In a move that drew sharp criticism, President Emmanuel Macron reinstated Lecornu late Friday evening, just four days after his resignation and the collapse of a government that survived only 14 hours.

Lecornu, 39, now faces the task of forming a cabinet to present a 2026 draft budget on Monday, in a bid to end months of political paralysis and rein in France’s sprawling debt.

“I will do my duty and I will not be a problem,” Lecornu vowed, adding he would form a government that was “not imprisoned by the parties” to tackle a political crisis “painful for everyone”.

Lecornu, a Macron ally skilled in backroom negotiations but largely unknown to the broader French population, on Saturday visited a police station in the southern Paris suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses.

There, he reiterated that he had “no agenda” and stated that “all debates are possible” on the thorny issue of reforms to France’s pension system that has raised the hackles of leftist parties.

But his new government is already at risk, after his reappointment provoked outrage across the political spectrum and pledges to vote it down at the first chance.

French PM Lecornu quits a day after naming cabinet

Far-right National Rally party leader Jordan Bardella called Lecornu’s reappointment a “bad joke” and said he would immediately seek to vote out the new cabinet.

Outgoing Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told members of his right-wing Republicans (LR) party that they should “not take part” in Lecornu’s next government.

While the Socialists, a swing group in parliament, said they had “no deal” with Lecornu and would oust his government if he did not agree to suspend a 2023 pensions reform that increased retirement age from 62 to 64.

Deadlock

France has been mired in political deadlock ever since Macron gambled last year on snap polls that he hoped would consolidate power – but ended instead in a hung parliament and more seats for the far right.

The country faces EU pressure to curb its deficit and debt, and it was the fight over cost-cutting measures that toppled Lecornu’s two predecessors.

For his part, Lecornu has pledged to do “everything possible” to give France a budget by the end of the year, saying restoring the public finances was “a priority” for the future.

Time is running out however to give parliament the constitutionally required 70 days to examine the budget before year’s end.

French PM ditches parliamentary override in push for budget deal

Macron, facing the worst domestic crisis since the 2017 start of his presidency, has yet to address the public since Lecornu’s first government fell.

Lecornu, a Macron loyalist who previously served as defence minister, agreed to stay on for two extra days after he quit to talk to all political parties.

He told French television late Wednesday that he believed a revised draft budget for 2026 could be put forward on Monday, which would meet the deadline for its approval by the end of the year.

Lecornu warned on Friday that all those who wanted to join his government “must commit to setting aside presidential ambitions” for the 2027 elections.

Technocrats

Lecornu’s suggested list of ministers last Sunday sparked criticism that it was not enough of a break with the past, and he suggested on Wednesday that it should include technocrats.

In an unprecedented move, former premier Edouard Philippe, a contender in the next presidential polls, earlier this week said Macron himself should step down after a budget was passed.

France’s debt: how did we get here, and how dangerous is it?

But Macron has always insisted he would stay until the end of his term.

The far-right National Rally senses its best-ever chance of winning power in the 2027 presidential vote, with Macron having served the maximum two terms.

Its three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is barred from running after being convicted in a corruption case, but her 30-year-old lieutenant Bardella could be a candidate instead.

(with AFP)

The resistance committee for El-Fasher, the North Darfur state capital, said the RSF hit the Dar al-Arqam displacement centre on the grounds of a university.

“Children, women and the elderly were killed in cold blood, and many were completely burned,” it said.

“The situation has gone beyond disaster and genocide inside the city, and the world remains silent.”

The committee had initially put the toll at 30 dead, but said bodies remained trapped underground.

It later said 60 were killed in the attack involving two drones and eight artillery shells.

The local resistance committees are activists who coordinate aid and document atrocities in the Sudan conflict.

The RSF has been at war with the regular army since April 2023. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions and pushed nearly 25 million into acute hunger.

Starvation spreads from camps to besieged Sudanese city of El-Fasher

Strategic front

El-Fasher, the last state capital in the vast region of Darfur to elude the RSF’s grasp, has become the latest strategic front in the war as the paramilitaries attempt to consolidate power in the west.

The United Nations rights chief said Friday that he was “appalled” by the RSF’s recent killing of civilians in the city, including what appeared to be ethnically motivated summary executions.

“They continue instead to kill, injure, and displace civilians, and to attack civilian objects, including… hospitals and mosques, with total disregard for international law,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said. “This must end.”

Activists say the city has become “an open-air morgue” for starved civilians.

Nearly 18 months into the RSF’s siege, El-Fasher – home to 400,000 trapped civilians – has run out of nearly everything.

UN urges action on Sudan’s ‘forgotten war’ as humanitarian crisis takes hold

The animal feed that families have survived on for months has grown scarce and now costs hundreds of dollars a sack.

The majority of the city’s soup kitchens have been forced shut for lack of food, according to the local resistance committees.

In El-Fasher on Thursday, eyewitnesses said an RSF artillery attack killed 13 people in a mosque where displaced families were sheltering.

Between Tuesday and Wednesday, 20 people were killed in RSF strikes on El-Fasher Hospital, one of the last functioning health facilities in the city.

Pointing to other recent attacks on a maternity hospital, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for “immediate protection of health facilities, and also humanitarian access, so we can support patients requiring urgent care and health workers in dire need of health supplies”.

Hospitals targeted

Most hospitals in El-Fasher have been repeatedly bombed and forced to shut, leaving nearly 80 percent of those in need of medical care unable to access it, according to the United Nations.

Last month, at least 75 people were killed in a single drone strike on a mosque in the city.

According to UN figures released Tuesday, more than one million people have fled El-Fasher since the war began, accounting for 10 percent of all internally displaced people in the country.

Investigation uncovers RSF military base hidden in Libyan desert

The population of the city, once the region’s largest, has decreased by about 62 percent, the UN’s migration agency said.

Civilians say the daily strikes force them to spend most of their time underground, in small makeshift bunkers families have dug into their backyards.

If the city falls to the paramilitaries, the RSF will be in control of the entire Darfur region, where they have sought to establish a rival administration.

The army holds the country’s north, centre and east.

(with AFP)

Vast stretches of the country’s forest reserves have been stripped bare and water bodies have been contaminated. Activists are warning that without immediate, decisive action the damage could become irreversible.

Illegal mining – locally known as galamsey – is also threatening livelihoods and fuelling political and social unrest.

Civil society groups, environmental advocates and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference are among those now calling on the president to declare a state of emergency to combat the crisis.

Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said: “Such a declaration would empower extraordinary interventions: curfews in volatile areas, the securing of devastated lands, the dismantling of entrenched criminal syndicates and the halting of corrupt administrative complicities.”

Civil society demands

Darly Bosu, deputy director of environmental NGO A Rocha Ghana, has echoed this call, saying the time for political debate has passed.

“The devastation caused by illegal mining has gone far beyond control,” he said.

“Our rivers are poisoned, farmlands destroyed, and communities displaced. The survival of millions of Ghanaians is at stake. A Rocha Ghana is calling on [the president] to declare a national state of emergency on galamsey. This is no longer a political issue. It is about the very soul of Ghana – its water, its food and life itself.”

The Ghana Coalition Against Galamsey has also demanded that the government declare a state of emergency in those areas most affected by illegal mining as justification for urgent intervention.

Kenneth Ashigbey, the Coalition’s convenor, stressed the need for security forces to be empowered through such a declaration to tackle illegal mining head-on.

“The Ghana Coalition Against Galamsey has called for a declaration of a state of emergency in areas prone to galamsey,” he said. “Illegal mining activities continue to devastate the environment, posing threats to lives. A state of emergency is needed to address this issue directly.”

Illegal logging threatens livelihoods of hundreds of Ghanaian women

Government reaction

President Mahama, however, says the National Security Council does not currently recommend declaring a state of emergency in response to the ongoing crisis.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting on illegal mining in Accra, he explained that while he has the constitutional authority to make such a declaration, the decision must be informed by the counsel of the National Security Council.

“At this point, the Council believes we can overcome the galamsey challenge without resorting to emergency powers,” he said.

Human impact

The consequences of illegal mining are being felt across the country.

Forensic histopathologist Professor Paul Poku Sampene Ossei says his research has linked at least 500 cases of spontaneous abortion in Ghana to high levels of heavy metals in the placenta caused by illegal mining activities.

His research involved more than 4,000 placentas examined from different regions across Ghana, with results showing dangerous levels of contamination on both the maternal and foetal sides.

“I have about 500 cases where women [lose their babies] because of the concentration of these heavy metals in their placenta,” he said. “The placentas are all contaminated and polluted with heavy metals.”

Ghana unveils West Africa’s largest floating solar project, boosting renewable energy ambitions

Many communities have also been left without water as a consequence of illegal mining.

The Ghana Water Company has shut down its treatment plant at Kwanyako in the Central Region, and the government minister responsible for the area, Ekow Panyin Okyere Eduamoah, disclosed that around 10 of the 22 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the region are facing an acute water shortage as a result. 

“I visited the plant myself, and I realised that even if they were forced at gunpoint to provide water, you could not be sure of its quality,” he said. “I therefore asked that they stop.”

Farms destroyed

Meanwhile, Bismark Owusu Nortey, executive director of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, told RFI that illegal small-scale mining has devastated farmland across the country.

“A report that we’ve worked on shows that close to 1.2 million hectares of farmlands have already been destroyed due to galamsey,” he said.

“Behind these farmlands are over 500,000 individual farmers and their dependants who have been denied the opportunity to use farming as an economic tool to improve their livelihoods.”

Cleaner kitchens, healthier lives: Ghana’s cookstove revolution gains ground

The destruction of farmlands and the pollution of water bodies have drastically reduced farmers’ productivity, with some who had farmed all year round now restricted to seasonal cultivation.

Illegal mining has also claimed lives. On 1 October, seven illegal miners died after a pit collapsed at an unauthorised mining site at Kasotie in the Atwima Mponua District of the Ashanti Region.

In response to the escalating crisis, the minister for lands and natural resources, Emmanuel Amarh Kofi-Buah, has issued a directive to security forces tasked with fighting illegal mining, urging them to be “firm, resolute and ruthless” in their operations.

Environmental groups, however, insist that extraordinary measures are needed before the damage becomes permanent.

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.

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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)

Aubameyang kept Gabon in contention for a first appearance at the global showpiece as his goals gave Gabon a 4-3 victory over the Gambia, and they trail Group F leaders Côte d’Ivoire by one point.

Nigeria moved within three points of Benin, who they host on Tuesday, by defeating Lesotho 2-1.

Losses eliminated Rwanda and Lesotho, turning the group into a three-team contest for first place.

Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia have already won groups to claim four of the nine places reserved for Africa at the FIFA World Cup, to be held next summer in the United States, Mexico and Canada. 

There could be a 10th representative after inter-continental play-offs next March.

The final matchday, from Sunday to Tuesday, will decide the other five places, with Senegal, Benin, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana the current table toppers.

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

Road to 2026: Nigeria knuckle down as South Africa seek to claw back points

Action time

Benin won thanks to an 80th-minute goal from Aiyegun Tosin to retain first place in a group that Nigeria and South Africa were expected to dominate.

Mohau Nkota and Lyle Foster hit the woodwork in a disappointing performance by South Africa, who sorely missed injured striker Iqraam Rayners.

Both teams finished with 10 men after Zimbabwe striker Knowledge Musona and South Africa defender Mbekezile Mbokazi were sent off in the second half having been shown two yellow cards.

Captain William Troost-Ekong, from a penalty, and substitute Akor Adams scored in the second half for Nigeria before Hlompho Kalake halved the deficit.

Both Zimbabwe and Lesotho were handicapped, playing in South Africa as they do not have FIFA-approved stadiums.

Road to 2026: Senegal target top as Ivorians stay solid and Nigeria wake up

Africa Cup of Nations holders Côte d’Ivoire triumphed 7-0 away to the Seychelles, having won the first match between them 9-0 in Abidjan two years ago.

Seven different players scored, starting with Nottingham Forest midfielder Ibrahim Sangare on seven minutes and finishing with substitute Franck Kessie in the final minute of regular time.

Seychelles, who are 159 places below Côte d’Ivoire in the world rankings, have conceded 46 goals while losing all nine qualifiers.

Gabon remained one point behind the Côte d’Ivoire in Group F with a dramatic victory over the Gambia in Nairobi.

The Gabonese led twice, then trailed before Marseille striker Aubameyang scored two more goals. He was yellow-carded twice in the closing stages, leading to his dismissal on 86 minutes.

Home advantage

Côte d’Ivoire have 23 points and Gabon 22 ahead of the final round next week, when both teams will enjoy home advantage. The Ivorians play Kenya and the Gabonese face Burundi.

Senegal maintained a two-point lead over the Democratic Republic of Congo in Group B after the contenders had contrasting away victories.

Seeking a third straight appearance at the World Cup, Senegal hammered South Sudan 5-0 in Juba, where Crystal Palace striker Ismaila Sarr netted twice.

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

Veteran two-time African Footballer of the Year Sadio Mane was also among the goals as Senegal turned a 1-0 half-time lead into a decisive victory.

A solitary goal, scored by veteran striker Cedric Bakambu after seven minutes, earned DR Congo a tense 1-0 win in Togo.

Senegal have 21 points and DR Congo 19 ahead of their final fixtures. The Senegalese host Mauritania while the Congolese will be at home to Sudan.

Sudan drew 0-0 with Mauritania in Dar es Salaam, a result that eliminated them from the race for a World Cup place.

(with AFP)

The win keeps them top of the group with a maximum nine points from their three games, five points clear of second-placed Ukraine who won 5-3 in Iceland.

Didier Deschamps’ side will book their passage to the Americas if they win in Iceland on Monday and Ukraine fail to beat Azerbaijan.

“I’m not going to jump for joy, we won, we scored three, but we could have got more,” said coach Didier Deschamps who was part of the side that put 10 past Azerbaijan the last time the teams met in 1995.

“It’s three points more but perhaps not in the way we wanted to. We got the job done. Monday will be another game, another context.”

However, les Bleus will forge ahead without team captain Kylian Mbappé who took two knocks during Friday’s match.

Already suffering from a “small niggle” in his right ankle from playing for Real Madrid, Mbappé opened the scoring but was substituted before the end.

France’s Mbappé urges team to focus on a win against Azerbaijan

With Liverpool striker Hugo Ekitike handed his first start, France had plenty of firepower up front but created little of note in a dull first 45 minutes until Mbappé struck on the stroke of half-time.

The France captain collected the ball on the edge of the area, stepped past one tackle before firing his shot low through another defender and just wide of goalkeeper Shakhruddin Magomedaliyev.

It is the 10th successive game for club and country where Mbappé has inked his name on the scoresheet. It was also his 53rd for France, leaving him just four behind Olivier Giroud’s national record.

Four minutes after the break Ekitike almost doubled the lead but his fierce shot from the right side of the area came rattling back off the far post.

Thauvin to the rescue

France continued to threaten the Azerbaijan goal with Mbappé going close again, sending one shot across goal just wide and blasting another over the bar.

In the 68th minute, Sahruddin Magomedaliyev was forced into a finger tip save to nudge a drive from Khephren Thuram, also making his first start for France, over the crossbar.

The resulting corner went long to the far side of the penalty box where Mbappé carefully flicked it back in for Rabiot to head low into the corner.

With six minutes remaining Thauvin, making his first appearance since 2019, sealed the game.

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A minute after replacing Mbappé, the Lens forward collected the ball in the area with his back to goal. He quickly spun and volleyed to leave Magomedaliyev grasping at air and France enjoying the points.

“It’s incredible, I dreamed so much about returning to the French national team that I told myself that if I ever had the chance to play for a few minutes, I would give it my all,” said Thauvin.

“That’s what happened today. I was rewarded. It was very emotional.”

The France captain’s absence adds to the long list of forwards unavailable for October’s World Cup qualifiers, which includes Ousmane Dembele, Desire Doue, Marcus Thuram and Bradley Barcola.

Mbappé “will not be able to play Monday against Iceland,” a French Football Federation (FFF) statement read on Friday night.

After returning to the Clairefontaine training ground on Friday night, “the French team captain spoke with (coach) Didier Deschamps,” who “acknowledged his absence”.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Double hosting duties

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

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

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

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

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

Young and angry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spending priorities

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

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

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

Ongoing hardship for Moroccan quake survivors still struggling to rebuild

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

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

Tourism concerns

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.”

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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.

“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.

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

RFI: What is slow TV?

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

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

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

RFI: When did the first slow TV programme appear?

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

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

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

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

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

RFI: What recent example struck you most?

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

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

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

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

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

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RFI: Does slow TV change our sense of time?

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

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

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

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

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

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

RFI: Is there an audience for slow TV?

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

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

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

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

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.

Stop motion is the oldest form of animation, involving manipulating real-life models to create films frame-by-frame.

It dates back to the late 19th century and is best-known nowadays through the Wallace and Gromit or Chicken Run films by British studio Aardman.

“The names that are important in stop-motion are all over 50 years old,” del Toro told reporters on Friday in Paris at the Gobelins film school in southeast Paris.

“Stop-motion is perpetually on the brink of extinction. And it is perpetually preserved by slightly crazy people. It’s a tiny cult with very devoted individuals,” joked the filmmaker, who directed the 2022 animated film Pinocchio using the technique.

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Del Toro, whose latest film Frankenstein won second prize at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, said he valued stop-motion as a craft beyond the reach of artificial intelligence.

Starring Oscar Isaac, Frankenstein is set to release on Netflix next month.

“In an era in which you can have AI intruding in any other form of animation, this is AI-proof. So that is really good,” he added in the presence of Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos.

The project’s details, such as investment and equipment, are set to be finalised in the coming months.

“We envision this future studio not only as a training space, but also as a creative laboratory, a place where we can experiment,” school director Valerie Moatti told French news agency AFP.

The launch date for the studio will be announced at a later date.

(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.”

The archives in the basement of Wits University are a real maze – but Ajit Gandabhai knows exactly where he is going.

“There are a multitude of categories,” he said. “But we’re heading for the sports section.”

It contains valuable resources for historians and sports enthusiasts: a collection of objects and documents that show how, long before the end of apartheid, black, Indian and mixed-race communities were already playing cricket, rugby and tennis.

“These are financial reports from clubs dating back to 1973,” Gandabhai said. “And this is the trophy for the cricket competition – only for the non-racial federations. The winner took it home.”

South Africa to examine past failures to prosecute apartheid crimes

Boycott and resistance

South Africa was expelled from the Olympic Games in 1964 and, six years later, from the football World Cup. The apartheid government tried cosmetic reforms to make it look more acceptable to the world.

Rejecting any compromise with the regime, activists created the South African Council of Sport (SACOS).

“Sport became a prime way to fight the segregationist state without violence,” said Gandabhai. “And we had the slogan: ‘No normal sport in an abnormal society.’ That is still true today.”

Along with campaigning for an international boycott of South African teams, SACOS and allied clubs built a parallel network of non-racial sport inside the country.

Keeping the memory alive

To make sure this history is not forgotten, activists and sports officials, including Gandabhai, set up a dedicated archive fund in 2014.

“We cannot lose the memory of the people who sacrificed their lives, who were detained by the police,” he told RFI. “This story must be told – and not just from 1995.”

The year 1995, when South Africa won the Rugby World Cup under president Nelson Mandela, is widely seen as the symbolic start of the country’s integrated sporting era.

Because official media under apartheid ignored these competitions, archivists have had to rely on alternative sources – records kept by former players and local supporters.

The legacy of Nelson Mandela 30 years after his election as president

Women’s sport still missing

Michael Kahn, the fund’s secretary-general, said the work is far from complete.

“Several sections are still not well documented,” he said. “And particularly in relation to women’s sport, there are gaps. Black women also played sport – in really difficult conditions.”

The archivists continue to track down testimonies, photographs and documents to fill those gaps and to honour all those who fought for the right to play on equal terms.

The people behind the archive say their work is not just about remembering the past. It also highlights how, three decades after the end of apartheid, access to sport in South Africa still varies sharply between communities.

This story was adapted from RFI’s original version in French

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)

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”.

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

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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. 

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.

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.”

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.