COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body coordinating Palestinian civilian affairs, made no mention of allowing in a long hoped-for surge of aid, and clarified that the passage of individuals through the gateway in both directions was expected to begin Monday.

The crossing has been closed since Israeli forces seized control of it in May 2024 during the war with Hamas, aside from a brief and limited reopening in early 2025.

COGAT said Sunday that the “Rafah Crossing was opened today for the limited passage of residents only”, but later added that the “movement of residents in both directions, entry and exit to and from Gaza, is expected to begin tomorrow”.

An official at Gaza’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority, said that about 200 patients were waiting to be permitted to leave the territory once the crossing opened.

Footage by French news agency AFP showed a queue of ambulances entering the crossing from the Egyptian side, though sources said none had been allowed into Gaza so far.

“The opening of Rafah opens a small door of hope for patients, students and people in Gaza,” Amin Al-Hilu, 53, who lives in a tent in the territory’s Al-Shati camp, told AFP.

Pilot phase

“We need the crossing to fully open for travel and bringing in goods without Israeli restrictions, and this I think will require major pressure on Israel.”

A Palestinian official told AFP on condition of anonymity that a group of “around 40 Palestinians affiliated with the Palestinian Authority has arrived on the Egyptian side of the crossing” and was also waiting to be allowed in.

Israel had previously said it would not reopen the crossing until the body of Ran Gvili – the last Israeli hostage held in Gaza – was returned.

UN Security Council approves international force for Gaza

His remains were recovered days ago and he was laid to rest in Israel on Wednesday, with COGAT announcing the reopening two days later.

COGAT described Sunday’s reopening as “an initial pilot phase”, coordinated with the European Union, adding the parties were carrying out “preliminary preparations aimed at increasing readiness for full operation of the crossing”.

No agreement has yet been reached on the number of Palestinians permitted to enter or exit, sources said, noting that Egypt plans to admit “all Palestinians whom Israel authorises to leave”.

“My generation and I deserve a chance at life and to build a future,” said Adam Awad, 19, who was waiting to travel through the Rafah crossing to join a civil engineering programme at a university in Turkey.

“We are still living in fear and anxiety, without shelter, water or electricity.”

Doctors without Borders contract terminated

Located on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, Rafah is the only crossing into and out of the territory that does not pass through Israel.

It lies in an area held by Israeli forces following their withdrawal behind the so-called “Yellow Line” under the terms of the ceasefire brokered by the US on 10 October.

Israeli troops still control more than half of Gaza, while the rest remains under Hamas authority.

Mediators Qatar, Egypt insist Israeli troop withdrawal essential for Gaza truce

“We call on the mediators and guarantor states of the (ceasefire) agreement to monitor the occupation’s behaviour at the Rafah crossing to prevent Gaza from facing a new Israeli siege,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism said Sunday that it had decided to terminate the work of medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Gaza by 28 February over its “failure to submit lists of local employees, a requirement applicable to all humanitarian organisations”.

MSF said it decided not to give the list after it did not receive assurances from the Israeli side that the information would not “put colleagues at risk”.

The group says 15 of its employees have been killed over the course of the war.

(with AFP)

The Wallis canton’s public prosecutor Beatrice Pilloud said in a statement issued on Sunday that an 18-year-old Swiss national had died at a hospital in Zurich on 31 January.

“The death toll from the fire at Le Constellation bar on January 1, 2026 has now risen to 41,” the statement said.

Pilloud said no further information would be released at this stage by her office, which is investigating the tragedy.

On Saturday, protesters gathered in Lutry, a suburb of Lausanne from where several of the victims who died in the 1 January blaze in the Crans-Montana resort hailed.

You are not alone

“Tristan would have been 18 in four months’ time, but I’m also the mother of 155 other victims,” one woman who lost her son, Vincianne Stucky, told the crowd as she held up his photo. “We will go to the end,” she told French news agency AFP.

She was among family members and friends of those killed taking part in the demonstration. Some held white roses in their hands, others placards reading “You are not alone”.

The march started at the stadium of the local football club, which had seven of its players killed in the fire. It then paused before a church whose bells rang out for five minutes as many demonstrators laid flowers, before turning and returning to the stadium.

Switzerland ‘devastated’ by lives lost in Crans-Montana New Year bar fire

The fire broke out in the basement dance area of the bar Le Constellation in Crans-Montana, which was packed as revellers celebrated the New Year.

Prosecutors believe that sparklers attached to champagne bottles ignited the acoustic insulation foam on the ceiling.

Questions remain

Smartphone videos showed the young people in the bar continuing to party, unaware of the danger they were in until it was too late. Witnesses spoke of panic when the crowd rushed for the sole exit.

Most of those impacted by the fire were Swiss, but a total of 19 nationalities, including French, were among the dead and injured.

A criminal investigation has reportedly been opened against a former official who had been in charge of safety checks of the bar, making him the third person charged, after the bar’s owners, a French couple.

Local authorities revealed that no annual safety check had been carried out at the bar since 2019.

Paris prosecutor’s office opens investigation into Swiss resort fire

Another bereaved mother in the demonstration, Laetitia Brodard-Sitre, told AFP: “Me, I want to know why our children, including my son, were not able to get out. Why?”

“When you go through a tragedy in which 40 people – 40 children, 40 teens – have gone and another 100 are in rehabilitation or intensive care, there are obviously questions to be asked,” said Alexandre Fleury, father of a youngster who remained hospitalised.

He demanded an investigation that is “clear and objective, with competent people” handling it.

The organisers of the march, Allegra Petruzzi, told AFP: “All my classmates were in that fire, and most of them died, but some are still in hospital. It’s for them, too, we have to fight.”

Switzerland’s Federal Office for Civil Protection told AFP on Friday that at its last count, as of Monday, 44 patients were being treated in hospitals abroad. They included 18 in France, 12 in Italy, eight in Germany and six in Belgium.

The Wallis health ministry told AFP that 37 patients were still in Swiss hospitals, as of Monday.

The picture is constantly changing, with patients moving between hospitals for different stages of their treatment, and some patients being readmitted. Some remain in intensive care.

(with AFP)

French tech ​company Capgemini said on Sunday ⁠it was selling its US subsidiary Capgemini Government Solutions after coming ​under pressure ‍in recent days to explain a ​contract it signed with US ​immigration enforcement agency ICE.

Capgemini, which operates in about 50 countries and is one of France’s largest listed companies, held an extraordinary board meeting this weekend after being the subject of questions in parliament and calls for transparency from the government.

The group’s contract with ICE was first revealed by independent media outlet l’Observatoire des multinationales (Multinationals Observatory).

The outlet said Capgemini’s subsidiary had been providing services to ICE even before signing the contract in December with US President Donald Trump’s administration.

It found Capgemini sold “skip tracing” services – a form of data-driven locating and tracking of individuals whose whereabouts are unknown – used by ICE to verify home and work addresses and support removal operations as part of a large-scale anti-immigration crackdown.

The killings of two people – Renee Good and Alex Pretti – by ICE and border patrol (CBP) agents in Minneapolis last month have made world headlines, provoking widespread condemnation of the American agency.

“The divestiture process of this business will be initiated immediately,” the company said in a statement, referring to Capgemini Government Solutions.

Protests continue

“Capgemini determined that the customary legal restrictions imposed for contracting with federal government entities carrying out classified activities in the United States did not allow the Group to exercise appropriate control over certain aspects of the operations of this subsidiary,” the statement said.

The subsidiary represents 0.4 percent of the group’s global 2025 estimated revenue and less than two percent of its US revenue, the company said.

In an internal message sent to employees, the group said that the disputed contract, awarded in December, was “the subject of an appeal”.

France steps up pressure over IT firm Capgemini’s ICE ties

Chief executive Aiman Ezzat wrote on LinkedIn last week that the management “were recently made aware, through public sources” of the contract with Capgemini Government Solutions.

At CGS, “decision making is separate, networks are firewalled, and the Capgemini group cannot access any classified information (or) classified contracts,” Ezzat added.

Public US government documents show that the ICE-CGS contract signed on 18 December is worth $4.8 million.

The revelations sparked uproar in France and earned a rebuke from Economy Minister Roland Lescure, who called for transparency.

Meanwhile, thousands of protesters continued to rally in Minneapolis this week in the latest show of anger over Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Demonstrators also held rallies in New York and across Los Angeles, where immigration raids last year sparked protests, with thousands carrying signs outside City Hall.

In Washington, the federal government entered a partial shutdown at midnight Friday following Democratic anger over the crackdown, which derailed talks over new funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

(with AFP)

Lawmakers wore the green uniform of the Guards in a display of solidarity at the legislative session, where they chanted “Death to America”, “Death to Israel” and “Shame on you, Europe”, state television footage showed.

Slamming the bloc’s “irresponsible action”, speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said that under “Article 7 of the Law on Countermeasures Against the Declaration of the IRGC as a Terrorist Organisation, the armies of European countries are considered terrorist groups”.

It remained unclear what immediate impact the decision would have.

The law was first passed in 2019, when the United States classified the Guards as a terrorist organisation.

Sunday’s session was held on the 47th anniversary of the return from exile of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic republic in 1979.

The Guards are the ideological arm of Iran‘s military, tasked with safeguarding the Islamic revolution from external and internal threats.

They have been accused by Western governments of orchestrating a crackdown on a recent protest movement that left thousands dead.

Tehran has attributed the violence to “terrorist acts” fomented by the United States and Israel.

The European Union agreed on Thursday to list the body as a “terrorist organisation” over the response to the protests.

The step matched similar classifications enacted by the United States, Canada and Australia.

Ghalibaf said the decision, “which was carried out in compliance with the orders of the American president and the leaders of the Zionist regime, accelerated Europe’s path to becoming irrelevant in the future world order”.

The move, he added, had only increased domestic support for the Guards.

France summons Iran envoy over ‘unrestrained’ protest crackdown

Threat of military action

The legislative session came as Iran and the United States have traded warnings and threats of potential military action.

Tehran’s response to the protests prompted US President Donald Trump to threaten to intervene, dispatching an aircraft carrier group to the region.

In recent days, however, both sides have insisted they remain willing to talk.

“Contrary to the hype of the contrived media war, structural arrangements for negotiations are progressing,” Ali Larijani, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said on Saturday.

How Iran is enforcing an unprecedented digital blackout to crush protests

Trump later confirmed that dialogue was taking place, but without withdrawing his earlier threats. He told Fox News that Iran was “talking to us, and we’ll see if we can do something, otherwise we’ll see what happens… we have a big fleet heading out there”.

Trump has previously said he believes Iran will make a deal over its nuclear and missile programmes rather than face US military action.

Tehran, meanwhile, has said it is ready for nuclear talks if its missile and defence capabilities are not on the agenda.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Saturday that “a war would be in the interest of neither Iran, nor the United States, nor the region”, during a call with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, according to Pezeshkian’s office.

Qatari premier Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al, who also serves as foreign minister, held talks in Iran Saturday to try to “de-escalate tensions”, the kingdom’s foreign ministry said.

(with AFP)

After a lifetime of clashes with successive powers in Nigeria, the recognition comes nearly three decades after Fela’s death and long after his influence reshaped global music.

He was one of several artists getting the award at a ceremony in Los Angeles on Saturday, the eve of the main Grammys gala.

Other recipients included Cher, Whitney Houston, Carlos Santana, Paul Simon and Chaka Khan.

Fela’s son Femi Kuti accepted the award on his father’s behalf.

“Thank you for bringing our father here,” he told the audience.”It’s so important for us, it’s so important for Africa, it’s so important for world peace and the struggle.”

In the 1970s, Fela the multi-instrumentalist and full-of-life performer invented Afrobeat: a mixture of jazz, funk and African rhythms.

That laid the groundwork for Afrobeats – a later genre that has attracted a global audience by blending traditional African rhythms with contemporary pop sounds, with its roots in Nigeria.

Two years ago the Grammys introduced the category of Best African Performance in 2024 and it has been dominated by Afrobeats artists, especially from Nigeria.

Of the five nominees for the Best African performance this year, three are Nigerian Afrobeats singers, after another Nigerian, Tems, won last year.

‘Black President’

“Fela’s influence spans generations, inspiring artists such as Beyonce, Paul McCartney and Thom Yorke, and shaping modern Nigerian Afrobeats,” said a citation on the Grammys list of this year’s honorees.

Known also as the “Black President”, the activist and legendary musician, died in 1997 at the age of 58.

His legacy lives on through his sons, Femi Kuti and Seun Kuti, and grandson Made.

Nigerian Afrobeat legend Tony Allen, 79, dies in Paris

“This acknowledgment coming at this time when all three of us are present. It feels wonderful,” Grammy-nominated Made Kuti told French news agency AFP ahead of the ceremony.

“It feels wonderful that all of us are still practicing Afrobeat, still taking the legacy as far as we can take it.”

Yemisi Ransome-Kuti, Fela’s first cousin and head of the family, told AFP on Friday the award was “a celebration for the African people and they should take (it).. as their award. Another African is being celebrated.

“But we also want to send a message to those who are giving these acknowledgements, please …not wait till people are dead,” she said.

Onward and upward

As to what would have been Fela’s reaction, Ransome-Kuti said: “I’m sure he would have said better late than never” although “in his lifetime he was not particularly interested in being recognised in the external world particularly the western world”.

Fela was arrested frequently by military governments during his career, sometimes for political activism and sometimes also on allegations of theft, which he denied.

His first brush with the law dated back to 1974 when he released his famous album “Zombie”, generally considered by the military authorities in power as a diatribe levelled at them.

Paris exhibition celebrates Fela Kuti, the rebel king of Afrobeat

His songs were long, defiant and explicitly anti-governments in power and anti-corruption.

His manager, Rikki Stein, speaking on the phone from Los Angeles ahead of the ceremony, was confident the award would “significantly uplift Fela’s music”.

“Fifty albums out there. I’m sure it’s going to continue onward and upward.”

“An increasing number of people what weren’t even born when Fela died are expressing interest in listening to Fela’s music and hopefully Fela’s message,” he told AFP.

(with AFP)

“There are no perfume historians as such. We have historians of trade, food, medicine and all of them, at some point, will talk about perfume or publish perfume recipes, without really taking an interest in it,” Helwani told RFI. 

Born in Orléans, he grew up between France and Dubai. After studying theatre and massage, and spending some time at the Sorbonne University, he explored different paths – but his passion for perfume lingered.

“I got my baccalaureate at 16. From 16 to 26, I was pretty much wandering. All my friends and family were worried about me. They would say, what are you doing with your life? And all those moments, that long wait, crystallised in perfume.”

Helwani’s interest in natural materials began when he was 13, fed by his travels, in particular trips to the souk in Dubai.

“One day, when I was bored, I went to the souk in Deira, in the old town. That’s where I discovered all the resins: piles of frankincense, benzoin, labdanum, myrrh… I was completely fascinated by this world, which I didn’t know anything about, so I went back there quite regularly.”

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

Ancient recipes

He began training himself at home. “Every time I found a recipe from the 13th or 15th century, I would make it at home. It was all empirical until I said to myself, I’m going to devote all my energy to perfumery.”

He then decided to launch his website The Perfume Chronicles, and a few months later organised an exhibition on oriental perfumes at an art gallery in Paris.  

Finding ancient recipes that have survived the centuries is a quest for Helwani. He explored theses, ancient books, manuscripts and archaeological archives to understand different forms of perfume.  

And in 2020, he created his first fragrance, Makeda, for the Parfumeurs du Monde brand.

“Makeda, Queen of Sheba, who was Ethiopian, brought all her perfumes to King Solomon. I know that’s a good starting point for a perfume. I had never created anything for a commercial brand before,” he says.

“It allowed me to see what the work of a perfumer was like, which isn’t just being in your laboratory and making your little mixtures and being happy. The first formula I made for this perfume cost €8,000 per kilo, which is completely exorbitant.”

Scent of the Bible 

Through experiments in his laboratory, Helwani establishes concrete links between history, culture and smell, allowing him to create smells such as the scent of the Bible or that of the Odyssey.  

“The word ‘nard’ in the Bible, at the time of the writing of the New Testament, could refer to what we now call nard jatamansi, or spikenard – a root found in the Himalayas, but it could also refer to a variety of lavender or lemongrass. So we first need to understand what substance we are talking about.”

“This historical approach is a fundamental task, because historians are not perfumers, and perfumers are not historians. Neither of them are botanists. You need someone who can serve as a bridge. I’ve worked on books like The Odyssey and others, or recipes that are somewhat symbolic. There are many magical treatises from the Middle Ages that contained perfume formulas.”

In oil-rich Oman, efforts to preserve frankincense ‘white gold’

Secretive industry 

According to Helwani, the perfume industry is a secretive sector where transparency and the recognition of creators remain limited. But his empirical knowledge has enabled him to find his place without being a trained perfumer. 

“Today, it’s much easier to enter this industry, which is starting to open up. Consumers need more transparency. Perfume makers are being promoted, so it is starting to become more democratic and open.”

For him, perfume is a symbolic language capable of conveying emotions, memories or spiritual messages, a sensory experience connecting the past and the present.

“There is a mystery to humanity that unfolds and that I cannot explain.”

This article was adapted from the original version in French and the podcast 100% Création produced by Maria Afonso.

Some countries are forecast to grow at double-digit rates, including Guinea, while average growth in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to reach 4.6 percent.

Over the same period, according to the IMF’s latest economic outlook, the combined economies of Asia will slow to around 4.1 per cent. 

Analysts say Africa’s key advantage lies in its youth, which is rising faster than other regions – but needs investment to live up to its economic potential.

Population surge

By 2050, one in four people worldwide will be African, according to the French Development Agency (AFD), France’s development bank.

In its annual review of Africa’s main macroeconomic indicators, published this month, the AFD pointed to a growing workforce and strong potential for innovation and creativity.

At the same time, Europe is entering a demographic winter and could lose 20 percent of its working-age population within the next 25 years, while China recorded its lowest birth rate last year.

France records more deaths than births for first time since 1945

North Africa and southern Africa are undergoing a demographic transition, with birth rates falling in South Africa and Morocco.

High numbers of births continue in East Africa, including Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. West Africa, and particularly the Sahel, currently has the highest fertility rates in the world.

Very high fertility can harm the economy. Rwanda and Malawi have reduced fertility to 3.6 children per woman through family planning programmes, based on data in the AFD publication.

Jobs a priority

The economic dividend comes when fertility falls after population growth, the AFD said – when there are proportionally fewer children to support and a large generation born during a boom reaches working age.

To benefit, countries need to invest in education, create decent jobs and move away from informal economies that leave young people in precarious work.

European countries have an interest in continuing to contribute funding to Africa because the continent’s economic health matters for European economies, the AFD added.

France sees immigration shift as more educated Africans arrive than Europeans

Yet public development aid has fallen sharply in Europe and France’s draft 2026 budget includes further cuts.

“We need to move from a logic of aid that is poorly understood and sometimes rejected to a logic of investment – high-quality, solidarity-based and sustainable – that creates social ties and integrates climate issues and economic growth, in order to create jobs,” AFD director general Rémi Rioux told RFI.

France’s presidency of the G7 in 2026 could help bring about “a new framework and a powerful architecture for development financing”, he added.

This story has been adapted from the original version in French by RFI’s Alexis Bedu.

Having left the Russian port of Taman on 21 August, 2025, the Mersin – a tanker operated by Turkish shipping company Besiktas – first stopped in Togo before arriving in Senegalese waters.

In a video seen by RFI, filmed the day after the incident on 28 November 2025, damage to the hull of the Mersin can be seen in four places – two on the port side and two on the starboard side – which caused the ship to take on water in its engine room.

The holes, the largest of which is more than a metre wide, reveal the ship’s partially damaged piping.

The images suggest the ship was sabotaged using strategically placed explosive devices.

According to several military experts, the precise nature of the holes, their location below the waterline and the spread of micro-cracks around the main impact points all point to the use of magnetic mines planted by trained divers.

The hull is dented inwards at the breach points, also confirms that the shock wave came from outside the ship.

Around 5 kilograms of explosives would have been needed for each hole in order to pierce the ship’s hull, which is made of steel plates “between 15 and 20mm thick”, according to an engineer specialising in the offshore oil sector, consulted by RFI.

A few days after the incident, the Port Authority of Dakar said divers would inspect the ship, but as yet no official conclusion on the cause of the incident has been made public.

Neutralise not sink

This deliberate targeting of the Mersin’s engine room demonstrates a desire to neutralise the ship rather than sink it, along with the 39,000 tonnes of fuel on board.

According to a naval specialist, only a country with advanced diving capabilities and resources would be capable of carrying out such a meticulous operation.

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

This is the first time that a ship suspected of belonging to the Russian “shadow fleet” – vessels used to circumvent Western sanctions – has been targeted in African waters.

The Mersin remains moored some 20 kilometres from Senegal‘s capital, where it has been since the suspected attack.

According to the Port Authority of Dakar, the tanker is now stabilised, after initial fears that the damage could have provoked an oil spill. The breaches have been sealed and the engine room, which was flooded, is being pumped out. However, the fuel on board has not yet been removed.

Going dark

Russia has reportedly built up a flotilla of ageing oil tankers under opaque ownership to circumnavigate sanctions imposed by the European Union, the United States and the G7 group of nations over Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The EU lists 598 vessels that are banned from European ports and maritime services. The US – which seized a Russian-flagged tanker in the north Atlantic early in January – lists 183 vessels and asserts an extraterritorial right to act against them.

Shadow fleet targeted as EU advances frozen assets plan for Ukraine

According to experts, and a briefing paper by the European Parliament, the “shadow fleet” obscures the ownership of vessels, and ensures the companies managing them are outside Russia and fly flags of convenience – or even sometimes falsely claimed flags.

In addition, the vessels have been observed turning off their Automatic Identification System, to go “dark” at sea, where ship-to-ship transfers of Russian oil occur.

According to the Kyiv School of Economics, which runs a Russian Oil Tracker, “the top three flags used by Russian shadow-fleet vessels transporting crude oil are false/unknown flag, Sierra Leone, and Cameroon”.

It said management companies for the vessels were located in the United Arab Emirates, the Seychelles, Mauritius and the Marshall Islands, among others.

With newswires, and partially adapted from this article in French by Pauline Le Troquier, RFI correspondent in Dakar.

Torrential rains and floods have killed more than 100 people in South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Eswatini since December, and displaced hundreds of thousands of others.

Some areas received “over a year’s rain in just days”, said World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international team of scientists studying the link between climate change and extreme weather.

The intensity of such extreme rainfall events has increased by 40 percent since pre-industrial times, according to the group – a sign that warmer ocean temperatures linked to greenhouse gas emissions are partly to blame.

“Data confirms a clear move toward more violent downpours,” WWA said.

The La Niña weather phenomenon also worsened things. “This effect was compounded by the current La Niña, which naturally brings wetter conditions to this part of the world, but is now operating within a more moisture-rich atmosphere,” the report said.

Oceanic and temperature shifts

Flooding in south-eastern Africa has become more frequent and severe as climate change makes storms in the adjacent Indian Ocean more powerful.

La Niña involves the temporary cooling of temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. The World Meteorological Organisation has predicted a weak La Niña in this cycle, but warned that warmer-than-normal sea temperatures linked to climate change are increasing the chance of floods and droughts.

“Human-caused climate change is supercharging rainfall events like this with devastating impacts for those in its path,” said Izidine Pinto, a senior climate researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and co-author of WWA’s report.

“Our analysis clearly shows that our continued burning of fossil fuels is increasing the intensity of extreme rainfall, turning [it]… into something much more severe.”

South Africa floods declared national disaster after storms pound east coast

Food shortages in Mozambique

In Mozambique, more than 180,000 hectares of farmland have been flooded, leaving food hard to come by.

“Before the floods, a bag of rice cost 1,600 meticals, or 20 euros; today it costs 2,300, or 30 euros,” said Marta Josè Bila, head of a emergency shelter in Xai Xai, capital of the hard-hit southern province of Gaza.

“Charcoal costs 1,500 meticals – 19 euros – whereas before it cost 750, so less than 10 euros,” she said.

In shelters like this one, set up to host displaced people, community kitchens share what food remains. 

“Today, we prepared two pots of rice, two pots of ugali, and one pot of chicken. It’s a lot of work, but because we’re doing it together, it becomes easy,” said Melusi Ernesto Cosamanti, the 64-year-old in charge. She and her fellow cooks serve more than 1,700 meals a day.

Lora Salvador Mondlane has been living at the shelter with her children since losing her home. “We eat what we can,” she said. “We either have breakfast or dinner. The portions are small, not enough for everyone. But we have no choice.

“Everything was washed away, including our food.”

Deforestation seen as aggravating Zimbabwe, Mozambique flood crisis

South Africans ‘cut off from the world’

In South Africa, burst rivers forced the closure of Kruger National Park, one of the country’s main tourist draws. The damage is expected to take years to repair and cost millions of dollars.

Fifteen tourist camps are still closed, with some completely inaccessible, said the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Willie Aucamp. Hundreds of people were evacuated and no lives were lost.

While animals instinctively move to high ground to escape the floods, people living nearby are at risk as crocodiles sweep beyond their usual habitats.

South Africa’s northern regions were under a red weather warning for over a week. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed, and the army has deployed helicopters to rescue people sheltering on rooftops and in trees.

“Some areas are inaccessible,” Ali Sablay, head of mission for the NGO Gift of the Givers, which is assisting victims with essential supplies, told RFI.

“Many bridges and roads have been washed away. Communities are completely cut off from the world. They have no electricity. All their food is contaminated, and there is no drinking water.”

This article has been partially adapted from reporting in French by RFI correspondants Gaëlle Laleix in Mozambique and Joséphine Koeckner in South Africa, with newswires.

For decades, the Euopean Union – the world’s largest trading bloc – has operated within an international order anchored by close economic and security ties with the United States.

However, Washington’s renewed willingness to wield tariffs, security guarantees and diplomatic pressure as bargaining tools has reinforced a growing conviction in Brussels that Europe must broaden its partnerships and reduce its exposure to political shock waves.

Depsite being heckled as weak and irrelevant by the White House, the EU has responded with an outward-looking strategy.

Over the past year, the bloc has struck or revived trade deals across Asia and Latin America, upgraded ties with key partners in the Indo-Pacific and pushed ahead with negotiations in the Gulf. 

EU and India seal ‘mother of all trade deals’ as leaders meet in New Delhi

Trade diversification gathers pace

Of late, European leaders have been frank about what is driving this shift. Speaking at the European Parliament last week, Cyprus president Nikos Christodoulides – who currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency – said the assumptions underpinning Europe’s prosperity could no longer be taken for granted.

“The international order we relied upon for decades is no longer a given,” he said. “This moment calls for action, decisive, credible and united action. It calls for a union that is more autonomous and open to the world.”

Shifting up a gear – into a faster, more assertive trade agenda – the EU has finalised a sweeping agreement with India, concluded its first trade deal with Indonesia and signed a long-delayed pact with the Mercosur nations of South America.

The Mercosur deal alone creates the prospect of a free trade area covering more than 700 million people.

Talks are also advancing with partners in the Gulf, including the United Arab Emirates.

EU seeks stability after Trump steps back on Greenland and tariffs

Despite transatlantic tensions, these agreements are more of a recalibration rather than a total rupture. Analysts say Europe’s drive to diversify was already under way, shaped by concerns over China’s ever-growing economic clout. 

“This movement towards diversification, looking for new partners as well as building self-reliance, was driven home by the fracture of the transatlantic partnership,” according to Garima Mohan, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund. “The timing of these deals says something about the world we live in.”

The unpredictability of US policy has played a key role. Even when tariff threats are later withdrawn, they have underscored how quickly trade can become entangled with unrelated political disputes.

For Brussels, spreading risk across multiple partners is increasingly seen as simple prudence.

“There is a hope that things will change, given the importance of the US for us,” says Ivano di Carlo, a senior policy analyst at the European Policy Centre. “But there is also a realisation now that we are a bit more alone in this world.”

Trump reverses course on Greenland, drops tariff threat, citing ‘deal’

From trade to strategic autonomy

Trade policy is only one part of a wider shift that also spans defence and energy. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine exposed weaknesses in Europe’s security architecture, while criticism from the Trump administration over low defence spending injected new urgency into long-running debates.

EU leaders have since agreed to raise defence budgets, with €150 billion in loans earmarked for areas ranging from air and missile defence to drones, cyber systems and artificial intelligence.

France has been a leading advocate of greater “strategic autonomy”, a concept that has gained ground as Washington has signalled its security priorities lie elsewhere.

EU countries give final approval to Russian gas ban, commit to wind power

As the EU cut its reliance on Russian supplies, it increased imports from the United States. Today, over 14 percent of EU oil imports and 60 percent of liquefied natural gas come from the US – improving short-term security while creating new dependencies.

“We do not want to replace one dependency for another – we need to diversify,” said Dan Jørgensen, the European commissioner for energy and housing, speaking in Hamburg this week.

For policymakers, the links between trade, defence and energy are becoming clearer.

As Garima Mohan put it, “Decoupling is easier said than done.” But by leaning into its strength as the world’s largest trading bloc, the EU is betting that diversification offers the best way through a more fragmented global order.

(with newswires)

Setting sail from Christchurch, New Zealand, on 20 January and wrapping up in Hobart, Australia, on 15 March, Etienne’s Polar Pod / Perseverance crew will spend their time collecting all kinds of data from the sea, the sky, the air and the ice, using special onboard equipment.

Their main goal is to study the breeding patterns of local fauna to provide evidence for the efficacy of the marine protected area (MPA) in the Ross Sea off Antarctica, now a decade old.

Perseverance is an appropriate name for the mission – one that suggests the same patience, determination and faith that have driven Etienne’s ambitious projects over the years.

At 79, the doctor and explorer has kept his spirit of adventure. It all began as a child growing up in the Tarn region of southern France, inland from the ocean, dreaming of remote snowscapes and the deep, dark waters of the Poles.

“It’s another planet. There’s no sign of humanity apart from the scientific stations that are there,” Etienne told RFI. “And I need deserts sometimes, even here in Paris. I need to get away from the hustle and bustle of the world for a while.”

His thirst for challenges saw him become first person to trek solo across the Arctic to the North Pole in 1986. In 1989-1990, he led an international group across Antarctica on dog sleds.

Measuring crucial krill

The Perseverance mission will focus on measuring the quantity of krill and their reproduction levels to see if they are compatible with international fishing quotas.

Krill – tiny crustaceans resembling prawns – are key to the local food chain. If they disappear, so will the species that depend on them, including penguins, seals, whales and birds.

Norway, Russia and China all have vested interests in harvesting krill for use in intensive fish farming, dietary supplements and other consumer goods in high demand.

The data collected during the expedition will form the basis of a report for the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) – the international body in charge of regulating fishing access in the region.

The expedition’s comprehensive report will also inform negotiations within the CCAMLR to create several new MPAs, notably off the eastern coast of Antarctica in the Dumont d’Urville Sea – a project supported by France, Australia and Monaco.

Antarctica: how geopolitics plays out at the end of the Earth

For Etienne, the Southern Ocean and Antarctica represent vast “invisible wealth” – inestimable resources and incredible biodiversity, in need of protection from overfishing and the ravages of climate change.

The objective is not to outlaw fishing all together, he says, but rather to come up with a way of respecting the natural “quotas” of krill based on reproduction levels, which fluctuate from year to year.

“We don’t need big scientific programmes, it’s just common sense to create marine protected areas opposite breeding grounds,” he said, referring to the large colonies of penguins that live on shrinking coastal areas.

Stories from ‘another world’

With tears in her eyes, Sophie Colin, special advisor for marine and polar affairs at France’s Ministry of Ecology, recounts the example of the Adelie penguins, which lost a whole generation of chicks in one season when an iceberg collided with the Mertz Glacier in East Antarctica in 2010.

A large chunk of the glacier broke off, forcing penguins to travel further to hunt. As a result, the adult penguins couldn’t get food back quickly enough to feed their young.

Colin says it’s important to translate raw data into stories that people of all ages can relate to, showing that the project goes beyond science.

“We’re in another world in Antarctica; we feel a bit like explorers. There’s a huge amount of new knowledge that we acquire every year. So, in fact, it’s truly fascinating and engaging,” she told RFI.

“That’s why education is so important; it is the children who will become the first defenders of tomorrow and will know these species, these ecosystems and their importance better.”

Ice core vault preserving climate history opens in Antarctica

Etienne agrees it’s not just about science – it’s also about wonderment, learning and sharing a passion for this continent, one of the last remaining wild spots on the globe.

The “Polarpodibus” is a van that drives around France in parallel with his expeditions, visiting schoolchildren to spread the word about scientific discoveries and monitoring in Antarctica.

“Our polar oceans are truly the air conditioning, the climate control system of our planet,” said Clément Le Potier, who leads the educational programme. “We must protect these polar regions, but to do that, we must first understand them better.”

Not making an effort to protect the area would be like “leaving the refrigerator door of our planet wide open,” he told RFI, quoting Etienne.

From research to action

Etienne’s latest expedition is just the tip of a new iceberg.

During the voyage, he will try out one of his new inventions, the Tipod – a floating platform used to collect samples and measure information from the ocean.

Developed in tandem with technical high school students in Albi, southern France, it’s a mini version of his next big project: the Polar Pod, a floating research station powered by wind turbines that he hopes to launch in the Antarctic Ocean in 2029.

Plunging into these projects, in a part of the world most people will never see, is the way Etienne finds the hope to carry on for future generations.

“We cannot protect what we do not know,” he says. “This mission is a link between scientific exploration and international political action.”

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

France’s law to ensure people ‘age well’ falls short of expectations

‘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.”

The Babayagas’ house, a feminist alternative to old people’s homes, opens in Paris

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.”

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)

This week, the European Union launched an investigation into the appearance in recent weeks of fake images of naked women on the social network X (formerly Twitter), some of them minors, generated by the platform’s artificial intelligence tool Grok.

In December, the social network was fined for non-compliance with European rules on digital services.

The owner of X, Elon Musk, responded by comparing the EU to Nazi Germany and calling for its abolition. Former French European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who initiated the regulation, has been banned from entering the United States.

On Monday, the European Commission said it had formally ​designated WhatsApp – owned by Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta – as a ‌”very large online platform” (VLOP) under the EU’s Digital Services ‌Act (DSA), thus binding it to carry out stricter moderation of illegal and harmful content.

‘A new battleground’: France takes its fight against disinformation online

Digital sovereignty as policy

The same day, France announced that all government agencies will adopt a new, domestically developed tool for video-conferencing, replacing US-developed tools such as Teams, Zoom and Google Meet.

The new tool, developed by the Interministerial Digital Directorate and named Visio, will be mandated from 2027, after which the government will no longer renew licences for US tools.

David Amiel, minister for the civil service and state reform, said: “This strategy highlights France’s commitment to digital sovereignty amid rising geopolitical tensions and fears of foreign surveillance or service disruptions.”

In a similar move in 2023, French officials were told to stop using foreign-made messaging services including WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram in favour of French apps such as Olvid and Tchap.

US condemns French inquiry into Elon Musk’s social media platform X

Security risks

However, on Monday evening, France’s Academy of Sciences discreetly welcomed one of the barons of the American techno-industrial complex, Peter Thiel, to Paris.

An early supporter of Donald Trump and financier of Vice-President JD Vance’s election campaigns, Thiel makes no secret of his contempt for democracy and his desire to see state structures run in entrepreneurial mode.

He is the co-founder of Palantir, a data-processing tool for governments which uses artificial intelligence to facilitate surveillance. It is currently used in the US by the ICE immigration police, which has come under fire after shooting dead two people in Minneapolis.

French government and lawmakers step up pressure over Capgemini’s ICE ties

But European intelligence services also use it, including the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) in France.

NGOs have flagged a risk to freedoms and the security of sensitive data controlled by a company close to the US government.

Initially presented as a temporary solution by the DGSI after the 2015 Paris terror attacks, the contract has been continuously renewed since then – most recently in December, for an additional three years.

This article was partially adapted from an article in French by RFI’s Guillaume Naudin, with newswires.

“It started with my grandmother. She had thyroid cancer during the Nineties. Then her first child, my auntie, had thyroid cancer too.” 

Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross was a child in Tahiti when France last exploded a nuclear bomb. She has few memories of the years when her home was a testing ground, but they have changed the course of her life.   

“My mum had thyroid problems… And also, my sister had thyroid problems. She has to take medication for the rest of her life. My auntie also got breast cancer a few years ago.  

“And I have had chronic myeloid leukaemia since I was 24 years old.” 

France tested nuclear weapons in Polynesia for 30 years. The explosions started in 1966, after France had already tested several bombs in the Algerian Sahara.  

After Algeria claimed independence, France moved the tests to its colony in the South Pacific. They continued until 27 January 1996 – more than three years after the United States’ final test, four since the United Kingdom’s and five since the Soviet Union’s. 

France chose two uninhabited atolls as its test sites, Moruroa and Fangataufa, which between them took the impact of 193 explosions – the biggest around 200 times more powerful than the bomb the US dropped on Hiroshima.  

At least 41 took place in the open air, before tests were moved underground in 1975. Mushroom clouds drifted over the ocean, carrying radiation to populated islands – including Tahiti, more than 1,200 kilometres away. 

Only in the years since the programme ended has the true impact come to light. While the French military measured radiation levels after each explosion, the data was kept secret until victims’ associations won a legal battle to have it partially declassified in 2013.  

“Around 20 boxes” of documents out of thousands were released in that first batch, according to Patrice Bouveret of the Observatoire des Armements, a Lyon-based campaign group that helped make them public. But the information was enough for journalists and researchers to map a far broader pattern of exposure than France had ever publicly acknowledged. 

One 1974 test alone exposed an estimated 110,000 people to more than the annual “safe” dose of radiation, according to a 2021 investigation led by public-interest newsroom Disclose.  

The revelations pushed French President Emmanuel Macron to order the opening of all archives – with the exception of details that might suggest how to build a nuclear device. Tens of thousands of documents have since been released and continue to lay bare the gap between what French authorities knew about the risks, and what they told those most affected. 

France ‘concealed devastation’ of nuclear tests in French Polynesia

‘Cocktails of cancer’

“Every family in French Polynesia has a lot of cancer. It’s just not one. Some have, as we say, cocktails of cancer,” says Morgant-Cross, today a member of the French Polynesian parliament and an anti-nuclear campaigner.  

“But it’s hard for them to think that it can be related to the nuclear tests because of the decades of French propaganda saying that French nuclear tests are clean.” 

Visiting Tahiti in September 1966, president Charles de Gaulle declared that all precautions had been taken to ensure the tests would “not cause any inconvenience whatsoever to the dear people of Polynesia”.  

Nearly three decades later, president Jacques Chirac – who ordered France’s final nuclear tests in 1995-96, reversing a moratorium that had halted the programme since 1992 – was still insisting that they had “strictly no ecological consequences”. 

For years, Polynesians were told their lifestyle and eating habits were to blame for health problems, according to Morgant-Cross. She only made the connection between her family’s history of cancer and the nuclear tests, she says, when she met survivors in other countries.  

Seeing the list of diseases that research has linked to radiation exposure, she realised the thyroid cancer that afflicted her relatives, as well as her own rare form of leukaemia, were among them. 

“These aren’t illnesses that show up immediately after an explosion,” says Bouveret. “It’s not like a week later you get sick. They develop a long time afterwards.” 

In 2023, France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research, Inserm, used declassified military data to estimate how much radiation thyroid cancer patients had been exposed to and calculate what role it played. Researchers said nuclear tests “are most likely responsible for a small increase in the incidence of thyroid cancers in French Polynesia” – though they warned the estimated doses were probably inaccurate.  

The difficulty of proving harm to health has been a barrier to compensation. France introduced a law in 2010 allowing victims to claim reparations from the state, but the criteria to qualify – which include demonstrating exposure to a certain level of radiation – have proved hard to meet. 

Only 1,026 people had successfully claimed by the end of 2024, Bouveret says – 607 in mainland France, 417 from Polynesia and two from Algeria. “It’s ridiculous when you consider the number of people who have been impacted by these diseases.” 

A bill to reform the law is before the French parliament. It would also bind the state to cover the costs of treating illnesses caused by radiation – estimated at some €855 million, and currently borne by French Polynesian social security. 

Paris owes a debt to French Polynesia, says Macron

A society upended

The broader consequences of France’s nuclear tests are even harder to quantify.  

The programme kicked off massive construction, drawing islanders to help build military bases and research stations. Many stayed to work at the new sites, concentrating the population and shifting labour away from traditional fishing and farming.  

Corals were flattened to make way for ships, which may have contributed to a dramatic rise in ciguatera – a type of food poisoning caused by eating fish sickened by toxins from plankton found on damaged reefs.  

“They really poisoned our main food,” says Morgant-Cross. “We eat fish from breakfast to dinner.” Today the archipelago is largely dependent on food shipped in from elsewhere, and like other parts of overseas France, suffers from high cost of living. 

As de Gaulle promised, the nuclear programme brought economic opportunities – but they depended on jobs and money provided by the French state, binding Polynesia ever more tightly to France.  

Bouveret believes that helped stymie the archipelago’s aspirations to independence. Now, given the costs of caring for nuclear victims and containing the lingering radiation on Moruroa and Fangataufa, he says separating from France looks “extremely difficult”.  

For Morgant-Cross, the first step is to “decolonise minds” and help Polynesians fathom the damage done. While she was at school in the 1990s, she recalls, children were still taught “we should be grateful” for the nuclear tests.  

Things have changed since then, but confronting the past remains difficult – and not only for the generation who remember when speaking out could cost people their jobs or lead to arrest.  

“As a mother of two boys, I really hope that they don’t have the burden of this issue like myself,” she says.  

“I felt some trauma, but without understanding where it came from. And I understood with my grandmother, when I saw the fear in her eyes… I saw how guilty she felt because of the leukaemia that I have. She felt that if she had protested more, maybe I would not be sick today. 

“It’s really traumatic for our people.” 

Listen to a version of this story on the Spotlight on France podcast, episode 139.

Gathered behind a banner reading “Citizens with the police, stop insecurity, stop impunity”, the protesters marched through central Paris.

“All cops are heroes” and “impunity breeds criminals” were among the slogans written on the demonstrators’ placards. The Marseillaise anthem was also heard during in the procession.

Several far-right politicians were in attendance including Paris mayoral candidates Sarah Knafo and Thierry Mariani as well as Marion Marechal, the niece of French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who was herself visiting eastern department of Moselle as part of the municipal election campaign.

France launches new tribunal to fight organised crime, drug trafficking networks

“It is a real shame to let police officers, very often, work in conditions that are even problematic from a health point of view,” Marine Le Pen told French news agency AFP.

She acknowledged that while “an effort” has been made in recent years, it was still “insufficient”.

Police are fed up

Ahead of the rallies, Fabien Vanhemelryck, head of the National Police Alliance, said he wanted to raise “awareness of a situation that is becoming very serious”.

“The national police can no longer do their job under normal conditions,” he told AFP on Friday.

Ziane Marouane, regional secretary for Nouvelle-Aquitaine branch of Alliance says police are “fed up”.

“Some police stations are falling into ruin. (…) We are 30 years behind other European police forces, and equipment, particularly cars, is in poor condition,” he says.

Present at the Paris demonstration, Gaëlle James, secretary general of the police officers’ union Synergie officiers, told AFP that officers had to fight “increasingly violent crime” and pointed to “a clear lack of resources, a lack of personnel and a lack of equipment”.

Ministers vow tough response as Marseille reels from gangland murder

David Leyraud, national supervisor of the union was at the demonstration in Toulouse, where organisers said around 1,000 people turned out.

“Across the country, violence is exploding, trafficking is thriving, networks are establishing themselves and the authority of the state is declining,” he said.

Thierry Simonet, a 74-year-old retiree from Toulouse, also joined the demonstration to “add to the numbers” in support of the police, “to show that they need our support,” he told AFP.

Marc, a police officer in Bordeaux, also deplores the delays and insufficient resources in the fight against drug trafficking: “Dealers have encrypted means of communication, powerful cars and work underground.”

Difficult situation

One of the protesters, who travelled to Paris from the eastern suburb of Fontenay-sous-Bois, said the situation was difficult.

“There is a lot of insecurity, and the courts especially aren’t doing their job,” said the 57-year-old IT worker, Jean Demetz.

In the southern city of Nice, several hundred police officers marched in a procession led by several right and far-right politicians like mayor Christian Estrosi and his rival Eric Ciotti.

Police smash Europe-wide synthetic drug ring in biggest bust yet

Alliance claimed that there were 45,000 demonstrators across France; 1,500 in Lyon, 400 in Lille and 400 in Marseille. The authorities have not yet released any national figures.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez was invited to participate in the rally, but he declined, citing a duty of neutrality.

According to Nunez, since 2017, 12,500 jobs have been created in the internal security forces, property loans have doubled and 19,000 vehicles have been purchased.

(with AFP)

The infant formula industry has been rocked in recent weeks by several firms recalling batches that could be contaminated with cereulide, which can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea.

“Protecting the health of infants is the top priority for health authorities,” the French agriculture ministry said late Friday.

The new threshold will be 0.014 micrograms of cereulide per kilogram of body weight, compared to 0.03 micrograms per kilogram of body weight, it said.

“France has chosen to anticipate new scientific recommendations,” the ministry added.

The recall of potentially contaminated infant formula has heaped scrutiny on Chinese firm Cabio Biotech, the supplier of an ingredient used in infant formula and suspected of being tainted.

The European Commission has asked the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to establish a standard for cereulide in children’s products.

It will issue an opinion on 2 February.

Investigations underway

Several manufacturers, including giants like Nestlé, Danone, and Lactalis have issued recalls of infant formula in France and dozens of countries since December.

“Testing for bacteria of the Bacillus cereus family is routinely offered,” Francois Vigneau of lab testing firm Eurofins said last week. He added however that tests for cereulide were “not part of standard checks.”

“In the current context of milk recalls, this test is currently being requested because all stakeholders in dairy products in general, and infant formula in particular, are concerned about the situation,” added Vigneau.

French dairy giant Lactalis recalls baby milk over bacteria fears

French authorities launched an investigation into the deaths in December and January of two babies who were thought to have drunk possibly contaminated powdered milk.

At this stage investigators have not established a direct link between the symptoms and the milk consumed.

Swiss food giant Nestlé this week acknowledged that it waited days for a health-risk analysis before alerting authorities after detecting a toxin in its baby milk at a Dutch factory.

But in an open letter to campaign group Foodwatch France Friday it denied accusations of negligence.

French newspaper Le Monde reported Friday that traces of cereulide had been found in late November – 10 days before the first recalls of the product – because the company waited for a “health risk analysis” before informing regulators.

Nestlé said in a statement online that routine checks at its Dutch plant at the end of November 2025 had detected “very low levels” of cereulide after new equipment was installed in a factory.

It argued that in the absence of “European regulations on the presence of cereulide in food”, it had followed standard procedures.

Legal complaint

The company said they had acted in December and January as soon as they had identified there was an issue.

“We recognize the stress and worry that the recall has caused for parents and caregivers,” the company said.

French authorities open judicial inquiry into food poisoning of children

“To date, we have not received any medical reports confirming a link to illness associated with our products,” it added.

The company has said from the start of the affair that the recall stemmed from a “quality issue” and that it had seen no evidence linking its products to illness.

Friday’s open letter responded to claims by Foodwatch France, which a day earlier announced it was filing a legal complaint in the French courts against Nestlé on behalf of several families whose babies had fallen ill.

(with AFP)

France has long been a launchpad for migrants hoping to cross the Channel and start a better life in Britain, where the centre-left Labour government is under pressure from the anti-immigration hard right to curb arrivals.

Despite the dangers, attempts to make the perilous journey in flimsy craft have “not slowed down”, said France’s maritime prefecture for the Channel and the North Sea (PREMAR).

Nearly 50,000 people aboard 795 boats attempted to cross the Channel from France to the United Kingdom in 2025, according to the report.

French authorities rescued 6,177 people, while 25 died, it said.

A tally compiled by French news agency AFP, based on official French and British sources, puts the total death toll at at least 29.

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

In its report, PREMAR warned that smugglers were exposing migrants to ever greater risks.

The number of people per boat continues to increase, the report said, rising from an average of 26 in 2021 to 63 in 2025 – with 10 boats that year having carried more than 100 people.

The authorities have also seen the continued use of so-called “taxi boats”, which leave shore discreetly and almost empty before picking up dozens of migrants wading into shallow waters.

The British authorities recorded 41,472 small-boat arrivals in 2025, the second-highest total after a record 45,774 in 2022.

Large migrant camp evacuated

Meanwhile, around 280 people were evacuated on Friday morning from the largest camp in the northern French city of Calais, where they were living in unsanitary conditions while waiting to make an illegal crossing to the UK.

Pas-de-Calais Police Chief François-Xavier Lauch told a press briefing that these kinds of camps are where smugglers operate.

Humanitarian groups challenge UK-France migration deal in French court

“If we want to prevent these crossings and human tragedies, we must take action in these gathering places,” he said, adding that the size of the camp had now been halved.

Of those evacuated, 260 were taken to reception centres and 21 were placed in detention to await processing. 

“Many people have arrived at this camp over the last month, having been evicted from other places in Calais,” Ulysse Gallardo from the Humans Rights Observers NGO told AFP.

(with AFP)

Every afternoon at four o’clock, Joseph Otieno unlocks a dented metal door at the edge of Kibera, Nairobi. The sign above the door reads “Community Library” – painted by hand and fading.

Inside, there is no electricity, no computers, and no matching chairs. Three uneven shelves hold fewer than 200 books, their spines softened by years of use. Still, the children begin arriving before Joseph finishes sweeping the floor, quietly lining up with exercise books pressed to their chests.

Joseph is not a teacher, or a trained librarian. For most of his working life, the 62-year-old was a railway clerk, checking cargo manifests and recording arrivals. When the railways downsized, he retired early and returned to Kibera. “This place raised me,” he says. “Even when it was hard, it did not throw me away.”

The rocket builder sending Kenyan kids’ imaginations into orbit

Abandoned books

The library began almost accidentally. During the Covid-19 pandemic, an informal school nearby shut down permanently. Its desks were removed and its roof dismantled. One morning, Joseph noticed a pile of books dumped outside the locked gate, the pages curling. He carried them home in plastic bags, five or six at a time.

At first, he lent out the books from his sitting room. Five children came the first week, sitting on the floor and reading aloud. Then 10. Parents began to complain about the noise and the crowd – space in Kibera is carefully negotiated.

Joseph found an abandoned shed nearby and convinced the owner to rent it to him for 8,000 shillings a month, which he paid from his pension. He moved the books there and opened the door every afternoon.

“If the books disappear, so does the future they are pointing to.” he says, explaining his motivation.

Stigma and sisterhood: how one Kenyan woman knitted a healthcare revolution

A future engineer

One of the regular visitors is 13-year-old Aisha Hassan. Her family of five shares a single room a few minutes’ walk away. There is no table, and evenings are noisy with radios, conversations and the clatter of cooking pots.

At the library, Aisha sits by the doorway to catch the light, tracing words with her finger when the sentences become difficult. She wants to be an engineer, although she has never met one. Last year, she came top of her class.

“Baba Joseph tells us knowledge is a tool,” Aisha says. “If you lose it, you are empty-handed.”

The challenges of keeping the library open are constant. When it rains, sewage backs up and floods the floor, forcing Joseph to lift the books on to plastic crates.

Two books were stolen last month, likely sold for scrap. Joseph records every loan in a handwritten ledger, listing names, dates and small fines, that almost no one can afford to pay. He does not insist on payment. The system, he says, is mostly symbolic.

When asked why he continues, Joseph shrugs: “If I close, the children will not protest. They will just adjust to less. That is how people survive here: by adjusting downward.”

‘Please buy more books’

On most days, Joseph stays in the library until dusk. He helps the younger children sound out words and settles disputes over whose turn it is to read a popular book. He does not lecture or motivate. He only insists on quiet and that they take care of the books.

“I want them to be familiar with books,” he says. “So later, they are not afraid of them.”

The karate grannies of Korogocho, fighting back at any age

Last week, Joseph received a letter delivered by hand. It came from a former student who is now studying at a college in Eldoret, in the west of Kenya. Inside was a folded 1,000-shilling note and a short message: “I learned to read here. Please buy more books.”

Joseph read it twice, then folded it neatly and placed it inside a dictionary – the thickest book on the shelf, and the one the children struggle with most.

At four o’clock the next day, Joseph unlocked the door again. The children slipped inside one by one, choosing books they already know by heart.

Dickson is a Nigerian policy analyst and team lead at the community peacebuilding organisation Tattaaunawa Roundtable Initiative (TRICentre).

RFI: Did Abuja really ask for the strikes?

Prince Charles Dickson: On paper, yes. US Africa Command and Nigerian officials have both said the strikes were carried out “in coordination with, and at the request of” the Nigerian government, specifically targeting ISIS-linked cells in Sokoto.

But inside Nigeria it doesn’t feel like a sovereign, well-debated decision. There was no transparent public debate, no prior explanation to citizens or parliament, and the announcement came after the missiles had already landed.

So formally, Abuja is saying “we asked for this”, but politically it feels more like a government trying to retake the narrative after Washington moved and framed it as a Christmas strike to save Nigerian Christians. 

Where did the strikes actually land, and who lives there?

The targets were in rural Sokoto, around Tangaza LGA and the Bauni forest, in communities that are overwhelmingly Muslim and have lived for years in the grey zone between “bandits”, jihadist factions, self-defence groups and ordinary villagers. 

So, there is a stark disconnect: the political rhetoric in the US talked about protecting Christians and stopping “genocide”, but the missiles landed in an area that is not a Christian enclave and is far away from the Plateau/Benue belt that is usually invoked in those narratives. 

On the ground, many people don’t recognise the neat labels used in Washington: they experience violence, extortion, raids and fear, but they don’t necessarily see a clearly branded “ISIS” presence. That doesn’t mean there are no jihadist cells; it means the language of “we hit ISIS, therefore we helped the civilians” is far more contested when you talk to those civilians themselves.

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

Do you fear further attacks and civilians being hit?

Yes, I am worried. Nigerians were already traumatised by our own military’s record of “mistaken” strikes on villages and religious gatherings, like Tudun Biri in Kaduna in 2023, where scores of worshippers were killed by a Nigerian drone. 

When you add US cruise missiles into that landscape – long-range weapons guided by intelligence that is partly remote, partly political, and rarely accountable to the communities below – the risk is not abstract. Even if the first round of strikes had hit only militants, people here know how quickly bad intel, pressure to “show results”, or misreading of local dynamics can turn into civilian graves.

Is it a scary precedent for Nigeria and for Africa?

I think it is a deeply troubling precedent. For the first time since independence, a foreign power has carried out declared, unilateral combat strikes on Nigerian soil, and our government has essentially validated that as acceptable practice. 

It normalises the idea that when domestic security becomes messy and politically embarrassing, you can outsource part of the problem to a foreign military and then wrap it in the language of “joint operations” and “counter-terrorism”.

For Africa more broadly, it reinforces the message that external kinetic fixes are still on the table, even when the root causes are governance failures, land disputes, economic exclusion and arms proliferation.

From a peacebuilding perspective, it also hardens the religious framing. Once the US President Donald Trump says he is bombing Nigeria to save Christians, it feeds a dangerous narrative on both sides: in some Christian circles, it confirms a siege mentality; in some Muslim communities, it reinforces the belief that there is a coordinated Western-Christian project against them. That is combustible material in a region already on edge. 

Nigerian mixed-faith families sense danger as violence flares

Does Nigeria want regional bodies Ecowas and the African Union to be consulted?

Will Ecowas and the African Union talk about it? They should, at the very least behind closed doors. This touches regional security doctrine, norms on foreign bases and strikes, and the already fragile legitimacy of Ecowas after so many coups and withdrawals. 

My sense is that any discussion will be cautious and quiet. Nigeria is still a central player in Ecowas and in AU peace and security structures. Many leaders will be reluctant to publicly criticise Abuja at a time when they also rely on Western military partnerships.

I would not be surprised if it surfaces on the margins of the AU summit [in Addis Ababa on 11-15 February] as part of a broader conversation about external military actors in the Sahel, rather than as a dedicated agenda item on “US strikes in Nigeria”.

How do you see the fight against jihadism unfolding?

From where I sit in Jos, this feels less like a turning point in the “war on terror” and more like a warning sign about how easily African lives can become props in someone else’s domestic politics. Nigerians – Muslim and Christian – are exhausted by violence.

They want safety, justice, functioning institutions, and dignity. They want their government to be strong enough to protect them, but also humble enough to be accountable to them, not to foreign applause.

If there is any hope in this moment, it is that it might force a more honest conversation here at home: about how we define threats, whose pain counts, and who gets to decide when bombs fall on Nigerian soil.

With the end of the Syrian civil war, Turkey claims that nearly a million refugees who were living there have already returned home.

Their departure is being welcomed by the Turkish government, amid growing public animosity over the presence of more than 3 million refugees.

But for many Turkish companies, Syrians are an economic lifeline – as seen in Gaziantep, an industrial city close to the Syrian border. 

The Inci Boya company is one of hundreds of small factories and workshops in the city. With a couple of dozen workers, hundreds of pieces of furniture are spray-painted each day. With long hours in air thick with dust, it’s arduous, dirty work. As in many factories in Gaziantep, Syrians make up a large share of the workforce. 

“I can’t get people from my own community to work in my sector,” explains owner Halil Yarabay. “Many workshop owners and many businesses are unfortunately experiencing this.”

He blames societal changes, “Our children, our youth… they consider such work beneath them. They consider they’ve failed in their family’s eyes by working with their hands as a furniture maker or a mechanic.”

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

Realities of returning

But local authorities claim nearly 100,000 Syrians have already left the city – including including several who worked at Inci Boya.

During a welcome tea break, the topic of going home is on everyone’s tongue. Ahmed Hac Hussein has been working there for more than five years. He, too, is thinking of leaving.

“Many people are returning,  I have a relative who moves a family back to Syria every day,” he said. “For me, I lived in Aleppo for 35 years. I have so many friends there, I haven’t seen them for 14 years. I have three sisters there, and I haven’t seen them either. I want to go.”

However, Hussein, who lost his home in the war, acknowledges that the economic realities in Syria make returning difficult.

“You need to have money to pay the monthly rent. You need a job, but there is no work. My brother went back to Aleppo, but he says business is too slow.”

Listening is Hussein’s son, Ibrahim, who started working here a year ago after leaving school. He feels differently: “I grew up here; this place became my second home. I love it here a lot. I was two years old when I came here, and I never went back. I don’t want to go back.”

Demographic time bomb

Turkish companies such as Inci Boya will be hoping many Syrians feel the same as Ibrahim, claims Atilla Yesilada, Turkey’s economic analyst for consultancy Global Source Partners.

He says around 900,000 Syrians work in small businesses and factories across Turkey.

“They’ve filled all the low-paying jobs. Without Syrians, business owners say they’ll go bankrupt, since that keeps costs down.”

This reliance on Syrian workers, and their departure, also comes as Turkey faces a demographic time bomb. “The birth rate has declined substantially. The Turkish birth rate is 1.5, and you know, replacement is 2.1,” Yesilada added.

He warns the outlook for Turkey is grim, given the experience of other countries. “[The birthrate is] coming down significantly, and it’s been going down for 20 years.… [the example of] China shows that there is nothing you can do about it.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently called on families to “serve the nation” by having at least three children. His minister of family and social services claimed nearly half of Turkish families didn’t have children.

To attract workers, visa and work permit restrictions were lifted last year for all Turkic Central Asian nations.

Turkey blocks calls for regime change in Iran as protests escalate

Rising costs

But at the Inci Boya factory, owner Halil Yarabay is already counting the cost of Syrians leaving, and says a bidding war to keep these workers is beginning.

“Labour costs are rising. Employees we paid 10,000 TL a week now cost up to 15,000,” he said.

Some larger companies in Gaziantep – such as Tat Holding, which makes furniture and sweets among many other products – are even considering following their workers back to Syria, says its CEO Salih Balta. 

“Syria is close to Gaziantep and allows us to produce and export at up to 35 percent lower cost,” he explained.

Balta claims that producing in Syria – a member of the Arab League – would allow his company to export tax-free to 17 Arab countries under its free trade agreement. “For us, the Gulf countries are a very important market,” he said.

Gaziantep, along with many cities across Turkey, has seen protests against Syrian incomers. Several polls have found that the majority of people want them to return. But this could ultimately prove a double-edged sword, as businesses face growing economic pain over the loss of their Syrian workforce.

Armed men on motorcycles attacked Diori Hamani International Airport, outside Niger’s capital Niamey, shortly before midnight on Wednesday.

Niger’s state broadcaster reported loud explosions and heavy gunfire at the airport, which also hosts a military base.

The defence ministry said four members of the security forces were injured, 20 attackers were killed and 11 people were arrested during what security sources described as a terrorist attack.

State television said one of the attackers killed was a French national, without providing evidence.

Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on ​Friday, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadist activity ‍and communications worldwide.

It described the assault as a “surprise and coordinated attack” that inflicted “significant damage”, but provided no details.

Threats of retaliation

After visiting the air base, Tiani thanked Russia for helping repel the attack.

“We commend all the defence and security forces, as well as Russian partners who defended their security sector with professionalism,” he said on state radio.

He accused French President Emmanuel Macron, Benin’s President Patrice Talon and Cote d’Ivoire’s President Alassane Ouattara of backing the attackers.

“We remind the sponsors of these mercenaries, notably Emmanuel Macron, Patrice Talon and Alassane Ouattara: we’ve heard them bark, they should be ready to hear us roar,” he said.

Wilfried Leandre ‍Houngbedji, spokesperson for Benin’s government, said on Friday: “[Tiani] is the only one to believe that nonsense.”

Defence Minister Salifou Modi said on state television that the attackers targeted the air base for “about 30 minutes” before an “air and ground response” was launched.

Public television broadcast images showing several bloodied bodies on the ground and repeated that a French national was among those killed, without providing evidence.

Concerns mount as Russian troops take over US base in Niger

Uranium and drones

Analysts said the attackers may have been trying to destroy military drones stationed at the base.

Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel programme at Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said drones had become central to the conflict between armies and jihadist groups.

“Drones have become a game changer for both sides, army and jihadists, so the attackers wanted to eliminate the latest Turkish arms deliveries,” he told the Associated Press.

Niger has recently acquired Turkish drones, according to local media.

The attackers may also have been drawn to a shipment of uranium that has been stuck at the airport amid legal and diplomatic disputes with France.

Niger is a major uranium producer.

Authorities moved uranium oxide concentrate, known as yellowcake, late last year from the Somair mine in Arlit to the Niamey base after taking control of the mine from French nuclear group Orano.

Security sources told Reuters the uranium was not affected by the attack.

Niger embraces Russia for uranium production leaving France out in the cold

Regional tensions

Niger’s military seized power in a July 2023 coup and has since been battling jihadist violence, like neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali.

All three countries have cut ties with Western partners and turned to Russia for military support.

Relations between Niger, France and Benin remain tense, with Niger’s authorities regularly accusing both countries of trying to destabilise the country, accusations they deny.

The Islamic State affiliate in the region has been linked to high-profile attacks in ​Niger in recent months, killing over 120 people in the Tillaberi ​region in September and abducting an American pilot in October.

(with newswires)

Clashes have taken place in recent days between Tigrayan forces and the Ethiopian federal army in the remote area of ​​Tsemlet, western Tigray.

Occupied by the authorities of the neighbouring Amhara region since the war, this territory has been regularly plagued by fighting since 2023.

Diplomatic and government sources acknowledged that the clashes broke out in the disputed western Tigray earlier this week.

In a letter addressed to the chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, the Tigrayan interim administration calls for “immediate action to avoid an imminent war”.

“The repercussions of a new conflict would be catastrophic and irreversible” and “would plunge the region into a wider conflict,” it said.

Ethiopia’s Tigray rebels start disarming under terms of Pretoria peace deal

Shortage of cash

“Everyone is scared and still traumatised by the war,” one resident of Mekele told RFI’s correspondent, who had seen local people rushing to grocery stores to stock up.

Another resident, a 26-year-old man, told news agencies that he had unsuccessfully tried to send a package by air to his sister in Addis.

“I was told that flights have been cancelled starting from this morning. There is also a shortage of cash,” he said, adding he had tried to withdraw money from a cash machine but that most were not working.

Ethiopian Airlines cancelled flights to Tigray on Thursday. “As of today, all flights have been cancelled,” the official for Ethiopia’s national carrier told news agencies, without giving a reason.

A senior Tigrayan official said the regional government had reached out to the federal capital Addis Ababa to seek an explanation for the flight cancellations, but had received no response.

A year after the ceasefire in Tigray, Ethiopia is little closer to peace

Fear of renewed conflict

Ethiopia’s national army fought fighters from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front for two years until late 2022, in a conflict that researchers say killed hundreds of thousands of people, and caused famine and the collapse of healthcare.

The war ended with a peace pact in November 2022, but disagreements have continued over a range of issues, including contested territories in western Tigray and the delayed disarmament of Tigrayan forces.

Western Tigray is claimed by both Amhara and Tigray as part of their region, although it is now controlled by Amhara forces and the Ethiopian military.

A journalist in Mekele told news agencies “there is increasing anxiety” but said they did not know the “intensity of fighting so far”.

Senior officials from the Ethiopian and Tigrayan governments said they hoped for a de-escalation of tensions.

(with newswires)

Royal, who now heads up the France-Algeria Association, an organisation that promotes friendship and cooperation between the two countries, met with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Friday morning, before visiting Gleizes.

She had received permission to visit the French journalist following his transfer from a prison in Tizi Ouzou in the region of Kabylie to Koléa prison, close to Algiers.

“I met someone with great inner strength, who is determined to keep going,” Royal told newspaper Le Parisien shortly after their meeting on Friday.

“He is being treated well, reads a lot, exercises, and follows the news. He wants to continue pursuing journalism, his passion, as soon as possible.”

Gleizes’ mother, Sylvie Godard, described Royal’s visit as “quite exceptional”.

The sports journalist is serving a seven-year sentence on charges of “glorifying terrorism” over his alleged ties to the separatist movement, the Movement for the Self-determination of Kabylie (MAK), which Algiers has declared a terrorist organisation.

His conviction, which was upheld on appeal, followed his arrest in May 2024 while he was carrying out an investigation into a Kabyle football club.

It has drawn criticism from human rights groups and sparked outcry in France. Gleizes’ parents have called on Tebboune to pardon their son.

Tensions between Algeria and France escalated after France recognised a Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara in 2024. Algeria, which supports the Polisario Front’s independence movement, saw France’s stance as an affront.

Apart from Archbishop Jean-Paul Vesco, Royal is the first public figure to meet with Gleizes in prison.

She sees her visit as a step towards rebuilding trust, telling reporters she was “very honoured” to talk with the Algerian leader and that he was open to discussions “when respect and consideration are present”.

Algeria freezes ties with French Senate in latest salvo in Western Sahara dispute

‘Feeling powerless’

On Thursday, family, friends and supporters of Gleizes gathered for a concert at the Bataclan in Paris to push for his release. The benefit concert was organised by NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Godard read out a message from her son: “Thanks to you, I do not feel alone, and we’ll soon be reunited.”

Gleizes, a contributor to the French magazines So Foot and Society, was arrested on 28 May last year and has been imprisoned in Algeria since the end of June 2025.

“At the time, we were promised that he would be back within the week. And now, actually, it’s been a long time,” said Franck Annese, director of So Foot magazine. “It would be good if people got moving a bit – and people in higher places too. Because we feel very powerless.”

Vikash Dhorasoo, a former international football player, was among those at the benefit concert.

“What I would really like is for other major footballers to speak out. You know which important players could bring a lot of weight to his fight?” he asked the crowd.

The audience fired back with the name Zinedine Zidane – the French footballing legend, who has Kabyle ancestry.

With Franco-Algerian relations at an all-time low, can they get back on track?

Algeria has invited France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez for talks with his counterpart, but these are yet to materialise.

“We are reaching out to Algeria on a number of issues. We must seize this opportunity,” the minister told France Inter radio on Friday.

“We are expecting significant progress on two issues,” he said, citing Gleizes’ situation and the repatriation of undocumented Algerians from France.  The government says it is open to overhauling a 1968 migration agreement, which followed decolonisation, allowing Algerians to easily obtain French residency. 

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 13 December, I asked you a question about the then-new US security strategy, which presented Europe as lacking in “self-confidence” and facing “civilizational erasure” due to immigration.

You were to re-read our article “EU Council president rejects political influence in US security plan”, and send in the answer to this question: What did the EU Council president, Antonio Costa, say about the difference in the idea of “free speech” between Europe and the United States?

The answer is, to quote our article: “The United States cannot replace Europe in what its vision is of freedom of expression,” Costa said.

“There is no freedom of speech if citizens’ freedom of information is sacrificed to defend the techno oligarchs in the United States.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by RFI Listeners Club member Jayanta Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India. Jayanta’s question was: “What inspiring act have you witnessed that could motivate a nation or society?”

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Khizar Hayat Shah from Punjab, Pakistan. Khizar is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations on your double win, Khizar.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Faheem Noor, the president of the World United RFI Listeners Organization in Nankana Sahib, Pakistan, and RFI Listeners Club members Solomon Fessahazion from Asmara, Eritrea, as well as Deekay Dimple from Assam, India.

Last but not least, there’s RFI English listener Liton Hossain Khan from Naogaon in Bangladesh.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Scherzo” from the Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57, by Dmitri Shostakovich, performed by the Quintetto Chigiano; “What’s Going On?” by Marvin Gaye, Al Cleveland, and Reynaldo Benson, performed by Marvin Gaye; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “ Pithecanthropus Erectus” by Charles Mingus, performed by Mingus and his ensemble.

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, tune into Alison Hird’s report on alternative retirement living on the “Spotlight on France” podcast number 138 (Reinventing retirement, saving a Paris cinema, counting the French), which will help you with the answer.

You have until 23 February to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 28 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. 

Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby held talks with Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace on Thursday, after the French president personally welcomed him in the palace courtyard.

The two leaders pledged what they called a “revitalised partnership, based on mutual respect and shared interests”, according to a joint statement issued after their meeting.

Relations between Paris and N’Djamena cooled sharply in 2025, after Chadian authorities scrapped a military cooperation agreement between the two countries.

That decision led to the withdrawal of the last French troops from Chad by 31 January 2025, when they completed the handover of their final base.

Thursday’s meeting was presented by both sides as an attempt to turn the page and rebuild the relationship on new foundations.

The statement said the two leaders had “agreed on a series of orientations that will serve as the guiding thread for revitalising the Franco-Chadian partnership in areas of shared interest”.

Macron’s Africa ‘reset’ stumbles as leaders call out colonial overtones

Economic reset

Chad is seeking financial support and new investors, a priority highlighted by N’Djamena after the talks. That approach aligns with France’s desire to adopt “an economic and cultural prism” in its relations with African countries, the Élysée said.

No specific financial commitments were announced, and no public statements were made on security issues, but both countries said their interests remain aligned.

France sees Chad as a partner on the African continent, and in a region viewed as particularly unstable.

For Chad, the relationship provides support from a reliable ally, at a time when the diversification of its security partnerships has not produced the expected results.

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

Sudan crisis

Macron and Deby also discussed the conflict in Sudan, described in the joint statement as the main regional crisis.

They urged the warring parties to implement the humanitarian truce proposed by the so-called Quad group – made up of the United States, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

France declined to comment on Chad’s role, while both leaders called for “an international environment conducive to a resolution of the conflict, preserving the unity and territorial integrity of the country”.

The statement said talks between France and Chad would continue, to ensure the implementation and monitoring of commitments made on both sides.

Saying he wants to lower the price of medication in the United States, President Donald Trump has been putting pressure on French President Emmanuel Macron to raise the cost of an unspecified pill in France. But it’s the French public health system, not Macron, that negotiates with drug companies – keeping prices for patients in check. Sociologist Theo Bourgeron believes that Trump’s demand is not about improving care, but pressuring countries to weaken price controls and boost US pharmaceutical profits. (Listen @0′)

More than a third of the French claim they’re not drinking this month to mark Dry January. It’s part of a wider trend of falling alcohol consumption in France, particularly among young adults. But in a country famed for its wine and apéro culture, sobriety can be seen as irritating and “un-French”. We visit Le Social Bar in Paris, which has gone alcohol-free for January to show you don’t need to be tipsy to have a good time. Author Claire Touzard talks about her journey towards sobriety and why alcohol, far from encouraging conviviality, can end up excluding people. And journalist Vincent Edin argues that while France is becoming slightly more tolerant of non-drinkers, successive governments still struggle to recognise that alcoholism is a problem. (Listen @20’15”)

France conducted its final nuclear test on 27 January 1996, ending a programme that has left a lasting legacy of health problems in French Polynesia, the archipelago in the South Pacific that for 30 years was France’s nuclear testing ground. Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross, a member of the French Polynesian parliament, says the consequences of the testing have been “really traumatic for our people”. (Listen @13’50”)

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani.

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

With the end of the Syrian civil war, Turkey claims that nearly a million refugees who were living there have already returned home.

Their departure is being welcomed by the Turkish government, amid growing public animosity over the presence of more than 3 million refugees.

But for many Turkish companies, Syrians are an economic lifeline – as seen in Gaziantep, an industrial city close to the Syrian border. 

The Inci Boya company is one of hundreds of small factories and workshops in the city. With a couple of dozen workers, hundreds of pieces of furniture are spray-painted each day. With long hours in air thick with dust, it’s arduous, dirty work. As in many factories in Gaziantep, Syrians make up a large share of the workforce. 

“I can’t get people from my own community to work in my sector,” explains owner Halil Yarabay. “Many workshop owners and many businesses are unfortunately experiencing this.”

He blames societal changes, “Our children, our youth… they consider such work beneath them. They consider they’ve failed in their family’s eyes by working with their hands as a furniture maker or a mechanic.”

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

Realities of returning

But local authorities claim nearly 100,000 Syrians have already left the city – including including several who worked at Inci Boya.

During a welcome tea break, the topic of going home is on everyone’s tongue. Ahmed Hac Hussein has been working there for more than five years. He, too, is thinking of leaving.

“Many people are returning,  I have a relative who moves a family back to Syria every day,” he said. “For me, I lived in Aleppo for 35 years. I have so many friends there, I haven’t seen them for 14 years. I have three sisters there, and I haven’t seen them either. I want to go.”

However, Hussein, who lost his home in the war, acknowledges that the economic realities in Syria make returning difficult.

“You need to have money to pay the monthly rent. You need a job, but there is no work. My brother went back to Aleppo, but he says business is too slow.”

Listening is Hussein’s son, Ibrahim, who started working here a year ago after leaving school. He feels differently: “I grew up here; this place became my second home. I love it here a lot. I was two years old when I came here, and I never went back. I don’t want to go back.”

Demographic time bomb

Turkish companies such as Inci Boya will be hoping many Syrians feel the same as Ibrahim, claims Atilla Yesilada, Turkey’s economic analyst for consultancy Global Source Partners.

He says around 900,000 Syrians work in small businesses and factories across Turkey.

“They’ve filled all the low-paying jobs. Without Syrians, business owners say they’ll go bankrupt, since that keeps costs down.”

This reliance on Syrian workers, and their departure, also comes as Turkey faces a demographic time bomb. “The birth rate has declined substantially. The Turkish birth rate is 1.5, and you know, replacement is 2.1,” Yesilada added.

He warns the outlook for Turkey is grim, given the experience of other countries. “[The birthrate is] coming down significantly, and it’s been going down for 20 years.… [the example of] China shows that there is nothing you can do about it.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently called on families to “serve the nation” by having at least three children. His minister of family and social services claimed nearly half of Turkish families didn’t have children.

To attract workers, visa and work permit restrictions were lifted last year for all Turkic Central Asian nations.

Turkey blocks calls for regime change in Iran as protests escalate

Rising costs

But at the Inci Boya factory, owner Halil Yarabay is already counting the cost of Syrians leaving, and says a bidding war to keep these workers is beginning.

“Labour costs are rising. Employees we paid 10,000 TL a week now cost up to 15,000,” he said.

Some larger companies in Gaziantep – such as Tat Holding, which makes furniture and sweets among many other products – are even considering following their workers back to Syria, says its CEO Salih Balta. 

“Syria is close to Gaziantep and allows us to produce and export at up to 35 percent lower cost,” he explained.

Balta claims that producing in Syria – a member of the Arab League – would allow his company to export tax-free to 17 Arab countries under its free trade agreement. “For us, the Gulf countries are a very important market,” he said.

Gaziantep, along with many cities across Turkey, has seen protests against Syrian incomers. Several polls have found that the majority of people want them to return. But this could ultimately prove a double-edged sword, as businesses face growing economic pain over the loss of their Syrian workforce.

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 13 December, I asked you a question about the then-new US security strategy, which presented Europe as lacking in “self-confidence” and facing “civilizational erasure” due to immigration.

You were to re-read our article “EU Council president rejects political influence in US security plan”, and send in the answer to this question: What did the EU Council president, Antonio Costa, say about the difference in the idea of “free speech” between Europe and the United States?

The answer is, to quote our article: “The United States cannot replace Europe in what its vision is of freedom of expression,” Costa said.

“There is no freedom of speech if citizens’ freedom of information is sacrificed to defend the techno oligarchs in the United States.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by RFI Listeners Club member Jayanta Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India. Jayanta’s question was: “What inspiring act have you witnessed that could motivate a nation or society?”

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Khizar Hayat Shah from Punjab, Pakistan. Khizar is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations on your double win, Khizar.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Faheem Noor, the president of the World United RFI Listeners Organization in Nankana Sahib, Pakistan, and RFI Listeners Club members Solomon Fessahazion from Asmara, Eritrea, as well as Deekay Dimple from Assam, India.

Last but not least, there’s RFI English listener Liton Hossain Khan from Naogaon in Bangladesh.

Congratulations winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Scherzo” from the Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57, by Dmitri Shostakovich, performed by the Quintetto Chigiano; “What’s Going On?” by Marvin Gaye, Al Cleveland, and Reynaldo Benson, performed by Marvin Gaye; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “ Pithecanthropus Erectus” by Charles Mingus, performed by Mingus and his ensemble.

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

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, tune into Alison Hird’s report on alternative retirement living on the “Spotlight on France” podcast number 138 (Reinventing retirement, saving a Paris cinema, counting the French), which will help you with the answer.

You have until 23 February to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 28 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. 

Saying he wants to lower the price of medication in the United States, President Donald Trump has been putting pressure on French President Emmanuel Macron to raise the cost of an unspecified pill in France. But it’s the French public health system, not Macron, that negotiates with drug companies – keeping prices for patients in check. Sociologist Theo Bourgeron believes that Trump’s demand is not about improving care, but pressuring countries to weaken price controls and boost US pharmaceutical profits. (Listen @0′)

More than a third of the French claim they’re not drinking this month to mark Dry January. It’s part of a wider trend of falling alcohol consumption in France, particularly among young adults. But in a country famed for its wine and apéro culture, sobriety can be seen as irritating and “un-French”. We visit Le Social Bar in Paris, which has gone alcohol-free for January to show you don’t need to be tipsy to have a good time. Author Claire Touzard talks about her journey towards sobriety and why alcohol, far from encouraging conviviality, can end up excluding people. And journalist Vincent Edin argues that while France is becoming slightly more tolerant of non-drinkers, successive governments still struggle to recognise that alcoholism is a problem. (Listen @20’15”)

France conducted its final nuclear test on 27 January 1996, ending a programme that has left a lasting legacy of health problems in French Polynesia, the archipelago in the South Pacific that for 30 years was France’s nuclear testing ground. Hinamoeura Morgant-Cross, a member of the French Polynesian parliament, says the consequences of the testing have been “really traumatic for our people”. (Listen @13’50”)

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani.

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

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.

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.