The signing of the agreement between the EU and Mercosur, 25 years in the making, has been pushed back until January.

The European Commission informed the Mercosur countries of the delay on Friday, after opposition from France and Italy ended hopes of sealing the pact on the margins of Thursday’s EU leaders’ summit.

The agreement would create the world’s largest free-trade area and boost EU exports of cars, machinery, wines and spirits to Latin America at a time of mounting global trade tensions.

But the backlash from Europe’s farming community – already simmering over subsidies, imports and disease controls – proved decisive.

Farmers descend on Brussels to protest EU Mercosur trade deal

Tractors and tear gas

Thousands of farmers descended on Brussels on Thursday, driving around 1,000 tractors into the Belgian capital as the Mercosur deal loomed over the summit.

While the protest was largely peaceful, tensions flared near the European Parliament, where fires were lit and objects including potatoes and bottles were thrown at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons.

Paris and Rome argue that the current text does not sufficiently protect European farmers from being undercut by cheaper imports from agricultural heavyweight Brazil and its neighbours.

Together, Italy, France, Hungary and Poland account for more than the 35 percent blocking minority required in the European Council – a threshold that was reached after Italy decided on Wednesday to push back against the deal.

French President Emmanuel Macron struck a cautious note at the summit, saying it was “too soon” to say whether Paris would back the deal next month and insisting that “fundamental changes” were needed.

Italy has called for tougher safeguard clauses, tighter import controls and stricter standards for Mercosur producers.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sought to project confidence despite the setback.

“This evening, we have achieved a breakthrough to pave the way for a successful completion of the Mercosur agreement in January,” she said, after abandoning plans to travel to Brazil this weekend for a signing ceremony.

Germany, Spain and the Nordic countries remain strong supporters of the pact, seeing it as a way to bolster exports as Europe grapples with Chinese competition and an unpredictable White House.

Farmers clash with police in southwest France over mass cattle culls and trade fears

Disease outbreak deepens anger

The anger in Brussels reflects wider grievances among farmers – particularly in France, where the handling of a cattle disease outbreak has reignited protests and sharpened opposition to Mercosur.

In southern France, farmers have been blocking roads in protest at the government’s response to an outbreak of lumpy skin disease, a virus affecting cattle. This has fuelled resentment over what many see as a long-term decline in French agriculture caused by foreign competition and excessive regulation.

The government has responded by deploying the army to speed up vaccinations, flying in hundreds of thousands of doses and drafting in military veterinarians.

The aim is to vaccinate 750,000 cows within a month, as authorities seek to contain the outbreak ahead of the year-end holiday period.

The crux of the farmers’ anger is a policy of slaughtering entire herds when the virus is detected – a measure the government says is necessary to prevent the disease spreading across France, home to the EU’s largest cattle herd.

Some farmers’ unions argue the policy is devastating livelihoods and compounding long-standing frustrations.

Macron has linked the domestic crisis directly to the broader trade debate, doubling down on his pledge not to endorse the Mercosur deal unless protections for European farmers are significantly strengthened.

French farmers were among those who travelled to Brussels this week to protest, as local grievances converged with fears over global trade.

(with newswires)

Carole Sun was convicted at the end of a three-day trial by the special assize court in Paris. The sentence includes five years of supervision after her release and a court-ordered requirement for medical treatment, judicial sources said.

Sun left France for Syria in July 2014 when she was 18, travelling with her older brother. She was arrested in December 2017 by Kurdish forces while fleeing along the Euphrates River during the collapse of the Islamic State group, the court heard.

The convoy included several well-known female jihadists, including Emilie König, a notorious recruiter and the first woman to be put on the US’s international terrorist blacklist.

France’s domestic intelligence agency, the DGSI, viewed the movement as an attempt by Islamic State to relocate members into remaining pockets of territory, including the Idlib area.

Sun returned to France on 5 July 2022 during the first large-scale repatriation of children and their mothers since the fall of the group’s self-proclaimed caliphate in 2019.

Now aged 30, she told the court she had become radicalised on social media and described her departure as a way of “patching up” personal trauma, including a gang rape when she was 14.

Maximum fine sought for cement maker Lafarge over terror financing

Jihadist ties

During the trial, the presiding judge said Sun lived with or associated with “highly publicised individuals” who were “known for extremely cruel abuses” or who fought in units that later included attackers involved in the 13 November 2015 Paris attacks.

Among them was Salaheddine Guitone, a French Islamic State propagandist she had met on Facebook. She married him soon after arriving in Syria, the court heard. The marriage lasted about 10 days before he was killed in combat.

Judges also referred to her brother, Charly Sun, now imprisoned in Iraq. He was part of an Islamic police unit led by Salim Benghalem, a French jihadist identified in court as a hostage jailer.

In a later marriage, Sun wed a member of the Amniyat, the group’s intelligence service. She wrote to her mother that the man “kills traitors”, the court heard. He is also imprisoned in Iraq.

French anti-terrorist squad launches inquiry into Sydney anti-Semitic attack

‘Inside ideology’

Questioned about a photograph showing her baby with a semi-automatic pistol on his lap, Sun said she could not explain it. “I was inside the ideology, and it stopped me from seeing that it was serious,” she said.

Sun admitted she was not shocked when her brother described violent acts. “I didn’t think it would be so hard to see,” she said.

After hours of questioning, Sun added: “The truth was the Islamic State, and I closed my eyes to the abuses.” She also acknowledged that she had adopted the group’s codes and helped spread its propaganda, the court heard.

Macron warns of shifting threat as France honours Paris attack victims

Years spent in camps

Sun told the court she spent more than four years with her two children in Syrian camps holding displaced people and suspected jihadists. Beyond extreme heat, illness and poverty, the hardest part was “the population, which is frightening”, she said.

“It’s like a jungle, a hell full of rumours, fear and very extreme women,” she said. Several French women testified that Sun remained supportive of Islamic State, which she denied.

The prosecutor, who sought a 12-year sentence, said public order concerns were compounded by the number of women still awaiting trial.

Around 60 French women who travelled to the Iraq-Syria zone are yet to be tried. Of more than 1,500 French people who left for the region, 160 women have returned to France, and 30 have been tried since 2017, judicial figures said.

(with newswires)

The deal, struck in the early hours of Friday during summit talks in Brussels, comes at a critical moment for Ukraine.

With the war approaching its fifth year and United States President Donald Trump pressing for a rapid peace deal, European leaders were under growing pressure to shore up Ukraine’s finances.

European Council President Antonio Costa, who chaired the summit, said: “Today’s decision will provide Ukraine with the necessary means to defend itself and to support the Ukrainian people.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the outcome, describing it as “significant support that truly strengthens our resilience”.

Writing on X (formerly Twitter), he added that it was crucial that Russian assets remain frozen and that Ukraine now has a degree of financial security for the coming years.

Frozen assets plan falls away

Behind the scenes, however, the talks were fraught. EU leaders had initially hoped to unlock far larger sums by tapping around €200 billion of Russian central bank assets frozen in the bloc since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.

The idea was to use those assets to underpin a loan for Ukraine – a move Kyiv has long argued is both morally and legally justified.

But the plan ultimately collapsed after Belgium, where the bulk of the frozen assets are held, demanded firm guarantees over how any legal or financial liability would be shared.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, briefing reporters as the summit wrapped up, said he believed “rationality has prevailed”.

The Kremlin was quick to applaud the failure of the assets plan. Kirill Dmitriev, Russia’s top economic negotiator, said on social media that Europe had resisted the temptation to “illegitimately use Russian assets to finance Ukraine”.

“For the time being, the law and common sense have won a victory,” he added.

EU leaders instead settled on a loan covering the next two years, backed by the bloc’s common budget.

The European Commission estimates that Ukraine will need an additional €135 billion to stay afloat over that period.

Von der Leyen calls for unity on funding Ukraine as EU leaders meet in Brussels

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had been among the strongest advocates of using Russian assets, but said the final agreement still “sends a clear signal to President Putin”.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen struck an optimistic note, stressing that Ukraine would not be left shouldering the burden indefinitely.

She said Kyiv would only be expected to repay the loan once Russia compensates it for the damage caused by the war – a nod to the longer-term push to hold Moscow financially accountable.

Because issuing joint EU debt requires unanimous backing from all 27 member states, sceptical governments including Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic were granted exemptions from the commitment, allowing the deal to go through without a last-minute veto.

Zelensky had made a direct plea to leaders at the start of the summit, arguing that using Russian assets was the fairest solution. “Russian assets must be used to defend against Russian aggression and rebuild what was destroyed by Russian attacks,” he said. “It’s moral. It’s fair. It’s legal.”

While Kyiv may be disappointed that Europe did not take that step, securing funding by other means still brings relief. Zelensky had warned leaders that a decision was needed before the end of the year, and said stronger financial footing could give Ukraine greater leverage in any future talks to end the war.

Macron demands ‘robust security guarantees’ before any Ukraine territorial talks

Diplomacy gathers pace

Those diplomatic efforts are already under way elsewhere. Alongside the EU summit, Washington has been pushing its own initiative to broker an end to the conflict – an effort that has so far largely side-lined European capitals.

French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that Europe should take a more active role in engaging Moscow directly.

“I believe that it’s in our interest as Europeans and Ukrainians to find the right framework to re-engage this discussion,” he said, adding that Europeans should look to do so “in coming weeks”.

Zelensky announced that Ukrainian and US delegations would hold fresh talks on Friday and Saturday in the United States. He said he was seeking clearer answers from Washington about the security guarantees it could offer to deter any future Russian aggression.

President Trump, meanwhile, continued to apply pressure on Kyiv, saying once again that he hopes Ukraine will “move quickly” towards an agreement.

(with newswires)

The government announced this week that 18 Kenyans who had been sent to fight on the Ukrainian front had been repatriated from Russia as part of a diplomatic push to assist Kenyans who have found themselves trapped in Russian military camps.

More than 200 Kenyans may have joined the Russian military, including some former members of the country’s security forces, Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi said in a briefing last month.

“It is estimated that recruitment networks are still active in both Kenya and Russia,” he warned, adding that Kenya’s embassy in Moscow had documented cases where recruits were injured – some seriously.

How Moscow is reinventing its influence machine across Africa

Crackdown on recruitment agencies

The government has now promised tighter oversight of recruitment agencies that offer jobs abroad. Mudavadi said all such recruiters must be registered with Kenya’s National Employment Authority, noting that around 600 agencies have already been struck off the approved list.

Anti-trafficking groups have been calling for tougher action. Paul Adoch, director of the NGO Trace Kenya, says the phenomenon is neither new nor limited to combat roles.

“We have been seeing these departures to Russia for three years now,” he told RFI.

Before men were sent to the front lines, he said, young women were being recruited under false pretences to work in factories making military equipment.

The US State Department’s 2025 report on human trafficking cites reports of Kenyan women aged between 18 and 22 who believed they were heading for vocational training, only to end up working in Russian drone factories.

Adoch is calling for comprehensive legislation to regulate migrant labour. A draft law was submitted to parliament last year, but has yet to be debated.

Wagner replaced in Mali by Africa Corps, another Russian military group

Lured by promises

The Foreign Ministry has received reports of agents fraudulently convincing victims to sign contracts by promising to pay the equivalent of €15,000 for visas, travel and accommodation.

Leaked diplomatic cables exchanged between the ministry and Kenya’s embassy in Moscow, published in the Daily Nation newspaper earlier this week, paint a picture of how recruitment networks operate.

In one case, a man said he thought he had secured a job in meat processing in Russia. Recruited by a Nairobi-based agency, he paid 30,000 Kenyan shillings – less than €200 – to obtain a Russian visa within a week. The entire process was handled through WhatsApp.

On arrival in Moscow, he was taken to a military training camp and later deployed to Ukraine.

While he is among a handful of Kenyans who have been repatriated with the help of the embassy, at least 82 others are believed to remain stranded in Russia.

According to the cables, Kenyan nationals have been sent to camps in Belgorod, Saint Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don and Istra. Many recruits have no military background and receive less than a week of training before being sent to fight.

Four ended up in hospitals in Moscow, including for fractures and amputations. 

Martin Macharia Mburu, a man from north of Nairobi who believed he was going to work as a chauffeur, is believed to be the first Kenyan officially recorded dead in the fighting in Ukraine, according to the Nation’s sources. He was reportedly killed at the end of October on the front in Lyman.

African troops ‘forced to Ukraine frontlines’ while Russians stay in camp

African recruitment pool

In September, Kenyan police raided a housing complex outside Nairobi where 21 people were found allegedly being readied for deployment to the front line. A Russian suspect was arrested.

Kenyan officials say they have since raised the issue of fraudulent recruitment with Moscow.

Kenya is not the only country affected. A Ukrainian intelligence report published last year said Moscow had recruited foreign nationals from Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo and Uganda as well as Nepal, India and Cuba, while nationals of several more countries have spoken to the media about their ordeal. 

According to the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri), African countries are fertile ground for Russian recruiters. Sub-Saharan Africa in particular represents “a vast and easily accessible recruitment pool due to high poverty rates in most countries in the region combined with a strong desire to emigrate”, the think tank said in a report released on Thursday.

RFI spoke to one Cameroonian who thought he was going to Russia to work as a caretaker and ended up on the Ukrainian front. 

“What I want is to mobilise the Africans who are travelling to Russia, so that they understand that they are being used. I want to tell people what’s going on… so that it stops, so that Africans stop coming here to die,” he said.

“We come here to die in a war that we don’t know where it came from or why it started.”

This story was adapted from the original in French by RFI correspondent Gaëlle Laleix.

The vote, held on Thursday in the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, finalised the adoption of the bill after it was backed by the Senate in March and supported by the government.

The rare unanimous result underlined the political consensus around the issue.

The text states that the enforcement of France’s former abortion laws “criminalising the use of, practice of, access to, and information about abortion” amounted to an infringement on women’s health, sexual and reproductive autonomy and fundamental rights.

Before abortion was decriminalised, the bill notes, restrictions led to “numerous deaths” and caused widespread physical and moral suffering among women forced to seek dangerous, clandestine procedures.

Should France guarantee supply of abortion drugs by producing its own?

‘Shattered lives’

“This is an act of justice towards those thousands of lives shattered by unjust laws,” said Aurore Bergé, the minister-delegate for gender equality, during an emotional address to MPs in which she recounted that her own mother had undergone an abortion.

“We have a responsibility to make amends,” she said, “but above all we have a duty to sound the alarm,” warning of growing attacks on women’s rights around the world.

Official estimates suggest that between 1870 and 1975, more than 11,660 people were convicted in France for either performing an abortion or seeking one – a figure that campaigners say reflects only part of the true scale.

While the new law does not provide for financial reparations, it establishes a commission tasked with collecting, preserving and sharing the memories of women who underwent secret abortions, as well as those who helped them.

France’s Veil abortion law leaves positive but fragile legacy, 50 years on

Constitutional right

The vote was witnessed by Claudine Monteil, one of 343 women who, in 1971, signed an open letter declaring that they had had abortions and calling for legalisation – an act of civil disobedience that helped shift public opinion.

France decriminalised the voluntary termination of pregnancy with the 1975 Veil Law, named after Simone Veil, the health minister who steered the legislation through parliament despite fierce opposition.

In 2024 France became the first country in the world to enshrine the right to terminate a pregnancy in its constitution – a move seen as a response to global rollbacks of reproductive rights.

Abortion remains a charged political issue in many countries, with access restricted or reversed in some places, including parts of the United States.

“France is sending a clear message, at home and abroad – no one should ever be convicted for having an abortion,” the Women’s Foundation said in a statement welcoming the vote.

The decision comes as the European Parliament this week voted in favour of an EU fund that would help member states provide abortion care to women who cannot access it safely in their own country. Access to abortion still varies sharply from one country to another across the bloc.

(with newswires)

“At the beginning of the crisis, 42,000 vehicles were equipped with Takata airbags. We were able to identify a large number of them,” Guadeloupe’s prefect Thierry Devimeux said on Wednesday.

He warned that “owners are not taking the necessary steps” over the 16,000 identified vehicles whose airbags have still not been changed.

“The state services are unable to determine which vehicles are still on the road or not, which have been purchased or not,” he said, adding that police and gendarmes would begin random spot checking of vehicles on the roads.

Last week, the French Ministry of Transport announced that, starting 1 January 2026, all vehicles presented for technical inspection will be checked to determine if they are equipped with a Takata airbag and classified as “stop drive” if so – meaning an immediate ban on driving until they have been replaced.

Defective Takata airbags prompt mass recall of popular car models in France

Deadly explosions

The now bankrupt Japanese company Takata has been at the heart of a global scandal for more than a decade.

Its airbags have caused deadly explosions and resulted in serious injuries due to an explosive propellant – ammonium nitrate – which degrades over time, particularly in hot and humid climates.

The airbags deploy even in the event of a minor collision, causing an explosion similar to that of a grenade and projecting pieces of metal and plastic into the car.

To date, 46 accidents have been attributed to defective Takata airbag explosions across France – including 42 in overseas territories and departments – which have caused 20 deaths (18 of which were in overseas territories) and 25 injuries (24 in overseas territories).

Guadeloupe is the French overseas territory that has been most affected by accidents caused by Takata airbags, with 10 deaths recorded.

At the end of November, a driver also died due to a faulty airbag in Réunion Island, where as of 30 November there were 20,416 potentially dangerous vehicles still on the road, according to the prefecture.

Lawsuits

The French consumer association CLCV announced earlier this month that it had launched a class action lawsuit against the car manufacturer Stellantis on behalf of 150 owners of cars equipped with defective Takata airbags.

The CLCV said it wanted to “assert the damage” suffered by vehicle owners affected by the recall campaign, which it called “late, partial and disorganised”.

The organisation said owners were affected by “material” damages as well as moral damages such as “anxiety-related harm”.

Citroën tells C3 and DS3 owners to stop driving after latest airbag death

Stellantis declined to comment on the ongoing proceedings but told French news agency AFP that the group “is mobilising its entire network and implementing the most significant measures to guarantee the safety of its customers”.

The manufacturer also specified that 70 percent of the vehicles in its French fleet of Citroën, DS, and Opel brands “have been serviced,” including 90 percent of C3 and DS3 vehicles.

According to figures released by the Ministry of Transport on 3 December, 670,000 vehicles have been repaired since July, the date of the decree that strengthened the recall measures. In total, “almost 1.2 million vehicles have been repaired,” it added.

UFC-Que Choisir, another major consumer association, also launched a class action lawsuit against Stellantis in France for in July.

In the United States – the country hardest hit, with 28 deaths – Ford, Toyota, Honda, BMW, Nissan and Mazda have paid a total of $1.5 billion in compensation to victims.

(with newswires)

Frédéric Péchier, 53, was found guilty of contaminating IV bags to trigger cardiac arrests or haemorrhages in patients treated by colleagues in two clinics in the eastern city of Besançon between 2008 and 2017.

The court heard that Péchier tainted IV bags with potassium, local anaesthetics, adrenaline and an anticoagulant. His youngest victim, 4-year-old Teddy, survived two cardiac arrests during a routine tonsil operation in 2016. The oldest victim was 89.

“You will be incarcerated immediately,” presiding judge Delphine Thibierge said as the verdict was delivered.

Péchier, who has denied wrongdoing since the investigation began in 2017 and had not been held in custody, appeared unmoved.

Members of his family broke down in tears. His lawyer Ornella Spatafora said he would appeal.

French doctor accused of fatally poisoning 12 patients goes on trial

‘Thirst for power’

The case began after a series of unexplained cardiac arrests during routine operations on patients considered low risk. Investigators opened a formal inquiry in 2017. Twelve of the patients could not be resuscitated.

During a trial lasting more than three months, prosecutors asked for a life sentence, telling the court Péchier had “used medicine to kill”. They said his actions were aimed at harming colleagues with whom he was in conflict.

“His goal was to ‘psychologically hurt’ caregivers and to ‘feed his thirst for power,’” prosecutors said.

Christine de Curraize, one of the state prosecutors, addressed the defendant directly in court. “You are not worthy of the title of doctor. You are the doctor of death,” she said.

Convicted rapist Pelicot seeks publisher for books written behind bars

Denial and defence

Péchier maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings. He argued that most of the poisonings were the result of “medical errors” made by colleagues.

He admitted there had been someone poisoning patients in one of the clinics where he worked, but insisted it was not him. “I am not a poisoner,” he said.

One colleague described Péchier as a very good doctor with an “oversized ego”, the court heard. Earlier this month, Péchier told the court in tears that he had attempted suicide in 2021.

Péchier was taken into custody immediately after the verdict. Through his lawyer, he can ask the court to allow his release under strict conditions, FranceInfo reported.

Randall Schwerdorffer, another lawyer for Péchier, said he would assemble a “seriously reinforced defence” for the appeal.

“I will not be able to do it again on my own,” he told local media, adding that he would work with “a high-level lawyer”.

The verdict comes months after another high-profile case involving a doctor. In May, a court sentenced retired doctor Joel Le Scouarnec to 20 years in prison after he confessed to sexually abusing or raping 298 patients between 1989 and 2014, most of them children.

That case raised questions about how warnings from colleagues failed to prevent him from practising until retirement.

China produced around 60 percent of the world’s new solar power in 2025, making it the world’s largest manufacturer and deployer of renewable energy. It is installing more solar and wind capacity than the rest of the world combined.

However, a decade after the Cop21 talks in Paris – which led to the Paris Agreement, ratified by China in 2016 – China also remains heavily dependent on coal.

With Beijing now painting itself as central to global efforts to tackle climate change, the question is whether Chinese technology can help put the world on a viable climate path.

“We’re studying China’s technological progress, not only in photovoltaics, but also in wind power, solar thermal energy, onshore wind, offshore wind and nuclear energy,” Jiang Kejun, from the Energy Research Institute of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, told RFI.

If the world stays on track, he adds, it may still be possible to limit global warming to 1.5C using Chinese technology alone. That view reflects a broader shift in China’s message, with the transition framed not just as a national effort but a global one.

China’s energy transition differs from Europe’s. It is not built on reducing demand, but on meeting rising energy needs driven by urbanisation, industry and the electrification of the economy.

“Almost all the growth in energy demand comes from electricity, and almost all the growth in electricity this year has come from solar and wind,” says Dave Jones, chief analyst at Ember, a global energy think tank. China’s oil consumption is no longer rising, he adds, while gas use is rising but remains low.

China is not yet replacing fossil fuels outright. Instead, it is largely avoiding new fossil demand by steering growth towards low-carbon electricity. As a result, emissions are stagnating rather than notably falling, even as renewable energy expands.

While Beijing is aiming for its CO2 emissions to peak before 2030, energy stability remains the priority in a country with one of the world’s largest power systems.

Paris Agreement turns 10 as heat rises faster than global action

Race to cut costs

China’s strategy rests on producing electricity at very low cost. Vast solar and wind projects are being built in the Gobi Desert, a huge arid region in northern China, as well as in the Taklamakan in the far west, one of the world’s largest sandy deserts, and across the open grasslands and desert areas of Inner Mongolia.

These installations have been engineered to generate cheap electricity that is then sent east through ultra high voltage transmission lines, a field in which China is a global leader.

“China has made this product very affordable,” Jiang explains. “There is no overcapacity and no unfair price competition. Even with the existing supply of about 0.6 yuan per watt for photovoltaic modules, companies can still remain profitable.”

Western arguments about overcapacity no longer make sense in a world facing a climate emergency, he argues – adding that Chinese solar power has become cheap enough to outcompete fossil fuels even without subsidies.

“Even in a baseline scenario, investing in photovoltaics or carbon-free energy supply is already much cheaper than relying on fossil fuels,” Jiang says.

In his view, falling renewable costs mean fossil fuels no longer need to play a central role in future energy systems. That shift is already visible in the price of solar equipment.

“A solar panel today costs between $50 and $60 in countries that do not impose high tariffs on Chinese imports,” says Ember’s Dave Jones. “That panel can produce electricity for 20 or 30 years.”

Falling costs help explain why Chinese solar is spreading rapidly, including in poorer countries where access to electricity remains limited.

Coal as a safety net

But despite the expansion of renewables, coal remains central to China’s power system. Beijing continues to approve new coal plants – not to drive growth, but to secure supply in a country where power shortages are politically sensitive.

“Coal-fired electricity generation in China may not be rising, but it is not falling either,” Jones explains. “The system absorbs huge amounts of solar and wind, but coal is still there to guarantee stability.”

Coal now acts as a buffer when solar output drops or demand spikes, and China is investing heavily in making its coal plants more flexible.

“This is so plants can shut down during the day and let cheap solar feed the grid,” Jones says. “It is not happening fast enough, but it is happening at scale.”

The next challenge is closing coal plants rather than simply building fewer of them. But for now, political and economic stability come before a rapid exit from coal, as electricity demand continues to rise.

Clean energy surpasses coal but policy headwinds threaten 2030 goals, IEA warns

Making solar work

Producing large amounts of solar power is only part of the task. The bigger challenge is integrating it into the grid without causing instability.

Jones points to two key tools: flexible coal generation and energy storage, where China has built a strong technological lead.

“Battery technology developed by Chinese manufacturers has advanced significantly,” he says. “Prices have fallen to the point where storage is becoming profitable, allowing solar power to become dispatchable electricity.”

China already dominates close to 80 percent of the global battery supply chain, from lithium processing to recycling. Storage itself is not seen as a major barrier, with Chinese researchers saying existing technologies are already capable of supporting large-scale solar power.

“Whether in the Gobi Desert or even in the Sahara, new storage technologies are already good enough,” Jiang says. “The problems are manageable. All of this can work.”

Beyond electricity generation is a broader industrial shift. The goal is no longer just green power, but fully integrated industrial ecosystems supplied by cheap renewables.

“In the future, within a single industrial park, investment will cover photovoltaics, wind, power generation, hydrogen purification, synthetic ammonia or olefins, right through to the final product,” Jiang says. “The system is fully integrated, and such a design can be supported 100 percent by photovoltaics.”

African leaders urge fair funding with $50bn climate call

Power struggles

However, China’s expansion in clean energy has fuelled concern in Europe and the United States, where Chinese technologies are often viewed as a source of strategic dependence.

Climate urgency is used to push back against those concerns. “My main concern is whether the world can still maintain the 1.5C warming target,” Jiang says. “The pace of warming is extremely fast. We do not have time. We must act.”

He also warns against turning the energy transition into a geopolitical dispute, saying climate discussions lose substance once international power struggles take over.

At the same time, the rise of Chinese clean technologies is not being driven solely by state planning. Much of the expansion reflects market forces and growing demand.

“Manufacturers introduce panels into new markets, they appear on shelves for the first time and demand grows organically,” Jones explains.

Both experts agree that the future of the transition now largely depends on the Global South.

“Solar power offers a real opportunity to catch up,” Jones says. “Countries do not need to follow the historic path of building dependence on oil and gas. They can electrify directly with clean energy.”

Unlocking finance and technology transfers is now critical, Jiang argues: “The key issue today is to release Chinese technology and capital flows to developing countries as quickly as possible.”

Control over renewable technologies is increasingly tied to control over future energy systems, a point energy experts say will shape the coming decade.

This article was adapted from the original version in French by RFI’s Clea Broadhurst.

A team at the Collège de France in Paris, led by Professor Marc Fontecave, has created a special catalyst – a material that speeds up chemical reactions – that can convert carbon into alcohols like ethanol and propanol. These alcohols can be used as vehicle fuels or to make plastics and other products.

The process works by first capturing carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas warming our planet, from factories or even directly from the air.

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

 This CO2 is then converted into carbon monoxide, which the new catalyst transforms into useful fuels using electricity. When this electricity comes from renewable sources like wind or solar power, the entire process becomes carbon-neutral.

The catalyst is made from copper, with tiny amounts of silver and gold added to improve its performance. It’s particularly good at producing propanol, which is valuable both as a fuel and for making plastics.

The research, conducted in partnership with energy company TotalEnergies, was published in the journal Nature Materials in March 2025

 It represents an important step towards creating “e-fuels”, synthetic fuels made using renewable electricity, which could help reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

Under the monarchy, the Catholic Church held major privileges and played a central role in society. The French Revolution of 1789 upended this order. Revolutionaries nationalised church property and required priests to swear allegiance to the new republic. Those who refused were persecuted.

Napoleon later tried to ease tensions by signing the Concordat of 1801 with Pope Pius VII. The state recognised Catholicism as the faith of most French people, but also recognised Reformed Protestant, Lutheran and Jewish communities. It appointed bishops and paid the clergy.

This system lasted throughout the 1800s but kept tensions high – particularly under the Third Republic, when republicans viewed the church as blocking modern reforms and supporting conservative forces.

French court orders town to remove statue of Virgin Mary

The scandal that paved the path

In 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer from Alsace, was wrongly convicted of treason and sent to a penal colony in French Guiana. This miscarriage of justice split the country. On one side stood Dreyfusards, who defended his innocence in the name of justice and truth. On the other, the anti-Dreyfusards refused to question military authority.

The Catholic Church strongly backed nationalist, anti-Dreyfusard groups and relayed anti-Semitic arguments in the press. This shocked republicans, who questioned how the church could oppose the values of justice, equality and truth.

Many concluded that as long as it held influence over institutions and political life, it posed a danger to democracy.

Aristide Briand gained prominence during this period. A lawyer, journalist and moderate socialist, he was elected as an MP in 1902 after a campaign dominated by religious questions.

Prime minister Émile Combes initially avoided any reform, despite pressure from the republican majority. But rising tensions with the Vatican changed his stance. He created a commission on separation, with Briand as rapporteur.

From March 1905, Briand orchestrated one of the longest and most passionate debates in French parliamentary history. Two visions of France faced each other: one monarchist and Catholic, the other republican and secular.

Briand chose the middle way and pushed for compromise, rather than confrontation.

“We are not making a law against religious worship, we are making a law of freedom,” he said. His aim was to guarantee freedom of conscience and equality before the state without persecuting religions.

The word laïcité, or secularism, does not appear in the 1905 text, which uses only the term separation.

However, the first two articles set out the founding principles of today’s laïcité: the state must stay neutral towards all religions, favour none, finance none and prohibit religious expression in public institutions. The term secularism entered the constitution in 1946.

‘Growing number’ of French schoolgirls flouting secularism rules

Violence over inventories

Many Catholics saw the 1905 law as a tragedy and refused to accept it. Church property had to be transferred to new religious associations, which required a full inventory of buildings and objects. State agents entered churches and presbyteries to draw up reports, and many faithful viewed the inventories as a desecration of sacred places.

Prefects were told to enforce the law while avoiding clashes, but violence still broke out. Bloody incidents occurred in Haute-Loire and in the Nord region near the Belgian border.

Géry Ghysel, a 35-year-old butcher and father of three, died in the village church of Boeschèpe, in the Nord department, during an inventory that turned violent.

On 11 February, 1906, less than two months after the law’s adoption, Pope Pius X issued a fierce response. In his encyclical Vehementer Nos, he condemned the separation of church and state.

“That the state must be separated from the church is an absolutely false thesis, a most pernicious error,” he said, adding that it was “gravely insulting to God, for the creator of man is also the founder of human societies and he preserves them in existence as he sustains us”.

Diplomatic relations remained broken until 1921.

Top French court upholds ban on Muslim abaya robes in schools

Exceptions in Alsace-Moselle

The 1905 law was not applied in Alsace-Moselle, which was then under German rule, having been annexed after France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.

When the region was returned to France in 1918, the 1905 law still did not apply there, and still today the Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin and Moselle departments have retained local rules inherited from the 1801 Concordat, which had defined the relationship between the French State and the Catholic Church.

Priests, pastors and rabbis are paid by the state through the interior ministry, and religious education remains compulsory in public schools in the region.

The 1905 law devotes very few articles to public education, since secularisation of schools had already begun with the Jules Ferry laws of 1882, which removed religious teaching and replaced it with moral instruction.

By 1886, teaching posts were held only by lay staff. The Ligue de l’Enseignement, created in 1866, became a major supporter of a free, secular and compulsory school system and built a wide network of cultural and educational activities as an alternative to Catholic youth groups.

Modern battles

With social change, debate over religion in public spaces – especially in schools – has remained intense.

In 1989, several Muslim pupils were suspended from a school in Creil, north of Paris, for refusing to remove their headscarves. More such cases followed.

On 17 December, 2003, then president Jacques Chirac called for a stronger defence of secularism amid rising demands from religious and community groups.

A law adopted in March 2004 and applied from the following school year banned conspicuous religious signs in public schools, including headscarves, kippas and large crosses.

French court issues severe sentences to those linked to beheading of teacher Samuel Paty

After the January 2015 terrorist attacks at the office of Charlie Hebdo and the Hyper Cacher supermarket, then education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem reaffirmed the importance of secularism. She established national Secularism Day on 9 December and introduced new moral and civic education guidelines.

The murder of history and geography teacher Samuel Paty on 16 October, 2020, after he used Charlie Hebdo satirical cartoons in a class on laïcité and press freedom, marked a turning point. Schools had become targets for extremists because of the secular values they defend.

In August 2021, the 1905 law was amended with the tightening of controls on organisations and places of worship, particularly with regards to foreign funding – presented as a way to combat radical Islamism and other forms of separatism.

This article was adapted from the original version in French by Patricia Blettery.

RFI: What is your impression of Diary of a Prisoner?

Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet: Nicolas Sarkozy leans heavily on emotion and this fits with his wider media defence strategy, which aims to strengthen his legal defence. He starts talking about his conviction almost straight away, so there is clearly a wish to protect his image for the future – since this is the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic that a president has been sent to prison.

The book focuses on injustice, but it is not a self-pitying story. By bringing in The Count of Monte Cristo – the Alexandre Dumas novel about a man seeking revenge after an unjust conviction, one of the two books he took to La Santé prison in Paris – he shapes the story as one of vengeance.

Former French president Sarkozy released from prison, pending appeal

He places himself in a future where he has won his legal battles and taken revenge for this humiliation.

From the start he also repeatedly invokes a comparison with Christ. Firstly, that speaks to right-wing voters. But it is also a way of saying he has sacrificed himself. It is a story of trial, suffering, sacrifice and revenge. It is not about redemption. This matches his legal defence, because he cannot say anything else without incriminating himself.

At the end, he even writes: “I started my life again.” The idea is he has been reborn stronger, more mature, more serious. This also has a therapeutic role for him – letting go of this episode and showing where he stands today. It is a story of rebirth.

He also says he already knew he would be released at his appeal hearing, so he went jogging and stayed active straight away. For him, the key is to show he is still in fighting mode.

RFI: Can the release of the book be seen as a well-orchestrated communication exercise?

PMC: For him, this is a long-term fight. The aim is to make himself heard as much as possible, with every tool available. He appeals to public opinion through dramatic moments – the people who accompanied him to prison, the gathering of his supporters, his many statements in the press.

It creates an emotional build-up around him to maximise attention and cast the accused in a favourable light. In the end this is a frontal attack on the judiciary and on those who accuse Nicolas Sarkozy, using the most forceful approach possible because of how serious the situation is.

RFI: The book was published by Fayard, a publishing house owned by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré…

PMC: Yes, there are opportunistic strategies at work. On the far-right side there is clearly an attempt to capture this Sarkozy moment and his electorate. That is what is at stake for 2027. The strategy for Marine Le Pen and for Bolloré’s media is to take up the defence of the former head of state and pull those voters towards them.

The National Rally is increasingly aligned, under Jordan Bardella, with the communication and campaign methods of the American far right – judges are enemies, adversaries, elites to bring down, and a conviction can make you look like a hero.

For the far-right electorate, Nicolas Sarkozy’s conviction is not a negative thing. It can even attract support.

Sarkozy is also trying to win over that electorate for future elections. In his book he even calls for a “rally” with the National Rally. This could become a point of convergence between the two forces, assuming Nicolas Sarkozy still carries real weight, which is hard to judge today.

The fall of France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, from palace to prison

RFI: Could the memoir’s release influence Sarkozy’s political agenda and his return to public life?

PMC: The book gives him a platform to communicate, appear in the media and get people talking again. It should give him some room to manoeuvre and a bit of airtime to influence the 2027 election. It puts him back in the political debate, because when he talks about the National Rally he pushes an agenda about recovering far-right voters and uniting the right.

He cannot do anything other than step back into his role as a political figure. Stopping now would look like admitting defeat. He is not ready for that. He does not want to lose his reputation or his influence. This is also typical of Sarkozy-style communication.

I am thinking of Rachida Dati, who gave a speech on the steps of the Élysée in heels five days after giving birth. It is a staged image of resilience, comeback and invincibility that is part of their communication code.

RFI: The book was published in record time, and Sarkozy posted on social media: “The end of the story remains to be written.” Is this an attempt to divert attention from his conviction?

PMC: It is mostly a way to frame the debate and shape how the public sees this episode. That is his whole aim.

He is releasing the book quickly to try to control the story before others define it. Speed matters – not letting others talk first and taking part in building the narrative rather than suffering it.

As with all media defence strategies in legal cases, the goal is to make sure the public hears the accused’s version first and identifies with it as much as possible. The reasons for the charges and the trial fade into the background.

This is a classic defence strategy: victimisation, challenging the media and the judges, and presenting his own truth. Repetition is key. He will repeat the same message in the media, in the book, everywhere, so that his version becomes dominant.

The reasons for the conviction are very complex – the investigation file is 400 pages long. Faced with a very simple and emotional message – the book – the competition [between the two narratives] is inevitably unequal.

This interview was adpated from the original version in French by Caroline Renaux.

In a report published on Monday, the UK research programme Xcept said that while some of the women say they “support” the armed group, they believe such testimonies are “more often a survival strategy than radicalisation”.

The al-Qaeda linked armed Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims controls larges parts of Mali and Burkina Faso. The researchers interviewed 77 women from the Fulani ethnic group – who are predominantly Muslim and historically associated with nomadic pastoralism – living in these areas.

Some were the wives, mothers or grandmothers of the jihadists, while others had no direct connection to them. More than half have lived for at least five years “under JNIM’s effective control”.

The researchers found a mixed reaction to the jihadists, with a mix of criticism and support, but said that most of the women have adopted “a survival strategy” rather than a full adherence to the group’s ideology.

Mali’s economy near standstill amid JNIM fuel attacks

State failings

“Women universally characterised JNIM’s ascendance as precipitating profound and overwhelmingly negative changes,” the report says.

These changes related to dress codes – an insistence on women wearing the veil and abaya – along with bans on women working and driving, the abolition of traditional ceremonies, and restricted access to healthcare and education, as jihadists have closed state schools and health centres.

“Respondents describe JNIM regulations as economically devastating and deeply detrimental to their physical and mental health,” the study says.

Hostage video shows abducted Malian journalists asking for help

However there was also “longstanding dissatisfaction” with state corruption, in both Mali and Burkina Faso, and the governments’ inability to protect communities.

The researchers highlighted that human rights violations and “real or perceived collective punishment of the [Fulani] community” by soldiers and affiliated militias and foreign military partners – including volunteers for the Defence of the homeland, Dozo hunters or Wagner Russian mercenaries – “weakens state legitimacy”.

Around three-quarters of the women interviewed reported acts of violence committed during counter-terrorism military operations which are “exploited” by JNIM – which presents itself as “more reliable protectors of women”, helping them recruit new members.

Increasing acceptance

The research found that some JNIM policies were popular, such as direct material aid – generally obtained through looting – and access to justice.

The group’s Sharia-based justice system was described as “faster, cheaper and more accessible than the state equivalent”.

Overall, the women’s perceptions of the JNIM tended to improve over time in areas where the jihadists are most entrenched and organised. However, the researchers note that “most women who said they appreciated the group’s provision of services did not equate this with support for its vision”.

There are accounts of women being beaten or whipped by jihadists enforcing Sharia law, followed by a gradual acceptance of these corporal punishments over the years.

Mali faces record number of kidnappings of foreigners by jihadist group

A few of the women admitted to helping JNIM by providing intelligence and logistical support.

According to the researchers, overall women’s perceptions of JNIM were “primarily negative”. Many had simply resigned themselves to the group’s presence and control, which, the study says, shows “an adaptation to life under the group’s dictates, rather than genuine radicalisation”.

However, researchers highlighted that their children, many of whom are growing up “without having lived under the state”, may have a different perspective.

“JNIM governance is altering social, generational, religious, behavioural and governance norms,” the authors wrote – presenting a challenge for future generations.

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

It was September 1985, and creative partners Christo and Jeanne-Claude had been trying to realise their vision of wrapping the bridge for 10 years. 

The longtime mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, had finally given the green light a year earlier, but public safety concerns threatened to overturn the authorisation. It was three weeks after a crew of 300 had begun wrapping the Pont Neuf in champagne-coloured fabric that the final permit arrived. 

Forty years later, Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo says she couldn’t be happier to revive that “unforgettable moment of poetry and beauty”.

She has signed off on another major installation, set for next June, on the Pont Neuf – which, as well as a working road and foot bridge, is a protected historic monument.

It’s a measure of how much attitudes to public art have changed since Christo and Jeanne-Claude put years of work and millions of dollars into convincing Paris that its heritage shouldn’t be off limit to creators.

The perfect pont

When Bulgarian-born Christo Vladimirov Javacheff and his French partner Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon started work on the Pont Neuf project in 1975, they hadn’t yet staged any large-scale installations in France. 

Although the couple met in Paris, until then their most ambitious projects – bundling up a portion of the Australian coastline, stringing a curtain across a valley in Colorado, ringing islands off Miami with a squiggle of bright pink fabric – had taken place outside Europe. 

While cities in Germany and Italy had allowed them to wrap castles and Roman walls, Paris was less amenable. In 1969 the pair explored the idea of wrapping nearly 400 trees along the Champs-Elysées, but were unable to secure a permit.

Drawn to the bridges that span the River Seine, they first thought of the Pont Alexandre III, a grand steel structure built at the turn of the 20th century. They decided, however, that wrapping its single arch wouldn’t have the impact they wanted.

“The first consideration was aesthetic,” Jeanne-Claude later told an interviewer, explaining their ultimate choice: “The Pont Neuf has those 12 fingers in the water.”

Lobbying campaign

While the bridge’s history wasn’t foremost in their minds, it made the project more complicated. Completed in the early 1600s, the Pont Neuf crosses the ancient heart of Paris at the Ile de la Cité and has been a listed monument since 1889. 

As the artists studied how they might wrap the bridge without drilling into its protected stone, they pitched the project to city officials.

Chirac, elected mayor for the first time in 1977, was reluctant to risk a backlash. As months and then years passed, the artists hired a project director, Johannes Schaub, who encouraged them to get the public on side first. 

Schaub approached the challenge like an election campaign, sending envoys door to door in the neighbourhood around the bridge to convince locals. He booked Christo on a lecture tour and media blitz, and had the artist make a huge model of the wrapped Pont Neuf to display in La Samaritaine, the department store that faces the bridge on the Right Bank.

Key to the messaging was the promise that the installation wouldn’t cost taxpayers a centime; Christo and Jeanne-Claude would cover the cost from sales of their other work, as they did with all their projects. 

Meanwhile, the Socialist government France had elected in 1981 was beginning to champion ambitious cultural events, such as the Fête de la Musique, which shifted art out of museums and opera houses and into public spaces.

As momentum built in the art world and among the wider public – and after Chirac secured re-election – the mayor eventually agreed in August 1984.

France’s Fête de la Musique celebrates its 40th anniversary

Technical feat

It took two test runs on a smaller bridge in Grez-sur-Loing, a small town outside Paris, to perfect the technique that would be used to wrap the Pont Neuf.

Engineers designed a frame that would sit on top of the bridge, resting on rubber buffers. Thousands of metres of thin fabric, the colour of Parisian sandstone, would then be draped over it, tied by ropes and held taut by steel chains wrapped round the bridge’s base, a metre under water.

The process of installation – which took several weeks, from August to September 1985 – was a spectacle in itself. French media relayed every step, from the climbers who abseiled down the bridge pleating the fabric, to the divers who fixed the chains beneath the surface of the river.

In a final flourish, Christo personally wrapped the 44 street lamps that line the bridge.

By 22 September, the work was complete and the Pont Neuf reopened to the public.

‘The biggest sculpture in the world’

Journalists from around the world covered the event. A beneficent Chirac was filmed strolling across the bridge with Christo and Jeanne-Claude, congratulating the artists on meeting the conditions he claimed to have set: that the project didn’t cost Paris a penny, that it didn’t disrupt traffic and that it wouldn’t damage the Pont Neuf.

“It’s no longer a bridge, it’s the biggest sculpture in the world. But it’s also a bridge, where people pass over, under – they’re within the sculpture,” enthused one newscaster.

“It’s wonderful,” Christo told the reporter, “they’re all here, everyone.”

Transformed by the silky fabric, the bridge’s curved stone benches invited spectators to sit.

The artists were especially happy with the way the Paris light played on the material. “We didn’t expect that the fabric’s colour would take on so many nuances,” Jeanne-Claude later said. 

“The colours were incredible. In the morning, the fabric looked like straw, and by late afternoon it had turned into a rich golden tone.”

In total, an estimated 3 million people came to see The Pont Neuf Wrapped.

French TV talked about it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, something Parisians would tell their grandchildren about in years to come. 

Fifteen days later, it was over. The installation was dismantled on 5 October, 1985. 

But it had shown that modern art could capture a mass audience’s imagination – even, or perhaps especially, when it was on a huge scale, challenging to create and in the middle of a busy urban space.

‘Rethinking the familiar’

In the decades since, Parisian authorities have welcomed contemporary creations at monuments from the Palais-Royal to the Pantheon and the Grand Palais.

In 2021, the city paid its ultimate tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude. After both their deaths, it allowed their representatives to wrap the Arc de Triomphe – a feat they had dreamed of in their early days in the capital but never pursued, assuming it was too much of a long shot. 

Paris crowds flock to see Arc de Triomphe, dressed to impress

Next year, they will be remembered again, in a work that artist JR says is inspired by their example. “I share their idea that the mission of art is to make the public think – or rethink about the familiar,” he said.

Originally planned to mark the 40th anniversary of the wrapping of the bridge but postponed to allow for more planning time, his installation – entitled The Cave of Pont Neuf – will now be on show from 6 to 28 June, 2026.

It’s a chance for the monument to live up to its name once again: Pont Neuf, the 400-year-old “new bridge”.

The arrest follows an attack on the ministry’s email system that affected an unspecified number of sensitive files. 

A group of hackers claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred on 11 December. They said they had stolen the data of “millions” of French people.

The French prosecutor’s department said on Wednesday that the suspect was already known to police and had been convicted of similar crimes earlier this year.

Criminal records accessed

The investigation is being handled by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office. It is focusing on charges including attacks on a state-run automated personal data processing system by an organised gang.

This offence carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on Wednesday that the attack was more serious than initially thought.

“It’s serious,” he told FranceInfo radio. “A few days ago, I said that we didn’t know whether there had been any compromises or not. Now we know that there have been compromises, but we don’t know the extent of them.”

Macron pushes for new legislation to rapidly block digital disinformation

No ransom demand

Nunez said he had not received any ransom demand from the hackers.

He said the compromised files included criminal records and files on wanted individuals. He said the data was accessed because of “carelessness”, with passwords shared on messaging apps.

“I can tell you that there have not been millions of pieces of data extracted as of this morning (…), but I remain very cautious about the level of compromise,” he said.

Russia accused of cyberattacks on Paris Olympics and French election

A judicial probe and an administrative investigation were underway and the National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL) had been notified, Nunez said.

Cybersecurity specialist Baptiste Robert, who describes himself as an “ethical hacker”, said the attack was unprecedented regardless of its scale.

“In the nearly 15 years I’ve worked in cybersecurity, I’ve never heard of the Ministry of the Interior’s internal network being compromised,” he said. “They’re not the first hackers to try to attack the Ministry of the Interior, but they’re the first to have succeeded.”

(with newswires)

As France marks 200 years since Louis Braille invented his system of raised dots allowing blind people to read by touch, we visit the country’s only remaining Braille printing house. At the CTEB in Toulouse, a team of 12 staff and mainly blind volunteers transcribe more than 200 books each year for both adults and children, along with bank statements, brochures and other documents. Despite extremely high production costs, the centre sells its books at the same price as the originals to ensure equal access. Now deeply in debt, it’s calling for state aid to survive – arguing that, even in the age of digital Braille and audio books, turning a page is important in learning to read. (Listen @3’15”)

Scientists are increasingly convinced that the trillions of bacteria living in the human digestive system also contribute to health and wellbeing. Le French Gut is a large-scale study intended to track the connection between the microbiome and disease. Launched in 2023, it aims to recruit 100,000 French participants, to contribute samples and fill out health and diet questionnaires. Now the scientists are looking to get more children on board. Project director Patrick Vega shows the lab and biobank where the bacteria are being analysed, and talks about the discoveries in the gut that could help predict or even cure diseases. (Listen @21’20”)

Seventeenth-century French midwife Louise Bourgeois, the first woman in Europe to publish a medical book, was a pioneer in women’s health at a time when only men were allowed to be doctors and women delivered babies according to tradition, not science. (Listen @14’45”)

Episode mixed by Cecile 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).

Four days after torrential rain struck the Atlantic coastal city on Sunday, shock and mourning have given way to fury.

Muddy water continues to resurface in narrow alleyways of the old town, despite repeated efforts to clear it away, reinforcing complaints of long-standing abandonment.

“There is no maintenance of the sewage system where we live. We aren’t prepared for the arrival of winter and rain,” Reda, a man in his thirties from the old town, told RFI.

He said the aftermath of the disaster has laid bare deep social inequality.

“The people who live here are working class. Politicians neglect this social class, do nothing for our rights, don’t represent us, and this is what happens,” he said.

The flood risk is well known in Safi. The city’s history is marked by several deadly floods linked to the Chaâba River, which runs through the old town. Dry for most of the year, it becomes dangerous during heavy rainfall.

Videos circulating on social media showed torrents of muddy water rushing through streets and sweeping away cars, rubbish bins and crates of goods.

Morocco Gen Z protesters call for ‘peaceful sit-ins’ to demand reforms

Years of neglect

The floods are the deadliest of this kind in Morocco in a decade. At least 70 homes and shops were flooded, Moroccan authorities said on Monday. Fourteen people were still receiving medical care, including two in intensive care.

Heavy rain flooded buildings in the old town and cut many roads in and around the city, which lies around 300 kilometres south of the capital Rabat. Schools were closed on Monday as residents assessed the damage and cleaned their homes.

Political parties, local organisations and trade unions on Tuesday announced the creation of a “solidarity commission” – which said the tragedy was “the direct result of years of abandonment” and poor management of infrastructure.

“Safi has experienced a process of marginalisation,” said Abdellah Mzirda, a member of the commission. “There is neither development nor progress in Safi, even though it’s a city that produces phosphate. The resources here are significant.”

Climate change threatens Morocco’s camels, and with them its cultural heritage

Protest planned

The solidarity commission has called for a sit-in on Sunday to “express the collective anger” of residents. Local authorities did not respond to requests for comment.

The national prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation to “determine the causes of this tragic incident and clarify the circumstances”.

Morocco is experiencing heavy rain and snowfall after seven years of drought that had depleted several major reservoirs.

Authorities said on Tuesday they were rolling out nationwide emergency aid – including food supplies and blankets – to help around 73,000 households across 28 provinces affected by freezing temperatures, rain and snow.

The museum’s management told the French news agency AFP that some areas were open even though not all spaces were accessible.

“The museum is opening and the first visitors are coming in,” the management said.

Staff meeting in a general assembly voted unanimously on Wednesday morning to continue the strike that had already stopped the Louvre opening on Monday. Tuesday is the museum’s weekly closing day.

“The strike notice has been maintained and the strike was voted unanimously,” said Valérie Baud, a representative of the CFDT union, speaking to reporters outside the museum.

Louvre museum closed as staff continue strike over working conditions

Opening delayed

A sign outside the glass pyramid told visitors that “the opening of the museum is currently delayed” and that the Louvre would communicate “the terms of a possible opening as soon as possible”.

Some visitors said they backed the workers.

“I am not angry because I respect the workers and they have to defend their rights,” said Maximilian Cimander, a 23-year-old German student in Paris for the week, speaking to AFP.

Others feared missing their chance to get in.

“We hope the museum will be open because we are going back to Japan on Thursday,” said Chika Nishi, a 29-year-old law student. “It’s now or never to visit it.”

Baud warned against reopening in these conditions, nearly two months after the theft of eight French crown jewels in a daytime robbery.

“The Louvre’s management must not put the safety of the museum at risk,” she said.

Fourth suspected Louvre thief remanded as €88m jewels remain missing

Ministry proposals rejected

Gary Guillaud of the CGT union said culture ministry proposals had been turned down.

“There was a unanimous refusal of the ministry’s proposals,” he said, calling them “undignified”.

Workers are protesting about staff shortages, building damage and higher prices for non-European visitors. The CFDT said at least 300 staff were at the assembly.

A crisis meeting took place on Monday at the culture ministry. “There is great exasperation among staff,” said Christian Galani, a CGT delegate.

The ministry has proposed cancelling a planned €5.7 million cut in funding for 2026, redeploying staff, opening recruitment for visitor services and surveillance roles and paying an exceptional bonus.

The Louvre announced emergency measures in early November, including anti-intrusion devices.

Culture Minister Rachida Dati has also assigned Philippe Jost, in charge of the Notre-Dame restoration site, a two-month mission to reorganise the museum.

(with AFP)

The 26-year-old Russian, who played despite the return to fitness of the France international goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier, conceded the first penalty but then saved the next three to set up Bradley Barcola with the strike to win the title for the European champions against their South American counterparts.

The Flamengo goalkeeper Agustin Rossi parried the France international’s effort, giving Luiz Araujo a chance to level the score at two penalties apiece.

But Safonov pushed Araujo’s shot away and was immediately submerged by gleeful teammates before he was thrown into the air in celebration.

The feats were redemption for Safanov who played second fiddle to Gianluigi Donnarumma as PSG swept the board domestically with the Ligue 1 title, the French Super Cup and the Coupe de France. Donnarumma was in goal when PSG annihilated Inter Milan 5-0 in May to claim the Champions League crown for the first time

PSG’s ‘best’ prepare for Intercontinental Cup showdown with Flamengo in Doha

Safanov was Donnarumma’s understudy at the Fifa Club World Cup in the United States last summer and his back-up status was again underlined when PSG boss Luis Enrique sold Donnarumma to the English Premier League outfit Manchester City and drafted in Chevalier from Lille.

Chevalier made his debut in August in the European Super Cup final win over Tottenham Hotspur and maintained his pre-eminence until he was injured in the Ligue 1 match against Monaco at the start of December.

Title defence

The shootout drama unfolded at the Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium after the match ended 1-1 following extra-time.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia opened the scoring just before half-time. But Flamengo, who won the Copa Libertadores in November, levelled from the penalty spot. Jorginho slotted home the spot kick awarded in the 61st minute after PSG skipper Marquinhos tripped Giorgian de Arrascaeta.

“We can be proud of ourselves,” said PSG midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery. “We played a great match against a tough opponent.

“Now we have to continue like this because the toughest part of the season is still ahead of us.”

PSG’s players will return to France to launch the defence of their Coupe de France title on Saturday against fifth-tier Vendée Fontenay Foot.

The success in Qatar makes PSG only the third team after Barcelona in 2009 and Bayern Munich in 2020 to win all three domestic trophies as well as the Champions League, the European Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup.

It would have been a magnificent seven had Chelsea not beaten PSG in the final at the Fifa Club World Cup in July.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors are asking the court to impose the maximum corporate fine of €1.2 million on Lafarge SA and prison terms of up to eight years for several former executives.

The case centres on payments allegedly made between late 2012 and 2014 to armed groups in northern Syria, including the Islamic State group.

After more than six hours of closing arguments, prosecutors said Lafarge deliberately financed terrorist organisations to maintain operations at its Jalabiya cement plant in northern Syria.

They said the company paid “at least” €4.6 million to armed groups. The sum was described as unprecedented and shocking.

“Four million euros represents more than 4,000 Kalashnikovs or the salaries of between 3,500 and 6,600 Islamic State fighters for a year,” one of the prosecutors said, based on known monthly payments of $50 to $100 per fighter.

Lafarge on trial in Paris over alleged payments to Islamic State in Syria

Business ‘at all costs’

She described the figure as “dizzying” and said it revealed a system that treated terrorist groups as “economic partners and commercial interlocutors”, rather than as enemies.

Prosecutors firmly rejected the defence claim that the defendants were unaware of who they were dealing with.

“No, there is no doubt,” the prosecutor said. “They knew they were talking to, negotiating with and doing business with three organisations that were clearly terrorist.”

She described the case as “the story of the total failure of individuals who could have chosen to leave” and “the story of the distortion of a flagship of French industry that ended up financing terrorist organisations for a purely mercantile objective”.

The prosecutor said the approach was driven by the pursuit of “business at all costs” and carried out through coordinated actions across the company. Decision-makers, advisers on the ground and intermediaries all played a role.

“Whatever their position in the operational chain, each one contributed to making the alleged offences possible,” she added.

Her colleague said the defendants had shown no remorse and had not questioned their actions during the trial.

France faces rising terror risk as younger users fall for online jihadism

Executives on trial

Prosecutors requested a six-year prison sentence, with a delayed committal order, for former Lafarge chief executive Bruno Lafont.

They accused him of making a “purely economic choice, astonishing in its cynicism” by approving payments while fully aware that some of the groups involved were terrorist organisations.

They said Lafarge’s Syrian subsidiary behaved like “a commercial animal” that “voluntarily fed the jihadist beast at the very moment it was seeking forces to structure itself, dominate and attack”.

The subsidiary financed terrorism for more than a year and a half, prosecutors said, following a strategy approved at the group’s Paris headquarters.

Alongside the corporate fine, prosecutors requested the confiscation of €30 million of Lafarge’s assets.

For individual defendants, prison sentences ranging from 18 months to eight years were sought. The heaviest sentence was requested for a Syrian intermediary who is absent from the trial.

Additional penalties, including fines and bans on managing companies, were also sought for some of the accused.

(with newswires)

The change allows carmakers to keep selling a limited number of polluting vehicles after 2035, provided they offset the extra emissions through carbon credits. The original ban, adopted in 2023, required all new cars sold from that date to be zero-emission.

EU industry chief Stéphane Séjourné said the bloc was not abandoning its climate goals as he presented what he called a “lifeline” for Europe’s carmakers.

“The European Commission has chosen an approach that is both pragmatic and consistent with its climate objectives,” Séjourné said.

The decision follows months of lobbying by manufacturers and several EU governments, led by Germany, which argued that the shift to electric vehicles was slower than expected and left Europe exposed to competition from China.

Just over 16 percent of new vehicles sold in the first nine months of 2025 were electric, industry figures show.

Rigged diesel cars caused 16,000 deaths in France, study says

Carbon credits

Under the revised plan, carmakers will be able to sell petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles beyond 2035 by compensating for their emissions in two ways.

One involves using low-carbon steel produced in the EU in vehicle manufacturing. The other depends on the amount of biofuels and so-called e-fuels placed on the market by energy companies each year.

Europe’s auto industry employs nearly 14 million people and accounts for about seven percent of the bloc’s economic output. Carmakers had warned that high costs and patchy charging networks had slowed consumer demand for electric vehicles.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the shift, calling it a step in the right direction. “More openness to technology and greater flexibility are the right steps,” he said in a statement, adding that Berlin would examine the proposals in detail.

Manfred Weber, head of the European Parliament’s largest conservative group, also backed the move, saying that “forbidding technologies” would fuel support for far-right populists.

How the EU’s reliance on China has exposed carmakers to trade shocks

France pushes back

France criticised the decision and said it would try to stop it when the package is put to EU member states for approval.

“We regret the flexibility granted for combustion-engine cars,” French Environment Minister Monique Barbut said. “We will do all we can to have this flexibility removed.”

Spain, France and Nordic countries had warned that weakening the ban risked slowing the shift to electric vehicles and deterring investment. Greenpeace accused the EU of a “U-turn”, saying it was “flogging a dead horse” by diverting money away from electric cars.

“This backward industrial policy is bad news for jobs, air quality and the climate,” said Martin Kaiser, the group’s Germany executive director.

Critics in France have also warned that easing the ban risks leaving Europe behind as other regions accelerate the shift to electric vehicles.

“To claim that tomorrow’s jobs and innovations still lie in diesel or petrol engines, when the rest of the world has embarked on an industrial race towards batteries and electric vehicles, is to condemn the French and European automotive industry to decline,” Neil Makaroff, director at Paris-based think tank Strategic Perspectives, tol AFP.

Tesla customers in France sue over brand becoming ‘extreme right’

Help for electric fleets

Alongside the change, the European Commission unveiled measures to help carmakers meet emissions targets before 2035. These include “super credits” for small, affordable electric cars made in the EU, which will be counted more heavily when calculating fleet emissions.

Medium and large companies will also be required to green their vehicle fleets, which account for about 60 percent of new car sales in Europe. At least 30 percent of new vehicles bought by firms will need to be zero or low-emission, with higher targets for wealthier countries.

The EU also pledged €1.5 billion euros in interest-free loans to support European battery producers. Road transport accounts for about 20 percent of Europe’s total planet-warming emissions, with cars responsible for most of that, EU figures show.

(with newswires)

Speaking during a day-long visit focused on security Tuesday, Macron said France would not back down in its fight against narcotics.

He inaugurated a new police station in Marseille, met police officers and paid tribute to families of young people killed in drug-related violence.

Macron spent nearly two hours at the newly opened station, where officers questioned him about the anti-drug trafficking law adopted several months ago but still only partly applied because some decrees have not yet been published.

“We are waiting for the law to be fully implemented,” a police officer told the president, saying the missing measures were needed to target the highest levels of organised crime.

“I am fully aware of that. We are not going to let go,” Macron replied.

The president defended his record, saying extra resources were already being deployed.

“We have added 300 police officers net to Marseille and a new national prosecutor’s office will be in place from 5 January,” he said.

Earlier in the day, during a public discussion with readers of the regional daily La Provence, Macron promised to take on drug networks that “kill innocent young people to intimidate and spread fear.”

He said there was “no chance” the criminal networks would win.

France urges EU to ‘wake up’ as drug crime spreads across Europe

A city scarred by violence

Macron also visited the grave of Mehdi Kessaci, who was killed on 13 November at the age of 20. His brother, Amine Kessaci, is known as an anti-drug trafficking activist.

“We are all thinking of the Kessaci family, his mother, his brothers and his sisters,” Macron said.

The killing shocked Marseille, a city long marked by violence linked to the drug trade. The number of people killed has fallen over the past two years, with 17 deaths recorded in the department this year, compared with 24 last year and 50 in 2023.

Macron also met the mother of Socayna, a young student who was killed by a stray bullet in 2023 while studying in her room, a case that deeply affected the city.

During his visit, Macron also said France would strengthen cooperation with countries where the leaders of drug trafficking networks operate, with the aim of seizing their assets and arresting them.

He said this cooperation was needed to target those directing operations from abroad.

Ministers vow tough response as Marseille reels from gangland murder

Higher fines for users

As part of the crackdown, Macron announced that the fixed fine for drug use would rise to €500 euros, up from 200. He has repeatedly criticised drug users for their role in sustaining the trade.

“I am sick of mourning young people and, in the same neighbourhoods, seeing others who think it is festive to go and buy drugs,” he said.

Marseille’s mayor, Benoit Payan, said the measure would not be enough on its own. The increase “will not put an end to trafficking”, he said, adding that his main enemies were traffickers “with blood on their hands”.

He also called for more resources to restore public services in deprived neighbourhoods affected by drug dealing.

A specialist in public drug policy, Yann Bisiou, warned that the higher fine risked being ineffective against the booming cocaine trade.

“It is a fine that targets a particular category of the population and consumers,” Bisiou told RFI.

Macron ended the day by inaugurating the expansion of Marseille’s Baumettes prison, keeping security at the centre of his visit.

The investigation, which will run parallel with their Australian counterparts, was opened for “murder in connection with a terrorist undertaking” and “attempted murder in connection with a terrorist undertaking”, the French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) said.

“The main objective of this investigation is to enable the victims and their relatives living in France to have access to information about the progress of the investigations being conducted by the French and Australian judicial authorities,” said a Pnat spokesperson.

“It’s also to provide support, assistance or technical expertise to the Australian judicial authorities.” 

Jewish festival of lights

Dan Elkayam, a 27-year-old computer engineer, was killed when Sajid Akram and his son, Naveed, opened fire on around 1,000 people gathered on Bondi Beach for the Jewish festival of lights.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the national broadcaster ABC that the men were driven by “Islamic State ideology”.

“With the rise of Isis more than a decade ago now, the world has been grappling with extremism and this hateful ideology,” he said in a separate interview, using another name for the Islamic State group.

The pair travelled to the Philippines before the shootings and authorities are investigating whether they met Islamist extremists during the trip, Australian media reported.

Manila’s immigration department told the French news agency AFP that the pair spent most of November in the Philippines, with their final destination listed as Davao. Immigration records listed Sajid as an Indian national and his son as an Australian citizen, spokeswoman Dana Sandoval said.

After the assault, police found a car registered to Naveed Akram parked near the beach. Improvised bombs and two homemade Isis flags were discovered in teh vehicle, said New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon.

France says Australia defence ties repaired after submarine row

Authorities are also facing questions over whether they could have acted earlier to foil the attack.

Australia’s intelligence agency

Albanese said Naveed Akram had come to the attention of Australia‘s intelligence agency in 2019 but was not considered an imminent threat at the time.

“They interviewed him, they interviewed his family members, they interviewed people around him,” Albanese said. “He was not seen at that time to be a person of interest.”

Police are still piecing together the duo’s movements before the shooting. Naveed reportedly told his mother on the day of the attack that he was heading out of the city on a fishing trip.

Instead, authorities believe that he was holed up in a rental apartment with his father plotting the assault.

Carrying long-barrelled guns, they peppered the beach and a nearby park with bullets for 10 minutes before police shot and killed 50-year-old Sajid.

 Naveed, 24, remains in a coma in hospital under police guard.

UK, Australia, and Canada recognise Palestinian state, angering Israel

A 10-year-old girl and two Holocaust survivors were among those killed, while 42 others were rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds and other injuries.

Gun laws under scrutiny

Australia’s leaders agreed on Monday to toughen laws that allowed father Sajid to own six guns.

Mass shootings have been rare in Australia since a lone gunman killed 35 people in the tourist town of Port Arthur in 1996. The Port Arthur Massacre sparked a world-leading crackdown that included a gun buyback scheme and limits on semi-automatic weapons.

However, many Australians are now questioning whether those laws are equipped to deal with online sales and a steady rise in privately owned guns.

“This horrific situation now, it does make me personally feel that they need to be stricter,” David Sovyer, 43, told AFP at Bondi Beach.

 Retiree Allan McRae, 75, said that “not a lot of people need a gun”. “It would’ve reduced the possibility of it happening if more people had reduced access to a gun,” he told AFP.

France to sue Australian platform for ‘negligence’ after livestream death

The attack has also revived allegations that Australia is dragging its feet in the fight against antisemitism.

“The last four years, I was very clear. And I was very clear about the dangers of the rise in antisemitism,” Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, said while visiting a memorial to the victims on Tuesday.

Desperate to help, Australians have lined up in their thousands to donate blood to the wounded. Red Cross Australia said more than 7,000 people gave blood on Monday..

A makeshift flower memorial next to Bondi Beach has grown as mourners gathered to pay tribute to the victims.

Hundreds, including members of the Jewish community, sang songs, clapped and held each other.

Leading a ceremony to light a menorah, a rabbi told the crowd: “The only strength we have is if we bring light into the world.”

As France marks 200 years since Louis Braille invented his system of raised dots allowing blind people to read by touch, we visit the country’s only remaining Braille printing house. At the CTEB in Toulouse, a team of 12 staff and mainly blind volunteers transcribe more than 200 books each year for both adults and children, along with bank statements, brochures and other documents. Despite extremely high production costs, the centre sells its books at the same price as the originals to ensure equal access. Now deeply in debt, it’s calling for state aid to survive – arguing that, even in the age of digital Braille and audio books, turning a page is important in learning to read. (Listen @3’15”)

Scientists are increasingly convinced that the trillions of bacteria living in the human digestive system also contribute to health and wellbeing. Le French Gut is a large-scale study intended to track the connection between the microbiome and disease. Launched in 2023, it aims to recruit 100,000 French participants, to contribute samples and fill out health and diet questionnaires. Now the scientists are looking to get more children on board. Project director Patrick Vega shows the lab and biobank where the bacteria are being analysed, and talks about the discoveries in the gut that could help predict or even cure diseases. (Listen @21’20”)

Seventeenth-century French midwife Louise Bourgeois, the first woman in Europe to publish a medical book, was a pioneer in women’s health at a time when only men were allowed to be doctors and women delivered babies according to tradition, not science. (Listen @14’45”)

Episode mixed by Cecile 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).

Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan, hosted in Tehran by his Iranian counterpart Abbad Aragchi, declared that both countries see “Israel as the biggest threat to stability in the Middle East”, because of its “expansionist policies”.

Ankara is increasingly angry over Israel’s military operations in Syria, which it considers a threat to security. Syria‘s new regime is a close Turkish ally.

With the Iranian-backed Syrian regime overthrown and Iran’s diminishing influence in the Caucasus, another region of competition with Turkey, Tehran is viewed by Ankara as less of a threat

“Ankara sees that Tehran’s wings are clipped, and I’m sure that it is also very happy that Tehran’s wings are clipped”, international relations expert Soli Ozel told RFI.

Ozel predicts that diminished Iranian power is opening the door for more cooperation with Turkey.

Cooperation

“Competition and cooperation really define the relations. Now that Iran is weaker, the relationship is more balanced. But there are limits, driven by America’s approach to Iran”, said Ozel.

Murat Aslan of SETA, the Foundation for Political, Economic, and Social Research, a Turkish pro-government think tank, points out that changing dynamics inside Iran also give an impetus to Turkish diplomatic efforts towards Tehran.

Israel talks defence with Greece and Cyprus, as Turkey issues Netanyahu warrant

“Iran is trying to build a new landscape in which they can communicate with the West, but under the conditions they have identified”, observes Aslan.

“In this sense, Turkey may contribute. So that’s why Turkey is negotiating or communicating with Iran just to find the terms of a probable common consensus.”

However, warming relations between Turkey and Iran are not viewed in a favourable light by Israel, whose ministers have in turn accused Turkey of being Israel’s biggest threat.

Tensions are rising over Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s strong support of Hamas, which Ankara’s Western allies have designated as a terrorist organisation.

“Obviously, Israel does not want to see Iranian and Turkish relations warm as Israel sees Iran as an existential threat and hence anything that helps Iran is problematic from Israel’s perspective”, warns Turkey analyst Gallia Lindenstrauss at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

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

This month, Israeli security forces accused Hamas of operating a major financial operation in Turkey under Iranian supervision. Many of Hamas’ senior members are believed to reside in Istanbul.

American ally

Israeli concerns over Turkey’s improving Iranian ties will likely be exacerbated with Turkish officials confirming that a visit by President Erdogan to Iran has been “agreed in principle”.

Ankara also has a delicate balancing act to make sure its Iranian dealings don’t risk antagonising its American ally, given ongoing tensions between Tehran and Washington.

Good relations with Washington are vital to Ankara as it looks to US President Donald Trump to help ease tensions with Israel. “For Israel, the United States shapes the environment right now”, observes Aslan.

“The Turkish preference is to have an intelligence diplomacy with Israelis, not to have an emerging conflict, but rely on the American mediation and facilitation to calm down the situation”, added Aslan.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level”, and you’ll be counselled 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 8 November, I asked you a question about an article sent to us by RFI English correspondent Michael Sarpong Mfum, who reports for us from Ghana. His article, “Invasive water hyacinths choke wildlife and livelihoods in southern Ghana”, is about the water hyacinth, a free-floating aquatic plant native to the Amazon River basin in South America. It’s also one of the world’s most invasive species.

The water hyacinth has found its way to Ghana, notably Lake Volta, a vast reservoir behind a hydroelectric dam that generates much of the country’s power.

Your question was: What are the consequences for Ghana’s Eastern and Volta regions from this hyacinth invasion? What did Jewel Kudjawu, the director of the EPA’s Intersectoral Network Department, warn about?

The answer is, to quote Michael’s article: “Jewel Kudjawu, director of the EPA’s Intersectoral Network Department, warned that the weed’s uncontrolled growth has dire consequences for aquatic life, fishing communities and hydropower production.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: What was the best week of your life?

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Radhakrishna Pillai from Kerala State, India. Radhakrishna is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations on your double win, Radhakrishna.

Be sure and look at The Sound Kitchen and the RFI English Listeners Forum Facebook pages to see the stamps from Bhutan with Radhakrishna’s picture!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Debjani Biswas, a member of the RFI Pariwar Bandhu SWL Club in Chhattisgarh, India, and RFI Listeners Club member Mahfuzur Rahman from Cumilla, Bangladesh. Rounding out the list are RFI English listeners Shihabur Rahaman Sadman from Naogaon, Bangladesh, and Bashir Ahmad, a member of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: Music for the Royal Fireworks by George Frederick Handel, performed by Le Concert des Nations conducted by Jordi Savall; “Igbo Highlife”, produced by Mr. Zion; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Lança Perfume” by Roberto de Carvalho and Rita Lee, sung by Rita Lee.

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 Jan van der Made’s article “EU Council president rejects political influence in US security plan”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 26 January to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 31 January podcast. When you enter, be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

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

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

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has warned that journalists are facing increasing dangers worldwide, with Israel emerging as the most lethal country for media workers for the third year running.

In its annual report, the Paris-based watchdog says 67 journalists were killed over the past 12 months – and almost half of them died in Gaza at the hands of Israeli forces.

Twenty-nine Palestinian journalists were killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the reporting period, alongside what RSF calls “a whole strategy” by Israeli authorities that has severely restricted reporting on the conflict.

The NGO’s director Thibaud Bruttin told RFI that the pattern of deaths in Gaza cannot be dismissed as the tragic fallout of war.

“There has been a whole strategy that has been put in place since October 2023,” he explained.

“First, there has been the decision to block the entry of Gaza to international journalists. Second, there has been a unit set up within the Israel Defence Forces to smear Palestinian journalists… and then we’ve seen massive strikes against journalists, which have been actually claimed as targeted strikes by the IDF.”

RSF says nearly 220 journalists have been killed since the Gaza war began in late 2023. Of those, the organisation believes 56 have been deliberately targeted.

Bruttin stressed that RSF is not including people loosely associated with Hamas in that count, as some Israeli officials have claimed.

“We’re talking about journalists – reporters who have been working, some of them for years, with respected international outlets – and these independent reporters have been deliberately targeted by the IDF.”

The report also highlights one of the deadliest attacks on media workers this year – a so-called ‘double-tap’ strike on a hospital in south Gaza on 25 August, which killed five journalists, including contributors to news agencies Reuters and the Associated Press.

French unions take Israel to court for restricting media access to Gaza

Information blackout

A key concern for RSF is the ongoing block on independent media access to Gaza. Foreign reporters can only enter on tightly controlled military tours, despite sustained calls from media groups and press freedom organisations.

The Foreign Press Association in Israel has taken the matter to court, challenging the IDF’s decision to deny access.

Bruttin said the case has reached a critical point. “There has been an intermediary decision by the Supreme Court… and we’re expecting any time in the coming weeks a decision which should, we hope, enable the press to enter.”

He added that a combination of the restrictions and IDF smear campaigns has cooled global solidarity with Palestinian journalists.

“The smear campaign … has had an impact on the solidarity among the profession,” he said. “It has been very hard to attract the attention of news media globally, and these news media outlets have been very timid in voicing concern over the fate of Palestinian journalists.”

But the scale of the recent strikes appears to have shifted sentiment. According to Bruttin, the deadly attacks of 10 and 25 August prompted “an uptick in the interest of media around this”, allowing RSF to launch a major drive on 1 September that “blew away the smear campaign of the IDF”.

With a fragile ceasefire now in place, he hopes momentum will grow around reopening access to Gaza and restoring independent reporting.

‘Nowhere in Gaza is safe’ says RFI correspondent amid call for global media access

Beyond the Middle East

While Gaza dominates the headlines, RSF’s report shows that the risks for journalists are a global concern.

Mexico remains one of the world’s most perilous environments for reporters, despite government pledges of greater protection. Nine journalists were killed there in 2025 – the deadliest year in at least three years.

Bruttin warns that the danger is spreading across Latin America. “The phenomenon has extended beyond the borders of Mexico,” he said. “We’ve seen journalists killed in Honduras, in Guatemala, in Peru, in Ecuador, in Colombia.”

Around a quarter of all journalists killed this year were in Latin America, with many targeted by cartels, narco-traffickers and armed groups. This trend, he said, is “very concerning” and presents a serious challenge for governments attempting to safeguard reporters.

Sudan and Ukraine also continue to be among the most dangerous places from which to report, with conflict making journalists prime targets on all sides.

Global press freedom at ‘tipping point’, media watchdog RSF warns

Journalists detained

Alongside killings, RSF’s report documents a surge in the number of journalists imprisoned for their work.

As of early December, 503 journalists were behind bars in 47 countries. China tops the list with 121 detained, followed by Russia with 48 and Myanmar with 47.

Bruttin believes the international community can do far more to secure the release of detained reporters.

“We need to effectively, deliberately campaign for the release of journalists,” he said. He pointed to the case of Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich, who was released as part of a prisoner swap with Russia. “If governments prioritise the release of journalists, they can meet success.”

He expressed particular concern for the 26 Ukrainian journalists detained by Russia, many “outside of any legal framework”.

He told RFI that Ukraine has the ability to prioritise their release through prisoner exchanges, citing a recent precedent in which RSF helped confirm proof of life for a detained Ukrainian reporter, forcing Russia to acknowledge holding him. “He was part of one of the latest prisoner swaps,” Bruttin noted.

Although the overall number of journalist deaths remains below the highs of the early 2010s, RSF says the deliberate targeting of reporters and the erosion of access to information are becoming worryingly entrenched.

For this final episode of 2025, we look back at the full sweep of the African continent’s history.

Sixty years after launching its ambitious project to recover, document and narrate Africa’s past from prehistory to the present day, Unesco has announced the completion of the last three volumes of the General History of Africa.

Relaunched in 2018, the project seeks to translate this body of knowledge into educational resources for teaching the continent’s history. Three new volumes – IX, X and XI – have now been published, introducing fresh material and innovative approaches.

Our special guest reflects on the project and on African history more broadly: UNESCO’s assistant director-general for social and human sciences, Lidia Brito, who discusses these three new volumes.

In the second part of this episode, we also welcome the Congolese artist and filmmaker Sammy Baloji, who discusses his new film The Tree of Authenticity, recently screened at Film Africa in London and now available on the website of the Franco-German television channel ARTE.

Rapper and sorcerer-poet, Baloji, works his magic on new album

The documentary begins in Yangambi, in the Congo, in search of the remnants of a former research centre for tropical agriculture, bearing witness to the country’s colonial past at the heart of the continent.

In doing so, it highlights the links between colonisation and the climate crisis, adopting an unusual perspective: that of the “tree of authenticity”, which plays a decisive role in regulating the climate.

Congolese filmmaker Baloji mixes magic with biting social commentary

Episode edited and mixed by Melissa Chemam and Erwan Rome.

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

The Turkish government on Thursday summoned both Russian and Ukrainian envoys, warning them to desist from escalating the conflict in the Black Sea.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the past week’s attacks on three Russian tankers as “unjustifiable”. Kyiv said its drones targeted two of the vessels, and Moscow has warned it may consider striking the ships of countries supporting Ukraine if such attacks continue.

“This escalation is very dangerous; no one can estimate what will happen,” warns international relations expert and former Turkish presidential advisor Mesut Casin.

“Putin says he will use reciprocity rights. This means some of the [Russian] submarines could attack not only Ukraine but also some of the Western NATO allies’ tanker ships,” he explains, a possibility that raises the threat of “a very big environmental disaster”.

Shadow fleet

Kyiv has claimed responsibility for the drone attacks on two empty Russian-flagged tankers but denied involvement in the strike on a ship carrying sunflower oil to Georgia.

The Russian tankers belong to Moscow’s so-called “shadow fleet“, which is used to circumvent international sanctions by carrying oil and other exports aboard ships not officially registered to the government. 

Given Turkey’s long Black Sea coast, fears of an environmental catastrophe are foremost for Ankara.

“These shadow fleet tankers are not modern and are not in good condition,” observes former Turkish diplomat Selim Kuneralp.

“The Russians provide their own domestic insurance for these ships,” he says. “But how useful and how valid these insurances will be […] remains a question mark.”

How one man’s ship-spotting hobby is helping thwart Russian sanction-busting

Trade implications

With Ukrainian forces destroying much of Russia’s navy in the Black Sea, Moscow has limited capacities to protect its tankers.

Ukraine has so far targeted only empty Russian tankers, but alarm bells are ringing on the potential implications for global trade.

“Both Ukraine and Russia are leading exporters of basic food and agricultural commodities,” notes analyst Atilla Yesilada of GlobalSource Partners.

“Despite massive bombing, Ukraine’s grain export capacity is largely intact and is taking the coastal route. So any impairment of that is bad for the world at a time when we are not certain of crop yields because of the ongoing drought elsewhere.”

Insurance premiums for cargo ships using the Black Sea have already spiked amidst the escalating conflict.

Ankara wary of escalation

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with his NATO counterparts this week, broaching the topic of ensuring safe navigation of the vital sea trade route.

Turkey is already cooperating with its partners in the alliance that share the Black Sea coast, Romania and Bulgaria, to clear sea mines. Fidan said that cooperation could be expanded to enhance shipping security. 

However, any increased NATO involvement in the Black Sea would be borne mainly by the Turkish navy, given that the Romanian and Bulgarian navies are largely coastal forces.

Ships belonging to navies outside the Black Sea have been shut out by Ankara since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, along with Russian warships. Turkey, under the 1936 Montreux Convention, regulates access to the sea and is only allowing warships to enter to return to their home ports.

Turkey’s mediator role in the Ukraine war faces growing US pressure

Former diplomat Kuneralp claims Ankara will be cautious of getting drawn into any conflict in the Black Sea.

“It would put all the burden on Turkey alone. What would it do? Would it try to intervene in a dispute between Russia and Ukraine? That’s unlikely. I would not want that to happen because it would be too risky,” he says.

“And that’s perhaps why there have not been any concrete actions since the start of the war other than talk.”

For now, Turkey – one of the few countries with good relations with both Kyiv and Moscow – is relying on diplomacy, and hoping that Washington’s ongoing peace efforts will succeed.

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.