Peter Cherif, 42, faces terrorism-related offences allegedly committed between 2011 and 2018, when he was in Yemen within the ranks of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) – the al-Qaeda affiliate that claimed responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

He also faces charges relating to the 2011 kidnapping and detention in Yemen of three French aid workers, members of the humanitarian organisation Triangle génération humanitaire.

He risks life imprisonment if convicted.

Cherif, also known as Abou Hamza, was arrested in Djibouti in December 2018 after years of allegedly fighting in the ranks of AQAP.

At the time of his arrest, the then minister for the armed forces said it was “very good news because this terrorist played an important role in organising the Charlie Hebdo attack”.

The Paris court now has to establish how significant that role was.

From Paris to Iraq and back

Cherif grew up with Saïd and Cherif Kouachi – the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo attack – in the north-east of Paris.

All three were members of the so-called “Buttes-Chaumont” terrorist network, led by preacher Farid Benyettou.

In 2004, Cherif left to fight in Iraq within the ranks of al-Qaeda. He was captured a few months later by US forces and sentenced to 15 years in a prison in Baghdad, but escaped to Syria in 2007.

He was later extradited to France, sentenced to five years in prison in 2011, but fled to Yemen before serving his time.

In 2015 he was placed on a US “designated global terrorist” list as a member of AQAP.

He spent seven years in Yemen before moving to Djibouti in 2018 under a false identity, with his wife, who later died, and their two children.

Just three months later, he was arrested and handed over to France.

For Charlie Hebdo lawyer Richard Malka, the trial will be important in understanding Cherif’s trajectory.

“He was born into a Christian family and converted to Islam. He wanted to be a paratrooper, but ended up a jihadist,” Malka told RFI. 

“He went from the Buttes de Chaumont to Bin Laden. His trajectory is obviously full of lessons worth meditating on. But it’s been more or less followed by tens of thousands of young people all over Europe.”

Who were the Charlie Hebdo killers?

‘Facilitating’ the mission

Cherif is accused of “participating” in AQAP’s military activities, and “contributing to the manufacture of improvised explosive devices and searching for targets for attacks”.

Investigating judges believe that he “facilitated the integration into AQAP of one of the Kouachi brothers, most probably Chérif”, and that he had knowledge of the plan to carry out an attack in France.

According to several witnesses, including Cherif’s late girlfriend, AQAP advised foreign fighters in Yemen to return to their countries of origin to stage attacks.

Cherif is also believed to have maintained contact with Cherif Kouachi on his return to France.

Wiretapping of Cherif’s cell showed “the persistence of his radical Islamist convictions” and “his rejection of French society”, investigators said.

However, during the investigation, Cherif denied any knowledge of such a mission.

In 2020, he was a witness during the trial over the 2015 attacks and claimed to have had “nothing to do” with the operation.

Sefen Guez Guez, one of his lawyers, told French news agency AFP:  “Cherif knows that the Charlie Hebdo trial weighs heavily in the balance, but he will come forward with a sincere statement.”

France steps up plans to deal with Islamic radicalisation from the Caucasus

Few remaining Charlie Hebdo suspects

Seventeen people died in the Charlie Hebdo attack, including 12 killed by Saïd and Cherif Kouachi.

The brothers were shot dead by police two days after the massacre, so were never tried.

Lawyer Richard Malka hopes the trial will provide more insight into the process of radicalisation.

“What makes people abandon some of the most comfortable countries in the world, even if they’re not perfect, to go and live in total barbarism and behead and slit people’s throats? How is that possible? he said.

“This trial will perhaps be an opportunity to go a bit further as [Cherif] is the only individual accused of instigating the attacks to have faced trial.”

The trial runs through to 4 October.

(with newswires)

Breton’s unexpected resignation Monday comes a day before von der Leyen was expected to announce the makeup of the next Commission following June’s European Parliament elections.

Breton has serve as the bloc’s internal market commissioner since 2019, and French President Emmanuel Macron had put forward Breton’s name to be reappointed, which had been taken as a given.

His portfolio also included defence and space, and he had been tipped to get a promotion to be a commission vice president stewarding industrial growth.

But Breton said that von der Leyen had asked him to step down.

Asked to step down

“In the very final stretch of negotiations on the composition of the future College, you asked France to withdraw my name,” Breton wrote in a letter to von der Leyen, posted on X.

He said the request was made “for personal reasons” that had not been discussed directly with him, and that von der Leyen had “offered, as a political trade-off, an allegedly more influential portfolio for France in the future College”.

“You will now be proposed a different candidate,” he said.

Macron’s office on Monday said that he had proposed Stephane Sejourne, the country’s outgoing foreign minister and a close political ally, to replace Breton. 

Tense relationship

One of the EU’s most influential figures, Breton has had a strained relationship with the von der Leyen during their five years together in the EU’s executive arm.

He reportedly angered her by publicly criticising her nomination as the conservative EPP’s party candidate to head the Commission for a second term.

Von der Leyen has been pushing member countries to put forward more women commissioners, after most, including France, ignored her request for a choice between one man and one woman candidate.

As the EU’s second-biggest member state, France is vying for a major post in the new 27-member Commission.

How the portfolios are divvied up will send a strong signal regarding the EU’s political direction and the relative influence of each member state.

Having to replace Breton adds to France’s political tension as Macron’s newly-appointed Prime Minister Michel Barnier is still trying to pull together a new government.

(with newswires)

The ministry, known as the Quai d’Orsay, says it is committed to ensuring that more women are nominated for major posts and to supporting the career advancement of female staff.

In a report published on “feminist diplomacy” in July 2023, France’s High Council on Equality – an independent French consultative body reporting to the Prime Minister – lamented that within the foreign ministry, men still occupied the most prestigious positions.

In setting new targets, the ministry is now aiming for a proportion of 40 percent of female first-time nominees by 2026 and intends to reach a proportion of 40 percent of women in senior positions by 2027.

According to the ministry, this year more than 45 percent of ambassadors appointed for the first time will be women, while among newly-appointed consuls-general, over 40 percent will also be women.

Particular attention will also be paid to salaries.

Women’s health ‘key issue’

Starting in January, the Quai d’Orsay will endeavour to identify the functions where gender imbalance is most glaring, with a view to redressing the situation.

The ministry says it will ensure that women have fairer access to posts abroad where the residence allowance is highest.

Other measures include those relating to women’s health, presented as “an issue for a successful working life”.

Push for gender equality stalls as men dominate nominations for EU commission

Notable decisions include covering the cost of air travel to France for staff working in countries where abortion is prohibited or sanctioned, and all foreign affairs employees will undergo training in the fight against sexual violence.

“The plan has been drawn up in full consultation with the trade unions,” the ministry said.

As a sign that equality for women is also a matter for men, Julien Steimer – the Director General of Administration – will be oversee the plan’s implementation.

Since December 2019, public employers in France are required to implement a multi-year action plan on professional equality.

In a travel advisory published Sunday, the French foreign ministry urged French nationals to put off travel to Venezuela, and called on those who are there to stay away from political demonstrations or meetings and avoid making any public statements about the political situation in the country.

The ministry said this was due to a “resurgence of tensions” following the 28 June presidential election which sparked mass opposition protests against Nicolas Maduro’s contention that he won.

A large part of the international community, including the European Union, has not recongised Maduro’s win because of alleged electoral fraud. The United States has recognised opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzales the winner.

On Sunday the Venezuelan Interior Minister announced the arrest of six foreign nationals, including three Americans, two Spanish and a Czech, accused of being involved in an alleged CIA-backed plot to assassinate Maduro.

The United States has rejected the accusations from Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who said that hundreds of arms had been confiscated, and said the detainees had “contacted French mercenaries” to try to attack Venezuela.

The arrests come after the US placed 16 senior government officials under sanctions Thursday, and the Spanish parliament earlier this week recognised Gonzalez, who has taken refuge in Spain, as the winner of the election.

(with AFP)

Mali’s leader said Sunday that the three countries would soon be putting into circulation a biometric passport of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

The introduction is being done “with the aim of harmonising travel documents in our common area and facilitating the mobility of our citizens throughout the world”, Mali’s junta leader Assimi Goita said in a televised address on Sunday evening.

He spoke on the eve of the one year anniversary of the three countries’ decision to form their own alliance, after cutting ties with France.

In January Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger quit the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which they said was under the influence of former colonial powers.

Goita on Sunday also promised that a common investment bank and stabilisation funds would be put in place, along with a common news channel to “promote a harmonious dissemination of information in our three states”.

• Malian junta suspends TV5 Monde, citing ‘lack of balance’ in reporting

Ecowas, which has sought to convince the three countries, which have been run by military leaders since a series of coups started in 2020, to reconsider their decision to leave, and has warned that their withdrawal would undermine the freedom of movement and common market of the 400 million people living in the bloc.

(with Reuters)

Berlin announced the sweeping measure following a string of deadly extremist attacks that have stoked public fears and boosted support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Sunday said that the step aimed to limit irregular migration and “put a stop to criminals and identify and stop Islamists at an early stage”.

The border controls will be in place for an initial six months and are expected to include temporary structures at land crossings and spot checks by federal police.

Poland and Austria have voiced concern and the European Commission has warned that members of the 27-nation bloc must only impose such steps in exceptional circumstances.

Germany lies at the heart of Europe and borders nine countries that are part of the visa-free Schengen zone, designed to allow the free movement of people and goods.

Border controls with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland were already in place before the crackdown was announced.

These will now be expanded to Germany’s borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.

Faeser said the government hoped to minimise the impact on people living and working in border regions, promising “coordination with our neighbouring countries”.

The interior ministry however noted that travellers should carry identification when crossing the border.

Islamist attacks

In recent weeks, a string of extremist attacks have shocked Germany, fuelling rising public anger.

Last month, a man on a knife rampage killed three people and wounded eight more at a festival in the western city of Solingen.

The Syrian suspect, who has alleged links to the Islamic State group, had been intended for deportation but managed to evade authorities.

The enforcement failure set off a bitter debate which marked the run-up to two regional polls in the formerly communist east, where the anti-immigration AfD scored unprecedented results.

With national elections looming next year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has been under intense political pressure to toughen its stance on migrants and asylum seekers.

Scholz was in Uzbekistan on Sunday to sign a migration deal for workers to come to Germany, while simplifying deportation procedures in the opposite direction so that “those that must go back do go back”, the chancellor said.

Closer to home, the German government has presented plans to speed up deportations to European partners.

Under EU rules, asylum requests are meant to be handled by the country of arrival. The system has placed a huge strain on countries on the European periphery, where leaders have demanded more burden-sharing.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that Germany tightening its borders means that it would “essentially pass the buck to countries located on the outer borders of Europe”.

Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said his country “will not accept people who are rejected from Germany”, while Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk condemned Germany’s move as “unacceptable”.

‘Welcome to the club’

Warsaw has also struggled with migration and accused Moscow of smuggling people from Africa and the Middle East into Europe by sending them through Belarus to the Polish border.

Berlin on Friday said that Tusk and Scholz had discussed the issue and agreed to strengthen EU external borders, “especially in view of the cynical instrumentalisation of migrants by Belarus”.

Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, meanwhile, mocked the German chancellor on social media site X, writing: “Bundeskanzler Scholz, welcome to the club! #StopMigration.”

Germany took in more than a million asylum seekers in 2015-16, many of them Syrians, and has hosted over a million Ukrainians since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022.

The extra burden on municipal authorities and integration services in Germany needed to be “taken into account” when talking about new border controls, Berlin’s interior ministry said.

In the Netherlands, Prime Minister Dick Schoof on Friday unveiled the country’s strictest migration policy yet, saying it will request an opt-out from EU common policy on asylum next week.

A four-party coalition dominated by far-right firebrand Geert Wilders’s Freedom Party wants to declare an “asylum crisis” to curb the influx of migrants through a tough set of rules including border controls.

(AFP)

The court proceedings – which began last week and are running until December – are open to the public at the request of Pelicot, who said she wished to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.

Pelicot, now 71, revealed her side of the story during 90 minutes of emotional testimony on Thursday.

For years, she said, she had had strange memory lapses and other health problems and thought she might have had Alzheimer’s.

In November 2020, she was invited to speak to investigators, who showed her the images of a decade of sexual abuse orchestrated and filmed by her husband – Dominique Pelicot – and her world fell apart, she said in court.

“The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” she told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband only by his last name.

Shame ‘must change sides’

She has requested for the trial to be made public so that “the shame changes sides”, one of her lawyers, Stéphane Babonneau told the press.

Gisele Pelicot said she was speaking for “every woman” who’s been drugged without knowing it.

“I’m taking back control of my life, to denounce chemical submission. Many women don’t have the proof. I have the proof of what I’ve been through,” she said.

Her case has inspired a number feminist movements to call for demonstrations across France on Friday and Saturday, “in support of Gisèle and all rape victims”.

With her now trademark auburn bob and dark glasses, Gisèle Pelicot has become a figurehead in the battle against the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.

She inspired Belgian graphic designer Aline Dessine to create a stylised portrait on social media which has become the symbol for protesters.

The artist has specified that any financial profit from the image should be donated to the charity “M’endors pas” created by Pelicot’s daughter Caroline.

Amy Bah, from the NousToutes collective, which is organising a rally in Lille, says that the aim of these marches is to say “thank Gisèle” for her courage.

“We admire you enormously. Thanks to you, it will encourage women to speak out. We know that she is doing this for others, so that it no longer happens, so that the shame changes sides,” Bah told France Inter radio on Saturday.

Important symbol

Anna Toumazoff, feminist activist said that “coming together was an important need among all the people who are following the trial.

“As a feminist personality on social networks, I received a lot of messages and comments about it,” she told Franceinfo.

“We saw how much is was a part of conversations, including among people who were not necessarily accustomed to feminist discussions,” Toumazoff says.

She said Gisèle’s decision to refuse to go behind closed doors was “an extremely important symbol”.

The trial has been adjourned to Monday after the key suspect was excused from attending over his deteriorating health, the court said.

Should Dominique Pelicot, 71, be unavailable to attend proceedings for a lengthy period of time, the trial will be postponed to a later date, presiding judge Roger Arata said Thursday.

Pelicot, who has admitted the allegations, was initially due to testify on Tuesday afternoon, but was on Monday excused from court over abdominal pain.

Computer files

Pelicot kept meticulous records of the abuse of his wife, discovered after police seized his computer and other equipment.

Most of the alleged rapes took place in the Pelicot home in Mazan, a village of 6,000 people in the southern region of Provence.

His daughter Caroline Darian, 45, has said her life was “literally turned upside down” when she heard of the alleged abuse.

Naked photomontages of her had also been found on his computer.

The couple’s two other sons are still due to speak.

Pelicot has been on trial since last week, along with 50 other men aged between 26 and 74.

Most risk up to 20 years in jail for aggravated rape.

(with newswires)

Since Thursday, swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia have been hit by high winds and unusually heavy rainfall.

The rains have flooded streets and submerged entire neighbourhoods in some places, while shutting down public transport and electricity in others.

On Saturday, four people died in floods in southeastern Romania, with the bodies found in the worst-affected region, Galati in the southeast, where 5,000 homes were damaged.

Another body was found in the same region on Sunday.

“We are again facing the effects of climate change, which are increasingly present on the European continent, with dramatic consequences,” Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis said.

‘Nothing left’

Hundreds of people have been rescued across 19 parts of the country, emergency services said, releasing a video of flooded homes in a village by the Danube river.

“This is a catastrophe of epic proportions,” said Emil Dragomir, mayor of Slobozia Conachi, a village in Galati, where he said 700 homes had been flooded.

Why climate change is heating Europe faster than the rest of the world

Romania’s interior minister said more than 15,000 people were affected in the region.

“The water came into the house, it destroyed the walls, everything,” Sofia Basalic, 60, a resident of Romania’s village of Pechea, in the Galati region, told French news agency AFP.

“It took the chickens, the rabbits, everything. It took the oven, the washing machine, the refrigerator. I have nothing left,” she said.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Sunday morning that “we have the first confirmed death by drowning, in the Klodzko region” on the Polish-Czech border in the southwest of the country, which has been hit hardest by the floods.

Around 1,600 people have been evacuated in Klodzko, and Polish authorities have called in the army to support firefighters.

Polish authorities shut the Golkowice border crossing with the Czech Republic after a river flooded its banks on Saturday, as well as closing several roads and halting trains on the line linking the towns of Prudnik and Nysa.

Sudden snow in the Tyrol

In northeastern Austria, a fireman indied in floods in the Lower Austria region, which has been classified as a natural disaster zone.

Emergency services had made nearly 5,000 interventions overnight in the area, where flooding had trapped many residents in their homes.

Storms, floods and fires: Have planetary conditions really become more extreme?

“For many residents, the upcoming hours will be the worst of their lives,” Johanna Mikl-Leitner, the governor of Lower Austriasaid.

Some areas of Austria’s Tyrol region were blanketed by up to a metre of snow – an exceptional situation for mid-September, which saw temperatures of up to 30C last week.

Rail services were suspended in the country’s east early Sunday and several metro lines were shut down in the capital Vienna, where the Wien river was threatening to overflow its banks, according to the APA news agency.

Heavy rains to continue

In the Czech Republic, police reported four people were missing Sunday.

Three were in a car that was swept into a river in the northeastern town of Lipova-Lazne, and another man was missing after being swept away by floods in the southeast.

A dam in the south of the country burst its banks, flooding towns and villages downstream.

In the village of Velke Hostice, residents put up a wall of sandbags 500 metres long in an effort to hold back the rising waters of the River Opava.

“If we don’t stop the wave, it will flood the lower part of the village,” local hunter Jaroslav Lexa told AFP.

Heavy rains are expected to continue until at least Monday in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Slovakia has declared a state of emergency in the capital, Bratislava.

(with AFP)

The French and British governments have sought for years to stop the flow of migrants, who pay smugglers thousands of euros per head for the passage to England from France aboard small boats.

A police source told French news agency AFP the accident occurred shortly after the boat embarked on Saturday.

Regional police chief Jacques Billant told a news conference on Sunday morning that 59 people had been aboard the vessel when it set off from Wimereux.

The eight victims were adult men from Eritrea, Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt and Iran.

Six people were transported to hospitals in Boulogne-sur-Mer and Calais, including a 10-month-old infant with hypothermia, Billant said.

Maritime authorities said Saturday that numerous attempts by migrants to make the perilous crossing in small boats have been attempted in recent days, with 200 people rescued in 24 hours over Friday and Saturday alone.

More cooperation needed

46 people have died while attempting to cross the Channel since the beginning of the year.

At least 12 migrants, mostly from Eritrea, died off the northern French coast when their boat carrying dozens of people capsized this month.

More than 22,000 migrants have arrived in England by crossing the Channel since the beginning of this year, according to British officials.

French minister says EU, UK need ‘migration treaty’ after Channel deaths

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and France’s President Emmanuel Macron pledged this summer to strengthen “cooperation” in handling the surge in undocumented migrant numbers.

The Channel crossings often prove perilous, and in November 2021, 27 migrants died when their boat capsized in the deadliest single such disaster to date.

French authorities seek to stop migrants taking to the water but do not intervene once they are afloat except for rescue purposes, citing safety concerns.

(with AFP)

The eight bronze bells were temporarily removed from the cathedral in July 2023 to allow ongoing restoration work to go on unhindered.

They returned to the capital on Thursday and were blessed in a special ceremony inside the cathedral.

Cathedral Rector Olivier Ribadeau Dumas said they were “a sign that the cathedral will again resonate, and that its voice will be heard again. A sign of the call to prayer, and a sign of coming together.”

The bells belong in the cathedral’s northern belfry and will be reinstalled in the coming weeks, Philippe Jost, the head of the public body overseeing the project, told French news agency AFP.

The cathedral reopens to the public on 8 December.

Five years after devastating fire, race to rebuild Notre-Dame gains pace

Symbol of rebirth

The bells were cleaned and renovated in the Normandy foundry where they were first cast in 2013.

They’re named after figures from the cathedral’s history, and vary in size.

“Gabriel”, the heaviest, weighs more than 4 tonnes while tiny tot “Jean-Marie” is a dainty 782 kilos.

They mostly just needed “a good clean” to remove lead dust thrown off by the church’s burning roof, Paul Bergamo, the head of the Cornille-Havard foundry, told Radio France.

“Marcel and Gabriel needed a bit more attention,” he added, including freshening up their gold leaf. 

A year after the fire: Notre-Dame, ‘the soul of France’, slumbers

The bells will be raised one by one and tested out, but won’t ring in full until the day of the reopening, said Jost, calling their arrival “a very beautiful symbol of the cathedral’s rebirth”.

While construction on the cathedral began in the 12th century, the bronze bells damaged in the fire were cast in 2013 to mark the monument’s 850th anniversary, replacing older bells that had become discordant.

Notre-Dame has 20 bells in total, including two massive 13-tonne “bourdons” in the south tower, which are rung for major church events such as Easter, Christmas or the death or election of a pope.

(with newswires)

The Paralympics in Paris shone a light on disability and the challenges disabled people in France face in getting access to sport. Novosports, one of only 40 sports clubs in the capital open to players with disabilities, is entirely focused on inclusive sports, where people with and without disabilities can train together. Club founder Jerome Rousseau talks about developing inclusive volleyball, and club members talk about the importance of opening sport up to everyone. (Listen @1’55”)

Decades before the Paralympic Games were born, the world’s first multi-discipline competition for athletes with a disability took place in Paris in the summer of 1924. Reserved for deaf competitors, the International Silent Games were a landmark in the history of inclusive sport and laid the foundations for today’s contests. Historian Didier Séguillon, curator of an exhibition on the Games at the National Institute for Deaf Young People, discusses their origins and legacy. (Listen @10’15”)

Since recent parliamentary elections in France failed to give any political party a ruling majority, the three main blocs – the left-wing NFP alliance, the centre-right Ensemble coalition and the far-right National Rally – have been at loggerheads. The new prime minister has to form a unity government, but this involves compromise on all sides – a notion that’s often equated in France with “giving in”. Laure Gillot-Assayag, a researcher in political science and philosophy, argues that in such a politically divided landscape, France needs a culture of compromise more than ever. (Listen @17’10”)

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompéani. 

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).

Around 300 French athletes and parathletes took part in the afternoon parade which featured more nearly 10,000 people in total, including volunteers and public sector workers such as garbage collectors.

It was the ultimate way to celebrate the French athletes who took part in the Olympics and Paralympics, deemed a stunning success by Committee President Tony Estanguet and international officials.

The 46-year-old said earlier this week that he “still can’t quite believe that it’s over.”

Estanguet said that the whole period would remain “etched in people’s memories”.

“This summer, France had a date with history, and the country showed up,” he said.

French organisers revel in success of ‘benchmark’ Paris Paralympics

After months of gloom and self-doubt in the run-up to the start of the Olympics on 26 July, Paris and the country at large threw themselves into the spirit of the Games, embracing new national sporting heroes.

“Saying thanks, not just to the athletes but to everyone who made these games magic, I think it’s fabulous,” said France’s most-decorated track athlete, Marie-Jose Perec, who lit the cauldron at the start of the Games on 26 July.

“It’s a beautiful way of saying goodbye because everything must come to an end and tonight it will all be over,” the visibly emotional 200m and 400m triple gold medallist told reporters.

The French Olympic team finished with a record medals haul of 64, including 16 golds, securing fifth place on the table.

The Paralympic Games from 28 August – 8 September were hailed as “the most spectacular ever” by the head of the International Paralympic Committee, Andrew Parsons.

At those events, France racked up 75 medals in total, 19 of them gold – putting the country in 8th place on the table.

In all, 187 French athletes were awarded the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest civilian award, by President Emmanuel Macron.

Among them, judoka Teddy Riner who won his fourth Olympic title. “Thank you, thank you, it’s been incredible!” Riner shouted to the cheering crowd.

He received his honour alongside swimmer Léon Marchand and Rugby Sevens star Antoine Dupont at a ceremony at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe.

France delivers Macron’s wish securing best Olympic medal tally in a century

Among the athletes who participated in the celebrations: table-tennis brothers Alexis and Félix Lebrun, judoka Romane Dicko as well as fencing champion Manon Apithy-Brunet and the triathlete Cassandre Beaugrand.

Instead of making a speech, Macron recorded a poetic voiceover over images of the Olympics and Paralympics, saying it was “a summer that had already become part of French sporting legend.”

 Around 70,000 people signed up for free tickets to see the parade and concert set on a stage around the Arc de Triomphe.

Virtues of national cohesion

They witnessed the Olympic flame which rose up one last time from the Tuileries garden, this time tinged with blue, white and red to the tune of “The Crowd” by Edith Piaf.

The airforce did a flyover at 7pm leaving traces of blue, white and red colours in the clear skies.

Saturday night’s concert featured singer the mezzo-soprano Axelle Saint-Cirel, who sang the Marseillaise during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on 26 July.

There was an appearance by Chris, formerly of Christine & the Queens, who performed at the Paralympics opening ceremony, as well as blind Malian duo Amadou & Mariam among others.

“We want to experience the Games one last time,” Sarah Lacampagne, a 31-year-old PE teacher, told French news agency AFP.

“It’s important to congratulate the athletes, the volunteers one last time and to live one last moment together”.

Analysts say the Games served as a form of escapism for many French people as well as generating a rare form of national union and pride.

“Everything worked, everything functioned and French people rediscovered the virtues of national cohesion,” the head of the French Olympic Committee, David Lappartient, told reporters.

(with AFP)

As global temperatures rise, the viability of holding the Olympics in the summer is being called into question. Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, himself underscored the urgency of the issue. 

“If the climate change is continuing in a way that the experts are forecasting it then it will be very difficult to organise Olympic Games in summer,” Bach warned in August. 

By 2050, cities that have previously hosted the Games, such as Beijing, Rome, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, might face dangerously high temperatures during July and August – putting the health of athletes and spectators at risk.  

CarbonPlan, a climate non-profit, has predicted extreme heat events for these cities, with temperatures potentially surpassing thermal stress thresholds that include not just Celsius temperatures but also humidity and solar radiation.  

“We found that this heat burden is going up everywhere. Places that used to be hot only a handful of days are now going to be hot for many days,” Oriana Chegwidden, a scientist at CarbonPlan, told RFI.  

“And unfortunately the time when the summer Olympics are typically held coincides with the worst heat of the year in most of the world … Heat is something poeple need to be taking into account. This is a form of climate adaptation.” 

How the French military’s ‘army of champions’ dominated Olympics medal count

Adapting the Games

So what does this mean for the future of the Games? Hosting may need to shift to cooler regions such as Canada, northern Europe or major cities in the southern hemisphere.

The IOC is already addressing these challenges. Sébastien Racinais, a sports performance engineer, has recommended adjustments for the IOC, such as modifying competition schedules or enhancing medical care for heat-related illnesses.  

“What has been implemented at the Olympics and is now used in other international events is a medical tent dedicated to treating heatstroke,” Racinais said. “We use a cooling system that is quite rudimentary but very effective, which involves immersing the athlete in an ice bath.”  

Another potential solution is to move the Olympics to later in the year to avoid peak summer heat.  

The issue also extends to the winter Games, with decreasing snow cover in many mountainous regions presenting additional challenges. 

This was based on an original article written in Spanish by RFI’s Raphaël Moran.

Dahomey, released in France this week, tells the story of 26 artefacts stolen by 19th-century French troops from the former African kingdom of the same name, including a throne and sculptures representing the dynasty’s warrior kings. 

In 2021, the collection was returned from the Quai Branly museum in Paris to Cotonou in Benin.

Diop follows the objects on this journey, travelling with them as they are packed and flown to the presidential palace in Benin, where they are greeted by visitors eager to see their heritage on display at last.

“From the moment they were removed from the display cases in Paris to being packed in crates, right up to arriving in Cotonou, I absolutely wanted to follow everything,” she told RFI. “I didn’t want to miss anything from the return trip.”

She describes the journey as a shared experience and “an odyssey”.

By documenting it, Diop hoped to represent a “community of souls much larger than that of the works” – including “men and women deported during the slave trade, dispossessed, colonised”, the contemporary diaspora, and people in Benin today. 

“I found it unthinkable not to mark this moment, to immortalise it through a film,” she said. “And then I wanted to interview young Beninese people on the issue, an idea which came up very soon after.”

Giving voice to history

Diop, who is French-Senegalese, says she and others of African descent struggle with the collective amnesia that has long surrounded the realities of European colonialism, and the “refusal to take historical and political responsibility for a history”.

She told RFI she found inspiration in Aimé Césaire‘s Discourse on Colonialism, published in French in 1955, a critique of the brutality of colonisation and its devastating impact.

The way she found to confront historical suffering in Dahomey was to give the looted objects a voice. 

Diop asked Haitian author Makenzy Orcel to write a poetic text in which the treasures reflect on their long exile, which one of the statues recites in a haunting voice-over in the Fon language.

“It’s a text that really gave me a lot of strength,” she told RFI’s cinema programme. “I felt that I needed to speak through the power of these words, and that’s exactly the starting point of the film.”

French-Algerian artist Kader Attia explores colonial wounds, creative restoration

Restitution as justice

The project was born in 2017, Diop says, when “all of a sudden” French President Emmanuel Macron gave a speech in Burkina Faso urging European institutions to make significant returns of cultural heritage to the African continent within five years.

While French politicians had been slow to talk about restitution, Diop points out that activists, academics and political figures in African countries had been raising the question for decades. 

“The subject of restitution is a movement, a gesture, and it is symbolically very loaded,” she said.

Though the 26 artefacts Diop followed were returned to Benin, more than 7,000 works still remain in Paris, and other African countries colonised by France and fellow former empires are still waiting.

Britain to return looted crown jewels to Ghana, but only on loan

Diop hopes that the example of the Dahomey treasures will re-engage the conversation.

Her documentary won the prestigious Golden Bear award at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival in February.

Diop said then that the prize not only honoured her, but “the entire visible and invisible community that the film represents”.

She added: “To rebuild we must first restitute, and what does restitution mean? To restitute is to do justice.”

The country has “more elephants than it needed”, Zimbabwe’s environment minister said in parliament on Wednesday, adding that the government had instructed the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority (ZimParks) to begin the culling process.

The 200 elephants will be hunted in areas where they have clashed with humans, including Hwange, home of Zimbabwe’s largest natural reserve, ZimParks director general Fulton Mangwanya told French news agency AFP.

Zimbabwe is home to an estimated 100,000 elephants, and has the second-biggest elephant population in the world after Botswana.

Thanks to conservation efforts, Hwange is home to 65,000 of the animals, more than four times its capacity, according to ZimParks. Zimbabwe last culled elephants in 1988.

Neighbouring countries carry out cull

Neighbouring Namibia said this month that it had already killed 160 wildlife in a planned cull of more than 700 animals, including 83 elephants, to cope with its worst drought in decades.

Zimbabwe and Namibia are among a swathe of countries in southern Africa that have declared a state of emergency because of drought.

About 42 percent of Zimbabweans live in poverty, according to UN estimates, and authorities say about six million will require food assistance during the November to March lean season, when food is scarcest.

Extreme drought in southern Africa triggers hunger crisis for millions

The move to hunt the elephants for food was criticised by some, not least because the animals are a major draw for tourists.

“Government must have more sustainable eco-friendly methods to dealing with drought without affecting tourism,” said Farai Maguwu, director of the nonprofit Centre for Natural Resource Governance.

“They risk turning away tourists on ethical grounds. The elephants are more profitable alive than dead,” he said.

“We have shown that we are poor custodians of natural resources and our appetite for ill-gotten wealth knows no bounds, so this must be stopped because it is unethical.”

‘Short-sighted’, cruel

But Chris Brown, a conservationist and CEO of the Namibian Chamber of Environment, said that “elephants have a devastating effect on habitat if they are allowed to increase continually, exponentially”.

“They really damage ecosystems and habitats, and they have a huge impact on other species which are less iconic and therefore matter less in the eyes of the eurocentric, urban armchair conservation people,” he said.

Drought-stricken Namibia to cull elephants, zebras and hippos for meat

“Those species matter as much as elephants.”

Namibia’s cull of elephants has been condemned by conservationists and the animal rights group PETA as short-sighted, cruel and ineffective.

But the government said the 83 to be culled would be only a small fraction of the estimated 20,000 elephants in the arid country, and would relieve pressure on grazing and water supplies.

(with AFP)

The preliminary results issued by the North African country’s electoral authority ANIE on Sunday gave Tebboune nearly 95 percent support, prompting other candidates to challenge the results in appeals to the Constitutional Court.

The court’s president, Omar Belhadj, announced on Saturday the official count, with Tebboune far ahead of his only two challengers.

“We announce that Mr Abdelmadjid Tebboune is elected for a second term, and will assume his responsibilities when he swears in,” Belhadj said in remarks broadcast live on national TV and radio stations.

The 78-year-old incumbent had been widely expected to breeze through the election and was focused instead on securing a high turnout, which according to Belhadj stood at 46.1 percent in the 7 September ballot.

More than 24 million Algerians were registered to vote in this election.

Accusations of fraud

Tebboune was elected in December 2019 with 58 percent of the vote, despite a record abstention rate above 60 percent, amid the mass Hirak pro-democracy protests.

Presidential candidate Abdelaali Hassani, who heads the moderate Islamist party the Movement of Society for Peace, on Tuesday submitted his challenge to the vote count, a day after denouncing the results as “fraud”.

High expectations as Algeria’s President Tebboune begins new mandate

Youcef Aouchiche, head of the centre-left Socialist Forces Front, later followed suit, accusing the electoral authority ANIE of “forging” the result.

In an unprecedented move, all three campaigns — including Tebboune’s — also issued a joint statement late Sunday alleging “irregularities” in ANIE’s results, adding they wanted to make the public aware of “vagueness and contradictions in the participation figures”.

The preliminary results announced by ANIE said that Tebboune had won “94.65 percent of the vote”, with Hassani receiving 3.17 percent and Aouchiche 2.16 percent.

The final results gave Hassani 9.56 percent of the votes, and Aouchiche 6.14 percent.

Hundreds jailed

Tebboune became president after widely boycotted elections and mass pro-democracy protests from 2019 that died out under his tenure as policing ramped up and hundreds were put in jail.

He had touted economic successes during his first term, including more jobs and higher wages in Africa’s largest exporter of natural gas.

Although Algeria‘s economy has grown at an annual rate of about four percent over the past two years, it remains heavily dependent on oil and gas to fund its social programmes.

(with AFP)

Citizens have waited to elect their leaders since the country achieved its hard-won independence from Sudan in 2011, with the world’s newest nation still dogged by violence, poverty and political infighting.

While a peace agreement six years ago ended a 2013-2018 civil war between President Salva Kiir and his bitter rival, Vice President Riek Machar, feuding between the two has repeatedly delayed a transition that was supposed to pave the way to future elections.

The presidency has “announced an extension of the country’s transitional period by two years as well as postponing elections, which were initially scheduled for December 2024 to December 22nd, 2026”, Kiir’s office said in a Facebook post late Friday.

In the statement, Cabinet Affairs Minister Martin Elia Lomuro said the extension was “in response to the recommendations from both electoral institutions and the security sector”.

“We didn’t complete all the tasks which are critical for the conduct of elections in December 2024,” Lomouro told reporters Friday evening.

Exasperation

Key provisions of the transitional agreement remain unfulfilled – including the creation of a national constitution and the unification of Kiir and Machar’s rival forces – leaving the international community increasingly exasperated.

Earlier this year, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged parties to take “urgent steps” to allow the election to take place, while the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) warned of a lack of necessary “technical, legal and operational expertise” for voting to proceed in December.

A dire lack of funding – despite the land-locked nation’s rich oil reserves – has further hobbled efforts, with bodies like the National Election Commission still not fully operational.

UN Security Council extends South Sudan arms embargo

And while the commission announced in April that voter registration would begin in June, by early July there was no indication of this happening.

Edmund Yakani, head of Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation (CEPO), told French news agency AFP the decision to delay the election was a “total disappointment”.

Yakani said South Sudan’s leadership had had more than enough time to prepare for the event.

“These extensions have been used as a strategy for clinging to power,” he said, with the government announcing a previous two-year extension in August 2022.

In June, a “troika” of Britain, Norway and the United States issued a statement urging political parties to work together.

“History will judge harshly those leaders who failed to act to make such elections possible or who acted to impede them,” it said.

Ethnic violence

South Sudan has spent almost half of its life as a nation at war and continues to be roiled by outbreaks of politically motivated ethnic violence.

Around 400,000 people died and millions were displaced in the civil war before Kiir and Machar signed a peace deal in 2018 to form the unity government.

Since then, the country has battled flooding, hunger, violence and political bickering as the promises of the peace agreement have failed to materialise.

South Sudan buckles from stream of refugees fleeing Sudanese war

Earlier this month the UN’s humanitarian agency warned more than 700,000 people had been impacted by flooding, with aid failing to meet many in need.

Despite plentiful oil resources, rampant corruption has left the country largely impoverished, with the ruling elite accused of plundering public coffers.

Petroleum exports account for about 90 percent of national income, but the government has been deprived of this vital revenue since a pipeline shipping oil from South Sudan was damaged in war-torn Sudan in February.

(with AFP)

“We must have a strong and effective navy to live in peace on our lands,” said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after commissioning the latest of six planned submarines.

Along with a new helicopter carrier, frigates and over a dozen warships under construction, this is part of Erdogan’s push to bolster the Turkish navy.

“It fits Erdogan’s political agenda of exerting influence overseas, from Qatar to Somalia to Libya,” said Serhat Guvenc, a professor of international relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul.

“For the navy, it means a greater role in the defence of the country – no longer just territorial, but forward defence from overseas.”

New course

The change has transformed the navy’s mission.

“Turkish sailors used to sail off to sea, but they would come back on the same day to their home bases and spend the night in their homes. That’s no longer the case,” Guvenc says.

“The Turkish navy is evolving into a major regional power.”

Turkey’s military presence abroad includes bases in Qatar, Libya and Somalia, with naval agreements in place. Ankara claims its expansion addresses growing threats around the region.

“When you look at the conflicts in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Red Sea, they are all around Turkey,” said Mesut Casin, a Turkish presidential adviser and professor at Yeditepe University.

He also pointed to Turkey’s NATO role: “The naval modernisation benefits NATO and the security of Western allies, especially in terms of oil and navigation security.”

Ankara has been quick to flex its new naval muscles. Four years ago, Turkish warships allegedly targeted a French NATO vessel enforcing an arms embargo on Libya.

Turkey and Egypt bury the hatchet with a dozen new bilateral deals

Regional concerns

Greece, with longstanding territorial disputes with Turkey in the Aegean and Mediterranean, has voiced particular concern. Israel, too, has raised alarms over Turkey’s naval growth, including military drones deployed in Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus.

“Some of Turkey’s naval moves, like the UAV base in Northern Cyprus, could be aimed at Israel,” said Gallia Lindenstrauss, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

“This doesn’t mean again there will be a direct confrontation, but it does mean that it is something that the Israeli army has to calculate for.”

Greece is also modernising its navy in response to what it sees as the Turkish threat. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis recently reaffirmed the need for a “deterrent power” against Turkey.

Growing military buildup in Azerbaijan and Armenia a concern for peace talks

Meanwhile, Israel’s growing naval presence in the Eastern Mediterranean, including the deployment of advanced naval assets and joint military exercises with regional partners, is adding to Turkish concerns.

“The Turkish military has begun to feel concerned about the deployment of its [Israel’s] nuclear missile capable submarines in the Mediterranean,” said naval expert Guvenc.

“As long as they were in the Red Sea or Indian Ocean, it wasn’t a problem. But once they shifted to the Mediterranean, it became a potential threat.”

Guvenc is warning that escalating regional suspicions risks spiraling out of control.

“It’s a vicious circle. Turkey builds a new navy to address threats, and now its neighbours feel threatened by Turkey’s naval growth. This is how arms races start, and they don’t tend to end well.”

Turkish shipyards are working at full capacity to meet the country’s growing naval demands. Analysts say this will likely only deepen fears and tensions with its neighbours.

Russia’s atomic energy corporation Rosatom says the lunar reactor will be built with “minimal human involvement” and deployed around 2036.

According to Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass, Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev told a meeting of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok earlier this month that both India and China have shown interest in the venture.

“The task we are working on is the creation of a lunar nuclear power plant with an energy capacity of up to half a megawatt,” Likhachev told the gathering of potential investors.

“Both our Chinese and Indian partners are very interested in collaborating as we lay the groundwork for several international space projects,” the Rosatom chief executive claimed.

Cooperation among rivals 

Delhi has not commented on the purported collaboration.

While Russia is its key arms supplier and a partner on several space ventures, Indian media have been surprised by the possibility of India teaming up with China.

Alluding to unresolved border disputes which took India and China to war in 1962 and sporadic clashes in following years, local daily Business Standard called the two countries “foes on Earth, pals on Moon”.

Indian spacecraft makes history after landing on Moon’s south pole

The proposed power plant will be integrated into a wider Chinese-Russian project to set up a base called the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), either on lunar soil or in lunar orbit.

ILRS will serve as a fulcrum of scientific research and will be open to all countries and “international partners” after it becomes operational between 2035 and 2045.

But it would require a stable power supply – which only a nuclear reactor can provide, as the Moon’s lengthy lunar nights make solar energy unreliable.

Nasa has been mulling the construction of similar reactors for its own future lunar bases.

India’s space ambitions

The Russian-led project is separate from India’s own ambitions to set up a space station by 2035 and launch a manned mission to the Moon five years later.

Analysts say India, with its ambitions of creating a human colony on the Moon, is actively seeking out potential opportunities to accelerate its space ambitions.

In August 2023, India landed a spacecraft on the Moon and joined a select space-faring club comprising of China, Russia and the United States – the only nations to have ever reached the Earth’s closest celestial object.

India picks pilots for space flight that will blast it into cosmic history

India has shortlisted four military pilots to travel on the country’s first manned space flight next year.

The Indian government says the Gaganyaan spacecraft will orbit Earth at an altitude of 400 kilometres and land at sea three days later.

It will also send a humanoid robot into space later this year in line with preparations to land an Indian on lunar soil by 2040.

Air force pilot Rakesh Sharma became India’s first astronaut to go to space in April 1984, when he spent almost eight days on board the Soviet Salyut-7 space station.

Le Lyonnais, which was built in 1855 and was considered state-of-the-art at the time, was returning to France after completing its maiden voyage from Le Havre to New York when the disaster occurred.

Jennifer Sellitti of Atlantic Wreck Salvage, a New Jersey-based company, said a team on the dive boat D/V Tenacious discovered the wreckage of Le Lyonnais last month after a two-decade search.

Sellitti said divers positively identified the ship in waters 320 kilometres off of New Bedford, Massachusetts, in an area known as the Georges Bank. They are not revealing the exact location for now.

“She certainly doesn’t look as good as she used to,” Sellitti told AFP.

“She was really broken apart. The North Atlantic is a brutal place to be a shipwreck – storms, tides. The Nantucket shoals are known for shifting sands that just completely bury wrecks.”

Sellitti said measurements of an engine cylinder were key to identifying the vessel.

The iron-hulled Le Lyonnais, which had both sails and a steam engine, was built by a British shipmaker, Laird and Sons, for Compagnie Franco-Americaine to provide passenger and mail service across the Atlantic.

“The 1850s was the beginning of the transition from sail to steam,” Sellitti said. “This was an early attempt by France to have its first successful passenger line.”

Le Lyonnais had sailed to New York carrying cargo and mail, she said, and was returning to Le Havre with its first passengers, most of whom were French.

The Channel Tunnel, from pipe dream to European reality

Hit-and-run

On the night of 2 November, 1856, Le Lyonnais, carrying 132 passengers and crew, collided with the Adriatic, an American barque which was sailing from Maine to Georgia.

Jonathan Durham, the Adriatic’s captain, in a statement published in the 19 November, 1856 edition of The New York Times, said it was around 11pm on a starlit but “hazy” night when Le Lyonnais “suddenly changed her course, which rendered a collision inevitable”.

Durham said the Adriatic suffered significant damage but managed to make it to Gloucester, Massachusetts, two days later while Le Lyonnais continued on its way.

The French ship had, in fact, suffered extensive damage – a hole at the water line and another one lower, probably near its coal bunkers, Sellitti said.

It sank several days later. The handful of survivors were picked up by another ship.

Sellitti, whose book about the incident, The Adriatic Affair: A Maritime Hit-and-Run Off the Coast of Nantucket, comes out in February 2025, said the sinking of Le Lyonnais was “a really big deal at the time”.

The American captain was arrested and put on trial in France, she said, and the collision raised a number of novel maritime liability questions such as what happens when a sailing vessel meets a steamship at sea.

The disaster, which is mentioned in Jules Verne‘s novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, was the focus of much international attention, she said, but when the US Civil War broke out in 1861 “everybody stopped talking about this and went on to the Civil War”.

Hamidi, 21, used to compete on the Afghan national taekwondo team but was forced to flee when the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

She told RFI she had been flooded with threatening messages since posting a video on social media at the end of August denouncing “gender apartheid” in her homeland.

Filming herself on a Paris street, Hamidi denounced the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s clothing, education and other basic freedoms, including doing sport.

She invited her followers to use the hashtag #LetUsExist to “be the voice for [those] who are voiceless inside Afghanistan”.

Re-shared thousands of times, the post ended up attracting the attention of Afghan media.

The situation escalated when a journalist asked Hamidi her opinion of Afghanistan’s popular national cricket team, she told RFI. The men’s squad has continued to play with the backing of the Taliban government, while women players have been driven into exile.

Hamidi told the interviewer that she believed the male players were “normalising the Taliban” and did not represent Afghan women. “So for me, they are a terrorist cricket team, not a national cricket team,” she said. 

The interview appeared on YouTube a few days later and quickly drew a backlash.

“The day after, I was at my home and I received the first call,” Hamidi told RFI’s Frédérique Genot.

It came from a man speaking Pashto. “He told me: ‘I have your address in Paris, just be aware that I will find you.'”

No giving up

In the space of three days, Hamidi says she received calls from some 3,000 different numbers in France and other European countries, as well as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Malaysia and elsewhere.

She moved out of her home and contacted her lawyer, who went to the police. They have had Hamidi under special protection since early September.

“Now I’m under police protection, but I lost my freedom, I lost my safety. I don’t feel safe any more in Paris,” said Hamidi, who until recently used to train alongside France’s national taekwondo team.

She has since changed her number but continues to receive abuse via social media, including sexually explicit images and threats of rape or other violence.

Hamidi has nonetheless kept her accounts on X and Instagram, where she still posts regularly.

“If I stay at home and cry and just be sad and afraid, they win,” she told RFI. 

“It’s very hard. But I’ve been in Afghanistan, I’ve been fighting against the Taliban in the streets of Kabul. I’m a fighter, so I can’t give up.” 

Freedom in frames: photographing an Afghan refugee’s Olympic dream

Solidarity from home

Among the threats have also come messages of support from Afghan women and girls, Hamidi said.

“They told me that they cannot raise their voice in Afghanistan, and they want me to be their voice.”

Though the security measures have forced her to stop training and suspend her daily life, Hamidi feels lucky to have access to protection and the means to continue speaking publicly. 

She said: “Imagine that millions of girls in Afghanistan, they have no protection, they are with the terrorists, and nobody can hear their voice.”

“We must have a strong and effective navy to live in peace on our lands,” said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after commissioning the latest of six planned submarines.

Along with a new helicopter carrier, frigates and over a dozen warships under construction, this is part of Erdogan’s push to bolster the Turkish navy.

“It fits Erdogan’s political agenda of exerting influence overseas, from Qatar to Somalia to Libya,” said Serhat Guvenc, a professor of international relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul.

“For the navy, it means a greater role in the defence of the country – no longer just territorial, but forward defence from overseas.”

New course

The change has transformed the navy’s mission.

“Turkish sailors used to sail off to sea, but they would come back on the same day to their home bases and spend the night in their homes. That’s no longer the case,” Guvenc says.

“The Turkish navy is evolving into a major regional power.”

Turkey’s military presence abroad includes bases in Qatar, Libya and Somalia, with naval agreements in place. Ankara claims its expansion addresses growing threats around the region.

“When you look at the conflicts in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Red Sea, they are all around Turkey,” said Mesut Casin, a Turkish presidential adviser and professor at Yeditepe University.

He also pointed to Turkey’s NATO role: “The naval modernisation benefits NATO and the security of Western allies, especially in terms of oil and navigation security.”

Ankara has been quick to flex its new naval muscles. Four years ago, Turkish warships allegedly targeted a French NATO vessel enforcing an arms embargo on Libya.

Turkey and Egypt bury the hatchet with a dozen new bilateral deals

Regional concerns

Greece, with longstanding territorial disputes with Turkey in the Aegean and Mediterranean, has voiced particular concern. Israel, too, has raised alarms over Turkey’s naval growth, including military drones deployed in Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus.

“Some of Turkey’s naval moves, like the UAV base in Northern Cyprus, could be aimed at Israel,” said Gallia Lindenstrauss, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

“This doesn’t mean again there will be a direct confrontation, but it does mean that it is something that the Israeli army has to calculate for.”

Greece is also modernising its navy in response to what it sees as the Turkish threat. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis recently reaffirmed the need for a “deterrent power” against Turkey.

Growing military buildup in Azerbaijan and Armenia a concern for peace talks

Meanwhile, Israel’s growing naval presence in the Eastern Mediterranean, including the deployment of advanced naval assets and joint military exercises with regional partners, is adding to Turkish concerns.

“The Turkish military has begun to feel concerned about the deployment of its [Israel’s] nuclear missile capable submarines in the Mediterranean,” said naval expert Guvenc.

“As long as they were in the Red Sea or Indian Ocean, it wasn’t a problem. But once they shifted to the Mediterranean, it became a potential threat.”

Guvenc is warning that escalating regional suspicions risks spiraling out of control.

“It’s a vicious circle. Turkey builds a new navy to address threats, and now its neighbours feel threatened by Turkey’s naval growth. This is how arms races start, and they don’t tend to end well.”

Turkish shipyards are working at full capacity to meet the country’s growing naval demands. Analysts say this will likely only deepen fears and tensions with its neighbours.

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.

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 to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr for the RFI English Listeners Forum banner!

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”. According to your score, you’ll be counselled to the best-suited activities for your level.

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

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 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. 

Another idea for your students: Br. Gerald Muller, my beloved music teacher from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English – that’s how I worked on my French, reading books that were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it’s a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald’s free books, click here.

Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in 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 15 July, Rwandans were voting for their next president, as well as the members of the country’s 80-seat lower house of parliament.

There was little doubt that the current president, Paul Kagame, would win his fourth term. And he did, with 99.18 percent of the vote. 

There actually were two opposition candidates, which you read about in our article “Rwanda heads to the polls to likely re-elect Kagame for fourth term”.

You were to send in the answer to this question: What are the names of the two opposition candidates who ran against the incumbent president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, in the 15 July polls?

The answer is: Democratic Green party leader Frank Habineza and the independent Philippe Mpayimana.

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Rodrigo Hunrichse from Ciudad de Concepción, Chile: “What do you think young people should do? Should they work, save, ensure their future, and put off traveling until they are more established? Or should they ‘seize the day’ and go while they’re young?”

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Radhakrishna Pillai from Kerala State, India. Radhakrishna is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations on your double win, Radhakrishna.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are two RFI Listeners Club members from Bangladesh: Sharifa Akter Panna from Kishoreganj, and Faruq Ahmed from Dhaka. There’s also Club member Zenon Teles from Goa, India – Zenon is also the president of the Christian – Marxist – Leninist – Maoist Association of Listening DX-ers.

Last but not least, there’s RFI English listener Zannatul Zuthi from Narayanganj, Bangladesh.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Allegro vivo” from the Symphony in C major by Georges Bizet, performed by Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic; “La Campanella” by Nicolo Paganini, performed by Igor Oistrakh; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Day Tripper” by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, performed by Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66.  

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 Melissa Chemam’s article “High expectations as Algeria’s President Tebboune begins new mandate”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 7 October to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 12 October 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

or

By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then  33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Click here to learn how to 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 Paralympics in Paris shone a light on disability and the challenges disabled people in France face in getting access to sport. Novosports, one of only 40 sports clubs in the capital open to players with disabilities, is entirely focused on inclusive sports, where people with and without disabilities can train together. Club founder Jerome Rousseau talks about developing inclusive volleyball, and club members talk about the importance of opening sport up to everyone. (Listen @1’55”)

Decades before the Paralympic Games were born, the world’s first multi-discipline competition for athletes with a disability took place in Paris in the summer of 1924. Reserved for deaf competitors, the International Silent Games were a landmark in the history of inclusive sport and laid the foundations for today’s contests. Historian Didier Séguillon, curator of an exhibition on the Games at the National Institute for Deaf Young People, discusses their origins and legacy. (Listen @10’15”)

Since recent parliamentary elections in France failed to give any political party a ruling majority, the three main blocs – the left-wing NFP alliance, the centre-right Ensemble coalition and the far-right National Rally – have been at loggerheads. The new prime minister has to form a unity government, but this involves compromise on all sides – a notion that’s often equated in France with “giving in”. Laure Gillot-Assayag, a researcher in political science and philosophy, argues that in such a politically divided landscape, France needs a culture of compromise more than ever. (Listen @17’10”)

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompéani. 

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

The Egyptian president received a full diplomatic reception, with military bands and horses parading the Egyptian flag through the streets of the Turkish capital on Wednesday.

Erdogan did not hold back in welcoming a man he once dubbed a “brutal dictator”, and signalled a new era of partnership between the two countries.

“With our joint declaration, we confirmed our will to advance our cooperation in all fields, including industry, trade, defence, health, environment and energy,” the Turkish president declared.

String of bilateral agreements

The two leaders signed no fewer than 17 agreements to deepen bilateral trade, diplomatic and military cooperation.

The goal is to expand their annual commercial exchanges to over €13 billion in five years, from a little over €9 billion now.

They also discussed their concerns linked to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the shared desire to see a ceasefire there – part of a wider trend of converging regional interests.

Sisi’s visit follows Erdogan’s trip to Cairo in February, which resulted from years of efforts to mend damaged relations.

Ankara and Cairo cut ties in 2013 after Sisi, then defence minister, ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi – Turkey’s ally and part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

• Turkey and Egypt turn page on decade of friction with show of friendship

Question of Somaliland

Despite the decade of estrangement, trade between the two countries never ceased: Turkey is Egypt’s fifth-largest trading partner, while Egypt is Turkey’s largest in Africa.

With the Egyptian and Turkish economies in difficulty, the need to increase bilateral trade is seen as a powerful impetus towards rapprochement and a driving force for cooperation.

It could also ease tension in oil-rich Libya, which has been in a state of civil war for over a decade and where Cairo and Ankara back rival governments.

Libyan security analyst Aya Burweila says that Libya has become an important arena for both countries.

“Because the lines in the sand are so set – and each country has its sphere of influence – this has helped both countries realise that it’s much more lucrative if they cooperate rather than fight each other,” she told RFI.

Sisi and Erdogan also discussed tensions between Somalia and Ethiopia over the breakaway state of Somaliland, following reports that Egypt has started deploying weapons to Mogadishu.

The deployment is part of Egypt‘s bitter dispute with Ethiopia over its Grand Renaissance Dam, which Cairo claims seriously threatens vital water supplies from the Nile River.

• Newly reconciled, Turkey and Egypt could be a force for stability in Africa

Rivalry paused, not ended?

However, analysts suggest Egypt could also be seeking to challenge Turkey’s influence in Somalia – in which it has heavily invested – as well as complicating Ankara’s efforts to mediate between the Somali and Ethiopian governments.

Elem Eyrice-Tepeciklioglu, a professor of African studies at the Social Sciences University of Ankara, acknowledges the danger – but predicts Erdogan and Sisi will initially seek common ground.

“Both Egypt and Turkey can cooperate in Somalia, especially in terms of security,” she observes.

“They can implement joint anti-terrorism initiatives. They can combine their efforts in development projects. They can involve themselves in political stabilisation initiatives, and so on.

“But they can also compete with each other for a more significant role and influence in Somalia.”

For now, though, most experts seem to agree that with the spectre of a wider regional conflict and increasing economic pressures, Erdogan and Sisi are fully aware that cooperation, rather than rivalry, is in both their interests. 

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.

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!

Only a few days are left to submit your video to the ePOP competition. 

The ePOP video competition is sponsored by the RFI department “Planète Radio”, whose mission is to give a voice to the voiceless. ePOP focuses on the environment and how climate change has affected “ordinary” people. You are to create a three-minute video about climate change, the environment, pollution – told by the people it affects.

You do not need expensive video equipment to enter the competition. Your phone is fine.  And you do not need to be a member of the RFI Clubs to enter – everyone is welcome. And by the way – the prizes are incredibly generous!

Go to the ePOP page to read about past competitions, watch past videos, and read the regulations for your entry.  You can also write to us at thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr, and we’ll forward your mail to Planète Radio.

The competition closes 12 September. We expect to be bombarded with entries from the English speakers!

Facebook: Be sure to send your photos to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr for the RFI English Listeners Forum banner!

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”. According to your score, you’ll be counselled to the best-suited activities for your level.

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

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 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. 

Another idea for your students: Br. Gerald Muller, my beloved music teacher from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English – that’s how I worked on my French, reading books that were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it’s a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald’s free books, click here.

Independent RFI English Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni (audrey.iattoni@rfi.fr) from our Listener Relations department in 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 13 July I asked you yet another question about France’s snap legislative elections.

As you know, the left coalition New Popular Front won the most seats, followed by Macron’s centre-right alliance, with the far-right National Rally in third place. None of the parties have an absolute majority.

There’s been something of a “cease-fire” during the Olympic Games, so not much has been done. However, the French constitution sets strict deadlines for when key positions must be filled; one of these is the appointment of chairs for each of the eight standing parliamentary committees. That was your question – what are those eight standing committees, and by which date must the chairs of each committee be decided?

The answer is: Finance, foreign affairs, defence, economy, social affairs, culture, sustainable development, and law. The date for deciding the chairs was 20 July. So that has happened: six of the eight committees are headed by the centre-right coalition, and the other two were taken by the left coalition.

The centre-right and the left coalition joined forces and no position was allocated to the far-right National Rally.

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: “What was your biggest life-changing decision, and how did it change your life?”

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Malik Allah Bachaya Khokhar from the Sungat Radio Listeners Club in Muzaffargarh, Pakistan. Malik is also the winner of this week’s bonus question – congratulations, Malik!

There are two winners from India this week: Nafisa Khatun, the president of the RFI Mahila Shrota Sangha Club in Hariharpara, and Mousumi Khatun, a member of the RFI International DX Radio Listeners Club in Murshidabad. Moving over to Bangladesh, there’s Shrabonty Shermin, a member of the RFI Surfers’ Society Bangladesh in Rajshahi, and RFI English listener Rowshan Ara Labone from Dhaka.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Pendulum” by Eberhard Weber, performed by the composer and Paul McCandless; “Contrapunctus 1” from J.S. Bach’s The Art Of Fugue, BWV 1080, performed by the Emerson Quartet; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and “Street Life” by Joe Sample and Will Jennings, performed by The Crusaders.

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 “Golden glory for French para-triathletes despite delays over Seine water quality”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 30 September to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 5 October 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

or

By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country’s international access code, or “ + ”, then  33 6 31 12 96 82. Don’t forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Click here to learn how to 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,  

This week, we focus on the presidential election in Algeria, scheduled for 7 September, with a potential second round two weeks later, if none of the candidate reaches 51 percent in the first round.

The campaign ended on Tuesday, 3 September. Most experts expect incumbent Abdelmadjid Tebboune to win again, while only two challengers have been allowed to run: Abdelaali Hassani of the moderate Islamist party, the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), and Youcef Aouchiche of the centre-left Socialist Forces Front (FFS). 

• Few surprises in store as Algeria’s presidential election nears

The opposition has, however, complained of intimidation with dozens of people arrested last month over alleged election fraud.

Opposition leader Fethi Ghares was even detained  during the last week of the campaign, accused of “insulting the president” and spreading disinformation online.

Meanwhile, Algerian officials are tightening restrictions on civil liberties, Amnesty International reports. The human rights group says that the authorities’ actions aim to limit citizens’ rights to free speech, peaceful protest, and form associations.

To understand how opponents, political parties and civil society navigate the civic space, RFI spoke to Nadège Lahmar, the consultant on Algeria for Amnesty. 

Episode mixed by Nicolas Doreau. 

Spotlight on Africa is a podcast from Radio France Internationale. 

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.