The Charles de Gaulle – the pride of the French navy – set sail from the Mediterranean port of Toulon this week to take part in a major allied exercise, the defence ministry said Tuesday.

While officials declined to give precise details of its route, sources said the carrier strike group is heading into the North Atlantic – a stretch of ocean that has found itself squarely at the centre of recent geopolitical friction.

The deployment comes as French President Emmanuel Macron prepares to host talks in Paris with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland.

Greenland’s strategic location between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic, coupled with its mineral resources, has made it an increasingly important focus for global powers.

EU seeks stability after Trump steps back on Greenland and tariffs

Transatlantic tensions

Tensions flared earlier this month when US President Donald Trump threatened to seize the semiautonomous Danish territory and to impose tariffs on European countries that opposed him, including France, Germany and Britain.

The remarks rattled European capitals and prompted an unusually firm show of unity in support of Copenhagen. Trump later stepped back from the threat of military action after what was described as a “framework” for a deal was reached, although few details have been made public.

The French-led naval deployment is being presented as measured rather than confrontational. The exercise, known as Orion 26, will bring together French forces with regional allies and partners in what Paris describes as a strategic area for the defence of European interests.

The carrier strike group includes the aircraft carrier and its combat aircraft, alongside escort and support vessels such as an air-defence frigate, a supply ship and an attack submarine.

None of the sources questioned said how far north the group would operate, though the North Atlantic is a familiar transit zone for Russian submarines from the Northern and Baltic fleets.

Can NATO survive the presidency of Donald Trump?

NATO strains and ‘autonomy’

The military manoeuvres come amid a broader argument within NATO about Europe’s ability to defend itself.

Speaking to EU lawmakers in Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte insisted that Europe remains dependent on the United States for its security.

Without Washington, he said, Europeans would need to more than double current defence ambitions to fill the gap.

At NATO’s summit last year, European allies – with the exception of Spain – along with Canada agreed to raise defence and security-related spending to a combined five percent of gross domestic product by 2035.

Rutte warned that even this level might fall short if Europe sought full independence, particularly given the cost of developing nuclear capabilities.

France has long argued for greater European “strategic autonomy”, a stance that has gained traction as successive US administrations have signalled that their security focus lies increasingly elsewhere.

Paris maintains that building stronger European capabilities would complement, not replace, the alliance with Washington.

(With newswires)

A little girl with curly hair on a tricycle is presented as Hannelore Kaufmann from Berlin, who purportedly died at the age of 13 at the Auschwitz extermination camp, the 1945 liberation of which by Soviet troops is commemorated today,Tuesday.

However, there is no record of her ever having existed.

The image is part of a wave of AI-generated content about the Holocaust that can be seen on social media platforms. 

As the world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day, experts warn that such content – whether produced as clickbait for commercial gain or for political motives – threatens efforts to preserve the memory of Nazi crimes during the Second World War, including the murder of 6 million European Jews.

French news agency AFP has noted a surge of such imagery on social networks. Another example is an image created to illustrate the invented story of a Czech violinist called “Hank” at Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was called out as fake by the camp’s museum.

With early examples emerging in the spring of 2025, by the end of last year “AI slop” on the subject “was being shown very frequently”, historian Iris Groschek told AFP.

On some sites such content was being posted once a minute, said Groschek, who works at memorial sites in Hamburg, including the Neuengamme concentration camp.

With the exponential advances in AI, “the phenomenon is growing,” said Jens-Christian Wagner, director of the foundation that manages the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp memorials.

AI technology used to distort Holocaust history, UN body warns

Exploiting ’emotional impact’

Several Holocaust memorials and commemorative organisations this month issued an open letter warning about the rising number of these “entirely fabricated” pieces of content.

Some, it said, are churned out by content farms which exploit “the emotional impact of the Holocaust to achieve maximum reach with minimal effort”.

An AI-generated picture of an emaciated man standing in the snow at Flossenbürg concentration camp is one example of an image shown on a page claiming to share “true, human stories from the darkest chapters of the past”.

The memorials warned that fake content was also being created “specifically to dilute historical facts, shift victim and perpetrator roles, or spread revisionist narratives”. Wagner points to images of “well-fed prisoners, meant to suggest that conditions in concentration camps weren’t really that bad”.

The Frankfurt-based Anne Frank Educational Centre warned of a “flood” of AI-generated content and propaganda “in which the Holocaust is denied or trivialised, with its victims ridiculed”.

‘Concrete consequences’

By distorting history, AI-generated images have “very concrete consequences for how people perceive the Nazi era,” says Groschek.

The results of trivialising or denying the Holocaust can be seen in the attitudes of some younger visitors to the camps, said Wagner, particularly those from “rural parts of eastern Germany… in which far-right thinking has become dominant”.

Staff at memorials have observed Hitler salutes as well as other provocative and disrespectful actions and comments.

Such behaviour is only “by a minority, but a minority that is increasingly confident, loud and aggressive”, Wagner told AFP.

Roma push France to recognise Holocaust-era genocide

In their open letter, the memorials called on social media platforms to “proactively combat AI content that distorts history” and to “exclude accounts that disseminate such content from all monetisation programmes”.

German Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer said in a statement to AFP: “I support the memorials’ call to clearly label AI-generated images and remove them when necessary. This is a matter of respect for the millions of people who were killed and persecuted under the Nazis’ reign of terror,” he said.

He reminded social media platforms that they had “obligations” under the EU’s Digital Services Act, and said that making money from such imagery should be prevented.

Groschek said that none of the American social media giants had responded to the open letter – including Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram.

Chinese-owned platform TikTok responded by saying it wanted to exclude the accounts in question from monetisation and implement “automated verification”.

Petain tribute comments raise ‘revisionist’ storm in France

‘Soon, there will be no eyewitnesses left’

These concerns come as the community of Holocaust survivors is rapidly shrinking.

There are an estimated 196,600 Jewish Holocaust survivors still alive globally, down from 220,000 a year previous, according to information published last week by the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Their median age is 87, and nearly all – some 97 percent – are “child survivors” who were born from1928 onwards, the group said.

Henri Borlant, the only survivor of the 6,000 Jewish children from France deported to Auschwitz in 1942, died in December 2024 at the age of 97.

At the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day gathering at the upper house of the Czech Parliament, Pavel Jelinek, a 90-year-old survivor from the city of Liberec, which had a pre-war Jewish population of 1,350, told those gathered that he was now the last of the 37 Jews who returned to the city after the war still alive.

‘Rails of memory’ Holocaust memorial opens in French city of Lyon

In London, a Holocaust survivor on Tuesday addressed the British Cabinet. Government members wiped away tears as 95-year-old Mala Tribich described how Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 destroyed her childhood.

She recalled being forced into hard labour at the age of 12, as the first Nazi ghetto was established in her hometown of Piotrkow Trybunalski, and spoke of the hunger, disease and suffering there.

The Nazis murdered her mother, father and sister. She was sent to Ravensbrück camp and then to Bergen-Belsen, which was liberated by the British Army in April 1945.

She urged the Cabinet members to fight anti-Semitism, saying: “Soon, there will be no eyewitnesses left. That is why I ask you today not just to listen, but to become my witness.”

(with newswires)

France issued 384,230 first residence permits last year, marking an over 11 percent increase on the previous year, according to figures released on Tuesday by the Interior Ministry.

The rise confirms France’s continued role as a major destination for students, refugees and other newcomers, even as the government tightens certain migration pathways.

At the same time, the number of people regularised – foreigners without legal status who are granted residence permits – fell sharply.

A total of 28,610 people were regularised in 2025, down just over 10 percent on the year before.

According to data from the Directorate-General for Foreigners in France (DGEF), regularisations fell both for economic reasons, down 11.5 percent, and for family reasons, which declined by 6.4 percent.

Officials pointed to a change in policy earlier in the year. “There is the impact of the Retailleau circular,” published in January 2025, said Guillaume Mordant, head of the DGEF’s statistics department. The circular was designed to underline the “exceptional nature” of regularisations and to tighten the conditions under which they are granted.

Students, humanitarian permits drive overall rise

Looking more broadly at residence permits, student visas remained the main driver, with around 118,000 issued over the year.

Humanitarian permits saw particularly strong growth, rising by 65 percent to 92,600, reflecting ongoing international crises and France’s response to them.

By contrast, permits issued for economic reasons fell by 13 percent year on year, to 51,190.

“The decline concerns employees, down 11 percent, and seasonal workers, which fell by nearly 30 percent,” Mordant explained, highlighting a shift in labour-related migration trends.

Enforcement measures also intensified. Arrests of people in an irregular situation rose by 30 percent last year, with particularly sharp increases among Algerians, up 52 percent, Tunisians, up 33 percent, and Moroccans, up 19 percent.

Deportations increased by almost 16 percent overall, with 24,985 people sent back. Forced removals alone rose by 21 percent, reaching 15,569.

Fewer asylum claims

Asylum applications, meanwhile, continued to ease. There were 151,665 applications in 2025, a decrease of 3.7 percent, meaning that “applications are down for the second consecutive year,” Mordant noted.

The main countries of origin were Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan – each with around 11,500 applications – followed by Haiti, Sudan and Guinea.

Despite fewer applications, recognition rates climbed significantly. The approval rate reached 52 percent last year, meaning that more than one in two applicants was granted asylum.

“We were around 40 percent five or six years ago,” Mr Mordant recalled, pointing to a marked shift in outcomes.

Finally, the number of people acquiring French nationality also declined. In total, 62,235 people became French citizens, a fall of just under 7 percent after what officials described as a “fairly high” year previously.

This was largely due to a 13.5 percent drop in naturalisations by decree, following a circular issued in May that tightened the conditions for granting nationality.

(with newswires)

The climate of tension has been growing since January 2025, climaxing last November, when US President Donald Trump boycotted the G20 summit held in South Africa, accusing the country of pursuing policies hostile to American interests.

Trump had even said that South Africa – which in 2025 became the first African country to chair the forum – would not be invited to US-hosted events in 2026.

To appease Washington, South Africa’s Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, confirmed that the country will step back from its G20 engagements during the United States presidency of the grouping.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland last week, he described the decision as a “temporary setback”.

‘A rational decision’

“South Africa wants to avoid any problem, any crisis with the United States, and it is a really rational decision,” Koffi Kouakou, lecturer at the School of Governance at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, told RFI.

“The G20, which was created to bring together all the countries of the world, not just those we like, those that resemble us, or those that are like us, is now being destroyed by President Trump. It’s truly a shame. But South Africa wants to avoid any problems, any crisis with the United States, and this is a very rational decision.”

G20 summit ends with commitment to multilateralism, despite US boycott

With this unprecedented move, the G20 becomes a sort of G19, which will in turn affect the relationships between these powerful economies and the African continent, South Africa being the only representative of Africa in the group.

“This is a very strong signal, and the G20 members must reflect on it because there will also be consequences for the role of the African Union. South Africa and the African Union represent nearly 1.4 billion people. Its withdrawal will create a void for Africa, a void of African representation within the G20,” Kouakou adds.

Minister Godongwana said he believed Africa’s voice would still be heard at the G20 through the African Union.

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

The United Kingdom will become the 2027 president, and South Africa hopes to be reincluded then.

South Africa will host the Special World Economic Forum (WEF) Summit in April 2027.

The country’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, said in Davos that as Africa’s most industrialised economy and a key voice of the Global South, South Africa is uniquely positioned to convene global leaders to advance collective solutions to pressing global challenges

“South Africa’s leadership in climate diplomacy, renewable energy transition, digital transformation, and regional integration align closely to the World Economic Forum’s mission to improve the state of our world,” the Minister added.

 (with newswires)

At least 32 elderly people in France were found dead in their homes in 2025 weeks, months or even years after they had died – a stark illustration of what one charity describes as the most extreme form of social isolation.

The figures were published on Tuesday by the charity Petits Frères des Pauvres, which compiled the cases from reports in regional media.

The deaths were recorded in towns and cities across France – including Évreux, Nice, Le Mans, and Montpellier – and are described by the organisation as “the ultimate consequences of extreme loneliness”.

Some of the cases underline just how invisible many elderly people have become. In Bordeaux, the skeleton of a woman in her seventies was discovered in her garden in March 2025, nearly two years after her death.

In the suburb of Montrouge, south of Paris, a decomposed body was found in a social housing studio in September – three years after the man had died – when a bailiff entered the flat as part of an eviction procedure, according to Le Parisien daily.

Half a million elderly people live in isolation in France – report

An underestimated phenomenon

The charity believes the true scale of the problem is far greater.

“This figure is underestimated,” it said, arguing that France currently lacks any reliable way of measuring the number of so-called solitary deaths each year.

While many public bodies, community organisations and funeral service professionals share that assessment, “no one is able to reliably quantify the annual number of lonely deaths in France,” the charity noted.

After failing to persuade public authorities to act, Petits Frères des Pauvres now plans to create its own national “observatory of solitary deaths” by the end of the year.

Yann Lasnier, the charity’s general delegate, told reporters that a scientific committee would be established in the first half of 2026.

It will bring together researchers, sociologists, geriatricians, frontline workers, representatives of local authorities and funeral directors, with the aim of developing a shared framework for understanding the phenomenon.

Two million French seniors live in poverty: charity report

Towards a national observatory

One of the first challenges, Lasnier said, is agreeing on a definition. Solitary deaths can include people who die on the streets, unclaimed bodies in morgues or hospitals, and those who pass away at home with no one present at their funeral – categories that are currently treated separately.

The committee will be tasked with establishing a common definition, exploring ways to prevent and detect such deaths earlier, and identifying practical solutions.

The charity estimates that around 750,000 elderly people in France have no meaningful social ties, with little or no interaction across five key social networks – family, friends, work, associations and neighbours.

The future observatory aims to collect reliable data on how often solitary deaths occur and in what circumstances, analyse risk factors, and make concrete recommendations to public authorities and social organisations.

Early findings already suggest an over-representation of men, particularly among those aged between 60 and 75.

By shining a clearer light on an often hidden tragedy, the charity hopes the initiative will not only improve understanding, but also help reconnect older people before isolation becomes fatal.

(With newswires)

Reports had been circulating for days that the agency embroiled in an often brutal immigration crackdown in the United States could be involved in US security measures for the Games in northern Italy taking place from 6 to 22 February in Milan.

In a statement overnight to French news agency AFP, ICE said:

“At the Olympics, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is supporting the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organisations.

“All security operations remain under Italian authority.”

It’s not known whether the HSI has in the past been involved in the Olympics, or whether this is a first.

According to the ICE website, the HSI investigates global threats, investigating the illegal movement of people, goods, money, contraband, weapons and sensitive technology into, out of, and through the United States.

ICE made clear its operations in Italy were separate from the immigration crackdown, which is being carried out by the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) department.

“Obviously, ICE does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries,” it said.

The protection of US citizens during Olympic Games overseas is led by the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS).

Yet the outrage over ICE immigration operations in the United States is shared among many in Italy, following the deaths of two civilians during an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.

‘ICE not welcome’

The leftist mayor of Milan, which is hosting several Olympic events, said ICE was “not welcome”.

“This is a militia that kills… It’s clear that they are not welcome in Milan, there’s no doubt about it, Giuseppe Sala told Italian radio RTL 102.5. “Can’t we just say no to Trump for once?”

Alessandro Zan, a member of the European Parliament for the centre-left Democratic Party, condemned it as “unacceptable”.

Meloni positions herself as Europe’s ‘trump card’ on visit to White House

“In Italy, we don’t want those who trample on human rights and act outside of any democratic control,” he wrote on X.

Monitoring Vance

Italian authorities initially denied the presence of ICE and then sought to downplay any role, suggesting they would help only in security for the US delegation.

US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are attending the opening ceremony in Milan on 6 February.

On Monday, the president of the northern Lombardy region, said their involvement would be limited to monitoring Vance and Rubio.

“It will be only in a defensive role, but I am convinced that nothing will happen,” Attilio Fontana told reporters.

One year of Trump: the ‘far-right revolution’ testing America and the world

However, his office then issued a statement saying he did not have any specific information on their presence, but was responding to a hypothetical question.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi was quoted as saying late Monday that “ICE, as such, will never operate in Italy”.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) when contacted by AFP about the matter replied: “We kindly refer you to the USOPC (the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee)”.

Thousands of ICE agents have been deployed by President Donald Trump in various US cities to carry out a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Their actions have prompted widespread protests, and the recent killings of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37, on the streets of Minneapolis sparked outrage.

(with AFP)

Their experiment is La Ménardière, a shared living project in the village of Bérat, 40km from Toulouse. 

On a Saturday lunchtime, six of the 12 current members gather around a large oak table in the kitchen. They’ve all helped prepare the meal. A fire crackles in the hearth.

Over roast chicken, pumpkin and a glass or two of red wine, the conversation turns to the subject that brought them together – the desire to avoid a nursing home.

“It’s like a prison for old people,” says 66-year-old Sylvie Vetter, who moved in a year ago.

Geneviève Ducurty, who spent years working as a nurse in care homes, nods in agreement. “There isn’t enough time or money, you can no longer take care of people properly.”

Their comments echo recent research that found as many as 80 percent of people in France have a negative image of retirement homes, reflecting what the authors describe as “collective anguish” about growing old in a system seen as “ill adapted, dehumanised and on its last legs”.

Alternative to institutional care

This kind of shared anxiety is what led to the setting up of La Ménardière. The project is the brainchild of Anne-Marie Faucon and Michel Malacarnet, who 30 years ago founded the Utopia cooperative of independent cinemas. 

Their aim is simple and radical: to live and grow old together, contributing to society for as long as possible, and to delay – or avoid – the moment when people are forced into institutional care.

The idea emerged in 2018. “There was an article in Le Monde saying France mistreats its elderly,” says Faucon.

A few months later, after a public showing of the film All Together, a comedy about an alternative living experiment in which a group of ageing friends move in together, she and Malacarnet sprang into action.

In 2019, they took out loans to buy La Ménardière – a late 18th-century, three-storey mansion in the centre of Bérat, a small town of 3,000 people – for €1.1 million.

Listen to a report on La Ménardière in the Spotlight on France podcast

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‘A place where we move forward’

The ground floor is communal, with a kitchen, sitting rooms, a meeting room, a library and a cinema screening room. Upstairs are individual apartments. The 2.5-hectare grounds include a swimming pool, gym and vegetable garden and are home to a few chickens.

Vetter, who moved in after her divorce, has 31 square metres to herself – a small kitchen, a bathroom and a large room. “I also have access to the entire garden, the whole ground floor and the swimming pool,” she says. “I was looking for a new life project, really. I wasn’t thinking about old age. When I arrived here, what mattered to me was building something.”

That isn’t just about growing old together in shared housing. The community also works on cultural projects, and there’s an explicitly political dimension.

“We’re trying, perhaps, to change the world a little – to give people ideas and to create connections. It is not just a project for older people; it is for society as a whole.”

Malacarnet, who at the age of 83 is the oldest of the residents, moves slowly between the rooms, but his fighting spirit is undimmed. He describes La Ménardière as a house “on the offensive”.

“The concept of retirement implies defeat, whereas until now we’ve always been on the offensive, and that’s synonymous with victory,” he says. “This isn’t a retirement home. It’s a place where we move forward, where we want to help build a new world.”

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Fairer economic model

The 2023 book Les Fossoyeurs (“The Gravediggers”), which exposed abuse of the elderly in some of France’s biggest care homes, reinforced Faucon and Malacarnet’s conviction that there had to be an alternative to the profit-driven care home industry.

“The book showed there’s a real problem in France, money is being made off the backs of old people. Very often, many care homes offer services that simply don’t live up to the prices they charge,” says Faucon.

“So our idea was to think about an economic model that’s fairer, more respectful of people and that allows those who don’t necessarily have a lot of money to have something better and more pleasant.”

Each member pays an entry fee of €20,000, plus €70,000 to help repay the loans and fund renovation. That sum is returned when they leave, or to their family in the event of their death. Accommodation is rented at €14 per square metre per month.

Eric and Brigitte Cabot have opted to build their own home on one of the plots in the park. 

“We’ve never lived in an apartment so I think it would be too difficult for us,” says Eric. Their house will cost them around €1,100 a month to rent, which he says is “a competitive rate for this area”. 

The couple were drawn to the project after watching their own parents die in difficult conditions.

“It was very stressful, we wanted to spare our own children the same thing,” says Eric. “When one of us goes, we won’t be alone, there’ll be a community there,” adds Brigitte.

Everyone is expected to contribute to running La Ménardière according to their abilities. Eric, a former engineer, brings his skills in mechanics, electricity, maintenance, the internet and accounting. Brigitte is a keen gardener.

She’s realistic about the challenges of shared living. “We have disputes, but we try to find solutions, we are tolerant of one another’s differences.”

Charity warns of elderly isolation after 32 ‘solitary deaths’ recorded in France

Open to the community

La Ménardière isn’t an isolated enclave and residents engage with the wider community. Two rooms are rented out on a bed and breakfast basis, bringing in much needed revenue. Schoolchildren come and do cross country running in the park, and the outdoor stables are used for concerts, plays and monthly film screenings in the summer. In winter, the events move inside.

A major study in 2024 showed an estimated 12 percent of people in France said they felt lonely, and increasingly so with age. Malacarnet says reaching out is also part of their mission.

“Some of the people who come and see us seem to be suffering so deeply from loneliness that we tell ourselves we’re fighting for them too, so that they have the right to exist. So this is also a project against loneliness.”

The residents, however, are under no illusion about what lies ahead. Illness and loss of independence are inevitable. Ducurty, the former district nurse, says the location was chosen carefully with this in mind.

“We deliberately chose a place in a town that isn’t isolated, where there’s a medical centre, a pharmacy and home care services. We’re aware that we’ll need outside help and won’t be able to do everything ourselves,” she says.

But they want to delay the nursing home option for as long as possible. “The idea is that, in this place, we’ll support one another,” she says. “When Michel or Brigitte can no longer come to film screenings, we’ll go and play cards or watch films with them in their rooms.”

Two million French seniors live in poverty: charity report

‘A utopian dream’

La Ménardière can house up to 20 residents. The selection process to become one is rigorous. Candidates stay for trial weekends and, if they decide to join, then complete a six-month probation period.

Anna Gilmartin, a 74-year-old former social worker from the UK with an Irish passport, is strongly tempted by the project and spent a week there in November.

“I’ve lived in Buddhist communities in England and in France, I like community living. The cultural side of La Ménardière is also a major pull.” 

However she’s still hesitating. “I’m not sure what I could bring to the project. I’m not very robust and they need robust people.” The lack of public transport in Bérat, she adds, is “also an issue”.

For Faucon, this uncertainty is all part of the experiment. “It’s a modest and slightly crazy dream. A utopian dream, really,” she says.

“Will we succeed? We don’t know. But what matters is trying to move towards the best possible relationships, and to support one another for as long as we can, so that the end of life is a gentle one.”

Strikes have intensified in southern Ukraine in recent weeks, prompting the government to order the evacuation of civilians, including around 40 children, from villages near Zaporizhzhia, as Moscow’s forces advance.

But on the outskirts of Mykolaiv, a city by the Black Sea, the Beykush estate continues to make wine – 10 kilometres from Russian positions.

To reach the vineyard now requires a military escort and passing through several checkpoints.

For security reasons, visiting the vines themselves is not always possible. Attacks are launched regularly from across the river, shaping how and when work can be done.

The pressure on Ukraine’s wine sector began back in 2014, when Russia’s annexation of Crimea wiped out more than half of the country’s national production.

Ukrainians responded by turning to local wines, a patriotic reflex that helped new vineyards emerge. That has continued since Russia’s invasion in 2022, helping sustain producers such as Beykush.

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‘Working is a way of holding on’

At the estate, production was stopped for just one month, even as nearby Mykolaiv was caught up in intense fighting. Since then, work has continued under constant threat.

“At the beginning of the war, work was the only thing that helped keep our spirits up,” winemaker Ola Romanenko told RFI.

“It gave us something to focus on instead of thinking about the constant danger. And even today, working is a way of holding on, of not thinking about everything else.”

The estate has not been hit directly, but drones often fly overhead before crashing nearby or heading towards Odesa. The team has had to adapt quickly to the risks.

Only four people now handle production at the winery. Romanenko lives on site, while the other employees are neighbours. During the harvest, local residents also help out so the work can be done as quickly as possible.

The winery has also set up shelters.

“We have a basement for our barrels, which is very safe,” she said. “We also have an old tasting room that is almost underground and works as a shelter. If the noise is too loud or the danger too high, we go there.”

The team stays in constant contact with the army, and helps to support it financially.

“For security, we make donations,” she said. “Some QR codes on our bottles allow people to support the rehabilitation of soldiers. Several of our employees are also serving in the army and we help them.”

Despite the conditions, production has not fallen. Beykush produces around 19,000 bottles a year across 15 different wines, and output has even increased since 2022.

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‘Identity is our strength’

The wines have also gained international recognition.

“This year, at the most prestigious competition in London, Larbinat won gold in the orange wine category,” Romanenko said. “L’Oca Deserta, a red, won silver. They sell so well that some are already sold out.”

In Mykolaiv, Marina Stepanova runs one of the city’s few remaining wine shops. With frequent air raid alerts, power cuts and a curfew, opportunities to go out in the evening are limited.

She told RFI that while foreign importers were keen to support Ukraine’s wine sector in 2022, that interest has since faded. Local producers are now relying mainly on Ukrainian customers.

At the entrance to Stepanova’s shop, one shelf is dedicated to wines from the Mykolaiv region, with more Ukrainian bottles further inside. A small room at the back is used for tastings.

Here, local architect Efren Polanco invites foreign colleagues to sample regional wines.

“When you introduce yourself and say you come from France, you have your identity, your personality,” he told the visitors. “For our wine, it’s the same. Identity is our strength.”

Pouring a glass from the Beykush estate, Polanco added: “This wine is like the blood of the Mykolaiv region.”

Outside, an air raid alert sounded. Inside, the small group clinked glasses.

This article is based on a report in French by RFI’s Accents d’Europe podcast.

France has set up a new digital rapid-response unit – titled “French Response” – to push back against what it sees as a rising tide of online disinformation, and it wasted little time making its presence felt.

When the US secretary of state Marco Rubio took a swipe at European culture on X this week, the English-language account run by the French foreign ministry jumped in almost immediately.

“Our culture,” it replied, posting a neatly laid-out table comparing quality-of-life indicators.

On life expectancy, student debt and several other measures, the European Union came out comfortably ahead of the United States.

One year of Trump: the ‘far-right revolution’ testing America and the world

New online battleground

The post was pointed, data-driven and with a hint of dry humour. The recently launched account is France’s latest attempt to defend itself in what officials describe as an increasingly hostile online information environment, where false or misleading claims spread at speed.

French foreign ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux said information had become “a new battleground”.

“We’re choosing to occupy the space by turning up the volume and raising our voice,” he explained. The strategy appears to be working, at least in terms of reach.

The account has already attracted around 100,000 followers – a modest figure next to X owner Elon Musk’s more than 230 million, but significant for a government-run feed.

Staffed by a small team of diplomats, former journalists and fact-checkers, French Response has been particularly active this week as political and business leaders gathered for the World Economic Forum in Davos.

It has taken aim at posts it considers misleading from Russian and US accounts, and has even found itself rebutting claims linked to the White House under President Donald Trump.

Europe won’t yield to ‘bullies’ Macron warns as Trump pushes Greenland claim

Between wit and statecraft

That included a moment of high-profile Franco-American sparring.

On Tuesday, French president Emmanuel Macron appeared in Davos wearing aviator sunglasses, which his team later said were the result of a burst blood vessel in his eye.

Macron used the occasion to say France did not like “bullies”, a remark widely interpreted as aimed at Trump.

The next day, newspapers splashed images of Macron in shades across their front pages, with commentators likening him to Maverick from Top Gun.

French Response revelled in the attention. “When the world does your French response for you,” it posted, shortly after Trump mocked Macron’s sunglasses online.

Not all of the account’s interventions have been so light-hearted.

When a Russian account falsely claimed Macron had left Davos early to avoid Trump – in reality, the French leader had never planned to be there on the same day – the reply was swift and cutting: “Another impeccably planned French leave.”

(with newswires)

The Sudan National Museum in Khartoum bears battle scars. Beneath holes left in its facade by rocket fire, a large bay window lies shattered. The gardens are littered with explosives. 

Home to a vast collection tracing thousands of years of human history in the Nile Valley, the building was ransacked when paramilitaries fighting the armed forces overran the capital, soon after the war began in April 2023.

The army recaptured the city from its opponents, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), last March – finally allowing the museum’s employees to assess the damage.

“Inside, all the locks had been broken and all the doors left wide open,” said Jamal Mohammed Zein, the first member of staff to return. 

“I headed straight for the main store room, which houses more than 100,000 archaeological artefacts. Objects were strewn all over the floor. The crates had been opened and looted. Many artefacts had been broken or chipped,” he told RFI.

Suspected trafficking

As employees work to clean and repair what remains, a committee of experts is making an inventory of the losses. At least 4,000 items are missing, according to Rihab Khidir, the archaeologist who heads the panel.

“They completely ransacked the Kushite gold room, which housed hundreds of ornamental pieces,” she said. “Necklaces and rings made entirely of gold. Jewellery dating back to the time of the Kush civilisation, from the kingdom of Napata and Meroe, that was found inside royal burial chambers.”

The museum held the world’s most important collection of artefacts from the kingdom of Kush, an ancient Nubian culture whose pharaohs once conquered Egypt. It also housed objects that testified to the rich range of influences, including Islamic and Christian, that have shaped Sudan over its long history.

Museum authorities say they have evidence that at least three trucks loaded with artefacts left Khartoum in August 2023, heading west. The RSF are suspected of trying to smuggle the treasures out of Sudan, selling them to foreign dealers to finance the ongoing conflict.

From the early days of the fighting, international experts sent pleas to the RSF warning that “heritage is a red line”, according to Khidir.

“It is part of our culture, a piece of our history that has nothing to do with the current conflict. They got the message and said they were willing to cooperate, and yet everything was stolen.”

The challenge of preserving Sudan’s rich heritage for future generations

Symbolic losses

The National Museum was not the only heritage site raided. At least a dozen others across Sudan have been damaged or plundered, with the total losses estimated at nearly $110 million. 

In Darfur, scene of some of the most brutal battles, militia turned the regional museum of Nyala into a barracks.

In the city of El-Fasher, under siege for more than a year before it fell to the RSF last October, the palace of Ali Dinar, Darfur’s last sultan, was destroyed in shelling.

The palace was “a symbol of the sovereignty of the Fur people and resistance to colonisation”, said Ali Noor, secretary-general of the Sudanese committee of the Blue Shield, an international NGO that works to protect cultural heritage in emergencies.

Noor believes the destruction, in a country riven by ethnic and religious divisions, is no accident. “It is the deliberate physical and cultural extermination of entire communities from our historical heritage.”

Sudan’s El-Fasher under the RSF, destroyed and ‘full of bodies’

Global preservation efforts

Critics say Sudan’s heritage, like the human victims of its war, has suffered from a lack of global attention. But in Sudan and abroad, a patchwork of initiatives are attempting to stem the damage.

Experts from the country’s National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums have been documenting and moving collections from sites judged to be in danger. 

One of the National Museum’s curators, Shadia Abdrabo – now based in Paris on a French research grant – is compiling an online database of artefacts in all of Sudan’s museums to help establish what’s missing. 

Unesco is funding emergency efforts to secure vulnerable world heritage sites, including the former royal city of Meroe, seat of the Kushite kings, as well as the pyramids at Gebel Barkal. It has also helped train police and customs officers in Sudan and neighbouring countries to spot stolen antiquities, and appealed to international museums and collectors to refuse suspect items.

The Louvre, the British Museum and others have lent support. Meanwhile an international task force has been set up to mobilise institutions and donors outside Sudan. 

The efforts are beginning to bear fruit. Last week, the Sudanese government announced the recovery of 570 objects taken from the National Museum – roughly 30 percent of what was lost. 

The delicate figurines, vases and scarab-shaped amulets were reportedly retrieved after months of investigation helped by Interpol and Unesco.

The government has promised a financial reward to any member of the public who returns other looted objects or shares information about their whereabouts.

Museum restored online

Separately, part of the National Museum’s collection is once more on view in a virtual museum that went live at the start of this month.

Visitors can explore some 500 of the museum’s treasures in an online recreation of the building as it was before the war. A recreation of the famed Kushite gold room will be uploaded later this year.

Commissioned before the conflict started, the project was supported by the French Section of the Sudanese Directorate of Antiquities (SFDAS), a government-funded research institute that works on archaeological projects with Sudan.

“This is a great source of hope for our Sudanese colleagues, as it allows them to continue researching and promoting Sudanese heritage,” said Faïza Drici of SFDAS.

It is also hoped the virtual collection, by providing a public record, will make it harder for traffickers to sell off looted items.

In Khartoum, reopening the museum in reality remains a distant dream.

For archaeologist Khidir, still working to document the scale of what has been lost, the paramilitaries fighting Sudan’s war have missed the true value of what they stole or destroyed.

“The Rapid Support Forces are foolish,” she said. “Who do they want to rule? Those who have no history have no present. Heritage is our roots. They say their hearts are with their homeland. They say they want to govern the country, so why don’t they protect our heritage?

“This stolen heritage, this civilisation, belongs to an entire people, and even to all of humanity.”

This article has been adapted from RFI interviews by Eliott Brachet, Gaëlle Laleix and Savannah Ruellan.

In its annual report on sexism, the High Council for Gender Equality, an advisory body attached to the office of the prime minister, on Wednesday said France was falling worryingly behind in identifying and tackling masculinism.

The council said the phenomenon should be recognised as a public security issue, warning that hatred of women can lead to violence and even terrorism. It noted that countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom have already included the issue in their strategies against violent extremism.

Masculinism emerged in the 1980s as a reaction to feminism. The ideology promotes male supremacy and blames women for what its supporters see as a decline in men’s living conditions.

Senior French civil servant accused of mass drinks spiking to humiliate women

From ideology to violence

“This is a real threat. From the moment you develop a hatred of women, there can be violence and terrorist acts,” Bérangère Couillard, president of the council, told French news agency AFP.

The report cited several cases linked to misogynist violence, going back to 1989 when a self-declared anti-feminist shot dead 14 women at Montreal’s École Polytechnique in Canada.

In France, an 18-year-old was arrested last summer in Saint-Étienne on suspicion of planning knife attacks against women. He was charged by the national anti-terrorism prosecutor, marking the first case involving someone claiming allegiance solely to the masculinist “incel” movement.

The council described that judicial decision as “a major step forward”, and said it now supports integrating what it calls “misogynist terrorism” into security doctrines.

This would involve training intelligence agents to recognise the language, recruitment methods and narratives used within the so-called manosphere.

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

Online influence

“If masculinist language is not understood, it gets missed,” Couillard said. She cited the British series Adolescence as an example of why familiarity with these terms matters.

The Netflix series, released in March 2025, depicts the murder of a schoolgirl by a classmate and the influence of masculinist ideas on boys. In January, French Education Minister Elisabeth Borne announced that it will be shown in French schools.

The gender equality watchdog said such masculinist ideologies were spreading more widely in France and elsewhere, especially among young people through social media.

It called for stronger regulation and more resources for Pharos, the state platform for reporting illegal online content, and Arcom, the media regulator.

A 2024 study by Dublin City University found that young men are exposed to masculinist content within 23 minutes of browsing TikTok and YouTube, on average, regardless of whether they looked for this material.

France to show ‘Adolescence’ mini-series as part of school curriculum

Hostile vs. paternalistic sexism

The council’s report is based on an online survey by polling company Toluna Harris Interactive of 3,061 people aged 15 and over, representative of the French population.

It found that 60 percent of men believe feminists are seeking to give women more power than men.

A quarter of men said it was normal for a woman to agree to sex to please a partner or out of duty. The same proportion said they had already doubted a partner’s consent.

From these findings, the council estimated that 17 percent of the French population adheres to “hostile” sexism, which devalues women and justifies discrimination and violence.

“The risk is that these people join and become members of masculinist networks,” said Couillard.

In addition, some 23 percent of those surveyed supported a more “paternalistic” form of sexism which promotes traditional gender roles, the council said. Often seen as benevolent by its proponents, it nonetheless contributes to inequality by confining women to stereotypical roles based on fragility or dependence.

“Are you young, healthy and between the ages of 18 and 40? Sign a contract with the Russian Federal Army. The reward: a signing bonus of between $8,000 and $30,000, and a salary of nearly $3,000 [€2,500] per month.”

The advertisement is accompanied by an image of a soldier in action, in a dark and dramatic setting, wearing a modern uniform, tactical vest and helmet and carrying a sophisticated combat rifle.

Messages like these, aimed at potential recruits in the Middle East, can be seen regularly on Telegram groups, accompanied by telephone numbers with the Russian country code (+7).

One of these groups is named Sadiq Rossia – “friend of Russia” in Arabic.

Recruits are promised a Russian passport, which means they would no longer be a foreign fighter, but a newly naturalised Russian citizen.

Opaque channels

A monthly salary of $3,000 is a considerable sum for young people in Iraq, where the average salary is barely more than $500 (€420).

But since for some this is not a sufficient incentive, recruiters have begun adapting their methods, with Iraqi travel agencies serving as a cover, offering student visas or “civilian” work contracts in Russia.

Ukraine war videos raise questions over Russia’s recruitment of Africans

In June 2025, Firas (not his real name) was persuaded by the opportunity of a one-year contract as a lorry driver, with a £2,000 (€2,200) monthly salary.

“They never told me clearly that I was going to fight in Russia. Two friends and I were offered very attractive salaries,” he told RFI.

Upon arriving in Moscow, he claims to have been grouped together with other Iraqis, as well as Syrians, Lebanese and nationals from various African countries.

‘You serve or you die’

“From Moscow, we got on a bus and travelled for nearly 18 hours,” recalls Firas, who was then deployed to the region of Donbas.

“We were in the middle of the forest, our phones were confiscated, and we were presented with a fait accompli. We had become members of the Russian army. They tell you, ‘you serve or you die’. If you refuse to serve, you are executed. To them, we were just cannon fodder.”

In October 2025, a Ukrainian drone strike hit his batallion’s position, killing one of his Iraqi friends. Firas was wounded by shrapnel to the back of the head. Declared unfit for service, he returned to Iraq at his own expense.

‘We come here to die’: African recruits sent to fight Russia’s war in Ukraine

Officially, Iraq has chosen neutrality in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

But the country is recovering from two decades of internal conflict and powerful Shia militias coexist with the government. Created in 2014 to fight the Islamic State group, these militias have since been integrated into the Iraqi forces. Their political influence is considerable and some are known to have close ties to Moscow.

“These militias are not loyal to Iraq. They have pledged allegiance to Iran and gravitate towards Tehran’s allies, and therefore Russia’s. We also know that one of these militias, Al-Nujaba, is close to Moscow,” explains Mohaned Al Janabi, professor of political science in Iraq.

The leader of the Al-Nujaba militia, Akram al-Kaabi, was recently hosted at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This militia fought alongside the Russians in Syria and had links with mercenaries from the Wagner Group.

The researcher estimates that around 1,500 Iraqis have been deployed to Russia.

He also claims that Ukraine is recruiting young people in Iraq through its own channels. In response, authorities in Baghdad have set up a commission of inquiry to shed light on these recruitment practices, which mainly target young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

This article was adapted from the original version in French by Sami Boukhelifa.

Winter is storm season in Labenne, a seaside resort on France’s southern Atlantic coast.

On the beach, a World War II bunker is half buried by the dunes. The lifeguard station will soon be overtaken too; the town council has had to build another one, farther from the beach. 

“We’re well aware that even the beach car park is doomed to disappear,” says Stéphanie Chessoux, Labenne’s mayor.

“Like businesses, we will have to take this natural progression into account. The elements are reclaiming their rights.”

Surrendered to sea and sand

This part of France loses around two metres of coast a year to erosion.

In Labenne, more and more land has turned into sand dunes. They surround the site of the town’s former sanatorium, where tuberculosis patients once came to breathe the sea air.

Constructed in the 1920s, the concrete building contained asbestos, presenting health risks as it fell into disrepair. Local authorities had it demolished last October.

“The ocean has advanced, but the building also deteriorated due to its proximity to the ocean, sand and salty air, which wore down everything made of metal inside the concrete,” explains Laure Guilhem-Tauzin of the Coastal Protection Agency, where she focuses on the Aquitaine region.

By knocking the structure down, “the idea was first and foremost to give nature back its rights and prevent marine pollution in the medium term”, she says.

“And also to prevent an investor who underestimated the costs of investment and depreciation from redeveloping the building, which would have had to be demolished 15 or 20 years later.”

French towns left uninsured as climate change increases risks

Nature-based solutions

Now, the 12,000-square-metre site is being turned over to a project to plant vegetation that can help stabilise the sand.

The area will be planted with species adapted to growing on dunes, says Guilhem-Tauzin. “It traps sand and holds the dunes in place. When there are storms, it stops the sand going inland.”

The project is an example of “nature-based solutions”, she explains, which are often the most effective. “A floodable marsh protects a green space behind the coast better than a sea wall, which can break in one go.”

Across France, as many as 50,000 buildings could be threatened by shrinking coastlines by 2100.

In the long term, some experts say the country will have to consider more radical options, such as managed retreat – moving communities away from the coast and allowing the sea to reclaim low-lying land.

This article was adapted from the original in French by RFI’s Raphaël Morán.

French lawmakers have taken a decisive step towards reshaping children’s digital lives, approving a bill that would ban under-15s from using social media and restrict mobile phone use in high schools.

Championed by President Emmanuel Macron, the measure is framed as a way to shield young people from excessive screen time and its potential impact on mental health.

The lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, adopted the bill by a comfortable margin of 130 votes to 21 after a lengthy overnight session running from Monday into Tuesday.

The legislation now heads to the Senate, where it must be approved before becoming law.

Macron welcomed the vote enthusiastically, calling it a “major step” to protect children and teenagers in a post on X.

“We do not want an anxious generation but a generation that believes in France, the Republic, and its values,” he added.

In a video broadcast over the weekend, he struck a firm tone, saying the emotions of young people should not be “for sale or manipulated, either by American platforms or Chinese algorithms”.

Macron pushes fast-track ban on social media for under-15s ahead of MPs debate

Push to curb screen time

If passed in its current form, the legislation would make France only the second country to impose such a sweeping age-based restriction on social media, following Australia’s decision in December to ban under-16s from major platforms.

Supporters argue the move reflects growing concern worldwide that heavy social media use is harming child development and contributing to rising anxiety and depression among adolescents.

Authorities hope the new rules will begin to apply from the start of the 2026 school year, initially covering new accounts.

Gabriel Attal, the former prime minister who now leads Macron’s Renaissance party in the National Assembly, said he was aiming for Senate approval by mid-February so the ban could come into force on 1 September.

Platforms would then have until the end of the year to deactivate existing accounts that fail to meet the age requirement.

Attal presented the bill as both a public health measure and a matter of national independence. Beyond addressing the mental health effects of screens, he argued it would help counter “a number of powers that, through social media platforms, want to colonise minds”.

France, he said, could become a European pioneer, improving family life and even shaping the country’s future autonomy.

EU countries push for stricter rules to keep children off social media

Health concerns and political resistance

Concerns about the impact of social media were echoed this month by France’s public health watchdog, ANSES.

It warned that platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram can have several detrimental effects on adolescents, particularly girls, even if they are not the sole cause of declining mental health.

Risks highlighted include cyberbullying and exposure to violent or disturbing content.

The bill itself states clearly that access to online social networking services would be prohibited for children under 15.

Online encyclopaedias and educational platforms are excluded, underlining the government’s effort to draw a line between learning tools and social media feeds.

A robust age verification system would be essential for the ban to work, and officials say work on such technology is already under way at European level.

However, not everyone is convinced. Arnaud Saint-Martin of the hard-left France Unbowed party criticised the proposal as a form of digital paternalism, calling it an overly simplistic answer to complex technological problems.

Nine child protection associations also urged lawmakers to focus on holding platforms accountable, rather than banning children outright.

The social media ban is part of a broader push by Macron to limit phone use in schools. France already banned mobile phones in lower secondary schools in 2018, and the new bill extends the principle to high schools.

Former prime minister Elisabeth Borne, however, urged caution, saying enforcement remains a challenge even under existing rules.

(With newswires)

European Council president Antonio Costa and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen arrived on Sunday to take part in Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi on Monday.

On Tuesday, the delegations put the finishing touches to the arrangement during an EU-India summit, before signing the accord.

The EU had been working on a trade agreement with New Delhi for over a decade before US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs pushed India and the 27-nation EU to expedite their efforts last year.

Posting on social media, Von der Leyen dubbed the partnership “the mother of all deals”.

As the world’s most populous nation, India is on track to become its fourth-largest economy this year, according to International Monetary Fund projections.

The EU regards India as a key market, while New Delhi sees the European bloc as an important source of much-needed technology and investment to rapidly upscale its infrastructure and create millions of jobs.

“The EU stands to gain the highest level of access ever granted to a trade partner in the traditionally protected Indian market,” von der Leyen said.

“We will gain a significant competitive advantage in key industrial and agri-good sectors.” she added.

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

Bilateral trade in goods reached €120 billion in 2024, an increase of nearly 90 percent over the past decade, according to EU figures, with a further €60 billion in trade in services.

The pact is seen as a significant win for Brussels and India as both attempt to open up new markets in the face of US tariffs and Chinese export controls.

In September, during a meeting in Brussels to highlight a new strategy to bolster EU-India ties, EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic stressed that it was important for the bloc to strengthen its links with different countries. “Otherwise this void will be filled by China and other actors,” he added.

Last Wednesday, in the wake of statements made during the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, said: “The EU and India are moving closer together at the time when the rules-based international order is under unprecedented pressure through wars, coercion and economic fragmentation.” 

India, which has relied on Moscow for key military hardware for decades, has tried to cut its dependence on Russia in recent years by diversifying imports and pushing its own domestic manufacturing base.

Europe is trying to do the same with regard to the United States.

(with newswires)

Ministers from EU countries approved the law at a meeting in Brussels on Monday, although Slovakia and Hungary voted against and Bulgaria abstained.

Hungary said it would challenge the law at the European Court of Justice.

The ban was designed to be approved by a reinforced majority of countries, allowing it to overcome opposition from Hungary and Slovakia, who remain heavily reliant on Russian energy imports and want to maintain close ties with Moscow.

Under the agreement, the EU will halt Russian liquefied natural gas imports by end-2026 and pipeline gas by 30 September, 2027.

The law allows that deadline to shift to 1 November, 2027, at the latest, if a country is struggling to fill its storage caverns with non-Russian gas ahead of winter.

Russia supplied more than 40 percent of the EU’s gas before 2022. That share dropped to around 13 percent in 2025, according to the latest available EU data.

But some EU countries continue to pay Moscow for oil, pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas, contradicting their efforts to support Ukraine and restrict funding to Russia’s wartime economy.

EU backs plan to drop Russian gas by 2027 as reliance continues to fall

Law bans new gas deals  

Last month, the five biggest EU importers spent €1.4 billion on Russian energy, mostly on gas and LNG, data from the non-profit Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air showed. Hungary was the biggest buyer, before France and Belgium.

The EU imposed sanctions on Russian seaborne oil in 2022, but never proposed sanctions on gas imports, which would require unanimous approval from all 27 EU countries.

The EU law prohibits companies from signing new Russian gas deals and will require those with existing contracts to terminate them to comply with the ban.

For existing contracts, imports under short-term deals signed before 17 June 2025, will be banned on 25 April 2026, for Liquefied natural gas (LNG) and 17 June for pipeline gas. Long-term contracts must be phased out by the final deadlines.

Companies could face financial penalties of up to 3.5 percent of total global annual turnover for failure to comply.

The European Commission plans to also propose legislation in the coming months to phase out Russian pipeline oil, and wean countries off Russian nuclear fuel.

Ukraine’s Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal welcomed the EU’s 2027 ban on Russian gas imports, saying in a statement on Monday that independence from Russian energy “is, above all, about a safe and strong Europe.”

Wind power commitment  

Meanwhile, also on Monday, Germany, France, the UK and Denmark were among nine countries which signed an agreement pledging to turn the North Sea into the “world’s largest clean energy reservoir”.

The EU’s Commissioner for Energy and Housing, Dan Jorgensen, said that the agreement was a “very clear signal to Russia”.

“No more will we let you blackmail member states of the European Union and no more will we help indirectly fund the war in Ukraine,” Jorgensen said.

Signed at the third North Sea summit in Hamburg, it pledges to deliver 100 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power capacity through large-scale joint projects. That would be enough to power roughly 100 million homes.

The commitment to boost cross-border collaboration is part of a goal agreed by North Sea countries in 2023 to have 300 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2050.

In response to recent comments from US President Donald Trump branding wind farms “losers”, British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said that “offshore wind is for winners”.

Wind farms are “absolutely critical for our energy security” to provide “homegrown, clean energy that we control”, he said, adding that this energy is not under “the control of the dictators and the petro-states”.

 (with newswires)

One year after the attack by the AFC-M23 group and its Rwandan allies, no one can say for certain how many people were killed.

Humanitarian groups say several hundred people died in the fighting. The Congolese Red Cross and the ICRC alone buried more than 900 bodies following the clashes. 

Furaha lost several family members on 27 and 28 January 2025. 

“The soldiers were firing randomly into houses that weren’t locked,” she tells RFI. “They came into my plot and shot my husband. A young neighbour and my son tried to help us, they were hit.”

Both her husband and the young neighbour were killed. “My husband left me with nine children. It’s hard to feed them and send them to school now.”

Furaha’s house was destroyed in the fighting and she’s calling for compensation.

So is Tumusifu, another bereaved mother. She’s praying for peace to return.

“You can ask God to help us,” she says in a tired voice. “So that the war does not happen again. We saw very grave things.”

While families mourn their dead, others, like Rachel, are struggling with painful wounds.

She heard the fighting very close by and hid under her bed. But an explosive device fell on her house, leaving her with shrapnel in her body.

“Half of the fragments were removed and the rest remained. I can’t walk long distances for now,” she says.

Living without banks

Those who escaped injury have had to adapt their daily routine.

After the city fell to the rebels, the Congolese authorities suspended activities of the provincial branch of the Central Bank of Congo, effectively cutting Goma off from the banking system. All commercial banks closed and cash machines stopped working.

The economy, however, didn’t ground to a halt and over the following months Goma’s residents organised ways to cope with the cash shortage, at a price.

The quickest way to get money is via mobile money transfers, which have surged. But to withdraw cash, people have to go through informal exchange agents who take a fee on each transaction – up to 8 percent in April 2025. 

Under pressure, the M23 ordered fees to be cut. They’ve gone down to 3 or 4 percent, though that’s still high, especially for civil servants who are now paid by phone.

To justify the high rates, agents cite “transport costs” involved in getting hold of dollars.

Some now have to travel to cities outside rebel control, such as Beni or Butembo, or send money there through intermediaries who carry it back.

Others cross the border to Gisenyi in Rwanda, where banking fees are high. Larger traders face the same problem when trying to access their accounts or receive payments.

‘Business is good’

In April, the M23 tried to relaunch the local branch of the Caisse générale du Congo (CADECO). The initiative has had little success – Kinshasa has declared it illegal and it faces cash shortages too.

Trade with the border city of Gisenyi has, however, surged. From 6am, when the Petite Barrière crossing opens, hundreds of small traders crowd the border. There’s a constant flow of goods – fruit, cereals, vegetables, meat and manufactured products.

Traders use motorbikes or bicycles known as “handicaps” to move goods across.

“Business is good,” says Evon Kasereka, who imports flasks and plastic buckets from Rwanda. “When our goods reach the border, the bicycle owners collect them. They pay the taxes and bring them across. I can move up to 20 boxes a month.”

Thousands without lifesaving aid in DRC, says UN agency

According to Déo Bengeya Machozi of Goma’s business school (ISC), trade volumes have risen by more than 30 percent due to smoother crossings and fewer obstacles, with imports from Rwanda increasing the most.

Ten days after taking Goma, the AFC-M23 movement began setting up a parallel administration. Over the weeks, it appointed a “governor of North Kivu“, organised tests to select judges and spoke of issuing visas. In August 2025, it announced the creation of the “Congolese Revolutionary Police” force.

A report by the UN Group of Experts on DR Congo found that the force includes members of the Rwandan Defence Forces and has carried out operations involving “arbitrary detention and the forced recruitment of boys and men”. UN experts said they’d spoken to “witnesses of acts of torture and inhuman treatment”.

Ongoing struggle

Some of those who fled Goma are struggling elsewhere. Christian, who fled the rebel advance in January 2025, reached Tanganyika province and now shares a tent with relatives in a displacement camp near the capital Kalemie.

“I’ve been here since February,” he says. “I received help from the World Food Programme (WFP) and then UNHCR when I arrived, but since then we’ve had no assistance. Health conditions are poor. We have no drinking water, our children are anaemic, we have no mosquito nets so we catch malaria. We’ve lived like this for almost a year.”

When a new wave of displaced people arriving recently, he says they “tried to share what little we have, but we almost have nothing”.

Who are the armed groups ravaging the eastern DRCongo?

A man called Espoir (meaning hope) left Goma after the city fell. After hiding for a few days, he got out disguised as a trader and crossed the country in fear to reach Kinshasa  – more than 2,600km away.

Now living with a host family, he appeals to the authorities.

“There’s no question of going back to Goma now. The fact the airport is closed makes travelling difficult. Many people from Goma living in Kinshasa used to travel back and forth to see family. How do they do that now the airport is closed?

“This war has affected family ties and the economy. Many families are separated against their will. That’s why we are calling for the war to end as soon as possible so people can start moving around normally again.”

This article, based on the original in French, has been lightly edited for clarity.

The two men, who were broadcasting live videos from the French coast, were arrested near the northern town of Calais on Sunday evening, Francois-Xavier Lauch, prefect of Pas-de-Calais told French news agency AFP.

They were placed in police custody for inciting hatred and participating in a group with the aim of preparing acts of violence, based on comments made on social media, said Boulogne-sur-Mer prosecutor Cecile Gressier.

These are the first arrests of British far-right activists in France on these grounds, she said, adding that they are not accused of violence against individuals.

They were not among the ten far-right activists banned from French territory since mid-January by the interior ministry on charges of “violent actions” against migrants in northern France.

Surge in Channel crossings puts UK-France migrant deal under pressure

Aged 35 and 53, the men were broadcasting content likely to incite hatred live on a YouTube channel, according to police sources.

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

‘Overlord’

French officials have announced a ban on an anti-migrant rally called “Overlord” launched by British far-right activist Daniel Thomas.

Thomas had called on social media for rallies on Saturday in the port of Dover in southeastern England and on the northern coast of France, which he said were necessary, claiming French authorities are unable to prevent illegal crossings.

Despite the ban, Thomas published photos and videos on Saturday that he said were taken that day on French beaches.

France bans 10 British ‘far-right activists’ over anti-migrant actions

He appears surrounded by a dozen other men, all dressed in dark clothing and waving British flags.

Thomas, who claims to be subject to a French travel ban himself, has not been arrested according to the prefecture.

According to the French authorities, Thomas leads a “very radical” branch of the “Raise the Colours” movement, which was formed following a split after the French entry ban.

The main Raise the Colours account on X said on Saturday it had nothing to do with the operation led by Thomas.

(with AFP)

Josso, 50, went to Guerriau’s home on 14 November 2023 to celebrate his re-election as senator for their Loire-Atlantique constituency.

The MP told investigators that the meeting was initially planned to take place at a restaurant and she said she was surprised to be the only guest when she arrived shortly after 8pm.

She said while waiting in the living room for her host to prepare two glasses of champagne in the kitchen, she saw him handling a bag of white powder.

The unusual taste of the champagne as well as Guerriau’s desire to toast repeatedly and his eagerness to play with the light made her suspicious.

French government called on to do more against use of ‘date rape’ drugs

She said Guerriau offered to perform a magic trick which she described to the police as “very evocative” of sexual penetration.

Josso left the apartment at around 10pm and took a taxi to the National Assembly where she alerted colleagues that she may have been drugged.

MDMA seized at home

Toxicological tests carried out during the night revealed the presence of MDMA, an ecstasy derivative, in Josso’s blood at a level of 388 ng/mL – twice the dose considered “recreational”.

A search carried out the following day at Guerriau’s home led to the seizure of a 30g bag of MDMA, €680 in cash and computer equipment.

Technical analysis showed that the senator had deleted an unanswered message from Josso from his phone, in which she asked him what was planned for the evening in question.

Numerous text messages exchanged with another woman, who revealed to the police that she was Guerriau’s mistress, were also deleted.

Senior French civil servant accused of mass drinks spiking to humiliate women

Analysis of the suspect’s phone and computer also revealed that he had visited several pornographic and prostitution websites.

Guerriau, a senator since 2011, denied any sexual assault plot in a first formal questioning.

The father-of-five stepped back from parliamentary work after the incident came to light. He resigned from the Senate in September 2025.

If found guilty, he faces up to five years in jail for trying to spike Josso’s drinks and sexually assaulting her as well as a fine of €75,000.

He could be handed a one-year prison term and a €3,750 fine for possessing the drugs.

At the end of the initial trial, in November and December 2024, the seven men and one woman who appeared in court were found guilty and sentenced to between one and 16 years in prison.

Samuel Paty’s killer, Abdoullakh Anzorov, was shot dead by police immediately after the killing on 16 October, 2020 outside the Bois-d’Aulne secondary school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, west of Paris, where Paty taught history and geography.

Four of the eight have appealed their convictions: two friends of Anzorov, Naïm Boudaoud and Azim Epsirkhanov, sentenced to 16 years for complicity in murder; and Brahim Chnina and Islamist preacher Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who were sentenced to 13 and 15 years respectively for criminal association with a terrorist group.

Their cases will be heard before the special court of appeals in Paris, until 27 February.

The four individuals who did not appeal belonged to the so-called “jihadosphere” and were in contact with Anzorov on social media.

Sharing a lie

The events that unfolded began with a lie told by a 13-year-old pupil, the daughter of Chnina, who accused Paty of discriminating against Muslim students in his class during a lesson on freedom of expression in which he had shown a satirical cartoon of the prophet Muhammad.

In reality, she had not attended the class, but her lie was widely shared on social media by her father and Sefrioui.

After several days of a virulent campaign targeting the 47-year-old teacher, he was stabbed and beheaded by Anzorov, a radical Chechen Islamist.

In their initial verdict, judges admitted that Chnina and Sefrioui did not know the murderer.

French court issues severe sentences to those linked to beheading of teacher Samuel Paty

However, according to the judges: “The two defendants knowingly took the risk, despite the danger and threats to Samuel Paty, that a violent and radicalised third party, who became their armed wing, would deliberately harm him physically.”

They added that they “contributed to creating a state of mind conducive to inciting the crime” by “stoking the anger and hatred of a radicalised mind”.

At the appeal trial, Chnina’s lawyers, Franck Berton and Louise Tort, want their client’s role to be “put into perspective”, saying “he never participated in any terrorist activity”.

Vincent Brengarth, one of Sefrioui’s lawyers, said it was his client’s “last chance”.

“We do not understand why the court of first instance did not draw conclusions from the factual reality of this case, namely that Mr Sefrioui did not know Anzorov and that there is nothing linking him, directly or indirectly, to the latter’s crime,” he said.

‘Popular and media pressure’

The lawyers requested that Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez and former justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti be summoned as witnesses to hear their testimony “on the failures that led to the assassination”.

For Thibault de Montbrial and Pauline Ragot, lawyers for Mickaëlle Paty – one of the victim’s sisters – even if there were failures, “it is difficult to see how they would diminish the criminal responsibility of their client”.

As for the two individuals convicted of complicity in terrorist murder, the trial judges found that they were “perfectly” aware of their friend’s dangerous nature, yet had nevertheless helped him, particularly in his search for weapons.

‘Shock still raw’, French teachers fearful, five years after Samuel Paty killing

For Hiba Rizkallah and Martin Méchin, lawyers for Naïm Boudaoud, he “was convicted on the basis of fragile and hazardous interpretations, without any evidence of criminal intent”.

They have called on the court of appeal not to “give in to emotion or to popular and media pressure”.

Paty’s family hopes that the original verdict will be confirmed and “that the facts will be recognised and that each step in the chain of events will be judged,” said Virginie Le Roy, lawyer for the parents and another sister of Paty.

(with AFP)

In a video released late on Saturday by French broadcaster BFM-TV, President Macron said he had asked his government to use an accelerated parliamentary procedure so the bill can be passed in time for the start of the next school year.

The legislation is due to be examined in the French National Assembly on Monday afternoon, with the Senate expected to follow soon after.

“The brains of our children and our teenagers are not for sale,” Macron said in the clip, which was addressed to MP Laure Miller, the bill’s sponsor.

“The emotions of our children and our teenagers are not for sale or to be manipulated. Neither by American platforms, nor by Chinese algorithms.”

France pushes new law to ban social media for children under 15

Protecting young minds

It was a characteristically punchy intervention, and one that places Macron firmly at the centre of a growing international debate about children’s mental health, screen time and the power of tech platforms.

His comments came just days after the British government said it was considering stricter limits on social media use by young teenagers, adding momentum to the idea that Europe may be heading towards tougher age rules.

In France, the concern is backed by stark statistics. According to the country’s health watchdog, Anses, around one in two teenagers spends between two and five hours a day on a smartphone.

Roughly 90 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds use smartphones daily to access the internet, and nearly six in ten use them primarily for social networks.

A report published in December warned of reduced self-esteem, sleep disruption and greater exposure to risky content, including material linked to self-harm, drug use and suicide.

Several families have taken legal action against TikTok, alleging that harmful content contributed to teenage suicides.

Macron mulls social media ban as mother challenges platforms over son’s suicide

Political backing, legal hurdles

The bill now before parliament would make France one of the toughest European countries on youth access to social media.

It targets platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, which have become deeply embedded in teenage life.

Beyond banning social media for under-15s, the proposal would also extend existing restrictions on mobile phone use in secondary schools and colleges from the 2026 school year.

While the government had initially planned to introduce its own bill, it has thrown its weight behind Laure Miller’s text, following months of parallel work.

Ministers for digital affairs and health have even visited addiction treatment units together with the MP, underlining a rare show of unity.

The debate is not without friction. On the left, MPs from the hard-left France Unbowed have criticised what they call “digital paternalism”, while some Greens have warned against overly simplistic solutions.

Yet the ban enjoys broad cross-party backing, including support from the far-right National Rally and the centre-right Republicans.

A key challenge is legal: ensuring the French law complies with EU rules, notably the Digital Services Act, after a previous attempt to set a “digital majority” at 15 stalled in 2023.

The current draft has been repeatedly rewritten to avoid directly imposing obligations on platforms, instead relying on age verification and clear prohibitions, with exemptions for educational and reference sites.

For Macron, however, the direction of travel is clear. “We are banning social media for under-15s, and we are going to ban mobile phones in our high schools,” he said. “It’s a clear rule – for teenagers, for families and for teachers.” 

(With newswires)

Lieutenant General John Brennan of US Africa Command said the US was intensifying its partnership with Nigeria and maintaining limited engagement on security with junta-led governments in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, as part of a broader push to work more closely with African militaries. 

“We’ve gotten a lot more aggressive and are working with partners to target, kinetically, the threats, mainly ISIS [Islamic State],” Brennan told France’s AFP during an interview on the sidelines of an inaugural US-Nigeria security meeting in Abuja last Thursday.

The first US-Nigeria Joint Working Group meeting took place about a month after the US announced surprise Christmas Day strikes on Islamic State-linked targets in northwest Nigeria.

Brennan said the jihadist threat was interconnected, stretching from the Horn of Africa to West Africa.

“From Somalia to Nigeria, the problem set is connected,” he noted. The aim was therefore to disrupt those networks and “provide partners with the information they need”.

The deeper cooperation follows months of diplomatic pressure from Washington over escalating jihadist violence in Nigeria, particularly in the north and north-west.

Diplomatic tensions over religion

However there are ongoing ensions between the United States and Nigeria over Washington’s claims that Christians are being massacred in Nigeria – a narrative promoted by parts of the US religious right.

Abuja and independent analysts say that’s an oversimplification of the country’s complex conflicts.

At the Abuja meeting, senior US diplomat Allison Hooker urged Nigeria to protect Christian communities in a speech that made no mention of Muslim victims of armed groups.

US launches air strikes against Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria

Nigeria is roughly evenly split between a mostly Muslim north and a largely Christian south. 

Brennan sought to play down concerns of religious bias, underlining that US intelligence support would not be limited to any single group.

Future assistance, he said, would focus on intelligence sharing to support Nigerian air strikes in northwest Sokoto state and in the northeast – where Boko Haram and its splinter faction Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have been carrying out an insurgency since 2009.

He described ISWAP as the most concerning jihadist organisation.

Limits on US presence

Analysts have identified an increase in US intelligence, surveillance, and reconnsaissance flights over Nigeria in recent months. Some have questioned whether air power alone can singificantly weaken armed groups operating in areas marked by poverty and weak governance.

Brennan said cooperation with Nigeria would cover intelligence sharing, military tactics and support for procuring equipment.

He said the recent US strikes targeted militants linked to ISWAP – a group traditionally active in Niger but which appears to be pushing southwards in Nigeria and other coastal West African countries.

The full impact of those strikes remains unclear as journalists have been unable to independently verify casualties. Nigeria’s information minister, Mohammed Idris, described the operation last week as “still a work in progress”.

Nigerians push back on Trump’s military threat over Christian killings

Brennan said the US continues to share information with the militaries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, despite the collapse of formal security partnerships since coups between 2020 and 2023. 

He also ruled out setting up new US military bases in West Africa, following the closure of American drone operations in Agadez, Niger, after the ruling junta ordered US forces to leave.

“We’re not in the market to create a drone base anywhere,” Brennan said. “We are much more focused on getting capability to the right place at the right time and then leaving.”

(with newswires)

“No country opposed Morocco as Senegal did,” said Fall said in a video posted on the Senegalese website Seneweb.

Fall claimed Moroccan administrators were well-placed in the corridors of power at the Confederation of African Football (Caf) which organises the game on the continent.

“Let’s tell the truth,” said Fall, who was speaking at a ceremony in the town of Bambey on Saturday.

Referee, hotel and security issues

“We had to know who the referee for the match would be two days before the final,” he added.

“We asked them who it would be and they told us they didn’t have any information yet. There are deadlines for potentially challenging a referee but it was the night before the match, at 10pm, that we were notified about the referee,” Fall said.

Fall also recounted Senegalese complaints about the team’s arrival for the final in Rabat as well as problems with their hotel and training facilities.

“The Senegalese team could not stay in this hotel, which was in the city centre, very noisy and without access roads,” he added.

Senegal head coach Pape Thiaw led his players off the field after Morocco were awarded a stoppage- time penalty. 

Senegal’s top politicians welcome home triumphant Africa Cup of Nations squad

They were furious with referee Jean-Jacques Ndala for ruling out Ismaila Sarr’s goal minutes earlier without checking with the video assistant referees (VAR) and then awarding the penalty for a foul on the Morocco striker Brahim Diaz after consulting the VAR.

The Senegalese returned to the field after a 15-minute delay to witness Diaz fluff the chance to claim the crown.

During the early minutes of extra-time, Pape Gueye hit the winner to furnish Senegal with their second Cup of Nations crown in four years.

After the final, Caf announced that it would launch an inquiry into the incidents leading up to the protest. World football’s governing body, Fifa, has also said it wants a report into the incident.

Senegal’s players and squad returned home to a huge reception on Tuesday. Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko led the welcome delegation in the capital Dakar.

Legal action

Moroccan football federation bosses said in a statement last Monday that they would take legal action to ensure Caf, which organises the Cup of Nations, rules on the protest.

They said their lawyers would also urge world football’s governing body Fifa to look into the Senegalese action.

“This situation had a significant impact on the normal course of the match and on the players’ performance,” the Moroccan federation’s statement added.

Caf said it was reviewing video footage of the incidents before and after the penalty was awarded.

 “Caf condemns the unacceptable behaviour from some players and officials during the Cup of Nations final.

“We will refer the matter to competent bodies for appropriate action to be taken against those found guilty.”

Morocco and Senegal will be in action at the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Morocco will play in Group C against Brazil, Scotland and Haiti.

Senegal will feature in Group I with France, Norway and a team that emerges from the intercontinental play-off in March.

(With newswires)

Arriving at the port of Brest, the dishevelled and dazed 57-year-old skipper Thomas Coville said he found the result “almost hard to believe”.

Setting sail on 15 December off the coast of Ouessant, Coville and his six crew members beat the Jules Verne Trophy record, created in 1993 in reference to the famous novel Around the World in 80 Days and its hero Phileas Fogg, by 12 hours and 44 minutes.

Hundreds of people gathered to watch them come ashore early Sunday morning.

Among the crowd were many relatives of the sailors, as well as some famous names from the world of sailing: Titouan Lamazou, Olivier de Kersauson, Armel Le Cléac’h and others.

“With the sea conditions over the last few days, it was horrible, incredibly stressful (…) You had to have nerves of steel,” said de Kersauson, who took Coville on board as a ship’s boy in 1997 on his first Jules Verne Trophy attempt.

On social media platform X, French President Emmanuel Macron described the feat achieved by the Sodebo crew as an “exceptional achievement”.

France’s Violette Dorange, 23, becomes youngest sailor to complete Vendée Globe

Their boat covered 52,440 kilometres at an average speed of 29.17 knots (54 km/h). Coville, Benjamin Schwartz, Léonard Legrand, Frédéric Denis, Pierre Leboucher, Guillaume Pirouelle and Nicolas Troussel are the tenth holders of one of the most challenging offshore sailing titles.

“I knew that these six boys had the potential to be the best sailors in the world. They understood that out there. By rounding Cape Horn,” Coville told French news agency AFP. 

It took him four attempts to succeed Francis Joyon, who in 2017, aboard Idec Sport, set a stratospheric time of 40 days and 23 hours, which many sailors have struggled to beat.

Strength in tenacity

“We have finally achieved the goal we have been dreaming of for so many years. This is the first time a flying boat has circumnavigated the globe non-stop, and to do it in 40 days is absolutely incredible,” said Coville.

Despite a flying start to the round-the-world trip, marked by a record-breaking time for the passage between Ushant and the Cape of Good Hope in 10 days and 23 hours, the suspense lasted until the very end as the crew faced storm Ingrid with winds of 100 kilometres and hour.

For Coville, this is “the culmination of a career”, a goal he’s been chasing for years.

“The joy of crossing the finish line is quite fleeting. It’s not the deepest feeling. The real joy comes when you’re reunited with everyone, when you feel that it’s all been fully achieved,” he said.

French sailor Charlie Dalin wins Vendée Globe yacht race in record time

An experienced sailor, he won his third Jules Verne Trophy after helping to conquer it as a crew member for De Kersauson and then Franck Cammas in 2010.

Coville has made several attempts to win the prize in recent years, but these have been abandoned each time due to damage, the last two in December 2024 and January 2025.

“My strength is my tenacity. I don’t give up. I’m used to seeing things through to the end. Today, I feel like it proved me right,” Colville said.

With this victory, he completes his tenth round-the-world voyage, undoubtedly one of his finest after his historic solo record at the end of 2016 (49 days and 3 hours), since beaten by François Gabart.

(with AFP)

The 249-metre tanker was escorted to the Gulf of Fos, near the oil terminal at the port of Marseille-Fos, where its 58-year-old Indian captain was taken into custody on Saturday evening.

The move came three days after an operation in which French marine commandos were airlifted onto the ship in international waters.

Judicial authorities in Marseille have now taken charge of the case, opening a preliminary inquiry into suspected flagging offences.

Investigators from the Toulon maritime gendarmerie’s research section, working alongside the Marseille ship safety centre, are carrying out checks on board the vessel, particularly focusing on navigation documents and the “validity of the flag”, according to the public prosecutor’s office.

The rest of the crew – also Indian nationals – are being kept on board while the inspections continue.

The Grinch is anchored around 500 metres from the shore near the town of Martigues, under close watch by a French Navy vessel and two gendarmerie patrol boats.

Russian ‘shadow fleet’ ship detained by French navy resumes voyage

Exclusion zones

Maritime authorities have imposed both nautical and aerial exclusion zones to ensure the safety and security of the investigation.

The tanker was intercepted on Thursday morning in the Alboran Sea – between Spain and North Africa – during an operation carried out “with the assistance of several of our allies”, including the United Kingdom, French President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X.

Footage released by the French Navy shows marine commandos rappelling from a helicopter onto the deck and swiftly taking control of the bridge, loudly identifying themselves as French forces.

The Grinch is suspected of belonging to Russia’s so-called “ghost fleet”, a network of ageing tankers used to export oil while skirting sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine.

Under its current name, the vessel appears on the United Kingdom’s list of sanctioned ghost fleet ships.

On sanctions lists compiled by the European Union and the United States, however, it is listed under the name Carl – a reflection of the frequent renaming and reflagging used to obscure ownership and movements.

Dark vessels: how Russia steers clear of Western sanctions with a shadow fleet

Broader push

This is the second such operation carried out by France in recent weeks. At the end of September, French forces intercepted the tanker Boracay in the Atlantic and diverted it to the port of Saint-Nazaire.

That vessel was also on the European Union’s sanctions list.

As part of the Boracay investigation, both the captain and first mate were taken into custody, though prosecutors later decided to pursue charges only against the Chinese captain.

He is due to appear before a court in Britanny on 23 February on charges of refusal to comply.

Following that case, Macron said France wanted to “increase pressure on the ghost fleet because it clearly reduces Russia’s ability to finance its war effort” in Ukraine.

The boarding of the Grinch suggests that strategy is now being enforced more visibly at sea.

According to European Union figures, some 598 vessels suspected of being part of the ghost fleet are currently subject to EU sanctions, with international maritime cooperation increasingly seen as key to tightening enforcement.

(With newswires)

Trumps’s remarks before the weekend have drawn sharp rebukes from European partners and forced a partial retreat from the White House. 

The backlash was swift and wide-ranging, stretching from Paris to Canberra, and comes just as tensions over Greenland had begun to ease.

For many US allies, the comments struck a nerve, reopening painful memories of a conflict that claimed thousands of lives across the alliance.

In France, the reaction was blunt, with the entourage of President Emmanuel Macron saying the remarks were “unacceptable” and required no further comment, stressing instead that the head of state wished to express solidarity with the families of fallen soldiers and to reaffirm “the nation’s gratitude and respectful remembrance”.

France lost 89 service personnel in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2014 – a toll that Paris says reflects its sustained military commitment alongside US forces.

Afghan NATO forces flee to Istanbul to seek refuge

US ‘never needed’ NATO

Trump made the controversial remarks in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, criticising other NATO members’ contributions during the 20-year conflict and claiming the United States “never needed them”.

The comments prompted an immediate response in London. After speaking with Prime Minister Keir Starmer – who publicly described the remarks as “insulting” – Mr Trump sought to calm the diplomatic storm by singling out British troops for praise.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, the US president hailed the “GREAT and VERY BRAVE soldiers of the United Kingdom”, noting that 457 British troops were killed and many more wounded in Afghanistan.

“They were among the greatest warriors,” he wrote, adding that the bond between the two countries was “too strong to ever be broken”.

However, while Britain was explicitly acknowledged, Mr Trump made no similar gesture towards other allies who fought and died in the conflict. The UK suffered the second-highest number of casualties after the United States, with around 2,400 deaths.

As Kabul airport is attacked, French evacuation will end by Friday

Allies accuse Trump of disrespect

Beyond Europe, Australia – a close US partner but not a NATO member – also condemned the remarks on Sunday. Canberra deployed nearly 40,000 troops to the US-led coalition between 2001 and 2021, following the 11 September attacks.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the comments as “totally unacceptable”, rejecting any suggestion that Australian forces had avoided combat. “They were certainly on the front line, alongside our other allies, defending democracy and freedom, as well as defending our national interests,” he said.

Other European leaders were equally forthright. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she was “astonished” by Mr Trump’s remarks and demanded “respect”, despite being regarded as an ally of the US president.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk recalled attending a farewell ceremony in 2011 for five Polish soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

Writing on X, he said American officers present at the time had promised that the United States would never forget Poland’s fallen. “Perhaps they will remind President Trump of this,” he added.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said it was “unacceptable for the American president to question the commitment of allied soldiers in Afghanistan”, underlining growing strain in Copenhagen’s relationship with Washington.

The reaction has been particularly intense among Danish veterans. The Danish Veterans’ Association said it was “speechless” and announced plans for a silent march in Copenhagen on Saturday 31 January.

Association vice-president Soren Knudsen described the remarks as a “betrayal”. “We’ve gone from offensive remarks to rude remarks. And now we feel that this is a betrayal,” he told reporters. Mr Knudsen served in southern Afghanistan in 2006 and later as deputy commander of a NATO mission in 2012, composed mainly of American troops.

According to Denmark’s armed forces, 44 Danish soldiers died in Afghanistan – 37 in combat and seven from illness, accidents or other injuries.

The row also revives memories of an earlier diplomatic rift, after US Vice-President JD Vance said during a visit to the American base in Pituffik, Greenland, in March 2025 that Denmark was a “bad ally”.

(with newswires)

Millions of Ukrainians have been under constant threat of Russian air strikes since the war began in 2022. In Kyiv, large-scale raids typically came every two or three weeks – but this year, Russia has ramped up its attacks, which now pound the capital daily.

While Moscow denies targeting Ukrainian civilians, they have become the primary victims of hundreds of drones and missiles that have struck the country’s energy infrastructure since October.

More than 3 million residents in Kyiv are facing prolonged shortages of electricity, water and heat in the middle of a harsh winter. Ukraine is in the grip of a polar cold snap, with temperatures approaching -20C in the past two weeks.

Following a devastating strike on the city’s power stations on 9 January, Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged residents to leave Kyiv if they could.

Two weeks later he said that, according to estimates based on mobile phone use, nearly 600,000 people had left the Ukrainian capital.

Not everyone can get out.

On the left bank of the city, home to several working-class neighbourhoods, residents of high-rise apartment blocks are particularly vulnerable. They live close to power stations targeted by the Russians, and they can no longer rely on basic utilities.

“We find ourselves without electricity for 10 hours, 20 hours at a time,” says Oksana, who lives in the area with her children. 

“When it does come back on, it’s in the middle of the night, so I get up to charge all our batteries. Without electricity, there is no water either, and as the building has several floors, it no longer reaches the upper floors.”

Her building has already been gutted by a drone strike, the windows on lower floors replaced with wooden boards.

Yet Oksana has no plans to leave Kyiv. “We do have family in the west, where we took refuge in early 2022, but my husband is disabled and awaiting surgery, so I can’t see myself leaving now. What’s more, all our loved ones, including my parents, live here in buildings nearby.”

Ukraine seeks $43bn in climate compensation from Russia over war

Islands of warmth

For residents who remain, daily life revolves around the few hours of electricity – their only chance to recharge phones, run the washing machine, or stock up on tap water.

Valentina, a pensioner, is in survival mode. “Thank God, part of the building is still heated, and at home, I keep my coat on so I don’t get cold.”

Faced with a worsening humanitarian crisis, the city has deployed around 50 mobile generators. In the courtyards of some apartment blocks, rescue workers have set up large orange tents that serve as so-called “points of invincibility” – energy islands where residents can come to warm up, work remotely or even spend the night if conditions no longer allow them to sleep at home.

In the historic centre of Kyiv, opposite Taras Shevchenko National University, a yurt set up by a Ukrainian-Kazakh association serves as a sanctuary of warmth and electricity. Natacha welcomes visitors with hot tea and Kazakh pastries.

“The Kazakhs believe in our victory, and with this yurt they are showing us a little love and support. They can’t supply us with weapons, but they are showing us in other ways that they are on our side,” she tells RFI.

Ukraine has turned thousands of public buildings, restaurants and schools into similar shelters since the start of the air raids in the winter of 2022.

But in Kyiv, many of these havens are no longer able to take residents in.

Schools closed

Until recently, the city centre – home to government offices, embassies and international organisations – had been relatively spared from power cuts. Now the situation has deteriorated significantly.

Cafes and restaurants are still operating, albeit in semi-darkness, thanks to small diesel generators that put out a deafening hum and heady fumes. Yet public buildings that once stayed open 24/7 to provide residents with heat and electricity remain shut.

Alla, caretaker at a deserted school, explains why. “There’s no heating, no internet connection, no electricity here, and no one to come and fill the generator’s tank, so we’re staying closed.”

Schools in Kyiv will remain closed for several more days: the school holidays have been extended until early February so that pupils can stay out of the city.

Corruption scandal exposes ‘absolute impunity’ in Ukraine’s energy sector

“The city’s energy grid is still operating in emergency mode,” main private electricity supplier DTEK warned in one of its latest statements. 

“Nothing like this has ever happened on a global scale. For the past month, there has not been a single day without power cuts, and our engineers have the historic task of getting us back on our feet.”

Ukraine’s new Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal has promised to restore infrastructure as quickly as possible, but has also warned of further Russian strikes – “including on infrastructure that keeps nuclear power plants running”.

This article was adapted from the original in French by RFI correspondent Emmanuelle Chaze.

Within days, Syrian government troops swept aside the SDF and took control of vast areas of territory. The offensive followed the collapse of talks on integrating the SDF into the Syrian Army.

Washington’s shift proved decisive.

“The game changer was the American permission, the American green light to [Syrian President] Ahmed al-Sharaa. That opened the door to Damascus launching the offensive,” said Syria expert Fabrice Balanche, of Lyon University.

The SDF had been a key US ally in the fight against Islamic State and relied on American support to deter an attack by Damascus. But with Islamic State now weakened and Sharaa joining Washington’s alliance against the group, the Kurds lost their leverage.

“Trump viewed the relationship as temporary, not a true alliance,” said Balanche, a municipal councillor with France’s rightwing Republicans party.

French journalist arrested in Turkey while covering pro-Kurdish protest released

US withdrawal and rapid collapse

As Washington ended its support, many Arab tribes quit the Kurdish-led coalition. They aligned with Damascus, allowing government forces to advance quickly in Arab-majority areas.

Several prisons holding Islamic State members fell to government control, with reports that hundreds escaped. Fears of wider instability pushed Washington to broker a ceasefire between the SDF and the Syrian government.

Under the deal, SDF forces are to disband and merge into Syrian government units, a move backed by Ankara.

Turkey has strongly supported the Damascus offensive. It accuses Kurdish elements within the SDF of links to the PKK, which has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

“Turkey is certainly behind all these operations,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University. “The Turkish defence minister, General Chief of Staff, has recently been in Syria. So there is probably a common action.”

Turkey blocks calls for regime change in Iran as protests escalate

Kurdish tensions inside Turkey

The assault has triggered protests by members of Turkey’s large Kurdish minority in support of Syrian Kurds. It has also coincided with talks between the pro-Kurdish Dem Party, the Turkish government and the outlawed PKK aimed at ending the conflict.

The PKK declared a ceasefire and pledged to disband last year, but talks stalled months ago. Ankara has blamed the deadlock on the SDF’s refusal to join the PKK’s disarmament commitment.

The fighting in Syria could deepen Kurdish disillusionment with the peace process, political analyst Sezin Oney, of the Politikyol news portal, warned.

“They pictured this peace process as a big win for the PKK that finally all these rights, all the political rights, cultural rights, everything would be recognized, and a new era would begin,” Oney said.

“It’s not that, and it won’t be that there is nobody in Turkey on the side of the government who was envisioning such a change or anything of the sort.”

The Dem Party had few options left. “The only thing Dem can do is rally the Kurdish public in Turkey, and it is just going to be disbursed,” Oney added.

Syrian army offensive in Aleppo draws support from Turkey

Risk of wider bloodshed

Turkish police have broken up many pro-SDF protests using water cannon and gas, carrying out hundreds of arrests.

French journalist Raphael Boukandoura was detained and later released, in a move rights groups said was meant to intimidate foreign media.

Without US intervention, Damascus would push further into Kurdish-held areas, Balanche warned. “Sharaa will seize everything.”

The risk of large-scale violence, he added, was growing in a region marked by tribal rivalries and years of war.

“Northeastern Syria is a very tribal area. The tribal leaders who are mobilizing their groups, their fighters, and they’re attacking,” Balanche said.

“Because of 10 years of civil war, you have a lot of vengeance that was under the table, and now everything is exploding. So it could be very bloody.”

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 programme!

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. NB: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

This week’s quiz: On 6 December, I asked you a question from Jan van der Made’s article and interview with Claudiu Nasui, a former Romanian economy minister and a current member of parliament in the pro-European Save Romania Union party. You were to re-listen to, or re-read, Jan’s “On NATO’s eastern flank, Romania finds itself at the crux of European security”, and send in the answer to this question: What does Nasui think is the core issue for defence spending? What does he think the EU needs to do?

The answer is, to quote Jan’s article: “It’s also about spending efficiency. We should buy more European – like the SAM-T and other weapon systems – to achieve economies of scale.

For cheap, efficient weapon systems, you need economies of scale, which we won’t get if we don’t buy European. So it’s about more than just investing money – how you invest matters.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by RFI Listeners Club member Debashis Gope from West Bengal, India. Debashis asked: “What is the most precious thing in life?”

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Khondaker Rafiq ul Islam from Naogaon, Bangladesh. Khondakar is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations on your double win, Khondakar.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Najimuddin, the president of the RFI International DX Radio Listeners Club in West Bengal, India; Bithi Begum, a member of the Shetu RFI Listeners Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh, and RFI Listeners Club member Debashish Gope from West Bengal, India. Last but not least, there’s RFI English listener Abdul Mannan from Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh. 

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Vavavoum” by Romane and Stocchelo Rosenberg, performed by the Rosenberg Ensemble; the Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 op. 11 by George Enescu, performed by the WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Cristian Măcelaru; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Doktharake Julideh” by Mohammad Reza Shajarian and Sa’di, performed by Mohammad Reza Shajarian and the Aref 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 “Senegal outwit Morocco to claim 2025 Africa Cup of Nations”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 16 February to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 21 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. 

Over 21 million Ugandan citizens were called to the polls last Thursday in the country’s general elections.

Incumbent President Yoweri Museveni, 81, stood for a seventh term following 40 years in power. He faced seven challengers, including Robert Kyagulanyi, known to most as Bobi Wine, who garnered substantial support but fell short of unseating the veteran leader. Museveni was declared the winner on Saturday 17 January, securing over 76 per cent of the vote.

In this edition of Spotlight on Africa, you’ll hear from Bobi Wine’s international lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, about the formidable obstacles facing opposition candidates during the campaign.

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

Jeffrey Smith, executive director of the think tank Vanguard Africa, joins us to examine the aftermath of these elections and the future of politics in Uganda, and more broadly across East Africa and other parts of the continent where democracy is severely undermined.

Somaliland, Israel and the Horn of Africa

The state of Israel recognised the independence of Somaliland from Somalia in the final days of December, prompting widespread concern and questions in an already turbulent region, and drawing largely condemnatory responses.

The risky calculations behind Israel’s recognition of Somaliland

Faisal Ali is a Somali British independent journalist. He looks with us at the motivations behind this move for every state involved. 

Episode edited by Melissa Chemam and mixed Erwan Rome.

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

One year after Donald Trump returned to the White House, his second administration has wasted little time putting trade at the forefront of policy.

Tariffs, the US president insists, are delivering an economic renaissance. Inflation has supposedly all but vanished. The stock market is booming. Trillions of dollars are said to be pouring into the Treasury, with the promise of tariff-funded cheques soon landing in American letterboxes. Critics, Trump has declared, are “fools”.

Strip away the slogans, however, and the picture looks far less flattering.

According to Gerald Friedman, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Trump’s tariff-driven revival is built on shaky foundations – economically incoherent, politically vindictive and geopolitically destabilising.

EU readies response to new US tariffs, France braces for fallout

The numbers don’t add up

From an economist’s perspective, Friedman says, Trump’s claims barely survive contact with reality. “Almost nothing” in the president’s upbeat assessment is true. Yes, the stock market is high, but only because a small group of technology giants dominates the indices. Remove them, and the wider market is essentially flat.

The idea that tariffs are generating vast new revenues is equally illusory. Tariffs face an unavoidable contradiction: set them high enough to block imports and they raise little money; set them low enough to generate revenue and they fail to protect domestic industry. Either way, the notion that they are filling federal coffers with “trillions” is “fantasy”.

Friedman notes that “virtually no economists outside of those being paid through Donald Trump … support his tariff regime”, particularly given its random and unsystematic application. What is billed as strategic economic policy looks more like improvisation.

Trump’s first 100 days: Trade, diplomacy and walking the transatlantic tightrope

Illusion of tariff-funded cheques

The administration’s proposal to issue tariff-funded “refunds” – between $1,000 and $2,000 per household in early 2026 – has clear populist appeal. Economically, Friedman argues, it makes little sense.

The US already runs a federal deficit of roughly $1.7 trillion a year, around 6 per cent of GDP. Washington does not need tariffs to send out cheques; it can simply borrow more. The real question is whether it should, particularly after extending large tax cuts for the wealthy that continue to inflate the deficit.

There is a deeper irony. Tariffs, Friedman points out, already constitute “the biggest tax increase as a share of GDP that this country has had since the early 1990s”, adding roughly $1,500 a year to household costs through higher prices. Refunding some of that money would merely hand back what had just been taken – while leaving the underlying economic damage untouched.

Inflation, eggs and everyday living

Trump has repeatedly pointed to falling egg prices as proof that inflation is under control. Friedman underlines that egg prices surged because of bird flu, not economic policy, and fell as the outbreak eased. They are down by about half, not by the 85 per cent the president boasts about – “one of the smaller lies”, as Friedman puts it.

Elsewhere, tariffs are doing exactly what economists expect: pushing prices up. Imports such as coffee and bananas cannot realistically be replaced by domestic production. Taxing them feeds directly into the cost of living. Households are paying more, not less.

The impact does not stop at consumer prices. Retaliation and uncertainty are quietly undermining export industries. China has cut back on US soybean imports, hurting farmers. Canada is actively reducing its reliance on the US market, deepening ties with Europe and China.

Even sectors untouched by tariffs are suffering. Higher education – one of America’s largest export earners – is losing foreign students as visas tighten and the country’s tourism has also slumped.

The combined effect, Friedman warns, is “higher prices and a reduction in employment and wages… ultimately, devastating to the US economy”.

Europe’s ‘Truman Show’ moment: is it time to walk off Trump’s set?

Gunboat diplomacy, with grudges attached

For Friedman, Trump’s economic policy cannot be separated from his personality. Tariffs have become instruments of pressure and punishment, often driven by personal vendettas rather than strategic calculation. Hostility towards Canada’s former prime minister Justin Trudeau, for example, owed as much to personal dislike as to trade policy.

This is where economics merges with geopolitics. The US, Friedman argues, is drifting away from the postwar, rules-based order it once championed towards something far older and harsher – “pre-1940”, rather than merely pre-1945. Trade policy is wielded like a weapon, diplomacy reduced to threat and coercion.

“Nobody wants to be the one who sticks his head up,” to speak out, Friedman says. Corporate leaders and officials see what happens to dissenters and keep their heads down for fear of investigations, legal costs and political retaliation. 

Occupy Wall Street protestors clash with police outside New York Stock Exchange

A symptom of deeper failures

None of this, Friedman stresses, emerged from nowhere. Echoing arguments made by Greek economist and former left-wing finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, he sees Trump as both cause and symptom. Decades of rising inequality, deindustrialisation and attacks on unions hollowed out large parts of the working class, particularly in the US and Europe.

The 2008 financial crisis was explosive. Banks were rescued, executives kept their bonuses, and almost nobody went to jail.

The lesson, Friedman says, was clear: the powerful play by different rules. Regions once loyal to centre-left parties – coal country in West Virginia, manufacturing towns across the Midwest – became some of Trump’s strongest supporters.

Trump did not invent these grievances, but he has channelled them into a politics driven less by repair than by ego and confrontation.

Trump says Venezuela’s Maduro captured in ‘large scale’ US strike

Judging Trump in 2026

So how should Trump’s second presidency be judged as it heads into 2026? Friedman offers a stark metric. Ignore the rhetoric and watch the behaviour of those with real power. Do Republican lawmakers rediscover a spine? Do corporate leaders decide that long-term stability matters more than short-term fear?

If they do not, the outlook is bleak. “It’s not only the America First agenda,” Friedman says, “it’s Trump’s personal, ego-driven agenda.”

Protests may continue to swell, but without resistance from political and economic elites, the consequences will stretch far beyond the US.

In 2026, the results will be difficult to spin away. Tariffs promise strength and sovereignty. What they are delivering, Friedman argues, is higher prices, weaker alliances and a dangerous slide towards a world the US once helped consign to history.

Since protests began across Iran almost three weeks ago, Turkey has tried to play down the scale of the unrest. It has distanced itself from Western allies calling for regime change and avoided offering explicit support for those demands.

The protests began on 28 December after a currency collapse triggered demonstrations by merchants and traders in Tehran. The unrest quickly spread nationwide. Activists say more than 2,000 protesters have been killed.

Alongside Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar, Turkey has lobbied Washington against any military response to the killings. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said such a move would worsen the situation.

“We oppose military intervention against Iran; Iran must resolve its own problems,” Fidan said. “We want the issue resolved through dialogue.”

France summons Iran envoy over ‘unrestrained’ protest crackdown

Fear of regional collapse

According to The Guardian newspaper, US President Donald Trump’s decision to step back from attacking Iran was influenced by Turkey and its Arab allies – who warned of regional chaos if an attack went ahead.

Turkey fears that Iran could descend into civil war similar to Iraq after the collapse of its regime, said Serhan Afacan, head of the Ankara-based Center for Iranian Studies, adding the consequences would be more severe due to Iran’s size and diversity.

“Iran has a population of about 90 million, including many ethnic minorities such as Turks, Kurds, Arabs and Baluchis,” Afacan explained.

“If a conflict erupts among these groups, it could result in a prolonged civil war. Any resulting immigration from Iran to Turkey could reach millions.”

Turkey and Iran unite against Israel as regional power dynamics shift

PKK security fears

Turkey already hosts about three million refugees. Experts say Ankara’s biggest security concern is the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has fought Turkey for an independent Kurdish state and has an Iranian affiliate, PJAK.

Although the PKK announced a ceasefire last year and pledged to disband, Ankara fears unrest in Iran could give the group new opportunities, said Iranian expert Bilgehan Alagoz, of Marmara University.

“Day by day, we have started to see the PKK groups in certain cities of Iran demanding some separatist demands, and this is the main concern for Turkey,” he said.

Ankara also accuses Israel of exploiting the situation in Iran.

“Israel has targeted all these PKK groups and tried to motivate the PKK groups inside Iran,” Alagoz said. “Any instability inside Iran can create a space for the PKK.”

Fidan has also accused Israel of manipulating the protests.

Turkey is already confronting another PKK-linked group in Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces, which controls large parts of the country. Ankara accuses Israel of supporting the SDF, adding Iran to a broader Israeli-Turkish regional rivalry.

France’s Iranian diaspora divided over deadly protests back home

Energy pressure

Turkey could also clash with Washington over Iran if the protests continue. Trump has warned that countries trading with Tehran could face 25 percent tariffs.

Iran supplies Turkey with about one-fifth of its gas needs, according to Atilla Yesilada, an analyst at the Global Source Partners think tank. “Iran pumps 10 billion cubic metres of gas to Turkey every year, roughly one-fifth of total consumption,” he said.

That supply could theoretically be replaced by liquefied natural gas imports, but Yesilada warned that Turkey is already struggling to cut its dependence on Russia, its main energy supplier.

“Combine this with increasing American and EU pressure to cut gas purchases from Russia, and Turkey is in a very difficult situation,” he said.

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 programme!

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. NB: You do not need to send her your quiz answers! Email overload!

This week’s quiz: On 29 November, I asked you a question about two Chinese pandas – Huan Huan and Yuan Zi – who were in the Beauval Zoo here in France, and had just gone back to China.

You were to re-read our article “France says goodbye to star pandas going back to China” and send in the answer to this question: How many cubs did Huan Huan give birth to while here in France?

The answer is, to quote our article: “Huan Huan gave birth to three cubs – the first to be born in France. The eldest, Yuan Ming, a male, was sent back to China two years ago, but twins born in August 2021 will remain at Beauval at least until 2027.” The twins’ names are Hunalili and Yuandudu.   

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by RFI English listener Sadequl Bari Liton from Naogaon, Bangladesh, “How do you spend your weekly holiday?” 

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

The winners are: Nafisa Khatun, the president of the RFI Mahila Shrota Sangha Club in West Bengal, India. Nafisa is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations on your double win, Nafisa.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are A. K. M. Nuruzzaman, the president of the RFI Amour Fan Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, and RFI Listeners Club members Samir Mukhopadhyay from West Bengal, India; Kanwar Sandhu from British Columbia in Canada, and last but not least, Habib Ur Rehman Sehla, the president of the International Radio Fan and Youth Club in Khanewal, Pakistan.  

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicolò Foron; the traditional Chinese “Sun Quan the Emperor”; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “L’auzel ques sul bouyssou” (“Bird sitting in the Bush”) by Estienne Moulinié, sung by Claire Lefilliâtre with Le Poème Harmonique conducted by Vincent Dumestre.

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 “France launches recruitment for 10-month voluntary national military service”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 9 February to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 14 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. 

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.