.”

Van Brempt said the plan also sends a long-awaited message to Washington that Europe is ready to defend itself.

“This is a political response, and I appreciate that the Commission is giving political answers,” she said. “But now we need to move forward. We are still only halfway.”

France leads EU fightback against Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs

Concern in UK

The new EU measures will apply not just to steel from China or the United States but also to British exports – a serious blow to a sector that sends most of its output to the EU.

The EU buys about 80 percent of the UK’s steel exports, worth nearly €4.5 billion a year.

British steelworkers’ union Community called the EU plan an “existential threat” to the industry.

The head of UK Steel, the country’s main industry body, urged the British government to respond.

He said London should start talks with Brussels to avoid a global trade imbalance and warned that other producers such as China could redirect exports to other markets, undercutting British mills.

The industry is hoping for an exemption from the new EU tariffs. Without it, the sector warns that 37 000 jobs linked to British steelmaking could be wiped out.

Sonia Mejri, 36, will be the first French citizen ever tried for genocide and the first French returnee from Syria to face this charge in connection with the Islamic State (IS) group.

The crime carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Mejri, a former wife of an IS commander, also faces charges of complicity in crimes against humanity and other terrorist offences. She will appear in custody before the special assize court in Paris, which has a panel of professional judges instead of a jury, on a date still to be set.

“The innocence of my client will be recognised by the judges,” her lawyer Nabil Boudi said ahead of the trial.

Accusations of enslavement

An anti-terrorism investigating judge ordered the trial in September 2024 for Mejri and her then husband, Abdelnasser Benyoucef, accusing them of enslaving a 15-year-old Yazidi girl in Syria in the spring of 2015.

The magistrate said Benyoucef “knew that by acquiring” the teenager and subjecting her to confinement, repeated rapes and severe deprivation, “he was participating in the attack directed by IS against the Yazidi community”.

Mejri was described as the “guarantor of the confinement” of the girl. She reportedly held the apartment key and carried a weapon to prevent her from escaping.

Prosecutors accused her of “serious attacks on the physical and psychological integrity” of the teenager, who was forced to live under “conditions of existence likely to bring about the destruction” of her community.

Former wife of IS commander to stand trial in France on Yazidi genocide charges

‘Coordinated Plan’

In January the Paris Court of Appeal partly overturned the referral, saying there had to be multiple victims for the crime to qualify as genocide.

“The appeal judges could not agree on the charges, which demonstrates the fragility and weakness of the prosecution,” Boudi said.

But in May the Court of Cassation, France’s highest judicial authority, ruled that genocide charges can be brought even if only one person is targeted, provided the act forms part of “a coordinated plan aimed at the group’s total or partial destruction”.

The court approved the genocide proceedings on 1 October.

The lost childhood of traumatised Yazidi children abducted by IS

Victim’s testimony

Sexual violence was used by IS as a weapon to break Yazidi resistance and spread fear, including through the creation of slave markets.

The victim’s testimony is central to the case. Her lawyer, Romain Ruiz, declined to comment.

The young woman said she was held captive for more than a month in spring 2015 in Syria and could not drink, eat or bathe without Mejri’s permission. She accused Mejri of assaulting her and of knowing that her husband raped her daily.

Her account matches evidence gathered by human rights organisations that have documented IS’s use of sexual slavery and the creation of a “war booty department”.

Defence and civil parties

Mejri has denied wrongdoing in relation to the Yazidi girl, telling investigators that her ex-husband was the “owner” and that she had “no rights” over her.

“The defence lodged multiple appeals. Licra is pleased that this genocide trial… can finally take place,” said Ilana Soskin, lawyer for the French anti-racism group.

“The charges are neither weak nor fragile; they are well-founded, factual and legally sound,” added Inès Davau, lawyer for the NGO Free Yezidi Foundation. She said that given the “persistent impunity”, it was “time for justice to be served”.

Benyoucef, who has been the subject of an arrest warrant and is presumed dead since 2016, is expected to be tried in absentia for genocide, crimes against humanity and terrorist offences.

(with AFP)

Israel has established itself one recent years as a major player in technological innovation. The country is home to large companies in the sector and is a major exporter of software, medical devices and cybersecurity technology.

But since the start of the war in Gaza and amid rising tensions with Iran, the country has entered a new economic era – and the figures speak for themselves.

In the last quarter, Israel’s GDP contracted sharply. Household consumption is falling, private investment is slumping and production is slowing down.

The outlook is not encouraging. Growth is forecast to be no more than 1 percent in 2025, and was just 0.9 percent last year. This is in stark contrast to 2022, when the Israeli economy grew by 6.5 percent.

Inflation is around 3 percent and the budget deficit is skyrocketing. To support the Israeli currency, the shekel, the Central Bank has had to inject more than $30 billion into foreign exchange markets.

On a human level, nearly 170,000 people have left the country since 2023 – many of them young graduates representing a highly skilled workforce. This brain drain is exacerbating the sense of economic and financial instability.

Investor flight and diplomatic isolation

There has also been a notable loss of confidence among foreign partners. Foreign direct investment is falling, international financing is freezing up and several major contracts are being called into question.

The European Union, Israel’s largest trading partner, is considering reducing certain collaborations – a worrying sign for an economy that depends heavily on trade with the 27 member states.

NGOs call on EU to stop doing business with Israel’s ‘illegal’ settlements

The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund withdrew from several Israeli defence companies this summer.

In the United States, some tech giants such as Microsoft are reviewing their commitments in Israel under pressure from public opinion.

Even long-standing allies such as Colombia are seeking to do without Israeli equipment. Bogotá has just unveiled its first locally produced assault rifle, having put an end to its orders from Israel.

These withdrawals are creating a domino effect, with the loss of this support and capital weakening Israeli growth and threatening its position on the international stage.

France pays tribute to victims of Hamas attack, two years on

Beyond the figures, the effects are being felt in everyday life. The cost of living remains high, and taxation is likely to increase to finance military spending and fill the budget deficit.

In the medium and long term, the loss of attractiveness and talent could lead to business closures and rising unemployment.

For Israel, the challenge is now clear: to regain the trust of its partners and halt this spiral of isolation before it permanently undermines its economic model.

Israel still has undeniable assets – recognised technological expertise and a diversified economy – but its future depends more than ever on the political and diplomatic choices of its leaders.

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

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.

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.

Alassane Ouattara, in power since 2011, is facing off against four candidates: former ministers Jean-Louis Billon, Ahoua Don Mello and Henriette Lagou, and former first lady Simone Ehivet Gbagbo.

Billon, a dissident from Tidjane Thiam’s Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI), is launching his campaign with a parade in the Abidjan district of Koumassi. He will then hold a rally in Marcory, another district of the economic capital, led by Mayor Aby Raoul of the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire – African Democratic Rally (PDCI-RDA).

Billon’s key challenge is to persuade PDCI supporters to carry on backing him. The party has yet to issue voting instructions following the rejection of its president Thiam’s candidacy.

“The first obstacle comes from within your own party,” one of his aides noted, while remaining optimistic and citing discreet negotiations in his favour.

Rallying support

Ahoua Don Mello, a former member of Gbagbo’s African Peoples’ Party – Côte d’Ivoire (PPA-CI), is now running as an independent and has not received the party’s official support.

His campaign focuses on promoting national economic sovereignty – ideas he says he will present “in major cities and small villages”. He will hold a meeting in Cocody before heading to Bouaké, in the centre of the country.

Former First Lady Simone Ehivet will be in Bouaflé, in central Côte d’Ivoire, where she plans to meet cocoa producers – opportunity to highlight one of the key pledges of her campaign: adding value through the local processing of agricultural products.

Henriette Lagou, who was a candidate in 2015, will also campaign in the centre. She is due to hold a rally on 13 October in Daoukro, the PDCI stronghold. Her slogan: peace and social cohesion.

Incumbent Alassane Ouattara is to hold a rally on 11 October in the city of Daloa in the central-western region.

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

‘March for peace and freedom’

Voter mobilisation is a challenge for all candidates, including for the ruling Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP).

“We cannot afford to give Alassane Ouattara just 50 percent. If we give him 50 percent, it means we have failed,” said RHDP executive secretary Ibrahim Cissé Bacongo. “We have to secure the highest possible score. That starts at 75 percent,” he added.

The campaign is being held in a particularly tense context. Thiam and Laurent Gbagbo both had their candidacies rejected by the Constitutional Council in early September and their parties have since called for demonstrations.

The Common Front – an alliance bringing together Thiam and Gbagbo’s parties – plans to hold a march in central Cocody on Saturday.

Initially aimed at demanding “dialogue for inclusive, transparent and democratic elections”, organisers say it’s now a “march for peace and freedoms”.

Protests erupt in Côte d’Ivoire after opposition leaders blocked from election

At least 30 PDCI and PPA-CI activists have been charged and placed in pre-trial detention, mainly for “public order offences”.

There is uncertainty over whether the march will go ahead. The authorities banned a similar gathering last Saturday, citing “risks of public disorder”.

Put to the European Parliament on Wednesday as part of a package of broader farming reforms, the measure passed with a comfortable majority: 355 in favour and 247 against.

Many of Europe’s livestock farmers see plant-based foods that mimic meat products as potentially misleading for consumers, and a threat to their already troubled sector.

France has already issued its own labelling restrictions on vegetarian products, though the EU’s Court of Justice subsequently overturned them.

EU rules France can’t stop veggie products being called ‘steak’

Céline Imart, a French MEP from the conservative Republicans party and member of the European People’s Party, proposed the EU-wide ban. She argued that using meat-related terms for plant-based products distorts reality.

“We are witnessing an offensive from plant-based substitutes, and also from companies – especially American food tech firms – investing millions in lab-grown meat,” Imart told RFI.

“I’m sorry, but a steak is a steak. It’s meat. When I see a cat, I call it a cat. When I see a dog, I call it a dog. I don’t say it’s a cat-dog. No! It’s the same thing.”

‘Distraction’

However, not all legislators agreed. Pascal Canfin, a centrist French MEP from the Renew Europe group, dismissed the measure as a distraction from more serious challenges facing European agriculture.

“People who want to eat meat know what meat is. And those who don’t want to eat meat also know that a vegetarian burger is not meat,” he said.

“Let’s not treat consumers and Europeans like idiots. The real paradox is that many of those who voted in favour of this today also support the EU-Mercosur deal – when it’s actually Brazilian imports that pose the real threat to European livestock farming.”

EU Commission endorses Mercosur deal despite French reservations

French Green MEP Marie Toussaint condemned the vote as a stunt by the political right. “Given the state of agriculture today, it’s clear that this is just a right-wing tactic to distract from the real issues,” she said.

Green Party MEPs also pointed to what they describe as undue influence from the meat industry.

The proposal now needs the backing of the bloc’s 27 member states, as well as the European Commission, before it can become law.

The EU already bans the use of dairy terms such as “milk” or “cheese” to refer to plant-based alternatives. 

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.

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This week’s quiz: On 24 July, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would formally recognize a State of Palestine at the UN General Assembly, which was in September.

Following Macron’s announcement, there was a two-day conference at the UN Headquarters in New York. Co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, ministers from across the world discussed fostering the Israeli and Palestinian states living peacefully side-by-side.

You were to re-read our article: “UN gathers to advance two-state solution to Israel-Palestine conflict”, and send in the answer to this question: Aside from recognizing Palestinian statehood, what other three issues were discussed at the conference?

The answer is, to quote our article: “Beyond facilitating conditions for the recognition of a Palestinian state, the meeting will focus on three other issues – reform of the Palestinian Authority, disarmament of Hamas and its exclusion from Palestinian public life, and normalisation of relations with Israel by Arab states.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Rafiq Khondaker, the president of the Source of Knowledge Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh. Rafiq’s question was: “What is your favorite historical site in your country? Why?”

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

The winners are: Fatematuj Zahra, the co-secretary of the Shetu RFI Listeners Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh. Fatematuj is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations on your double win, Fatematuj.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Naved Raiyan, the president of the RFI Fan Club in Murshidibad, India, along with a fellow Murshidabadite, Asif Ahemmed, a member of the RFI International DX Radio Listeners Club. There are RFI Listeners Club members Rodrigo Hunrichse from Ciudad de Concepción in Chile, and last but not least, RFI English listener Miss Kausar, a member of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khānewāl, Pakistan.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Ständchen” by Franz Schubert, arranged by Franz Liszt and performed by Vladimir Viardo; the traditional “Longa Alla”, performed by the Ensemble musical de Palestine; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and the selections from the anonymous L’amour de moy, performed by Doulce Mémoire conducted by recorder player Denis Raisin Dadre with singer Jean François-Olivier.

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 about the winner, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 3 November to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 8 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

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Thousands of people lined the Rue Soufflot to applaud as officers carried a symbolic coffin draped in the French flag into the national mausoleum.

The casket contained Badinter’s lawyer’s robe, a copy of his speech against capital punishment and several books, his wife told TF1 television.

Inside the Pantheon, Macron said Badinter’s voice would continue to inspire France’s fight for equality and human rights.

“As he enters the Pantheon, we hear his voice advocating for these great, essential, and unfinished battles,” he said, citing “the universal abolition of the death penalty”, the fight against anti-Semitism and the defence of the rule of law.

“These are causes that transcend centuries,” he added.

Badinter’s remains will stay in the cemetery of Bagneux, south of Paris, where he was buried after his death in 2024 aged 95.

His legacy also includes a 1982 law to decriminalise homosexuality.

A life dedicated to justice

The son of Jewish parents, Badinter lost his father in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. He became one of France’s most respected lawyers, defending clients that others refused to represent.

His campaign against capital punishment began in 1972 after one of his clients, Roger Bontems, was executed for his role in murdering a nurse and a guard during a prison escape.

He was haunted by his failure to save Bontems when, five years later, he convinced a jury not to execute Patrick Henry for the murder of a seven-year-old boy – a verdict that made him widely hated at the time.

Robert Badinter, who ended France’s guillotine era, enters the Panthéon

“Guillotining is nothing less than taking a living man and cutting him in two,” Badinter argued.

He saved six men from execution during his career, earning both death threats and admiration.

When he became justice minister under President François Mitterrand in 1981, Badinter made abolition his first priority.

Parliament approved the bill on 9 October that year. Until then, capital punishment in France was carried out by beheading with the guillotine – a practice dating back to the French Revolution of 1789.

The last person executed in France was Hamida Djandoubi in 1977, a Tunisian immigrant convicted of murder.

After ending capital punishment, Badinter urged parliament to decriminalise homosexuality, a reform passed in 1982.

Tributes and condemnation

At the Pantheon, magistrates, musicians and several former prime ministers joined the tribute.

The facade of the building was lit up with a photo of Badinter and the words: “French justice will no longer be a justice that kills. The death penalty is abolished.”

Singer Julien Clerc performed “L’assassin assassiné” (Murderer Murdered), a song long linked to Badinter’s campaign against executions. Former president François Hollande and members of Badinter’s family attended the ceremony.

France pays tribute to Badinter, minister who won fight to end death penalty

Earlier in the day, local officials said Badinter’s tomb in Bagneux had been defaced with blue graffiti reading: “Eternal is their gratitude, the murderers, the paedophiles, the rapists.”

Macron condemned the act on social media, writing: “Shame on those who wanted to sully his memory. The republic is always stronger than hate.”

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said she had filed a complaint with prosecutors to find and punish those responsible.

Politicians across the spectrum also condemned the vandalism.

Badinter now joins other national heroes in the Pantheon, including writer Victor Hugo, Resistance fighter and singer Josephine Baker and Simone Veil, who led the fight to legalise abortion in France.

Most of France’s documented foreign residents are immigrants, with 5.1 million born abroad and 900,000, mainly minors, born to foreign parents in France.

According to a report released this week by France’s national statistics office Insee, they represent 8.8 percent of France’s total population of 68.4 million – below the European average of 9.6 percent.

The proportion is lower than in neighbouring Italy, where foreigners make up 8.9 percent, Spain (13.4 percent), Belgium (13.8 percent) and Germany (14.5 percent).

The figures, which are based on data from the European Union’s statistics agency Eurostat, puts France 15th out of 27 EU countries. The top three with the highest percentage of foreigners in their population are Luxembourg (47 percent), Malta (28 percent) and Cyprus (24 percent).

Facts vs feelings: is France really being ‘flooded’ by foreigners?

African residents overtake Europeans

France also has fewer foreign residents from other countries in the EU: 2.3 percent of the total population, compared to the EU-wide average of 3.1 percent.

Foreigners from outside the bloc make up 6.5 percent of France’s residents, marginally higher than the EU average of 6.4 percent.

According to Insee, the figures reflect a long-term shift. In 1968, almost 75 percent of foreigners in France came from European countries, while around 25 percent were from African nations.

In 2024, in contrast, nearly half – 46 percent – of foreigners living in France are nationals of African countries, while 35 percent hail from European countries and 13 percent from Asian countries.

France sees immigration shift as more educated Africans arrive than Europeans

One-third of immigrants naturalised

Some 2.6 million immigrants have acquired French citizenship, according to Insee – a third of all people who moved to France.

That brings France’s total foreign-born population to 7.7 million, or 11.3 percent of all residents.

People from African countries were most likely to naturalise, with 37.2 percent of African immigrants acquiring French nationality. Among residents born in Asia, the percentage was 34.8 percent, and for people born in the Americas or Oceania, 31.4 percent. 

People from other EU countries were least likely to seek French citizenship – presumably because they already enjoy freedom of work and movement in France without the need to go through immigration procedures.

(with AFP)

Since early September, the al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) have enforced an embargo on fuel imports to the country, torching fuel tankers almost daily and cutting off key routes to the towns of Kayes and Nioro du Sahel, on the Senegalese border.

The army is escorting convoys in an attempt to ensure the flow of goods, one of which arrived in Bamako on Tuesday, 7 October.

Talks have been under way between Malian intermediaries and the jihadists, so far without success.

“Contact hasn’t been broken, but this isn’t going to be resolved overnight,” a Malian security source close to the discussions told RFI.

‘Too many go-betweens’

Around 10 days ago, local officials from Mopti region, acting with the support of Mali’s intelligence services, reached out to JNIM forces in the hope of securing safe passage for fuel trucks and ending the blockade on Kayes and Nioro.

Others have since joined the effort, including community leaders and unofficial mediators.

At the same time, separate channels have reportedly been opened to negotiate the release of two Emirati hostages captured by JNIM in late September.

However, according to the same security course, JNIM has been demanding a single, official negotiation channel directly with the Malian state.

“There are too many go-betweens, too many scattered discussions. They also want the process to be made public – that’s one of their key conditions. But that’s a difficult ask,” they said.

A civilian figure from Mopti involved in the talks confirmed that the jihadists are pushing for a streamlined, clearly identified dialogue process, saying: “All these parallel efforts have muddled things.”

France halts counter-terrorism cooperation with Mali after diplomat’s arrest

JNIM’s demands

Another sticking point is the fate of detained jihadist fighters. JNIM is insisting on the release of several of its members held by the Malian army, although no official figures have been disclosed.

One source told RFI that the list includes bomb-makers and explosives specialists. They added that “several of those prisoners have died in detention” – making their release impossible.

Meanwhile, the army is aiming to secure the release of its own soldiers held by JNIM. Over the past few years, dozens of Malian troops have been captured in a string of jihadist attacks on military bases.

Under siege in Léré, the latest Malian town cut off by jihadists

JNIM’s demands reportedly extend beyond prisoners. According to some sources speaking to RFI, the group wants the transitional authorities to stop cracking down on informal petrol sales in villages – a key source of fuel for its fighters.

Malian security officials, however, have flatly denied that claim.

Other conditions cited by RFI’s sources include ending army checks at bus stations and requiring women to wear veils on intercity coaches, underscoring the ideological undertones of the group’s campaign.

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

Macron hailed the ceasefire deal as a “great hope” for the region, but said the “acceleration” of settlement construction in the occupied West Bank was an “existential threat” to a Palestinian state.

It was “not only unacceptable and contrary to international law” but “fuels tensions, violence, and instability”, he told the meeting in Paris on Thursday.

“It fundamentally contradicts the American plan and our collective ambition for a peaceful region.”

Israel and Hamas earlier agreed a Gaza ceasefire deal to free the remaining living Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian militant group.

It is being seen as a major step towards ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe.

The deal brokered through indirect talks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh came two years after the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, which triggered a relentless retaliatory assault on Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Europeans, Arabs flesh out Gaza transition ideas following ceasefire

While Europe has strongly supported the ceasefire efforts led by US President Donald Trump, Washington and several European countries are at odds over whether it is the right moment to recognise a Palestinian state.

Macron, in a September 22 speech at the United Nations, recognised a Palestinian state on the heels of similar announcements by Canada, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

The Paris meeting brought together the top diplomats of five key Arab states – Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – with European counterparts from France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Turkey and the European Union were also represented.

‘Unnecessary and harmful’

“A ceasefire is not yet a lasting peace,” said French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noel Barrot. “It is the first step on a long road to a political solution that will guarantee Israel’s security while recognising the legitimate rights of the Palestinians to a state.”

France is hoping that backing up its recognition of a Palestinian state by discussing what happens the “day after” the war ends can boost the prospects of a two-state solution, which Paris still regards as the sole chance for long-term regional peace.

The ministers discussed participating in the International Stabilisation Force evoked by Trump as part of his peace plan and support for the Palestinian Authority which runs the occupied West Bank.

Before the ceasefire deal was announced, the Paris meeting had angered Israel, further straining French-Israeli relations in the wake of Macron’s recognition of a Palestinian state.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had in a message on X denounced the “unnecessary and harmful” meeting “concocted behind Israel’s back” at the sensitive moment of the negotiations in Sharm el-Sheikh.

The runners-up at the last Africa Cup of Nations go into their game against Lesotho on Friday night in third place in Group C with 11 points.

Benin lead the pack with 14 points ahead of South Africa on goal difference. They play Rwanda, who have 11 points.

As the teams enter the last two games, four nations have the chance of advancing automatically to the World Cup next summer in the United States, Mexico and Canada. 

“Now we have the last two games, and our only thinking for now is this game versus Lesotho,” said Chelle, who was appointed in January.

“We are thinking of how to win it. After that, people can do the mathematics and try to calculate what happens next. But the reality for now is that we focus only on this game.”

2026 World Cup: France makes a successful debut against Ukraine

South Africa penalised

South Africa were in pole position but on 29 September, Fifa, which organises the World Cup, docked the team three points and three goals for fielding an ineligible player in their game against Lesotho in March.

Teboho Mokoena played in the 2-0 win even though he should have been serving a one-match suspension after accumulating two yellow cards.

South Africa face bottom-of-the-table Zimbabwe on Friday and conclude their campaign with a game at home to Rwanda on Tuesday.

“I was disappointed when we knew that points would be deducted that some people started to doubt that we would qualify for the World Cup,” said South Africa boss Hugo Broos.

“Because we were not beaten on the pitch – we weren’t beaten directly by Lesotho or Nigeria. If they had beaten us and people started doubting, then I would understand. This wasn’t the case.”

Broos, who steered Cameroon to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations title, added: “The only difference is if we hadn’t had points deducted, then we would qualify with the next win. But even with three points ahead, we have to win – and therefore nothing has changed.”

Four African teams qualified so far

The nine winners of the African qualifying groups advance directly to the World Cup.

The four best runners-up across the pools progress to a knockout tournament in November to determine Africa’s representative at the intercontinental playoffs.

Zidane’s son describes pride of playing for Algeria in quest for 2026 World Cup

On Thursday night, Algeria became the fourth team to book their ticket for the tournament.

Skipper Riyad Mahrez set up both of Mohamed Amoura’s goals and also scored in the 3-0 win over Djibouti to take the team to the World Cup for the first time since 2014 – where they lost in the last-16 to eventual champions Germany.

On 17 September, 1981, Badinter, then France’s justice minister, stood before the National Assembly and declared: “Those who believe in the deterrent effect of the death penalty misunderstand human nature.”

Badinter, who was inducted into the Panthéon in Paris on Thursday, was unwavering in his conviction that the fear of dying does not stop people from killing.

And yet, 44 years later, the debate rumbles on. More than 50 countries retain the death penalty, often using the argument that it deters violent crime. But that claim, say many experts, doesn’t hold up.

Robert Badinter, who ended France’s guillotine era, enters the Panthéon

The myth of deterrence

“If anything, the numbers tell the opposite story,” says Alain Blanc, former president of the French criminal high court and vice-president of the French Association of Criminology.

“After abolition in France, we didn’t see any increase in crimes that had previously been punishable by death and were now punishable by life imprisonment.”

Data from elsewhere supports his view. In Canada, the homicide rate has dropped from 2.8 per 100,000 people in 1976 – the year the death penalty was abolished – to 1.91 in 2024, according to Statistics Canada.

In the neighbouring United States, 27 of 50 states retain capital punishment, and the homicide rate is higher in those states. In 2020, the homicide rate averaged 7.5 per 100,000 in “retentionist” states, compared to 5.3 in abolitionist ones, according to FBI crime reports.

“The death penalty rests on the idea that once people know they risk execution, they’ll stop committing crimes. But if every criminal thought rationally about the risks, there wouldn’t be many crimes to begin with,” Blanc told RFI.

‘A culture of violence’

Researchers also point to the idea that the death penalty in fact reinforces the idea that violence is an acceptable response to wrongdoing.

Raphaël Chenuil-Hazan, executive director of the NGO Ensemble contre la peine de mort (“Together Against the Death Penalty”) notes that countries which still practise executions often share a “culture of violence”.

“I’m not saying the death penalty creates crime,” he explained to RFI, “but it perpetuates it. It stems from the same culture – that of vengeance, of weapons, of taking justice into one’s own hands.”

Once that mindset takes hold, he warns, society begins to see state-sanctioned killing as normal. “The death penalty sends the message that the ultimate act of violence – cold, calculated killing – is legitimate.”

Fighting to end death penalty worldwide 40 years after its abolition in France

The absence of reason

The deterrent argument also collapses when you consider that most perpetrators of violent crime act under extreme emotional pressure or psychological distress, experts argue.

Chenuil-Hazan told RFI: “When you study violent crime it becomes clear that fear of death plays no role. You generally find three types of criminals: the psychotic – such as serial killers or terrorists – for whom fear of death is irrelevant; the opportunist, who doesn’t plan ahead; and organised crime, where it’s all about money and power, not fear.”

Crimes of passion or impulse, he adds, are ruled by emotion, not logic.

Political scientist Sébastian Roché, research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), agrees. “What characterises violent offenders is their lack of self-control. They’re not capable of regulating their behaviour or calculating risks.”

Anne Denis, who heads Amnesty International France’s death penalty commission, echoed this argument, saying: “No criminal commits a crime believing they’ll definitely be caught and sentenced to death.”

Politics and punishment

Still, executions persist. Last year they were recorded in 15 countries, with 1,518 people put to death according to Amnesty International’s 2024 report.

This was a 32 percent increase from 2023, marking the highest number of executions since 2015.

In the US, President Donald Trump declared last December that once he was inaugurated for his second term he would “direct the Justice Department to vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters”.

When he took office on 20 January, one of his first orders was to “restore” the death penalty, following his predecessor Joe Biden’s moratorium on executions.

On Friday, Roy Lee Ward, a 44-year-old who has spent more than 20 years on death row, is due to be executed in Indiana – the state’s third execution in less than a year. Seven more executions are scheduled for this month.

According to Denis, Trump’s stance allows him “to avoid creating proper social systems and psychological support for disadvantaged communities”, members of which make up the overwhelming majority of death row inmates – 95 percent, according to the Equal Justice Initiative NGO.

Iran executed record 834 people last year, according to rights groups

However, political use of the death penalty is not confined to the US. “If you want to legitimise an iron fist, people need to be afraid,” explained the CNRS’s Roché.

In Iran, Amnesty International reports, the authorities use executions as a tool of political repression, targeting dissidents and minorities – particularly Kurds and Baluchis.

“In China,” added Chenuil-Hazan, “it’s a way for President Xi Jinping to clear the field around him and show who’s boss.”

Last month, China’s former agriculture minister Tang Renjian was sentenced to death for corruption. While China continues to execute people every year, the exact numbers remain a state secret.

“People want to believe there’s a simple solution to crime,” says Chenuil-Hazan. “Execution feels cheap and easy. It saves us from having to think about prevention policies, which are complicated, expensive and take time to work.”

This article has been adapted from RFI’s original version in French.

As French politicians remain deeply divided over how to address the country’s growing deficit, one measure appears to unite public opinion across the political spectrum: the Zucman tax. Devised by 38-year-old economist Gabriel Zucman, the idea is to add a two percent tax on the ultra-rich, who often use holding companies to shield their wealth from income taxes. While the left sees it as fiscal justice, many on the right are concerned about additional taxes in a country that already has a lot, and maintain taxing the wealthiest will drive them abroad. (Listen @2′)

Ali Akbar left his native Pakistan aged 18, looking to make enough money to buy his mother a decent home. Since arriving in France in 1973, he’s managed to do just that – selling newspapers like Le Monde on the streets of Paris’s Left Bank district. A popular figure in the neighbourhood, Akbar – the capital’s last remaining hawker – was recently selected for the National Order of Merit by President Emmanuel Macron, a former customer. He talks about loving his work, the collapse of the newspaper culture and how recognition by France will help to “heal” the injuries of his past. (Listen @18’30”)

France abolished the death penalty on 9 October 1981. Forty-four years later, the justice minister who fought to change the law, Robert Badinter, is entering the Pantheon, the monument dedicated to French heroes. (Listen @11′)

Episode mixed by Cécile Pompeani

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

Since 1985, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has been defending journalists and press freedom around the world.

For RSF director Thibaut Bruttin, who took over the reins of the Paris-based organisation in July 2024, press freedom has never been in greater peril, on an international scale.

This “tipping point” is the result of an “economic crackdown” on global media, coupled with “the biggest hate campaign against journalism, triggered by the Trump administration,” Bruttin told RFI.

‘Alarming deterioration’ of US press freedom under Trump, warns RSF

United States President Donald Trump has cut funding for public service media, cracked down on visas for journalists and filed legal complaints against news outlets.

Around the world, including in Ukraine, the Middle East and Latin America, the profession of field reporter has become more dangerous, and more deadly.

“If you look back, journalists back in the 1960s and 70s were privileged witnesses of history. They were welcomed, or at least tolerated, by most of the forces present in war zones. Then they became collateral victims, then they became hostages and persons of value, who are now being silenced,” Bruttin said.

‘Bloody pages of history’

On Thursday, Bruttin will represent RSF in the Normandy town of Bayeux for the annual war correspondents’ prize week (Prix Bayeux), an event that includes free public exhibitions, round tables, conferences and screenings.

It is also a time for mourning and remembering.  

At a ceremony in the war memorial park, Bruttin will unveil a stone engraved with the names of 73 journalists killed in the line of duty in the past year.

“It’s the only place, as far as I know, in the world where there is a list of all the journalists killed in action since the end of World War Two,” he said, adding that the families of journalists killed in Ukraine, Mexico and Syria will be present.

“It’s a deeply moving moment, and it’s very important to remind [people] that freedom of the press is not a given. It’s something that has been conquered. The history of the press is full of bloody pages,” he said.

“The primary safeguard for civilians is the action of the press. If there is no press on the ground, who is going to be giving the facts?”

The particularly heavy death toll of journalists between 2024 and 2025 is attributed to the Israeli operation against Hamas militants in Gaza, where foreign media is forbidden and only Palestinian journalists have been operating, at their peril.

RSF reported that Israel is responsible for the killing of more than 200 journalists in Gaza, and found evidence that in 56 cases those journalists were deliberately targeted.

New documentary shows life in Gaza for AFP journalists

This openly flouts article 2222 of the United Nations Security Council (signed in 2015), which explicitly outlines the importance of protecting journalists in conflict zones, and a mechanism for accountability in this regard.

“For the first time in history, we have the army of a democratic government [Israel] actively pursuing a smear campaign against journalists, plus targeting them and claiming that they target them,” Bruttin said.

‘Smear campaign’

For RSF, collective strength and international solidarity are instrumental in highlighting such situations.

The NGO launched a petition on 1 September in support of Palestinian journalists, which has been signed by more than 250 media organisations.

Following that, on 24 September RSF obtained the support of 21 UN member states who called for the opening of Gaza to foreign media and the evacuation of Palestinian journalists.

“If you use social media tools today, you will see that the smear campaign of the Israeli Defense Forces against Palestinian journalists has almost disappeared. It wasn’t easy to do, but we managed,” said Bruttin.

French photojournalist Antoni Lallican killed in Ukraine drone attack

Bruttin says RSF was also instrumental in getting the French prosecutor’s office to launch an investigation into war crimes over the death of French photojournalist Antoni Lallican, who was killed by a drone attack attributed to Russia in Donbas, Ukraine on 3 October.

RSF was able to present evidence to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office to prove that Lallican was deliberately targeted.

The future of journalism

To mark their anniversary, RSF has teamed up with the Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli, also founded in 1985, to publish a special album of drawings and photos, which goes on sale in France on 6 November.

For Bruttin, Studio Ghibli shares many of RSF’s values, such as integrity and authenticity.

This includes a shared belief in the need for regulation when it comes to artificial intelligence – something Studio Ghibli has been vocal about after AI was used to copy and recreate their trademark drawing style.

RSF says the press cannot afford not to keep up with technological advances, and has been building an ethical charter for AI and the newsroom and conducting a pilot project to help journalists build their own tools.

French press take on digital databases to defend journalist copyright against AI

For Bruttin, RSF’s goal is to be “a driving force for change within the industry, to build a coalition between media professionals, policymakers and the general public”.

He said: “Our primary focus today is both the safety of journalists, but also the future of journalism, because sometimes you can save the individuals but fail to address the systemic problems of the media ecosystem.

“We are very keen on demonstrating that it’s not about journalists at the end of the day, it’s about the people’s relationship to facts.”

Husamettin Dogan was the only man still claiming innocence among 51 convicted of sexual abuse at the original trial last year. 

The court in Nîmes denied his appeal on Thursday after four days of hearings, rejecting his defence that he had not knowingly committed rape. 

The ex-construction worker, 44, saw his sentence increased to 10 years in prison, less than the 12 sought by the prosecution but more than the nine he received after the original trial.

He must also complete five years of mandatory treatment. 

‘Take responsibility’

Pelicot’s former husband, Dominique Pelicot, admitted to drugging her with sedatives and inviting dozens of strangers to abuse her over the course of nearly a decade.

Dogan acknowledged meeting Dominique Pelicot online and visiting his house in June 2019 with the intention of having sex with his wife. He claimed to believe she had consented, despite videos of the night showing her inert and snoring while he penetrated her.

Gisèle Pelicot addressed the court directly on Wednesday, saying Dogan must “take responsibility” for his actions and “stop hiding behind [his] cowardice”.

Public prosecutor Dominique Sie told the defendant his denials were symptomatic of wider misconceptions around sexual violence.

“As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire sordid social system that you are endorsing,” Sie said.

“There needs to be an evolution for you, and for society, from rape culture to a culture of consent.”

Gisèle Pelicot wins top human rights award for fight against rape culture

High-profile trial

The verdict against Dogan marks the end of one of France’s biggest ever rape trials. Sixteen other men convicted of raping Gisèle Pelicot said they planned to appeal after the original verdict in December 2024, before dropping out. 

The first trial, which lasted four months, made headlines around the world – many dedicated to the bravery of Gisèle Pelicot in facing her attackers daily in open court.

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

The case also renewed debate about how sexual violence is prosecuted in France and led to a push to include consent in the legal definition of rape.

Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in prison, where he is being held in solitary confinement. His 50 co-defendants received terms ranging from three to 15 years. 

Civil proceedings are due to begin in November to settle damages owed to Gisèle Pelicot and her family, to be paid jointly by the convicted men.

(with newswires)

The 27-year-old, who was born in France a few months before his father bagged a brace for France in the 1998 World Cup final win over Brazil, played for his native country at youth level.

But never having represented France at senior level, he was able to opt for Algeria via his paternal grandparents, who were born in North Africa.

“I’m very happy to be here with the Algeria team,” said Zidane as the 26-man squad went through its final paces in Oran for Thursday night’s Group G game against Somalia.

“It makes me proud and I will give everything at 100 percent to make the Algerian people proud.”

Algeria, who lead the pool with 19 points after eight games, will qualify for next year’s tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada as long as they match the results of second-placed Uganda and third-placed Mozambique, who each have 15 points.

“All my family are proud of me and back my choice,” added Zidane, who turns out for the Spanish second-division side Granada.

“My grandfather is happy that I’m in Algeria and that I’ve made this decision.”

Mbappé and Kolo Muani sparkle as Deschamps hails Zidane as likely France coach

Son of a legend

Zinedine Zidane played 108 times for France, scoring 31 goals over 12 years. As a coach, he steered Real Madrid to 10 trophies between 2016 and 2021, including a hat trick of wins in the Champions League.

“My father had his journey, his career,” said Luca Zidane. “As for me I have my journey, my career.”

Though technically a “home” game for Somalia, Thursday’s fixture will be played in Oran due to security concerns over staging matches in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

On Wednesday night, Egypt became the third side from Africa to reach the World Cup after a 3-0 victory over Djibouti.

Mohammed Salah nabbed a pair after Ibrahim Adel opened the scoring in the eighth minute of the game, which was played at Morocco’s Stade Larbi Zaouli in Casablanca because Djibouti lacks a stadium that meets the technical requirements of World Cup organisers Fifa.

Ghana’s Black Stars get into the World Cup groove

Cape Verde on verge of historic qualification

Elsewhere in African qualifiers on Wednesday night, Group D pacesetters Cape Verde scored two late goals in Tripoli to salvage a 3-3 draw against Libya and maintain pole position in the pool.

On Monday, Cape Verde take on bottom-of-the-table Eswatini and need to match the result of second-placed Cameroon’s game against Angola to claim a place at the World Cup for the first time. 

In Group I, Ghana thrashed the Central African Republic 5-0 to inch closer to a fifth appearance at world football’s most prestigious national team tournament.

Ghana lead the pool with 22 points from their nine games. Madagascar, 2-1 winners on Wednesday night against Comoros, lie second on 19 points.  

On Sunday, Ghana entertain Comoros and Madagascar play in Mali.

The nine group winners in African qualifiers will progress to the first World Cup to feature 48 teams. 

The four best-ranked runners-up will enter African play-offs in November, from which the winners go to intercontinental play-offs in March.

The regional court ruled on Thursday that the decision by a lower court to keep the 44-year-old in custody was “legitimate and well-founded”, according to a statement released by the court’s press service.

Sehili’s lawyer, Alla Kouchner, said she plans to appeal the ruling in Russia’s final court of appeal, as reported by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

Sehili, a celebrated figure in the world of ultra-cycling – a sport of extreme long-distance rides – had set out from Lisbon in early July, aiming to pedal across 17 countries and reach Vladivostok, near the borders with China and North Korea, by early September.

The journey was meant to crown a new record for the fastest human-powered crossing of Eurasia.

However, when seeking to enter Russia from China Sehili reportedly chose a border post that is only open to trains and buses, and not accessible to cyclists.

According to Vladimir Naïdin, a local prison observer, Sehili faced the choice of either taking public transport and forfeiting his record, or pressing on by bike. He chose the latter.

French cyclist arrested in Russia to be detained until October

From adventure to arrest

Convinced that border guards would show leniency, Sehili approached them openly, expecting to receive only a slap on the wrist.

Instead, he was arrested and charged with “illegal border crossing”, an offence which carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

“He only had his sporting achievement in mind,” his partner Fanny Bensussan told France 3 Occitanie last month, explaining that Sehili never intended to break the law.

Initially detained until 4 October, Sehili’s custody has since been extended to 3 November while investigations continue.

Relations between France and Russia have been frosty since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. A number of Western nationals have been detained in Russia since then, with diplomatic tensions heightened around such cases.

(with AFP)

Erdogan said this week that Turkey would work with the United States on civil nuclear energy, in a new signal to Washington that Ankara is looking west for its energy needs.

Turkish companies last month signed a 20-year, multibillion-dollar deal with American firms to buy liquefied natural gas.

The agreement came during Erdogan’s visit to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump in late September. During that meeting, Trump urged Erdogan to reduce ties with Moscow and end Turkey’s reliance on Russian oil and gas.

“In a sense, he [Trump] is offering a grand bargain to Erdogan,” said Asli Aydintasbas of the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

She summed up the deal: “Stop the hedging, stop the stuff with Russia, stop the geopolitical balancing, and then let’s re-establish the partnership, and then we can move along and can really become key partners in the region.”

Turkey walks a tightrope as Trump threatens sanctions over Russian trade

Economic pressure

Trump often praises Erdogan as a “friend”, but the US leader has shown he is willing to use economic pressure. During his first term, he triggered a collapse in the Turkish lira over the jailing of an American pastor.

He could again target Ankara with secondary sanctions if Turkey keeps importing Russian energy.

Russian fossil fuels still provide nearly half of Turkey’s total energy. Zaur Gasimov, a Russian-Turkish expert with the German Academic Exchange Service, said Europe’s experience shows how costly a sudden break with Moscow could be.

“It was the case with some Western European countries in 2022 that caused an augmentation of the prices,” said Gasimov. “And the Turkish economy is struggling with inflation that would immediately and heavily affect the life of the average citizen. No party power in Turkey would take such a decision.”

Ankara has ruled out ending its Russian energy contracts, but oil imports from Russia have fallen to their lowest levels in a year.

Some gas deals, signed decades ago, are due for renewal. Analysts say Turkey may use that moment to slowly cut its dependence on Moscow – a move that would deal a serious blow to Russia, which now relies on Turkey as its last major European gas customer.

Druzhba pipeline: dependence, diplomacy and the end of Russian leverage in Europe

Strategic balancing

Energy trade has long been at the heart of Erdogan’s personal relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The partnership has survived the war in Ukraine, despite the fact Turkey also supplies arms and support to Kyiv.

Turkey’s balancing act helps keep regional rivalries under control, said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, who heads the Marshall Fund office in Ankara.

“Turkey and Russia have been fighting proxy wars in the Caucasus, in North Africa, in the Levant,” he said. “Turkey is getting the upper hand in the end. But Turkey could still manage its relationship with Russia.”

Unluhisarcikli added that Ankara would want guarantees from the West before distancing itself from Moscow, since “it would have security implications on Turkey”.

Turkey would have to be “certain” that it would be welcomed back to Europe and have assurances from the United States, he suggested.

Erdogan spoke with Putin by phone this week, though such contacts have reportedly become less frequent as their once-close relationship cools.

Ankara remains aware of the risks: when Turkey accidentally shot down a Russian bomber near the Syrian border in 2015, Putin responded with sanctions that hit Turkish exports and tourism, and several Turkish soldiers in Syria were later killed in what Moscow called an accident.

Turkey eyes Ukraine peacekeeping role but mistrust clouds Western ties

Declining leverage

With Russia weakened by sanctions and isolation over its war in Ukraine, analysts say its influence on Turkey is diminishing.

“It is the window to Europe. It is a way to the outside world,” Gasimov says. “The number of flights to Turkey is getting bigger and bigger.

“For Russia, Turkey remains a very, very important partnership. So the leverage Moscow once possessed over Ankara is getting less and less.”

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 24 July, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would formally recognize a State of Palestine at the UN General Assembly, which was in September.

Following Macron’s announcement, there was a two-day conference at the UN Headquarters in New York. Co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, ministers from across the world discussed fostering the Israeli and Palestinian states living peacefully side-by-side.

You were to re-read our article: “UN gathers to advance two-state solution to Israel-Palestine conflict”, and send in the answer to this question: Aside from recognizing Palestinian statehood, what other three issues were discussed at the conference?

The answer is, to quote our article: “Beyond facilitating conditions for the recognition of a Palestinian state, the meeting will focus on three other issues – reform of the Palestinian Authority, disarmament of Hamas and its exclusion from Palestinian public life, and normalisation of relations with Israel by Arab states.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Rafiq Khondaker, the president of the Source of Knowledge Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh. Rafiq’s question was: “What is your favorite historical site in your country? Why?”

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

The winners are: Fatematuj Zahra, the co-secretary of the Shetu RFI Listeners Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh. Fatematuj is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations on your double win, Fatematuj.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Naved Raiyan, the president of the RFI Fan Club in Murshidibad, India, along with a fellow Murshidabadite, Asif Ahemmed, a member of the RFI International DX Radio Listeners Club. There are RFI Listeners Club members Rodrigo Hunrichse from Ciudad de Concepción in Chile, and last but not least, RFI English listener Miss Kausar, a member of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khānewāl, Pakistan.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Ständchen” by Franz Schubert, arranged by Franz Liszt and performed by Vladimir Viardo; the traditional “Longa Alla”, performed by the Ensemble musical de Palestine; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and the selections from the anonymous L’amour de moy, performed by Doulce Mémoire conducted by recorder player Denis Raisin Dadre with singer Jean François-Olivier.

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 about the winner, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 3 November to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 8 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. 

As French politicians remain deeply divided over how to address the country’s growing deficit, one measure appears to unite public opinion across the political spectrum: the Zucman tax. Devised by 38-year-old economist Gabriel Zucman, the idea is to add a two percent tax on the ultra-rich, who often use holding companies to shield their wealth from income taxes. While the left sees it as fiscal justice, many on the right are concerned about additional taxes in a country that already has a lot, and maintain taxing the wealthiest will drive them abroad. (Listen @2′)

Ali Akbar left his native Pakistan aged 18, looking to make enough money to buy his mother a decent home. Since arriving in France in 1973, he’s managed to do just that – selling newspapers like Le Monde on the streets of Paris’s Left Bank district. A popular figure in the neighbourhood, Akbar – the capital’s last remaining hawker – was recently selected for the National Order of Merit by President Emmanuel Macron, a former customer. He talks about loving his work, the collapse of the newspaper culture and how recognition by France will help to “heal” the injuries of his past. (Listen @18’30”)

France abolished the death penalty on 9 October 1981. Forty-four years later, the justice minister who fought to change the law, Robert Badinter, is entering the Pantheon, the monument dedicated to French heroes. (Listen @11′)

Episode mixed by Cécile Pompeani

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

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.

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.