Macron has become one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters within the European Union and one of the fiercest critics of Russia.

“This war is a triple failure for Russia: militarily, economically and strategically,” Macron said on X, underlining that 15,000 Ukrainian civilians had been killed in the four years since Russia launched a full-scale invasion on 24 February, 2022.

“One day, Russians will realise the enormity of the crime committed in their name, the futility of the pretexts invoked and the devastating long-term effects on their country.”

The French president reiterated France‘s unwavering support for Ukraine.

“Because Ukraine is the first line of defence of our continent, France and Europe stand resolutely by its side,” he wrote.

France now supplies most of Ukraine’s intelligence, Macron says

Allies divided

On Monday, Macron urged his European counterparts to “continue to increase pressure on Russia” by imposing a fresh package of sanctions – the 20th so far. He also called for the rapid implementation of a €90bn European loan for Ukraine.

But Hungary, which maintains close ties with Moscow, had on Monday kept up its veto on both.

Hungary and neighbouring Slovakia accuse Kyiv of deliberately blocking ‌Russian oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline, which Ukraine says it is trying to repair ⁠after a Russian strike last month.

Zelensky French TV interview: ‘If Ukraine doesn’t stop Putin, he will invade Europe’

As part of ceremonies in Kyiv to mark the anniversary of the Russian invasion, President Zelensky was due to welcome dignitaries in Kyiv from Western Europe, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

But unlike previous years, no major Western leaders were expected.

“Putin has not achieved his goals. He has not broken the Ukrainian people. He has not won this war,” Zelensky said in a morning address, extending an invitation to US President Donald Trump to ‌come to Kyiv.

Putin failed to achieve goals in Ukraine, Zelensky says on war anniversary

Zelensky vowed the country would not betray ​the sacrifices made by its people in four years of war just to make peace with Russia. 

Negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the US met Friday in Abu Dhabi for the first direct negotiations on a US-brokered peace deal  to end the war.

(with newswires)

On Monday France moved to block US envoy Kushner from having access to government ministers, after he failed to show up to explain comments about the killing in Lyon of French far-right activist Quentin Deranque.

The ambassador will have full access “once he explains himself”, France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on ‌Tuesday.

“He needs to be ​able to have this discussion with us, with the Quai ​d’Orsay (the Foreign Ministry), ​so that he ​can resume the normal exercise of ​his duties as ambassador in France,” Barrot told France Info public radio.

He described the no-show as “a surprise”. 

Access banned

Barrot summoned Kushner after the US embassy in Paris reposted comments by the Trump administration in Washington about Deranque, who died from head injuries following clashes between antifascist and nationalist supporters on 12 February in Lyon.

The US Embassy in France and the US State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism said they were monitoring the case, warning on X that “violent radical leftism is on the rise and its role in Quentin Deranque’s death demonstrates the threat it poses to public safety”.

On Friday, Sarah Rogers, the State Department under secretary for public diplomacy, said Deranque’s killing showed “why we treat political violence – terrorism – so harshly”. 

“Once you decide to kill people for their opinions instead of persuade them, you’ve opted out of civilization,” she wrote on X.

Barrot denounced on Sunday any attempts to exploit the killing “for political ends” and summoned Kushner for a meeting at 7:00 pm the following day.

But the ambassador failed to show up and sent a senior embassy official instead.

“In light of this apparent failure to grasp the basic requirements of the ambassadorial mission and the honour of representing one’s country, the minister [Barrot] has requested that he [Kushner] no longer be allowed direct access to members of the French government,” the foreign ministry said.

Kushner would, however, be permitted to continue his diplomatic duties and have “exchanges” with officials, it added in a statement.

Washington has not commented on this development.

Trump taps Charles Kushner, father of his son-in-law, as envoy to France

Foreign interference

The move is the latest instance of diplomatic friction between Paris and the United States under President Donald Trump, with Paris bristling at what it sees as repeated interference by Washington in domestic matters.

Kushner, whose son Jared is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, took up his post in Paris last year. He was summoned to the foreign ministry at the end of August, after the French government took exception to his criticism that Macron was not tackling antisemitism.

He did not attend that meeting either, and sent the US charge d’affaires – the ambassador’s de facto deputy – instead.

Deranque’s death has put France on edge, igniting tensions between the left and right ahead of a 2027 presidential vote. 

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has also weighed in, triggering a war of words with French President Emmanuel Macron, who urged her to stop “commenting on what happens in other countries”.

More than 3,000 people marched in Lyon on Saturday in tribute to Deranque, with authorities deploying heavy security for fear of further clashes.

More than 3,000 march in Lyon in tribute to far-right activist

Nazi salutes and racist insults were noted during the march. Two investigations have been opened for condoning crimes against humanity and insults.

Seven people have been charged over Deranque’s death.

(with newswires)

Four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Europe’s largest conflict since the Second World War grinds on – reshaping the continent’s security order while exacting a staggering human toll. Wtih the war entering its fifth year on Tuesday, there is little indication that a decisive end is near, despite renewed diplomatic efforts.

Talks brokered by the United States, part of the Trump administration’s year-long push for peace, have brought delegations from Moscow and Kyiv to the table. Yet fundamental disagreements – over the fate of Russian-occupied territories and Ukraine’s long-term security guarantees – continue to block meaningful progress.

On the battlefield and far beyond it, the cost of the war remains immense.

Kyiv faces worst winter of war as Russia pounds Ukraine’s power system

Casualties mount as transparency falters

Estimates suggest the scale of military losses is vast, though precise figures remain elusive. A recent report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies puts Russian casualties – killed, wounded or missing – at around 1.2 million between February 2022 and December 2025. Of these, as many as 325,000 troops are believed to have been killed, marking the highest death toll for any major power in a conflict since the Second World War.

Moscow has not provided regular updates. Its last official figure, released in January 2023, acknowledged just over 6,000 military deaths.

Ukraine has also suffered heavily. The same report estimates between 500,000 and 600,000 Ukrainian casualties, including up to 140,000 deaths. President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this month that 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed, adding that many more remain missing.

With neither side publishing timely or comprehensive data, and independent verification largely impossible, the true scale of losses is likely to remain uncertain for years.

Civilians, meanwhile, continue to bear the brunt of the war. The United Nations has recorded more than 40,600 civilian injuries and confirmed thousands of deaths since the invasion – though it stresses the real figures are almost certainly higher. At least 763 children are known to have been killed.

Last year alone was the deadliest for civilians since 2022, with 2,514 killed and 12,142 injured in 2025 – a 31 percent increase compared with 2024. Persistent Russian aerial strikes have left millions facing repeated power outages and water shortages, underscoring the war’s enduring impact on daily life.

Zelensky French TV interview: ‘If Ukraine doesn’t stop Putin, he will invade Europe’

A war of attrition with global consequences

Despite the enormous human and material costs, territorial changes have been relatively limited. According to the Institute for the Study of War, Russia has gained just 0.79 percent of Ukraine’s land over the past year – a reflection of the grinding, attritional nature of the conflict.

Before the full-scale invasion, Moscow already controlled nearly 7 percent of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

International support for Ukraine has shifted over time. Military aid from foreign partners fell by 20 percent last year compared with the annual average between 2022 and 2024, according to Germany’s Kiel Institute. A key factor was the United States halting shipments of American-funded weapons following Donald Trump’s return to office.

European countries have stepped in, boosting their military assistance by 67 percent over the same period. Humanitarian and financial aid, however, declined by 5 percent.

The war has also triggered one of the largest displacement crises in recent history. Around 5.3 million Ukrainians have sought refuge across Europe, while a further 3.7 million remain internally displaced. Before the invasion, Ukraine’s population exceeded 40 million.

Healthcare infrastructure has been repeatedly targeted. The World Health Organization reports thousands of attacks affecting medical services since February 2022, including 2,347 strikes on healthcare facilities as well as damage to ambulances and medical supply storage.

Taken together, the figures show that the conflict is still grinding on, with far-reaching consequences beyond the battlefront.

(With newswires)

Opening the latest session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world was witnessing a worrying shift away from legal norms towards raw power.

“Human rights are under a full-scale attack around the world,” he said, cautioning that “the rule of law is being outmuscled by the rule of force”.

Importantly, Guterres stressed that these developments are unfolding in full view. “This assault is not coming from the shadows, or by surprise,” he said. “It is happening in plain sight – and often led by those who hold the greatest power.”

He did not list specific countries, but pointed to ongoing crises that illustrate the trend. In Ukraine, more than 15,000 civilians have been killed since Russia’s invasion four years ago. “It is more than past time to end the bloodshed,” he said.

He also expressed alarm at the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, describing “blatant violations of human rights, human dignity and international law” and warning that the prospects for a two-state solution were being steadily dismantled. “The international community cannot allow it to happen,” he added.

Israel declares UN chief Guterres ‘persona non grata’ over Iran missile attack

Rights under pressure worldwide

In what is expected to be his final in-person address to the Council before stepping down later this year, Guterres broadened his focus beyond conflict zones, arguing that the erosion of rights is now a global phenomenon.

“Around the world, human rights are being pushed back deliberately, strategically and sometimes proudly,” he said. He painted a picture of a world where suffering is too often rationalised, people are treated as bargaining chips and international law is brushed aside as inconvenient.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk echoed those concerns, warning of a “deeply worrying trend” in which ideas of domination and supremacy are re-emerging.

“A fierce competition for power, control and resources is playing out on the world stage at a rate and intensity unseen for the past 80 years,” Turk said. “The use of force to resolve disputes between and within countries is becoming normalised.”

At the same time, he noted that global power dynamics are shifting, creating both risks and opportunities. Turk called on individuals, civil society and states to work together to build a “strong counterbalance” to increasingly top-down and autocratic tendencies.

UN hits out at Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ ahead of inaugural meeting in Washington

Democracy tested in a changing world

The warnings come as the UN faces mounting challenges – from a rise in conflicts and humanitarian crises to shrinking financial support. The United States, traditionally the organisation’s largest donor, has significantly reduced foreign aid since President Donald Trump’s return to office, with other countries following suit.

For Guterres, the stakes could not be clearer. “When human rights fall, everything else tumbles,” he said, linking the current crisis to widening inequality, accelerating climate disruption and the misuse of emerging technologies.

Artificial intelligence in particular, he warned, is increasingly being used in ways that suppress rights, deepen divides and expose marginalised communities to new forms of discrimination both online and offline.

Turk, meanwhile, criticised leaders who act as though they are above international norms. Without naming individuals, he described how some claim “exceptional” status to justify actions that undermine the UN Charter, weaponise economic influence and spread disinformation to silence critics.

Despite the assessment, both officials struck a note of cautious resolve. Guterres emphasised that collective action can still reverse the trend, urging governments and societies to recommit to fundamental principles.

He highlighted the growing pressures on vulnerable groups – from migrants and refugees to minorities, indigenous peoples and LGBTQI+ communities – but framed the moment as a call to action rather than resignation.

“Do not let power write a new rulebook in which the vulnerable have no rights and the powerful have no limits,” he said – a reminder that, even in turbulent times, the defence of human rights remains both possible and essential.

(With newswires)

French authorities opened an investigation in October on suspicion that the Boracay, was sailing under a false flag, registered in Benin.

The vessel appears on the International Maritime Organisation’s list of Russian shadow fleet ships.

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

Danish authorities believe the Boracay may have been used to launch drones that flew over Copenhagen’s airport in September, forcing its temporary closure.

The captain, Chen Zhangjie, is at sea, and will not attend the hearing in the court in Brest, northern France.

His lawyer plans to challenge the court’s jurisdiction, arguing that as the events occurred in international waters, “French law does not automatically apply”.

Instead, he said the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, known as the “Montego Bay Convention”, indicates the jurisdiction lies either with the vessel’s flag state or the sailor’s country of residence – in this case, Benin or China.

The prosecutor in Brest has said that the matter will be debated during the hearing.

The lawyer has pointed to a precedent in Finland last year, when a court declined to try the captain and two officers of the oil tanker Eagle S, another Russian ghost fleet ship, which was registered in the Cook Islands.

The sailors, from Georgia and India, were accused of deliberately cutting cables in the Baltic Sea at the end of 2024.

The Finnish prosecution has appealed the court’s decision not to hear the case.

Meanwhile, the Boracay returned to sea five days after it was boarded by the French navy. According to the Marine Traffic site, the ship was anchored last Friday near the port of Rizhao, in north-eastern China.

(with newswires)

Chad’s government said on Monday in an official statement that the border would remain closed until further notice, citing “repeated incursions and violations committed by forces in Sudan‘s conflict.”

The government said it would be closing the key Adre point with West Darfur, to prevent Sudanese armed groups from crossing into Chad.

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

The move “aims to prevent any risk of the conflict spreading to our soil, to protect our fellow citizens and refugee populations, and to guarantee the stability and territorial integrity of our country,” the government statement said.

This decision follows “repeated incursions” and violations of Chadian territory, linked to clashes between the Republican Security Forces (FSR)  and joint forces allied with the Sudanese regular army.

Chadian Minister of Communication Mahamat Gassim Chérif has asserted that he wants to prevent “any risk of the conflict spreading into Chad” by closing the border.

Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“One thing is certain: whether we like it or not, Chad now appears to be a party to the conflict,” Ahmat Yacoub, from the think tank Center for Studies for the Development and Prevention of Extremism (CEDPE), told news agencies.

Spilling fighting after almost three years of war

The conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary RSF erupted in April 2023 and has since periodically spilled over into Chadian territory, causing casualties and property damage.

Sudan conflict worsening with mass killings and famine, HRW warns

The most recent fighting at the border between Sudan and Chad began in Sudan on Saturday (21 February) and spilled over into Chad.

Local sources told correspondent in N’Djamena that “FSR militias attacked a Chadian army outpost in Tine” on the Chadian side.

According to Chadian officials, the clashes between the RSF and militia fighters loyal to Sudan’s government killed five soldiers and three civilians and wounded 12 people.

A border guard officer in Tine said additional security measures were needed to protect civilians on the Chadian side.

According to a security source, the army and the joint force, totalling more than 15,000 troops, are stationed along the 1,400-kilometer border between the two countries.

Other sources said more Chadian troops were being deployed to the area.

Gassim Cherif also told RFI that, since December, repeated incursions by warring parties in the Sudanese war are “undermining Chad’s sovereignty.”

“We will not yield to attempts to destabilize Chadian institutions,” he added. “Not a single kilometer of the border escapes our control.”

Last year, a drone attack killed two Chadian soldiers, according to local authorities and a security source, though it was unclear who carried out the attack.

Chad hosts at least 1 million Sudanese refugees who fled the war between the Sudanese Army and the RSF.

 (with newswires)

The report, published by Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE), states that more than 3,000 refugees from the country have been arrested in Egypt since 10 January.

The NGO says it gathered testimonies and photographic evidence indicating that many detainees had suffered “beatings and burns inflicted with hot water and corrosive substances”, as well as sexual violence.

According to HRCE, two young children reportedly died after their mother was arrested. It added that some individuals may already have been deported to Eritrea despite being registered with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), which is mandated to protect them from forced return, arbitrary arrest and detention.

HRCE called on Egypt to “uphold its obligations under international refugee law” and urged the United Nations to “intervene immediately to prevent deportations”.

The organisation also states that there are more than 10,000 prisoners of conscience in Eritrea, including journalists, political dissidents and members of religious minorities, many of whom, it says, have been held for years without trial.

30 years young: Eritrea reaches a milestone but struggles with legacy of its past

Human rights in Eritrea

In its most recent resolution, the Human Rights Council of the UN expressed grave concern about the human rights situation in Eritrea. 

According to the Migration Policy Institute, despite Eritrea’s relatively small population of 3.5 million, the country has become a major source of refugees. Eritrean refugees and asylum-seekers are spread across many countries, including Egypt, Sudan, Italy, France, Uganda, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia.

Egypt and Eritrea have grown closer in recent months due to shared difficulties with Ethiopia.

The government in Cairo is worried by Ethiopia’s new mega-dam on the River Nile, which it says poses an “existential threat” to its water security.

And Eritrea accuses landlocked Ethiopia of plotting to invade and take control of its port at Assab.

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

Violations

Based on the testimonies, documentation, and photographic evidence received from Cairo, HRCE has documented in its reports patterns of beatings and burns inflicted with hot water and corrosive substances; extortion of money under threat of further harm; denial of medical treatment; sexual violence against detainees; transfers of detainees to the Eritrean Embassy for travel documentation processing; and  even deportation.

“If confirmed, these developments raise serious concerns under international refugee law, including violations of the principle of non-refoulement and protections against arbitrary detention and torture,” the report states.

HRCE is calling on the UNHCR to intervene to prevent deportations, for the Government of Egypt to uphold its obligations under international refugee law,  and for international human rights organisations a to monitor the situation.

The bill would ban under-15s from using social media and restrict mobile phone use in schools, in light of research showing the negative impact of social media on young people.

It is being championed by President Emmanuel Macron, and the National Assembly adopted it by a comfortable margin of 130 votes to 21.

France’s public health watchdog Anses has reported on social media’s harmful effects on the mental health of teenagers, which include lower self-esteem and sleep disruption, often linked to cyberbullying or exposure to violent or inappropriate content.

“I compare myself to the girls I see on TikTok. They’re really pretty, so I feel bad about myself, and I think that happens to a lot of other girls my age,” says Theodora, a 16-year-old in Paris. “I’m not as confident as I used to be.”

Several families of children who took their own lives have taken legal action against the Chinese video-sharing platform TikTok in France, alleging that its algorithm pushed suicide-related content that contributed to their children’s deaths.

For lawmakers, banning children from these platforms appears to be the most straightforward way to protect them.

French MPs vote to curb children’s screen time with under-15 social media ban

More on children and social media in the Spotlight on France podcast: 

Age verification

Australia introduced a ban on social media for under-16s in December, and France’s proposal similarly puts the onus on platforms such as TikTok or Instagram to verify that users are the right age.

Since 2023, France has required parental consent for children to access social media, but enforcing a full ban introduces technical challenges and concerns about privacy.

“Sending an identity document is terrible in terms of privacy,“ warns Olivier Blazy, a professor in cybersecurity at the École Polytechnique university outside Paris.

Platforms already use facial age estimation tools – TikTok checks if someone is over 18 to access its live-streaming feature – but the technology is not able to make precise judgements.

“If you are 30, they won’t think you are minor, and if you are eight, you won’t seem like an adult,” Blazy explains. “But if you are close to the threshold, or if you are not a white male, then you do not fit the model the system was trained on and the estimation is not reliable.”

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

Even if the software improves, he says it will never be accurate enough to enforce a specific age cut-off.

“There’s no physical difference between someone who is 14 years and 300 days old, and 15 years and one day old,” he says, adding that no system is foolproof.

“Whatever solution you pick is going to be circumvented, so you should pick a solution that does not intrude on privacy.”

He worries that lawmakers are not taking this into account. “I’m concerned that the goal is to keep kids from accessing these platforms, and that privacy will be sacrificed for this.”

False sense of security

Anses reports that half of French teenagers spend between two and five hours a day on a smartphone

A study by Generation Numerique found that 62 percent of boys in France and 68 percent of girls aged 11 to 18 use social media, including 58 percent of 11 and 12-year-olds.

Blazy also questions whether a ban alone addresses the problem, if platforms themselves are not held accountable for the harmful content seen by children.

“There’s a failure – by adults, the community, the government, and the platforms themselves – to moderate bad content on social media,” Blazy says, adding that simply banning children could give a false sense of security.

Psychiatrist Serge Tisseron worries that a ban is France’s way of addressing a gap in European regulation.

The European Union, he says, has drafted legislation to regulate platforms, but hesitates to enforce it for fear of retaliation from the United States, where many of the platforms are based.

“So the temptation is to address the other side of the chain – the users – and ban social media before the age of 15,” he told RFI.

Why Europe’s road to digital autonomy is long and winding

Real-world alternatives

Tisseron warns there needs to be an alternative to social media, one which addresses the needs of young people who lack opportunities to meet each other in person.

“Where will they meet if they can’t meet on social media?” he asks. “We need to think about the need for meeting each other and the sociability of teenagers. They need to meet somewhere.”

He would like to see physical alternatives provided, such as school playgrounds and sports facilities that are open after school and at the weekend. So far, he notes, the sports and health ministries have remained silent on this issue.

He also stressed the importance of education when it comes to using social media safely, saying that delaying access until the age of 15 does not guarantee healthy use later.

“If we do not educate children about digital risks, then the day after they turn 15 and get access to these platforms, nothing will stop them from running into problems,” he says. “Just because you only discover social media at 15, doesn’t mean you will use it wisely.”

Listen to an interview with Olivier Blazy on the social media ban for children in the Spotlight on France podcast, episode 140.

British photographer Hugh Kinsella Cunningham has lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since 2019 and has spent years documenting the region, first covering conflict before turning his lens to landscapes and communities across the Congo Basin.

A series of his photographs, now on display in Paris, brings together images of the world’s second-largest rainforest and the people who depend on it – from melting glaciers on the Ugandan border to families drifting on timber rafts down the Congo River.

Cunningham tells RFI why the central African basin matters for the future of the planet, and why the Congo River remains a lifeline for millions.

RFI: Your exhibition “The Heart of the Congo Basin” retraces several years of your work as a photographer. How did the idea for the project come about?

Hugh Kinsella Cunningham: Looking through my archives, I realised I had actually visited far more parts of the DRC than I thought. It is such a vast area that I believed I had only seen a small part of it. But when I reviewed my magazine assignments over the years, along with projects and national parks I had visited, I saw I had enough material to show people the richness and beauty of different regions and ecosystems.

The Congo Basin will soon become one of the most important places for the planet’s health. It is the green lung of Africa. It still absorbs more carbon than it emits.

RFI: Much of your work until now has focused on conflict in the DRC. Is this exhibition also a way of showing the country from another angle, focusing on its beauty rather than war?

HKC: There are extremely surprising things to discover in the DRC. On the border with Uganda, you have glaciers that are melting, and on the other side of the country you can find the last zebras in the DRC in a national park. But it is also important to say that many people still live in conflict zones and that conflict is never far away. There are many places of extraordinary natural beauty right next to areas of violence.

The challenges of protecting wildlife from war in eastern DRC

RFI: The Congo River appears throughout your body of work. Can you explain why the waterway is so important and why the exhibition seems to follow its course?

HKC: The Congo River and its tributaries cross nine countries, most of which are economically underdeveloped, with poor infrastructure and incredibly difficult terrain. There are many swamps and forests, and the landscape is often impenetrable.

The river connects communities in these isolated areas to different parts of the country. It allows people to earn money in ways that would otherwise be impossible. For example, a family from a village upstream in Équateur province that I photographed on the river can, after one or two weeks of travel, reach the city centre of Kinshasa.

But the journey is very dangerous. The currents are extremely strong. There are often tragic accidents and people can get lost at night because the river is so dangerous. Still, it is the main form of transport. It connects people.

RFI: So the river plays an important economic role for remote communities?

HKC: Yes, it is one of the only viable ways for many communities to earn a proper living using the natural resources in their region. People cut trees, tie the logs together and drift downstream to sell them, hoping to make a profit of $300. For them, that represents a fortune.

RFI: Does this create problems of deforestation?

HKC: I followed many people cutting trees to make charcoal. That could give the impression that local populations are the main cause of large-scale deforestation in DRC, which lost 1 million hectares of forest per year in 2023 and 2024, assuming that trend continues.

In reality, large industrial logging concessions are responsible for much of the deforestation in the Congo Basin, and they are much harder for a photographer to access. I had to use drone images taken discreetly to understand the scale of deforestation in the region.

I also photographed a barge on the river with about three sections carrying hundreds of logs, some of them enormous.

RFI: The Congo Basin is now the most important carbon sink in the world, absorbing more carbon dioxide than the Amazon. Can you explain why this ecosystem matters for the climate?

HKC: In one photograph in the exhibition, you can see the village of Lokolama and the peatlands surrounding it. These peatlands store carbon. Scientists discovered relatively recently that they hold 30 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to three years of global emissions in that single region.

It is clearly a very important site to protect. What is interesting is that local communities now understand the value of what they have. The village chief is in contact with environmental NGOs that have visited, and he is trying to see how this can also benefit his community.

They have decided to set aside certain areas of land that they will not cut for charcoal production because they understand the importance of doing so, especially since climate change is particularly visible between the Congo and the Nile. In some places, the tipping point has already been reached.

The melting glaciers in the mountains that divide the Congo and Nile Basins are very symbolic to photograph because even with conservation efforts, it is too late. The Rwenzori glacier will disappear within the next decade.

RFI: Do you think the environmental risks facing the Amazon rainforest are the same for the Congo Basin?

HKC: What protects many parts of DRC is their remoteness and the difficulty of access. The region can still be protected. There was an outcry recently when the Congolese government planned to auction off areas, including protected zones, for oil and gas drilling rights.

That auction was cancelled in 2024, which showed how high the stakes are, and the fact it never happened is a very positive sign. Many of these places are also too complex logistically for large-scale exploitation. People still rely on the river to extract timber and other resources. It would be very complicated for anyone to start other kinds of operations.

RFI: Before this exhibition, most of your work focused on conflict in the country. Is this project also something like a declaration of love for the Congo Basin?

HKC: Maybe, yes. I have lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2019, and even when I was covering conflicts, I found myself in beautiful places surrounded by wonderful people. It feels like many different worlds brought together in one country.

The Congo River is completely different from the Kivu region, which is itself completely different from the mountains or the savannah. There is so much to explore. It would be fantastic if, in the future, the DRC, which I think is the most interesting country in Africa, became a bit more open to visitors so everyone could appreciate its beauty and diversity.

► “The Heart of the Congo Basin” runs until 28 February at the Angalia gallery, 10 rue des Coutures Saint-Gervais, Paris. Entry is free.

This article is an adaptation of an interview by Pierre Fesnien.

Quentin Deranque, a 23-year-old French nationalist, died from blows to the head during a clash between ultra-right and ultra-left activists in Lyon on 12 February.

Deranque was involved with several nationalist and far-right groups, and was reportedly providing security for Nemesis, a femonationalist identitarian movement which was protesting against a conference hosted by MEP Rima Hassan of the far-left France Unbowed party at Sciences Po Lyon university.

Seven men have been charged over his death, most from the anti-fascist Jeune Garde movement, founded in Lyon in 2018.

A bourgeois city that sits at the confluence of the Rhône and Saône rivers, and France’s third-largest by population, Lyon is famed for gastronomy and steeped in Roman history. It also has a reputation for far-right violence.

‘Ultra-left’ blamed for youth’s killing that shocked France

Catholic conservatism

“Lyon has historically been an epicentre of the radical right for about a century,” said Isabelle Sommier, a sociologist at the Sorbonne university and co-author of a book on political violence. “It’s the city with the highest concentration of radical right activists.”

As early as 1913, the monarchist, nationalist movement Action Française – now considered foundational to France’s far right – organised a student demonstration in Lyon, giving it a foothold in the city, as well as leading to clashes.

Action Française strengthened its presence in Lyon during the Second World War, and since the 2010s has undergone a revival. According to local media outlet Rue89Lyon, it reopened premises in 2015 and now has around 30 active militants who hold weekly training sessions in the city.

Lyon’s strong tradition of Catholic conservatism has favoured the development of religious identitarian groups. And, Sommier notes, its universities have provided fertile recruitment ground for such movements. 

The Federation of Nationalist Students (FEN) and the neo-fascist Ordre Nouveau (“New Order”) were active in Lyon from the late 1960s, contributing to the founding of the far-right National Front (now National Rally) in 1972.

Lyon III University (founded in 1973) in particular became a centre for far-right ideology and helped foster a generation of militants. From the 1970s to 1990s, there were a number of far-right academics – and one notable Holocaust denier – on its staff, including history professor and former National Front heavyweight Bruno Gollnisch.

A 2004 official report by the government-appointed Commission on Racism and Holocaust Denial noted that the university “tolerated extreme right-wing views and Holocaust denial”. And that while it was “not a fascist campus”, it contained “an extreme right-wing kernel”.

According to Marie Allenou, an investigative journalist with Rue89Lyon, the university “played a role in structuring far-right groups in Lyon in the 1980s and 1990s”.

French ultra-right-wing activists on trial for terror conspiracy

‘Cradle’ of the far right 

The ultranationalist student organisation, the Groupe Union Défense (GUD), dissolved in 2024, was founded in 1968 in Paris and took hold in Lyon in the 2000s. In 2017 it gave rise to Bastion Social – a national-revolutionary group inspired by Italy’s extreme-right youth movement CasaPound.

“In Lyon, we had pretty much all the far-right movements gathering here,” said Allenou, adding on Generation Identitaire, Lyon Populaire and the Parti de l’Oeuvre Française, along with its nationalist youth wing Fraction Jeunesse.

“We also had hooligans; the Blood and Honour group, which was a mixture of fighting and concerts; the anti-Communist rock movement and neo-Nazi metal concerts organised in the Lyon region.”

Several groups set up their headquarters in the historic Vieux Lyon (“Old Lyon”) district. The bar La Traboule and a boxing gym served as premises for Generation Identitaire until it was dissolved in 2019.

The same year, France’s territorial intelligence services described the Lyon region as the “cradle” of the radical far right.

Court allows controversial ultra-nationalist rally in Paris

Far-left riposte

In June 2013, the death of leftist activist Clement Méric during clashes between far-right and anti-fascist militants in Paris galvanised the radical left movement in Lyon.

Gale (Groupe Antifasciste Lyon et Environs), a militant antifascist group, was created, uniting several local anti-fa groups.

Then in 2018, the anti-fascist Jeune Garde was founded by activists linked to the New Anti-Capitalist Party. They included Raphael Arnault – now an MP with the hard-left France Unbowed – whose parliamentary assistant is among those who have been charged over Deranque’s death.

For historian Sylvain Boulouque, the Jeune Garde’s approach differs from the nationalist groups it seeks to combat. “They set themselves the objective of protecting demonstrations and left-wing organisations from the actions of the far right… [acting] like a security service.”

The anti-fascist groups set up shop in the hilltop district of the city known as Croix-Rousse, home to silk weavers in the 19th century and close to the Vieux Lyon area where the far right has based itself.

As a result. Boulouque says there is now “a kind of turf war with each camp trying to control the street”.

The geographical proximity of the right and left factions means that “confrontations are extremely frequent,” he says.

“The signifiant presence of the ultra-right and ultra-left in Lyon has resulted in the two movements nourishing one another through violence,” echoed a parliamentary report in 2023.

However, it’s not an even battle, with fewer than 100 ultra-left militants compared to nearly 400 on the ultra-right.

France to ban far-right Catholic group for ‘legitimising violence’

A report by Rue89Lyon, published in October 2025, listed 102 violent attacks carried out by far-right militants in Lyon between 2010 and 2025 “particularly on progressive activists and marginalised people (racial minorities or LGBTI)”.

The report also found that 70 percent of these violent incidents received no response, whether police intervention or prosecution.

Sommier says both the far right and far left have their own “specialities” when it comes to violence.

“For the radical left, the main mode of action is vandalism and confrontations with the police during demonstrations. For the radical right, it’s assaults.” 

Data she gathered from 1986 to 2016 found that seven out of 10 assaults across all groups were carried out by far-right activists. Of those, 70 percent targeted people of colour and three in 10 targeted political opponents.

While violence is mounting, it remains asymmetrical. “Ninety percent is due to the far right, about 10 per cent is on the far left,” says sociologist Erwan Lecoeur. “It’s the far right that kills.”

Ultra-right group disbanded after violent clashes in south of France

Sommier believes the situation in Lyon reflects that in the country as a whole. She notes a surge in assaults since the 2022 presidential campaign, amidst an extremely tense global political climate. “Far-right groups are becoming more and more virulent in a favourable international context.”

Lecoeur argues that political polarisation and the way the media amplifies radical positions is intensifying confrontation across France. “The extremes are taking their place at the centre of political debate,” he said. “Opponents are seen increasingly as adversaries to be defeated rather than persuaded.”

In January, Ethiopian police said they had seized thousands of rounds of ammunition sent by Eritrea to rebels in Ethiopia’s Amhara region.

Eritrea denied the allegation, and said Ethiopia was using it to justify starting a war..

The regime “is floating false flags to justify the war that it has been itching to unleash for two long years,” Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel told news agencies.

Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki said in an interview earlier in February with state-run media that Ethiopia had declared war on his country.

He added that Eritrea did not want war, but knows “how to defend [its] nation”.

Ethiopia demands Eritrea ‘immediately withdraw’ troops from its territory

Historical feud

Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, after a series of insurgencies and wars starting from 1961. The two countries went to war against each other from 1998 to 2000, which was followed by a border conflict that lasted for nearly two decades.

They finally agreed to normalise relations in 2018 – an agreement that won Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.

However, the fragile peace deal has since given way to renewed threats and acrimony. 

In Tigray, a region in Ethiopia on the border with Eritrea, a war that erupted in 1975 has been reactivated multiple times – most recently from November 2020 to the end of 2022.

The conflict was reignited in January, as the issues underlying the conflict resurfaced.

“I think one has to start with the Tigray war, with the consequences of the war and the rift that the post-war period and the Pretoria agreement has created between the federal government of Ethiopia and their Eritrean leadership,” an Addis Ababa-based security analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told RFI.

Eritrea has been trying to get closer to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) recently, leading to a feud with Addis Ababa. 

“There is information circulating that Eritrean troops have gotten deeper into Tigray, even nearing the capital, Mekelle,” the security analyst said. “They station [themselves] at some of the checkpoints around that area.” 

An insurgency movement in the neighbouring Amhara region could be impacted as well by “the security vacuum that has unfolded following the partial withdrawal of security forces and the Ethiopian National Defense Forces from the region,” the analyst said. 

World leaders urge restraint as clashes in western Tigray resume

Red Sea access

The tensions between Eritrea and Ethiopia have many other unresolved roots. Ethiopia’s anger at Eritrea’s independence stems in part from the fact that this resulted in it losing its access to the Red Sea, as Eritrea sits along the coastline.

“Ethiopia is a much larger country than Eritrea… and Ethiopia has every right to say, listen, we’re going on 120 million people, we need sea access,” Clionadh Raleigh, director of the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data organisation and a professor of African politics and conflict at the UK’s University of Sussex, told RFI.

Eritrea, she said, is less densely populated, and led by an old dictator. “The Isaias Afwerki regime is something that people cannot wait to see end. And Addis is still hoping to reintegrate it into a larger Ethiopia, potentially within the next generation.”

Eritrea regularly accuses the Ethiopian government of threats of military action to regain access to the Red Sea. Abiy has also tried to gain access via a deal with Somaliland, another breakaway region that is destabilising the equilibrium of power within of the Horn of Africa.

But Abiy insists that Ethiopia is not seeking conflict with Eritrea and wants to address the issue of access through dialogue.

The Ethiopian analyst said this is particularly strategically important to the current leadership, which aspires to play a greater regional role and address its geopolitical and strategic vulnerabilities – stemming from lack of access to the Sea. 

Ethiopia inaugurates Africa’s biggest dam, despite concerns in Egypt and Sudan

Wider regional instability

The war in Sudan is also contributing to worsening relations, as Eritrea supports the Sudanese army, along with Egypt and Saudi Arabia, against the paramilitary RSF, which many accuse Ethiopia of supporting.

According to Raleigh, there will be no stability in the Horn of Africa for some time to come.

“Ethiopia is desperate to change, and they do not expect this process to be victimless or peaceful. It has allied itself to both the United Arab Emirates and Israel, against a Saudi-Egyptian-Sudanese coalition, with Somalia somehow,” she said.

As Ethiopia and Eritrea appear to be moving towards conflict, the peace-building agency International Crisis Group has recommended de-escalation steps to avoid direct hostilities – whether these are accidental or, as many fear, the result of Ethiopian aggression.

“Either scenario would be a disaster for the Horn of Africa and its vicinity, potentially drawing in neighbours and non-African powers, particularly from the Arab Gulf,” the group wrote in its latest report.

Since fighting erupted in 2023 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, the UAE has faced growing scrutiny over its alleged ties to the RSF.

Sudan’s government and armed forces have accused the UAE of providing support to the RSF in the civil war, while European officials say they have raised concerns with Abu Dhabi over reported backing for the militia – allegations the Emirates deny.

This week, a UN fact-finding mission said atrocities committed by the RSF in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur and one of the last major cities in the region outside RSF control, bore the “hallmarks of genocide”.

Against that backdrop, attention has increasingly turned to the RSF’s sources of funding.

In a statement to RFI, the UAE foreign ministry said recent UN reports “make no reference to the UAE” and found no evidence implicating it in violations of international law in Sudan – dismissing such claims as “baseless”.

It condemned atrocities committed by the RSF as well as by Sudanese authorities in Port Sudan, the army’s de facto seat of government, and said Sudan’s future should be secured through an independent civilian-led transition, free of both warring parties and extremist groups.

Following the money

At the heart of the controversy lies gold – a resource that has become central to both Sudan’s war economy and Dubai’s status as a global trading hub.

For Abu Dhabi, engagement in Africa blends business interests with geopolitical ambition. For Sudan, it has become entangled in a wider regional contest for power, resources and influence.

Marc Lavergne, emeritus research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, spoke to RFI about the economic and political links binding the Emirates to Sudan and the broader sub region.

RFI: How central is Sudan to the UAE’s broader strategy in Africa?

Marc Lavergne: At the outset, everything comes down to gold – and to Dubai [one of the seven emirates that constitute the UAE]. Dubai is the world’s largest gold market, and Sudan has immense reserves. It has become Africa’s leading gold producer, ahead of South Africa. Gold is found across the vast territory of Sudan – you could almost say that you just have to bend down to pick it up.

There are tens of thousands of artisanal miners, most of them not professionals, who come from all over Africa and the Sahel to scrape the soil. These miners are controlled by the RSF, who collect the gold and bypass the central bank and official channels. The gold is then flown directly to Dubai to be refined.

This ensures the prosperity of the RSF and, at the same time, that of Dubai. That is precisely why the regular Sudanese army sought to regain control of these resources. It ordered the RSF to fall into line – to wear uniforms, adopt ranks and submit to the authority of the generals who have ruled in Khartoum since independence in 1956, almost without interruption.

Those generals, backed by Egypt and other militarised regimes, also need resources – not so much to develop the country, but to serve the interests of the army, the military institutions and its officers.

Seizure of Sudan’s El Fasher a ‘political and moral defeat’ for RSF militia: expert

RFI: In this context, how does the UAE position itself in relation to its partners and other powers in the sub-region?

ML: The United Arab Emirates is a federation, with Abu Dhabi as its political centre. Business is largely concentrated in Dubai, while administration is more firmly anchored in Abu Dhabi. There is also a form of rivalry with Saudi Arabia.

The UAE is a small country, with around 10 million inhabitants, of whom only about 20 percent are Emirati citizens – the rest are migrant workers. Saudi Arabia, by contrast, has a population of around 40 million, most of them Saudis.

These two countries are pursuing competing visions for 2030, embodied by Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia and Mohammed bin Zayed in the Emirates. Both are seeking a form of regional leadership, alongside other Gulf actors that may be rivals or allies depending on the moment – Qatar, Kuwait and the other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

RFI: This competition seems to be playing out in Africa too. The Emirates appear to be expanding their influence across multiple fronts – security and defence, as we’ve discussed, but also ports, logistics and diplomacy. When did this strategy really take shape?

ML: We should remember that the Emirates were once known as the “pirate coast” during the British period. These societies have very old ties with Africa. For centuries, there were networks stretching from East Africa deep into the continent, involving the trade in ivory, slaves and other commodities – long before European colonisation.

Ethiopia has traditionally remained outside this sphere of influence, but neighbouring countries such as Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan have long been connected to the Gulf world. In that sense, the Emirates’ current engagement in Africa is less a novelty than a continuation, albeit in a modernised and far more assertive form.

Race to save Sudan’s plundered heritage as museums fall victim to war

RFI: The accusations against the Emirates are extremely serious – notably claims that they are providing armed support to the RSF, whose atrocities are now reported almost daily. There are also allegations of mercenaries being transported to Sudan, including some from South America. How do you explain the apparent impunity enjoyed by the UAE, particularly with regard to its major partners in Europe and the United States?

ML: The UAE does not submit to diktats from Washington or elsewhere. When it intervenes to support marginalised groups like the RSF in Sudan – or similar players in other parts of Africa – it is operating in failed states that are overflowing with exploitable resources.

International legality is not a decisive factor. No one is really in a position to oppose the Emirates, because they now play what many see as an irreplaceable role on the global stage. The United States is no longer acting as the guarantor of world order – quite the opposite. It is opening the door to a form of global disorder.

In that environment, small but powerful countries like the UAE do not hesitate to act outside international law, whether by supporting rebel movements or, in some cases, groups that others would label as terrorists.

This article is an adaptation of an interview in French by Sidy Yansané. It has been updated since publication to include a response from the United Arab Emirates foreign ministry.

Secours Catholique-Caritas France and its international partners gathered testimonies from 119 people around the world who have been directly affected by climate disasters and have received support from the charitable network in their wake.

“Beyond alerts and scientific findings we have been receiving for a long time, it seemed important to focus on the words of people, to show that the impacts of climate change are not only real, but are long-term,” said Daphné Chamard-Teirlinck, co-author of the report.

The stories were gathered between March and June 2025, from France – including its overseas territories Mayotte, Réunion Island and French Guiana – and Brazil, Tunisia, and Madagascar.

Scorched vines and shrinking incomes drive French winegrowers to the streets

Farmers on the brink

In southern France, Eric, 44, was forced to close his family farm after 20 years of work after exceptional rainfall destroyed his land and he didn’t have the €300,000 needed to rebuild.

Across the Mediterranean in rural Tunisia, Hnia, a widowed mother of four, struggles to maintain her small herd of dairy cows in the face of recurring drought.

Unable to grow enough fodder for her cows, she now has to buy feed. Extreme heat has also lowered milk production in her herd and increased veterinary care costs, forcing her to sell off some of her cows to pay off debts.

Tunisia women herb harvesters struggle with drought and heat

In northwestern Madagascar – where 75 percent of the population lives in poverty – coffee, vanilla, and cocoa farmer Soalehy laments a lack of solidarity from buyers following the havoc wreaked by torrential rains.

“There have been big changes because of the flooding. Harvests have become irregular and buyers no longer agree to negotiate prices,” he said. “They impose their rates and the farmers, lacking means, are forced to accept.”

Urban impact

In urban areas, Secours Catholique describes a “spiral of vulnerability” which sees those who are already living precarious lives – people in poverty, homeless people and those living in the most polluted parts of cities – unable to recover from climate disasters.

In December 2024, Cyclone Chido tore through the French Indian ocean department of Mayotte and destroyed thousands of corrugated iron shacks, in which a third of the population were living.

Ravaged forest threatens Mayotte’s biodiversity, economy and food security

Marie-France, a resident of Saint-Martin-Vésubie in south-eastern France which was devastated by floods after Storm Alex in 2020, said the elderly and infirm cannot easily get back on track following such disasters.

“Single women, single people and retirees are much more vulnerable than young people, who bounce back faster,” she said. “For some people, it takes a long time. You don’t recover as quickly at 70 as you do at 20.”

The report also warns that climate change is pushing previously stable households into poverty. One family in northern France was left homeless after two floods in late 2023 and early 2024 made their house uninhabitable.

After living in various temporary shelters – including a gymnasium and a hotel room – they returned to a damp, unheated house and became trapped in a cycle of debt trying to rectify this.

Psychological effects

Some of the testimonies collected point to the psychological impact of climate change.

Bernard, a community leader on France’s Réunion Island, describes a chain reaction to extreme heat.

“When it’s hot, you sleep badly. That means the next day you’re tired, and you have to go to work tired. That’s going to be difficult, and you’ll be less productive,” he said, adding that someone who is sleep deprived could become irritable at work and as a result could lose their job, which then causes tensions at home.

“This might also create domestic violence. All because of the climate.”

France’s summer of heatwaves exposes hidden mental health cost

The climate crisis “establishes a vicious cycle that exhausts bodies and minds” said Secours Catholique, which also reports seeing more requests for help from people who previously would not have approached charities like theirs. 

Recommendations

While many countries have adaptation plans to tackle the effects of climate change, they “struggle to meet the scale of the challenges,” Secours Catholique says.

While it says this is due in part to a lack of resources, it also believes there is “a lack of will and political commitment to fully integrate climate and social issues into regional planning and management”.

In its report, the NGO puts forward a dozen recommendations, including a call to cap profit margins for food. This would involve the obligation to sell around 100 targeted products at cost price.

It highlights that agroecology – a sustainable approach to farming that applies ecological principles to agricultural systems – is “an essential practice to guarantee the right to food”.

It also advocates for cross-referencing social needs against a map of areas vulnerable to climate disasters. “When a storm or flood arrives, it’s about knowing which people will not be able to leave their homes alone,” explains Chamard-Teirlinck. “It’s basic, but necessary.”

Similarly, the report recommends providing more localised information to inform residents of their rights following a climate disaster, including on compensation claims, access to emergency aid and the right to repairs.

This article was adapted from the original version in French by Géraud Bosman-Delzons.

“We don’t need another war in this region. We already have a lot,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Monday.

“It is true that Iran is at its weakest point that they have been. We should be really using this time to find a diplomatic solution.”

Working with the Board of Peace?

Kallas and foreign ministers from across the 27-nation EU are to meet Monday with, Nikolay Mladenov, a former Bulgarian politician and UN diplomat chosen by Trump to manage the Board of Peace, which was conceived of as a small group to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, but which has expanded to position itself as a broader conflict resolution platform.

“We want to be part of the peace process in Gaza and also contribute with what we have,” Kallas said ahead of the meeting.

The question of whether to work with the Trump-led board has split European countries. EU members Hungary and Bulgaria are full members, while 12 other countries sent observers to the inaugural meeting in Washington last week.

France says EU lacked mandate to attend Trump’s Board of Peace meeting

Iran negotiations

The EU has been sidelined in the mediation process between the US and Iran. Ahead of a third round of indirect negotiations Thursday, mediated by Oman, Trump threatened limited strikes on the country if it does not end its nuclear programme.

Iran warned Monday of retaliation if Trump follows through on the threats.

Trump has ordered a buildup of forces in the Middle East and reiterated a threat to strike Iran on Friday.

When asked by a reporter whether the US could take limited military action during the negotiation process, he responded: “I guess I can say I am considering that”. A few hours later he told reporters that Iran “better negotiate a fair deal”.

Threats of retaliation

The US wants Iran to give up enriched uranium, which can potentially be used to make a bomb, and to stop supporting militants in the Middle East and accept limits to its missile programme.

Tehran says its nuclear programme is peaceful, but it is willing to accept some curbs on it in return for the lifting of financial sanctions.

The US targeted nuclear sites in Iran in June, and Iran has threatened to retaliate fiercely if attacked again.

Iran’s foreign ministry on Monday reiterated that any strike, even limited, “would be regarded as an act of aggression. Period”.

“And any state would react to an act of aggression as part of its inherent right of self-defence ferociously so that’s what we would do,” ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said at a briefing in Tehran.

The two countries concluded a second round of indirect talks in Switzerland mediated by Oman last Tuesday.

(with newswires)

In a firm but measured statement released on Sunday, the EU Commission stressed that commitments made between the two sides must be respected. “A deal is a deal,” it said, underlining that the European Union expects the United States to honour the joint understanding reached in 2025 – just as Brussels says it continues to do.

The appeal comes at a delicate momen, following President Trump’s announcement of a temporary increase in global import duties to 15 percent on Saturday – a move that has injected new uncertainty into global trade flows. It came hot on the heels of a US Supreme Court ruling that deemed much of Trump’s tariff strategy is unlawful, leaving policymakers and businesses alike trying to piece together what comes next.

Under the existing EU-US agreement, tariffs on most European goods were capped at 15 percent. Brussels made clear it expects that ceiling to remain intact, insisting that European products should continue to benefit from the “most competitive treatment” agreed previously.

At the same time, the Commission struck a constructive tone, emphasising the importance of dialogue. It said it remained in “close and continuous contact” with US officials, including recent discussions between EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic and his American counterparts.

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

Seeking clarity amid uncertainty

While both sides appear keen to keep communication lines open, the legal backdrop has complicated matters. The Commission has formally requested clarification from Washington on how it intends to respond to the Supreme Court’s decision on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act – the legal basis for many of Trump’s tariffs.

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer sought to reassure partners, saying existing trade agreements with the EU and others remain in force. “We expect to stand by them. We expect our partners to stand by them,” he said in a television interview, signalling a willingness to maintain continuity despite the court ruling.

Yet questions linger. European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde acknowledged the uncertainty, noting that the implications of the ruling are still not fully understood. “I hope it’s going to be clarified,” she said, echoing a broader sentiment across European institutions.

The timing is particularly sensitive, as the European Parliament’s trade committee had been preparing to approve the EU-US deal this week, but the legal ambiguity now casts doubt over whether that process will move ahead as planned.

How Trump’s trade threats have reshaped Europe’s global strategy

Rising tensions – but room for dialogue

Within the European Parliament, calls are growing for caution. Trade committee chairperson Bernd Lange said he would push to pause legislative work until there is greater legal certainty and clearer commitments from Washington.

His assessment was blunt, describing the situation as “tariff chaos” and warning that businesses and policymakers are struggling to make sense of rapidly shifting signals. Even so, his call for clarity rather than confrontation suggests Brussels is keen to keep negotiations on track.

Analysts, meanwhile, see a more strategic dimension to the latest US moves. Economists at Dutch banking group ING have suggested the tariff hikes could be a temporary manoeuvre – “smoke and mirrors” – giving the administration time to explore alternative legal routes, such as measures tied to unfair trade practices.

That possibility hints at a familiar dynamic in transatlantic trade relations: periods of tension followed by renewed negotiation. Even if the European Parliament were to seek changes to the current deal, Washington could still deploy other tariff tools to encourage fresh talks.

The Supreme Court ruling itself marks a rare judicial setback for Trump on a cornerstone of his economic agenda, one that has reshaped global trade patterns and prompted responses from partners worldwide.

For now, countries are watching closely and weighing their options.

(with newswires)

Activists with the anti-billionaire group Everyone Hates Elon said they put the photo in the Louvre to send a message that Mountbatten-Windsor should be brought to justice.

Taken by the Reuters news agency, the photo is an unflattering shot of Mountbatten-Windsor in the back of a car, attempting to hide from photographers after leaving a police station on the day of his arrest.

France opens twin Epstein inquiries and calls on victims to testify

Prince Andrew arrested

The photo, which was accompanied by the caption “He’s Sweating Now”, was on display near the Mona Lisa, which had previously been splashed with soup by environmental activists.

The photo was up for 15 minutes before Louvre staff removed it.

Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in a public office, following allegations that he sent confidential government documents to Epstein while serving as a trade envoy.

British police said on Friday they were contacting former protection officers who worked for Mountbatten-Windsor and were urging anyone with allegations of sex offences connected to Epstein to come forward.

‘He’s sweating now’

The caption posted under the photo hung in the Louvre referenced to a claim made in court by Virginia Giuffre, who accused Mountbatten-Windsor of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager at properties owed by Epstein or his associates.

She said that Mountbatten-Windsor had sweated on her at a nightclub. Mountbatten-Windsor, who has denied meeting Giuffre, said in a BBC interview that he could not sweat.

He settled a civil lawsuit in 2022 brought in the United States by Giuffre, who died by suicide last year.

Mountbatten-Windsor has always denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein and said he regretted his “ill-judged association” with him.

(with Reuters)

The destruction of the city of Aghdam in the contested enclave of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh is among the most visible signs of the decades-long conflict between Azerbaijanis and ethnic Armenians. Now efforts are underway to bring the city back to life.

A loud explosion breaks the winter silence as the latest disposal of collected mines takes place. ‘We’ve cleared three hundred thousand square meters and found more than ten thousand landmines,” proudly declares Elnur Gasimov, head of mine clearance operations in Aghdam.

The dangerous work, done in freezing weather, carries significant risk. Gasimov’s right hand is missing several fingers.

“We have more than 10 deminers who have lost their legs, and we lost two deminers during the explosive disposal,” Gasimov told RFI.

He explains that, with Aghdam once close to the frontline in fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces, the area was among the heaviest mined during the conflict.

Azerbaijan lifts Armenia border restrictions, but hurdles to peace remain

Clearing the mines

Nagorno-Karabakh was historically home to a predominantly ethnic Armenian population. In 1993, they broke away from Azerbaijan, declaring a breakaway Republic of Artsakh. But in 2023, during a lightning war, Azerbaijani forces recaptured the region.

With access to Aghdam still tightly controlled since the end of the fighting, RFI joined a small group of journalists on a trip organised by the Azerbaijani authorities.

The city of Aghdam was once home to 40,000 people, predominantly Azerbaijani. Long a cultural centre of the region, the city was also home to Azerbaijan’s most famous football club – Qarabag – which now plays out of the capital, Baku.

Today, not a single house remains standing – all were razed to the ground, and even the trees didn’t escape the conflict. It’s a barren wasteland.

The historical Juma mosque was one of the few buildings that survived, partially intact, and was used as a shelter for farm animals by ethnic Armenians.

Imam Mehman Nesirov, 45, is the proud custodian of the fully restored mosque, where up to 100 worshippers now attend Friday prayers as life slowly returns to the city.

Nesirov fled Aghdam in 1993 as a child: “We were forced to leave because of the sound of fighting, which was getting closer and closer. Everyone was terrified and panicked.”

Nesirov explained to RFI that he and his family spent the first years of their lives living in a railway wagon. “I will never forget those years. We always prayed to God that one day we could return and pray at this mosque,” said Nesirov. “We can’t put into words how we feel that dream we had as a child, a teenager, and an adult is finally realised.”

Azerbaijan must allow ‘safe’ return to Nagorno-Karabakh: UN court

Returns and ruptures

Around a thousand people have returned to Aghdam, all housed in new state-built accommodation, as the city itself remains uninhabitable. While Azerbaijanis are slowly returning, ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh have now become refugees following the victory of Azeri forces in 2023.

“What we saw within 24 hours was the forced expulsion of the remaining 110,000 Armenians from their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Richard Giragosiyan, director of the Regional Studies Center, a Yerevan think tank.

“They were leaving behind whole homes, personal possessions, family graves, and coming to Armenia, which was more of a foreign country than many people understand,” added Giragosiyan.

However, Giragosiyan claims that Azerbaijan’s forces’ success in Nagorno-Karabakh opened the door to a “diplomatic breakthrough,” with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan committing themselves to improving relations in the aftermath of the conflict. Baku in January opened its border to allow oil and grain from Kazakhstan to reach Armenia, which is important for Yerevan as it tries to rely less on Russia and move closer to Europe.

In Aghdam’s newest hotel, manager Aykhan Jabbarov welcomes rapprochement efforts between Yerevan and Baku.

Jabbarov, a veteran of the last Nagorno-Karabakh war whose family fled Aghdam thirty years ago, looks forward to a time when Azerbaijanis and Armenians can again live together in the city. “If we look to history, we lived together before now, every leader talks about peace … We have to build a good relationship. It will help both countries’ economy, people’s social life and the regional economy, everything.”

However, diplomatic efforts to restore relations and normalise Armenian-Azerbaijani ties still have plenty of work ahead. With repercussions of the past never far away, Ruben Vardanyan, a leading member of the breakaway Armenian administration captured by Azeri forces, was convicted this week of war crimes and sentenced to 20 years in jail by an Azerbaijani court.

Fabien Galthié’s men ran in five tries to collect a bonus point on Sunday afternoon and return to the top of the table after Scotland briefly held supremacy following their 26-23 vicotry over Wales in Cardiff on Saturday.

“It was tough going,” Galthié told broadcaster France TV after his France squad’s match at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille, northern France.

“We managed to win the arm-wrestle, and the team managed to find the energy to break through the Italians and take the bonus point at the end of the match.”

During the game, France’s star centre Louis Bielle-Biarrey, notched up a record when he scored a try in his eighth consecutive Six Nations match.

The 22-year-old struck inside three minutes for his 24th try in 25 Test matches.

Argentine judges reject appeal against acquittal of rape case France rugby pair

The hosts looked set to cruise to victory after further scores from Emmanuel Meafou and Thomas Ramos.

But the visitors hit back with an Ange Capuozzo try in the 31st minute and stayed within range until the 70th minute when France debutant Gael Drean touched down to increase the lead to 24-8.

Emilien Gailleton added the gloss in the 77th minute to keep France on course for a record fifth “Grand Slam” and a record eighth crown since the inception of the Six Nations tournament in 2000.

“It wasn’t our most complete match, that’s for sure,” Ramos told France TV. “I can tell you that Italy made us work for it. When you see the first two matches they played in the tournament, we’re not surprised by the intensity they had.”

Italy remain fifth in the Six Nations table with five points while France set the pace with 15 – five more than Scotland who they face at Murrayfield in Edinburgh on 7 March.    

France rugby boss Galthié jettisons stars for Six Nations clash in Italy

In other games in the third round of fixtures, Ireland walloped England 42-21 at Twickenham on Saturday to register their biggest victory in England in 150 years of matches between the sides and leapfrog the hosts into third place.

Ireland skipper Caelan Doris emerged from the rout to hail his teammates for a second successive 2026 Six Nations win following their own 36-14 meltdown against France at the Stade de France in the opening round of games on 5 February.

 “I spoke about the game against France as  being a reference point where hopefully we’ll see a pretty steep incline in terms of performances,” said Doris. “I think this game against England will now be a reference point that we look back on as a proper good performance that’s given us a lot of belief.”

Ireland were 22-0 up before England responded with a try and conversion just before half-time to reduce the deficit to 22-7.

But there was no comeback, nor redemption for Steve Borthwick’s troops. 

Ireland scored a try soon after the restart to extend the advantage to 29-7 and they controlled the game to eclipse 2022’s record triumph of 32-15.

“At the core of what we’re doing in training, there has been belief,” added Doris. “I think you saw some of that through how we played.

“It was just an unbelievable atmosphere. You talk about inspiring the nation and getting the Irish people behind us and hopefully that brought both the people here and at home a bit of joy.”

In the fourth round of games, Ireland host Wales at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on 6 March while England travel to Rome to take on Italy at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on 7 March.

Poland on Friday formally withdrew from the Ottawa Treaty, an international convention that bans anti-personnel landmines, paving the way for their deployment along its eastern borders.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the country aimed to be able to mine its borders within 48 hours in the event of a threat.

Poland plans to deploy the devices to fortify the roughly 800 kilometres of border it shares with Russia and Belarus. The move is aimed at protecting Europe and NATO from a potential invasion on the alliance’s eastern flank.

Germany to send soldiers to fortify Poland border

Sixth country to withdraw

The Polish government has indicated it wants to produce its own landmines.

“The situation forces us to act,” said Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, arguing that Poland and its neighbours should not be constrained by international conventions that undermine their defence policies.

“Today, the role of politicians is to break the shackles that have been imposed on the military, and that is what we are doing.”

Polish authorities have not ruled out exporting landmines to its allies. Latvia – which withdrew from the Ottawa Treaty last year – has already expressed interest.

Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and Ukraine have also pulled out of the convention within the past 12 months.

Poland calls NATO talks after downing Russian drones in airspace breach

Humanitarian concerns

Poland’s decision has drawn criticism from rights groups. Julia Glebocka, an analyst at Amnesty International in Warsaw, says landmines are disproportionately harmful to civilians, with 85 percent of victims typically non-combatants.

Glebocka also questions the military value of such weapons in a potential conflict between Poland and Russia.

“According to experts, if war were to break out between Poland and Russia, it would take the form of hybrid warfare involving drones,” she noted.

“That means these mines would be useless on the battlefield. And they will continue to pose a threat to residents of border regions for years and decades to come.”

This article was adapted from the original version in French by RFI correspondent Adrien Sarlat.

The Milan-Cortina Olympics drew to a close on Sunday with a two-hour ceremony at the ancient Verona Arena, roughly midway between the co-host cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo

Organisers passed the Olympic flag to representatives of the French Alps, which will follow the same spread-out model as Milan-Cortina.

Events will be held in the Alps as well as in Nice, on the Mediterranean Sea. Long-track speed skating events will be held outside of France, likely in either in Italy or the Netherlands.

International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry said the Milan-Cortina Games had “delivered a new kind of Winter Games” which had set “a new, very high standard for the future”.

Over 17 days of competition, 116 medal events were held across eight sports in 16 disciplines, including the Olympic debut of ski mountaineering.

Norway topped the final medal count with 18 golds and 41 medals overall.

Biathlete Fillon Maillet wins ninth medal to enter French Olympic legend

France won 23 medals – its most successful Winter Olympics yet –thanks to a clean sweep in the biathlon, and despite some disappointments in alpine skiing and  in freestyle skiing and snowboarding.

“We achieved our goal,” Sports Minister Marina Ferrari said on Saturday on French public television.

The objective had been to win 50 percent more medals than in Beijing, where the French delegation won 14. While that goal was achieved, France fell short of breaking into the top five of the medal table, edged out of fifth place by Germany, which won the same number of gold medals, but more silver and bronze.

Slow beginnings in Chamonix

France became the first country to host the Winter Olympics – then billed as an “international week of winter sport” – in January and February 1924.

A few months before Paris put on its groundbreaking Summer Games, the Alpine resort of Chamonix saw some 300 athletes from 16 countries compete in skiing, skating, bobsleigh, ice hockey and curling.

The hosts won three bronze medals and not a single silver or gold.

Among the athletes in third were figure skaters Andrée Joly and Pierre Brunet, whose ambitious pairs programme left the judges cold.

They went on to win France’s first and only winter golds at the 1928 and 1932 Games (and, in 1929, to marry). Today, the pair are credited with pioneering skills that have since become standard in the sport.

France’s winnings would remain modest at the next several Winter Games. At the 1956 Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the country failed to take a single medal – a low France has never hit before or since in any summer or winter edition.

Paris 1924, the Olympics that took the Games ‘faster, higher, stronger’

A new era in Grenoble

When the Winter Olympics returned to France in 1968, it marked a new era for the Games. 

As host city, Grenoble opted to scatter events throughout the local region and devote the lion’s share of its budget to building infrastructure instead of venues – a strategy Paris would later vaunt at the 2024 Olympics.

As sports authorities began to crack down on doping, the Grenoble Games were the first to introduce testing for banned substances, as well as gender controls designed to bar intersex athletes from women’s events.

They were also the first Olympics to be broadcast in colour, and the first to feature a mascot, albeit unofficial. The character – a bobble-headed skier named Schuss in the colours of the French flag – beat competitors including Dof the skiing dolphin to represent the Games on merchandise.

France tripled the size of its team compared to the previous Winter Games and earned its biggest medal tally yet: nine medals, eight of them in skiing.

The star of the show was Jean-Claude Killy, who picked up three of France’s four golds – including, controversially, in the slalom, which had to be adjudicated after his Austrian rival Karl Schranz claimed someone wandered onto the course and interrupted his run.

Granted a do-over, Schranz beat Killy’s time – but was later disqualified for missing gates amid heavy fog. Judges denied his appeal, allowing Killy to make history.

Meet the Winter Olympics mascots: cute, cuddly and under threat from climate change

Protests in Albertville 

France hosted again in 1992, another transitional year for the Olympics. The Winter Games in and around Albertville were the last to take place in the same year as the Summer Olympics; ever since, they’ve been separated by a two-year gap.

By then, the winter edition was beginning to come under scrutiny for its environmental and financial cost. As the Savoie department undertook major construction to build venues and the highways to link them, ecologists complained that the event was reshaping the mountains it was supposed to celebrate. 

On the day of the opening ceremony, protesters paraded a green flame through Albertville to denounce what they called an “Olympics against nature”. 

In the end, Savoie residents would end up paying extra tax until 2012 to pay off the cost of new roads built for the 1992 Games.

Future of Olympics in doubt as climate change drives up temperatures

A defiant backflip

Making her Olympic debut in Albertville, French figure skater Surya Bonaly finished without a medal – but left her mark by becoming the first woman to attempt a quadruple jump at the Winter Games. She didn’t quite complete her rotation and judges marked it down.

Six years later, at the 1998 Games in Nagano, Bonaly made another bold move. By then on her third Olympics, the former gymnast felt her athletic routines had for years been unfairly penalised by conservative judges in a sport in which she was one of very few black competitors.

She headed into her free skate injured and in sixth place. In too much pain to attempt the jumps she planned and realising a medal was probably out of reach, Bonaly spontaneously decided to perform a trick she knew was banned: a backflip, landed on a single skate.

The exploit delighted the audience but hurt her score. Bonaly finished 10th and never competed at the Olympics again – but her defiant backflip has become legend as a triumph of spectacle over competition.

More than 30 years on, fellow French skater Adam Siao Him Fa also dared to add the banned move to his routines. Officials finally lifted their veto in 2024, and Siao Him Fa was one of the skaters to perform it at this year’s Olympics.

Skategate

In Salt Lake City in 2002, French figure skating officials found themselves in the spotlight. 

When Canadian pair Jamie Salé and David Pelletier lost out to Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze of Russia, many questioned the scores. Suspicion centred on a French judge, Marie-Reine Le Gougne, who admitted – then denied – being pressured to give the Russians the gold in exchange for points for the French team competing in ice dancing. 

Le Gougne and the head of the French ice sports federation were suspended, Salé and Pelletier were awarded joint golds alongside their rivals, and skating authorities overhauled the judging system to make scores less subjective. 

There were echoes of “Skategate” this year when another French judge was accused of scoring French ice dancers Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron too highly, helping them to a gold medal. The governing body stood by the judge’s marks, but is considering introducing artificial intelligence to further standardise scores. 

From silver to gold

The past two decades have seen France gather notable strength in winter sports.

When French biathlete Martin Fourcade lost out on first place in the men’s mass start at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, he said it helped spur him to go for gold in Sotchi four years later. 

Except, as it turned out, he didn’t lose out. The original winner, Russia’s Evgeny Ustyugov, was later disqualified for doping and his medals redistributed. At a special ceremony at the 2026 Games, Fourcade saw his silver medal transformed to gold.

Added to two golds he won in Sochi in 2014 and three in Pyeongchang in 2018, the victory made Fourcade France’s highest achieving Winter Olympian yet. 

Sochi saw France secure its first Winter Olympics “podium sweep”, as Jean-Frédéric Chapuis took gold in the men’s ski cross, Arnaud Bovolenta won silver and Jonathan Midol landed bronze. 

In Pyeongchang, French athletes racked up 15 medals, including five gold – a record that has already been broken at the 2026 Games.

At the last edition in Beijing in 2022, biathlete Quentin Fillon Maillet took on Fourcade’s legacy and claimed two golds, three silvers – becoming the first French athlete to win five medals at a single Winter Games. 

He has since taken three more golds and a bronze at Milano Cortina, making him France’s most medalled Olympian of any games – winter or summer.

Living on a shoestring has long been a feature of undergraduate life, but student poverty is rising in France.

A recent survey of more than 5,000 university students, carried out by the Union Etudiante, found that one in three students in France are left with less than €50 a month after covering rent and bills, while one in 10 have nothing left at all at the end of the month.

Eight out of 10 students surveyed said they had already gone without essentials such as heating, food, healthcare or leisure activities.

Marian Blocquet, a 21-year-old master’s student in Paris and president of the student union Renouveau Syndical, says food insecurity is now widespread.

“One in two students in France is skipping a meal every day. That means students are not eating enough,” he says. “And that leads to health problems and makes it difficult to continue and succeed in [your] studies.”

Reliance on food banks

Almost a quarter of France’s university students receive means-tested bursaries to pay tuition fees and help with living costs – meaning 76 percent do not.

Blocquet notes that the criteria for receiving bursaries are being tightened, and that the payments have not kept up with inflation and energy bills.

His family’s income is not low enough for him to receive assistance, but nor are his parents in a position to help him. While he now has a decently paid part-time job, he previously had a tough three years as an undergraduate.

“Every week I would go to food distribution points to collect a food parcel with vegetables and pasta. Sometimes, if we were lucky, there would be eggs as well.”

Recent surveys show 18 to 20 percent of students in France rely on food aid – whether food banks or distribution points – run by student non-profits including Cop1 or Linkee.

“They’re vital,” says Bloquet. “Without these distributions I would have been eating only pasta every day, no protein.”

Grocery handouts and €1 meals: hard times for students in France

€1 meals

Under pressure from the Socialist Party, the government has agreed to extend a €1 student meal scheme that was first introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic for students on very low incomes.

As of May, university canteens will provide hot lunches to all students regardless of income for €1, rather than the current price of €3.30.

The government has allocated €30 million in its 2026 budget to compensate the Crous – the public student services body in charge of grants, housing, canteens and social aid – for the lost revenue. It has also announced an additional €20 million to help canteens recruit extra staff.

“It will provide money to students who do not receive grants and who are also in a precarious situation, particularly those who are just below the threshold for receiving grants,” Philippe Baptiste, minister for higher education, told Le Monde.

Paris inclusive restaurant rallies to help students through Covid pandemic

Students supporting students

Grassroots initiatives have emerged to fill the gaps left by public provision.

In southern Paris, a student-run community kitchen known as Cop1ne provides good quality hot meals for €3 to students, regardless of income.

The project, run largely by volunteers, is 60 percent self-financed with the rest provided through donations, partnerships with food cooperatives and subsidies from Paris City Hall and regional authorities.

More than just food, Cop1ne also offers a social space designed to counter isolation, which surveys show affects nearly a third of students – much higher than the national average of 19 percent.

Justine, a 22-year-old student, says friends recommended it to her when she arrived in Paris. “I was feeling a bit lonely. It was a great way for me to settle into a city like Paris, but also to meet people, eat properly and  eat well.”

For 18-year-old volunteer Lila, Cop1ne is important “to show that we can support one another”.

Students share good food but also cultural events – providing a crucial point of connection, not least for foreign students.

“If I’m here volunteering for three or four hours straight in a kitchen with some other French students, it’s a lot easier for me to just talk,” says Ellie, an American exchange student with limited French. 

Listen to a report on the Cop1ne community kitchen and student poverty in the Spotlight on France podcast

Housing insecurity 

“Student vulnerability extends beyond simply having enough to eat. It includes the issue of housing,” says Blocquet.

Accommodation shortages are particularly acute in Paris. “There are fewer than 8,000 university residences in Paris, whereas there are 80,000 scholarship students.”

There’s also a dire shortage of affordable student rentals. Blocquet pays €700 for a small attic studio, and receives €200 in housing benefit.

His studio is poorly insulated: “When I come home in winter it’s 14°C, and then in the summer it rises to 40°C.”

Before finding his part-time job, he spent months living in a room that resembled “a cellar” and then a period sleeping on friends’ sofas after being evicted.

He says experiences like these are common. “In a survey we conducted on student housing at the beginning of the year, one in 10 students in France reported having been homeless at some point.”

Paris population drops as housing costs drive residents to the suburbs

Budget cuts

Cuts to higher education and public services more generally are aggravating student hardship.

“Since 2017, successive governments have cut the higher education budget. Last year, they cut €800 million, and €700 million the year before,” Blocquet notes. 

The Crous is in financial difficulty. The Paris branch in particular, which Bloquet says has a budget deficit of €2 million for 2026.

Some unions have questioned whether the €1 meal scheme is sustainable.

The CFDT union, France’s largest, pushed the government to put the additional €20 million for staffing on the table saying “without extra jobs, the measure won’t work”.

It warned: “The student meal for €1 mustn’t become a factor of professional exhaustion, an accelerator of precarity, a risk for the quality of public services”.

With the real cost of a university canteen lunch at between €8 and €9, using mainly French products, 15 percent of which are organic, there are concerns too that the quality of the €1 lunches will drop.

“We have eight different dishes a day and a daily homemade dessert,” the head chef at Paris-VII university canteen told Le Monde. “The students are attached to it, and so are we.”

Foreign affairs minister Jean-Noel Barrot was reacting to a statement by the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau, which posted on X that “reports, corroborated by the French Minister of the Interior, that Quentin Deranque was killed by left-wing militants, should concern us all”.

Deranque, a far-right activist, died of brain injuries last week from a beating in the French city of Lyon. He was attacked during a brawl on the margins of a student meeting where Rima Hassan, an MP with the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), was a keynote speaker.

His killing highlighted a climate of deep political tensions ahead of municipal elections in March, and next year’s presidential vote.

French President Emmanuel Macron called for calm on Saturday as some 3,000 people joined a march in Lyon organised by far-right groups to pay tribute to Deranque. 

“We reject any instrumentalisation of this tragedy, which has plunged a French family into mourning, for political ends,” Barrot said on Sunday. “We have no lessons to learn, particularly on the issue of violence, from the international reactionary movement.”

The State Department said in its 19 February post that “violent radical leftism is on the rise and its role in Quentin Deranque’s death demonstrates the threat it poses to public safety. We will continue to monitor the situation and expect to see the perpetrators of violence brought to justice”.

How did Lyon become France’s capital of political violence?

US visa bans also on the agenda

Seven people have been handed preliminary charges. Six have been charged with intentional homicide, aggravated violence and criminal conspiracy. 

A seventh man, an assistant to the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) lawmaker Raphaël Arnault, was charged with complicity in intentional homicide, aggravated violence and criminal conspiracy.

Barrot said he has other topics to discuss with Kushner, including US decisions to impose sanctions on Thierry Breton, a former EU commissioner responsible for supervising social media rules, and Nicolas Guillou, a French judge at the International Criminal Court. 

Barrot said both are targeted by “unjustified and unjustifiable” sanctions.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry did not say when the meeting will take place.

Kushner had already been summoned in August last year over his letter to Macron alleging the country did not do enough to combat antisemitism. France’s foreign officials met with a representative of the US ambassador since the diplomat did not show up.

Trump administration denounces ‘terrorism’ in France after activist’s killing

(with newswires)

In January, Ethiopian police said they had seized thousands of rounds of ammunition sent by Eritrea to rebels in Ethiopia’s Amhara region.

Eritrea denied the allegation, and said Ethiopia was using it to justify starting a war..

The regime “is floating false flags to justify the war that it has been itching to unleash for two long years,” Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel told news agencies.

Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki said in an interview earlier in February with state-run media that Ethiopia had declared war on his country.

He added that Eritrea did not want war, but knows “how to defend [its] nation”.

Ethiopia demands Eritrea ‘immediately withdraw’ troops from its territory

Historical feud

Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, after a series of insurgencies and wars starting from 1961. The two countries went to war against each other from 1998 to 2000, which was followed by a border conflict that lasted for nearly two decades.

They finally agreed to normalise relations in 2018 – an agreement that won Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.

However, the fragile peace deal has since given way to renewed threats and acrimony. 

In Tigray, a region in Ethiopia on the border with Eritrea, a war that erupted in 1975 has been reactivated multiple times – most recently from November 2020 to the end of 2022.

The conflict was reignited in January, as the issues underlying the conflict resurfaced.

“I think one has to start with the Tigray war, with the consequences of the war and the rift that the post-war period and the Pretoria agreement has created between the federal government of Ethiopia and their Eritrean leadership,” an Addis Ababa-based security analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told RFI.

Eritrea has been trying to get closer to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) recently, leading to a feud with Addis Ababa. 

“There is information circulating that Eritrean troops have gotten deeper into Tigray, even nearing the capital, Mekelle,” the security analyst said. “They station [themselves] at some of the checkpoints around that area.” 

An insurgency movement in the neighbouring Amhara region could be impacted as well by “the security vacuum that has unfolded following the partial withdrawal of security forces and the Ethiopian National Defense Forces from the region,” the analyst said. 

World leaders urge restraint as clashes in western Tigray resume

Red Sea access

The tensions between Eritrea and Ethiopia have many other unresolved roots. Ethiopia’s anger at Eritrea’s independence stems in part from the fact that this resulted in it losing its access to the Red Sea, as Eritrea sits along the coastline.

“Ethiopia is a much larger country than Eritrea… and Ethiopia has every right to say, listen, we’re going on 120 million people, we need sea access,” Clionadh Raleigh, director of the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data organisation and a professor of African politics and conflict at the UK’s University of Sussex, told RFI.

Eritrea, she said, is less densely populated, and led by an old dictator. “The Isaias Afwerki regime is something that people cannot wait to see end. And Addis is still hoping to reintegrate it into a larger Ethiopia, potentially within the next generation.”

Eritrea regularly accuses the Ethiopian government of threats of military action to regain access to the Red Sea. Abiy has also tried to gain access via a deal with Somaliland, another breakaway region that is destabilising the equilibrium of power within of the Horn of Africa.

But Abiy insists that Ethiopia is not seeking conflict with Eritrea and wants to address the issue of access through dialogue.

The Ethiopian analyst said this is particularly strategically important to the current leadership, which aspires to play a greater regional role and address its geopolitical and strategic vulnerabilities – stemming from lack of access to the Sea. 

Ethiopia inaugurates Africa’s biggest dam, despite concerns in Egypt and Sudan

Wider regional instability

The war in Sudan is also contributing to worsening relations, as Eritrea supports the Sudanese army, along with Egypt and Saudi Arabia, against the paramilitary RSF, which many accuse Ethiopia of supporting.

According to Raleigh, there will be no stability in the Horn of Africa for some time to come.

“Ethiopia is desperate to change, and they do not expect this process to be victimless or peaceful. It has allied itself to both the United Arab Emirates and Israel, against a Saudi-Egyptian-Sudanese coalition, with Somalia somehow,” she said.

As Ethiopia and Eritrea appear to be moving towards conflict, the peace-building agency International Crisis Group has recommended de-escalation steps to avoid direct hostilities – whether these are accidental or, as many fear, the result of Ethiopian aggression.

“Either scenario would be a disaster for the Horn of Africa and its vicinity, potentially drawing in neighbours and non-African powers, particularly from the Arab Gulf,” the group wrote in its latest report.

“We are willing to give exclusive [access to our minerals] to the United States. Also, we are open to offer military bases to the United States,” Khadar Hussein Abdi, minister of the presidency, told AFP in an interview on Saturday.

“We believe that we will agree on something with the United States.”

Somaliland’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals say the country’s soil is rich in lithium, coltan and other sought-after resources, though independent studies are lacking. In 2024 the Saudi Mining Company Kilomass secured an exploration deal there for lithium and other critical minerals.

Washington already has a naval base in Djibouti, a neighbouring country of Somaliland. 

Strategic rapprochement with Israel

In December, Israel became the first country to formally recognise Somaliland as an independent state – which the northern territory has been seeking since declaring its autonomy from Somalia in 1991.

The government in Mogadishu still considers Somaliland an integral part of Somalia even though the territory has run its own affairs since 1991, with its own passports, currency, army and police force.

Earlier this month, Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi said no bilateral economic deal with Israel had yet been reached, but that Somaliland expected to sign “a partnership agreement” offering rights to valuable mineral deposits as part of the deal.

Abdi said he “could not rule out” the possibility of also allowing Israel to set up a military presence in the context of this strategic partnership. 

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

Regional instability

Somaliland lies across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen, where Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, have often attacked Israeli assets to show solidarity with Palestinians. 

Israeli recognition of Somaliland has prompted threats from the Houthis and al-Qaeda-linked Islamist group al-Shabaab, which has been waging war against the fragile Somali state for 20 years.

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud Israeli recognition as “the greatest violation of Somalia’s sovereignty” and a “threat to the security and stability of the world and the region”. 

The African Union and most Arab countries threw their support behind Somalia and condemned the move.

The US has yet to signal a major shift on the question of Somaliland.

But in August, US President Donald Trump, who had previously lobbed insults at Somalia and President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, suggested he was preparing to move on the issue when asked about Somaliland during a White House news conference.

DR Congo weighs price of security in minerals deal with US

(with AFP)

“I wish to personally draw your attention to the sanctions imposed by the United States against several European citizens, including two French nationals, Nicolas Guillou, a judge at the International Criminal Court, and Thierry Breton, a former European commissioner,” the French president wrote in a letter to Donald Trump, according to La Tribune Dimanche newspaper. 

“I ask you to reconsider these decisions by your administration and to lift the sanctions unjustly imposed on Nicolas Guillou and Thierry Breton,” he added.

The sanctions also apply three other French individuals working for non-governmental organisations that flag online disinformation and hate speech.

Announcing the sanctions in December the State Department said: “These radical activists and weaponised NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states – in each case targeting American speakers and American companies.”  

The EU said “strongly condemned” the sanctions. 

EU crackdown on Big Tech comes into effect with changes for users

‘Erroneous assesments’

Former EU commissioner Thierry Breton is an architect of the EU’s Digital Services Act and has been at the forefront of efforts to regulate technology platforms, which Washington views as an infringement of freedom of expression.

The State Department accuses him of detrimental “censorship” to American interests. He’s been barred from entering the United States since December 2025.

“The sanctions adopted against Thierry Breton undermine European regulatory autonomy and are moreover based on erroneous assessments,” Macron said in the letter. “European digital regulation has no extraterritorial scope and applies, without discrimination, within European territory to all companies concerned.”

Thierry Breton: France’s bulldozer at the EU crashes out

Judicial independence ‘undermined’

Judge Nicolas Guillou was sanctioned by Washington in August 2025, along with other ICC magistrates, over his involvement in proceedings relating to an arrest warrant targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Also barred from entering the United States, his Visa card – an American service – was withdrawn by his bank in France. He is also unable to use a range of American digital services, from Airbnb to Amazon.

Israel urges ICC to drop arrest warrants against PM

“The sanctions adopted against Nicolas Guillou undermine the principle of judicial independence and the mandate of the ICC,” Macron wrote.

“I am Breton and I can hold out for a very long time” without a Visa card or American digital services, Guillou said on Tuesday in Brussels, where he had travelled to call for the EU to wake up to banking and digital sovereignty issues.

“But I will not hold out if nothing happens,” he warned. 

Another one of the five subject to the US visa ban is British tech campaigner Imran Ahmed, the head of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) – a nonprofit watchdog that researches the harmful effects of online disinformation..

In January he described the ban as “punishment” and said Washington’s actions amounted to “tyrannical behaviour”.

Ahmed, a critic of billionaire Elon Musk, holds US permanent residency. He has filed a lawsuit against Trump’s administration, calling the ban an “unconstitutional” attempt to expel a permanent American resident,

(with newswires)

During a visit to Haute-Marne in eastern France earlier this week, Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard and Ecological Transition Minister Mathieu Lefèvre confirmed that farmers will be allowed to shoot wolves in defence of their animals, even if their herds are not protected by fences or other deterrents.

The change marks a significant shift in policy and is aimed at responding more swiftly to attacks, which have surged in recent years.

“Whether protected or not, farmers will have the right to shoot in defence [of their animals],” Genevard said, adding that this was a necessary adaptation to the new reality on the ground.

Wolves are expanding their territory across France. Once limited to fewer than 10 departments, they are now present in more than 60. This has caused issues in newly affected areas, where livestock protection measures are still being developed.

Mixed reactions as France prepares to simplify wolf culling rules

Rising attacks

In Haute-Marne, around 800 farm animals were killed in 2025, with a further 124 losses recorded since the start of this year.

Nationally, preliminary data suggests that 12,000 animals fell victim to wolf attacks in 2025 – a rise that has fuelled frustration and anxiety among farmers.

Until now, regulations required farmers to install protective measures before being granted permission to shoot wolves. The government argues that this approach no longer fits the evolving situation.

“The status quo in the face of such [predatory behaviour] is not possible,” Mr Lefèvre said, adding that wolves are increasingly appearing in territories “which by definition are poorly protected”.

Under the planned decree – expected in the coming weeks – farmers, specialised intervention brigades and licensed wolf hunters will be allowed to carry out targeted culling operations to defend unprotected livestock.

Compensation rules will also be relaxed slightly: payments will continue even after repeated attacks, provided farmers are actively working towards better protection, even if those measures are not yet fully in place.

However, ministers stressed that the changes are not a free pass. Farmers who benefit from wolf control measures will be expected to commit to putting protection systems in place within the following year.

French documentary about wolves raises ire of angry sheep farmers

Conservation concerns

The policy shift has drawn a mixed response. For many farmers, it represents a welcome step towards greater flexibility and security.

“This is a step forward – we will have more flexibility to protect our animals,” said Lucette Nivert, a sheep farmer in Lanques-sur-Rognon. Still, she emphasised the ongoing strain felt in rural communities. “As long as the wolf is there, attacking us and making our lives hell, it will be unbearable.”

But the Association for the Protection of Wild Animals described the measures as “catastrophic” and has pledged to challenge the decree in court once it is published.

The group has long argued that the return of wolves to France has been an ecological success, helping to restore natural balance.

Alongside the regulatory changes, the government confirmed that it will raise the wolf culling quota for 2026 to 21 percent of the estimated population of 1,082 animals, with the option to increase this by a further 2 percent if needed – allowing for up to 248 wolves to be killed. This follows a 2025 quota of 19 percent, equivalent to 190 wolves.

The decision stops short of demands from several Alpine and sub-Alpine departments, which had called for a more substantial increase to 30 percent. However, ministers have signalled that further changes could be on the horizon, with an emergency agricultural bill expected to address the sensitive and increasingly urgent issue of livestock predation.

(with newswires)

The destruction of the city of Aghdam in the contested enclave of Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh is among the most visible signs of the decades-long conflict between Azerbaijanis and ethnic Armenians. Now efforts are underway to bring the city back to life.

A loud explosion breaks the winter silence as the latest disposal of collected mines takes place. ‘We’ve cleared three hundred thousand square meters and found more than ten thousand landmines,” proudly declares Elnur Gasimov, head of mine clearance operations in Aghdam.

The dangerous work, done in freezing weather, carries significant risk. Gasimov’s right hand is missing several fingers.

“We have more than 10 deminers who have lost their legs, and we lost two deminers during the explosive disposal,” Gasimov told RFI.

He explains that, with Aghdam once close to the frontline in fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces, the area was among the heaviest mined during the conflict.

Azerbaijan lifts Armenia border restrictions, but hurdles to peace remain

Clearing the mines

Nagorno-Karabakh was historically home to a predominantly ethnic Armenian population. In 1993, they broke away from Azerbaijan, declaring a breakaway Republic of Artsakh. But in 2023, during a lightning war, Azerbaijani forces recaptured the region.

With access to Aghdam still tightly controlled since the end of the fighting, RFI joined a small group of journalists on a trip organised by the Azerbaijani authorities.

The city of Aghdam was once home to 40,000 people, predominantly Azerbaijani. Long a cultural centre of the region, the city was also home to Azerbaijan’s most famous football club – Qarabag – which now plays out of the capital, Baku.

Today, not a single house remains standing – all were razed to the ground, and even the trees didn’t escape the conflict. It’s a barren wasteland.

The historical Juma mosque was one of the few buildings that survived, partially intact, and was used as a shelter for farm animals by ethnic Armenians.

Imam Mehman Nesirov, 45, is the proud custodian of the fully restored mosque, where up to 100 worshippers now attend Friday prayers as life slowly returns to the city.

Nesirov fled Aghdam in 1993 as a child: “We were forced to leave because of the sound of fighting, which was getting closer and closer. Everyone was terrified and panicked.”

Nesirov explained to RFI that he and his family spent the first years of their lives living in a railway wagon. “I will never forget those years. We always prayed to God that one day we could return and pray at this mosque,” said Nesirov. “We can’t put into words how we feel that dream we had as a child, a teenager, and an adult is finally realised.”

Azerbaijan must allow ‘safe’ return to Nagorno-Karabakh: UN court

Returns and ruptures

Around a thousand people have returned to Aghdam, all housed in new state-built accommodation, as the city itself remains uninhabitable. While Azerbaijanis are slowly returning, ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh have now become refugees following the victory of Azeri forces in 2023.

“What we saw within 24 hours was the forced expulsion of the remaining 110,000 Armenians from their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh,” said Richard Giragosiyan, director of the Regional Studies Center, a Yerevan think tank.

“They were leaving behind whole homes, personal possessions, family graves, and coming to Armenia, which was more of a foreign country than many people understand,” added Giragosiyan.

However, Giragosiyan claims that Azerbaijan’s forces’ success in Nagorno-Karabakh opened the door to a “diplomatic breakthrough,” with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan committing themselves to improving relations in the aftermath of the conflict. Baku in January opened its border to allow oil and grain from Kazakhstan to reach Armenia, which is important for Yerevan as it tries to rely less on Russia and move closer to Europe.

In Aghdam’s newest hotel, manager Aykhan Jabbarov welcomes rapprochement efforts between Yerevan and Baku.

Jabbarov, a veteran of the last Nagorno-Karabakh war whose family fled Aghdam thirty years ago, looks forward to a time when Azerbaijanis and Armenians can again live together in the city. “If we look to history, we lived together before now, every leader talks about peace … We have to build a good relationship. It will help both countries’ economy, people’s social life and the regional economy, everything.”

However, diplomatic efforts to restore relations and normalise Armenian-Azerbaijani ties still have plenty of work ahead. With repercussions of the past never far away, Ruben Vardanyan, a leading member of the breakaway Armenian administration captured by Azeri forces, was convicted this week of war crimes and sentenced to 20 years in jail by an Azerbaijani court.

In what could mark a major turning point in the history of arms control, New Start expired on 5 February. Neither US President Donald Trump nor his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has shown interest in renewing it. 

The treaty was signed between the United States and Russia on 8 April 2010 and came into force on 5 February 2011. Initially planned to last 10 years, it was extended for another five in 2021.

Its goal was to limit each side to 800 missile launchers and 1,550 nuclear warheads, with the two countries authorised to inspect each other’s stockpiles.

It was never a global treaty. Other countries signed up to the broader Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which came into force in 1970 and now has 191 parties, including the US and Russia.

But Washington and Moscow also had bilateral arms control agreements in place continuously since 1972 – until now, notes Benoît Pelopidas, an expert on nuclear threats at Sciences Po university in Paris.

“But it would be false to deduce from that that the arms race has not started yet and might start now,” he tells RFI. 

“There are reasons to think that the arms race started as early as the spring of 2010.”

Europe confronts ‘new nuclear reality’ as Macron signals broader deterrence role

‘Possible acceleration’

Even before New Start expired, implementation of the treaty deteriorated over time, culminating in Russia suspending its participation in 2023.

“And now we’re at a full level where it’s no longer implemented at all,” says Pelopidas. “It’s new diplomatically, and it enables the possible acceleration of an ongoing arms race.”

NATO called for “restraint and responsibility” after the treaty expired.

“Russia’s irresponsible nuclear rhetoric and coercive signals on nuclear matters reveal a posture of strategic intimidation,” an official told French news agency AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“NATO will continue to take the measures necessary to ensure its credibility and the effectiveness of its overall deterrence and defence position.”

The Kremlin had proposed continuing to comply with New Start’s limits until February 2027, but the White House did not respond.

Moscow considers the treaty’s expiration “a negative development”, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “We express our regret in this regard.”

China shuns calls to enter nuclear talks after US-Russia treaty lapses

Disarmament still possible

According to Pelopidas, disarmament is possible and has been partially achieved before, especially in the early 1990s after the end of the Cold War. 

“In 1991, we had 58,000 nuclear weapons on the planet. And we’re now at a level of roughly 12,000 in 2025, which is a massive decrease,” he says. 

“We have, between 1986 and today, dismantled or retired over 80 percent of the existing arsenal in the world. So it is not materially impossible to dismantle or disarm.”

The world’s remaining nuclear stockpile still has the potential to wreak huge destruction, he stresses, a fact that he believes should drive all nuclear powers to work towards de-escalation.

“If the theory of nuclear winter is correct, a so-called limited nuclear war between India and Pakistan that led to the explosion of 100 Hiroshima-sized bombs – that is, roughly 1 percent of the existing arsenal – would lead to the death of 2 billion people by starvation due to its indirect consequences over two years,” Pelopidas says.

“That’s how destructive the capacity of the existing arsenal is.”

Episode mixed by Erwan Rome.

The African continent is rich in resources that are critical to the energy transition, as well as to the electronics and high-tech industries. Africa holds vast reserves of coltan, gallium, cobalt, tantalum, lithium, nickel, and many other strategic minerals that sit at the heart of this global competition.

The Trump administration is seeking to counter China‘s growing dominance over the continent’s metals and mining sectors.

DR Congo weighs price of security in minerals deal with US

For the moment, Trump is focused on a  US – DRC agreement, which would prioritise American interests in the central African country’s supply chain. The DRC sits on vast mineral wealth and is currently engaged in a peace process with Rwanda, brokered by the United States.

DRC takes on Apple: can conflict mineral mining be stopped?

To help us analyse the context of these deals, we are joined today by three guests.

First, Clionadh Raleigh, head of ACLED – the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. We also have Akin Adegoke, Chief Digital Officer at Lotus Bank, who brings experience in driving technology-led, inclusive banking.

And finally, Frédéric Mousseau, Policy Director at the California-based Oakland Institute, who argues that, that under the guise of peace and development, the US–DRC Strategic Partnership Agreement rewrote Congo’s laws to favour American mining interests.”

Delegates also gathered at the Cape Town International Convention Centre for the 32nd edition of the African Mining Indaba, the continent’s largest conference on the sector.

You’ll also hear reactions from people on the ground in the DRC, as well as from leaders in South Africa and Zambia, on what has already been dubbed the new scramble for Africa.

Episode edited by Melissa Chemam and mixed by Erwan Rome.

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

In a conspicuous display of military strength, Turkish F-16 fighter jets roared over the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in late January.

According to Turkish officials, the deployment was aimed at protecting Turkish interests and supporting Somali efforts to counter an insurgency by the radical Islamist group al-Shabaab. 

It follows Israel’s recognition of Somaliland in December, which Ankara condemned as a threat to Somalia’s territorial integrity.

Turkish international relations expert Soli Ozel said the jets send a message to Israel: “Don’t mess with our interests here.”

Somalia is poised to become the latest point of tension between the countries, he predicts. “I don’t think they will fight, but they are both showing their colours. Israel’s recognition of Somaliland and the Turks sending F-16s and drones are attempts to set limits to what the other party can do,” he said.

“Could it get out of hand? I don’t know. It may.”

The risky calculations behind Israel’s recognition of Somaliland

Mutual suspicion

The episode reflects broader strains in Israeli-Turkish relations, which remain fraught over Ankara’s support of Hamas and Israel’s war in Gaza.

“It’s a new chapter in the competition between the two countries, which are now the dominant military powers in the Middle East,” said Norman Ricklefs, CEO of geopolitical consultancy Namea Group.

According to Gallia Lindenstrauss, an Israeli foreign policy specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Israel is not seeking to challenge the interests of Turkey or Somalia.

Instead, she argues Israel’s recognition of Somaliland and its commitment to deepening cooperation are motivated by the breakaway’s state strategic location facing Yemen, where Houthi rebels launched attacks against Israeli cities last year.

“The Houthis were the last ones who were still launching missiles against Israel, from the Iranian proxies. This is the most major threat for Israel,” she said. 

However, Lindenstrauss acknowledges that both sides increasingly view each other’s actions with suspicion. “What Israel sees as defence, Turkey sees as something against Ankara.”

Rival blocs

Turkey’s suspicions could grow if Israel deploys military hardware in Somaliland to counter threats from Yemen, a move an anonymous Israeli expert suggested is Israel’s aim.

Ricklefs warns Israel needs to tread carefully, given the significant investments Turkey had made in Somalia over the past 15 years. Turkey has its largest overseas military base and embassy in Somalia, while Ankara has signed agreements with Mogadishu to explore potential energy reserves, as well as a naval accord.

“Turkey is running the [Mogadishu] port, counterterrorism training, charities, NGOs, and all that kind of stuff. So it appears very important to Turkey’s regional strategic ambitions,” said Ricklefs. He noted that Somalia’s location on the Horn of Africa, with coastlines in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, makes it “key for regional influence”.

With Somalia naval deal, Turkey steers into strategic but volatile region

Lindenstrauss observed that the Turkish-Israeli rivalry over Somalia is further complicated by the emergence of two competing axes: “On the one hand, you see Greece, Cyprus, Israel, the UAE. On the other hand, you see Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and Qatar,” she explained.  

“They are loose axes, but you do see that on many issues, these two axes think differently. And that’s also a cause of the rising tensions.”

Ricklefs noted that tensions have already spilled over into confrontation elsewhere. “We’ve already seen the pretty strong competition leading to violence in Libya, between blocs aligned with the Emirates and, on the other side, blocs aligned with Turkey in Libya,” he said.

As for whether the same could happen in Somalia, Ricklefs said he doesn’t believe the situation has yet reached that point. 

“I don’t think we’re there just yet with Somaliland and Somalia,” he said. “And frankly, the only party that can play a mediating role, a conflict-reducing role, in this situation is the United States.”

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 17 January, I asked you a question about our article “France launches recruitment for 10-month voluntary national military service”. You were to send in the answer to these two questions: How many volunteers will be accepted into the 2026 program, and what will their jobs be? 

The answer is, to quote our article: “From September, around 3,000 volunteers will join the army, navy, or air and space force for missions carried out exclusively on French soil.

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

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: What is the most romantic thing that has ever been said to you? Or the most romantic action? Or the most romantic gift?

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Murshida Parveen Lata, who is the Co-Chairman of the Source of Knowledge Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh. Murshida is also the winner of this week’s bonus question Congratulations on your double win, Murshida.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Ashraf Ali, a member of the International RFI DX Radio Listeners Club in West Bengal, India; Sumara Sabri, a member of the RFI Online Visitors Club in Sahiwal, Pakistan; Sameen Riaz – also from Pakistan, this time from Sheikupura city – Sameen is a member of the RFI Listeners Club in that fair city, and last but not least, RFI Listeners Club member Sami Mossad from Giza, Egypt.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Fast Bob” by Romane and Stochelo Rosenberg, played by the Rosenberg Ensemble; “La Marseillaise” by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, arranged by Claude Bolling and performed by the Claude Bolling Big Band; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “You’re the Top” by Cole Porter, sung by Ella Fitzgerald.  

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 “Cambridge University Museum set to return Benin bronzes to Nigeria”, which will help you with the answer.

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

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

Click here to find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize.

Click here to find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or form your own official RFI Club. 

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).

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.