About 8 million registered voters are expected to choose 109 MPs along with their local representatives, the election commission said.

This double election precedes a third: the presidential election, scheduled for 12 April, 2026.

These are the first elections since a failed coup attempt in early December against President Patrice Talon. The army said it had foiled the plot by a group of soldiers and later said it had regained control. Authorities said the president was safe.

Talon will not run in April. Two candidates are set to contest the presidency. The presidential coalition has nominated Economy Minister Romuald Wadagni, while Paul Hounkpè will stand for the Cauris Forces for an Emerging Benin, known as the FCBE.

Benin authorities say coup attempt foiled, President Talon safe

Revised rules

The vote comes three years after the last legislative elections in January 2023, after Benin revised its election calendar so all elections now take place in a single year.

MPs are now elected for seven-year terms instead of five, following a constitutional change adopted in November. Voters will also elect municipal councillors.

Twenty-four seats in parliament are reserved for women, one in each of Benin’s electoral districts.

Five parties are contesting the legislative elections. Three belong to the presidential coalition – the Progressive Union for Renewal, the Republican Bloc and Moele-Benin.

The other two are the Democrats, the main opposition party linked to former president Thomas Boni Yayi, and the FCBE, described as a moderate opposition party.

For the local elections, only three parties are running – the Progressive Union for Renewal, the Republican Bloc and the FCBE. The Democrats are absent after the election commission ruled their candidate lists inadmissible.

The Democrats will also not field a presidential candidate. The withdrawal of an endorsement by one of their elected officials led to their disqualification.

Benin pro-government parties win parliamentary majority

Muted campaign

“The campaign atmosphere was rather dull and lacking in excitement, even if it was peaceful and relatively good-natured,” governance expert Joël Atayi Guedegbe said.

“It remains to be seen whether most voters are interested. We are in a festive atmosphere, especially with the Vodun Days festival. What will be the impact of this? It’s difficult to know.”

Another specialist on Benin, who asked not to be named, told RFI the campaign took place “without much enthusiasm compared to what we have experienced in the past”. He said the local elections did not seem “inclusive” enough to many voters.

Turnout will be closely watched and could be low.

Young voters may be the hardest to mobilise. Work is their priority, one student said, while another added: “Creating jobs, giving value to jobs for young people.”

Threshold concerns

New rules require parties to win at least 20 percent of the vote in each of Benin’s 24 electoral districts to gain seats.

That threshold drops to 10 percent for parties that reached a parliamentary agreement before the vote. For these elections, only the Democrats did not reach such an agreement.

Experts say many fear Benin could be heading towards a single-party parliament, as in 2019.

---

This article includes reporting from RFI correspondent Magali Lagrange in Benin

The statement late Friday came after Trump repeated that Washington was “going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not”.

European capitals have been scrambling to come up with a coordinated response after the White House said this week that Trump wanted to buy Greenland and refused to rule out military action.

“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danish, we want to be Greenlanders,” the leaders of five parties in Greenland’s parliament said in a joint statement.

“The future of Greenland must be decided by Greenlanders.”

“No other country can meddle in this. We must decide our country’s future ourselves — without pressure to make a hasty decision, without procrastination, and without interference from other countries,” they underscored.

Julius Nielsen, a 48-year-old fisherman in the capital Nuuk, told AFP: “American? No! We were a colony for so many years. We’re not ready to be a colony again, to be colonised”.

A Danish colony until 1953, Greenland gained home rule 26 years later and is contemplating eventually loosening its ties with Denmark.

Many Greenlanders remain cautious about making this a reality.

“I really like the idea of us being independent, but I think we should wait. Not for now. Not today,” Pitsi Mari, who works in telecoms, told AFP.

“I feel like the United States’ interference disrupts all relationships and trust” between Denmark and Greenland, said Inaluk Pedersen, a 21-year-old shop assistant.

The coalition currently in power is not in favour of a hasty independence. The only opposition party, Naleraq, which won 24.5 percent of the vote in the 2025 legislative elections, wants to cut ties as quickly as possible but it is also a signatory of the joint declaration.

“It’s time for us to start preparing for the independence we have fought for over so many years,” said MP Juno Berthelsen in a Facebook post.

According to a poll published on Saturday by Danish agency Ritzau, more than 38 percent of Danes think the United States will launch an invasion of Greenland under the Trump administration.

US territorial ambitions in Denmark: from the Danish West Indies to Greenland

Vast natural resources 

Denmark and other European allies have voiced shock at Trump’s threats on Greenland, a strategic island between North America and the Arctic where the United States has had a military base since World War II.

Trump says controlling the island is crucial for US national security given the rising military activity of Russia and China in the Arctic.

“We’re not going to have Russia or China occupy Greenland. That’s what they’re going to do if we don’t. So we’re going to be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way,” the US president said Friday.

Both Russia and China have increased military activity in the region in recent years, but neither has laid any claim to the vast icy island.

Greenland has also attracted international attention in recent years for its vast natural resources including rare earth minerals and estimates that it could possess huge oil and gas reserves.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that an invasion of Greenland would end “everything”, meaning the transatlantic NATO defence pact and the post-World War II security structure.

EU backs Denmark’s territorial integrity after Trump appoints Greenland envoy

Flurry of diplomacy 

“I’m a fan of Denmark, too, I have to tell you. And you know, they’ve been very nice to me,” Trump said.

“But you know, the fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn’t mean that they own the land.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due to meet next week with Denmark’s foreign minister and representatives from Greenland.

A flurry of diplomacy is under way as Europeans try to head off a crisis while at the same time avoiding the wrath of Trump, who is nearing the end of his first year back in power.

Trump had offered to buy Greenland in 2019 during his first presidential term but was rebuffed.

The head of NATO’s forces in Europe, US General Alexus Grynkewich, said Friday the military alliance was far from being in “a crisis”, following Trump’s threats to bring Greenland under US control.

 (AFP)

Bozell is a prominent figure on the American right and a staunch supporter of Israel.

In the 1980s, he belonged to a pressure group opposed to any negotiations with the anti-apartheid African National Congress (ANC), then led by Nelson Mandela.

As South Africa‘s government is still led by the ANC, in a coalition of 10 parties, relations with Bozell are expected to be anything but easy.

South Africa hits back at US over ‘flawed’ rights report and land grab claims

ANC ‘terrorism’

Bozell, 69, is known for his deeply conservative views. His father was a Catholic anti-abortion activist, while his son Leo was among those who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, for which he was sentenced to nearly four years in prison.

Bozell founded several conservative groups, including the Media Research Center, which has the stated mission of identifying liberal bias.

In 1989, five years before the end of apartheid, the Media Research Center described the ANC as a “pro-communist, terrorist organisation”.

All through the 1980s, Bozell was part of the “Coalition Against ANC Terrorism”, an alliance of more than 30 right-wing American groups. He wrote then that he was “proud” to be a member and, in 2013, complained on Twitter that the mainstream media “mythologises” Mandela, South Africa’s first democratically elected president.

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

Diplomatic low point

Experts see Bozell as a novice in terms of international relations and believe he has little knowledge of Africa.

He has never served in the foreign service, nor has he lived on the African continent.

Trump previously nominated him to lead the US Agency for Global Media – a now-closed organisation that oversaw Voice of America and Radio Free Europe – but later withdrew the bid to put Bozell forward as ambassador.

His confirmation comes after a year of diplomatic tension between the US and South Africa.

Trump froze aid to South Africa in February 2025, accusing the ANC-led government of mistreating the country’s white minority via a land reform law that he alleges allows property to be seized from white farmers.

The following month, South Africa’s ambassador to the US was recalled to Pretoria after describing American policy as “white supremacy”. The post remains vacant.

The US administration also refused to participate in the G20 summit in Johannesburg last November. It has excluded South Africa from the list of countries invited to the next G20 summit, to be held in the US later this year.

US expels South African ambassador, saying he ‘hates’ Trump

Afrikaner ‘refugees’

Bozell will oversee the implementation of Trump’s refugee programme, which explicitly prioritises Afrikaners.

South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation has rejected the scheme as resting on the “factually inaccurate” premise that white South Africans are racially persecuted.

The South African lawsuit against Israel for genocide in Gaza before the International Court of Justice is another bone of contention. Bozell has indicated that he intends to pressure the South African authorities to withdraw the case.

South Africa takes Israel to international court for ‘genocidal’ acts in Gaza

South African news website IOL reported that Bozell also promised to tackle what he called South Africa’s “geostrategic drift” towards Washington’s international rivals, including Russia, China and Iran.

Despite his confirmation in a Senate vote last month, Bozell remains the ambassador-designate and under strict diplomatic protocol, he cannot perform official acts or formally represent the US government until he presents his credentials to President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has to accept them.

He replaces the previous US ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, who was appointed by President Joe Biden.

Aleppo has seen its worst fighting in years, as the Syrian army moved to oust the SDF from two large, mainly Kurdish neighbourhoods in the north of the city. The clashes began in late December and continued into January, forcing many civilians to flee.

The SDF controls a large swathe of northern and eastern Syria. The offensive comes as efforts to integrate the SDF into the Syrian army stalled.

“This is a warning. It is a kind of pressure on the SDF to come to a conclusion quickly, rather than to kick the can down the road with Damascus,” Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat who served in the region, told RFI.

Turkey’s backing

Ankara, which has recently reopened channels with Damascus after years of strained relations, strongly backs the offensive and has signalled its readiness to provide military support against the SDF.

“Turkey has the military advantage there, and I believe the SDF should take these warnings seriously,” Selcen said. He is now an analyst for the Turkish news portal Medyascope.

Turkey accuses the SDF of links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK, which has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state for decades.

The PKK is designated a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union. Turkey is also pursuing a renewed peace initiative with the PKK and sees the integration of the SDF into the Syrian army as key to stabilising northern Syria.

US pushes Israel to accept Turkish role in Gaza stabilisation force

Stalled integration

In March last year, the SDF signed an agreement in Damascus to integrate with the Syrian army. The deal set out broad principles but left key questions unresolved.

“There was a discrepancy from the beginning in what the parties understood integration to mean,” said Sezin Oney, of the Turkish Politikyol news portal.

“In Turkey’s case, they mean integration in such a way that it melts into the Syrian army. But the SDF understands it as integrating while protecting its inner core and identity. Remaining as the SDF, but operating under the umbrella of the Syrian army.

“Unless one of the parties backs down and makes concessions, we are likely to see a bigger military operation.”

International stakes

On Thursday, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa held telephone talks with his French and Turkish counterparts on the security situation. The discussions focused on containing the fighting and preserving the ceasefire.

Despite its precarious position, the SDF retains influential supporters. Israel, an increasingly vocal critic of Turkey’s regional role, has expressed support for the group. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar condemned Damascus’s operations in Aleppo.

The SDF remains a key partner of the United States Central Command in operations against the Islamic State group in Syria.

“The SDF lost a lot of troops, at least 10,000 fighters, in the fight against ISIS since 2014,” said Turkish international relations expert Soli Ozel.

“It’s a complicated picture. But from the American side, I do not yet see signs they would allow an attack on the SDF at this moment.”

According to Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and Washington’s envoy on Syria, diplomatic efforts are under way to extend the Aleppo ceasefire and allow SDF fighters to withdraw from contested areas.

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Pressure on Washington

The duration of US support for the SDF remains uncertain, especially after last year’s agreement between Washington and Damascus to step up cooperation against the Islamic State group.

The issue has taken on added significance following President Donald Trump’s meeting with Syrian President al-Sharaa in Washington.

Given President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s strong relationship with Trump, time may not be on the SDF’s side, Oney said.

“They want to have the northern part of Syria, at least, but also Syria more broadly, as their backyard,” she added. “Turkey is the most influential country in Damascus. They want the SDF to melt away into the new Syrian state and its army.”

Turkey could face domestic political fallout for targeting the SDF. Protests have erupted in the country’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, which borders Syria, in response to the clashes in Aleppo.

Any further military action against the SDF could jeopardise the fragile peace process with the PKK. 

The two weeks of protests have posed one of the biggest challenges to the theocratic authorities who have ruled Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, although supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has expressed defiance and blamed the United States.

Following the movement’s largest protests yet on Thursday, new demonstrations took place late Friday, according to images verified by AFP and other videos published on social media.

This was despite an internet shutdown imposed by the authorities, with monitor Netblocks saying early Saturday that “metrics show the nationwide internet blackout remains in place at 36 hours”.

In Tehran‘s Saadatabad district, people banged pots and chanted anti-government slogans including “death to Khamenei” as cars honked in support, a video verified by AFP showed.

Other images disseminated on social media and by Persian-language television channels based outside Iran showed similar large protests elsewhere in the capital, as well as in the eastern city of Mashhad, Tabriz in the north and the holy city of Qom.

In the western city of Hamedan, a man was shown waving a shah-era Iranian flag featuring the lion and the sun amid fires and people dancing.

In the Pounak district of northern Iran, people were shown dancing round a fire in the middle of a highway, while in the Vakilabad district of Mashhad, a city home to one of the holiest shrines in Shiite Islam, people marched down an avenue chanting “death to Khamenei”. It was not possible to immediately verify the videos.

New protests erupt in Iran despite internet shutdown

‘Big trouble’

Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran’s ousted shah, hailed the “magnificent” turnout on Friday and urged Iranians to stage more targeted protests this Saturday and Sunday.

“Our goal is no longer just to take to the streets. The goal is to prepare to seize and hold city centres,” Pahlavi said in a video message on social media.

Pahlavi, whose father Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was ousted by the 1979 revolution and died in 1980, added he was also “preparing to return to my homeland” at a time that he believed was “very near”.

Activists have expressed concern that the internet shutdown could mask repression by authorities, and the Norway-based Iran Human Rights group has said at least 51 people have been killed in the crackdown so far.

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi warned on Friday that security forces could be preparing to commit a “massacre under the cover of a sweeping communications blackout”.

Authorities say several members of the security forces have been killed, and Khamenei in a defiant speech on Friday lashed out at “vandals” and vowed the Islamic republic would “not back down”.

He blamed the US for stoking the unrest in comments echoed by several other Iranian officials.

Turkey and Iran unite against Israel as regional power dynamics shift

US President Donald Trump again refused on Friday to rule out new military action against Iran after Washington backed and joined Israel’s 12-day war against the Islamic republic in June.

“Iran‘s in big trouble. It looks to me that the people are taking over certain cities that nobody thought were really possible just a few weeks ago,” Trump said.

Asked about his message to Iran’s leaders, Trump said: “You better not start shooting because we’ll start shooting too.”

Government forces began striking the Sheikh Maqsud district overnight after the Kurdish fighters defied a deadline to withdraw during a temporary ceasefire.

In the morning, the army announced the “completion of a full security sweep of the Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhood”, while urging residents to stay in their homes due to the continued presence of Kurdish forces.

AFP correspondents in Aleppo said shelling in the area continued even after the announcement.

A military source previously told the official SANA news agency that “a number of SDF members” — a reference to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces — had been arrested during the operation.

In a statement posted by the Ministry of Defence, Syria’s army said “the only remaining option for the armed elements in the Sheikh Maqsud area of Aleppo is to surrender themselves and their weapons immediately”.

The violence in Syria‘s second city erupted after efforts to integrate the Kurds’ de facto autonomous administration and military into the country’s new government stalled.

Since the start of the fighting on Tuesday, at least 21 civilians have been killed, according to figures from both sides, and tens of thousands have fled Aleppo.

The clashes, some of the most intense since Syria’s new Islamist authorities took power, present yet another challenge as the country struggles to reunify after ousting longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

Both sides blamed the other for starting the violence in Aleppo.

Early Friday, Syrian authorities announced a window for the Kurdish fighters to leave, but they refused to “surrender” and vowed to defend their districts.

In response, Syria’s army warned it would renew strikes on military targets in Sheikh Maqsud and urged civilians to get out ahead of the district’s takeover by security forces.

An AFP correspondent saw residents laden with belongings fleeing before the two-hour humanitarian corridor closed.

France and UK strike suspected IS arms site near Palmyra in Syria

‘Fierce’ resistance

Kurdish forces reported coming under artillery and drone attacks, and claimed in a post on social media to be mounting a “fierce and ongoing resistance”.

The army said three soldiers had been killed by Kurdish fighters, while state television accused them of launching drones at residential areas of Aleppo.

A flight suspension at Aleppo airport was extended until late Saturday.

The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, and was key to the defeat of the Islamic State group in 2019.

But Turkey — a close ally of Syria’s new leaders — views its main component as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which agreed last year to end its four-decade armed struggle against Ankara.

Elham Ahmad, a senior official in the Kurdish administration in Syria’s northeast, accused Syrian authorities of “choosing the path of war” by attacking Kurdish districts and of “seeking to put an end to the agreements that have been reached”.

“We are committed to them and we are seeking to implement them,” she told AFP.

US mediation

The March integration agreement was meant to be implemented last year, but differences, including Kurdish demands for decentralised rule, have stymied progress.

Ahmad said that “the United States is playing a mediating role… we hope they will apply pressure to reach an agreement”.

A diplomatic source told AFP that US envoy Tom Barrack was headed to Damascus.

Trump offers Turkey fresh hope for US fighter jets despite Israel’s opposition

Barrack said in a statement Saturday morning that he had discussed the situation with Jordan’s foreign minister, with both parties expressing a desire for “consolidating the ceasefire, ensuring the peaceful withdrawal of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from Aleppo, and guaranteeing” civilians’ safety.

They also called for the implementation of the integration agreement.

Turkey, which shares a 900-kilometre (550-mile) border with Syria, has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from the frontier.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric expressed alarm over the impact of the fighting on civilians and called on all parties “to swiftly return to negotiations to ensure the full implementation of the 10 March agreement”.

Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the renewed clashes cast doubt on the government’s ability to gain the trust of minority factions and sew the country back together after 14 years of civil war.

“If the fighting escalates, international actors will wonder about Damascus’s capacity to govern Syria’s heterogeneous society,” he added.

Syria’s authorities have committed to protecting minorities, but sectarian bloodshed rocked the Alawite and Druze communities last year.

Some 15 people have died in weather-related accidents this week across Europe as gale-force winds and storms caused travel mayhem, shut schools, and cut power to hundreds of thousands in freezing temperatures.

The storm barrelled through southwestern Cornwall and parts of Wales overnight Thursday to Friday, with gusts of up to 160 kilometres per hour (100 miles per hour) downing trees and leaving tens of thousands of homes without power.

A man was found dead in the town of Helston in Cornwall on Friday after a tree fell onto a caravan, UK police said.

“Tragically, a man aged in his 50s was located deceased within the caravan,” Devon and Cornwall police said in a statement.

Violent Storm Goretti brings wind, snow and disruption to Europe

 

Most of the UK remains under a weather warning for snow and ice on Saturday, the Met Office national weather agency said, warning that black ice could cause “disruption” in Scotland and northern England.

Heavy snowfall followed by the storm meant that some 250 schools in Scotland were closed for the much of the first week back after the Christmas break.

Around 28,000 homes were still without power at the start of the weekend in southwestern England and the Midlands, according to the network operator National Grid.

Storm Goretti also ploughed through other parts of northern Europe, with nearly 100,000 homes in France still without power on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile long-distance rail traffic slowly resumed on Saturday in northern Germany, after being completely suspended on Friday due to another storm named Elli, rail opetaor Deutsche Bahn said.

In the far north of the country, the port city of Hamburg, heavily affected by a large amount of snow, remains particularly impacted by the disruptions, it added.

A number of rail services will still not be restored on Saturday, notably those linking Hamburg to Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Hanover.

Services from Hamburg to the western Ruhr region or to Berlin are expected to be restored over the course of Saturday, it said.

 (AFP)

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of the US from 66 international organisations – roughly half of them linked to the UN.

Masson-Delmotte, former chair of Working Group 1 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and now a climatologist at France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, accuses the White House of “sabotage” aimed at destroying scientific knowledge and keeping it from the American people.

RFI: How do you interpret this latest US attack on global climate diplomacy?

Valérie Masson-Delmotte: Under the Trump administration, the United States is breaking away from multilateralism on climate and biodiversity. It’s also breaking away from objective, rigorous and factual scientific assessment work.

This is reflected in the withdrawal from the IPCC, the biodiversity panel IPBES, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The move forms part of a policy of brutal attacks against climate science, environmental science and biodiversity science in the US, but also against the place of scientific facts at all levels within the American federal framework and internationally.

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RFI: For Donald Trump, these organisations no longer serve American interests. Yet the United States, like other countries in the world, is affected by climate change.

VM-D: Yes, of course. The National Academies of Sciences, Medicine and Engineering have updated their assessment of the state of knowledge on the links between greenhouse gas emissions and harmful impacts on the health and wellbeing of Americans. The state of knowledge on this point is only becoming more refined, showing just how much climate change is a threat to Americans.

And what we can clearly see is that the Trump administration is pursuing a policy of obstructing all environmental regulation, going as far as destroying scientific facts and the production of scientific knowledge.

It’s also an attack on academic freedom, which is one of the legacies of the Enlightenment and a key aspect of democratic life.

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RFI: Is the United States shooting itself in the foot?

VM-D: I’d call it sabotage. Sabotage aimed at making scientific knowledge inaccessible. At destroying the capacity to produce knowledge by targeting climate research centres, adaptation centres and water research centres.

In fact, the American administration is trying to present itself as powerful and brutal, but it’s above all profound cowardice because ultimately, the policies being implemented are designed to avoid any accountability.

The US is the world’s largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases and the second-largest emitter today, with highly polluting oil and gas multinationals. I think the goal is simply to escape all responsibility and accountability.

This is an administration whose compass seems to be guided only by fossil fuel interests and nothing else.

---

This interview was adapted from the original version in French by RFI’s Igor Strauss.

Since declaring independence in 1991, Somaliland has tried for decades to gain international recognition.

Yet no country acknowledged it as a sovereign state – until Israel did so on 27 December 2025.

Authorities in Somalia, who want to keep their territory intact, have decried Israel’s decision and rallied the African Union and other African countries for support.

But Israel and Somaliland are moving forward with their “strategic partnership”. Israel’s Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, visited Somaliland on Tuesday, 7 January, meeting the region’s president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, and discussing ways to enhance bilateral ties. 

Next week, Somaliland’s president will head to Jerusalem.

Somalia’s Foreign Ministry denounced an “unauthorised incursion” into the country. It criticised Saar’s visit as “a serious violation of Somalia’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political unity”, and “unacceptable interference in the country’s internal affairs”.

Why are Israel and Somaliland willing to court international disapproval for the sake of this alliance?

UN ambassadors condemn Israel’s recognition of Somaliland

Torn history  

Somaliland lies in north-western Somalia, in the Horn of Africa along the strategic Gulf of Aden in the Red Sea. It shares land borders with Ethiopia, Djibouti and the rest of Somalia.

Up until the 18th century, the Somali region consisted of independent sultanates and clan-based societies, with limited Ottoman influence along parts of the coast. Eventually, European powers started establishing ports and trade agreements in the region too.

Following the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 and the “Scramble for Africa“, France, Britain and Italy moved to formalise their presence in the Horn of Africa.

Britain declared a protectorate over north-western Somalia – today’s Somaliland – in 1887, while Italy established control over southern and north-eastern Somalia from 1889. France’s influence centred around the Gulf of Tadjoura, now part of Djibouti.

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Somaliland remained a British protectorate for the first part of the 20th century, but Somali nationalist movements grew in the 1940s and ’50s. When Somaliland declared independence on 26 June 1960, followed by Italian-controlled Somalia on 1 July, they formed one country.

But over the years, Somalilanders had kept their English-speaking habits and different administrative rules. And under the increasingly authoritarian regime of Siad Barre, the military commander who seized power in 1969, Somalilanders were victims of repression.

With the fall of Barre in January 1991 and the beginning of a civil war, the region declared independence again.

Strategic location, strategic timing  

Ever since, Somaliland has governed itself independently and organised its own elections.

It has long sought formal recognition as an independent state, signing bilateral agreements with a handful of foreign governments on investments and security coordination.

Since the election of President Abdullahi in December 2024, the region has made bolder attempts to pursue recognition from the international community, especially towards United States President Donald Trump.

This is when Israel started looking at a partnership with Somaliland, including recognition.

With a new president, Somaliland seeks international recognition

“Due to its strategic location on the shores of the Gulf of Aden, the territory of today’s Somaliland has drawn geopolitical attention from great powers for a long time,” writes Nasir M Ali, an international relations expert and former director of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Hargeisa, in a new handbook on Somaliland.

Analysts believe that an alliance between Israel and Somaliland is particularly advantageous for Israel because of its strategic position across the Red Sea from Yemen, where Houthi rebels, supported by Iran, have carried out numerous attacks against Israel since the beginning of the war in Gaza.

Ali told RFI that Somalilanders were overwhelmingly in favour of the partnership. “They’ve been waiting for recognition for decades, and now is the time,” he said. “The strategic reasons are strong, and others in the Muslim world have already re-allied Israel.”

‘Not in a position to choose’

Abdullahi had suggested last month that Somaliland join the Abraham Accords, a deal brokered by the Trump administration in 2020 that saw the United Arab Emirates – a close partner of Somaliland – Bahrain and then Morocco establish ties with Israel.

Israel’s decision to recognise Somaliland also follows two years of increasingly strained ties with many of its closest partners over its war in Gaza.

“Somaliland is and has been a stable democracy for almost 35 years,” the Israeli foreign minister said, and “it is pro-Western and a friend of Israel”.

Israel’s government has also advocated for what officials describe as voluntary Palestinian migration from Gaza. But Somaliland has denied that the Israel recognition agreement allows it to establish military bases, or to resettle Palestinians from Gaza in the region.

“We are not in a position to choose,” Hersi Ali Haji Hassan, chairman of the ruling Waddani party, told Al Jazeera this week. “We are in a state of necessity for official international recognition.

“There is no choice before us but to welcome any country that recognises our existential right.”

Israel’s recognition of Somaliland ‘is not an isolated initiative’: expert

A risky partner

Some analysts argue, however, that Israel’s support could harm Somaliland’s hopes for wider recognition.

After Saar’s visit to Hargeisa, the African Union called for the “immediate revocation” of Israel’s recognition of Somaliland, calling for respect of Somalia’s territorial integrity.

The European Union, China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have also condemned the recognition, fearing growing insecurity in the Red Sea. 

“Israel’s recognition could be seen as not the best place to start among African and Muslim partners of Somaliland,” Ali suggests, “but it could also seduce countries like Ethiopia and other potential partners.”

That would be a game changer for Somalia, he says, for East Africa and for the entire region.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen responded bluntly on Sunday after Trump said he “absolutely” needed Greenland for US national security.

Calling Denmark a “historically close ally”, she warned Washington against questioning the territorial integrity of a NATO partner and stressed that Greenland “is not for sale”.

“I have to say this very clearly to the United States: it is absolutely absurd to say that the United States should take control of Greenland,” Frederiksen said in a statement late Sunday.

She called on Washington to stop “threatening its historical ally”.

Greenland’s leaders went further, describing Trump’s language as disrespectful and disconnected from reality.

Meanwhile, France on Monday expressed its “solidarity” with Denmark with French foreign ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux saying that “borders cannot be changed by force. Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders and the Danes, and it is up to them to decide what to do with it.”

EU backs Denmark’s territorial integrity after Trump appoints Greenland envoy

It’s not the first time that the US has tried to take over Danish territory.

In March 1917, the United States purchased the Caribbean islands of Saint Thomas, Saint John and (formerly French colony) Saint Croix, known as the “Danish West Indies,” from Denmark for $25 million in gold. The territory is now known as the “US Virgin Islands.”

The deal was the product of half a century of failed negotiations, finally concluded under the pressure of the First World War.

With the Panama Canal opening in 1914, US officials were determined to secure Caribbean sea lanes. They feared that Germany might seize the Danish islands, located just east of Puerto Rico, and use them as naval bases, threatening American shipping and hemispheric security.

For Denmark, the colonies had long ceased to be profitable. The abolition of slavery in 1848 had undermined the sugar economy, and the islands had become a financial and administrative burden.

Previous attempts to sell them had failed – blocked first by the US Senate in 1867, then by the Danish parliament in 1902 – despite strong local support for American rule.

US recognised Danish sovereignty over Greenland

In 1916 the balance of power changed. As war engulfed Europe, US diplomats made it clear that not acquiring the Danish islands carried risks.

Secretary of State Robert Lansing warned that Washington might occupy the islands to prevent German use if Denmark did not agree to sell. Neutral and vulnerable, Copenhagen conceded.

Surprise win for Greenland’s opposition in election dominated by Trump threats

The transaction, finalised on 31 March 1917, is still marked as “Transfer Day” in the US Virgin Islands.

But there was a parallel diplomatic bargain: the United States formally “recognised Denmark’s right to extend its political and economic interests over the entirety of Greenland.”

This declaration, signed by then Secretary of State Robert Lansing, was part of the Convention between the US and Denmark for cession of the Danish West Indies and helped secure Denmark’s sovereignty over the Arctic island for more than a century.

But with the onset of the Cold War, policy makers in Washington realised the strategic importance of Greenland, and continued their attempts to acquire the island.

In 1946, then President Harry Truman’s administration made a secret offer to purchase Greenland from Denmark for $100 million in gold, plus rights to an Alaskan oil field. Secretary of State James Byrnes presented the offer to Danish Foreign Minister Gustav Rasmussen on 14 December 1946.

Truman’s advisers saw Greenland as an essential strategic defence position against Soviet bombers that might fly over the Arctic Circle toward North America.

The Danish foreign minister was shocked by the proposal and rejected it, but ultimately the US gained access to Greenland through NATO membership in 1949 and a bilateral defence agreement (that specifically stated the “full respect for the sovereignty of each Party”) without the need to purchase it.

The offer was revealed in 1991 when declassified documents were discovered.

In 1955, the Joint Chiefs of Staff proposed to President Eisenhower that the nation try again to purchase Greenland, but the State Department responded that the time had passed for such a plan.

According to diplomatic documents preserved in the US National Archives, there were discussions about acquiring Greenland took place on multiple occasions: in 1867, 1910, 1946, 1955, 2019 (under Trump I), and now 2025.

But the political context has fundamentally changed since 1917. Denmark is no longer an exposed neutral state but a NATO member embedded in European security structures.

Greenland itself enjoys extensive self-rule, with control over domestic affairs and a growing sense of national identity rooted in a history of Danish colonial domination.

Public opinion reflects that shift. An Axios poll taken in June 2025 revealed that some 85 percent of Greenlanders “don’t want to join the US.” Other polls consistently show similar opposition to US avances. Greenland’s leaders have rejected Trump’s comments outright, insisting that the island’s future can only be decided by its own population.

Mitterand died on 8 January 1996, yet he remains a presence in French politics.

The Socialist Party figurehead did not merely lead France from 1981 to 1995; he rearranged the country’s political map, then left his successors to argue over his legacy.

According to Mitterrand’s biographer, Philip Short, the misunderstandings surrounding Mitterrand begin not with his presidency, but much earlier – and they continue to shape how he is remembered today.

Collaborator and résistant

“One of the most discussed periods of his early career was the period at Vichy when he was working in the Pétain administration, and at the same time became a Resistance leader,” Short says, noting that this apparent contradiction has been “reproached to him again and again and again”.

Called up for military service shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Mitterrand was taken prisoner after the fall of France and sent to a German prisoner-of-war camp. He escaped in 1941 and returned to France, where he worked for the collaborationist Vichy government before switching allegiances to the Resistance.

For Short, the problem lies less in the facts than in the way they have been judged. “I think there is a complete misunderstanding still in France about this,” he argues. “People make judgments without any thought for the historical context.”

Mitterrand returned from a German POW camp to a country whose administrative centre was Vichy. “Where did he go? He went to Vichy. Well, there was nowhere else to go.”

Short points out that many Resistance figures passed through the Vichy administration in similar ways.

But Mitterrand’s personality worked against him. “Because of Mitterrand’s ambiguity, because he was so opaque, in many ways, he has been kind of tarred with that brush of ‘oh, he worked for Vichy’,” Short says. “So I think that is still something which is kind of smudging his legacy in many French people’s minds.”

France opens archives on wartime Vichy regime

Transformational figure

In Short’s view, Mitterrand stands alongside Charles de Gaulle as one of the two leaders who transformed post-war France. When he finally brought the left to power in 1981, it was after decades of polarisation in French politics.

“Mitterrand did it in two ways, essentially,” Short explains. “Social justice, which he brought to the fore. He made a real standard of political life that he pushed very hard. And also, of course, the European Union.”

As president, Mitterrand pushed for an enlarged and more integrated EU, encouraging Spain and Portugal to join and championing a single market.

Mitterrand helped reconcile the French with Europe at a time when ideological lines were sharply drawn and economic debates were deeply moralised. “If you look back to the 1970s, it was very, very polarised,” Short says. “The left absolutely regarded money, the making of money, as the ultimate evil.”

That attitude has not entirely disappeared, he notes, but it has softened. “On the whole, the French have become much more pragmatic and realistic about the way economies work, with certain exceptions.”

One of those exceptions, Short adds, is pensions – an issue that still convulses French politics decades later. What is often forgotten, he says, is that it was Mitterrand who lowered the retirement age from 65 to 60.

“Perhaps that was not such a clever thing to do in the long term,” Short observes. “Now everybody’s arguing furiously that it can’t possibly go back up to 64, that would be deeply unjust. Well, 40 years ago, before the left came to power, it was 65.”

Errors in Rwanda

If Mitterrand’s domestic legacy remains a subject of debate, his African policy is more openly contested – particularly in light of later assessments of France’s role during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Short’s judgement here is blunt. “He inherited it and he continued it,” Short says of France’s post-colonial Africa policy.

While Françafrique, the network of France’s influence in its former African colonies, is often associated with Mitterrand, Short is careful to place it in a longer tradition. “The Gaullist tradition is much more involved than Mitterrand ever was,” he argues, noting that former President Jacques Chirac – who served as prime minister under Mitterrand – was in particular, deeply embedded in those networks.

Rwanda, however, stands apart. “His attitude to Rwanda was very, very hard to understand,” Short says. He recalls Mitterrand asking German Chancellor Helmut Kohl: “Who is the aggressor and who is the victim?” To most observers, Short notes, the answer was obvious. “The extremist Hutus were the aggressors, and the Tutsi were the victim – and moderate Hutus as well.”

Yet Mitterrand “just did not want to see it”. Short describes a “complete block” that he still struggles to explain. “It was an error,” he says.

“He made many errors during his period in power, but he also had great successes, and one can’t expect any politician to get everything right. He certainly got that very badly wrong indeed.”

Yet Short is cautious about overstating how much the tragedy should define Mitterrand’s legacy. “He got it wrong, but it wasn’t Mitterrand who was responsible for what happened in Rwanda.”

New evidence puts France’s role in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide back in the spotlight

A man of beliefs

For Short, there are other elements of Mitterrand’s legacy that deserve greater attention – particularly his handling of succession within the Socialist Party. “There was an obvious candidate, Michel Rocard, who would have pushed the Socialist Party in a more social democratic direction,” he says. “And Mitterrand – very largely for personal reasons – absolutely didn’t want that to happen.”

The result, in Short’s view, was a kind of political vacuum. “It was ‘après moi, le déluge’,” he says. Asked what Mitterrand might make of today’s depleted Socialist Party, Short suspects “a certain masochistic pleasure”.

Yet he rejects the idea that Mitterrand simply sought power for its own sake. “No, I think his achievement was about ideology,” Short insists. “He was a man who believed very strongly in ideas.” Mitterrand could be “sinuous” and “Machiavellian”, he acknowledges, but always in the service of goals he believed in – even when those goals changed.

“When he first came to power, the first two years, he tried to put in very idealistic, almost utopian, socialist policies,” Short says. “And it didn’t work.” Economic reality forced a shift.

But demonstrating pragmatism does not mean Mitterrand abandoned his ideals, Short argues. “If you’re a politician and you have ideas, in order to put them into practice, you have to have power. So the two kind of go together.”

Thirty years after his death, that blend of ideas and power remains central to Mitterrand’s legacy.

Shot dead at the age of 20 while parking his car in Marseille, Mehdi Kessaci was not involved in trafficking. Investigators believe he was targeted because of his brother Amine’s outspoken anti-drugs activism – a warning, they fear, aimed at silencing opposition.

His murder, the 15th drug-related killing in the Marseille region in 2025, was described by Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez as a “turning point” and a “crime of intimidation”. It also reignited a debate about how France should respond to criminal networks whose annual turnover is estimated at between five and six billion euros.

New legislation adopted in June last year expands surveillance powers, makes it easier to seize criminal assets and has created a dedicated national prosecution service against organised crime, due to become operational in January.

But some campaigners argue that citizens themselves also have a role to play – and point to Italy’s long experience of fighting the mafia as a model.

“Italy is the country of mafia, but anti-mafia too,” says Fabrice Rizzoli, an academic specialising in geopolitics and organised crime. 

Repurposing criminal assets

A decade ago, Rizzoli co-founded Crim’HALT, an association that encourages civic engagement against organised crime. Inspired by an Italian law adopted in 1996 to allow property confiscated as part of prosecutions to be reallocated to social projects, it set out to develop a similar system in France.

Following sustained advocacy, a law adopted in France in 2021 made it possible to reuse confiscated assets for public good. Around eight buildings across the country have since been handed over to associations.

Rizzoli points to a house in Marseille, confiscated from a cocaine trafficker, that is now used by an organisation supporting women victims of violence. In the overseas territory of Guadeloupe, another confiscated building is being used to house male perpetrators of domestic violence, allowing women to remain in the family home.

“You can see that we are able to transform criminal power to public interest, to citizen power,” Rizzoli says. “We can say to people, ‘you see, change is possible’.”

Listen to a report on Crim’HALT on the Spotlight on France podcast:

France triples drug user fines during Marseille trafficking crackdown

More recognition for victims

Beyond material assets, campaigners argue that organised crime must also be challenged symbolically – by recognising and honouring its victims. Since 2017, Italy has officially marked 21 March as a Day of Remembrance and Commitment for Innocent Victims of Mafia, reading out the names of more than 1,000 victims nationwide.

“Violence is so efficient for organised crime,” Rizzoli says. “When they killed Mehdi Kessaci, of course, it was a message” – a warning that if people fought back against the traffickers, they would pay the price.

But defending the memory of innocent victims takes the focus away from the criminals, he argues, and strengthens civil society. It also provides much needed support to victims’ families who say they often feel abandoned.

Thanks to funding by the EU’s Erasmus+ programme, Crim’HALT takes groups of French citizens – including bereaved families – to southern Italy each year to witness this culture of remembrance. One of them is Hassna Arabi, whose cousin Sokayna Jean, 24, was killed by a stray bullet in Marseille in September 2023 while studying in her bedroom.

Arabi recalls strong official support in the immediate aftermath. “I remember thinking it was great that everyone is here two weeks after, but what about in a year?” A silent march organised a month later drew fewer than 200 people. “I wondered what we could do to make people feel that everyone was concerned.”

In Italy, she found a very different, and welcome, response. “What struck me is the way the entire society has been involved in standing up to drug trafficking,” she says. “Every day I would call Sokayna’s mum… I wanted her to see that we mustn’t lose hope, because in the end, that’s all we have left.”

Fight against drug crime top of the agenda as Macron visits Marseille

‘Silence kills too’

That sense of collective mobilisation is also what struck Jean-Toussaint Plasenzotti, whose nephew Massimu Susini, an environmental activist, was murdered in Corsica in 2019.

After Mehdi Kessaci’s killing, some in France have said they no longer dare speak out. Plasenzotti understands the fear – but rejects silence.

“You imagine that by keeping quiet you’ll ward off the danger,” he says. “But our analysis shows you don’t ward it off. You have to face the danger head on. You have to name it, understand it, and then find the tools to make it go away.”

In Corsica, the anti-mafia Massimu Susini collective he founded recently organised demonstrations under the slogan: “The mafia kills, silence kills too”. “We gathered 5,000 people in two demonstrations, it was a record,” he says.

Inspired by the trips to Italy, Plasenzotti lobbied alongside Rizzoli for tougher rules on asset confiscation. He’s also managed to get anti-mafia education introduced in high schools in Corsica.

“Education – teaching and informing young people about this criminal system – is essential,” Plasenzotti says, to counter the promises of “money, pleasure, impunity”.

‘Silence kills’: Thousands march against the mafia in Corsica protests

Changing the narrative

Rizzoli is calling for France to formally recognise innocent victims of organised crime, starting with an official commemoration on 21 March, like in Italy. “The police narrative is that [gang members] kill each other… while the public is saying ‘it’s not our problem’,” he says. “But the violence of organised crime can be against us all. It can impact anyone. We have to change the narrative.”

Naming child victims such as 10-year-old Fayed, killed in Nîmes in 2023 by a stray bullet while in the car with his uncle, or 14-year-old Rayanne Begue, shot dead in Marseille in August 2021 after going out to buy a sandwich, challenges that complacency. 

Rizzoli argues that naming a school after innocent victims like Socayna, Fayed or Rayanne would send out a message to drug traffickers that they cannot behave with impunity.

Crim’HALT also advocates for legal reforms, based on Italy’s tried and tested experience. They include extending asset confiscation to civil courts, which would allow authorities to seize assets from drug traffickers’ family members; extending witness protection to murderers so they could denounce their accomplices; and creating a specific legal status for innocent victims and their families, particularly siblings, to help them access education or work.

“We don’t have to be naive,” Rizzoli says. “It’s not only social anti-mafia citizen power that will reduce violence.”

But if politicians, public institutions and citizens work together more closely, “we’ll be our strongest against organised crime”. 

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Listen to a report on the work of Crim’HALT on the Spotlight on France podcast, episode #136.

Africa: power and protest

‘We come here to die’: African recruits sent to fight Russia’s war in Ukraine

Following the trail from Africa to the Ukrainian frontlines, this investigation asks who profits, who pays the price, and how distant wars pull in people with few choices and even fewer protections.

Madagascar’s Gen Z uprising, as told by three young protesters

Young activists trace the anger, frustration and hope driving a new generation of Madagascans into the streets – and challenging the political status quo.

How football mega tournaments became a lightning rod for Morocco protesters

From stadiums to the streets, football emerges as a proxy battleground for identity, power and politics, revealing how sport can amplify wider tensions.

Young voters in Côte d’Ivoire seeking jobs, change – but most of all peace

As Côte d’Ivoire went to the polls, young Ivorians told us about joblessness, political dead ends and memories of past violence – and why peace mattered most.

South Africa closes G20 year framed as ‘presidency for all of Africa’

As South Africa wrapped up its G20 presidency, this story follows Pretoria’s push to put African priorities on the global agenda – from debt relief to inequality – amid boycotts, diplomatic tensions and questions over how much influence the continent can really wield.

The karate grannies of Korogocho, fighting back at any age

In one of Nairobi’s toughest neighbourhoods, older women turn to karate not for sport, but for safety, confidence and control over their own space, finding strength – and joy – along the way.

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Ukraine and Russia: war, identity and closed worlds

How the Russian invasion has sparked a renaissance of Ukrainian culture

This piece explores how war has accelerated cultural change. It shows how language, art and identity can shift fast when a country is fighting to exist on its own terms.

Returning to Ukraine: ‘If everyone leaves, what will become of this country?’

For Ukrainians living abroad, the question of return is fraught. This story explores the pull of home, the fear of going back, and the emotional cost of waiting.

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Europe: democracy, disinformation and shifting ground

Europe’s ‘Truman Show’ moment: is it time to walk off Trump’s set?

As politics blurs into performance, this analysis probes a growing sense of democratic unease and the feeling that institutions are no longer speaking to voters.

How deepfakes and cloned voices are distorting Europe’s elections

With fake audio and video becoming harder to spot, voters face a new challenge – deciding what is real in an election landscape increasingly shaped by synthetic media.

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

A tour of political ideas crossing borders, tracing how US-style rhetoric and tactics are being adapted by movements across Europe.

Secret oaths and blacked-out windows: what happens inside the papal conclave?

Behind closed doors, rituals, rules and secrecy shape one of the world’s most watched decisions, offering a rare glimpse into a process designed to resist scrutiny.

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France: citizens, culture and disappearing worlds

Changing France’s approach to volunteering, one hour at a time

Can civic engagement fit into busy modern lives? This piece looks at efforts to lower the threshold for volunteering and bring more people into public life.

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

By handing a deeply sensitive issue to ordinary citizens, France tested a different model of democracy – and learned something about public trust along the way.

Did French media silence enable Brigitte Macron fake news story to go viral?

When mainstream outlets hold back, false claims can fill the gap. This story examines how hesitation may have helped a conspiracy theory gain traction.

Crying the news with Ali Akbar, the last paperboy of Paris

As habits change and print fades, one man keeps calling out the headlines, holding on to a disappearing rhythm of city life.

France Antarctique: the lost French outpost on the coast of Brazil

Before France became a global colonial power, it stumbled. This story uncovers a failed colonial experiment in Brazil, and the traces it quietly left behind.

France’s Republican calendar and the doomed battle to revolutionise time

Revolutionary France didn’t just try to overthrow a regime – it sought to reinvent time itself. This story revisits the radical calendar experiment, and why it ultimately failed.

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Environment and technology: new pressure, old knowledge

Niue, the tiny island selling the sea to save it from destruction

Niue, a small island nation in the South Pacific, is experimenting with a novel approach to conservation, selling sponsorships for pieces of ocean in order to fund long-term protection.

How Europe’s appetite for farmed fish is gutting Gambia’s coastline

What ends up on European plates is changing life on the West African coast, as industrial fishmeal plants drain local waters of fish.

Indigenous knowledge steers new protections for the high seas

Once sidelined in global policy, indigenous ocean knowledge is now reshaping how marine protection is designed and defended.

Is AI sexist? How artificial images are perpetuating gender bias in reality

The images produced by AI systems often reflect old stereotypes, raising uncomfortable questions about who designs these tools – and whose biases they carry.

How weird fossils created by human garbage may baffle future civilisations

What will today’s plastic bottles, smartphones and chicken bones leave behind for the distant future? Scientists say our rubbish may become “technofossils” – a distinctly human geological layer that could puzzle future explorers about the age of mass consumption and waste.

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Culture and memory: bearing witness

How exiled photographer Ernest Cole captured apartheid’s human toll

Through stark, unflinching images, Cole documented the everyday violence of South African apartheid, producing work that remains as unsettling as it is necessary.

‘Collective heroism’: French film recounts evacuation amid Taliban takeover

Set against the evacuation from Afghanistan, the French film foregrounds solidarity, capturing how ordinary people respond when institutions falter and danger closes in.

Mahrez, 34, scored a sumptuous free-kick in the dying seconds of the semi-final when the sides clashed at the 2019 tournament.

They went on to beat Senegal 1-0 in the final to claim the country’s second title at the continent’s most prestigious national team football tournament.

But after that high, Algeria suffered humiliating first round exits at successive competitions.

“Of course, you cannot forget scoring at a moment like that,” Mahrez beamed as he recalled the lavish sweep of his left foot at the Cairo International Stadium.

“For me and for the team and for our country, it was an incredible moment.

“And I’m so happy to arrive at this stage again and to play against a big team, a strong team like Nigeria. 

Five things we learned on Day 5: Football, footballers and amnesia

“This is where our big players belong and now it’s up to them to show their abilities on the biggest stage.”

Both Nigeria and Algeria won all three of their games during the pool stages. Nigeria rifled home eight goals while conceding four. And they then hammered Mozambique 4-0 to reach the last eight. 

Algeria have only let in one goal in their four matches leading up to Saturday afternoon’s game at the Stade de Marrakech.

“I like the football Algeria play,” said Nigeria boss Eric Chelle who spent three months at the helm of the Algerian club top flight club MC Oran before taking up the role as Nigeria head coach in January 2025. 

Five things we learned on Day 6: Nigeria find danger in dominance

“Algeria have got some interesting players and there’s a coaching staff that is very professional and very competent.

“We’ve a challenge ahead of us,” Chelle added. “We have our strengths as well as our weaknesses. If we want to reach the prize we have to beat the best teams.”

The winner of the game will play Morocco in Rabat on 14 January after they overwhelmed Cameroon 2-0 at the Stade Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat on Friday night.

Brahim Diaz notched up his fourth goal of the tournament to give the Cup of Nations hosts the lead after 26 minutes. Ismael Saibari added the second 16 minutes from time to take Morocco into the last four for the first time since they reached the final in 2004.

The other semi-final on 14 January in Tangier will pit Senegal against the winner of Saturday night’s game in Agadir between Egypt and the defending champions Cote d’Ivoire.

The Ivorians outclassed Burkina Faso 3-0 to move into the last eight while the Egyptians needed two goals in extra-time to see off Benin.

The final will take place in Rabat on 18 January.

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.

World Radio Day is just around the corner, so it’s time for you to record your greetings for our annual World Radio Day program!

WRD is on 13 February;  we’ll have our celebration the day after, on the 14 February show. The deadline for your recordings is Monday 2 February, which is not far off!

Try to keep your greeting to under a minute. You can record on your phone and send it to me as an attachment in an e-mail to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

Be sure to record your greeting from underneath a blanket. Then the sound will be truly radiophonic – I mean, you want everyone to understand you, right?

Don’t miss out on the fun. 2 February is just around the corner, so to your recorders!

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!

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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!

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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 22 November, I asked you a question about the world’s most visited museum – the Louvre here in Paris. The museum was back in the news, due to an architectural audit that turned up structural weaknesses in some of the beams in the building. 

You were to re-read our article “Louvre Museum in Paris shuts gallery over structural safety fears”, and send in the answer to these two questions: What is the name of the gallery that has been closed, and what artworks are in that gallery?

The answer is: The Campana Gallery, which houses nine rooms dedicated to ancient Greek ceramics. 

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: What are your unique relationship rules?  

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Kashif Khalil from Faisalabad, Pakistan. Kashif is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations on your double win, Kashif.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Nuraiz Bin Zaman, a member of the RFI Amour Fan Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, and RFI Listeners Club member Nasyr Muhammad from Katsina State, Nigeria.

Last but not least, RFI English listeners Murshida Akhter Lata, the co-chairman of the Source of Knowledge Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh, and Miss Shuno, 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: “Barkley’s Bug” by David Grishman, performed by the David Grishman Quintet; Traditional Greek music produced by Visual Melodies; the “Rondo” from Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 1, performed by Krystian Zimmerman and the Polish Festival Orchestra; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and “Guinnevere” by David Crosby, arranged and performed by Miles Davis and his ensemble.

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read Paul Myers’ article “Nigeria power past Mozambique into quarterfinals at Africa Cup of Nations”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 2 February to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 7 February podcast. When you enter, be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

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A qualified majority of member states – at least 15 countries representing 65 percent of the EU’s population – backed the deal at a meeting in Brussels on Friday. 

France, Ireland, Austria and Poland are understood to be among the countries that voted against it. 

The result clears EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to sign the accord with Mercosur, the South American bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The European Parliament must give its consent, however, before the deal can enter into force.

French Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard has already pledged to push for rejection in the Parliament, where the vote could be tight.

€4bn deal

If approved, the deal would be the EU’s largest trade agreement in terms of tariff reductions, cutting around €4 billion in duties on EU exports.

The European Commission wrapped up two decades of negotiations a year ago, arguing the pact is central to the EU’s efforts to unlock new markets, offset business lost to US tariffs and reduce reliance on China by securing access to critical minerals.

Backers such as Germany and Spain see it as a strategic boost at a time of economic uncertainty.

France has emerged as the deal’s most vocal opponent. As the EU’s largest agricultural producer, Paris fears an influx of cheaper South American food – notably beef, poultry and sugar – produced to standards farmers say fall short of those imposed at home.

Environmental groups have also lined up against the pact, with Friends of the Earth branding it “climate-wrecking”.

To woo sceptics, Brussels has offered safeguards, including the ability to suspend imports of sensitive agricultural products, tighter controls on pesticide residues, a crisis fund, faster support for farmers and a pledge to cut import duties on fertilisers.

EU offers farmers extra funds to quell anger over Mercosur deal

Tractors, blockades

Protests have flared across France against the deal, with farmers blockading roads on Thursday and Friday.

Before dawn on Friday, farmers from the Confédération Paysanne union drove tractors onto the Paris ring road, briefly blocking traffic as they chanted “No! No! No to Mercosur!” 

The previous day, another union, Coordination Rurale, steered tractors towards the Arc de Triomphe and the National Assembly.

Environmental activists and agricultural students also joined the protests.

France tightens checks on food imports amid farmers’ opposition to Mercosur

The disruption has spread beyond Paris. Motorways linking northern France to Belgium were closed on Thursday evening, with roadblocks reported in Burgundy, Lozère, Tarn and the Basque Country.

Farmers have also continued to block access to a fuel depot in Bordeaux.

Protests are also planned in Belgium and Poland, marking a third consecutive winter of farmer unrest across Europe.

(with newswires)

The Mosi-3 exercise will run for a week off the coast of Cape Town, under Chinese leadership, with South Africa acting as host.

In a statement, the South African Navy said the manoeuvres would involve vessels from Brics+, a grouping that has recently expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates.

In reality, however, the exercise is largely a coming-together of China, Russia and Iran.

Tellingly, the Mosi drills – a multinational naval exercise hosted by South Africa every two years – were rebranded at the last minute as “Will for Peace”. According to the South African National Defence Force, the chosen theme is “joint actions to ensure the safety of shipping and maritime economic activities”.

It is an ambitious objective, although the number of ships involved will be modest.

China is sending two vessels, the guided-missile destroyer Tangshan and the supply ship Taihu. Russia is deploying a corvette equipped with a helicopter, while Iran is contributing its 103rd flotilla.

With Brics expansion, China seeks a global counterweight to US

An exercise in influence

By welcoming Iranian vessels for the first time, South Africa’s latest naval exercise has broken with tradition – a move that is seen as a clear sign of converging interests between Iran, China and Russia.

All three share an ambition to challenge what they see as a Western-dominated international order.

The deployment is taking place not far from French-controlled waters in the Indian Ocean, and the French military is watching closely.

“I think it’s mainly a signal,” one senior officer told RFI, speaking anonymously. “They’re not going to achieve real naval interoperability in a week, but they are sending a strategic message. They are showing that they can project power far from home.”

The timing is also no coincidence. With shipping routes being diverted away from the Red Sea because of tensions linked to attacks by Houthi rebels from Yemen, there is renewed interest in asserting a presence around the Cape of Good Hope – the maritime crossroads between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic.

“The fact that they changed the name of the exercise to ‘Will for Peace’ at the last minute is revealing,” the officer added. “The message is implicit: the Americans use force against countries in the Global South, such as Venezuela, while they present themselves as a bloc united around peace.”

Chinese ‘geopolitics of debt’

While the three guest nations are not necessarily pursuing identical goals in the southern Indian Ocean, together they are flexing their respective muscles and marking out an area of interest.

Over the past two decades, Beijing has become Africa’s leading trading partner and bilateral creditor, with southern Africa playing a central role in Chinese strategy.

China’s influence in the western Indian Ocean is also built on infrastructure, notably through the Belt and Road Initiative.

In Madagascar, Tanzania and Mozambique, it is financing and constructing ports, roads and energy projects.

China’s expanding footprint allows Beijing to secure fishing rights, protect its maritime trade flows and potentially lay the groundwork for future military facilities.

“It fits perfectly with their largely commercial offer,” the French officer notes. “Because they are buyers and lenders, it’s the geopolitics of debt. But it also adds another layer, by showing that they now have growing military capabilities in a world where power is becoming more and more significant.”

China’s new strategy in Africa: is the continent getting a fair deal?

Moscow seeks to offset isolation

For Moscow, the war in Ukraine has only heightened Africa’s strategic importance.

Russia’s engagement in southern Africa reflects a need to offset the political and economic isolation brought about by Western sanctions imposed since 2022.

Diplomatically, the region is seen by Moscow as a valuable “reservoir” of support. At the United Nations General Assembly, several southern African countries – including Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania – have abstained or declined to back resolutions condemning Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

Africa and war in Ukraine: from strategic neutrality to pro-Russian realignment

And when it comes to energy, European sanctions are pushing Russia to diversify its partnerships in Africa.

In the Mozambique Channel, this approach translates into offers of energy and security cooperation, particularly to Mozambique, Madagascar and the Comoros.

According to French military sources in the region, these relationships are often built on a predatory model, combining military assistance with influence operations.

“Unlike the Chinese, who focus on economics, the Russians are far more active on the military front,” one officer explained to RFI. “They are promoting anti-French narratives in Madagascar and the Comoros.”

The region also serves as a transit route for Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet”, giving Moscow a clear interest in securing these waters.

As for Iran, its participation in the exercise above all signals strategic solidarity with Russia – and, by extension, with China.

In southern Africa, China and Russia present their approach as one of “equal partnerships”.

However, behind this strategy lies a different logic. By institutionalising their naval presence through exercises such as Mosi-3, both countries are showcasing their strength and asserting their geopolitical ambitions in a region that is growing ever more strategically important.

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This article has been adapted from the original in French by RFI’s Frank Alexandre.

Speaking at the Élysée Palace during France’s annual meeting with ambassadors on Thursday, Macron said French policy towards Africa had undergone a fundamental change since 2017, when he declared in Ouagadougou: “There no longer is a French policy for Africa.”

France, he said, now sought partnerships that were not based primarily on historical or linguistic ties and did not automatically prioritise French-speaking countries.

A central element of this shift has been the overhaul of France’s military footprint in Africa.

Since Macron came to power in 2017, France has ended or drastically reduced its military presence in Central and West Africa, withdrawing troops from Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal. 

Macron said France had “completely changed its mindset” on Africa since his speech in Ouagadougou, insisting that the reduction of its military presence, notably in Mali and Burkina, was a necessary correction rather than a retreat.

“We reviewed, and rightly so, our military bases,” he said, adding that France had “removed the military component that was no longer understood by countries and by younger generations”, while rebuilding “relevant” partnerships, notably in Benin.

Macron returns to Africa with drive for fresh partnerships on five-day tour

Obliged to adapt

Seidik Abba, a Nigerien academic specialising in the Sahel, contests the idea that France drove these changes.

“It is not true to say that it was France that decided to withdraw,” he told RFI, pointing to pressure from African governments and growing hostility among young people who viewed French bases and the CFA franc as relics of colonialism.

For security analyst Emmanuel Dupuy, head of the Institute for European Perspective and Security Studies, Macron’s reference to Ouagadougou obscures how different the context was in 2017. At the time, France’s Sahel strategy was underpinned by the apparent success of Operation Serval and, later, Barkhane – missions that directed French military might against jihadists.

“There was a form of politico-military euphoria,” Dupuy said, with African governments actively requesting French security support. That environment has since collapsed, following coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, and France’s expulsion from all three.

He describes the current phase as one of reluctant realism, with Paris “obliged to adapt” to a disengagement it did not choose.

‘End of an era’ as France pulls out of Mali. Was the mission a failure?

Boosting economic ties

With its military role curtailed, Paris is now seeking to “play another card”, Abba said, with greater emphasis on economic ties. 

“As Macron himself has said, French companies need to be more aggressive and we need to move away from multinationals such as Bolloré and Total and work more closely with SMEs and French start-ups,” the analyst noted.

Macron said France’s renewed Africa policy would place greater emphasis on entrepreneurship, cultural and creative industries, and sport. Reaching young people and engaging with diasporas is seen as a crucial step.

In particular, France is seeking to expand relations with English-speaking African countries, moving beyond its traditional francophone partners.

“This is driven both by political considerations but above all the desire to gain market share and bring added value to the French economy,” Abba says.

Anglophone Africa

The French president pointed to a planned Africa summit in Nairobi in May 2026 as a milestone, describing it as “a very important meeting that will help embody this genuine revolution in our approach”.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz have been invited, illustrating what Macron said was a change in mindset.

Dupuy, however, sees the pivot to East Africa as an implicit admission of weakness. France, he argues, failed to consolidate influence in its former spheres and is now seeking opportunities in regions dominated by China, India and the United States.

“France is very poorly equipped – perhaps even completely disarmed – to be credible in this region of the world,” he said, noting intense competition over infrastructure corridors and strategic trade routes linking the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

South Africa’s joint drills a show of influence in the Indian Ocean

Battle of narratives

Beyond economics and culture, Macron stressed the importance of countering disinformation, warning that France was losing ground in what he described as a “battle of narratives”.

“We must not lose this battle,” he said, arguing that French interests were also defended through countering disinformation and responding to accusations that France represented a new colonial power. Such narratives, he said, often drew on “anti-colonial”, “anti-European” and “anti-French” discourse and required a more robust response.

Dupuy is less alarmist. While acknowledging growing anti-French sentiment, he points to persistent demand for French support in certain security crises. France’s recent intervention in Benin, which helped stabilise President Patrice Talon’s government in the face of an attempted coup, was one such example.

“There is a paradox,” he said. “France is criticised for militarism, yet welcomed when its support proves decisive.”

Double standards?

Macron’s Africa policy has come under scrutiny for its uneven response to military coups.

A recent opinion piece in Benin’s La Nouvelle Tribune accused Macron of double standards in taking a hard line against juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, while being more accommodating towards coup leaders in Gabon, Guinea and Chad. The writer said France’s selective approach undermines its democratic discourse and fuels anti-French sentiment.

Dupuy acknowledges the double standard, but argues that not all coups should be treated the same.

He suggests that the succession of Mahamat Déby in Chad in 2021 was a power transfer tacitly tolerated by France, rather than a putsch, and that military takeovers in Gabon and Guinea followed deeply contested electoral processes rather than explicit ruptures with Paris.

Elections, coups and crackdowns: Africa’s mixed democratic record in 2025

Gabon and Guinea have since embarked on transition processes, Dupuy explains, giving their leaders a degree of international legitimacy absent in the Sahel states, “where no credible electoral timelines exist”.

Yet Guinean military leader Mamadi Doumbouya had earlier pledged not to stand, and major opposition parties were barred from running. La Nouvelle Tribune criticised Macron’s decision to congratulate him on his election victory regardless.

“There is a democratic problem, for sure,” Dupuy said, “but you cannot call for elections on the one hand, validate the electoral process by observing the polls and talking about the need for transition, and at the same time fail to welcome the fact that this transition is taking place.”

‘Recognising’ Africa

In his speech, Macron also said France was closely monitoring crises in Sudan, the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region.

Dupuy was doubtful about France’s influence in such conflicts. “Everyone knows that France has no weight on the question of Sudan,” he said. And on the Great Lakes, “France has been marginalised by the Washington summit” that produced an historic peace deal between DR Congo and Rwanda.

While France is “in a phase of decline” on the African continent, he says we “shouldn’t  completely bury” France’s presence. In addition to its soft power in sport, culture, the arts, heritage and returning artefacts, France, he argues, needs “to support Africans in their emergence as a power in their own right”.

“As the Americans are leaving the UN, we could take advantage of this to impose an African state as a permanent member of the Security Council,” the analyst suggested.

“President Macron made recognising Palestine his priority for 2025, and it worked. He could make bringing one or two African countries onto the Security Council his objective for 2026.

“It would be a game changer, just like recognising Palestine was.”

In 2020, George Floyd was killed by a police officer in the same neighborhood, sparking a wave of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests here and across the country, as the United States examined bias in law enforcement and generations of fractured race relations.

But some now fear the act of protest itself, saying it has grown more dangerous under the Trump administration.

“I’d like to, but it’s scary, you don’t want to get shot in the face,” 26-year-old Grace told AFP, adding: “I’m not surprised that they shot and killed someone here.”

“I went to a protest before Christmas, and I was very scared about even going to that, even before anyone was shot.”

Grace said she joined BLM protests in the past and feared being tracked by the government then, but those concerns have grown “under this administration, where Trump just relentlessly pursues anyone in contrast to him.”

What’s worse, some comments online “are horrific, people saying she deserved it,” Grace said.

“I don’t know how we’re going to come back from this as a country.”

Three years after George Floyd: hopes dashed, progress mixed

‘People are tired’

Like many Minneapolis natives, 36-year-old Anthony Emanuel was deeply shaken when George Floyd, a Black man, was murdered by a white police officer who knelt on his neck.

Floyd’s dying words — “I can’t breathe” — were chanted at protests across the country, and Emanuel took part.

But Emanuel, who works as a ride-share driver, is uncertain about protesting this time.

“I think people are just tired. And I think people are tired and still figuring it out, still going to work… still behind on bills,” Emanuel said, citing political and financial pressures that only grow in hard economic times.

“We’re still exhausted from George Floyd. We’ve still been rebuilding. And now another wave has come, and some people who had the energy don’t anymore.”

The street where Good was killed, Portland Avenue, runs from downtown Minneapolis to its southern neighborhoods.

It’s a road driven daily by Jessica Dreischmeier, 39, who works in children’s mental health care.

Despite the biting cold Thursday, she stopped to pay her respects at the makeshift memorial for Good, where dozens of bouquets and candles have been laid in the snow.

With wet eyes she confides she has mixed feelings: the awe of seeing those gathered to share her community’s grief “in such a kind of profound and respectful way” and the harsh contrast of knowing outsiders can “come and create havoc.”

From a distance, US President Donald Trump and his Vice President JD Vance were quick to defend the federal agent’s actions as self-defense, while local Democratic leaders strongly refuted that version of events.

“I don’t think that is a helpful approach for the leader of our country, to take that stance really recklessly. I think makes people feel a lot of deep rage,” Dreischmeier said.

Meanwhile, Minneapolis City Council member Jason Chavez on Thursday called for the immediate arrest and firing of the ICE agents who “were complicit in the act,” adding: “They need to be held accountable for their atrocities. And we will take nothing less than that.”

Morocco laboured in the early stages of their 1-0 last-16 victory over Tanzania on 4 January but they tore into Cameroon from the outset.

Cameroon, surprising winners over South Africa in the last-16, seemed as ruffled as bedazzled by the intensity and were unable to keep the ball nor create with sufficient menace in the fleeting moments of possession.

The breakthrough in the 27th minute was no more than the Moroccan siege on the Cameroon penalty area deserved.

Ayoub El Kaabi headed Achraf Hakimi’s corner kick from the right towards the goal and Brahim Diaz scurried through the ranks of Cameroon defenders to push the ball with his trunk past the Cameroon goalkeeper Devis Epassy.

DRC boss Desabre says Algeria clash offers chance to show squad’s progress

It was the Real Madrid striker’s fifth goal of the 2025 Cup of Nations campaign.

And a foul on the 26-year-old led to the second goal after 75 minutes.

Cameroon defender Mahamadou Nagida bundled him over near the right touchline and was pensalised. 

Abde Ezzalzouli floated the resulting free-kick into the area, Nayef Aguerd’s header flicked the ball on to the unmarked Ismael Saibari on the left who controlled it instantly and fired it across Epassy into the right hand side of the goal.

His strike and the rest of his performance earned him the man-of-the-match accolade.

“Cameroon are a tough team,” the PSV Eindhoven midfielder told Moroccan broadcasters. “I’m happy to score because it took the team to semi-finals. The award is just perfect.”

Morocco’s success furnished a squad from the country with their best diplay at a Cup of Nations tournament since the kingdom’s finest players reached the final in 2004 and lost to Tunisia.

Cote d’Ivoire outclass Burkina Faso to set up last eight clash with Egypt

 

“We’re happy for the fans,” Morocco coach Walid Regragui told broadcaster Arryadia.

“We were criticised quite a lot before the game but we stayed together like a family.”

The 50-year-old former Morocco international, who played in the 2004 final, added: “Before we reached the semis at the World Cup in 2022, it had been 36 years since Morocco had made it out of the group stages at that competition.

“And it has been 20 years since we’ve gone beyond the quarter-finals at the Cup of Nations.”

Regragui’s next task will be to orchestrate an equally effective outing to overcome whoever emerges from the clash on Saturday afternoon between Nigeria and Algeria in Marrakesh.

Earlier on Friday, Senegal beat Mali 1-0 to set up a semi-final with the winner of Saturday night’s game in Agadir between Egypt and defending champions Cote d’Ivoire.

The US State Department this week added several more African countries – including Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda and Zimbabwe – to its list of states whose passport holders will be required to post bonds when applying for a visa.

Nationals from these countries will now have to pay either $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 when applying for a US visa, with the amount determined at the time of an interview. 

Of 38 countries required to post visa bonds, 24 are in Africa.

Another 12 African countries are subject to outright travel bans, after Trump extended entry restrictions in December. 

Since then, nationals of Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone and South Sudan have been barred from the US. That is in addition to people from Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, Somalia and Sudan, who have been banned since June.

African Union condemns Trump travel ban amid strained Africa-US relations

Prohibitively expensive

The latest visa restrictions will come into effect on 21 January.

US authorities say the bonds are meant to reduce the number of foreigners who overstay the authorised period of lawful admission in the country.

They will be refunded if travellers do not breach its terms, or if they are denied entry to the US.

For many in Africa, the cost of a visa bond will make travel prohibitively expensive.

In Zimbabwe, where most of the population lives on less than $4 a day, the new restrictions are not welcome. “Zimbabweans see this as part of a US domestic and foreign policy invigoration,” journalist Dumisani Muleya told RFI.

“The US is pursuing a dual strategy of internal fortification through restrictive border and immigration policies, while also maintaining an assertive, outward-projecting diplomatic and military posture,” said Muleya, the editor-in-chief of news website NewsHawks.

How Trump’s ‘deportation campaign’ is reshaping ties with Africa

Tightened conditions

Waivers to the US travel bans can be granted on a case-by-case basis, according to the State Department, for example to individuals who “would serve the US national interest”.

Waivers also apply to participants in major sporting events. The US is co-hosting the Fifa World Cup in June and July 2026.

The restrictions on African travellers come as the US tightens entry conditions across the board.

Travellers of any nationality applying for a US visa are now required to list all social media platforms and usernames they have used in the past five years. They are also obliged to provide a list of all the countries they have visited in the past.

In November last year, the State Department instructed its overseas consular services to apply health criteria while screening visa applicants.

Applicants with health conditions, including mental illness, obesity, diabetes or cancer may face rejection because they could be considered a “public charge”. The policy targets anyone who could potentially drain US resources due to their health issues or age.

“Our country is devastated by this tragedy. We honour the memory of those who were lost, and we stand beside those now facing a long journey of recovery,” he said at the ceremony in Martigny, southwest Switzerland’s Wallis canton.

The Alpine country held a nationwide minute of silence, after which church bells rang across the country for five minutes in honour of those killed in the inferno, which engulfed the basement of Le Constellation, a bar in the ski resort of Crans-Montana.

“The start of 2026 should have brought the familiar hopes and promises – a new year with a fresh start. For young people especially, such promises take flight on dreams and the rightful hopes of youth – promises destined for the skies that fell too soon into the ashes of a night of horror,” Parmelin said at the service in Martigny, attended by around 1,000 people.

Paris prosecutor’s office opens investigation into Swiss resort fire

“Hope… depends on our justice system’s ability to bring failures to light and to impose consequences without delay or leniency. This is a moral responsibility as well as a duty of the state.”

Jacques Moretti, co-owner of the Le Constellation bar, was being held in custody after being interviewed by prosecutors on Friday, a source told the French news agency AFP.

Moretti and his wife Jessica were interviewed by prosecutors in the Switzerland’s southwestern Wallis canton on Friday.

French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Belgium’s Prime Minister Bart De Wever and Luxembourg’s former grand duke Henri were among those in attendance.

In an emotional address, Wallis president Mathias Reynard told the families and loved ones of those killed: “We are with you.

“Our thoughts, our prayers, our hearts turn towards you.

“In this shared grief, we stand united.”

Some 380,000 households were left without electricity on Friday, grid operator Enedis said, as the storm swept across the north of the country.

Most outages were reported in Normandy, especially in the northern part of the region, where conditions were at their worst.

Authorities reported extraordinary wind speeds overnight in the north-western Manche department, with gusts reaching 216 km/h and 213 km/h – among the strongest recorded during the storm. 

Across several regions, strong squalls brought down trees, including at least one that fell onto residential buildings in Seine-Maritime. No injuries had been reported so far.

Schools remained closed across northern France as weather alerts covered around 30 regions nationwide.

The Manche department urged residents to stay indoors, warned against unnecessary travel and advised households to prepare emergency lighting and drinking water.

Six people dead in road accidents as France manages heavy snow and ice

UK braces for wind and snow

Across the Channel, the United Kingdom also faces severe conditions. Britain’s Met Office issued a rare red wind warning for the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall in the south-west, urging people to stay inside.

Wind gusts of up to 160 km/h were forecast in parts of the country, while “very large waves” were expected to create dangerous coastal conditions.

An amber snow warning was also in place for Wales and central England, with forecasters predicting snowfall of up to 30 centimetres in some areas.

The disruption quickly reached transport networks, as National Rail warned that train services would be affected over the next two days and called on passengers to avoid travel unless absolutely necessary.

Snowfall to cause major flight cancellations at Paris airports

Extreme weather across Europe

Elsewhere in Europe, Storm Goretti formed part of a wider spell of harsh winter weather affecting several countries.

At least eight deaths across the continent have been linked to recent conditions. In Albania, police in the port city of Durres recovered a man’s body from floodwaters after days of heavy snow and torrential rain in parts of the Balkans.

In Germany, heavy snow and strong winds were forecast to disrupt daily life, particularly in the north. The German Weather Service warned that up to 15 centimetres of snow could fall in northern regions, while icy conditions posed risks further south.

Temperatures were expected to plunge sharply over the weekend, potentially dropping as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius in some areas.

Several cities announced school closures, including Hamburg and Bremen, where public transport had already suffered delays and cancellations on Thursday.

Germany’s national rail operator Deutsche Bahn warned of significant delays in the coming days.

More than 14,000 staff have been mobilised to clear snow from tracks and platforms.

Paris launches winter emergency plan as homeless man dies from cold

A reminder of a warming climate

German forecasters expect the storm to ease by Saturday, with snowfall tapering off by Monday. While the conditions feel particularly harsh, meteorologists caution against seeing them as a contradiction to long-term warming trends.

“This kind of storm is an exception compared with the milder winters of recent years, which are a consequence of climate change,” said German Weather Service meteorologist Andreas Walter.

Cold, snowy months remain possible even as average temperatures rise, he noted – but such events are likely to become rarer in the future.

(with newswires)

Iliman Ndiaye scored the only goal of the game in the 27th mintue at the Stade Ibn-Batouta.

The Everton striker was the first to react after the Mali goalkeeper Djigui Diarra spilled a cross from the right wing. It was the 25-year-old’s fourth goal for his country.

As the Malians attempted to regroup, their fortunes took an even bleaker turn in first-half stoppage time. Yves Bissouma, cautioned mid way through the half for blocking the Senegal striker Sadio Mané, hacked down Idrissa Gana Gueye.

Referee Abongile Tom showed the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder a second yellow card and for the second game on the trot Mali were a man down.

Hakimi’s return for Cup of Nations adds another chapter to defender’s legend

Pathé Ciss should have doubled Senegal’s advantage in the 78th minute.

The substitute picked off Mamadou Sangare’s wayward pass across the penalty area but his precision failed to match his anticipation and he shot tamely at Diarra.

The goalkeeper then kept his side in the game in second-half stoppage-time when he pushed Lamine Camara’s goal-bound effort onto his left-hand post.

And he was equal to Mané’s attempt to curl a shot around him from the left side of the penalty area.

But his late heroics failed to compensate for his earlier gaffe and his side fell for the second tournament in a row in the last eight. 

Senegal, victors at the 2021 tournament in Cameroon, will play the winner of Saturday night’s match in Agadir between the defending champions Cote d’ivoire and Egypt.

Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said that heavy snowfall in northern France on Monday had been “slightly underestimated” by Météo-France.

Similar concerns have been raised before. The mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, called for an audit of the weather service after severe flooding in the city in September 2024.

Météo-France is a public institution with about 2,600 employees, including around 600 forecasters and some 300 researchers. It uses radars, satellites and other instruments to measure atmospheric pressure, wind and precipitation to produce weather forecasts.

What is France’s heatwave warning system and how does it work?

Automation after staff cuts

Data from thousands of weather stations across mainland France and overseas territories is compiled and published for the public, broadcasters and key economic sectors that depend on accurate weather information.

Until 2023, this synthesis was carried out by meteorologists. It is now done by a computer programme called Alpha, although humans validate and adjust outputs and issue severe weather alerts.

The automated system was introduced after years of financial and staffing cuts. Between 2013 and 2022, Météo-France’s public subsidies, its main source of funding, fell by 18 percent.

Between 2012 and 2020, the staffing ceiling setting the maximum number of authorised jobs dropped by nearly 20 percent.

Criticism of forecasts

Trade union representatives say the computer programme can process data faster than humans but lacks nuance and can produce flawed forecasts.

Unions have backed recent strike action by forecasters protesting staff cuts.

“The system is not mature enough to be left to run on its own,” Sébastien Delecray told RFI. He is a Force Ouvrière union representative at Météo-France.

Unions have cited an alleged automated forecast of 28 degrees in Strasbourg on 9 December 2023, in the middle of winter.

Pressure on key missions

“Constraints on staffing and budgets make it very difficult for us to carry out our missions, especially in the context of climate change,” Delecray said.

“For example, forest fires are becoming increasingly widespread. That’s an additional mission to take on, but with fewer staff than before.”

Senator Vincent Capo-Canellas, who has produced reports critical of staff cuts at Météo-France, welcomed the stabilisation of funding and staffing levels in 2023.

He said this was necessary for the service to fulfil its mission, which he described as essential to the economy. Météo-France’s forecasts generate at least three times more economic value than the cost of its annual budget, he said.

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This article was adapted from the original version in French by Marius Laffont

Greenland is vast, and highly coveted. Covering some 2 million square kilometres, it is almost four times the size of France.

Above all, it is the second-largest body of ice on Earth after Antarctica, at the opposite pole.

The ice mass is beginning to melt and could ultimately trigger a dramatic rise in sea levels. Unlike sea ice, which floats, Greenland’s ice sheet lies on land. And that makes all the difference.

“In Greenland, we are dealing with extremely large masses, enormous volumes, covering the entire island,” says Glenn Yannic, a lecturer and researcher at Savoie Mont Blanc University. “We’re talking about an ice sheet that can be several hundred metres thick. It is estimated that the complete melting of Greenland could raise sea levels by five, six or seven metres.”

The melting of the ice sheet – rather than the summer thaw of Arctic sea ice – is what causes sea levels to rise, the Greenland specialist explains. “When sea ice melts, it’s like putting an ice cube into a glass filled to the brim: the ice cube melts, but the water level does not rise,” he tells RFI.

Greenland melted recently, says study that raises future sea level threat

Accelerating warming

According to Copernicus – the Earth observation component of the European Union’s Space programme – for every centimetre of sea level rise, around 6 million more people are exposed to coastal flooding.

A rise in sea levels of five to seven metres by the end of the century would lead to the disappearance of thousands of coastal cities worldwide, affecting millions of people.

Such a scenario is becoming increasingly plausible, because Greenland is one of the fastest-warming regions on the planet. Last spring, glaciers melted 17 times faster than average amid record temperatures.

New research, published by US scientists on 5 January in Nature Geoscience, has also alarmed the scientific community. Using ice core samples, researchers found that Greenland’s ice dome last melted around 7,000 years ago, during the early Holocene period, when “temperatures were three to five degrees C higher than those currently observed”, Yannic says. 

“They showed that part of northern Greenland was ice-free. That’s the whole significance of this study, and why it’s had such an impact. Three to five degrees C – we are almost there, we are on the brink. By the end of the century, we can predict that all the ice currently covering Greenland will have melted.”

Arctic sees unprecedented heat as climate impacts cascade

In Trump’s sights

A wealth of natural resources lies beneath Greenland’s ice, including rare earth elements and suspected fossil fuel reserves.

Trump has made no secret of his desire to exploit them.

And since the US ousting of Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro, partly to secure Venezuelan oil, Trump has renewed calls for a US takeover of the Arctic territory.

On Sunday, he said that he needed Greenland “very badly” for reasons of “national security”, given its strategic position between the US and Russia. But Trump is also eyeing resources such as hydrocarbons, minerals and even water – so pure it is said to be worth its weight in gold.

Access to Greenland’s ice-capped resources has remained a challenge, but “the acceleration in the melting of the ice sheet will free up areas and make it easier to access certain mineral deposits”, says Yannic.

Trump weighs military option to acquire Greenland

If Trump were to succeed, the man who called climate change a “con job” could could end up benefitting from global warming.

“The issue of the search for minerals and hydrocarbons, and their exploitation, has already been put before the Greenland government, which decided several years ago to impose a moratorium on such activities,” Yannic says.

Prospecting was halted in order to protect the environment. For the moment, Greenland is holding firm – but for how long?

---

This article, adapted from the original in French by RFI’s Florent Guinard, has been lightly edited for clarity.

The studies, which are based on the health data of more than 100,000 French adults, highlight risks related to specific additives, including nitrites, which are often used to cure ham, bacon and sausages.

The first study, published Wednesday in the journal BMJ, found “multiple associations between preservatives that are widely used in industrial foods and beverages on the European market… and higher incidences of overall, breast and prostate cancers”.

Notably, it found a link between high consumption of sodium nitrate and a 32 percent increased risk of prostate cancer. Potassium nitrate was associated with a higher risk of breast cancer (22 percent) and cancer overall (13 percent). 

Sorbates – commonly used to preserve wine, baked goods and cheeses – were linked to a 26 percent higher risk for breast cancer and a 14 percent increase in all types of cancers.

Ham and charcuterie linked to cancer, French food watchdog warns

Public health issue

A second study, published in Nature Communications, found that higher consumption of common food preservatives was linked to a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Potassium sorbate, in particular, is associated with roughly double the risk of the disease.

“These findings may have important public health implications given the ubiquitous use of preservatives in a wide range of foods and drinks,” the study authors wrote, recommending that consumers “favour fresh and minimally processed foods and limit superfluous additives whenever possible”.

The French government has encouraged ham and deli meat producers to reduce their use of nitrites, without calling for an outright ban, and is considering how to regulate so-called ultra-processed foods.

But researchers not involved in the studies cautioned it is too early for consumers to change their eating habits.

The studies are based on data from a broader ongoing research project in which more than 170,000 French people fill out regular questionnaires about their diet. Such observational studies cannot prove cause and effect.

“Consuming products with preservatives does not mean you will immediately develop cancer,” epidemiologist Mathilde Touvier, who supervised both studies, told the AFP news agency.

“But we need to limit how much we are exposed to these products.”

(with AFP)

Aleppo has seen its worst fighting in years, as the Syrian army moved to oust the SDF from two large, mainly Kurdish neighbourhoods in the north of the city. The clashes began in late December and continued into January, forcing many civilians to flee.

The SDF controls a large swathe of northern and eastern Syria. The offensive comes as efforts to integrate the SDF into the Syrian army stalled.

“This is a warning. It is a kind of pressure on the SDF to come to a conclusion quickly, rather than to kick the can down the road with Damascus,” Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat who served in the region, told RFI.

Turkey’s backing

Ankara, which has recently reopened channels with Damascus after years of strained relations, strongly backs the offensive and has signalled its readiness to provide military support against the SDF.

“Turkey has the military advantage there, and I believe the SDF should take these warnings seriously,” Selcen said. He is now an analyst for the Turkish news portal Medyascope.

Turkey accuses the SDF of links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK, which has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state for decades.

The PKK is designated a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union. Turkey is also pursuing a renewed peace initiative with the PKK and sees the integration of the SDF into the Syrian army as key to stabilising northern Syria.

US pushes Israel to accept Turkish role in Gaza stabilisation force

Stalled integration

In March last year, the SDF signed an agreement in Damascus to integrate with the Syrian army. The deal set out broad principles but left key questions unresolved.

“There was a discrepancy from the beginning in what the parties understood integration to mean,” said Sezin Oney, of the Turkish Politikyol news portal.

“In Turkey’s case, they mean integration in such a way that it melts into the Syrian army. But the SDF understands it as integrating while protecting its inner core and identity. Remaining as the SDF, but operating under the umbrella of the Syrian army.

“Unless one of the parties backs down and makes concessions, we are likely to see a bigger military operation.”

International stakes

On Thursday, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa held telephone talks with his French and Turkish counterparts on the security situation. The discussions focused on containing the fighting and preserving the ceasefire.

Despite its precarious position, the SDF retains influential supporters. Israel, an increasingly vocal critic of Turkey’s regional role, has expressed support for the group. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar condemned Damascus’s operations in Aleppo.

The SDF remains a key partner of the United States Central Command in operations against the Islamic State group in Syria.

“The SDF lost a lot of troops, at least 10,000 fighters, in the fight against ISIS since 2014,” said Turkish international relations expert Soli Ozel.

“It’s a complicated picture. But from the American side, I do not yet see signs they would allow an attack on the SDF at this moment.”

According to Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and Washington’s envoy on Syria, diplomatic efforts are under way to extend the Aleppo ceasefire and allow SDF fighters to withdraw from contested areas.

Turkey fears Ukraine conflict will spill over on its Black Sea shores

Pressure on Washington

The duration of US support for the SDF remains uncertain, especially after last year’s agreement between Washington and Damascus to step up cooperation against the Islamic State group.

The issue has taken on added significance following President Donald Trump’s meeting with Syrian President al-Sharaa in Washington.

Given President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s strong relationship with Trump, time may not be on the SDF’s side, Oney said.

“They want to have the northern part of Syria, at least, but also Syria more broadly, as their backyard,” she added. “Turkey is the most influential country in Damascus. They want the SDF to melt away into the new Syrian state and its army.”

Turkey could face domestic political fallout for targeting the SDF. Protests have erupted in the country’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, which borders Syria, in response to the clashes in Aleppo.

Any further military action against the SDF could jeopardise the fragile peace process with the PKK. 

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.

World Radio Day is just around the corner, so it’s time for you to record your greetings for our annual World Radio Day program!

WRD is on 13 February;  we’ll have our celebration the day after, on the 14 February show. The deadline for your recordings is Monday 2 February, which is not far off!

Try to keep your greeting to under a minute. You can record on your phone and send it to me as an attachment in an e-mail to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

Be sure to record your greeting from underneath a blanket. Then the sound will be truly radiophonic – I mean, you want everyone to understand you, right?

Don’t miss out on the fun. 2 February is just around the corner, so to your recorders!

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 22 November, I asked you a question about the world’s most visited museum – the Louvre here in Paris. The museum was back in the news, due to an architectural audit that turned up structural weaknesses in some of the beams in the building. 

You were to re-read our article “Louvre Museum in Paris shuts gallery over structural safety fears”, and send in the answer to these two questions: What is the name of the gallery that has been closed, and what artworks are in that gallery?

The answer is: The Campana Gallery, which houses nine rooms dedicated to ancient Greek ceramics. 

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: What are your unique relationship rules?  

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Kashif Khalil from Faisalabad, Pakistan. Kashif is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations on your double win, Kashif.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Nuraiz Bin Zaman, a member of the RFI Amour Fan Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, and RFI Listeners Club member Nasyr Muhammad from Katsina State, Nigeria.

Last but not least, RFI English listeners Murshida Akhter Lata, the co-chairman of the Source of Knowledge Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh, and Miss Shuno, 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: “Barkley’s Bug” by David Grishman, performed by the David Grishman Quintet; Traditional Greek music produced by Visual Melodies; the “Rondo” from Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 1, performed by Krystian Zimmerman and the Polish Festival Orchestra; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and “Guinnevere” by David Crosby, arranged and performed by Miles Davis and his ensemble.

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read Paul Myers’ article “Nigeria power past Mozambique into quarterfinals at Africa Cup of Nations”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 2 February to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 7 February 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. 

“We’re thinking about it very seriously,” Trump said when asked by a reporter about the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey during a visit this week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The sale has been blocked for years due to Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system. A recent Bloomberg report suggested Ankara may be prepared to return the missiles, though Turkish officials have denied this.

Political commentator Asli Aydintasbas, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, says that the strengthening relationship between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan means both sides are working to resolve the impasse.

“He [Trump] himself is working with Turkey through his very effective ambassador, Tom Barrack, to find a solution,” said Aydintasbas. “There will be stiff opposition from the Greek lobby, Israelis and other regional players. But we’ve seen Trump skirt such opposition when it came to the Saudi Arabia F-35 sale.”

Military edge

Israeli security experts warn that Turkey’s acquisition of F-35 jets poses a greater security risk to Israel than the Saudi deal due to the Turkish military’s expertise, which threatens to challenge Israel’s technological advantage.

Currently, Israel maintains a significant edge as the Turkish air force operates decade-old jets, a factor that is increasingly important amid rising regional tensions.

“There was definitely a concern in the spring that there might be a confrontation in the skies of Syria between Israel and Turkey,” said Gallia Lindenstrauss of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

Syria in crossfire as Turkish-Israeli rivalry heats up over Assad’s successors

She stresses the risk of confrontation has significantly diminished thanks to “de-confliction talks”, brokered by Azerbaijan. A Syria “hotline” now exists between Israel and Turkey to prevent what Lindenstrauss describes as “accidents between the Israeli Air Force and the Turkish Air Force”.

Yet the need for such measures underscores how strained ties are. “The fact that it exists, of course, does point to the fact that things are not necessarily calm,” Lindenstrauss acknowledged.

Provocative alliances

Israel’s conflict in Gaza has heightened tensions with Turkey. On New Year’s Day, hundreds of thousands protested in Istanbul in support of Palestinians.

Tensions escalated further as Israel increased military cooperation last month with Greece and Cyprus. Both Greece and Cyprus have unresolved territorial disputes with Turkey in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas.

“Israelis are provoking especially Greeks and Greek Cypriots,” said Murat Aslan of Seta, a Turkish pro-government think tank. “The Israeli pilots are educating and training Greek pilots. They are operating [drones] across the Aegean Sea. And they sold many complex missile systems. So that means Israelis are provoking Greece just to challenge Turkey here in the Aegean Sea.”

In his New Year’s address, Erdogan said he was closely monitoring what he describes as threats and provocations against Turkey and Turkish Cypriots. Aslan predicts Ankara will not remain passive. “If there is a pattern in the west of Turkey that Greeks and Israelis are cooperating, for the sake of Turkish security interests, for sure there will be a reaction,” he warned.

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

Greece, which is also acquiring the F-35, has joined Israel in opposing Turkey’s purchase of the jet, warning it would alter the balance of power.

While Trump has expressed support for the Turkish sale, analyst Aydintasbas notes the US president is learning the limitations of his power when it comes to Israel.

“Trump is going through what a lot of US presidents have experienced: frustration, and a question – ‘wait a minute, who’s the superpower here?’” she said. “Because of the power dynamic in the US-Israeli relationship, it sometimes does point to a situation in which Israelis, though the weaker side technically, end up having the upper hand because of their enormous influence in the public space.”

Aydintasbas predicts that, despite Trump’s friendship with and admiration for Erdogan, the US president will be unwilling to pay the political price of securing the Turkish jet sale. “This is an issue on which Trump is not willing to fight the US Congress… and essentially ignore the US law,” she said.

For the self-described master dealmaker, it may prove a deal too far.

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 and bonus questions, 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.

There’s no quiz this week – check in next week, 10 January, for the answer to the question about the gallery in the Louvre Museum that had to be closed.

Thanks to everyone who sent in their Resolutions – may you make good progress in keeping them! And many thanks to this week’s co-host, my daughter Mathilde Daguzan-Owensby, and for the contributions to the show from Olivia Morrow and Evan Coffey. And of course, hats off to the Magic Mixer Erwan Rome, who made this show sing! 

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Be Our Guest” by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman; the traditional “Auld Lang Syne” performed by the Glenn Miller Orchestra; “A House with Love in It” by Sid Lippman and Sylvia Dee, sung by Nat King Cole; “Winter Wonderland” by Felix Smith, performed by the Chet Baker Quartet; “Let it Snow” by Sammy Cahn, sung by Leon Redbone; “Sleigh Ride” by Leroy Anderson, performed by the Sam Bush Ensemble, and “We Wish you the Merriest” by Les Brown, sung by June Christie.

From the entire RFI English service, we wish you a Happy 2026!

Hello everyone!

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear a “My Ordinary Hero” essay by listener Rasheed Naz from Faisal Abad, Pakistan.  I hope you’ll be inspired to write an essay for us, too!

If your essay goes on the air, you’ll find a package in the mail from The Sound Kitchen. Write in about your “ordinary” heroes – the people in your community who are doing extraordinarily good work, quietly working to make the world a better place, in whatever way they can. As listener Pramod Maheshwari said: “Just as small drops of water can fill a pitcher, small drops of kindness can change the world.”

I am still looking for your “This I Believe” essays, too. Tell us about the principles that guide your life … what you have found to be true from your very own personal experience. Or write about a book that changed your perspective on life, a person who you admire, festivals in your community, your most memorable moment, and/or your proudest achievement. If your essay is chosen to go on-the-air – read by you – you’ll win a special prize!

Send your essays to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

Or by postal mail, to:

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Here’s Rashid Naz’s essay:

Heroes are not always found in stories or movies. Sometimes they live among us, quietly working to make our world a better place. My “ordinary” hero is a community leader in our town, someone who has taught me that real heroism comes from serving others with kindness and courage.

Our community leader, Mr. Ahmed, is not rich or powerful, but he has a heart full of compassion. He organizes clean up drives, helps poor families, and encourages young people to stay in school. Whenever there is a problem – a sick neighbor, a broken road, or a family in need – he is the first to step forward. His actions remind us that small efforts can bring big changes.

What I admire most about him is his humility. He never seeks fame or reward. When people thank him, he simply says, “We are all responsible for our community.” Those words inspire me. He believes that leadership means service, not authority, and he proves it every day through his actions.

To many people, he might seem like an ordinary man. But to me, he is a true hero – a symbol of dedication, honesty, and hope. Because of him, I’ve learned that anyone can be a hero, not by wearing a cape, but by using their heart to make a difference.

That is why my “ordinary” hero is our community leader Mr Ahmed, a man whose quiet strength and selfless service continue to inspire us all.

 

 

Be sure and tune in next week for our annual New Year’s Resolutions program! Talk to you then!

Trump is due to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 29 December in Florida.

The meeting is the latest attempt to revive the Gaza plan, which aims to move from a ceasefire towards the creation of a new governing arrangement in Gaza, the deployment of an international force and the disarmament of Hamas.

On Friday, Turkish and Egyptian officials met their US counterparts in Miami.

With a ceasefire in place in Gaza, Washington is pushing the next phase of its plan, which would include Turkish troops in an International Stabilisation Force.

From Washington’s perspective, Turkey’s involvement is considered essential to the plan, said Asli Aydintasbas of the Brookings Institution.

Turkey and Iran unite against Israel as regional power dynamics shift

Israeli objections

Hamas disarmament depends on the creation of a new Palestinian governing entity and the presence of international peacekeepers, with Turkey acting as a guarantor, Aydintasbas said.

“Without Turkey in this process, decommissioning Hamas weapons would not occur. That is implicit in the agreement.”

Turkey’s close ties with Hamas are well known, with senior Hamas figures reportedly hosted in Turkey. While Turkey’s Western allies label Hamas a terrorist group, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said its members are liberation fighters.

Trump has publicly thanked Ankara for using its influence to encourage Hamas to accept the peace plan.

Israel opposes any Turkish military presence in Gaza, fearing Turkey would support Hamas rather than disarm it.

Israel is also concerned about cyber attacks attributed to Hamas operating from Turkish territory and doubts Turkey would act in Israel’s interests, said Gallia Lindenstrauss, a Turkey analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

“There’s a risk of an accident between Israeli and Turkish forces, given the already high tensions and suspicions. It’s hard to see a positive outcome,” she said.

Israel has struggled to persuade Trump to back its position. “The US has its own priorities, and is receptive to Ankara due to strong Trump-Erdogan relations,” Lindenstrauss added.

Turkey ready to help rebuild Gaza, but tensions with Israel could be a barrier

Turkey’s position

Erdogan, who has cultivated close ties with Trump, has said Turkey is ready to send soldiers to Gaza. Reports have claimed Turkey has a brigade on standby for deployment.

Turkey’s relationship with Hamas is a “double-edged sword”, said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, head of the German Marshall Fund office in Ankara. From Israel’s point of view, Turkey is too close to Hamas, but “if you want to contribute to disarming them, dialogue is needed”.

Any Gaza mission would be risky, but the Turkish army has decades of experience, Unluhisarcikli said. “It has a proven track record in terms of post-conflict stabilisation from the Balkans to Afghanistan. They have proven they can operate in such environments.”

Despite strained diplomatic ties, the Turkish and Israeli militaries still maintain open communication. The two countries operate a hotline to avoid clashes between their air forces over Syria, demonstrating continued military coordination despite political tensions.

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

Regional doubts

Egypt and Saudi Arabia distrust Turkey’s ties with Hamas and question its intentions in Gaza, Unluhisarcikli said, with concerns that echo memories of Ottoman-era rule.

On Monday, US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack met Netanyahu in an effort to ease Israeli concerns. However, prospects for a breakthrough are likely to depend on this month’s meeting between Netanyahu and Trump.

Incentives may be offered to encourage Israel to accept Turkey’s role, but the issue is unlikely to be resolved that way, said Asli Aydintasbas of the Brookings Institution.

“Because this is such a fundamental and existential issue for Israel, I don’t think incentives will work,” she said.

“As to whether or not Trump would go so far as to withhold military or financial aid, it would be very unlikely. Rather, it may just let this situation sort of fester. I don’t think the Americans have a clear plan to push forward if the answer from Netanyahu is to say no.”

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.