The French charity Sidaction, which works on HIV prevention and support, said the rise in what it calls harmful messages of male domination, sexism and sexual violence carries dangerous consequences for prevention and sexual health.

In a statement this week, Sidaction said the issue is not only the content itself but also the way platforms amplify it through algorithms that favour sensationalist formats and boost posts built on provocation and shock.

To push back, the NGO has taken a creative tack. It has seeded TikTok with a series of viral-style videos that imitate the swaggering codes of so-called “alpha” influencers, aiming to reintroduce messages of prevention, respect and reliable information directly into young men’s feeds.

The campaign – entitled “Alpha Safe: when toxic masculinity goes viral, setting the record straight becomes vital” – was launched alongside a new OpinionWay poll that underscores just how widely masculinist ideas are circulating.

Stamping out misinformation in France’s fight against HIV-Aids

Dangers of ‘stealthing’

According to the survey, more than one in three young men aged 16 to 34 – 37 percent – consume masculinist content on social media.

Among those aged 25 to 34 who are familiar with the influencers pushing these ideas, one in two believe their content “finally tells the truth”.

More than half of respondents feel that men are too often accused of exaggerated or false sexual violence, while just over 50 percent say it remains important to be “manly”.

Florence Thune, Sidaction’s director, has warned that such beliefs “increase risk taking” and “deeply destabilise the culture of consent, which is central to the fight against HIV”.

One of the clearest signs of that shift comes from attitudes towards “stealthing” – the non-consensual removal of a condom during sex.

France changes criminal code to define rape as sex without consent

Nearly one in five men aged 25 to 34 say they “understand” the practice – a figure which rises to one in three among those who subscribe to masculinist theories.

Stealthing became a political flashpoint in France during a vote at the end of October on a law incorporating non-consent into the criminal definition of rape. A proposed amendment seeking to create a specific offence for stealthing was rejected by the National Assembly.

Sidaction argues that tackling toxic online content is part of a broader, urgent need to strengthen education on emotional, relational and sexual life – known in France as EVARS – particularly in light of a 10-year surge in HIV diagnoses among 15 to 24-year-olds.

Together with Planning Familial and SOS Homophobie, the organisation has taken the Paris Administrative Court to task for failing to enforce the 2001 law requiring three annual sex education sessions from primary through secondary school. A ruling is expected on Tuesday.

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

Funding in decline

This comes as France’s National Council on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis (CNS) calls for an “urgent remobilisation of public authorities”, warning that declining public funding at home and abroad is putting four decades of progress at risk.

With major donors – including the United States and France – scaling back contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the CNS says HIV programmes worldwide are under threat.

The lack of a French pledge at the recent Global Fund summit in November, as well as President Emmanuel Macron’s absence from the Johannesburg event, has drawn criticism from organisations including Sidaction and Aides.

The CNS notes that this comes at a time when medical innovations such as long-acting injectable PrEP could help accelerate prevention and support the goal of ending the pandemic by 2030.

(with newswires)

Japan has seen the starkest rise in attacks. Seven people were killed in October and authorities counted 88 incidents that month. With 13 deaths so far this year, the country has reported its highest number of bear-related fatalities on record.

In the country’s northern Akita province, officials have called in the army in an attempt to manage the situation.

“It is surprising. Attacks happen from time to time in Japan, but it is getting worse lately. What also surprises us is that we do not know all the factors behind this rise in attacks,” David Garshelis, vice president of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Bear Specialist Group, told RFI.

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Spike in Central Europe

Across Europe, scientists who track large predators say bears are appearing more often in places where they were once rarely seen.

“It’s happening in Slovakia, in Romania, in Slovenia too… and in Greece as well, where there are practically no attacks on humans but bears still come into villages,” said Djuro Huber, an emeritus professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Zagreb, Croatia.

After several attacks in 2024, the Slovakian government declared a state of emergency across two thirds of the country. The environment minister said encounters between people and bears jumped from 650 in 2020 to 1,900 in 2024.

This rise has reshaped long-held assumptions about how often people and bears meet. Bear attacks remain rare but have increased from “less than two a year from 1999-2003” to “nearly 11 a year since 2021”, explained Robin Rigg, president of the Slovak Wildlife Society.

Human behaviour

The pattern reflects a simple link: the more encounters, the higher the risk. And encounters increase when outdoor activities expand into places where bears live.

“We see, for example, more human presence in bear zones. And with activities that carry high risks, like going jogging in a bear zone or taking selfies with bears,” said Guillaume Chapron, a French carnivore expert at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Unfortunately, this kind of situation can end badly.”

Stronger bear populations are not the main reason behind the trend – and are actually a conservation success, Chapron added. “We can say it is a success for nature conservation. We see the same with wolves and lynx in Europe.”

Experts stress that most bears try to avoid people and usually react only when startled or threatened.

“When a bear attacks a person, the most common reason is fear. But it does not attack to kill you, even less to eat you,” Huber said. “A common example is when a mother wants to protect her cubs.”

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Bears near homes

What worries many experts is how close bears are now getting to people’s homes.

In Japan, they have been spotted in village streets and even inside a supermarket. Some link the change to rural areas losing residents, leaving space that wildlife quickly fills.

“Humans leave what is considered suitable habitat by bears, so bears settle there and the small remaining rural population finds itself facing a high number of bears,” said Garshelis.

Waste left in the open is also drawing bears into towns.

“It is because of people who do not dispose of their waste properly. All the countries that have bears in the Americas understood this a long time ago, but we are still discovering it,” Huber said.

Even small changes to farming can alter bear behaviour. In northern India, in the Himalayas, farmers switching from growing potatoes to lettuce “was enough to attract bears”, Garshelis added.

Bear trouble spreads in the French Pyrénées: Pt.1

Climate change impact

Scientists say warming temperatures are likely to be playing a role too.

“We can expect shorter hibernation periods, which could also lead to more human-bear interactions… even loss of natural habitat for bears that could have a negative impact on their behaviour,” said Rigg.

Researchers have yet to determine exactly how warming temperatures are reshaping bear habits, but early signs point to real shifts.

“We still do not understand very well how this affects bears,” Garshelis said, noting that changes are already visible in some regions. In the Himalayas, for example, Asian black bears are now appearing in areas that previously offered unsuitable altitude and climate.

In Uttarakhand in northern India, five people have been killed this year by Asian black bears, The Indian Express reported. State officials linked the rise in attacks to changes in bear behaviour tied to warmer temperatures, food shortages, poor waste management and damage to habitat.

An unnamed wildlife official in the town of Badrinath told the newspaper that the animals are also delaying hibernation. “Usually, the bears leave in early November, but this year they have raided crops, attacked humans and eaten their livestock,” he said.

Japan shows similar signs of change. Successive storms have damaged vegetation and reduced food supplies, with beech nuts hit especially hard. Japanese experts had warned in 2023 that food shortages were pushing bears towards towns ahead of hibernation.

Rising bear numbers in French Pyrenees mask long-term fears for species’ survival

However, despite the global rise in attacks, experts emphasise that the overall danger to people remains low. “In general, you are more likely to be struck by lightning,” Chapron said.

The IUCN Red List classifies six of the eight bear species as vulnerable, with only the brown bear and the American black bear considered of lesser concern.

This article was adapted from the original version in French by Léo Roussel.

More than 50 people died in the floods, thousands more were displaced – and an agricultural landscape a generation in the making was washed away in a single night.

Eighteen months later, the pain and uncertainty have not receded.

Forty minutes away in Naivasha, Grace, a small-scale farmer, mother of three and lifelong resident, stands on what remains of her farmland.

Where vegetables once grew, stagnant brown pools shimmer as the returning rains pour down. The foundations of her house lie broken, like a shattered clay pot. She wraps a torn shawl around her shoulders and looks to the sky as if for an answer.

“The flood took our goats, our seeds, even our soil,” she said, exhausted. “We are starting from nothing again.”

She is not alone in this. Across the Naivasha basin, families returned to plots that are no longer viable. Their wells are contaminated. Their cattle have died. Their savings were spent trying to survive. And now, as the rains return, the nightmare threatens to repeat itself.

‘Seasons are breaking down’

It is here that Dr Kamau, a climate scientist based in Naivasha, spends his days tracking shifting weather patterns.

His office is cluttered with satellite printouts and rainfall charts, and his boots still caked in mud. When he explains the changes he’s seeing, he barely looks at the papers – he knows the numbers by heart.

“We are witnessing climate whiplash,” he says. “Drought one year, floods the next. The seasons that once defined East African life are breaking down. Communities can’t adapt fast enough.”

For farmers like Grace, adaptation requires more than patience – it takes money, government support and time, and none are in ready supply.

Africa Climate Summit puts financing and resilience under the spotlight

Climate refugees

Whilst Kenya is drowning, across the border Somalia is cracking under the pressure of drought.

In Dadaab, dusty winds whip across a refugee settlement that has grown into a city in its own right. Thousands of Somali families have arrived here, fleeing not conflict but the effects of the drought.

Among them is 53-year-old Fadumo, a mother of eight from central Somalia who once owned 20 goats and a small sorghum plot.

Rich nations pledge $250bn for climate aid, but Africa demands more

But year after year, the rains didn’t come. Crops failed. Wells dried up. When her children were surviving on a single cup of tea a day, Grace did the only thing she could – she left.

“I walked for days to find water,” she says, sitting outside the temporary shelter that is now her home. “We hoped the rain would come back. But it never did.”

Her story is echoed across the Horn of Africa. Somalia has experienced its longest and most intense drought in 40 years. Humanitarian agencies also report that millions go hungry, and hundreds of thousands are displaced.

‘Paying the price’

In Kenya, Dr Kamau shakes his head when asked whether these crises can be considered natural disasters.

“Floods and droughts have always existed,” he says. “But the scale, frequency and erratic swings we’re seeing now are climate-driven. And the people paying the price are the ones who did almost nothing to cause this problem.”

East Africa accounts for less than 3 percent of global emissions, but its communities are losing livelihoods, homes and sometimes their lives.

As world leaders prepare to gather in Nairobi from 8-12 December for the seventh United Nations Environment Assembly, many in the region are asking the same question: what does climate justice look like when those who so the least to cause it suffer the most?

Gehry’s representative Meaghan Lloyd told French news agency AFP that he died early Friday at his home in Santa Monica following a brief respiratory illness.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed Gehry’s “unmistakable vision.”

Gehry was perhaps the biggest of the so-called “starchitects” – an elite group that includes Renzo Piano, Rem Koolhaas, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid and others – and enjoyed his fame, but absolutely hated the label.

“There are people who design buildings that are not technically and financially good, and there are those who do,” he told The Independent in 2009. “Two categories, simple.”

His artistic genius and boldness shone through in his complex designs – such as the glass “sails” of the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.

He popularised contemporary architecture, and became such a sensation that he was featured on The Simpsons – all while insisting he was a simple maker of buildings.

“I work with clients who respect the art of architecture,” he said in 2014, according to his biographer Paul Goldberger.

Many of his buildings – irregularly-shaped metal facades that can look like crumpled paper – could only be realised with the help of computer design tools, which he fully embraced.

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Pushing the limits

For a period, architects avoided the use of rounded or curved shapes as they caused headaches for engineers and led to spiralling construction costs.

Gehry pushed back, using 3D modelling software similar to that used by aerospace firms to create unique building shapes while keeping costs in line with what developers would pay for a more conventional building of similar dimensions.

The Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas – its walls and windows appearing to have melted under the hot desert sun – is a classic example of Gehry’s groundbreaking vision.

“I love working. I love working things out,” he told The Guardian in 2019.

Arguably one of his most iconic designs is the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, which earned him international acclaim and notice.

The limestone and glass building with curvy walls clad in titanium scales is instantly recognisable as a Gehry design, and was once described by his American colleague Philip Johnson as “the greatest building of our time.”

The building helped revitalise the ancient industrial heart of the Spanish city, attracting visitors from around the world and leading to the coining of the term “Bilbao effect” to explain how beautiful architecture can transform an area.

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“We will be forever grateful, and his spirit and legacy will always remain connected to Bilbao,” the museum said on social media.

Emboldened, Gehry would take even greater risks in his next projects, which included the Walt Disney Concert Hall (2003), the Beekman Tower in New York (2011), and the Fondation Louis Vuitton (2014).

LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault said he was “profoundly saddened” by Gehry’s death, calling him a “genius of lightness, transparency and grace.”

Audacious, avant-garde

Born Frank Owen Goldberg in Toronto on February 28, 1929, to a Jewish family that would move to the United States in the late 1940s, he later changed his name to Gehry to avoid becoming the target of antisemitism.

He studied architecture at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, graduating in 1954 before enlisting in the US Army and later continuing his studies in city planning at Harvard University, though he did not finish the program.

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Gehry eventually returned to Los Angeles to start his career working for Victor Gruen, a pioneer in the design of shopping malls.

He went on to work in Paris with Andrew Remondet in 1961 before returning to Los Angeles, establishing his own architectural practice the following year.

The ’70s and ’80s would mark the rollout of a long series of his most audacious and innovative architectural achievements, many of them in southern California.

Close to the avant-garde “funk” art scene in California, Gehry’s deconstructionist and experimental style – sometimes derided as crude – is hard to categorise.

His fondness for pushing the limits is maybe best reflected in his seminal reworking in 1978 of his own home in Santa Monica, where he long resided – it features corrugated metal wrapped around the original 1920s building.

Gehry received the highest architectural honor, the Pritzker Prize, in 1989.

(with AFP)

France’s national football team coach Didier Deschamps was enthusiastic as he responded to the press after the draw announcement in Washington, where France and Norway came out alongside Senegal in a tough-looking Group I.

“It will be a great duel,” Deschamps told reporters, keenly anticipating a showdown between star players Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland.

France will be looking to win a third World Cup to make up for losing the 2022 final on penalties to Argentina in Qatar.

“Both teams have lots of other big names, but of course Kylian and Haaland are two players recognised around the world and they will be two of the contenders to be the top scorer,” Deschamps said.

Mbappé has scored 30 goals in 24 games for Real Madrid and France since the beginning of this season, while Haaland has netted 33 in 24 appearances for Manchester City and Norway.

Haaland’s goals helped Norway top their qualifying group ahead of Italy as they secured a first appearance at the World Cup finals since 1998.

Group I will be completed by the winner of one of the intercontinental play-offs to take place in March, from either Iraq, Bolivia or Suriname.

First steps most difficult

A meeting with Senegal brings back memories of 2002, when France went to the tournament in Japan and South Korea as holders but lost to the west African nation in their opening match and ended up being eliminated in the group stage.

“Every World Cup has its own story and we need to make sure this one is as beautiful as possible,” added Deschamps, who will step down after the tournament to bring an end to a 14-year reign at the helm of Les Bleus.

If France top their section, they will play one of the best third-placed teams from the group stage in the round of 32. But then it is likely that Germany would stand in their way in the last 16.

“Of course, as France we have a status and there is a lot of expectation around us, but we need to show respect and humility from the beginning,” added Deschamps.

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“Before thinking about what is at the top of the mountain, we will need to work our way up gradually and the first steps are difficult.”

The World Cup tournament will be held across the USA, Mexico and Canada from 11 June to 19 July, with 16 more teams added to the global showpiece, up from the 32 nations involved in 2022.

While the US will host most matches, including the final at the MetLife Stadium outside New York, three of the 16 venues will be in Mexico and two in Canada.

The opening game sees Mexico play South Africa at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, in Group A, which also features South Korea and a qualifier.

Highest-ranked nations kept apart

For the first time, the draw was done in such a way as to ensure the four highest-ranked nations were kept apart – Spain, Argentina, France and England cannot meet before the semi-finals, if all top their groups.

Reigning European champions Spain will kick off their campaign against first-time qualifiers Cape Verde before also taking on Uruguay and Saudi Arabia in Group H.

Lionel Messi’s Argentina begin their defense of the trophy they won in Qatar in 2022 by facing Algeria, and will also play Austria and debutants Jordan in Group J.

Thomas Tuchel’s England, seeking to win a first World Cup since 1966, will be expected to top Group L ahead of 2018 finalists Croatia, Ghana and Panama.

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Carlo Ancelotti’s Brazil and surprise 2022 semi-finalists Morocco will meet in Group C, which also features Scotland and Haiti – Scotland and Brazil will meet for the fifth time at a World Cup.

Germany’s opponents in Group E will be Côte d’Ivoire, Ecuador and Caribbean minnows Curacao, while Portugal face Uzbekistan, Colombia and a play-off winner in Group K.

The United States got a manageable draw, with Paraguay, Australia and a European play-off winner in Group D.

Group B: Canada, Qatar, Switzerland and a qualifier.

Group F: Netherlands, Japan, a qualifier, Tunisia

Group G: Belgium, Egypt, Iran, New Zealand

(with AFP)

Lebanon has been a refuge for diverse peoples and religious groups since ancient times. Christians have been rooted there for more than 2,000 years, and remained even as the region became the centre of Islamic empires.

Their influence grew over the centuries and reached a high point with the creation of Greater Lebanon in 1920, with help from France – the country in charge under an international mandate.

During this period, France drew Lebanon’s modern borders and introduced state institutions that shaped the early administration, courts and security forces. Christian influence was thus anchored in the founding texts of the Lebanese Republic in 1943.

Today, after years of outside control by Syria and Israel, civil wars, economic collapses and the Beirut port explosion, Christians still hold leading roles in a country struggling to hold itself together.

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Sharing power

While the Christian clans did not win the 1975-1990 civil war, which killed 150,000 people, nor did the Taif peace agreement push them out of power.

It reorganised state institutions to reflect demographic change, including faster growth among Muslim communities and a shrinking Christian population caused by emigration and lower birth rates. The Taif Agreement also shifted a large share of the president’s powers to the cabinet.

Even with these changes, the revised constitution of 1990 – which amended 31 articles – kept strict parity between Muslims and Christians across state institutions. The cabinet and parliament, senior civil service roles, the judiciary and the top ranks of the army and security forces all follow this rule.

The government, as the core of the executive, still has equal numbers of Muslim and Christian ministers.

Taif also reaffirmed the unwritten 1943 National Pact, which says the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim.

That rule has held ever since, except for a short period in the late 1980s when outgoing president Amine Gemayel appointed army chief Michel Aoun, a Maronite, as prime minister. Muslim leaders rejected the move and continued to recognise the Sunni prime minister Salim el Hoss, leaving Lebanon with two rival governments.

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Christians in key posts

Maronites continue to hold many of the state’s top positions in Lebanon. The army commander is always a Maronite, as are the governor of the Bank of Lebanon, the president of the Supreme Judicial Council, the director general of customs and the head of the central inspection body. Many other senior roles also go to members of the Christian community.

Parity is strictly applied in parliament, which elects the president. The chamber has 128 members, split equally between Christians and Muslims. Maronites hold 34 of the 64 Christian seats, making them the largest Christian bloc. Sunnis and Shias each have 27 seats, while Druze deputies have eight and Alawites – who follow Alawism, an offshoot of Shia Islam – have two.

The deputy speaker is always a Greek Orthodox member.

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Courts and the army

The judiciary mirrors this balance. The Supreme Judicial Council is led by a Maronite. The prosecutor general is always a Sunni and the head of the financial prosecution office is a Shia. Christians hold half of all regional prosecutor posts. The country’s top court, the Court of Justice, is also chaired by a Maronite.

The military applies parity at officer level, though the most senior posts remain in Maronite hands. These include the heads of military intelligence, operations and other top functions. Among lower ranks, Sunnis and Shias are believed to outnumber Christians by about two to one, although no official figures exist.

The modern army traces part of its structure back to the mandate-era Troupes Spéciales, an early force set up under French command.

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Economic weight

Meanwhile, Christians also lead several major economic bodies. The Association of Industrialists, the Union of Insurance Companies, the Association of Business Leaders and the powerful Association of Banks are all headed by Christians – even though their statutes do not require it.

Some professional organisations, such as the Bar Association, are also traditionally led by Christians.

If power were shared according to population size, Christians would hold far fewer posts. The last census was carried out in 1932 – none have been held since because counting religious groups is seen as too politically sensitive an exercise.

Discussion of what Lebanese people call “the count” remains taboo, but it is widely acknowledged that Christians now make up no more than a quarter of the population. The Maronite Church remains one of the country’s largest landowners despite the fall in its number of followers.

‘A new social contract’

Many Lebanese people, both Christian and Muslim, say the existing system cannot continue indefinitely.

In October 2019, thousands of Lebanese from all religious communities took to the streets demanding a change to the current power-sharing system. For five months, demonstrations were held in many cities under the slogan “kellon yaʿni kellon”, meaning “all of the political class, regardless of sect, must go”.

“That’s a fundamental break from the past. The Lebanese aspire to a new social contract not based on clientelism and sectarianism,” French-Lebanese Middle East analyst Karim Bitar told The Times of Israel at the time. 

The most recent United States government Report on International Religious Freedom for Lebanon, from 2023, identified “exacerbated sectarian tensions” and warned that the country’s long-standing commitment to pluralism is facing unprecedented strain.

This story was adapted from the original version in French by Paul Khalifeh in Beirut.

The reform, approved at a Council of Ministers meeting on Thursday, reverses the country’s 2018 abolition of the death penalty and forms part of a wider legal overhaul undertaken by the junta, led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré.

The bill must still pass parliament before entering into force.

Burkina Faso’s Justice Minister, Edasso Rodrigue Bayala, said the revisions were designed to create a justice system that responded to “the deep aspirations of our people”.

He also argued that the absence of capital punishment had created fertile ground for insecurity, claiming that armed groups used the abolition to reassure young recruits and invoked international conventions to shield themselves in the event of arrest.

Without tougher penalties, he said, “there are no sanctions”.

Burkina Faso aims to reinstate death penalty, government source says

Tougher penalties

Burkina Faso remains at the epicentre of jihadist violence in the Sahel, where armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have carried out attacks for more than a decade, and the junta has framed political and social restrictions as necessary tools in the fight against extremism.

Since seizing power in 2022, the military authorities have postponed elections, dissolved the independent electoral commission and pushed through a raft of institutional changes they say are necessary to restore security.

The revised penal code toughens penalties for several offences, increasing fines and making economic crimes such as embezzlement or corruption involving sums of over 5 billion CFA francs – around €7.6 million – punishable by life imprisonment.

It also criminalises the “promotion of homosexual practices and similar acts”. The junta passed another reform in September making homosexuality illegal, the first time it has been outlawed in Burkina Faso.

Traoré has pursued a fiercely sovereigntist line, rejecting what he calls “Western values”.

Military regimes have turned the Sahel into a ‘black hole’ of information

Shrinking civil space

Rights watchdogs say the government is shrinking the space for public scrutiny even as it tightens control over political life.

A Netherlands-based NGO confirmed on Friday that eight staff members detained on spying accusations had been released at the end of October. The International NGO Safety Organisation (INSO), which provides security analysis for humanitarian groups, rejected the allegations.

Burkinabé authorities had claimed INSO had collected and passed on sensitive security information about the country to foreign powers, and that its members continued to work covertly despite being banned.

The eight members included a Frenchman, a French-Senegalese woman, a Czech man, a Malian and four Burkinabé nationals.

Meanwhile, media outlets and civil society groups have also come under mounting pressure. The junta has suspended the BBC and Voice of America over their reporting on a mass killing last year attributed to the armed forces, and several journalists have been arrested.

In December 2022, Burkina Faso’s authorities ordered the “immediate suspension until further notice” of RFI broadcasts across the national territory.

(with newswires)

South Africa used its G20 presidency this year to push youth involvement more than any previous summit. The Y20 process – created in 2010 to bring young people into G20 debates – took on new urgency, given that Africa has the world’s largest population under the age of 30.

Y20 South Africa 2025 ran under the theme Youth for Global Progress. Its aim was to open space for young leaders to help shape the global agenda.

Levi Singh, its 31-year-old chief negotiations coordinator, said encouraging youth participation in global events and politics should be an absolute priority. This G20, he added, was the most successful so far in getting that message across.

“As this was the last time that the global south was leading the G20 for the foreseeable future, we thought it was a unique opportunity to mobilise around youth participation,” Singh told RFI.

Madagascar’s Gen Z uprising, as told by three young protesters

Generation gap

The idea of making youth leadership a formal part of political systems drew far more support in the Global South than in the seven richest nations in North America and Europe, Singh said.

“In Africa in particular, you see the median age today is 19 years old, yet the median age of an African leader, a parliamentarian, a minister or a president, is between 67 and 69,” he explained.

“So there’s a profound intergenerational divide between the majority of the population and those who are in power and in leadership positions.

“At the Y20, we weren’t calling for people over 65 to be chucked out of office, but for a greater sense of intergenerational collaboration, learning, sharing and power sharing, ultimately.”

The Ichikowitz Family Foundation, which runs an annual survey on youth attitudes across Africa, included these themes in its latest research. The African Youth Survey gathers views from tens of thousands of young people in 25 countries. This year, it focused on the G20.

Its report found fast-eroding trust in democratic institutions and government accountability.

While young Africans once expected leaders to create jobs, solve the climate crisis and drive innovation, many now feel “the system is failing them”, the foundation’s chairman Ivor Ichikowitz told RFI.

The survey, he added, shows a polarised view of current leadership.

“On the extremely negative side, there are many respondents who are saying that they are frustrated with their governments and this plays out in what we’ve seen in Madagascar, what we’ve seen in Kenya, what we’ve seen in other countries in Africa,” Ichikowitz said. “This is not unexpected.”

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Young people push back

Events across the African continent over the past year form part of that picture – from the coup in Gabon to Gen Z protests in Madagascar and Morocco.

The unrest shows rising frustration among young people who now believe they must take control of their own futures, Ichikowitz said, adding: “They can’t rely only on governments.”

Climate change has also become a key issue, with deeper awareness of environmental concerns among respondents. There is strong frustration around this too.

“There’s a realisation among the population that we surveyed that this is a reality that’s been created by the world’s most industrialised nations – and Africa is bearing the brunt of the consequences,” Ichikowitz said.

Young people believe Africa has the means to solve the problem, but they also know that protecting the environment will mean major sacrifices that could limit development and economic opportunities.

“Africa is not being compensated for this reality,” Ichikowitz added.

One message, Singh said, came through repeatedly in the Y20 working groups.

“Young people, in particular those from the Global South, are fatigued by the constant framing by policymakers and world leaders of them as a problem and something that needs to be fixed – as opposed to an asset that requires investment and planning.”

At the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) in Nice in June, Unesco and the Plastic Odyssey expedition signed a partnership aimed at restoring the world’s most endangered marine World Heritage sites.

Drawing inspiration from a successful 2024 clean-up on Henderson Island in the South Pacific – during which 9.3 tonnes of plastic waste were removed – the organisations plan to replicate the operation in other areas across the globe.

Plastic Odyssey and Unesco sign deal to restore marine World Heritage sites

Among them is the Aldabra atoll in the Indian Ocean which is one of the largest raised coral reefs in the world.

It is known for the hundreds of endemic species – including the Aldabra giant tortoise.

“Aldabra is one of 51 marine sites listed as Unesco World Heritage Sites. These sites represent less than 1 percent of the Earth’s surface, but 15 percent of marine biodiversity,” Simon Bernard, CEO of Plastic Odyssey, told RFI.

“They are true biodiversity hotspots, but they are also areas that accumulate enormous amounts of plastic waste.”

‘Impossible clean up’

The field mission occurred from 8 to 20 October with the Plastic Odyssey team, who surveyed the island to better estimate the amount of waste.

According to scientific studies 500 tonnes of plastic waste has washed up on this tiny, remote island.

“Where is the waste, how much is there and, above all, how are we going to remove it? We will need to plan a mission lasting several months – four to six months – to collect and remove everything,” said Bernard.

This mission was called “The impossible clean up” – because Aldabra is very difficult to access.

“Very often on these islands, waste accumulates on the exposed coasts, which are virtually inaccessible. There is almost no access to the sea. The island is surrounded by a belt of very sharp rocks, known as karst,” Bernard explained.

“There is no water, no food and obviously no doctor. So you really have to plan all the logistics to keep the teams alive and able to survive on site for several months.”

Recycling partners

The plan is to collect various waste items – like fishing buoys, flip-flops, and cans – using a slide-like system on the rocks that directs the debris into the sea for extraction.

After collection, each type of waste must be sent to an appropriate recycling partner.

Plastic Odyssey on sea-faring mission to target plastic waste in Madagascar

Flip-flops are difficult to repurpose, Bernard says, but they are “working with a company in Kenya that makes works of art out of flip-flops. They recycle several dozen tonnes a year.

“For all the hard plastic, we will be working with entrepreneurs in the Seychelles, on Mahé island, who transform this”.

Plastic Odyssey has also just completed a mission to Saint-Brandon, a Mauritian archipelago which is not yet on Unesco’s official list. It is rich in exceptional endemic bird species but heavily polluted with plastic. 

They collected over five tonnes and reached the ship’s maximum capacity without being able to gather everything.

The unexpected volume of plastic means they will need to return, and Saint-Brandon will be included in future Plastic Odyssey expeditions.

On the night of 13 November 2015, then president Francois Hollande declared a nationwide state of emergency, granting French police and intelligence services extraordinary authority to carry out searches and detain people suspected of being involved in terrorism.

These measures, extended a week later, let police bypass the ordinary judicial process and decide whom to target, with judges reviewing the legality only afterwards if officers’ choices were challenged in court.

The public largely accepted these restrictions on civil liberties because the terrorist threat remained high.

“After a traumatic event, after a crisis, it is easier to justify a reduction in rights and heightened security measures. People are expecting the government to do something, whatever it is,” explains Sophie Duroy, a professor at the University of Essex School of Law’s Human Rights Centre.

“In a way, the population may be willing to sacrifice some of their liberties because they fear the next terrorist attack.”

Listen to an interview with Sophie Duroy in the Spotlight on France podcast:

When a deadly truck attack in Nice followed in July 2016, France’s parliament incorporated these emergency powers into ordinary law, through bills passed in 2017 and in 2021.

According to Jean-Christophe Couville, national secretary of the Unité police union, France previously lacked the tools to address terrorist threats.

In the days following the November 2015 attacks, emergency powers enabled police to search over 400 people and seize dozens of arms as well as drugs, he told RFI, in what he calls “collateral effects” that he argues “maybe saved lives”.

Abuse of power

Rights defenders say it is an abuse of power to use extraordinary measures intended to fight terrorism in order to deal with ordinary crime.

Duroy points to the disproportionate impact of these powers on France’s Muslim community in the aftermath of the 2015 attacks.

“Individuals and associations were subjected to house arrest, or their places of worship were closed, for instance. Their freedom of religion, freedom of association, freedom of assembly – their basic liberty – was affected,” she says.

And there was “mission creep”, as police used their expanded powers more broadly.

How French Muslims have wrestled with Charlie Hebdo’s impact, 10 years on

Policing dissent

During the Cop21 summit in Paris in December 2015, police detained and placed climate activists under house arrest on the grounds that they might disturb public order.

“Because there is very little judicial oversight, it is very hard to control who you target with these measures,” says Duroy.

“And we have seen this kind of mission creep more and more in the past few years to police dissent, rather than to police terrorism.”

Other terrorist attacks – realised and foiled – continued to keep France on high alert.  

Later, during the Covid pandemic, France declared a health state of emergency, restricting peoples’ movements. Meanwhile laws introduced for the 2024 Paris Olympics temporarily authorised algorithmic video surveillance, which the government is considering renewing through 2027 in preparation for the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps.

“France is the main advocate for digital surveillance technologies and for authorising them and using them on a large-scale basis,” says Duroy.

Expanded surveillance

For police unionist Couville, digital surveillance is just another means to anticipate crimes, or find culprits after the fact.

“We need these new tools,” he said. “They help us to work proactively, to identify someone who is wanted, for example. It helps us to reconstruct a crime scene and helps with arrests.”

Duroy warns, however, that more tools and repressive measures could backfire, putting the public on the defensive.

She argues that respecting human rights and international law is the best way to protect national security, because it avoids escalation and maintains public trust.

“If the population believes you are respecting their rights they would be willing to cooperate with security services and the police,” she says.

“If people think that their rights are not going to be respected or their family’s rights are not going to be respected, they will not give a tip to the police about the fact that maybe their brother is becoming radicalised or their son is becoming radicalised.”

France accused of restricting protests and eroding democracy

Siding with caution

Because counterterrorism is global, France both shares and relies on information from other countries’ intelligence services, which may be more likely to cooperate if they trust that international standards are being respected.

Yet arguing against tougher security powers is an uphill battle. 

Those trying to slow the expansion of surveillance regularly challenge these measures in court – something Duroy says is not always effective, as judges often side with governments.

“Courts have been very happy to defer to national governments in matters of national security because they trust their risk assessments and because of the very high stakes of terrorism,” she says. “No one wants to be blamed if a terrorist attack happens.”

Listen to an interview with Sophie Duroy on the Spotlight on France podcast, episode 135.

The global fight against HIV/Aids has found itself at a troubling crossroads. On one hand, scientific progress is picking up pace; on the other, the latest UNAIDS report paints a stark picture of a world struggling to keep its momentum.

International response is weakening, held back by falling funding and disrupted health services.

Worldwide, an estimated 41 million people are now living with HIV. Last year saw 1.3 million new infections, and 9.2 million people still lack access to life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.

According to UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima: “the global response to HIV has suffered its biggest setback in decades.” 

But she insists that “HIV is not over,” and has called for renewed global mobilisation.

Her plea follows especially disappointing news: the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria raised just over €9 billion for the next three years – far short of the €15 billion it says is needed.

This is even lower than the last replenishment round in 2022, threatening the future of crucial programmes around the world.

Trump’s aid cuts prompt African leaders to embrace self-reliance

Positive developments in the lab

But it’s not all bleak. In research centres worldwide, scientists are making remarkable advances.

Yazdan Yazdanpanah, director of the French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Emerging Diseases (ANRS-MIE), describes the situation as a paradox: impressive scientific advances on one side, declining capacity to roll them out on the other – a sort of “double dynamic”.

One encouraging development is the arrival of long-acting antiretroviral treatments. Instead of taking a pill every day, people can now receive treatment once every two months.

This, Yazdanpanah explains, boosts adherence and generally feels more manageable for many. Some 43 percent of people living with HIV say these long-acting treatments are their first choice – even before considering side effects or tablet size.

Prevention tools are also evolving. A major breakthrough is injectable PrEP, which offers long-term protection against HIV.

Stamping out misinformation in France’s fight against HIV-Aids

Lenacapavir – recently recommended by the World Health Organization – provides six months of protection with a single shot.

“It’s one injection every six months to prevent HIV,” says Yazdanpanah. Thanks to an international pricing agreement, the cost could be around €35 per year in 120 low-resource countries, compared with roughly €25,300 per year previously charged in the United States.

South Africa, Eswatini and Zambia on Monday began administering the groundbreaking injection in the drug’s first public rollouts in Africa.

Eastern and southern Africa account for about 52 percent of the 40.8 million people living with HIV worldwide, according to 2024 UNAIDS data.

Under the programme, manufacturer Gilead Sciences has agreed to provide lenacapavir at no profit to two million people in countries with a high HIV burden over three years.

Critics say this is far below the actual requirement and that the market price is out of reach for most people.

Progress needs power, power needs funding

These advances, impressive as they are, risk remaining theoretical unless health systems can keep up.

In 2025, global development aid for health fell by 22 percent, driven largely by reductions or withdrawals from major US programmes.

The consequences are already being felt, says Françoise Vanni, external relations director at the Global Fund.

“There has been a crisis in international financing for the fight against HIV/Aids and for global health more broadly, with drastic cuts from a number of donor countries that have really caused major interruptions in the delivery of essential services,” she explained to RFI.

With infections rising again in several countries, she is blunt about the reality for frontline programmes: “Very concretely, it means it is much more difficult to fight these diseases effectively.”

AIDS pandemic risks ‘resurging globally’ amid US funding halt: UN

Nowhere is this fragility clearer than in sub-Saharan Africa, which bears a disproportionate share of the epidemic. The region accounts for a large share of new HIV infections and is home to 60 percent of all people living with the virus.

In 13 countries, fewer people started treatment last year. Supply shortages have been felt, too, with disruptions in Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo affecting both HIV testing and access to antiretroviral (ARV) therapy.

The funding crisis, compounded by the lasting effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, is undermining the progress made since the early 2000s.

In Nigeria, condom distribution has dropped by 55 percent.

Community organisations – traditionally the backbone of HIV work – are also under heavy strain, with more than 60 percent of those led by women forced to suspend essential programmes.

UNAIDS makes its position clear: science alone cannot end the epidemic. The agency is urging the global community to rethink the funding model so that heavily affected countries invest more of their own resources. Without this shift, the world will almost certainly fall short of its goal to end the HIV/Aids epidemic by 2030.

At best, current trends would allow the international community merely to hold the epidemic steady. At worst, if the decline in funding continues, UNAIDS warns of a resurgence of HIV/Aids by 2030.

This has been adapted from the original article in French and lightly edited for clarity.

“The countdown has officially begun, everything is going perfectly.”

Adenot was all smiles as she greeted journalists in Toulouse on Monday to discuss the Epsilon mission to the International Space Station (ISS), scheduled for next February, in one of her last public appearances before her departure.

An engineer by training and a helicopter test pilot for the French Air and Space Force, Adenot is France’s first female astronaut since Claudie Haigneré 25 years ago.

The 43-year-old was selected to represent the next generation of European Space Agency (ESA) astronauts in April 2022.

Aiming for the stars lands French astronaut Sophie Adenot a ticket to ISS

To prepare herself, she says can rely on the experience of former astronauts, whom she consults whenever necessary.

“We have everything we need to stay calm because our training is designed by engineers who have been familiar with the ISS operations for over 20 years,” she explained.

“But I’m human,” she went on. “At some point, this serenity will be challenged, but I don’t know when or how. That’s a source of curiosity, in a way.”

Medical research

If all goes to plan, on 15 February she will take her place aboard a SpaceX rocket on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the United States, which will take her to the ISS.

Hundreds of scientific experiments are planned for the 240-day mission, around 10 of which were developed by France through the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES).

Her mission will serve three purposes: to improve scientific and medical knowledge, to prepare for the future of space missions and to involve young people.

EU reveals ambitious project to build and print objects in space

Adenot admits that the experiments in the field of health are the ones that most pique her curiosity. “I am intrigued and interested in this type of experiment, because they could have a direct and concrete impact on our everyday lives.”

Adenot will be analysing the effects of weightlessness on astronauts’ organs using medical imaging. Since CT scanner or MRI machines are too bulky to be taken aboard the ISS, she’ll be using ultrasound.

For 40 years, CNES has used its expertise in ultrasound analysis in space, with astronaut Thomas Pesquet employing it during his two previous missions aboard the ISS.

The ultrasound device that Adenot will be testing, called EchoFinder, is revolutionary. It will allow for autonomous ultrasound scans, without prior medical training or ground assistance.

Aristée Thevenon, an engineer at the Institute of Space Medicine and Physiology (MEDES), a CNES partner, explains that astronauts will be aided by augmented reality and artificial intelligence displayed on a screen.

“The idea is to place virtual spheres representing the probe’s position into virtual cubes representing the ideal probe position. When we manage to place our spheres into our cubes, it turns green, which means we have found the ideal probe position,” he told RFI.

The experiment will help prepare for future space missions to the Moon and Mars, “where communication delays, sometimes of just a few minutes, will make any real-time guidance from Earth impossible,” Thevenon says.

Back on the ground, the technology could also help improve access for patients in remote areas, where ultrasounds are not necessarily available due to a lack of technical expertise.

“We can also imagine a version for submarines, which are confined environments quite similar to those of the International Space Station,” he added.

Human ‘guinea pigs’

Rémi Canton, head of human spaceflight at CNES says that with EchoFinder, Adenot will play a dual role, both testing the equipment on herself and on fellow crew members.

For eight months, Adenot will become a kind of guinea pig to make it possible to observe physiological phenomena that are unobservable on Earth due to gravity.

This will be the case with PhysioTool, a scientific experiment designed to measure several physiological parameters, including cardiovascular ones, using sensors. 

Marc-Antoine Custaud, a researcher at the University of Angers and sponsor of this study explains that in the absence of gravity, blood circulation slows down.

“This is what we call cardiovascular deconditioning,” he explains. “Our goal is to understand how the cardiovascular system becomes unadapted to gravity, what needs to be done to make it adapt to microgravity, and how to readjust it upon returning to Earth.”

Bacteria under the super-microscope

When it comes to health and wellbeing, cleanliness is a crucial issue for astronauts: 10 percent of their mission time is spent on cleaning.

Sébastien Rouquette is an engineer and head of the Matisse-4 experiment for CNES, which will collect bacteria and bring back samples to Earth in order to analyse them in detail using a super-microscope.

His team wants to understand how micro-organisms associate with each other and settle on the surfaces of the ISS. 

“The goal is to develop innovative surfaces with coatings that limit or prevent bacterial growth,” he tells RFI.

These new antibacterial coatings would offer several advantages: they would limit the use of toxic bactericides on board and allow astronauts to save time, a precious resource on board the ISS.

The research could be useful on Earth too. “I’m thinking of door handles, handrails in the subway or on buses and hospitals. We’re starting to have some pretty serious leads on concrete applications within a few years,” Rouquette says.

How fungi and bacteria could help build habitats on Mars

The next generation

During her mission, Adenot will also conduct an educational experiment called ChlorISS, in partnership with 4,500 French schools.

The idea is to simultaneously germinate Arabidopsis thaliana and Brassica rapa japonica (“Minuza”) seeds in microgravity, both on the ISS and on Earth, in order to observe the effects of gravity and light on the growth of these two plants.

Marie Fesuick, who is in charge of the ChlorISS experiment, says it will last 10 days.

“Every day, Adenot will photograph the progress of germination, then she will send the photos to schools. Students will be able to compare these photos with the observations they make in their classrooms and observe any differences,” she explains.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet sets his sights on the Moon after ISS success

Involving young people with experiments on the ISS has become an integral part of space missions.

In 2021, during his second mission, Pesquet conducted a similar experiment with the “blob”, a yellow single-celled creature, neither animal nor plant. 

“We hope to inspire some young people, to spark vocations, not necessarily in space, but in science in general,” explains Fesuick.

Adenot agrees: “It’s important that young people identify with [these] career paths. I will be as generous as possible in sharing my experience with them, as much as time allows.”

A new spacesuit

She will also have the opportunity to test a new space suit, known as the “EuroSuit“.

In development since 2023, it is designed to be worn by the astronaut inside the spacecraft during take-off and docking phases, and in case of emergency.

It was developed as part of a partnership between CNES, the French start-up Spartan Space, the Institute of Space Medicine and Physiology and the innovation branch of the Decathlon sporting goods company.

According to Decathlon, the suit can be “donned or doffed in less than two minutes and completely autonomously”.

Adenot will test the prototype during her mission to validate its ergonomics in microgravity conditions, in conjunction with further tests on the ground.

She has a packed schedule between now and the launch date. She still has to undergo several tests to collect baseline medical data. “We’ll take them aboard the ISS and then compare them with the data I collect when I return to Earth,” she explains.

And she still needs to familiarise herself with handling the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which will take her to the ISS.

“We rehearse the standard procedures and emergency procedures extensively, to be prepared for any eventuality.”

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

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.

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. You must get your resolutions to me by 15 December to be included in the show. 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!

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Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you!

Our website “Le Français facile avec rfi” has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bilingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard.

Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level”, and you’ll be counselled on the best-suited activities for your level according to your score.

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

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

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

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

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

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

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

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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 1 November, I asked you to listen to RFI English journalist Melissa Chemam’s podcast Spotlight on Africa: “Inside Côte d’Ivoire’s pivotal election: voices of hope and uncertainty”. Melissa had traveled to Côte d’Ivoire to cover their presidential election and talked to a wide variety of people about their hopes, their fears, and their desires for their country. Near the beginning of the show, Melissa talks about women who, she says, were very involved in the campaigns – as event organizers, supporters, and mothers. Melissa enumerates the main concerns of the Ivorian women – and that was your question. What are the four main concerns the women of Côte d’Ivoire voiced during the presidential campaign?

The answers are, as Melissa noted in her podcast, work, school for kids, childcare, and healthcare.

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: How do you make friends as an adult?

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Father Stephen Wara. Father Stephen is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations on your double win, Father Steve!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are RFI Listeners Club members Zenon Teles, the president of the Christian – Marxist – Leninist – Maoist Association of Listening DX-ers in Goa, India; Radhakrishna Pillai from Kerala State in India; Helmut Matt from Herzbolheim, Germany, and last but not least, Dipita Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Tapez fort” produced by DJ Tevecinq; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams;  “Little Toot” by Allie Wrubel, sung by the Andrews Sisters, and “Little Rootie Tootie” by Thelonious Monk, performed by Monk and the Thelonius Monk Trio. 

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 Jan van der Made’s article “On NATO’s eastern flank, Romania finds itself at the crux of European security”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 19 January to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 24 January 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.

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Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame, the longtime president of Rwanda, officially signed the “Washington Agreements for Peace and Stability” in the US capital on Thursday, nearly a year after they failed to make a similar joint declaration in Angola.

President Trump said the peace ceremony, held at the newly renamed Donald J Trump Institute of Peace, was a “great day” for Africa and the world.

The African leaders took a more cautious tone, as fighting raged in eastern DRC where the M23 armed group – which the UN says is backed by Rwanda – has been gaining ground in recent weeks against Kinshasa’s forces.

There was no official handshake at the ceremony and the agreement contains no binding mechanism.

‘Diplomatic coup’

Kagame praised Trump as an “even-handed” leader who is “never taking sides”. “If this agreement were to fail, it would be our fault,” he said. “It’s up to us, Africa, to work to consolidate this peace.”

Tshisekedi expressed “deep gratitude and clear hope”, pointing to the “beginning of a new path, a demanding path”. He said his country remained “vigilant, but not pessimistic”. 

Zobel Behalal from the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime told RFI that Trump had “pulled off a major diplomatic coup”.

“He has succeeded in bringing to Washington two heads of state who have not met for a long time. But he was the only one in the room who was happy,” said Behalal, who formerly coordinated the United Nations’ expert panel on DRC. 

The two African leaders showed their “lack of commitment” and “lack of enthusiasm for signing these agreements”, he said.

Congo and M23 rebels agree to form ceasefire monitoring body

Three-pronged deal

The pact builds on months of peace efforts by the US, the African Union and Qatar, and finalises an agreement first signed in June.

It brings together peace and economic deals, as well as bilateral agreements between each country and the US. 

The peace sections reiterate texts already signed in recent months to “bring an end to one of the oldest conflicts in the world”, according to Trump. Its security package incorporates a permanent ceasefire, the disarmament of non-state forces and provisions to allow refugees to return home. 

The economic aspect is aimed kicking off “a new era of harmony and cooperation” between Kinshasa and Kigali by addressing the opacity of critical mineral supply chains. 

Two bilateral agreements – one between Kinshasa and Washington and the other between Kigali and Washington – both open up new opportunities for the US to access critical minerals. 

Trump has promised to send big American companies to both countries.

“We’re going take out some of the rare earth,” Trump said. “And everybody’s going to make a lot of money.”

DR Congo urges world to recognise ‘Genocost’ tied to decades of resource war

Fighting continues

Even as the agreement was signed, clashes between rebels and the Congolese army were reported across South Kivu province in the eastern DRC.

“When we look at the situation on the ground today, with continuing clashes between the M23 and the Congolese army, we have major concerns,” Behalal said. “Unfortunately, the people of eastern DRC won’t be waking up tomorrow, or next week, with a slightly calmer horizon.”

Eastern Congo has endured years of conflict between government forces and more than 100 different armed groups, most notably M23 rebels, which Rwanda denies backing.

The conflict worsened this year as M23 captured the major cities of Goma and Bukavu, deepening an already severe humanitarian crisis.

M23 was not part of the Congo-Rwanda deal and took part in separate, Qatar-mediated talks with Congo instead.

The US-brokered deal comes as both DRC and Rwanda are in talks with the Trump administration on taking in migrants amid the president’s sweeping deportation drive.

(with newswires)

Far from the imposing Great Hall of the People in Beijing where the two leaders held talks, Xi and First Lady Peng Liyuan showed Macron and his wife Brigitte around the centuries-old Dujiangyan Dam, a World Heritage Site set against the mountainous landscape of Sichuan province in the centre of China.

Macron, who was earlier filmed going for a morning jog near a lake alongside his security detail, was told through an interpreter about the ancient irrigation system, which dates back to the third century BC and continues to provide water to the Sichuan Basin plain.

The French president said he was “very touched” by the gesture, a departure from official protocol. He had previously hosted Xi in the Pyrenees – where he had spent time as a child – in May 2024.

Macron said the trip was a sign of mutual trust and a desire to “act together” at a time when international tensions are rising and trade imbalances are widening to China‘s advantage.

The two presidential couples will part ways after a lunch, with the Macrons continuing the trip independently.

Macron urges China to help end Ukraine war and ease Europe trade tensions

Panda diplomacy

Macron is meeting with students in Chengdu, China’s fourth-largest city with 21 million inhabitants that is considered one of the most culturally and socially open in China.

Hundreds of people, including students and residents, gathered to greet him near a sports stadium, cheering as he arrived.

Brigitte Macron, meanwhile, will visit the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, where two 17-year-old pandas, loaned to France in 2012 as part of China’s “panda diplomacy”, have just returned.

There, she will meet Yuan Meng, the first giant panda born in France in 2017, to whom she is “Godmother”, and who arrived in China in 2023.

China has promised to send two new giant pandas to France, to replace those that were returned to Chengdu, with the director of Beauval Zoo saying on Friday they would be sent by 2027.

“We will definitely receive new pandas. I hope this transfer of pandas will happen fairly quickly. In any case, it will be by early 2027 at the latest,” Rodolphe Delord said.

The forests of Sichuan are home to numerous protected species, from snow leopards to giant pandas.

Through loans to zoos, China has made these bears emblematic ambassadors of its friendship with peoples from Japan to Germany.

Cubs born abroad are sent a few years later to Chengdu to participate in breeding and rehabilitation programmes in the wild.

For his part, the French president will meet table tennis brothers Alexis and Felix Lebrun, stars of the 2024 Paris Olympics, who are in China for the Mixed Team Table Tennis World Cup.

Macron begins China visit as Europe faces trade and security tensions

Tentative Signals

On Thursday in Beijing, the French president urged his Chinese counterpart to work towards ending the war in Ukraine and to correct the trade imbalances with France and Europe.

China regularly calls for peace talks and respect for the territorial integrity of all countries, but has never condemned Russia for its 2022 invasion.

Western governments accuse Beijing of providing Russia with crucial economic support for its war effort, notably by supplying it with military components for its defence industry, something Beijing denies.

Emmanuel Macron‘s call for increased Chinese investment in France appears to have been heeded.

A letter of intent to this effect was signed on Thursday, with Xi Jinping stating his readiness to “increase reciprocal investments” for a “fair trading environment”.

The Elysée Palace said Thursday that Macron was “deeply concerned” by the verdict and would continue engaging with Algiers to secure the journalist’s return to France.

It follows the decision by an Algerian appeals court, a day earlier, to uphold his conviction for “glorifying terrorism” and “possessing publications for propaganda purposes harmful to national interests”. 

Gleizes, 36, a freelancer for So Foot and Society, is France’s only journalist imprisoned abroad, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

His detention comes at a tense period in relations between France and Algeria. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has called the journalist’s freedom “a major element” in ongoing discussions between the two countries.

“We will do everything in our power to secure the release” of Gleizes, the minister told broadcaster France 2. “Discussions are ongoing, and we will continue them with the Algerian side.”

Algerian court upholds sentence for French journalist convicted of ‘terrorism’

‘Still in shock’

Gleizes was arrested in May 2024 while reporting in Tizi Ouzou, the heart of the Kabylie region and home to JS Kabylie, Algeria’s most decorated football club.

Algerian authorities accuse him of having contact with figures linked to the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie (MAK), which they labelled a terrorist organisation in 2021.

He has been detained since his trial in June.

His mother Sylvie Godard and stepfather Francis Godard told RFI on Thursday that the decision to uphold the sentence had blindsided them.

“We are still in shock over this verdict,” said Sylvie. “We thought he would get a suspended sentence, maybe a prison sentence, but definitely not another seven-year prison sentence.”

Inside a ‘violent’ hearing

Francis Godard said the hearing itself was exceptionally charged, with prosecutors’ arguments tipping into invective. He told RFI: “The verdict is harsh and it must be said that the hearing was also violent.”

He added that the presiding judge repeatedly tried to portray Christophe as an accomplice in a criminal operation.

According to his mother, Gleizes appeared stunned but stoic when the verdict was announced. “His face was pale,” she said.

The family attempted to speak to him briefly before he was taken back to prison, but Sylvie recounted: “There wasn’t much humanity… They forbade us from seeing him.”

Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal calls for ‘reconciliation’ between France, Algeria

Release campaign

Gleizes now has one week to decide whether to appeal to Algeria’s highest court.

“We are regaining our fighting spirit and we are going to regain our energy so that we can get him out of there as quickly as possible,” his mother told RFI.

She added that the family is hoping for direct engagement with the French president. “We really hope to meet with [Macron] in the next few days and discuss with him the possible courses of action and strategies to be implemented.”

Gleizes also has the backing of press freedom groups including RSF, which denounced his sentence as “outrageous”.

The case has injected fresh strain into relations between Paris and Algiers, already complicated by disagreements over Western Sahara and the expulsion of diplomats last year.

French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal was arrested in Algiers and sentenced in March to five years in prison for making comments about Western Sahara that Algerian authorities said undermined the country’s territorial integrity. 

He was freed last month after intense negotiations with Algeria by France and Germany.

(with AFP)

In a research paper published on Thursday in Jama Network Open, the French epidemiological group Epi-Phare – which brings together the national medicines agency ANSM and the health insurance system – summed up its findings as follows: “Messenger RNA [mRNA] vaccines against Covid-19 do not increase the long-term risk of death from any cause.”

The team assessed data from nearly 30 million adults aged 18 to 59 between 2021 and 2025.

Most – around 23 million – received at least one vaccine dose from mid-2021 onwards, when France launched its mass vaccination campaign against the virus that fuelled a global pandemic. The remaining 6 million remain unvaccinated.

The vast majority of doses administered were mRNA vaccines, made by pharmaceutical companies Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech.

Calls for Covid vaccine boycott spur tensions in French pharmacy sector

No rise in mortality

Over the four years following the first jab, 0.4 percent of vaccinated people died from any cause. Among those who remained unvaccinated, the figure was 0.6 percent – meaning overall mortality in that group was roughly 50 percent higher.

“We can say with a high degree of confidence that there is no increase in the risk of mortality after a Covid vaccine,” said Mahmoud Zureik, who supervised the study.

The efficacy and safety of Covid-19 vaccines is well documented, with serious side effects remaining rare and mainly linked to cardiovascular issues such as myocarditis or pericarditis.

These do not, the study notes, call into question the value of vaccination for most age groups, although France advised against the Moderna jab for young adults.

French healthcare staff who refused Covid jab allowed back to work

Social differences

Vaccine-sceptic networks have long pushed the false narrative that mRNA vaccines caused a hidden wave of deaths – supposedly masked in official statistics focused on Covid-19 mortality only a few months after vaccination.

Zureik explained: “We had a solid understanding of the short-term benefit–risk profile of Covid vaccines; however, their long-term benefit had never been studied.”

While the researchers are confident the vaccines did not trigger increased mortality, they stress that the study cannot, by itself, prove that vaccination caused an overall reduction in deaths.

The gap between the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups may stem from the protective effects of the vaccines – in the short or long term – but could also reflect demographic and social differences such as age or socio-economic background.

(with newswires)

The recent murder in Marseille of 20-year-old Mehdi Kessaci, the younger brother of a well-known anti-drugs campaigner, has highlighted the growing problem of drug-related organised crime in France. The government has promised tougher repressive measures, but what if civil society also had a role to play? Inspired by the example of Italy, the Crim’HALT association campaigns for the official recognition of victims of organised crime. Its co-founder, Fabrice Rizzoli, talks about taking ordinary citizens to see firsthand how Italian anti-mafia initiatives work. Jean-Toussaint Plasenzotti, who founded the anti-mafia collective Massimu Susini following the murder of his nephew in 2019 in Corsica, and Hassna Arabi, whose relative Socayna was killed by a stray bullet in 2023, explain how travelling to Italy with Crim-HALT has helped their work back home. (Listen @0′)

As Europe looks to increase its defence capacity in the face of war in Ukraine and threats from Russia, French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a special military service aimed at recruiting a new generation of soldiers. Unlike the mandatory military service that was suspended in 1997, the new format would be voluntary – and paid. Historian and army reservist Guillaume Lasconjarias says that in providing a way for young people to be of service, the scheme responds to something they want. (Listen @17’30”)

Forty years after Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped Paris’s Pont Neuf in September 1985, opening the door to monumental public art displays, the city has approved a new project on the bridge by artist JR. (Listen @11’45”)

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani.

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).

After a meeting in Geneva Thursday, the European Broadcasting Union, or EBU, decided not to call a vote on Israel’s participation, saying it had instead passed new rules aimed at discouraging governments from influencing the contest.

Immediately following the announcement, the Dutch, Spanish, Irish and Slovenian broadcasters said they would withdraw, meaning singers from their countries would not compete in next year’s contest, held in Vienna. 

Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS said that Israel’s participation “is no longer compatible with the responsibility we bear as a public broadcaster”.

Both the Israeli government and opposition leaders celebrated the country’s inclusion.

Golan Yochpaz, CEO of Israeli broadcaster KAN, likened the efforts to exclude Israel to a form of “cultural boycott”.

Rounding on the countries withdrawing, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on X: “The disgrace is upon them.”

Eurovision will ‘respect’ any boycott decisions over Israel

Participation ‘unconscionable’ for Ireland

The Eurovision Song Contest dates back to 1956 and reaches around 160 million viewers, according to the EBU.

Israel’s participation has divided opinion in the competition that has a history of entanglement in national rivalries, international issues and political voting.

Its 2025 entrant, Yuval Raphael, was at the Nova music festival, a target of the 7 October, 2023 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.

A total of 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage in the assault by Hamas, according to Israeli tallies. More than 70,000 people have been killed in Gaza in the ensuing conflict, according to health authorities in the enclave.

Irish broadcaster RTE said it felt “Ireland‘s participation remains unconscionable given the appalling loss of lives in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there which continues to put the lives of so many civilians at risk”.

Jose Pablo Lopez, head of Spanish state broadcaster RTVE said on X: “What happened in the EBU Assembly confirms that Eurovision is not a song contest but a festival dominated by geopolitical interests and fractured.”

RTV Slovenija said it together with Spain, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Turkey, Algeria and Iceland requested a secret vote on Israel’s participation, but it was not held.

Eurovision returns amid protests over Palestine, Pride flags and parody lyrics

Protecting Eurovision’s neutrality

Eurovision is regularly the scene of geopolitical conflicts. Russia was excluded following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Belarus was excluded a year earlier after the disputed re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko.

Other countries could boycott the next Eurovision, to be held in Vienna in May. Icelandic public broadcaster RUV said its board will make a decision on Wednesday on whether or not to participate.

Germany, a major Eurovision backer, had signalled it would not take part if Israel was barred. Germany’s culture minister Wolfram Weimer told the Bild newspaper he welcomed the decision.

“Israel belongs to the Eurovision Song Contest like Germany belongs to Europe,” he said.

German broadcaster backs Israel in Eurovision debate

Martin Green, the contest’s director, said EBU members showed they wanted to protect the neutrality of the competition.

“Eurovision was born from the ashes of the Second World War,” he said. “It was designed to bring us together, and it will hit bumps in the road, and we have a complicated world, but we hope it’s a temporary situation, and we’ll move forward.”

(with newswires)

The announcement came during this week’s three-day visit by King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima, who arrived in Paramaribo on Sunday. The trip marks 50 years since Suriname gained independence in November 1975.

During a ceremony that same day, community leaders formally accepted the Dutch apology for slavery. The apology was first delivered by the Dutch government in 2022 and repeated by the king in 2023.

“We accept the apology and the request for forgiveness in the full conviction that the king, with a clear conscience, wishes to cooperate in healing and restoration,” said Wilgo Ommen, a representative of indigenous communities.

Benin to give nationality to descendants of those deported as slaves

It is the first royal visit in 47 years, in a relationship long strained by political upheaval, coups and shifting diplomatic ties.

Relations between the two countries have been severed twice – first in 1982 during the military rule of Desi Bouterse, and again during his later presidency from 2010 to 2020. Although ties were restored in the late 1980s, mistrust has lingered.

This week’s visit has been framed as a chance to reset. As continental South America’s smallest country, with recently discovered offshore oil reserves, Suriname has been seeking more outward-looking cooperation.

‘The pain of the past’

Before a closed-door meeting with Surinamese President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons and traditional leaders, King Willem-Alexander took part in a public reconciliation ceremony that included spiritual traditions from Suriname’s communities.

Sitting in a specially prepared chair, he faced an indigenous tribal chief and a Maroon chief – the latter representing the descendants of enslaved Africans who escaped into the interior and built autonomous communities.

France to revisit Haiti’s post-slavery reparations two centuries on

Winti spiritual leaders conducted rituals using rope, cloth, grass and a matta, or mortar. In a symbolic gesture handing previous suffering over to nature, the mortar was placed in a boat and sent down the river.

“This is a moment to come and listen to you, to hear what resonates within you, to learn from you how we can continue to build a future together between Suriname and the Netherlands,” he said. “I fully realise that the pain of the past continues for generations, and I feel responsible for my predecessors.”

‘The issue of reparations’

During the private discussions that followed, the Dutch delegation announced a €66 million fund intended to support social projects for descendants of enslaved people and indigenous communities.

The announcement was delivered on behalf of the king by Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel.

Change on the horizon for the Netherlands’ strained asylum system

While the fund was welcomed, Geerlings-Simons made clear that broader conversations still lie ahead. “The losses suffered are significant. We are not going to discuss this now, but the issue of reparations will have to be addressed one day,” she said.

However, she added: “Today, we have the opportunity to take a step towards building a common path… It is not an easy task, but if we work together, as our ancestors have proven, we will move forward through respectful exchanges.”

(with newswires)

New genomic techniques (NGT) add, remove or tweak small sections of DNA using precise gene editing tools. Plants made this way differ from traditional genetically modified organisms, which involve inserting genetic material from one species into another to create a hybrid.

The long-running debate over NGTs has frequently been a heated one. 

Supporters argue that NGTs represent a targeted approach that can bring about changes that might otherwise have occurred naturally or through selective breeding, only much faster.

Agriculture unions have been among the most enthusiastic backers of the technology, seeing it as a practical way to produce crops that can better withstand climate shocks and require fewer inputs such as fertiliser and pesticides – at a time when farmers are under pressure to cut emissions while keeping yields high.

Scientists urge EU lawmakers to ease restrictions on gene-edited crops

A provisional deal

In a joint statement, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU said they had reached a provisional deal on “a set of rules that establish a legal framework for new genomic techniques”.

The regulation, they added, is designed to improve the agrifood sector’s competitiveness and level the playing field for European producers, while strengthening food security and reducing reliance on imports.

Jessica Polfjärd, the Swedish MEP steering the file through the parliament, welcomed the breakthrough. She said the technology would pave the way for climate-resilient plants capable of delivering higher yields on smaller areas of land, which she called a win for both farmers and the environment.

A key component of the compromise is an easing of existing rules for certain NGT plants that fall under “category 1” and are considered equivalent to naturally occurring varieties.

These lower-risk plants would face a lighter regulatory touch. However, the agreement draws clear red lines – NGTs designed to be resistant to herbicides or engineered to produce insecticides will be barred from the market, and organic farming will remain strictly off limits.

Are Kenya’s cotton farmers being sacrificed in war against GMOs?

Labelling concerns

However, critics worry about potential environmental impacts or unforeseen consequences for food chains. Environmental groups and the organic sector have pushed back throughout the negotiations.

One flashpoint has been labelling. Charlotte Labauge of the Pollinis NGO lamented that consumers will not be informed when NGT category 1 plants appear in final products.

Under the deal, seed bags sold to farmers will indicate the presence of such plants, but there will be no requirement to label food as such on supermarket shelves.

Traceability and patent rules have also proved divisive issues, fuelling months of wrangling among EU countries and lawmakers. Major farming unions under Copa-Cogeca, along with big seed companies, had urged Brussels to simplify the rules to avoid falling behind global competitors such as the United States and China, where NGTs are already in use.

Environmental campaigners, however, maintain that loosening requirements risks undermining transparency and safety.

With negotiators now aligned, the proposal edges closer to becoming law. However, it must still secure formal approval from EU member states and the European Parliament before the new framework can take effect.

(with newswires)

The National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (Anses) analysed more than 600 tap water samples and the same number of raw water samples taken between 2023 and 2025 from sites covering about one-fifth of France’s distributed water.

The tests show that trifluoroacetic acid, or TFA, is the most common PFAS found in drinking water. PFAS are known as forever chemicals because they persist for extremely long periods.

TFA is the smallest member of this group and forms when several industrial pollutants and pesticides break down. Officials say it is close to being classed by the European Union as toxic for reproduction and it also shows signs of harming liver function.

France cracks down on ‘forever chemicals’ in cosmetics, clothing

Ineffective treatments

Average TFA levels measured slightly above 1,000 nanograms per litre. The strongest reading reached 25,000 nanograms per litre in water taken downstream from a factory that produces TFA, which Anses says is evidence that current treatments are ineffective.

France’s previous record was 13,000 nanograms per litre in Moussac, near a Solvay plant that made TFA until September 2024.

“I have never seen such levels of TFA concentration in drinking water,” said environmental chemist Hans Peter Arp, adding the concentrations will keep rising because more TFA precursors are expected to enter ecosystems.

Anses said the results fall below the “indicative health value” used by the Health Ministry. In a note published on 23 December 2024, the ministry adopted Germany’s provisional level of 60,000 nanograms per litre, below which risk is considered zero.

France has set a reduction goal of 10,000 nanograms per litre and two samples in the study exceed that figure. The Netherlands applies a far stricter limit of 2,200 nanograms per litre.

These values will remain provisional until the European Food Safety Authority sets a reference level for safe daily intake of TFA from all sources. Its conclusions were expected this year but have been postponed to July 2026.

“The threshold proposed by the EFSA does not call into question the provisional value used in France,” said Matthieu Schuler, deputy director at Anses.

Study sounds alarm on toxic ‘forever chemicals’ used in EU pesticides

Pesticide rules 

EU rules set a stricter limit of 100 nanograms per litre for metabolites of so-called relevant pesticides – by-products left behind when the active substances in pesticides break down.

The European Commission considers TFA one of these metabolites because of its “worrying toxicity” for development. All samples taken by Anses exceed this 100-nanogram limit by an average factor of 10.

If France classified TFA in this way, most tap water would be labelled non-compliant. The health ministry has not asked Anses to assess TFA’s status as a pesticide metabolite.

Anses also found that TFA levels do not match the presence of other PFAS. Hydrology specialist Xavier Dauchy, who helped lead the study, said this shows separate contamination routes including atmospheric fallout.

Tap water in French cities contaminated by toxic forever chemicals, study warns

Other chemicals detected

The study found 11 of the 20 PFAS that EU rules label a priority for water checks from January under a 2020 directive.

PFOS, identified as a possible carcinogen, appeared in 19 percent of samples. Nine samples exceeded the 100-nanogram limit. For the first time in France, the study detected TFMSA, another ultra-short-chain PFAS, in 13 percent of samples.

Anses said it should be added to permanent water monitoring.

A polluter-pays fee meant to push industry to cut PFAS discharges was due to start this year under a law passed in February. Lawmakers have postponed it to 2027.

“This vote protects the industrialists rather than drinking water,” said Green MP Nicolas Thierry, who authored the PFAS law. He said the delay leaves municipalities facing decontamination costs without resources.

Research estimates put France’s annual clean-up bill at €12 billion.

(with newswires)

The deputy executive secretary of the country’s National Electoral Commission (CNE), Idrissa Djalo, told journalists on Tuesday that they were “unable to conclude the electoral process”.

Reading a statement to reporters, Djalo said all of the tally sheets were destroyed except for those from Bissau, the country’s capital.

On Monday, members of the CNE met with a senior delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), who asked whether the body could release the results.

“We answered them no,” Djalo told reporters, describing how in the morning before the coup, “armed men wearing balaclavas burst into the tabulation room”.

Gunmen storm party headquarters as military cements power in Guinea-Bissau

According to Djalo, the men arrested the CNE president and five Supreme Court judges who were present, and additionally threatened 45 agents.

“They seized their phones and computers and destroyed all the tally sheets. We only have the tally sheets from Bissau,” Djalo said.

“The main server was destroyed. The tally sheets from Oio and Cacheu, which were being transferred, were intercepted and confiscated by other men. All the equipment was destroyed.”

Statement ‘under duress’

CNE president Mpabi Cabi, who was detained for five days, made his first public appearance alongside Djalo but did not address journalists.

According to Muniro Conte, the spokesperson for the historic opposition party, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea (PAIGC), this statement was made under duress.

“We all know that the Independent National Electoral Commission is under pressure,” he told RFI’s correspondent.

“It must be said that there are no security conditions for the announcement of the results. That’s reasonable, that’s acceptable. But when they say it’s a question of data entry, that’s not true. The data has been backed up.”

He asserts that it would be possible to compile the results using the existing tally sheets, given that each candidate’s representative received a copy.

This same solution has been put forward by opposition leader Fernando Dias da Costa of the Social Renovation Party (PRS), who on Tuesday was granted asylum by the Nigerian embassy in Guinea-Bissau.

“If the head of the CNE has lost data, then people should come together and compare it,” he said.

“Therefore, for us, it is still possible to announce the election results because it’s not only the CNE that has data. We all have data. I won the elections, and I even know by what percentage.”

Ecowas talks ‘productive’

The military takeover, which came before the official results of the 23 November presidential and parliamentary elections could be announced, has drawn condemnation from several organisations including the United Nations and the African Union.

Ecowas, which suspended Guinea-Bissau from all decision-making bodies until constitutional order is restored, sent a delegation to meet the junta on Monday.

Sierra Leone’s Foreign Minister Alhaji Musa Timothy Kabba told the press that while the discussions were “productive”, “both parties expressed their concerns”.

The junta again justified its seizure of power as a way to “preserve order and security,” and has already sworn in a new transitional leader, General Horta N’Tam, who will lead the country for one year.

Guinea-Bissau general sworn in as transitional president following coup

Seven civil society organisations have signed a pact demanding a return to constitutional order, the release of detainees, and the publication and respect of the election results.

The Guinean League for Human Rights expressed concern on Tuesday for people still in detention, including veteran opposition leader Domingo Simoes Pereira, as well as a member of his campaign team and an official from the PAIGC. Guinea-Bissau’s Attorney General, Fernando Gomez, also remains in detention.

Ecowas said it will address the case of Guinea-Bissau at an extraordinary meeting of the region’s heads of state on 14 December.

Motive unclear

The motive for the coup remains unclear, with speculation in some quarters that it was carried out with the blessing of President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, who has found refuge in the Republic of the Congo.

The opposition and some experts have suggested that Embalo, in power since 2020, orchestrated the takeover to halt the electoral process.

Sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, Guinea-Bissau has already seen four coups and a host of attempted takeovers since gaining independence from Portugal in 1974.

Among the world’s poorest countries, it has now joined the likes of Burkina Faso, Mali, Madagascar, Niger and Sudan on the list of states suspended from the African Union following coups.

(with AFP)

Daouda Koné, the ORTM director based in Douentza in central Mali, and his cameraman Salif Sangaré were taken on 14 October while travelling between Sévaré, a major road junction near Mopti, and Konna, a town further northeast on the Niger River flood plain.

The footage shows both men wearing boubous in front of a cloth backdrop that hides their surroundings. They look dejected but appear in good health.

Speaking under duress, the pair said they were being treated well and called on those watching to “do everything possible” to free them.

After viewing the clips, ORTM journalists told RFI they were “hard to watch” and “it hurts a lot”.

Mali’s transitional authorities – the military-led government that took power after coups in 2020 and 2021 – have offered no public reaction since the men were taken a month and a half ago.

Mali faces record number of kidnappings of foreigners by jihadist group

Wish for ‘discretion’

Management at ORTM and national journalist organisations have also remained silent.

There has been no official statement following the release of the video either. One source said there was a wish for “discretion” and “effectiveness”.

Local sources said community leaders from the Mopti region had opened discussions with JNIM, an al-Qaeda-linked militant group known for attacks, kidnappings and assaults on security forces across the Sahel.

Some sources said they were surprised by the publication of the footage and now fear the situation may be stuck. An ORTM journalist said: “We hope to find our colleagues safe and sound soon.”

Mali under pressure to end fuel crisis as negotiations with jihadists stall

Fuel embargo

In a separate move, Mali’s transitional authorities have decorated fuel operators and drivers taking part in fuel convoys, including some who were killed.

It comes during an embargo on fuel imports to the country declared in early September by JNIM, which is linked to al-Qaeda and has carried out repeated attacks on tankers on Malian roads.

Presidential decrees published in the Official Journal on 1 December granted honours to 16 oil company executives and union leaders, to 31 injured drivers and, posthumously, to 27 drivers killed on Malian roads, including three Ivorians and one Burkinabè.

The recognition reflects the support given by fuel operators and the sacrifices made by transport workers who continue trying to supply the country.

Military escorts have been strengthened and administrative procedures sped up in the past 10 days, easing pressure on the capital.

The German president’s visit will feature all the regal splendour expected of such an occasion – a state banquet at Windsor Castle and a rare address to both houses of parliament are on the agenda, signalling the importance London and Berlin now place on their rekindled partnership.

However, behind the pomp and ceremony lies a practical purpose, as Steinmeier will meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer for talks centred on their countries’ joint support for Ukraine as it continues to defend itself against Russia.

The war has become the key driver of British–German co-operation, bringing the two European powers closer than at any point in years.

Steinmeier’s trip reciprocates King Charles III’s own 2023 state visit to Germany – his first as monarch – and has been seen in Berlin as a symbolic marker of renewed goodwill. The president’s office described the moment as “a new era in relations between our two countries”.

After a stretch in which “Great Britain distanced itself from Europe”, there is now a clear sense that the UK is “moving back”. Steinmeier himself was sharply critical during the Brexit referendum campaign, accusing “irresponsible politicians” of having “lured” the country into departing the EU – behaviour he once branded “outrageous”.

Nevertheless, relations began to thaw under former Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak and have continued to strengthen under Starmer’s centre-left government.

Both the UK and German governments have worked to steady ties in the face of rising pressure at home from hard-right, anti-immigration parties – Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Eurosceptic Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage.

German president visits Spanish town of Guernica, hit by Nazi bombs in 1937

Security first 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the turbulence of the Trump administration have prompted Europe’s major powers to deepen their own lines of communication – including former World War adversaries Britain and Germany.

The two countries have markedly stepped up their collaboration. In October 2024, they signed a defence pact, followed in July by their first-ever “friendship treaty”. Both moves reflected the growing security reliance between western Europe’s two biggest military spenders.

“The core of the relationship is in the security and foreign policy field,” said Nicolai von Ondarza of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. Yet, he told reporters, the UK remains “much less present in German political debate than it has been in the past”.

He believes there is scope for Britain to move further towards its European partners, but that Berlin harbours “apprehension that the current Labour government won’t be courageous enough to move further on cooperation with the EU”, especially with Farage’s polling numbers on the rise.

The 2024 friendship treaty also included commitments on tackling irregular migration and boosting cultural and educational exchange – areas expected to feature in the leaders’ talks.

How Germany’s Nuremberg trial for Nazi crimes transformed international law

Remembering the past, focus on the future

Historical reflection is an important part of Steinmeier’s trip. On Friday he will visit Coventry, a city devastated by German bombing in World War II, where he will lay a wreath at the city’s cathedral.

In a display of reconciliation, he will be joined by members of the Luftwaffe alongside British servicemen, underscoring how far the two nations’ military ties have evolved.

He will also meet school groups from Coventry and Dresden – itself one of the German cities most heavily bombed by the Allies – for a discussion on shared history and future co-operation.

The president will then travel to Oxford to receive an honorary doctorate and visit the facilities of a Siemens subsidiary.

Business links will be a strong theme throughout the trip, as representatives from Siemens, BMW, Deutsche Bank, RWE and other major German firms will accompany Steinmeier.

Mercedes, meanwhile, is set to unveil a €22 million electric-vehicle technology project expected to generate around 150 jobs in the UK – a significant boost to Britain’s growing EV sector.

Steinmeier will also stop by a school in east London on Thursday, joined by former German international football star Per Mertesacker and Arsenal forward Kai Havertz.

(with newswires)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday that the EU intends to cover two-thirds of Ukraine’s projected needs for 2026 and 2027.

The International Monetary Fund estimates Kyiv will require around €137 billion over that period, and Brussels aims to contribute €90 billion of that sum through what it calls a “reparations loan” backed by frozen Russian funds.

“Today we are sending a very strong message to the Ukrainian people. We are with them for the long haul,” von der Leyen said as she presented the plan, which would use Russian money as collateral rather than seizing it outright.

She argued that harnessing the frozen assets would boost Ukraine’s position in future peace talks with Moscow and Washington, while signalling to the Kremlin that prolonging the war “comes with a high cost”.

She also confirmed she had briefed the United States administration on the proposal.

EU leaders have already committed to supporting Ukraine through 2026-27, and the bloc has poured in more than €170 billion since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.

If the reparations loan plan fails to secure political backing, von der Leyen said the EU could instead borrow on international markets – but that fallback would require unanimous approval, giving Hungary an effective veto.

Russia has denounced the concept of reparation loans as outright “theft”.

Von der Leyen urges stronger EU response to Russia’s ‘hybrid war’

Belgium rejects ‘worst option’

As it stands, the largest pool of potential funding lies in the €210 billion in Russian assets immobilised in Europe, most of which – around €194 billion – sits in Belgium.

To calm nerves in Brussels, the European Commission has drafted a complex suite of safeguards, including measures against possible Russian retaliation, a ban on releasing any frozen assets and a framework for collective EU borrowing to guarantee loans to Ukraine.

However, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot was unconvinced.

Speaking in Brussels, Prévot called the reparations loan option “the worst of all, as it is risky. It has never been done before”.

Reading from prepared notes at NATO headquarters, he urged fellow member states to opt for the more conventional route of EU-backed borrowing on global markets.

“It is a well-known, robust and well-established option with predictable parameters,” he said.

He warned that the Commission’s proposal leaves Belgium to bear too much of the fallout should Russia challenge the scheme, or should Euroclear – the Brussels-based financial clearing house holding most of the frozen assets – face legal trouble.

“It is not acceptable to use the money and leave us alone facing the risks,” he said. “We are simply seeking to avoid potential disastrous consequences for a member state that is being asked to show solidarity without being offered the same solidarity in return.”

EU Commission chief calls for defence ‘surge’ in address to EU parliament

‘We will share the burden’

Under the Commission’s plan, the €90 billion would effectively constitute an advance on the vast reparations Kyiv expects from Moscow for the destruction caused by the war.

Ukraine would reimburse the loan once Russia pays up. If it refuses, the assets will remain indefinitely frozen.

Von der Leyen insisted the EU had taken Belgium’s objections seriously. “We have listened very carefully to Belgium’s concerns, and we have taken almost all of them into account in our proposal,” she said. “We will share the burden in a fair way, as it is the European way.”

Other member states echoed Belgium’s worries, yet stressed the urgency of keeping Ukraine afloat.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Belgium’s fears were “justified” but resolvable – “if we are prepared to take responsibility together”.

Meanwhile, Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel underlined the importance of the frozen funds for supporting Ukraine’s economy. “We understand the Belgian concerns, and we are willing to at least make sure that they are not alone in this,” he said.

Several countries have already signalled readiness to provide financial guarantees if required.

Belgium itself has been earning tax income from the frozen funds, and interest generated on the assets is already helping finance a G7-organised loan programme for Ukraine.

However, the European Central Bank has warned that an EU-level reparations loan could unsettle confidence in the euro on global markets.

EU leaders will meet again at a summit in Brussels on 18 December.

(with newswires)

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.

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. You must get your resolutions to me by 15 December to be included in the show. 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 counselled on the best-suited activities for your level according to your score.

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

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This week’s quiz: On 1 November, I asked you to listen to RFI English journalist Melissa Chemam’s podcast Spotlight on Africa: “Inside Côte d’Ivoire’s pivotal election: voices of hope and uncertainty”. Melissa had traveled to Côte d’Ivoire to cover their presidential election and talked to a wide variety of people about their hopes, their fears, and their desires for their country. Near the beginning of the show, Melissa talks about women who, she says, were very involved in the campaigns – as event organizers, supporters, and mothers. Melissa enumerates the main concerns of the Ivorian women – and that was your question. What are the four main concerns the women of Côte d’Ivoire voiced during the presidential campaign?

The answers are, as Melissa noted in her podcast, work, school for kids, childcare, and healthcare.

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: How do you make friends as an adult?

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Father Stephen Wara. Father Stephen is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations on your double win, Father Steve!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are RFI Listeners Club members Zenon Teles, the president of the Christian – Marxist – Leninist – Maoist Association of Listening DX-ers in Goa, India; Radhakrishna Pillai from Kerala State in India; Helmut Matt from Herzbolheim, Germany, and last but not least, Dipita Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Tapez fort” produced by DJ Tevecinq; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams;  “Little Toot” by Allie Wrubel, sung by the Andrews Sisters, and “Little Rootie Tootie” by Thelonious Monk, performed by Monk and the Thelonius Monk Trio. 

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 Jan van der Made’s article “On NATO’s eastern flank, Romania finds itself at the crux of European security”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 19 January to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 24 January 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. 

The recent murder in Marseille of 20-year-old Mehdi Kessaci, the younger brother of a well-known anti-drugs campaigner, has highlighted the growing problem of drug-related organised crime in France. The government has promised tougher repressive measures, but what if civil society also had a role to play? Inspired by the example of Italy, the Crim’HALT association campaigns for the official recognition of victims of organised crime. Its co-founder, Fabrice Rizzoli, talks about taking ordinary citizens to see firsthand how Italian anti-mafia initiatives work. Jean-Toussaint Plasenzotti, who founded the anti-mafia collective Massimu Susini following the murder of his nephew in 2019 in Corsica, and Hassna Arabi, whose relative Socayna was killed by a stray bullet in 2023, explain how travelling to Italy with Crim-HALT has helped their work back home. (Listen @0′)

As Europe looks to increase its defence capacity in the face of war in Ukraine and threats from Russia, French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a special military service aimed at recruiting a new generation of soldiers. Unlike the mandatory military service that was suspended in 1997, the new format would be voluntary – and paid. Historian and army reservist Guillaume Lasconjarias says that in providing a way for young people to be of service, the scheme responds to something they want. (Listen @17’30”)

Forty years after Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped Paris’s Pont Neuf in September 1985, opening the door to monumental public art displays, the city has approved a new project on the bridge by artist JR. (Listen @11’45”)

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani.

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).

France is once again mired in political turmoil after the National Assembly last week overwhelmingly rejected the revenue side of the 2026 budget.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is trying a new method: rather than attempting to push a full budget through a fractured parliament, he aims to break spending into “absolute priorities” – security, energy, agriculture and state reform – and put each item to MPs separately.

The move is intended to avoid another budget showdown, after two years of governmental instability that have steadily chipped away at President Emmanuel Macron’s authority.

Critics, however, argue that the plan is merely a repackaged version of political improvisation – a delay tactic that risks further weakening France’s credibility at home and on the world stage.

Jean-François Husson, the Senate’s general rapporteur for the budget, delivered one of the sharpest criticisms of Lecornu’s move, describing it as a chaotic and ill-timed intervention.

“If you want to give the French a dizzying ride, you could hardly do it better than this,” he remarked, arguing that the government’s approach was generating more confusion than clarity.

For author and political strategist Gerald Olivier, there is a deeper problem.

“France is sick, and France has been sick for a while,” he says. “We’re basically looking at a country with no government, no parliamentary majority and a total impossibility for any prime minister to put forward a credible programme.”

French lawmakers roundly reject income part of budget bill, send it to Senate

France technically needs to pass its budget by 31 December, but Olivier is quick to point out that this deadline has been missed before. “Last year, the budget wasn’t passed until February,” he notes.

If the same thing happens this time, the government can fall back on a temporary financial law that keeps spending aligned with the previous year’s budget for up to 70 days. A more drastic option – to rule by decree – exists as a constitutional backstop.

“This crisis exists because there is no majority in parliament,” Olivier says. “And it’s also because no party has had the courage to face the kind of medicine that France needs. That’s the larger issue.”

International credibility

As a major European power, France’s domestic politics do not stay domestic for long. International investors and European Union partners are watching closely, especially after recent warnings from credit-rating agencies about France’s deficit trajectory.

According to Olivier, the damage is already evident. “France is already in a recession, and there are investments simply passing the country by,” he argues. “No one knows what its tax status will be in the coming years.”

That uncertainty could have a ripple effect across the continent. France, he warns, risks becoming “economically weak and therefore politically weak within Europe”, potentially deepening divisions between EU member states.

France’s economy minister warns latest credit downgrade a ‘wake-up call’

“The one reassuring piece of news is that France is not the only one in this situation. Germany is in dire shape, Italy is shaky, Sweden is having problems. It seems today that everyone in Europe is the sick man of Europe,” he added.

Periods of political instability often attract external opportunists – whether governments, speculators or hostile influence campaigns. But Olivier remains cautious when asked whether foreign actors are already exploiting France’s woes.

“I don’t necessarily see it,” he says, “but if you want to consider fictional scenarios, you could find many.”

France’s EU membership, he argues, offers a buffer. “Having the EU behind you is reassuring. The idea of ‘Frexit’ would be disastrous. The euro provides protection.”

Still, the consequences of weakened governance can extend beyond the economy. A fragile budget could force France to scale back overseas military deployments – a shift that could alter power dynamics in parts of Africa and the Middle East. “This kind of instability is not healthy for anyone,” Olivier says.

A president without momentum

Macron’s political capital has been in decline since the 2022 legislative elections, when he lost his absolute majority. The surprise dissolution of the Assembly after the 2024 European elections only worsened matters, splitting the parliament into three mutually hostile blocs.

“It’s done tremendous damage to Macron,” Olivier says. “He was re-elected in 2022 because people didn’t want Marine Le Pen. He didn’t have the support he had in 2017, and disappointment set in.”

He argues that Macron himself triggered the crisis. “He dissolved the Assembly for no reason. The European elections had no influence on French politics, but he reacted as if they did – and he made things worse.”

Could the president break the deadlock? In theory, yes. “Macron could solve it instantly by resigning,” Olivier notes. “That would trigger a new presidential election, followed by fresh parliamentary elections. That’s how institutions are supposed to function.” But he sees no sign that Macron intends to take that step.

For now, he predicts “another 18 months of instability” with the possibility of yet another government reshuffle. “We’ve had four governments in 12 months. We could have a fifth one next year. There is no telling.”

France’s Le Pen asks Bardella to prepare for 2027 presidential bid

Eyes on 2027

With Macron unable to stand again, attention is already turning to the 2027 presidential race.

The National Rally – headed by Marine Le Pen and her rising protégé Jordan Bardella – enters the campaign in a strong position. Republican Bruno Retailleau could emerge from the right, France Unbowed’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon or Socialist Olivier Faure from the left. Names from the centre such as MEP Raphaël Glucksmann and the former prime minister from Macron’s Renaissance party, Manuel Valls, have been floated too.

Olivier’s concern is not who the candidates are but how honest they will be about the situation.

“No one is willing to say the country needs to make sacrifices,” he warns. “France is in debt up to 115 percent of GDP. Public spending is too high. But nobody wants to tell voters that the social state cannot remain as generous as it is.”

He singles out one controversial, far-right figure: “The only person honest about the economic reality is Éric Zemmour – and there is zero chance he will be the next president.”

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.

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. You must get your resolutions to me by 15 December to be included in the show. 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 counselled on the best-suited activities for your level according to your score.

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

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This week’s quiz: On 25 October, just days after the famous theft of the French crown jewels from the Louvre, I asked you a question about another famous theft from the Louvre. You were to re-read our article “Paris police hunt Louvre thieves after priceless jewels vanish in daring heist”, and send in the answers to these three questions: Which artwork was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, and by whom? How did he do it?

The answers are, to quote our article: “In 1911, the Mona Lisa famously vanished from its frame, spirited away by Vincenzo Peruggia, a former museum employee who hid overnight in a broom cupboard and simply walked out with the painting under his coat.”

Interesting fun fact, also in our article: The Mona Lisa at that time was not a famous painting at all. Because the theft made global headlines, when it was recovered two years later in Florence, it had become the most famous painting in the world.

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: What “Instant Karma” incident have you been involved in?  

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Jayanta Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India. Jayanta is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations on your double win, Jayanta.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Naved Rayan, the president of the RFI Fan Club in Murshidibad, India. There are RFI Listeners Club members Sahadot Hossain from Kishoreganj, Bangladesh and Karobi Hazarika from Assam, India, and last but not least, RFI English listener Khizar Hayat Shah, the president of the Sadat Listeners Club in Punjab, Pakistan.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: The “Hunting Song” from Felix Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words Op.19 No.3, performed by Daniel Barenboim; the theme from To Catch a Thief by Armando Trovajoli; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “The Harder They Come” by Jimmy Cliff, performed by Jimmy Cliff and his ensemble.  

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read our article “France says goodbye to star pandas going back to China”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 12 January to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 17 January podcast. When you enter, be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

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

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

In Sudan, the UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, said last week that atrocities in Darfur – where the rebellious RSF are fiercely battling the regular army and targeting civilians – have been met with indifference and “complete impunity”.

He made the remarks following a visit to the devastated Sudanese region.

Chad has consequently become a refuge for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the conflict in Sudan – and as violence against civilians intensifies in Darfur, even more are crossing the border. The influx is placing severe pressure on already scarce resources in one of Africa’s poorest countries.

Meanwhile, Charlotte Slente, Secretary General of the Danish Refugee Council, travelled to eastern Chad recently and spoke to us while on the ground visiting refugee camps. She said that the escalating humanitarian crisis urgently requires the world’s attention and that she expects more people to flee Sudan in search of safety and basic survival.

As thousands flee, Sudan’s war spills over into humanitarian crisis in Chad

Last weekend in South Africa, the final event of the country’s G20 South African presidency – the heads of state summit  – took place in Johannesburg, aiming to secure commitments on debt relief for developing countries and to address global inequalities.

World leaders signed a declaration reflecting a “renewed commitment to multilateral cooperation”, according to South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa.

We have two guests reflecting on this significant year for Africa:

• Désiré Assogbavi, Adviser for Africa at the Open Society Foundations, a lawyer and international development expert in African institutions, policy, and politics, who took part in many of this year’s meetings in South Africa, including the Heads of State Summit in Johannesburg this weekend;

• Ivor Ichikowitz, founder and director of the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, which has produced the comprehensive African Youth Survey G20 Briefing to better understand what young Africans expect from this moment of leadership.

South Africa closes G20 year framed as ‘presidency for all of Africa’

Finally, we’ll hear from my colleague Ollia Horton, who recently met in Paris with the Ghanaian artist Emmanuel Aggrey Tieku, a civil engineer by profession and an artist at heart.

A stitch in time: the Ghanaian artist sewing trash into treasure

He has found an innovative way to raise awareness of the problem of textile waste in his native Ghana.

His  installations are stitched together from hundreds of pieces of used clothing, collected from cities around the world as part of a project that has spanned decades.

Episode mixed by Melissa Chemam and Erwan Rome.

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

Erdogan told reporters alongside Zelensky that Turkey was ready to resume the “Istanbul Process”, the term Ankara uses for earlier talks between Ukraine and Russia.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Erdogan has strengthened ties with Vladimir Putin and has said those relations help efforts to end the fighting.

But Sinan Ciddi, of the US think tank the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said Washington’s latest actions suggest Ankara’s influence is fading.

Ankara’s mediation, he said, had not produced results for either the Trump administration or its Western allies and has done little to move the conflict closer to a ceasefire or peace deal. “Washington is going its own way,” said Ciddi.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is leading Washington’s peace efforts, did not attend the meeting in Ankara despite earlier reports he would.

Some analysts say Ankara overplayed its hand by suggesting it could use its ties with Putin to deliver a summit that never happened.

Israel talks defence with Greece and Cyprus, as Turkey issues Netanyahu warrant

Changing diplomatic landscape

Russia-Turkey expert Zaur Gasimov, of the German Academic Exchange Service, said Ankara’s role has been weakened, with other countries such as Hungary now seen as possible venues for talks.

Donald Trump’s decision to deal directly with Moscow, he added, reduces the need for Turkey as a go-between.

“Russia at the moment is not interested in any kind of peace negotiations with Kiev. But Putin and Moscow are interested in direct negotiations with the United States on this issue and possibly other issues,” Gasimov said, adding that Russia still values its ties with Ankara.

“For Russia, contacts with Turkey are of paramount importance, being isolated by anti-Russian sanctions.”

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

Energy pressure on Ankara

Erdogan has refused to enforce most Western sanctions on Russia, saying his relationship with Moscow is needed to build peace.

But during Erdogan’s September visit to Washington, Trump told him to end imports of Russian energy, which make up around half of Turkey’s needs.

Erdogan appears to be responding, as Russian oil imports have fallen in recent weeks.

Ankara is also trying to strengthen its security ties with the European Union. Direct summits between Putin and Erdogan were once common but are now rare, with their meetings limited to the sidelines of international events.

“There is clearly a move, more effort to restore and bolster relationships with the Western world,” former Turkish ambassador Timur Soylemez told RFI.

Trump tests Turkey’s energy dependence on Russia with lure of US power

Balancing relations with Russia

Soylemez said Ankara will still try to avoid harming its relations with Moscow.

“The view from Ankara is that it’s never a zero-sum game. Actually, the trick is to prevent it from being a zero-sum game. I think that would be an ongoing effort right now,” Soylemez said.

Turkey’s ability to balance both sides, he added, remains important for a long-term peace.

“Turkish diplomacy and Turkey in general have shown there is a role for us to play,” Soylemez said.

“For example, the Black Sea, when it comes to prison exchange, when it comes to de-escalation on different topics. Basically, because we have a channel to both sides and we’re trusted by both sides.”

Turkey is working with its Black Sea NATO partners on mine clearance. Analysts say this could later help secure safe passage for Ukrainian ships under a peace deal.

But the targeting on Monday of a Turkish-flagged ship carrying a gas cargo at the port of Izmail in Ukraine by suspected Russian drones shows the risks Turkey faces as it tries to strengthen relations with Western allies without provoking Moscow.

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.