Published on Tuesday, the Insee study shows the wealthiest households now earn 31 times more than average families, up from 21 times in 2003. It defines very high incomes by counting all taxable earnings and social benefits, minus direct taxes, then adjusting for household size.

Around 40,000 households qualify as “very high income”, earning more than €463,000 annually. Nearly half live in the Paris region, and 82 percent are married or in civil partnerships.

Their wealth comes not just from salaries or pensions but from profits on professional activity such as farmland, rental income and financial assets including shares, business stakes, life insurance and investment contracts.

The gap between rich and poor has grown even more starkly. The wealthiest now earn 167 times more than the poorest households, compared to 95 times two decades ago.

Insurance boss breaks ranks with French business elite over taxing the rich

Income gaps widen

“Between 2003 and 2022, the average income of very high-income households increased more than that of other tax households, benefiting from the rise in financial and property income,” the institute said.

Their earnings can be more volatile during economic shocks. Even so, the wealthiest households contributed €10.7 billion in income tax revenue in 2022. Yet their tax rate fell from 29.2 percent in 2003 to 25.7 percent last year.

Professional footballers from Ligue 1 clubs make up more than a third of the top 100 highest-paid employees in France, with 36 appearing on the list. The remaining spots are filled by company directors and high-level executives.

Women remain heavily under-represented at the top.

Among very high salaries, defined as the top 1 percent of private sector positions earning more than €10,219 net per month, women account for just 24 percent. This compares to women representing 42 percent of full-time equivalent employees overall.

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

Women a minority

Only 10 women feature among the 100 wealthiest individuals.

“This lower representation of women among very high salaries contributes significantly to increasing the wage gap between women and men,” Insee noted.

The most affluent overall are those combining both high living standards, defined as the wealthiest 10 percent with more than €39,100 in adjusted annual income, and high wealth of more than €716,300 euros. This group comprised 1.6 million households in 2021.

Fifty-one percent were aged between 50 and 69, while 58 percent were managers or self-employed. Forty-seven percent lived as couples without children and 38 percent resided in the Paris area.

“Wealth inequalities are greater than living standard inequalities,” said Michel Duée, head of the household resources and living conditions department at Insee.

Rising property prices have contributed to increasing disparities, he added.

The court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre said it had seen no proof of a health danger or a clear breach of the law. “The existence of a health risk to consumers linked to Perrier waters labelled ‘natural mineral waters’ has not been established,” it said.

UFC-Que Choisir said it was unhappy with the decision. Marie-Amandine Stevenin, head of the consumer rights group, said: “We believe that this decision does not live up to the issues we were denouncing, namely misleading commercial practices.”

The court ordered UFC-Que Choisir to pay €5,000 to Nestlé Waters, which welcomed the decision – saying it confirmed that “the food safety of Source Perrier natural mineral waters has always been guaranteed”.

French media reported in early 2024 that the company had used banned treatments such as ultraviolet light and activated carbon filters on its waters. French and European rules say natural mineral water cannot undergo processes that change its original state.

Perrier could lose ‘natural mineral water’ label after contamination found

Banned filters

UFC-Que Choisir argued that Perrier’s use of microfiltration meant it could not claim the natural mineral water designation and said the treatment suggested possible health risks. Perrier is sourced from a spring in Vergèze in southern France.

Contamination by bacteria from faecal matter has been found at times in wells supplying the brand, particularly after heavy rainfall. Nestlé Waters said such cases were rare and that the affected wells were no longer used.

The group has faced pressure since admitting in 2024 that it had used banned filters and ultraviolet treatment on mineral waters. It paid a €2 million fine to avoid legal action over illegal water sources and filtering.

In June, Nestlé Waters was fined more than $610,000 in Switzerland for having used activated carbon filters on its Henniez bottled mineral water.

The Nanterre court found UFC-Que Choisir had failed to prove any illicit processes by Nestlé Waters, adding that Perrier could continue to be sold.

Nestlé admits to treating bottled mineral water in breach of French regulations

Factory changes

In July, Nestlé withdrew its 0.2-micron microfiltration system at its Vergèze factory after a request from local authorities and replaced it with a 0.45-micron device, a system it already uses for its Vittel brand.

The company has said microfiltration does not alter the mineral makeup of its waters.

The new system is part of a wider application awaiting approval from local authorities for continued production of mineral water at Vergèze. An inquiry commissioned by France’s Senate found in May that the French government had covered up the use of treatments for years.

Nestlé repeated its support for the ruling in a statement.

“We welcome the court’s decision to reject all of UFC-Que Choisir’s demands in this case,” it said. “Today’s decision confirms that the food safety of Perrier natural mineral waters has always been guaranteed.”

(with newswires)

The French Medicines Agency (ANSM) has taken further action against websites offering products marketed as anti-obesity treatments, following on from an initial swathe of measures taken to stop fraudulent, on-line practices.

In September, the drug regulator announced that it had identified 10 commercial websites illegally advertising and selling products presented as belonging to the “GLP-1 analogues” (aGLP-1) family of drugs used in the treatment of diabetes and/or obesity.

However, the drugs – marketed under the names Ozempic or Wegovy, Saxenda or Victoza, Trulicity or Mounjaro – mimic the action of the GLP-1 hormone that helps regulate blood sugar and appetite, can only be obtained from pharmacies upon the presentation of a prescription.

Could recognising obesity as a disease help tackle fatphobia in France?

Major platforms targetted

To put a stop to such illegal activities, ANSM has demanded that the products be removed from the platforms concerned and indicated that it had referred the matter to the public prosecutor and brought it to the attention of the French Interior Ministry’s Pharos portal, where illegal content on the internet is reported.

Since then, some sites have removed the sales advertisements, the ANSM said in a statement on Wednesday, citing eBay, Cdiscount and Amazon.

However, for other websites, owned by Hamjouy Limited and Zongest Limited – two Hong Kong-based companies – the agency is taking “health policy measures to suspend the marketing, distribution, possession for sale, import, export, exploitation and advertising of fraudulent products”.

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Rogue sellers and sham products

The ANSM has also warned that the actions “may be repeated for each new report of a website offering products for sale that are presented as medicines or with therapeutic claims”, believing that the measures “will enable customs authorities to seize these illegal products”.

The agency also revealed that it has carried out checks on certain patches sold on the internet that are presented as containing aGLP-1, but which in fact contain no slimming substances.

“These products are therefore fraudulent and could contain other substances that are harmful to health,” warns the ANSM, which denounces the “misleading nature” reinforced by the presence of its logo and that of the European Medicines Agency on some of them.

(with newswires)

Kyiv set out its plan on Tuesday at the UN climate summit, Cop30, in Brazil. Ukraine plans to file the claim through a new compensation process being set up within the Council of Europe.

The main source of the extra emissions is the fighting itself. Fuel burned by tanks and aircraft and the steel and cement produced for the front line are major contributors.

There are also fires that firefighters cannot go and extinguish in combat zones and civilian planes forced to reroute around Ukrainian territory. The war has destroyed trees through these fires, which further adds to the climate impact.

Nearly one million hectares burn as war ravages nature across Ukraine

Climate damage

In total, experts from the Initiative for GHG Accounting of War (IGGAW), an association funded by Ukraine and European governments, say the war has produced the equivalent of 236.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

According to Lennard de Klerk, a Dutch carbon-accounting expert who works with the group, that figure is nearly equal to the annual emissions of Ireland, Belgium and Austria combined.

Pavlo Kartashov, Ukraine’s deputy minister for economy, environment and agriculture, told a side event at Cop30 that Ukrainians are facing many pressures at once.

“Every day people are dying, we have energy problems… but one day Russia will have to be held responsible for all the damage it has caused… including damage to the environment, water, animals and soil,” Kartashov said.

“The vast amounts of fuel burned, forests scorched, buildings destroyed, concrete and steel used, all these things are essentially ‘conflict carbon’ and have a considerable climate cost.

“We in Ukraine face brutality directly, but the climate shockwaves of this aggression will be felt well beyond our borders and into the future.”

A member of the Russian delegation at Cop30 declined to comment on Ukraine’s announcement.

Europe’s climate progress overshadowed by worsening loss of nature

Wartime emissions

IGGAW produced the emissions estimate now used by Kyiv.

De Klerk told Reuters that he helped Ukraine calculate the damage figure using a 2022 study in the journal Nature that puts the social cost of carbon at about $185 a tonne.

The social cost of carbon is an estimate of damages to society from CO2 emissions. He said this calculation fed into Ukraine’s overall claim.

Ukraine is preparing to submit its climate-related demand through the new Council of Europe process, which has already received some 70,000 claims from Ukrainian individuals for wartime damages.

All of the claims, including any filed by other legal entities such as companies, will be decided by a claims commission.

It remains unclear where the compensation will come from. De Klerk suggested that the billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets could be used to cover successful claims.

President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu signed the promotion into law on Monday, and it was published in the so-called Journal officiel (Official Journal) of new legislation on Tuesday.

“The French nation posthumously promotes Alfred Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general,” the law reads.

Parliament’s lower house unanimously approved the legislation in June, and the Senate backed it earlier this month.

The law is seen as a symbolic step in the fight against antisemitism in France, at a time of growing alarm over hate crimes targeting Jews in the context of the Gaza war.

Macron declares 12 July annual Dreyfus commemoration day

‘Dreyfus affair’

Dreyfus, a 36-year-old army captain from the Alsace region of eastern France, was accused in October 1894 of passing secret information on new artillery equipment to a German military attache.

The accusation, based on a comparison of handwriting on a document found in the German’s wastepaper basket in Paris, kicked off what would become known as the “Dreyfus affair“.

Dreyfus was put on trial amid a virulent antisemitic press campaign. But novelist Emile Zola then penned his famous “J’accuse…!” (“I accuse”) pamphlet in support of the captain.

Despite a lack of evidence, Dreyfus was convicted of treason, sentenced to life imprisonment in the infamous Devil’s Island penal colony in French Guiana and publicly stripped of his rank.

But Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart, head of the intelligence services, reinvestigated the case in secret and discovered the handwriting on the incriminating message was that of another officer, Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy.

When Picquart presented the evidence to the general staff of the French army, he himself was driven out of the military and jailed for a year, while Esterhazy was acquitted.

In June 1899, Dreyfus was brought back to France for a second trial. He was initially found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison, before being officially pardoned – though not cleared of the charges.

French MPs back promoting Jewish army captain 130 years after treason scandal

Legion of Honour

Only in 1906, after many twists, did the high court of appeal overturn the original verdict, exonerating Dreyfus.

He was reinstated with the rank of major and decorated with a Legion of Honour, France’s highest award.

He served during World War I and died in 1935, aged 76.

Those who pushed for the law believe that if Dreyfus had been able to pursue his career under normal circumstances, he would have risen to the top of the French army.

France is home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States, as well as one of the largest Muslim communities in the European Union.

There has been a rise in reported attacks against members of France’s Jewish community since Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, 2023 and the Israeli military responded with a devastating military offensive on the Gaza Strip.

(with AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a letter of intent on Monday in Paris. It sets out future weapons supplies as part of Zelensky’s visit.

The deal will allow Ukraine to acquire 100 Rafale fighter jets “with their associated weapons”, the French presidency said.

The accord, signed at France’s Villacoublay air base, is not a purchase and sales contract and is projected to be realised “over a timeframe of about 10 years”, the presidency added.

It also covers new generation SAMP-T air defence systems still in development, plus radar systems and drones.

Russia accused France of fuelling war. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “Paris is in no way contributing to peace, but rather fuelling militaristic and pro-war sentiment.”

Spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry, Pascal Confavreux, told public broadcaster Franceinfo on Monday that the accord represented a message to Russia.

France’s Macron and Ukraine’s Zelensky pave way for jets and air defence deal

“There is no European fatigue in the support we are providing to Ukraine,” he said. “The idea is to show that we support the Ukrainian army and that, in the long term, we are creating a deterrent for the Russians so that they are discouraged from attacking Ukraine again.”

France has previously delivered Mirage fighter jets to Kyiv, but until now there had been no talk of Ukraine acquiring the Rafale – the crown jewel of French combat aviation.

Russia has criticised NATO countries for supplying arms to Ukraine since its invasion of the latter in February 2022, and says they make no difference on the battlefield.

“No matter what aircraft are sold to the Kyiv regime, this will not change the situation on the front lines and cannot change the dynamics,” Peskov said on Tuesday.

Tough winter ahead

Zelensky’s visit to France was his ninth since the start of the war in 2022. It came ahead of what analysts predict will be a tough winter for Ukraine. Moscow has been intensifying its daily drone and missile barrages in recent months, targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and hitting a number of civilian sites.

Zelensky pushes EU to unlock €140bn in frozen Russian assets

The defence ministry in Moscow said on Monday that the Russian army had seized three more villages across eastern Ukraine.

A Russian missile attack killed a teenage girl and wounded at least nine people in the eastern Kharkiv region, its governor said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Zelensky will head to Turkey on Wednesday seeking to revive the United States’ involvement in diplomatic efforts to end the war, a Ukrainian official told French news agency AFP. 

Peace efforts have faltered, after several rounds of Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul this year failed to yield a breakthrough. Moscow has not agreed to a ceasefire and instead has continued to advance on the front and bombard Ukrainian cities.

Zelensky will meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday, where his “main goal is for the Americans to re-engage” in peace efforts, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP.

Kyiv is hoping Washington will be able to push Russia to the negotiating table, including by imposing sanctions. American lawmakers are working on a bill to strengthen sanctions against Russia by potentially imposing tariffs on all countries buying its oil and gas.

EU to boost security independence and Ukraine ties with €1.5bn defence plan

Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy for Peace Missions, is also expected in Turkey, another Ukrainian official told AFP.

The Kremlin said that no Russian official will be present at the talks, adding that it remains open to talks to resolve the war in Ukraine.

Prisoner exchanges and the repatriation of fallen soldiers’ bodies were the only tangible results of the talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul between May and July, but they slowed down.

Lead negotiator Rustem Umerov said he sought to resume prisoners exchanges, aiming to release around 1,200 Ukrainians.

(with AFP)

The emergency meeting held at the Élysée Palace on Tuesday brought together senior ministers, judicial police officials and specialised magistrates as the government seeks to project firmness on an issue rapidly rising up the political agenda ahead of next March’s municipal elections.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said after the discussions that he would travel to Marseille on Thursday with Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin, following a request from the President.

Macron himself plans to reconvene anti-trafficking stakeholders in mid-December – again at the Élysée Palace – before making his own trip to Marseille.

“We have noticed that traffickers, particularly those who run the Marseille mafias, are becoming increasingly nervous because we are taking extremely effective action,” Nuñez said, striking a confident tone as he outlined the government’s next steps.

Earlier in the day, politicians from across the spectrum had urged the government to move from rhetoric to results in tackling a problem that is expected to loom large in the coming municipal campaign.

Among those present at the Élysée were the Ministers of Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin, and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot. They were joined by key judicial figures, including Marseille’s public prosecutor Nicolas Bessonne and Christian Sainte, the national director of the judicial police. Darmanin took part via videoconference from the United Arab Emirates.

The gravity of recent events was never far from the discussions. Last week, the brother of environmental activist Amine Kessaci – himself a vocal campaigner against drug trafficking – was shot dead in the southern port city.

Prosecutor Bessonne has not ruled out that the killing may have been a warning assassination. According to a source close to the case, Macron personally phoned Kessaci, whose other brother, Brahim, was killed in 2020.

Meanwhile in Grenoble, a teenager was shot three times on Saturday night near what police believe was a drug dealing point. His attackers are still on the run, adding to public unease over drug-related violence.

France to boost police and courts in fight against rising drug scourge

Specialised public prosecutor’s office

Tuesday’s meeting was also held to accelerate the rollout of a new anti-trafficking law, promulgated in June and now “gaining momentum”, according to the Élysée. Central to the reforms is the creation of the National Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime (Pnaco), due to be formally launched on 1 January.

Modelled on the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) and the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), the Pnaco will take charge of the most serious and intricate organised crime cases.

Darmanin has already proposed magistrate Vanessa Perrée to head the new body.

The Justice Minister has repeatedly defended the new legal framework in Parliament, noting that it includes tougher penalties, enhanced tools for investigators and fresh provisions to establish high-security prison wings for the most dangerous traffickers – who could be placed in solitary confinement.

Marseille’s drug war victims, perpetrators younger than ever: prosecutor

A theme for municipal elections

With barely four months until the municipal vote, the fight against drug trafficking is quickly becoming a defining theme.

Franck Allisio, the far-right National Rally’s candidate for mayor of Marseille, has called for a “state of emergency” in the city – a measure that would grant prefects expanded powers to restrict gatherings or authorise administrative searches.

The topic is also expected to feature prominently at this week’s Association of French Mayors (AMF) congress in Paris. AMF president David Lisnard told BFMTV/RMC that while the new drug trafficking law is “a good law”, the government needs to go further.

“Beyond public displays and emergency meetings, what is needed now is action,” he said.

Lisnard, the centre-right Les Républicains mayor of Cannes, recalled that the AMF held a round table on drug trafficking last year because “this is a reality we are experiencing in large cities, medium-sized towns and even villages”.

As France braces for a heated electoral season, Macron’s renewed push suggests the government is intent on showing it can deliver tangible results – and perhaps restore a sense of security in communities grappling with the daily consequences of drug crime.

(With newswires)

RFI: The potential terror threat is now coming from increasingly younger individuals in France. What are the typical profiles of radicalised young people you have observed?

Laurène Renaut: Since 2023, 70 percent of those arrested for planning jihadist attacks have been under the age of 21. But there is no typical profile because radicalisation is a multi-faceted phenomenon.

The common denominator is a search for identity and a sense of injustice that drives them to consume violent online content, sometimes frantically. Some also look at more theoretical material that claims to show them how to be, according to jihadist propaganda, “a true Muslim”.

In recent years, propagandists have adapted to this younger audience. Their videos place great emphasis on feelings of isolation in society, at school or within their families. They use these feelings and tell them that if they feel different or marginalised, it may be because Allah has called them to fight. They exploit pre-existing vulnerabilities.

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RFI: How can we explain this resurgence of the terror threat in France?

LR: This resurgence is not a new phenomenon. Among the first generations of jihadists, we saw profiles with average ages ranging from 30 to 35. Then, with the Islamic State organisation from 2014-2015 onwards, the average age dropped to between 25 and 27. By the end of 2023, we were seeing a very sharp decline in the average age of radicalised profiles.

I would explain this by the adaptation of jihadist propaganda to new social media platforms that appeal to younger people, such as TikTok. These platforms have accelerated the phenomenon of self-radicalisation – a phenomenon that did not exist, or existed only to a very limited extent, less than 10 years ago.

Previously, radicalisation was a slower process. People became radicalised through offline encounters, and certain factors related to the family environment could also play a role. Online exchanges were ultimately a minority factor in the radicalisation process.

TikTok under scrutiny as toxic videos reach young users within minutes

With platforms such as TikTok equipped with increasingly powerful algorithmic recommendation systems, some young people are more easily isolated than before. If you view jihadist content, within a few hours you may find that you are only receiving that type of content.

The consequence is that, since the end of 2023, we have observed that the time it takes for young people to become radicalised is getting shorter and shorter. In other words, the gap between the moment a young person consumes jihadist propaganda online and the moment they express a desire to take action is getting shorter and shorter. Some young people, upon coming into contact with jihadist propaganda, switch sides immediately.

France probes plot linked to ex-girlfriend of Paris attacks convict

RFI: You mentioned that propagandists are adapting to these new methods of delivery. How are they doing this?

LR: The techniques used are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Phishing tactics are being observed in video games, which I refer to as the “gamification” of radicalisation. On certain video game platforms such as Roblox, some propagandists recreate battles won by jihadists on the Iraqi-Syrian front. They can get young people to take on the roles of mujahideen, or Islamic State fighters.

But the fun aspect is just a pretext for then getting in touch with them via the messaging services on these gaming platforms. We then see a narrative similar to the one we talked about earlier. Propagandists offer them violent content to watch, and then try to raise their awareness of certain injustices suffered by Muslims around the world. These platforms are the new vectors for the radicalisation of young people.

This article was adapted from the original version in French by Baptiste Coulon.

“It was an amazing experience. It was really great,” head coach Simon Madol told RFI from the Ugandan capital Kampala, where South Sudan’s blind football team defeated the hosts on 29 October to secure the African Championship Division 2 trophy.

“Coming from far and this being the first championship we’re participating in, and the first championship for blind football in South Sudan, it was amazing. And we won in our first try.”

South Sudan’s “Bright Stars” won the final against Uganda 3-0, with captain Martin Ladu Paul scoring twice and striker Yona Sabri Ellon adding another goal.

“I’m very happy because this is our first day and we won the championship in the Horn of Africa,” said defender Allison Christopher. “From the beginning, it was not all that easy. But by the grace of God, we were able to overcome the challenges and we have won the trophy.”

The team will now progress to Division 1 next year and move one step closer to a dream that once seemed impossible: qualifying for the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.

Learning curve

Blind football arrived in South Sudan in 2020 with just two players, supported by the UEFA Foundation and non-profit Light for the World. Played with a ball containing a bell, the sport requires players to communicate constantly to let each other know where they are.

“From the beginning it was really hard,” says Madol, who is sighted.

Soon after the team started playing came the coronavirus. “At the time, Covid-19 was really active,” the coach remembers. “So it was really hard from the beginning to do continuous practice.

“And I was also learning coaching myself, having an instructor from Germany, assigned to me by Light for the World, to train me on blind football, and I was also doing my own research.”

The players, too, had to master the rules – which was sometimes a source of frustration. “They could hit each other, but they love the sport, so they kept coming until they got used to the rules,” says Madol. “And now everything is perfect.”

But with the team’s promotion, the coach knows the coming matches will be more serious, and he expects the players to up their game.

“We used to train once a week and I think now it’s time to at least train maybe four times a week to get ready for 2026.”

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Lack of facilities

With few suitable pitches available, the players travel to a private ground that the team has to hire.

“This has only been possible thanks to Light for the World and this initiative, supported by partners like the Adidas Foundation and South Sudan Association of the Visually Impaired,” Madol added. “With their support, we are able to practice in the ground even though we have to pay for it.

“All the other places are really not that accessible for football, especially blind football, because we need a place that is level, a place that has side boards. Currently in South Sudan, there is no ground meant for blind football.”

The Bright Stars’ coach hopes their win will increase awareness of inclusive sport.

“I love sports so much. I love football so much. I use this opportunity to be able to exercise what I love and support others who really love it too,” he told RFI.

“I’m so proud that it is contributing to developing blind football in South Sudan and changing the negative perception of people who are thinking that, having visual impairment, players cannot participate in sport, especially football. So we are changing the negative attitudes of people toward disability and people with disabilities.”

‘We’ve become role models’: French para athletes hail legacy of Paris Games

Ellon, the team’s number 7, scored a total of five goals in last month’s tournament and has his sights set on the next challenge.

“We know that next year we are going to participate in Division 1 of the African blind football championship, so we know that it is going to be more competitive,” he told RFI.

“So that means we need to make sure that next year we pick up from where we have ended with the same spirit, the teamwork and the winning mentality. We need to carry it from this year to next year.”

Listen to this story on the Spotlight on Africa podcast.

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.

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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.”

“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.

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 high 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 Tupinambá 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 Tupinambá called Serigipe, “crab water island”, and the Portuguese Ilha das Palmeiras, “palm tree island”. 

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

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.

Sansal, 81, travelled to France from Germany where he had been receiving medical treatment, following his release last week after talks between Algiers and Berlin.

His detention was seen by supporters as a consequence of the political row between Algeria and France over sovereignty of the Western Sahara, in which Paris backs the claim of Algeria’s North African rival Morocco.

In October 2024, Sansal told a far-right French media outlet that France had unjustly transferred Moroccan territory to Algeria during the 1830-1962 colonial period.

Algeria handed Sansal a five-year jail term in March on charges of undermining its territorial integrity after arresting him in November last year on arrival from France.

Algeria frees French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal for transfer to Germany

Upon arriving in France, Sansal was welcomed by President Macron in a meeting at the Elysée Palace, the French presidency said.

Macron, it said, is “delighted at the release of Boualem Sansal, a great writer whose dignity, moral strength and courage have been exemplary”.

A committee of supporters who campaigned for Sansal’s release said in a statement they welcomed “with deep emotion the return to France of our friend and compatriot”. It added: “It will now be up to the writer to choose the time and fashion in which he wishes to express himself.”

Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune pardoned Sansal last week after German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged a “humanitarian gesture” due to his fragile health.

Imprisoned sports journalist

Prominent French sports journalist Christophe Gleizes remains in an Algerian prison, sentenced to seven years for “glorifying terrorism” for having sought to interview an outlawed group.

Algeria sentences French sports journalist to seven years behind bars

France is “fervently hoping” for the release of Gleizes and “working towards it”, the French presidency said. Sansal’s support committee too urged the “immediate release” of Gleizes.

French-Algerian relations have been strained by numerous political disputes over recent years. Analysts say both sides are yet to overcome the mutual recriminations that are a legacy of the 1954-1962 war that brought Algeria its independence, following more than a century of French colonisation.

(with AFP)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron will join forces on Tuesday to make a fresh push for greater European digital sovereignty – and reduce the continent’s reliance on US tech giants – as the global artificial intelligence race accelerates.

The pair will set out their ambitions at a Berlin summit bringing together political leaders and key industry players, including executives from French AI firm Mistral and German software powerhouse SAP. Their meeting is set to underline that Europe can and should be shaping its own digital destiny.

With artificial intelligence set to become critical across a growing number of sectors, EU governments are coming under increasing pressure to assert more control over the technologies that will underpin everything from industry to public services.

Those concerns have only sharpened with the return of US President Donald Trump, whose scepticism towards longstanding transatlantic ties has caused unease in European capitals.

German Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger said on Monday that the summit’s “core message” would be that “Europe is ready to shape its own digital future, to reduce dependence”.

“We can make better progress by working together,” he added at a ground-breaking ceremony for an 11-billion-euro data centre outside Berlin – a project emblematic of the infrastructure Europe hopes will help it catch up.

The EU has come under fire for being too slow in the global race against the United States and China to dominate AI technologies. Brussels will this week propose rolling back some rules on AI and data protection, with the topic expected to feature prominently in Berlin. European companies struggling to keep pace have complained about regulatory hurdles, while American firms have also voiced frustration. Critics now fear the EU may be putting competitiveness ahead of citizens’ privacy.

France and Germany weigh future of joint EU weapons projects

Cloud computing, competition concerns

Another major theme of the summit will be efforts to build “sovereign” European cloud computing capacity. Supporters argue that homegrown cloud solutions would better safeguard Europeans’ data in a market currently dominated by US heavyweights such as Google, AWS and Microsoft.

Fostering more competition, improving collaboration between governments and industry, and designing “fair and efficient” digital markets are also expected to be high on the agenda.

Merz and Macron will deliver keynote speeches in the afternoon, and the event will also host digital ministers from across Europe. Later in the day, the two leaders will have dinner with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, though a German government spokesman declined to share what the trio plan to discuss.

Several announcements on new digital initiatives are anticipated – part of a wider push to address Europe’s long-standing concerns over dependence on hardware suppliers from China and other Asian countries. From semiconductors to laptop components, the continent remains heavily reliant on imports.

A Bitkom survey found that around 90 percent of German companies importing digital goods or services consider themselves dependent on them – a statistic underlining the scale of the challenge.

Macron and Merz forge united front on trade, security and energy in Berlin

‘Europe must invest’ to stay competitive

Ralf Wintergerst, president of Germany’s digital association Bitkom, said Europe must step up its investment in the digital economy without delay.

“Europe must not fall behind – today’s investments secure tomorrow’s competitiveness and jobs,” he told reporters. “If Europe does not want to become a museum of technology, we must ramp up investment significantly.”

But the road ahead looks steep. After years of sluggish economic performance, Europe’s tech sector remains dwarfed by its US counterparts. As of last year, European data centres had just 16 gigawatts of computing capacity, compared with 48 gigawatts in the United States and 38 in China, according to Bitkom.

Meanwhile, hefty new US investments in Germany – including billions of dollars from Google and a partnership between Nvidia and Deutsche Telekom for an industrial AI hub – have only underscored how dependent Europe still is on American innovation.

Despite this, a senior official from the French presidency stressed that the summit is not about picking a fight with Washington or Beijing.

Rather, it is focused on exploring “how we protect our core sovereignty and what rules need to be established, especially at the European level”.

(with newswires)

Brussels had been under pressure to include the services under the scope of a major law because of the dominance of US cloud providers, which hold around two thirds of market share in the 27-nation bloc.

The European Commission – the EU’s digital regulator – said on Tuesday that it will investigate whether Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft’s Azure should come under the scope of the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Despite being the third largest, Google Cloud was not included.

The DMA is part of the European Union’s bolstered legal arsenal that seeks to make the digital market fairer with a list of do’s and don’ts for Big Tech companies, which it refers to as “gatekeepers” such as Apple.

The twin probes aim to assess whether AWS and Microsoft “should be designated as the gatekeepers on cloud computing,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said at a Berlin summit focused on pushing greater European digital sovereignty.

Macron, Merz push for Europe’s digital sovereignty as AI race accelerates

In a statement the commission said it would analyse whether the two “act as important gateways between businesses and consumers, despite not meeting the DMA gatekeeper thresholds for size, user number and market position”.

EU regulators will seek to conclude the investigations within a year.

Dynamic sector

Microsoft and AWS insisted the cloud sector was competitive.

“We’re confident that when the European Commission considers the facts, it will recognise what we all see – the cloud computing sector is extremely dynamic, with companies enjoying lots of choice, unprecedented innovation opportunity, and low costs,” an AWS spokesperson said.

“Designating cloud providers as gatekeepers isn’t worth the risks of stifling invention or raising costs for European companies,” the spokesperson added.

EU begins rollout of new AI rules with tech giants split on compliance

“The cloud sector in Europe is innovative, highly competitive and an accelerator for growth across the economy. We stand ready to contribute” to the probe, a Microsoft spokesperson said.

Brussels announced it would also open a third probe to find out whether it needs to update the DMA to make sure it can combat practices that “may limit competitiveness and fairness in the cloud computing sector in the EU”.

AWS leads the cloud computing market, followed closely by Microsoft Azure, with Google Cloud in third place.

Concern over outages

Brussels defended the decision not to probe Google.

“Our preliminary evidence shows that Google is playing a less important role for now on our market than the two ones that we’re investigating,” EU digital affairs spokesman Thomas Regnier told reporters.

There has also been growing concern after a raft of outages in recent months.

In October, Microsoft cloud clients experienced widespread service disruptions. Among them was Alaska Airlines, whose customers were unable to check in.

Tech giants grilled on their compliance with EU’s new Digital Markets Act

That came after Amazon cloud troubles last month forced popular services ranging from streaming platforms to messaging apps offline for hours.

Amazon and Microsoft already face stricter rules for their other services including Amazon Marketplace and Microsoft’s LinkedIn platform.

The DMA gives the EU the power to impose fines of up to 10 percent of a company’s total global turnover in the event of any violations.

(with AFP)

The complaint by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) was filed on Monday with France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutor, according to the proof of filing seen by French news agency AFP.

It focuses on alleged abuses between July and September 2021 by soldiers belonging to a joint task force (JTF) deployed to protect the gas site that the company operates and plans to restart following a jihadist attack.

The alleged abuses, including the torture and killing of dozens of civilians, took place at TotalEnergies’ liquefied natural gas project in the restive northeastern Cabo Delgado province, the ECCHR said in a statement.

French prosecutors probe TotalEnergies over deadly Mozambique attack

“Internal documents show that TotalEnergies was aware of accusations of violence against civilians being committed by Mozambican armed forces from May 2020, yet continued its support to the JTF,” the ECCHR said.

The task force comprised Mozambican armed forces responsible for protecting the infrastructure of the gas site whose operations were suspended following the 2021 jihadist attack.

Online media Politico reported that soldiers working for the site locked up to 250 civilians in containers for three months accusing them of supporting the jihadists.

The civilians were beaten, tortured or killed. Only 26 survived, Politico said.

‘Not neutral actors’

“TotalEnergies knew that the Mozambican armed forces had been accused of systematic human rights violations, yet continued to support them with the only objective to secure its own facility,” said Clara Gonzales, ECCHR’s co-programme director for business and human rights.

“Companies and their executives are not neutral actors when they operate in conflict zones: if they enable or fuel crimes, they might be complicit and should be held accountable,” she was quoted as saying in the statement.

French gas ambitions pose a ‘climate time bomb’ for Mozambique

The gas company, Mozambique LNG, said it had “no knowledge of the alleged events described” nor “any information indicating that such events took place”, according to ECCHR.

Last month, Mozambican and international NGOs accused TotalEnergies of holding Mozambique “hostage” over the French giant’s demand of “ultra-favourable” conditions to restart the gas project in which TotalEnergies owns a 26.5-percent-stake.

TotalEnergies has said it hopes to resume production at the gas site in 2029, but first needs approval by the authorities for its new budget plan which includes $4.5 billion (€3.8 billion) of cost overruns linked to the delay, to be covered by the Mozambique government.

(with AFP)

The Campana Gallery, which houses nine rooms dedicated to ancient Greek ceramics, will be closed while investigations are conducted into “certain beams supporting the floors of the second floor” above it, a statement said.

The announcement has no link to the recent robbery at the world’s most visited art gallery, but is more unwelcome news for an institution that has faced severe criticism in France over its security shortcomings.

A four-strong gang raided the Louvre last month with an extendable ladder and power tools in broad daylight, making off with jewellery worth an estimated €90 million in front of startled visitors.

Before the break-in, the museum’s top administrator had warned publicly about conditions inside the former royal palace, which saw 8.7 million people visit its vast galleries last year.

Temperature variations

Louvre director Laurence des Cars warned in a memo in January about a “proliferation of damage in museum spaces, some of which are in very poor condition”.

Some areas were “no longer watertight, while others experience significant temperature variations, endangering the preservation of artworks,” she added.

The Campana Gallery is located on the first floor in the Sully wing at the far eastern end of the complex, with the second floor above it identified by the museum as having structural issues.

Louvre chief Des Cars admits ‘terrible failure’ at museum during jewel heist

The area is currently used as office space and the security scare was caused by “recent and unpredictable developments,” the museum said.

The 65 people who usually work there are being relocated while further investigations take place.

“During these investigations, the Campana Gallery … will be closed to the public as a precautionary measure,” the statement said.

A spokeswoman told AFP the gallery had been closed on Monday but that its priceless exhibits – thousands of vases, cups and various containers – would not be moved for the time being.

For François Chatillon, chief architect of historical monuments in charge of the Louvre Palace, the Louvre is a victim of its own success. “This creates needs, and there’s nothing more normal than maintaining it and carrying out work all the time,” he told public broadcaster Franceinfo on Tuesday.

Chatillon says that other parts of the museum are also at risk of closing due to renovations. “All the parts that did not undergo significant renovations in the 1980s are nearing the end of their lifespan – it is absolutely essential to address them in the coming decade,” he added.

Royal jewels still at large

The whole museum was closed for three days following the robbery on 19 October.

The window broken by the thieves, which is visible from the pavement outside and the river Seine, has since become a tourist attraction.

Could Mona Lisa move into a private suite at Le Louvre?

Four people have been charged over the embarrassing heist, including the two men believed to have broken in, according to prosecutors.

They are believed to be small-time criminals who left a long trail of DNA evidence and dropped some of their bounty, notably a diamond- and emerald-studded crown that once belonged to Empress Eugenie.

Authorities have so far not recovered the stolen jewels.

(with AFP)

Greenpeace published video that it said its activists shot on Saturday of around 10 containers with radioactive labels going onto a cargo ship in Dunkirk.

The Panamanian-registered ship, the Mikhail Dudin, is regularly used to carry enriched or natural uranium from France to St Petersburg, according to Greenpeace.

Saturday’s consignment was the first of reprocessed uranium to be observed for three years, it added.

“The resumption of this trade once again shows France’s dependence on Russia,” Pauline Boyer, the head of Greenpeace France’s nuclear campaign, told RFI.

The images released by Greenpeace came two days ahead of a meeting in Paris between the French president, Emmanuel Macron and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to discuss Ukraine’s air defence systems.

“Despite the French government’s commitments to support Ukraine — which is, fortunately, the case — on the other hand, there is ongoing collaboration with Rosatom, the Russian nuclear company, which is indirectly contributing to the financing of the war.”

Rosatom has occupied the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant for more than three and a half years.

“It has made itself complicit in crimes committed with the Russian army against the nuclear plant’s employees,” Boyer added.

“It is outrageous that French nuclear companies — EDF, Orano, Framatome — continue to collaborate with Rosatom.” 

Greenpeace cries scandal as France continues to import Russian uranium

French state-controlled energy giant Electricité de France (EDF) signed a 600-million-euro deal in 2018 with a Rosatom subsidiary, Tenex, for the recycling of reprocessed uranium.

These operations have not been affected by international sanctions over the Ukraine war.

Rosatom has the only facility in the world – at Seversk in Siberia – capable of carrying out key parts of the conversion of reprocessed uranium to enriched reprocessed uranium.

Uranium can be reprocessed so it can be reenriched and reused. With uranium prices rising again on international markets, it is increasingly worthwhile for power companies to seek reprocessing of spent fuel.

Only about 10 percent of the reenriched uranium sent back to France by Russia is used at its Cruas nuclear power plant, in southern France, the only one in the country that can use enriched reprocessed uranium, according to Greenpeace.   

Macron hopes trip to former Soviet states will secure uranium, counter Russia

France’s energy ministry and EDF have yet to respond publicly to questions on the consignment or trade.

Top politicians in France ordered EDF chiefs to halt uranium trade with Rosatom in 2022 when Greenpeace France revealed the contracts in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

France said in March 2024 that it was considering the possibility of building its own conversion facility to produce enriched reprocessed uranium.

There were 13 votes in favor of the text, which US President Donald Trump claimed would lead to “further Peace all over the World,” with only Russia and China abstaining – but no vetoes.

US ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said after the vote that “today’s resolution represents another significant step that will enable Gaza to prosper and an environment that will allow Israel to live in security.”

But Hamas, which is excluded by the resolution from any governance role in Gaza, said the resolution did not meet Palestinians’ “political and humanitarian demands and rights.”

The text, which was revised several times as a result of high-stakes negotiations, “endorses” the US president’s plan, which allowed for a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to take hold on 10 October in the war-wracked Palestinian territory.

‘Post-apocalyptic wasteland’: aid worker describes enduring horror in Gaza

The Gaza Strip has been largely reduced to rubble after two years of fighting, sparked by Hamas‘s attack on Israel on 7 October, 2023.

The peace plan authorises the creation of an International Stabilization Force (ISF) that would work with Israel and Egypt and newly trained Palestinian police to help secure border areas and demilitarize the Gaza Strip.

The ISF is mandated to work on the “permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups,” protecting civilians and securing humanitarian aid corridors.

It also authorizes the formation of a “Board of Peace,” a transitional governing body for Gaza – which Trump would theoretically chair – with a mandate running until the end of 2027.

Future Palestinian state

In convoluted language, the resolution does mention a possible future Palestinian state.

Once the Palestinian Authority has carried out requested reforms and the rebuilding of Gaza is underway, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood,” the text says.

That eventuality has been firmly rejected by Israel.

The resolution also calls for the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries at scale through the UN, ICRC and Red Crescent.

“We must also substantially step up our work to support the UN humanitarian effort. That requires opening all crossings and ensuring that aid agencies and international NGOs can operate without obstruction,” said a British ambassador to the UN, James Kariuki.

Israeli ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said ahead of the vote that the resolution would “make sure that Hamas will not pose a threat against Israel anymore.”

Turkey ready to help rebuild Gaza, but tensions with Israel could be a barrier

Veto-wielding Russia circulated a competing draft, saying the US document does not go far enough towards backing the creation of a Palestinian state.

Moscow’s text, seen by French news agency AFP, asked the Council to express its “unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-state solution.”

It would not have authorised a Board of Peace or the deployment of an international force for the time being, instead asking UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to offer “options” on those issues.

“Security Council members were, in practice, not given the time to do the work in good faith,” Moscow’s ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said.

“The US document is yet another pig in a poke. In essence, the Council is giving its blessing to a US initiative on the basis of Washington’s promises, giving complete control over the Gaza strip to the Board of Peace.”

The US won the backing of several Arab and Muslim-majority nations, publishing a joint statement of support for the text signed by Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jordan, and Turkey.

(with AFP)

One of the biggest flashpoints is a new global checklist for adaptation – a set of measures showing whether countries are helping communities cope with climate impacts.

African, Latin American and Arab negotiators are blocking approval of this 100-point checklist unless rich nations commit between $120 billion and $150 billion a year for adaptation by 2030.

The existing $40 billion pledge ends this year, and wealthy states are delivering only $25 billion.

Climate Action Network (CAN), a coalition of more than 2,000 organisations, said talks now stand at a crossroads and warned that across all tracks “the implementation gap is a finance gap, and credibility will not be restored until that gap is addressed”.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened the summit by warning that climate change “is not a distant threat but a current tragedy”, and called for “a road map for humanity to overcome, in a just and planned way, its dependence on fossil fuels, reverse deforestation, and mobilise the resources needed to do so”.

Ministers now face rising pressure to deliver.

Can a global health conference on tobacco control kick butts?

Money gap

A draft text on the Global Goal on Adaptation includes an option to triple adaptation finance by 2030 to at least $120 billion a year.

CAN said this shows recognition of need but not yet agreement on delivery. It said that in talks on national adaptation plans and just transition, developing countries cannot implement their climate plans “without real, predictable, grants-based finance”.

The Loss and Damage Fund has opened its first funding requests, but with only $250 million allocated for 2025-26, critics say it is woefully under-resourced.

The Union of Concerned Scientists, a US-based science advocacy group, said the shortage of climate finance from richer nations “remains a festering source of frustration and distrust for lower-income countries”, especially on adaptation.

Brazil’s flagship Tropical Forest Forever Facility has secured $5.5 billion of its $125 billion  target. Norway has pledged $3 billion, but only if Brazil secures another $9.8 billion first.

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

Fossil fuel showdown

Ministers are under pressure to turn Lula’s roadmap vision into concrete action.

Small island states and several African delegations want stronger phase-out language for oil, gas and coal to keep the 1.5C goal alive.

Brazil is pushing for a formal fossil fuel phase-out plan, building on the 2023 Dubai deal to begin “transitioning away” from oil, gas and coal.

A coalition including France, Britain, Colombia, Denmark, Germany and Kenya supports the move, but major producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia are resisting.

More than 70 organisations have issued an open letter urging governments to create fossil-free exclusion zones in high-integrity tropical forests.

“We must put a definitive end to the encroachment of the fossil fuel industry upon high-integrity forests that act as safeguards against a runaway climate crisis”, the groups wrote.

New maps show oil and gas blocks overlapping 183 million hectares of tropical forest across the Amazon, Congo Basin and Southeast Asia.

Cities are adding their own pressure.

C40 Cities, a network of almost 100 mayors, says Cop30 needs to move from talk to action with a clear plan for a just and orderly fossil fuel phase-out. C40 member cities have already pledged to halve their fossil fuel use by 2030.

The group says Brazil’s stance is helping push that shift. “Brazil is sending a powerful signal that the world must turn commitments into action and end the fossil fuel era”, said C40’s Caterina Sarfatti.

London mayor Sadiq Khan told city leaders that “the climate wreckers want to chain us to the fossil fuels of the past”, but said the alternative is “freedom of lower bills and better health” and “the hope of a fairer, safer, cleaner, brighter, and more prosperous tomorrow”.

Nearly one million hectares burn as war ravages nature across Ukraine

Indigenous voices

Belem has seen the largest indigenous presence at any Cop, with 3,000 people including 1,000 accredited leaders. Brazil has created a People’s Circle chaired by Indigenous Minister Sonia Guajajara.

A peaceful march of up to 70,000 people moved through Belem on Saturday, including a staged funeral for coal, oil and gas.

Indigenous leaders are demanding land rights, consent-based decisions and an end to what they call “extractive violence” linked to fossil fuels and transition minerals.

“This was promised to be the indigenous Cop, yet thousands of indigenous peoples are still outside”, said Larissa Baldwin-Roberts, a Widjabul Wia-bal woman and board member of Climate Action Network International.

She said they were promised access to be heard on “what’s happening to their territories – the privatisation of their waters, the illegal mining of their land”.

Protesters twice blocked the venue in week one.

During Friday’s action, Cop President André Corrêa do Lago spoke with demonstrators for nearly an hour. A protester placed a child in his arms, and he smiled as they talked before the group dispersed.

Aya Khourshid, an Egyptian-Palestinian member of A Wisdom Keepers Delegation – a group of indigenous representatives from around the world – said the Cop so far was a testament that unfortunately “for indigenous peoples to be heard, they actually need to be disruptive”.

The Union of Concerned Scientists said the Amazon setting has pushed the link between biodiversity and climate “to the forefront”.

Senior climate scientist Astrid Caldas said indigenous and local communities “play an integral role in conservation and stewardship of the land” and that closer cooperation between climate, biodiversity and desertification agreements is “a welcome signal”.

Information integrity is also on the agenda for the first time.

The new Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change, the first Cop initiative aimed at securing accurate and reliable climate information, signals what the Union of Concerned Scientists called “unprecedented international collaboration to address pernicious disinformation”.

The group warned that big tech is amplising and monetising disinformation on a range of topics including climate change.

How Brazil’s booming coffee industry is driving deforestation

Just transition clash

Just transition has become a major political clash.

CAN said the G77+China push for a Global Mechanism for Just Transition was the standout move of week one, echoing long-running demands from civil society and trade unions for a Belem Action Mechanism.

The European Union has put forward its own proposal.

But the network said wealthy countries have pushed back hard against creating any new mechanism, arguing that existing structures are enough. It warned this reflects “denial of responsibility” and a refusal to recognise that transitions without justice are neither durable nor legitimate.

Trade and carbon markets are adding strain.

Developing countries want unilateral trade measures such as the EU’s border carbon tax examined in climate talks, while rich nations refuse outright, activists warn.

In carbon market talks under Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement, which covers global carbon trading rules, it said some states tried to weaken safeguards – putting environmental integrity and human rights at risk.

Brazil avoided an early agenda fight by moving four sensitive issues into closed presidency consultations – climate finance duties under Article 9.1, which sets out finance obligations for richer nations, EU trade measures, emissions transparency and keeping 1.5C alive.

A Sunday progress report from the presidency is expected to guide ministers this week.

UN climate chief Simon Stiell has urged countries “to give a little to get a lot” as ministers take over. 

The European Commission forecast the 20-country single currency area to grow by 1.2 percent in 2026, down from a previous forecast of 1.4 percent.

The commission also said the eurozone economy was more resilient this year despite the turmoil caused by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Output in 2025 is expected to reach 1.3 percent this year, a higher figure than that of 0.9 percent forecast in May.

But EU economy chief Valdis Dombrovskis said the bloc expected US trade policy moves and responses by “key players like China will dampen global trade”.

“The EU’s highly open economy remains susceptible to ongoing trade restrictions and uncertainty,” Dombrovskis told reporters in Brussels.

The bloc’s executive, however, noted that US trade deals with partners including the European Union “alleviated some of the uncertainties”.

EU Commission endorses Mercosur deal despite French reservations

Challenging environment

Struck in July, the deal with US President Donald Trump means EU exports face a baseline US levy of 15 percent, rather than a threatened 30 percent, which would have wrought havoc on the European economy.

The EU’s data is based on the implementation of the tariffs as agreed.

For the entire 27-country EU, Brussels expects growth of 1.4 percent in 2026, slightly lower than the 1.5 percent predicted in May.

Dombrovskis appeared upbeat despite the difficulties.

“The EU’s economy has beaten expectations in the first nine months of the year. Looking further ahead, we expect growth to continue at a moderate pace despite the challenging external environment,” Dombrovskis said.

The commission believes that the ramping up of Europe’s competitiveness paired with higher defence spending “focused on EU production” and new trade deals “could bolster economic activity more than projected”.

EU competes with Russia and China to court closer ties with India

Europe is, however, still lagging behind the United States and China.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in October predicted the US economy would grow by 2.1 percent next year.

Even though it anticipated that China’s economy would slow this year, the IMF predicted the Asian powerhouse would grow by 4.2 percent in 2026.

The IMF believes the eurozone economy will grow by 1.1 percent in 2026.

But the EU forecast for Europe offered some relief after the commission said it now expected the bloc’s biggest economy, Germany, to grow by 0.2 percent this year, instead of the stagnation it previously predicted.

It also forecast the export-driven German economy to grow by 1.2 percent next year, slightly up from the 1.1 percent past prediction.

“The positive effects of a ramp-up in public spending is partly counterbalanced by the negative impact of trade tensions, which are expected to impact exports,” the commission said of Germany.

Uncertainty in France

France, the second biggest European economy, is faring a little better, with growth of 0.7 percent expected this year and 0.9 percent in 2026.

But while the outlook for this year improved from 0.6 percent, the commission cut its growth forecast for France for 2026 from 1.3 percent.

France’s debt: how did we get here, and how dangerous is it?

“In 2026, the domestic economic and policy uncertainty is set to weigh on real GDP growth,” the commission said of France.

Brussels also said inflation in the single currency area is expected to reach 2.1 percent in 2025, within touching distance of the ECB‘s two-percent target.

The “sustained return to stable prices is good news for European consumers who had seen their purchasing power eroded by inflation in recent years”, Dombrovskis said.

It believes inflation will slow down to 1.9 percent in 2026, higher than the 1.7 percent prediction published in May.

Although Brussels said food and services price rises are slowing, this was “counterbalanced by rising energy inflation”.

(with AFP)

Some 200 corporations, small and medium enterprises and start-ups, professional federations as well as labour and employer organisations gathered in Paris on Monday for the government-organised “Choose France” summit.

The event is modelled on President Emmanuel Macron’s annual meeting with international corporate leaders, held in May.

The €9.2 billion announced Monday adds to €21.2 billion flagged over the past year, bringing the total to €30.4 billion for 150 projects, the Economy Ministry said.

Ahead of the summit, Opcore, a subsidiary of the Iliad (Free) group co-owned by the Infravia fund, announced it will invest nearly €4 billion in a data centre in Seine-et-Marne region just outside Paris on the site of a former EDF power plant.

With a capacity of “several hundred megawatts,” the new data centre will be expected to provide the computing power required for the development of artificial intelligence.

Economy Minister Roland Lescure also cited the example of Thésée, a data centre in the Yvelines region, to the south-west of Paris  that will add €60 million to increase capacity.

Before attending the event, Lescure and the Industry Minister Sébastien Martin visited a L’Oréal site in Gauchy, 170km north of Paris where bosses at the beauty products company announced on Monday a €60 million-investment in its luxury perfume factory.

EU flags stronger partnership with South Africa with €4.7bn investment

Political tension

In the lead up to the event, business leaders condemned lower-house votes to hike business taxes in the 2026 budget to plug France’s gaping deficit rather than cutting spending – the highest among developed economies.

They also criticised the suspension of a controversial pension reform which Patrick Martin, head of the bosses’ union, Medef, described in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper as a “fatal mistake.”

He added: “This postponement is the original sin. It is heresy – not only in terms of public finances – but also economically.

“The suspension will further worsen the employment rate in France, which is one of our main problems.

“It is also a social mistake because inevitably it will weigh on taxpayers,” added Martin. 

Macron announces €109 bn investments in AI as leaders, tech giants meet in Paris

Despite such misgivings about the state of the economy, executives from firms in the energy sector, agrifood, health, chemicals and aerospace were in attendance.

“Strategic” sectors were present, including the ecological and energy transition, artificial intelligence, and digital technology.

Event organisers made a point of highlighting signifcant announcements from pharmaceutical giant Sanofi and the aerospace and defence supplier Safran.

Pharmaceutical push

Sanofi plan a €700-million investment package over 2025 – 2026 for ongoing and future projects.

Meanwhile Safran said it will invest around €450 million in the construction of a carbon-brake factory in the Ain department of south-eastern France.

Lescure also said that Opella, which produces paracetamol medicine Doliprane, will significantly increase production.

“We currently produce 450 million boxes of Doliprane in France,” he told journalists. Following expanded production in Lisieux and Compiègne in northern France, the figure will rise to 600 million boxes.

Despite recurring turmoil, France’s economy grew a faster-than-expected 0.5 percent in the third quarter, outpacing Germany and Italy thanks to surging exports and stronger investment.

(with newswires)

PSG told a labour tribunal in Paris that they want €180 million from their former striker in compensation for his refusal to go to the Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal.

The outfit had offered to pay €300 million for Mbappé’s services in July 2023.

Mbappé, 26, claims PSG owe him €240 million for the reclassification of his short-term contracts into a permanent contract and over the poor way the club treated him when he said he wanted to leave as a free agent at the end of his deal.

The Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP)  – which runs the top two divisions in France – ordered PSG in September 2024 to pay Mbappé €55 million in salary and bonuses he said he should have received when he quit the French capital for Real Madrid.

PSG said they did not owe him that sum. They say that Mbappé verbally agreed to renounce the payments owed to him at the end of his contract when he was drafted back into the first team at the start of the 2023-24 season. Mbappé has rejected the claim.

New kit brightens up PSG’s Champions League woes and Mbappé’s farewell

The forward had been excluded from the squad after announcing he did not want to sign an extension and  intended to see out his contract in the summer of 2024. 

Mbappé was eventually reinstated after the start of the season 2023/2024 season and his goals helped new boss Luis Enrique to win a treble of Ligue 1 title, French Super Cup, and Coupe de France.

Mbappé joined PSG in July 2017 and seemed poised to join Madrid during the summer of 2022 as a free agent.

But the French President Emmanuel Macron encouraged him to stay at PSG and Mbappé stunned the Madrid hierarchy by signing a two-year deal in May 2022 with the option of a third year.

“I’m going to remain in my hometown and do what I like doing … playing football and winning more trophies,” said Mbappé as his contract extension was announced to a delirious horde of PSG fans before the game against Metz at the Parc des Princes. 

Failure

But even with Neymar and Lionel Messi, PSG failed to make any inroads in the 2023/2024 Champions League and the call of Madrid resurfaced.

In August 2023, Mbappé said he would not take up the contract’s option of a further year and leave as a free agent in June 2024.

Outraged, the PSG hierarchy told Enrique to go on a pre-season tour of Japan and South Korea without their star striker.

During his seven years in the capital, Mbappé harvested 15 medals including six Ligue 1 titles. He became PSG’s record scorer with 256 goals in 308 games and the marksmanship helped him to a plethora of awards: he was named Ligue 1 Player of the Season a record five consecutive times and he claimed the Ligue 1 “Golden Boot”  from 2019 to 2024.

PSG swept the board following Mbappé’s move.

Enrique retained all three domestic trophies and they humiliated Inter Milan 5-0 to brandish the Champions League trophy for the first time.

PSG and Enrique took the team of the year and coach of the year awards respectively at the Ballon d’Or ceremony in Paris in September. 

PSG striker Ousmane Dembélé won the individual prize for his performances in their surge to the silverware.

Some 1,400 delegates representing governments, international organisations and civil society will converge in Switzerland for the 11th conference of the parties to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) from 17 to 22 November.

To date a total of 183 parties have joined the convention since it came into force 20 years ago, representing more than 90 percent of the world’s population.

The landmark treaty has brought in a package of tobacco control measures, including picture warnings on cigarette packets, smoke-free laws and increased taxes.

This week’s conference will take decisions that will set the trajectory of the global tobacco epidemic for future generations, said Andrew Black, acting head of the secretariat of the FCTC. He said more than seven million deaths a year were down to tobacco – an “entirely preventable” body count.

One of the key concerns is addressing the pollution caused by huge quantities of cigarette butts discarded around the globe.

A ban on butts?

Plastic cigarette filters are the world’s most littered item, leaching toxic chemicals into the environment and breaking down into microplastics – while doing very little for the smoker, health experts say.

Black believes “the best thing that we could see for the environment is getting rid of filters altogether”.

“An estimated 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered each year worldwide, making them the most common form of litter on the planet,” he told reporters last week.

The US-based non-profit Ocean Conservancy says it had collected more than 63 million cigarette butts worldwide since 1986, a huge number of them in Europe.

Rudiger Krech, the WHO’s environment and climate change chief, said it was “high time to ban those plastics”, which commonly end up in water systems and are contaminated with nicotine, chemicals and heavy metals.

Ultimately, it will be down to individual countries whether to declare a ban or any other measures.

Ocean campaigners hail French move to snuff out cigarette butt pollution

Millions of teen vapers

Another major agenda item is the “aggressive marketing” of tobacco products, as well as widespread concerns about the numbers of children being lured into addiction via new tobacco products.

The WHO wants comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, including for electronic cigarettes and nicotine pouches.

According to the organisation’s first global estimate of e-cigarette use, more than 100 million people are vaping, including at least 15 million teens aged 13 to 15.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned: “Although e-cigarettes are often promoted as safer alternatives to conventional tobacco products, there is no evidence of their net benefit for public health – but mounting evidence of their harm.”

Benn McGrady, head of the WHO’s public health law and policies unit, said the tobacco industry was “lobbying like crazy” and “trying to sow division”.

He said their new products were being marketed as consumer products of harm reduction, but in fact bore characteristics that are “specifically attractive to children”, such as bright colours, sweet flavours and social media campaigns.

In February this year, France became the second European country – after Belgium – to ban the sale of disposable e-cigarettes known as “puffs”. 

Health authorities in France and Belgium say that chronic nicotine consumption is especially harmful to the adolescent brain and could encourage use of other drugs.

France becomes second European country to ban disposable e-cigarettes

Tobacco-free generation?

France also decided to ban nicotine pouches, sachets, balls and gum. Denounced for their toxicity and addictive nature, particularly for children and adolescents, they will be banned in France from March 2026.

The European Union aims to achieve a tobacco-free generation by 2040, reducing the 27-country bloc’s smoking population from around 25 percent now to less than five percent of the total.

According to the WHO, tobacco use in the EU is gradually declining, but every year it continues to kill more than half a million people. Of these, almost 80,000 die from exposure to secondhand smoke.

Polish tobacco producers protest as EU weighs up cutting funding to farms

A second meeting will take place in Geneva from 24 to 26 November, to examine a range of measures aimed at eliminating the illicit trade in tobacco products. 

This trade accounts for an estimated 11 percent of the global tobacco market, and costs governments over $47 billion in lost tax revenues annually. It has also been linked to corruption and organised crime.

Armed with thermal-imaging binoculars, beekeepers in Alsace have taken to tracking insects with forensic zeal.

Their target is the Asian hornet, an invasive predator whose numbers have surged across the region over the past two years, wreaking havoc on local bee populations.

“For me, nest-hunting has become part of the job. If I want to keep beekeeping, I don’t have a choice,” says Mathieu Diffort, who runs around 100 hives in the rural Sundgau, near the Swiss border.

Diffort and his business partner, Philippe Sieffert of the Api&Co bee and enviromantal protection company, spend much of their season in the painstaking business of locating and destroying hornet nests.

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Public reports

The yellow-legged hornet first arrived in France in 2004, but only reached the Haut-Rhin in 2023. It is now firmly entrenched, warns Sean Durkin, the local representative of the Bee Health Defence Group (GDSA), which is scrambling to contain the spread.

Between 15 and 20 nests were reported in the department in 2023, then around 100 the following year, and “this year we will exceed 400,” he said. The number of hives attacked or decimated has soared.

GDSA volunteers are stepping up their communication efforts, urging the public to report any nests they spot in the wild via the website lefrelon.com.

When a nest is reported, a specialist is dispatched to destroy it using a drone, a basket or a pole.

On a November morning, Diffort’s target is perched at the top of an oak tree, 25 metres above the ground. Dressed in thick protective clothing, he uses a telescopic pole to inject organic insecticide powder into the enormous oval concretion.

‘Bees starving’ in disastrous year for French honey

Public health issue

Local authorities “must set aside a budget” for this kind of intervention, because “the phenomenon is set to grow,” says Olivier Pflieger, deputy mayor of Hirtzbach.

“It’s a problem for beekeeping, but also for public health,” he added. His sister died last year from allergic shock after being stung by a hornet.

In Hirtzbach, a nest was spotted by a former forest ranger. “I had walked past it 20 times and hadn’t seen it,” says Marion Federspiel. One of her six hives, located around 200 metres away, was completely destroyed.

Some colonies can settle in abandoned barns, where she worries no one will notice them.

Diffort first tries to time the insects’ movements, then after being captured with bait, a hornet is marked with a coloured pen and released. The time it takes to return allows him to estimate the distance to its nest. Repeated at least three times, the method can yield a fairly precise location.

Another tactic is to scan the treetops with thermal-imaging binoculars, which help him spot nests from afar thanks to the heat – of around 30 degrees – they emit.

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‘We have to live with it’

He is also testing a high-tech approach: attaching a tiny transmitter to the back of a hornet, anaesthetised with CO², so he can track its movements using a rake antenna connected to a smartphone.

The challenge is to find the nest in under three hours, before the transmitter’s battery runs out.

For now, the method is still unreliable and, crucially, expensive – especially as the transmitter can’t always be retrieved.

In this costly and time-consuming endeavour, Diffort admits he feels “a little lonely” and would welcome more funding for research. He stresses that the future of beekeeping and biodiversity is at stake, as well as food security, since bees are vital for pollination.

“We’re working with bits of string, with derisory resources,” Durkin says. The Asian hornet “can’t be eradicated now, so we have to live with it – and try to limit its proliferation as much as possible”.

(with newswires)

The row is the latest controversy over the legacy of Petain, a World War I hero disgraced for his collaboration with the Nazis.

Xavier Delarue, the government prefect of Meuse department in eastern France, said he would take action over comments made following a mass for Petain organised by an association dedicated to restoring his reputation.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez also condemned the comments.

The Association to Defend the Memory of Marshal Petain (ADMP) organised a mass Saturday at the church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Verdun, where Petain won a famous WWI battle in 1916.

Around 20 association members attended, while outside about 100 people, watched by police, gathered to protest the ceremony.

After the mass ADMP president Jacques Boncompain told journalists that Petain had been “the first resistant of France”.

Boncompain also said Petain’s post-war conviction for treason by a High Court of Justice had not been a fair one.

Delarue, announcing his legal action, said the comments had been “clearly revisionist”.

Nunez, in a post on X, said: “The remarks made today on the sidelines of a mass in ‘tribute’ to Philippe Petain in Verdun go against our collective memory.”

The minister condemned any attempt to rehabilitate someone linked to WWII collaboration and oppression.

‘Deeply hurt’

The ceremony in tribute to Petain came just days after France’s Armistice Day on November 11, the day WWI ended, when the nation remembers those who fought and died in the conflict.

Verdun’s mayor, Samuel Hazard, had tried to ban the pro-Petain ceremony, but was overruled by an administrative court ruling on Friday.

“I’m deeply hurt, because I think of all the victims of Nazi barbarism and… Marshal Petain’s ideology,” he said after Saturday’s ceremony.

Petain’s admirers stress the role he played as a general in World War I. He is widely seen as the architect of France’s victory over German forces at Verdun, the longest battle of the war.

But he only avoided the death penalty after being convicted at the end of WWII for leading France’s collaborationist Vichy government because of his advanced age.

Petain died in 1951, six years into his life sentence in exile on the Atlantic island of Yeu.

(With newswires)

As bilateral relations deteriorate, Israel is stepping up defence cooperation with Turkey’s rivals, Greece and the Republic of Cyprus. Turkey has ongoing territorial disputes with both – over maritime and airspace rights in the Aegean Sea, and the division of Cyprus following Turkey’s 1974 invasion of the island. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the north of the island is recognised only by Turkey.

Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli claims Israel’s deepening partnerships with Athens and Nicosia is aimed at countering the growing threat posed by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“The doctrine of Erdogan is extremely dangerous. It’s extremely dangerous for Israel, and we see Erdogan’s Turkey as the new Iran, nothing less. It’s very dangerous for Cyprus and it’s very dangerous for Greece,” said Chikli.

This month, Israeli and Greek warships held joint military exercises in the Eastern Mediterranean. The drill followed similar exercises by the country’s air forces.

While Ankara played a key role in bringing about a ceasefire in the Gaza war, tensions have continued.

“We saw Turkey issuing arrest warrants against 37 high-level Israelis, but I think it also relates to the fact that the ceasefire is fragile. We are not entirely sure we are moving in a positive direction,” said Gallia Lindenstrauss, an Israeli foreign policy specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

Turkey ready to help rebuild Gaza, but tensions with Israel could be a barrier

Defence talks

However, Lindenstrauss claims the Gaza ceasefire has opened the door to an acceleration in deepening cooperation with Greece.

“We see the ceasefire is definitely seen as the green light to proceed in cooperation. We see defence deals… serious defence deals are being discussed,” she added.

Israeli ministers visited Athens this month for defence talks. Israel has already sold Greece and Cyprus some of its most sophisticated weapons systems, causing alarm in Ankara.

“We see an alignment of the Greek, Greek Cypriot [sic] and Israeli navies. One cannot deny the risk that this will embolden them [Greece and Cyprus]… with Israeli support,” said international relations professor Serhat Guvenc, of Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.

Cyprus could become an increasingly focal point for Turkish-Israeli rivalries, given its strategic location. The United Kingdom has two military bases on the island, with the United States having a presence on these. Turkey, meanwhile, has an air base in the soi-disant Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

“The island is like a static aircraft carrier; it can dominate the whole of the Middle East and Turkey as well,” warns former Erdogan advisor Ilnur Cevik, who is now a journalist.

“A fighter plane that lifts off from Cyprus can get to Ankara in 15 minutes maximum. Turkey wants the island to be a security zone for itself. Plus, the Turks have even thought about setting up a new naval and airbase.”

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

Turkey’s recent purchases of Eurofighter jets, along with a missile development programme encompassing hypersonic and ballistic capabilities, are also fuelling Israeli concerns.

“It’s not clear why a status quo actor should have such a missile programme,” said Israeli analyst Lindenstrauss.

“For example, Israel doesn’t have a missile programme despite the many threats it faces. I think middle and long-range missiles do suggest this is something more related to offensive intentions… I think all actors that have tense relations with Turkey are watching these developments,” she added. 

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

US influence

US Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack sought to downplay tensions, dismissing any threat of conflict between Turkey and Israel.

“Turkey and Israel will not be at war with each other. In my opinion, it’s not going to happen. And you are going to get alignment from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean,” he said, speaking at the International Institute for Strategic Studies Manama Dialogue, a Middle East security forum, on 1 November. 

US President Donald Trump, who retains powerful influence over both governments, regional analysts suggest, could play a key role in managing, if not resolving tensions, given his goal of bringing peace and stability to the region.

“[Washington] are very concerned. This is a topic that gets a lot of people’s attention. The United States has certainly been trying to mediate and sort of bring tensions down,” said Asli Aydintasbas of the Washington-based Brookings Institution think tank.

Guvenc doesn’t rule out a reset in regional relations, but warns that for now the region remains in the grip of an escalating arms race, fuelilng further mistrust and the risky strategy of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend”.

“We have partnerships – alliances of convenience, pragmatic, tactically motivated alliances – but you never know. I mean, Turkey and Israel may mend fences, and this may create a totally different strategic, regional geopolitics than the one we are talking about today. So everything is in flux, and the balances and the alliances may shift in a very short time.”

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.

Historian Lisa Waller Rogers, whom you’ll hear from today, has just published a book about the long fight to end slavery in the United States. Called When People Were Things: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln and The Emancipation Proclamation, it is published by Barrel Cactus Press. I hope you can find it where you live. You might also look for Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, the novel that put the spotlight on what slavery really was. 

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!

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. 

Tanzanians were called to the polls on 29 October, but instead of a free and fair election, they were met with severe repression. Demonstrations have been banned, protesters arrested, and members of the opposition detained.

Tanzania’s authorities have also charged more than 200 people with treason — an offence that carries the death penalty.

The incumbent president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, was eventually declared the winner of the election with 98 percent of the vote. However, the opposition – which had been barred from participating – condemned the results as fraudulent.

To explore the deep-rooted causes of this repression, and to consider how the situation could shape the political future not only of Tanzania but of the entire East African region, we are joined by a special guest: Prince Charles Dickson, a Nigerian peace and policy analyst with a PhD from Georgetown University and decades of experience in public policy and development practice.

Films from Africa

The cinema festival Film Africa 2025 (14–23 November 2025) opens in London, UK. To mark the event we have Stella Okuzu, interim director of the festival, with us to explain what’s happening.

Meanwhile in France, the Festival du Cinéma Franco-Arabe de Noisy-le-Sec is coming to an end just outside Paris (7–13 November). The festival has placed a special focus on Tunisian cinema. Mathilde Rouxel, its cultural director and programmer, tells us more.

Sudan’s blind football team success

Also this week we take a look at South Sudan’s blind football team which recently played its first major match in Kampala, Uganda, thanks to the help and support of the charity Light For The World. And they won! 

We have their coach and players on the line to tell us how football changed their life and why it is so important for people with visual impairment.

Angélique Kidjo and La Chica de Favela

Finally, “La Chica de Favela” is an initiative from ‘Beyond Music’, a song featuring a Congolese man, a Latin American, a Swiss citizen, and a Beninese woman, Angélique Kidjo.

“The African continent is predominant on this song”, Angélique told Spotlight on Africa, “and it tells a story through this song.”

It tells the story of a young girl in a favela “who doesn’t want to be defined by her gender”. She is free and independent. “In a patriarchal world that doesn’t necessarily give women much space,” Angélique told us. “And that’s what made the subject interesting to me.”

Episode mixed by Melissa Chemam and Erwan Rome.

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

“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. 

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.