The long-time figurehead of the far-right National Rally (RN) was widely seen as a formidable contender for the presidency until she was convicted last year of misusing European Union funds.

Judges found that more than €4 million had been misappropriated and imposed a five-year ban on her holding public office, effective immediately.

That ruling abruptly halted Le Pen’s political momentum just as the next presidential contest was beginning to take shape.

Her appeal, which opens this Tuesday and is expected to conclude on 12 February, represents a pivotal moment not only for her career but for the future direction of French politics.

French court hands Le Pen five-year election ban in fake jobs case

2027 presidential showdown

A decision is expected before the summer. If the court overturns the ban or significantly shortens it, Le Pen’s hopes of running in 2027 would be revived.

If not, the RN has a contingency plan ready. Le Pen has said the party’s president, Jordan Bardella, would step in as its candidate.

At just 30, Bardella has emerged as a popular figure, with a poll last autumn suggesting he would win the presidency regardless of who faced him in the second round.

The case centres on findings that, between 2004 and 2016, Le Pen and others used funds intended for work at the European Parliament to pay staff who were in fact working for the RN in France.

Le Pen maintains that the arrangements were legitimate and denies any wrongdoing.

‘Free Le Pen’: US conservatives rally behind French far-right leader

International support and domestic debate

Le Pen’s conviction has resonated well beyond France. US President Donald Trump and senior members of his team publicly backed her after the ruling, portraying the case as an example of courts seeking to block far-right politicians from power.

Last year, Trump officials reportedly discussed sanctioning French prosecutors and judges involved in the case, although those talks now appear to have stalled.

Meanwhile, French authorities have reacted cautiously, with government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon saying Paris would remain vigilant to any potential US meddling, after the president of the Paris judicial court warned that action against French judges would amount to “unacceptable and intolerable interference” in national affairs.

US officials have denied that sanctions were ever seriously on the table.

At home, however, Le Pen has framed the ban as politically motivated, accusing judges of adopting methods more typical of authoritarian regimes.

The judges countered that making the ban immediate was necessary to avoid “irreparable harm to democratic public order”.

Opinion polls suggest most French voters supported that reasoning.

The European Parliament’s lawyer has said he hopes the convictions are upheld.

Alongside Le Pen’s ban, the RN was ordered to pay a €2 million fine – half of it suspended – and more than €3 million in damages were awarded to the Parliament.

(with newswires)

The blackout is making it far harder for protesters to communicate and for images and eyewitness accounts to reach the outside world. It has also disrupted daily life in Iran, where banking, payments and many basic services rely on digital networks.

For more than two and a half days, Iran has been largely cut off from the outside world and from itself. The flow of information inside the country and abroad has slowed to a trickle, with most Iranian websites inaccessible from outside Iran.

The nationwide shutdown began late on Thursday and quickly spread across the country. The independent monitoring group NetBlocks said the blackout had lasted for more than 60 hours, with national connectivity stuck at around 1 percent of normal levels.

“This censorship measure represents a direct threat to the safety and wellbeing of Iranians at a critical moment for the country’s future,” the organisation said.

Data published by the US-based internet infrastructure company Cloudflare also showed a massive collapse in online traffic coming out of Iran.

France’s Iranian diaspora divided over deadly protests back home

Protesters targeted

The demonstrations began on 28 December in Tehran, triggered by shopkeepers protesting against the rising cost of living and the collapse of the national currency. In the early days of the movement, the authorities focused their restrictions on urban areas and centres of unrest.

In Tehran, internet cuts targeted neighbourhoods known for protests, including Narmak, Molavi and the Grand Bazaar. The severity of the restrictions varied depending on location and internet provider.

In an analysis published by Filter Watch, a project that monitors online censorship in Iran, Nargès Keshavarznia from the human and digital rights group Miaan described how the shutdowns were closely synchronised with moments of mobilisation.

Internet access dropped sharply during protest gatherings and sometimes eased when streets emptied.

Earlier in the protests, Iran’s National Information Network, a domestic intranet developed since 2016 to allow the country to function while disconnected from the global internet, often remained accessible.

While international traffic was heavily restricted, some internal services continued to operate. That changed on Thursday night.

“Overall, all communication is impossible,” Amir Rashidi, an Iranian expert on cybersecurity and digital rights, told RFI, saying conditions had sharply worsened.

“It’s not just the internet that’s cut, but also phone communications, whether mobile or landline, inside the country and to or from abroad.”

Rashidi said the situation was constantly changing from one region to another, but making a phone call had become extremely difficult. “Sometimes you dial a number, you hear ‘beep, beep, beep’, and then nothing,” he said.

‘We’re fighting a daily battle’: Iranian women dare to shed hijab in public

 Shutdown unprecedented

To get around the restrictions, more Iranians have turned to Starlink, a satellite internet service that allows users to connect without relying on local networks. In recent days, however, these devices appear to have been targeted by jamming attempts.

“Iran seems to have strengthened its ability to control these techniques for restricting internet access,” Valère Ndior, a law professor at the University of Western Brittany and a specialist in digital governance, told RFI.

Iran has repeatedly shut down communications during periods of unrest, notably during the 2019 protests, in 2022 after the death of Mahsa Amini – a 22-year-old woman who died in custody after being arrested by Iran’s morality police – and during the conflict with Israel in June 2025.

But Rashidi said the current blackout goes further than anything seen before. Even the National Information Network is down, he said, a situation without precedent.

“This national internet was one of the key tools of control for the Iran,” Rashidi said. Usually, he explained, people could still move within a closed internal network even if access to the outside world was blocked.

“Normally you can’t leave the building, but you can still move from room to room,” he said. “Now you’re stuck in a single room. You can’t even change rooms.”

The authorities are therefore accepting the paralysis of their own infrastructure to shut down every channel of communication, a sign that they believe “their survival is at stake”, Rashidi added.

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

Unseen repression

Despite the blackout, protests have continued. A small number of videos circulating on social media, likely shared via satellite connections, show crowds marching in Tehran, Mashhad and other cities. The images could not be fully verified.

The digital silence has heightened fears of a violent crackdown taking place out of sight.

The Centre for Human Rights in Iran, a US-based non-profit, warned on Sunday that “a massacre is under way in Iran”, saying it had received “direct testimonies and credible reports” of hundreds of protesters killed.

The Norway-based group Iran Human Rights also reported that at least 192 demonstrators had been killed over two weeks of protests.

Other NGOs have warned the true number of deaths may be even higher, with some hospitals reporting more than 500 fatalities and rights advocates warning that the blackout is hindering efforts to document casualties accurately.

Beyond repression, the blackout is hitting daily life and the economy. “Cash machines don’t work, banks aren’t operating normally, people can’t cash cheques or access their money,” Rashidi said.

Ndior said it was still too early to measure the full impact, but warned that “the economic cost could run into hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars”.

Meanwhile, the X account of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, continued to post messages. On Saturday evening, he wrote: “If God wills it, soon God will spread a feeling of victory in the hearts of all the Iranian people.”

This article was adapted from the original version in French by RFI’s Aurore Lartigue

First announced in November 2025 by President Emmanuel Macron, the scheme is aimed at bolstering the country’s armed forces at a time of heightened security concerns across Europe.

Speaking at a press conference in Paris this Monday, the chief of staff of the armed forces, Fabien Mandon, said the programme was open to all French citizens aged 18 to 25 who are keen “to play a part in the nation’s capacity to resist in an uncertain environment”.

From September, around 3,000 volunteers will join the army, navy or air and space force for missions carried out exclusively on French soil.

Numbers are expected to rise to 4,000 in 2027 and to 10,000 a year by 2030, with a longer-term ambition of reaching 42,500 annual participants by 2035.

Combined with existing voluntary military service schemes and their overseas equivalents, that would bring the total to around 50,000 young people a year serving in uniform.

Legacy of conscription shapes France’s new version of military service

Counter-terrorism to drone operations

The service will last 10 months, beginning with an initial month of training followed by nine months in operational roles.

Tasks will range from helping out during natural disasters and providing support for counter-terrorism surveillance to more specialised jobs such as drone operation, mechanics, electrical work, baking or medical support.

Volunteers will be paid at least €800 a month and will receive accommodation, food and equipment.

The armed forces plan to begin selecting recruits as early as this month and around 80 per cent of those accepted will be 18- or 19-year-olds, for whom the service is intended to function as a kind of structured gap year before higher education.

This experience will be recognised within France’s Parcoursup university admissions system.

The remaining recruits, aged up to 25, will be chosen for specific skills and qualifications – including engineers, nurses and translators.

Macron unveils voluntary military service as concerns grow over Russia

Budget constraints

Defence Minister Catherine Vautrin said the programme reflected the “long-term evolution of the army towards a hybrid model”.

At the end of the 10 months, participants will be free to return to civilian life, join the military reserves or continue on a full-time career in the armed forces.

The gradual rollout is partly driven by budgetary constraints, as the scheme is expected to cost around €150 million in 2026, with total spending of roughly €2.3 billion between 2026 and 2030.

The launch also marks a quiet end to the universal national service (SNU), a flagship Macron pledge from his 2017 presidential campaign aimed at fostering national cohesion among 15- to 17-year-olds.

Introduced in 2019, the SNU was never fully rolled out and is now seen by the Elysée Palace as ill-suited to the strategic landscape reshaped by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

While France has not had compulsory military service since 2001, the new voluntary scheme underlines a broader shift across Europe, where governments are reassessing defence needs amid worries about Russia’s position and uncertainty over long-standing US security guarantees. 

(with newswires)

Hundreds of anaesthetists, surgeons and obstetricians donned surgical caps, white coats and packed small suitcases on Sunday as they left France for a symbolic three-day “exile” in Brussels, protesting against the government’s health policy and what they see as a sustained squeeze on private medicine.

Around 20 buses departed from Porte Dauphine in Paris bound for the Belgian capital, carrying doctors determined to make their point heard.

“We want the government to stop attacking private medicine,” said Philippe Cuq, president of Le Bloc doctors union, shortly before the convoy set off.

Once in Brussels, the aim is to get to work. “We are going to prepare around a dozen proposals that we want to submit to the [French] prime minister when we return,” Cuq told reporters, adding that there were “around 1,500 doctors” taking part in the action.

According to him, 1,936 had initially signed up, but “several hundred were requisitioned” by the authorities and ultimately could not join.

Cuq said the organisers were now “waiting for a meeting” with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu.

“The head of government takes care of the farmers who feed the French people,” he remarked, “but we take care of the French people’s health.”

French doctors protest ‘medical desert’ reforms they say threaten independence

The battle over additional fees

At the heart of the doctors’ future proposals is the key issue of additional fees, which operating theatre practitioners argue are essential to keeping their work economically viable.

“Supplementary health insurance must reimburse these excess fees,” Cuq insisted. “Patients understand this, but they do not understand why supplementary health insurance rates are rising while reimbursements are falling.”

Several practitioners explained that official state reimbursement rates alone do not cover either their remuneration or the real costs of specialised procedures.

Dr Didier Legeais, president of the national union of urologists and a participant in the Brussels action, gave a concrete example: a nephrectomy – the removal of part of the kidney in cancer cases – is reimbursed at €506 by the national health insurance system. “It costs at least €600 if a robot is not used, and €1,200 if a robot is used,” he said.

Legeais added that additional fees also help finance care “for the 8 million patients” who do not pay them, including the 5.5 million people covered by the complementary health insurance scheme (CSS).

‘Massive investment’ doesn’t address France’s health crisis, critics warn

Knock-on effects for hospitals

The movement is already expected to have a significant impact at home. According to Lamine Gharbi, president of the Federation of Private Clinics (FHP), which backs the protest, “80 percent of private operating theatres” will be closed for the first three days of next week.

“It’s going to be tense,” he warned at Porte Dauphine, predicting increased pressure on public hospitals as patients unable to be treated in private clinics are redirected there.

The Brussels “exile” comes amid a broader wave of unrest among private doctors. Almost all organisations in the sector have called for strike action between 5 and 15 January.

Beyond fees, doctors are also angry about restrictions on sick leave prescriptions and measures they say undermine collective bargaining between the profession and the national health insurance system.

The scale of the discontent was on display on Saturday, when several thousand doctors marched through Paris – 20,000 according to organisers, and 5,000 according to police figures.

(with newswires)

The measures stem from the recast EU Drinking Water Directive adopted in 2020. They set two safety limits for PFAS in drinking water: one covering 20 of the most concerning chemicals, and another covering all PFAS combined.

The rules require authorities to act if those limits are exceeded.

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a large group of human-made chemicals used in products such as pesticides, waterproof coatings and industrial materials. They break down very slowly and can remain in the environment for many years.

In France, the new EU rules follow a large national testing campaign carried out by Anses, France’s food and health safety agency, between 2023 and 2025. The aim was to get a clearer picture of PFAS contamination in drinking water before the EU deadline.

France cracks down on ‘forever chemicals’ in cosmetics, clothing

Nationwide snapshot

Anses screened for 35 PFAS substances in more than 600 samples of raw water and the same number of tap water samples. The testing covered mainland France and overseas territories.

Two-thirds of the samples were taken from areas where regional health agencies had identified a potential risk of PFAS pollution.

Of the 35 PFAS screened for, 20 were detected at least once in raw water and 19 in tap water.

Anses said that in the vast majority of samples, PFAS levels were below the regulatory limits that apply. Only a small number exceeded the EU threshold for the combined level of the 20 PFAS covered by the directive.

The agency said the results would help improve long-term monitoring and decide which substances may need closer attention in future.

For environmental group Générations Futures, the new rules mark a major change in how contamination is tracked nationwide.

“Finally, we are going to have data on the presence of the 20 main PFAS in tap water for the whole of France,” François Veillerette, spokesperson for Générations Futures, told France Culture radio.

Until now, monitoring had been uneven.

“In 2025, we had data in some regions, but not everywhere,” Veillerette said, adding that the new system would allow comparisons between regions, tracking over time and identification of areas most at risk.

French tap water tainted by widespread forever chemicals, study finds

A chemical left out

One substance stood out in the Anses campaign. Trifluoroacetic acid, known as TFA, was detected in 92 percent of both raw and mains-supplied water samples. Its concentration varied widely from place to place.

TFA is not included in the list of 20 PFAS covered by the new EU limit.

“It will be monitored next year, but we would have liked it to be included from 2026,” said Veillerette.

He warned that once PFAS pollution becomes established, treating drinking water becomes expensive. “If these substances settle in and increase, it will cost a lot to filter and treat the water,” he said.

Three more skiers were killed by avalanches in the French Alps on Sunday, taking the death toll over the weekend to six as exceptionally unstable snow conditions continued to claim lives despite repeated warnings from the authorities.

The latest fatalities came a day after three men were swept away while skiing off-piste in Savoie.

Throughout the weekend, the Alpine massifs were classified as high risk because of an unstable snowpack following heavy snowfall.

Speaking on Sunday evening, Vanina Nicoli, the prefect of Savoie, expressed her regret that off-piste skiing – which had been “strongly discouraged” since Friday – had once again resulted in deaths and put both skiers and rescuers in danger. The avalanche risk across much of the region stood at 4 out of 5.

She stressed that the alert issued by Météo-France on Friday, along with the prefecture’s call for “extreme caution”, remains in force for the coming days. Off-piste skiing, she reiterated, is strongly discouraged until the snowpack has stabilised.

Snowy winter spells better skiing in French Alps, but for how long?

Fatal incidents across the Alps

In the Alpine resort of La Plagne, a British skier in his 50s was buried by an avalanche in the early afternoon while skiing off-piste.

A major rescue operation was launched, involving 52 rescuers, avalanche dogs and a helicopter.

Despite their efforts, it took 50 minutes to locate him beneath over 2 metres of snow, and he could not be resuscitated.

Earlier in the day, another off-piste skier was killed in Courchevel, where he was found dead after being buried by an avalanche late in the morning.

Further north in neighbouring Haute-Savoie, a 32-year-old man died after an avalanche struck in the Vallorcine area in mid-afternoon.

The snow slide swept him away while he was skiing off-piste and hurled him against a tree.

He later succumbed to his injuries, according to the Chamonix High Mountain Gendarmerie Platoon, which responded to the incident.

The previous day had already been marked by tragedy. Despite repeated warnings, three off-piste skiers died in two separate avalanches in Savoie – two men in Val d’Isère and another in Arêches-Beaufort.

The two men in Val d’Isère were not equipped with avalanche transceivers and could only be located via their mobile phones, buried under 2.5 metres of snow.

By the time they were found, it was too late.

French ski resorts warned fake snow will only worsen climate impacts

High risk set to continue

Looking ahead, Prefect Nicoli warned that avalanche danger will remain high in the coming days.

The warning comes at a particularly busy time for resorts. After the Christmas holidays, ski areas tend to remain crowded throughout January, increasing the pressure on both slopes and rescue services.

Heavy snowfall on Friday and Saturday also caused widespread disruption.

Around 800 people were forced to spend Saturday night in gymnasiums in Moûtiers, a key transport hub for Savoie’s ski resorts.

Another 29 people were accommodated overnight in an emergency centre, while about 40 people spent part of the night stranded on a bus on the road to the Arc 2000 resort, according to the gendarmerie.

(with newswires)

The European Commission announced on Sunday that the agreement with the South American Mercosur bloc will be signed in Paraguay on 17 January, after EU member states gave the green light on Friday despite objections from several countries, most vocally France.

Supporters of the deal say it is vital for boosting exports, shoring up Europe’s economy and strengthening diplomatic ties at a time of global uncertainty.

On the ground, however, the mood among farmers remains combative. Across France, agricultural unions and informal groups have stepped up actions aimed at ports, roads and key logistics hubs, arguing that the treaty would open the door to cheaper imports – especially beef – that they say do not meet the standards imposed on European producers.

EU countries green-light Mercosur trade deal despite France’s opposition

Farmers tighten the pressure

Monday began with fresh blockades in the south-west. Near La Rochelle, around 30 tractors and 60 protesters set up a barricade of straw bales outside oil facilities at the industrial port of La Pallice, answering a call from the local branch of the Coordination Rurale union.

Further south, farmers moved to block the Maïsica grain site in the port of Bayonne, an action led by the Confédération paysanne, Modef and the Basque union ELB, despite a prefectural ban on gatherings.

“About thirty tractors are blocking the entrances. The activists are arriving on site,” Modef said in a statement.

A separate blockade on the A63 motorway near Bayonne was lifted overnight after negotiations with the prefecture.

Around a hundred farmers had occupied the road since Friday, dubbing themselves the “Ultras of the A63”.

After late-night talks lasting until around 1.30am Monday morning, they agreed to clear the road without incident, allowing traffic between France and Spain to resume in both directions.

Farmers descend on Brussels to protest EU Mercosur trade deal

Wider European mobilisation

Elsewhere, pressure has continued to mount. In Le Havre, some 150 farmers used tractors to slow activity at the port, inspecting lorries and removing food products they said failed to comply with European standards, while stopping short of a full blockade.

In northern France, dozens of farmers maintained a roadblock on the A1 motorway between Lille and Paris, the country’s busiest road.

Coordination Rurale said the action would last “at least until Wednesday”.

“We have a huge number of people,” said Damien Salomon, co-president of the union in the Pas-de-Calais department. “We are now well capable of holding out for several days.”

Protests have not been limited to France. Demonstrations have also taken place in Italy, Poland and Ireland against the treaty, which would create one of the world’s largest free trade areas, covering more than 700 million consumers across Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

For critics, the deal risks destabilising European agriculture by exposing it to competition from imports produced under looser rules and controls. 

(With newswires)

Tabouret was selected by a special committee to create contemporary windows for Notre-Dame, in collaboration with the Reims-based glassmaking studio Simon-Marq.

Notre-Dame reopened on 7 December 2024 after a five-year restoration following the devastating fire of 2019.

Some heritage groups have criticised the decision to introduce new windows. Among them is Didier Rykner, head of the cultural heritage website La Tribune de l’Art, who opposes the project on the grounds that the original windows were not damaged in the fire.

Tabouret’s designs, expected to be installed by late this year, will replace six of the seven windows on the south aisle of the cathedral, originally designed by 19th-century architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.

RFI: What were your thoughts when you were entrusted with this historic project?

Claire Tabouret: I immediately wanted to get to work. It’s true that this is a project that instills great humility, because I’m part of an extremely long timeframe. There was a lot to do.

RFI: What is the theme for the stained-glass?

CT: The theme, already set out in the call for projects, is Pentecost. At this time, magnificent gatherings take place between people, despite their differences. This theme is reflected in six key moments. This is something we discover here at the Grand Palais, in a scenography where we truly see the horizontal dimension of the story unfolding before our eyes.

RFI: The exhibition presented here is called “D’un seul souffle” (“In a Single Breath”). Is this an echo of the Holy Spirit?

CT: Yes, of course, there’s the breath of the Holy Spirit. There’s also the breath of the glass. It’s true that all the glass panes in these stained-glass windows were mouth-blown. And I almost forgot, there’s also the breath of the wind. We can indeed see that tree bending in the wind.

From ashes to innovation: 3D scanning powers Notre-Dame’s restoration

RFI: It seems that you have made the choice of using very bright colours?

CT: These stained-glass windows will be installed on the south side of Notre-Dame, so they’ll be in quite bright light. Therefore, we needed fairly intense colours to allow that light to penetrate and shine through. Another specific requirement of the project was the need to maintain a white light. The colour balance is absolutely perfect.

Each colour is used in equal quantities and on equal surfaces, ensuring that when the light passes through the stained glass, it won’t create a large pool of red or blue on the floor of Notre-Dame, but rather, it will maintain the harmony of the cathedral’s natural light.

RFI: Did you have complete freedom or did you have to work within a framework?

CT: By choosing to take part in this project, I chose to serve a framework. There’s the constraint of the architecture itself, which must be fully considered in the compositions. And then there’s also the need to integrate seamlessly with what surrounds us in Notre-Dame, which predates these stained-glass windows, ensuring a pleasant and harmonious transition.

Each bay window illustrates a phrase at a key moment of Pentecost. They were all gathered together in one place. In the first bay of Saint Joseph, we see his apostles gathered together, holding hands in prayer. But it’s also the interior of the house, the house of God, because we have stained-glass windows within the stained-glass windows.

That’s where the idea came to me to reference Viollet-le-Duc in my own compositions, creating a kind of echo of these ornaments in the background of the composition, making us feel that these figures are within it. And then, that idea came back in every bay window like a leitmotif [recurrent theme] until the end of the story.

Notre-Dame revival drives return to ancient French craftsmanship

RFI: In France, there was a bit of a controversy over the stained-glass windows, which some called the “stained-glass windows of discord”. What do you make of that?

CT: I understand that this is a topic for discussion, and the more I read about this project, the more I wanted to see it happen because it seemed absolutely invigorating. How are we going to continue living here in France, with our heritage, with all these buildings, these historical monuments? We can’t freeze them in time. We have to keep moving forward. And this is about the vitality of the church, but also of our country, of our culture.

This article was based on an interview in French by RFI’s Isabelle Chenu and slightly edited for clarity.

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.

Meet the Kenyan man shaping a francophone future in East Africa

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.

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.

Review your classics

Matisse 1941-1954

This major show features more than 230 paintings, drawings, books and other documents tracing the rich final years of Henri Matisse’s career.

At nearly 80 years old, Matisse reinvented himself through the medium of intensely coloured paper cut-outs, which he elevated to an autonomous visual language.

Visitors will get a chance to see a range of works borrowed from Paris’ Pompidou Centre – closed for renovation until 2030 – and international collections, including the famous Blue Nudes and the 1946-48 Vence Interiors series. 

Matisse 1941-1954 is at the Grand Palais from 24 March to 26 July.

Renoir and Love

For the first time in Paris since 1985, the Musée d’Orsay is bringing together some of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s greatest masterpieces for an exhibition dedicated to themes of love and human relationships.

Regarded as one of the 19th century’s great impressionist painters, Renoir’s light, fluid manner of painting captures scenes from everyday life between the mid-1860s and the 1880s.

The collection of 50 paintings takes the viewer into the theatres, restaurants, guinguettes, boulevards and gardens where Renoir depicted changing interactions between men and women in an era when strict conventions still governed romantic relationships. 

Renoir and Love is at the Musée d’Orsay from 17 March to 19 July.

Africa then and now

Benin round trip: Perspectives on Dahomey in 1930

This exhibition offers a reinterpretation of films and photographs produced during a mission led by French missionary Francis Aupiais and photographer Frédéric Gadmer to Dahomey (present-day Benin) from January to May 1930.

With around 300 items on display, this immersive experience questions the way non-European cultures are viewed within the context of colonial rule and the birth of ethnography.

Historical images are presented in contrast to works by contemporary artists from Benin and the African continent, such as Ishola Akpo, Sènami Donoumassou and Roméo Mivekannin.

Benin round trip: Perspectives on Dahomey in 1930 is at the Musée Albert-Kahn until 14 June.

Kwame Akoto: Almighty God Art Works

The Musée du Quai Branly is celebrating the career of Kwame Akoto, a major figure in the Ghanaian art scene, whose unique work combines brightly coloured painting with a spiritual edge.

Born in Kumasi in 1950, the artist had an unusual career path. In 1972, he opened his own studio, where he began as a sign painter.

He quickly moved beyond commercial works to develop a personal style blending faith, social commentary and humour under the name Almighty God.

Kwame Akoto: Almighty God Art Works is at the Musée du Quai Branly from 31 March to 13 September.

Hats off to Marilyn and Martin

Global Warning

British photographer Martin Parr, known for his humorous documentation of modern life, died in December at the age of 73. 

Through some 180 works spanning over 50 years of production and ranging from his early black-and-white pieces to recent images, the exhibition addresses the chaos of contemporary society.

Parr not only gently pokes fun at our consumerist excesses, he captures subjects related to environmental destruction, including mass tourism, overconsumption and the omnipresence of plastic in daily life.

Global Warning is at the Jeu de Paume from 30 January to 24 May.

Marilyn Monroe: 100 years

Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe would have celebrated her 100th birthday in 2026, and French film museum the Cinématheque Française is marking the occasion with an exhibition in her honour. 

Monroe starred in more than 30 films, but her technical skill was often eclipsed by her looks and personal life.

This exhibition commemorates her greatest film performances and investigates what the enduring fascination with the star says about the public’s relationship with Hollywood and celebrity.

Marilyn Monroe: 100 years is at the Cinémathèque Française from 8 April to 26 July.

Game on

Video Games and Music

This interactive exhibition at the Philharmonie concert hall explores the history of video game music, from early sound chips to modern audio landscapes. 

Twenty installations investigate the powerful connection between music, storytelling and technology in the world’s most iconic games. 

Alongside the exhibition, concert-goers can buy tickets for orchestral performances of scores from popular games, including Final Fantasy and Assassin’s Creed. 

Video Games and Music is at the Philharmonie de Paris from 2 April to 1 November.

La Cavern du Pont Neuf (The Pont Neuf Cave) by JR

The French street artist known as JR has decided to take on Paris’s oldest bridge by transforming it into a giant cave.

The installation is inspired by the rocks used to create the bridge’s stone bricks, in a modern nod to Paris’s traditional architecture.

It is also an homage to artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who famously wrapped the bridge in 41,800 square metres of fabric back in 1985. 

Visitors will be able to walk across the bridge for free, or pass underneath on boats, while the artwork is in place. 

La Caverne du Pont Neuf will be open to the public from 6 to 28 June. 

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.

EU carbon border tax redraws rules for trade in carbon-heavy goods

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.

France rolls out ‘strong protection’ label for 63 marine areas

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.

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.

Kristersson said in a speech on Sunday that the rules-based world order was under greater threat than for many decades.

“We are highly critical of what the United States is now doing and has done in Venezuela, in regards to international law, and probably even more critical of the rhetoric that is being expressed against Greenland and Denmark,” he said at an annual security conference in northern Sweden.

“On the contrary, the United States should thank Denmark, which has been a very loyal ally over the years.”

President Donald Trump said on Friday that the US needs to own Greenland to prevent Russia or China from occupying it in the future. He has repeatedly said that Russian and Chinese vessels are operating near Greenland, something Nordic countries have rejected.

‘American? No!’ says Greenland after latest Trump threat

Sweden to invest $1.6 billion in air defence systems

Sweden will spend 15 billion Swedish crowns ($1.6 billion) on air defence aimed at primarily protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure, the government said on Sunday.

Sweden has, like most European countries, invested heavily in defence following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, Sweden’s vast territory has remained vulnerable to aerial threats.

“The experience from the war in Ukraine clearly shows how crucial a robust and resilient air defence is,” Defence Minister Pal Jonson told reporters at a security conference in northern Sweden.

He said Sweden would buy short-range air defence systems to protect cities, bridges, power plants and other critical infrastructure.

On Sunday Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson criticised the US administration’s 

“threatening rhetoric” against Greenland and Denmark, saying the US should thank Denmark for being a loyal ally.

French military chief backs Macron over possibility of sending troops to Ukraine

‘International law applies to everyone’

Meanwhile, German Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil said on Sunday that the principles of international law apply to everyone, including the United States, in reference to President Trump’s threats to seize Greenland.

“It is solely up to Denmark and Greenland to decide about Greenland’s future. Territorial sovereignty and integrity must be respected,” Klingbeil said ahead of his departure to Washington for a meeting of finance ministers from the Group of Seven advanced economies.

Germany reiterated its support for Denmark and Greenland ahead of meetings in Washington on Monday.

A US military seizure of the mineral-rich Arctic island from Denmark, a long-time ally, would send shockwaves through NATO and deepen the divide between Trump and European leaders.

“We increase security in the Arctic together as NATO allies, not in opposition to one another,” Klingbeil said.

 (Reuters)

Boisson shot up the rankings last spring following her surge to the last four at the French Open in Paris but said on social media this week that she did not want to rush back into action.

“I know it was the right decision to make, even though it was difficult,” she added.

Given an invitation by the French Tennis Federation to appear in the main draw of the circuit’s most prestigious clay court tournament, she beat top 10 players Jessica Pegula and Mirra Andreeva in the last-16 and quarter-finals respectively before the world number two Coco Gauff terminated her run.

The string of victories not only bolstered Boisson’s bank balance with nearly €700,000 but catapulted her 300 places up the rankings and also brought her a list of accolades.

She became the first Frenchwoman and only the fifth player since tennis was opened up to professionals in 1968 to reach the last four during her debut appearance at one of the four Grand Slam tournaments in Melbourne, Paris, London and New York. 

Complicated period

“I’ve been going through a very complicated period for several months,” Boisson said.

“It has been a difficult time mentally and physically with these injuries that prevent me from being where I would like to be and doing what I love most.”

Boisson refreshes partisans’ thirst for glory at French Open

Boisson has never featured at the season’s first Grand Slam tournament which starts on Sunday at Melbourne Park.

The draw for the competition will take place on Thursday. Carlos Alcaraz and defending champion Jannik Sinner will lead the men’s section while Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek will be seeded to meet in the women’s singles final on 31 January. 

In Boisson’s absence in Melbourne, Elsa Jacquemot, at 58 in the world, will be the highest-ranked French female player. 

Just before the tournament, Australian tennis federation bosses revealed that the men’s and women’s champions will receive a €2.38m cheque for winning one of the most coveted prizes in the sport.

Barely one week after being sworn in, Touadéra is confronting an armed challenge in Haut-Mbomou prefecture, where deadly clashes have erupted between government forces and the Azandé Ani Kpi Gbè militia, known as the AAKG.

The security situation remains far calmer than in 2016, when Touadéra first came to power amid a civil war that left most of the country under rebel control. But fresh fighting has flared since the presidential election on 28 December.

Since that day, Haut-Mbomou has been rocked by violence. The AAKG, drawn from the Zandé community, was originally supported by Russia’s Wagner network before rebelling against authorities in Bangui.

No official death toll has been released. The clashes are believed to have killed dozens of people and forced thousands to flee their homes.

Central African Republic President Touadera wins re-election, results show

Violence in Haut-Mbomou

In the town of Zémio, gunfire has been heard almost every night since the start of the year. On Tuesday 6 January, residents again fled to the Catholic mission, which now resembles a makeshift displacement camp, or sought refuge at the local hospital.

The hospital was attacked two days earlier and is no longer functioning. It is now guarded by UN peacekeepers.

“There are about 2,000 people here,” a religious source told RFI. “Others have already crossed the border to join the thousands sheltering in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

Local officials have been under UN protection since election day. On 28 December, the AAKG launched an offensive on the border town of Bambouti, reportedly with backing from across the border in South Sudan.

The attack prevented voting. A local government official, a gendarme and an electoral worker were abducted. The electoral worker was later executed.

The UN mission Minusma said around 2,500 people, most of Bambouti’s population, have fled into the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Russian mercenaries accused of rights abuses, hindering peacekeepers in CAR

Shift to open rebellion

“The choice of the election date was no coincidence,” explains Fulbert Ngodji, a researcher with the International Crisis Group and author of a report on the AAKG. “By attacking state symbols, the militia is showing its strength. It looks like the beginning of a shift from an ethnic self-defence group to a rebel movement openly opposing the government.”

Haut-Mbomou lies more than 1,300 kilometres from Bangui and has long been neglected by the state. Over the years, it has been targeted by armed groups ranging from Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army to the Séléka coalition and later the Union for Peace in the Central African Republic, known as the UPC, led by Ali Darassa.

In 2023, Zandé self-defence groups united under the AAKG banner, a name meaning “too many Zandé have died”. They pushed the UPC out of Bambouti but were later accused of abuses against civilians and of treating Muslims as rebel fighters.

In 2024, around 200 AAKG fighters were recruited, armed and briefly trained by Russian mercenaries before being integrated into the national army. Known locally as the “Wagner Zandé”, they initially scored victories against the UPC.

Discipline soon collapsed amid complaints over unpaid wages and reckless tactics. The militia later turned on government troops, their Russian trainers and civilians, particularly Muslims and Fulani. At least 200 people were killed, including soldiers, Russians and a UN peacekeeper.

Rape, looting and kidnappings followed. In spring 2025, the government’s decision to sign a peace deal with the UPC marked a turning point. The AAKG saw it as a betrayal.

Calls for dialogue

The fighters’ integration into the army was suspended, but some kept their weapons and went underground. Violence escalated and peaked on election day.

According to Monsignor Aurelio Gazzera, the Bishop of Bangassou, dialogue is now essential. “The militiamen must stop this carnage affecting civilians,” he told RFI. “But the authorities must also listen. This region has been abandoned for decades – no roads, no infrastructure. Development is urgently needed.”

Ngodji warned the government is now facing “the monster it created”, as inter-communal and religious tensions deepen.

“Caught between a militia that claims to defend them and loyalist forces that see them as rebels, the people of Haut-Mbomou are trapped,” Gazzera said, warning that the violence could spread across the wider south-east.

This article has been adapted from the original version in French by RFI’s Carol Valade

Conflicting reports emerged from the city, as authorities announced a halt to the fighting and said they had begun transferring Kurdish fighters out of Aleppo, but Kurdish forces denied the claims shortly after.

An AFP correspondent saw at least five buses on Saturday carrying men leaving the Kurdish-majority Sheikh Maqsud district, accompanied by security forces.

While the authorities said they were fighters, the Kurdish forces insisted they were “civilians who were forcibly displaced”. AFP could not independently verify the men’s identities.

Another correspondent saw at least six buses entering the neighbourhood and leaving without anyone on board, with relative calm in the area.

US envoy Tom Barrack met Saturday with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, and afterwards issued a call for a “return to dialogue” with the Kurds in accordance with an integration agreement sealed last year.

A statement from the European Union called for an end to fighting in and around Aleppo to protect the civilian population.

“We urge all parties to implement the ceasefire announced today and to return urgently to a political dialogue for a political solution,” the statement added.   

Civilians killed    

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

Since the fighting began on Tuesday, at least 21 civilians have been killed, according to figures from both sides, while Aleppo’s governor said 155,000 people had been forced to flee their homes.

On Saturday evening, state television reported that Kurdish fighters “who announced their surrender…were transported by bus to the city of Tabaqa” in the Kurdish-controlled northeast.

A Syrian security source had told AFP the last Kurdish fighters had entrenched themselves in the area of al-Razi hospital in Sheikh Maqsud, before being evacuated by the authorities.

Kurdish forces said in a statement that news of fighters being transferred was “entirely false” and that those taken included “young civilians who were abducted and transferred to an unknown location”.

A year after Assad’s fall, Syrian hopes for transitional justice are fading

Residents waiting to return 

On the outskirts of Sheikh Maqsud, families who had been unable to flee the violence were leaving, accompanied by Syrian security forces, according to an AFP correspondent.

Men carried their children on their backs as women and children wept, before boarding buses taking them to shelters.

Dozens of young men in civilian clothing were separated from the rest, with security forces making them sit on the ground before being taken by bus to an unknown destination, according to the correspondent.

A Syrian security official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the young men were “fighters” being “transferred to Syrian detention centres”.

At the entrance to the district, 60-year-old resident Imad al-Ahmad was waiting for permission to return home.

“I left four days ago…I took refuge at my sister’s house,” he told AFP. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to return today.”

Nahed Mohammad Qassab, a 40-year-old widow also waiting to return, said she had left before the fighting to attend a funeral.

“My three children are still inside, at my neighbour’s house. I want to get them out,” she said.

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

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

‘Fierce’ resistance 

A flight suspension at Aleppo airport was extended until further notice.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) control swathes of the country’s oil-rich north and northeast, much of which they captured during Syria’s civil war and the fight against the Islamic State group.

But Turkey, a close ally of neighbouring 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.

Turkey has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from the frontier.

Elham Ahmad, a senior official in the Kurdish administration in Syria’s northeast, accused Syrian authorities of “choosing the path of war”. But he said the Kurds remained committed to agreements reached with Damascus.

The March integration agreement was meant to be implemented last year, but differences, including Kurdish demands for decentralised rule, stymied progress as Damascus repeatedly rejected the idea.

Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the renewed clashes cast doubt on the government’s ability to unite the country after years of civil war.

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

 (AFP)

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

Egypt took the lead in the fourth minute at the Stade Adrar.

Côte d’Ivoire captain Franck Kessié lost the ball in midfield after a poor touch and Odilon Kossounou fell over instead of cutting out Emam Ashour’s pass for Omar Marmoush who exploited the blunders to slot home past the Ivorian goalkeeper Yahia Fofana.

Ramy Rabia doubled the advantage just after the half hour mark and though an Ahmed Fotouh own-goal halved the deficit in the 40th minute, Salah restored the two-goal cushion just after the restart.

“We just fight for our country,” said the 33-year-old. “And hopefully we will go through after the next game as well.”

Morocco boss Regragui confirms Hakimi’s return for Cup of Nations pool clash

Guéla Doué’s goal in the 73rd minute set up a grandstand finish but the Egyptians – hunting for a record-extending eighth Africa Cup of Nations title – held on to advance to a semi-final appointment with Senegal who beat them in the 2021 Cup of Nations final in Cameroon.

“It’s a tough opponent, of course,” said Salah of the clash on 14 January in Tangier. “But we will give our best.”

The other semi-final on 14 January in Rabat pits hosts Morocco with the 2023 beaten finalists Nigeria who crushed Algeria 2-0 on Saturday afternoon.

Victor Osimhen scored one goal and set up the other for Akor Adams against a lacklustre Algeria side who only shone in the final 15 minutes of the tie.

“There are a lot of young players who are featuring in their first Africa Cup of Nations,” said Algeria skipper Riyad Mahrez after the defeat at the Grand Stade de Marrakech.

“They have to go through these types of games to improve. Nigeria have more players who have played at Cup of Nations tournaments and they have played with their young generation a bit more than us.

“They deserved to go through,” he added. “It’s fine. We’ll recover and look forward to the World Cup.”

In central Ireland, tractors streamed into the roads of Athlone for a demonstration, displaying signs including “Stop EU-Mercosur” and with the European Union flag emblazoned with the words “sell out”.

“We have good quality Irish beef and and good standards here, and they don’t have the same standards in South American countries,” said Trisha Chatterton, a 50-year-old farmer. “There is not a lot of traceability on their beef.”

The agreement is widely opposed by farmers for fear it will result in an influx of an extra 99,000 tonnes of cheap beef from South America, disrupting European agriculture.

The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), Ireland’s main farmers’ lobby group, called the result “very disappointing”.

It said it would “renew” focus on securing a majority against the deal in the European Parliament.

“We expect Irish MEPs to stand behind the farming community and reject the Mercosur deal,” said IFA president Francie Gorman in a statement.

EU delays Mercosur trade deal amid farmers’ protests and political divide

Roads blocked in France

In France, police on Saturday ejected farmers occupying a fuel depot near Bordeaux in the south-west.

Later in the day other farmers tried to block road traffic to the port of Le Havre in the north-west.

Two highways remained blocked Saturday in the south-west of France, farmer unions said.

EU countries green-light Mercosur trade deal despite France’s opposition

Farmers on Friday also marched in Poland and blocked roads in France and Belgium as the EU gave the green light to the trade deal.

While the accord has been welcomed by business groups, European farmers have bitterly criticised it.

The deal, more than 25 years in the making, would create one of the world’s largest free-trade areas, boosting commerce between the 27-nation EU and the Mercosur bloc comprising Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay.

Major Mercosur exports to the EU include agricultural products and minerals, while the EU would export machinery, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals with lowered tariffs applied.

Many European farmers fear their livelihoods will be undercut by a flow of cheaper goods from agricultural giant Brazil and its neighbours.

Such concerns prompted Ireland, France, Poland, Hungary and Austria to vote against the accord.

At the Saturday protest, farmers carried signs calling for an “Irexit” and accusing the Latin American bloc’s beef exports of not following the same standards.

But wine makers across Europe are generally in favour of the accord, as it promises to enlarge their access to South American markets.

The Mercosur deal still has to be approved by a majority of MEPs in the European Parliament in the coming months, where voting coalitions have become more volatile and unpredictable.

 (AFP)

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)

The oldest Homo sapien fossils, dating from over 300,000 years ago, were found at the Jebel Irhoud northwest of Marrakesh.

Our cousins the Neanderthals mostly lived in Europe, while more recent additions to the family, the Denisovans, roamed Asia.

This has prompted an enduring mystery: who was the last common ancestor of Homo sapiens and our cousins, before the family tree split off into different branches?

This divergence is thought to have occurred between 550,000 and 750,000 years ago.

Until now, the main hominin fossils from around that time period were found in Atapuerca, Spain.

They belonged to a species dubbed “Homo antecessor”, dated back around 800,000 years ago, and had features that were a mix of the older Homo erectus and those more similar to Homo sapiens and our cousins.

France Antarctique, the forgotten French outpost on the coast of Brazil

This sparked a contentious debate about whether our species originally emerged outside of Africa, before returning there.

There was “a gap in the fossil record of Africa”, French paleoanthropologist and lead study author Jean-Jacques Hublin told the French news agency AFP.

The research published in the journal Nature fills that gap by finally establishing a firm date for fossils discovered in 1969 inside a cave in the Moroccan city of Casablanca.

Over three decades, a French-Moroccan team unearthed hominin vertebrae, teeth and fragments of jaws that have puzzled researchers.

A slender lower jawbone discovered in 2008 proved particularly perplexing.

“Hominins who lived half a million or a million years generally didn’t have small jawbones,” Hublin said.

“We could clearly see that it was something unusual – and we wondered how old it could be.”

However numerous efforts to determine its age fell short.

Celebrating the beauty and mystery of Carnac’s ancient megaliths

When Earth’s magnetic field flipped

Then the researchers tried a different approach.

Every once in a while, Earth’s magnetic field flips. Until the last reversal – 773,000 years ago – our planet’s magnetic north pole was near the geographic south pole.

Evidence of this change is still preserved in rocks around the world.

The Casablanca fossils were discovered in layers corresponding to the time of this reversal, allowing scientists to establish a “very, very precise” date, Hublin said.

This discovery eliminates the “absence of plausible ancestors” for Homo sapiens in Africa, he added.

Antonio Rosas, a researcher at Spain’s National Museum of Natural Sciences, said it adds “weight to the increasingly prevalent idea” that the origins of both our species and the last common ancestor of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals/Denisovans lie in Africa.

Inside France’s perfectly preserved prehistoric Cussac cave

“This work also suggests that the evolutionary divergence of the Homo sapiens lineage might have started earlier than is conventionally assumed,” Rosas, who was not involved in the research, commented in Nature.

Like Homo antecessor, the Casablanca fossils have a mix of characteristics from Homo erectus, ourselves and our cousins.

But while clearly closely related, the Moroccan and Spanish fossils are not the same, which Hublin said is a sign of “populations that are in the process of separating and differentiating”.

The Middle East is considered to have been the main migration route for hominins out of Africa, however sinking sea levels at certain times could have allowed crossings between Tunisia and Sicily – or across the Strait of Gibraltar.

So the Casablanca fossils are “another piece of evidence to support the hypothesis of possible exchanges” between North Africa and southwestern Europe, Hublin said.

Nigeria started the game with more purpose but could not fashion an early breakthrough.

And after coping with the early storm, Algeria’s midfield began to enjoy more possession. But they could not string the passes together to create danger.

Nigeria maintained their air of menace though and in the 28th minute Algeria defender Rami Bensebaini had to hack the ball off the line after Calvin Bassey’s flick had got past the Algeria goalkeeper Luca Zidane

Six minutes later, Nigeria should have opened the scoring. Alex Iwobi slid a ball through to Akor Adams but with only Zidane to beat, Adams scooped his shot over the crossbar.

Osimhen broke the deadlock just after the pause. Bruno Onyemaechi floated over a cross and the 27-year-old rose to head past Zidane.

It was no more than Nigeria’s first-half enterprise deserved and the strike forced Algeria coach Vladimir Petkovic to inject risk into his tactics.

Algeria skipper Mahrez calls for ‘big game’ against Nigeria at Cup of Nations

But it was Nigeria who struck again.

Iwobi, revelling in inordinate amounts of space, played the ball through to Osimhen who surged into the box and shaped to shoot but instead squared for the unmarked Adams.

This time, the Sevilla striker kept his composure to walk the ball around Zidane and tap into the unguarded net.

Petkovic made the changes. Skipper Riyad Mahrez, Ibrahim Maza and Ramiz Zerrouki came off for Baghdad Bounedjah, Hadj Moussa and Adil Boulbina. 

The reconfiguration renewed Algeria’s nerve and verve. But it was Nigeria who nearly scored. Osimhen surged down the right and crossed for Adams whose header hit the post.

Even with that reprieve, Algeria failed to find the goal to make Nigeria sweat and the 2023 runners-up marched on with a second consecutive clean sheet.

On 14 January, they will take on Morocco who overpowered Cameroon on Friday night at the Stade Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat.

The other semi final will pit Senegal against the winners of Saturday night’s game between Egypt and Cote d’Ivoire.

The week‑long ‘Will for Peace 2026’ exercises come just days after the United States seized a Russian‑flagged oil tanker in the North Atlantic, saying it carried crude bound for Venezuela, Russia and Iran in violation of Western sanctions.

The seizure followed an American raid that toppled Moscow’s ally Nicolas Maduro in Caracas.

The drills — led by China — were more than a military exercise and a statement of intent among the BRICS group of emerging nations, Captain Nndwakhulu Thomas Thamaha, South Africa‘s joint taskforce commander, told the opening ceremony.

“It is a demonstration of our collective resolve to work together,” he said.

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

BRICS, originally made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and, more recently, Indonesia.

China and Iran deployed destroyer warships, while Russia and the United Arab Emirates sent corvette vessels. Host South Africa dispatched a frigate.

Indonesia, Ethiopia and Brazil joined as observers.

“In an increasingly complex maritime environment, cooperation such as this is not an option, it is essential,” said Thamaha.

The exercises were to “ensure the safety of shipping lanes and maritime economic activities,” he said.

Previously known as Exercise Mosi, the drills were initially scheduled for last November but postponed due to a clash with the G20 summit in Johannesburg, boycotted by the United States.

Washington has accused South Africa and the BRICS bloc of ‘anti‑American’ policies and warned members they could face an additional 10 percent tariff on top of existing duties already applied worldwide.

South Africa risks US ire by staging naval exercises with China and Russia

South Africa has also drawn US criticism for its close ties with Russia and a range of other policies, including its decision to bring a genocide case against Washington ally Israel at the International Court of Justice over the Gaza war.

South Africa drew criticism for hosting naval drills with Russia and China in 2023, coinciding with the first anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The three nations first conducted joint naval drills in 2019.

 (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.

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!

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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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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:

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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.