The long wait for a functioning government after President Emmanuel Macron called a snap general election ended after 11 weeks late Saturday with his appointment of a cabinet marking a clear shift to the right.

Opposition politicians from the left have already said they will challenge Barnier’s government with a no-confidence motion, with far-right politicians also slamming its composition.

In the July election, a left-wing alliance called the New Popular Front (NFP) won the most parliamentary seats of any political bloc, but not enough for an overall majority.

Veteran far-right leader Marine Le Pen meanwhile saw her National Rally emerge as the single largest party in the Assembly.

Macron had argued that the left was unable to muster enough support to form a government that would not immediately be brought down in parliament, and rejected a National Rally candidate over the party’s extremist legacy.

He turned instead to Barnier to lead a government drawing mostly on parliamentary support from Macron’s allies, as well as from the conservative Republicans (LR) and centrists groups.

Prime Minister Barnier warns France faces severe budget crisis as government talks stall

‘No future’

Talks on the distribution of the 39 cabinet posts continued right up to Saturday’s official announcement, insiders said, with moments of sharp tension between the president and his prime minister.

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon has called the new lineup “a government of the general election losers”.

France, he said, should “get rid” of the government “as soon as possible”.

Even before the announcement, thousands of people took to the streets of Paris and other French cities Saturday in a left-wing protest to denounce what they called a denial of July’s election results.

Socialist Party chairman Oliver Faure dismissed Barnier’s cabinet as “a reactionary government that gives democracy the finger”.

Macron had been counting on a neutral stance from the far right, but National Rally leader Jordan Bardella was quick to condemn the composition of the new government, which he said had “no future whatsoever”.

While Macron’s party Renaissance had to relinquish some key positions, it still got most of the minister jobs – 12 out of 39.

“This is not a new government, it’s a reshuffle,” quipped Communist party leader Fabien Roussel.

Meet the key ministers shaping France’s new government

‘Same as before’

Former French president Francois Hollande, a Socialist, called the cabinet “the same as before, but with an even stronger presence of the right” and one that would inflict “painful measures on our fellow citizens”.

He said a no-confidence motion was “a good solution”.

To pass, a no-confidence motion needs an absolute majority in parliament, which would then force the government to step down immediately — currently an unlikely scenario as the far right and the leftist bloc, sworn enemies, would have to vote in unison.

The first major task for Barnier, best known internationally for leading the European Union‘s Brexit negotiations with Britain, will be to submit a 2025 budget plan addressing France’s financial situation, which he this week called “very serious”.

France has been placed on a formal procedure for violating European Union budgetary rules.

The difficult job of submitting a budget plan to parliament next month falls to 33-year-old Antoine Armand, the new finance minister.

Armand told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that “exceptional and targeted” tax increases, as well as cuts in public spending, could not be ruled out.

Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu, a close Macron ally, has kept his job.

The only left-of-centre politician is Didier Migaud, a little-known former Socialist named justice minister.

Barnier, who is to address parliament with a key policy speech on October 1, was scheduled to make a TV appearance later Sunday.

Antoine Armand, finance minister

A relative newcomer to politics, Armand, 33, was first elected to parliament in 2022 on the centrist ticket of Macron’s camp and was re-elected in July’s snap legislative election.

In the new parliament, he had been set to head the economic committee in the lower house until Barnier tapped him for the top job at the powerful Ministry of Economics and Finance.

Armand is no stranger to “Bercy” as the ministry is often called in France, having joined its elite corps of finance inspectors after graduating in 2018 from the prestigious Ecole Nationale d’Administration – a training college for future senior civil servants that Macron also attended.

He will be seconded by Laurent Saint-Martin on budget issues, a delicate portfolio that will report directly to the prime minister, as France struggles to contain a rising budget deficit and contemplates spending cuts and tax hikes.

Tilt to right as French PM Barnier appoints government after months of deadlock

Bruno Retailleau, interior minister

A conservative senator since 2004, Bruno Retailleau, 63, is known for his hard-right views and is the most senior figure from his Republicans (LR) party to enter Barnier’s government.

Retailleau was a driving force behind the party’s shift to the right in an increasingly polarised political landscape, in particular on hot-button issues such as immigration.

As leader of the conservative group of senators, Retailleau has criticised Macron’s latest attempts to toughen immigration rules, calling for a much tougher stance that would include constitutional changes allowing welfare benefit cuts.

He has also urged tougher policing on left-wing and environmental protesters and opposed Macron’s push to add the right for women to pursue an abortion to the constitution.

Jean-Noel Barrot, foreign minister

Barrot, 41, is promoted to foreign minister after serving as junior minister for European affairs since February 2024. Before that he was Macron’s minister for digital affairs.

Barrot comes from a family with a strong political background. His father, Jacques Barrot, was a prominent French politician who served in various ministerial positions and as a European commissioner.

He provides essential political balance for the government, hailing from the centrist party of Francois Bayrou, the political veteran whose independent MoDem party Macron needs to keep on his side.

Impeachment proceedings against France’s Macron pass first hurdle

Benjamin Haddad, Europe minister

Haddad, 38, a fluent English-speaker with excellent contacts in Washington, DC, where he spent years working at a think-tank, was first elected to parliament in 2022 under Macron’s party colours.

He has been vocal on diplomatic issues and especially the war in Ukraine, having convinced tens of European lawmakers to sign a plea to the US Congress to unlock aid for Ukraine at the end of 2023.

Sebastien Lecornu, defence minister

Lecornu, a Macron loyalist, remains in his post at the helm of the Defence Ministry.

A low-profile minister who started his career in conservative ranks, he was excluded from the Republicans after being named a junior minister in Macron’s government in 2017.

(Reuters)

Among the many firsts for which the 1924 Paris Olympics are remembered, one is often overlooked. 

Two weeks after the Summer Games ended, they were followed by another competition. Like the Olympics, it featured disciplines from athletics to swimming to shooting, and multiple countries took part.  

But it wasn’t the Paralympics. It was the International Silent Games, the first event of its kind and a defining moment for deaf sport. 

Listen to a conversation about this story on the Spotlight on France podcast:

Founding father 

Like the modern Olympics, reinvented by a Parisian aristocrat, the Silent Games were largely the brainchild of a Frenchman: Eugène Rubens Alcais. 

Born the son of a postman in the south of France in 1884, Rubens Alcais began life with his hearing but lost it around the age of nine due to ear infections. After attending a school for deaf-mute children, he moved to Paris and worked as a mechanic. 

While it’s not clear where it came from, according to historian Didier Séguillon, author of a biography of Rubens Alcais, his passion for sport ended up defining his life.

“He was a very good cyclist. He actually started out as a footballer for Nîmes, then he came to Paris and took up cycling and middle-distance running,” Séguillon says. “So he was a dedicated sportsman.” 

Séguillon is speaking beside a portrait of Rubens Alcais, displayed as part of an exhibition on the 1924 Silent Games at the National Institute for the Deaf (INJS) in Paris. Hung in what was once a swimming pool for deaf students, the photograph shows a wiry figure with a large moustache and an alert gaze fixed straight on the camera. 

“He wasn’t the type to shy away from a challenge, put it that way,” says Séguillon, the exhibition’s curator.  

Having learned to speak aloud as a child, Rubens Alcais was bilingual in oral French and sign language as well as a talented writer, the historian explains. He used his skills to advocate for sorely lacking deaf rights, including access to education – a tiny minority of deaf children went to school at the time, and no teaching was signed – work and sport.  

For Rubens Alcais, the latter would provide not just a pastime but the chance to prove that deaf people, far from being invalids, were capable of physical excellence. He became involved in setting up clubs for deaf athletes, and in 1914 founded his own magazine, the Silent Sportsman, dedicated to deaf sports. 

A decade later came the opportunity he and his allies had been waiting for. The recently revived Olympic Games were coming to Paris, and the world would be watching as the capital wrote sporting history for the second time. 

“It is France that rekindled the true Olympic spirit and now, 30 years later, the Games are once again to be held in Paris,” Rubens Alcais wrote in a 1922 editorial. “It is France that opened the first school for deaf mutes [the INJS, in 1791] … 

“Thus, it is to France that the privilege of hosting the first Deaf Olympics should devolve.” 

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

To prove a point 

The Olympic spirit that Pierre de Coubertin had rekindled three decades earlier didn’t include many athletes who weren’t men, European, able to fund their own training, and non-disabled. 

Like Alice Milliat, the pioneer organising alternative competitions for sportswomen around the same time, Rubens Alcais met resistance from the International Olympic Committee when it came to using their brand. 

Renamed the Silent Games, his event nonetheless evoked the formalities of the Olympics, with a parade of nations, flag waving and an Olympic oath – this time recited in International Sign Language. 

The organisers persuaded sports federations to loan them some of the same venues that had hosted the Olympics weeks earlier, and invited dignitaries from the worlds of politics and sport. 

The contests also resembled the Olympics to the letter. “The idea was to show people that they were capable,” says Séguillon.  

“Deaf people wanted to do the same activities, exactly the same activities in the same conditions and with the same rules as hearing people, to show just how normal they were.” 

Level playing field? 

Held over the week of 10-17 August 1924, the 30 or so events in seven disciplines – athletics, cycling, diving, football, shooting, swimming and tennis – thus took place without any adaptation for their 145 deaf participants. 

Races were kicked off with a starting pistol, leaving competitors with the least hearing watching for the twitch of the official’s thumb.

What wasn’t identical were the results. The javelin competition, for instance, saw throws some 30 to 40 metres shorter than the Olympic equivalent two weeks earlier.  

Séguillon puts that down to the lack of training opportunities for deaf sportspeople, as well as the expense of travelling to Paris, which delegates had to cover themselves. 

But he also believes that sports results aren’t where the Games’ true significance lies. 

“Putting in good performances was important to an extent, but the main thing was to get together and hold discussions,” he says.  

The event brought together deaf delegations from nine different countries across Europe. In between competitions, they held the founding meeting of the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD), which still exists today. 

Meanwhile the closing banquet, attended by some 400 people, provided the opportunity to raise the issue of deaf rights with politicians and other influential figures. The Games were “truly a political tool”, says Séguillon.

From community to contest

By the time they ended, they had generated mainstream press coverage and drawn crowds of up to 2,500 spectators. 

The success “will earn our little silent world rightful renown throughout the world”, Rubens Alcais declared in the Silent Sportsman. 

He would go on to witness eight more summer editions of the Games before his death in 1963, as well as the creation of a winter equivalent. 

The ICSD, which he chaired until 1953, continues to organise them every four years, though today they’re known as the Deaflympics. While “recognised” by the Olympic body, they remain separate from it.

A century on, the movement that began with the 1924 Games finds itself at a turning point, according to Séguillon.

Today’s athletes see themselves less as “deaf people who do sports” than “sportspeople who are deaf”, he says. Understandably, they want the training opportunities, prestige and financial rewards that come with competing on the world’s biggest sporting stage.

Many call for the Paralympics to add a category for deaf athletes. Others resist classing themselves as disabled and argue they should compete in the Olympics – as some deaf athletes already have, albeit with no guarantee of adjustments.

Séguillon points out the contrast with Ruben Alcais’s original vision for the Silent Games, which he hoped would create “a single deaf nation, a deaf sporting nation”, not set competitors or countries against each other trying to win the most medals.

He believes there is still value in a sports movement run by deaf people, for deaf people.

“Perhaps we could move away from performance and only performance, like we get at the Olympics or even the Paralympics. We could also value these games as encounters, as personal rather than national projects.”

The exhibition “The wild week of the first International Silent Games” runs at the INJS in Paris until 4 October 2024.

As the world body’s high-level General Assembly meeting prepares Sunday to debate Sudan’s 17-month war – which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and caused the world’s largest displacement crisis – world leaders have warned against cataclysmic violence in the city of two million.

US President Joe Biden has called on Sudan‘s rival generals to “pull back their forces, facilitate unhindered humanitarian access, and re-engage in negotiations to end this war”.

But on the ground, shells have once again torn through civilian homes, in the latest flare-up of the war between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the regular army which has raged since April 2023.

“Most of our homes in the city’s south have been completely destroyed,” local resident Al-Tijani Othman told AFP by phone from his bombed-out neighbourhood.

“There’s barely anyone left here,” he said, after months of bombardment and starvation.

On Saturday alone, health authorities managed to confirm 14 civilian deaths and 40 injuries, a medical source told AFP.

“But that’s nowhere near the real number of victims,” the source warned, requesting anonymity for his protection.

“People often have to bury their loved ones right then and there rather than brave the fighting on the road to the hospital,” he continued.

Fleeing en masse

UN chief Antonio Guterres‘ spokesperson said Saturday the Secretary-General was “gravely alarmed by reports of a full-scale assault” by the RSF and called on its commander, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, “to act responsibly and immediately order a halt to the RSF attack”.

Since May, the RSF has laid siege to the North Darfur state capital of El-Fasher – the only major city in Sudan’s vast western region of Darfur not under their control.

Even before their long-threatened multi-directional attack on the city, the violence had killed hundreds, according to medical charity Doctors Without Borders.

It had also displaced hundreds of thousands and forced the nearby Zamzam displacement camp into all-out famine, the UN said.

El-Fasher has long been surrounded by multiple displacement camps – including Zamzam and Abu Shouk – which have swelled by hundreds of thousands since the war began.

The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab, which tracks the violence in Sudan using satellite imagery, reported on Friday civilians had been fleeing “en masse by foot on the road from El-Fasher to Zamzam,” where famine was declared last month.

‘Maelstrom of violence’

On Sunday, those unwilling or unable to leave the city – such as resident Mohamed Safieldin – were compelled to take advantage of what they feared would be a brief respite in the fighting, venturing out to feed their families.

“But the food situation is difficult. We have to rely on community kitchens,” he told AFP while waiting for a meal from one of hundreds of volunteer initiatives that have popped up across Sudan – considered in places like El-Fasher the last defence against mass starvation.

The UN’s special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, said the “RSF’s multi-pronged assault, launched from at least four directions”, had “unleashed a maelstrom of violence that threatens to consume everything in its path”.

Eyewitnesses have reported bombardment by both the RSF and the army, both of whom have consistently been accused of war crimes including targeting civilians and the indiscriminate bombing of residential areas.

The RSF has specifically been accused of crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. Their assault on the West Darfur town of El-Geneina last year left up to 15,000 dead, mostly from the non-Arab Massalit community, UN experts determined.

Darfur, a region the size of France home to around a quarter of Sudan’s population, is deeply scarred by years of ethnic violence committed by the Janjaweed — the militia from which the RSF emerged.

World leaders have repeatedly warned of a repeat of Darfur’s past.

“We will not bear witness to another genocide,” the European Union‘s top diplomat Josep Borrell said Sunday, urging a return to negotiations — which experts warn have only ever been used by both sides to gain ground on the battlefield.

The World Health Organisation said this month at least 20,000 people have been killed since the war began, but some estimates show up to 150,000 dead, according to US envoy to Sudan Tom Perriello.

The war has also displaced more than 10 million people – a fifth of Sudan’s population – both within the country and across borders.

In early September UN experts, after a fact-finding mission, called for deployment of an impartial force to protect Sudanese civilians – either a UN-mandated mission or an African Union-backed regional force.

Bringing people together regardless of distance, language or culture is at the heart of Rankin’s latest project Universal Language (Une Langue Universelle).

Presented in the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in May, this odd, bittersweet drama won the People’s Choice Award in its category and the Best Canadian Discovery Award at the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF) on 15 September.

Rankin was working on the script of the film when the Covid pandemic hit. Although he remained in contact with his team, he was mostly alone with his thoughts. He experienced what he calls a “reckoning with solitude”, which provided an extra dimension to the story.

“I remember at the beginning of the pandemic, there was great idealistic longing for what the world would be like at the end of this, but I feel we’ve emerged with all these new Berlin Walls that shot up all around,” he told RFI in Cannes.

“The world feels very much more binary than it did before.”

He says the freedom of “cinematic language” helped him tell this story – borrowing from different cultural codes to suspend time and space and break down barriers.

Erotic dancer comedy-drama wins top prize at Cannes Film Festival

Uncanny Canada

Universal Language is set in a flat, snowy landscape dotted with bland beige-coloured buildings that look vaguely Soviet. An endless stream of cars races by on motorway interchanges.

Like in a surreal dream, there are recognisable elements of modern-day Canada, but they seem to disappear into another realm. The logo for the ubiquitous Tim Horton’s coffee chain, for example, is written in Farsi – and inside, they serve only tea to people who sit around knitting socks.

Matthew plays a “version” of himself in the film – a down-and-out public servant in Montreal who goes back to his hometown of Winnipeg in central Canada to check on his ailing mother.

But when he arrives, nothing is quite as it seems. So begins an unusual, introspective journey that overlaps with other characters in the story.

In the same city, two Iranian children are excited because they’ve found money frozen in pack ice. They race around asking neighbours and shop owners for help to dig out the dollar bills.

Meanwhile, there are hilarious scenes with a tour guide, Massoud, who – in a deadpan voice – recounts the various wonders of Winnipeg. These include a briefcase frozen on a bench, left behind by a businessman some years ago and now considered a “Unesco” heritage treasure.

Iranian culture, Afghan Elvis

Rankin says his love of Iranian culture and language played a vital role in making the film, as did friendships made during his travels to Iran as a younger man.

He cites the “meta-realist” Iranian cinema of Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf as influences, as well as childhood role model Groucho Marx.

Rankin also says he took inspiration from pop singer Ahmad Zahir – affectionately known as the “Afghan Elvis”. He says the musician had an uncanny ability to bridge cultural divides, something the filmmaker wanted to emulate.

Rankin even speaks Farsi in his role, a language he says he’s been learning in “slow motion” for more than 10 years. He also speaks Canadian French, with the distinctive accent of Quebec.

He is careful to point out that film is not intended to make a political statement, but rather a social one.

“We are working from a premise of no borders and universal solidarity,” he says, in contrast to the polarising nature of politics.

‘Dahomey’ film invites colonial past to speak through Benin’s stolen treasures

Fragments of daily life

After focusing on telling others’ stories in his previous films, it was Rankin’s first foray into autobiography.

“All the events in the story come from my life or the life of my family, or dreams that I had or diary entries I wrote down,” he says. “It’s all kinds of fragments.”

One of the highlights of making the film, Rankin says, was surrounding himself with a big, international team, speaking three languages at a time and sharing ideas on set in real time.

He co-wrote the script with Pirouz Nemati and Ila Firouzabad (who play Massoud and the bus driver respectively) and says the film came to life thanks to their close collaboration.

“The movie is very much a hybrid one. It merges cinematic languages of Winnipeg, Teheran and Montreal and it’s not really about any one of those places. It’s about this strange melding of all three.”

For Rankin, the adventure of cinema is all about “opening up new ways of seeing and imagining our complicated, sad, beautiful, luminous world”.

Postcard from Cannes: the rising potential of immersive cinema

Universal Language is Rankin’s second feature after surrealist dark comedy The Twentieth Century, which won the Berlinale Fipresci Award in 2020 and Best Canadian Debut Award in the Toronto Film Festival’s Midnight Madness category in 2019. He has also made over 40 short films.

Universal Language is part of the line-up at the Fifigrot comedy festival in Toulouse (16-22 September) and has been selected to represent Canada in the Best International Feature Film category at the Academy Awards in 2025.

Staggered voting to elect 90 members of the regional parliament got underway on 18 September and is set to conclude on 1 October. 

Officials said more than 61 percent of 2.6 million registered voters – tens of thousands of people – cast their ballots in the first 24 constituencies to vote on Wednesday.

The remaining 66 constituencies will go to the polls on 25 September and 1 October with results expected on week later, according to India’s electoral commission.

Thirteen political parties are in the race for a majority in the Indian-controlled territory, which is divided into the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley and the Jammu district, dominated by Hindus and a stronghold of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The wider Kashmir region is claimed in full by Pakistan and has been the battleground for two of the three wars between India and Pakistan since 1947.

Indian Kashmir headed for polls after a decade of turmoil and direct rule

Quest for autonomy

The legislative election is the first since 2014, and since the government in Delhi stripped Kashmir of its autonomy in 2019. 

The brisk turnout took analysts by surprise, as attacks and boycotts by separatists have impacted previous elections in the territory.

Observers say demands to restore full statehood eclipsed previous calls for independence.

“People are going to speak of the misrule and indignities the BJP heaped on the people of Kashmir – the only state to be dismembered and demoted as union territories,” said Salman Soz, a spokesperson for the main opposition Indian National Congress party.

A mixed bag three years after scrapping of Kashmir’s special status

Buoyed by its better-than-expected performance in national elections earlier this year, the Congress is looking to drum up support for Kashmir’s former, autonomous status.

“Restoration of Kashmir’s statehood is our first step. We will build pressure on the BJP to act on our demand,” said its leader Rahul Gandhi, a scion of the charismatic Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that once held sway over Kashmir.

Delhi’s promises

Prime Minister Modi maintains his government will address Kashmiri aspirations.

“The BJP government will also be the one to restore full statehood status to Jammu and Kashmir,” Modi said during a visit to the territory on 14 September.

“I guarantee to safeguard your rights,” he added, promising to transform Kashmir into a “terror-free and tourist-friendly” region.

The picturesque valley drew more than 2.7 million visitors in 2023 and early figures suggest it could be on track to beat that record this year. 

But for Ifra Jan, a spokesperson for the regional opposition party National Conference, the BJP is “choking” tourism in Kashmir.

The party is allied with the Congress against Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, and remains sceptical of promises to restore autonomy.  

“Delhi has never trusted whoever is in power here … They have always tried to dominate,” Conference leader Farooq Abdullah told NDTV ahead of the polls.

“That factor has been responsible for tragedies of the state.”

Issues such as unemployment and development have also dominated political campaigning. The territory has a youth unemployment rate of 18.3 percent, more than double the national average, according to government figures from July 2023.

Before playing most sports, you need to get to a venue – a gym, or a field or a court. And if you are in Paris and disabled, especially wheelchair-bound, that’s a challenge in itself.

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Jerome Rousseau, the founder and general manager of Novosports, showed up at a city-run sports complex on the northeastern edge of the city to lead a session of inclusive volleyball.

The disabled access lift was visible from the street, but bars at the courtyard entrance designed to keep bikes and motorbikes out also blocked Rousseau’s wheelchair.

Rousseau, who is quadriplegic, had to wait while a key was found to open a gate at the far end of the complex. From there, a long path wound around two football fields before finally leading to the gym.

“Everything takes more time when you are disabled,” Rousseau said, unfazed, while riding around one of the fields.

Listen to a version of this story in the Spotlight on France podcast: 

Accessibility hurdle

“Sometimes a facility is accessible for spectators, to watch a game, but not for playing,” Rousseau continued, explaining that accessible changing rooms, showers and toilets are also essential.

Finally inside the gym, he introduced a visiting delegation from the Centre Français of Berlin to inclusive volleyball – a game anyone can play, regardless of their disability.

Players roll a large yoga ball on the ground under a net and are limited by how many times they can touch the ball.

Rousseau, who loves sports, developed the game after his experience in university, where he found there was no way to play with his classmates.

“We had a gym, we had disabled and non-disabled students, and we had nothing for them,” he said. “So we had to create new sports.”

He founded Novosports in 2020. It offers inclusive volleyball as well as baskin – inclusive basketball, a more established sport that originated in Italy.

About 60 percent of the club’s 50 members are disabled. Men and women of all ages play together.

“We have lots of examples of children with disabilities who now can play with their parents who are not disabled or disabled parents who can play with their children,” Paul Quesada, Novosports’ project manager, explains.

“These kind of sports allow people to play together, and they can be competitive because there are rules.”

The rules of inclusive volleyball take into account people’s physical abilities. Non-disabled players must sit on the ground before hitting the ball to level the playing field.

Paralympics boost

Since the Paralympics in Paris, Novosports has received an increased number of calls from people interested in joining.

The Games gave the club media coverage, but also opened up the world of handi- and parasports to the general public.

But a lot of challenges remain for disabled athletes.

“The Paralympics were a success, but it’s only a first step,” said Romain Tran Van, who implements sport policy for the City of Paris.

Of Paris’ over 1,770 sports clubs, just under 200 are able to serve people with disabilities – for a city with 200,000 disabled residents.

Just getting around the city is already a massive challenge, as the metro is virtually inaccessible to wheelchairs.

Parasport activities therefore need to be ideally local, but there is already a shortage of sports facilities across the city.

Limited facilities

Paris has 400 sports facilities, the lowest ratio for its population of any French city. Securing time in a gym, tennis court or pool is a political process, determined by local councils.

Giving a prime slot to a parasport activity often means taking time away from other clubs, which typically have more members.

“When they do it, it sends a strong message,” Tran Van says, and that is what is needed.

The Paralympics helped spread the message and unlocked some funding to retrofit gyms and outdoor basketball courts.

Tran Van helped launch the Network of para-friendly sports clubs in 2020, after Paris had been chosen to host the Games.

The programme helps clubs welcome more disabled members, but it requires investment in equipment and training for coaches.

While sport might seem minor compared to other challenges facing disabled people in Paris – like basic mobility, getting kids services in schools or finding jobs – Tran Van insists it’s vital.

“It is a bit of a cliché, but it is true that sport brings people together,” he says. “Sport is a tool to accelerate change in how disability is seen.”

For people living with a disability, beyond the health benefits, sport helps combat isolation and provides a sense of inclusion that they may not experience elsewhere in life.

Sport gives purpose

“I believe sport brings people together even more than the world of work,” says Philippe Depres, a volunteer with Novosports whose son, Elliott, works for and plays with the club.

Autistic and with a genetic disorder that has left him almost blind, Elliott has always been dependent on his parents – even today at the age of 22.

He had trouble getting through school, and sport became his focus. He has played tennis since he was 12, though it took a while to find a club that would accept him.

When he was younger, Elliott didn’t talk much and had outbursts.

“Some regular clubs refused to accept him,” Depres said. “They said they couldn’t manage him, that it was too complicated. I understand that training is needed, but a willingness to try makes a difference.”

Today Elliott’s work with Novosports has given him a purpose, and he plays both inclusive volleyball and baskin.

He says he prefers baskin, as it doesn’t require him to sit, which is difficult for him due to breathing problems.

Inventing a sport

But the rules of inclusive volleyball are still evolving and can be adapted based on players’ abilities.

“Sometimes someone gets to touch the ball twice instead of once – it depends on their physical issues,” Rousseau says.

The sport was initially developed for people in wheelchairs at a high school outside of Paris.

“I said that’s fine, but if you don’t have a disability, you can’t play,” Rousseau adds. “So we created a sport where people who are not disabled don’t have to be in a wheelchair, but can instead play with their own abilities.

“Inclusive sports is, by definition, having different people in the same space, with mental or physical disabilities, and we can all play together.”

More on this story in the Spotlight on France podcast, episode 115. Listen here.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres first proposed the meeting in 2021, billing it as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to reshape human history by rekindling international cooperation.

As an opening act for the annual high-level week of the UN General Assembly, which begins Tuesday, dozens of heads of state and government are expected to adopt a “Pact for the Future” on Sunday.

But after intense last-minute negotiations, Guterres expressed some frustration, urging nations to show “vision” and “courage,” and calling for “maximum ambition” to strengthen international institutions that struggle to respond effectively to today’s threats.

In the latest version of the text that will be submitted for adoption, leaders pledge to bolster the multilateral system to “keep pace with a changing world” and to “protect the needs and interests of current and future generations” facing “persistent crisis”.

“We believe there is a path to a brighter future for all of humanity,” the document says.

Spanning nearly 30 pages, the pact outlines 56 “actions,” including commitments to multilateralism, upholding the UN Charter and peacekeeping.

It also calls for reforms to international financial institutions and the UN Security Council, along with renewed efforts to combat climate change, promote disarmament, and guide the development of artificial intelligence.

Words to action

Even though there are some “good ideas,” the text “is not the sort of revolutionary document reforming the whole of multilateralism that Antonio Guterres had originally called for,” Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group told AFP.

The sentiment is widely shared among diplomats, many of whom express frustration when discussing the ambition and impact of the text, describing it as “lukewarm,” “the lowest common denominator,” and “disappointing.”

“Ideally, you would hope for new ideas, fresh ideas. You know, 2.0 and then some. But when you have 200 countries that all have to agree, you end up with a Christmas tree of everything,” said one diplomat.

After intense negotiations in recent days, Russia still has objections to the final version of the text published on Saturday, a diplomatic source told AFP. While the pact is expected to be adopted, its approval isn’t guaranteed.

US backs two permanent seats for Africa on UN Security Council

The fight against global warming was one of the sticking points in the negotiations, with references to the “transition” away from fossil fuels having disappeared from the draft text weeks ago, before being re-inserted.

Despite the criticism, it is still “an opportunity to affirm our collective commitment to multilateralism, even in the difficult current geopolitical context,” one Western diplomat said, emphasizing the need to rebuild trust between the Global North and South.

Developing countries have been particularly vocal in demanding concrete commitments on the reform of international financial institutions, aiming to secure easier access to preferential financing, especially in light of the impacts of climate change.

The text does indeed include “important commitments on economic justice and reforming the international financial architecture,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) commented, while also praising “the centrality of human rights.”

However, world leaders “still need to demonstrate that they are willing to act to uphold human rights,” said Louis Charbonneau, HRW’s UN director.

Regardless of its content, the pact and its annexes – a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations – are non-binding, raising concerns about implementation, especially as some principles – such as the protection of civilians in conflict – are violated daily.

“Our next task is to breathe life into them, to turn words into action,” Guterres urged on Saturday.

The court this week began examining an appeal from civil parties against a 2018 decision to dismiss the case.

Initially scheduled for the end of May, the hearing was postponed to 19 September. The following day, the court announced that a final ruling would be delivered on 11 December.

At Thursday’s hearing, the public prosecutor’s office had requested that the case be dismissed outright.

In 2005, six survivors of the Bisesero massacre joined with NGOs to file a complaint against French soldiers for allegedly abandoning hundreds of Tutsis who had fled to the Bisesero hills in late June 1994 – only returning three days later, by which time most had been slaughtered by Hutu militia.

French forces were deployed in Rwanda at the time as part of Operation Turquoise, a UN-mandated military intervention launched in the final weeks of the genocide to establish “safe zones” for Rwandans fleeing the killing.

Rwanda marks 30 years since France’s contested mission to stem 1994 genocide

Decades of accusations

Lawyer Pierre-Olivier Lambert, representing retired general Jean-Claude Lafourcade – who headed the operation – said soldiers were keen to put an end to 20 years of legal proceedings. 

“The page of history has been turned,” he told news agency AFP, referring to the landmark 2021 inquiry commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron that concluded the records did not show France willingly joined a genocide.

“It is time the judicial page was turned too,” Lambert said.

The 2021 report, led by historians and involving two years of research, nonetheless pointed to a “profound failure” on France’s part during the slaughter in Bisesero.

Eric Plouvier, the lawyer representing Survie, one of the NGOs that brought the complaint, argued that even without genocidal intent, the soldiers’ failure to intervene gives them a share of the blame for the killings.

The civil parties believe they have evidence that demonstrates French troops were aware of the crimes taking place, he told AFP.

A controversial mission

The Bisesero case remains emblematic of the long controversy over the objectives of Operation Turquoise.

While the UN estimates that the mission helped save hundreds of lives, it came too late for the majority of victims, who had already perished in the early weeks of the genocide.

By the time French troops arrived, the Tutsi fighters of the Rwandan Patriotic Front – led by the current president, Paul Kagame – were beginning to overcome the Hutu government forces.

The deployment of soldiers from France, a long-standing ally of the Hutu regime, was seen as an attempt to help the Hutus out.

Kagame’s government has long maintained that France not only failed to stop the slaughter but facilitated the safe passage of tens of thousands of Hutus into neighbouring Zaire – now the Democratic Republic of Congo – leading to many perpetrators of genocide escaping justice.

Thirty years after genocide, Rwanda’s relations with France are slowly mending

In Istanbul’s conservative Uskudar district overlooking the Bosphorus waterway, activists from the group 1,000 Youth for Palestine recently gathered to protest the killing by Israeli security forces of the Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi.

But along with chants condemning Israel, the demonstrators also attacked Erdogan and his government for Turkey’s continuing trade with Israel.

“I am here to force the Turkish government to stop the oil trade with Israel and to stop genocide,” declared Gulsum, a university academic who only wanted to be identified by her first name for security reasons.

“This is not just a public demand. It’s also a legal obligation for Turkey to stop genocide.”

Since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, the student-based group has directed its protests at the export of Azerbaijani oil to Israel by way of a Turkish port.

It also targets Turkish companies – many of which have close ties to Erdogan – that it accuses of circumventing the trade embargo by using third parties.

Turkey talks tough on Israel but resists calls to cut off oil

Unifying cause

The group uses social networks to broadcast its message, getting around government-controlled media.

The activists say they have received broad support that crosses Turkey’s traditional divides of religious and secular.

“When it comes to Palestine, it is a story that we all unite about,” said Gizem, a university student and 1,000 Youth for Palestine member.

“There are those who define themselves as socialists and those who define themselves as Islamists. There are also apolitical youth who say ‘I don’t like politics’, but still join us.”

While Erdogan presents himself as a stalwart defender of the Palestinian cause, police are cracking down on the protests.

One of the group’s Palestinian members was arrested after activists disrupted a panel discussion on Israel hosted by the state broadcaster. She now faces deportation in a case that has provoked further protests.

Images of police arresting headscarf-wearing members of the group further embarrassed Erdogan and his religious base.

Protests escalate in Turkey over Azerbaijani oil shipments to Israel amid embargo

‘Divide and rule’

Sezin Oney, a commentator for Turkey’s Politikyol news portal, says the group’s diversity poses a problem for Erdogan, given he has often sought to exploit the deep divisions between religious and secular voters when facing attack.

She argues that 1,000 Youth for Palestine’s ability to bridge those gaps is indicative of a wider change in Turkish society.

“It’s actually portraying the current youth of Turkey – you don’t have monolithic circles in the grassroots,” explains Oney.

“You have a mixture: hybrid groups of conservatives, conservative-looking, but very progressive,” she says. “Such hybrid groups are coming together because of a cause, but ideologically or background-wise or social class-wise, they may be very diverse.

“And that’s something threatening for the government. Because the government is embarking on divide and rule.”

Persistent political headache

Erdogan lost heavily in local elections earlier this year, a defeat widely blamed both on economic problems and anger over Turkey’s ties to Israel.

The 1,000 Youth for Palestine activists say they hope to continue to build on those results. 

“The reason for our success is that we put our finger on the right spot. We expose the hypocrisy of both the capitalists, the corporations and the government,” claims Murat, a university student who belongs to the group.

“People also saw this hypocrisy and thought that someone should speak out, and they supported us a lot because of that,” he added. “We will unite as the people of Turkey and continue to stand in the right place in history to stop the massacre in Palestine.”

The diversity of 1,000 Youth for Palestine is seen as its main strength, which is why it will likely continue to pose a political headache for Erdogan. Yet it may also offer hope that the deep divides in Turkish society can be bridged.

In the gulf between Brittany and Normandy, the spider crab population has exploded fourfold over the past decade. They’re fished year-round these days, no longer just from early autumn to early spring. 

This season, farmers in the bays of Saint-Brieuc and Fresnaye, on Brittany’s picturesque northern coast, were alarmed to discover the spider crabs had eaten most of their crop. 

It’s a problem that has persisted for years but which the regional mussel farmers union says is now untenable. Local businesses are reporting losses of millions of euros and calling on the authorities for urgent help. 

Sought-after molluscs 

The shallow bays, fed by nutrient-rich waters from the Atlantic, have for generations supported France’s treasured bouchot mussel industry: mussels grown on vertical wooden stakes that are submerged during high tide and exposed at low tide. 

Their unique cultivation method provides a distinct tender texture and sweet taste that distinguishes bouchots, introduced to Brittany in the 1960s, from other varieties of mussels.  

As well as losing this year’s harvest, producers were dismayed to discover that future yields had also been destroyed when juvenile spider crabs devoured the baby mussels, known as seed, in June.

“When the tides rose, we realised that 80 percent of our baby mussels had been eaten in just four days,” farmer Cédric Serrandour told RFI – adding this episode alone had cost him 50,000 euros. 

Serrandour’s family business, Les Merveilles du Cap, has been growing bouchot mussels and hollow oysters in the Bay of Fresnaye for four generations. 

“If we don’t have baby mussels for the 2025 season, it will be catastrophic. We’re talking about a ‘blank season’,” he said. 

Serrandour estimates that over the past five years he’s lost about 500 tonnes of mussels. With the ongoing surge in spider crab numbers, he expects that at least 200 tonnes of next year’s harvest will be destroyed. 

Frustration is growing over what farmers say is a slow and inadequate response from the government. 

To draw attention to the crisis, industry workers in July turned out to protest, blocking Brittany’s famous Rance Dam station – a key landmark known for its pioneering role in tidal energy. 

Mussel farmers say a lack of immediate financial support has left many of them on the brink of collapse. “We are asking for direct assistance,” Serrandour said, warning that many farmers won’t survive if they don’t get help soon.

France’s first wind-propelled cargo ship successfully crosses Atlantic

Crabs a resource too

Although a menace to mussel farmers, Atlantic spider crabs now provide a steady income for local fishermen who are able to catch them outside of their traditional fishing season.  

Known for their sweet if somewhat chewy meat, the crustaceans – protected under the Bern Convention – are an increasingly profitable resource for seafood markets across Europe. 

They’re sold either whole or packaged up as pulp for use in recipes such as pies, spring rolls and salads. 

The French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) has been tasked with studying the behaviour, biology and evolution of spider crabs, with the aim of developing strategies to mitigate their impact. 

So far crab traps and nets have done little to stem the problem. 

Figuring out why the crabs have managed to become so abundant so quickly is a challenge, Ifremer biologist Martial Laurans told RFI. One obvious factor, though, is warmer waters.

“Spider crabs need temperatures of around 15 or 16 degrees to begin reproducing,” Laurans said, adding that the period when temperatures are favourable has become longer.

“We’re also working to understand their movements … how the spider crabs have been able to arrive at the mussel concessions.”

Spider crabs are sensitive to noise, so last year Ifremer tested a method using sound to deter them along the Channel coast. Chains attached to trawlers were used to generate vibrations in the hope of scaring them away from mussel farms.

While this approach drove down the number of crabs, it hasn’t eliminated the problem. 

Protected species

Because the spider crabs, which are native to Breton waters, are protected by law, mussel farmers are not allowed to destroy them. They do, however, have permission to catch the crustaceans and release them offshore. 

What’s needed, Laurans says, is a long-term solution that balances the needs of both the fishermen and the mussel farmers. 

“Spider crabs are a resource for fishermen. Mussel farmers don’t have a licence to fish them, so they have to work with fisherman to try to reduce the numbers close to their concessions,” he said. 

However, producers are pushing for spider crabs near farming zones to be classified as pests – a move that would permit more aggressive control measures.

Almost half of fish sold in France is ‘not from sustainable sources’

Based in Lausanne, the company filters the city’s water and bottles it in glass in a 300m² warehouse in the 18th arrondissement. Already operating in other countries and in Nice, they have invested 1 million euros in the Paris facility.

The water comes from the same underground sources as the city’s tap water, but Jonathan McNicol, managing director of BE WTR France, says this water is more filtered.

“On our small scale, because there are far fewer litres, we can have filters that can have a longer contact time and we can remove PFAS, the few pesticide residues if there are any,” he told FranceInfo.

BE WTR’s filtration system was first approved by the Agence régionale de santé (ARS) before gaining full authorisation in July.

“The idea is to innovate in water, to bring a silky-smooth taste, to ensure that we are local,” said Mike Heicker, founder and chairman of BE WTR.

Local opposition

However, not everyone is convinced. Mélisande Seyzériat, coordinator of Zero Waste Paris, believes there’s a simpler solution.

“I don’t know what is meant by ‘silky water’. I think it’s something for people with a lot of money. We’re talking about water from Paris, so we have it on tap,” she said.

The company argues that each glass bottle can be reused up to 200 times, adding to the environmental benefits.

BE WTR is keen to place its small bottling plants in city centres, as seen in Lausanne, or within large establishments, such as their facility in a three-hotel resort in Dubai. This helps reduce transportation distances for deliveries.

The Paris site aims to produce up to six million bottles annually, with the primary market being hotels and palaces. While the price is not yet finalised, McNicol said it would be comparable to that of mineral water.

(with newswires)

About 20 members of Extinction Rebellion and Marseille-based Stop Croisieres (Stop Cruises) made a chain of canoes in the water across the entry to France’s leading port for cruise liners, an AFP correspondent reported.

The demonstration forced one ship to turn back at 7:00 am and moor further down the coast. Others had to stay in stand-by outside the port until about 9:30 am.

The port has since reopened, the maritime authorities told AFP cruise ships have docked.

“Nothing justifies the maintenance of these absurd, energy-intensive and toxic floating cities,” Stop Croisieres said on its website.

“Our air, our seas and our health are not up for negotiation,” it said.

It criticised the noxious heavy fuel oil used by the vessels, the destruction of ocean and coastal wildlife, the ships’ impact on the climate and poor working conditions for employees on board.

The protest prevented the Germany-owned Aidastella, which can carry around 2,000 people, from docking at around 7:00 am.

The Costa Smeralda and the MSC World Europa also had to wait before entering the French port.

The MSC World Europa is the sixth largest cruise liner in the world. It can carry 6,000 passengers and has more than 2,600 cabins, as well as 13 restaurants and a shopping centre.

France’s first wind-propelled cargo ship successfully crosses Atlantic

Pollution

Marseille is the centre of a burgeoning cruise ship industry in France.

Between 2022 and 2023, the number of cruise passengers entering the port jumped from 1.5 million to 2.5 million, according to the Marseille tourism observatory.

Advocates of cruise liners argue they provide revenue to stopover ports.

Detractors say the ships encourage passengers to spend their money onboard, not on land, and that the industry promotes competition between reception ports to force down prices.

There have been protests in several European port cities against the damage caused by cruise liners, including in Venice and Amsterdam, which have banished them from docking in the city centre.

Stop Croisieres was set up during the Covid pandemic.

“We saw videos of nature being restored all over France, little birds in towns and other bucolic scenes.

“Yet in some parts of Marseille, the air was even more polluted than before the pandemic because of all the cruise liners forced to stay in port with their engines running,” said Andrea, who declined to give her surname for fear of prosecution.

In March 2023, residents’ associations in Marseille lodged a legal complaint over ocean traffic pollution in the port area, which regularly exceeded European Union limits.

According to a study by NGO Transport and Environment, cruise ships sailing in European waters in 2022 emitted more than eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide – the equivalent of 50,000 Paris to New York flights.

First-time applications from people seeking asylum in European Union countries declined in June of this year, with Syrians, Venezuelans, and Afghans being the primary applicants.

According to a report from the EU’s statistics agency Eurostat published Friday,  there were over 70,000 first-time asylum requests from non-EU citizens across the bloc’s 27 countries in the past year, marking a decrease of 17 percent compared to June last year.

Syrians made up the largest share of applicants, accounting for 12 percent in June of this year, followed by Venezuelans and Afghans who accounted for nine percent and 8 percent respectively.

EU countries tighten border checks amid security and migration fears

For Germany, however, applications submitted this June dropped by over a quarter to just under 17,000 compared with the same period last year.

As the far-right continues to gain political traction in Germany, the Berlin government is imposing stricter measures on immigration.

New migrant rules

Earlier this month, Germany announced plans to impose tighter controls at the country’s land borders for a period of six months that were implemented on Monday, including a scheme that will enable the German authorities to reject more migrants directly at German borders.

Meanwhile, the Dutch government has closely followed with its own moratorium on all new asylum applications.

The majority of migrants and asylum seekers come from conflict zones in the Middle East and North Africa. 

(with AFP)

The study, which was co-authored by French scientist Florence Debarre and published in the scientific journal Cell on Thursday, says the virus may have emerged from wild animals that were present at a market in the city of Wuhan in late 2019

Nearly five years after Covid first emerged, the international community has still not been able to determine with certainty exactly where the virus came from.

The first cases were detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, but there have been disputes between proponents of the two main theories.

One is that the virus leaked from a Wuhan lab which studied related viruses, while the other is that people caught Covid from an infected wild animal being sold at a local market.

The scientific community has favoured the latter theory, but the controversy has rumbled on.

The study published in the Cell journal on Thursday is based on more than 800 samples collected at Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Market, where wild mammals were also believed to have been for sale.

The samples were collected in January 2020 after the market was shuttered, and were not taken directly from animals or people but from the surfaces of stalls selling wildlife, as well as from drains.

Presence of small mammals

From this type of data, which was shared by the Chinese authorities, “we cannot say with certainty whether the animals (at the market) were infected or not,” study co-author Florence Debarre told French news agency AFP.

However, “our study confirms that there were wild animals at this market at the end of 2019, notably belonging to species such as raccoon dogs and civets,” said the evolutionary biologist at France’s CNRS research agency.

“And these animals were in the southwest corner of the market, which also happens to be an area where a lot of SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, was detected.”

These small mammals can catch similar viruses to humans, which has made them suspects for serving as an intermediate host between humans and bats, in which SARS-CoV-2 is suspected to have originated.

Studies suggest Wuhan link to Covid-19, but WHO warns against dismissing other theories

The presence of these animals at the Huanan market had previously been disputed, despite some photographic evidence and a 2021 study.

Numerous parts of one stall tested positive for the Covid virus, including “animal carts, a cage, a garbage cart, and a hair/feather removal machine,” the study said.

“There was more DNA from mammalian wildlife species in these samples than human DNA,” it added.

Mammal DNA was found in the Covid-positive samples from this stall, including from palm civets, bamboo rats and raccoon dogs.

“These data indicate either that the animals present at this stall shed the SARS-CoV-2 detected on the animal equipment or that early unreported human case(s) of Covid-19 shed virus in the exact same location as the detected animals,” the study said.

Live wildlife trade in question

The research also confirms that the “most recent common ancestor” of the Covid virus strain found in the market samples was “genetically identical” to the original pandemic strain.

“This means that the early diversity of the virus is found at the market – as would be expected if this is the site where it emerged,” Debarre explained.

From the Labs: French scientists predict possible Covid mutation sites

James Wood, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Cambridge University not involved in the research, said the study “provides very strong evidence for wildlife stalls in the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan being a hotspot for the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The research was important because “little or nothing has been done to limit either the live trade in wildlife nor the biodiversity loss or land use changes that are the actual likely drivers of past and future pandemic emergence,” he said.

“These aspects are also not included in the draft pandemic treaty” currently being negotiated by countries, he added.

(with AFP)

Von der Leyen’s visit comes after a summer of intense fighting with Moscow’s troops pressing an advance in the east and Kyiv holding on to swathes of Russia’s Kursk region.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned that this winter will be “by far” the toughest for Ukraine, with a large part of the country’s energy infrastructure already damaged by Russia’s bombing campaigns.

“The European Union is here to help you in this challenge to keep the lights on, to keep your people warm and keep your economy going as you fight for your survival,” von der Leyen said.

“We are now confident that we can deliver this loan to Ukraine very quickly, a loan that is backed by the windfall profits from immobilised Russian assets,” she added, speaking alongside President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky is expected visit to presidential candidates in Washington in the coming days to present Kyiv proposals on how to end more than two and a half years of fighting.

Offering Europe’s support

The EU’s loan proposal – which needs to be signed off by member states – is part of a bigger plan agreed by G7 powers in June to use the proceeds of frozen Russian assets to loan Kyiv $50 billion (€44 billion).

The EU has frozen roughly $235 billion (€210 billion) of Russian central bank funds since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the vast bulk of immobilised Russian assets worldwide.

Von der Leyen – who arrived by train from Poland on Friday morning – also said that Brussels will “help repair the damages done by the Russian strikes” to Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

“We will aim to restore 2.5 gigawatt of capacity this winter, that is approx 15 percent of your country’s needs for this winter,” she said.

The IEA chief Fatih Birol warned a day earlier that this winter will prove the “sternest test yet” for Ukraine’s war-battered energy-grid.

Ukraine receives €4.2bn from EU as part of recovery plan

The agency put forward a plan on how to safeguard Kyiv’s energy grid, with Birol saying: “We must keep the brave people of Ukraine warm.”

The previous two winters in Ukraine saw thousands regularly without power and heating in freezing temperatures as Russia systematically targeted energy infrastructure.

An IEA report said that in 2022 and 2023 about “half of Ukraine’s power generation capacity was either occupied by Russian forces, destroyed or damaged, and approximately half of the large network substations were damaged by missiles and drones.”

In Kyiv, von der Leyen laid flowers at a memorial to soldiers killed in the fighting.

“They are real heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice for the security of our continent as a whole,” she said on X.

Accession to Europe

The EU chief is also due to discuss EU accession talks for Ukraine, launched in June this year.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has reinvigorated a push in the EU to take on new members, but there has been some frustration in Kyiv – which has had two pro-EU revolutions in the past 20 years – that talks are too slow.

Von der Leyen’s trip also comes as Ukraine has lobbied its allies to allow it to use donated weapons to strike “legitimate” military targets deep in Russian territory.

Russian invasion has forced 6.5 million Ukrainians to flee country, UN says

The United States and Britain have been discussing allowing it to do just that – but EU states remain divided over the issue.

On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on EU countries to allow Kyiv to use Western weapons to strike military targets inside Russia.

Washington currently authorises Ukraine to only hit Russian targets in occupied parts of Ukraine and some in Russian border regions directly related to Moscow’s combat operations.

(with AFP)

With Bordeaux wines selling less in recent years, winegrowers have been forced to uproot vines to maintain sales costs and avoid overproduction. 

The habit of drinking wine with the daily meal has fallen by 70 percent in the last 60 years, according to the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Tendencies (OFDT).

French people on average drink 40 litres per inhabitant, per year, compared to 120 litres of wine in the 1960s.

This trend has accelerated in the last three years, particularly for red wine. France Agrimer – a public body dedicated to agricultural development – says they have noted 15 percent fewer sales in supermarket chains in this period.

To deal with the crisis, the French government has submitted a plan to the European Commission to destroy around 30,000 of the 800,000 hectares of French vineyards, at an estimated cost of €120 million.

Volunteers winegrowers would receive €4,000 per hectare of permanently removed vines, just enough to cover the cost – and they must promise not to replant anything.

Struggling French winemakers may have to destroy their vintage cellars to survive

Drastic solution

All wine regions in France are eligible, but the crisis has particularly affected the Bordeaux wines.

The European Commission has one month to respond to France’s request.

Even if the money is French, it would be taken from the so-called “Ukraine” emergency fund because the CAP (common agricultural policy) does not provide credit for removing the vines.

A similar plan is already in place in the southwestern Gironde area, financed by the state government, regional authorities and the Bordeaux wine inter-professional association.

As temperatures climb, is the future of French wine in England?

Although it is a drastic solution, winemakers have been forced to admit that profit loss is unsustainable and that the situation is unlikely to improve in the long term.

According to a study for the Vinexpo trade show, young people are turning away from wine, with less than a third of wine enthusiasts under 40.

They now prefer apéritifs – or cocktails – to long dinners, hence the increase in beer consumption. When they turn to wine, it’s usually white, rosé or light red wine.

Exports down

Exports were down by 10 percent last year compared to 2022 and the market has not recovered since Covid, particularly with regards to China.

China is now producing its own wine and imports it generally from Spain or Italy, rather than France.

The wine-making industry has also suffered from other setbacks, linked to international trade – for example, the taxes imposed by Donald Trump in 2019 following the conflict between Airbus and Boeing.

Elsewhere, winemakers are also facing the consequences of climate change, many losing entire vineyards due to fierce storms, frost or cases of mildew in recent years.

(with AFP)

Established by the French Culture Ministry in 1984, the European Heritage Days event has since been taken up by some 50 countries and inspired others outside the EU to launch their own versions.

A number of fashion houses and luxury companies are opening their doors for the three-day event, which this year coincides with Paris Fashion Week starting 23 September.

Artisans’ paradise

For the second year running, the 19M gallery established by legendary brand Chanel is encouraging the public to visit its vast multidisciplinary space at Porte d’Aubervilliers.

Its name refers to the 19th district of Paris, the date of birth of designer Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, and the letter “M” for mode (fashion), métiers d’art (artisanal professions) and main (hand), in tribute to craftspeople and their savoir-faire.

Chanel’s signature fragrance: the sweet smell of success 100 years on

Designed by award-winning architect Rudy Ricciotti, 19M houses 12 art and manufacturing studios, where up to 700 artisans and experts work daily. The 25,000-square-metre space also features a gallery, a café and a garden.

One of the highlights for this year’s Heritage Days is the temporary exhibition dedicated to the history of Maison Lesage. Specialised in embroidery and weaving for fashion and interior design, the brand is celebrating its 100 years.

Meanwhile in the 7th district of Paris, the Kering luxury group – owner of Gucci and Saint Laurent among others – is inviting the public to see inside its headquarters at 40 rue de Sèvres.

The company prides itself on refurbishing the 1634 building, which started out as a hospice for terminally ill patients. It became the Laennec hospital in 1878, named for René Laennec, inventor of the stethoscope.

Fashion fans will be particularly interested in the collection by Spanish designer Cristobal Balenciaga on display in the east wing, while modern art lovers can see part of the Pinault collection in the chapel.

Jewels of the crown

Two well-known jewellery brands are also taking part.

For the third year in a row, the Cartier Jewellery Institute is opening the doors to its 18th century mansion in the 9th district of Paris. Around 150 artisans specialising in jewellery-making have been based here since 2002.

This year, visits will focus on the art of gemstones, giving the public the chance to meet the artisans and even try a workshop to learn some tricks of the trade.

Meanwhile, Boucheron will open the doors to the Hôtel de Nocé – a private mansion on Place Vendôme housing a specialised workshop founded by the French entrepreneur and trained jeweller Cédric Gangemi.

Acquired in 2023, the workshop employs around 60 craftspeople from several trades in the sector, including designers, jewellers, setters and polishers.

Denim returns to its roots in southern French town of Nimes

Beauty queens

After two years of renovation, the Maison de Beauté Carita is ready to welcome the public for the Heritage Days.

The luxury skin and haircare brand was founded in 1945 by two sisters, Maria and Rosy Carita, who invented the concept of beauty care long before it became a trend.

The flagship store at 11 Faubourg Saint-Honoré was inaugurated in December 1952 in the presence of the Duchess of Windsor.

It has seen the likes of Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Adjani, Greta Garbo and Jane Fonda spend time in its three-storey temple of beauty.

Dazzling department stores

Where would French consumer culture be without its elegant department stores? The concept of these “cathedrals of commerce” can be attributed to Aristide Boucicaut, a novelty salesman from Normandy and founder of Le Bon Marché in 1852.

For the Heritage Days, two of Paris’s other historic department stores are joining the programme.

Le Printemps, established in 1865, is organising a behind-the-scenes tour, notably giving visitors access to its private terrace, secret underground spaces and grand Art Deco staircase renovated last year.

Meanwhile, the Galeries Lafayette, established by Alsacian cousins Théophile Bader and Alphonse Khan in 1893, is hosting an exclusive nighttime visit with film screenings and a musical performance under its famous glass dome.

The European Heritage Days run from 20 to 22 September 2024, with some 17,000 venues open to the public. Most are free of charge, though some require online reservation in advance.

The meeting took place amid increasing divisions within Europe over proposed tariffs, with Spain calling on the EU last week to “rethink” plans for duties of up to 36 percent on Chinese electric vehicles, aligning with Germany in its opposition.

“Constructive meeting with Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao. Both sides agreed to intensify efforts to find an effective, enforceable and WTO (World Trade Organization) compatible solution,” Dombrovskis said on X.

Wang also spoke to businesses in the EV sector on Wednesday in Brussels after which he said in a statement that China “[would] certainly persevere until the final moments of the consultations”.

According to the  statement by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the two sides engaged in “comprehensive, in-depth and constructive consultations on the EU’s anti-subsidy case for electric vehicles against China.

The statement added that both sides “expressed their political will to resolve their differences through consultations, agreed to continue to push forward the negotiations on the price commitment agreement.” 

Are EU tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles a sign of weakness?

Import duties

The European Commission in July announced plans to levy import duties on EV imported from China after an anti-subsidy investigation started last year found they were unfairly undermining European rivals.

The EU wants to protect its automobile industry, a jewel in Europe’s industrial crown providing jobs to around 14 million people.

The commission is in charge of trade policy for the 27-country bloc.

The tariffs are currently provisional and will only become definitive for five years after a vote by member states that should take place before the end of October.

According to Politico, a vote was originally planned for 25 September, but delayed after the visit to Brussels by  Wang Wentao was announced. According to the magazine, the vote is now likely to take place in the week of 30 September. 

‘Questionable allegations’

China angrily responded to the EU’s plans, warning it would unleash a trade war. Last month China also filed an appeal with the WTO over the tariffs.

Beijing has already launched its own investigations into European brandy, some dairy, and pork products imported into China.

Dombrovskis told Wang that the probes were “unwarranted, are based on questionable allegations, and lack sufficient evidence”, the EU’s trade spokesperson Olof Gill said.

“(He) thus called for these investigations to be terminated and informed the Chinese side that the EU will do its utmost to defend the interests of its industries,” Gill added in a statement.

Earlier this week, Wang said the European Union’s imposition of tariffs on EV will “seriously interfere” with trade and investment cooperation and hurt both China and Germany.

In talks on Tuesday with German Vice Chancellor and Economic Minister Robert Habeck, he said he hoped to reach a solution in line with World Trade Organisation rules as soon as possible, and avoid the escalation of China-EU economic and trade frictions, according to a statement released by China’s Ministry of Commerce early on Wednesday.

The European Commission is on the verge of proposing final tariffs of up to 35.3 percent on EVs built in China, on top of the EU’s standard 10 percent car import duty.

Wang is visiting Europe for talks on the EU’s anti-subsidy case against Chinese-made EVs ahead of a vote on more tariffs.

Wang said it is hoped that Germany will proceed from its own interests and push the European Commission and China to work in the same direction.

EU struggles to come out on top in systemic rivalry with China

Habeck said that Germany supports free trade, welcomes Chinese auto and parts companies to invest in Europe, and will urge the European Commission to find an appropriate solution with China and make every effort to avoid trade conflicts, according to the ministry statement.

(With newswires)

While floods are devastating West Africa, about 68 million people in southern Africa are suffering the effects of an El Nino-induced drought which has wiped out crops across the region. 

Nearly 68 million suffering from drought in southern Africa

Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho, Namibia, and Zambia are facing severe drought conditions, leading to widespread devastation. The impact is stalling economic growth and raising serious concerns about food security in the region. 

Zimbabwe to cull elephants to tackle drought, food shortages

In Zambia, the drought that has gripped southern Africa since early this year has led to rolling power cuts in a country that relies heavily on hydropower.

Some inhabitants, however, have already turned to solar power as an alternative.

To discuss how it can help, we speak this week with John Keane, CEO of the UK-based charity SolarAid, from the Zambian capital Lusaka. 

He explains how sales of solar products have increased by more than 540 percent since the beginning of 2024, and what the social enterprises are doing to spread awareness among Zambians and avoid the use of charcoal or candles.     

Episode mixed by Nicolas Doreau  

Spotlight on Africa is a podcast from Radio France Internationale

Nearly 50 French troops have been deployed to Japan for the Brunet-Takamori 2024 exercise, which sees the French Army’s 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment train alongside the 39th Infantry Regiment of the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force.

The training, which concludes on Saturday, is taking place at the Ojojihara and Iwateyama manoeuvre camps in northern Japan. Focused on infantry combat operations, the drills are being supported by drones.

The first edition of the exercise was held in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia in September to October 2023.

According to the French Ministry of Defence, the exercise was the first step in “develop[ing] a convergent strategy in favour of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region”.

Shows of strength

It is the first time that France’s Foreign Legion has participated in bilateral exercises with Japanese troops.

Sections of the corps joined Japan and the US in shared military drills in May 2021, in an exercise known as Arc 21. 

At the time, Rear Admiral Jean-Mathieu Rey said that France joining the drills was intended to “ensure a regular presence” of French forces in the Indo-Pacific region, and to “strengthen regional partnerships”.

France joins Japan and the US in military exercises in the Pacific

French participation in bi- and multilateral military exercises in the Pacific region are partly to counter China’s growing assertiveness.

As such, they are in line with the French Ministry of Defence’s 2021 strategy update, which warns that China “has doubled its defence budget since 2012, making it the second largest in the world, while expanding its nuclear arsenal and showing new ambitions in terms of power projection”. 

China’s ambitious claims over the South China Sea have resulted in a build-up of Western allies’ presence in the Pacific region.

But Beijing and Moscow are also using the sabre-rattling to boost their own joint military and navy exercises, in what could result in a vicious circle of increasing military activity.

At the same time as the French-Japanese drills, Russia and China conducted their own large-scale exercises. According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, the joint Ocean-2024 manoeuvres involved more than 400 warships and over 90,000 personnel.

Additionally, Russia is sending naval and air forces to join China’s Northern/Interaction-2024 exercises, which are being held in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk throughout September.

France remains cautious

The drills come amid tension between China and Japan, after increasingly bold Chinese manoeuvres.

This week a Chinese aircraft carrier briefly entered Japan’s contiguous waters for the first time, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed defence sources.

NHK said Chinese vessel the Liaoning sailed between the islands of Yonaguni and Iriomote in the southern Okinawa region, temporarily entering the zone adjacent to Japan’s territorial sea.

Earlier this month, Tokyo strongly protested after another Chinese naval ship entered its southern territorial waters. And last month, Japan scrambled fighter jets after what it called the first confirmed incursion by a Chinese military aircraft into its airspace.

France and Japan agree to start talks on military cooperation deal

While cooperating with Japan, France has been careful not to antagonise China, in spite of the growing tensions in the region.

When NATO planned to open a liaison office in Tokyo in 2023, to help improve cooperation with Japan, French President Emmanuel Macron blocked the initiative.

“The Indo-Pacific is not the North Atlantic,” Macron insisted, “so we must not give the impression that NATO is somehow building legitimacy and a geographically established presence in other areas.”

In Istanbul’s conservative Uskudar district overlooking the Bosphorus waterway, activists from the group 1,000 Youth for Palestine recently gathered to protest the killing by Israeli security forces of the Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi.

But along with chants condemning Israel, the demonstrators also attacked Erdogan and his government for Turkey’s continuing trade with Israel.

“I am here to force the Turkish government to stop the oil trade with Israel and to stop genocide,” declared Gulsum, a university academic who only wanted to be identified by her first name for security reasons.

“This is not just a public demand. It’s also a legal obligation for Turkey to stop genocide.”

Since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, the student-based group has directed its protests at the export of Azerbaijani oil to Israel by way of a Turkish port.

It also targets Turkish companies – many of which have close ties to Erdogan – that it accuses of circumventing the trade embargo by using third parties.

Turkey talks tough on Israel but resists calls to cut off oil

Unifying cause

The group uses social networks to broadcast its message, getting around government-controlled media.

The activists say they have received broad support that crosses Turkey’s traditional divides of religious and secular.

“When it comes to Palestine, it is a story that we all unite about,” said Gizem, a university student and 1,000 Youth for Palestine member.

“There are those who define themselves as socialists and those who define themselves as Islamists. There are also apolitical youth who say ‘I don’t like politics’, but still join us.”

While Erdogan presents himself as a stalwart defender of the Palestinian cause, police are cracking down on the protests.

One of the group’s Palestinian members was arrested after activists disrupted a panel discussion on Israel hosted by the state broadcaster. She now faces deportation in a case that has provoked further protests.

Images of police arresting headscarf-wearing members of the group further embarrassed Erdogan and his religious base.

Protests escalate in Turkey over Azerbaijani oil shipments to Israel amid embargo

‘Divide and rule’

Sezin Oney, a commentator for Turkey’s Politikyol news portal, says the group’s diversity poses a problem for Erdogan, given he has often sought to exploit the deep divisions between religious and secular voters when facing attack.

She argues that 1,000 Youth for Palestine’s ability to bridge those gaps is indicative of a wider change in Turkish society.

“It’s actually portraying the current youth of Turkey – you don’t have monolithic circles in the grassroots,” explains Oney.

“You have a mixture: hybrid groups of conservatives, conservative-looking, but very progressive,” she says. “Such hybrid groups are coming together because of a cause, but ideologically or background-wise or social class-wise, they may be very diverse.

“And that’s something threatening for the government. Because the government is embarking on divide and rule.”

Persistent political headache

Erdogan lost heavily in local elections earlier this year, a defeat widely blamed both on economic problems and anger over Turkey’s ties to Israel.

The 1,000 Youth for Palestine activists say they hope to continue to build on those results. 

“The reason for our success is that we put our finger on the right spot. We expose the hypocrisy of both the capitalists, the corporations and the government,” claims Murat, a university student who belongs to the group.

“People also saw this hypocrisy and thought that someone should speak out, and they supported us a lot because of that,” he added. “We will unite as the people of Turkey and continue to stand in the right place in history to stop the massacre in Palestine.”

The diversity of 1,000 Youth for Palestine is seen as its main strength, which is why it will likely continue to pose a political headache for Erdogan. Yet it may also offer hope that the deep divides in Turkish society can be bridged.

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 24 August, I told you a story about a sign I saw on a French highway this summer. On most highways across France, there are illuminated signboards that tell you if there’s an accident ahead, encourage you to take a break from driving, or remind you of the speed limit. The messages change according to what information is deemed necessary for drivers.

During the Olympic games, the signs said: “Remember: 130 kilometres per hour … speed is for Léon”. You were to write in and tell me who Léon is, and why the French said speed was OK for him.

The answer is: Léon is that French human fish, Léon Marchand. He won four Gold Medals in swimming this year … the 200-meter medley, 200-metre breaststroke, the 200-metre butterfly, and the 400-metre medley. He became the sixth Olympic swimmer to win four gold medals at a single Games.

Léon Marchand is the world record holder in the long course 400-metres individual medley; the Olympic record holder in the 200-metres butterfly, the 200-metres breaststroke, and the 200-metres individual medley; and the French record holder in the long course 200-metre individual medley, 200-metre butterfly and 200-metre breaststroke.

The young man is fast – watching him swim was incredible. See why the French government would tell us to be careful with our speed, but Léon could go as fast as he wished?

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Hans Verner Lollike from Hedehusene, Denmark: “The Paris 24 Olympic Games are over, but if you had a chance to win a Gold Medal, in which sport would it have been?”

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Alan Holder from the Isle of Wight, England. Alan is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations, Alan!

Saleem Akhtar is a winner this week. Saleem is the president of the RFI Seven Stars Radio Listeners Club in District Chiniot, Pakistan.

Pakistan! Congratulations on your amazing javelineer, Arshad Nadeem. Nadeem made history for Pakistan by becoming the first Pakistani to win an individual Olympic gold medal. Not only that, but he set an Olympic record with his throw of 92.97 meters… the sixth-longest throw in history. Mubarak, Arshad! Mubarak, Pakistan!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are RFI Listeners Club members Rodrigo Hunrichse from Ciudad de Concepción, Chile; Helmut Matt from Herbolzheim in Germany, and Father Steven Wara, who lives in the Cistercian Abbey in Bamenda, in Cameroon’s North West Region.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Imagine” by John Lennon; the waltz op. 64 No. 1 in D flat, the “Minute Waltz” by Frédéric Chopin, performed by Arthur Rubinstein; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Pocket Piano” by DJ Mehdi.

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’s foreign ministry unveils two-year gender equality strategy”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 14 October to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 19 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,  

While floods are devastating West Africa, about 68 million people in southern Africa are suffering the effects of an El Nino-induced drought which has wiped out crops across the region. 

Nearly 68 million suffering from drought in southern Africa

Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho, Namibia, and Zambia are facing severe drought conditions, leading to widespread devastation. The impact is stalling economic growth and raising serious concerns about food security in the region. 

Zimbabwe to cull elephants to tackle drought, food shortages

In Zambia, the drought that has gripped southern Africa since early this year has led to rolling power cuts in a country that relies heavily on hydropower.

Some inhabitants, however, have already turned to solar power as an alternative.

To discuss how it can help, we speak this week with John Keane, CEO of the UK-based charity SolarAid, from the Zambian capital Lusaka. 

He explains how sales of solar products have increased by more than 540 percent since the beginning of 2024, and what the social enterprises are doing to spread awareness among Zambians and avoid the use of charcoal or candles.     

Episode mixed by Nicolas Doreau  

Spotlight on Africa is a podcast from Radio France Internationale

“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).

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.