Millions of Ukrainians have been under constant threat of Russian air strikes since the war began in 2022. In Kyiv, large-scale raids typically came every two or three weeks – but this year, Russia has ramped up its attacks, which now pound the capital daily.

While Moscow denies targeting Ukrainian civilians, they have become the primary victims of hundreds of drones and missiles that have struck the country’s energy infrastructure since October.

More than 3 million residents in Kyiv are facing prolonged shortages of electricity, water and heat in the middle of a harsh winter. Ukraine is in the grip of a polar cold snap, with temperatures approaching -20C in the past two weeks.

Following a devastating strike on the city’s power stations on 9 January, Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged residents to leave Kyiv if they could.

Two weeks later he said that, according to estimates based on mobile phone use, nearly 600,000 people had left the Ukrainian capital.

Not everyone can get out.

On the left bank of the city, home to several working-class neighbourhoods, residents of high-rise apartment blocks are particularly vulnerable. They live close to power stations targeted by the Russians, and they can no longer rely on basic utilities.

“We find ourselves without electricity for 10 hours, 20 hours at a time,” says Oksana, who lives in the area with her children. 

“When it does come back on, it’s in the middle of the night, so I get up to charge all our batteries. Without electricity, there is no water either, and as the building has several floors, it no longer reaches the upper floors.”

Her building has already been gutted by a drone strike, the windows on lower floors replaced with wooden boards.

Yet Oksana has no plans to leave Kyiv. “We do have family in the west, where we took refuge in early 2022, but my husband is disabled and awaiting surgery, so I can’t see myself leaving now. What’s more, all our loved ones, including my parents, live here in buildings nearby.”

Ukraine seeks $43bn in climate compensation from Russia over war

Islands of warmth

For residents who remain, daily life revolves around the few hours of electricity – their only chance to recharge phones, run the washing machine, or stock up on tap water.

Valentina, a pensioner, is in survival mode. “Thank God, part of the building is still heated, and at home, I keep my coat on so I don’t get cold.”

Faced with a worsening humanitarian crisis, the city has deployed around 50 mobile generators. In the courtyards of some apartment blocks, rescue workers have set up large orange tents that serve as so-called “points of invincibility” – energy islands where residents can come to warm up, work remotely or even spend the night if conditions no longer allow them to sleep at home.

In the historic centre of Kyiv, opposite Taras Shevchenko National University, a yurt set up by a Ukrainian-Kazakh association serves as a sanctuary of warmth and electricity. Natacha welcomes visitors with hot tea and Kazakh pastries.

“The Kazakhs believe in our victory, and with this yurt they are showing us a little love and support. They can’t supply us with weapons, but they are showing us in other ways that they are on our side,” she tells RFI.

Ukraine has turned thousands of public buildings, restaurants and schools into similar shelters since the start of the air raids in the winter of 2022.

But in Kyiv, many of these havens are no longer able to take residents in.

Schools closed

Until recently, the city centre – home to government offices, embassies and international organisations – had been relatively spared from power cuts. Now the situation has deteriorated significantly.

Cafes and restaurants are still operating, albeit in semi-darkness, thanks to small diesel generators that put out a deafening hum and heady fumes. Yet public buildings that once stayed open 24/7 to provide residents with heat and electricity remain shut.

Alla, caretaker at a deserted school, explains why. “There’s no heating, no internet connection, no electricity here, and no one to come and fill the generator’s tank, so we’re staying closed.”

Schools in Kyiv will remain closed for several more days: the school holidays have been extended until early February so that pupils can stay out of the city.

Corruption scandal exposes ‘absolute impunity’ in Ukraine’s energy sector

“The city’s energy grid is still operating in emergency mode,” main private electricity supplier DTEK warned in one of its latest statements. 

“Nothing like this has ever happened on a global scale. For the past month, there has not been a single day without power cuts, and our engineers have the historic task of getting us back on our feet.”

Ukraine’s new Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal has promised to restore infrastructure as quickly as possible, but has also warned of further Russian strikes – “including on infrastructure that keeps nuclear power plants running”.

This article was adapted from the original in French by RFI correspondent Emmanuelle Chaze.

Wine, head of the opposition National Unity Platform (NUP), officially won 25 percent of the vote compared to 72 percent for Museveni.

He rejects the results, which extend the president’s four decades in power by another five years.

Wine says he’s been forced to go into hiding after accusing the authorities of fraud.

RFI: How are you? Are you safe?

Bobi Wine: I need to be congratulated for being alive up to today. I’m not safe because I am being pursued by the military for no crime whatsoever. I am in hiding.

My wife and my family are not safe. They are surrounded by the military. They cannot go out and nobody can go in. They are hungry and even food that is being delivered to them is being rejected.

RFI: What’s the atmosphere like in Uganda since the presidential election on 15 January?

BW: Our people are being massacred. There is a silent massacre that is going on. General Museveni’s son came out two days ago and regretted for killing only 22 of us, he wanted to kill more. We have reports of more than 100 people that have been killed across the country.

People are being picked up for no crime whatsoever. Three of my deputy presidents have been detained. Two of them are women, but I don’t know where they are. They were picked up on the eve of election day, and it’s now been seven days. Nobody knows where these two women are.

Also, my deputy president in charge of Buganda Region in central Uganda was picked up today [Thursday]. And this follows what happened a week ago when 10 people were shot and killed inside his house.

RFI: You’re referring to your deputy Mohamed Kivumbi. He says that 10 of your supporters were killed at his home on polling day as they waited for parliamentary election results. President Museveni has described the NUP as “terrorists” following the episode. What’s your reaction to his accusations and what’s your account of what happened that day?

BW: Out of these 10 people, eight were women. Their duty was to fill in forms and to receive results and DR forms [declaring results] that were coming from different polling stations. They were inside a politician’s house on election day, and that is where police found them and shot them dead.

RFI: You claim there was fraud. What proof do you have?

BW: We have videos of police officers, of the military and of Electoral Commission officials themselves pre-ticking ballots in favour of General Museveni. We have dozens of such videos.

But then, even with the pre-ticking and ballot stuffing, we still had resoundingly defeated Museveni. He and the Electoral Commission decided that they are not going to read any results from the DR forms, they just fabricated their percentages and numbers and read them out without any evidence. We have challenged them to upload the DR forms and our district tally sheets, but they failed because they know they don’t have that evidence.

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

RFI: Have you filed an official complaint to contest the results?

BW: No. We don’t trust the judicial system in Uganda. It’s skewed and bent towards Museveni. Right now, political prisoners don’t get given bail. That’s the official policy of the Ugandan judiciary. Putting that aside, numerous judgments and decisions have been made and orders given by the Supreme Court of Uganda, but the military simply trashes them.

So our hope is not in the courts of law in Uganda. Our hope is in the people of Uganda to rise to the occasion and dismiss this nonsense.

RFI: What’s your next step? Is running for a third time in 2031 conceivable? 

BW: We are calling for civil disobedience, we are calling for non-violent protest against the regime. And we are calling for all manner of creative ways to protest until this regime feels the pressure of the people.

We don’t even look at next year, we look at freeing ourselves as soon as possible, because the leadership that is forced itself upon us is not our choice, and therefore we have to free ourselves and return democracy.

RFI: What’s your message to francophone African countries where opposition parties have also denounced  a drift towards authoritarianism?

BW: People living in other dictatorships like Togo, like Cameroon, should pay attention to what’s happening in Uganda because we are suffering in the same way and we can take lessons from each other and also support each other by amplifying each other’s voices.

Uganda plans law to bring back military trials for civilians

RFI: What do you want from the international community?

BW: I would like to call upon the international community to hold the Ugandan regime responsible. We thank the international community very much. I want them to know that we appreciate the little that they do to support democracy and human rights development in Africa. But we want them to understand that what brings us together are the values that we all profess – democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

The standard of democracy in Africa should be the same standard of democracy in Europe and South America. For the international community to be castigating dictators like [Alexander] Lukashenko of Belarus and [Nicolas] Maduro of Venezuela while hobnobbing, hugging and kissing dictators in Africa is nothing short of racism.

We want to be treated with the same standard of human rights and the same standard of democracy. While the internet gets switched off during elections, while citizens get shot and killed during elections, we see presidents of the international community continue to do business and cooperate with African dictators as if they are legitimate leaders. We want a revisit on that so that we can feel like we are equal partners. 

This interview, conducted by RFI’s Christina Okello, has been lightly edited for clarity.

Lecornu on Tuesday used a constitutional power to force the income part of the 2026 state budget through parliament without a vote, after making concessions to gain the backing of the Socialists.

The prime minister’s move triggered two no confidence motions, filed by the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) and far-right National Rally (RN).

MPs on Friday voted not to bring down the government. The first motion secured 269 votes and the second 142, out of the National Assembly’s 577 lawmakers.

The Socialists, a key swing group, did not support either motion.

‘Tool of last resort’

After surviving Friday’s votes, Lecornu announced he was also officially pushing through the expense part of the 2026 state budget, causing LFI to declare it was filing another no confidence motion.

This will be examined on Tuesday, and is also expected to be rejected.

“When debate no longer allows a conclusion, someone has to take responsibility,” he told the National Assembly just ahead of Friday’s votes.

“Invoking the government’s responsibility, in my view, should be neither an easy way out nor a shortcut. It is a tool of last resort,” he added, in reference to using Article 49.3 of the constitution.

Lecornu promised last October to seek parliament’s approval for the budget, in a bid to avoid the fate of predecessors Michel Barnier and François Bayrou, who were both ousted over budget negotiations.

But on Monday, Lecornu conceded with “a certain degree of regret and a bit of bitterness” that he had to invoke article 49.3.

After PM forces through finance bill, what’s next in France’s budget battle?

‘Betrayal’

Marine Le Pen, leader of the RN group in parliament, declared the prime minister’s use of the measure a “betrayal”.

“Everything should have led you [Lecornu] to resign,” she added, noting what she called the government’s “powerlessness”.

The left also appeared divided, with LFI, the Greens and the Communist party calling for Lecornu to be ousted, while the Socialists sided with government.

Ahead of Friday’s vote, the Socialists signalled that the use of the measure was “the least bad solution” and the latest draft showed “progress”.

Concessions included an increase in a top-up benefit for the lowest-paid employees, the rollout of €1 meals for students, and the maintenance of a surtax on France’s wealthiest businesses.

French tax on high earners disappoints as wealthy find ways to shield income

If Lecornu survives the second attempt to topple him, the budget bill must then be reviewed by the Senate, the upper house, before returning to the National Assembly, the lower house, for final adoption.

Lecornu will have to use the same constitutional power to force the whole bill into law, which will likely lead to more no confidence votes.

(with newswires)

Buriel moves slowly because she is in pain. She points to the very large bruise on her back.

“I was beaten by [people who] were probably settlers, who set fire to the place where I was staying and struck us around 20 times with crowbars,” she told RFI’s correspondent in Jerusalem.

The French researcher, who specialises in education sciences, arrived in Jerusalem around 10 days ago to volunteer with the Israeli non-profit Torat Tzedek.

Set up by Rabbi Arik Ascherman in 2017, the organisation provides what it calls a “protective presence” in Palestinian villages in the West Bank.

Volunteers remain day and night with the most vulnerable Bedouin communities in order to deter attacks by Israeli settlers.

Buriel is no stranger to conflict zones, having worked in Iraq and Syria. “Protective presence is intended, in a peaceful way, to protect civilians,” she says.

West Bank Bedouin community driven out by Israeli settler violence

Masked assailants

The assault took place on 17 January in the Bedouin village of Mukhmas, between Jerusalem and Ramallah. 

Buriel was woken up by one of the inhabitants at about 9pm to see 20 masked people heading towards her.

“They arrived at full speed and I saw they had iron bars and they started throwing stones at me,” she says. “There was a car in front of me, so I lay down on the ground and one of them struck me directly with a very heavy metal bar. I was alone at that moment.”

She says another person set fire to the car she was sheltering against.

Buriel was joined by an American volunteer and the pair tried to run away but the researcher says she was hampered by her painful injuries. The attackers caught up with them and beat her colleague.

“Crowbar blows to a body are really horrific.” She recalls his scream and says he was beaten in the same way – with 15 to 20 blows.

“I have the impression it was controlled enough to be done without killing. This violence appears to be systemic,” she added.

A Palestinian from the village was also seriously injured.

Albane filed a complaint in Israel and has since returned to France.

UN accuses Israel of West Bank ‘apartheid’

Rise in assaults

In a separate incident, The Guardian reported that a French national was among international volunteers attacked by “a gang of eight masked Israeli settlers armed with clubs” when they raided a Palestinian family home near Ramallah on 7 December.

A 13-year-old Palestinian boy, his grandmother and activists working with the International Solidarity Movement from Colombia, the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as France, were injured in the attack.

Data from the United Nations Office for the Coordonation of Humanitarian Affairs shows settlers carried out more than 750 attacks on Palestinians and their property during the first half of 2025, with an average of nearly 130 assaults a month.

According to the Israeli army, settler violence rose by 27 percent in 2025, compared to the previous year. Ten Palestinians have been killed in attacks by settlers and nearly 400 injured since 2024. 

The military says it tries to prevent the attacks, but an investigation by the New York Times last year found that the Israeli authorities have failed to impose significant restraints on settlers committing crimes.

This article was adapted from the original version in French.

Africa’s 2026 elections will unfold against the backdrop of persistent concerns around political inclusion and institutional independence, highlighted by the votes that took place last year in Cameroon, Tanzania, Guinea Bissau and Côte d’Ivoire.

In Uganda’s election of 15 January, President Yoweri Museveni won a seventh term, amid criticism from human rights organisations and international observers over widespread repression.

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

Republic of the Congo, presidential election, 22 March

Politics in the Republic of the Congo have been dominated by President Denis Sassou Nguesso since 1979, when he first took office. He served until 1992, then returned in 1997 following a civil war, and has been in power ever since. 

The 82-year-old has been nominated as its candidate again by the ruling Congolese Labour Party (PCT).

Members of the country’s military will vote five days in advance of the election so that soldiers can maintain public order on polling day – a measure seen in previous elections.

Benin, presidential election, 12 April

Beninese citizens voted in January for their local representatives and parliamentarians, following a revised electoral calendar that ensures that all polls now take place in a single year, however voters are still waiting for the final results.

Benin heads to polls after failed coup shakes political landscape

President Patrice Talon has announced he will not seek a third term. Running instead will be Economy Minister Romuald Wadagni, chosen by the presidential coalition.

He will face off against Paul Hounkpè, who will stand for the Cauris Forces for an Emerging Benin, known as the FCBE.

While Benin was once regarded as a democratic model in the region, over recent years concerns have been raised over the lack of political inclusion and restrictive electoral reforms. The election also comes against a backdrop of multiple coups in West Africa.

Ethiopia, general election, 1 June

Ethiopia has been experiencing significant conflict and instability since Abiy Ahmed Ali became prime minister in 2018 and the leader of the Prosperity Party in 2019.

“The country’s political context remains shaped by post-conflict recovery efforts, regional tensions and debates over federal governance,” according to the African Elections Project, established by the platform Penplusbytes in 2008.

Electoral readiness varies significantly across regions, and observers have regularly criticised political repression, vote rigging and other exclusionary tactics.

The electoral campaign also comes as fears of a reignited conflict with neighbouring Eritrea are growing.

Ethiopia’s broken crown: The fall of Haile Selassie, 50 years on

Zambia, general election, 13 August

President Hakainde Hichilema faces a 2026 vote that will test his incumbency amid economic pressures and shifting political alliances.

Electoral integrity in Zambia is considered relatively strong, but voter intentions could depend on economic performance, youth employment and service delivery.

Despite a fragmented opposition, the president’s chances of a second term will depend largely on public perceptions of governance.

Critics argue that Hichilema is seeking to bolster his electoral prospects by introducing a law expanding the number of parliamentary seats from 167 to 280, including allocations for women, youth candidates and those with disabilities.

Zambia’s crippling drought creates chance for solar power to shine

Dates unknown

Other polls are scheduled for later in the year, including a presidential election in the Gambia on 5 December and a general election in South Sudan the same month. There are also several planned elections whose dates are as yet unconfirmed.

These include a presidential poll in Djibouti, scheduled for April, and a general election in Libya the same month – although, given the obstacles posed by years of civil war in the country, this seems “very unlikely” to take place, experts told RFI;

Somalia has a presidential election scheduled for June, date unknown. Morocco’s parliamentary elections should take place in September, but the date for these too has not been confirmed.

The autonomous region of Somaliland is also due to hold parliamentary and municipal elections this year. The territory was recently recognised as an independent state for the first time, by Israel in December.

Some of the smallest countries of the continent, including the island nations of Cabo Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, are also going to the polls this year.

Tensions between the United States and the European Union eased shortly before Thursday’s emergency meeting in Brussels when Trump said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he would suspend the tariff threats and would not use force to take control of Greenland – a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark.

Trump said Thursday that a deal had been reached with NATO’s General Secretary Mark Rutte that would provide the US with “total access”  to the Arctic island.

“We were successful by being firm,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said, referring to Trump’s backtracking.

But the US president’s threats badly shook Europe’s confidence in its partner, EU officials and leaders said.

“Transatlantic relations have definitely taken a big blow over the last week,” the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said as she arrived at the meeting.

“Things are quietening down and we should welcome that,” said French President Emmanuel Macron.

“We remain extremely vigilant and ready to use the instruments at our disposal should we find ourselves the target of threats again,” he told reporters, referring to “bazooka” trade sanctions the bloc had considered using.

Europe won’t yield to ‘bullies’, Macron warns as Trump pushes Greenland claim

Goal remains stability

European Council President Antonio Costa said the leaders believed it was “very important to preserve and cherish our transatlantic partnership”, despite what he described as a period of unpredictability.

Costa also warned that the EU would “stand up for its interests and will defend itself, its member states, its citizens and its companies against any form of coercion”.

The emergency summit, convened to reassess the EU-US relationship, did not reach any formal decisions, but Costa said the immediate priority was to implement the EU-US trade deal agreed in July 2025.

The United States remains the EU’s largest trading partner, and “the goal remains the effective stability of the trade relations”, he told reporters.

European lawmakers are likely to resume their work on the ratification of the trade deal now that Trump has taken back his threats, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said.

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

More support for Greenland

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Europe had invested “too little in the Arctic and the security of the Arctic”.

She confirmed that the Commission wanted to double financial support for Greenland in the next EU budget from 2028 and would soon propose a comprehensive package of investments, without giving further details.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she was more than ready to discuss security cooperation in Greenland with the US, as long as it fully respects their sovereignty.

She called for a permanent NATO presence in the Arctic, including around Greenland. 

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Western allies would step up their presence in the region, without specifying how.

(with newswires)

The tax on top earners that was introduced last year is expected to raise only €650 million this year compared to the €1.65 billion initially forecast, sources at the Ministry for Public Accounts told journalists, confirming a report by French daily Le Monde.

First conceived under former Prime Minister Michel Barnier, the “differential contribution on high incomes” (CDHR) was introduced in the 2025 budget adopted last February. It sets a minimum tax rate of 20 percent on individuals earning more than €250,000 a year, or €500,000 for couples without children.

Revenue projections have been revised downwards. Last year, the CDHR raised only €400 million, almost five times less than the €1.9 billion originally expected, according to Le Monde.

Many high earners are thought to have anticipated the tax and adjusted how they receive their income, in particular by shifting it into dividends, which are taxed at lower rates.

They were helped by deadlock in France’s parliament, which meant the budget came into effect later than planned – preventing the government from applying the tax retroactively to 2024 revenue and instead limiting it to income earned in 2025.

Podcast: Taxing the ultra-rich

Corporate tax to the rescue?

Yet revenue from the corporate tax introduced in 2025 came in on target – and Economy Minister Roland Lescure said it could top forecasts in 2026.

The tax brought in just under €8 billion in 2025, the minister told RTL radio on Thursday, and it did not seem to disrupt business, as some had warned.

“It did not stop growth, nor investment to meet their targets,” he said.

Initially billed as a one-off, the surtax on companies with revenue of €1 billion or more has been rolled over into 2026 under a budget compromise announced last week.

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

Projected revenue for this year will be a little less than in 2025 because around 100 smaller businesses will be exonerated, but the tax is still expected to raise more than the projected €4 billion included in the government’s initial budget.

Lescure said that 99 percent of French businesses are not impacted by the tax, which targets the 300 largest corporations to “support the purchasing power of working people”.

Companies are charged around 20 percent if they earn €1-3 billion, rising to 41 percent if earnings exceed €3 billion.

As part of ongoing debates on how to tackle a growing public deficit, France also considered introducing a minimum 2 percent annual wealth tax on individuals worth more than €100 million, but lawmakers rejected the proposal.

In its annual report on sexism, the High Council for Gender Equality, an advisory body attached to the office of the prime minister, on Wednesday said France was falling worryingly behind in identifying and tackling masculinism.

The council said the phenomenon should be recognised as a public security issue, warning that hatred of women can lead to violence and even terrorism. It noted that countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom have already included the issue in their strategies against violent extremism.

Masculinism emerged in the 1980s as a reaction to feminism. The ideology promotes male supremacy and blames women for what its supporters see as a decline in men’s living conditions.

Senior French civil servant accused of mass drinks spiking to humiliate women

From ideology to violence

“This is a real threat. From the moment you develop a hatred of women, there can be violence and terrorist acts,” Bérangère Couillard, president of the council, told French news agency AFP.

The report cited several cases linked to misogynist violence, going back to 1989 when a self-declared anti-feminist shot dead 14 women at Montreal’s École Polytechnique in Canada.

In France, an 18-year-old was arrested last summer in Saint-Étienne on suspicion of planning knife attacks against women. He was charged by the national anti-terrorism prosecutor, marking the first case involving someone claiming allegiance solely to the masculinist “incel” movement.

The council described that judicial decision as “a major step forward”, and said it now supports integrating what it calls “misogynist terrorism” into security doctrines.

This would involve training intelligence agents to recognise the language, recruitment methods and narratives used within the so-called manosphere.

Growing ‘masculinist’ culture in France slows down fight against sexism

Online influence

“If masculinist language is not understood, it gets missed,” Couillard said. She cited the British series Adolescence as an example of why familiarity with these terms matters.

The Netflix series, released in March 2025, depicts the murder of a schoolgirl by a classmate and the influence of masculinist ideas on boys. In January, French Education Minister Elisabeth Borne announced that it will be shown in French schools.

The gender equality watchdog said such masculinist ideologies were spreading more widely in France and elsewhere, especially among young people through social media.

It called for stronger regulation and more resources for Pharos, the state platform for reporting illegal online content, and Arcom, the media regulator.

A 2024 study by Dublin City University found that young men are exposed to masculinist content within 23 minutes of browsing TikTok and YouTube, on average, regardless of whether they looked for this material.

France to show ‘Adolescence’ mini-series as part of school curriculum

Hostile vs. paternalistic sexism

The council’s report is based on an online survey by polling company Toluna Harris Interactive of 3,061 people aged 15 and over, representative of the French population.

It found that 60 percent of men believe feminists are seeking to give women more power than men.

A quarter of men said it was normal for a woman to agree to sex to please a partner or out of duty. The same proportion said they had already doubted a partner’s consent.

From these findings, the council estimated that 17 percent of the French population adheres to “hostile” sexism, which devalues women and justifies discrimination and violence.

“The risk is that these people join and become members of masculinist networks,” said Couillard.

In addition, some 23 percent of those surveyed supported a more “paternalistic” form of sexism which promotes traditional gender roles, the council said. Often seen as benevolent by its proponents, it nonetheless contributes to inequality by confining women to stereotypical roles based on fragility or dependence.

“Are you young, healthy and between the ages of 18 and 40? Sign a contract with the Russian Federal Army. The reward: a signing bonus of between $8,000 and $30,000, and a salary of nearly $3,000 [€2,500] per month.”

The advertisement is accompanied by an image of a soldier in action, in a dark and dramatic setting, wearing a modern uniform, tactical vest and helmet and carrying a sophisticated combat rifle.

Messages like these, aimed at potential recruits in the Middle East, can be seen regularly on Telegram groups, accompanied by telephone numbers with the Russian country code (+7).

One of these groups is named Sadiq Rossia – “friend of Russia” in Arabic.

Recruits are promised a Russian passport, which means they would no longer be a foreign fighter, but a newly naturalised Russian citizen.

Opaque channels

A monthly salary of $3,000 is a considerable sum for young people in Iraq, where the average salary is barely more than $500 (€420).

But since for some this is not a sufficient incentive, recruiters have begun adapting their methods, with Iraqi travel agencies serving as a cover, offering student visas or “civilian” work contracts in Russia.

Ukraine war videos raise questions over Russia’s recruitment of Africans

In June 2025, Firas (not his real name) was persuaded by the opportunity of a one-year contract as a lorry driver, with a £2,000 (€2,200) monthly salary.

“They never told me clearly that I was going to fight in Russia. Two friends and I were offered very attractive salaries,” he told RFI.

Upon arriving in Moscow, he claims to have been grouped together with other Iraqis, as well as Syrians, Lebanese and nationals from various African countries.

‘You serve or you die’

“From Moscow, we got on a bus and travelled for nearly 18 hours,” recalls Firas, who was then deployed to the region of Donbas.

“We were in the middle of the forest, our phones were confiscated, and we were presented with a fait accompli. We had become members of the Russian army. They tell you, ‘you serve or you die’. If you refuse to serve, you are executed. To them, we were just cannon fodder.”

In October 2025, a Ukrainian drone strike hit his batallion’s position, killing one of his Iraqi friends. Firas was wounded by shrapnel to the back of the head. Declared unfit for service, he returned to Iraq at his own expense.

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

Officially, Iraq has chosen neutrality in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

But the country is recovering from two decades of internal conflict and powerful Shia militias coexist with the government. Created in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group, these militias have since been integrated into the Iraqi forces. Their political influence is considerable and some are known to have close ties to Moscow.

“These militias are not loyal to Iraq. They have pledged allegiance to Iran and gravitate towards Tehran’s allies, and therefore Russia’s. We also know that one of these militias, Al-Nujaba, is close to Moscow,” explains Mohaned Al Janabi, professor of political science in Iraq.

The leader of the Al-Nujaba militia, Akram al-Kaabi, was recently hosted at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This militia fought alongside the Russians in Syria and had links with mercenaries from the Wagner Group.

The researcher estimates that around 1,500 Iraqis have been deployed to Russia.

He also claims that Ukraine is recruiting young people in Iraq through its own channels. In response, authorities in Baghdad have set up a commission of inquiry to shed light on these recruitment practices, which mainly target young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

This article was adapted from the original version in French by Sami Boukhelifa.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

Salam, who has been in office for less than a year and is visiting Macron for the second time, is expected at the Elysée Palace at 5pm.

Macron “will reiterate his commitment to full compliance with the ceasefire by all parties and will stress the need for the Lebanese authorities to embark on the second phase of the plan aimed at ensuring the state’s sole control of weapons and the full restoration of its sovereignty”, the French presidency said.

Despite a ceasefire that ended the war with Hezbollah in November 2024, the Israeli army continues to carry out strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon. It claims to be targeting the pro-Iranian group, which Israel accuses of rearming.

The Lebanese army said in early January that it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm Hezbollah, clearing the area between the Israeli border and the Litani River, some 30 kilometres further north.

The army is due to gradually apply the disarmament plan to the rest of the country, starting with the entire southern region.

But Hezbollah refuses to surrender its weapons north of the river, saying the agreement does not apply there, and accuses Israel of repeatedly violating the ceasefire.

France’s Macron hails UN decision to extend peacekeeping mission in Lebanon

‘France’s full support’

According to the president’s office, Macron “will reaffirm France’s full support for the Lebanese Armed Forces, a pillar of national sovereignty and stability, ahead of the international conference in support of Lebanon’s sovereignty to be held in Paris on 5 March”.

The conference is intended to raise funds for Lebanon’s army and police, which lack resources for the fight against Hezbollah.

The two heads of state “will also discuss the pursuit of economic and financial reforms essential to consolidating Lebanon’s sovereignty and restoring its prosperity”, the Élysée added.

Five years after Beirut port explosion, justice and recovery remain elusive

The Lebanese government approved a bill at the end of December aimed at creating a mechanism to return depositors’ funds wiped out in the country’s financial meltdown in 2019, which is estimated to have caused losses totalling about $70 billion. 

The collapse followed decades of corruption, financial mismanagement and profiteering.

France has offered to host a second international conference on Lebanon “dedicated to the country’s reconstruction and economic recovery”, the Foreign Ministry said after talks between Salam and Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Thursday.

(with newswires)

On Tuesday, the Syrian Defence Ministry announced a ceasefire with Kurdish forces and gave them four days to agree to integrate into the forces of President Ahmed al-Sharaa – the Islamist military strongman who came to power in December 2024.

The United States, the main ally of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has urged them to accept.

The SDF has so far resisted joining the central state, and ceasefire negotiations have collapsed.

Syrian government forces have seized swathes of territory from Kurdish forces in northern Syria, driving them out from Aleppo, Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor – effectively dismantling more than a decade of self-rule by the Kurds. 

RFI spoke to Kendal Nézan, the president of the Kurdish Institute of Paris, about the latest developments.

Kendal Nezan: Obviously, we are very worried. The offensive began on 6 January, after a deal between President Trump and Turkish President Erdoğan, so with an American green light.

We saw nearly 40,000 militiamen from the Syrian Arab Army mobilised against two Kurdish neighbourhoods where there were around 450,000 displaced refugees. The neighbourhoods have been defended since 2011 by just a few hundred local police. That gives you a sense of the disproportion.

The neighbourhoods were encircled and, after six days of fighting, the Kurds withdrew. Afterwards, under American pressure, they decided to pull out of towns with an Arab majority, which they did. The Syrian army then retook these cities, which had been liberated by Kurdish forces from the grip of Islamic State.

RFI: A four-day ceasefire came into effect on Tuesday night. Could this help bring the current confrontation to a peaceful resolution?

KN: The issue obviously goes far beyond the fate of the Kurds alone. The fate of the Kurds matters because they defended not only their country and their territory, but also Europe, and humanity, against the Islamist scourge. More than 15,000 young Kurds were killed in that fight. They defeated Islamic State and captured tens of thousands of its members, who were held in camps. They have been doing this since 2014.

And how are they thanked? By being handed over to the Syrian regime and told ‘listen, your mission is over, find an arrangement with the new Syrian regime’, which is Islamist in nature, given that the current leader is a former jihadist.

So what will happen? The Kurds are faced with a dilemma. They are now confined to areas with a Kurdish majority. Either they come to terms with the regime by individually integrating into the new Syrian army, case by case, or they shift into resistance against this regime.

Syria says Sharaa, Trump discuss Kurdish rights as forces deploy in country’s north, east

RFI: What is President Ahmad al-Sharaa trying to achieve?

KN: His intention is to establish his authority across the entire territory, with the logistical, diplomatic and political backing of Turkey, his sponsor. That’s very important to point out.

And to establish an Islamic Syrian republic that is already in conflict internally. We saw the massacres of Alawites in March and of Druze in July. The Christian community is very worried. Now it is the Kurds.

So after the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad, we are moving rapidly towards a new dictatorship – this time Islamist. And I say this for Europeans who think the regime will stabilise: such a regime, with so much power concentrated in the hands of one man, will generate a new influx of refugees and will become an Islamist hub.

RFI: So what is happening in Syria will have consequences for Europe and elsewhere?

KN: It will certainly have consequences in the region, and in Europe. It could tip over and become a centre of jihadism, because within the current Syrian Arab Army you have a heterogeneous mix of various Islamist militias – including between 6,000 and 8,000 foreign jihadists.

RFI: Do the events of recent weeks definitively mark the end of the Kurdish dream of autonomy in Syria?

KN: The Kurds are a resilient people. Over the course of their turbulent history, they have experienced setbacks, betrayals and shifting alliances. Definitive end? No.

But for the moment there is an autonomous zone in northern and north-eastern Syria. That zone has now shrunk to almost nothing and will probably no longer exist. The Kurds had in fact established an alternative system that was ecological and feminist, in which all components of the population – Arabs, Assyrian Chaldeans, women, everyone – took part. And we are heading towards an authoritarian regime where there is only the voice of the leader, who has appointed a parliament and rules the country with an iron fist.

What’s driving France’s sudden deportation of Kurdish activists?

RFI: There was also talk of a repressive Kurdish authority installed in Arab regions. It was not an ideal, democratic system either.

KN: Repressive? Certainly not. But conservative Arab tribes did not agree with the model that was put in place, because women were involved, because there were local councils and democracy, so there was irritation. Now they feel liberated.

One of the symbols of the Kurdish resistance was a female fighter, a statue of a Kurdish woman fighter who had liberated Raqqa. The first thing the current Syrian army did was to pull down that statue of a woman. For them, it’s heresy. And they opened prison doors to free Kurdish detainees.

RFI: The issue of controlling the region’s prisons, where jihadists or people close to Islamic State are held, is one of the big questions. The Syrian army accuses the SDF of having opened the doors, notably at Shahdad prison, where 120 Islamic State terrorists were held. Does this mean the Kurdish forces are now playing a dangerous game, using the prisons as their last card, at the expense of security?

KN: The Syrian government is coached and briefed by Turkey, which has an extraordinary mastery of black, negative and deceitful propaganda. If the Kurds had wanted to open the prison doors, they would have done so. They have guarded these prisons for around 10 years.

But on Tuesday, for example, the Kurds withdrew from al-Hol, the largest detention camp in the area, where there are 24,000 relatives of jihadists. The camp was attacked from all sides by drones, by the Syrian army and by the Americans. The international coalition was informed and did nothing. They said ‘listen, we cannot, we must first defend our own territories, and then it is up to you’. They no longer have the means to act.

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

RFI: Do you feel that you’ve been abandoned by the West, by the Americans?

KN: Yes, we’ve been abandoned. Ingratitude is, of course, a constant in human and political history. I would even say we’ve been sacrificed by the allies of the international coalition, the Americans of course. But the others remained silent.

RFI: Would you include the French in that? 

KN: The voice of France is inaudible. I may be a little hard of hearing, but France’s voice is inaudible. Have you seen any statements of support for our ‘brothers in arms’? That was the expression used by a French minister only recently.

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

The French Navy boarded and searched the tanker, named the Grinch, in the western Mediterranean between the southern coast of Spain and the northern coast of Morocco, French maritime authorities said.

The tanker was sailing from Murmansk in northern Russia and is subject to international sanctions, President Emmanuel Macron wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

He added that the vessel was suspected of operating under a false flag.

The operation was carried out with support from several allies, including the United Kingdom, which gathered and shared intelligence that enabled the ship to be intercepted, French military officials told the Associated Press news agency.

Dark vessels: how Russia steers clear of Western sanctions with a shadow fleet

Financing the war

“The activities of the shadow fleet contribute to financing the war of aggression against Ukraine,” Macron said.

The European Union has imposed 19 packages of sanctions on Russia so far. Despite those measures, Moscow continues to sell millions of barrels of oil to countries such as India and China, typically at discounted prices.

Much of that oil is carried by a shadow fleet of vessels operating outside of the Western maritime industry.

After the boarding, the Grinch was diverted and is being escorted to a point of anchorage for further checks, the Mediterranean Maritime Prefecture said.

“After the team boarded, an examination of documents confirmed the doubts as to the regularity of the flag.”

The case was referred to the Marseille prosecutor, which handles matters related to maritime law. In October, France detained another sanctioned tanker, the Boracay, off its west coast and released it after a few days.

(with newswires)

The city is one of Sudan’s most important and the capital of North Kordofan state, part of the wider Kordofan region that stands between the RSF’s Darfur stronghold and the army-controlled eastern half of the country.

After the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) tightened their grip on the western-most Darfur region in late October, they shifted their focus to Kordofan and drones have struck weekly in and around al-Obeid, residents say.

At around the same time, the paramilitary’s ground forces began taking over towns and villages across Kordofan, while also besieging cities in South Kordofan state.

The force has not yet approached al-Obeid, where daily life has continued despite the looming threat and an exodus late last year as the war intensified.

The army and allied forces have positioned themselves on the outskirts of the city.

Sudan’s El-Fasher ‘an epicentre of human suffering’, UN says

Funeral crowd hit

Sudan’s war erupted in April 2023 after the army and RSF clashed over their roles in a planned political transition. It has driven half the population into hunger and famine and decimated the country’s economy. Drones have come to play an increasingly dominant role, with the RSF in particular using them to usurp the army’s early air dominance.

Overall deaths from the conflict are hard to estimate, though researchers say at least tens of thousands have been killed.

More than 100 civilians were killed in the first half of December across the Kordofan region, according to the UN human rights office.

In al-Obeid, satellite imagery from the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab shows the appearance of about 100 new burial mounds in two cemeteries in the two weeks between 2 and 14 January.

The imagery also shows evidence of bombardment of the city’s power station, as well as the construction of berms around the city, a possible defence against future RSF encirclement.

In the al-Obeid area, residents say the worst of the incidents happened on 5 November in al-Luweib village.

Dozens had gathered from afar for a funeral when an ambulance belonging to the army-aligned Joint Forces drove past, and soon after a drone followed.

The drone, which residents assumed was directed by the RSF, fired on the funeral gathering, killing 65 people, all of them women and children, according to four al-Luweib residents who spoke to Reuters.

The incident echoes frequent attacks documented by Reuters in el-Fasher, Darfur, near or against ambulances and clinics alleged by the RSF to be harbouring enemy forces.

“We were sitting, and all of sudden the drone hit us. I went outside and felt something hitting me and I didn’t know what it was. They told me it was a drone,” said one of the witnesses, Safaa Hassan, who had burn marks on her arms and a shrapnel injury on her leg. “The yard was full of women,” she said.

Victims’ bodies, some of them torn apart by the impact, were later buried in a mass grave, the residents told Reuters.

Reuters could not independently verify the accounts. The RSF did not respond to a request for comment.

Sudan’s El-Fasher under the RSF, destroyed and ‘full of bodies’

‘Children under the rubble’

More recently, in early January, a drone strike killed Abdallah Mohamed Ahmed’s wife, seven of his grandsons, and two other female relatives when it hit the home in al-Obeid they had rented after fleeing their village following an RSF attack.

They are among about 43,000 who fled their homes in North Kordofan and about 65,000 who have fled the region as a whole between late October and 31 December, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.

“We found the children under the rubble, under the iron, under the beds. Only God knows the state of the children,” said Moussa Adam, a neighbour present at the time of the attack.

“[They] could not achieve their goals they are looking for, so they started killing the citizens and terrorising the citizens,” Ahmed said of the RSF.

Imagery obtained by Yale researchers corroborated the targeting of the home.

Biguine arrived by boat several months ago from the French Caribbean island territory to Franche-Comté, in eastern France.

Biguine’s owner, farmer André Prosper from the north-east of Martinique, has a herd of 300 Brahman cows – known for their distinctive hump, long ears, and loose skin.

But for him, Biguine stands out – having got her name from how she appears to dance in the Creole beguine style.

“When Biguine was born, she had so much fun with the staff. When we arrived in the morning, one of them said to me, ‘She’s dancing, and it looks like she’s doing the biguine. She was moving around in all directions… she has a real personality,” he said.

However, Beguine will not be getting the chance to show off her moves in Paris this year.

Due to an outbreak of lumpy skin disease (LSD) in France, for the first time in its history the Paris International Agricultural Show will not feature any cattle.

“We ​took the decision last night that there would be no cattle ​at the international farm show 2026,” the show’s chairman Jérôme Despey told reporters last week.

“This is a historic decision that has saddened us,” he added, stressing that the show would still feature many other animals including pigs, sheep, horses, dogs and cats.

French farmers protest over compulsory cattle culls amid disease outbreak

LSD, which is mainly spread by biting insects, causes fever and painful skin lumps, weakens animals and reduces milk output. There have been more than 100 outbreaks detected in France, mostly near the Alps and in southwestern France.

The ministry of agriculture said the disease was under control in France thanks to vaccination. However, Depsey added, some farmers want to avoid taking any risk while others want to express their solidarity with affected farmers.

‘The breed of the future’

The Brahman breed is little known in mainland France. Originally from India, the first Brahman cattle arrived in Martinique in 1950.

Six-year-old Biguine weighs 600 kilograms, more than the average polar bear.

“She has an exceptional bearing and is recognisable by her magnificent horns. She has a fairly broad forehead and very long ears, which allow her to keep cool at all times. She also has a fairly broad black muzzle,” said Prosper.

“My father started breeding [Brahmans] and when he died, I took up the torch and continued the exceptional work he had already begun to give Brahman cattle their true stature.”

Mercosur trade deal in limbo after EU parliament asks top court to weigh in

Robust and resilient, Prosper says the Brahman’s unique qualities could make it the ideal breed to withstand the effects of climate change. 

“In our region, temperatures can reach 32, 33 or even 34 degrees during really dry periods. And this animal has no problem with that,” he explained.

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

“This exchange with breeders in mainland France will be very interesting because everyone is affected by climate change today. So, having a cow that can withstand these different temperatures and the increase in climate temperature, I think this is the breed of the future.”

As for Biguine’s future, she will remain permanently in mainland France and will not return to her island.

This article was adapted from the original version in French by Sylvie Koffi, with newswires.

A source familiar with talks between Trump and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the agreement would be revised, but stressed that placing American bases on Greenland under US sovereignty had not been discussed.

“The 1951 agreement will get renegotiated,” the source told the French news agency AFP – adding that European allies would also step up security in the Arctic.

The defence pact, last updated in 2004, already allows Washington to increase troop deployments on the island as long as authorities in Denmark and Greenland are informed in advance.

The US currently operates one base there, the Pituffik Space Base in the north-west, which plays a key role in its missile defence system.

Trump said on Wednesday he had reached a “framework” agreement with Rutte covering Greenland and the wider Arctic region.

Trump reverses course on Greenland, drops tariff threat, citing ‘deal’

But Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said NATO’s chief had no authority to negotiate on Denmark’s behalf.

In a social media post, Poulsen said it was “very positive” that NATO wanted to strengthen Arctic security, but warned there were firm limits.

“We have a clear red line,” he said. “We will not cede sovereignty over parts of the kingdom.”

A NATO spokesperson later said talks would continue, stressing that “negotiations between Denmark, Greenland and the US would go forward aimed at ensuring that Russia and China never gain a foothold, economically or militarily, in Greenland”.

Unclear framework

Trump’s earlier threats over Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, had shaken relations between Washington and its European allies.

He had repeatedly said he wanted the territory to become part of the United States, and threatened tariffs of up to 25 percent against Denmark and other European countries.

Based on his talks with Rutte, Trump said he would not impose the tariffs that were due to take effect on 1 February.

Trump arrives in Davos as Europe struggles for unity over Greenland

European diplomats said the shift in tone had eased tensions, but warned that key questions remain unanswered. NATO has insisted that Rutte “did not propose any compromise to sovereignty” in his talks with Trump.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she had been informed that Greenland’s status was not discussed.

“We can negotiate all political aspects: security, investment, the economy,” she said. “But we cannot negotiate our sovereignty.”

Aaja Chenmitz, one of two Greenlandic lawmakers in the Danish parliament, questioned why NATO should have any role in discussions touching on the island’s resources.

“NATO in no case has the right to negotiate on anything without us, Greenland,” she wrote on social media.

(with newswires)

With the use of oil, gas and coal by far the main cause of global warming, a report released by Carbon Majors on Wednesday highlights the role played by a small group of fossil fuel producers.

According to the study, 32 fossil fuel companies were responsible for half of global carbon dioxide emissions in 2024. The ranking is led by Saudi Arabia’s state-owned giant Aramco, followed by Russia’s Gazprom and the National Iranian Oil Company.

The report found that Saudi Aramco alone generated 1.7 billion tonnes of CO₂ in 2024, much of it linked to oil exports. ExxonMobil’s fossil fuel production accounted for a further 610 million tonnes.

Cop30 climate summit runs into overtime amid divisions over fossil fuels

State-owned companies

Overall, 17 of the top 20 highest-emitting companies are state-owned, with all 17controlled by governments that opposed a proposed global fossil fuel phaseout at the Cop 30 United Nations climate summit in December.

These include Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and India.

These findings follow a landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice last summer which established a legal link between fossil fuel production, global warming and its impacts.

Paris Agreement turns 10 as heat rises faster than global action

Meanwhile, emissions reductions again stalled in France and Germany in 2025, while a resurgence of coal-fired power generation in the US pushed emissions higher, reversing years of progress.

To meet the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5C, global emissions would need to fall by 45 percent by 2030 – a target that many experts now consider out of reach.

This article has been adapted from the original version in French.

The company on Wednesday said the products may contain cereulide, a substance that can cause diarrhoea, vomiting and lethargy in babies. It said the recall was launched as a precaution after further testing on prepared bottles.

According to a Radio France investigation, the General Directorate for Food, which oversees food safety within the agriculture ministry, was aware from last Friday, 16 January, that Lactalis had received batches potentially contaminated with cereulide.

Initial tests carried out on finished products did not show levels considered problematic by the authorities, their report found.

Additional checks were later requested on prepared bottles, which revealed higher concentrations of the toxin after dilution, prompting the withdrawal from sale.

Lactalis said the issue was linked to an international supplier which provides ARA, an ingredient used in some infant formulas, adding that Spain and countries in South America were notably affected.

In France, the recall covers Picot Nutrition Quotidienne first-age products in 400g, 800g and 850g containers, Picot Nutrition Quotidienne second-age products in 800g and 850g containers, and Picot AR second-age in an 800g container.

The products are sold in pharmacies and large retail stores.

French doctors stage symbolic ‘exile’ to Brussels over health policy row

Prepared bottles tested

Lactalis said the recall followed an alert from the French Professional Association for Infant Nutrition, an industry body.

The group said initial tests carried out on the powdered products produced compliant results.

Further analysis carried out on reconstituted products, meaning prepared bottles, later revealed the presence of cereulide, the company said in a statement. 

“We are fully aware that this information may cause concern among parents of young children,” Lactalis said.

“At this stage, no complaints or reports linked to the consumption of these products have been reported by the French authorities.”

EU tightens rules on ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water

Recalls widening

The Lactalis recall comes as infant milk products have been recalled in several countries in recent weeks over potential cereulide contamination.

Nestlé recalled infant milk products earlier in January in several countries, including France, as a precaution.

The Swiss food group said the presence of cereulide had been confirmed in some of its products and said that other manufacturers could also be affected.

French health authorities have opened a judicial investigation in that case, including epidemiological and food safety inquiries, the Health Crisis Centre said.

Magali Lafourcade, the general secretary of France’s National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH), an independent advisory body, confirmed on Wednesday that she brought a conversation with two US advisors to the attention of the French foreign ministry.

She feared they were seeking to influence French public debate by looking for ways to show that Marine Le Pen’s trial was political.

RN leader Le Pen battles for political future after embezzlement conviction

Lafourcade met with Samuel D Samson and Christopher J Anderson last May in Paris – advisers for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, part of the US Department of State.

She said the pair were convinced that Le Pen had been “treated unfairly” and was a victim of a “political conviction”.

This view echoed that of US conservatives who rallied around Le Pen after her conviction for embezzling European Union funds.

US President Donald Trump called the conviction and Le Pen’s subsequent ban from holding public office a witch hunt. 

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

The two US officials “were convinced that this was a political trial that aimed to keep [Le Pen] away from the presidential race or to ostracise her for purely political reasons,” Lafoucrade said, adding that they were seeking elements to back up the theory.

Lafourcade said she was uncomfortable with the conversation, and reported the meeting to the French Foreign Ministry, fearing a potential “manipulation of the public debate in France”.

This is the second time that French magistrates have issued a warning over influence from the US on the case.

At the start of January, the president of the Paris tribunal, Peimane Ghaleh-Marzban, said that magistrates who were on the case had received threats of sanctions from the US.

(with AFP)

“I am on my way home,” Raphael Boukandoura, 35, told the AFP news agency in a brief phone call on Wednesday. He was speaking from a taxi bringing him home from the migrant detention centre in Arnavutkoy, near Istanbul airport, where he had been transferred after his arrest on Monday.

His lawyer Emine Ozhasar confirmed he had been freed, adding that they were still waiting to hear details of his release.

Boukandoura, who has been living in Turkey for at least a decade and holds an official press card, was arrested on Monday while he was covering a protest called by pro-Kurdish opposition party DEM for the French daily newspaper Libération.

He was arrested along with nine other people when police broke up the protest, and was accused of joining in with the protesters shouting slogans against the Turkish military offensive targeting Kurds in north-eastern Syria.

He denied taking part in the protest, and said he was there as a journalist covering the event.

Turkey’s independent media on alert over stance of tech giants

‘Hazardous job’

France’s foreign ministry had on Tuesday said it hoped Boukandoura, who regularly covers Turkey for French publications, would be “freed as quickly as possible”.

The European Parliament’s Turkey rapporteur Nacho Sanchez Amor had also said he was following “with concern” the reporter’s case, especially the threat of deportation.

“Independent journalism is really a hazardous job in Turkiye for locals and foreigners,” he wrote on social media before Boukandoura’s release.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) had earlier called it “unacceptable” to threaten a French journalist with expulsion for doing his job.

“It is intended to intimidate journalists covering pro-Kurdish protests in Turkey,” the group’s Turkey representative Erol Onderoglu told AFP.

(with AFP)

The year-long crackdown, announced on Wednesday by Europol, saw officers take down 24 industrial-scale laboratories and seize roughly 1,000 tonnes of chemicals used to produce street drugs including MDMA, amphetamine and methamphetamine.

More than 85 people were arrested, among them two suspected ringleaders from Poland.

“I’ve been in this business for a while. This is by far the largest ever operation we did against synthetic drug production and distribution,” said Andy Kraag, head of Europol’s European Serious and Organised Crime Centre.

“I think this is genuinely a massive blow to organised crime groups involved in drug trafficking, specifically of synthetic drugs.”

Inside the cocaine boom fuelling Europe’s most lucrative drug market

Police forces from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain worked together on the operation, which investigators say exposed a sophisticated network stretching across the European Union.

Suspicions were first raised in 2024, when Polish police noticed a network importing unusually large volumes of legal chemicals from China and India.

Further investigation revealed that the substances were being repackaged, mislabelled and redistributed across the EU to clandestine laboratories manufacturing synthetic drugs.

Most of those arrested are Polish nationals, although Belgian and Dutch suspects are also believed to have played roles in the criminal enterprise.

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

Cutting the supply chain

Kraag said the investigation was guided by a “supply-chain strategy” aimed at choking off the drug trade at its source.

“These criminal groups – they don’t have their supply anymore,” he said.

Beyond the health risks associated with synthetic drugs, Kraag highlighted the broader damage caused by the trade, including violence, corruption and money-laundering.

He also drew attention to the often-overlooked environmental toll. During the raids, authorities seized more than 120,000 litres of toxic chemical waste that criminals typically dump on land or into streams.

“Today, it’s profit for criminals. Tomorrow, it’s pollution,” Kraag warned.

Investigators are continuing to pursue other networks believed to be operating across Europe.

“This is one of the biggest distributors. But it’s not the only one. So we’re still looking,” Kraag said.

(with newswires)

Signed on Saturday with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, the pact to create one of the world’s largest free trade areas has been fiercely opposed by farmers’ groups backed by France and others.

Lawmakers in Strasbourg voted 334 to 324 in favour of asking the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to determine whether the deal is compatible with the bloc’s rules.

Hundreds of farmers had gathered with tractors outside the parliament building ahead of Wednesday’s vote – and erupted in celebration as the result came in.

“We’ve been on this for months and months, for years,” a euphoric Quentin Le Guillous, head of a French young farmers group, told French news agency AFP outside the EU parliament.

Tractors surround EU Parliament as MEPs vote on Mercosur review

“Tonight, I’m going home, I’m going to kiss everyone, and I’m going to tell my kids, ‘I got it, we got it, we can be proud.'”

The court will now have to assess the legal challenge, a process that could delay and even derail a deal seen as a cornerstone of a Brussels push to open up new markets.

The vote deals a blow to the European Commission, whose president Ursula von der Leyen had given a speech to parliament just hours earlier touting the “historic deal”.

Devastating sign

More than 25 years in the making, the EU-Mercosur deal was given fresh impetus amid the sweeping use of tariffs and trade threats by US President Donald Trump’s administration, which has sent countries scrambling for new partnerships.

The commission, which championed and negotiated the pact that eliminates tariffs on more than 90 percent of bilateral trade, said it “regrets” the lawmakers’ decision.

“According to our analysis, the questions raised in the motion by the parliament are not justified because the commission has already addressed those questions and issues in a very detailed way,” European Commission trade spokesman Olof Gill told reporters in Brussels.

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

The court challenge centres on whether the deal can be partially applied before full ratification from member states, as envisaged by the commission, and if it unlawfully restricts Brussels’ powers on some environmental and food safety matters.

The head of German auto industry group VDA decried the EU parliament’s decision, saying it sent a “devastating sign” and risked irking Mercosur countries.

“Europe is weakening itself with the EU Parliament’s decision at a time when geopolitical stability and reliable international partnerships are more urgent than ever,” Hildegard Mueller said.

Parliament will now wait for the court’s opinion before holding a vote on whether to approve the Mercosur deal – a necessary step for it to fully come into force.

But the commission could push ahead and apply it provisionally, also pending judgement, a potentially politically explosive move.

A small battle in a larger war

Key power Germany, as well as Spain and the Nordic countries, strongly support the pact, eager to boost exports as Europe grapples with Chinese competition and a tariff-happy administration in the White House.

“We are convinced of the legality of the agreement. No more delays. The agreement must now be provisionally applied,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said after the vote.

But France, Poland, Austria Ireland and Hungary oppose it over concerns for their agricultural sectors.

“The fight continues to protect our agriculture and guarantee our food sovereignty,” said French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot.

EU backs tough legislation to slash food waste and rein in ‘fast fashion’

The deal favours European exports of cars, wine and cheese, while making it easier for South American beef, poultry, sugar, rice, honey and soybeans to enter Europe.

This has angered many European farmers, who have rolled tractors into Paris, Brussels and Warsaw to protest a feared influx of cheaper goods produced with lower standards and banned pesticides.

“It feels good, finally a victory,” French farmer Alice Avisse, 52, said of the vote, cautioning however that it was “only a small battle in a larger war”.

Together, the EU and Mercosur account for 30 percent of global GDP and more than 700 million consumers.

(with AFP)

A senior Christian clergy member and a village head said more than 160 people were seized in Kurmin Wali village. A security report prepared for the United Nations noted the kidnapping of more than 100 people at multiple churches.

Kaduna state police and two senior government officials had earlier denied any abduction, saying security officers visited the area and found no proof of any kidnapping.

But late Tuesday, national police spokesman Benjamin Hundeyin said an “abduction” had occurred and that security operations were under way “with a clear focus on locating and safely rescuing the victims and restoring calm to the area”.

He said earlier remarks by police and other officials in Kaduna were “intended to prevent unnecessary panic while facts were being confirmed”.

“Those remarks, which have since been widely misinterpreted, were not a denial of the incident but a measured response pending confirmation of details from the field, including the identities and number of those affected,” he said.

US launches air strikes against Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria

Names put forward

“Subsequent verification from operational units and intelligence sources has confirmed that the incident did occur,” Hundeyin said.

A Christian grouping in northern Nigeria has submitted a list of people seized during the attack.

“We did produce the names of over 177 people and there is no contest that it was real,” Reverend Joseph Hayab, head of the Christian Association of Nigeria for the country’s north, told the French news agency AFP.

“Such a number couldn’t have been taken and you think you can bury it just like that.”

He said there was also evidence of “those who escaped even with injury”.

Nigerians push back on Trump’s military threat over Christian killings

Pressure and violence

The attack is the latest in a wave of mass kidnappings targeting both Christians and Muslims in Nigeria. Armed gangs, known locally as bandits, frequently carry out mass kidnappings for ransom and loot villages, mainly in the northern and central parts of the country.

In November, armed gangs seized more than 300 students and teachers from a Catholic school in Niger state. Fifty escaped and the rest were released in two batches weeks later.

US President Donald Trump has focused on insecurity in Nigeria, putting Abuja under diplomatic pressure.

In late December, the United States launched strikes on what it and the Nigerian government said were militants linked to the Islamic State group in Sokoto state, with Nigeria saying it approved the strikes.

Nigeria has also struck a $750,000 per month deal with a US firm to lobby Washington to help Abuja communicate “its actions to protect… Christian communities and (maintain) US support in countering west African jihadist groups”, according to disclosure forms filed with the US Department of Justice.

(with newswires)

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.