Many in Lebanon believed Assad wanted to dominate their country or even annex parts of it, but his fall in December 2024 has not improved relations between the two neighbours.

Lebanese officials say relations will take time to improve after decades of mistrust. They accuse Syria’s new authorities of maintaining the same approach as under Assad – putting what they describe as “security considerations” ahead of economic cooperation.

For Lebanon, resolving long-standing disputes such as the demarcation of the Lebanon-Syria border should come first.

Trade routes under pressure

Syria remains a crucial trade corridor, serving as Lebanon’s land gateway to Iraq, Jordan, Gulf countries and Iran. Lebanese agricultural exports rely heavily on transit through Syrian territory, as do goods arriving via the ports of Beirut and Tripoli.

Lebanese businesses have also expressed interest in participating in Syria’s post-war reconstruction, either through direct investment or by sharing expertise.

Instead of easing trade, Syria’s new authorities introduced measures that Lebanese officials say have harmed Lebanon’s interests.

Caught between conflict and crisis, Syria faces ‘incredibly fragile moment’

Syrian authorities imposed a flat $1,500 fee on every container transiting Syria to Arab countries, introduced tariffs on certain agricultural products – including a $55-per-tonne tax on bananas – and tightened procedures for trucks crossing the border.

Lebanon has meanwhile sought to show goodwill. President Joseph Aoun met Syria’s transitional president Ahmed al-Charaa twice, while Prime Minister Nawaf Salam travelled to Damascus in April 2025 with a ministerial delegation.

Lebanon also appointed a new ambassador to Syria, Henri Qastoun, who waited three months before he was allowed to present his credentials to Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani.

Syria limited its representation in Beirut to Iyad el-Hazaa, its top diplomat in Lebanon, who previously oversaw political relations in the coastal province of Latakia.

Prisoner dispute

During meetings with Lebanese officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri, Syrian leaders repeated the same message: improving relations depends on two issues – Syrian prisoners in Lebanese jails and supporters of the former Assad regime allegedly present in Lebanon.

Damascus is demanding the release of nearly 2,500 Syrian detainees, including hundreds of Islamists accused of terrorism or crimes against state security. Many have been held for years without trial, alongside others accused of rape or murder.

Lebanese leaders consider the demands unacceptable. They say transferring detainees awaiting trial would require a law passed by parliament, which they believe has no chance of being adopted.

As Syrian workers return home from Turkey, local businesses feel the loss

On 30 January, the Lebanese government approved an 18-point judicial agreement between Lebanon and Syria allowing the transfer of convicted prisoners to their country of nationality.

The agreement excludes detainees awaiting trial and limits transfers to prisoners already sentenced. Those convicted of rape or murder would be eligible only after serving 10 years of their sentence.

Some 300 Syrian detainees could be affected. The agreement also provides for reciprocity, allowing Lebanese nationals convicted in Syria to be transferred to Lebanon.

The deal represents a compromise between Syrian demands and Lebanese concerns. It does not meet Damascus’s initial request to transfer all detainees, but it goes further than Lebanon’s earlier refusal to allow prisoner transfers.

Standoff deepens

During visits to Beirut, Syrian delegations included justice and interior ministers as well as security officials, reflecting Damascus’s focus on security issues.

In mid-December, a Syrian intelligence delegation visiting Beirut went to two seaside restaurants in the capital frequented by businessmen once close to the former Syrian regime. The delegation also handed Lebanese officials a list of 200 Syrian officers, politicians and business figures close to Assad believed to have taken refuge in Lebanon.

Days later, Lebanese and Arab media outlets, including Al Jazeera, reported alleged plots by Assad supporters operating from Lebanon to destabilise Syria’s new leadership.

Lebanese leaders sought US mediation to try to ease tensions with Damascus. “We have been surprised that the Americans showed understanding toward Damascus’s demands,” said a source close to President Aoun, speaking anonymously.

Facing pressure from Syria and limited support from Washington, Lebanese leaders began looking for compromises.

Syrian Army seizes northeast as US abandons Kurdish-led forces

Security operations

At the start of January, the Lebanese army carried out large-scale searches in Jabal Mohsen, an Alawite neighbourhood in the northern city of Tripoli, and in five other localities near the Syrian border inhabited by members of the same religious community.

After the March 2025 massacres in Syria’s coastal provinces, at least 60,000 Syrian Alawites fled to Lebanon. Many settled in areas where Lebanese Alawites live, in Christian villages in Mount Lebanon and in predominantly Shia regions.

Municipal councils in the five localities later said in a joint statement that “the Lebanese army carried out search and inspection campaigns in all camps housing displaced Syrians”.

“No person belonging to a military organisation or preparing armed operations was apprehended during these searches, which formally contradicts the report broadcast on the subject by Al-Jazeera,” the statement said.

It remains unclear whether Damascus will consider these steps sufficient to open talks on economic and trade relations between the two countries.

This article was adapted from the original version in French by RFI correspondant Paul Khalifeh.

The National Office for Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC) confirmed on Thursday that at least 38 people were killed, six remain missing and at least 374 were injured after Cyclone Gezani made landfall late Tuesday.

The storm slammed directly into Toamasina, also known as Tamatave – Madagascar’s second-largest city and home to nearly 400,000 people.

Its violent gusts and torrential rains ravaged “up to 75 percent” of the city and its surroundings, according to Madagascar’s new leader, Colonel Michael Randrianirina, who took power four months ago following a military takeover.

In a statement Thursday, he called for “international solidarity” to support urgent relief operations.

More than 18,000 homes were destroyed, while over 50,000 were damaged or flooded, the BNGRC said. At least 12,000 people have been displaced.

The storm also caused significant damage in the surrounding Atsinanana region, where post-disaster assessments are still under way.

Cyclone Fytia in Madagascar leaves three dead, flooding affects nearly 30,000

Mozambique on alert

The CMRS cyclone forecaster on France‘s Indian Ocean island of Réunion said Toamasina had been “directly hit by the most intense part” of the cyclone. It described the landfall as likely one of the most intense recorded in the region – rivalling Cyclone Geralda, which left at least 200 people dead back in 1994.

Cyclone Gezani weakened after reached land, but continued crossing Madagascar from east to west as a tropical storm until Wednesday night.

Forecasters say it is expected to regain strength over the Mozambique Channel, potentially returning to “intense tropical cyclone” status, classified as stage four out of five. From Friday evening, it could strike southern Mozambique, a country already grappling with severe flooding since the beginning of the year.

Cyclone season in the south-west Indian Ocean typically runs from November to April and produces around a dozen storms each year.

On Tuesday, Iran’s top security official Ali Larijani met Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq in Muscat, where the two men “discussed the latest developments in the Iranian-American negotiations” and “ways to reach a balanced and just agreement between the two sides,” according to Oman’s state news agency.

The talks followed the first US-Iran dialogue since last year’s 12‑day Iran-Israel war, underscoring that diplomacy is back on track in the Gulf.

But French think tank France2050 alleges in its report The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Infiltration in France, published late last year, that while Iran has spent years influencing US and European policy makers, it has also been building a hidden apparatus of influence in France.

The 120‑page report, submitted to France’s Interior Ministry, Senate and National Assembly, argues that Iran has maintained a “structured system of infiltration” in France for nearly half a century, with its Paris embassy acting as the hub.

It describes the mission as “the European anchor of the Revolutionary Guards’ influence operations”, combining official diplomacy with covert intelligence work, diaspora surveillance and propaganda.​

“In France, the number two of the Iranian embassy, Ali Reza Khalili, was responsible for establishing an influence network: recruiting and directing ‘agents”, whether they were aware of being manipulated or not,” the report reads.

Khalili is presented as deputy ambassador, chief of staff to the envoy and president of the Centre Franco‑Iranien, an organisation created in 2016 that has hosted conferences, cultural events and training sessions which, according to the authors, allowed Tehran to “identify and recruit potential interlocutors in academia, civil society and the media”.

Iran’s exiled opposition fractures amid climate of fear online

Recruiting grounds 

Adrian Calamel, one of the report’s co-authors, says that France’s vulnerability is rooted in a long history of contact with Iran’s revolutionary leadership.

“When you think about 47 years to grow that network, that influence…. In the United States there absolutely is influence, but not at the level that we see inside France,” he said.

The report claims several staff accredited as diplomats in Paris have been flagged by European counter‑intelligence services as officers of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) or the Quds Force, the arm of the Revolutionary Guard responsible for intelligence operations and projecting Iranian influence abroad.

The embassy is described as simultaneously “a cultural centre, a propaganda unit and a coordination office for the surveillance of the diaspora and the repression of opponents abroad”.

The report describes universities and grandes écoles – France’s elite, highly selective higher education institutions – as prime recruiting grounds.

The embassy and the Centre Franco‑Iranien offered scholarships, internships and tightly managed trips to Iran to “students or researchers demonstrating open‑mindedness toward Iranian culture,” the report says, calling this a form of influence‑orientated recruitment.

Former PM Attal says France should lead coalition to topple Iran’s leadership

Campaign of confusion

Targets for recruitment have included “young intellectuals, journalists in training or NGO activists susceptible to anti‑Western or anti‑imperialist rhetoric”.

“There’s always going to be the influence with NGOs,” said Calamel, pointing out that some operate under umbrella structures linked variously to the Islamic Republic and the Muslim Brotherhood. “Often they’re intertwined.”

He added that there “is a concern with the press, that you do have people peddling the line of the Islamic Republic – that they have a right to produce a nuclear weapon, that they have a right to nuclear energy, but that they don’t have to go through the safeguards of everybody else”.

The France 2050 report accuses the Iranian embassy of coordinating a French‑language digital campaign through accounts tied to Iran’s state broadcasters, including Press TV, Al‑Alam and Hispan TV. Cyber‑monitoring cited by the authors found recurring links between these networks and the mission’s communications unit, with some account administrators appearing at events run by Khalili’s Centre Franco‑Iranien.

The aim, the report concludes, is to “create ideological confusion, erode trust in democratic institutions and normalise the Iranian regime’s positions in the French political and media landscape”.

How Iran is enforcing an unprecedented digital blackout to crush protests

Calamel sees Iran’s information campaigns – and, more recently, complete news blackouts – as an external extension of Iran’s internal repression. He recalls that when in 2019 the authorities “shut down the internet for roughly 12 hours, security forces slaughtered 1,500 protesters”.

To quell the protests that began in December 2025, Revolutionary Guard forces killed thousands of demonstrators after Tehran shut off the internet. 

Calamel warned: “This is a regime that murdered thousands of its own people just recently, and they want to influence France. The people of France need to start pushing back against this.”

The 20-year-old Section Paloise centre is one of two changes to the starting line-up of the team that romped past Ireland 36-14 on 5 February at the Stade de France.

Brau-Boirie will begin his France career beside Section Paloise teammate Émilien Gailleton, who will be making his 12th appearance for his country.

They replace the Bordeaux-Begles duo Nicolas Depoortère and Yoram Moefana, who miss the match due to injury.

“The fact that they play together regularly, and train together, creates greater understanding, which, in those instinctive moments, whether in attack or defence, adds a special connection,” said Galthié. “It is worth taking advantage of.”

Weighing in at 98kg and standing 1.90m tall, Brau-Boirie has been on the radar of the French selectors for the last 18 months.

He took part in the training sessions for the 2025 Six Nations competition and was earmarked for last summer’s tour of New Zealand before an ankle injury ruled him out.

“He regularly establishes himself, every weekend, by his club performances,” said Galthie.

Attack coach Patrick Arlettaz has compared Brau-Boirie to former France great Yannick Jauzion, who was capped 73 times between 2001 and 2011.

“He has that kind of talent… to be understated and very effective, to make others around him play well,” Arlettaz said.

Six Nations returns for a shortened tournament with clear favourites

France on a roll

Wales and France have beaten each other 51 times apiece in their 105 previous test matches, with three draws. However, France are on a seven-match winning run in the fixture and have scored more than 40 points in each of the last three, including last season’s 43-0 drubbing in Paris.

Wales launched their campaign abysmally. England battered them 48-7 at Twickenham on 7 February.

The annihilation was the 12th successive defeat in the Six Nations tournament and the team’s 22nd in 24 tests against all opponents.

Despite the slump, Wales coach Steve Tandy has ruled out a drastic overhaul of the side.

“There’s going to be nothing knee-jerk around it,” said the 46-year-old Welshman, who became head coach in September 2025. 

“I knew this when I took the job. On Sunday, we’re going to be playing one of the best teams in the world and it’s not going to click for us overnight.

“This is part of experiencing these moments and using them as learning experiences, making sure we adapt for the coming games.”

In the other ties in the second round of matches, Ireland entertain Italy in Dublin on Saturday, before Scotland host England at Murrayfield in Edinburgh.

More than 52,000 visitors attended the event this year, with over 20,000 business meetings organised between producers and buyers.

French wine and spirit exports fell by almost 8 percent in 2025, according to the latest data from the French Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters.

Shipments to the United States were down 20 percent last year. American tariffs, currently set at 15 percent on European wine and spirits, have added strain to an industry that supports some 600,000 jobs in France.

Exports under strain

“After Covid, a lot of US importers over-purchased and now their stocks are full so they are buying less from France,” Nathan Terrigeol, who runs the Bordeaux winery Vignobles Terrigeol with his brother Quentin, told RFI.

“That phenomenon, combined with Trump’s tariffs, has seriously impacted our exports.”

Some producers say the Trump administration’s tariffs have not had as dramatic an impact on their sales as they feared.

How drinking culture, linked to French identity, can be a ’tool of exclusion’

Pierre Dietrich, founder of Pépin Wine, an organic winery whose bottles retail in the US for between $27 and $40, said his business has held up well.

“2025 was a good year for us, both in terms of the quality of the wine produced and our sales despite climate conditions not being ideal,” he said. “Our US sales are growing, despite tariffs. Yes we had to increase our prices due to tariffs but we didn’t lose many clients.”

Dietrich also pointed to trade diversification. While he sees opportunity in the Mercosur free-trade deal between the European Union and South American countries, he remains “worried for the rest of the French agricultural sector” facing what he considers unfair competition.

Climate disruption

Climate volatility remains another concern for French wine-growers. The sector has endured wildfires and hailstorms in recent years.

“We were lucky compared to other neighbouring producers,” said Terrigeol, explaining that his vineyards were spared last year from a nearby fire.

Beyond traditional markets, new opportunities are emerging.

Stuart Mugabe, a Ugandan wine importer who has attended the convention for the past three years, said demand for premium French wines remains strong in Uganda. He is also seeking organic and alcohol-free wines, noting there is “an empty space” for suppliers.

As consumption declines at home, French wine producers are seeking new markets, such as China and India, and are relying on the quality of their products to remain competitive.

Recent data shows one in two university students in France are skipping a meal each day and relying on food handouts. In response, the government is extending a 1-euro meal scheme – introduced during Covid for those on bursaries – to all university students as of May. Student union rep Marian Bloquet outlines why the problems go far beyond food. We also report from the Cop1ne community kitchen in Paris. Run by students for students, it provides cheap, home-cooked food, but also company and solidarity.  (Listen @3’20”)

As France prepares to ban children from social media, kids weigh in on their use of the platforms and how they would like to see them regulated. Cybersecurity expert Olivier Blazy considers the technical challenges and privacy issues raised by such a ban. (Listen @20’20”)

The adventurous life of the French explorer Alexandra David-Néel, who in the winter of 1924 became the first European woman to reach Lhasa, Tibet’s “forbidden city”. (Listen @14’10”)

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).

The IOC had said Heraskevych could instead wear a black armband, but the 27-year-old insisted on competing in his helmet adorned with portraits of Ukrainian athletes killed by Russia.

“There’s nothing apart from pictures of the dead on this helmet,” 41-year-old Dmytro Yasenovskyi told AFP in central Kyiv.

“What madness,” he said.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine four years ago has left hundreds of Ukrainian athletes dead, officials say, and stirred tensions at a string of international sporting events.

Gestures of a political nature during competition have been forbidden since 2021 but athletes can express their views in press conferences and on social media.

“He didn’t do anything wrong. This is not propaganda,” Yasenovskyi added.

Cizeron cools talk of defending title at 2030 Olympics, after taking gold in Milan

The IOC said earlier on Thursday the skeleton racer’s accreditation had been pulled after he was given a last chance to reconsider.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the 27-year-old and threw his weight behind his stand.

“The Olympic movement should help stop wars, not play into the hands of aggressors,” Zelensky said in a post on social media, referring to Russian, which invaded Ukraine four years ago.

“We are proud of Vladyslav and of what he did. Having courage is worth more than any medal,” Zelensky added.

Hours later, Zelensky said he was bestowing Heraskevych a state award “for selfless service to the Ukrainian people, civic courage, and patriotism in defending the ideals of freedom and democratic values.”

“Vladyslav, you acted with dignity!” Ukrainian Sports Minister Matviy Bidny wrote on social media.

‘Burn in hell’

Heraskevych can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport but CAS told AFP it had not heard from him.

Photos of Heraskevych’s father with his head in his hands – evidently heartbroken by the IOC’s decision – went viral in Ukraine.

One of the country’s leading online news portals, Ukrainska Pravda, changed its website banner to include a picture of Heraskevych and his helmet.

“I’m proud of our athlete for his stance, for not giving in even at the cost of his sporting career,” 39-year-old Ilya Zakhar told AFP in Kyiv.

And to the IOC, the IT project manager had one thing to say:

“Let them burn in hell.”

France receives conditional approval to host 2030 Winter Olympics

In 2022, days before Russia launched its invasion, Heraskevych displayed a banner that read “No War in Ukraine” at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Russian attacks in the years since have devastated towns and cities across Ukraine, displaced millions, and, according to Zelensky, has killed 660 Ukrainian athletes and coaches.

Hours before the IOC announced its decision, Russian strikes on cities across Ukraine, including Kyiv, cut critical amenities to hundreds of thousands of people.

“When people sit in such cold, without water, without heating, without electricity, then a helmet is something meaningful,” Yasenovskyi said.

“They should come and live here for a few days, and then they can talk about what’s allowed, and what’s not.”

The Loi Duplomb, named after conservative senator Laurent Duplomb who proposed it, claims to ease pressure on farmers by loosening rules on pesticide use, large-scale livestock farming and water storage projects.

Backed by the government and major farming unions, the law was passed on 8 July 2025.

It was immediately contested by some scientists, health experts and environmental groups because it reauthorised acetamiprid, part of the neonicotinoid group of pesticides banned in France in 2018 for harming bees and other pollinators.

Within days, a student-led petition denouncing the law as a “public health and environmental aberration” gathered more than 500,000 signatures. By the end of 2025, more than 2 million people had signed the petition – a record in France.

In August, opponents of the law brought it before France’s constitutional council, which ruled against reintroducing the pesticide, arguing it flouted France’s environmental charter, which guarantees the “right to live in a balanced and healthy environment”. 

However, all the other provisions in the law, such as easing authorisations for livestock farming and irrigation reservoirs, remained in place.

France’s top constitutional court rejects return of bee-killing pesticide

Brain disorders

Senator Duplomb is continuing to push for a derogation on pesticides. In early February, he submitted a revised version of the censured article maintaining the reintroduction of acetamiprid, along with another insecticide, flupyradifurone, in a limited number of cases.

“No serious study has shown that acetamiprid is carcinogenic,” Duplomb told French public radio on Monday, defending the measure and underlining that France is the only country in the EU to have banned acetamiprid.

“We are banning molecules that are authorised in Europe whereas independent agencies have shown that [acetamiprid] was dangerous neither for people nor the environment. Today in France, through a particular kind of obscurantism, we would like to have people believe the opposite.”

Chemist and toxicologist Jean-Marc Bonmatin said the lack of studies means there is no “formal proof” that acetamiprid causes cancer. However, “there are serious indications showing acetamiprid could be carcinogenic, notably for breast and testicular cancer because all neonicotinoids have been found to be endocrine disruptors,” he told RFI.

French health experts oppose bill that could reintroduce banned pesticides

There is no doubt, however, about the molecule’s impact on the brain.

“The main concern with neonicotinoids, and acetamiprid in particular, is the action of these neurotoxic molecules on the central nervous system”, Bonmatin said – adding that they affect neurodevelopment, notably in unborn babies and young children.

He pointed to “extremely important diseases” such as autistic spectrum disorders in children, and neurological disorders in the elderly.

“That’s why we scientists and doctors are taking action on this issue,” the chemist said.

In 2021, Bonmatin and colleagues at France’s Centre for scientific research (CNRS) published a list of the effects of neonicotinoids, including acetamiprid, on human health “so that doctors can recognise the symptoms of poisoning and the cases”.

While scientists often invoke the principle of precaution when studies are not clear, Bonmatin says that in this case the principle of prevention has to apply.

“We know very well what these pesticides will do to the population, to biodiversity, to the environment, so we have an obligation to protect people from future illnesses,” he said.

Even the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) – often cited by supporters of acetamiprid – said in 2024 that there were “major uncertainties in the body of evidence for the developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) properties of acetamiprid”.

It proposed reducing the acceptable daily intake by a factor of five.

French health watchdog warns of pesticide dangers to young children

Existing alternatives 

Duplomb said the revised law would allow the use of the pesticide only where farmers have no alternative.

“We have focused on those sectors that INRAE considers to be in a complete dead end – where plant protection products are the only solution, such as hazelnuts, apples, cherries and sugar beet,” he said on Monday – referring to the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment.

The Loi Duplomb is backed by France’s largest farming union, the FNSEA, which is dominated by large cereal and sugar beet farmers and agribusinesses. It says sugar beet farmers in particular have no alternative to neonicotinoids when faced with the jaundice virus transmitted by aphids.

Bonmartin cites a 2021 report by Anses – France’s food, environmental and occupational health and safety body – which specifically adressed the sugar beet issue and which found there were in fact around 20 alternatives.

“There are even varieties of sugar beet that resist the jaundice disease transmitted by flies,” he said. “So saying there is no alternative amounts to fake news to allow the reintroduction of neonicotinoids.”

“When the FNSEA says there is no alternative what they mean is that there is no alternative as easy as using pesticides.

“So the choice is either I take the easier solution through pesticides – the worst in terms of poisoning people – or I use alternatives and I preserve the environment, biodiversity and public health.”

France moves to ease pesticide ban to save sugar beet farmers

‘Farmers are main victims’

The Loi Duplomb was presented as a way to “lift the constraints on the profession of agriculture” in response to farmers’ protests in January 2024. One of their key demands was simpler rules and less paperwork.

Supporting the law, the FNSEA has denounced unfair competition linked to France’s ban on some pesticides and weedkillers allowed in other EU countries.

Other unions, including the Confédération paysanne, which represents smaller farmers and supports an agroecological transition, oppose the bill.

Eve Fouilleux, a researcher at the Centre for Agricultural Research for Development (Cirad), says farmers themselves are the main victims of pesticides, but they’re not always aware of the danger.

She said the issue is not regulations but agricultural economics.

“The root of the problem is income – the price paid to farmers – the economic system is crushing them,” she told RFI. “When you spend €100 on food in the supermarket, only €6.90 goes to the farmer.

“It’s a system where farmers are being asked to produce more and more with very little added value. So for them, pesticides are a guarantee of being able to produce a few percent more yield. And what is tragic is that this few percent means a little more money for them, but it’s a disaster for the groundwater, for water quality and for taxpayers’ bills.”

Fouilleux cited surveys showing farmers are “overwhelmingly in favour of the ecological transition in agriculture, but they’re asking for support”.

While the French government is spending a lot of money on the food system, 60 percent goes to manufacturers, supermarkets and commercial caterers, she explained.

Around 20 percent goes to farmers through subsidies from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), but these are paid per acre. “So the bigger you are, the more support you get.”

Fouilleux said the existing productivist system contributes to the economic marginalisation of farmers in the food system. “That’s the problem, it’s not about standards at all. It’s really a discursive strategy by the FNSEA union, which is in fact run by agri-food industrialists,” she said.

Why are French farmers angry and who will reap the rewards?

Economic interests

Duplomb himself is a large dairy farmer and a senior member of the FNSEA union. He is also a former agro-industry executive.

From 2014 to 2017 he was regional president of the dairy group Sodiaal – a major French cooperative that owns brands such as Yoplait, Candia and others – and has been a member of Candia’s supervisory board.

“There’s a conflict of interest. He defends bills that will benefit his farm,” said Guillaume Gontard, president of the Senate’s environmentalist group. “He’s a representative of agribusiness who lives off exports.”

The environmental NGO Terre de Liens has described the Duplomb law as “tailor-made for FNSEA and agro-industry”.

“Duplomb has very strong ties to the agrochemical industry,” Bonmatin said. “There’s a denial of scientific facts in favour of economic interests.”

“He’s chosen private economic interest, he’s not defending the farming community at all. To do so, you just have to help it make the necessary transitions.”

Opponents of the Iranian regime living abroad say that rather than uniting in an effort to change realities on the ground, they are splitting and turning on each other.

A minority has created what some describe as a climate of fear – particularly on social media – targeting anyone who voices disagreement.

“It’s tough right now,” British-Iranian anthropologist Pardis Shafafi, who researches state violence and political repression in Iran, told Norwegian news site Filter Nyheter.

Shafafi, a member of the EHESS, a Paris-based academic research centre, said she did not expect her comments to trigger attacks from a pro-monarchist group in Europe.

She described heightened activism from radical fringes of the opposition in exile.

“When you post things online, it’s very common for a stranger to question you about yourself and the people you follow,” she said. “And it very often spirals into accusations of espionage.”

Shafafi is not the only one reporting this pattern: blacklists and death threats issued against journalists or researchers accused of being propagandists.

EU blacklists Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation

Hiding in silence

Whether monarchist, left-wing, nationalist or Islamist, opposition figures abroad continue to tear each other apart.

In France, several public figures of Iranian origin have described – publicly or anonymously –receiving threats after speaking out in ways seen as too sympathetic to the Iranian regime. One filed a complaint against unknown individuals over death threats but declined to give an interview.

Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s former king and the best-known opposition figure abroad, has tried to distance himself from the most radical voices in the monarchist camp. But those voices have succeeded in creating a toxic climate.

Self-censorship is spreading among opponents.

“The majority is hiding in silence, out of fear,” said Aïda Tavakoli, a French-Iranian activist and founder of We Are Iranian Students, a non-partisan secular organisation linked to student opposition groups in Iran.

The activist told RFI she can detect in the most extreme positions taken by some – “a minority”, she said – the immense pain of experiencing grief from a distance, mixed with survivor’s guilt and the absence of a place to channel anger.

How much is China willing to risk to protect its ties with Iran?

Prison scars

“Many activists now in exile were imprisoned by the Islamic Republic,” Shafafi said. “For these people, contradiction is not just a narrative disagreement. It is the denial of the most traumatic event that happened to them.”

Shafafi is the author of The Long Iranian Revolution – State Violence and Silenced Histories, due to be published in June.

Extreme polarisation within the opposition is also fuelled by an inability to agree on the legacy of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But after the worst repression ever experienced by modern Iran, some want to believe in a resurgence.

“I have many more people from all political sides – monarchists, republicans, left-wing, right-wing, feminists and non-feminists – contacting me to ask whether we could find unity because we don’t recognise ourselves in the extremes on either side,” Tavakoli said.

At a conference in Paris last week, Tavakoli recognised some of the people behind violent comments posted on social media. “They came to thank me and said it helped them to understand that our disagreement is not personal violence,” she told RFI.

Iran declares European armies ‘terrorist groups’ in tit-for-tat move

Cyber pressure

It is all the more important to work to overcome disagreements, Shafafi said, because the authorities exploit them.

“A large part of these conflicts is a smokescreen created by trolls working for the regime,” she said. “It equips and finances this cyber-army to ensure the opposition remains fragmented and to discredit anyone who manages to rally support.

“We saw this pattern in 2022 and it is important to remember it. What the regime fears most is a popular and united movement that is coherent and capable of opposing it.”

This story was adapted from the original version in French by Aabla Jounaïdi

Congolese lawyers and human rights defenders filed a petition on 21 January arguing the agreement should have been approved by parliament and may even require a referendum under the constitution.

Last Thursday, Trump praised Tshisekedi at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington – a gathering of US political leaders and foreign dignitaries – calling him a “good guy”.

Asking Tshisekedi to stand up and be applauded as a strong partner to the United States, Trump added that he was a “very brave and wonderful man”.

The praise came two months after Congo and the United States signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement on critical minerals, linked to the Washington Accords, a US-brokered peace deal between Congo and Rwanda signed on 4 December by Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

Minerals and security

The move gives the US preferential access to Congolese minerals including cobalt and coltan – which are essential for batteries, electronics and defence manufacturing.

Washington says the arrangement will help stabilise eastern Congo while reducing US reliance on China for critical minerals.

In early February, the United States stepped up efforts to secure critical mineral supply chains. Secretary of State Marco Rubio convened 54 countries and the European Commission for talks on critical minerals, attended by Tshisekedi and six other African delegations.

Last December, while celebrating his “America First” foreign policy, Trump told supporters: “I actually stopped the war with Congo and Rwanda. And they said to me, ‘Please, please, we would love you to come and take our minerals.’ Which we’ll do.”

The agreement has triggered debate in Congo about sovereignty, oversight and who benefits from the country’s mineral wealth.

RFI spoke to Maurice Carney, who heads Friends of the Congo, a Washington-based organisation supporting the Congolese lawyers and civil-society groups behind the constitutional challenge.

RFI: The Trump administration is selling this agreement as a big win for both the Americans and the Congolese. Trump said Tshisekedi and he signed the largest minerals deal in US-Africa history. How is it violating the Congolese constitution?

Maurice Carney: It violates various aspects of the constitution, in particular section 214, which states that international agreements should go through the Congolese parliament and may even be subjected to a referendum. The lawyers are arguing that this never happened.

It hasn’t been presented to parliament, even though the agreement calls for changes in Congo’s laws, fiscal policy, mining laws and quite possibly constitutional changes.If you look at what has unfolded over the past year in Congo’s market, the Congolese government instituted a ban on cobalt because it felt the Chinese were flooding the market and wanted to rein in cobalt exports, which it was able to do successfully.

Now, according to this agreement with the United States, if Congo wanted to do that again in the future, it would be required to report quarterly to the US ambassador in Kinshasa about any fiscal or trade policy changes it would like to make. It would also have to be presented to the Joint Steering Committee for discussion and consensus.

The Joint Steering Committee of this agreement is made up of five US representatives and five DRC representatives.

RFI: Is Trump or the Trump family personally gaining from the strategic partnership agreement with DRC, given reports documenting how Trump and his family have profited since his accession to the White House, reaping billions shadowed by conflicts of interest?

MC: I know there are groups here in Washington doing investigative work to see whether Trump and his family are benefiting, but they haven’t released their reports yet.

We do know that people close to him are lined up to benefit from some of these investments. For example, Bloomberg News has reported that former campaign finance co-chair Gentry Beach, who runs a company in Texas, is preparing to invest in the Rubaya coltan mines currently under occupation by the M23 and Rwandan soldiers.

RFI: China is made to look like a big bad wolf, thriving in eastern DRC’s unstable environment, according to Congressman Ronny Jackson, keeping American companies out by colluding with Kinshasa to impose unreasonable taxes on them. How fair and sustainable do you think the US will be compared with China?

MC: That’s a good question. I think the characterisation of China is really a mischaracterization because China has just been ahead of the United States. It has been willing to go into the Congo where the United States has not.

The United States had one of the largest copper and cobalt mines in the Congo through its company Freeport McMoRan and had ownership of the Tenke Fungurume mines. They sold them on the market and China bought them.

So the US is trying to play catch up. We don’t know the extent to which it will be successful. But certainly, China hasn’t been a bad actor.

It has done business with the Congolese government and negotiated with the Congolese government. That’s what there is to it.

As for the agreement that’s been signed, the United States has laws and standards, and we don’t see them being applied. For example, when entering into agreements abroad around minerals, we usually seek prior and informed consent from local communities. Local communities in Congo have been excluded from all these discussions.

There are questions of labour rights, human rights and environmental rights, and we haven’t seen any of those pursued by the United States before any of these deals have been signed or money has been distributed.

Some 50 members of Congress wrote to Trump in 2025 calling on the administration to address how the minerals-for-security agreement would deal with labour, human rights, environmental protections and informed consent from local communities. We haven’t seen a response to that letter.

RFI: How is Congo’s rapprochement with Washington affecting relations with China?

MC: China hasn’t said much, and I’m not sure there’s much that can be said.

The Chinese do business differently on a global scale than the United States. They confine themselves mostly to business transactions, economics and trade, whereas the United States gets involved in politics.

RFI: How is that going to translate on the ground, in terms of China’s presence in DRC?

MC: At the moment, it’s a status quo. China got its deals.

The deals aren’t being challenged by the DRC government. In fact, one of the big questions before the agreement was made public was what the DRC had to offer, considering China controls about 80 percent of the copper and cobalt mines in the Congo.

You see that the United States is not able to encroach on those deals, other than the aspect of the strategic partnership agreement that says Congo can offer its minority stake in existing deals.

If you look at the deals being established, the US government has had to, for example with the Orion and Glencore deal, establish joint partnerships.

In fact, the US doesn’t even have mining companies there. They’re setting up and trying to catch up. China is in the pole position, so to speak.

The big question is whether the United States will be able to catch up. China is far ahead, not only in minerals extraction but also in processing and refining across the supply chain.

RFI: Is the US government investing more than American private companies in DRC through this agreement?

MC: Absolutely. The US government is taking the lead and investing in two areas. One is the mines for critical minerals. The second is infrastructure to ship those minerals out, particularly through the Lobito Corridor in Angola.

What we see unfolding is not just memorandums of understanding and agreements, but money and investment flowing directly from the US government. We’re up to around 3.8 billion dollars lined up to be invested through the International Development Finance Corporation.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity

Svalbard is often described as the fastest-warming place on the planet. Located close to the North Pole, the archipelago sits on the front line of climate change, a position that has drawn scientists from around the world for decades.

For years, a unique legal status allowed Svalbard to function as a model of global cooperation. But as Arctic ice retreats and geopolitical competition intensifies, the territory is newly vulnerable.

Recent tensions linked to the possibility of a US annexation of Greenland, less than 500 kilometres to the west, have fuelled concern in Norway’s media and political circles. Could Svalbard be next?

“Norway has not faced a security situation this serious since 1945,” Eivind Vad Petersson, a senior official at Norway’s foreign ministry, told The New York Times. “When Greenland is hit by a political storm, Svalbard is inevitably splashed as well.”

Svalbard’s sensitivity lies in its legal framework. The Spitsbergen Treaty, signed in Paris in 1920 after the First World War, recognises Norwegian sovereignty over the archipelago, located more than 900 kilometres north of mainland Norway.

At the same time, the treaty strictly limits Oslo’s authority. Citizens of signatory states are placed on an equal footing when it comes to access and activity in Svalbard – including hunting, fishing, mining and land ownership.

Initially signed by around 10 countries including France, Denmark, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan and Italy, the treaty now counts nearly 40 signatories. They include Russia, China and North Korea, whose citizens can settle in Svalbard without a visa.

For decades, this system underpinned what many saw as an Arctic laboratory of cooperation. Nowhere symbolised this more than Ny-Alesund, a small research community hosting Chinese, Korean, Franco-German and Japanese scientific stations.

“Svalbard became a hub for research, exchange and the study of climate change. It’s a place where international scientific cooperation can really happen,” Florian Vidal, a researcher at the Arctic Institute of Norway in Tromso, told RFI.

Today, the archipelago – roughly the size of Croatia – has about 2,700 residents, mainly in Longyearbyen, the world’s northernmost town. A study published in January found there are fewer people there than polar bears.

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

Strategic ambitions take shape

In recent years, the Arctic as a region has become more politically charged. Once seen as remote, it has become a key arena of international competition at a time when the global order is shifting.

Security concerns, new maritime routes and access to resources have all raised Svalbard’s profile. Seabeds around the archipelago are believed to contain copper, zinc, cobalt, lithium and rare earths – seen as strategic for new technologies and the energy transition.

While extraction is limited by moratoriums, several major powers, including China and the US, are already looking further ahead.

Russia has played a central role in the rising pressure. “Tensions around Svalbard have existed since the 2010s, but they clearly accelerated after the annexation of Crimea and then with the war in Ukraine,” Vidal said.

In February 2024, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev warned that Moscow would fight for its “rights” in Svalbard, invoking the need to defend its “sovereignty” over the archipelago, in rhetoric echoing language used to justify the war in Ukraine.

The message was repeated in November, when Trutnev again stressed Svalbard’s strategic importance for Russia and the need to maintain a stronger presence, particularly through the state mining company Arktikugol.

Russia maintains two settlements on Svalbard – Barentsburg and Pyramiden, home to several hundred Russian citizens. Officially tied to coal mining, the sites are remnants of the Soviet era, with the mine in Pyramiden closing at the end of the 1990s.

“The Russians are artificially maintaining the Barentsburg mine to justify keeping a presence,” Vidal said.

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

Testing Norway’s red lines

In recent years, these communities have become the stage for symbolic gestures viewed by Oslo as provocative.

In Barentsburg, where the Russian flag flies, a parade was held in 2023 to mark Victory Day on 9 May, celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany. There were no weapons, but the military-style staging and symbols were seen by Norwegian authorities as a political message.

Vidal also pointed to the use of security vehicles with visual codes close to those of Russian forces, and to the growing prominence of the Russian Orthodox Church. A full-time priest has been permanently based in Barentsburg since March 2025.

This helps anchor Svalbard in an image of “Russian land”, Vidal said. “These episodes fit into a logic of hybrid warfare. The Russians are testing the limits of Norway’s sovereignty over the archipelago.”

The message, he added, is unambiguous: “The Russians are there, and they are not leaving.”

Svalbard also holds military significance for Moscow. Nuclear submarines from Russia’s Northern Fleet, the country’s main Arctic naval force, are based in Severomorsk in northwest Russia and must pass near the archipelago to reach the Atlantic, making it a key transit point.

France to open Greenland consulate amid Trump takeover threats

Oslo reasserts control

Faced with these signals, Norway has moved to reassert its authority without formally challenging the 1920 treaty. In a strong symbolic move, King Harald V visited Svalbard in June for the first time in 30 years.

“America has gone mad in the Arctic and Russia does not respect the independence of its neighbours. It is very important to send the king to mark the kingdom’s supremacy over its distant territories,” Norwegian daily newspaper Verdens Gang said.

“There is a form of nationalism around Svalbard on the Norwegian side, it’s a very sensitive issue,” Vidal said.

Norway has also strengthened coastguard patrols around the archipelago. Moscow has protested, arguing this violates the treaty’s ban on military use.

While permanent militarisation is prohibited, naval patrols are not explicitly banned – a legal grey area Norway now relies on.

Administrative controls have also tightened. Local voting rights have been restricted to foreigners who have lived for several years on mainland Norway, and land sales to non-Norwegians have been banned.

Scientific research is now more closely supervised, with projects requiring approval from Oslo. “We are seeing a gradual extension of Norwegian prerogatives,” Vidal said, describing a “Russian-Norwegian ping pong game”.

Rare earths mining feud at heart of Greenland’s snap elections

Pressure from multiple sides

China’s presence is also viewed with growing caution. Beijing has been a signatory to the Spitsbergen Treaty since 1925, and has operated a research station in Ny-Alesund since 2004.

Officially dedicated to polar science, the station is suspected by Norwegian and US authorities of carrying out research with potential dual use.

Two granite lion statues have become a symbol of friction, with China refusing Oslo’s requests to remove them. In summer 2024, more than 180 Chinese tourists arrived in Ny-Alesund, displaying national symbols.

One woman posed in military-style clothing in front of the statues, triggering diplomatic unease.

Norwegian authorities have also, for the first time, denied Chinese students access to the University Centre in Svalbard, citing security risks.

Svalbard has also long been a point of tension between Norway and the European Union. Several EU member states contest fishing quotas and permits imposed by Oslo around the archipelago, arguing they breach the treaty’s principle of equality.

The EU has also raised concerns over Norway’s seabed prospecting campaigns near Svalbard.

Against this backdrop, tensions surrounding Greenland have revived fears of imitation. If US President Donald Trump were to seize Greenland in defiance of international law, could Russia feel justified in challenging the status quo in Svalbard?

“We are not in a critical phase, but in a crisis that is gradually building,” Vidal said.

One strategic question remains unresolved. In the event of an attack, would NATO’s Article 5 – its collective defence clause – apply to an archipelago with demilitarised status?

Aware of this uncertainty, Norway has stepped up political signalling in recent years, including hosting delegations from NATO’s parliamentary assembly in Svalbard, without ever securing a formal guarantee.

This article has been adapted from the original version in French by Aurore Lartigue

The US Justice Department last week published nearly 3 million government documents related to Epstein, who was convicted in 2008 for soliciting a minor and died in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.

The mere mention of someone’s name in the files does not, in itself, imply wrongdoing. However, the documents show connections between Epstein or his circle and some public figures who had downplayed or denied such ties.

Political contacts

Several French personalities appear in the latest files, reflecting Epstein’s repeated efforts to build links with political leaders.

He asked several contacts whether they had connections to President Emmanuel Macron, former economy minister Bruno Le Maire or former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

A review of emails by the French news agency AFP showed that businessman Olivier Colom, an adviser to Sarkozy from 2007-2012, corresponded regularly with Epstein from 2013-2018 while working at a bank.

Colom sought to facilitate political networking and organised a 2013 meeting between Epstein and his superior at the bank.

In a June 2013 exchange, Epstein compared women to “shrimp”, saying “you throw away the head and keep the body”.

AFP said it was not immediately able to reach Colom for comment. An initial search of the archive found no direct correspondence between Epstein and Sarkozy.

France uncovers Russian disinformation campaign falsely linking Macron to Epstein

Film director meeting

French film director Michel Hazanavicius first met Epstein at a dinner in Paris in March 2012, one month after his film The Artist won the top prize at the Oscars.

They exchanged emails until January 2014, with Epstein suggesting meetings in Paris or New York, though the director often replied that he was busy.

Hazanavicius said he “twice met the guy”, after being introduced through director Woody Allen.

“At one point he asked me if I knew a nice, smart girl, and that’s when Berenice told me ‘never again, you have to run away from that guy’,” he said.

The director said he and his partner, actor Bérénice Bejo, decided not to see Epstein again, adding he had “no idea who he was”.

Public explanations

French mathematician and former MP Cédric Villani told the newspaper Libération this week about meeting Epstein in October 2017.

“He presented himself as a close friend of Donald Trump,” Villani said. Epstein wanted to fund “a mathematics prize related to biology and complexity.”

Villani said he did not know about Epstein’s earlier conviction at the time.

On Thursday, former culture minister Jack Lang was summoned to the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs to explain his links with Epstein.

Lang’s daughter Caroline resigned Monday as head of a film producers’ union after revelations about the family’s connections to Epstein.

No charges have been brought against the Lang family. On Wednesday, Lang ruled out stepping down as head of the Institut du monde arabe (Arab World Institute), a cultural institution he has led since 2013.

A source close to President Macron said Lang should “think of the institution”.

Jack Lang’s daughter steps down from film post over Epstein revelations

Disinformation claims

French authorities said Friday they had detected a Russia-linked disinformation campaign alleging Macron’s involvement with Epstein.

France’s Viginum agency, which counters foreign disinformation campaigns, detected Wednesday the operation involving a fabricated article “accusing President Emmanuel Macron of being involved in the ‘Epstein affair'”, a government source told AFP.

The article appeared on a website falsely using the identity of the French media organisation France-Soir. The source said the Storm-1516 project was behind the operation spreading fabricated content.

(with newswires)

“I’m not anti-alcohol, I just want more tolerance,” says journalist and writer Claire Touzard, who stopped drinking in 2020 and later published a best-selling book about her experiences.

“It’s a norm to drink in France. And if you don’t fit in, there’s suspicion. ‘Are you anti-French? Do you have psychiatric issues?’ We don’t like people who don’t drink because they disturb the French party.”

Touzard grew up in a family of bon vivants where alcohol, especially wine, had a very positive image. After all, it wasn’t until 1956 that the French government finally banned wine in school canteens, and even then it was only for the under-14s.

 At the height of her drinking, she was downing a bottle and several beers a day. She decided to quit when she realised it was all about forgetting pain, rather than enjoyment.

She describes drinking as “a nationalist thing – we have to drink, we have to eat saucisson”.

“It’s a test for some communities who don’t drink because of their religion or culture. It becomes a way to judge whether you’re ‘really’ French,” she says, pointing to increasing intolerance on the part of the far right.

“We like to think drinking alcohol is about conviviality, but for me it’s a tool of exclusion.”

People make a living out of wine, but it’s also killing them: welcome to the French paradox

Cultural backlash

France’s drinking culture is changing – some 4.5 million people say they tried out Dry January last year, while one in five say they never drink and more than 60 percent no longer drink on a weekly basis.

However, unlike many EU countries, France has never endorsed Dry January – where people try and abstain for a month. In 2023, President Emmanuel Macron even publicly declined to support it, affirming that he drinks wine daily.

France is Europe’s largest wine producer, and wine remains its second most valuable export after luxury goods, so there’s also economic pressure to defend the industry.

With wine consumption falling by 22 percent between 2022-2024 and worries over tariff hikes on exports to the US, calls to put the brakes on drinking are seen by some as a both an economic and cultural threat. 

This year, Vin et Société, the main wine and spirits lobby, launched a counter-Dry January campaign “French January” promoting moderation rather than abstinence, and warning of the dangers of  “health moralism”.

Some trade groups have gone further, accusing Dry January of undermining France’s famed joie de vivre.

Vintage moment as French wine magazine crowns Macron ‘personality of the year’

Listen to a report on this story in the Spotlight on France podcast

Pressure to drink

Le Social Bar in central Paris offers a glimpse of a different, but no less social, drinking culture.

Throughout January the venue went alcohol-free, serving beers, fruit shots, and playful mocktails while hosting DJ sets, karaoke and debates.

“The aim is to prove that we can have great parties, without alcohol,” says project manager Cécile Cabon.

Le Social Bar opened a decade ago and Cabon says they’ve noticed every day “that when people get together and sociability is really a the heart of the experience, it has the same effect as alcohol“. 

While a group of 20-somethings enjoy a karaoke session in the basement, Laurène, 32, is having an elderflower spritz in the bar.  “It’s such a difference – they have real alcohol-free cocktails, not just a virgin mojito,” she says. 

She gave up alcohol six months ago for mental health reasons and appreciates being taken seriously as a non-drinker.

But, she says, that’s not the case at work, where she feels under pressure to drink.

“In French corporate culture, you’re expected to be social, to chat. So people often drink a lot at work.” Since she quit, colleagues who once saw her as “the party girl” feel awkward around her.

Binge drinking still a worry in France despite drop in daily consumption

National blind spot

Journalist Vincent Edin tried his hand at Dry January and hopes to cut down his heavy alcohol consumption. He believes French society still indulges heavy drinking.

“We don’t have alcoholics in France,” he says, sarcastically. “Alcoholics are people lying on the street. Everyone else is just a shiny, happy person who likes to party.”

Although official guidelines say more than 10 drinks a week is problematic, he says few people are ever challenged. “No one ever told me I had a problem,” he says, even when he was drinking two or three times that amount.

The most recent data shows 41,000 deaths a year in France are linked to alcohol-related diseases, including 11,000 among women.

The cost of this is an estimated €102 billion annually when factoring in healthcare, lost productivity, accidents and other costs, according to the Observatory for Drug and Alcohol Addiction (OFDT).

Alcohol also aggravates gender-based and sexual violence. “Rape culture is a problem. Alcohol doesn’t help – it’s present in femicides, in rapes, in all gender-based violence,” says Touzard.

While public health experts confirm that alcohol impairs judgment and self-control and is a major risk factor in domestic and sexual violence, “it’s really hidden by our government because they want us to be the country of wine,” Touzard believes.

Campaigns on the dangers of heavy drinking tends to focus on pregnant women and young people, she says, rather than being aimed at men – and yet middle-aged male professionals are the biggest drinkers. “It’s protecting patriarchy, men and French values.”

France has committed to the fight against tobacco addiction, but Edin argues it lacks the political will to tackle alcoholism head on. 

“You can’t be a major political figure without drinking,” he says, noting not only Macron’s public enthusiasm for wine, but that all recent French presidents, barring Nicolas Sarkozy, openly supported France’s wine and beer industries.

Dilemma for French winemakers as alcohol content rises while consumption falls

Generational shift

Edin describes France as an “increasingly polarised society”, with a growing generational divide around the issue of alcohol.

“I see that 43 percent of 25 to 34-year-olds are doing Dry January and they’re saying they’re very aware that they have to slow down,” while the older generation remains attached to alcohol in the name of tradition.

However, he says he has seen progress in terms of tolerance. “It used to be only Muslim people and pregnant women who didn’t drink. Now, when we see young men and women who don’t want to drink, we don’t make as many jokes.”

Touzard also takes heart in the younger generation’s willingness to cut down. “It’s also a way of saying they want French culture to evolve. I see it as a political movement.”

When Le Social Bar went “dry” in January, it noticed its clientele was a bit younger – people in their 20s to 30s – and more female. It aims to become permanently alcohol-free, but will have to work on its business model, since takings for January were down by 40 percent.

“We had the same number of people, but they [drink] less,” notes Cabon. “And that’s OK  – you don’t need to drink 10 pints of ‘dry’ beer.”

The venue will continue to be alcohol-free on Wednesdays and is exploring partnerships and ticketed events to support a full transition.

Listen to a version of this story on the Spotlight on France podcast, episode 139.

It is a challenge that has long dogged the European Union, but has gained greater urgency because of geopolitical turbulence, intensified global competition and an economy that lags behind bigger powers.

The leaders of the bloc’s 27 countries will try to bridge their differences on how to transform the European economy at the 16th century Alden Biesen castle, guided by a landmark report published 18 months ago.

“The urgency could not be greater. We are fighting for a place in the new global economy,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen told industry chiefs Wednesday.

French President Emmanuel Macron doubled down, warning the bloc needed to act at “a new scale and new speed” to stop the “fragmentation, weakening and probably the humiliation of Europe.”

Macron warns Europe risks being ‘swept aside’ by US and China

Macron also renewed a call for joint EU debt – a divisive idea among European capitals – as the “only way” to compete with China and the United States.

The European Commission president will be promoting a host of solutions at Thursday’s talks – including a French-backed “Buy European” push, “simplifying” EU rules and striking more deals to diversify trading partners.

The “European preference” proposal will likely be the source of fierce debate during the meeting as several countries including Sweden and the Netherlands – proponents of free trade – caution against veering into protectionism.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said it should be a “last resort”.

The commission also believes creating a new legal system for businesses outside of the scope of member states – the so-called 28th regime – would make it easier for companies to work across the 27 countries.

Deepening the single market

But von der Leyen and many in the EU believe the real answer is deeper integration of the single market, as argued in the milestone report by former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi.

“A 28th regime is a neat idea, but true single market integration is needed, and there are no shortcuts in getting there,” said Varg Folkman, a policy analyst at the European Policy Centre (EPC) think tank.

Draghi’s report will not be the only report leaders will be leaning on.

After Draghi speaks to the leaders in the morning, they will then hear from Italian ex-premier Enrico Letta, who has called for deeper integration, including a savings and investments union to help companies access capital.

Unlike their American rivals, European companies face challenges accessing capital to scale up despite the fact that Europe is home to some of the world’s biggest economies including Germany and France.

How Svalbard went from from Arctic outpost to geopolitical flashpoint

Directing EU money to Europeans

Billed as a “strategic brainstorming,” Thursday’s talks were not expected to produce immediate action.

Diplomats said the meeting will be dominated by two issues: energy prices and the “Buy European” drive.

Von der Leyen backed the call for public buyers to favour European firms, and said the EU executive would propose a law on European preference this month.

“We will introduce specific EU content requirements for strategic sectors,” she said. “Let us direct more European money to our European industries.”

EPC’s Folkman warned the EU against “unmitigated protectionism”.

“The bloc must push back against the US and China, but it must not do so at the cost of alienating global partners,” he said.

Their verdict will shape the political future of Le Pen, who has said she will give up her ambition to become France’s first female president if she loses her appeal.

In March 2025, the three-time presidential candidate was found guilty of misusing EU funds through a fake-jobs scam.

During the trial in 2024, Le Pen, the RN and 23 party figures were accused of diverting European Parliament money to pay staff between 2004 and 2016, when the party was known as the National Front (FN).

The total amount embezzled was €4.4 million, of which €1.1 million has been reimbursed.

Le Pen was sentenced to four years in prison, with two to be served under electronic tagging, and barred from political activity for five years, enforceable immediately.

During the appeal hearings, Le Pen’s lawyers called for her acquittal, saying the court’s decision could determine whether she can run in the 2027 presidential election.

“Here we are on the eve of an election that is of the utmost importance for the country,” said defence lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut. “But this presidential election makes the judgment that you will have to hand down dizzying.”

Prosecutors said they want the original sentence upheld, including a €100,000 fine.

“The earlier the decision was handed down, the better off I was,” Le Pen told journalists at the end of the hearing in Paris on Wednesday. “We’ll deal with the date. I understand that the judges are taking their time. It’s an appeal court and there’s no room for error.”

French court rejects Le Pen’s challenge to electoral rules

Political reactions

RN president Jordan Bardella is likely to be chosen as the party’s presidential candidate if Le Pen cannot run for a fourth time.

After her sentence last year, he appeared on French television and radio to criticise what he called a democratic scandal.

“Everything will be done to prevent us from coming to power,” he told CNews-Europe 1.

In the same interview, Bardella criticised the judges while condemning threats and insults directed at them after the ruling.

One of France’s top judges told broadcaster RTL that complaints about judges could lead to legal action.

“Justice is not political,” said Rémy Heitz, public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation.

“This is not a political decision but a judicial one, handed down by three independent, impartial judges… in accordance with the law, in application of texts voted for by lawmakers. The highly personalised attacks on judges are inadmissible. The threats may be the subject of criminal proceedings.”

The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) confirmed to French news agency AFP that it had requested a trial before the criminal court for six of the accused, and a hearing before the juvenile court for a seventh, who was a minor at the time of the alleged offences.

Information seen by AFP indicates that the serving soldier is suspected of having obtained weapons from the retired police officer, then reselling them to individuals linked to the far right.

In a Telegram messaging group, some of the suspects allegedly discussed potential targets, including mosques, while the soldier proposed organising a combat training course.

“The threat posed by radical violent far-right networks is receiving our close attention,” the Pnat told AFP, adding that it was “fuelled by the climate of anxiety” prevalent in certain parts of society.

French suspect in racist killing indicted for murder as act of terrorism

The prosecutor’s office noted a “steady growth” in judicial cases involving far-right extremism.

In 2025, three such cases involved foiled attacks, as well as a racially motivated assault in Puget-sur-Argens, southern France, in which Tunisian hairdresser Hichem Miraoui was killed.

Other investigations have focused on members of the so-called “incel” community with plans to target women, and on survivalist movements.

France urged to act as rising masculinism flagged as security threat

In the current case, prosecutors have sought charges for terrorist conspiracy and weapons offences, though they concluded that the retired officer’s role appeared primarily “mercantile”.

The final decision on whether to proceed to trial lies with the investigating magistrate.

(with newswires)

Fabrice Aidan, a former French foreign affairs employee, is mentioned in more than 200 files released by the US Department of Justice last month as part of its ongoing Epstein probe. His current employer, energy provider Engie, told French press agency AFP that Aidan “was suspended from his duties, due to information brought to the company’s attention and reported in certain media outlets, relating to a period prior to his joining the group.”

The documents reportedly include emails exchanged between Aidan and Epstein from 2010 to 2016, some involving the transfer of United Nations briefings and reports.

Former French culture minister Lang summoned to explain Epstein ties

Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said he had referred the allegations to prosecutors and ordered an internal inquiry, calling the revelations “staggering” and “extremely serious”.

A search of the Epstein files, published by the US Department of Justice, reveals that Aidan’s name appears 211 times in different documents and emails, many of them in connection to Terje Rod-Larsen, a former Norwegian and president of the International Peace Institute (IPI), who also features in the Epstein files.

As a result, Rod-Larson is currently also under investigation on suspicion of complicity in gross corruption, together with his wife, Mona Juul, who was Norway’s ambassador to the United Nations in 2022. Both Norwegians were part of a small group of diplomats working on the 1993-1995 Oslo accords. According to Norwegian medai, Epstein left $10 million in his will to the children of Juul and Rod-Larsen.

President Emmanuel Macron is said to be “appalled” by the findings.

Aidan is alleged to have sent UN Security Council documents and meeting notes — including a readout of a call between former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Turkey’s foreign minister — to Epstein while posted at the UN headquarters in New York. In one exchange, he reportedly requested the access codes to Epstein’s Paris apartment.

Former French minister Lang resigns from Arab World Institute over Epstein ties

Gerard Araud, France’s UN ambassador at the time, told French press agency AFP the diplomat had been recalled to Paris in 2013 after the FBI informed UN security services that Aidan had accessed child pornography websites.

Aidan later worked for UNESCO and French energy group Engie, which said it has terminated his employment “in light of information reported in the media”.

The latest disclosures come amid widening fallout from the US release of Epstein-related material, which has already prompted former French minister Jack Lang to resign from the Arab World Institute.

(With newswires)

In Beijing in 2022, Cizeron won the title with Gabriella Papadakis four years after the duo took the silver at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

“I’m still in shock,” Cizeron told French broadcaster Franceinfo. “Laurence and I came together only a year ago because of our love for the sport and our affection for each other.

“We’ve had the Milan Winter Olympic Games as the target for the last year and we’ve only been thinking about that,” he added. “It’s a bit soon to be talking about the 2030 Games in France. But we’ll think about it.”

Cizeron, 31, and his 33-year-old partner, who was born in Canada, notched up a season-high score of 90.18 points in the rhythm dance section on Monday to give themselves a slight lead over Chock and Bates, who entered the Winter Olympics as world champions.

Skating last on Wednesday night, Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry concluded their competition with a routine set to the soundtrack of the 2022 film The Whale. They finished 1.43 points ahead of Chock and Bates.

Beijing Winter Olympics opening downplays geopolitical uncertainty

“It’s definitely a bittersweet feeling at the moment,” said Chock, who had been bidding for a third Olympic gold, having helped the United States defend their team title in Milan.

 “We have so much to be proud of,” said the 33-year-old. “We’ve had the most incredible career, 15 years on the ice together. First Olympics as a married couple and delivered four of our best performances this week. I’m really proud of how we’ve handled ourselves and what we’ve accomplished here.”

France receives conditional approval to host 2030 Winter Olympics

Bates said: “We really did our best and I think that is something that we’ll try to remember. I feel like sometimes you can feel like you do everything right and it doesn’t go your way. That’s life and that’s sport. It’s a subjective sport. It’s a judged sport.”

Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier from Canada took bronze. The Italian duo Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri finished fourth.

Controversy off the ice

Three weeks before the Games, Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry found themselves embroiled in controversy when Papadakis published a book in which she claimed she had been under Cizeron’s “control” during their partnership, which ended following their fifth world title in 2022.

Cizeron has denounced the book as “defamatory” and announced that he was “handing over the case to lawyers”.

Last March he teamed up with Fournier Beaudry, who received French citizenship last November. her former skating partner Nikolaj Sorensen, with whom she is in a relationship, was suspended from competition after being implicated in a 2012 sexual assault case in Canada.

He has denied the accusations and was in the crowd in Milan to watch Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron skate.

The crew will launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket. Adenot will be joined by NASA astronauts Jessica Meir (mission commander), Jack Hathaway (pilot), and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev (mission specialist). 

Who is Sophie Adenot, the French engineer destined for space?

Adenot, 43, holds the rank of colonel in the French Air and Space Force. She will become only the second Frenchwoman in space in more than 30 years, following Claudie Haigneré’s historic missions in the 1990s and early 2000s.

France’s first woman in space in 25 years counts down to trip to the ISS

Haigneré first flew to space in August 1996 aboard Soyuz TM-24, spending 16 days on the Russian space station Mir during the Cassiopée mission. In October 2001, she became the first European woman to visit the International Space Station during the Andromède mission.

The Crew-12 mission will be Adenot’s first spaceflight. The European Space Agency has named her mission εpsilon (Epsilon). Selected as an ESA astronaut in November 2022 from a pool of 22,500 applicants, she became the first member of her class to receive a flight assignment.

Adenot earned an engineering degree from ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse, France, specialising in spacecraft and aircraft flight dynamics. She also holds a master’s degree in human factors engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.

France’s Sophie Adenot to spend nine months on ISS after medical evacuation

Before joining ESA, she became France’s first female helicopter test pilot in 2018, accumulating over 3,000 flight hours on 22 different types of helicopter.

Adenot’s experiments

Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency, said Adenot’s mission is very important for Europe as she will be conducting experiments during her six-to-eight-month stay on the International Space Station.

The aim is to develop space science and technology through these experiments. This forms a vital part of exploration work and is crucial for developing expertise in space, Aschbacher told RFI English following his press briefing in January.

According to CNES, France‘s space agency, Adenot will contribute to approximately 200 experiments during her stay. Seven have been specifically prepared for the Epsilon mission by CADMOS, CNES’s centre for the development of microgravity applications and space operations in Toulouse.

ESA at 50: looking back and launching forward

The experiments will focus on physiology, technology testing for future Moon and Mars missions, and educational outreach.

The mission name, Epsilon, is the fifth Greek letter and follows the French tradition of naming human spaceflight missions after celestial bodies.

The move would add to a small US team already in the West African nation after the first publicly acknowledged US ground presence there since carrying out strikes on Christmas Day.

The troops are expected to deploy in the coming weeks to provide training and technical support, a US official told Reuters on Tuesday. The official said the 200 troops will supplement a handful of US military personnel already in Nigeria to help local forces.

They will be assigned to locations across the country to provide training and technical expertise but will not be involved in combat operations, the official said.

The US military said last week it had sent a small team of troops to Nigeria without specifying a number, marking the first acknowledgment of US forces on the ground since Washington struck by air on 25 December.

Trump has said there could be more US military action in Nigeria, while Reuters has reported that the United States had been conducting surveillance flights over the country from Ghana since at least late November.

Spotlight on Africa: US strikes in Nigeria and fear among the African diaspora

‘Christian genocide’

Relations between Nigeria and the United States shifted after Trump late last year threatened to enter Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” to avenge what he has called a “Christian genocide”.

Weeks later, on Christmas Day, US Navy warships aided by Nigerian intelligence launched 16 Tomahawk missiles at what Trump said was the “terrorist scum” responsible for killing Nigerian Christians.

US military officials are still assessing the damage from the strikes in northwest Nigeria but said more than three dozen Islamic State-affiliated fighters were flushed out and later arrested by Nigerian authorities.

Residents have said the missiles hit empty fields and vacant militant hide-outs.

Nigeria has come under intense pressure from Washington to act after Trump alleged the country was failing to protect Christians from Islamist militants operating in the northwest.

The Nigerian government denies any systematic persecution of Christians, saying it is targeting Islamist fighters and other armed groups that attack and kill both Christians and Muslims.

US Africa Command, the US military command responsible for operations in Africa, said it was helping Nigeria in its campaign against several extremist groups, including Boko Haram and Islamic State’s West Africa Province.

(with Reuters)

Attal, who leads Renaissance – the centrist party founded by President Emmanuel Macron – said participating states would strengthen sanctions, identify officials linked to repression and prepare for a possible political transition to avoid chaos.

“France must take the lead of a coalition of states ready to fully commit to bringing down the regime of the mullahs,” Attal told France Inter.

He said the proposed coalition would work to “strengthen sanctions wherever possible and make them truly effective” against Tehran.

Iran’s exiled opposition fractures amid climate of fear online

Lists of regime operatives

Participating countries would also publish “extremely precise lists of all the regime’s operatives” so they could face prosecution in the future, Attal added.

The coalition would also prepare for “the aftermath”, aiming to avoid “chaos” if Iran’s leadership were to fall. Attal did not explain how such a change might happen.

The member of parliament repeated that if a state chose to intervene militarily in Iran, he would “be careful not to condemn it”.

US President Donald Trump issued repeated threats in January to intervene militarily in Iran in response to the repression of protests.

EU blacklists Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation

Protests spread across Iran

Large anti-government demonstrations began on 28 December over rising living costs in Iran before turning into a broader protest movement against the authorities.

On Tuesday, residents of the capital Tehran again chanted slogans against the Islamic regime, according to videos shared on social media.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a US-based NGO monitoring rights violations in Iran, said it had confirmed 6,964 deaths, mostly protesters, and was investigating 11,730 additional cases.

(with AFP)

The Loi Duplomb, named after conservative senator Laurent Duplomb who proposed it, claims to ease pressure on farmers by loosening rules on pesticide use, large-scale livestock farming and water storage projects.

Backed by the government and major farming unions, the law was passed on 8 July 2025.

It was immediately contested by some scientists, health experts and environmental groups because it reauthorised acetamiprid, part of the neonicotinoid group of pesticides banned in France in 2018 for harming bees and other pollinators.

Within days, a student-led petition denouncing the law as a “public health and environmental aberration” gathered more than 500,000 signatures. By the end of 2025, more than 2 million people had signed the petition – a record in France.

In August, opponents of the law brought it before France’s constitutional council, which ruled against reintroducing the pesticide, arguing it flouted France’s environmental charter, which guarantees the “right to live in a balanced and healthy environment”. 

However, all the other provisions in the law, such as easing authorisations for livestock farming and irrigation reservoirs, remained in place.

France’s top constitutional court rejects return of bee-killing pesticide

Brain disorders

Senator Duplomb is continuing to push for a derogation on pesticides. In early February, he submitted a revised version of the censured article maintaining the reintroduction of acetamiprid, along with another insecticide, flupyradifurone, in a limited number of cases.

“No serious study has shown that acetamiprid is carcinogenic,” Duplomb told French public radio on Monday, defending the measure and underlining that France is the only country in the EU to have banned acetamiprid.

“We are banning molecules that are authorised in Europe whereas independent agencies have shown that [acetamiprid] was dangerous neither for people nor the environment. Today in France, through a particular kind of obscurantism, we would like to have people believe the opposite.”

Chemist and toxicologist Jean-Marc Bonmatin said the lack of studies means there is no “formal proof” that acetamiprid causes cancer. However, “there are serious indications showing acetamiprid could be carcinogenic, notably for breast and testicular cancer because all neonicotinoids have been found to be endocrine disruptors,” he told RFI.

French health experts oppose bill that could reintroduce banned pesticides

There is no doubt, however, about the molecule’s impact on the brain.

“The main concern with neonicotinoids, and acetamiprid in particular, is the action of these neurotoxic molecules on the central nervous system”, Bonmatin said – adding that they affect neurodevelopment, notably in unborn babies and young children.

He pointed to “extremely important diseases” such as autistic spectrum disorders in children, and neurological disorders in the elderly.

“That’s why we scientists and doctors are taking action on this issue,” the chemist said.

In 2021, Bonmatin and colleagues at France’s Centre for scientific research (CNRS) published a list of the effects of neonicotinoids, including acetamiprid, on human health “so that doctors can recognise the symptoms of poisoning and the cases”.

While scientists often invoke the principle of precaution when studies are not clear, Bonmatin says that in this case the principle of prevention has to apply.

“We know very well what these pesticides will do to the population, to biodiversity, to the environment, so we have an obligation to protect people from future illnesses,” he said.

Even the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) – often cited by supporters of acetamiprid – said in 2024 that there were “major uncertainties in the body of evidence for the developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) properties of acetamiprid”.

It proposed reducing the acceptable daily intake by a factor of five.

French health watchdog warns of pesticide dangers to young children

Existing alternatives 

Duplomb said the revised law would allow the use of the pesticide only where farmers have no alternative.

“We have focused on those sectors that INRAE considers to be in a complete dead end – where plant protection products are the only solution, such as hazelnuts, apples, cherries and sugar beet,” he said on Monday – referring to the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment.

The Loi Duplomb is backed by France’s largest farming union, the FNSEA, which is dominated by large cereal and sugar beet farmers and agribusinesses. It says sugar beet farmers in particular have no alternative to neonicotinoids when faced with the jaundice virus transmitted by aphids.

Bonmartin cites a 2021 report by Anses – France’s food, environmental and occupational health and safety body – which specifically adressed the sugar beet issue and which found there were in fact around 20 alternatives.

“There are even varieties of sugar beet that resist the jaundice disease transmitted by flies,” he said. “So saying there is no alternative amounts to fake news to allow the reintroduction of neonicotinoids.”

“When the FNSEA says there is no alternative what they mean is that there is no alternative as easy as using pesticides.

“So the choice is either I take the easier solution through pesticides – the worst in terms of poisoning people – or I use alternatives and I preserve the environment, biodiversity and public health.”

France moves to ease pesticide ban to save sugar beet farmers

‘Farmers are main victims’

The Loi Duplomb was presented as a way to “lift the constraints on the profession of agriculture” in response to farmers’ protests in January 2024. One of their key demands was simpler rules and less paperwork.

Supporting the law, the FNSEA has denounced unfair competition linked to France’s ban on some pesticides and weedkillers allowed in other EU countries.

Other unions, including the Confédération paysanne, which represents smaller farmers and supports an agroecological transition, oppose the bill.

Eve Fouilleux, a researcher at the Centre for Agricultural Research for Development (Cirad), says farmers themselves are the main victims of pesticides, but they’re not always aware of the danger.

She said the issue is not regulations but agricultural economics.

“The root of the problem is income – the price paid to farmers – the economic system is crushing them,” she told RFI. “When you spend €100 on food in the supermarket, only €6.90 goes to the farmer.

“It’s a system where farmers are being asked to produce more and more with very little added value. So for them, pesticides are a guarantee of being able to produce a few percent more yield. And what is tragic is that this few percent means a little more money for them, but it’s a disaster for the groundwater, for water quality and for taxpayers’ bills.”

Fouilleux cited surveys showing farmers are “overwhelmingly in favour of the ecological transition in agriculture, but they’re asking for support”.

While the French government is spending a lot of money on the food system, 60 percent goes to manufacturers, supermarkets and commercial caterers, she explained.

Around 20 percent goes to farmers through subsidies from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), but these are paid per acre. “So the bigger you are, the more support you get.”

Fouilleux said the existing productivist system contributes to the economic marginalisation of farmers in the food system. “That’s the problem, it’s not about standards at all. It’s really a discursive strategy by the FNSEA union, which is in fact run by agri-food industrialists,” she said.

Why are French farmers angry and who will reap the rewards?

Economic interests

Duplomb himself is a large dairy farmer and a senior member of the FNSEA union. He is also a former agro-industry executive.

From 2014 to 2017 he was regional president of the dairy group Sodiaal – a major French cooperative that owns brands such as Yoplait, Candia and others – and has been a member of Candia’s supervisory board.

“There’s a conflict of interest. He defends bills that will benefit his farm,” said Guillaume Gontard, president of the Senate’s environmentalist group. “He’s a representative of agribusiness who lives off exports.”

The environmental NGO Terre de Liens has described the Duplomb law as “tailor-made for FNSEA and agro-industry”.

“Duplomb has very strong ties to the agrochemical industry,” Bonmatin said. “There’s a denial of scientific facts in favour of economic interests.”

“He’s chosen private economic interest, he’s not defending the farming community at all. To do so, you just have to help it make the necessary transitions.”

Opponents of the Iranian regime living abroad say that rather than uniting in an effort to change realities on the ground, they are splitting and turning on each other.

A minority has created what some describe as a climate of fear – particularly on social media – targeting anyone who voices disagreement.

“It’s tough right now,” British-Iranian anthropologist Pardis Shafafi, who researches state violence and political repression in Iran, told Norwegian news site Filter Nyheter.

Shafafi, a member of the EHESS, a Paris-based academic research centre, said she did not expect her comments to trigger attacks from a pro-monarchist group in Europe.

She described heightened activism from radical fringes of the opposition in exile.

“When you post things online, it’s very common for a stranger to question you about yourself and the people you follow,” she said. “And it very often spirals into accusations of espionage.”

Shafafi is not the only one reporting this pattern: blacklists and death threats issued against journalists or researchers accused of being propagandists.

EU blacklists Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation

Hiding in silence

Whether monarchist, left-wing, nationalist or Islamist, opposition figures abroad continue to tear each other apart.

In France, several public figures of Iranian origin have described – publicly or anonymously –receiving threats after speaking out in ways seen as too sympathetic to the Iranian regime. One filed a complaint against unknown individuals over death threats but declined to give an interview.

Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s former king and the best-known opposition figure abroad, has tried to distance himself from the most radical voices in the monarchist camp. But those voices have succeeded in creating a toxic climate.

Self-censorship is spreading among opponents.

“The majority is hiding in silence, out of fear,” said Aïda Tavakoli, a French-Iranian activist and founder of We Are Iranian Students, a non-partisan secular organisation linked to student opposition groups in Iran.

The activist told RFI she can detect in the most extreme positions taken by some – “a minority”, she said – the immense pain of experiencing grief from a distance, mixed with survivor’s guilt and the absence of a place to channel anger.

How much is China willing to risk to protect its ties with Iran?

Prison scars

“Many activists now in exile were imprisoned by the Islamic Republic,” Shafafi said. “For these people, contradiction is not just a narrative disagreement. It is the denial of the most traumatic event that happened to them.”

Shafafi is the author of The Long Iranian Revolution – State Violence and Silenced Histories, due to be published in June.

Extreme polarisation within the opposition is also fuelled by an inability to agree on the legacy of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But after the worst repression ever experienced by modern Iran, some want to believe in a resurgence.

“I have many more people from all political sides – monarchists, republicans, left-wing, right-wing, feminists and non-feminists – contacting me to ask whether we could find unity because we don’t recognise ourselves in the extremes on either side,” Tavakoli said.

At a conference in Paris last week, Tavakoli recognised some of the people behind violent comments posted on social media. “They came to thank me and said it helped them to understand that our disagreement is not personal violence,” she told RFI.

Iran declares European armies ‘terrorist groups’ in tit-for-tat move

Cyber pressure

It is all the more important to work to overcome disagreements, Shafafi said, because the authorities exploit them.

“A large part of these conflicts is a smokescreen created by trolls working for the regime,” she said. “It equips and finances this cyber-army to ensure the opposition remains fragmented and to discredit anyone who manages to rally support.

“We saw this pattern in 2022 and it is important to remember it. What the regime fears most is a popular and united movement that is coherent and capable of opposing it.”

This story was adapted from the original version in French by Aabla Jounaïdi

The Berlin-based TI said the global average score had fallen to its lowest level in more than a decade.

US President Donald Trump, since returning to the White House early last year, has upended domestic and foreign politics while ramping up pressure on institutions ranging from universities to the Federal Reserve.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is currently under investigation by Trump’s Department of Justice after resisting pressure from the president to reduce interest rates.

TI raised concerns over “actions targeting independent voices and undermining judicial independence” in the US.

“The temporary freeze and weakening of enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act signal tolerance for corrupt business practices,” the watchdog’s research says.

The Trump administration’s gutting of overseas aid has also “weakened global anti-corruption efforts”, it added.

The group’s index assigns a score between zero (highly corrupt) and 100 (very clean), based on data reflecting the assessments of experts and business executives.

Data sources have previously included the World Economic Forum and the Economist Intelligence Unit.

One year of Trump: the ‘far-right revolution’ testing America and the world

Global average lowest in a decade

Overall, the number of countries scoring above 80 has shrunk from 12 a decade ago to just five this year.

In particular, there is a worrying trend of democracies seeing worsening perceived corruption – from the United States (64), Canada (75) and New Zealand (81), to various parts of Europe, like the United Kingdom (70), France (66) and Sweden (80).

The global average score was 42, its lowest level in more than 10 years.

“The vast majority of countries are failing to keep corruption under control,” the report said, with 122 countries out of 180 posting scores under 50.

The US case illustrates a trend in democracies experiencing a “decline in performance” in battling corruption, according to the report, a phenomenon it also said was apparent in the UK and France.

While such countries are still near the top of the index, “corruption risks have increased” due to weakening independent checks, gaps in legislation and inadequate enforcement.

“Several have also experienced strains to their democracies, including political polarisation and the growing influence of private money on decision-making,” the report noted.

France accused of restricting protests and eroding democracy

Protecting civic space

The report also pointed out that corruption tends to be tackled better in countries where civic space is guaranteed and protected.

“Those where the freedoms of expression, assembly and association are duly safeguarded are generally more resilient against corruption and score better on the CPI,” the report said.

But countries where these freedoms are lacking are more likely to lose control of corruption: 36 of the 50 countries where the CPI scores have significantly declined have also seen a reduction in civic space.

The worst-performing countries in the European Union were Bulgaria and Hungary, both scoring just 40.

The report said the government of Hungary’s nationalist leader Viktor Orban, in power since 2010 and facing a tough battle for re-election in April, “has systematically weakened the rule of law, civic space and electoral integrity for over 10 years”.

“This has enabled impunity for channelling billions – including from European Union funds – to groups of cronies through dirty public contracting and other methods,” the report said.

The watchdog noted that the government of Prime Minister Robert Fico in neighbouring Slovakia, with a score of 48, is “weakening investigations of corruption and organised crime, especially those involving senior officials”.

EU strips Hungary of €1bn in frozen funds over corruption concerns

Denmark top of the class

The highest-ranked nation in the index for the eighth year running was Denmark with a score of 89.

Among the more positive stories of progress in the report was Ukraine, which scored 36.

The government of President Volodymyr Zelensky has faced widespread public anger over graft allegations against those close to him, even as the country is hammered by Russian attacks.

However, TI noted that “the fact that these and many other scandals are being uncovered … shows that Ukraine’s new anti-corruption architecture is making a difference”.

It hailed the “civil society mobilisation” last year, which prompted Zelensky to backtrack in an attempt to curb the independence of anti-graft bodies.

At the bottom of the index, the countries scoring below 25 are mostly conflict-affected and highly repressive countries, such as Venezuela (10) and the lowest scorers, Somalia and South Sudan, which both score nine.

(with AFP)

His remarks were made in an interview published on Tuesday, ahead of a meeting of EU heads of state scheduled for 12 February.

“Today, our Europe faces an immense challenge in a world in turmoil,” the French leader said, urging the bloc to respond to what he called a “wake-up call”.

US ‘threats and intimidation’

He warned against complacency, stressing that US “threats” and “intimidation” were not over.

His comments were part of an interview with several European publications including France’s Le Monde, English language publications The Economist and The Financial Times, and Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung.

Ahead of an EU meeting on competitiveness on Thursday, he advocated for “simplifying” and “deepening the EU’s single market”, and for “diversifying” trade partnerships.

“We are currently in a phase I would call a ‘Greenland moment’,” Macron said.

US President Donald Trump last month threatened to annex the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland and impose tariffs on any European countries that opposed him, but then performed a U-turn.

EU seeks stability after Trump steps back on Greenland and tariffs

“There are threats and intimidation. And then, suddenly, Washington backs down. And we think it’s over. But don’t believe it for a second. Every day, there are threats against pharmaceuticals, digital technology…” he said.

“When there is blatant aggression…we must not bow down or try to reach a settlement,” he said.

“We tried this strategy for months, and it’s not working. But above all, it strategically leads Europe to increase its dependence.”

He hailed the establishment of new trade partnerships such as the one recently signed between the EU deal and India, which he said provided the EU with a growth driver.

Power in numbers

But he admitted that Mercosur [treaty] is “a bad agreement”, referring to the trade agreement with several Latin American countries.

“It is an old agreement that was poorly negotiated. In any case, Mercosur will have neither the dramatic impact on our agriculture that some fear, nor the positive impact on our growth that others imagine.”

He spoke of Europe‘s sheer size in terms of population – 450 million inhabitants – and how this could act in the bloc’s favour.

“We came together to stop waging war, we came together to create a market, but we always refused to think about power together. For one simple reason: because until 1945, power meant civil war between us,” he said.

EU and India seal ‘mother of all trade deals’ as leaders meet in New Delhi

Macron listed three major arenas in which he feels the EU needs to invest more heavily: security and defence, ecological transition technologies and artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

“In all these areas, we are investing much less than China and the United States. If the EU does nothing in the next three to five years, it will be swept out of these sectors,” he outlined.

“If we want this investment to preserve the internal market and not fragment it further, we must not leave it to individual nations. It must be a joint investment,” he said, adding that the European Union’s public and private investment needed around €1.2 trillion per year.

He renewed his call for common European debt, an idea France has championed for years, but other countries have rejected.

“Now is the time to launch a common borrowing capacity for these future expenditures, future-oriented Eurobonds,” he said.

“The EU is under-indebted compared to the United States and China. At a time when there is a race to invest in technology, it is a serious mistake not to use this borrowing capacity.”

Several manufacturers, such as giants Nestlé, Danone and Lactalis, have issued recalls of infant formula in more than 60 countries, including France, since December due to a risk of cereulide contamination.

Cereulide, a toxin produced by certain bacteria, is “likely to cause primarily digestive problems, such as vomiting or diarrhoea,” according to the French health ministry.

Two criminal investigations have already been opened in Angers and Bordeaux following the deaths of two infants who consumed infant formula recalled by Nestlé due to “possible contamination” by a bacterial substance.

The French health ministry said that no “causal link” has yet been established.

According to information and testimonies gathered by Radio France’s investigative unit, other families have come forward to criticise what they say are inadequate health investigations.

The families – members of the Intox’Alim collective – filed a legal complaint on Tuesday, accusing both the French state and manufacturers of “deliberate endangerment, continued supply of dangerous goods, unintentional injury, and obstruction of justice”.

They are demanding that the  milk powder be analysed by an independent laboratory to establish a link between the consumption of this milk and their children’s hospitalisations or episodes of illness.

More infant formula recalled over contamination after France lowers threshold

Families denounced the fact that the health authorities referred them to Nestlé which then asked families to return the milk powder to them so that they can carry out their own analyses.

“This procedure raises serious issues. By asking parents to return the powder to Nestlé, the manufacturer is effectively conducting a health investigation that directly concerns it,” says Nathalie Goutaland, the lawyer representing 24 families in this case.

When contacted by Radio France’s investigative unit, the Ministry of Agriculture assured that manufacturers’ laboratories are adequate, adding that official assessments may be carried out at a later date.

Ignoring the risks

The National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (Anses) is the only public laboratory in France capable of detecting and quantifying cereulide toxin, but with limited capacity.

A similar lawsuit was filed on 29 january on behalf of eight French families by European consumer association Foodwatch. They said their babies suffered severe digestive problems after drinking formula named in the December recall.

The complaint, while not naming the manufacturers or government agencies, calls for a legal investigation.

Foodwatch believes that producers could not have ignored the risks to babies by leaving their milk on sale in France and in more than a dozen European countries, as well as in Australia, Russia, Qatar or Egypt.

French health watchdog warns of pesticide dangers to young children

The recall of potentially contaminated infant formula has heaped scrutiny on Chinese firm Cabio Biotech, the supplier of an ingredient used in infant formula which is suspected of being tainted.

Headquartered in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, Cabio Biotech is one of the world’s largest producers of ARA, a fatty acid used primarily in baby formula and food products.

Cereulide was discovered in ARA manufactured by Cabio Biotech.

Last Monday the EU’s food safety agency proposed new reference doses for the toxin, prompting a further recall of products.

Exports to the United States slumped by 21 percent, the French Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters (FEVS) said.

The United States is the biggest importing country for French wines and spirits, accounting for 21 percent of the overall export market last year.

French winemakers say ‘nightmare’ Trump tariffs could cost industry €1bn

“Geopolitical tensions, commercial conflicts, exchange rate fluctuations, and a loss of confidence by households weighed on our exports,” said the Federation’s president, Gabriel Picard.

French and European wines are also suffering from the increase in tariffs — first 10 percent, then 15 percent — imposed on European alcoholic drinks by US President Donald Trump in 2025.

“In the United States, the imposition of customs duties and an unfavourable exchange rate have heavily impacted the overall result,” FEVs said in a statement.

Economic uncertainty weighing on consumer spending, as well as stockpiling by wholesalers, also contributed to the fall, it said.

Overall, the value of French wine and spirits exports fell by 7.9 percent to 14.3 billion euros ($17.0 billion).

They slid 3.3 percent by volume.

Wine exports, which account for the overwhelming majority of the total, slid by 4.1 percent by value.

Under pressure

Meanwhile, spirits exports slumped 17.4 percent, with Chinese anti-dumping measures playing a major role.

Beijing launched an investigation into EU brandy after the bloc undertook a probe into Chinese electric vehicle (EV) subsidies and producers agreed to hike prices to avoid anti-dumping taxes.

Sales of cognac dove 23.8 percent to 2.3 billion euros.

EU winemakers left exposed after missing US tariff exemption

“The anti-dumping duties have severely penalised exports of cognac, armagnac and other wine-based French spirits,” the FEVS said.

The release of 2025 export data coincided with the annual Wine Paris trade show.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited the show on Monday, where he insisted that ripping up unprofitable grape vines was a necessary part of revitalising the flagging wine sector.

Winegrowers are dealing with over-production caused by falling demand as a result of changing drinking habits, fierce competition and export difficulties.

EU differs over US tariffs as France eyes tech clampdown and Ireland resists

Efforts to help the crisis-hit industry include the government’s latest 130-million-euro “arrachage” fund that opened last Friday, offering subsidies to loss-making owners to uproot their vines.

“It has to be done… so that the others (producers) retain their value,” Macron said.

The wine and spirits sector supports 600,000 jobs in France and generates around 32 billion euros in revenue annually.

(with AFP)

Recent data shows one in two university students in France are skipping a meal each day and relying on food handouts. In response, the government is extending a 1-euro meal scheme – introduced during Covid for those on bursaries – to all university students as of May. Student union rep Marian Bloquet outlines why the problems go far beyond food. We also report from the Cop1ne community kitchen in Paris. Run by students for students, it provides cheap, home-cooked food, but also company and solidarity.  (Listen @3’20”)

As France prepares to ban children from social media, kids weigh in on their use of the platforms and how they would like to see them regulated. Cybersecurity expert Olivier Blazy considers the technical challenges and privacy issues raised by such a ban. (Listen @20’20”)

The adventurous life of the French explorer Alexandra David-Néel, who in the winter of 1924 became the first European woman to reach Lhasa, Tibet’s “forbidden city”. (Listen @14’10”)

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).

Wednesday’s meeting in Ankara between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the latest in a series aimed at improving relations.

It stems from the 2023 Athens Declaration, a formal statement of friendship that led to better economic cooperation and a cooling of military tensions over the disputed Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean Seas.

Mitsotakis’s visit comes at a critical time for the process. “I think it’s very important, the meeting has been postponed twice in the past,” says former Greek foreign ministry advisor Panayotis Ioakimidis, who now teaches at the University of Athens.

“There are some people within the [Greek] governing party, and outside it, who have serious reservations about improving or even talking about relations with Turkey,” he notes. “So it’s very important for the meeting to happen, to keep cooperation going; otherwise, relations risk sliding into conflict.”

Claims on the Aegean

The talks come as tensions over the Aegean Sea – believed to have vast untapped energy reserves – are on the rise.

In January, the Greek foreign minister, George Gerapetritis, announced Greece’s intent to exercise its right under international law to extend its territorial waters in the Aegean from six to 12 nautical miles, to create a marine park.

Erdogan is expected to remind his Greek counterpart that any extension of territorial waters is a red line for Turkey. “Mitsotakis will get some lectures in Ankara,” predicts international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

In 1995, the Turkish parliament passed a motion declaring that Greece unilaterally extending its waters beyond six miles was a casus belli – cause for war. “Twelve miles [of] territorial waters for Greece means the Turkish ships cannot go one kilometre outside of Turkish territory. Turkey cannot accept this,” says Bagci.

In response, Athens is using Greece’s European Union veto to prevent Turkey from joining the EU’s SAFE defence procurement programme until Turkey withdraws its threat of war.

Turkey and Egypt’s joint naval drill signals shifting Eastern Med alliances

Alliance with Israel

Adding to tensions, last December Greece and Cyprus signed a series of defence agreements with one of Turkey’s fiercest rivals – Israel.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan accused Israel of seeking to encircle Turkey, while Turkish media dubbed it an “axis of evil”.

Mitsotakis is expected to try to allay such concerns during his visit to Ankara. “The Greek side thinks it can separate these issues and keep them quite separate from the bilateral issues between Greece and Turkey,” says Ioakimidis. “But it’s a very likely scenario to take the countries into very dangerous waters.”

Israel’s military support of Greece is to blame for Athens’ more assertive stance in the Aegean, argues Murat Aslan of the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, a Turkish pro-government think tank. He says that Greece acts more boldly when backed by others: “Once they enjoy the support of another, material or narrative, they are much more courageous to challenge.”

If Greece maintains this approach, Aslan suggests, Turkey will likely go back to increasing its military activity.

Prior to recent attempts at rapprochement, Turkish and Greek warplanes often challenged each another in mock dogfights in the disputed airspace over the Aegean.

Turkey flexes naval muscles as neighbours fear escalating arms race

Trump effect

However, Trump could provide an impetus to contain tensions.

With the American ambassador to Greece announcing this week that the US president will visit Athens, both Erdogan and Mitsotakis will be wary of Trump’s involvement in their bilateral affairs.

“I think both countries are concerned about this destabilisation to the international order that the Trump administration has brought,” says Ioannis Grigoriadis of Ankara’s Bilkent University, a specialist in Greek-Turkish relations.

“It may be a strong incentive for both sides to declare that things are OK, so let’s keep Trump’s intervention away from Turkish-Greek relations. I don’t think that any side would like that to happen, given the circumstances and the unpredictability of such an intervention.”

Wednesday’s meeting is set to emphasise the economic benefits of rapprochement and regional cooperation. However, amid persistent Aegean tensions and Turkey’s concerns over Israel’s role, expectations for progress remain low.

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

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 13 December, I asked you a question about Paul Myers’ article “Nigeria power past Mozambique into quarterfinals at Africa Cup of Nations”.

Nigeria had just beaten Mozambique 4 to 0. Paul noted in his article that the win was the biggest winning margin in a Cup of Nations knockout tie since the Africa Cup in 2010. And that was one of your questions: you were to tell me which countries played in the Africa Cup semi-finals in 2010, and who won that knockout tie by 4 to 0.

The second question was: In the Nigeria/Mozambique match, what is the name of the Nigerian player who scored the fourth goal?

The answer is, to quote Paul’s article: “Akor Adams, fed by Lookman, thrashed in Nigeria’s fourth goal 15 minutes from time to notch up the biggest winning margin in a Cup of Nations knockout tie since Egypt battered Algeria 4-0 in the semi-finals at the 2010 tournament in Angola.” So, Egypt/Algeria, and Akor Adams are the correct answers.

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by RFI Listeners Club member Pradip Basak from West Bengal, India: “How do you deal with jealousy when your friend achieves something you secretly wished for?”

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

The winners are: Amir Jameel, the president of the RFI Online Visitors Club in Sahiwal, Pakistan.  Amir is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations on your double win, Amir.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Sharifun Islam Nitu, a member of the RFI Amour Fan Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, and Faheem Noor, the president of the WULO RFI Club in Nankana Sahib, Pakistan. There are also two RFI Listeners Club members: Hans Verner Lollike from Hedehusene, Denmark, and S. J. Agboola from Ekiti State, Nigeria.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Heer on Sarangi”, traditional music from Pakistan performed by Ustad Sultan Khan; “Water No Get Enemy” by Fela Kuti, performed by Fela Ransome Kuti & Africa 70; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and the traditional Andalucian “La Saeta del Larios”, sung by Diana Navarro.

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 our article “French DJ wins Grammy for Lady Gaga remix”, which will help you with the answer.

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

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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. 

Clashes in and around Aleppo have displaced around 170,000 people since mid-January, as the Syrian army seeks to extend its control over previously Kurdish-controlled areas.

Ongoing hostilities between government forces and armed groups continue to trigger displacement in several parts of the country, according to the UN.

While political transition is underway after the fall of Bashar al-Assad at the end of 2024, reconstruction and recovery efforts are hindered by instability and lack of funding. 

Access to healthcare remains unreliable, and basic services are severely disrupted. A harsh winter and long-term drought are exacerbating the crisis.

More than 16 million Syrians are expected to need humanitarian assistance in 2026 – yet the UN’s response plan is only 33.5 percent funded, leaving a $3.2 billion gap.

“It is an incredibly fragile moment for Syria,” said Slente, secretary-general of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC), speaking to RFI on a visit to the Syria, including areas in and around Damascus. 

“This is a country where two out of every three Syrians need humanitarian assistance, and 90 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.”

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

Returning to ruins, landmines

Around 3 million Syrian refugees and internally displaced people have returned home since the fall of the Assad regime, over 1 million from other countries and nearly 2 million from within Syria.

“Syria has had a new government in place for the last year,” Slente said, “and it’s time to sort of recap on our programming here and adapt our programming to the new realities on the ground. A vast percentage of the population here are in dire need of humanitarian assistance on the ground.”

Many people are returning to their homes to find almost nothing after more than 13 years of civil war, she added.

One of the DRC’s priorities now is to work on getting rid of the landmines that still litter areas where fighting took place, and pose a deadly threat to returnees.

The organisation recently finished training local teams to help clear mines, Slente said.

“We are helping build the capacity here of the National Mine Action Centre in the Ministry of Emergencies that needs to coordinate that very big endeavour of clearing Syria of unexploded ordinance and landmines. It means that now we can get more jobs done on the ground with the clearing of mines, getting them out of fields and villages, so that people can actually be safe when they move around the territory.”

As Syrian workers return home from Turkey, local businesses feel the loss

Upheaval in Kurdish north

In north-eastern Syria, near the border with Turkey, civilians say they are still fearful.

After months of tension, Kurdish-led forces have ceded swathes of territory to advancing government troops. Under a deal agreed last week, Kurdish forces and administrative institutions are to be integrated into the state.

It is a blow to the Kurds, who had sought to preserve the de facto autonomy they exercised after seizing swathes of territory in battles against the Islamic State jihadist group during the civil war.

“We are afraid that they will attack our regions and that massacres and genocide will occur,” one woman told RFI’s reporter in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli, where government forces entered on Tuesday.

Another resident said he was hoping for “a positive resolution to the conflict, so that no more bloodshed occurs”.

This episode was mixed by Nicolas Doreau.

This week, we discuss recent US airstrikes in northern Nigeria and the fact that many people of  African descent feel threatened by the recent enforcement actions by ICE in many US cities. 

The United States launched airstrikes in northern Nigeria in late December, saying it had targeted Islamic State jihadists – at Abuja’s request – to halt the killing of Christians. However, experts have challenged Washington’s claims that Christians are being massacred in Nigeria, arguing that the narrative, promoted by sections of the American right, oversimplifies far more complex conflicts.

US strikes on Nigeria set ‘deeply troubling precedent’ for African governance

First, we talk to Isa Sanusi, from Amnesty International Nigeria, to discuss the aftermath of the US strikes and of US President Donald Trump’s invasive strategy to fight jihadism in West Africa.

US to increase cooperation with Nigeria to pursue Islamic State militants

US African diaspora in Minneapolis

Meanwhile, within the United States, anti-immigration policies have intensified since the Trump administration took office a year ago, affecting even some people who are living in the country legally.

In Minneapolis in January 2026, two people were killed in shootings involving US federal immigration agents. On 7 January, 37‑year‑old Renée Nicole Macklin Good, an American woman, was fatally shot by an agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a federal enforcement operation.

Then, on 24 January, 37‑year‑old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a United States citizen and intensive care unit nurse, was shot and killed by officers from United States Customs and Border Protection in a separate incident in Minneapolis.

US immigration agent’s fatal shooting of woman leaves Minneapolis in shock

Others were killed without making the headlines. Human rights lawyers have cited at least nine such cases, and possibly more, including Keith Porter, Parady La, Heber Sanchaz Domínguez, Víctor Manuel Díaz, Luis Beltrán Yáñez-Cruz, Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres, and Geraldo Lunas Campos.

Anti-immigration policies have particularly targeted Somali migrants and Somali Americans, among other immigrant communities.

Minneapolis is also the city where George Floyd, a Black American man, was killed by police in 2020, an event that sparked the global Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.

Dr Rashad Shabazz joins us from the United States. He is a historical geographer specialising in race, culture and the built environment at Arizona State University.

He has recently published a series of studies on the diversity of Minneapolis, undertaken while working on a new book about one of the city’s most famous residents, the musician and singer Prince.

Music from us

Finally you’ll also hear music from the Cameroonian French duo, OKALI.

The song Gathering celebrates gathering and sharing; Traveler explores travel and cultural exchange.

Episode edited by Melissa Chemam and mixed by Erwan Rome.

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

With the end of the Syrian civil war, Turkey claims that nearly a million refugees who were living there have already returned home.

Their departure is being welcomed by the Turkish government, amid growing public animosity over the presence of more than 3 million refugees.

But for many Turkish companies, Syrians are an economic lifeline – as seen in Gaziantep, an industrial city close to the Syrian border. 

The Inci Boya company is one of hundreds of small factories and workshops in the city. With a couple of dozen workers, hundreds of pieces of furniture are spray-painted each day. With long hours in air thick with dust, it’s arduous, dirty work. As in many factories in Gaziantep, Syrians make up a large share of the workforce. 

“I can’t get people from my own community to work in my sector,” explains owner Halil Yarabay. “Many workshop owners and many businesses are unfortunately experiencing this.”

He blames societal changes, “Our children, our youth… they consider such work beneath them. They consider they’ve failed in their family’s eyes by working with their hands as a furniture maker or a mechanic.”

French journalist arrested in Turkey while covering pro-Kurdish protest released

Realities of returning

But local authorities claim nearly 100,000 Syrians have already left the city – including including several who worked at Inci Boya.

During a welcome tea break, the topic of going home is on everyone’s tongue. Ahmed Hac Hussein has been working there for more than five years. He, too, is thinking of leaving.

“Many people are returning,  I have a relative who moves a family back to Syria every day,” he said. “For me, I lived in Aleppo for 35 years. I have so many friends there, I haven’t seen them for 14 years. I have three sisters there, and I haven’t seen them either. I want to go.”

However, Hussein, who lost his home in the war, acknowledges that the economic realities in Syria make returning difficult.

“You need to have money to pay the monthly rent. You need a job, but there is no work. My brother went back to Aleppo, but he says business is too slow.”

Listening is Hussein’s son, Ibrahim, who started working here a year ago after leaving school. He feels differently: “I grew up here; this place became my second home. I love it here a lot. I was two years old when I came here, and I never went back. I don’t want to go back.”

Demographic time bomb

Turkish companies such as Inci Boya will be hoping many Syrians feel the same as Ibrahim, claims Atilla Yesilada, Turkey’s economic analyst for consultancy Global Source Partners.

He says around 900,000 Syrians work in small businesses and factories across Turkey.

“They’ve filled all the low-paying jobs. Without Syrians, business owners say they’ll go bankrupt, since that keeps costs down.”

This reliance on Syrian workers, and their departure, also comes as Turkey faces a demographic time bomb. “The birth rate has declined substantially. The Turkish birth rate is 1.5, and you know, replacement is 2.1,” Yesilada added.

He warns the outlook for Turkey is grim, given the experience of other countries. “[The birthrate is] coming down significantly, and it’s been going down for 20 years.… [the example of] China shows that there is nothing you can do about it.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently called on families to “serve the nation” by having at least three children. His minister of family and social services claimed nearly half of Turkish families didn’t have children.

To attract workers, visa and work permit restrictions were lifted last year for all Turkic Central Asian nations.

Turkey blocks calls for regime change in Iran as protests escalate

Rising costs

But at the Inci Boya factory, owner Halil Yarabay is already counting the cost of Syrians leaving, and says a bidding war to keep these workers is beginning.

“Labour costs are rising. Employees we paid 10,000 TL a week now cost up to 15,000,” he said.

Some larger companies in Gaziantep – such as Tat Holding, which makes furniture and sweets among many other products – are even considering following their workers back to Syria, says its CEO Salih Balta. 

“Syria is close to Gaziantep and allows us to produce and export at up to 35 percent lower cost,” he explained.

Balta claims that producing in Syria – a member of the Arab League – would allow his company to export tax-free to 17 Arab countries under its free trade agreement. “For us, the Gulf countries are a very important market,” he said.

Gaziantep, along with many cities across Turkey, has seen protests against Syrian incomers. Several polls have found that the majority of people want them to return. But this could ultimately prove a double-edged sword, as businesses face growing economic pain over the loss of their Syrian workforce.

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.