After German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday urged Algeria to free the 81-year-old, “the president of the republic decided to respond positively”, the Algerian presidency said.

The statement said Germany would take charge of the transfer and treatment of Sansal, who has prostate cancer, according to his family.

Sansal was given a five-year jail term in March, accused of undermining Algeria’s territorial integrity after he told a far-right French outlet last year that France had unjustly transferred Moroccan territory to Algeria during the 1830 to 1962 colonial period.

France ‘concerned’ over disappearance of writer Boualem Sansal in Algeria

Algeria views those ideas – which align with longstanding Moroccan territorial claims – as a challenge to its sovereignty.

He was arrested in November 2014 at Algiers airport. Because he did not appeal March’s ruling, he was eligible for a presidential pardon.

Steinmeier urged Algeria to make a humanitarian gesture “given Sansal’s advanced age and fragile health condition” and said Germany would take charge of his “relocation to Germany and subsequent medical care”.

‘Mercy and humanity’

French President Emmanuel Macron had also urged Tebboune to show “mercy and humanity” by releasing the author.

Sansal’s daughter Sabeha Sansal, 51, told Ffrench news agency AFP by telephone from her home in the Czech Republic of her relief.

“I was a little pessimistic because he is sick, he is old, and he could have died there,” she said. “I hope we will see each other soon.”

A prize-winning figure in North African modern francophone literature, Sansal is known for his criticism of Algerian authorities as well as of Islamists.

He acquired French nationality in 2024.

Appearing in court without legal counsel on June 24, Sansal had said the case against him “makes no sense” as “the Algerian constitution guarantees freedom of expression and conscience”.

When questioned about his writings, Sansal asked: “Are we holding a trial over literature? Where are we headed?”

French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal sentenced to five years in prison

His case has become a cause celebre in France, but his past support for Israel and his 2014 visit there have made him largely unpopular in Algeria.

The case has also become entangled in the diplomatic crisis between Paris and Algiers, which has led to the expulsion of officials on both sides, the recall of ambassadors and restrictions on holders of diplomatic visas.

Another point of contention was the sentencing to seven years in prison of French sportswriter Christophe Gleizes in Algiers on accusations of attempting to interview a member of the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK), designated a terrorist organisation by Algeria in 2021.

Both Sansal and Gleizes’s prosecution came amid the latest rise in tensions between Paris and Algiers, triggered in July 2024 when Macron backed Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara, where Algeria backs the pro-independence Polisario Front.

Civil servant turned novelist

An economist by training, Sansal worked as a senior civil servant in his native Algeria, with his first novel appearing in 1999.

“The Barbarians’ Oath” dealt with the rise of fundamentalist Islam in Algeria and was published in the midst of the country’s civil war which left some 200,000 people dead according to official figures.

He was fired from his post in the industry ministry in 2003 for his opposition to the government but continued publishing.

Algeria court upholds writer Boualem Sansal’s five-year jail term

His 2008 work “The German Mujahid” was censored in Algeria for drawing parallels between Islamism and Nazism.

He has received several international prizes for his work, including in France and Germany.

In recent years Germany has offered refuge to several high-profile prisoners from other countries.

The late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was treated at Berlin’s Charite hospital after being poisoned in August 2020.

Last year Germany welcomed several other high-profile Russian dissidents as part of a historic prisoner swap with Moscow.

(with newswires)

Abbas, 89, is the longtime head of the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited control over parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and is being considered to possibly assume governance in Gaza under the deal.

Macron, whose country in September recognised a Palestinian state, warned against any Israeli plans for annexation in the West Bank following an uptick in violence in the Palestinian territory.

“Plans for partial or total annexation, whether legal or de facto, constitute a red line to which we will respond strongly with our European partners,” Macron said at a joint press conference with Abbas.

“The violence of the settlers and the acceleration of settlement projects are reaching new heights, threatening the stability of the West Bank and constitute violations of international law,” the French president said.

Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023.

At least 1,002 Palestinians, including militants, have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since the start of the war in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

During the same period, 43 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks in the West Bank, according to official Israeli figures.

Constitutional committee

Following their meeting to discuss the next steps after the Gaza ceasefire, Macron and Abbas announced the creation of a joint committee “for the consolidation of the state of Palestine”, the French leader said.

France to recognise Palestinian statehood, defying US-Israel backlash

It “will contribute to the drafting of a new constitution, a draft of which President Abbas presented to me”.

Abbas renewed his commitment to “reforms”, including “holding presidential and parliamentary elections after the end of the war”.

“We are nearing completion of a draft of the provisional constitution of the state of Palestine and the laws on elections and political parties,” he added.

(With newswires)

Tanzanians were called to the polls on 29 October, but instead of a free and fair election, they were met with severe repression. Demonstrations have been banned, protesters arrested, and members of the opposition detained.

Tanzania’s authorities have also charged more than 200 people with treason — an offence that carries the death penalty.

The incumbent president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, was eventually declared the winner of the election with 98 percent of the vote. However, the opposition – which had been barred from participating – condemned the results as fraudulent.

To explore the deep-rooted causes of this repression, and to consider how the situation could shape the political future not only of Tanzania but of the entire East African region, we are joined by a special guest: Prince Charles Dickson, a Nigerian peace and policy analyst with a PhD from Georgetown University and decades of experience in public policy and development practice.

Films from Africa

The cinema festival Film Africa 2025 (14–23 November 2025) opens in London, UK. To mark the event we have Stella Okuzu, interim director of the festival, with us to explain what’s happening.

Meanwhile in France, the Festival du Cinéma Franco-Arabe de Noisy-le-Sec is coming to an end just outside Paris (7–13 November). The festival has placed a special focus on Tunisian cinema. Mathilde Rouxel, its cultural director and programmer, tells us more.

Sudan’s blind football team success

Also this week we take a look at South Sudan’s blind football team which recently played its first major match in Kampala, Uganda, thanks to the help and support of the charity Light For The World. And they won! 

We have their coach and players on the line to tell us how football changed their life and why it is so important for people with visual impairment.

Angélique Kidjo and La Chica de Favela

Finally, “La Chica de Favela” is an initiative from ‘Beyond Music’, a song featuring a Congolese man, a Latin American, a Swiss citizen, and a Beninese woman, Angélique Kidjo.

“The African continent is predominant on this song”, Angélique told Spotlight on Africa, “and it tells a story through this song.”

It tells the story of a young girl in a favela “who doesn’t want to be defined by her gender”. She is free and independent. “In a patriarchal world that doesn’t necessarily give women much space,” Angélique told us. “And that’s what made the subject interesting to me.”

Episode mixed by Melissa Chemam and Erwan Rome.

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

Asanti king Otumfuo Osei Tutu II received the artefacts at the Manhyia Palace Museum in the Asante capital Kumasi this week.

The items included royal regalia, drums and ceremonial gold weights and depict governance systems, spiritual beliefs and the role of gold in Asante society. 

In 2024, the Manhyia Palace Museum received 67 restituted or loaned cultural objects from institutions including London’s British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles. 

After Britain, the US sends looted royal artefacts to Ghana’s Ashanti King

South African mining company

At the ceremony, the Asante king thanked AngloGold Ashanti, a South African mining company, for returning several items purchased on the open market. The mining giant returned some artefacts to Ghana in 2024.  

It reflected “goodwill and respect for the source and legacy of the Asante kingdom”, the monarch said.

Twenty-five other items were donated by British art historian Hermione Waterfield. 

According to art historian and Manhyia Palace Museum director, Ivor Agyeman-Duah, Waterfield’s gifts included a wooden drum believed to have been seized during the 1900 siege of Kumasi by British forces. 

France formally hands back 26 looted artworks to Benin

Their return comes as pressure mounts on Western museums and institutions to address the restitution of African artefacts plundered during colonial times by Britain, France, Germany and Belgium.

(with AFP)

Sylvia Bongo, 62, and Noureddin Bongo, 33, both tried in absentia, were found guilty of embezzlement of public funds, among other charges.

The wife of Ali Bongo, whose family ruled the central African country with an iron fist for 55 years, had been accused of manipulating her husband to embezzle taxpayers’ money.

She denied all charges.

Her son and co-defendant, Noureddin, criticised the trial as a “legal farce” in an interview with French press agency AFP last week.

Ex-president Ali Bongo was toppled in a coup on August 30, 2023, which brought General Brice Oligui Nguema to power.

Gabon’s President Bongo has been ‘placed in retirement’, head of presidential guard says

The deposed leader is not facing prosecution.

Bongo ruled for 14 years and was overthrown moments after being proclaimed the winner in a presidential election the army and opposition declared fraudulent.

He had succeeded his father Omar Bongo Ondimba, who ruled with an iron fist for nearly 42 years until his death in 2009.

French citizenship

Bongo’s wife and son, who both hold French citizenship, were accused of exploiting the former leader, who suffered a serious stroke in 2018, to effectively run Gabon for their own personal profit.

Arrested after the coup, they were detained in the country for 20 months before being released in May and allowed to leave the country for London, officially on medical grounds.

Both allege they suffered torture during their detention.

Ten former allies of the Bongos are also on trial, accused of complicity in the embezzlement of public funds. Proceedings are expected to continue until Friday.

Prosecutor Eddy Minang said that statements by the co-accused and witnesses during the trial revealed a system of diverting public funds “for the benefit of private interests”.

In May last year, Sylvia and Noureddin Bongo filed a lawsuit in France alleging that they were “repeatedly and violently tortured” by Oligui’s closest army allies while in detention.

“We know full well that if we go back, we will suffer things far worse than we have already suffered,” Noureddin Bongo told AFP ahead of the trial.

He said his Gabonese lawyer would also not attend the hearing to avoid “justifying… a legal farce”.

French court rejects corruption charges against daughter of Gabon’s ex-president

“We are not opposed to the idea of being held accountable for so-called acts we may have committed,” Bongo insisted.

“But only if it is before an independent and genuine court of law, not one that is clearly under the orders of the executive branch in Gabon,” he told AFP.

The family also claims the new authorities have leant on the courts to find them guilty.

Oligui was officially sworn in as president in April after handing in his general’s uniform.

He has denied there was any form of torture and promised that both would have a “fair trial”.

(With newswires)

Newsom said a Democratic administration would rejoin the Paris Agreement “without hesitation.”

“It’s a moral commitment, it’s an economic imperative, it’s both — and it’s an abomination that he has twice, not once, pulled away from the accords,” Newsom said in response to a question by French press agency AFP in Belem, the Brazilian Amazon city hosting the COP30 climate summit.

Newsom appeared alongside Helder Barbalho, the governor of Para state, of which Belem is the capital, at an event on the city’s docks.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump’s absence from COP30 marked a departure from traditional climate diplomacy, in which the White House typically leads US delegations at annual UN climate negotiations. State officials filled the void left by Washington’s decision to stay away.

Since taking power, Trump has strongly criticised international climate efforts, including the UN-sponsored Conference of Parties, or COP30, and has chosen not to send any top-level US officials to the climate gathering in Brazil, which takes place in the city of Belém from 10–21 November.

White House spokesperson Tyler Rogers said that Trump “will not jeopardise our country’s economic and national security to pursue vague climate goals that are killing other countries”, asserting that climate policies such as the Paris Agreement would have “killed America” had it not been for Trump’s intervention.

Trump frequently refers to climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”, and his administration has rolled back numerous climate policies in favour of “common-sense energy” – including signing an executive order on 20 January to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.

Showcase California

Dubbed the “anti-Trump” by Politico  Newsom is showcasing how California’s clean energy transition is driving economic growth, creating jobs and reducing pollution, positioning climate action as a defining opportunity of the 21st century.

“We are doubling down on stupid in the United States of America – not in my state of California,” Newsom told an audience at the Global Investors Symposium at the Milken Institute in São Paulo on Monday, drawing a sharp contrast between his state’s green economic growth and federal retreat.

“What the hell is going on here? This is the country we should be engaging with instead of giving the middle finger with 50 per cent tariffs,” he said, referencing the Trump administration’s trade approach to Brazil.

In Belém, Newsom’s high-profile delegation – including leaders in resources, agriculture and energy – will hold meetings with Brazilian officials, climate investors and Indigenous leaders. He promoted California’s track record: a 21 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions since 2000, a surging green economy and a $50 billion climate investment programme he says is producing “jobs, clean air and lower costs”.

California now counts seven times as many green jobs as fossil fuel positions, even as its economy has become the world’s fourth largest.

2026 US Midterms

Newsom’s trip comes as COP30 gathers world leaders and civil society ten years after the Paris Agreement, amid speculation about Democratic strategies for the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential race.

Newsom’s efforts at COP30 are intertwined with his recent domestic initiatives.

Last week, he celebrated a redistricting win in California that added five Democratic congressional seats, urging other blue-state governors to follow suit ahead of the midterms.

What the Democrats’ resurgence in US elections spells for the 2026 midterms

“We cannot rest until we take back the House,” he told supporters after his party’s win.​

For the Democratic Party, Newsom’s strategy is clear: recast climate action as the engine of economic opportunity, deepen partnerships across the Americas, and use galvanising events like COP30 to project American leadership—even when Washington steps back.

Polls now suggest Democrats could net twelve seats in the 2026 midterms, and Newsom’s name is increasingly floated as a contender for the White House in 2028.​

(with newswires)

Universities have been among Trump’s favourite targets since his return to the White House. Between cutting funding for certain degrees, demonising individual institutions and arresting students from immigrant backgrounds on campus, the college dream has soured for many in the US.

With the administration making visas harder to secure, the number of international students arriving in the US fell by 19 percent compared to the last academic year, according to the New York Times. Americans, too, are increasingly looking elsewhere. 

A record number applied this year to universities in the United Kingdom – which itself has been actively pursuing foreign students post-Brexit – according to figures from the UK’s higher education application body Ucas.

It received nearly 8,000 American undergraduate applications, marking a rise of almost 14 percent on the previous year.

Scotland is particularly popular, with three of its universities in the UK’s top 10 for the highest number of US students.

Scotland’s oldest university, St Andrews – long popular with Americans thanks to its starring role in the love story of Prince William and Kate Middleton – takes the top spot, with one in five students now coming from the US.

French university opens doors to US scientists fleeing Trump’s research cuts

‘It feels like a way of escaping’

Edinburgh University is second on the list, with the University of Glasgow in fifth place.

Gabby arrived at Edinburgh this year. “I’m doing a master’s degree in comparative public policy. My husband was accepted into the university first, and I wanted to do a master’s degree, so this was the easiest way to get a visa and join him,” she told RFI.

“But now that I’m here, it feels a bit like a way of escaping what’s happening at home: the defunding of university research, students being arrested just for voicing opposition… It’s concerning,” she added.

French international students rattled by Trump’s US visa suspensions

John Rappa, from New Jersey, came to study in Edinburgh in 2019.

“I could have found an affordable university in the United States, but an institution as prestigious as Edinburgh would have been beyond my means. Including visa and tuition fees, studying here costs the same as a public university in my state… Why the hell would I not?”

While cost was his main motivation for choosing to study outside the US at that time, he notes that the change in political climate since then has only convinced him he made the right choice.

“My friends who stayed behind are seeing their course budgets cut. My brother is a PhD student in pharmacology, but the Trump administration has stopped funding his research, so he can’t graduate. The future looks bleak.”

French scientists join US protests in face of Trump administration’s ‘sabotage’

‘Quality of life’

In terms of his own future, Rappa also sees advantages to staying in Scotland.

“The quality of life is much better here, starting with social security for all. If I have children, I want them to have access to education, and that’s not the direction the United States is taking.”

Edinburgh University students have revived the defunct North American Society, thanks to growing demand. Freddie Pusch – a native Scot – is its treasurer. “It had ceased to exist since the pandemic, so we revived it.”

He jokes: “[The American] students are particularly noisy… No, they bring an enthusiasm that we locals don’t have. They remind us that we live in a great city.”

This article was adapted from a report in French by Emeline Vin.

The two-day Belem Climate Summit takes place in the humid port city at the mouth of the Amazon River – a symbolic prelude to the UN’s Cop30 conference that begins there next week. Together they mark 10 years since the Paris Agreement and bring global attention back to the planet’s most vital carbon sink.

For Brazil, it is a moment to show that protecting forests and reducing poverty can go hand in hand. For much of the world, it is a chance to prove that promises made in Paris can still deliver results.

“We have to somehow manage to convey that there is progress on this agenda, because we are facing a phase in which most of the public think that this agenda is losing ground,” Cop30 president Andre Correa do Lago said.

But the talks open amid sobering news. Around two-thirds of the 195 countries that signed the Paris accord missed the February deadline to submit updated climate plans for 2035.

By early November, only about 65 countries had submitted new national climate plans for 2035, and most failed to impress. China’s target fell well below expectations, while India has yet to finalise its pledge.

The European Union agreed on Wednesday to a weakened 2040 climate goal after all-night talks in Brussels, keeping its 90 percent emissions cut headline but allowing countries to offset up to 10 percent of that target through foreign carbon credits and delay key measures.

Environmental groups warned the compromise undermines Europe’s credibility as a climate leader, while several member states argued it was needed to protect industries struggling with high energy costs and competition from cheaper imports.

Europe’s climate progress overshadowed by worsening loss of nature

The billion-dollar gap

The battle over money will dominate both the Belem summit and Cop30, which runs from 10 to 21 November. Wealthy nations are under pressure to explain how they will help poorer ones cope with rising seas, extreme heat and mounting climate losses.

Last year’s Cop29 in Baku ended with developed countries agreeing to provide $300 billion a year in climate finance by 2035 – far below what developing nations say is needed. Governments also set a vaguer goal of mobilising $1.3 trillion a year from public and private sources but offered little detail on how to achieve it.

A UN Adaptation Gap Report last week found the world will need to spend about $310 billion a year by 2035 to prepare for worsening floods, droughts and heatwaves – roughly 12 times current spending levels.

“More than ever, the general public, governments in general, cities in general, want resources for adaptation,” Correa do Lago said.

CARE International, which campaigns for climate justice and humanitarian relief, warned that the shortfall is already leaving millions exposed, especially women and girls.

“The need for adaptation finance is immense, up to $300 billion per year, yet current funding barely scratches the surface,” said Marlene Achoki, CARE’s global climate justice policy lead. “Cop30 will be successful, and truly a people’s Cop, when sufficient adaptation finance is provided to drive real action and implementation on the ground.”

Senior adviser John Nordbo described climate finance as “the fault line of global climate action”, saying many rich countries inflate figures and repackage loans as aid.

“Much of this so-called support comes as loans, not grants, and repayments often flow quietly back to donors,” he said.

Indigenous knowledge steers new protections for the high seas

Brazil’s forest gamble

Holding the leaders’ summit in Belem brings the focus back to the rainforest’s central role in stabilising the planet’s climate.

The Brazilian government will use the event to launch the Tropical Forests Forever Facility – a new global fund that will reward countries with high tropical forest cover for keeping trees standing instead of cutting them down.

The facility aims to raise $25 billion from donor governments and another $100 billion from private investors, with Brazil already pledging $1 billion.

The fund “could be a step forward in protecting tropical forests” if paired with firm commitments to end deforestation by 2030, said Clement Helary, a forests campaigner with Greenpeace.

Tropical primary forest loss hit a record high in 2024 – the equivalent of 18 football fields a minute, driven largely by fires.

Hosting the conference in the Amazon makes it “the perfect opportunity to ramp up action to end deforestation”, the WWF has said, noting that global pledges from Cop26 to halt forest loss by 2030 have stalled.

How Brazil’s booming coffee industry is driving deforestation

From talk to action

Cop30 will test whether the world can finally move from ambition to action.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries must strengthen their emissions targets every five years, but the latest round of 2035 plans still falls well short of what is needed to limit warming to 1.5C.

What is needed now is “a step change” – moving from setting targets to delivering them, said the World Resources Institute.

The first global stocktake at Cop28 showed the world is “significantly off track”, while the UN Secretary-General has said overshooting the 1.5C goal is “inevitable” unless countries “change course”.

When the Paris Agreement was signed, the planet was on track for roughly 4C of warming by 2100. Later pledges have cut that to around 3C, and if all net-zero promises were fully met, the rise could fall closer to 1.9C.

Deeper emissions cuts and large-scale ecosystem restoration, scientists say, could still bring temperatures back below 1.5C later this century.

Last year was the first time the 1.5C threshold was breached for an entire year, with extreme weather causing more than $300 billion in damage. Renewable energy and electric vehicles, while already saving lives and creating jobs, is not happening fast enough, experts warn.

Record surge in CO2 puts world on track for more long-term warming

Can trust survive?

Unlike earlier climate summits, Cop30 has no single grand deal in sight.

Organisers are calling it the “Cop of Implementation”, focused on turning words into measurable progress.

“The Brazilian Presidency’s central challenge is to turn promises into real-world action – bridging divides between developed and developing countries, ambition and equity, mitigation and adaptation,” said Karen Silverwood-Cope from WRI Brazil.

The political mood adds to the challenge. US President Donald Trump has dismissed climate change as a “con job” and is sending no senior officials to Belem, deepening fears that global climate diplomacy is losing momentum.

Still, Brazil hopes the Amazon setting can help restore it. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been in Belem since the weekend, meeting local communities and overseeing preparations ahead of the summit.

He is expected to stay through the opening of Cop30 on Monday, as world leaders gather in the heart of the Amazon – a symbolic setting for a conference that will test whether a decade of promises can finally turn into action.

Soaking up France’s deficit means saving €44 billion in next year’s budget. And an already deeply divided parliament can’t work out how to do it: the left wants a wealth tax, the right wants cuts in public spending.

This disagreement has brought down two governments in less than a year. The bill was meant to be agreed by Tuesday this week. It wasn’t – and the wrangling continues.

“We’re in total political deadlock. We don’t know whether we’ll have a budget at the end of the year. That means a great deal of uncertainty, and there’s nothing worse than uncertainty for business development,” says Pascal Demurger, head of mutual insurance company MAIF and co-president of the Impact France Movement, which aims to “put ecological and social impact at the heart of business”.

Anger over who should bear the cost of fixing France’s finances has pushed people on to the streets. In September, nearly a million marched in Paris and other cities to protest against spending cuts.

Many carried signs calling for higher taxes on the rich – such as Bernard Arnault, head of the €256 billion luxury group LVMH.

Thanks to various tax optimisation measures, and corporate tax cuts under President Emmanual Macron, large companies now pay an effective rate of just 25 percent – about half that of the average French person. Opinion polls show the majority of people want that to change.

Demurger recognises that the lack of fiscal justice is fuelling social anger and says France’s wealthiest should contribute more.

“It’s obvious that people in France today find it hard to accept paying more tax or making an effort if they feel that the richest members of the population aren’t contributing,” he told RFI.

“There’s a real issue of social appeasement. We won’t achieve acceptance of necessary reforms unless everyone feels the burden is fairly shared between the richest and the middle classes.”

France’s top CEOs earn 130 times more than their employees, says Oxfam

Swimming against the tide

Demurger took over MAIF in 2009. The company calls itself a “militant” insurer – an unusual term in business circles.

All contributions from its 4 million policy holders go to pay claims – accidents, thefts – rather than shareholders, while profits stay in the company and are reinvested.

Demurger had doubts about the proposed “Zucman tax” on assets higher than €100 million, set at 2 percent and rejected by MPs, but he supports extending a temporary corporate tax first introduced for 2025.

The levy, originally meant to apply for one year, targets firms with more than €3 billion in annual revenue.

“MAIF’s turnover is €5 billion, so we’d be affected. It would cost us a bit more than €20 million, but it’s an effort we’re ready to make to contribute to social calm and to finding solutions,” he says. “I think it’s by setting an example that we can get most people on board and calm this public anger down a bit.”

After the government agreed to keep the temporary tax in the 2026 budget, MPs passed a slightly amended version last week. Companies earning more than €3 billion will pay 33.8 percent instead of 35 percent, and those with between €1 and €3 billion will pay 26.25 percent.

Demurger’s support for a fairer contribution from big companies and their leaders puts him at odds with much of France’s business establishment.

Patrick Martin, head of the Medef employers’ union, has said companies shouldn’t pay “a euro more” and threatened to strike if a new levy was introduced.

While Demurger admits business costs in France are “extremely heavy”, he says such hard-line positions make things worse.

“We just don’t agree. By taking extremely hard-line positions, [Martin] maintains a situation of political deadlock and social anger, and in the end this penalises businesses and the economy.”

Would tax hikes for the wealthiest really drive them to flee France?

Longer term stability

Demurger is also out of step with the Afep association representing the country’s largest companies. It claims the continuation of the temporary tax will hurt investment.

“The National Assembly’s vote to extend the extra tax on large companies is an error,” said Afep president Patricia Barbizet in a statement. “[It] will inevitably hamper companies’ capacity to invest in France at a time when we need French and European champions more than ever and therefore need to accelerate our investments.”

Demurger says political instability is just as damaging. He pointed to the collapse of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s first government, which lasted just 14 hours.

“That Monday morning, the Paris stock exchange fell sharply and interest rates on state borrowing increased. That adds to the public debt, which in turn raises interest payments, in a kind of snowball effect.

“For a company like MAIF, which holds assets including shares, we lost considerably more in the stock market fall that morning than the amount of the extra corporate tax we’d be ready to pay. Making an extra effort might not cost businesses so much after all, while refusing to do so could cost the French economy far more.”

Purpose as well as profit

MAIF’s “militant” identity also shapes how it operates. The company avoids fossil fuel investments, supports renewables and uses recycled vehicle parts for repairs to cut emissions.

Its 8,000 employees work under a trust-based management system. “Our management is based on trust, people are given a lot of autonomy and can take initiatives to do their jobs in a more impactful way,” Demurger says.

He describes visiting MAIF’s headquarters in Niort and discovering major works that had got under way without his approval.

“The facilities manager told me they were installing a geothermal system to heat and cool the building – entirely carbon neutral. He hadn’t even told me. That shows the culture.”

He says such independence improves results.

“When management cares about employees’ wellbeing, gives them room to act, and focuses on purpose as well as profit, people are happier and more engaged, and collectively, we’re more efficient.”

Staff turnover is low, absenteeism has fallen and the company’s reputation as an employer has grown. “We attract more talent. It’s a virtuous circle,” he adds.

Demurger didn’t always think this way. “I started out managing the company in an extremely classic way,” he says, but later realised he had a duty to ensure people feel good in their work and their lives.

“I saw that by trying to reconcile employees’ wellbeing, customer satisfaction, social impact and company performance, we could achieve far more relevant results than by opposing them.”

How 184 random citizens helped shape France’s debate on assisted dying

Spreading the impact

Demurger also co-chairs Impact France, a network of 30,000 socially and environmentally responsible companies. When he took the role in 2023 there were just 8,000.

“There’s extremely strong growth in companies of all sizes, including some of France’s biggest groups.”

The network lobbies for measures to make state aid conditional on environmental commitments. A Senate report says France’s biggest corporations received €211 billion in state aid in 2023, with no checks on how it was used or what results it brought.

Impact France also wants the 25 percent corporate tax rate to be adjusted to reward sustainable practices.

“Today all companies pay the same rate of corporate tax. So if I run a firm that invests in de-pollution, and another in the same sector makes no effort, we pay the same,” Demurger points out. “That doesn’t encourage investment and it’s not good public management.”

A smarter tax system, he says, would reduce public health and environmental costs long-term.

Where did France’s culture of political compromise go, and is it coming back?

Change in governance

In his recently published book Gouvernez autrement! (“Govern Differently”), Demurger argues that the horizontal, participative, trust-based management style he employs in his company should be applied to the political sphere.

He pleads a more adult approach to governance. “Those in power must give up the ultra-vertical practices that infantilise [us] and the illusory quest for absolute control,” he wrote on social media.

“It must also dare, at last, to break free from the dictatorship of short-termism, rethink our model, and set out hopeful prospects.”

This means moving away from the idea that France is “ungovernable” or an “archipelago” lacking unity – labels used by some politicians, including the French president.

“I’m a great believer in finding solutions, not just compromises,” says Demurger, whose name was floated last year as a possible prime ministerial pick after Michel Barnier was ousted in December 2024.

Before moving into business, he had a six-year stint as a civil servant at the budget department of the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance.

But in a recent interview with RTL radio, Demurger said he was “lucky to run a wonderful enterprise and loved [his] job”, putting paid – for the moment – to rumours he could return to the world of politics.

After capturing the strategic town of Bara around 10 days ago, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are now besieging El-Obeid, the state capital. At least 40 people were killed there on Tuesday, according to the UN.

Residents fear a repeat of atrocities seen in other towns recently seized by the paramilitaries.

The fall of El-Fasher, capital of neighbouring North Darfur, last week has emboldened the RSF to expand their control beyond Darfur into Kordofan. The violence in El-Fasher also overshadowed the fall of Bara a few days earlier, where similar crimes were reported.

The Sudanese Doctors Network, which documents violence across the country, said that “dozens of bodies are piled up in houses in Bara” and that families are being prevented from retrieving them.

“It’s a crime against humanity,” the group said in a statement, denouncing “persistent silence in the face of these crimes”. “It’s shameful,” the statement added.

France, UN call for a ceasefire in Sudan amid mounting reports of atrocities

Bodies in the streets

An RSF member confirmed on Sunday that “all our forces have converged on the Bara front”.

The town, like El-Fasher, has been cut off from outside help. No medical or humanitarian services are operating there.

Last week, Martha Pobee, the UN’s assistant secretary-general for Africa, warned of “vast atrocities” and “ethnically motivated reprisals” by the RSF in Bara, describing a pattern similar to that seen in Darfur.

The number of missing people in Bara continues to rise, along with the waves of residents fleeing in desperate conditions, the Sudanese Doctors Network said, adding that: “They are fleeing on foot, without water or food and without medicine.”

Around 36,000 civilians have fled North Kordofan in a week, according to the International Organisation for Migration, fearing RSF attacks.

As the army and paramilitaries fight for control of El-Obeid, residents told French news agency AFP that entire towns have become military targets and people no longer dare to work in their fields.

Seizure of Sudan’s El Fasher a ‘political and moral defeat’ for RSF militia: expert

Strategic prize

El-Obeid, under imminent threat of RSF attack, is a key logistics and command hub linking Darfur to the capital Khartoum. It also has an airport.

The RSF are preparing to attack Babnusa, another important town in North Kordofan that they are besieging and where the army remains entrenched.

Civilians are fleeing mainly from areas where massacres have taken place, such as Bara and Om Dam Haj Ahmad.

In the latter, nearly 400 civilians were killed on Thursday by the RSF, the Sudanese Doctors Network reported. The same day, an unknown number of people died in Zaribat al-Sheikh Borii in a drone strike.

On Monday, around 40 people were also killed in another strike in Louaib, a village east of El-Obeid, according to the army.

The victims, all civilians, were gathered for a funeral, the North Kordofan government said. “A crime that adds to those already committed by the RSF,” the governorate wrote.

The RSF have not responded.

UN warns of ethnically motivated ‘atrocities’ in Sudan’s El-Fasher

No end in sight

The army has carried out attacks against RSF positions in North and West Kordofan and targeted reinforcements coming from Darfur.

On Tuesday, it intensified air strikes on RSF-held areas. The paramilitaries said they shot down a military cargo plane over Babnusa just after it dropped ammunition to army forces trapped in the city. The crew members were killed.

Despite mounting international pressure for a ceasefire, both sides remain determined to seize territory.

Sudan’s defence minister said on Tuesday evening that the war against the paramilitaries would continue, after a government meeting that discussed a United States proposal to halt the fighting.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an immediate end to the conflict, warning that the crisis was becoming “uncontrollable”.

This story was adapted from the original version in French by RFI’s Houda Ibrahim

“Almost all Dutch parties agree on the severity of the Russian threat, and, increasingly, the risks stemming from China,” says Bart van den Berg, head of the security and defence programme at the Hague-based think tank, the Clingendael Institute.

On Friday, Dutch press agency ANP’s election service announced that D66 has become the largest party in the parliamentary elections.

Although not all votes have been counted yet, the news agency says that the party led by D66 leader Jetten can no longer be overtaken by the PVV. It is now up to D66 to form a cabinet, but it remains unclear what combination of parties will be part of it.

Van den Berg points out that only fringe parties advocate restoring ties with Moscow or minimising China as a security risk. Mainstream parties, he said, broadly favour tougher stances, continued support for Ukraine, and a strong commitment to NATO.

“The Netherlands will continue its current security policy – meeting NATO targets and backing Ukraine – but the real debate now is over how to reduce strategic dependency on the United States,” he said.

US military sales

Europe’s military reliance on Washington is intensifying more rapidly than political consensus can form. Defence spending across Europe has risen sharply, yet a significant share of this demand has shifted towards the US defence industrial base.

This helps to explain the steep increase in US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Europe over the past two years, according to Guntram Wolff, a senior fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank.

Recent data show that US FMS notifications to Europe have surged from an annual average of $11 billion (2017–2021) to $68 billion in 2024, particularly in the areas of fighter aircraft, missile systems and defence software.

“The US defence industrial base itself is quite strained,” Wolff noted. Delivery delays have lengthened for key products, and the US government retains the ability to reprioritise buyers according to strategic interest scoring underlining both the capacity and political risks faced by European partners.

Atlanticist tradition

The Netherlands, with its Atlanticist tradition, has largely leant on transatlantic defence, often favouring American hardware like F-35s over French Rafales.

Atlanticist tradition refers to a political and strategic worldview that emphasises the importance of close cooperation between North America (especially the United States and Canada) and Europe (especially Western Europe) – the countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean.

Currently, the Dutch Air Force remains dependent on the United States. “The F-35 is a superior fighter to the Rafale. But in the long term, these dependencies – and how our forces manage them—will be crucial,” says Van den Berg.

France and Germany weigh future of joint EU weapons projects

While the Dutch possess strong marine, naval and niche technological capabilities, they are less integrated than France in European defence industrial projects and remain sceptical about a fully independent EU army.

France, by contrast, has consistently championed European defence sovereignty. President Emmanuel Macron’s drive for a “European pillar within NATO” and even a European army distinguishes France as the leading advocate for EU strategic autonomy.

French-led joint fighter and naval programmes have generated momentum, but, as Wolff points out, “Germany still regards the US – not France – as its principal military ally, which limits how far such integration can go. The European defence market remains fragmented, and consensus is difficult to achieve,” according to Van den Berg.

NATO summit opens in The Hague amid unprecedented security and protests

Trump Era

Dependence on the United States carries both immediate and long-term risks. “The president of the US can, at any time, alter the allocation order under FMS programmes,” notes Wolff, observing that several allies have experienced delivery delays lasting years when priorities have shifted—as seen recently with Switzerland and previously with the UAE.

“Europe urgently needs a strategy to reduce its technological reliance on the United States. That requires clear incentives for European high-tech defence firms and a shift in procurement policy towards domestic suppliers,” he adds.

France’s advanced technology is frequently overlooked in favour of US systems—partly for the perceived security guarantees they offer, and partly as a legacy of longstanding alliances. Yet the Trump era demonstrated that such guarantees cannot be assumed simply through procurement choices.

France remains world’s second largest arms exporter behind US

Van den Berg is even more pragmatic. “Most Dutch parties support diversifying alliances – not only strengthening ties with the US but also making new friends among middle powers like Brazil, India, and Indonesia,” he says. “Reducing dependency means investing in domestic industries and forging European military innovation.”​

Tough choices

The path ahead demands difficult choices. As Europe’s threat perception intensifies – particularly following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a series of hybrid crises across the continent – politicians and strategists alike emphasise the urgent need to expand domestic defence production, integrate markets, and modernise procurement systems, lest Europe remain vulnerable to transatlantic unpredictability.

“Europe now has advanced high-tech defence companies, some of which are becoming unicorns. What is needed is a coherent strategy to channel demand towards these firms, scale up production, and restore technological leadership in critical domains,” says Wolff.

The idea that Artificial Intelligence might take our jobs once seemed like pure science fiction. Yet, less than three years after the emergence of ChatGPT, the speed at which these tools have infiltrated our professional lives is nothing short of dizzying.

Workforce reorganisation

AI is driving a profound reorganisation of the workforce and has accelerated the automation of administrative functions, according to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025.

Banking, insurance, communications, marketing, logistics and data analyst positions are among those most exposed to this transformation, according to the report, with repetitive and predictable tasks the most easily automated.

“I feel like I have a sword of Damocles hanging over my head,” Fanny tells RFI.

A freelance translator for fifteen years, lately she’s been thinking more than ever about changing careers. Around her, job postings for career changes are piling up. The reason: the rise of tools like DeepL and ChatGPT, capable of producing increasingly convincing texts.

“For now, I still have enough well-paid work, probably because I translate from German and do a lot of work for Switzerland, where quality is still valued,” she explains.

But some of her clients have simply disappeared. None of them have told her they preferred automated translation services, but she’s under no illusions. Her expert eye can recognise the typical turns of phrase in AI-generated translations.

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

New professions

Artificial intelligence hasn’t only transformed the way translations are done, it’s created a new profession – that of “post-editor”. In other words, someone needed to correct machine-generated translations. Obviously, Fanny points out, it’s much “less well-paid,” “not very interesting,” and “the deadlines are shorter”.

Underlining this significant shift, in 2024, the language learning app Duolingo terminated the contracts of 10 percent of its freelance translators, before parting ways with some of its authors.

Its CEO, Luis von Ahn, stated at the time that he wanted to “stop using contractors to do the work that AI can generate.”

While there are no studies on the number of translator jobs destroyed by AI, the sector has served as a laboratory for what some see as the equivalent of the industrial revolution for knowledge-based professions. 

Speedy innovation

In May, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, predicted that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and raise unemployment to 10-20 percent within five years.

At online retail and cloud computing giant Amazon, this fiction has become a reality.

On Tuesday it announced a reduction of its workforce by 14,000 posts to streamline operations as it invests in artificial intelligence, without saying where the cuts will be made. This represents four percent of its 350,000 administrative positions.

This announcement was presented as the first step in a wave that could affect 30,000 people.

The types of jobs affected include support functions, human resources, logistics, cloud computing, and advertising.

Nearly one in 10 jobs could be replaced by AI within decade, says OECD

Amazon’s Vice President of Human Resources Beth Galetti directly linked this decision to generative AI: “This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet, and it allows companies to innovate much faster than ever before,” she said in a statement on the group’s website.

Amazon is no longer an isolated case. IBM was one of the first to automate its HR functions. Accenture has laid off 12,000 employees, primarily in the United States, as part of an AI-driven plan, and the restructuring is set to continue. The firm has warned that employees unable to adopt these tools are likely to be the next to be laid off.

As for Salesforce, its CEO, who boasted that AI “performed 30 to 50 percent of the work” at the enterprise software company, has dismissed 4,000 employees.

In early September, Microsoft confirmed the reduction of 200 positions, or 10 percent of its workforce in France, as part of a global plan citing “improved operational efficiency” and massive investments in artificial intelligence.

However, some companies have backtracked. Earlier this year, the Swedish fintech company Klarna, a payment specialist, reduced its workforce by 40 percent, justifying it by the widespread adoption of AI in its marketing and customer service departments. Ultimately, faced with dissatisfied customers, it rehired staff.

Difficult to measure

While the United States is already facing AI-related restructuring, Europe is still proceeding cautiously.

In France, no large-scale social plan has yet been explicitly attributed to AI, and the effects remain “difficult to measure,” commented Antonin Bergeaud, associate professor at HEC and innovation specialist, in a written response.

“The American market has always been more responsive than the French market,” he says. “But we should expect the same consequences: companies slowing down recruitment in high-risk professions, while waiting to see how the technology evolves.”

The first signs are there, however. According to a study by the LHH group (a subsidiary of Adecco) published at the end of September, covering 2,000 senior executives in 13 countries, 46 percent of executives say they have already reduced their workforce because of AI, and 54 percent plan to employ fewer people in the next five years.

Mistral and ASML forge €1.7bn alliance to shape Europe’s AI future

However, notes Michaël Chambon, managing director of LHH France, only 12 percent of the employees concerned identify this technology as the reason for their departure. “There’s a disconnect here. Management acknowledges the impact, but employees aren’t aware of it.”

“We are in a process of transformation, not yet destruction,” he adds. “But this transformation is silent, because it involves not replacing employees or freezing hiring.”

The effects also appear contradictory. “We see that companies adopting AI have a slight increase in productivity and therefore recruit more, which represents an apparent paradox,” he notes.

The PwC AI Jobs Barometer 2025 supports this: the number of job offers in AI-related professions jumped by 273 percent in France between 2019 and 2024.

“The upheaval will only really be seen in the average company when a comprehensive AI strategy is put in place. This is currently only happening in large companies,” explains Antonin Bergeaud.

Junior positions at risk

According to the World Economic Forum, internships and entry-level jobs are likely to be replaced by automation.

Jean-Amiel Jourdan, executive director of HEC Talents, has already observed this: “The adoption of AI is reducing the number of traditional junior positions. Analysis, synthesis, and report-generating tasks are being automated” at a lower cost.

New recruits must now be able to “supervise and validate the content generated by AI.”

This shift could, he warns, place employers in “a dilemma”: how to build a pool of experienced talent if we reduce the recruitment of juniors?

A Stanford study in the United States confirms the trend: since the widespread adoption of generative AI, employment among 22-25 year olds in the most exposed professions has declined by 13 percent.

The impact is most visible in the most exposed jobs, such as developers, where the drop has reached 20 percent since the peak at the end of 2022.

AI development cannot be left to market whim, UN experts warn

“The market has slowed down in the tech sector over the past two years, and this is being felt enormously in the developer ecosystem, a population that had never experienced a crisis,” explains Greg Lhotellier, recruiter and founder of Dev with IA, for whom this situation stems primarily from a less favorable economic climate. “I haven’t yet seen any cases where hiring stops because AI is doing the job.”

In the medium term, he anticipates a shift in the profession towards “AI manager” positions. “AI will generate code, but a human will always be needed to control, arbitrate, and understand it.”

Constant evolution

One in four jobs presents a risk of exposure to generative AI, according to a study by the International Labour Organization. However, few jobs are fully automatable.

Lhotellier remains cautious: “The social fallout is likely to be real, but the impact of AI on employment remains, for the moment, out of step with the alarmist rhetoric.”

A divide is likely to emerge between employees “augmented” by AI and those whose tasks will be partially replaced by AI or who will be left behind by this technological innovation, he explains.

“There are jobs that could disappear, but most are jobs that are evolving,” continues Michaël Chambon, who emphasises the importance of anticipating and training. Even if, in the long run, it’s difficult not to imagine a net loss of jobs.”

This article is based on the original in French by Aurore Lartigue and slightly edited for clarity.

The promises made in 1975 painted a picture of an egalitarian state, capable of repairing five centuries of domination and transforming political freedom into social justice.

The Angola of 2025 is rich in natural resources, including oil, gas and diamonds. Its capital, Luanda, is dotted with steel and glass towers Almost 70 percent of its 37 million inhabitants are under 30 – a dynamic, urban population.

However, the United Nations Human Development Index ranks the country 148th out of 193. Despite significant progress since the end of the civil war in 2001, the gap between the promised land and the reality remains – with a lack of infrastructure, poor housing amongst the capital’s skyscrapers and a generation of frustrated youth.

Death toll rises in Angola after protests and looting over fuel hike

President João Lourenço, elected in 2017 following José Eduardo dos Santos’s 38-year reign, likes to remind the people that “independence is not an end point, but an ongoing endeavour”.

Under his leadership, the country has been attempting to turn the page on its authoritarian past, and its economy’s total dependence on oil – the revenues from which fund more than 80 percent of the state budget.

Angola left OPEC, the intergovernmental body of oil-producing nations, at the end of 2023 in order to regain control of its production. It is investing in gas and agricultural diversification, as well as building the multi-billion dollar Lobito Oil Refinery led by the state oil company, Sonangol.

Completion is expected by early 2027, when it will process 200,000 barrels of crude oil per day, with the aim of making Angola a major exporter of refined products to both domestic and regional markets.

A marginalised majority

The young people who make up the majority of the Angolan population have known neither the war of independence nor the civil war. But while they may not have inherited the hardships of the past, they face another struggle: against unemployment, poverty and political mistrust.

Despite two decades of peace, economic development remains fragile. Access to stable employment is rare, especially for graduates. “The problem is no longer war, but the distribution of wealth and economic freedom,” says economist Francisco Paulo.

According to him, Angola’s labour market remains dominated by the informal economy: “Of 12 million workers, 10 million work in the informal sector. That represents more than 80 percent of jobs, a real social time bomb.”

Young people alternate between odd jobs, street trading and long periods of inactivity. The dominance of the oil economy has led to a lack of diversification of opportunities. Growth benefits a minority, while inequalities are widening.

How Portugal’s Carnation Revolution changed the fate of its colonies in Africa

Meanwhile, the relationship between citizens and the state remains marked by mistrust.

Activist Laura Macedo describes a climate of silent tension: “Citizens fear those in power, and those in power fear citizens. This mutual fear ultimately leads to revolt.”

She highlights a generational shift, saying: “Those who govern us can no longer threaten us with war. It no longer silences us.”

For her, this symbolises the breaking of a cycle: war is no longer a political argument. But freedom of expression remains fragile, limited by the authorities, the police and societal pressures.

Transition to true democracy

For philosopher and activist Domingos da Cruz, a leading figure in the 15+2 human rights group, the country remains trapped by an authoritarian culture. “Fifty years after independence, we cannot talk about freedom, only resistance,” he says.

He believes that the transition to true democracy “will depend exclusively on the Angolan people”.

The 15+2 name was coined when 15 young activists and two other individuals were arrested – da Cruz among them – for discussing a book on non-violent resistance to the regime under dos Santos.

Their trial represented a turning point in the country’s recent political history. For the first time, a civil protest led by young urbanites was expressed peacefully, without resorting to violence. Following this event, several citizen movements emerged in the fight against corruption, unemployment and electoral transparency.

Artistic exchange between Brazil and Angola aims to reclaim colonial ties

‘Women are relegated’

Inequalities in the country are visible as early as primary school. Nearly 4 million children remain excluded from the education system, according to local NGOs. Activist Sizaltina Cutaia says there is a persistent hierarchy: “Young people simply want to live in a country where they can fulfil their potential, without having to join a political party.”

She added: “Education should be the starting point, but girls are still often excluded, especially in poor families. The belief persists that they will be supported by a husband.”

This lack of access to schooling further fuels inequality and undermines social mobility, and despite a growing presence in public life, women remain marginalised. Those active in politics face verbal abuse and media invisibility.

“The history of Angola is told through the figure of the father of the nation. Women, despite being active participants in the struggle, are relegated to the margins,” says Cutaia.

Macedo too highlights institutionalised patriarchy. “The president said he would put women in government, and that he would put more in if they behaved themselves. That sums up the prevailing mindset.”

The promise of equality from 1975 has not been fulfilled, and nor have the pledges of prosperity. Fifty years after Angola’s first president, Agostinho Neto, declared independence, the country no longer lives under fire, but under the weight of disillusionment.

This article was adapted from the original version in French by Ligia Anjos.

France, Barbados and Kenya launched a working group in 2023 advocating for taxes on affluent air passengers, with the aim of supporting poorer nations in their response to climate change.

At UN climate summit in Brazil (COP30), which runs until 21 November, these countries are now trying to expand the coalition of about ten nations that want to commit to more specifically taxing luxury air travel, a source told French news agency AFP.

These commitments should be clarified during COP30 or later, depending on how the talks progress, according to the same source, who said the goal was to “grow the coalition and, in particular, bring in more European states.”

France, African countries form coalition to tax luxury air travel

Since March, France has introduced an increased tax on air travel by tripling the “solidarity tax” on airline tickets (TSBA). This led to an extra cost of €4.77 per ticket for domestic or European flights departing from France, and up to €120 per long-haul business-class journey.

Private aviation has also been affected by this tax hike, with an increase ranging from €207.37 to €2,097.37 per passenger on board.

Financing development

Launched in 2006 on the initiative of then-French President Jacques Chirac, in coordination with other countries, this tax was originally intended to finance development.

It has been raised several times and now also contributes to France’s infrastructure financing agency and the general state budget.

Green groups push for ‘frequent flyer tax’ to cut France’s aviation emissions

According to the French transport ministry, the current discussions at COP30 will not lead to any further increase in this contribution: “France has no intention of raising the TSBA,” the ministry said Tuesday.

These reflections aim to encourage other countries “to use the TSBA mechanism to help finance sustainable development goals in the Global South,” the same source explained.

(with AFP)

France’s highest administrative court on Monday rejected Le Pen’s appeal against her removal as councillor of the Pas-de-Calais department after she was sentenced and immediately banned from running for office.

Le Pen, who was re-elected to the National Assembly in the first round of the snap elections in 2024, argued that the law leading to her dismissal did not respect the principle of equality, as parliamentarians only lose their seats after a final conviction, whereas local positions are terminated immediately.

Immediate dismissal

The Council of State said the rules had been applied “as they have been consistently interpreted by the case law”, meaning local elected officials who are banned from office with immediate effect must be automatically be dismissed by the prefect.

They court also noted that the Constitutional Council had ruled at the end of March on the difference in treatment of MPs and local elected officials, and determined that municipal councillors are not in the same situation as MPs, because of the constitutional powers they hold “in the exercise of national sovereignty, the passing of laws, and the oversight of the Government’s actions”.

The Council of State said departmental councillors are in a similar position to municipal councillors, so the same reasoning applies.

Le Pen therefore remains an MP, but cannot continue serving as a departmental councillor.

The council had already rejected Le Pen’s appeal challenging the immediate application of her term of ineligibility.

Her appeal trial is scheduled to take place from 13 January to 12 February, with a decision expected four months later.

If the sentence were to be upheld, Le Pen would be barred from running in the 2027 presidential race.

(with newswires)

In an interview with US broadcaster Fox News, a discussion between Trump and presenter Laura Ingraham about foreign students coming to the United States turned into a harsh critique of France.

When Ingraham questioned him on the enrolment of Chinese students at US universities, saying, “they’re not the French, they’re the Chinese. They spy on us. They steal our intellectual property,” Trump answered:  “Do you think the French are better, really?… I’m not so sure”.

He then switched the focus from China to France’s taxation policies, which he said were a problem for the US.

Tariff war continues

“We’ve had a lot of problems with the French where we get taxed unfairly on our technology, where you know they put 25 percent taxes on American products,” Trump said, likely referring to an amendment to France’s 2026 budget bill currently being debated in parliament that would establish a 25 percent minimum tax rate on profits made by multinationals based on their activities in France.

The measure was passed in the National Assembly but must still be approved by the conservative-controlled Senate, which could strike it down.

The National Assembly also voted to double a digital tax on global tech giants, aimed at American firms Google, Apple, Meta and others – against the government’s wishes.

Economy Minister Roland Lescure warned that a “disproportionate” tax would lead to “disproportionate” retaliatory measures.

Trump has previously said he would impose extra tariffs on countries that introduced discriminatory digital taxes.

Tension between Trump and Macron

Trump’s relationship with French President Emmanuel Macron has had tensions in his second term, notably over the war in Ukraine and especially after Macron recognised the Palestinian state, which Trump opposed.

Macron has been part European efforts to keep Trump providing military support of Ukraine against Russia, especially after he insisted that the continent fund its own defence through Nato.

Trump U-turn on foreign students

More surprising than the critique of France, however, was Trump’s apparent reversal of his administration’s hard line on China and his defence of his decision to issue 600,000 student visas for China, despite a backlash from some supporters.

“A lot of MAGA folks, um, are not thrilled about this idea of hundreds of thousands of foreign students in the United States,” Ingraham said

Trump argued that American universities depend on foreign students, and he does not want to destroy them by limiting enrolment, especially as they pay more than Americans.

“The students pay more than double when they come in from most foreign countries, I want to see our school system thrive,” he said: “It’s not that I want them, but I view it as a business.” 

(with newswires)

As part of the annual ceremony marking the end of the First World War, Macron and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu unveiled a plaque in memory of the men, often referred to as malgré-nous (“despite ourselves”), at the Hôtel des Invalides.

Men from Alsace and Moselle were conscripted into the German army in 1942, following the introduction of compulsory military service for residents of those territories, which were annexed by Germany in 1940.

Although many tried to escape, most were compelled to serve, and between 20,000 and 40,000 died. Some 90,000 returned to France, where they were often considered traitors.

Six malgré-nous veterans were at the ceremony and were recognised by Macron, who had already spoken of the “tragedy of the malgré-nous” during the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Strasbourg in November 2024.

Remembrance Day in Paris

At the close of the annual Remembrance Day ceremony in Paris, after inspecting the troops, Macron laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe.

Among those who took turns to also lay a wreath were Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet and the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher.

Politicians, including former presidents and their families, are traditionally invited to the ceremony. Nicolas Sarkozy, who was released from prison on Monday, had announced that he would not attend.

The president’s wife Brigitte Macron was also absent. She has attended only once as first lady, during the centenary of the Armistice in 2018.

(with newswires)

The probe comes as France prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks in and around Paris that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more in 2015, claimed by the Islamic State armed group.

Abdeslam was sentenced to life in prison in 2022, while the nine other attackers blew themselves up or were killed by police.

Magistrates opened a probe on Monday after finding several discussions or internet searches linked to a “plot for violent action” on electronic devices found at the home of Abdeslam’s former girfriend, a woman identified as Maeva B, according to France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT).

The woman, who has been in custody since Tuesday, exhibited “clear radicalisation and a fascination for jihad”, the PNAT said.

She became the target of an investigation during another probe into USB devices that had been given to Abdeslam in detention in December last year and this January.

The couple have since separated, and have not been in a relationship since April, according to the PNAT.

Paris court condemns 19 accused terrorists, Abdeslam jailed for life

In addition, a 17-year-old girl living in southern France and a 20-year-old man living in southeastern France were detained on Friday as part of the investigation into the alleged plot.

However, senior police officer Celine Berthon earlier on Monday said Abdeslam “was not implicated in any attack plot”, even if he did remain “radicalised”.

Paris attacks jihadist Abdeslam transferred from Belgium to France

The PNAT said analysis of Abdeslam’s computer showed he had accessed “audio files, images or videos, most of them relating to the official propaganda of terrorist organisations, Islamic State (group) or Al-Qaeda”.

Abdeslam’s lawyers said in a statement that he was in “no way suspected of being involved, directly or indirectly, in any criminal project”, and that no USB stick had been found.

(with AFP) 

Hannibal Kadhafi, who was abducted in 2015 by militants in Syria where he was living with his family in exile after his father was killed in Libya in 2011, was released on Monday, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

He was taken into custody by Lebanon, which accused him of withholding information about the fate of Lebanese Shiite Imam Moussa el-Sadr, who disappeared during an official trip to Libya in 1978.

Lebanon blamed his disappearances on Muammar Kadhafi.

Hannibal Kadhafi, who is 49, was only two years old at the time, old, and he never held a senior position in Libya as an adult.

Human rights organisations decried Kadhafi’s detention, and he went on hunger strike in 2023 in protest.

Libya formally requested his release then, citing the deterioration in his health that required hospitalisation.

Lebanon’s judiciary last month ordered that he be freed and set bail at $11 million, which judicial authorities reduced to roughly $900,000 last week, after his lawyers objected to the amount.

The updated bail decision also lifted a travel ban on Gaddafi, and his French lawyer Laurent Bayon said he was released after the bail was paid.

“The bail was paid this morning,” Bayon told the AFP news agency Monday. “Hannibal Kadhafi will finally be free. It’s the end of a nightmare for him that lasted 10 years.”

Bayon said his client was set to leave Lebanon for a “confidential” destination, adding that he holds a Libyan passport.

Kadhafi’s defence team reportedly also withdrew a case against the Lebanese state they had filed in Geneva last month over holding him without trial.

Libya’s Tripoli-based Government National Unity expressed appreciation to Lebanon for Kadhafi’s release, which it said would reactivate diplomatic relations between the two countries” which had been strained by the cleric’s disappearance.

(with newswires)

The conference is being held in Belém, at the gateway to the Amazon rainforest, bringing together nearly 190 national delegations and up to 50,000 participants.

Brazil’s presidency has called it the “Cop of the people, Cop of truth, Cop of action”, but the summit faces an unclear agenda and sharp disagreements over how – or even whether – a final declaration can be reached.

Just over a month ago, countries were due to publish their new climate plans. Barely more than half have done so, and their combined ambition falls short. The world is still heading for 2.4C of warming by the end of the century – which scientists warn is a catastrophe for humanity and the planet.

To avoid another failure, the Brazilian presidency is not attempting a grand final declaration. It wants instead to launch more concrete commitments with a group of willing states, in a bid to save what can be saved of global climate cooperation.

World leaders face Amazon reckoning on a decade of climate promises

Fossil fuel fight

At a summit of heads of state three days earlier, several leaders – including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – said it was necessary to prepare for the end of fossil fuels. But beyond that political signal, there is almost no chance of finding consensus, as oil-producing countries remain firmly opposed.

“How are we going to do this? Is there going to be consensus about how we are going to do it? This is one of the great mysteries of Cop30,” conference president André Corrêa do Lago said.

“My preference is not to need a Cop decision. If countries have an overwhelming desire for a Cop decision, we will certainly think about it and deal with it.”

Do Lago said emerging countries were appearing at this Cop with a different role. He noted the rise of China’s importance in the talks as the US seeks to exit the Paris Agreement in January and the European Union struggles to maintain its level of ambition amid worries over energy security.

“Emerging countries are appearing in this Cop with a different role. China is coming with solutions for everyone,” Do Lago added, pointing to inexpensive green technologies from China now leading the energy transition worldwide.

Europe’s climate progress overshadowed by worsening loss of nature

Indigenous voices

Civil society is making its return after three Cops in authoritarian countries, and it intends to be heard. Indigenous leaders in particular are demanding a real say in decisions that affect their lands and future.

Brazilian groups are joined by visiting delegations who arrived on Sunday evening by boat after travelling 3,000 kilometres from the Andes to the Brazilian coast.

They want stronger control over how their territories are managed as climate change worsens and industries such as mining, logging and oil drilling push deeper into forests.

“We want to make sure that they don’t keep promising, that they will start protecting, because we as indigenous people are the ones who suffer from these impacts of climate change,” said Pablo Inuma Flores, an indigenous leader from Peru, who also criticised oil spills and illegal mining along the river.

EU ministers agree weakened climate target to take to Brazil summit

Money gap

Adaptation to natural disasters that are already hitting is another key issue for Southern countries, especially in Africa.

Negotiators are tasked with defining 100 indicators to measure how prepared countries are. But what vulnerable states say they mainly need to adapt is money.

Money is the final major challenge at this Cop. Last year’s summit ended in failure, with rich countries promising $300 billion per year within 10 years to help the poorest countries, when at least four times more would be needed.

Brazil wants to propose reaching $1.3 trillion, but the question of where to find the money is expected to cause tension.

Countries also want to address financial and action targets for adapting to a warmer world, with hopes that development banks can reform enough to ensure more money – including from the private sector – goes to these goals.

Ahead of the summit, scientists at dozens of universities and institutions from Asia, Africa and Europe sounded an alarm over the world’s thawing glaciers, ice sheets and other frozen areas.

“The cryosphere is destabilising at an alarming pace,” they said in an open letter to Cop30 published on Monday.

“Geopolitical tensions or short-term national interests must not overshadow Cop30. Climate change is the defining security and stability challenge of our time.”

The first point of order for Cop30 is to vote on an agenda.

Do Lago said countries had been wrangling for months over what to include, describing this as a healthy exchange of priorities.

By Monday morning, 106 governments had submitted new climate plans, with more expected this week.

(with newswires)

A Paris court agreed to release Sarkozy under judicial supervision, pending an appeal of last month’s verdict that found him guilty of criminal conspiracy over efforts by close aides to procure funds for his 2007 presidential bid from late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Sarkozy is forbidden from contacting other people indicted in the case, as well as the current Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, who visited Sarkozy in prison last month.

He is due to leave La Sante prison Monday afternoon, after 20 days behind bars.

His prison sentence was enforced immediately after the verdict, because of what the judge called the “extraordinary seriousness” of the crime.

During Monday’s hearing, Sarkozy spoke via video from the prison, saying the experience of being behind bars was “hard, really hard, as it is certainly be for any detainee. I would even say it is exhausting”.

Sarkozy has consistently denied wrongdoing, saying he is a victim of revenge and hatred.

He is under formal investigation in another case for being accessory to witness tampering.

He has appealed the guilty verdict, but said he would respect any demand from the judiciary if he were freed.

“I am French, sir,” he told the judge. “I love my country. I am fighting for the truth to prevail. I will comply with all the obligations imposed on me, as I always have,” he said.

(with Reuters)

African Union Commission President Mahmoud Ali Youssouf expressed “deep concern over the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Mali” on Sunday, referring to an ongoing fuel blockade by jihadists that has impacted civilians.

For weeks, jihadists with the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) have imposed a fuel blockade on Mali, creating a crisis for the ruling military junta.

In a statement, Youssouf warned that the fuel blockade was impacting “innocent civilians”, and he called for a “robust, coordinated, and coherent” international response to counter terrorism in Mali and the Sahel region.

The junta has struggled to counter various armed groups since it took power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021.

Youssouf also called for the release of three Egyptians that jihadists kidnapped for ransom, calling their abduction “grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law”.

France recommends leaving

The degrading security situation has prompted the France to recommend its citizens leave the country.

The Foreign Ministry on Friday recommended people leave Mali temporarily as soon as possible, because “the security context is degrading in Mali, including in Bamako”.

The ministry urged people to use commercial flights and not leave by land, as main the roads in Mali are targets of “attacks from terrorist groups”.

The ministry also reiterated its formal advice against travelling to Mali, “regardless of the reason”.

Last week the Ministry called on citizens to be on “high alert”, and other countries, including the UK, Germany, US and Canada have urged their own citizens to leave the country, due to the security situation and the lack of fuel.

Some 4,300 French citizens are registered with the French consulate in Mali, according to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux, who insisted that “security is a priority”.

Although the former president, who was ousted in a coup in August 2023, is not among the accused, his wife Sylvia, eldest son Noureddin and eleven of their associates will stand trial this week, accused of having taken advantage of the power and resources of the presidency.

They face 12 charges that include embezzlement of public funds, “active corruption” and forging official documents.

‘Show trial’

The Bongos have called the proceedings a “show trial”, and Noureddin told French weekly Le Point last week that he had “never embezzled any money”.

He and his mother, who also have French nationality, filed a complaint in a French court last year accusing Gabonese authorities of kidnapping and torturing them after Bongo was ousted.

The two will not attend the hearings, as they left Gabon for London in May, when newly-elected President Brice Clothaire Oligui Nguema agreed to let them leave, on the condition they keep a low profile.

Since then, the Bongos have been openly confrontational towards the Gabonese authorities.

Members of Gabon’s civil society involved in the trial regret that the two will not be present at the special court.

“We simply expect the guilty to pay,” Ghislain Ngui Nze, spokesperson for the Indignant citizens collective (Les citoyens indignés), told RFI.

The group recently issued a statement condemning the arrogance of the former First Lady and her son for refusing to appear before justice.

“In their time, they claimed that Gabon’s justice system was doing its job. Now that they are faced with the facts: they must return to the Republic of Gabon to answer for their actions,” he said.

“These are financial criminals who have destroyed the country, systematically violated human rights, and now refuse to be tried,” said Georges Mpaga, president of the Network of free organisations for good governance, which has joined the case as a civil party.

“Nevertheless, under the United Nations Convention against Corruption, universal jurisdiction allows for international judicial cooperation to repatriate their assets, the proceeds of their crimes.”

(with newswires)

As of Monday at precisely 11:31 am, women in France began working “for free”, and will continue to do so until the end of the year, according to the feminist newsletter Les Glorieuses, which determines this date and time using data on pay disparities between men and women.

Women’s pay

For the same working hours, women earn on average 14.2 percent less than men, according to the latest figures available from the Insee National statistics institute, from 2023 data.

The gender pay gap in France has narrowed since 2016, from 15.1 percent to 14.2 percent. Last year, the symbolic date was 8 November at 4:48pm, in 2023 it was 6 November, and in 2022 it was 4 November.

But Rebecca Amsellem, author and founder of the newsletter, says it is not enough.

“If we do nothing… at the current pace, pay equality will not be achieved until 2167. This means a wait of 142 more years before women and men earn the same average salary,” she wrote, adding that this was “unacceptable”.

“This is not an abstract symbol, it is a real injustice. We must put an end to it,” Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the National Assembly, wrote on X about the date.

Part-time jobs

Women are “more often in part-time jobs and are overrepresented in essential sectors, like healthcare, but they are undervalued by our economic and patriarchal standards,” said Greens leader Marine Tondelier, the only woman heading a major political party.

Les Glorieuses advocates for salary increases in female-dominated sectors, like nursing, education, home care aides, and equal parental leave for both parents after a woman has a child.

“Rather than ask women to constantly adapt, our movement would like a transformation of the world of work, for it to take the reality of women’s lives into consideration,” wrote Amesellem, who has said she hopes that a European directive on pay transparency, which will come into force in France next year, will help women negotiate higher salaries.

(with newswires)

Kolo Muani, 26, was injured on Saturday during Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-2 draw with Manchester United in the English Premier League.

The French Football Federation confirmed on Sunday night hat he had suffered an injury to his lower jaw.

Thauvin, 32, featured in the France squad that won the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

But he fell from favour following the triumph. After six years in the international wilderness, he received a call-up for last round of qualifiers in October and marked his return with a goal in the 3-0 victory against Azerbaijan on 10 October.

French coach Deschamps to step down after 2026 World Cup

France lead European qualifying Group D with 10 points after four games. They will advance to next year’s tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada with a win over second-placed Ukraine on Thursday night at the Parc des Princes.

Even with a defeat, France will get the chance to book their berth in their final game in Azerbaijan on 16 November.

Deschamps, 57, is dealing with a string of injuries to his forward line. Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé was injured during Paris Saint-Germain’s defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League. 

Dembélé’s PSG in teammate Désiré Doué is also absent and Marcus Thuram has only just returned to action with Inter Milan after being sidelined for over a month with a left thigh injury.

However, skipper Kylian Mbappé has been in sparkling form with Real Madrid. The 26-year-old has scored 13 goals for the Spanish league leaders and struck five times in their Champions League games.

(with newswires)

On Sunday, hundreds of people took part in a first commemoration of the attacks, by running and walking through Paris in the March for freedom (Marche de la liberté), taking a symbolic course to pay tribute to the victims of the attack.

On 13 November 2015, ten jihadists who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State Armed group killed 89 people attending a concert at the Bataclan along with 30 people at restaurants and cafes around the concert hall and one person near the Stade de France football stadium.

Several ceremonies are to mark ten years since the attacks on Thursday, with President Emmanuel Macron expected to speak.

The names of those who were killed, as well as those of two people who took their own lives in the aftermath, have been inscribed on commemorative plaques around Paris.

The Terrorism Memorial Museum, due to open in 2029, will present objects linked to the attacks or its victims, most donated by victims’ families.

The French president at the time, Francois Hollande, declared France “at war” with the jihadists and their self-proclaimed Islamic State caliphate in Syria and Iraq, which attracted French citizens and inspired the Paris attacks.

US-backed forces defeated the last remnants of the Islamic State in eastern Syria in 2019.

The only surviving attacker, Salah Abdeslam, is serving life sentence after the nine-month trial of the attacks. The nine others blew themselves up or were killed by police.

France’s anti-terror unit said this weekend that they had arrested three people as part of an investigation into a suspected terror threat linked to Abdeslam.

(with AFP)

Tanzanians were called to the polls on 29 October, but instead of a free and fair election, they were met with severe repression. Demonstrations have been banned, protesters arrested, and members of the opposition detained.

Tanzania’s authorities have also charged more than 200 people with treason — an offence that carries the death penalty.

The incumbent president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, was eventually declared the winner of the election with 98 percent of the vote. However, the opposition – which had been barred from participating – condemned the results as fraudulent.

To explore the deep-rooted causes of this repression, and to consider how the situation could shape the political future not only of Tanzania but of the entire East African region, we are joined by a special guest: Prince Charles Dickson, a Nigerian peace and policy analyst with a PhD from Georgetown University and decades of experience in public policy and development practice.

Films from Africa

The cinema festival Film Africa 2025 (14–23 November 2025) opens in London, UK. To mark the event we have Stella Okuzu, interim director of the festival, with us to explain what’s happening.

Meanwhile in France, the Festival du Cinéma Franco-Arabe de Noisy-le-Sec is coming to an end just outside Paris (7–13 November). The festival has placed a special focus on Tunisian cinema. Mathilde Rouxel, its cultural director and programmer, tells us more.

Sudan’s blind football team success

Also this week we take a look at South Sudan’s blind football team which recently played its first major match in Kampala, Uganda, thanks to the help and support of the charity Light For The World. And they won! 

We have their coach and players on the line to tell us how football changed their life and why it is so important for people with visual impairment.

Angélique Kidjo and La Chica de Favela

Finally, “La Chica de Favela” is an initiative from ‘Beyond Music’, a song featuring a Congolese man, a Latin American, a Swiss citizen, and a Beninese woman, Angélique Kidjo.

“The African continent is predominant on this song”, Angélique told Spotlight on Africa, “and it tells a story through this song.”

It tells the story of a young girl in a favela “who doesn’t want to be defined by her gender”. She is free and independent. “In a patriarchal world that doesn’t necessarily give women much space,” Angélique told us. “And that’s what made the subject interesting to me.”

Episode mixed by Melissa Chemam and Erwan Rome.

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

“Turks out!” shouted protesters as they marched through Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital. Several Turkish-owned businesses, among the country’s largest investors, were ransacked during last month’s violence.

The clashes were sparked by a knife attack on a Montenegrin citizen by Turkish nationals.

After the unrest, Montenegro imposed visa requirements on Turkish visitors. Some opposition parties accused Serbia of stoking the protests, pointing to rising friction between Belgrade and Ankara over the arms sale to Kosovo.

“There are those accusing the Serbian region of being behind it,” Vuk Vuksanovic, of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, told RFI. “Although I have seen no material evidence.”

Widening rift

While Serbia has not commented on the accusations, it has the capacity to incite such unrest given its strong influence in Montenegro, Vuksanovic said. “The drama involving Montenegro has built up to this difficult atmosphere in Serbian-Turkish relations,” he said.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic last month accused Turkey of trying to resurrect the Ottoman Empire through the sale of sophisticated drones to Kosovo, which broke away from Serbia in 1999.

Analysts say the weapons deal could shift the balance of power in the region.

“There are the kamikaze drones, which are posing a threat, and there are also strategic drones likely to be used to secure the border itself and more as a show of force,” said Zoran Ivanov, a security expert from the Institute of National History in Skopje, North Macedonia.

“So it poses a direct security threat to Serbia and Serbia has to react to this.”

Criminalising identity: Turkey’s LGBTQI+ community under threat

Changing alliances

The tension marks a sharp turnaround. In recent years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had built a close relationship with his Serbian counterpart, and Turkish companies became major investors in Serbia.

However the arms sale to Kosovo reveals a shift in Turkey’s relations with Belgrade, explained international relations professor Huseyin Bagci, of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

“Turkey has more leverage than Serbia,” Bagci said. “The relations between Turkey and Serbia, we understand each other, but it is not as happy as before.”

Analysts say the shift reflects Ankara’s wider ambitions in the Balkans.

“Ankara is trying to increase its influence and will do it,” said Bagci, adding that Turkey’s historical and cultural ties to the region run deep – with millions of families tracing their roots back to the former Ottoman territories.

“The Ottoman Empire was a Balkan empire. The Turkish influence is getting bigger, and of course, they don’t like it. But Turkey is the big brother in the Balkans.”

Turkish Cypriot vote could force shift in Erdogan’s approach to divided island

Turkish expansion

Last month, Turkish forces took command of NATO’s KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. At the same time, Turkish businesses continued expanding across the region.

“They’re expanding their markets; they’re expanding their capabilities; they’re expanding their influence,” Ivanov said.

Turkey’s renewed focus on the Balkans was unsurprising given historical ties, he added. “That’s natural for the Turks to come to invest in the region and now looking for their old roots.”

However its expanding presence might feel like history repeating itself, Ivanov warned.

As “a man who is coming from the Balkans,” he said, he sees “the Turks coming as they were in history” – a reminder of a past many in the region have not forgotten.

The European Union has praised Ankara for supporting peacekeeping operations and economic aid in Kosovo. But analysts caution that Turkey must avoid alienating its Balkan neighbours.

“Ankara also has to be mindful of its own limitations of its own Balkan ambitions,” Vuksanovic. said. “Because otherwise it can push majority Christian Orthodox nations like the Serbs, Greeks and Bulgarians to work against the Turks if the Turks are perceived to be too provocative or aggressive.”

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.

It sounds early, but it’s not. 2026 is right around the corner, and I know you want to be a part of our annual New Year celebration, where, with special guests, we read your New Year’s resolutions. So start thinking now, and get your resolutions to me by 15 December. You don’t want to miss out! Send your New Year’s resolutions to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

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 11 October, I asked you to send in the answer to these two questions: Who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, and why was she chosen?

The answers are: The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize went to the Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, because she is, as Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said, “One of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by RFI Listeners Club member Jocelyne D’Errico, who lives in New Zealand. Her question was: “What is the hardest problem you had to resolve in your work or school life?” 

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Shahanoaz Parvin Ripa, the chairwoman of the Sonali Badhan Female Listeners Club in Bogura, Bangladesh. Shahanoaz is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations on your double win, Shahanoaz.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Ras Franz Manko Ngogo, the president of the Kemogemba RFI Club in Tarime, Mara, Tanzania. There’s Rubi Saikia, a member of the United RFI Listeners Club in Assam, India; RFI Listeners Club member Helmut Matt from Herbolzheim, Germany, and last but not least, RFI English listener H. M. Tarek from Narayanganj, Bangladesh. 

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Le matin d´un jour de féte” from Claude Debussy’s Iberia, performed by the Czech Philhamonic conducted by Jean Fournet; “Give Peace a Chance” by John Lennon, performed by John Lennon & Friends; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Nine Over Reggae” by Jack DeJohnette, performed by DeJohnette, Pat Metheny, and Herbie Hancock.

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 Michael Sarpong Mfum’s article  “Invasive water hyacinths choke wildlife and livelihoods in southern Ghana”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 1 December to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 6 December 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. 

False claims that President Emmanuel Macron’s wife Brigitte is transgender first emerged online in 2021. The story could have fizzled out. But pushed by the far right and conspiracy theorists, it’s now reached half the world’s population. Ten people are on trial in France for cyberbullying the first lady and a lawsuit has been filed against a far-right influencer in the US. Thomas Huchon, an investigative journalist and teacher specialising in fake news, says he and other mainstream journalists failed to address the story when it broke, allowing conspiracists to fill the gap. (Listen @2’15”)

Open-air food markets are arguably a cornerstone of life in France. Held once or twice a week in most cities, they’re one of the few ways of still bringing people together. On a visit to Paris’ Aligre market, journalist Olivier Razemon, author of a new book extolling street markets as “an ingredient for a happy society”, argues that they are underappreciated by policymakers and the general public for their ability to create community and revive urban centres. (Listen @20’40”)

One of France’s earliest colonisation attempts was in what is now Brazil, when 600 settlers arrived in Guanabara Bay – now Rio de Janeiro – in November 1555. The colony, called France Antarctique (Antarctic France), lasted only 12 years, but it inspired other French colonising missions as well as reshaping Europeans’ ideas about South America and its people. (Listen @15′)

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).

This week, the New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the Turkish government to drop a proposed law targeting the country’s LGBTQI+ community. Amnesty International has made a similar demand.

Rights groups sound the alarm

The proposed legislation, which was leaked to the media, criminalises attitudes and actions deemed contrary to biological sex, carrying sentences of up to three years in prison.

“It’s really one of the worst reforms, or proposed reforms, we’ve seen in many years,” warns Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey director of Human Rights Watch.

“Because it basically says that the government or the authorities can decide that certain behaviour and attitudes are contrary to biological sex and general morality, and are criminal on that basis.”

Turkey’s Pride struggling to survive amid LGBTQ+ crackdown

Widespread impact

Sinclair-Webb claims that with the proposed law criminalising the promotion of the LGBTQI+ community, its impact would be far-reaching.

“That could affect journalists reporting on matters connected with gender, sexuality and gender identity. It could mean NGOs working to defend the rights of LGBTQI+ people from stigmatisation and discrimination.”

Since the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, homosexuality has never been criminalised. But LGBTQI+ rights advocates warn that this could change, given the broadly written nature of the proposed law.

“It’s not even same-sex sexual acts that are criminalised. It’s just your appearance. Because the law says anything against biological sex. I mean, it could be very widely interpreted,” explains Öner Ceylan of Lambda a LGBTQI+ rights group in Turkey

“So, this could be a woman with short hair or wearing trousers,” adds Ceylan. “Let’s say I’m on the streets, I’m being myself, and I can go to jail for it for three months. Then I’m released, and what happens next? I can easily go back to jail according to that law. So it can be a perfect excuse to imprison an LGBTQI+ person.”

Turkey’s embattled civil society fears worst as foreign funding dries up

Decade of crackdowns

Under the proposed law, people could face between three months and three years in prison, opening the door to lengthy pre-trial detention and the risk of mass arrests  – a prospect that worries rights groups.

Since the early 2000s, Turkey’s LGBTQI+ community has become increasingly visible and vibrant, particularly in Istanbul, with gay clubs, cafés and bars. The city once hosted large Pride marches, with the 2015 event drawing over one hundred thousand people.

However, for the past decade, Turkey’s religiously conservative government has been cracking down on the community in the name of protecting the family. Pride marches have been banned since 2015.

“Now they’ve banned any kind of LGBTQI+ event in the public sphere,” explains Yıldız Tar of Kaos, an LGBTQI+ group. “We no longer share public venues or their addresses. So we are already living a kind of criminalised life, as if many queer people coming together is a criminal activity, which it is not.”

Tar warns that the proposed law represents the endgame in the government’s campaign. “It’s the result of a decade-long war against LGBTQI+ people, and if this law passes, this is the last step.”

Turkey’s embattled civil society fears worst as foreign funding dries up

Rising rhetoric and rising

In September, the Turkish Interior Ministry filed a criminal complaint against openly gay pop singer Mabel Matiz, alleging that one of his songs violated morals and obscenity laws.

Meanwhile, an all-women pop group, Manifest, was detained under the country’s morality laws for one of their performances, prompting the group to end their sell-out national tour.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been ramping up his rhetoric against the LGBTQI+ community, even equating it with terrorism. The proposed legislation also targets the country’s transgender community, banning gender-affirming healthcare for those under the age of 25.

The LGBTQI+ community has vowed to step up its protests against the law and has secured the support of Turkey’s two main opposition parties in opposing it. But Tar warns that if the law passes, many in the community will likely flee the country –  though he says he and others are ready to resist, whatever the cost.

“We will continue to do our work, to share the very basic knowledge that being LGBTQI+ is not a threat to society. It’s not a threat to the family,” declares Tar. “But it will be harder, and most of us will end up in jail.”

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.