The conference is being held in Belém, at the gateway to the Amazon rainforest, bringing together nearly 190 national delegations and up to 50,000 participants.

Brazil’s presidency has called it the “Cop of the people, Cop of truth, Cop of action”, but the summit faces an unclear agenda and sharp disagreements over how – or even whether – a final declaration can be reached.

Just over a month ago, countries were due to publish their new climate plans. Barely more than half have done so, and their combined ambition falls short. The world is still heading for 2.4C of warming by the end of the century – which scientists warn is a catastrophe for humanity and the planet.

To avoid another failure, the Brazilian presidency is not attempting a grand final declaration. It wants instead to launch more concrete commitments with a group of willing states, in a bid to save what can be saved of global climate cooperation.

World leaders face Amazon reckoning on a decade of climate promises

Fossil fuel fight

At a summit of heads of state three days earlier, several leaders – including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – said it was necessary to prepare for the end of fossil fuels. But beyond that political signal, there is almost no chance of finding consensus, as oil-producing countries remain firmly opposed.

“How are we going to do this? Is there going to be consensus about how we are going to do it? This is one of the great mysteries of Cop30,” conference president André Corrêa do Lago said.

“My preference is not to need a Cop decision. If countries have an overwhelming desire for a Cop decision, we will certainly think about it and deal with it.”

Do Lago said emerging countries were appearing at this Cop with a different role. He noted the rise of China’s importance in the talks as the US seeks to exit the Paris Agreement in January and the European Union struggles to maintain its level of ambition amid worries over energy security.

“Emerging countries are appearing in this Cop with a different role. China is coming with solutions for everyone,” Do Lago added, pointing to inexpensive green technologies from China now leading the energy transition worldwide.

Europe’s climate progress overshadowed by worsening loss of nature

Indigenous voices

Civil society is making its return after three Cops in authoritarian countries, and it intends to be heard. Indigenous leaders in particular are demanding a real say in decisions that affect their lands and future.

Brazilian groups are joined by visiting delegations who arrived on Sunday evening by boat after travelling 3,000 kilometres from the Andes to the Brazilian coast.

They want stronger control over how their territories are managed as climate change worsens and industries such as mining, logging and oil drilling push deeper into forests.

“We want to make sure that they don’t keep promising, that they will start protecting, because we as indigenous people are the ones who suffer from these impacts of climate change,” said Pablo Inuma Flores, an indigenous leader from Peru, who also criticised oil spills and illegal mining along the river.

EU ministers agree weakened climate target to take to Brazil summit

Money gap

Adaptation to natural disasters that are already hitting is another key issue for Southern countries, especially in Africa.

Negotiators are tasked with defining 100 indicators to measure how prepared countries are. But what vulnerable states say they mainly need to adapt is money.

Money is the final major challenge at this Cop. Last year’s summit ended in failure, with rich countries promising $300 billion per year within 10 years to help the poorest countries, when at least four times more would be needed.

Brazil wants to propose reaching $1.3 trillion, but the question of where to find the money is expected to cause tension.

Countries also want to address financial and action targets for adapting to a warmer world, with hopes that development banks can reform enough to ensure more money – including from the private sector – goes to these goals.

Ahead of the summit, scientists at dozens of universities and institutions from Asia, Africa and Europe sounded an alarm over the world’s thawing glaciers, ice sheets and other frozen areas.

“The cryosphere is destabilising at an alarming pace,” they said in an open letter to Cop30 published on Monday.

“Geopolitical tensions or short-term national interests must not overshadow Cop30. Climate change is the defining security and stability challenge of our time.”

The first point of order for Cop30 is to vote on an agenda.

Do Lago said countries had been wrangling for months over what to include, describing this as a healthy exchange of priorities.

By Monday morning, 106 governments had submitted new climate plans, with more expected this week.

(with newswires)

A Paris court agreed to release Sarkozy under judicial supervision, pending an appeal of last month’s verdict that found him guilty of criminal conspiracy over efforts by close aides to procure funds for his 2007 presidential bid from late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Sarkozy is forbidden from contacting other people indicted in the case, as well as the current Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, who visited Sarkozy in prison last month.

He is due to leave La Sante prison Monday afternoon, after 20 days behind bars.

His prison sentence was enforced immediately after the verdict, because of what the judge called the “extraordinary seriousness” of the crime.

During Monday’s hearing, Sarkozy spoke via video from the prison, saying the experience of being behind bars was “hard, really hard, as it is certainly be for any detainee. I would even say it is exhausting”.

Sarkozy has consistently denied wrongdoing, saying he is a victim of revenge and hatred.

He is under formal investigation in another case for being accessory to witness tampering.

He has appealed the guilty verdict, but said he would respect any demand from the judiciary if he were freed.

“I am French, sir,” he told the judge. “I love my country. I am fighting for the truth to prevail. I will comply with all the obligations imposed on me, as I always have,” he said.

(with Reuters)

African Union Commission President Mahmoud Ali Youssouf expressed “deep concern over the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Mali” on Sunday, referring to an ongoing fuel blockade by jihadists that has impacted civilians.

For weeks, jihadists with the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) have imposed a fuel blockade on Mali, creating a crisis for the ruling military junta.

In a statement, Youssouf warned that the fuel blockade was impacting “innocent civilians”, and he called for a “robust, coordinated, and coherent” international response to counter terrorism in Mali and the Sahel region.

The junta has struggled to counter various armed groups since it took power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021.

Youssouf also called for the release of three Egyptians that jihadists kidnapped for ransom, calling their abduction “grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law”.

France recommends leaving

The degrading security situation has prompted the France to recommend its citizens leave the country.

The Foreign Ministry on Friday recommended people leave Mali temporarily as soon as possible, because “the security context is degrading in Mali, including in Bamako”.

The ministry urged people to use commercial flights and not leave by land, as main the roads in Mali are targets of “attacks from terrorist groups”.

The ministry also reiterated its formal advice against travelling to Mali, “regardless of the reason”.

Last week the Ministry called on citizens to be on “high alert”, and other countries, including the UK, Germany, US and Canada have urged their own citizens to leave the country, due to the security situation and the lack of fuel.

Some 4,300 French citizens are registered with the French consulate in Mali, according to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux, who insisted that “security is a priority”.

Although the former president, who was ousted in a coup in August 2023, is not among the accused, his wife Sylvia, eldest son Noureddin and eleven of their associates will stand trial this week, accused of having taken advantage of the power and resources of the presidency.

They face 12 charges that include embezzlement of public funds, “active corruption” and forging official documents.

‘Show trial’

The Bongos have called the proceedings a “show trial”, and Noureddin told French weekly Le Point last week that he had “never embezzled any money”.

He and his mother, who also have French nationality, filed a complaint in a French court last year accusing Gabonese authorities of kidnapping and torturing them after Bongo was ousted.

The two will not attend the hearings, as they left Gabon for London in May, when newly-elected President Brice Clothaire Oligui Nguema agreed to let them leave, on the condition they keep a low profile.

Since then, the Bongos have been openly confrontational towards the Gabonese authorities.

Members of Gabon’s civil society involved in the trial regret that the two will not be present at the special court.

“We simply expect the guilty to pay,” Ghislain Ngui Nze, spokesperson for the Indignant citizens collective (Les citoyens indignés), told RFI.

The group recently issued a statement condemning the arrogance of the former First Lady and her son for refusing to appear before justice.

“In their time, they claimed that Gabon’s justice system was doing its job. Now that they are faced with the facts: they must return to the Republic of Gabon to answer for their actions,” he said.

“These are financial criminals who have destroyed the country, systematically violated human rights, and now refuse to be tried,” said Georges Mpaga, president of the Network of free organisations for good governance, which has joined the case as a civil party.

“Nevertheless, under the United Nations Convention against Corruption, universal jurisdiction allows for international judicial cooperation to repatriate their assets, the proceeds of their crimes.”

(with newswires)

Kolo Muani, 26, was injured on Saturday during Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-2 draw with Manchester United in the English Premier League.

The French Football Federation confirmed on Sunday night hat he had suffered an injury to his lower jaw.

Thauvin, 32, featured in the France squad that won the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

But he fell from favour following the triumph. After six years in the international wilderness, he received a call-up for last round of qualifiers in October and marked his return with a goal in the 3-0 victory against Azerbaijan on 10 October.

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France lead European qualifying Group D with 10 points after four games. They will advance to next year’s tournament in the United States, Mexico and Canada with a win over second-placed Ukraine on Thursday night at the Parc des Princes.

Even with a defeat, France will get the chance to book their berth in their final game in Azerbaijan on 16 November.

Deschamps, 57, is dealing with a string of injuries to his forward line. Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé was injured during Paris Saint-Germain’s defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League. 

Dembélé’s PSG in teammate Désiré Doué is also absent and Marcus Thuram has only just returned to action with Inter Milan after being sidelined for over a month with a left thigh injury.

However, skipper Kylian Mbappé has been in sparkling form with Real Madrid. The 26-year-old has scored 13 goals for the Spanish league leaders and struck five times in their Champions League games.

(with newswires)

On Sunday, hundreds of people took part in a first commemoration of the attacks, by running and walking through Paris in the March for freedom (Marche de la liberté), taking a symbolic course to pay tribute to the victims of the attack.

On 13 November 2015, ten jihadists who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State Armed group killed 89 people attending a concert at the Bataclan along with 30 people at restaurants and cafes around the concert hall and one person near the Stade de France football stadium.

Several ceremonies are to mark ten years since the attacks on Thursday, with President Emmanuel Macron expected to speak.

The names of those who were killed, as well as those of two people who took their own lives in the aftermath, have been inscribed on commemorative plaques around Paris.

The Terrorism Memorial Museum, due to open in 2029, will present objects linked to the attacks or its victims, most donated by victims’ families.

The French president at the time, Francois Hollande, declared France “at war” with the jihadists and their self-proclaimed Islamic State caliphate in Syria and Iraq, which attracted French citizens and inspired the Paris attacks.

US-backed forces defeated the last remnants of the Islamic State in eastern Syria in 2019.

The only surviving attacker, Salah Abdeslam, is serving life sentence after the nine-month trial of the attacks. The nine others blew themselves up or were killed by police.

France’s anti-terror unit said this weekend that they had arrested three people as part of an investigation into a suspected terror threat linked to Abdeslam.

(with AFP)

“Turks out!” shouted protesters as they marched through Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital. Several Turkish-owned businesses, among the country’s largest investors, were ransacked during last month’s violence.

The clashes were sparked by a knife attack on a Montenegrin citizen by Turkish nationals.

After the unrest, Montenegro imposed visa requirements on Turkish visitors. Some opposition parties accused Serbia of stoking the protests, pointing to rising friction between Belgrade and Ankara over the arms sale to Kosovo.

“There are those accusing the Serbian region of being behind it,” Vuk Vuksanovic, of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, told RFI. “Although I have seen no material evidence.”

Widening rift

While Serbia has not commented on the accusations, it has the capacity to incite such unrest given its strong influence in Montenegro, Vuksanovic said. “The drama involving Montenegro has built up to this difficult atmosphere in Serbian-Turkish relations,” he said.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic last month accused Turkey of trying to resurrect the Ottoman Empire through the sale of sophisticated drones to Kosovo, which broke away from Serbia in 1999.

Analysts say the weapons deal could shift the balance of power in the region.

“There are the kamikaze drones, which are posing a threat, and there are also strategic drones likely to be used to secure the border itself and more as a show of force,” said Zoran Ivanov, a security expert from the Institute of National History in Skopje, North Macedonia.

“So it poses a direct security threat to Serbia and Serbia has to react to this.”

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Changing alliances

The tension marks a sharp turnaround. In recent years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had built a close relationship with his Serbian counterpart, and Turkish companies became major investors in Serbia.

However the arms sale to Kosovo reveals a shift in Turkey’s relations with Belgrade, explained international relations professor Huseyin Bagci, of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

“Turkey has more leverage than Serbia,” Bagci said. “The relations between Turkey and Serbia, we understand each other, but it is not as happy as before.”

Analysts say the shift reflects Ankara’s wider ambitions in the Balkans.

“Ankara is trying to increase its influence and will do it,” said Bagci, adding that Turkey’s historical and cultural ties to the region run deep – with millions of families tracing their roots back to the former Ottoman territories.

“The Ottoman Empire was a Balkan empire. The Turkish influence is getting bigger, and of course, they don’t like it. But Turkey is the big brother in the Balkans.”

Turkish Cypriot vote could force shift in Erdogan’s approach to divided island

Turkish expansion

Last month, Turkish forces took command of NATO’s KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. At the same time, Turkish businesses continued expanding across the region.

“They’re expanding their markets; they’re expanding their capabilities; they’re expanding their influence,” Ivanov said.

Turkey’s renewed focus on the Balkans was unsurprising given historical ties, he added. “That’s natural for the Turks to come to invest in the region and now looking for their old roots.”

However its expanding presence might feel like history repeating itself, Ivanov warned.

As “a man who is coming from the Balkans,” he said, he sees “the Turks coming as they were in history” – a reminder of a past many in the region have not forgotten.

The European Union has praised Ankara for supporting peacekeeping operations and economic aid in Kosovo. But analysts caution that Turkey must avoid alienating its Balkan neighbours.

“Ankara also has to be mindful of its own limitations of its own Balkan ambitions,” Vuksanovic. said. “Because otherwise it can push majority Christian Orthodox nations like the Serbs, Greeks and Bulgarians to work against the Turks if the Turks are perceived to be too provocative or aggressive.”

Universities have been among Trump’s favourite targets since his return to the White House. Between cutting funding for certain degrees, demonising individual institutions and arresting students from immigrant backgrounds on campus, the college dream has soured for many in the US.

With the administration making visas harder to secure, the number of international students arriving in the US fell by 19 percent compared to the last academic year, according to the New York Times. Americans, too, are increasingly looking elsewhere. 

A record number applied this year to universities in the United Kingdom – which itself has been actively pursuing foreign students post-Brexit – according to figures from the UK’s higher education application body Ucas.

It received nearly 8,000 American undergraduate applications, marking a rise of almost 14 percent on the previous year.

Scotland is particularly popular, with three of its universities in the UK’s top 10 for the highest number of US students.

Scotland’s oldest university, St Andrews – long popular with Americans thanks to its starring role in the love story of Prince William and Kate Middleton – takes the top spot, with one in five students now coming from the US.

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‘It feels like a way of escaping’

Edinburgh University is second on the list, with the University of Glasgow in fifth place.

Gabby arrived at Edinburgh this year. “I’m doing a master’s degree in comparative public policy. My husband was accepted into the university first, and I wanted to do a master’s degree, so this was the easiest way to get a visa and join him,” she told RFI.

“But now that I’m here, it feels a bit like a way of escaping what’s happening at home: the defunding of university research, students being arrested just for voicing opposition… It’s concerning,” she added.

French international students rattled by Trump’s US visa suspensions

John Rappa, from New Jersey, came to study in Edinburgh in 2019.

“I could have found an affordable university in the United States, but an institution as prestigious as Edinburgh would have been beyond my means. Including visa and tuition fees, studying here costs the same as a public university in my state… Why the hell would I not?”

While cost was his main motivation for choosing to study outside the US at that time, he notes that the change in political climate since then has only convinced him he made the right choice.

“My friends who stayed behind are seeing their course budgets cut. My brother is a PhD student in pharmacology, but the Trump administration has stopped funding his research, so he can’t graduate. The future looks bleak.”

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‘Quality of life’

In terms of his own future, Rappa also sees advantages to staying in Scotland.

“The quality of life is much better here, starting with social security for all. If I have children, I want them to have access to education, and that’s not the direction the United States is taking.”

Edinburgh University students have revived the defunct North American Society, thanks to growing demand. Freddie Pusch – a native Scot – is its treasurer. “It had ceased to exist since the pandemic, so we revived it.”

He jokes: “[The American] students are particularly noisy… No, they bring an enthusiasm that we locals don’t have. They remind us that we live in a great city.”

This article was adapted from a report in French by Emeline Vin.

The two-day Belem Climate Summit takes place in the humid port city at the mouth of the Amazon River – a symbolic prelude to the UN’s Cop30 conference that begins there next week. Together they mark 10 years since the Paris Agreement and bring global attention back to the planet’s most vital carbon sink.

For Brazil, it is a moment to show that protecting forests and reducing poverty can go hand in hand. For much of the world, it is a chance to prove that promises made in Paris can still deliver results.

“We have to somehow manage to convey that there is progress on this agenda, because we are facing a phase in which most of the public think that this agenda is losing ground,” Cop30 president Andre Correa do Lago said.

But the talks open amid sobering news. Around two-thirds of the 195 countries that signed the Paris accord missed the February deadline to submit updated climate plans for 2035.

By early November, only about 65 countries had submitted new national climate plans for 2035, and most failed to impress. China’s target fell well below expectations, while India has yet to finalise its pledge.

The European Union agreed on Wednesday to a weakened 2040 climate goal after all-night talks in Brussels, keeping its 90 percent emissions cut headline but allowing countries to offset up to 10 percent of that target through foreign carbon credits and delay key measures.

Environmental groups warned the compromise undermines Europe’s credibility as a climate leader, while several member states argued it was needed to protect industries struggling with high energy costs and competition from cheaper imports.

Europe’s climate progress overshadowed by worsening loss of nature

The billion-dollar gap

The battle over money will dominate both the Belem summit and Cop30, which runs from 10 to 21 November. Wealthy nations are under pressure to explain how they will help poorer ones cope with rising seas, extreme heat and mounting climate losses.

Last year’s Cop29 in Baku ended with developed countries agreeing to provide $300 billion a year in climate finance by 2035 – far below what developing nations say is needed. Governments also set a vaguer goal of mobilising $1.3 trillion a year from public and private sources but offered little detail on how to achieve it.

A UN Adaptation Gap Report last week found the world will need to spend about $310 billion a year by 2035 to prepare for worsening floods, droughts and heatwaves – roughly 12 times current spending levels.

“More than ever, the general public, governments in general, cities in general, want resources for adaptation,” Correa do Lago said.

CARE International, which campaigns for climate justice and humanitarian relief, warned that the shortfall is already leaving millions exposed, especially women and girls.

“The need for adaptation finance is immense, up to $300 billion per year, yet current funding barely scratches the surface,” said Marlene Achoki, CARE’s global climate justice policy lead. “Cop30 will be successful, and truly a people’s Cop, when sufficient adaptation finance is provided to drive real action and implementation on the ground.”

Senior adviser John Nordbo described climate finance as “the fault line of global climate action”, saying many rich countries inflate figures and repackage loans as aid.

“Much of this so-called support comes as loans, not grants, and repayments often flow quietly back to donors,” he said.

Indigenous knowledge steers new protections for the high seas

Brazil’s forest gamble

Holding the leaders’ summit in Belem brings the focus back to the rainforest’s central role in stabilising the planet’s climate.

The Brazilian government will use the event to launch the Tropical Forests Forever Facility – a new global fund that will reward countries with high tropical forest cover for keeping trees standing instead of cutting them down.

The facility aims to raise $25 billion from donor governments and another $100 billion from private investors, with Brazil already pledging $1 billion.

The fund “could be a step forward in protecting tropical forests” if paired with firm commitments to end deforestation by 2030, said Clement Helary, a forests campaigner with Greenpeace.

Tropical primary forest loss hit a record high in 2024 – the equivalent of 18 football fields a minute, driven largely by fires.

Hosting the conference in the Amazon makes it “the perfect opportunity to ramp up action to end deforestation”, the WWF has said, noting that global pledges from Cop26 to halt forest loss by 2030 have stalled.

How Brazil’s booming coffee industry is driving deforestation

From talk to action

Cop30 will test whether the world can finally move from ambition to action.

Under the Paris Agreement, countries must strengthen their emissions targets every five years, but the latest round of 2035 plans still falls well short of what is needed to limit warming to 1.5C.

What is needed now is “a step change” – moving from setting targets to delivering them, said the World Resources Institute.

The first global stocktake at Cop28 showed the world is “significantly off track”, while the UN Secretary-General has said overshooting the 1.5C goal is “inevitable” unless countries “change course”.

When the Paris Agreement was signed, the planet was on track for roughly 4C of warming by 2100. Later pledges have cut that to around 3C, and if all net-zero promises were fully met, the rise could fall closer to 1.9C.

Deeper emissions cuts and large-scale ecosystem restoration, scientists say, could still bring temperatures back below 1.5C later this century.

Last year was the first time the 1.5C threshold was breached for an entire year, with extreme weather causing more than $300 billion in damage. Renewable energy and electric vehicles, while already saving lives and creating jobs, is not happening fast enough, experts warn.

Record surge in CO2 puts world on track for more long-term warming

Can trust survive?

Unlike earlier climate summits, Cop30 has no single grand deal in sight.

Organisers are calling it the “Cop of Implementation”, focused on turning words into measurable progress.

“The Brazilian Presidency’s central challenge is to turn promises into real-world action – bridging divides between developed and developing countries, ambition and equity, mitigation and adaptation,” said Karen Silverwood-Cope from WRI Brazil.

The political mood adds to the challenge. US President Donald Trump has dismissed climate change as a “con job” and is sending no senior officials to Belem, deepening fears that global climate diplomacy is losing momentum.

Still, Brazil hopes the Amazon setting can help restore it. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been in Belem since the weekend, meeting local communities and overseeing preparations ahead of the summit.

He is expected to stay through the opening of Cop30 on Monday, as world leaders gather in the heart of the Amazon – a symbolic setting for a conference that will test whether a decade of promises can finally turn into action.

Soaking up France’s deficit means saving €44 billion in next year’s budget. And an already deeply divided parliament can’t work out how to do it: the left wants a wealth tax, the right wants cuts in public spending.

This disagreement has brought down two governments in less than a year. The bill was meant to be agreed by Tuesday this week. It wasn’t – and the wrangling continues.

“We’re in total political deadlock. We don’t know whether we’ll have a budget at the end of the year. That means a great deal of uncertainty, and there’s nothing worse than uncertainty for business development,” says Pascal Demurger, head of mutual insurance company MAIF and co-president of the Impact France Movement, which aims to “put ecological and social impact at the heart of business”.

Anger over who should bear the cost of fixing France’s finances has pushed people on to the streets. In September, nearly a million marched in Paris and other cities to protest against spending cuts.

Many carried signs calling for higher taxes on the rich – such as Bernard Arnault, head of the €256 billion luxury group LVMH.

Thanks to various tax optimisation measures, and corporate tax cuts under President Emmanual Macron, large companies now pay an effective rate of just 25 percent – about half that of the average French person. Opinion polls show the majority of people want that to change.

Demurger recognises that the lack of fiscal justice is fuelling social anger and says France’s wealthiest should contribute more.

“It’s obvious that people in France today find it hard to accept paying more tax or making an effort if they feel that the richest members of the population aren’t contributing,” he told RFI.

“There’s a real issue of social appeasement. We won’t achieve acceptance of necessary reforms unless everyone feels the burden is fairly shared between the richest and the middle classes.”

France’s top CEOs earn 130 times more than their employees, says Oxfam

Swimming against the tide

Demurger took over MAIF in 2009. The company calls itself a “militant” insurer – an unusual term in business circles.

All contributions from its 4 million policy holders go to pay claims – accidents, thefts – rather than shareholders, while profits stay in the company and are reinvested.

Demurger had doubts about the proposed “Zucman tax” on assets higher than €100 million, set at 2 percent and rejected by MPs, but he supports extending a temporary corporate tax first introduced for 2025.

The levy, originally meant to apply for one year, targets firms with more than €3 billion in annual revenue.

“MAIF’s turnover is €5 billion, so we’d be affected. It would cost us a bit more than €20 million, but it’s an effort we’re ready to make to contribute to social calm and to finding solutions,” he says. “I think it’s by setting an example that we can get most people on board and calm this public anger down a bit.”

After the government agreed to keep the temporary tax in the 2026 budget, MPs passed a slightly amended version last week. Companies earning more than €3 billion will pay 33.8 percent instead of 35 percent, and those with between €1 and €3 billion will pay 26.25 percent.

Demurger’s support for a fairer contribution from big companies and their leaders puts him at odds with much of France’s business establishment.

Patrick Martin, head of the Medef employers’ union, has said companies shouldn’t pay “a euro more” and threatened to strike if a new levy was introduced.

While Demurger admits business costs in France are “extremely heavy”, he says such hard-line positions make things worse.

“We just don’t agree. By taking extremely hard-line positions, [Martin] maintains a situation of political deadlock and social anger, and in the end this penalises businesses and the economy.”

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Longer term stability

Demurger is also out of step with the Afep association representing the country’s largest companies. It claims the continuation of the temporary tax will hurt investment.

“The National Assembly’s vote to extend the extra tax on large companies is an error,” said Afep president Patricia Barbizet in a statement. “[It] will inevitably hamper companies’ capacity to invest in France at a time when we need French and European champions more than ever and therefore need to accelerate our investments.”

Demurger says political instability is just as damaging. He pointed to the collapse of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s first government, which lasted just 14 hours.

“That Monday morning, the Paris stock exchange fell sharply and interest rates on state borrowing increased. That adds to the public debt, which in turn raises interest payments, in a kind of snowball effect.

“For a company like MAIF, which holds assets including shares, we lost considerably more in the stock market fall that morning than the amount of the extra corporate tax we’d be ready to pay. Making an extra effort might not cost businesses so much after all, while refusing to do so could cost the French economy far more.”

Purpose as well as profit

MAIF’s “militant” identity also shapes how it operates. The company avoids fossil fuel investments, supports renewables and uses recycled vehicle parts for repairs to cut emissions.

Its 8,000 employees work under a trust-based management system. “Our management is based on trust, people are given a lot of autonomy and can take initiatives to do their jobs in a more impactful way,” Demurger says.

He describes visiting MAIF’s headquarters in Niort and discovering major works that had got under way without his approval.

“The facilities manager told me they were installing a geothermal system to heat and cool the building – entirely carbon neutral. He hadn’t even told me. That shows the culture.”

He says such independence improves results.

“When management cares about employees’ wellbeing, gives them room to act, and focuses on purpose as well as profit, people are happier and more engaged, and collectively, we’re more efficient.”

Staff turnover is low, absenteeism has fallen and the company’s reputation as an employer has grown. “We attract more talent. It’s a virtuous circle,” he adds.

Demurger didn’t always think this way. “I started out managing the company in an extremely classic way,” he says, but later realised he had a duty to ensure people feel good in their work and their lives.

“I saw that by trying to reconcile employees’ wellbeing, customer satisfaction, social impact and company performance, we could achieve far more relevant results than by opposing them.”

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Spreading the impact

Demurger also co-chairs Impact France, a network of 30,000 socially and environmentally responsible companies. When he took the role in 2023 there were just 8,000.

“There’s extremely strong growth in companies of all sizes, including some of France’s biggest groups.”

The network lobbies for measures to make state aid conditional on environmental commitments. A Senate report says France’s biggest corporations received €211 billion in state aid in 2023, with no checks on how it was used or what results it brought.

Impact France also wants the 25 percent corporate tax rate to be adjusted to reward sustainable practices.

“Today all companies pay the same rate of corporate tax. So if I run a firm that invests in de-pollution, and another in the same sector makes no effort, we pay the same,” Demurger points out. “That doesn’t encourage investment and it’s not good public management.”

A smarter tax system, he says, would reduce public health and environmental costs long-term.

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Change in governance

In his recently published book Gouvernez autrement! (“Govern Differently”), Demurger argues that the horizontal, participative, trust-based management style he employs in his company should be applied to the political sphere.

He pleads a more adult approach to governance. “Those in power must give up the ultra-vertical practices that infantilise [us] and the illusory quest for absolute control,” he wrote on social media.

“It must also dare, at last, to break free from the dictatorship of short-termism, rethink our model, and set out hopeful prospects.”

This means moving away from the idea that France is “ungovernable” or an “archipelago” lacking unity – labels used by some politicians, including the French president.

“I’m a great believer in finding solutions, not just compromises,” says Demurger, whose name was floated last year as a possible prime ministerial pick after Michel Barnier was ousted in December 2024.

Before moving into business, he had a six-year stint as a civil servant at the budget department of the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance.

But in a recent interview with RTL radio, Demurger said he was “lucky to run a wonderful enterprise and loved [his] job”, putting paid – for the moment – to rumours he could return to the world of politics.

After capturing the strategic town of Bara around 10 days ago, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are now besieging El-Obeid, the state capital. At least 40 people were killed there on Tuesday, according to the UN.

Residents fear a repeat of atrocities seen in other towns recently seized by the paramilitaries.

The fall of El-Fasher, capital of neighbouring North Darfur, last week has emboldened the RSF to expand their control beyond Darfur into Kordofan. The violence in El-Fasher also overshadowed the fall of Bara a few days earlier, where similar crimes were reported.

The Sudanese Doctors Network, which documents violence across the country, said that “dozens of bodies are piled up in houses in Bara” and that families are being prevented from retrieving them.

“It’s a crime against humanity,” the group said in a statement, denouncing “persistent silence in the face of these crimes”. “It’s shameful,” the statement added.

France, UN call for a ceasefire in Sudan amid mounting reports of atrocities

Bodies in the streets

An RSF member confirmed on Sunday that “all our forces have converged on the Bara front”.

The town, like El-Fasher, has been cut off from outside help. No medical or humanitarian services are operating there.

Last week, Martha Pobee, the UN’s assistant secretary-general for Africa, warned of “vast atrocities” and “ethnically motivated reprisals” by the RSF in Bara, describing a pattern similar to that seen in Darfur.

The number of missing people in Bara continues to rise, along with the waves of residents fleeing in desperate conditions, the Sudanese Doctors Network said, adding that: “They are fleeing on foot, without water or food and without medicine.”

Around 36,000 civilians have fled North Kordofan in a week, according to the International Organisation for Migration, fearing RSF attacks.

As the army and paramilitaries fight for control of El-Obeid, residents told French news agency AFP that entire towns have become military targets and people no longer dare to work in their fields.

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

Strategic prize

El-Obeid, under imminent threat of RSF attack, is a key logistics and command hub linking Darfur to the capital Khartoum. It also has an airport.

The RSF are preparing to attack Babnusa, another important town in North Kordofan that they are besieging and where the army remains entrenched.

Civilians are fleeing mainly from areas where massacres have taken place, such as Bara and Om Dam Haj Ahmad.

In the latter, nearly 400 civilians were killed on Thursday by the RSF, the Sudanese Doctors Network reported. The same day, an unknown number of people died in Zaribat al-Sheikh Borii in a drone strike.

On Monday, around 40 people were also killed in another strike in Louaib, a village east of El-Obeid, according to the army.

The victims, all civilians, were gathered for a funeral, the North Kordofan government said. “A crime that adds to those already committed by the RSF,” the governorate wrote.

The RSF have not responded.

UN warns of ethnically motivated ‘atrocities’ in Sudan’s El-Fasher

No end in sight

The army has carried out attacks against RSF positions in North and West Kordofan and targeted reinforcements coming from Darfur.

On Tuesday, it intensified air strikes on RSF-held areas. The paramilitaries said they shot down a military cargo plane over Babnusa just after it dropped ammunition to army forces trapped in the city. The crew members were killed.

Despite mounting international pressure for a ceasefire, both sides remain determined to seize territory.

Sudan’s defence minister said on Tuesday evening that the war against the paramilitaries would continue, after a government meeting that discussed a United States proposal to halt the fighting.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an immediate end to the conflict, warning that the crisis was becoming “uncontrollable”.

This story was adapted from the original version in French by RFI’s Houda Ibrahim

“Almost all Dutch parties agree on the severity of the Russian threat, and, increasingly, the risks stemming from China,” says Bart van den Berg, head of the security and defence programme at the Hague-based think tank, the Clingendael Institute.

On Friday, Dutch press agency ANP’s election service announced that D66 has become the largest party in the parliamentary elections.

Although not all votes have been counted yet, the news agency says that the party led by D66 leader Jetten can no longer be overtaken by the PVV. It is now up to D66 to form a cabinet, but it remains unclear what combination of parties will be part of it.

Van den Berg points out that only fringe parties advocate restoring ties with Moscow or minimising China as a security risk. Mainstream parties, he said, broadly favour tougher stances, continued support for Ukraine, and a strong commitment to NATO.

“The Netherlands will continue its current security policy – meeting NATO targets and backing Ukraine – but the real debate now is over how to reduce strategic dependency on the United States,” he said.

US military sales

Europe’s military reliance on Washington is intensifying more rapidly than political consensus can form. Defence spending across Europe has risen sharply, yet a significant share of this demand has shifted towards the US defence industrial base.

This helps to explain the steep increase in US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to Europe over the past two years, according to Guntram Wolff, a senior fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank.

Recent data show that US FMS notifications to Europe have surged from an annual average of $11 billion (2017–2021) to $68 billion in 2024, particularly in the areas of fighter aircraft, missile systems and defence software.

“The US defence industrial base itself is quite strained,” Wolff noted. Delivery delays have lengthened for key products, and the US government retains the ability to reprioritise buyers according to strategic interest scoring underlining both the capacity and political risks faced by European partners.

Atlanticist tradition

The Netherlands, with its Atlanticist tradition, has largely leant on transatlantic defence, often favouring American hardware like F-35s over French Rafales.

Atlanticist tradition refers to a political and strategic worldview that emphasises the importance of close cooperation between North America (especially the United States and Canada) and Europe (especially Western Europe) – the countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean.

Currently, the Dutch Air Force remains dependent on the United States. “The F-35 is a superior fighter to the Rafale. But in the long term, these dependencies – and how our forces manage them—will be crucial,” says Van den Berg.

France and Germany weigh future of joint EU weapons projects

While the Dutch possess strong marine, naval and niche technological capabilities, they are less integrated than France in European defence industrial projects and remain sceptical about a fully independent EU army.

France, by contrast, has consistently championed European defence sovereignty. President Emmanuel Macron’s drive for a “European pillar within NATO” and even a European army distinguishes France as the leading advocate for EU strategic autonomy.

French-led joint fighter and naval programmes have generated momentum, but, as Wolff points out, “Germany still regards the US – not France – as its principal military ally, which limits how far such integration can go. The European defence market remains fragmented, and consensus is difficult to achieve,” according to Van den Berg.

NATO summit opens in The Hague amid unprecedented security and protests

Trump Era

Dependence on the United States carries both immediate and long-term risks. “The president of the US can, at any time, alter the allocation order under FMS programmes,” notes Wolff, observing that several allies have experienced delivery delays lasting years when priorities have shifted—as seen recently with Switzerland and previously with the UAE.

“Europe urgently needs a strategy to reduce its technological reliance on the United States. That requires clear incentives for European high-tech defence firms and a shift in procurement policy towards domestic suppliers,” he adds.

France’s advanced technology is frequently overlooked in favour of US systems—partly for the perceived security guarantees they offer, and partly as a legacy of longstanding alliances. Yet the Trump era demonstrated that such guarantees cannot be assumed simply through procurement choices.

France remains world’s second largest arms exporter behind US

Van den Berg is even more pragmatic. “Most Dutch parties support diversifying alliances – not only strengthening ties with the US but also making new friends among middle powers like Brazil, India, and Indonesia,” he says. “Reducing dependency means investing in domestic industries and forging European military innovation.”​

Tough choices

The path ahead demands difficult choices. As Europe’s threat perception intensifies – particularly following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a series of hybrid crises across the continent – politicians and strategists alike emphasise the urgent need to expand domestic defence production, integrate markets, and modernise procurement systems, lest Europe remain vulnerable to transatlantic unpredictability.

“Europe now has advanced high-tech defence companies, some of which are becoming unicorns. What is needed is a coherent strategy to channel demand towards these firms, scale up production, and restore technological leadership in critical domains,” says Wolff.

The idea that Artificial Intelligence might take our jobs once seemed like pure science fiction. Yet, less than three years after the emergence of ChatGPT, the speed at which these tools have infiltrated our professional lives is nothing short of dizzying.

Workforce reorganisation

AI is driving a profound reorganisation of the workforce and has accelerated the automation of administrative functions, according to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025.

Banking, insurance, communications, marketing, logistics and data analyst positions are among those most exposed to this transformation, according to the report, with repetitive and predictable tasks the most easily automated.

“I feel like I have a sword of Damocles hanging over my head,” Fanny tells RFI.

A freelance translator for fifteen years, lately she’s been thinking more than ever about changing careers. Around her, job postings for career changes are piling up. The reason: the rise of tools like DeepL and ChatGPT, capable of producing increasingly convincing texts.

“For now, I still have enough well-paid work, probably because I translate from German and do a lot of work for Switzerland, where quality is still valued,” she explains.

But some of her clients have simply disappeared. None of them have told her they preferred automated translation services, but she’s under no illusions. Her expert eye can recognise the typical turns of phrase in AI-generated translations.

‘By humans, for humans’: French dubbing industry speaks out against AI threat

New professions

Artificial intelligence hasn’t only transformed the way translations are done, it’s created a new profession – that of “post-editor”. In other words, someone needed to correct machine-generated translations. Obviously, Fanny points out, it’s much “less well-paid,” “not very interesting,” and “the deadlines are shorter”.

Underlining this significant shift, in 2024, the language learning app Duolingo terminated the contracts of 10 percent of its freelance translators, before parting ways with some of its authors.

Its CEO, Luis von Ahn, stated at the time that he wanted to “stop using contractors to do the work that AI can generate.”

While there are no studies on the number of translator jobs destroyed by AI, the sector has served as a laboratory for what some see as the equivalent of the industrial revolution for knowledge-based professions. 

Speedy innovation

In May, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, predicted that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and raise unemployment to 10-20 percent within five years.

At online retail and cloud computing giant Amazon, this fiction has become a reality.

On Tuesday it announced a reduction of its workforce by 14,000 posts to streamline operations as it invests in artificial intelligence, without saying where the cuts will be made. This represents four percent of its 350,000 administrative positions.

This announcement was presented as the first step in a wave that could affect 30,000 people.

The types of jobs affected include support functions, human resources, logistics, cloud computing, and advertising.

Nearly one in 10 jobs could be replaced by AI within decade, says OECD

Amazon’s Vice President of Human Resources Beth Galetti directly linked this decision to generative AI: “This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet, and it allows companies to innovate much faster than ever before,” she said in a statement on the group’s website.

Amazon is no longer an isolated case. IBM was one of the first to automate its HR functions. Accenture has laid off 12,000 employees, primarily in the United States, as part of an AI-driven plan, and the restructuring is set to continue. The firm has warned that employees unable to adopt these tools are likely to be the next to be laid off.

As for Salesforce, its CEO, who boasted that AI “performed 30 to 50 percent of the work” at the enterprise software company, has dismissed 4,000 employees.

In early September, Microsoft confirmed the reduction of 200 positions, or 10 percent of its workforce in France, as part of a global plan citing “improved operational efficiency” and massive investments in artificial intelligence.

However, some companies have backtracked. Earlier this year, the Swedish fintech company Klarna, a payment specialist, reduced its workforce by 40 percent, justifying it by the widespread adoption of AI in its marketing and customer service departments. Ultimately, faced with dissatisfied customers, it rehired staff.

Difficult to measure

While the United States is already facing AI-related restructuring, Europe is still proceeding cautiously.

In France, no large-scale social plan has yet been explicitly attributed to AI, and the effects remain “difficult to measure,” commented Antonin Bergeaud, associate professor at HEC and innovation specialist, in a written response.

“The American market has always been more responsive than the French market,” he says. “But we should expect the same consequences: companies slowing down recruitment in high-risk professions, while waiting to see how the technology evolves.”

The first signs are there, however. According to a study by the LHH group (a subsidiary of Adecco) published at the end of September, covering 2,000 senior executives in 13 countries, 46 percent of executives say they have already reduced their workforce because of AI, and 54 percent plan to employ fewer people in the next five years.

Mistral and ASML forge €1.7bn alliance to shape Europe’s AI future

However, notes Michaël Chambon, managing director of LHH France, only 12 percent of the employees concerned identify this technology as the reason for their departure. “There’s a disconnect here. Management acknowledges the impact, but employees aren’t aware of it.”

“We are in a process of transformation, not yet destruction,” he adds. “But this transformation is silent, because it involves not replacing employees or freezing hiring.”

The effects also appear contradictory. “We see that companies adopting AI have a slight increase in productivity and therefore recruit more, which represents an apparent paradox,” he notes.

The PwC AI Jobs Barometer 2025 supports this: the number of job offers in AI-related professions jumped by 273 percent in France between 2019 and 2024.

“The upheaval will only really be seen in the average company when a comprehensive AI strategy is put in place. This is currently only happening in large companies,” explains Antonin Bergeaud.

Junior positions at risk

According to the World Economic Forum, internships and entry-level jobs are likely to be replaced by automation.

Jean-Amiel Jourdan, executive director of HEC Talents, has already observed this: “The adoption of AI is reducing the number of traditional junior positions. Analysis, synthesis, and report-generating tasks are being automated” at a lower cost.

New recruits must now be able to “supervise and validate the content generated by AI.”

This shift could, he warns, place employers in “a dilemma”: how to build a pool of experienced talent if we reduce the recruitment of juniors?

A Stanford study in the United States confirms the trend: since the widespread adoption of generative AI, employment among 22-25 year olds in the most exposed professions has declined by 13 percent.

The impact is most visible in the most exposed jobs, such as developers, where the drop has reached 20 percent since the peak at the end of 2022.

AI development cannot be left to market whim, UN experts warn

“The market has slowed down in the tech sector over the past two years, and this is being felt enormously in the developer ecosystem, a population that had never experienced a crisis,” explains Greg Lhotellier, recruiter and founder of Dev with IA, for whom this situation stems primarily from a less favorable economic climate. “I haven’t yet seen any cases where hiring stops because AI is doing the job.”

In the medium term, he anticipates a shift in the profession towards “AI manager” positions. “AI will generate code, but a human will always be needed to control, arbitrate, and understand it.”

Constant evolution

One in four jobs presents a risk of exposure to generative AI, according to a study by the International Labour Organization. However, few jobs are fully automatable.

Lhotellier remains cautious: “The social fallout is likely to be real, but the impact of AI on employment remains, for the moment, out of step with the alarmist rhetoric.”

A divide is likely to emerge between employees “augmented” by AI and those whose tasks will be partially replaced by AI or who will be left behind by this technological innovation, he explains.

“There are jobs that could disappear, but most are jobs that are evolving,” continues Michaël Chambon, who emphasises the importance of anticipating and training. Even if, in the long run, it’s difficult not to imagine a net loss of jobs.”

This article is based on the original in French by Aurore Lartigue and slightly edited for clarity.

The 4 November elections were the first major test of voter sentiment since President Donald Trump’s re-election and the turbulence that followed his second inauguration.

The early months of Trump’s new term, marked by policy reversals, federal job cuts and social discord, have shifted the political mood.

Against this backdrop, left-winger Zohran Mamdani’s surprise win in the New York mayoral race and Democratic advances in Virginia and New Jersey speak to an electorate growing weary of economic strain and political instability.

While it is too soon to say whether the party can maintain the momentum ahead of midterms next November, the results suggest that voters may be looking for steadier leadership. 

Bullock told RFI what explains the Democrats’ success, and what lessons both they and the Republicans can take from it.

RFI: What are the implications of Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York? 

Charles Bullock: It certainly ended the career of former Governor [Andrew] Cuomo. But does this suggest that the Democratic Party is shifting significantly to the left nationally? I don’t think it does. The New York electorate is hardly representative of the electorate across the country.

A problem for the Democrats is that Republicans have been trying to make him the face of the Democratic Party. We’ve seen this before: regardless of where you stood as a Democrat, Republicans linked you to Ted Kennedy, and more recently to Nancy Pelosi.

So Mamdani is likely to become, in Republican eyes, the face of what they would call “socialism” or even “communism”, and they will try to make more moderate Democrats in other parts of the country carry that burden.

What underlying trends do the Democratic victories in Virginia and New Jersey’s governor elections reveal heading towards the 2026 midterms?

Virginia is an interesting case, as it almost always votes for the nominee of the party that does not control the White House – and it followed that pattern again. But beyond that, [Governor-elect] Abigail Spanberger was such a strong candidate, winning by more than a dozen points.

Further down the ballot, Democrats picked up 15 seats in the state legislature, leaving only 35 Republicans, down from 49 – the lowest number of Republicans in the House of Delegates in 40 years.

This was a real wipe-out for Republicans in Virginia, the bluest state in the South, and one with a large number of federal employees, many of whom are currently unpaid or were dismissed as a result of cuts by Elon Musk.

This suggests that, going into 2026, states with large numbers of federal employees may take out their frustrations on the Republicans.

How significant is the mobilisation of Democratic voters in traditionally competitive races? And do you see this as a genuine shift or a reaction to specific national events?

Several factors are driving the Democratic Party at the moment, particularly the cost of living. This puts Republicans in a difficult position because part of the reason Donald Trump did so well and won the seven swing states was his promise to tackle inflation.

Prices haven’t gone down. And as of Saturday, people on Obamacare – the healthcare plan for those without employer coverage – began receiving bills that have doubled, tripled or even quadrupled. This reinforces the public perception that costs are spiralling, and that blame is likely to fall on the Republican Party.

This fits into a broader pattern: presidents tend to lose ground in their midterm elections. The midterms act as a check on how the president and his party are performing. You can’t vote against the president directly, but if you’re unhappy, you take it out on his party.

Why America’s Democrats aren’t as wounded as you might think

Based on the 4 November election results, what warning signs are there for both Democrats and Republicans as they begin preparing for next year’s midterms?

The Democrats might risk getting carried away by these successes, though it will certainly make fundraising easier. For Republicans, it’s a moment to reflect and consider whether changes are needed.

I don’t think the results will have any effect on Maga supporters – the people in the red hats who remain firmly committed to Donald Trump. Their minds won’t change.

So in Republican primaries, the incentive is still to seek Trump’s endorsement, or at least to avoid criticising him. But given that Trump’s approval ratings are now in the low 40s nationally – and even in the 30s in some states – this could be a double-edged sword.

His backing may help a Republican win a nomination but could hurt them in the general election. You’ll always get the Republican vote, but in most states that’s not enough; you need independents, and maybe even some Democrats. What we saw on 4 November is that independents have largely turned against Trump.

What do these results suggest about the current national mood, and how might they shape party messaging for next year?

The Democrats performed well in these elections, but in some ways they are still swimming against the tide, as many voters remain dissatisfied with both parties.

We are also seeing an ever-wider divide between urban and rural America. Urban areas lean Democratic, but rural ones are now overwhelmingly Republican.

If Democrats focus only on their urban strongholds and neglect outreach in rural communities, they could underperform there badly enough to cancel out their urban gains. That’s something they need to keep in mind going into 2026.

US gun culture alive and kicking in battleground state of Pennsylvania

Do you see any special issues emerging during the midterms, or is it too early to tell?

There’s growing disaffection among Latino voters. Trump made notable gains with them in 2024, but this year’s vote in New Jersey shows a clear shift away from the Republican candidate for governor, Jack Cittarelli, who closely tied himself to Trump.

Latinos who supported Trump when he promised to deport criminal elements might accept that if it targets genuinely dangerous offenders, but they’re not willing to see relatives or neighbours with minor offences deported.

If there’s a significant swing of Hispanic voters back towards the Democrats, that could change the outcome in marginal congressional districts in states such as Texas and Florida.

Democrats seemed completely at a loss in the months that followed Trump’s re-election, unable to find a clear strategy to counter him. Will they now be able to organise themselves better to challenge the Republican candidate in the 2028 presidential election?

They should now have a clearer sense of the issues they can campaign on. Much of what Trump ran on is proving less popular in practice.

His plans to reduce the size of the federal government have alienated large numbers of federal employees who have been laid off, as well as their families and communities.

The cuts have created widespread frustration, with people struggling to reach services such as Social Security or the Internal Revenue Service.

The policies Trump promised to implement are turning out to be far less popular than he anticipated with the broader electorate.

France’s new minister for the overseas territories, Naïma Moutchou, begins a four-day visit to New Caledonia on Monday with a double mission – to restart long-stalled political dialogue and to take stock of an economy still reeling from last year’s unrest.

Her trip comes at a delicate moment for the South Pacific archipelago, which has been mired in an unprecedented financial crisis since the violent riots of 2024.

The turmoil caused billions of euros in damage, sent the local economy into freefall and left deep scars across the territory’s fragile political landscape.

According to government estimates, New Caledonia’s GDP plunged by 13 percent in 2024, and hopes of a recovery this year have failed to materialise.

Fiscal revenues are also shrinking sharply – down by 26 percent instead of the 20 percent originally forecast – putting even more strain on already overstretched public finances.

New Caledonia independence bloc rejects deal giving powers but no referendum

Economy in freefall

To stave off bankruptcy, the territory took out a one-billion-euro state-guaranteed loan from the French Development Agency (AFD). But most of that safety net has already been used, leaving just €200 million earmarked for 2026 and 2027.

“I don’t give much for our collective chances,” warned Philippe Michel, head of the anti-independence Calédonie Ensemble group in the territorial Congress. He estimates a “gap” of around 500 million euros to balance next year’s budget. “And it’s not with the usurious interest rates imposed by the State that we’re going to get through this,” he added bluntly.

The AFD loan has pushed New Caledonia’s debt-to-GDP ratio to a worrying 360 percent, with repayments due to begin in 2026.

The interest rate – set at 4.54 percent – has caused an outcry among local politicians, who are calling for “national solidarity” and the conversion of part of the loan into direct grants.

However, the upcoming Overseas Territories budget, to be debated in mid-November as part of France’s 2026 finance bill, includes no such provision.

Macron meets New Caledonian leaders to discuss future after riots

Hardship and calls for reform

The social fallout from the crisis is equally alarming. Around 11,000 jobs have been lost in the territory of 260,000 people since last year’s violence.

In Dumbéa-sur-mer, a suburb of Nouméa that was particularly hard hit, mayor Yohann Lecourieux of the conservative Les Républicains party said the situation was deteriorating rapidly.

“We have 800 fewer pupils eating in our school canteens because families simply can’t afford it anymore,” he said. “We’ve been promised an envelope for social aid, but it’s nowhere near enough given the scale of the hardship.”

In the rural commune of Bourail, mayor Patrick Robelin painted a slightly less bleak picture – at least for now.

“It’s harvest season, and seasonal jobs have helped families make it to the end of the year,” he said. “But I’m very worried about what’s coming next.” He urged “far-reaching reforms” and “a collective wake-up call” to prevent a deeper crisis.

The two associations representing New Caledonia’s mayors have written to Minister Moutchou to raise the alarm over the situation in their municipalities.

They are expected to meet her on the final day of her visit.

(with newswires)

Four people – three men and a woman – detained following disturbances at a concert by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris have been brought before an investigating judge with a view to being formally charged, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Sunday.

“The suspects were referred to the investigating judge this Sunday as part of the opening of a judicial inquiry,” the public prosecutor’s office told AFP.

One person has already been charged and placed under judicial supervision, while proceedings for the remaining three are still under way, prosecutors added.

The judge has been asked to consider a long list of potential offences, including: wilful damage to property using a method dangerous to others; endangering others’ lives; possession of incendiary materials without legitimate reason and in violation of a prefectural ban; organising an unauthorised public demonstration; refusing to submit to police identification procedures; and committing violence with or threatening the use of a weapon.

The prosecution has requested that the accused be placed under judicial supervision with strict conditions – including bans on entering Paris, approaching concert venues or attending live performances.

Four arrested after protest disrupts Israel Philharmonic concert in Paris

Smoke flares and outrage at the Philharmonie

The four were arrested after Thursday night’s concert by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at the Philharmonie de Paris, where several spectators with valid tickets allegedly tried to disrupt the performance.

Two smoke flares were reportedly set off inside the concert hall during the attempted protest.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez swiftly condemned the incident, declaring that “no cause can justify putting the lives of concertgoers in danger”.

The Philharmonie de Paris, which filed a legal complaint over the events, “firmly condemned the serious incidents” that took place in its Pierre Boulez concert hall.

Culture Minister Rachida Dati also weighed in, stressing that “violence has no place in a concert hall” and that “freedom of artistic programming and creation is a fundamental right of our Republic”.

France halts Gaza evacuations over antisemitic posts by Palestinian student

Clashes outside police station

The disturbances and subsequent arrests have stirred further tensions between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian activists in the capital.

On Saturday evening, a small pro-Palestinian group gathered outside the 19th arrondissement police station where the four suspects were being held.

According to police sources, they were soon joined by a group of pro-Israeli demonstrators, and clashes broke out between the two sides. Officers intervened to separate them, with three police officers sustaining minor injuries in the process.

Three pro-Israeli activists were arrested for insulting and assaulting public officials and placed in police custody. A pro-Palestinian protester was also arrested later for making antisemitic remarks.

The incidents come amid heightened tensions in France surrounding cultural events linked to Israel, with authorities increasingly concerned about demonstrations spilling into acts of violence.

(with AFP)

Launching on 10 November, “Lire les vitraux” (Read the Windows) will decipher the legends and narratives in 60 of the 172 windows that adorn the 13th-century gothic masterpiece.

Initially available only in French, explanations on the app will be offered in English and German from spring 2026 – when developers also hope to expand the technology to cover the cathedral’s entire 2,500 square-metre expanse of stained glass.

“You just take a picture of a window, and instantly, you get all the information to understand what’s in front of you,” said Jean-François Lagier, who coordinated the team of engineers, technicians and historians behind the app.

“So instead of just being amazed without context, your admiration is now enriched by knowledge which deepens appreciation for the stained glass itself.”

A mere 15 years ago, he said, such a tool would have been impossible to imagine. “Back then, the only option was to print heavy books, which limits access because they’re expensive and cumbersome.”

It was during a meeting about those weighty tomes eight years ago that new technology was first mentioned.

“We realised our previous books were out of print,” Lagier explained. “So we had to decide: reprint them, or find something more powerful, broader and more accessible. During those discussions, someone suggested exploring artificial intelligence and new algorithms.

“We then found an engineering team willing to take on the challenge. It had never been done and still hasn’t been done elsewhere – using AI to recognise scenes in a huge building like Chartres Cathedral.”

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

Technical feat

Two types of algorithms drive the app. The first gives it the ability to recognise objects in variable conditions, with different angles or lighting situations.

“That one is very useful for stained glass, since light changes constantly from sunny to cloudy and it affects what you see,” said Lagier. “Once the system has identified an object, it moves to facial recognition and those algorithms identify the exact design or figure on each stained glass panel.”

The cathedral’s windows are typically made up of around 30 panels, each displaying characters, symbols and colours – the iconography of medieval stained glass.

“Beyond recognising an object, you need to interpret its forms,” added Lagier. “So we’ve combined these technologies with our own custom code, written by our developers, to create a recognition tool that works inside the cathedral.”

Hidden history

Notre-Dame de Chartres, some 80 km south-west of Paris, was constructed between 1194 and 1220 on the site of at least five earlier cathedrals that have dominated the land since the 4th century.

The present majesty was arguably saved from destruction during World War II by the actions of an American colonel, Welborn Barton Griffith Jr.

In August 1944, as Allied forces battled the Germans, who they suspected had set up positions in the cathedral, the order came to blitz it. Dubious, the officer took it upon himself to brave enemy lines with his driver to check.

After searching the cathedral and finding it empty, he raised the American flag in the bell tower and rang the bells. The order to bombard was cancelled.

Beneath those same spires, 80 years on, visitor Corentin Rouault said the cathedral had left him amazed.

“It’s magnificent, beautifully restored,” beamed the 31-year-old engineer, who had stopped off in Chartres after completing a section of the Paris to Mont St-Michel cycle path. “It was my first visit and it was stunning.”

On the prospect of an app to assist his next visit, he added: “That would be absolutely fantastic… I looked at the stained glass windows. They’re beautiful but it’s true that I don’t really know the stories behind them.”

Félicité Schuler does. A leading specialist in medieval iconography, she has worked for the best part of 30 years at the International Centre for Stained Glass, situated an inadvisable stone’s throw away from the cherished windows.

French stained glass museum reflects past and present art

For the past two years, as well as her duties as a guide and lecturer on the windows and their meanings, she has been sifting through her cornucopia of knowledge for use in the application.

“The most difficult problem has been to do a resume of a window in a specific amount of words,” she admitted. “We didn’t want to put too much text. So if somebody wants to read it very rapidly, they just take the headline. If they want to learn more, they can read the whole text.”

Even the smallest details can be revealing, she explained. A short tunic, for example, indicates that its wearer is a pagan. “But kings will never be shown with a short robe, even if they are pagans. Because they’re kings, they must be clothed correctly.”

‘Duty of memory’

The €270,000 cost of producing the app came from private sponsorship and donations in France and the United States. It will be available for free on all iOS and Android platforms.

“Having seen the stained glass windows a few years ago, I wanted to see how they had been cared for and enhanced to get them back to their former glory,” said another visitor Soraya Saidi, after her moment in the cathedral.

“I spent time in front of the windows and also at the centre of the nave, to meditate and pray in silence, as one can do here.”

The 47-year-old careers assistant from Clermont-Ferrand, central France, added: “I found the light, the gentleness and the energy flowing through the place quite extraordinary. The colours coming from the sunlight streaming in through the stained glass was beautiful.

“There’s such richness in the windows that hasn’t been passed on. There’s a duty of history and memory. We must honour what was created by our ancestors.”

RFI: Before Brigitte Macron, former United States First Lady Michelle Obama and former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, as well as numerous female athletes, have been the target of rumours questioning their “true femininity” and claiming they are in fact transgender. Why do these types of allegations come up again and again in relation to women with a certain amount of power?

Christine Bard: We have inherited centuries of patriarchal history. Women who have attained a certain degree of power, however relative, have always been portrayed as unnatural, masculine women – masculinised by the power that they desired or that was attributed to them.

This is a way of reminding everyone at all times that in a patriarchal system, the roles assigned to each sex must be respected and that any deviation will be punished by public condemnation.

The beginning of the 21st century is no exception to this historical burden, and the conservative camp has stuck with this view. Despite progress in equal rights, we are still far from effective equality.

Judges adjourn Brigitte Macron cyberbullying case until January

If, even today, questioning “femininity” remains such an effective way of disempowering women in public life, what does this reveal about society’s relationship with the female body?

The devaluation of women who are perceived as powerful takes the form of attacks targeting their bodies. People look for signs of masculinity in them and if they cannot find any, they invent them.

In addition, the masculinity that people believe they can see in these women in turn diminishes the masculinity of their partners. Isn’t this the aim of the attacks on Brigitte Macron? They are targeting a woman, but also a couple – and not just any couple, the head of state and his partner. 

What does this type of attack tell us about sexism and transphobia? Why is the mere suggestion that a woman is transgender enough to discredit her?

The rumour that Brigitte Macron is a transgender person comes at a time when transphobia is on the rise. The attack is sexist, transphobic and homophobic.

It is sexist because it uses a woman to target a man and calls into question the criteria for assessing “true femininity” through physical characteristics, gestures and dress. It reinforces a normative definition of femininity.

In the logic of transphobia, trans identity does not exist, cannot exist – for transphobes, “Brigitte” will always be “Jean-Michel” [Macron’s brother, who American YouTubers Natacha Rey and Amandine Roy accused of having changed gender and assumed the identity “Brigitte”].

Thousands rally for trans rights in France over bill on gender transition

This is a way of insinuating that the president of France is married to a man and is therefore homosexual – and therefore, by the logic of homophobia, cannot offer the same guarantee of virility.

The fact that people are receptive to this fake news provides a measure of the persistence, and even intensification, of sexist, homophobic and transphobic hate speech – which is a real cause for concern.

This interview was adapted from the original version in French and lightly edited for clarity.

Aid groups working on the ground say those who manage to escape are now crammed into makeshift camps in Tawila, around 70 kilometres away – a barren stretch of desert that’s rapidly becoming a desperate refuge.

Videos posted by the local organisation Sudan’s IDPs and Refugee Camps paint a bleak picture: children darting across dusty ground, families huddled under patched-together tarps, and adults hauling huge pots of food in the hope of stretching one meal to feed dozens.

Since the RSF’s takeover on 26 October, more than 16,000 people have reached Tawila, according to the group’s spokesperson Adam Rojal.

The International Organization for Migration puts the wider figure at over 80,000, including those who fled nearby areas. Many made the journey on foot, through dangerous terrain and under the constant threat of attack.

Tawila’s hospital, run by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), is overflowing. “We’ve received at least 1,500 people from el-Fasher since the city fell,” said Abu Bakr Hammad, MSF’s medical director there. “Many have serious fractures and trauma injuries.” The aid agency added that hundreds more are still arriving every day, many severely malnourished. “We’re seeing extremely high levels of malnutrition among children and adults alike,” MSF said on Friday.

The humanitarian situation is dire. Rojal said that displaced families are surviving on as little as one or two meals a day, with little access to medicine or clean water. “They need food, medical care, shelter and psychological support – urgently,” he told reporters.

Social media videos, satellite images capture snapshot of atrocities in Sudan

A city under siege

El-Fasher’s fall came after an 18-month siege that has left the once-vibrant Darfur capital in ruins. Reports from survivors and satellite imagery suggest that RSF fighters stormed through the city, attacking hospitals and homes.

The World Health Organization said that over 450 people were killed in the Saudi Hospital alone, where witnesses described patients being shot in their beds. The RSF denies any involvement in killings there, but independent footage tells a grimly different story.

The United Nations’ top human rights official, Volker Türk, has warned that atrocities may still be unfolding inside the city. “Traumatised civilians are still trapped in el-Fasher and are being prevented from leaving,” he said in Geneva on Friday. “I fear that summary executions, rape and ethnically motivated violence are continuing within the city – and even those who flee face unimaginable cruelty on the routes out.”

The RSF announced on Thursday that it had accepted a humanitarian truce proposed by the US-led Quad mediation group. The Sudanese army said it too welcomed the plan – but only if the RSF withdrew from civilian areas and disarmed. For now, however, the guns show little sign of falling silent.

Fighting spreads to North Kordofan as Sudan’s war turns deadlier

Growing crisis, fading hope

Sudan’s brutal conflict began in April 2023 after months of tension between the army and the RSF, once allies in ousting long-time ruler Omar al-Bashir. The fighting has since spread across the country, leaving at least 40,000 people dead – though aid workers believe the true toll could be far higher.

Around 12 million have been displaced, and nearly half the population is facing acute food insecurity, according to the WHO.

In neighbouring North Kordofan, violence has also intensified. A drone attack on the provincial capital, el-Obeid, killed at least 40 people earlier this week, with the army later claiming to have intercepted two more drones on Saturday morning.

Analysts say the RSF’s victory in el-Fasher marks a turning point in the war. Jalale Getachew Birru, a regional expert with Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, said the capture was “a strategic win for the RSF but a catastrophe for civilians”, estimating that around 2,000 people were killed across Sudan in just one week after 26 October.

Still, aid agencies continue to push into Tawila and other areas with what little support they can muster, determined to keep civilians alive as another harsh Sudanese winter looms. 

(with newswires)

Less than a week before France commemorates the 10th anniversary of the 2015 Paris and Saint-Denis attacks, anti-terror investigators have opened a new inquiry linked to Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving member of the commandos behind those atrocities.

Three people, including Abdeslam’s partner, are currently in custody.

Abdeslam, who is serving a life sentence without parole at the high-security prison of Vendin-le-Vieil in northern France, was briefly placed in police custody earlier this week before being released.

The new investigation stems from a probe launched in January 2025 into the alleged possession of an unauthorised object in prison – a USB key – but prosecutors have now widened it to include suspected “terrorist conspiracy with intent to commit crimes against persons.”

According to the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT), Abdeslam is suspected of having received illicit materials in detention. His lawyer, Olivia Ronen, declined to comment, citing the secrecy of the ongoing investigation.

Three women charged in France over suspected jihadist plot

Abdeslam’s partner among suspects

A 27-year-old woman identified by Le Parisien as Maëva B., who is said to be Abdeslam’s long-term correspondent and now his partner, has been in custody since Tuesday.

Her detention has been exceptionally extended beyond the usual 96-hour limit – a measure permitted only when there is a “serious and imminent risk” of a terrorist act in France or abroad, or for pressing international cooperation needs. Such extensions are extremely rare.

The PNAT confirmed that Maëva B. is being held on suspicion of “receiving illicit materials from a detainee” and “criminal terrorist conspiracy.” Two additional suspects were arrested on Friday as part of the same investigation. Their interrogations are still under way.

The investigation was handed to the anti-terror branch of the French police (SDAT) and the domestic intelligence agency (DGSI).

According to a prison union source, traces of a USB connection were detected on Abdeslam’s prison computer, which he had been allowed to purchase for educational purposes under tightly restricted conditions.

The USB key – which, according to Le Parisien, may have been used to transfer jihadist propaganda – has not been recovered, despite extensive searches.

Because Abdeslam is classed as a “particularly high-risk detainee”, his belongings are supposed to be checked regularly during cell changes. That, said officials, should have made such a breach difficult.

Man rams car into pedestrians in France, wounding 10, prosecutor says

France marks attack anniversary

Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin, speaking during a visit to Lyon this week, said systematic searches for the most dangerous inmates were introduced shortly after he took office in December 2024.

“The discovery of this device shows there were undeniable failings,” he admitted. “But it also shows we were right to strengthen searches and to rethink our prison model – including the creation of new high-security wings such as those at Vendin-le-Vieil.”

On Thursday, France will mark the tenth anniversary of the coordinated Paris and Saint-Denis attacks of November 2015, which killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more.

In a separate interview with AFP, national anti-terror prosecutor Olivier Christen said the jihadist threat remains “the most significant, both in its scale and the level of operational readiness,” warning that it has been “growing steadily for the past three years.”

(with newswires)

The trio, all around 20 years old, were formally placed under investigation and remanded in custody in October, according to France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT).

The judicial inquiry, opened on 10 October, concerns “criminal terrorist association with intent to commit acts of violence against persons,” the office confirmed on Saturday, verifying a report first published by Le Parisien.

A source close to the case told AFP that “a plot was foiled this autumn” – describing it as the first attempted violent action involving women in some time.

Man rams car into pedestrians in France, wounding 10, prosecutor says

‘Influencer’ alleged ringleader

According to Le Parisien, one of the suspects – referred to as B – had attracted around 20,000 followers on TikTok, where she allegedly posted pro-jihadist content.

Investigators believe she may have played a leading role in the small group.

The women are suspected of discussing violent actions online, reportedly mentioning firearms and a suicide belt, and floating possible targets such as a concert hall or a bar in Paris.

Police arrested two of the women in the Rhône region and another in the Cher department, following a series of in-person meetings in Lyon that raised suspicions.

Lawyers for the three women have declined to comment when contacted, although one reportedly downplayed the seriousness of the alleged threat.

French women of jihadist family on trial for joining IS, taking children to Syria

A sombre anniversary

The arrests come as France prepares to mark the tenth anniversary of the November 2015 Paris and Saint-Denis attacks – a coordinated night of terror that left 130 people dead and hundreds injured.

A national day of remembrance for the victims will be held on Thursday.

In an interview with AFP, national anti-terror prosecutor Olivier Christen warned that the jihadist threat remains “the most significant, both in scale and in the level of operational readiness,” and that it has been “growing” over the past three years.

Despite the echoes of 2015, French officials have stressed that early intervention and digital monitoring continue to play a crucial role in preventing attacks before plans are put into motion – as appears to have happened in this case.

(with newswires)

Against the backdrop of the Amazon rainforest and a sense of urgency in the air, world leaders and delegates from across the globe have arrived in Belem for the 30th United Nations Climate Conference (Cop30).

The mood is a mix of searing warnings, cautious optimism and a touch of hope that this time, real progress might finally take root.

Before Monday’s official opening, representatives from the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations took centre stage, sharing vivid accounts of life on the front line of a warming planet. From deadly floods in Kenya to rising seas in the Marshall Islands, the message was clear: the world is running out of time, but not out of solutions.

Haitian diplomat Smith Augustin described the devastation left by Hurricane Melissa, which recently tore through his country. “The hurricanes and the heavy rain devastated my country,” he said. “Developing countries, and especially the small island states, are the least responsible for climate change.”

Kenya’s Vice President Kithure Kindiki spoke of rescuers still searching for people missing after catastrophic landslides. “A once-in-a-century cycle of droughts alternating with floods has now become common,” he said.

From the Pacific, Kalani Kaneko, foreign minister of the Marshall Islands, painted an all-too-familiar picture: “Now the sea rises, the coral dies and the fish stock leaves our shores for cooler waters.”

Officials warned that it is becoming almost impossible to keep global warming below the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal set by the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Last year was the hottest on record, and scientists say every fraction of a degree makes extreme weather worse.

“It will be much harder to ignore the Caribbean now,” said Racquel Moses, director of the Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator. “The very way that we live depends on these negotiations going according to plan.”

Brazil launches global fund to reward protection of rainforests

Navigating the path to a greener future

While Belem is buzzing, some notable absences have cast long shadows. US President Donald Trump, who continues to call climate change a hoax, boycotted the summit entirely.

His decision prompted a sharp rebuke from Maina Vakafua Talia, Tuvalu’s environment minister, who called Washington’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement “a shameful disregard for the rest of the world.”

Yet other nations have stepped up. China’s Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang pledged to “accelerate the green transition in all areas,” citing massive investment in renewable energy.

Although China remains the world’s biggest carbon emitter, Ding insisted it “honours its commitments.”

India’s envoy Dinesh Bahata said renewables now make up half of India’s energy capacity. “While developing countries take decisive climate action,” he argued, “developed countries fall short.”

The African Union’s Mahmoud Ali Youssouf was equally direct: “We do not ask for charity, but for climate justice.”

Despite the heated rhetoric, Belem has already seen glimmers of progress. Two initiatives – one to protect forests and another to harmonise carbon markets – have gained traction.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva unveiled a new rainforest protection fund designed to reward developing countries for preserving forests. On the first day alone, it attracted $5.5 billion in pledges from Norway, France and Indonesia, with Germany promising a “considerable” contribution. The aim is to grow the fund into a $125 billion lifeline for the world’s rainforests.

Finland’s President Alexander Stubb called the effort a “turn of the tide” moment. “This is happening because of financing, because of innovation,” he said. “It’s a good idea – and it works.”

Meanwhile, Brazil and the European Union announced plans to partner with China and others on a global carbon market, uniting fragmented emissions trading systems into a single framework. If successful, it would create strong economic incentives for countries and companies to cut emissions – something climate negotiators have pursued for years.

Amazon: How climate change is impacting indigenous communities

Indigenous voices at the heart of the talks

This year’s COP, held in the heart of the Amazon, is also the most inclusive yet. More than 3,000 Indigenous delegates are expected to take part – a dramatic increase from just 170 at last year’s summit in Azerbaijan.

“This time, world leaders are coming to us,” said Olivia Bisa, a leader of Peru’s Chapra nation. “We need to be in the room, not right outside of it.”

But not everyone is convinced by Brazil’s green credentials. Indigenous groups have staged protests against new oil projects and infrastructure plans that threaten their lands. On Friday, hundreds climbed cargo boats on the Tapajos River to denounce a proposed railway through Indigenous territory.

“This is our message to the leaders of the world,” said Marília Sena of the Tupinamba nation. “We’ve been here for centuries, caring for the forest and the river.”

As Cop30 gathers pace, there is a sense that something could finally shift – that amid the anger and exhaustion, the world’s climate story might yet find a hopeful outcome.

(with newswires)

The voyage began in 1555, 63 years after Europeans had learned that the Americas existed – or 67, if you believe some French accounts that the first explorer to reach the continent wasn’t Christopher Columbus, but a sailor from Normandy named Jean Cousin.

The Catholic Church had decreed that the new territory would be divided between the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal. But that hadn’t stopped French traders venturing to South America to look for valuable commodities to bring back – notably brazilwood, the trees that lined the Atlantic coast and yielded a prized red dye.

They had established contact with indigenous people and some had even settled there. Under King Henri II, France decided it was time to set up a formal outpost in an area the Portuguese were yet to occupy: Guanabara Bay, a natural harbour on the southeastern coast. 

Mistakenly believing the area to lie further south than it did, they dubbed it France Antarctique.

Laying foundations

Two warships and a supply boat set sail from the port of Le Havre in mid-1555, carrying some 600 colonists. Commanding them was Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon, a swashbuckling vice-admiral who had distinguished himself fighting France’s wars against the English and the Ottomans.

He landed on 10 November and was met by members of the indigenous Tupinambá people. Hostile to the Portuguese settlers, they saw a strategic opportunity to ally with their European rivals.

Villegagnon’s first task was to build a fort. He and his men chose a rocky island within firing distance of the mainland, where they soon completed Fort Coligny – named for Gaspard de Coligny, the admiral of France’s navy and a driving force behind their mission.

Later they would add a settlement on the mainland, Henriville, named after the king. 

Listen to this story on the Spotlight on France podcast, episode 134:

Tensions soon flared between Villegagnon and the settlers, who resented his ban on relations with indigenous women outside Christian marriage. Some even made an abortive attempt to overthrow their commander.

Resentment was also building among Tupinambá workers, exhausted by relentless labour and an epidemic.

In early 1556, Villegagnon sent to France for reinforcements: soldiers, craftsmen and marriageable women. 

Faith wars

He issued another invitation that would prove fateful. With the Wars of Religion brewing between Catholics and Protestants in France, Villegagnon – who by some accounts had converted to the reformed faith – opened the colony to Huguenots facing persecution.

The supply mission arrived in March 1557. It comprised nearly 300 settlers, including a handful of women and a dozen Calvinists.

Villegagnon quickly fell out with the Protestants, getting into impassioned arguments over matters of doctrine. By October he had banished them to the mainland, where some settled among the locals and others sailed home. 

A few ill advisedly returned to the island, where Villegagnon suspected them of plotting an ambush. He had three of them executed by drowning.

By late 1559, with stories of his excesses reaching France, Villegagnon returned home to defend himself and drum up resources. It was the last he’d see of France Antarctique.

Paris commemorates St Bartholomew massacre, 450 years later

Portuguese attack

At the same moment, four years after the French colonists landed, the Portuguese decided it was hight time that they left. Not only were they competing for land and trade, the French had brought Protestants to challenge Portugal’s strictly Catholic mission.

On royal orders, the governor-general of the Portuguese colony in Brazil, Mem de Sá, gathered a fleet of warships. He surrounded Fort Coligny in March 1560 and, when the French refused to surrender, fired the cannon. 

His forces stormed the fort as the French and their Tupinambá allies fled. 

Some of the survivors resettled among indigenous communities on the mainland, where they continued to fight for several more years with the Tupinambá against the Portuguese – who by now were determined to claim Guanabara Bay for themselves. 

Finally, in January 1567, the Portuguese declared victory and expelled the last remaining French for good. 

How Portugal’s Carnation Revolution changed the fate of its colonies in Africa

Legacy in Western imaginations

For a project that lasted barely 12 years, France Antarctique left a considerable legacy.

It spurred Portugal to found a settlement in its place: Rio de Janiero, the city that overlooks Guanabara Bay.

It also set a precedent for other French land grabs. In 1612, France tried to establish another foothold further up the Brazilian coast, this time to be known as France Equinoxiale. The Portuguese once more sent them packing, but subsequent expeditions eventually resulted in the establishment of French Guiana, which remains part of France to this day.

Villegagnon’s expedition also generated some of the most detailed accounts Europe had ever seen of indigenous people and customs in the Americas. Scholars say those descriptions helped define the picture that Europeans had of the New World.

Some 25 years after Villegagnon landed, philosopher Michel de Montaigne wrote his essay “Of Cannibals“. Based on accounts of the Tupinambà from France Antarctique, it describes their practice of ritual cannibalism – and asks whether this makes them any more “savage” than warmongering Europeans. 

“I find that there is nothing barbarous and savage in this nation, by anything that I can gather, excepting, that every one gives the title of barbarism to everything that is not in use in his own country,” Montaigne wrote. 

It marked a rethink of mental maps that made Europe the centre of civilisation and a step towards a more nuanced, if romanticised, understanding of other cultures.

As for the French colony itself, no physical traces remain. But travel to Rio and, opposite one of the city’s airports, you’ll spot a small island. 

Now home to the Brazilian naval academy, it’s what the Tupinambà called Serigipe, “crab water island”, and the Portuguese Ilha das Palmeiras, “palm tree island”. 

Today, it goes by “the island of Villegagnon”.

Poland is the European Union’s third largest producer of tobacco, behind Italy and Spain, according to the EU’s most recent available figures.

Tobacco is also grown in France, Greece, Croatia, Hungary and Bulgaria, with the EU producing 140,000 tonnes as of 2018 – a figure that has been in decline since 1991, when the bloc produced 400,000 tonnes.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is encouraging the EU to cut funding to tobacco farms and envisage a future without the sector – debates that will be on the agenda at the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Geneva from 15-22 November.

France rethinks smoking as new public ban comes into effect

Fears for families

Several hundred Polish tobacco producers from across the country gathered in front of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister in Warsaw on Monday to put pressure on the country’s minister of agriculture not to turn the WHO recommendations into European law.

Among them was Paulina, who told RFI her fears: “Our families will lose their jobs and their livelihoods.”

Hers is one of 30,000 families in Poland who make their living from growing tobacco. Since their livestock farm went bankrupt, they have been living solely off their 12 hectares of tobacco plantations.

“If they cut our agricultural subsidies as they want to do, how do you expect us farmers to survive?” she asked.

French banks accused of continuing to finance tobacco industry

‘Those who want to will continue to smoke’

Fellow protester Wiesław travelled to Warsaw from a region near the Ukrainian border known for its tobacco crops. He says he understands the WHO’s health argument, but considers the stifling of European production hypocritical.

“Yes, our cigarettes will have a negative impact on health. But do you think those produced in Brazil, Argentina or India, for example, will be harmless? Because that’s where we’re going to import them from. Those who want to smoke will continue to smoke,” he argued.

Tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable death in the European Union, responsible for an estimated 700,000 deaths annually, according to WHO data.

In the EU as a whole, roughly a quarter of the population aged 15 and over smokes, although this varies widely between countries. Sweden has the lowest proportion of smokers at 8 percent and Bulgaria the highest at 37 percent, according to Eurostat figures from August.

France came in 13th, with a figure of 27 percent.

This article was adapted from a report in French by RFI’s correspondent in Warsaw, Adrien Sarlat.

After 20 years on the sidelines, Congo-Brazzaville has returned to the international financial stage.

On Wednesday, the country issued its first Eurobond (a debt security issued in a currency different from the issuer’s home currency and sold in a foreign market) since 2007 – a $670-million placement on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.

In plain terms, Brazzaville raised the funds to cover maturing debt and ease pressure on public finances.

But the move also acts as a signal that the country’s economic policy is regaining credibility, and years of financial reform may finally be paying off.

Christian Yoka, the Republic of Congo’s finance minister, hailed the return as proof that Brazzaville’s financial house is once again in order.

“We’ve restored budgetary stability, our accounts are solid,” he said. “Our goal is to turn the economic recovery we’re seeing into financial recognition. This reform effort will continue – it’s absolutely central to our strategy for the future.”

The fact that investors beyond the Central African region were willing to buy Congolese debt again is being read as a vote of confidence.

After years of oil-price shocks, recession and restructuring supervised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it appears Congo’s fiscal reputation is being slowly repaired. The economy has returned to growth, and there is cautious optimism that better days lie ahead.

Denis Sassou Nguesso sweeps to victory in Congo’s presidential elections

From promises to progress

Brice Mackosso, secretary-general of the Justice and Peace Commission in Pointe-Noire, acknowledged the progress made but warned that transparency must keep pace with it.

“There are still bottlenecks,” he explained. “We need clarity on the real owners of companies operating in the extractive sector. Credibility doesn’t just mean pleasing international markets – it also means being accountable to Congolese citizens who want to understand how the country is being managed.”

The government has pledged to publish a quarterly bulletin of public debt statistics – a move intended to keep both investors and the public informed.

This renewed emphasis on transparency marks a notable shift from just a few years ago. Back in 2021, Congo-Brazzaville was under close scrutiny from the IMF, which demanded stronger public finance controls as a condition for its support.

In response, Brazzaville created the National Commission for Transparency and Accountability in Public Finance (CNTR), tasked with ensuring that the country’s finances complied with the IMF’s Fiscal Transparency Code. 

However, the CNTR lacked enforcement powers. Its reports went to the justice minister, who alone could decide whether to sanction any wrongdoing.

Critics, including Mackosso, feared the commission was toothless.

“We don’t understand why the government placed it under the Justice Ministry,” he complained at the time. “It’s not the ministry that manages public money – that should fall under the Finance Ministry if it’s to work effectively.”

There were other concerns too – the commission had no female members, and its work was hampered at the start by a lack of funding.

IMF, World Bank hold first meetings in Africa in 50 years

Challenges remain

Four years on, Congo-Brazzaville’s financial landscape looks rather different. The country’s accounts have stabilised, and reforms once confined to paper are gradually being implemented.

Issuing a bond on the London Stock Exchange would have been unthinkable in 2021. Now, it is being presented as proof of the government’s fiscal discipline.

However, the underlying challenges for the country have not vanished. Transparency in the extractive industries – which remain the backbone of Congo’s economy – and the management of public debt continue to draw scrutiny.

For international investors, the question is whether the current reforms are deep and lasting. For Congolese citizens, it is whether they will finally see tangible benefits from the promised accountability.

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

Investigations by the Sudan War Monitor and Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab drew on open-source material shared on social media by the paramilitaries themselves. Their findings offer damning documentation of the brutality that followed the RSF’s assault on 26 October.

One video shows RSF fighters moving through the Saudi Hospital in El-Fasher, stepping over bodies strewn across the floor.

At one point, a wounded patient tries to sit up before being shot at close range. A fighter can be heard shouting, “There’s one still alive – kill him!”

Then the person filming walks outside, where dozens more corpses in civilian clothing lie scattered in the hospital courtyard.

These videos weren’t leaked by whistleblowers – they were filmed and posted online by the RSF themselves.

Fighting spreads to North Kordofan as Sudan’s war turns deadlier

Rape threats, ransom demands

After analysing dozens of videos and gathering testimony from survivors, the Sudan War Monitor concluded that paramilitaries swept through neighbourhoods, hospitals and homes, executing civilians – sometimes along ethnic lines.

The collective of journalists and open-source researchers said that other footage filmed outside El-Fasher showed bodies dumped in mass graves or abandoned along rural roads, suggesting that victims were killed while trying to flee.

Among the most shocking clips is one showing a female RSF member urging her comrades to “go and rape the women”, an indicator of the sexual violence reported across Darfur since the conflict reignited in April 2023.

In another recording, RSF fighters taunt kneeling captives – including a man identified as Dr Abbas, a respected psychology professor from El-Fasher University – as they demand ransom money from their families.

Another video shows an officer, known by the nickname Abu Lulu, mocking civilians moments before executing them.

France, UN call for a ceasefire in Sudan amid mounting reports of atrocities

Blood visible from space

Satellite analysis conducted by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab, published this week, adds another layer of evidence. Using news reports and social media to identify sites of potential abuses, its experts scanned satellite pictures of the areas and observed dark shapes and red discolouration that they believe are likely bodies and blood.

According to Nathaniel Raymond, the lab’s executive director, the images suggest that mass killings began immediately after the RSF entered El-Fasher, and may still be continuing today.

His team has been tracking the conflict since it erupted in April 2023 between the RSF, commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, and the Sudanese Armed Forces loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

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

Its research offers a glimpse into a war that the world is struggling to see. With several journalists missing or imprisoned in Darfur and communication networks collapsing, open-source intelligence has become one of the only ways to trace what’s happening on the ground.

Raymond notes that this kind of documentation could one day help international prosecutors build war crimes cases. “The nations of the world might be able to say that they could not have stopped it,” wrote the Humanitarian Research Lab, “but they cannot reasonably say that they did not know.”

“The paramilitaries are collecting bodies and placing them in mass graves”

Interview with Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab 

RFI: How did your team use satellite images to identify victims of atrocities in El-Fasher?

Nathaniel Raymond: We reached these conclusions by analysing shapes between 1.3 and 2 metres long that appeared in our satellite images right after the fall of El-Fasher. These shapes were found in locations where RSF fighters filmed themselves killing civilians. The average length of a human body seen from space is around 1.3 to 2 metres, so we’re confident these are human remains. What’s more, the shapes stay in place for several days – and new ones keep appearing.

Were you able to determine where these bodies are located?

Yes. We confirmed that a massacre took place at El-Fasher’s Saudi Hospital. In our satellite images of that same site, we can clearly see these same shapes – so we believe they are bodies. Around the hospital, our images also show reddish areas consistent with bloodstains.

We also have evidence that the paramilitaries are now collecting bodies and placing them in mass graves.

How can you tell that from satellite images?

From one image to the next, we can see them digging holes, putting in objects that match the size and shape of bodies, and then covering them. As we speak, there are two new mass graves near a neighbourhood where massacres were recently reported.

These images are just 24 hours old. We’re gathering new imagery every six to 12 hours.

Does that mean the killings are still going on?

Yes. We’re seeing new stacks appearing in different parts of the city. There are still many civilians in El-Fasher, and we believe they remain in danger.

Have you been able to estimate the number of dead?

There are simply too many to count. We’re trying to develop a computer programme to help us, but often the bodies are piled on top of one another. So we try to calculate if the volume of these shapes changes over time.

In recent days, we’ve also observed trucks arriving – which suggests the paramilitaries are cleaning up the area.

These images are shocking. Could they serve as evidence of war crimes?

That will depend on the international community. So far, it hasn’t acted.

But yes, they could... We’ve already worked with the International Criminal Court on cases that involved satellite imagery.

This article was adapted from the original French version by RFI’s Alexandra Brangeon. 

“They took each of us one by one, surrounded us, they asked us to lay down, we were handcuffed. They beat us with everything they had: clubs, batons, iron pipes, wooden sticks.”

A Cameroonian national identified as Hakim describes how Tunisian officers drove him and others to the Algerian border in January 2025 and abandoned them there.

“They made us chant ‘Tunisia no more, we will never come back’, again and again. They punched us and kicked us, everywhere on our body,” he said.

Hakim’s testimony is one of 120 recorded by human rights NGO Amnesty International in a recent report on human rights abuses and racist attacks on migrants – particularly black people – in Tunisia.

Amnesty interviewed refugees from nearly 20 countries in Tunis, Sfax, and Zarzis between February 2023 and June 2025.

“The numerous violations recorded – rape, torture, unlawful detention – are racially motivated,” Safia Ryan, a North Africa researcher at Amnesty International, told RFI.

Driven from camp to camp, Tunisia’s migrants still dream of Europe

Tunisia is a major departure point for tens of thousands of migrants, many from sub-Saharan Africa, attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea each year in hopes of a better life in Europe.

“The Tunisian authorities have presided over horrific human rights violations, stoking xenophobia, while dealing blow after blow to refugee protection,” said Heba Morayef, regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

Legitimised violence

According to author Hatem Nafti, a member of the Tunisian Observatory on Populism, Tunisia’s President Kais Saied quickly adopted “conspiracy theory” as his mode of governing after a power grab in 2021 in which he dissolved parliament, ruled by decree and stepped away from the constitution.

On 21 February, 2023, President Saied accused “hordes of illegal migrants” from sub-Saharan Africa of “violence, crime and unacceptable practices”.

Saied outlined a replacement theory in which sub-Saharan migrants were part of a “criminal plan to change the demographic landscape of Tunisia” and turn it into “just another African country that doesn’t belong to Arab and Islamic nations anymore”.

This speech sparked violence against black people by both police and the public, who felt legitimised in carrying out racist acts: profiling, arrests, a hate campaign on social media, intimidation, eviction, attacks…

Supporters of Tunisia’s Saied celebrate his landslide election win

The African Union condemned what it called “racialised hate speech” by the Tunisian authorities.

Since then, the Tunisian government has suspended a number of rights groups in the country, and arrested journalists and activists.

On 5 October, the authorities suspended the activities of the World Organisation Against Torture in Tunisia for a month. At the end of October, the activities of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD) and the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES) were also suspended for 30 days.

Many of the organisations whose activities have been suspended were helping migrants.

“This has had horrific humanitarian consequences and led to an enormous gap in protection,” reported Amnesty.

Dumped in the desert

From June 2023 onwards, Tunisian authorities have been expelling tens of thousands of refugees and migrants, most of whom are black.

Tunisian security forces have been routinely dumping migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, including children and pregnant women, in remote and desert areas at the country’s borders with Libya and Algeria.

They are abandoned without food or water and usually after having their phones, identification documents and money confiscated.

Tunisian Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali Nafti said on 5 October that all migrants who entered Tunisian territory illegally would be repatriated “with human dignity”.

“We documented 14 cases of rape on women and minors by Tunisian security forces,” said Amnesty International’s Ryan.

EU migration deal

In a move to tackle illegal migration from Tunisia, in 2023 the European Union committed €100 million to border management – with the right of asylum, the rights of refugees and the protection of vulnerable migrants in Tunisia as part of the deal.

Additionally, Tunisia received around €1 billion in loans and financial support for various sectors, including renewable energy, education and economic development.

According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU-Tunisia deal on migration has been a clear success, with 80 percent fewer irregular arrivals in Italy from Tunisia.

Under pressure? EU states on edge over migrant redistribution plan

However, the European Ombudsman in 2024 questioned the European Commission’s monitoring of the human rights impact of the deal, “especially in the light of deeply disturbing reports regarding how the Tunisian authorities deal with migrants”.

Amnesty has criticised the EU’s silence over what it describes as “horrific abuses”.

“Each day the EU persists in recklessly supporting Tunisia’s dangerous assault on the rights of migrants and refugees and those defending them, while failing to meaningfully review its migration cooperation, European leaders risk becoming complicit,” said Morayef.

“Turks out!” shouted protesters as they marched through Podgorica, the Montenegrin capital. Several Turkish-owned businesses, among the country’s largest investors, were ransacked during last month’s violence.

The clashes were sparked by a knife attack on a Montenegrin citizen by Turkish nationals.

After the unrest, Montenegro imposed visa requirements on Turkish visitors. Some opposition parties accused Serbia of stoking the protests, pointing to rising friction between Belgrade and Ankara over the arms sale to Kosovo.

“There are those accusing the Serbian region of being behind it,” Vuk Vuksanovic, of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, told RFI. “Although I have seen no material evidence.”

Widening rift

While Serbia has not commented on the accusations, it has the capacity to incite such unrest given its strong influence in Montenegro, Vuksanovic said. “The drama involving Montenegro has built up to this difficult atmosphere in Serbian-Turkish relations,” he said.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic last month accused Turkey of trying to resurrect the Ottoman Empire through the sale of sophisticated drones to Kosovo, which broke away from Serbia in 1999.

Analysts say the weapons deal could shift the balance of power in the region.

“There are the kamikaze drones, which are posing a threat, and there are also strategic drones likely to be used to secure the border itself and more as a show of force,” said Zoran Ivanov, a security expert from the Institute of National History in Skopje, North Macedonia.

“So it poses a direct security threat to Serbia and Serbia has to react to this.”

Criminalising identity: Turkey’s LGBTQI+ community under threat

Changing alliances

The tension marks a sharp turnaround. In recent years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had built a close relationship with his Serbian counterpart, and Turkish companies became major investors in Serbia.

However the arms sale to Kosovo reveals a shift in Turkey’s relations with Belgrade, explained international relations professor Huseyin Bagci, of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

“Turkey has more leverage than Serbia,” Bagci said. “The relations between Turkey and Serbia, we understand each other, but it is not as happy as before.”

Analysts say the shift reflects Ankara’s wider ambitions in the Balkans.

“Ankara is trying to increase its influence and will do it,” said Bagci, adding that Turkey’s historical and cultural ties to the region run deep – with millions of families tracing their roots back to the former Ottoman territories.

“The Ottoman Empire was a Balkan empire. The Turkish influence is getting bigger, and of course, they don’t like it. But Turkey is the big brother in the Balkans.”

Turkish Cypriot vote could force shift in Erdogan’s approach to divided island

Turkish expansion

Last month, Turkish forces took command of NATO’s KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. At the same time, Turkish businesses continued expanding across the region.

“They’re expanding their markets; they’re expanding their capabilities; they’re expanding their influence,” Ivanov said.

Turkey’s renewed focus on the Balkans was unsurprising given historical ties, he added. “That’s natural for the Turks to come to invest in the region and now looking for their old roots.”

However its expanding presence might feel like history repeating itself, Ivanov warned.

As “a man who is coming from the Balkans,” he said, he sees “the Turks coming as they were in history” – a reminder of a past many in the region have not forgotten.

The European Union has praised Ankara for supporting peacekeeping operations and economic aid in Kosovo. But analysts caution that Turkey must avoid alienating its Balkan neighbours.

“Ankara also has to be mindful of its own limitations of its own Balkan ambitions,” Vuksanovic. said. “Because otherwise it can push majority Christian Orthodox nations like the Serbs, Greeks and Bulgarians to work against the Turks if the Turks are perceived to be too provocative or aggressive.”

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

It sounds early, but it’s not. 2026 is right around the corner, and I know you want to be a part of our annual New Year celebration, where, with special guests, we read your New Year’s resolutions. So start thinking now, and get your resolutions to me by 15 December. You don’t want to miss out! Send your New Year’s resolutions to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

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 counseled on the best-suited activities for your level according to your score.

Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service, told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you’ll get it”. She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it!

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.

There’s Spotlight on France, Spotlight on Africa, the International Report, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We also have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis.

Remember, podcasts are radio, too! As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service.  Please keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our excellent staff of journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with!

To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you’ll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show.  

Teachers take note!  I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. N.B.: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

This week’s quiz: On 11 October, I asked you to send in the answer to these two questions: Who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, and why was she chosen?

The answers are: The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize went to the Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, because she is, as Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said, “One of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by RFI Listeners Club member Jocelyne D’Errico, who lives in New Zealand. Her question was: “What is the hardest problem you had to resolve in your work or school life?” 

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Shahanoaz Parvin Ripa, the chairwoman of the Sonali Badhan Female Listeners Club in Bogura, Bangladesh. Shahanoaz is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations on your double win, Shahanoaz.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Ras Franz Manko Ngogo, the president of the Kemogemba RFI Club in Tarime, Mara, Tanzania. There’s Rubi Saikia, a member of the United RFI Listeners Club in Assam, India; RFI Listeners Club member Helmut Matt from Herbolzheim, Germany, and last but not least, RFI English listener H. M. Tarek from Narayanganj, Bangladesh. 

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Le matin d´un jour de féte” from Claude Debussy’s Iberia, performed by the Czech Philhamonic conducted by Jean Fournet; “Give Peace a Chance” by John Lennon, performed by John Lennon & Friends; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Nine Over Reggae” by Jack DeJohnette, performed by DeJohnette, Pat Metheny, and Herbie Hancock.

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 Michael Sarpong Mfum’s article  “Invasive water hyacinths choke wildlife and livelihoods in southern Ghana”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 1 December to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 6 December 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. 

False claims that President Emmanuel Macron’s wife Brigitte is transgender first emerged online in 2021. The story could have fizzled out. But pushed by the far right and conspiracy theorists, it’s now reached half the world’s population. Ten people are on trial in France for cyberbullying the first lady and a lawsuit has been filed against a far-right influencer in the US. Thomas Huchon, an investigative journalist and teacher specialising in fake news, says he and other mainstream journalists failed to address the story when it broke, allowing conspiracists to fill the gap. (Listen @2’15”)

Open-air food markets are arguably a cornerstone of life in France. Held once or twice a week in most cities, they’re one of the few ways of still bringing people together. On a visit to Paris’ Aligre market, journalist Olivier Razemon, author of a new book extolling street markets as “an ingredient for a happy society”, argues that they are underappreciated by policymakers and the general public for their ability to create community and revive urban centres. (Listen @20’40”)

One of France’s earliest colonisation attempts was in what is now Brazil, when 600 settlers arrived in Guanabara Bay – now Rio de Janeiro – in November 1555. The colony, called France Antarctique (Antarctic France), lasted only 12 years, but it inspired other French colonising missions as well as reshaping Europeans’ ideas about South America and its people. (Listen @15′)

Episode mixed by Cécile 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).

This week, the New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the Turkish government to drop a proposed law targeting the country’s LGBTQI+ community. Amnesty International has made a similar demand.

Rights groups sound the alarm

The proposed legislation, which was leaked to the media, criminalises attitudes and actions deemed contrary to biological sex, carrying sentences of up to three years in prison.

“It’s really one of the worst reforms, or proposed reforms, we’ve seen in many years,” warns Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey director of Human Rights Watch.

“Because it basically says that the government or the authorities can decide that certain behaviour and attitudes are contrary to biological sex and general morality, and are criminal on that basis.”

Turkey’s Pride struggling to survive amid LGBTQ+ crackdown

Widespread impact

Sinclair-Webb claims that with the proposed law criminalising the promotion of the LGBTQI+ community, its impact would be far-reaching.

“That could affect journalists reporting on matters connected with gender, sexuality and gender identity. It could mean NGOs working to defend the rights of LGBTQI+ people from stigmatisation and discrimination.”

Since the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, homosexuality has never been criminalised. But LGBTQI+ rights advocates warn that this could change, given the broadly written nature of the proposed law.

“It’s not even same-sex sexual acts that are criminalised. It’s just your appearance. Because the law says anything against biological sex. I mean, it could be very widely interpreted,” explains Öner Ceylan of Lambda a LGBTQI+ rights group in Turkey

“So, this could be a woman with short hair or wearing trousers,” adds Ceylan. “Let’s say I’m on the streets, I’m being myself, and I can go to jail for it for three months. Then I’m released, and what happens next? I can easily go back to jail according to that law. So it can be a perfect excuse to imprison an LGBTQI+ person.”

Turkey’s embattled civil society fears worst as foreign funding dries up

Decade of crackdowns

Under the proposed law, people could face between three months and three years in prison, opening the door to lengthy pre-trial detention and the risk of mass arrests  – a prospect that worries rights groups.

Since the early 2000s, Turkey’s LGBTQI+ community has become increasingly visible and vibrant, particularly in Istanbul, with gay clubs, cafés and bars. The city once hosted large Pride marches, with the 2015 event drawing over one hundred thousand people.

However, for the past decade, Turkey’s religiously conservative government has been cracking down on the community in the name of protecting the family. Pride marches have been banned since 2015.

“Now they’ve banned any kind of LGBTQI+ event in the public sphere,” explains Yıldız Tar of Kaos, an LGBTQI+ group. “We no longer share public venues or their addresses. So we are already living a kind of criminalised life, as if many queer people coming together is a criminal activity, which it is not.”

Tar warns that the proposed law represents the endgame in the government’s campaign. “It’s the result of a decade-long war against LGBTQI+ people, and if this law passes, this is the last step.”

Turkey’s embattled civil society fears worst as foreign funding dries up

Rising rhetoric and rising

In September, the Turkish Interior Ministry filed a criminal complaint against openly gay pop singer Mabel Matiz, alleging that one of his songs violated morals and obscenity laws.

Meanwhile, an all-women pop group, Manifest, was detained under the country’s morality laws for one of their performances, prompting the group to end their sell-out national tour.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been ramping up his rhetoric against the LGBTQI+ community, even equating it with terrorism. The proposed legislation also targets the country’s transgender community, banning gender-affirming healthcare for those under the age of 25.

The LGBTQI+ community has vowed to step up its protests against the law and has secured the support of Turkey’s two main opposition parties in opposing it. But Tar warns that if the law passes, many in the community will likely flee the country –  though he says he and others are ready to resist, whatever the cost.

“We will continue to do our work, to share the very basic knowledge that being LGBTQI+ is not a threat to society. It’s not a threat to the family,” declares Tar. “But it will be harder, and most of us will end up in jail.”

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

It sounds early, but it’s not. 2026 is right around the corner, and I know you want to be a part of our annual New Year celebration, where, with special guests, we read your New Year’s resolutions. So start thinking now, and get your resolutions to me by 15 December. You don’t want to miss out! Send your New Year’s resolutions to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

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 counseled on the best-suited activities for your level according to your score.

Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service, told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you’ll get it”. She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it!

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

In addition to the breaking news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.

There’s Spotlight on France, Spotlight on Africa, the International Report, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We also have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis.

Remember, podcasts are radio, too! As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service.  Please keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our excellent staff of journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with!

To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you’ll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show.  

Teachers take note!  I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me (thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr) when you write to her so that I know what is going on, too. N.B.: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

This week’s quiz: On 4 October, I asked you a question about Moldova’s legislative elections. The pro-EU ruling party, the Party of Action and Solidarity – the PAS – won the elections with more than 50 percent of the vote.

You were to re-read our article “Moldova’s pro-EU ruling party wins majority in parliamentary elections”, and send in the answer to these three questions: What is the name of the head of the PAS, what is the name of the party that is pro-Russian, and what was the voter turnout?

The answers are: Maia Sandu is the name of the head of the PAS. The name of the party that is pro-Russian is the Patriotic Electoral Bloc. Voter turnout was around 52 percent, similar to that of the last parliamentary elections in 2021. And just so you know, the population of Moldova is 2.4 million.

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: What do you do when one of your best friends falls in love with someone you dislike?

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Alan Holder from the Isle of Wight, Britain. Alan is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations on your double win, Alan.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Sakirun Islam Mitu, a member of the RFI Amour Fan Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh; Muhammad Muneeb Khan, a member of the RFI Listeners Club in Sheikhupura, Pakistan; RFI Listeners Club member Babby Noor al Haya Hussen from Odisha, India, and RFI English listener Ripa Binte Rafiq from Naogaon, Bangladesh.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: The “Polovtsian Dances” from the opera Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan; the traditional Moldovian “Hora Boierească” performed by the Orchestra Fraților Advahov; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich, performed by the Steve Reich Ensemble.

Do you have a music request? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-listen to Melissa Chemam’s Spotlight on Africa podcast “Inside Côte d’Ivoire’s pivotal election: voices of hope and uncertainty”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 24 November to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 29 November 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. 

In Spotlight on Africa this week, you’ll hear from the people RFI met and interviewed in Abidjan – the main economic hub of Côte d’Ivoire and its administrative capital  – located in the south of the country on the Atlantic coast.

Although Yamoussoukro is the official capital, Abidjan remains home to most embassies, the National Assembly, and one of the presidential palaces. 

Côte d’Ivoire‘s recent economic growth depends heavily on its cocoa and coffee producers as well as on the mining sector. Abidjan is also recognised as a cultural hub for the whole of West Africa.

In this episode, you’ll hear from campaign supporters – particularly young people and women – about their expectations for the post-election period and its outcome.

We’ll then head to the Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny to hear from students and their lecturer, Wise Bogny.

In Cocody, we also take you to the shop of Axel Emmanuel Gbaou, Le Chocolatier Ivoirien, the first Ivorian chocolate maker.

We then head to the Maison de l’Art, in Grand Bassam, which opened in late September and which now hosts the first museum of African contemporary art in Côte d’Ivoire.

Finally, in the last part of this episode, you’ll hear from the AKAA, (Also Known As Africa) the African contemporary art fair in Paris, which closed on Sunday, with our arts journalist Ollia Horton. 

Paris fair celebrates modern African artists reinventing traditional crafts

Episode mixed by Melissa Chemam and Erwan Rome.

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

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.