On 1 October, 2025, French military personnel boarded the rust-streaked tanker Boracay just off the Bay of Biscay, after the captain, a Chinese national commanding a largely Chinese crew, ignored repeated orders to stop.

He was detained, and French prosecutors opened an investigation for refusal to obey a “lawful signal” and failing to prove the ship’s nationality – rendering it effectively stateless under international law, and boardable without flag-state consent.

On paper, the ship was registered in Benin, but this registration was marked “false” by the relevant shipping registries – the official records maintained by a flag state that document a vessel’s nationality and ownership, granting it the right to sail under that country’s flag.

The Boracay also appears on several blacklists, including that of the European Union, as a ship that has been caught “transporting crude oil or petroleum products … that originate in Russia or are exported from Russia while practising irregular and high-risk shipping practices”, as set out in resolutions of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

Its detention in France was just another stopover on an erratic journey – one that exemplifies the global movements of Russia’s shadow fleet.

EU hits Russia with sweeping new sanctions over Ukraine war

IMO 9332810

Launched in 2007 as Pacific Apollo, from a Japanese shipyard, the vessel is identifiable by its IMO number 9332810, the unique and unchangeable number assigned to every merchant ship for lifetime identification, regardless of name or flag changes.

It became Virgo Sun six years later, then sped through aliases from 2020: P. Fos, Odysseus, Varuna, Kiwala, Pushpa – and finally Boracay, from September 2025.

The vessel’s flags shifted rapidly too: the Marshall Islands, St Kitts and Nevis, Mongolia, Gabon, Djibouti, Gambia, Malawi and Benin – several lacking valid registration, according to Equasis, the database of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).

‘Name-hopping” is a hallmark of a so-called shadow fleet.

“There is no official definition of the shadow fleet,” according to Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council think tank.

“Different organisations use different definitions, but the characteristics that most of them include are flag-hopping, obscure ownership, uncertain P&I insurance, and the fact that they transport sanctioned cargo,” she told RFI.

The Boracay’s managers have included India’s Gatik Ship Management, a leading carrier of Russian oil since Ukraine’s invasion, and Turkish firm Unic Tanker Ship Management.​

UK armed forces helped US mission to seize Russian tanker, MoD says

Drone attacks

In April 2025, when it arrived in Estonia after a long journey from India’s Sikka port, Estonian naval forces detained the IMO  9332810, then under the name Kiwala and registered in Djibouti – despite Djibouti cancelling its registry months earlier.

The ship was on the EU sanctions list, and heading for Russia. 

Estonian inspectors found 40 “deficiencies” – issues that didn’t conform to shipping regulations – with 23 of them documentation-related. 

However, they had to release the ship as there wasn’t enough evidence to hold it indefinitely.

It reached the Russian port of Ust-Luga in late April, then Primorsk near St Petersburg in September and changed name, this time becoming the Pushpa. According to Eurasia Daily and other shipping publications, this time it was filled with petrol.

As the Pushpa continued its journey, Danish authorities then linked it to suspicious drone flights over airports, forcing closures, although proof remains elusive.

On it went, through the English Channel and then southwards.

According to data from the Marine Traffic tracking website, the ship had been scheduled to arrive in Vadinar in north-western India on 20 October.

But it was followed by a French warship and local authorities boarded the ship – by now named the Boracay – off the coast near Saint-Nazare, and detained it.

Shadow fleet targeted as EU advances frozen assets plan for Ukraine

With the detention of the Boracay, French President Emmanuel Macron was fulfilling a promise that France and its EU partners would pursue a “policy of obstruction” against such shadow-fleet vessels.

However, it is not always easy to determine when maritime rules permit the physical challenge of these clandestine vessels.

“You can board and you can possibly detain if you have strong suspicions and allegations, but then if you can’t prove beyond reasonable doubt that that ship has been involved in some kind of crime, then you have to release it,” explains Braw.

She added: “Every vessel in the world has the right to sail on the world’s oceans… these shadow vessels don’t sail in the territorial waters of Western countries, they sail in the exclusive economic zone, where coastal states have fewer rights.”

The capture of the Boracay and the more recent detention of ships leaving Venezuela by United States forces are rare examples of national authorities taking action against the shadow fleet.

According to Braw, critics who have called Europe “spineless” in this regard often miss the point that governments follow the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS,) making “systematic action against the shadow fleet… very difficult without stretching or violating maritime rules”.

Opaque ownership

Since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and subsequent sanctions, Russia has stepped up use of this fleet of ageing tankers with opaque ownership and shifting identities to circumnavigate Western restrictions on its oil exports.

When the G7 imposed a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian oil in December 2022, this shadow fleet trafficking of Russian oil exploded.

Today, S&P Global counts 978 tankers totalling 127 million deadweight tonnes – 18.5 percent of global capacity – with 54 of these vessels (9.5 million payload tonnes) being used for Venezuelan crude swaps.

“There is no official definition, no official list and no precise number,” says Braw. The EU’s 18 December, 2025 sanctions hit 605 vessels, nine enablers (including owners and shipping companies) as well as firms in the UAE, Vietnam and Russia; yet port bans are not universally applied.

EU on track to end Russian gas imports by end of 2027

Global reach

The recent US detention of two Venezuelan tankers, thought to be shipping sanctioned oil, exposed the fleet’s global reach.

Roughly 80 percent of Venezuela’s 1 million barrels per day flowed to China, says Eric Olander, co-founder of the China-Global South Project, adding that: “The vast majority of the oil that Venezuela was producing was going to China.” The majority arrived at its destination via the shadow fleet.

For Beijing, this is just a small slice of its total oil imports – some 4 percent.

Venezuelan heavy, sour crude oil is hard to refine. But smaller, independent refineries, mainly located in China’s eastern Shandong province – nicknamed “teapots” – specialise in processing this oil from Venezuela and Iran, and are dependent on it.

“The teapot refineries will be the most impacted because they have tuned their systems to these particular grades of crude from Iran and from Venezuela,” according to Olander.

Unlike Chinese oil giants Sinopec or PetroChina, “teapots” lack diversification. With Iranian oil comprising 14 percent of imports, combined Venezuelan-Iranian pressure could hit 20 percent of China’s barrel basket.

Meanwhile, French authorities released the Boracay after a detention of just a few days. At the time of writing, it was located in Malaysia.

The ship now also appears on the Russian maritime register, under the name Feniks and registered to the Russian port of Sochi – a move that could suggest acknowledgement by Russia of its involvement with this shadow fleet.

The move followed an emergency defence council convened at the Élysée on Greenland and Iran, after which President Emmanuel Macron travelled to the Istres air base in southern France to deliver his annual address to the armed forces.

Macron confirmed overnight that France was taking part, at Denmark’s request, in joint military exercises in Greenland alongside Germany and Nordic countries.

“The first French military personnel are already on their way. Others will follow,” the president said on X.

The deployment comes amid growing tension within NATO after US President Donald Trump renewed claims on Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, arguing it is vital for American security.

His remarks have alarmed European allies and unsettled transatlantic relations.

During the address, Macron said a first team of French soldiers was already on the ground in Greenland and would be reinforced in the coming days by additional land, air and maritime assets.

Macron warns of ‘cascading consequences’ if US seizes Greenland

European forces en route

France’s ambassador for the poles, Olivier Poivre d’Arvor, said around 15 French soldiers were already involved.

“They are high-mountain specialists such as the chasseurs alpins,” he told FranceInfo radio, adding they were taking part in a preparation exercise “aimed at deterrence” to “show the United States that NATO is present”.

The mission, known as Operation Arctic Endurance, is running from Thursday to Saturday.

Germany said it was sending a 13-member reconnaissance team to Nuuk over the same period, while Sweden and Norway are also taking part. Denmark’s armed forces said they would continue strengthening their military presence in Greenland with support from European allies.

Greenland’s deputy prime minister, Mute Egede, said NATO soldiers were expected to be “more present” in the coming days, with additional military flights and ships. He described the activities as training.

Political pressure in Paris

The Greenland deployment comes as France struggles to agree a 2026 budget. Macron has asked parliament to increase military spending by 3.5 billion euros next year, citing the war in Ukraine and an increasingly brutal world.

Jean-Philippe Tanguy, a senior figure in the far-right Rassemblement national party, called on Macron to explain France’s position clearly.

He urged the president “to speak directly to the French people” about Greenland and the situation in Iran.

Tensions sharpened after talks in Washington on Wednesday between American, Danish and Greenlandic officials failed to bridge differences over Greenland.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said a US takeover of the territory was “absolutely not necessary”.

“We have a fundamental disagreement, but we also agree to disagree,” he told reporters.

Trump later struck a more conciliatory tone, saying he had “a very good relationship with Denmark” while again refusing to rule out any options.

(with newswires)

Speaking at the Istres-Le Tubé Air Base in southern France, where he delivered his New Year’s address to the military, Macron said France needed to move faster.

“To be powerful in this brutal world, we must act faster and stronger,” he said.

Macron said an updated Military Programming Law for 2026-2030 would include the extra €36 billion to boost defence spending.

The current 2024-2030 Military Programming Law (LPM) provides €413 billion, which Macron said he wants parliament to adopt “by 14 July”.

France deploys troops as Europe moves into Greenland

Rising defence budget

The delayed 2026 budget sets aside €57.2 billion for the armed forces, up 13 percent. It includes an extra €3.5 billion that was not planned under the current framework.

Macron last summer also called for another €3 billion spending surge in 2027.

He said the additional €36 billion was needed to “preserve the operational credibility of our forces” and to be ready for “a major engagement within three to four years”, amid concern over Russia’s threat to European security.

Macron said the money would fund “three main priorities”.

France’s Macron wants more young volunteers ‘to reinforce’ the army

Military priorities

He said the focus would include increasing ammunition stocks and strengthening troop readiness.

Macron said France also needed to strengthen sovereignty capabilities, including satellite-based early warning systems to detect long-range missile attacks.

He said France would also boost protection and strike capacity, with more air-defence systems, anti-drone measures and long-range drones.

As European nations increase defence spending, Macron renewed his call for defence contractors to raise production.

“We need to produce faster, in greater volume, with lighter and more innovative systems,” he said, warning firms could be “pushed out of the market”.

(with newswires)

NASA said Adenot’s Epsilon mission, originally planned for mid-February, could now launch as early as 8 February from Florida. The space agency also confirmed the mission will last nine months instead of the usual six.

The change tightens an already packed training and launch schedule for the 43-year-old test pilot, who is part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) astronaut corps.

NASA had previously planned the launch “no earlier than 15 February” 2026 aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon as part of the Crew-12 mission.

After the early return of Crew-11, US planners are now studying options to move the launch forward by several days to maintain a continuous human presence on the station.

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

Extended stay

The extension to nine months makes the mission one of the longest stays ever assigned to a European astronaut on the ISS.

Adenot has said she is preparing for “a marathon, not a sprint” in microgravity, with a heavier workload of scientific experiments during the longer mission.

The changes follow the first medical evacuation in the history of the ISS, which has been continuously inhabited for more than 25 years.

Four members of NASA’s Crew-11 mission splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego after their flight was cut short by about a month because of a health problem affecting one astronaut.

NASA has not identified the crewmember or given details of the diagnosis, saying the condition is stable and that the return was a precaution to allow full medical checks on the ground.

Agency doctors cited a “lingering risk and a lingering question” around the diagnosis, leading to a carefully weighed decision rather than an emergency evacuation.

Crew reshuffle

The early departure left the ISS with just three residents and increased pressure to send Crew-12, including Adenot, to restore a full working crew.

Adenot will launch aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon with NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.

Meir has been named commander of the mission. Hathaway will pilot the capsule, while Adenot and Fedyaev will serve as mission specialists.

The flight will make Adenot the second Frenchwoman in space, more than 30 years after Claudie Haigneré’s missions in the 1990s. She will also be the first French astronaut to visit the ISS since Thomas Pesquet’s Alpha mission in 2021.

During her stay, Adenot is expected to oversee dozens of European and French experiments, including work on plant biology, human physiology and technology tests linked to future Moon missions under NASA’s Artemis programme.

International cooperation

Orbiting about 400 kilometres above Earth, the ISS is used for research that cannot be carried out on the ground, including studies of the human body in weightlessness.

Crews are trained for both scientific work and emergencies, including medical situations like the one that led to Crew-11’s early return.

The station is one of the last arenas of structured cooperation between the United States and Russia since the war in Ukraine, with NASA, Roscosmos, ESA, JAXA and the Canadian Space Agency all contributing modules, cargo ships and crew.

Mixed crews continue to rotate through the station, with US spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonauts and Russian Soyuz capsules still transporting NASA astronauts.

In operation since 2000, the ISS has hosted more than 200 people from around 20 countries.

NASA and its partners plan to operate it until the end of the decade, before guiding it to a controlled re-entry over the remote Pacific “spacecraft graveyard” known as Point Nemo in 2031.​

(with newswires)

RFI: For the opposition, and in particular for Bobi Wine, this electoral campaign has been very difficult. How would you describe it?

Robert Amsterdam: Let’s be really clear: this is a man who faces death each day. I was first brought in years ago as his lawyer when Museveni tried to kill Bobi by shooting into his car. Bobi was then brutally tortured and held in jail, in a town called Arua, Uganda.

And from that time, Bobi’s life has been in danger. And, unlike many, he did not flee his country. He has stood his ground, fighting for Ugandans every day. He is representative of a population that is overwhelmingly under the age of 18 and desperate for change. He is the symbol of change, of youth, not only in Uganda but in Africa. He is an important and emblematic symbol of the fight of this generation to be heard, and for the dinosaurs of previous generations to step out of the way.

The world should start being run by people who have to live in its future, not by those who created a pretty horrendous past in Uganda.

Bobi Wine’s fight for democracy in Uganda continues on the big screen

Many human rights organisations have criticised the repression and brutality they say has been seen during this electoral campaign. In light of this, how do you expect the election itself will go?

Of course, it’s going to impact the vote. The authorities have cut off the internet. They’ve divided Kampala into 14 military districts. There’s a massive, unprecedented mobilisation of the military. It’s absurd and obscene.

I’ve already had calls from people within the government, who are highly confident of the outcome and are already reaching out to me because they’re worried about what the response will be if there is another stolen election. So the government is gearing up to steal another election and deprive Uganda of its vote.

Uganda orders internet blackout ahead of presidential elections

Are there legal mechanisms in place that could ensure Ugandan voters get the result they deserve?

I also represent the opposition in Tanzania, where thousands [of people] were brutally murdered in another stolen election in this part of Africa. So I would be lying if I expressed great confidence in the [possibility of removing] a military dictator.

But at the same time, before a vote, however jaded it may be, I’m not going to make these comments. I’m going to pray for Bobi’s safety and for the safety of those with the courage to vote for him and against Museveni and his dynasty. Because he’s going to try to put his son in after he’s finished.

Do you think Ugandans can see a future where politicians like Wine can emerge? In Uganda and beyond?

He’s an inspirational figure, as is Tundu Lissu in Tanzania, who’s now in solitary confinement, after being shot 16 times in a prior election. I think these martyrs – and Bobi Wine is a martyr, having suffered through torture and false imprisonment – are heroes of real democracy, not failed leaders and tired policies. These are men of vision who are trying to bring their people out of desperate circumstances.

Uganda police surround opposition leader’s party HQ ahead of protests

What is your advice for those parties who may have to wait months, if not years, to be able to represent their voters?

The first thing we have to do is condemn the African Union for living in the past, for making corrupt pacts with unqualified autocrats. We need somewhere in Africa to have a moral stance, and the African Union needs to be a light – not a dim reminder of the past.

And we have great political figures in parts of Africa who are doing their best. Some of them I’ve come to know through a life in Africa. I’m privileged to act for the Democratic Republic of Congo. And there’s just a tremendous amount of inequality and despair that we need to turn around. And all of us who have invested parts of our lives in Africa, we need to not let another Ugandan election be stolen. We need to raise our voices. 

Bobi Wine has promised there will be protests if the election is stolen. But can we be confident that people are going to be safe if that’s the case?

Absolutely not. There’s no confidence. You have a military that’s corrupt and out of control. People have every legitimate right to fear for their lives, in a country that has no claim to democracy and no claim to rule of law when it comes to elections.

After 40 years of the same ruler, is change possible in Uganda? 

I will never bet against a popular vote, no matter how hijacked I fear an election can be. So let’s wait and see. My hopes and prayers are with the people of Uganda in this fateful 48 hours.

Polling stations were slow to open, as normal in Uganda, but voting was underway shortly after 7am local time in at least one Kampala suburb.

But in several parts of Uganda stations were still not open almost two hours after voting was due to start, AFP journalists and local sources said Thursday. 

AFP reporters in several parts of the capital Kampala and the border city of Jinja said voting had yet to begin, with reports that ballot papers had not been delivered and biometric machines used to check voters’ identities were not working.

There were heavy police and army patrols in the border town of Jinja, another AFP team said.

Meanwhile, despite repeated promises that it would not do so, the government shut down the internet on Tuesday for an indefinite period to prevent the spread of “misinformation” and “incitement to violence”.

The United Nations called the shutdown “deeply worrying”. 

‘I will crush them’

Western countries have often given Museveni leeway, after he swallowed their demands for neoliberal reforms in the 1980s and made himself a useful partner in the US-led “war on terror” in the 2000s, especially through troop contributions to Somalia.

Many Ugandans still praise him as the man who ended the country’s post-independence chaos and oversaw rapid economic growth, even if much was lost to a relentless string of massive corruption scandals.

“Forty years doesn’t even matter, we need even more,” said one supporter, Banura Oliver, 41, on her way to Museveni’s final rally in Kampala.

The president struck a forceful tone, saying: “Go and vote. Anybody who wants to interfere with your freedom, I will crush them.”

‘He represents a population desperate for change’, Bobi Wine’s lawyer tells RFI

Many in Kampala were nervous as security forces beefed up their presence for election day.

“We will not talk about elections. You can ask anything but not that,” said an accountant in his thirties, who did not give his name.

The police warned the vote was “not a justification for criminal acts” and has deployed newly hired “special constables” to enforce order.

Journalists were harassed and blocked from attending Museveni’s rally.

Reporters Without Borders said local journalist Ssematimba Bwegiire lost consciousness after being electrocuted and pepper-sprayed by a security officer at a Wine rally.

Human Rights Watch has denounced the suspension of 10 NGOs, including election-monitoring organisations, and said the opposition had faced “brutal repression”.

(with newswires)

Around two-thirds of the funds, about €60 billion euros, will be used to support Kyiv’s military, while the remaining €30 billion euros will cover general budget needs, including public sector salaries and energy subsidies.

The European Commission said it hopes to make the first payment in April, pending approval from the European Parliament and EU member states.

“With this support, Ukraine can bolster its defence on the battlefield while keeping the state and basic services running,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday.

She said the funds would primarily finance weapons and equipment produced in Ukraine or within the EU, a move designed to sustain Europe’s defence industry and reduce reliance on the United States.

If certain equipment is unavailable or cannot be delivered quickly enough from European suppliers, Kyiv may be allowed to source it from outside the continent.

However, any such exceptions will require prior notification to an expert group to maintain what officials call a “Made in Europe” principle.

As Europe pours money into defence, reliance on US remains a sticking point

Frozen Russian assets

The loan package, backed by the EU’s common budget, follows months of talks after an earlier plan to finance Ukraine using frozen Russian assets failed to gain unanimous support.

Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever had opposed the use of the roughly €210 billion in immobilised Russian central bank funds, most of which are held under Belgian jurisdiction.

The new scheme exempts Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic from underwriting the joint debt to secure unanimous agreement.

Brussels will cover the annual interest costs, estimated at around €3–4 billion, using leftover EU funds, with member states stepping in if those fall short.

“This is a lot of money – billions being invested – and these investments should have a return in jobs, in research and development,” von der Leyen said, linking the loan to Europe’s security and industrial capacity.

According to EU officials, negotiations with G7 partners are under way to ensure other Western donors frontload their financial assistance to Ukraine in the first quarter of 2026, helping plug immediate shortfalls before the EU loan begins to flow.

(with newswires)

Speaking at the Élysée Palace during France’s annual meeting with ambassadors on Thursday, Macron said French policy towards Africa had undergone a fundamental change since 2017, when he declared in Ouagadougou: “There no longer is a French policy for Africa.”

France, he said, now sought partnerships that were not based primarily on historical or linguistic ties and did not automatically prioritise French-speaking countries.

A central element of this shift has been the overhaul of France’s military footprint in Africa.

Since Macron came to power in 2017, France has ended or drastically reduced its military presence in Central and West Africa, withdrawing troops from Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal. 

Macron said France had “completely changed its mindset” on Africa since his speech in Ouagadougou, insisting that the reduction of its military presence, notably in Mali and Burkina, was a necessary correction rather than a retreat.

“We reviewed, and rightly so, our military bases,” he said, adding that France had “removed the military component that was no longer understood by countries and by younger generations”, while rebuilding “relevant” partnerships, notably in Benin.

Macron returns to Africa with drive for fresh partnerships on five-day tour

Obliged to adapt

Seidik Abba, a Nigerien academic specialising in the Sahel, contests the idea that France drove these changes.

“It is not true to say that it was France that decided to withdraw,” he told RFI, pointing to pressure from African governments and growing hostility among young people who viewed French bases and the CFA franc as relics of colonialism.

For security analyst Emmanuel Dupuy, head of the Institute for European Perspective and Security Studies, Macron’s reference to Ouagadougou obscures how different the context was in 2017. At the time, France’s Sahel strategy was underpinned by the apparent success of Operation Serval and, later, Barkhane – missions that directed French military might against jihadists.

“There was a form of politico-military euphoria,” Dupuy said, with African governments actively requesting French security support. That environment has since collapsed, following coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, and France’s expulsion from all three.

He describes the current phase as one of reluctant realism, with Paris “obliged to adapt” to a disengagement it did not choose.

‘End of an era’ as France pulls out of Mali. Was the mission a failure?

Boosting economic ties

With its military role curtailed, Paris is now seeking to “play another card”, Abba said, with greater emphasis on economic ties. 

“As Macron himself has said, French companies need to be more aggressive and we need to move away from multinationals such as Bolloré and Total and work more closely with SMEs and French start-ups,” the analyst noted.

Macron said France’s renewed Africa policy would place greater emphasis on entrepreneurship, cultural and creative industries, and sport. Reaching young people and engaging with diasporas is seen as a crucial step.

In particular, France is seeking to expand relations with English-speaking African countries, moving beyond its traditional francophone partners.

“This is driven both by political considerations but above all the desire to gain market share and bring added value to the French economy,” Abba says.

Anglophone Africa

The French president pointed to a planned Africa summit in Nairobi in May 2026 as a milestone, describing it as “a very important meeting that will help embody this genuine revolution in our approach”.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz have been invited, illustrating what Macron said was a change in mindset.

Dupuy, however, sees the pivot to East Africa as an implicit admission of weakness. France, he argues, failed to consolidate influence in its former spheres and is now seeking opportunities in regions dominated by China, India and the United States.

“France is very poorly equipped – perhaps even completely disarmed – to be credible in this region of the world,” he said, noting intense competition over infrastructure corridors and strategic trade routes linking the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

South Africa’s joint drills a show of influence in the Indian Ocean

Battle of narratives

Beyond economics and culture, Macron stressed the importance of countering disinformation, warning that France was losing ground in what he described as a “battle of narratives”.

“We must not lose this battle,” he said, arguing that French interests were also defended through countering disinformation and responding to accusations that France represented a new colonial power. Such narratives, he said, often drew on “anti-colonial”, “anti-European” and “anti-French” discourse and required a more robust response.

Dupuy is less alarmist. While acknowledging growing anti-French sentiment, he points to persistent demand for French support in certain security crises. France’s recent intervention in Benin, which helped stabilise President Patrice Talon’s government in the face of an attempted coup, was one such example.

“There is a paradox,” he said. “France is criticised for militarism, yet welcomed when its support proves decisive.”

Double standards?

Macron’s Africa policy has come under scrutiny for its uneven response to military coups.

A recent opinion piece in Benin’s La Nouvelle Tribune accused Macron of double standards in taking a hard line against juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, while being more accommodating towards coup leaders in Gabon, Guinea and Chad. The writer said France’s selective approach undermines its democratic discourse and fuels anti-French sentiment.

Dupuy acknowledges the double standard, but argues that not all coups should be treated the same.

He suggests that the succession of Mahamat Déby in Chad in 2021 was a power transfer tacitly tolerated by France, rather than a putsch, and that military takeovers in Gabon and Guinea followed deeply contested electoral processes rather than explicit ruptures with Paris.

Elections, coups and crackdowns: Africa’s mixed democratic record in 2025

Gabon and Guinea have since embarked on transition processes, Dupuy explains, giving their leaders a degree of international legitimacy absent in the Sahel states, “where no credible electoral timelines exist”.

Yet Guinean military leader Mamadi Doumbouya had earlier pledged not to stand, and major opposition parties were barred from running. La Nouvelle Tribune criticised Macron’s decision to congratulate him on his election victory regardless.

“There is a democratic problem, for sure,” Dupuy said, “but you cannot call for elections on the one hand, validate the electoral process by observing the polls and talking about the need for transition, and at the same time fail to welcome the fact that this transition is taking place.”

‘Recognising’ Africa

In his speech, Macron also said France was closely monitoring crises in Sudan, the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region.

Dupuy was doubtful about France’s influence in such conflicts. “Everyone knows that France has no weight on the question of Sudan,” he said. And on the Great Lakes, “France has been marginalised by the Washington summit” that produced an historic peace deal between DR Congo and Rwanda.

While France is “in a phase of decline” on the African continent, he says we “shouldn’t  completely bury” France’s presence. In addition to its soft power in sport, culture, the arts, heritage and returning artefacts, France, he argues, needs “to support Africans in their emergence as a power in their own right”.

“As the Americans are leaving the UN, we could take advantage of this to impose an African state as a permanent member of the Security Council,” the analyst suggested.

“President Macron made recognising Palestine his priority for 2025, and it worked. He could make bringing one or two African countries onto the Security Council his objective for 2026.

“It would be a game changer, just like recognising Palestine was.”

The blackout is making it far harder for protesters to communicate and for images and eyewitness accounts to reach the outside world. It has also disrupted daily life in Iran, where banking, payments and many basic services rely on digital networks.

For more than two and a half days, Iran has been largely cut off from the outside world and from itself. The flow of information inside the country and abroad has slowed to a trickle, with most Iranian websites inaccessible from outside Iran.

The nationwide shutdown began late on Thursday and quickly spread across the country. The independent monitoring group NetBlocks said the blackout had lasted for more than 60 hours, with national connectivity stuck at around 1 percent of normal levels.

“This censorship measure represents a direct threat to the safety and wellbeing of Iranians at a critical moment for the country’s future,” the organisation said.

Data published by the US-based internet infrastructure company Cloudflare also showed a massive collapse in online traffic coming out of Iran.

France’s Iranian diaspora divided over deadly protests back home

Protesters targeted

The demonstrations began on 28 December in Tehran, triggered by shopkeepers protesting against the rising cost of living and the collapse of the national currency. In the early days of the movement, the authorities focused their restrictions on urban areas and centres of unrest.

In Tehran, internet cuts targeted neighbourhoods known for protests, including Narmak, Molavi and the Grand Bazaar. The severity of the restrictions varied depending on location and internet provider.

In an analysis published by Filter Watch, a project that monitors online censorship in Iran, Nargès Keshavarznia from the human and digital rights group Miaan described how the shutdowns were closely synchronised with moments of mobilisation.

Internet access dropped sharply during protest gatherings and sometimes eased when streets emptied.

Earlier in the protests, Iran’s National Information Network, a domestic intranet developed since 2016 to allow the country to function while disconnected from the global internet, often remained accessible.

While international traffic was heavily restricted, some internal services continued to operate. That changed on Thursday night.

“Overall, all communication is impossible,” Amir Rashidi, an Iranian expert on cybersecurity and digital rights, told RFI, saying conditions had sharply worsened.

“It’s not just the internet that’s cut, but also phone communications, whether mobile or landline, inside the country and to or from abroad.”

Rashidi said the situation was constantly changing from one region to another, but making a phone call had become extremely difficult. “Sometimes you dial a number, you hear ‘beep, beep, beep’, and then nothing,” he said.

‘We’re fighting a daily battle’: Iranian women dare to shed hijab in public

 Shutdown unprecedented

To get around the restrictions, more Iranians have turned to Starlink, a satellite internet service that allows users to connect without relying on local networks. In recent days, however, these devices appear to have been targeted by jamming attempts.

“Iran seems to have strengthened its ability to control these techniques for restricting internet access,” Valère Ndior, a law professor at the University of Western Brittany and a specialist in digital governance, told RFI.

Iran has repeatedly shut down communications during periods of unrest, notably during the 2019 protests, in 2022 after the death of Mahsa Amini – a 22-year-old woman who died in custody after being arrested by Iran’s morality police – and during the conflict with Israel in June 2025.

But Rashidi said the current blackout goes further than anything seen before. Even the National Information Network is down, he said, a situation without precedent.

“This national internet was one of the key tools of control for the Iran,” Rashidi said. Usually, he explained, people could still move within a closed internal network even if access to the outside world was blocked.

“Normally you can’t leave the building, but you can still move from room to room,” he said. “Now you’re stuck in a single room. You can’t even change rooms.”

The authorities are therefore accepting the paralysis of their own infrastructure to shut down every channel of communication, a sign that they believe “their survival is at stake”, Rashidi added.

South Africa’s joint drills a show of influence in the Indian Ocean

Unseen repression

Despite the blackout, protests have continued. A small number of videos circulating on social media, likely shared via satellite connections, show crowds marching in Tehran, Mashhad and other cities. The images could not be fully verified.

The digital silence has heightened fears of a violent crackdown taking place out of sight.

The Centre for Human Rights in Iran, a US-based non-profit, warned on Sunday that “a massacre is under way in Iran”, saying it had received “direct testimonies and credible reports” of hundreds of protesters killed.

The Norway-based group Iran Human Rights also reported that at least 192 demonstrators had been killed over two weeks of protests.

Other NGOs have warned the true number of deaths may be even higher, with some hospitals reporting more than 500 fatalities and rights advocates warning that the blackout is hindering efforts to document casualties accurately.

Beyond repression, the blackout is hitting daily life and the economy. “Cash machines don’t work, banks aren’t operating normally, people can’t cash cheques or access their money,” Rashidi said.

Ndior said it was still too early to measure the full impact, but warned that “the economic cost could run into hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars”.

Meanwhile, the X account of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, continued to post messages. On Saturday evening, he wrote: “If God wills it, soon God will spread a feeling of victory in the hearts of all the Iranian people.”

This article was adapted from the original version in French by RFI’s Aurore Lartigue

Bozell is a prominent figure on the American right and a staunch supporter of Israel.

In the 1980s, he belonged to a pressure group opposed to any negotiations with the anti-apartheid African National Congress (ANC), then led by Nelson Mandela.

As South Africa‘s government is still led by the ANC, in a coalition of 10 parties, relations with Bozell are expected to be anything but easy.

South Africa hits back at US over ‘flawed’ rights report and land grab claims

ANC ‘terrorism’

Bozell, 69, is known for his deeply conservative views. His father was a Catholic anti-abortion activist, while his son Leo was among those who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, for which he was sentenced to nearly four years in prison.

Bozell founded several conservative groups, including the Media Research Center, which has the stated mission of identifying liberal bias.

In 1989, five years before the end of apartheid, the Media Research Center described the ANC as a “pro-communist, terrorist organisation”.

All through the 1980s, Bozell was part of the “Coalition Against ANC Terrorism”, an alliance of more than 30 right-wing American groups. He wrote then that he was “proud” to be a member and, in 2013, complained on Twitter that the mainstream media “mythologises” Mandela, South Africa’s first democratically elected president.

The legacy of Nelson Mandela, 30 years after his election as president

Diplomatic low point

Experts see Bozell as a novice in terms of international relations and believe he has little knowledge of Africa.

He has never served in the foreign service, nor has he lived on the African continent.

Trump previously nominated him to lead the US Agency for Global Media – a now-closed organisation that oversaw Voice of America and Radio Free Europe – but later withdrew the bid to put Bozell forward as ambassador.

His confirmation comes after a year of diplomatic tension between the US and South Africa.

Trump froze aid to South Africa in February 2025, accusing the ANC-led government of mistreating the country’s white minority via a land reform law that he alleges allows property to be seized from white farmers.

The following month, South Africa’s ambassador to the US was recalled to Pretoria after describing American policy as “white supremacy”. The post remains vacant.

The US administration also refused to participate in the G20 summit in Johannesburg last November. It has excluded South Africa from the list of countries invited to the next G20 summit, to be held in the US later this year.

US expels South African ambassador, saying he ‘hates’ Trump

Afrikaner ‘refugees’

Bozell will oversee the implementation of Trump’s refugee programme, which explicitly prioritises Afrikaners.

South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation has rejected the scheme as resting on the “factually inaccurate” premise that white South Africans are racially persecuted.

The South African lawsuit against Israel for genocide in Gaza before the International Court of Justice is another bone of contention. Bozell has indicated that he intends to pressure the South African authorities to withdraw the case.

South Africa takes Israel to international court for ‘genocidal’ acts in Gaza

South African news website IOL reported that Bozell also promised to tackle what he called South Africa’s “geostrategic drift” towards Washington’s international rivals, including Russia, China and Iran.

Despite his confirmation in a Senate vote last month, Bozell remains the ambassador-designate and under strict diplomatic protocol, he cannot perform official acts or formally represent the US government until he presents his credentials to President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has to accept them.

He replaces the previous US ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, who was appointed by President Joe Biden.

Barely one week after being sworn in, Touadéra is confronting an armed challenge in Haut-Mbomou prefecture, where deadly clashes have erupted between government forces and the Azandé Ani Kpi Gbè militia, known as the AAKG.

The security situation remains far calmer than in 2016, when Touadéra first came to power amid a civil war that left most of the country under rebel control. But fresh fighting has flared since the presidential election on 28 December.

Since that day, Haut-Mbomou has been rocked by violence. The AAKG, drawn from the Zandé community, was originally supported by Russia’s Wagner network before rebelling against authorities in Bangui.

No official death toll has been released. The clashes are believed to have killed dozens of people and forced thousands to flee their homes.

Central African Republic President Touadera wins re-election, results show

Violence in Haut-Mbomou

In the town of Zémio, gunfire has been heard almost every night since the start of the year. On Tuesday 6 January, residents again fled to the Catholic mission, which now resembles a makeshift displacement camp, or sought refuge at the local hospital.

The hospital was attacked two days earlier and is no longer functioning. It is now guarded by UN peacekeepers.

“There are about 2,000 people here,” a religious source told RFI. “Others have already crossed the border to join the thousands sheltering in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

Local officials have been under UN protection since election day. On 28 December, the AAKG launched an offensive on the border town of Bambouti, reportedly with backing from across the border in South Sudan.

The attack prevented voting. A local government official, a gendarme and an electoral worker were abducted. The electoral worker was later executed.

The UN mission Minusma said around 2,500 people, most of Bambouti’s population, have fled into the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Russian mercenaries accused of rights abuses, hindering peacekeepers in CAR

Shift to open rebellion

“The choice of the election date was no coincidence,” explains Fulbert Ngodji, a researcher with the International Crisis Group and author of a report on the AAKG. “By attacking state symbols, the militia is showing its strength. It looks like the beginning of a shift from an ethnic self-defence group to a rebel movement openly opposing the government.”

Haut-Mbomou lies more than 1,300 kilometres from Bangui and has long been neglected by the state. Over the years, it has been targeted by armed groups ranging from Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army to the Séléka coalition and later the Union for Peace in the Central African Republic, known as the UPC, led by Ali Darassa.

In 2023, Zandé self-defence groups united under the AAKG banner, a name meaning “too many Zandé have died”. They pushed the UPC out of Bambouti but were later accused of abuses against civilians and of treating Muslims as rebel fighters.

In 2024, around 200 AAKG fighters were recruited, armed and briefly trained by Russian mercenaries before being integrated into the national army. Known locally as the “Wagner Zandé”, they initially scored victories against the UPC.

Discipline soon collapsed amid complaints over unpaid wages and reckless tactics. The militia later turned on government troops, their Russian trainers and civilians, particularly Muslims and Fulani. At least 200 people were killed, including soldiers, Russians and a UN peacekeeper.

Rape, looting and kidnappings followed. In spring 2025, the government’s decision to sign a peace deal with the UPC marked a turning point. The AAKG saw it as a betrayal.

Calls for dialogue

The fighters’ integration into the army was suspended, but some kept their weapons and went underground. Violence escalated and peaked on election day.

According to Monsignor Aurelio Gazzera, the Bishop of Bangassou, dialogue is now essential. “The militiamen must stop this carnage affecting civilians,” he told RFI. “But the authorities must also listen. This region has been abandoned for decades – no roads, no infrastructure. Development is urgently needed.”

Ngodji warned the government is now facing “the monster it created”, as inter-communal and religious tensions deepen.

“Caught between a militia that claims to defend them and loyalist forces that see them as rebels, the people of Haut-Mbomou are trapped,” Gazzera said, warning that the violence could spread across the wider south-east.

This article has been adapted from the original version in French by RFI’s Carol Valade

Tabouret was selected by a special committee to create contemporary windows for Notre-Dame, in collaboration with the Reims-based glassmaking studio Simon-Marq.

Notre-Dame reopened on 7 December 2024 after a five-year restoration following the devastating fire of 2019.

Some heritage groups have criticised the decision to introduce new windows. Among them is Didier Rykner, head of the cultural heritage website La Tribune de l’Art, who opposes the project on the grounds that the original windows were not damaged in the fire.

Tabouret’s designs, expected to be installed by late this year, will replace six of the seven windows on the south aisle of the cathedral, originally designed by 19th-century architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.

RFI: What were your thoughts when you were entrusted with this historic project?

Claire Tabouret: I immediately wanted to get to work. It’s true that this is a project that instills great humility, because I’m part of an extremely long timeframe. There was a lot to do.

RFI: What is the theme for the stained-glass?

CT: The theme, already set out in the call for projects, is Pentecost. At this time, magnificent gatherings take place between people, despite their differences. This theme is reflected in six key moments. This is something we discover here at the Grand Palais, in a scenography where we truly see the horizontal dimension of the story unfolding before our eyes.

RFI: The exhibition presented here is called “D’un seul souffle” (“In a Single Breath”). Is this an echo of the Holy Spirit?

CT: Yes, of course, there’s the breath of the Holy Spirit. There’s also the breath of the glass. It’s true that all the glass panes in these stained-glass windows were mouth-blown. And I almost forgot, there’s also the breath of the wind. We can indeed see that tree bending in the wind.

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

RFI: It seems that you have made the choice of using very bright colours?

CT: These stained-glass windows will be installed on the south side of Notre-Dame, so they’ll be in quite bright light. Therefore, we needed fairly intense colours to allow that light to penetrate and shine through. Another specific requirement of the project was the need to maintain a white light. The colour balance is absolutely perfect.

Each colour is used in equal quantities and on equal surfaces, ensuring that when the light passes through the stained glass, it won’t create a large pool of red or blue on the floor of Notre-Dame, but rather, it will maintain the harmony of the cathedral’s natural light.

RFI: Did you have complete freedom or did you have to work within a framework?

CT: By choosing to take part in this project, I chose to serve a framework. There’s the constraint of the architecture itself, which must be fully considered in the compositions. And then there’s also the need to integrate seamlessly with what surrounds us in Notre-Dame, which predates these stained-glass windows, ensuring a pleasant and harmonious transition.

Each bay window illustrates a phrase at a key moment of Pentecost. They were all gathered together in one place. In the first bay of Saint Joseph, we see his apostles gathered together, holding hands in prayer. But it’s also the interior of the house, the house of God, because we have stained-glass windows within the stained-glass windows.

That’s where the idea came to me to reference Viollet-le-Duc in my own compositions, creating a kind of echo of these ornaments in the background of the composition, making us feel that these figures are within it. And then, that idea came back in every bay window like a leitmotif [recurrent theme] until the end of the story.

Notre-Dame revival drives return to ancient French craftsmanship

RFI: In France, there was a bit of a controversy over the stained-glass windows, which some called the “stained-glass windows of discord”. What do you make of that?

CT: I understand that this is a topic for discussion, and the more I read about this project, the more I wanted to see it happen because it seemed absolutely invigorating. How are we going to continue living here in France, with our heritage, with all these buildings, these historical monuments? We can’t freeze them in time. We have to keep moving forward. And this is about the vitality of the church, but also of our country, of our culture.

This article was based on an interview in French by RFI’s Isabelle Chenu and slightly edited for clarity.

An average adult carries up to half a kilogram of bacteria in their body, most of it in the intestines. These microbes develop shortly after birth and help digest food, breaking down fibre that the body cannot process on its own.

Scientists now say this vast community of bacteria, known as the microbiome, plays a role that goes well beyond digestion.

“We really rediscovered the gut microbiome over the last 10 to 20 years as a forgotten, or critical organ – a part of our body that really counts for our health,” explains Patrick Veiga, research director at MetaGenoPolis, a microbiome research lab near Paris.

A visit to the microbiome lab and more on the French gut microbiome in the Spotlight on France podcast:

Because a large number of immune cells are in the intestines, they interact closely with bacteria. People with immune disorders appear to have different gut microbes.

Scientists are working to understand why that is the case, especially because industrialised countries, including France, have seen an increase in chronic, immune-related diseases like Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, and diabetes.

“We’re seeing an increase of these non-communicable diseases,” Veiga tells RFI, pointing also to neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.

“Sometimes these can be explained by age – we are ageing. But some of these are not explained by these factors, and we believe that the gut microbiota can be a missing piece of the puzzle.”

World Alzheimer’s Day: Is France’s once world-renowned care falling behind?

Le French Gut

In 2023 Veiga’s lab became the operational hub for Le French Gut, a national study aiming to collect faecal samples from 100,000 people across France to identify gut bacteria and track long-term health outcomes.

The project is France’s contribution to the global Million Microbiome from Humans Project, which is looking to gather 1 million samples worldwide.

Le French Gut has already collected 30,000 samples, which arrive at Veiga’s lab in batches of  1,000 from hospitals running the clinical trial.

Machines extract DNA from about 2,000 samples each month, and the DNA is then run through genetic sequencers to identify the hundreds of different species of bacteria that can be present in the human gut.

Participants also fill out questionnaires about their health and what they eat. Because researchers can access data from France’s public health system, they can follow participants for decades to see whether certain diseases develop and whether earlier changes in the microbiome could have predicted them.

“The ones who will develop diseases or eventually those who will die, maybe the data will allow us to find a pattern that could explain the disease that happened five or 10 years after they enrolled in the study,” Veiga says.

Diet and diversity

A healthy microbiome is one with many different kinds of bacteria, and it is strongly impacted by diet. As a result, gut microbiomes vary across countries and cultures.

France offers a particularly interesting case because of its geographical and cultural diversity.

“France has this large territory with different cultures and diets,” Veiga explains. “There are also different climates. So it’s interesting to look at different regions in France to look at the impact of different local diets on the gut microbiome.”

The French diet includes fermented foods such as yogurt and cheese, as well as wine.

“This can make a difference on the gut microbiome,” says Veiga. “So I think we will see signatures in this project that we will not see elsewhere.”

Other factors that influence the microbiome include antibiotic use, physical activity and stress, which vary between individuals and regions.

Recruiting kids

Study participants have so far skewed female – 70 percent are women between the ages of 40 to 60 years old.

“Maybe they’re more generous than the men?” mused Veiga, who said there is an under-representation of older people and those under 30, which is why the study has started reaching out to kids.

Through public service announcements, social media posts and games, researchers hope to recruit children who might overcome their squeamishness about the subject matter and be drawn in by the science behind the project.

“Teenagers have a different motivation and maybe lack of motivation in some cases. And to recruit them will be really another challenge than recruiting infants or younger children,” Veiga says.

Initial results

While the full results will take years to come out, Veiga says there are early findings, including a confirmation of previous research showing differences in the microbiomes of healthy people versus those with diseases, with specific bacteria profiles linked to specific diseases.

Some conditions, such as cancer, can alter the gut microbiome before symptoms appear, which could provide early warning signs and improve treatment.

“The idea would be to use this information to better diagnose or understand the disease,” Veiga says.

“Maybe we can try to find novel cures targeting the gut microbiome, to treat and to prevent disease.”

More on the French microbiome, and a visit to Le French Gut’s lab in the Spotlight on France podcast, episode 137. Listen here.

A game dominated by the hosts from the outset ended 0-0 after the regulation 90 minutes and 30 minutes of extra-time.

Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou saved shootout strikes from Samuel Chukwueze and Bruno Onyemaechi to furnish Youssef En-Nesyri with the chance to send a national team into a Cup of Nations final for the first time since 2004.

The 28-year-old Fenerbahce striker swept home confidently past the Nigeria goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali and wheeled away before he was submerged by a pile of gleeful teammates.

The Moroccans entered the game on the back of a 23-match unbeaten streak which had taken them to the top of the African rankings.

Nigeria, containing two former African footballers of the year in the shapes of Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman, had been the most prolific team of the competition notching up 14 goals in their five games en route to the semi-final in Rabat.

But from the moment referee Dan Laryea blew the whistle, that dynamic duo and the rest of their accomplices were second best.

The passing that had scythed through the likes of Tunisia, Mozambique and Algeria was absent or wayward.

Akor Adams, so vibrant in previous games down the right wing was unable to link up consistently with the roving Lookman or Osimhen’s darts into space.

Starved of possession and angles reduced, the Nigerians sunk into listlessness or clumsiness on the ball.

Egypt dethrone Côte d’Ivoire to reach semis at the Africa Cup of Nations

On a rare sortie forward after 14 minutes, Lookman forced Bounou to beat away a shot.

But it was brief interlude in the Nigerian drama of pain.

The Moroccans kept them under the cosh but failed to inflict the killer blow.

Ayoub El Kaabi could not wrap his foot around a knockdown into the penalty area after 28 minutes to get his shot away.

Brahim Diaz’s curler skimmed past the post and Abdessamad Ezzalzouli twice tested Nwabali.

The pattern remained the same throughout the second-half: Moroccan domination without incision. 

In the last four minutes of extra-time, Nigeria slowed the game down seemingly happy to be still alive after so much time spent chasing shadows.

Following the two fluffed shots, their campaign ended to the delight of the mostly Moroccan fans in the 66,000 crowd at the Stade Prince Moulay Abdellah.

On Sunday night at the same venue, Achraf Hakimi will attempt to become the first Morocco skipper to lift the Africa Cup of Nations trophy since 1976.

His side will face Senegal who beat Egypt 1-0 in the first semi-final in Tangier.

Sadio Mané scored the only goal of the game in the 78th minute to terminate Egypt’s attempt to brandish a record-extending eighth continental crown.

Immigration has become a central political issue in the United Kingdom, as the government seeks to stem a wave of undocumented migrants arriving on British shores after paying smugglers to cross the Channel.

The arrivals have fuelled widespread public concern and rising anger on the British far right, and since last year videos have circulated of anti-migrant vigilantes visiting France to take matters into their own hands.

France’s interior ministry said it responded to reports that members of the “Raise the Colours” movement had conducted anti-migrant activities in France.

On Tuesday, “territorial bans were issued against 10 British nationals, identified as activists within the movement and having carried out actions on French soil”, it said.

“Raise the Colours” on X denounced the ban as “absolutely disgraceful”.

In a written comment to French news agency AFP, it said it understood the ban targeted “specific individuals, rather than the organisation as a whole”.

“Raise the Colours has always maintained that its activities must remain peaceful and within the law. The organisation does not support violence or any unlawful activity,” it added.

Its website on Wednesday included a banner that said the movement did not support “vigilante behaviour” or “anyone travelling to France, approaching migrant vessels, or attempting to intervene in crossings”.

‘Not welcome’

The French ministry said it would not name the 10 people, and did not describe the exact nature of their actions.

French authorities have opened an investigation over an alleged “aggravated assault” on migrants in September in a coastal area near the northern city of Dunkirk.

Four men carrying British and English flags verbally and physically assaulted a group of migrants in Grand-Fort-Philippe on the night on September 9 to 10, telling them they were not welcome in England, a charity working with migrants called Utopia 56 told AFP.

“Raise The Colours”, in a post on X responding to a news report of the probe in November, however claimed it had “only been going over to France in the past month”.

Another of its social media accounts on Instagram late last year posted videos of anti-immigration activists on France’s northern coastline.

UK struggles to reduce migrant crossings after near-record in 2025

In one video posted in November, a man filmed himself on a French beach, saying he had found a small inflatable boat buried in the sand and had slashed it.

“That is not going to England,” said the man, who elsewhere has called himself Ryan Bridge.

In another post published earlier the same month, he waded into the sea shouting at what appeared to be dozens of undocumented migrants boarding an inflatable dinghy on their way to England.

“You’re not welcome in our country,” he said, calling the passengers “potential rapists, murderers and child abusers”.

In a third November video, Bridge filmed himself in the French capital speaking to would-be migrants.

AFP had spotted three such individuals on a beach in the northern area of Gravelines on 5 December.

‘Fan hatred’

Paul Alauzy, from the French NGO Médecins du Monde that helps migrants, welcomed what he described as a travel ban against “far-right activists who fan hatred and sow division by targeting extremely vulnerable people who are simply seeking refuge”.

A spokeswoman from L’Auberge des Migrants, who asked to remain anonymous, said it was a good move from the French authorities, but that it came very late.

Her charity had been signalling a problem since May last year, she said, adding they had received reports of people being tasered and person who had their arm broken.

French aid groups complain of harassment by British anti-immigration vigilantes

The debate about immigration in the United Kingdom last year triggered a new trend of flying English and British flags.

Anti-racism campaigners say far-right activists are behind the main organisers, “Raise the Colours”.

Last year saw the second highest number of undocumented migrants arrive on British shores since such crossings began in 2018.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has struggled to reduce the number of migrants arriving in the country – the vast majority of them legally.

The issue is being exploited by the anti-immigration Reform party led by Nigel Farage.

(with AFP)

Tractors from the FNSEA, France’s main farmers’ union, and the Jeunes Agriculteurs, which represents younger farmers, started leaving the capital around 4am after spending about 24 hours positioned near the National Assembly.

The departure followed overnight talks with the government after days of mobilisation over farm debt, costs and regulation.

FNSEA vice-president Luc Smessaert said a delegation met Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard shortly before midnight.

“The agriculture minister gave us details and commitments on cash-flow loans and restructuring for the most indebted farmers,” he told the French news agency AFP.

Hundreds of tractors roll into Paris as farmers protest EU-Mercosur trade deal

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced on Tuesday that an emergency agricultural law would be presented to the cabinet in March and examined by parliament before the summer.

He said the bill would focus on water, predation by wolves and production tools.

Farmers say the EU-Mercosur trade deal would expose them to cheaper agricultural imports from South America produced under lower standards, putting French producers at a disadvantage.

The government’s announcements closely match demands made by the FNSEA and Jeunes Agriculteurs, the dominant alliance in French farm unionism whose regional branches around Paris launched tractor convoys into the capital.

Promises to calm the crisis

Lecornu also called for a moratorium on decisions linked to water policy, including a suspension of rules setting water withdrawal volumes until September. He asked for meetings to examine possible exemptions from the EU nitrates directive, which regulates fertiliser use.

These steps add to a €300 million support package promised on Friday, combining budget measures subject to a parliamentary vote with other measures already announced to respond to the agricultural crisis.

While tensions eased in Paris, mobilisation continued elsewhere.

In Toulouse, around 40 farmers from the Coordination Rurale union entered the city centre overnight despite a prefectural ban, parking their tractors close to the prefecture before being blocked by security forces.

EU countries green-light Mercosur trade deal despite France’s opposition

“This is the state’s response when we have been given no answers, apart from the signing of Mercosur,” said Vincent Arbusti, a spokesperson for the Coordination Rurale in the Gers department, who confirmed that five people were arrested.

Police later removed the tractors. Farmers then set up a checkpoint near Toulouse-Blagnac airport, where about 10 tractors disrupted traffic on a roundabout.

Early Wednesday, farmers blocked a major motorway near Toulouse, cutting traffic in both directions and causing serious disruption.

Another slow-moving tractor protest was also under way on a main road in the Var region.

(with newswires)

Scientists have begun preserving invaluable records of Earth’s climate history in an ice sanctuary in Antarctica. The sancturay is designed to protect ice cores from glaciers that are rapidly disappearing due to global warming.

The first samples, taken from two glaciers in the Alps, have been stored at Concordia Station, a French-Italian research base located 3,200 metres above sea level.

Buried about nine metres beneath the snow, the purpose-built cave maintains a constant temperature of -52°C, allowing the ice to be preserved naturally without artificial refrigeration.

“We are the last generation who can act,” said Anne-Catherine Ohlmann, Director of the Ice Memory Foundation. “It’s a responsibility we all share. Saving these ice archives is not only a scientific responsibility – it is a legacy for humanity.”

With a temperature of -33°C outside the cave, scientists officially inaugurated the Ice Memory Sanctuary on Wednesday, cutting a blue ribbon as the final boxes containing core samples from the Alps glaciers were stored in the ice cave.

After a journey of more than fifty days aboard the icebreaker RV Laura Bassi that began in Trieste (Italy), the ice cores extracted from the Mont Blanc (Col du Dôme, France, 2016) and Grand Combin (Switzerland, 2025) arrived at the Concordia Station in early December.

Ice memory archive project to commence in Mont Blanc massif

The Ice Memory project was conceived after scientists noticed a sharp rise in temperature on several glaciers. It was launched in 2015 by CNRS, IRD, the University of Grenoble-Alpes (France), CNR, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy) and the Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland).

French scientists probe deep into Antarctica for clues on climate change

-52°C in the cave

The Ice Memory Sanctuary – 35 metres long and 5 metres high and wide – is dug entirely into the compact snow layers about 5 metres below the surface, for a total of 9 metres depth.

The cores are stored at a stable temperature of – 52°C, without energy use required for refrigeration, minimising risks from technical or human failures.

Its stability is ensured by the extreme and naturally constant Antarctic temperatures, which remain close to -52°C year-round.  

The natural and low-impact ice cave was approved by the Antarctic Treaty System in 2024, and was funded by the Prince Albert II Foundation, a historic philanthropic partner of the Ice Memory Foundation.

‘Past climate conditions’

Since 2000, glaciers have lost between two percent and 39 percent of their ice regionally and about five percent globally, according to a report published in Nature in 2025.

“By safeguarding physical samples of atmospheric gases, aerosols, pollutants and dust trapped in ice layers, the Ice Memory Foundation ensures that future generations of researchers will be able to study past climate conditions using technologies that may not yet exist,” explained Carlo Barbante, vice chair of the Ice Memory Foundation and Professor at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. 

Scientists hope million-year-old Antarctic ice will reveal climate secrets

International governance

Dozens of additional ice cores from glaciers worldwide – Andes, Pamir, Caucasus, Svalbard etc. – are expected to join the Ice Memory archive in the next coming years.

An international governance framework will be established over the next decade to ensure “transparent, ethical, and equitable scientific access for future generations”.

On Wednesday, European climate monitors and US confirmed that 2025 was the third hottest year on record, pushing the planet closer to a key warming limit. 

“We are in a race against time to rescue this heritage before it will vanish forever,” said Barbante.

The appeal comes after a French court last year barred Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), from running for office for five years over a European Parliament fake jobs scam.

It found her, along with 24 former European Parliament lawmakers, assistants and accountants as well as the party itself, guilty of operating a “system” from 2004 to 2016 using European Parliament funds to employ RN staff in France.

I had “no sense of having committed the slightest offence when, in 2004, 2009, and 2014, we hired our assistants,” the 57-year-old former European lawmaker said as her appeal trial opened in Paris.

The three-time presidential candidate, who has always maintained her innocence, instead sought to shift any blame.

“If indeed any wrongdoing was committed, the European Parliament did not play the warning role it should have,” she said.

It “was aware of the overall elements making up these contracts. We concealed nothing”.

French far-right leader Le Pen in high-stakes trial ahead of presidential race

The appeal hearings are to last a month, with a decision expected this summer.

If the court upholds the first ruling, Le Pen will be prevented from running in the 2027 election, widely seen as her best – and possibly last – chance to win the country’s top job.

Le Pen was also handed a four-year prison sentence, with two years suspended, and fined 100,000 euros ($116,000) in the initial trial.

She now again risks the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a one-million-euro ($1.16 million) fine if the appeal fails.

She could, however, still be a candidate if she is sentenced to a shorter ban and has no time to serve under house arrest.

Risk of reoffending

Twelve of the accused, including Le Pen, as well as the far-right party itself, have appealed against the verdict.

Another 12 people, including one of Le Pen’s sisters, have decided to accept their convictions without appealing. Another person sentenced has since died.

The initial verdict dealt a heavy blow to Le Pen and the RN, which has surged in French politics in recent years.

Le Pen walked out of the courtroom during the sentencing, later slamming the verdict as a “political decision”.

The judges defended the decision to bar her from running, saying elected officials should not benefit from “preferential treatment” and citing the risk of reoffending.

The news sparked shock among Le Pen supporters in France, while US President Donald Trump and the Kremlin expressed concern.

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said last week he hoped that Le Pen could run for president despite her legal troubles so her election could help “break” the European Union.

Bardella in the wings

Le Pen took over the former National Front (FN) from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2011 and has since sought to clean up the party’s image.

Her father, who died last year, was often accused of making racist and antisemitic comments.

After coming third in the 2012 presidential polls, Marine Le Pen made the run-off in 2017 and 2022 but was beaten by Emmanuel Macron on both occasions.

Yet 2027 could see a different outcome for the far right, with Macron barred from standing again under France’s constitution.

Some 42 percent of French people said they agreed with “ideas defended by the RN”, up from 29 percent before the 2022 vote, according to a poll by consultancy firm Verian for Le Monde published on Sunday.

If she cannot be a candidate, Le Pen has said her top lieutenant Jordan Bardella, the RN party’s president who is not a defendant in the trial, can run in her place.

“Bardella can win instead of me,” Le Pen said in December.

A poll in November predicted that Bardella would win the second round of the 2027 elections, no matter who stands against him.

But Bardella said on Monday that a ruling preventing Le Pen from running “would be deeply worrying for democracy” and insisted he was not so far a candidate for president but prime minister.

Sadio Mané’s strike 12 minutes from time settled the match at the Stade Ibn-Batouta. Senegal will play Morocco who saw off Nigeria following a penalty shootout.

Senegal, the continent’s second best side, hogged possession from the outset and worked more openings for shots at Mohamed El Shenawy’s goal.

Nicolas Jackson’s powerful drive flew well over the bar and El Shenawy was equal to long range drives from Pape Gueye and Habib Diarra.

Egypt’s best chance of the half came from Mohamed Salah’s free-kick from the right wing.

But the skipper’s whipped delivery eluded his strikers in the penalty area and spun out for a goal kick.

Egypt dethrone Côte d’Ivoire to reach semis at the Africa Cup of Nations

Salah’s former Liverpool teammate enjoyed the night’s fortune. His snapshot from a rebound took a deflection to beat El Shenawy and give the West Africans a slender lead. The strike also forced Egypt onto the offensive.

Four minutes after the breakthrough, they had their first corner of the game.

But Senegal repelled that and held firm to book a place in Sunday night’s showdown at the Stade Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat.

“We totally deserved this victory,” said Senegal defender Moussa Niakhaté 

“We suffocated them, we didn’t let them play their game, and we also didn’t allow ourselves get caught out either. Finally, by pushing constantly, it went in.”

Skipper Kalidou Koulibaly will miss the final through suspension after picking up a second yellow card of the knockout stages.

Diarrra will also sit out the match after suffering the same fate.

The slowdown comes as appetite for climate action flags and major economies in Europe and elsewhere struggle to make good on their pledges to reduce planet-warming pollution.

France’s emissions were estimated to have declined 1.6 percent year-on-year, said Citepa, a non-profit organisation tasked by France’s ecology ministry with tallying the country’s greenhouse gas inventory.

The reduction of 5.8 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent was “far below the pace needed to reach 2030 targets” which would require cuts nearly three times larger, Citepa said.

“The decrease in emissions is confirmed for 2025. This is an encouraging sign, but it is not enough. We must collectively remobilise with all emitting sectors,” Monique Barbut, France’s Minister for Ecological Transition, said in a press release.

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

France, often seen as a leader in transitioning to a low-carbon future, unveiled in December its updated pathway for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

To stay on track, greenhouse gas emissions need to fall 4.6 percent on average every year until 2030.

After France slashed its output by 3.9 percent in 2022 and 6.8 percent in 2023, the rate slowed sharply to 1.8 percent in 2024.

Citepa had earlier predicted a decline of just 0.8 percent in 2025 but said fresh data and updated methods of calculation had allowed a “more accurate” estimate for the full year.

Urgency to phase out fossil fuels

Big polluting nations most responsible for climate change are under pressure to make faster and deeper cuts to the emissions driving record-breaking global temperatures and more extreme weather events.

Scientists say the last three years have been the hottest globally on record.

The result in France echoes a slowdown in neighbouring Germany, where emissions fell just 1.5 percent in 2025, the Agora Energiewende expert group said in its annual report last week.

France encouraged energy conservation after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 but since then has faltered in decarbonising some of its most polluting industries.

EU carbon border tax redraws rules for trade in carbon-heavy goods

While improvements were recorded in 2025 in heavy-emitting sectors such as industry, agriculture and transport, they remained virtually flat in energy and waste treatment, Citepa said.

The latest assessment highlighted the urgency for France to phase out its use of fossil fuels, said Anne Bringault, a director at Climate Action Network France.

“It is high time to take seriously the climate risk but also the geopolitical risk of making us suffer from our dependence on fossil fuels, which are overwhelmingly imported,” she told AFP.

The European Union has pledged to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent by 2040 compared to 1990 levels. It had already achieved a 37 percent reduction by 2023.

(with AFP)

The past 11 years are now the warmest ever recorded, with 2024 the hottest and 2023 in second place, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and the US-based research group Berkeley Earth said.

For the first time, global temperatures averaged more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels over a three-year period, Copernicus said in its annual report.

Average global temperatures in 2025 were 1.47C above pre-industrial times, just below 2023 and following 1.6C in 2024, Copernicus said.

Data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts showed 2025 was only 0.01C cooler than 2023.

Britain’s Met Office also ranked 2025 as the third-hottest year since records began in 1850.

“The warming spike observed from 2023-2025 has been extreme, and suggests an acceleration in the rate of the Earth’s warming,” Berkeley Earth said in its report.

French weather service under fire after winter forecasts miss the mark

A key limit in sight

Under the Paris Agreement, governments pledged to limit global warming to well below 2C and to try to keep it to 1.5C over the long term – a level scientists say would help reduce the worst impacts of climate change.

Copernicus said the 1.5C threshold “could be reached by the end of this decade – over a decade earlier than predicted”.

UN chief Antonio Guterres warned in October that breaching 1.5C was “inevitable”, but said cutting greenhouse gas emissions faster could limit how long the world remains above that level.

Copernicus Climate Change Service director Carlo Buontempo told the French news agency AFP: “We are bound to pass it. The choice we now have is how to best manage the inevitable overshoot and its consequences.”

‘Hard to see the glass as half full’: the verdict on Paris climate deal at 10

No break ahead

The record heat is also being felt across the planet. Berkeley Earth said around 770 million people experienced record-warm conditions in 2025, while no place recorded a record-cold annual average.

The Antarctic logged its warmest year on record, while the Arctic had its second-hottest, Copernicus said.

Both Copernicus and Berkeley Earth warned the trend is unlikely to reverse in the near future. If the El Nino weather pattern develops this year, “this could make 2026 another record-breaking year”, Buontempo told AFP.

Berkeley Earth said the most likely outcome is that 2026 ranks as the fourth-warmest year since 1850.

(with newswires)

Regragui, a former Morocco international, says the timing of the tournament as well as playing surfaces in the slickly refurbished stadiums around the land have led to more flowing football and permitted the top teams to flourish.

“At the last Cup of Nations, when we played against the Democratic Republic of Congo, we played at 1.30 in the afternoon in something like 40-degrees heat with 80 percent humidity. In those kind of conditions, it’s definitely more difficult to win a match.

“There were criteria that made it difficult for the teams so that they couldn’t play their best football,” he added.

Diaz and Saibari take Morocco past Cameroon into the semis at Cup of Nations

“But once the conditions were created for the best teams to play their best football, we’ve had nothing but big games even before these semi-finals.

“And now we can see that the best teams are rising to the occasion.”

Before Morocco, who are Africa’s top ranked side, take on Nigeria at the 68,000-seat Stade Prince Moulay Abdellah in Rabat, seven-time champions Egypt face the 2021 champions Senegal at the 70,000-seat stadium in Tangier.

“Both places will be full,” Regragui added. “It’s the best publicity we could have for African football.”

Regragui played in the Morocco side that lost the Cup of Nations final to Tunisia in 2004.

And before the clash against Nigeria, he urged his players to take pride in becoming the first squad from Morocco to feature in the last four at the tournament since his vintage.

“Morocco has been climbing back up the rankings for four or five years to become one of the leaders in Africa,” said Regragui who led the team to the last four at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Morocco boss Regragui warns players to expect Mali reaction at Cup of Nations

“I think future African tournaments will evolve from this tournament in Morocco.

“We will have better conditions, there will be fewer and fewer surprises and we will have more and more big games, more entertainment. We will be able to sell the TV rights abroad as we will be putting on a better show for our continent.

“And at that point, as an African, I will be the happiest of coaches because that is what we want. We want our continent and our football to be respected.”

Morocco will take on a Nigeria side who have scored 14 goals in their five games. However, they will be without influential skipper Wilfred Ndidi who is suspended.

“I won’t say his absence is going to help us because in Nigeria‘s squad there are players who can fill the position and then they have the likes of [Victor] Osimhen and [Ademola] Lookman.

Nigeria midfielder Iwobi hails team of brothers ahead of Morocco test

“The important thing is not to look at just one player … they’re like us. They have the means and the resources to change their systems.”

Morocco entered the tournament on the back of a 19-match winning streak. That sequence ended with a 1-1 draw against Mali on 26 December. Nigeria could terminate the 23-game unbeaten run.

“The game against Nigeria may be one of the most important matches in our history since the World Cup semi-final,” claimed Regragui.

“At the World Cup, it was more of a surprise. Now we’re where we belong but it’s our goal is to make history.

“What matters to me is that a new generation sees Morocco in the Africa Cup of Nations final. And we know it’s going to be difficult to get there.”

Since mass protests erupted across Iran demanding an end to the clerical system in power since 1979, the authorities have responded with a severe and brutal crackdown. Activists say that at least 648 people have been killed, though the true figure remains unclear owing to an internet blackout.

France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said on Tuesday afternoon that he had summoned Iran’s ambassador in Paris to protest against what he described as the “unrestrained use of state violence against peaceful protesters” in Iran.

“I conveyed this condemnation to the Iranian foreign minister,” Barrot said. “It will also be reiterated to the Iranian ambassador to France, whom I summoned today to the Quai d’Orsay,,” he told members of parliament during questions in the National Assembly.

“But we will not stop there. There can be no impunity for those who turn their guns on peaceful protesters,” he added.

President Emmanuel Macron made similar remarks the previous day.

At around the same time on Tuesday, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the European Union would “quickly” propose new sanctions against those responsible for the repression of protests in Iran.

France’s Iranian diaspora divided over deadly protests back home

UK, EU summoning

The UK government  also summoned on Tuesday the Iranian ambassador in London “to answer for the horrific reports” emerging from Iran amid a deadly crackdown on protests, British foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said.

“The minister for the Middle East, at my instruction, has summoned the Iranian ambassador to underline the gravity of this moment and to call Iran to answer for the horrific reports that we are hearing,” she told MPs in a statement to parliament.

Cooper added she was “fearful that the reports that we have seen may underestimate the full scale of the horror as further evidence and testimony reaches the outside world”.

Finland and Denmark summoned Iran’s representatives to their countries as well on Tuesday, because of Tehran‘s nationwide shutdown of the internet and violent crackdown on protests. 

“Iran’s regime has shut down the internet to be able to kill and oppress in silence,” Finland‘s Minister of Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen wrote on social media X.

“This will not be tolerated. We stand with the people of Iran – women and men alike”, she said, adding that she would “summon the Iranian ambassador this morning”.

Valtonen said the Nordic country was also “exploring measures to help restore freedom to the Iranian people” together with the EU.

Denmark’s foreign ministry also announced that it had summoned Iran‘s charge d’affaires, as the ambassador was currently away, “to express the government’s condemnation of the Iranian regime’s use of violence against demonstrators”.

The ministry said in a statement that it has also urged “Iran to comply with its international obligations, including the right to freedom of expression, association and assembly.”

“This also applies to ensuring free and unhindered access to the internet,” the statement said.

Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said Monday that the violent crackdown on a wave of protests in Iran has killed at least 648 people.

But it warned the death toll was likely much higher, “according to some estimates more than 6,000”.

A nationwide shutdown of the internet by authorities in Iran, which activists fear is aimed at masking the scale of a crackdown, has now lasted over 108 hours, a monitor said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said also on Tuesday that Iranians should continue nationwide protests, take over institutions and record names of “killers and abusers,” as authorities there cracked down on mass demonstrations.

 (with AFP) 

France, which now has 69.1 million inhabitants, recorded more deaths than births in 2025 for the first time since the end of the Second World War,  Insee announced in its report released on Tuesday.

As of 1 January 2026, the population increased by 0.25 percent compared with last year, France’s national statistics office Insee said on Tuesday.

But for the first time since 1944, this growth is due solely to net migration – the difference between the number of people entering and leaving the country – estimated at +176,000 people.

Natural population change, which measures the difference between births and deaths, has now turned negative, at -6,000 people. This situation is explained by two factors: a decline in births and a rise in deaths.

“What is striking is how, in just a few years, the natural balance has fallen due to the rapid decline in births,” said Sylvie Le Minez, head of demographic and social studies at Insee, at a press conference. As recently as 2015, the natural balance stood at +200,000 people.

Work, family life balance

In 2025, 645,000 babies were born in France, 2.1 percent fewer than the previous year, marking the lowest annual total since the end of the Second World War for the fourth consecutive year. This represents a 24 percent drop compared with 2010, described as “the last peak year for births”.

The decline is due to falling fertility, measured by the number of children per woman. The total fertility rate continued to decrease, reaching 1.56 children per woman, down from 1.61 in 2024 – the lowest level since the end of the First World War.

Why do French people want to have fewer children, or none at all?

This drop is also part of a medium-term trend: the index has been declining since 2010, when it stood at 2.02 children per woman in mainland France.

Demographers cite various explanations: people have aspirations other than starting a family, face obstacles such as difficulty finding stable employment or housing, or are held back by concerns including balancing work and family life and climate-related uncertainties.

Fear of lacking sufficient financial means emerged as one of the main barriers to having children during a recent citizen consultation carried out as part of a parliamentary mission on falling birth rates.

“Childcare is a huge expense for us – €800 a month – we couldn’t have two children,” said Océane, 32, the mother of a three-year-old and an executive at a company in Marseille. “Work, the home, children – I wouldn’t know how to manage everything at once.”

France’s ageing population is having fewer babies and living longer than ever

At 37, Jessica plans to have only one child with her partner, mainly because of her age. “My desire to start a family came late, we live very well and we are very happy together,” explains this Parisian, who works in communications and is also worried about “the cost of raising children”.

At the same time, Insee has observed a rise in deaths due to the large baby-boom generations reaching ages of higher mortality.

In 2025, 651,000 people died in France, an increase of 1.5 percent compared with the previous year. This rise is also explained by the winter flu epidemic, which was “particularly virulent in January,” according to Insee.

European statistics

In reaching this symbolic milestone, France is the last major EU country to tip into negative natural population growth.

According to figures compiled by Eurostat, the European Union’s natural population balance (including the United Kingdom until 2020) turned negative in 2015. Since 2020, the number of deaths in the EU’s 27 member states has exceeded the number of births by more than one million each year.

Since reunification in 1990, Germany has always recorded more deaths than births, while Italy’s natural balance turned negative in 1993, Poland’s in 2013 and Spain’s in 2015, Eurostat said.

In 2024, apart from France, only five countries still recorded a positive natural population balance, according to the same source: Ireland, Sweden, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta. Denmark was at equilibrium.

(with newswires)

Announced in December by Macron, this meeting aimed to “provide clarifications” on the so-called Bougival Agreement, which notably provides for the creation of a New Caledonian state enshrined in the French Constitution.

Approved in July by the entire anti-independence camp, it was nevertheless rejected by the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), which remains the main pro-independence movement in the territory located 17,000 km from mainland France.

“Paris is deaf and only understands the power dynamic, which is why we will not attend the meeting,” FLNKS President Christian Tein told a press conference in Nouméa.

France’s new overseas minister due in New Caledonia to revive dialogue

“The government is trying to confine us and all the Caledonian stakeholders to Bougival. We cannot endorse this,” he declared.

“Why go to Paris to discuss this agreement, which we reject and which is unacceptable to us?” he added, warning the government against forcing a solution.

“Beware of the timing of regrets,” he insisted, also questioning the willingness of those opposed to independence to negotiate, “since they say they won’t budge an inch on the Bougival agreement.”

“We can’t decide everything from Paris when the solutions must be found here,” Tein concluded.

Public consultation

To try to revive the process in an archipelago marked by serious violence in the spring of 2024, which left 14 dead and devastated the local economy, the French Minister for Overseas Territories, Naïma Moutchou, had proposed to organise an “early citizen consultation” in March 2026, before the adoption of the constitutional law necessary for its implementation.

But this prospect has raised concerns, even among supporters of the agreement.

The National Union for Independence (UNI) made its support conditional on amendments to the text, and the Caledonian Congress, consulted for its opinion on 8 December, confirmed that the project was deadlocked with 19 votes in favour, 14 against, and 19 abstentions.

Macron meets New Caledonian leaders to discuss future after riots

This choice by the FLNKS is “a disappointment” for Philippe Dunoyer, of the non-independence movement Caledonia Together (center-right), who also points to the impasse in which the draft agreement finds itself.

“There must be no reward for an empty chair,” also reacted Virginie Ruffenach, vice-president of the Rally-The Republicans (non-independence).

“This is proof of irresponsibility because New Caledonia is at the end of its rope and in this context, our responsibility is to finalise an agreement in Paris,” she said.

(with newswires)

Orsoni, 71, was shot while he was attending his mother’s funeral in the cemetery of Vero, in his family village located about thirty kilometers from Ajaccio, according to the city’s prosecutor.

“He was ​hit right in the heart by a single bullet from a long-range shot, ” prosecutor Nicolas ​Septe said. Local police confirmed the assassination.

The newly established National Prosecutor’s Office for Anti-Organised Crime (Pnaco), whose magistrate is expected on site Tuesday, quickly announced it would take up the case “particularly in light of the victim’s status and his ties to the Corsican underworld.”

It will conduct the investigation jointly with the Interregional Specialised Jurisdiction (JIRS) of Marseille, which specialises in cases of organised crime on the French island.

Orsini previously lead the separatist Corsican Movement for Self-Determination, which French police considered to be the legal front for the ‍armed group, the Corsican National Liberation Front-Traditional Wing (FLNC).

Authorities linked ​the Corsican National Liberation Front-Traditional Wing to a series of attacks on the island ‌in the 1990s, some of which the group claimed.

Years in exile

Orsoni had just arrived in Corsica on Sunday from Nicaragua where he had been living in exile and where he had set up activities in the gaming sector.

“He comes to bury his 91-year-old mother and they throw the son’s body on his mother’s coffin, it’s unspeakable, it’s despicable,” Jo Peraldi, close to Orsoni and former head of the clandestine FLNC movement, told French news agency AFP.

Father Roger Polge, who officiated at the funeral service, said it was during a moment of sorrow and grief.

“Suddenly we heard a gunshot, and Alain collapsed, dead,” he told France 3 Corse ViaStella channel. “What is happening in our home?”

What France can learn from Italy’s fight against organised crime

Tragedy and revenge have been a part of the Orsoni family’s lives for over 40 years.

After studying in Paris, Alain Orsoni became one of the leaders of the FLNC before founding the Movement for Self-Determination (MPA), later labelled by his opponents as the “Movement for Business.”

Orsoni was convicted and imprisoned in several cases over the years. He was convicted and later pardoned in connection with a machine gun attack on the Iranian embassy in Paris in 1980.

Series of murders

In 1983, Guy, Alain’s brother and a nationalist activist himself, was assassinated.

A year later, Alain’s son was born, whom he named Guy in his memory. Currently incarcerated, Guy is now considered a notorious figure in Corsican organised crime.

Known for his political acumen and composure, Alain Orsoni left Corsica in 1996, in the midst of a bitter internal conflict within the nationalist movement.

‘Silence kills’: Thousands march against the mafia in Corsica protests

After 13 years in exile, he returned to Corsica in 2008 and, a few weeks later, survived an assassination attempt for which several members of the rival gang “Le Petit Bar,” named after a café in Ajaccio, were convicted in 2011.

In October 2012, his lawyer, Antoine Sollacaro, was gunned down. A month later, another close associate, Jacques Nacer, president of the South Corsica Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), was also murdered.

Orsini also presided over the AC Ajaccio football club from 2008 and intermittently until his official resignation in 2023, although he remained involved in the club’s affairs until the summer of 2025. The club, placed in receivership in August due to severe financial difficulties, is the subject of two investigations, notably for extortion, fraud, and forgery.

Corsica has a special status within the French administration and the question of the island’s autonomy has been at the heart of years of negotiations, launched after following the protests that broke out over the death of pro-independence militant Yvan Colonna.

The latest bill proposed in July 2025 would amend the 1958 French Constitution to enshrine Corsica’s autonomous status, taking into account its specific characteristics. It grants Corsica powers to adapt and set regulations.

It is awaiting debate by French lawmakers.

(with newswires)

First announced in November 2025 by President Emmanuel Macron, the scheme is aimed at bolstering the country’s armed forces at a time of heightened security concerns across Europe.

Speaking at a press conference in Paris this Monday, the chief of staff of the armed forces, Fabien Mandon, said the programme was open to all French citizens aged 18 to 25 who are keen “to play a part in the nation’s capacity to resist in an uncertain environment”.

From September, around 3,000 volunteers will join the army, navy or air and space force for missions carried out exclusively on French soil.

Numbers are expected to rise to 4,000 in 2027 and to 10,000 a year by 2030, with a longer-term ambition of reaching 42,500 annual participants by 2035.

Combined with existing voluntary military service schemes and their overseas equivalents, that would bring the total to around 50,000 young people a year serving in uniform.

Legacy of conscription shapes France’s new version of military service

Counter-terrorism to drone operations

The service will last 10 months, beginning with an initial month of training followed by nine months in operational roles.

Tasks will range from helping out during natural disasters and providing support for counter-terrorism surveillance to more specialised jobs such as drone operation, mechanics, electrical work, baking or medical support.

Volunteers will be paid at least €800 a month and will receive accommodation, food and equipment.

The armed forces plan to begin selecting recruits as early as this month and around 80 per cent of those accepted will be 18- or 19-year-olds, for whom the service is intended to function as a kind of structured gap year before higher education.

This experience will be recognised within France’s Parcoursup university admissions system.

The remaining recruits, aged up to 25, will be chosen for specific skills and qualifications – including engineers, nurses and translators.

Macron unveils voluntary military service as concerns grow over Russia

Budget constraints

Defence Minister Catherine Vautrin said the programme reflected the “long-term evolution of the army towards a hybrid model”.

At the end of the 10 months, participants will be free to return to civilian life, join the military reserves or continue on a full-time career in the armed forces.

The gradual rollout is partly driven by budgetary constraints, as the scheme is expected to cost around €150 million in 2026, with total spending of roughly €2.3 billion between 2026 and 2030.

The launch also marks a quiet end to the universal national service (SNU), a flagship Macron pledge from his 2017 presidential campaign aimed at fostering national cohesion among 15- to 17-year-olds.

Introduced in 2019, the SNU was never fully rolled out and is now seen by the Elysée Palace as ill-suited to the strategic landscape reshaped by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

While France has not had compulsory military service since 2001, the new voluntary scheme underlines a broader shift across Europe, where governments are reassessing defence needs amid worries about Russia’s position and uncertainty over long-standing US security guarantees. 

(with newswires)

Scandals over abuse of the elderly in French care homes, combined with growing loneliness among pensioners, are forcing reflection on how – and where – people spend their later years. Three decades after founding the Utopia network of independent cinemas, Anne-Marie Faucon and Michel Malacarnet have turned their energy and experience towards imagining an alternative to traditional retirement homes. Their project, La Ménardiere, is an 18th-century mansion in the small town of Bérat, in south-west France. It operates as a shared-living collective, where residents, known as coopérateurs, are also shareholders. By taking control of their own destinies, they have created a model that also provides services and cultural activities for the surrounding community. Residents describe the approach as ageing together in a house that is “on the offensive”. (Listen @)4′)

La Clef, an historic arthouse cinema in Paris, has reopened its doors after a group of residents, cinephiles and activists spent years protesting its closure. Ollia Horton met some of those who took part in the years-long occupation of the theatre that resulted in the activists raising enough money to buy the building from the owners who wanted to sell the prime piece of real estate in the centre of the city. (Listen @21’48”)

As census takers fan out around France on 15 January to begin the annual counting of the population, we look at the process that started in the 14th century. The census was coopted by the Nazi occupation during WWII to identify Jews, and while it has since stripped out questions relating to race and religion, it recently added controversial ones about parental origins. (Listen @17’10”)

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani.

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

Aleppo has seen its worst fighting in years, as the Syrian army moved to oust the SDF from two large, mainly Kurdish neighbourhoods in the north of the city. The clashes began in late December and continued into January, forcing many civilians to flee.

The SDF controls a large swathe of northern and eastern Syria. The offensive comes as efforts to integrate the SDF into the Syrian army stalled.

“This is a warning. It is a kind of pressure on the SDF to come to a conclusion quickly, rather than to kick the can down the road with Damascus,” Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat who served in the region, told RFI.

Turkey’s backing

Ankara, which has recently reopened channels with Damascus after years of strained relations, strongly backs the offensive and has signalled its readiness to provide military support against the SDF.

“Turkey has the military advantage there, and I believe the SDF should take these warnings seriously,” Selcen said. He is now an analyst for the Turkish news portal Medyascope.

Turkey accuses the SDF of links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK, which has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state for decades.

The PKK is designated a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union. Turkey is also pursuing a renewed peace initiative with the PKK and sees the integration of the SDF into the Syrian army as key to stabilising northern Syria.

US pushes Israel to accept Turkish role in Gaza stabilisation force

Stalled integration

In March last year, the SDF signed an agreement in Damascus to integrate with the Syrian army. The deal set out broad principles but left key questions unresolved.

“There was a discrepancy from the beginning in what the parties understood integration to mean,” said Sezin Oney, of the Turkish Politikyol news portal.

“In Turkey’s case, they mean integration in such a way that it melts into the Syrian army. But the SDF understands it as integrating while protecting its inner core and identity. Remaining as the SDF, but operating under the umbrella of the Syrian army.

“Unless one of the parties backs down and makes concessions, we are likely to see a bigger military operation.”

International stakes

On Thursday, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa held telephone talks with his French and Turkish counterparts on the security situation. The discussions focused on containing the fighting and preserving the ceasefire.

Despite its precarious position, the SDF retains influential supporters. Israel, an increasingly vocal critic of Turkey’s regional role, has expressed support for the group. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar condemned Damascus’s operations in Aleppo.

The SDF remains a key partner of the United States Central Command in operations against the Islamic State group in Syria.

“The SDF lost a lot of troops, at least 10,000 fighters, in the fight against ISIS since 2014,” said Turkish international relations expert Soli Ozel.

“It’s a complicated picture. But from the American side, I do not yet see signs they would allow an attack on the SDF at this moment.”

According to Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and Washington’s envoy on Syria, diplomatic efforts are under way to extend the Aleppo ceasefire and allow SDF fighters to withdraw from contested areas.

Turkey fears Ukraine conflict will spill over on its Black Sea shores

Pressure on Washington

The duration of US support for the SDF remains uncertain, especially after last year’s agreement between Washington and Damascus to step up cooperation against the Islamic State group.

The issue has taken on added significance following President Donald Trump’s meeting with Syrian President al-Sharaa in Washington.

Given President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s strong relationship with Trump, time may not be on the SDF’s side, Oney said.

“They want to have the northern part of Syria, at least, but also Syria more broadly, as their backyard,” she added. “Turkey is the most influential country in Damascus. They want the SDF to melt away into the new Syrian state and its army.”

Turkey could face domestic political fallout for targeting the SDF. Protests have erupted in the country’s predominantly Kurdish southeast, which borders Syria, in response to the clashes in Aleppo.

Any further military action against the SDF could jeopardise the fragile peace process with the PKK. 

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.

World Radio Day is just around the corner, so it’s time for you to record your greetings for our annual World Radio Day program!

WRD is on 13 February;  we’ll have our celebration the day after, on the 14 February show. The deadline for your recordings is Monday 2 February, which is not far off!

Try to keep your greeting to under a minute. You can record on your phone and send it to me as an attachment in an e-mail to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

Be sure to record your greeting from underneath a blanket. Then the sound will be truly radiophonic – I mean, you want everyone to understand you, right?

Don’t miss out on the fun. 2 February is just around the corner, so to your recorders!

Erwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr  Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!

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

More tech news: Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Just go to YouTube and write RFI English in the search bar, and there we are! Be sure to subscribe to see all our videos.

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

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

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

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

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This week’s quiz: On 22 November, I asked you a question about the world’s most visited museum – the Louvre here in Paris. The museum was back in the news, due to an architectural audit that turned up structural weaknesses in some of the beams in the building. 

You were to re-read our article “Louvre Museum in Paris shuts gallery over structural safety fears”, and send in the answer to these two questions: What is the name of the gallery that has been closed, and what artworks are in that gallery?

The answer is: The Campana Gallery, which houses nine rooms dedicated to ancient Greek ceramics. 

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: What are your unique relationship rules?  

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Kashif Khalil from Faisalabad, Pakistan. Kashif is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations on your double win, Kashif.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Nuraiz Bin Zaman, a member of the RFI Amour Fan Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, and RFI Listeners Club member Nasyr Muhammad from Katsina State, Nigeria.

Last but not least, RFI English listeners Murshida Akhter Lata, the co-chairman of the Source of Knowledge Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh, and Miss Shuno, a member of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Barkley’s Bug” by David Grishman, performed by the David Grishman Quintet; Traditional Greek music produced by Visual Melodies; the “Rondo” from Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 1, performed by Krystian Zimmerman and the Polish Festival Orchestra; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and “Guinnevere” by David Crosby, arranged and performed by Miles Davis and his ensemble.

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read Paul Myers’ article “Nigeria power past Mozambique into quarterfinals at Africa Cup of Nations”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 2 February to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 7 February podcast. When you enter, be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

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

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

“We’re thinking about it very seriously,” Trump said when asked by a reporter about the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey during a visit this week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The sale has been blocked for years due to Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system. A recent Bloomberg report suggested Ankara may be prepared to return the missiles, though Turkish officials have denied this.

Political commentator Asli Aydintasbas, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, says that the strengthening relationship between Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan means both sides are working to resolve the impasse.

“He [Trump] himself is working with Turkey through his very effective ambassador, Tom Barrack, to find a solution,” said Aydintasbas. “There will be stiff opposition from the Greek lobby, Israelis and other regional players. But we’ve seen Trump skirt such opposition when it came to the Saudi Arabia F-35 sale.”

Military edge

Israeli security experts warn that Turkey’s acquisition of F-35 jets poses a greater security risk to Israel than the Saudi deal due to the Turkish military’s expertise, which threatens to challenge Israel’s technological advantage.

Currently, Israel maintains a significant edge as the Turkish air force operates decade-old jets, a factor that is increasingly important amid rising regional tensions.

“There was definitely a concern in the spring that there might be a confrontation in the skies of Syria between Israel and Turkey,” said Gallia Lindenstrauss of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

Syria in crossfire as Turkish-Israeli rivalry heats up over Assad’s successors

She stresses the risk of confrontation has significantly diminished thanks to “de-confliction talks”, brokered by Azerbaijan. A Syria “hotline” now exists between Israel and Turkey to prevent what Lindenstrauss describes as “accidents between the Israeli Air Force and the Turkish Air Force”.

Yet the need for such measures underscores how strained ties are. “The fact that it exists, of course, does point to the fact that things are not necessarily calm,” Lindenstrauss acknowledged.

Provocative alliances

Israel’s conflict in Gaza has heightened tensions with Turkey. On New Year’s Day, hundreds of thousands protested in Istanbul in support of Palestinians.

Tensions escalated further as Israel increased military cooperation last month with Greece and Cyprus. Both Greece and Cyprus have unresolved territorial disputes with Turkey in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas.

“Israelis are provoking especially Greeks and Greek Cypriots,” said Murat Aslan of Seta, a Turkish pro-government think tank. “The Israeli pilots are educating and training Greek pilots. They are operating [drones] across the Aegean Sea. And they sold many complex missile systems. So that means Israelis are provoking Greece just to challenge Turkey here in the Aegean Sea.”

In his New Year’s address, Erdogan said he was closely monitoring what he describes as threats and provocations against Turkey and Turkish Cypriots. Aslan predicts Ankara will not remain passive. “If there is a pattern in the west of Turkey that Greeks and Israelis are cooperating, for the sake of Turkish security interests, for sure there will be a reaction,” he warned.

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

Greece, which is also acquiring the F-35, has joined Israel in opposing Turkey’s purchase of the jet, warning it would alter the balance of power.

While Trump has expressed support for the Turkish sale, analyst Aydintasbas notes the US president is learning the limitations of his power when it comes to Israel.

“Trump is going through what a lot of US presidents have experienced: frustration, and a question – ‘wait a minute, who’s the superpower here?’” she said. “Because of the power dynamic in the US-Israeli relationship, it sometimes does point to a situation in which Israelis, though the weaker side technically, end up having the upper hand because of their enormous influence in the public space.”

Aydintasbas predicts that, despite Trump’s friendship with and admiration for Erdogan, the US president will be unwilling to pay the political price of securing the Turkish jet sale. “This is an issue on which Trump is not willing to fight the US Congress… and essentially ignore the US law,” she said.

For the self-described master dealmaker, it may prove a deal too far.

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 and bonus questions, 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.

There’s no quiz this week – check in next week, 10 January, for the answer to the question about the gallery in the Louvre Museum that had to be closed.

Thanks to everyone who sent in their Resolutions – may you make good progress in keeping them! And many thanks to this week’s co-host, my daughter Mathilde Daguzan-Owensby, and for the contributions to the show from Olivia Morrow and Evan Coffey. And of course, hats off to the Magic Mixer Erwan Rome, who made this show sing! 

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Be Our Guest” by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman; the traditional “Auld Lang Syne” performed by the Glenn Miller Orchestra; “A House with Love in It” by Sid Lippman and Sylvia Dee, sung by Nat King Cole; “Winter Wonderland” by Felix Smith, performed by the Chet Baker Quartet; “Let it Snow” by Sammy Cahn, sung by Leon Redbone; “Sleigh Ride” by Leroy Anderson, performed by the Sam Bush Ensemble, and “We Wish you the Merriest” by Les Brown, sung by June Christie.

From the entire RFI English service, we wish you a Happy 2026!

Hello everyone!

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear a “My Ordinary Hero” essay by listener Rasheed Naz from Faisal Abad, Pakistan.  I hope you’ll be inspired to write an essay for us, too!

If your essay goes on the air, you’ll find a package in the mail from The Sound Kitchen. Write in about your “ordinary” heroes – the people in your community who are doing extraordinarily good work, quietly working to make the world a better place, in whatever way they can. As listener Pramod Maheshwari said: “Just as small drops of water can fill a pitcher, small drops of kindness can change the world.”

I am still looking for your “This I Believe” essays, too. Tell us about the principles that guide your life … what you have found to be true from your very own personal experience. Or write about a book that changed your perspective on life, a person who you admire, festivals in your community, your most memorable moment, and/or your proudest achievement. If your essay is chosen to go on-the-air – read by you – you’ll win a special prize!

Send your essays to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

Or by postal mail, to:

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Here’s Rashid Naz’s essay:

Heroes are not always found in stories or movies. Sometimes they live among us, quietly working to make our world a better place. My “ordinary” hero is a community leader in our town, someone who has taught me that real heroism comes from serving others with kindness and courage.

Our community leader, Mr. Ahmed, is not rich or powerful, but he has a heart full of compassion. He organizes clean up drives, helps poor families, and encourages young people to stay in school. Whenever there is a problem – a sick neighbor, a broken road, or a family in need – he is the first to step forward. His actions remind us that small efforts can bring big changes.

What I admire most about him is his humility. He never seeks fame or reward. When people thank him, he simply says, “We are all responsible for our community.” Those words inspire me. He believes that leadership means service, not authority, and he proves it every day through his actions.

To many people, he might seem like an ordinary man. But to me, he is a true hero – a symbol of dedication, honesty, and hope. Because of him, I’ve learned that anyone can be a hero, not by wearing a cape, but by using their heart to make a difference.

That is why my “ordinary” hero is our community leader Mr Ahmed, a man whose quiet strength and selfless service continue to inspire us all.

Be sure and tune in next week for our annual New Year’s Resolutions program! Talk to you then!

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.