“Let us not accept a world order that is decided by those who claim to have the loudest voice or the strongest stick,” said Macron who was wearing sunglasses due to an eye problem.

“Let’s not waste time with crazy ideas. Let’s not open Pandora’s box.”

The speech came amid rising tension over the proposals of the American president Donald Trump to take control of Greenland.

‘A moment of truth for the EU’, says former head of European Council

Trump has also threatened to increase customs duties against European states that oppose the move.

In response, the European Union might have to deploy its anti-coercion policy which makes it possible to limit imports from a country, restrict access to certain public markets and block certain investments when the latter tries to impose its views through economic coercion.

“It’s a crazy’ situation in which the EU might have to use this for the first time against the United States,” said Macron.

“Europe now has very strong tools and we must use them when we are not respected and when the rules of the game are not respected,” he added.

Macron, who addressed the forum in English, said that no meeting of the G7 group of nations was planned for Thursday in Paris. But he said that France, which is chair of the group this year, would be willing to organise one.

“I want to make the G7 a forum for frank dialogue and for collective and cooperative solutions,” Macron told reporters after his speech.

EU leaders to address Davos summit amid tension over Trump’s Greenland plan

Trump has also proposed a ‘Peace Council’ under his control to work on resolving conflicts around the world in competition with the UN, with an entry fee of $1 billion for a permanent seat.

“France and Europe are committed to national sovereignty and independence, and to the United Nations and its charter,” said Macron in response to the suggestion.

When asked if Trump was still an ally, Macron refused to comment. “It’s up to him to answer that question. His behaviour doesn’t quite fit with that.

“I’m not here to judge or comment,” added Macron. “I’m here to act. I defend the French economy when it is attacked by things that are unfair. I have been defending a stronger Europe for nine years,” he added.

“We must not be attacked or assaulted,” he said.

(with newswires)

A year after Donald Trump’s return to office, the shock persists – but the consequences grow starker. Power is wielded impulsively, institutions appear weakened, and policy often follows presidential whim over process. Critics call it monarchical governance. What does this mean for American democracy and the global order?

Speaking to RFI, former US diplomat William Jordan says what we are witnessing is not simply an unconventional administration, but something far more radical.

“What’s happening in Washington is basically a revolution – a far-right or reactionary revolution – that is playing out every day,” he says. “It’s driven by agitation and then propaganda to support it.”

Jordan points to what he describes as a deliberately performative strategy, popularised by Trump allies like Steve Bannon, designed to overwhelm opponents and institutions alike.

“There’s a certain theatricality to it – flooding the zone, making it impossible for anybody to focus on anything else,” he says. “And the institutions that should be protecting the American system are proving they’re not up to the task.”

Trump 2.0: tariffs, trade and the state of the US economy one year in

Checks, balances and a broken Congress

The United States’ constitutional architecture – its checks and balances,its bicameral Congress – is often held up as a model of democratic resilience. But Jordan is blunt about how well it is functioning today.

“Is it working? I would say no,” he says. “Congress has not been insisting on any sort of real accountability from the executive – at least not anything the executive would have a hard time ignoring.”

While courts are clogged with legal challenges to Trump administration actions, Jordan notes that even there, resolution is slow and often indulgent.

“The court system is choked with pending cases, and we have no clear resolution,” he says. “So the real stakes now are how much has already changed – and how much of that we won’t be able to change back easily, or at all.”

Recent, tentative pushback from Republican senators – particularly over Venezuela and Trump’s threats towards Greenland – may hint at limits, but Jordan cautions against optimism.

“Congress, as an institution, is simply not functioning in the way it’s supposed to,” he says. “The House is basically deadlocked, and the Senate has only shown resistance in very limited areas.”

Trump has openly suggested that a Democratic victory in the midterm elections could lead to impeachment – and has even hinted at blocking or cancelling the vote altogether. Constitutionally, Jordan says, that line is difficult to cross.

“I’m not aware of any provision that+ allows a president to suspend elections,” he says. “Even during the Civil War, the United States continued to hold federal elections. Abraham Lincoln was re-elected in the middle of it.”

The real battleground, he argues, lies elsewhere – in voting rules, redistricting and restrictions on mail-in ballots.

“If the Democrats do take control of the House, it would at least allow hearings and some level of accountability,” Jordan says. “It could also open the door to articles of impeachment – and frankly, they’d likely have even more material to work with than before.”

American expansionism 

Abroad, Trump’s expansionist rhetoric is being digested very differently depending on the capital.

“The Russians are much more publicly in a celebratory mode,” Jordan says. “The Chinese are more inscrutable – and I think more apprehensive.”

Far from welcoming chaos, he argues that Beijing sees itself as a status quo power.

“What the United States is doing is undermining the status quo,” he says. “And I don’t think that’s in China’s interest.”

European allies hit back at US threat to start trade war over Greenland

Few issues encapsulate the current unease more clearly than Trump’s repeated threats to take control of Greenland – a move that would strike at the heart of NATO.

“If the United States were to move on Greenland, that would effectively spell the end of the transatlantic alliance as we know it,” Jordan says.

Could NATO survive without Washington?

“I think something would emerge from the ashes,” he says, though he acknowledges it would be an “extremely heavy lift” for Europe. “Europe remains heavily dependent on American equipment and capabilities. That’s a vulnerability that will last for decades.”

Still, he believes the political will is growing – and that Canada, in particular, could play a key role in keeping NATO genuinely transatlantic.

“I can’t help but think Canada will continue to see value in a very close relationship with European partners,” he says.

France’s refusal to join Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ sparks new wine tariff threat

Pulling back the curtain

Commentators argue that Trump is merely exposing behaviour the US has long practised behind closed doors, and Jordan agrees – up to a point.

“What we’re seeing now is the culmination of decades of the US undermining the rules-based international order it helped create,” he says, pointing to Iraq, the war on terror, and long-standing double standards over issues like Palestine.

But he warns that what comes next could be even more destabilising.

“I think the next target is the United Nations,” Jordan says. “I’ve been waiting for the guns to come out and start blasting at what remains of the UN system.”

He sees recent talk of an alternative “board of peace” as the opening shots in a broader campaign.

“This is being carried out in stages,” he says. “What we’re seeing now is likely the first salvo in a much larger battle to undermine the international order.”

One year after Donald Trump returned to the White House, his second administration has wasted little time putting trade at the forefront of policy.

Tariffs, the US president insists, are delivering an economic renaissance. Inflation has supposedly all but vanished. The stock market is booming. Trillions of dollars are said to be pouring into the Treasury, with the promise of tariff-funded cheques soon landing in American letterboxes. Critics, Trump has declared, are “fools”.

Strip away the slogans, however, and the picture looks far less flattering.

According to Gerald Friedman, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Trump’s tariff-driven revival is built on shaky foundations – economically incoherent, politically vindictive and geopolitically destabilising.

EU readies response to new US tariffs, France braces for fallout

The numbers don’t add up

From an economist’s perspective, Friedman says, Trump’s claims barely survive contact with reality. “Almost nothing” in the president’s upbeat assessment is true. Yes, the stock market is high, but only because a small group of technology giants dominates the indices. Remove them, and the wider market is essentially flat.

The idea that tariffs are generating vast new revenues is equally illusory. Tariffs face an unavoidable contradiction: set them high enough to block imports and they raise little money; set them low enough to generate revenue and they fail to protect domestic industry. Either way, the notion that they are filling federal coffers with “trillions” is “fantasy”.

Friedman notes that “virtually no economists outside of those being paid through Donald Trump … support his tariff regime”, particularly given its random and unsystematic application. What is billed as strategic economic policy looks more like improvisation.

Trump’s first 100 days: Trade, diplomacy and walking the transatlantic tightrope

Illusion of tariff-funded cheques

The administration’s proposal to issue tariff-funded “refunds” – between $1,000 and $2,000 per household in early 2026 – has clear populist appeal. Economically, Friedman argues, it makes little sense.

The US already runs a federal deficit of roughly $1.7 trillion a year, around 6 per cent of GDP. Washington does not need tariffs to send out cheques; it can simply borrow more. The real question is whether it should, particularly after extending large tax cuts for the wealthy that continue to inflate the deficit.

There is a deeper irony. Tariffs, Friedman points out, already constitute “the biggest tax increase as a share of GDP that this country has had since the early 1990s”, adding roughly $1,500 a year to household costs through higher prices. Refunding some of that money would merely hand back what had just been taken – while leaving the underlying economic damage untouched.

Inflation, eggs and everyday living

Trump has repeatedly pointed to falling egg prices as proof that inflation is under control. Friedman underlines that egg prices surged because of bird flu, not economic policy, and fell as the outbreak eased. They are down by about half, not by the 85 per cent the president boasts about – “one of the smaller lies”, as Friedman puts it.

Elsewhere, tariffs are doing exactly what economists expect: pushing prices up. Imports such as coffee and bananas cannot realistically be replaced by domestic production. Taxing them feeds directly into the cost of living. Households are paying more, not less.

The impact does not stop at consumer prices. Retaliation and uncertainty are quietly undermining export industries. China has cut back on US soybean imports, hurting farmers. Canada is actively reducing its reliance on the US market, deepening ties with Europe and China.

Even sectors untouched by tariffs are suffering. Higher education – one of America’s largest export earners – is losing foreign students as visas tighten and the country’s tourism has also slumped.

The combined effect, Friedman warns, is “higher prices and a reduction in employment and wages… ultimately, devastating to the US economy”.

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

Gunboat diplomacy, with grudges attached

For Friedman, Trump’s economic policy cannot be separated from his personality. Tariffs have become instruments of pressure and punishment, often driven by personal vendettas rather than strategic calculation. Hostility towards Canada’s former prime minister Justin Trudeau, for example, owed as much to personal dislike as to trade policy.

This is where economics merges with geopolitics. The US, Friedman argues, is drifting away from the postwar, rules-based order it once championed towards something far older and harsher – “pre-1940”, rather than merely pre-1945. Trade policy is wielded like a weapon, diplomacy reduced to threat and coercion.

“Nobody wants to be the one who sticks his head up,” to speak out, Friedman says. Corporate leaders and officials see what happens to dissenters and keep their heads down for fear of investigations, legal costs and political retaliation. 

Occupy Wall Street protestors clash with police outside New York Stock Exchange

A symptom of deeper failures

None of this, Friedman stresses, emerged from nowhere. Echoing arguments made by Greek economist and former left-wing finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, he sees Trump as both cause and symptom. Decades of rising inequality, deindustrialisation and attacks on unions hollowed out large parts of the working class, particularly in the US and Europe.

The 2008 financial crisis was explosive. Banks were rescued, executives kept their bonuses, and almost nobody went to jail.

The lesson, Friedman says, was clear: the powerful play by different rules. Regions once loyal to centre-left parties – coal country in West Virginia, manufacturing towns across the Midwest – became some of Trump’s strongest supporters.

Trump did not invent these grievances, but he has channelled them into a politics driven less by repair than by ego and confrontation.

Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured in ‘large scale’ US strike

Judging Trump in 2026

So how should Trump’s second presidency be judged as it heads into 2026? Friedman offers a stark metric. Ignore the rhetoric and watch the behaviour of those with real power. Do Republican lawmakers rediscover a spine? Do corporate leaders decide that long-term stability matters more than short-term fear?

If they do not, the outlook is bleak. “It’s not only the America First agenda,” Friedman says, “it’s Trump’s personal, ego-driven agenda.”

Protests may continue to swell, but without resistance from political and economic elites, the consequences will stretch far beyond the US.

In 2026, the results will be difficult to spin away. Tariffs promise strength and sovereignty. What they are delivering, Friedman argues, is higher prices, weaker alliances and a dangerous slide towards a world the US once helped consign to history.

RFI: Since Donald Trump returned to power, he has repeatedly attacked Europe, going so far as to threaten the annexation of Greenland. Do Europeans today have an enemy in the White House?

I wouldn’t speak of an enemy. I think we simply need to be lucid. The transatlantic relationship as we have known it for decades is rooted in the blood of the Second World War. That relationship is over, and we’ll have to build a new one. That will probably involve a moment of confrontation, which may be difficult politically and diplomatically. But this is the time for the European Union to stand tall and say: ‘enough is enough, we must now be respected’.

The issue of the moment is, of course, the United States’ desire to annex Greenland. And Donald Trump has added fuel to the fire saying: ‘I don’t think European leaders will put up much resistance to my project.’ Is he wrong?

I hope with all my heart that he’s wrong. And I believe this is a moment of truth for the European Union and for European leadership. [On Tuesday] the European Council is meeting in Brussels, convened by my successor, António Costa. It’s the moment for clarity and for unity within the European Union. Why? Because in reality, for several years now – and this has intensified since Donald Trump’s return to the White House – all the pillars on which the European project is founded have been under attack.

On the one hand, a war has been unleashed that threatens peace on the European continent – a war launched by Russia. In terms of competitiveness, the trade war launched against the rest of the world, including against the European Union, is clearly a threat to our future prosperity. And we can also see, even at the democratic level, attempts to interfere in a number of European democratic debates that are unacceptable.

So I believe this is a moment for lucidity and for strength. That means we must be extremely clear and use the means at our disposal. We are not without leverage. We hear far too often that the EU cannot resist, has no strength, no capacity. Take the European market – 450 million consumers – that’s vital to major American companies.

European allies hit back at US threat to start trade war over Greenland

You said, ‘I hope he is wrong’ referring to Trump’s claim that European leaders will not put up much resistance. Does that mean you nevertheless have doubts – not about Europe’s capacity to resist, but about the willingness of European leaders to do so today?

If I have mixed feelings, and if I hope the right decisions will be taken, it is because over recent months I have observed far too little resistance. On the contrary, I have seen what I call the development of a diplomacy of flattery – a diplomacy of complacency and appeasement. I believe this is a major mistake made by some of my former colleagues. And it doesn’t work. It is even counter-productive.

We can clearly see that the more there have been these sometimes cowardly compliments – it has to be said – and this sometimes cowardly flattery, the more it has fuelled the White House’s appetite and the more it has worsened and unbalanced the relationship between the United States and the European Union.

Our wish, of course – and mine as well – is to have a respectful, balanced and effective relationship between the US and the EU. And that’s not the case.

You’re describing a Europe that has been immensely soft, weary, when facing the United States.

I think that over recent months and the past year, Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House has unfortunately not been an opportunity for the European Union to reveal its power, its strength, or its capacity to defend our vision of Europe in the world – including economically.

When we were threatened in the context of this trade war, and when in the end 15 per cent tariffs were imposed on us, and the response was a thumbs-up and a smile, that shows, in my view, very serious naivety – if not a culpable error. Because that attitude triggered an escalation and indeed encouraged a temptation to go ever further in threatening, intimidating and ultimately harming the European project.

Trump says not thinking ‘purely of peace’ in Greenland push

On Monday the Commission’s deputy spokesperson [Olof Gill] call for restraint in the face of Trump’s threats saying ‘Our priority is to engage, not escalate’. Does that mean the Commission has decided we’ll do nothing?

There’s a saying in Latin: ‘to err is human, but to persist is diabolical’. And I hope European leaders will draw the lessons of recent months. What more is needed when we are faced with serious ambiguity from the United States – if not complacency – towards Russia? What more is needed when we are hit hard by a trade war? And what more is needed when we are now confronted with direct threats to the sovereignty of one of our Member States? [Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark – a member of the EU]

Who is to blame for this weakness? European leaders as a whole? The Commission? Ursula von der Leyen? Is there anyone in particular who should be held responsible?

I don’t want to personalise the debate at this stage. I simply observe that over recent months a number of extremely important opportunities have been missed. That was certainly the case over the summer, when negotiations between the White House and the European Commission on tariffs were finalised.

I believe this was a very sad moment for the European Union – that is the first point. But there is more than that. A few years ago, before the war against Ukraine, only a handful of us were arguing for what we called the European Union’s strategic autonomy, its sovereignty. The French President was very clear-sighted on this issue. I was clearly – and I still am – on his side in this ambition for independence and sovereignty for the European Union. But at the time, Emmanuel Macron, myself and others were facing strong headwinds within the European Union, including from the European Commission.

Even under the previous Joe Biden administration, when decisions were taken that harmed European competitiveness – each time there was an attempt at appeasement.

A collective drifting off to sleep…

A form of lethargy.

In other words the Europe we have known for years?

No, not for years. During the Covid crisis, we reacted within a few months. We succeeded in countering the pandemic and in launching joint borrowing that demonstrated European solidarity at the economic level. 

EU to tighten Covid-19 vaccine export approval to ensure doses for own citizens

You are saying it can be done?

Of course. The history of Europe has shown that in difficult moments, European leaders have been capable of vision and courage. What we have seen in recent months is sad, but I don’t think it’s too late. And I believe that in the coming days we’ll see whether there is the indispensable wake-up call.

What should Europe do in the face of this threat of annexation combined with threats of punitive tariffs? What levers does the European Union have to say to Trump: ‘no, this will not pass’?

We have a range of economic levers, in particular anti-coercion measures. This is the moment to activate them, and we must be clear. Of course, we all hope there can be dialogue that might suddenly lead to de-escalation, but I do not see that happening. On the contrary, if no concrete action is taken – not just agreeable language and calls for restraint – that will indeed provoke smiles in the White House.

What is needed is to show that we have instruments and that we are ready to use them. If, for example, tomorrow we say that American companies no longer have access to European public procurement markets, that strategic American investments are halted or frozen on European soil… we have a whole range of measures that can be deployed, with an intensity that can go quite far. 

We have to act and stop talking…

I think so. I will be a bit blunt. In diplomacy, if someone slaps you, you slap back and then you talk. But you cannot simply take one blow, then a second, then a third. For now, I have the feeling that the White House is slapping the European Union, and the response is a thumbs-up, a smile – or even, within NATO, a certain general [Secretary-General Mark Rutte] calling the President “Daddy”. That is complacency. That is flattery. It does not work.

This interview, adapted from the original in French, has been lightly edited for clarity.

The board was originally conceived to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza, but the charter does not appear to limit its role to the occupied Palestinian territory.

“I’ll put a 200 percent tariff on his wines and champagnes. And he’ll join. But he doesn’t have to join,” Trump said, referring to French President Emmanuel Macron.

This comes on the heels of Trump’s threat to impose tariffs of up to 25 percent on a string of European countries unless Greenland is ceded to the United States.

Macron’s entourage told AFP on Monday that France “does not intend to answer favourably” to the invitation to join the Board of Peace, initiated by Trump. 

“Tariff threats to influence our foreign policy are unacceptable and ineffective,” a source close to Macron said. 

“It [the charter] raises major questions, particularly regarding respect for the principles and structure of the United Nations, which under no circumstances can be called into question,” the source, speaking on condition of anonymity, added.

The French foreign ministry issued a statement late Monday, reiterating its commitment to the existing charter of the United Nations.

“This remains the cornerstone of effective multilateralism, where international law, the sovereign equality of States and the peaceful settlement of disputes prevail over arbitrariness, power relations and war,” the ministry added.

What is the EU’s ‘anti-coercion instrument’ and will it be used against Trump?

France is one of the five veto-wielding, permanent members of the UN Security Council, along with the United States, China, Russia and Britain.

The White House has asked various world leaders to sit on the board, chaired by Trump himself, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungarian premier Viktor Orban and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

The board’s charter describes it as “an international organisation that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.”

Seen by French news agency AFP, the document says that member countries will serve no longer than three years, subject to renewal by the chairman. That is unless they “contribute more than USD $1,000,000,000 in cash funds to the Board of Peace within the first year of the Charter’s entry into force.”

UN pushes back

Trump has regularly criticised the United Nations and announced this month that his country will withdraw from 66 global organisations and treaties – roughly half affiliated with the UN.

The world body – which suffers chronic funding shortfalls and political deadlock in the Security Council – pushed back Monday.

La Neice Collins, spokesperson for the president of the UN General Assembly, told reporters “there is one universal, multilateral organisation to deal with peace and security issues, and that is the United Nations.”

Daniel Forti at the International Crisis Group, a think tank, said at least 60 countries have reportedly been invited to the Board of Peace. He said some may view it as a way to curry favor with Trump, but many member states would see it as power grab.

“Actively buying permanent seats in an exclusive club sends a very worrying signal about what transactional and deals-based international diplomacy may mean in the future,” he told AFP.

UN Security Council approves international force for Gaza

Trump would have the power to remove member states from the board, subject to a veto by two-third of members, and to choose his replacement should he leave his role as chairman.

Ian Lesser at the German Marshall Fund think tank told AFP he would be surprised if many countries are willing to sign up “at a time when most are focused on preserving the existing multilateral institutions.”

The White House said there would be a main board, a Palestinian committee of technocrats meant to govern devastated Gaza, and a second “executive board” that appears designed to have a more advisory role.

Trump has named as board members Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former British prime minister Tony Blair, senior negotiator Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Israel has objected to the line-up of a “Gaza executive board” to operate under the body, which includes Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Qatari diplomat Ali Al-Thawadi.

(with AFP)

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu confirmed on Monday evening he would ram his budget bill through parliament without a vote, conceding it was a “partial failure”, after weeks of stalled negotiations.

As a result, the premier risks exposing himself to a no-confidence vote, but he is counting on the support of a key swing group in the lower chamber to survive.

He told a news conference he had decided “with a certain degree of regret and a bit of bitterness” to invoke a constitutional measure that would force the legislation through.

Lecornu last year had pledged to seek parliament’s approval for a 2026 austerity budget and not force it into law, in a bid to avoid the fate of his two predecessors who were ousted over budget negotiations.

But on Monday, upon announcing he would invoke the power to push the budget through, he said: “We have to be humble. It’s a partial success, partial failure.”

France says parliamentary approval of budget is ‘impossible’

He had managed to get a bill on social security spending approved by year’s end, but lawmakers have thus far failed to reach a compromise on state expenses.

“Everyone is also coming to the conclusion that we’re heading into a dead end,” he said.

Lecornu’s centre-right government said last week it would be “impossible” to adopt a 2026 austerity budget by vote.

Any use of “Article 49.3”, the constitutional power being used to push the legislation through parliament without a vote, can trigger a no-confidence vote, which can topple the government.

France’s article 49.3 a handy constitutional tool to bypass parliament

President Emmanuel Macron hailed the budget, saying it “guarantees stability” and “allows the country to move forward”, a government spokesperson said.

Macron emphasised that the budget “required compromises and concessions from everyone”.

Lecornu vowed that the new budget would keep the public deficit at five percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

No-confidence motion

But far-right RN leader Marine le Pen denounced Lecornu’s “irresponsible announcement” while calling for “harsh punishment for politicians who choose to ruin our country to save their seats”.

She added she would file a no-confidence motion, in a post on social media platform X.

The hard-left France Unbowed party had earlier announced it would also table such a motion.

Lecornu has sought to make concessions in the spending bill to please the Socialists, a key swing group in the hung parliament, in order to survive any vote to oust him.

Deficit to deadlock: why France is borrowing €310bn without a budget

Following his announcement Monday, the Socialists indicated they were satisfied with the concessions to their demands for the new budget.

The changes “make it possible to contemplate non-censure,” head of the Socialist deputies, Boris Vallaud, said.

“If what has been stated is indeed reflected, there will be no censure,” Socialist deputy Jerome Guedj assured.

The eurozone’s second-largest economy has been bogged down in political crisis since Macron called a snap poll in 2024, in which he lost his parliamentary majority.

Hoping to bring an end to the impasse on Monday, Lecornu said: “We’re going to stop putting on a show for the whole world.”

(with AFP)

After US President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs of up to 25 percent on a string of European countries unless Greenland is ceded to the United States, the European Union finds itself contemplating a powerful – and so far unused – weapon in its trade arsenal: the so-called “anti-coercion” instrument.

The warning from Trump was met with shock across Europe over the weekend. The US president said the tariffs would target EU members Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden – as well as non-EU Britain and Norway – unless Denmark hands over Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Danish kingdom.

The remarks triggered alarm in European capitals and prompted leaders of the 27-nation bloc to call an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday evening – a sign of how seriously the EU is taking what it sees as one of the most severe crises in transatlantic relations in years.

European allies hit back at US threat to start trade war over Greenland

Talk first, but tools ready

Publicly, Brussels is striking a careful tone. EU trade spokesman Olof Gill said the bloc’s “priority is to engage, not escalate”, stressing that contacts with Washington were continuing at all levels.

“We are trying to be calm, to be firm, to be serious, to be responsible, because that’s what, in our view, leadership looks like,” he told reporters.

Still, the message comes with a clear caveat. If the threatened tariffs are imposed, Gill said, the EU “has tools at its disposal and is prepared to respond”.

Those options range from putting the current tariff deal with the United States on ice, to re-imposing suspended EU tariffs on €93 billion worth of US imports. Beyond that lies the most eye-catching measure of all – the anti-coercion instrument, often dubbed Brussels’ “bazooka”.

What is the anti-coercion instrument?

Formally adopted in 2023, the anti-coercion instrument was designed to deter economic pressure on EU member states by third countries. The EU defines coercion as a state applying – or threatening to apply – trade or investment measures to interfere with the bloc’s or a member state’s legitimate sovereign choices.

The tool has never been activated, but its reputation is formidable. Supporters describe it as a “nuclear option” because it allows the EU to retaliate with wide-ranging trade measures across its 450-million-strong single market.

That could include restricting imports or exports of goods and services, or limiting US companies’ access to lucrative public procurement contracts in Europe. American technology firms are seen as a potential target, given the United States runs a services surplus with the EU, and Brussels has previously drawn up lists of US services that could be hit.

The instrument was conceived after Lithuania accused China of blocking its exports in 2021 following Vilnius’ decision to allow a Taiwanese diplomatic office to open – a case that sharpened EU thinking on how to push back against economic pressure.

France to step up Greenland deployment with land, air and sea forces

How would it be triggered?

Both the European Commission and EU member states can request activation, but it would require backing from at least 55 percent of member countries, representing 65 percent of the EU’s population.

Even then, the process is deliberately measured. The commission would have up to four months to investigate the alleged coercion, followed by an eight-to-ten-week period for member states to approve any proposed response.

Only after that could concrete measures be prepared, potentially taking effect within six months. Brussels says these timelines are indicative rather than fixed.

In other words, the instrument is not designed for instant retaliation. Yet simply launching an investigation would send a strong political signal that the EU is ready to stand its ground, even against a close ally.

Macron warns of ‘cascading consequences’ if US seizes Greenland

That signal is precisely what some European leaders and lawmakers want to send.

French President Emmanuel Macron has raised the prospect of deploying the instrument if Trump follows through on his threat, according to aides.

Valerie Hayer, leader of the liberal Renew group in the European Parliament, has gone further, openly calling for its use.

“The United States is making a miscalculation that is not only dangerous but could be painful,” she said, describing the tool as the EU’s “economic nuclear weapon”.

(with newswires)

On 1 October, 2025, French military personnel boarded the rust-streaked tanker Boracay just off the Bay of Biscay, after the captain, a Chinese national commanding a largely Chinese crew, ignored repeated orders to stop.

He was detained, and French prosecutors opened an investigation for refusal to obey a “lawful signal” and failing to prove the ship’s nationality – rendering it effectively stateless under international law, and boardable without flag-state consent.

On paper, the ship was registered in Benin, but this registration was marked “false” by the relevant shipping registries – the official records maintained by a flag state that document a vessel’s nationality and ownership, granting it the right to sail under that country’s flag.

The Boracay also appears on several blacklists, including that of the European Union, as a ship that has been caught “transporting crude oil or petroleum products … that originate in Russia or are exported from Russia while practising irregular and high-risk shipping practices”, as set out in resolutions of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

Its detention in France was just another stopover on an erratic journey – one that exemplifies the global movements of Russia’s shadow fleet.

EU hits Russia with sweeping new sanctions over Ukraine war

IMO 9332810

Launched in 2007 as Pacific Apollo, from a Japanese shipyard, the vessel is identifiable by its IMO number 9332810, the unique and unchangeable number assigned to every merchant ship for lifetime identification, regardless of name or flag changes.

It became Virgo Sun six years later, then sped through aliases from 2020: P. Fos, Odysseus, Varuna, Kiwala, Pushpa – and finally Boracay, from September 2025.

The vessel’s flags shifted rapidly too: the Marshall Islands, St Kitts and Nevis, Mongolia, Gabon, Djibouti, Gambia, Malawi and Benin – several lacking valid registration, according to Equasis, the database of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).

‘Name-hopping” is a hallmark of a so-called shadow fleet.

“There is no official definition of the shadow fleet,” according to Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council think tank.

“Different organisations use different definitions, but the characteristics that most of them include are flag-hopping, obscure ownership, uncertain P&I insurance, and the fact that they transport sanctioned cargo,” she told RFI.

The Boracay’s managers have included India’s Gatik Ship Management, a leading carrier of Russian oil since Ukraine’s invasion, and Turkish firm Unic Tanker Ship Management.​

UK armed forces helped US mission to seize Russian tanker, MoD says

Drone attacks

In April 2025, when it arrived in Estonia after a long journey from India’s Sikka port, Estonian naval forces detained the IMO  9332810, then under the name Kiwala and registered in Djibouti – despite Djibouti cancelling its registry months earlier.

The ship was on the EU sanctions list, and heading for Russia. 

Estonian inspectors found 40 “deficiencies” – issues that didn’t conform to shipping regulations – with 23 of them documentation-related. 

However, they had to release the ship as there wasn’t enough evidence to hold it indefinitely.

It reached the Russian port of Ust-Luga in late April, then Primorsk near St Petersburg in September and changed name, this time becoming the Pushpa. According to Eurasia Daily and other shipping publications, this time it was filled with petrol.

As the Pushpa continued its journey, Danish authorities then linked it to suspicious drone flights over airports, forcing closures, although proof remains elusive.

On it went, through the English Channel and then southwards.

According to data from the Marine Traffic tracking website, the ship had been scheduled to arrive in Vadinar in north-western India on 20 October.

But it was followed by a French warship and local authorities boarded the ship – by now named the Boracay – off the coast near Saint-Nazare, and detained it.

Shadow fleet targeted as EU advances frozen assets plan for Ukraine

With the detention of the Boracay, French President Emmanuel Macron was fulfilling a promise that France and its EU partners would pursue a “policy of obstruction” against such shadow-fleet vessels.

However, it is not always easy to determine when maritime rules permit the physical challenge of these clandestine vessels.

“You can board and you can possibly detain if you have strong suspicions and allegations, but then if you can’t prove beyond reasonable doubt that that ship has been involved in some kind of crime, then you have to release it,” explains Braw.

She added: “Every vessel in the world has the right to sail on the world’s oceans… these shadow vessels don’t sail in the territorial waters of Western countries, they sail in the exclusive economic zone, where coastal states have fewer rights.”

The capture of the Boracay and the more recent detention of ships leaving Venezuela by United States forces are rare examples of national authorities taking action against the shadow fleet.

According to Braw, critics who have called Europe “spineless” in this regard often miss the point that governments follow the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS,) making “systematic action against the shadow fleet… very difficult without stretching or violating maritime rules”.

Opaque ownership

Since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and subsequent sanctions, Russia has stepped up use of this fleet of ageing tankers with opaque ownership and shifting identities to circumnavigate Western restrictions on its oil exports.

When the G7 imposed a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian oil in December 2022, this shadow fleet trafficking of Russian oil exploded.

Today, S&P Global counts 978 tankers totalling 127 million deadweight tonnes – 18.5 percent of global capacity – with 54 of these vessels (9.5 million payload tonnes) being used for Venezuelan crude swaps.

“There is no official definition, no official list and no precise number,” says Braw. The EU’s 18 December, 2025 sanctions hit 605 vessels, nine enablers (including owners and shipping companies) as well as firms in the UAE, Vietnam and Russia; yet port bans are not universally applied.

EU on track to end Russian gas imports by end of 2027

Global reach

The recent US detention of two Venezuelan tankers, thought to be shipping sanctioned oil, exposed the fleet’s global reach.

Roughly 80 percent of Venezuela’s 1 million barrels per day flowed to China, says Eric Olander, co-founder of the China-Global South Project, adding that: “The vast majority of the oil that Venezuela was producing was going to China.” The majority arrived at its destination via the shadow fleet.

For Beijing, this is just a small slice of its total oil imports – some 4 percent.

Venezuelan heavy, sour crude oil is hard to refine. But smaller, independent refineries, mainly located in China’s eastern Shandong province – nicknamed “teapots” – specialise in processing this oil from Venezuela and Iran, and are dependent on it.

“The teapot refineries will be the most impacted because they have tuned their systems to these particular grades of crude from Iran and from Venezuela,” according to Olander.

Unlike Chinese oil giants Sinopec or PetroChina, “teapots” lack diversification. With Iranian oil comprising 14 percent of imports, combined Venezuelan-Iranian pressure could hit 20 percent of China’s barrel basket.

Meanwhile, French authorities released the Boracay after a detention of just a few days. At the time of writing, it was located in Malaysia.

The ship now also appears on the Russian maritime register, under the name Feniks and registered to the Russian port of Sochi – a move that could suggest acknowledgement by Russia of its involvement with this shadow fleet.

Designed to protect ice cores from glaciers that are rapidly disappearing due to global warming, the sanctuary is housed in Concordia Station, a French-Italian research base located 3,200 metres above sea level.

The first samples, taken from two glaciers in the Alps, are stored in a purpose-built snow cave.

Buried about 5 metres beneath the surface, the cave maintains a constant temperature of -52C, allowing the ice to be preserved naturally without artificial refrigeration. It also minimises the risks from human or technical failures.

Scientists officially inaugurated the Ice Memory Sanctuary on Wednesday, amid outside temperatures of -33C.

“We are the last generation who can act,” said Anne-Catherine Ohlmann, director of the Ice Memory Foundation. 

“It’s a responsibility we all share. Saving these ice archives is not only a scientific responsibility – it is a legacy for humanity.”

French scientists probe deep into Antarctica for clues on climate change

Preserving climate records

Launched in 2015 by research institutes and universities in France, Italy and Switzerland, the Ice Memory project was conceived after scientists noticed a sharp rise in temperature on several glaciers. 

Since 2000, glaciers have lost between 2 percent and 39 percent of their ice regionally and about 5 percent globally, according to a study published in Nature in 2025.

As they melt, invaluable scientific records are lost.

Preserving ice cores will allow future scientists to study Earth’s climate history, explained Carlo Barbante, vice-chair of the Ice Memory Foundation and professor at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. 

“By safeguarding physical samples of atmospheric gases, aerosols, pollutants and dust trapped in ice layers, the Ice Memory Foundation ensures that future generations of researchers will be able to study past climate conditions using technologies that may not yet exist,” he said. 

Natural vault

The Ice Memory Sanctuary measures 35 metres long and 5 metres high and wide.

Its stability is ensured by the extreme and naturally constant Antarctic temperatures.  

The natural and low-impact snow cave was approved in 2024 under the Antarctic Treaty, which regulates the use of Antartica for scientific research, and was funded by the Prince Albert II Foundation.

It currently houses ice cores extracted from the Mont Blanc and Grand Combin glaciers in 2016 and 2025 respectively.

Scientists hope million-year-old Antarctic ice will reveal climate secrets

‘Race against time’

Dozens of additional ice cores from glaciers worldwide – such as in the Andes, Pamir, Caucasus and Svalbard mountain ranges – are expected to join the Ice Memory archive in the coming years.

An international governance framework will be established over the next decade to ensure fair and transparent scientific access for future generations.

On Wednesday, European climate monitors and US confirmed that 2025 was the third hottest year on record, pushing the planet closer to a key warming limit. 

“We are in a race against time to rescue this heritage before it will vanish forever,” said Barbante.

The company has already built two quantum computers that use photons – particles of light – to encode and process information, setting it apart from competitors relying on other quantum computing architectures.

Established in 2017 as a spin-off from France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Paris-Saclay, Quandela represents a new generation of European quantum technology ventures translating academic research into commercial systems.

RFI English’s Dhananjay Khadilkar recently visited Quandela’s facility to speak with the company’s chief operating officer, Valérian Giesz, about the firm’s progress in making quantum computing a practical reality.

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.

The footage, widely circulated online, shows black men in Russian military uniforms being humiliated, threatened or described as expendable. The language used has drawn attention to the risks faced by foreign recruits sent to the front line.

The videos have not been formally authenticated. But experts interviewed by RFI said the footage appears credible.

They added that the images match earlier investigations and expert reports suggesting African nationals – often misled during recruitment – have been deployed to some of the most dangerous areas of the battlefield.

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

‘Disposable’ troops

One video shows a visibly frightened man who identifies himself as Francis. An anti-tank mine appears to be strapped to his chest. The person filming insults him, threatens him and orders him to run forward, seemingly to draw enemy fire.

A second clip, filmed in a snowy forest, shows a group of men singing a Ugandan military song. The cameraman refers to them as “disposable”.

These scenes echo findings by Thierry Vircoulon, an associate researcher at the French Institute of International Relations, who has written a detailed analysis of Russian recruitment in Africa.

“During our study, we showed that these recruits are very often placed in units sent to the front line in the most dangerous areas,” he said.

“They are frequently used to detect Ukrainian positions. That is undoubtedly what is meant by calling them disposable – the death rate in these units is high because they are involved in the riskiest operations.”

Nairobi sounds alarm over recruiters luring Kenyans into Russian war effort

Bad PR for Moscow

Other videos circulating online show black soldiers in military fatigues being targeted by drones, pleading to be sent back to their home countries or giving interviews after being captured.

The footage has been shared mainly on Ukrainian platforms and serves several purposes, Vircoulon said.

“The first aim is to show that mercenaries are fighting within the Russian army,” he says. “The second is to undermine the Russian narrative that portrays Moscow as standing alongside African countries in their struggle against neocolonialism and in support of development.”

Ukrainian authorities say between 3,000 and 4,000 Africans are currently fighting in Russian ranks. If confirmed, the figure would further complicate Russia’s efforts to present itself as a partner to the Global South rather than a power exporting war.

This has been adapted from the original article by RFI in French

As protests and repression intensify inside Iran, Beijing finds itself under growing pressure. China’s long-standing principle of non-interference is colliding with its deep economic entanglement with the Islamic Republic.

When US President Donald Trump warned that Tehran would face “serious consequences” if protesters were killed, China initially stayed silent. When it did respond, it repeated familiar positions, calling for calm, opposing outside interference and restating views it said it had “always” held.

That posture shifted on Tuesday, when Trump announced an additional 25 percent tariff on countries that continue to defy Washington’s policy on Iran. The measure was to take effect “definitively” and “immediately”, and was aimed above all at China, Iran’s most important trading partner.

Beijing said it would “resolutely defend its legitimate rights and interests”, reject foreign military intervention in Iran and act as needed to protect Chinese citizens.

New protests hit Iran as alarm grows over crackdown ‘massacre’

Trade and oil ties

China is central to Iran’s economy. More than a quarter of Iran’s total trade in 2024 was conducted with China, according to the World Trade Organization.

Iran imported around $18 billion worth of goods from China and exported about $14.5 billion in return, figures that underline the scale of the partnership.

Chinese energy companies, including Sinopec, are directly involved in offshore oil extraction in Iranian waters. China was still importing an estimated 1.8 million barrels of Iranian oil per day last autumn.

“These oil flows fluctuate depending on the month,” said Théo Nencini, a researcher specialising in Sino-Iranian relations at the Catholic Institute of Paris and Sciences Po Grenoble.

“They increase with the Chinese New Year. In general, between December and January – not always – the Chinese import a little less, then imports rise just after.”

Nencini said a key shift came in March 2023, when Iran and Saudi Arabia restored diplomatic relations in Beijing.

“From that moment on, we saw a fairly dizzying increase in Iranian oil exports to China,” he said. Until 2022, exports averaged around 700,000 to 800,000 barrels per day. “Then it rose to around 1.5 million in 2025.”

UN sanctions on Iran set to return as nuclear diplomacy fades

Why China can absorb Iranian oil

Estimates suggesting that more than 90 percent of Iranian oil exports go to China are plausible, said Didier Chaudet, an expert in geopolitics, specialising in Persian-speaking regions.

“If we look at Iran’s other potential customers, we see countries that do not have the means for abundant consumption, such as Afghanistan at present, or Syria until the fall of the Assad regime,” Chaudet said.

Others, such as Turkey, “do not have the political will, for fear of provoking American wrath”.

That leaves China as “the only country with the political will, economic need and financial capacity to absorb the majority of Iranian oil”, Chaudet added.

Around a quarter of that oil is processed in so-called teapot refineries, small semi-independent facilities known for handling sanctioned crude from Iran or Venezuela.

China is increasingly assuming responsibility for this trade through forums such as BRICS+ and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, both of which Iran has joined, Chaudet said.

“It is a way to criticise the latest sanctions imposed on Iran, which are considered excessive and even illegal,” he said.

Buying Iranian oil beyond China’s immediate needs is also “a way of helping the regime to stabilise”, Chaudet said. Many Chinese researchers fear that if the regime collapses, Iran could become “a greater Syria rather than a greater Sweden”.

Is China’s SCO a counterweight to NATO or just geopolitical theatre?

A relationship centuries in the making

China’s engagement with Iran predates recent crises. Beijing supported the 2015 nuclear deal, which Trump later abandoned during his first term.

In 2021, after Joe Biden entered the White House, China and Iran announced a 25-year cooperation agreement promising up to $400 billion in Chinese investment, although the extent of its implementation remains unclear.

For Emmanuel Lincot, professor at the Catholic Institute of Paris and research director at IRIS, the agreement was “unprecedented in the history of bilateral relations”.

He said it was accompanied by military cooperation, most recently joint Chinese, Iranian and Russian naval manoeuvres off South Africa.

The relationship stretches back centuries.

Lincot pointed to the 7th-century Sassanid ruler Péroz, a Persian king, who sought refuge at the Chinese imperial court in Xi’an after Arab-Muslim invasions, a story “regularly repeated by both propaganda machines” as evidence of ancient ties.

In the early 15th century, Chinese admiral Zheng He sailed as far as the Strait of Hormuz during his maritime expeditions.

Iran is now a key link in Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road strategy, connecting Central Asia to the Arabian Gulf. China has also acted as a broker between Iran and Saudi Arabia when strategic, particularly energy, interests align.

China marks ten years of Belt & Road forum, though interest is waning

Support, but with limits

Beijing’s support for Tehran is not unconditional. Chaudet said Iranian perceptions of Russia and China are increasingly diverging.

“Moscow has not lived up to the expected level of support,” he said, despite Tehran’s alignment with the Kremlin over Ukraine.

China, however, “is not in a position of absolute support”, Chaudet said. Chinese analysts are aware of the Iranian regime’s weaknesses and are “not receptive” to Tehran’s calls for greater assistance.

“Iran is a partner, certainly, but not at the heart of China’s national interests,” he said. “China will not go into conflict with Washington to save Tehran.”

What remains central for Beijing is keeping oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.

“The Chinese are waiting,” Nencini said. “They are waiting to see how everyone reacts.”

Whether Washington’s threat of secondary tariffs will divert China from Iranian oil remains uncertain, particularly given the fragile trade truce between the two countries.

Much now depends on Trump’s next move. He has said his only limit is his own “moral compass”, alongside domestic political pressure and looming mid-term elections.

This has been adapted from the original article in French by RFI’s Igor Gauquelin.

Raphaël Boukandoura, who works for various French publications including Ouest France and Courrier International, was arrested outside DEM’s Istanbul headquarters in the Sancaktepe district, it said.

His arrest was also confirmed by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), who called for him to be freed without delay.

“We call for the immediate release of our colleague who did nothing but his legitimate duty to cover a protest,” RSF’s Turkey representative Erol Onderoglu told AFP.

“RSF is closely following his case and calls on the authorities to put an end to such arbitrary interference against media professionals,” he said.

Ouest France echoed the call for him to be freed “immediately”.

Call for protection

The police intervened after a DEM statement was read out calling for “an immediate halt to the attacks” and for the protection of civilians in northeastern Syria, Turkish news reports showed.

Syrian forces began an offensive nearly two weeks ago which pushed Kurdish-led SDF forces out of the northern city of Aleppo, and expanded over the weekend to push deep into territory that has been held by Kurdish forces for over a decade.

The move was hailed by Ankara as a legitimate “fight against terror” but triggered angry protests among Turkey’s Kurds, who make up a fifth of the country’s population of 86 million and who have been deeply unsettled by the violence.

It has also raised questions about the fate of Turkey‘s peace process with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in a bid to draw a line under a four-decade insurgency that cost some 50,000 lives.

Ceasefire negotiations collapse

The PKK on Tuesday said it would “never abandon” Kurds in Syria.

“You should know…whatever the cost, we will never leave you alone.. we as the entire Kurdish people and as the movement, will do whatever is necessary,” Murat Karayilan of the PKK was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, negotiations have collapsed between the Syrian president and the chief of the country’s Kurdish-led forces, a Kurdish official told AFP on Tuesday, as the army deployed reinforcements to flashpoint areas in the north.

US and EU urge fresh talks between Syria govt, Kurds after deadly clashes

President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Mazloum Abdi, who heads the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), were meeting to discuss a ceasefire agreement that included integrating the Kurds’ administration into the state.

The agreement had marked a blow for the Kurds‘ long-held ambitions of preserving the de facto autonomy they had exercised in swathes of northern Syria for over a decade.

Sunday’s ceasefire deal included the Kurds’ handover of Arab-majority Deir Ezzor and Raqa provinces, which they administered after their US-backed defeat of IS at the height of Syria’s civil war.

Sharaa, who is backed by the United States and Turkey, has refused to entertain the idea of decentralisation or federal rule, and insisted the army must deploy across Syria.

(with AFP)

Over 21 million Ugandan citizens were called to the polls last Thursday in the country’s general elections.

Incumbent President Yoweri Museveni, 81, stood for a seventh term following 40 years in power. He faced seven challengers, including Robert Kyagulanyi, known to most as Bobi Wine, who garnered substantial support but fell short of unseating the veteran leader. Museveni was declared the winner on Saturday 17 January, securing over 76 per cent of the vote.

In this edition of Spotlight on Africa, you’ll hear from Bobi Wine’s international lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, about the formidable obstacles facing opposition candidates during the campaign.

‘He represents a population desperate for change’, Bobi Wine’s lawyer tells RFI

Jeffrey Smith, executive director of the think tank Vanguard Africa, joins us to examine the aftermath of these elections and the future of politics in Uganda, and more broadly across East Africa and other parts of the continent where democracy is severely undermined.

Somaliland, Israel and the Horn of Africa

The state of Israel recognised the independence of Somaliland from Somalia in the final days of December, prompting widespread concern and questions in an already turbulent region, and drawing largely condemnatory responses.

The risky calculations behind Israel’s recognition of Somaliland

Faisal Ali is a Somali British independent journalist. He looks with us at the motivations behind this move for every state involved. 

Episode edited by Melissa Chemam and mixed Erwan Rome.

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

General Muhoozi Kainerugaba’s comments come after his father, President Yoweri Museveni won an seventh term following general elections on Thursday that was widely criticised by poll observers and rights groups.

The embattled opposition, led by 43-year-old Bobi Wine, real name Robert Kyagulanyi, says they faced violence and intimidation ahead of the vote, with international bodies also accusing the government of “brutal repression”.

“We have killed 22 NUP terrorists since last week. I’m praying the 23rd is Kabobi,” Kainerugaba posted on social media X late Monday night, referring to Wine and his National Unity Platform (NUP) party.

“As for Kabobi, the permanent loser, I’m giving him exactly 48 hours to surrender himself to the Police. If he doesn’t we will treat him as an outlaw/rebel and handle him accordingly,” he added in a separate post on X.

‘He represents a population desperate for change’, Bobi Wine’s lawyer tells RFI

Ordeal

The east African country‘s veteran leader Yoweri Museveni, 81, was declared the landslide winner of the January 15 poll with 71.6 percent of the vote against his opponent Bobi Wine with 24.

Wine, the pop star-turned-politician, and his party, the National Unity Platform (NUP) have rejected the results, alleging widespread irregularities including ballot stuffing, enforced disappearance of polling agents and intimidation by security forces. 

Wine’s whereabouts remain unknown after he said on Saturday he had escaped a police raid on his home, where his wife remains under apparent house arrest. He says he is in hiding.

Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine under house arrest as Museveni leads vote

Wine criticised Kainerugaba’s “threats to kill me” on his own social media and demanded the military vacate the his compound, adding: “My wife and people are not safe.”

He also appeared on NTV Uganda on Monday night and accused police of vandalising his home and said leaving his residence would free him “to speak to the world,” still not disclosing his location.

The opposition leader had already faced arrest and torture in the run-up to the 2021 election, when he first ran for president.

Growing role

Over 100 members of Uganda’s biggest opposition party have also been charged with various offences including unlawful assembly related to violence around last week’s election, according to court documents and an opposition official.

In the run-up to polls last week, Kainerugaba, infamous for his colourful tweets and regular threats to behead Wine, was unusually silent on social media, but since his father’s win he has returned to posting frequently, often late at night.

It has been said on several occasions that Museveni wants his son to succeed him.

 (with newswires)

Louvre employees have been demanding better pay, more recruitment, and improved maintenance of the museum, and their strike action has shut down the museum several times since mid December.

Two previous strike days resulted in a loss of “at least one million euros” in revenue, according to management.

While nearly 140 new hires have been announced since start of the strike movement, and a meeting is scheduled at the culture ministry on Thursday to discuss salary increases, some union leaders remain critical of director Laurence des Cars.

Her management style, which has been described as remote and inflexible, has come under criticism.

“If we get the pay but continue with this governance model, we won’t be out of the woods,” Valerie Baud of the CFDT union said.

Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who plans to step down soon as she is running for Mayor of Paris, said Sunday that “major decisions” on the Louvre would be coming soon.

“I reviewed the organisation, the governance,” Dati said, answering a question put to her about Des Cars on France Inter radio and public television.

Des Cars offered to resign a few hours after the spectacular break-in on 19 October, which Dati refused.

Images of brazen heist revealed

Surveillance camera footage of the robbery was broadcast for the first time on French television Sunday evening.

The footage showed the two burglars forcing their way into the Apollo Gallery and slicing into display cases under the eyes of several staff members who do not intervene.

After breaking in through a reinforced window with high-powered disk cutters, they begin slicing into display cases.

Managers at the Louvre have stressed that staff are not trained to confront thieves and are asked to prioritise the evacuation of visitors.

Four suspects are in police custody over the robbery, including the two suspected thieves, but the eight stolen items of French crown jewels worth an estimated $102 million (€87 million) have not been found.

During the roughly four minutes that the two men were inside the gallery, one staff member can be seen holding a bollard used to orient visitors through the gallery, according to France Televisions.

The images, as well as multiple DNA samples found at the scene, form a key part of the ongoing criminal investigation into the robbery.

Metal bars have been installed over the windows of the Apollo Gallery since the break-in.

(with AFP)

Pape Gueye’s scorcher into the top right hand corner of Yassine Bounou’s goal in the first minutes of extra-time decided a contest that descended into chaos in the closing stages of the regulation 90 minutes at the Stade Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat.

Senegal’s players were furious with referee Jean-Jacques Ndala for ruling out Ismaila Sarr’s goal without checking the video assistant referees (VAR) and then awarding a penalty for a foul on the Morocco striker Brahim Diaz after consulting VAR.

Senegal boss Pape Thiaw led his players off the pitch in protest before veteran striker Sadio Mané urged them back on to face down their perceived injustice.

Nearly 20 minutes after the infringement, Diaz stepped up for the spot kick. But the Real Madrid striker botched his panenka – a chipped shot into the centre of the goal as the keeper dives to the right or left.

“Heroic!” read the headline on the front page of the Senegalese daily newspaper Le Soleil.

“From hell to heaven, the Lions went through every emotion at the end of a crazy scenario in the final,” it added.

Nigeria beat Egypt in shootout to claim third place at Africa Cup of Nations

“Incredible victory,” said L’Observateur on its front page. The paper saluted Mané as the man who refused to let history defeat him.

“A victory of collective intelligence over the brutality of circumstances and the pressure of interests,” the newspaper said.

Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye declared a national holiday in the wake of the team’s second success at the Cup of Nations in four years.

Faye is expected to receive the players at the presidential palace before they return to their club sides to resume their respective championships.

But as the squad made its way to Senegal, executives at the Confederation of African Football (Caf), which organises the Cup of Nations, said they were reviewing video footage of the incidents before and after the penalty was awarded.

 “Caf condemns the unacceptable behaviour from some players and officials during the Cup of Nations final.

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

“We will refer the matter to competent bodies for appropriate action to be taken against those found guilty.”

On Monday, Gianni Infantino, the boss of world football’s govrning body Fifa, added his disapproval. He said he wanted Caf to take what he described as appropriate measures.

“Sometimes you can react in the heat of the moment,” Thiaw told French television shortly before his post-match press conference was cancelled when fighting broke out among journalists.

“Now we accept that referees do make mistakes and we apologise.”

Morocco and Senegal will be in action at the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Morocco will play in Group C against Brazil, Scotland and Haiti.

Senegal will feature in Group I with France, Norway and a team that emerges from the intercontinental play-off in March.

A container ship carrying 383 tonnes of food aid left from France’s port of Le Havre on Sunday bound for Gaza, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The cargo is made up of Plumpy’doz, a nutritional supplement paste made of peanuts and milk powder intended treat malnutrition in young children, produced by Nutriset, a company based in Normandy.

The aid is intended to “improve the health of more than 42,000 Gazan children aged between six months and two years, who are suffering from malnutrition,” the ministry said.

Hunger, disease and no escape: Gaza aid worker’s account of life under siege

The ship is expected to arrive at Egypt’s Port Said in about ten days, and then it will be transported to Gaza by the World Food Programme.

Since 7 October 2023, France has delivered “more than 1,300 tonnes of humanitarian freight for civilian populations,” the ministry noted.

Though Israeli strikes have been less intense since the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel began in October 2025, bombs still fall every day.

Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused each other of violating the ceasefire’s terms.

Calls for Israel to lift blocks on aid

With more than 80 percent of its infrastructure destroyed, Gaza is in shambles, and day-to-day living conditions remain precarious.

Aid workers say the humanitarian response remains insufficient due to access restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities, who deny these claims.

France insisted that Israel must lift obstacles so that the United Nations and NGOs “can continue to deliver humanitarian aid independently and impartially throughout the Gaza Strip.”

“France is fully mobilised for the people of Gaza,” French President Emmanuel Macron posted on social media platform X.

Medical charity MSF says may have to halt Gaza operations in March

‘Board of Peace’

Meanwhile, France was one of the countries officially invited to join US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” initiative aimed at overseeing the end of the conflict in Gaza, which would be expanded to resolve conflicts globally.

Some 60 countries have been invited to join for three-year terms, which can become permanent memberships for $1 billion (€857 million).

A mandate for a Board of Peace was authorised by the United Nations Security Council in November, but only through 2027 and solely focused on the Gaza conflict.

Russia and China, two veto wielding powers, abstained, complaining that the resolution did not give the UN a clear role in the future of Gaza.

Trump’s proposal said “durable peace requires pragmatic judgment, common-sense solutions, and the courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed”.

There was a “need for a more nimble and effective international peace-building body”, it added.

Several governments appeared reluctant to make public statements about the proposal, leaving officials to express concerns anonymously about the impact on the work of the UN.

(with newswires)

Seen as the equivalent of Hollywood’s Golden Globes for French cinema, the 31st edition organised by the Académie des Lumières, took place at the Institut du monde arabe in Paris on Sunday evening.

It was François Ozon’s L’Étranger (The Stranger) which scooped up the most prizes, handed out by international press correspondents from 38 countries: Best Film, Best Actor and Best Photography by Manu Dacosse.

It was Ozon’s first Lumière Award after being nominated in the Best Film category in 2020 and 2021.

Based on Albert Camus’s 1942 novel, it centres on a man in French Algeria, who, weeks after his mother’s funeral, kills an unnamed Arab man in Algiers.

Filmed in black and white, the drama attracted some 760,000 viewers according to its distributor Gaumont.

Last year’s winner for Best Film was Jacques Audiard’s audacious Mexican druglord musical Emilia Pérez. 

Benjamin Voisin faced tough competition from four other leading actors for the top acting prize; Swann Arlaud (La Condition, The Condition), Denmark’s Claes Bang (L’Inconnu de la Grande Arche, The Great Arch), Laurent Lafitte (La femme la plus riche du monde, The richest woman in the world) and Alexis Manenti (Le Mohican, The Mohican). 

Postcard from Cannes #3: Surfing a wave of French cinematic nostalgia

Best Actress went Léa Drucker in Dossier 137 (Case 137) by Dominik Moll – a social drama set at the height of the Yellow Vest protests in France.

She had been up against Isabelle Huppert (La femme la plus riche du monde, The richest woman in the world), Vicky Krieps (Love Me Tender) Mélanie Thierry (La chambre de Mariana, Mariana’s bedroom) and Jodie Foster (Vie Privée, Private Life) by Rebecca Zlotowski.

Winner of the Best Upcoming Actress went to Nadia Melliti, who dazzled the jury at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, for La Petite Dernière (The Youngest Daughter) by Hafsia Herzi.

American director Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, which retraces the behind-the-scenes story of the filming of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, picked up both Best Director and Best Upcoming Actor for Guillaume Marbeck, who plays Godard.

Palme d’Or winner hits global cinemas, France backs it for 2026 Oscars

Other categories:

Best Screenplay: L’Inconnu de la Grande Arche (The Great Arch) by Stéphane Demoustier

Best international co-production: L’Agent secret, Secret Agent – Kleber Mendonça Filho

Best Documentary: Put Your Soul on your Hand and Walk by director Sepideh Farsi

Best Animation: Arco by Ugo Bienvenu

Best First Film: Nino by Pauline Loquès

Best musical score: Warren Ellis, Dom La Nena et Rosemary Standley for Le Chant des forêts (The Song of the Forests) a homage to the wilderness of Les Vosges mountains in eastern France directed by Vincent Munier.

The next stage in the French cinema awards circuit will be the César Awards, which will announce their nominations on 28 January.

Spain on Monday reeled from a collision between two high-speed trains in the southern region of Andalusia that killed 39 people and injured more than 120, with the prime minister lamenting a “night of deep pain”.

The disaster struck on Sunday evening when a service run by the company Iryo travelling from Malaga to Madrid derailed near Adamuz, crossing onto the other track where it crashed into an oncoming train, which also derailed, Spain’s Adif rail network operator posted on X.

Spain‘s Transport Minister Oscar Puente said at least 39 people died, warning this toll was “not definitive” and could still rise.

“I want to express my deepest gratitude for the tremendous work of the rescue teams throughout the night, under very difficult circumstances,” he added on X.

Around 123 other people were injured, including five very seriously and 24 seriously, the interior ministry said.

World leaders send condolences after Lisbon cable car tragedy

This was the deadliest train accident since 2013, when 80 people died after a train veered off a curved section of track outside the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela.

Unlike the 2013 accident, Sunday’s derailment took place on a straight part of the track which had been completely renovated, Puente told reporters.

The first train to derail was “practically new”, making the accident “extremely strange” and “very difficult to explain”, he said.

Rail experts “are very surprised by this accident”, he added.

Passengers trapped in the wreckage

Train operator Iryo said the locomotive was built in 2022 and last inspected on 15 January, adding it “veered onto the adjacent track for still unknown reasons”.

The company said around 300 people were on board its service from the Andalucian city of Malaga to the capital, Madrid.

Renfe, the operator of the second train, has not said how many passengers were on the service, which was travelling to the southern city of Huelva.

Emergency services said they struggled to free the hundreds of passengers trapped in the wreckage.

“The problem is that the carriages are twisted, so the metal is twisted with the people inside,” Francisco Carmona, head of firefighters in Cordoba, told public broadcaster RTVE.

Eurostar named Europe’s worst rail service while Italy’s Trenitalia leads the way

“We have even had to remove a dead person to be able to reach someone alive. It is hard, tricky work,” he added.

High-speed services between Madrid and the Andalusian cities of Cordoba, Seville, Malaga and Huelva would be suspended for the entirety of Monday at least, Adif announced.

Adif said spaces had been set up at stations in Madrid, Seville, Cordoba, Malaga and Huelva to assist the relatives of victims.

The defence ministry said it was sending around 40 members of its emergencies military unit and some 15 vehicles to the site of the accident.

‘Everything went dark’

A passenger on the second train who gave only her first name, Montse, told Spanish public television the train, jolted, “came to a complete stop and everything went dark”.

She described being thrown around in the carriage at the back end of the train and seeing luggage tumble onto other passengers.

“The attendant behind me hit her head and was bleeding. There were children crying,” she added.

“Luckily, I was in the last car. I feel like I was given a second chance at life.”

Survivor Lucas Meriako, who was travelling on the Iryo train, told La Sexta television: “This looks like a horror movie.”

“We felt a very strong hit from behind and the feeling that the whole train was about to collapse… There were many injured due to the glass,” he said.

Heartfelt condolences

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was to visit the site of the disaster later on Monday, his office said.

“Today is a night of deep pain for our country owing to the tragic rail accident in Adamuz,” he wrote on X on Sunday night, adding: “No words can alleviate such great suffering.”

The royal palace said on X that King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia were following the news “with great concern”.

Trial of deadly 2015 high speed train crash opens in Paris

The monarchs offered “our most heartfelt condolences to the relatives and loved ones of the dead, as well as our love and wishes for a swift recovery to the injured”, the palace said.

French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were among the world leaders offering condolences.

Spain has Europe’s largest high-speed rail network, with more than 3,000 kilometres of dedicated tracks connecting major cities including Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia and Malaga.

(with AFP)

El Hacen Diarra, 35, died Wednesday night in a Paris police station where he had been taken after police saw him allegedly rolling a joint, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.

The family has filed a legal complaint, accusing police of “intentional violence that led to a death”, their lawyer Yassine Bouzrou told the French news agency AFP on Saturday.

Police said they arrested Diarra outside the migrant residence where he had been living for several months after he refused to be searched when they saw him “roll a cannabis joint”, the prosecutor’s office said.

Police reported that Diarra “fell to the ground” when he was arrested, bringing two officers down with him, and one officer said he used a taser on Diarra’s ankle.

France accused of restricting protests and eroding democracy

Police drove Diarra to the police station to be detained and questioned for possession of cannabis and forged administrative documents.

Once there he “was seen to pass out” on a bench in the police station, where he was waiting to be transferred to hospital to treat a “wound on his eyebrow”, the prosecutor said.

Diarra was pronounced dead shortly after midnight after police and firefighters called to the scene tried to resuscitate him.

Video footage shared online

The IGPN, the internal disciplinary body of the French police, has opened an inquiry.

His family have accused the police of violence that caused Diarra’s death, and they say a video filmed by neighbours proves it.

The video, which has been shared online, shows an officer punching what appears to be a man on the ground as another officer stands by and watches.

French police officer to go on trial over 2023 teenager’s killing

Hundreds of people gathered in Paris’ 20th district on Sunday to pay homage to Diarra, including Abderrahmane Sylla, who ran the residence where he lived.

He told RFI that Diarra was just smoking a cigarette when he was stopped by police.

“Police found him there. Words were exchanged. The blows started. You have all seen the videos, and how they beat him up until he bled,” he said.

Police violence in France

Several family members and supporters of victims of police violence attended the demonstration Sunday, including Assa Traoré, whose brother Adama died shortly after being taken into police custody in 2016. His death triggered accusations of police brutality and racism and several nights of protests.

“How is it that one can just die when interacting with the police?” Traoré asked. “That is why there were so many people today to denounce what is happening: this systemic racism that is at the heart of the institution of the police.”

Cases of police brutality rarely make it to criminal court in France.

A court is to rule in March whether a police officer should face trial over the 2023 killing of a teenager, Nahel Merzouk, during a traffic stop, in a case that sparked nationwide protests.

In 2024, a judge gave suspended jail sentences to three officers who inflicted irreversible rectal injuries to a black man during a stop-and-search in 2017.

(with newswires)

The wealth of the world’s billionaires went up 16.2 percent in 2025, the anti-poverty group said in its report released to coincide with the opening of the Davos forum, which brings together some of the world’s wealthiest people together with political leaders, CEOs, financiers, and international institutions.

Oxfam says the increase has been driven in part by policies put in place by US President Donald Trump, including tax cuts, “the championing of deregulation and undermining agreements to increase corporate taxation have benefited the richest around the world”.

It pointed to Washington’s decision to exempt US multinationals from an internationally agreed minimum tax rate of 15 percent as an example of policies that ignore growing inequality.

“In country after country, the super-rich have not only accumulated more wealth than could ever be spent, but have also used this wealth to secure the political power to shape the rules that define our economies and govern nations,” the report warned.

Drawing on academic research and data sources ranging from the World Inequality Database to Forbes’ rich list, the report found that the world’s 3,000 billionaires are 4,000 times more likely than ordinary citizens to hold political office.

Billionaires highlight France’s complicated relationship with wealth

Oxfam highlighted what it sees as the growing influence of ultra‑wealthy business figures over traditional and digital media.

Billionaires now own more than half of the world’s major media firms, Oxfam said, citing Elon Musk’s takeover of X, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos ownership of The Washington Post, and French billionaire Vincent Bolloré’s control of numerous newspapers and television stations in France, as well as his majority stake in the Vivendi media group..

Oxfam urged governments to adopt national inequality reduction plans, raise taxes on the extremely rich, and strengthen firewalls between money and politics, including tighter limits on lobbying and campaign financing.

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

Only a few countries currently have wealth taxes. In France, which replaced its wealth tax with a narrower tax on real estate assets, debate over reinstating the wider tax resurfaced during the ongoing politically contested debates over the 2026 budget.

(with newswires)

Winter is storm season in Labenne, a seaside resort on France’s southern Atlantic coast.

On the beach, a World War II bunker is half buried by the dunes. The lifeguard station will soon be overtaken too; the town council has had to build another one, farther from the beach. 

“We’re well aware that even the beach car park is doomed to disappear,” says Stéphanie Chessoux, Labenne’s mayor.

“Like businesses, we will have to take this natural progression into account. The elements are reclaiming their rights.”

Surrendered to sea and sand

This part of France loses around two metres of coast a year to erosion.

In Labenne, more and more land has turned into sand dunes. They surround the site of the town’s former sanatorium, where tuberculosis patients once came to breathe the sea air.

Constructed in the 1920s, the concrete building contained asbestos, presenting health risks as it fell into disrepair. Local authorities had it demolished last October.

“The ocean has advanced, but the building also deteriorated due to its proximity to the ocean, sand and salty air, which wore down everything made of metal inside the concrete,” explains Laure Guilhem-Tauzin of the Coastal Protection Agency, where she focuses on the Aquitaine region.

By knocking the structure down, “the idea was first and foremost to give nature back its rights and prevent marine pollution in the medium term”, she says.

“And also to prevent an investor who underestimated the costs of investment and depreciation from redeveloping the building, which would have had to be demolished 15 or 20 years later.”

French towns left uninsured as climate change increases risks

Nature-based solutions

Now, the 12,000-square-metre site is being turned over to a project to plant vegetation that can help stabilise the sand.

The area will be planted with species adapted to growing on dunes, says Guilhem-Tauzin. “It traps sand and holds the dunes in place. When there are storms, it stops the sand going inland.”

The project is an example of “nature-based solutions”, she explains, which are often the most effective. “A floodable marsh protects a green space behind the coast better than a sea wall, which can break in one go.”

Across France, as many as 50,000 buildings could be threatened by shrinking coastlines by 2100.

In the long term, some experts say the country will have to consider more radical options, such as managed retreat – moving communities away from the coast and allowing the sea to reclaim low-lying land.

This article was adapted from the original in French by RFI’s Raphaël Morán.

EU countries held crisis talks on Sunday after Trump said that he would charge a 10 percent import tax from February on goods from eight European countries that are resisting American control of Greenland – France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland.

The rate would climb to 25 percent on 1 June if no deal was in place for “the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland” by the US, he wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.

An emergency meeting of EU ambassadors took place in Brussels on Sunday.

Macron will ask the European Union to activate its powerful “Anti-Coercion Instrument” if the US imposes tariffs, his team said before the talks.

The bloc’s weapon – dubbed its trade “bazooka” – allows the EU to impose tariffs and investment limits on countries exerting economic pressure on member states to force them to change policy. It has never been used before.

France to open Greenland consulate amid Trump takeover threats

‘Dangerous downward spiral’

France is one of several countries that has deployed troops to the autonomous Danish territory in response to Washington’s ambitions. Paris says the European military exercise is designed to show the world that it will defend Greenland.

“Tariff threats are unacceptable and have no place in this context,” President Macron wrote in a post on X, saying that France and its European allies would present a united response. 

“No intimidation or threat can influence us, neither in Ukraine, nor in Greenland, nor anywhere else in the world… We will ensure that European sovereignty is respected,” Macron said.

All eight countries named by Trump issued a joint statement saying they backed Denmark and Greenland, and that their military exercise posed no danger to others. 

“Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral,” it said. “We will continue to stand united and coordinated in our response. We are committed to upholding our sovereignty.”

In a similarly worded statement, EU leaders said the bloc “stands in full solidarity with Denmark and the people of Greenland”.

Why Greenland’s melting ice cap threatens humanity, and could serve Trump

Day of protests

Trump’s threats came as thousands of people protested in the capital of Greenland against his drive to acquire the island, rich in rare minerals and a gateway to the Arctic.

Thousands more demonstrated in Copenhagen and other Danish cities.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the United States needs Greenland for US “national security”, while alleging without evidence that China and Russia are trying to control it.

It was not immediately clear what authority the US president would invoke to impose the threatened tariffs, nor how he would target individual EU countries when the 27 members trade as a bloc.

If carried out, Trump’s threats against NATO partners would create unprecedented tension within the military alliance, already under strain.

“In this escalation of tariffs, he has a lot to lose as well, as do his own farmers and industrialists,” French Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard told broadcasters Europe 1 and CNews on Sunday.

The tariff announcement even drew criticism from Trump’s populist allies in France.

Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally party, posted that the EU should suspend last year’s deal to avert stiffer US tariffs on European goods, describing Trump’s threats as “commercial blackmail”.

That deal, which the European Parliament had been set to ratify by next month, now faces rejection by lawmakers.

(with newswires)

Official results showed Museveni winning a landslide with 72 percent from Thursday’s election, but the poll was criticised by African election observers and rights groups due to the heavy repression of the opposition and an internet blackout.

The whereabouts of opposition leader Bobi Wine, real name Robert Kyagulanyi, who won 25 percent, were still uncertain after he said on Saturday that he had escaped a police raid on his home and was in hiding.

Police denied the raid and said Wine was still at home, but blocked journalists from approaching the residence.

Wine has not posted on X since Saturday when he denounced the “blatant theft of the presidential election”.

Ugandan president re-elected for 7th time as observers decry intimidation

‘We know what you are doing’

In his victory speech on Sunday, Museveni said Wine’s party, the National Unity Platform (NUP), had planned to attack polling stations in areas where they were losing.

“Some of the opposition are wrong and also terrorists,” said Museveni, who has ruled the east African country since 1986, when he seized power at the head of an rebel army.

“They are working with some foreigners and some homosexual groups,” he said.

He added: “All the traitors – this is free advice from me – stop everything, because we know what you are doing and you will not do it.”

Although some internet was restored late Saturday, the government said it would maintain a ban on social media platforms until further notice.

The government blocked the internet two days before the vote, saying it was necessary to prevent “misinformation” and “incitement to violence”.

Uganda has remained largely peaceful since the results, though there were small-scale protests late Saturday, with AFP journalists saying tear gas was fired in parts of the capital Kampala.

The security presence was significantly reduced on Sunday, with people out on the streets and shops open.

Yoweri Museveni: Uganda’s ex-revolutionary turned steely political survivor

Attacks planned ‘everywhere’

Analysts say the election was a formality, given Museveni’s total control over the state and security apparatus, though many Ugandans still praise him for bring relative peace and prosperity.

He has taken no chances in trying to prevent the violent unrest that rocked neighbouring Tanzania during polls in October.

The most serious reports of violence on election day came from the Butambala area of central Uganda, where an opposition lawmaker told AFP that security forces had killed at least 10 people at his home.

Museveni echoed the police account, that the deaths resulted from a planned attack on a ballot-tallying centre and police station in the area.

He claimed the NUP had planned similar attacks “everywhere”.

Human Rights Watch accused the government of “brutal repression” of the opposition ahead of the vote.

Another key opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, who ran four times against Museveni, was abducted in Kenya in 2024 and brought back to a military court in Uganda for a treason trial that is ongoing.

African election observers, including a team from the African Union, said Saturday that “reports of intimidation, arrest and abductions” had “instilled fear and eroded public trust in the electoral process”.

(AFP)

The saga could make a script for a David-and-Goliath movie: plucky community group saves local cinema from real estate developers!

That’s exactly what happened to La Clef (“The Key”), one of the few remaining independent arthouse cinemas in Paris, which reopened on 14 January.

Established by cinephile Claude Franck-Forter in 1973, when the 1968 protests still loomed large in the student-dominated fifth arrondissement, the cosy theatre on the corner of Rue de la Clef carved out a niche for non-mainstream films and political debates.

It has always prided itself on supporting rare films from France and abroad, showcasing minority voices and under-represented groups while keeping ticket prices reasonable.

That model came under pressure when the building was taken over by the social committee of a French savings bank in 1981. Although it continued to function as a cinema, its future was uncertain – and even more so when the bank decided to put it on the market, forcing La Clef to close its doors in April 2018.

But the cinema’s connection to the neighbourhood and wider film community ran deep – so much so that a collective calling itself La Clef Revival formed to raise funds to buy the building and keep it running as a non-profit organisation.

This ad hoc group of cinema-lovers, activists and local residents organised an illegal occupation of the building from 2019 until 2022, putting on screenings and gatherings and drumming up financial support.

‘Caméra Libre’: a French plan to foster freedom of speech for muzzled filmmakers

Round-the-clock occupation

After an eviction, a long legal battle and a crowdfunding campaign, the cinema was finally bought by the collective in June 2024 for just over €2.5 million.

Chloé, a member of the collective, has fond memories of the sit-in, when activists occupied the cinema from 6am to midnight everyday to deter police intervention.

“We took turns sleeping in the cinema,” she told RFI. “I remember I had put my mattress behind the screen in the main screening hall and I was awoken by the noise of the 35mm [projector] showing a Gregg Araki film.

“Students from the area were coming in to have a croissant and watch the film before their classes. It was wonderful to wake up in that environment.”

The campaign to save the cinema received support from the film world in France and overseas – including in Hollywood, where Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino were among the high-profile backers.

Numerous French directors, including Céline Sciamma and Leos Carax, hosted screenings during the occupation. And in 2023, more than 80 international artists donated works to be sold off in a fundraising auction, including filmmaker David Lynch and photographers Wang Bing and Nan Goldin.

“We were very touched by the recognition from certain figures in the film industry regarding our project and our commitment to saving this place,” says Taddeo, a cinema-goer who helped organise the sale and now acts as one of the collective’s programming coordinators.

The day-to-day work of reopening La Clef has been led by ordinary film lovers like him – and Kira, who was in New York at the time of the occupation but remembered the cinema from her childhood in the neighbourhood.

“It’s amazing to show that it’s possible to de-commodify an entire building, to take it out of the speculative real estate, to run it together and figure it out, to learn how to use the projectors, to learn how to take care of a space,” she told RFI.

Simon, who lives nearby, has been a regular spectator for years and loves the variety of films on offer. He became steadily more involved during the occupation and helped renovate the building after the sale was finalised.

“Every time I’ve seen a screening at La Clef, it’s been completely different,” he says. “Being able to discuss amongst ourselves, developing new ways of watching films, is really something we can do in this kind of place.”

A true community cinema

In order to manage the funding and purchase, the collective set up an endowment fund called Cinéma Revival. The new legal status means that the building doesn’t belong to any one entity and decisions must have a consensus from all members, preventing the cinema being sold off on a whim.

To maintain financial independence and limit the need for subsidies, La Clef’s business model is based on a mix of yearly memberships, sales at the bar and pay-what-you-want tickets. This means the price is decided by each audience member according to their means – at an average of €4.

The cinema operates with only two paid employees. The rest are volunteers who receive training to run the building, project the films and liaise with the public. 

The collective also rents out the space to other associations for themed screenings and other community activities. And they have partnerships with film schools to allow cinema students to practice using 35mm projectors, as well as image and sound editing.

La Géode cinema in Paris reopens after six-year revamp

Model for independents

The cinema is connected to other independent cinemas around Europe via the Kino Climates network, which unites alternative venues in 17 countries.

La Clef Revival hopes their success will be emulated elsewhere, proving that there are viable alternatives to blockbuster films, multiscreen cinema chains and ever bigger streaming platforms.

“We really hope that this serves as an example, and that other people who want to also run spaces that are open to the public in their neighbourhoods and their cities,” says Kira.

“Maybe other countries can come here and see that it actually happened and that they could probably do it too.” 

Over 21 million Ugandan citizens were called to the polls last Thursday in the country’s general elections.

Incumbent President Yoweri Museveni, 81, stood for a seventh term following 40 years in power. He faced seven challengers, including Robert Kyagulanyi, known to most as Bobi Wine, who garnered substantial support but fell short of unseating the veteran leader. Museveni was declared the winner on Saturday 17 January, securing over 76 per cent of the vote.

In this edition of Spotlight on Africa, you’ll hear from Bobi Wine’s international lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, about the formidable obstacles facing opposition candidates during the campaign.

‘He represents a population desperate for change’, Bobi Wine’s lawyer tells RFI

Jeffrey Smith, executive director of the think tank Vanguard Africa, joins us to examine the aftermath of these elections and the future of politics in Uganda, and more broadly across East Africa and other parts of the continent where democracy is severely undermined.

Somaliland, Israel and the Horn of Africa

The state of Israel recognised the independence of Somaliland from Somalia in the final days of December, prompting widespread concern and questions in an already turbulent region, and drawing largely condemnatory responses.

The risky calculations behind Israel’s recognition of Somaliland

Faisal Ali is a Somali British independent journalist. He looks with us at the motivations behind this move for every state involved. 

Episode edited by Melissa Chemam and mixed Erwan Rome.

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

One year after Donald Trump returned to the White House, his second administration has wasted little time putting trade at the forefront of policy.

Tariffs, the US president insists, are delivering an economic renaissance. Inflation has supposedly all but vanished. The stock market is booming. Trillions of dollars are said to be pouring into the Treasury, with the promise of tariff-funded cheques soon landing in American letterboxes. Critics, Trump has declared, are “fools”.

Strip away the slogans, however, and the picture looks far less flattering.

According to Gerald Friedman, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Trump’s tariff-driven revival is built on shaky foundations – economically incoherent, politically vindictive and geopolitically destabilising.

EU readies response to new US tariffs, France braces for fallout

The numbers don’t add up

From an economist’s perspective, Friedman says, Trump’s claims barely survive contact with reality. “Almost nothing” in the president’s upbeat assessment is true. Yes, the stock market is high, but only because a small group of technology giants dominates the indices. Remove them, and the wider market is essentially flat.

The idea that tariffs are generating vast new revenues is equally illusory. Tariffs face an unavoidable contradiction: set them high enough to block imports and they raise little money; set them low enough to generate revenue and they fail to protect domestic industry. Either way, the notion that they are filling federal coffers with “trillions” is “fantasy”.

Friedman notes that “virtually no economists outside of those being paid through Donald Trump … support his tariff regime”, particularly given its random and unsystematic application. What is billed as strategic economic policy looks more like improvisation.

Trump’s first 100 days: Trade, diplomacy and walking the transatlantic tightrope

Illusion of tariff-funded cheques

The administration’s proposal to issue tariff-funded “refunds” – between $1,000 and $2,000 per household in early 2026 – has clear populist appeal. Economically, Friedman argues, it makes little sense.

The US already runs a federal deficit of roughly $1.7 trillion a year, around 6 per cent of GDP. Washington does not need tariffs to send out cheques; it can simply borrow more. The real question is whether it should, particularly after extending large tax cuts for the wealthy that continue to inflate the deficit.

There is a deeper irony. Tariffs, Friedman points out, already constitute “the biggest tax increase as a share of GDP that this country has had since the early 1990s”, adding roughly $1,500 a year to household costs through higher prices. Refunding some of that money would merely hand back what had just been taken – while leaving the underlying economic damage untouched.

Inflation, eggs and everyday living

Trump has repeatedly pointed to falling egg prices as proof that inflation is under control. Friedman underlines that egg prices surged because of bird flu, not economic policy, and fell as the outbreak eased. They are down by about half, not by the 85 per cent the president boasts about – “one of the smaller lies”, as Friedman puts it.

Elsewhere, tariffs are doing exactly what economists expect: pushing prices up. Imports such as coffee and bananas cannot realistically be replaced by domestic production. Taxing them feeds directly into the cost of living. Households are paying more, not less.

The impact does not stop at consumer prices. Retaliation and uncertainty are quietly undermining export industries. China has cut back on US soybean imports, hurting farmers. Canada is actively reducing its reliance on the US market, deepening ties with Europe and China.

Even sectors untouched by tariffs are suffering. Higher education – one of America’s largest export earners – is losing foreign students as visas tighten and the country’s tourism has also slumped.

The combined effect, Friedman warns, is “higher prices and a reduction in employment and wages… ultimately, devastating to the US economy”.

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

Gunboat diplomacy, with grudges attached

For Friedman, Trump’s economic policy cannot be separated from his personality. Tariffs have become instruments of pressure and punishment, often driven by personal vendettas rather than strategic calculation. Hostility towards Canada’s former prime minister Justin Trudeau, for example, owed as much to personal dislike as to trade policy.

This is where economics merges with geopolitics. The US, Friedman argues, is drifting away from the postwar, rules-based order it once championed towards something far older and harsher – “pre-1940”, rather than merely pre-1945. Trade policy is wielded like a weapon, diplomacy reduced to threat and coercion.

“Nobody wants to be the one who sticks his head up,” to speak out, Friedman says. Corporate leaders and officials see what happens to dissenters and keep their heads down for fear of investigations, legal costs and political retaliation. 

Occupy Wall Street protestors clash with police outside New York Stock Exchange

A symptom of deeper failures

None of this, Friedman stresses, emerged from nowhere. Echoing arguments made by Greek economist and former left-wing finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, he sees Trump as both cause and symptom. Decades of rising inequality, deindustrialisation and attacks on unions hollowed out large parts of the working class, particularly in the US and Europe.

The 2008 financial crisis was explosive. Banks were rescued, executives kept their bonuses, and almost nobody went to jail.

The lesson, Friedman says, was clear: the powerful play by different rules. Regions once loyal to centre-left parties – coal country in West Virginia, manufacturing towns across the Midwest – became some of Trump’s strongest supporters.

Trump did not invent these grievances, but he has channelled them into a politics driven less by repair than by ego and confrontation.

Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured in ‘large scale’ US strike

Judging Trump in 2026

So how should Trump’s second presidency be judged as it heads into 2026? Friedman offers a stark metric. Ignore the rhetoric and watch the behaviour of those with real power. Do Republican lawmakers rediscover a spine? Do corporate leaders decide that long-term stability matters more than short-term fear?

If they do not, the outlook is bleak. “It’s not only the America First agenda,” Friedman says, “it’s Trump’s personal, ego-driven agenda.”

Protests may continue to swell, but without resistance from political and economic elites, the consequences will stretch far beyond the US.

In 2026, the results will be difficult to spin away. Tariffs promise strength and sovereignty. What they are delivering, Friedman argues, is higher prices, weaker alliances and a dangerous slide towards a world the US once helped consign to history.

Since protests began across Iran almost three weeks ago, Turkey has tried to play down the scale of the unrest. It has distanced itself from Western allies calling for regime change and avoided offering explicit support for those demands.

The protests began on 28 December after a currency collapse triggered demonstrations by merchants and traders in Tehran. The unrest quickly spread nationwide. Activists say more than 2,000 protesters have been killed.

Alongside Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar, Turkey has lobbied Washington against any military response to the killings. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said such a move would worsen the situation.

“We oppose military intervention against Iran; Iran must resolve its own problems,” Fidan said. “We want the issue resolved through dialogue.”

France summons Iran envoy over ‘unrestrained’ protest crackdown

Fear of regional collapse

According to The Guardian newspaper, US President Donald Trump’s decision to step back from attacking Iran was influenced by Turkey and its Arab allies – who warned of regional chaos if an attack went ahead.

Turkey fears that Iran could descend into civil war similar to Iraq after the collapse of its regime, said Serhan Afacan, head of the Ankara-based Center for Iranian Studies, adding the consequences would be more severe due to Iran’s size and diversity.

“Iran has a population of about 90 million, including many ethnic minorities such as Turks, Kurds, Arabs and Baluchis,” Afacan explained.

“If a conflict erupts among these groups, it could result in a prolonged civil war. Any resulting immigration from Iran to Turkey could reach millions.”

Turkey and Iran unite against Israel as regional power dynamics shift

PKK security fears

Turkey already hosts about three million refugees. Experts say Ankara’s biggest security concern is the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has fought Turkey for an independent Kurdish state and has an Iranian affiliate, PJAK.

Although the PKK announced a ceasefire last year and pledged to disband, Ankara fears unrest in Iran could give the group new opportunities, said Iranian expert Bilgehan Alagoz, of Marmara University.

“Day by day, we have started to see the PKK groups in certain cities of Iran demanding some separatist demands, and this is the main concern for Turkey,” he said.

Ankara also accuses Israel of exploiting the situation in Iran.

“Israel has targeted all these PKK groups and tried to motivate the PKK groups inside Iran,” Alagoz said. “Any instability inside Iran can create a space for the PKK.”

Fidan has also accused Israel of manipulating the protests.

Turkey is already confronting another PKK-linked group in Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces, which controls large parts of the country. Ankara accuses Israel of supporting the SDF, adding Iran to a broader Israeli-Turkish regional rivalry.

France’s Iranian diaspora divided over deadly protests back home

Energy pressure

Turkey could also clash with Washington over Iran if the protests continue. Trump has warned that countries trading with Tehran could face 25 percent tariffs.

Iran supplies Turkey with about one-fifth of its gas needs, according to Atilla Yesilada, an analyst at the Global Source Partners think tank. “Iran pumps 10 billion cubic metres of gas to Turkey every year, roughly one-fifth of total consumption,” he said.

That supply could theoretically be replaced by liquefied natural gas imports, but Yesilada warned that Turkey is already struggling to cut its dependence on Russia, its main energy supplier.

“Combine this with increasing American and EU pressure to cut gas purchases from Russia, and Turkey is in a very difficult situation,” he said.

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 programme!

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. NB: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

This week’s quiz: On 29 November, I asked you a question about two Chinese pandas – Huan Huan and Yuan Zi – who were in the Beauval Zoo here in France, and had just gone back to China.

You were to re-read our article “France says goodbye to star pandas going back to China” and send in the answer to this question: How many cubs did Huan Huan give birth to while here in France?

The answer is, to quote our article: “Huan Huan gave birth to three cubs – the first to be born in France. The eldest, Yuan Ming, a male, was sent back to China two years ago, but twins born in August 2021 will remain at Beauval at least until 2027.” The twins’ names are Hunalili and Yuandudu.   

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by RFI English listener Sadequl Bari Liton from Naogaon, Bangladesh, “How do you spend your weekly holiday?” 

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

The winners are: Nafisa Khatun, the president of the RFI Mahila Shrota Sangha Club in West Bengal, India. Nafisa is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations on your double win, Nafisa.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are A. K. M. Nuruzzaman, the president of the RFI Amour Fan Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, and RFI Listeners Club members Samir Mukhopadhyay from West Bengal, India; Kanwar Sandhu from British Columbia in Canada, and last but not least, Habib Ur Rehman Sehla, the president of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan.  

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicolò Foron; the traditional Chinese “Sun Quan the Emperor”; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “L’auzel ques sul bouyssou” (“Bird sitting in the Bush”) by Estienne Moulinié, sung by Claire Lefilliâtre with Le Poème Harmonique conducted by Vincent Dumestre.

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 “France launches recruitment for 10-month voluntary national military service”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 9 February to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 14 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. 

Scandals over abuse of the elderly in French care homes, combined with growing loneliness among pensioners, are forcing reflection on how – and where – people spend their later years. Three decades after founding the Utopia network of independent cinemas, Anne-Marie Faucon and Michel Malacarnet have turned their energy and experience towards imagining an alternative to traditional retirement homes. Their project, La Ménardiere, is an 18th-century mansion in the small town of Bérat, in south-west France. It operates as a shared-living collective, where residents, known as coopérateurs, are also shareholders. By taking control of their own destinies, they have created a model that also provides services and cultural activities for the surrounding community. Residents describe the approach as ageing together in a house that is “on the offensive”. (Listen @4′)

La Clef, an historic arthouse cinema in Paris, has reopened its doors after a group of residents, cinephiles and activists spent years protesting its closure. Ollia Horton met some of those who took part in a years-long occupation of the theatre that resulted in the activists raising enough money to buy the building from owners who wanted to sell the prime piece of real estate in the centre of the city. (Listen @21’48”)

As census-takers fan out around France to begin the annual counting of the population, we look at a process that started in the 14th century. During World War II the census was co-opted by Nazi occupiers to identify Jews, and while it has since stripped out questions relating to race and religion, it recently added controversial ones about parental origins. (Listen @17’10”)

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani.

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).

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. 

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.