Caroline Lang, a film producer and former actor, resigned on Monday as president of the Independent Production Union (SPI), just three weeks after taking up the role.

Her decision followed investigative reports detailing her and her father’s historical connections to Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

“I do not want this situation to in any way harm the union,” Caroline Lang said in a statement announcing her resignation.

Eighty-six-year-old Jack Lang, who served for nearly two decades as culture and education minister under several governments, said he had been introduced to Epstein around 15 years ago by the American actor and director Woody Allen, and insisted that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities at the time.

French former minister lashes out at paedophilia rumours

Family ties under scrutiny

According to the French daily Le Monde, Jack Lang maintained sporadic contact with Epstein over several years and at times requested practical favours, including use of the financier’s car or private plane for himself or family members.

Further details were reported by investigative outlet Mediapart, which revealed that Epstein founded a company in 2016 based in the US Virgin Islands, with half of its shares held by Caroline Lang.

The company, Prytanee LLC, was reportedly intended to support investments in art.

Mediapart stressed that none of the US Justice Department documents it reviewed suggested that either Jack or Caroline Lang had been implicated in Epstein’s sexual crimes.

Caroline Lang described Epstein as an “acquaintance” and a “generous sponsor”, saying they had discussed setting up an art investment fund but that she had not received any money from it.

She told Mediapart that while Epstein’s lawyers had established the company, she herself had not invested financially, instead contributing her knowledge of art.

Looking back, she said she had been “incredibly naive”.

At least 60 arrested in crackdown on French paedophile rings

Statements, denials and fallout

Jack Lang, who has served as president of the Paris-based Arab World Institute since 2013, said he was “completely shocked” when Epstein’s crimes became public.

“I fully accept the ties I may have formed at a time when nothing suggested that Jeffrey Epstein could be at the heart of a criminal network,” he said in a statement. “Had I known, I would have immediately cut off all contact with him.”

Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while facing federal charges of trafficking underage girls.

His death did not end public interest in his network, with newly released documents continuing to prompt scrutiny of figures who crossed his path.

Paris court upholds Polanski acquittal in defamation case

Among those named in the latest tranche of files is French conductor and composer Frederic Chaslin, who has strongly rejected suggestions arising from a 2013 email exchange with Epstein.

In the email, Chaslin wrote that he had “found a formidable girl” for Epstein’s next stay in Paris – a phrase that has since drawn criticism.

In a Facebook post responding to reporting by Diapason magazine, Chaslin said it was “totally unacceptable and false” to suggest he had procured a woman for Epstein.

He said the financier had asked him to recommend an interpreter to accompany him on museum visits, and that this was the sole purpose of the message.

The email described a 21-year-old philosophy student who, Chaslin wrote, resembled the wife of director Roman Polanski.

At the time the email was sent, Epstein had already been convicted in Florida of soliciting an underage person for prostitution.

(with newswires)

On Monday, French lawmakers rejected two attempts by hard-left and far-right parties to bring down the government, clearing the way for final approval of the 2026 budget spending plan.

The votes followed Lecornu’s decision on Friday to force the budget through parliament without a vote for the third and final time – a move that proved controversial, but ultimately decisive.

“France finally has a budget,” Lecornu wrote on X, welcoming what he called a “parliamentary compromise” that curbs public spending while avoiding tax hikes for households and businesses.

The outcome ends a four-month stalemate that had paralysed decision-making on government finances.

The prime minister had previously acknowledged a “partial failure” when he reversed an earlier pledge not to rely on the constitutional fast-track mechanism known as Article 49.3.

Yet the 39-year-old managed to navigate the impasse by making concessions to the Socialists, a key swing group in the fractured National Assembly.

He had already weathered two earlier rounds of no-confidence votes triggered by the same procedure. Speaking ahead of Monday’s ballots, Lecornu criticised those seeking to “reject everything”, singling out the far-right National Rally and the hard-left France Unbowed.

Motions tabled by France Unbowed, the Greens and other left-wing parties drew 260 votes – just short of the 289 needed to oust the government – while a separate far-right motion secured only 135.

French PM faces new no-confidence votes as budget faces final hurdle

Deficit-cutting effort

At the heart of the budget is a renewed push to rein in the public finances.

The plan aims to reduce France’s deficit to five percent of gross domestic product in 2026, down from an expected 5.4 percent in 2025.

That target is less ambitious than an earlier goal of 4.7 percent, reflecting the political compromises required to get the package over the line.

The budget includes higher taxes on some businesses, expected to raise around €7.3 billion in 2026.

However, the Socialists were unable to secure backing for a proposed wealth tax on the super-rich. They did, however, win several high-profile concessions, including a one-euro meal for students and an increase in top-up payments for low-income workers.

Defence is another clear priority, with military spending set to rise by €6.5 billion, a boost Lecornu described last week as the “heart” of the budget – underscoring France’s strategic ambitions at a time of heightened international uncertainty.

After PM forces through finance bill, what’s next in France’s budget battle?

State spending row

The broader spending plan has been shaped by months of tense negotiations.

In December, lawmakers narrowly adopted the social security budget, postponing an unpopular pensions reform until January 2028 – after President Emmanuel Macron leaves office.

Talks on state expenditure proved even more divisive, pitting a right-leaning Senate pushing for savings against a lower house where no bloc holds a majority and the left has pressed for higher tax revenues.

All this is unfolding under pressure from the European Union, which has urged France to bring down its debt-to-GDP ratio – the bloc’s third-highest after Greece and Italy and close to twice the EU’s 60 percent ceiling.

France has been mired in political instability since Macron called a snap election in 2024 that cost him his parliamentary majority.

Lecornu was appointed prime minister in September, briefly stepped aside, and then returned to the post a month later after two predecessors were toppled over cost-cutting plans.

(with newswires)

Thirty-four-year-old Tom Félix was freed on Tuesday after the High Court in the northern city of Alor Setar ruled that prosecutors had failed to establish that he had control, custody, or possession of the drugs at the centre of the case.

“The accused is, therefore, released and acquitted,” Judge Evawani Farisyta Mohammad said as she delivered the verdict.

Félix – who appeared in court wearing a white t-shirt and trousers with his hands cuffed – looked visibly relieved as the decision was read out.

His parents, Jean-Luc and Sylvie Félix, embraced shortly afterwards, marking an emotional end to a long legal ordeal.

Young Frenchman on trial for drug trafficking in Malaysia

Prosecution fails to prove possession

Félix and his Malaysian business partner were arrested in 2023 after police discovered 1.86 kilogrammes of cannabis in a shared area of the home where they were living.

Authorities later alleged that Félix was also found with 11.7 grammes of the drug.

Throughout the proceedings, Félix consistently denied all charges. On Tuesday, the court found that the prosecution had not proven beyond reasonable doubt that he had possession or control of the cannabis, a crucial requirement under Malaysian law.

The ruling effectively cleared Félix of all eight charges, which included trafficking and possession.

Observers in the courtroom said the decision appeared to lift a heavy weight from the former Veolia executive, who had spent more than two years in detention awaiting the outcome.

Félix’s parents have previously said that the prolonged incarceration had taken a visible toll on their son’s health.

He appeared to have lost a considerable amount of weight since his arrest, they said, adding to the strain on a family separated by distance and legal uncertainty.

French woman may face death penalty for drug-trafficking in Malaysia

Malaysia’s drug laws

The case once carried extremely severe potential consequences. If convicted, Félix faced either the death penalty or a cumulative sentence of up to 104 years in prison, along with 54 strokes of the cane and a fine of €27,000, according to his mother.

Malaysia maintains some of the toughest drug laws in the world, with trafficking and possession treated as serious offences, particularly when large quantities are involved.

Capital punishment remains on the statute books for certain drug crimes, although significant reforms in recent years have softened its application.

Death sentences are no longer mandatory, giving judges greater discretion, and no executions have been carried out since 2018.

Human rights groups have cautiously welcomed these changes, while continuing to call for further reform.

(with newswires)

On Sunday, voters in the Alpine Haute-Savoie département handed the far-right its first-ever parliamentary seat there, electing Antoine Valentin in a low-turnout by-election that many are reading as a dress rehearsal for the March municipal contests.

33-year-old Valentin stood for the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) – the party launched by former Les Républicains leader Eric Ciotti and allied with the National Rally.

He defeated Les Républicains candidate Christophe Fournier with 17,341 votes – just over 59 percent of ballots cast – in Haute-Savoie’s third constituency.

Turnout was strikingly low at just over 34 percent, with nearly two-thirds of registered voters staying away.

Calls for a “republican front” to block the far right failed to gain traction in this rural, mountainous area near Switzerland, long considered a conservative stronghold and home to the Glières plateau, a symbol of the French Resistance.

French conservatives in chaos after leader ousted over far-right pact

Far-right alliance

Even before the official results were confirmed, Ciotti hailed the victory online, praising Valentin as “deeply rooted” locally and claiming the UDR was supplanting Les Républicains across France.

National Rally figures were quick to echo the message. Party president Jordan Bardella called it an “undeniable victory”, while Marine Le Pen argued the RN-UDR alliance was triumphing over a mainstream right discredited by backing Macron.

With municipal elections scheduled for 15 and 22 March, the contest was widely seen as a test of rival right-wing strategies: Les Républicains refusing any pact with the far-right, and Ciotti’s UDR openly embracing one.

The seat fell vacant after the resignation of LR MP Christelle Petex, who cited excessive political manoeuvring, criticism and threats.

Valentin, who is also mayor of Saint-Jeoire and co-founded the Politicae institute to support mayoral candidates, styled himself simply as “the candidate of the right”.

His campaign reportedly benefited from funding linked to ultra-conservative billionaire Pierre-Edouard Stérin’s “Périclès” project that backs and coordinates conservative and far-right movements through training, media work and electoral strategy.

Left-wing parties – including the Socialists, Ecologists and Communists – urged voters to block the far right. The Communist Party of Haute-Savoie stressed the constituency’s symbolic ties to the Resistance, warning against turning it into a testing ground for the far-right.

Angry French farmers defy ban and block Paris streets over Mercosur deal

Macron courts farmers and teens 

Against this backdrop, Macron’s visit on Tuesday to Vesoul – in neighbouring Haute-Saône – takes on added resonance.

The Elysée says the president will meet agricultural unions ahead of the Salon de l’Agriculture – France’s annual, flag-ship agriculture fair – which opens on 21 February, and voice his support for a profession under pressure.

Farmers remain angry about the EU’s free trade agreement with Mercosur countries and the government’s handling of outbreaks of contagious nodular dermatosis.

Macron will tour a farm and meet local agricultural organisations, pledging support for breeders hit by health crises who will be unable to bring cattle to the show.

Several breed selection bodies have already decided not to present animals this year.

The day will end on a different note, with lunch alongside local high school students to discuss social media use.

This comes as the National Assembly just backed a bill to ban social media for under-15s – an issue Macron has been touring the country to promote.

(With newswires)

This week, we discuss recent US airstrikes in northern Nigeria and the fact that many people of  African descent feel threatened by the recent enforcement actions by ICE in many US cities. 

The United States launched airstrikes in northern Nigeria in late December, saying it had targeted Islamic State jihadists – at Abuja’s request – to halt the killing of Christians. However, experts have challenged Washington’s claims that Christians are being massacred in Nigeria, arguing that the narrative, promoted by sections of the American right, oversimplifies far more complex conflicts.

US strikes on Nigeria set ‘deeply troubling precedent’ for African governance

First, we talk to Isa Sanusi, from Amnesty International Nigeria, to discuss the aftermath of the US strikes and of US President Donald Trump’s invasive strategy to fight jihadism in West Africa.

US to increase cooperation with Nigeria to pursue Islamic State militants

US African diaspora in Minneapolis

Meanwhile, within the United States, anti-immigration policies have intensified since the Trump administration took office a year ago, affecting even some people who are living in the country legally.

In Minneapolis in January 2026, two people were killed in shootings involving US federal immigration agents. On 7 January, 37‑year‑old Renée Nicole Macklin Good, an American woman, was fatally shot by an agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a federal enforcement operation.

Then, on 24 January, 37‑year‑old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a United States citizen and intensive care unit nurse, was shot and killed by officers from United States Customs and Border Protection in a separate incident in Minneapolis.

US immigration agent’s fatal shooting of woman leaves Minneapolis in shock

Others were killed without making the headlines. Human rights lawyers have cited at least nine such cases, and possibly more, including Keith Porter, Parady La, Heber Sanchaz Domínguez, Víctor Manuel Díaz, Luis Beltrán Yáñez-Cruz, Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres, and Geraldo Lunas Campos.

Anti-immigration policies have particularly targeted Somali migrants and Somali Americans, among other immigrant communities.

Minneapolis is also the city where George Floyd, a Black American man, was killed by police in 2020, an event that sparked the global Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.

Dr Rashad Shabazz joins us from the United States. He is a historical geographer specialising in race, culture and the built environment at Arizona State University.

He has recently published a series of studies on the diversity of Minneapolis, undertaken while working on a new book about one of the city’s most famous residents, the musician and singer Prince.

Music from us

Finally you’ll also hear music from the Cameroonian French duo, OKALI.

The song Gathering celebrates gathering and sharing; Traveler explores travel and cultural exchange.

Episode edited by Melissa Chemam and mixed by Erwan Rome.

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

In Mozambique, flood victims are beginning to return home despite the damage.

“My daughters came to pick up their children; they want the whole family to return to Chilembene,” Aïda Mondlane told RFI’s special correspondent, standing in water up to her calves, worried. “I told them it was too dangerous, but they refuse to listen to me. So, I’m staying here until they call to tell me everyone made it through safely.”

Five provinces, representing nearly half of the country’s territory, remain severely affected by the floods that have plagued the nation since late December.

Much of the infrastructure has been destroyed and the government estimates reconstruction costs at nearly $650 million. 

Calls for aid

The United Nations warned on Friday of severe overcrowding in temporary accommodation shelters hosting an estimated 100,000 people displaced by flooding in Mozambique, and appealed for more international support.

The southern African country’s latest bout of flooding has claimed nearly 140 lives since 1 October, according to the National Disasters Management Institute, while nearly 400,000 people have had to flee their homes.

“An estimated 100,000 people are now sheltering in around 100 temporary accommodation centres, including schools and public buildings. Overcrowding in these centres is severe,” the UN refugee agency UNHCR, said in a statement.

UNHCR Mozambique is seeking $38.2 million in 2026, and the World Food Programme (WFP) said it urgently needs $32 million for the next three months’ operations, saying it was stepping up efforts to reach more than 450,000 people.

“The needs are skyrocketing in Mozambique,” Ross Smith, WFP’s emergency preparedness and response chief, told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Rome. “We are currently very, very stretched for resources.”

South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Eswatini and even Madagascar are also affected by heavy rains and floods.

Cyclone Fytia in Madagascar leaves three dead, flooding affects nearly 30,000

North Africa’s unprecedented rains

Morocco, Tunisia and even parts of Algeria are also facing heavy rains and storms.

Morocco has deployed army rescue units this weekend to help with the evacuation of thousands of people after floods triggered by torrential rains and rising river levels hit parts of the country’s northwest.

Weeks of heavy rainfall, combined with water releases from a nearly full dam nearby, increased water levels in the Loukous River and flooded several neighbourhoods in the city of Ksar Kbir, about 190 km (118 miles) north of the capital Rabat, a national flood follow-up committee said.

More than 20,000 people had been moved to shelter and camps by Saturday, official media reported. Authorities set up sandbags and temporary barriers in flood-prone districts as waters began to recede.

Schools in Ksar Kbir have been ordered to remain closed until 7 February as a precaution.

Last month, 37 people were killed in flash floods in the Atlantic coastal city of Safi, south of Rabat.

Tunisia flooding kills four as record rainfall shuts schools

Endangered heritage

In Tunisia, the famed blue-and-white village of Sidi Bou Said now faces the threat of landslides, after record rainfall tore through parts of its slopes.

Last week, Tunisia saw its heaviest downpour in more than 70 years. The storm killed at least five people, with others still missing.

“The situation is delicate” and “requires urgent intervention”, Mounir Riabi, the regional director of civil defence in Tunis, told news agencies. “Some homes are threatened by imminent danger,” he said.

Authorities have banned heavy vehicles from driving into the village and ordered some businesses and institutions to close, such as the Ennejma Ezzahra museum.

Beyond its famous architecture, the village also bears historical and spiritual significance. The village was named after a 12th-century Sufi saint, Abu Said al-Baji, who had established a religious centre there. His shrine still sits atop the hill. The village, once home of French writers Michel Foucault and Andre Gide, is protected under Tunisian preservation law, pending a Unesco decision on its bid for World Heritage status.

Experts say solutions to help preserve Sidi Bou Said could include restricting new development, building more retaining walls and improving drainage to prevent runoff from accumulating.

Climate change ‘supercharging’ deadly floods in southern Africa

Other parts of Africa have also been affected, from East Africa to the Sahel, with climate change increasing the frequency and severity of extreme rain events and floods, even in places that historically had lower rainfall.

 (With newswires)

Popote and Vitagermine, makers of Babybio, recalled batches of infant milk on Monday due to cereulide contamination, following similar recalls from Nestlé, Danone and dairy giant Lactalis

Popote said levels of cereulide in two batches were above the new, lower threshold announced by the Agriculture ministry on Friday.

Infant formula produced in France must now have less than 0.014 microgrammes of cereulide per kilogramme of weight, compared to 0.03 microgrammes previously.

French dairy giant Lactalis recalls baby milk over bacteria fears

The company said the toxin, which can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea, came from an omega-rich oil produced by Cabio Biotech.

The oil from the Chinese company is suspected to be the source of the contamination.

Vitagermine, which already recalled three babches of Babybio milk in January, said the three new batches are being recalled as a precaution, because they “conformed to the standards in place until last week”.

The presence of the toxin has triggered recalls in dozens of countries and raised concerns among parents.

Two judicial investigations are underway into the deaths of two babies who were given Nestlé milk that was later recalled, though a direct link between the symptoms and the milk consumed has yet to be established.

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

(with newswires)

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).

“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.

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)

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.

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)

“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.

Gesaffelstein, whose real name is Mike Levy, appeared onstage in Los Angeles to accept the award for Abracadabra – Gesaffelstein Remix wearing his signature black mask and gloves, and gave a bow and a kiss to the audience, without saying a word.

Abracadabra, from Lady Gaga’s album Mayhem, also won best dance pop recording.

It is the first ever Grammy win for the artist, who has released three solo albums as well as collaborating with other musicians.

Gesaffelstein was also nominated for album of the year for his work on Mayhem, and he was nominated in 2022 for his work on Kanye West’s album Donda.

The 2026 album of the year went to Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos. He was the first Spanish-language artist to win the top prize.

Accepting in Spanish and English, he dedicated the award to migrants – “all the people who had to leave their homeland to follow their dreams,” he said.

He also specifically called out the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement service (ICE), which has been driving US President Donald Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown and most recently has been involved in the killing of two people in the state of Minnesota.

French company Capgemini to sell US subsidiary amid controversy over ICE links

Billie Eilish, whose Wildflower won song of the year, also used her award platform to criticise immigration authorities.

“No one is illegal on stolen land,” she said, adding “Fuck ICE is all I want to say.”

On Saturday evening, Nigeria’s Fela Kuti was posthumously awarded a lifetime achievement award, becoming the first African artist to receive the distinction.

The king of Afrobeat was one of several artists to receive the award, including Cher, Whitney Houston, Carlos Santana, Paul Simon and Chaka Khan.

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

The fundraiser, set up by the organisation Life for Paris to honour the victims of the November 2015 attacks, initially had the modest goal of raising €2,500.

By the time it closed on Sunday 1 February, it had received almost 12,000 donations. In 2016, Sonia became the first person in France to enter witness protection after providing French police with crucial information that led to the arrest of two assailants involved in the attacks.

Balancing security powers with civil liberties after Paris attacks

 Possible terror plot link 

Sonia’s story shook the nation after a documentary recounting her experience aired a decade after the attacks, on 13 November 2025.

After watching the attack on the Stade de France stadium unfold live on television, she found herself face-to-face with one of the assailants, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the very next day.

A friend whom she had been housing had received a phone call from abroad, asking her to “help out a cousin from Syria”. Sonia soon encountered the terrorist, whose hand she shook “was still covered in blood”. She asked the man if he had been involved in the attacks, to which he replied, “yes”.

Final words at Paris attacks trial and complaints over compensation

On 15 November, she decided to call the French authorities and provide her eyewitness testimony to the General Directorate for Internal Security. She has since had to change her name, relocate her family, and continues to live under police protection.

Security powers and civil liberties

“Her daily life is filled with constraints, isolation, and material difficulties that are hard to grasp when you are not in her shoes. She never asked to be a hero. She never asked for a medal or glory. She simply did what she thought was right, at the risk of her own life. Today, it is up to us to do what is right for her,” reads the fundraising page.

The series of coordinated attacks took place in Paris and in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis on 13 November 2015. The tragedy left 132 people dead and at least 416 injured, shaking the nation in what remains France’s deadliest terrorist attack in modern history.

Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age law, banning under 16-year-olds from social media, came into effect on 10 December, forcing platforms to take “reasonable steps” to keep them off, or face up to €29 million (Aus$49.5 million).

After a week, tech platforms including Snapchat, Meta, TikTok and Youtube had blocked 4.7 million accounts Australia’s eSafety online regulator reported, delivering “significant outcomes”.

Snapchat, which said it did not believe it should be part of the ban, as its platform is used primarily for communication, on Monday said it had blocked or disabled 415,000 teen accounts in Australia as of the end of January.

French MPs vote to curb children’s screen time with under-15 social media ban

In its announcement, the company critiqued the law, which it says leaves “significant gaps” as the technology to estimate a user’s age is not accurate, with a 2-3 year margin.

“In practice, this means some young people under 16 may be able to bypass protections, potentially leaving them with reduced safeguards, while others over 16 may incorrectly lose access,” the company said.

Snapchat joined Meta in calling on Australia to require app stores to check users’ ages before allowing downloads as an “additional safeguard”.

France looking to Australia?

As the first country to instate such a ban, Australia is a testing ground for such bans and French regulators are likely looking closely, as a bill that would ban under-15s from social media is making its way through the legislative process.

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

The bill was adopted by the National Assembly last week, and the Senate is expected to vote by mid-February, with the government hoping the ban can be applied by the start of the 2026 school year.

The ban would initially only cover new accounts, and platforms would have until the end of the year to block or disable existing accounts that fail to meet the age requirement.

Lecornu’s decision to use the constitutional tool known as article 49.3 has marked an about-face for the prime minister, who pledged last year to seek parliament’s approval, in a bid to avoid the fate of his two predecessors who were ousted over budget negotiations.

But after months of negotiations reached an impasse, Lecornu announced he would use the power to force through the budget, after making concessions to gain the backing of the Socialists.

“France must have a budget. And so, before this chamber, I am committing the government’s responsibility for the entire Finance Bill for 2026,” he told the National Assembly on Friday while invoking the power to push it through.

His opponents, including the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) and far-right National Rally (RN), have filed no-confidence motions against him in response.

France’s article 49.3 a handy constitutional tool to bypass parliament

The motions are expected to be debated and voted upon Monday, according to lawmaker Eric Coquerel who chairs the finance committee.

If Lecornu survives, as anticipated based on his previous support, the budget will move forward for definitive adoption.

The Socialist party has “tightened the screws” on its members to fall in line and back the government, Coquerel, from the LFI, lamented.

‘Long-term’ view

Lecornu has faced a string of no-confidence votes in recent weeks as he pushed the first sections of the 2026 state budget through parliament without a vote.

On Tuesday, Lecornu defended his decision, touting what he called a “breakthrough” budget that would boost defence spending by €6.5 billion and urging a “long-term” view.

Although some lawmakers have expressed doubts, the text aims to bring the deficit down to five percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2026, from 5.4 percent in 2025.

French tax on high earners disappoints as wealthy find ways to shield income

The executive was initially targeting 4.6 percent, but the scrapping of pension reforms – a key demand for the Socialists – meant such a reduction of the deficit was not possible, according to rapporteur Philippe Juvin.

The various concessions made for the Socialists include €1 meals for students and an increase in a top-up payment for low income workers.

Despite being “imperfect”, the budget “is a useful text for the French, because it allows us to emerge from the climate of uncertainty that has set in over the past few months,” Public Accounts Minister Amelie de Montchalin said last Thursday.

The eurozone‘s second-largest economy has been bogged down in political crises since Macron called a snap poll in 2024, in which he lost his parliamentary majority.

(with AFP)

Fytia made landfall near Maunga in the northwest of the country, as a tropical cyclone, with wind gusts of up to 210 km/h.

According to a provisional report from the National Bureau for Disaster Risk Management (BNGRC), three people were killed, including one in the capital, capital Antananarivo, after his house collapsed.

Another person remains missing after being swept away by the Mahamavo River in the municipality of Ambalakida.

At least five people were injured, and a total of 28,368 people have been affected by the storm, including over 8,000 who have been displaced as flooding damaged or destroyed more than 7,000 homes.

Some neighbourhoods of Antananarivo were flooded after heavy rain fell throughout the night. The BNGRC said it would deploy pumps to remove standing water, though the city’s ageing drainage system is under strain with the amount of water.

Authorities have warned of a high risk of flooding due to a weakened dyke on the Sisaony river in the plains around the capital, which has been weakened by high amounts of rainfall in recent weeks.

Water levels in the Sisaony rose rapidly Sunday, and were expected to continue rising throughout Monday.

Last week, heavy rainfall caused a dam near the capital to partially collapse, flooding large amounts of farmland.

Fytia, which was downgraded to a moderate tropical storm as it moved back to sea on Sunday morning, is expected to pass between 200 and 300 km southwest of France’s Réunion island between Monday and Tuesday.

Météo-France La Réunion warned of wind gusts of up to 80 km/h, heavy rainfall and ocean swells of 2.5 to 3 metres.

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)

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)

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.

This week, we discuss recent US airstrikes in northern Nigeria and the fact that many people of  African descent feel threatened by the recent enforcement actions by ICE in many US cities. 

The United States launched airstrikes in northern Nigeria in late December, saying it had targeted Islamic State jihadists – at Abuja’s request – to halt the killing of Christians. However, experts have challenged Washington’s claims that Christians are being massacred in Nigeria, arguing that the narrative, promoted by sections of the American right, oversimplifies far more complex conflicts.

US strikes on Nigeria set ‘deeply troubling precedent’ for African governance

First, we talk to Isa Sanusi, from Amnesty International Nigeria, to discuss the aftermath of the US strikes and of US President Donald Trump’s invasive strategy to fight jihadism in West Africa.

US to increase cooperation with Nigeria to pursue Islamic State militants

US African diaspora in Minneapolis

Meanwhile, within the United States, anti-immigration policies have intensified since the Trump administration took office a year ago, affecting even some people who are living in the country legally.

In Minneapolis in January 2026, two people were killed in shootings involving US federal immigration agents. On 7 January, 37‑year‑old Renée Nicole Macklin Good, an American woman, was fatally shot by an agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a federal enforcement operation.

Then, on 24 January, 37‑year‑old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a United States citizen and intensive care unit nurse, was shot and killed by officers from United States Customs and Border Protection in a separate incident in Minneapolis.

US immigration agent’s fatal shooting of woman leaves Minneapolis in shock

Others were killed without making the headlines. Human rights lawyers have cited at least nine such cases, and possibly more, including Keith Porter, Parady La, Heber Sanchaz Domínguez, Víctor Manuel Díaz, Luis Beltrán Yáñez-Cruz, Luis Gustavo Núñez Cáceres, and Geraldo Lunas Campos.

Anti-immigration policies have particularly targeted Somali migrants and Somali Americans, among other immigrant communities.

Minneapolis is also the city where George Floyd, a Black American man, was killed by police in 2020, an event that sparked the global Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.

Dr Rashad Shabazz joins us from the United States. He is a historical geographer specialising in race, culture and the built environment at Arizona State University.

He has recently published a series of studies on the diversity of Minneapolis, undertaken while working on a new book about one of the city’s most famous residents, the musician and singer Prince.

Music from us

Finally you’ll also hear music from the Cameroonian French duo, OKALI.

The song Gathering celebrates gathering and sharing; Traveler explores travel and cultural exchange.

Episode edited by Melissa Chemam and mixed by Erwan Rome.

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

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. 

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.