Orion – which stands for “large-scale operation for resilient, interoperable, high intensity combat-oriented and innovative armies” – was conceived in 2021. Two years later, France carried out its largest military exercises to date with Orion 23 – an operation involving 12,000 troops, including NATO allies.

The “ongoing deterioration of the international landscape and the evolution of threats” has made Orion 26 even more relevant, according to the Ministry of the Armed Forces.

Bringing together land, air, naval, cyber, space and special forces, it demonstrates “France’s determination to protect the nation, its citizens and its interests in the long term by preparing for the most demanding military challenges”, the ministry said.

The three-month drills will be based on a “fictional but credible scenario” in which an expansionist country in the East, known as Mercury, is seeking to destabilise its neighbour Arnland in order to maintain its influence in the region and prevent the latter from joining the European Union.

Geographically, Arnland is located on French territory – but with Ukraine and Russia at war on Europe’s doorstep, the exercise also reflects what a reinforced version of the “Coalition of the Willing” for Ukraine might look like, should Kyiv need urgent reinforcement.

France now supplies most of Ukraine’s intelligence, Macron says

In the invented scenario, throughout 2025 Mercury has multiplied hybrid actions and increased its support for militias in Arnland. At the request of Arnland – an ally – France takes the lead of the Orion coalition on 6 January 2026, to ensure its defence and preserve balance in Europe.

The exercises include seizing entry points on contested territory, gaining the upper hand in the field, then conducting amphibious and airborne operations to secure a broader deployment zone.

From 8 February to early March, 10,000 troops will conduct amphibious and airborne operations in the Saint-Nazaire area, supported by 350 vehicles and 400 drones. 

For the amphibious phase, the French Navy will be present with the carrier strike group, while the Air and Space Force will deploy around 20 Rafale fighter jets and two surface-to-air defence systems.

In April, the exercise will come under NATO command and will focus on France’s role as a host nation, supporting allied forces transiting through its territory.

Vice-Admiral Xavier de Véricourt, commander of the Joint Force Command expert centre, told RFI more about the drills.

RFI: What’s the scenario for Orion 26?

The scenario was inspired by NATO. I’m not going to reveal all its secrets, firstly because there are confidential elements, and also because it would reveal everything to the players on all sides. It would diminish the intensity of the exercise. But, broadly speaking, it involves a country calling on a coalition, whose framework nation is France, and this coalition intervenes under French leadership. Then the situation evolves, NATO intervenes and the operation and its forces are transferred to NATO command.

The exercise begins in France and has four phases. How will they be structured?

There are three successive phases and then one phase that runs across the entire timeline. The first phase is taking place right now. It’s the planning phase, staff work. Then there’s a so-called field phase within the coalition, and finally a last field phase, but this time under NATO command.

Throughout this timeline, you have an interministerial crisis management component for the entire duration of the exercise. This involves, on the one hand, managing repercussions on French territory while our troops are supposed to be deployed abroad in support of the country calling on the coalition, and on the other hand, managing the support that would transit through French territory.

Russia sees France as its ‘chief enemy’ in Europe, says head of French army

So with Orion 26, will French forces move from national command to a broader command structure?

A NATO command, and that’s one of the challenges. But in fact there are multiple issues at stake with Orion 26. There’s the training issue, because if an army doesn’t train, it loses skills and operational performance. So the aim for us is to remain at the highest possible level of operational performance. There is also the challenge of training to deal with modern threats, in a context marked by innovation. So we inject innovation. And then there’s the issue of validating the reforms that we’ve carried out in our command structure. 

This articulation between French command and NATO command is well known, since this isn’t the first exercise we’ve conducted in this context. French forces regularly train in NATO exercises; these are familiar arrangements. But nevertheless, it’s good to practise and oil the machinery regularly so that, when the time comes, if it were to happen for real, everything is as smooth as possible.

The aim is to work on interoperability with our allies. Which other nations are taking part in the exercise?

There are 24 in total. There are 14 European countries, three Asian countries, three from the American continent and two from the Middle East. They include our close allies – the British, Germans, Italians and Spaniards. I can’t list them all, but there are many partners.

Is the carrier strike group, built around the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, integrated into the exercise?

Absolutely. In modern operations, across multiple environments and domains, we draw on land, air, maritime and cyber assets, in order to be as effective as possible in dealing with the threats we face. 

This interview, adapted from the original version in French, has been edited for clarity.

Tinubu condemned Tuesday’s “beastly attack”, which he said was carried out against villagers who had rejected extremist Islamist ideology.

“President Tinubu expressed rage that the attackers killed the community members who rejected their obnoxious attempt at indoctrination,” a presidential statement said on Wednesday.

The main attack occured late Tuesday in Woro village, while another attack was reported in Nuku village.

Ayodeji Emmanuel Babaomo, the Red Cross secretary in Kwara State, said the death toll stood at 162, “as the search for more bodies continues”.

He told French news agency AFP that gunmen had burned shops and a traditional ruler’s home in Woro and that wounded people fled into the bushes.

Babaomo said the organisation has been unable to reach the communities where “scores of people were killed” because of the remoteness of the area – about eight hours from the state capital and near Nigeria’s border with Benin.

Conflicting casualty reports

Residents told Reuters news agency the gunmen, thought to be jihadists who often preached in the village, demanded that locals ditch their allegiance to the Nigerian state and switch to Sharia Islamic law. When the villagers pushed back, the militants opened fire.

Earlier, a local lawmaker in Woro, Sa’idu Baba Ahmed, gave an initial toll of 35 to 40 dead but said he expected more bodies would be found. He later put the death toll at more than 170.

The attack was confirmed by police, who did not give a casualty figure. 

Nigeria’s defence minister steps down as abductions trigger security emergency

While no group has yet claimed responsibility, the Kwara state governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq blamed “terrorist cells”.

He said their attack as a “cowardly expression of frustration” in response to ongoing military operations against armed extremists in the state.

Mohammed Omar Bio, a member of parliament representing the area, told the Associated Press agency the attacks in Woro and Nuku were carried out by the Lakurawa, an armed group affiliated with the Islamic State group.

President Tinubu blamed the attack on Boko Haram jihadists.

Complex security crisis

Nigeria is in the grip of a complex security crisis, with an insurgency by Islamic militants in the north-east alongside a surge in kidnappings for ransom by gunmen across the north-west and north-central regions over recent months.

Last month, the military said it had launched “sustained coordinated offensive operations against terrorist elements” in Kwara State. Local media reported that the army had “neutralised” 150 bandits.

Jihadist attacks have intensified over the past year in Nigeria. The powerful Al-Qaeda affiliate Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) – which operates across the northern border in Niger – claimed responsibility for its first attack in Nigeria at the end of October, in Kwara State.

Researcher Brant Philip said the latest raid occurred very near the site JNIM attacked, suggesting a “direct overlap” between JNIM and Boko Haram, with the groups appearing to have a “loose alliance”.

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

US involvement

Nigeria is under pressure to restore security since US President Donald Trump accused it last year of failing to protect Christians after numerous Islamist attacks and mass kidnappings.

In response, Trump ordered US air strikes in December on IS group-affiliated militants in Nigeria.

On Tuesday, the head of US Africa Command said the US had sent a small team of military officers to Nigeria.

The Nigerian authorities say they are cooperating with Washington to improve security and have denied there is systematic persecution of Christians.

Experts say Muslims as well as Christians have been killed in the country’s violence, often without distinction.

(with newswires)

The conflict is Europe’s deadliest since the Second World War, with hundreds of thousands of people killed, millions forced to flee their homes and much of eastern and southern Ukraine left decimated.

Underscoring the human toll, Zelensky told France 2 journalist Léa Salamé on Wednesday that 55,000 of his country’s troops had been killed, a rare assessment of battlefield losses by either side.

 “And there are a great number Ukraine lists as missing,” he said, through translated comments.

While denying that he was trying to scare anyone, the Ukrainian leader issued a blunt warning to European countries.

“Life in Europe is cool, it’s nice… That’s why I say we are all fighting to defend this way of life,” he said. “But today, it is very clear that if Ukraine does not stop [Vladimir] Putin, he will invade Europe.”

Zelensky is calling on Europeans to review their priorities, which he believes are too focused on “their internal affairs”.

“I think the pressure on Putin is not enough… My opinion is that we need to engage in dialogue, but with conditions,” he said, asserting that the Russian president’s “interest” is “to humiliate Europe”.

Putin ‘only scared of Trump’

He accused Moscow of taking advantage of the cold weather to try to tip the balance of the war by increasing strikes against energy infrastructure since the beginning of winter. This has left many people, including residents of the capital Kyiv, without power in temperatures as low as minus 20C in recent days.

“Russia wants to inflict more suffering on Ukrainians so that they accept what our American friends call a ‘compromise’, But in fact, it is an ultimatum.”

Zelensky said the US president’s role in ongoing peace talks would be crucial, and that “Putin is only scared of Trump”.

He suggested that Trump could use economic sanctions against Russia or transfer weapons to Ukraine to “maintain this pressure on Putin“, adding that Kyiv would not compromise on sovereignty.   

US backs security guarantees for Ukraine at summit of Kyiv’s allies in Paris

Zelensky’s comments came as a second day of trilateral talks gets under way on Thursday in Abu Dhabi.

These US-mediated talks are the latest chapter in the so far unsuccessful diplomatic effort to halt the war, which started on 24 February, 2022 with Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The main sticking point in the negotiations is the long-term fate of territory in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow is demanding that Kyiv pull its troops out of swathes of the Donbas region, including heavily fortified cities atop vast natural resources, as a precondition of any deal.

It also wants international recognition that land seized in the invasion belongs to Russia.

Russia occupies around 20 percent of Ukraine. It claims the Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions as its own, and holds pockets of territory in at least three other Ukrainian regions in the east.

Kyiv still controls around one-fifth of the Donetsk region.

International intervention force

But Zelensky has warned that ceding ground will embolden Moscow, and that it will not sign a deal that fails to deter Russia from invading again.

“We Ukrainians are well aware of the price that every metre and every kilometre of this land costs our army,” he told France 2.

“To conquer eastern Ukraine, it would cost them [the Russian army] 800,000 more [soldiers’] lives. It will take them at least two years, with very slow progress. In my opinion, they will not last that long.”

Macron demands ‘robust security guarantees’ before any Ukraine territorial talks

Instead he raised the suggestion of a “frozen front line” and the creation of a special economic zone, with international oversight.

“We must be in control of our part. They must control theirs. But, between us, we need an international intervention force, an international presence,” he added.

French diplomatic visit

European leaders have balked at their exclusion from peace talks led by Trump’s administration, forced instead to shore up Ukraine’s negotiating position from the sidelines.

France and the United Kingdom have been leading efforts to put together a peacekeeping force that could be deployed to Ukraine after any deal.

On this subject, French President Emmanuel Macron stated in early January that “several thousand” French soldiers could be deployed.

Macron also reiterated this week the importance for Europeans “to restore their own channels of discussion”.

He said in December that Europeans would have to re-engage in direct talks with Putin if the latest US-led efforts to broker a Ukraine peace deal were to founder.

In this vein, Macron’s most senior diplomat, Emmanuel Bonne, travelled to Moscow on Tuesday for talks with Russian officials.

“These discussions exist at a technical level, in full transparency and in consultation with President Volodymyr Zelensky and with the main European colleagues,” the president’s office said on Tuesday.

(with newswires)

This year’s championship has been compressed to six weeks, removing one of the usual two rest periods – a move that squads without depth will feel keenly.

Tonight’s match in Saint-Denis sets the early tone, with France and Ireland sharing four of the last five titles between them.

For Ireland, expectations are unusually low. They finished third last season and looked decidedly ordinary in autumn defeats to New Zealand and South Africa. The Springboks, in particular, exposed weaknesses up front that won’t have gone unnoticed by other coaches.

Injuries compound the problem. Tadhg Furlong remains doubtful with a calf issue, while Ryan Baird, Hugo Keenan, Mack Hansen and Robbie Henshaw are all out. Bundee Aki begins a four-match ban for abusing a referee. Sam Prendergast gets the out-half jersey despite questions about his defensive work.

Rugby fans hail France’s Bielle-Biarrey as player of 2025 Six Nations tournament

France, in contrast, have made bold selection calls from a position of strength. Coach Fabien Galthie has dropped Greg Alldritt, Gael Fickou and top try-scorer Damian Penaud entirely, bringing in younger players who “need the chance to make mistakes”.

The return of captain Antoine Dupont after eight months out with a knee injury is significant. Conversely, the loss of prop Uini Atonio to sudden retirement following a heart attack is a genuine blow.

England’s momentum

Steve Borthwick’s side arrive at the Six nations on the back of an 11-game winning streak. They haven’t won the championship since 2020, or a Grand Slam in a decade, but they’re talking like contenders again.

Borthwick is already eyeing a potential decider in Paris in round five. “On March 14, we want to be in a position where we can achieve what we’re all aiming to achieve,” he said.

England face Wales at home tomorrow, then Scotland away. Both should be winnable for them. Captain Maro Itoje starts on the bench after missing early preparations to attend his mother’s funeral in Nigeria, but England’s depth usually absorbs such disruptions.

They’ve added Henry Pollock, one of the form players in Europe. Their game plan remains kick-heavy but effective. George Ford brings experience at out-half.

The best of the rest

Scotland benefit from Glasgow Warriors topping the United Rugby Championship and going four from four in Europe. That puts a bit of substance behind their perennial optimism.

But Scotland haven’t finished higher than third place since 2000. They face Italy away on Saturday, precisely the sort of fixture where their habit of squandering promising positions tends to resurface.

Italy continue their gradual improvement under Gonzalo Quesada. They beat Scotland at home last year and might reasonably fancy doing it again. A first Six Nations win in Dublin, when they visit in round two, probably remains beyond them – but perhaps not wildly so. 

Records abound as France dismiss Scotland to claim 2025 Six Nations crown

Wales present the starkest picture, having gone nearly three years without a Six Nations win and with 21 defeats in their last 23 tests, including a 73-0 home loss to South Africa in November.

New coach Steve Tandy faces more than just results pressure. Potential player strikes loom as the Welsh Rugby Union considers reducing professional clubs from four to three. Louis Rees-Zammit returns from his NFL adventure, but Jac Morgan and Taulupe Faletau miss the opening rounds.

France and England head the betting. Both host the other in the final rounds, which could prove decisive.

Ireland’s challenge is simply to remain competitive while managing injuries and finding answers at key positions. This might be a transitional Six Nations for them.

Thursday’s match in Paris provides the first real indication of where this championship is heading. France are the favourites but whether Ireland can produce anything like their 2024 performance in Marseille – when they won 38-17 despite similar pessimism – remains to be seen.

Campaigners have warned that the expiry of the New START treaty could trigger a global arms race, urging nuclear powers to enter negotiations.

The United States has said any new nuclear agreement would have to include China, whose nuclear arsenal is rapidly expanding, but international efforts to draw Beijing to the negotiating table have so far failed.

China’s foreign ministry joined a growing chorus expressing regret on Thursday over the expiry of the treaty, saying it was “of utmost importance to safeguarding global strategic stability”.

Nevertheless, “China’s nuclear capabilities are of a totally different scale as those of the United States and Russia,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a news conference.

Beijing “will not participate in nuclear disarmament negotiations at this stage”, he said.

Russia and the United States together control more than 80 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads.

China’s nuclear arsenal, meanwhile, is growing faster than any country’s, by about 100 new warheads a year since 2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

China is estimated to have at least 600 nuclear warheads, SIPRI says – well below the 800 each at which Russia and the United States were capped under New START.

France and Britain, treaty-bound US allies, together have another 100.

How Trump’s trade threats have reshaped Europe’s global strategy

Fears of nuclear war

Signed during a warmer period of relations, US President Donald Trump did not follow up on Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin‘s proposal to extend New START’s limits for one year.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the expiry a “grave moment”.

“For the first time in more than half a century, we face a world without any binding limits on the strategic nuclear arsenals” of Russia and the United States, Guterres said in a statement.

“This dissolution of decades of achievement could not come at a worse time – the risk of a nuclear weapon being used is the highest in decades,” he said, after Russian suggestions of using tactical nuclear weapons early in the Ukraine war.

Pope Leo XIV said each side needed to do “everything possible” to avert a new arms race.

A NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity, called for “restraint and responsibility” and said that the US-led military alliance “will continue to take steps necessary” to ensure its defence.

A group of Japanese survivors of US atomic bombs during World War II said they feared the world was marching towards nuclear war.

“Given the current situation, I have a feeling that in the not-too-distant future, we’ll actually have a nuclear war and head toward destruction,” Terumi Tanaka, co-chair of the Nihon Hidankyo group, told a press conference.

In the run-up to the treaty’s expiry, the metaphorical “Doomsday Clock” representing how near humanity is to catastrophe moved closer than ever to midnight, as its board warned of heightened risks of a nuclear arms race.

The long half-life of France’s nuclear tests in Polynesia

‘Impossible’ without Chine

Moscow said it considered that both Russia and the United States were “no longer bound by any obligations” under New START.

“The Russian Federation intends to act responsibly and prudently,” it added, but warned it was ready to take “decisive” countermeasures if its national security is threatened.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters of the treaty’s expiry that “we view it negatively.”

Trump, who has frequently lashed out at international limits on the United States, also looked ready in his first term to let New START lapse as he insisted on including China.

But some observers say the expiry owes less to ideology than to the workings of the Trump administration, where career diplomats are sidelined, simply not having the bandwidth to negotiate a complex agreement.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated a call for a new agreement that includes China.

“The president’s been clear in the past that in order to have true arms control in the 21st century, it’s impossible to do something that doesn’t include China,” Rubio said.

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, which warns of nuclear risks, agreed that China should engage.

But “there is no indication that Trump or his team have taken the time to propose risk reduction or arms control talks with China since returning to office in 2025”, Kimball said.

The treaty, signed in 2010 in Prague by then presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, limited each side’s nuclear arsenal to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads, a reduction of nearly 30 percent from the previous limit set in 2002.

The European Union must be “more transactional” in global climate negotiations and consider using financial and trade leverage to assert its position, the French ecology ministry said Tuesday.

The comments came before a meeting of EU environment ministers in Cyprus on Thursday to review last November’s UN climate summit, which ended with a watered-down pact that omitted EU demands over fossil fuels.

Monique Barbut, France’s minister for ecological transition, had already expressed disappointment over the Cop30 outcome and said the EU must be prepared to “assert its red lines” and reject similar proposals in future.

‘Tougher world’

The EU must be “less naive” and “more assertive, more demanding, and more transactional if we want to have an impact in these negotiations”, her office said ahead of the meeting.

“We are in a tougher world where the European Union, when it comes to climate negotiations, is more isolated,” a senior source from Barbut’s office told reporters.

“States that had previously been somewhat hesitant to speak out are doing so much more freely since the American withdrawal” from the global fight against climate change, the source added.

US President Donald Trump has withdrawn the world’s largest economy from the Paris Agreement on global warming and the UN climate treaty that underpins it.

His administration sent nobody to the last UN climate summit in Brazil, where the EU’s call for the inclusion of a “roadmap” leading the world away from fossil fuels was left out of the final deal.

The EU ended up accepting that version instead.

Half of 2024 global emissions produced by just 32 fossil fuel firms, study finds

Climate finance

The EU is the largest payer of climate finance – money to help developing countries transition to a low-carbon future – and Barbut’s office suggested the 27-nation bloc could use this in a more “political” manner.

The source also questioned if the EU should “continue to demonstrate climate and financial solidarity with countries” that have failed to meet their obligations under the Paris Agreement.

These include updating their national pledges for cutting emissions, the latest round of which were due last year.

Paris Agreement turns 10 as heat rises faster than global action

But more than 60 countries – some of them major climate finance recipients such as India, Egypt, and the Philippines – have still not turned in their latest plans.

“We have tools like trade agreements”, whose implementation can be conditional on compliance with the Paris Agreement, the minister’s office added.

Cyprus currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.

One of the key issues on the agenda will be implementation of a European strategy for water resilience across key sectors such as agriculture, tourism and energy.

In addition, delegates will discuss challenges related to the circular economy and the plastics recycling market.

(with AFP)

The thieves who robbed the famed Paris museum last October made off with an estimated 88 million euros ($104 million) in jewels, but dropped the empress’s diamond- and emerald-studded crown as they escaped, leaving it crushed and broken.

Investigators have yet to locate the other jewels, but recovered the dropped crown.

The Louvre said in a statement the piece had been “badly deformed”, but remained “nearly intact” and would be restored to its original state, “without the need for reconstruction”.

Strike shuts Paris’s Louvre again as video of jewel heist aired for first time

The museum said the crown was damaged when the thieves tried to remove it through a narrow hole they had sawed in the glass case where it was displayed.

The Louvre said the crown still had all its pieces, except for one of the eight golden eagles that adorned it.

It retains all 56 of its emeralds and all but 10 of its 1,354 diamonds, the museum said.

It said an expert committee led by the museum’s president, Laurence des Cars, had been selected to supervise the restoration, which would be carried out by a qualified expert chosen in a competitive selection process.

Authorities have arrested all four alleged members of the heist crew, but have not found the mastermind — or the remaining jewels.

The thieves made off with eight other items of jewellery, including a diamond-studded tiara that belonged to Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III.

The 53-year-old was shot dead on Tuesday at his residence in Zintan, a city in Libya’s northwest. According to those around him, four unidentified armed men broke into Kadhafi’s home before killing him.

Since his release from prison in 2016, Saïf al-Islam had been living in seclusion in Zintan with only two employees, in an isolated villa on a mountain overlooking the Hamada Desert.

For security reasons, he led an extremely discreet life and communicated only with a very small circle, small enough to be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Son of former Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi shot dead in home

A reformist image

Under his father’s rule, Saïf al-Islam cultivated the image of a reformer. Educated in London and fluent in English, he played a role in sensitive diplomatic missions, including negotiations over Libya’s decision to abandon weapons of mass destruction.

He became a key interlocutor with Western governments, calling for the adoption of a constitution and respect for human rights.

During the 2000s, he contributed to the release of political prisoners, including Islamists.

He also launched a reform project aimed at putting Libya on the path to democracy. That effort ran into strong resistance from the regime’s old guard and ultimately failed.

Kadhafi’s son breaks silence on Sarkozy Libya funding

A violent break

At the start of the uprising against his father’s rule in 2011, Saïf al-Islam promised “bloodbaths”, abruptly shattering his reputation as a progressive.

He was arrested while attempting to flee and spent six years detained in Zintan, held in near-total isolation.

In 2015, he was sentenced to death after a summary trial before later benefiting from an amnesty. The years in detention marked a decisive rupture in his public life and ambitions.

Despite his past, Saïf al-Islam retained support among Libyans nostalgic for the former regime.

He put himself forward as a candidate in Libya’s planned presidential election in 2021. His candidacy was controversial and widely contested. Saïf al-Islam was eventually disqualified because of his conviction.

Political disputes that followed caused the electoral process to collapse, and the vote never took place.

France urges rival parties in Libya to find political solution to end violence

Life on the margins

Marked by the death of his father and his brother Moatassem in 2011, and by the imprisonment of two of his other brothers, Saïf al-Islam mistrusted everyone.

He rarely left his home, though he sometimes walked alone near the desert. He was always accompanied by a book, a habit he had developed during his years in prison.

In 2025, he reopened official social media accounts, commenting on international affairs and signalling his continued ambition to stand in a future presidential election.

Trained in economics and architecture, Saïf al-Islam also pursued an artistic practice. He exhibited his paintings in several countries, including France, notably in Paris.

Tim Redford, in charge of the festival’s international competition and the African Perspectives section, says it acts as a cultural barometer, measuring the level of short film production around the world.

He also says there’s no getting away from geopolitics and global economics, which have great impact on the quantity – and quality – of content.

“The current climate is quite complex, and we feel it immediately in short film production,” he told RFI.

Despite having received more than 8,000 entries this year, he says armed conflicts have meant a lower number of entries – especially from Ukraine, Russia and the Palestinian territories. Meanwhile, inflation in Latin America has affected the number of entries from that part of the world.

However, he notes a rise in entries from China, which has invested heavily in the film industry in recent years, particularly in film schools.

This year’s special focus at the festival is South East Asia, a region Redford says is booming with activity.

“You can sense that there’s a [new] generation of filmmakers who are very free, very inventive in the way they talk about their society, politics and also intimate matters, pushing the boundaries of censorship a little,” he explains.

‘Nouvelle Vague’ dominates César nominations, Jim Carrey to get lifetime award

New technology

African Perspectives, now in its 36th edition, remains one of the highlights of the festival.

“It’s great because it often provides a first step into an international festival,” Redford says, noting the immense diversity he sees in the African entries – whether from Cap Verde, Nigeria, Chad or Tunisia.

“There is the use of social media and experimental forms… there is a transformation, a use of more hybrid forms than there were a few years ago. It’s a type of cinema that fascinates me, and every year I see wonderful things happening.”

Sousou’s TikTok is one of two Egyptian films in this year’s African Perspectives section.

Directed by Sondos Shabayek, this dark comedy introduces us to Sarah, a beautiful woman who sells beauty products on TikTok – but when her husband arrives home, she reverts to an oppressed housewife.

“That’s the problem with the online world, with all these women we see online and all these facades they create. I was very curious to explore what lies behind all that,” Shabayek told RFI.

With a low budget, the film was shot vertically, just like the videos seen on TikTok. On the right side of the screen is the livestream, on the left are the “likes” and readers’ comments can be seen.

“For me, the film is about a woman seeking her freedom. Her presence on TikTok is an expression of her desire to be seen and heard. Her attempt to sell products on TikTok is an attempt to achieve financial independence, which is generally very threatening to men,” the director says.

“I wanted to give the impression that we are the audience and question my point of view as a viewer… I wanted to portray the audience’s complacency, their negligence. In a way, they contribute to the environment in which this violence occurs.”

Redford says an increasing number of films “play with genres or blur the boundaries between fiction and documentary, reality and staging” as well as dealing with new technologies such as artificial intelligence.

He points to examples of how AI helps creators fill in gaps in images, and to those who use AI as a character – such as in the French film Curiosity On Planet Mars by Tommy Baron, in which a young man has an emotional relationship with a conversational AI tool.

“[AI] is beginning to revolutionise creation, film-making, writing, editing, imagery… and it certainly raises new questions about short films.”

While he says AI is “here to stay”, he admits to being concerned about its potential to replace human film crews.

African cinema takes to global stage with diverse storytelling

Parallels with the past

But the focus is not all on the future. Franco-Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb, a veteran of the festival, this year presents his film Boomerang Atomic, which uses archives to shine a light on little-known colonial history.

This 22-minute documentary delves into the long-lasting consequences of the 17 atomic bomb tests carried out by France in Algeria in the early 1960s.

Bouchareb is pleased to be back, 30 years after his first time at Clermont-Ferrand.

The award-winning director, of both short and long films, often turns his eye to historical events. His film Indigènes, about African soldiers in the Second World War, won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006 – awarded collectively to all five of the film’s leads.

Boomerang Atomic focuses on the lead-up to the first atomic detonation in Reggane, a town in the centre of the Sahara, which took place on 13 February, 1960, under the initiative of General Charles de Gaulle.

‘Telling stories differently’: Tunisian cinema shines at Franco-Arab Film Festival

For Bouchareb – there are parallels between those events and the threat of nuclear war in today’s world.

“We thought that many things had been debated sufficiently so that we could no longer go back on them,” he says. “But in the end, we realise that with human beings, anything is possible. Dropping another atomic bomb on a country is possible today, and even more so tomorrow. I can’t keep up with this world anymore. Everything is moving so fast. The presence of war… it’s always there.”

This article was based on interviews in French by Sigfried Forster. The International Short Film Festival runs until 7 February.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Black President’

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

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

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

Nigerian Afrobeat legend Tony Allen, 79, dies in Paris

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

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

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

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

Onward and upward

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

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

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

Paris exhibition celebrates Fela Kuti, the rebel king of Afrobeat

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

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

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

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

(with AFP)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ancient recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scent of the Bible 

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

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

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

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

Secretive industry 

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

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

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

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

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

“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.

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.

“We want to see widespread lung cancer screening by 2030, and it will start in March with more than 20,000 people eligible for targeted screening,” said Rist.

Speaking to Franceinfo for World Cancer Day on Wednesday, the health minister said the pilot would help identify the population most likely to benefit from pre-emptive checks, with a view to making them routine.

“We are really moving towards mass screening, as we do for breast cancer or colon cancer.”

Lung cancer is the deadliest form of the disease in France, responsible for some 30,000 deaths a year. Most cases are caused by smoking.

With symptoms slow to appear, low survival rates are partly explained by the difficulty of catching lung cancer early. One analysis found that almost a fifth of patients died within three months of diagnosis.

Anti-tobacco groups hail France’s decision to ban nicotine pouches in 2026

Potential to save thousands of lives

France’s pilot screening programme, first announced last year, will target people aged 50 to 74 who either smoke or quit within the past 15 years. 

A full-scale programme to screen high-risk individuals for lung cancer could prevent more than 10,000 lung cancer deaths in France over five years, according to modelling conducted to help design the project. 

Between 2.4 and 4 million individuals may be eligible nationwide, depending on which criteria health authorities use.

Lung cancer screening has already been tested with a small number of people in some parts of France, including the Somme and Corsica. Several other European countries are also in the process of developing large-scale programmes, including Poland, Croatia, Italy and Romania.

From breast cancer to HIV, how AI is set to revolutionise healthcare

Doctors can use CT scans, chest X-rays or sputum samples to check for early signs of lung cancer. Trials in other countries indicate that annual CT scans are the most effective, with the potential to reduce the risk of dying by around 20 percent. 

France currently screens for three types of cancer – breast, cervical and colorectal – with target age groups systematically invited for regular checks that are paid for by the national health service. 

Rist said the Health Ministry was also preparing to roll out another pilot programme to better target people at high risk of developing breast cancer, the most prevalent form of the disease in women, with more than 60,000 cases diagnosed in France a year.

Fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces has devastated cities, driven millions from their homes and left vast areas facing hunger since April 2023.

Both sides have attacked civilians, obstructed humanitarian assistance and committed serious abuses, the rights group said.

The actions of the warring parties have created the most severe humanitarian emergency globally, Human Rights Watch said in World Report 2026, its annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe.

The UN World Food Programme reported that 24.6 million people are suffering acute hunger, with 2 million facing famine or the risk of famine. More than 11.8 million people have been displaced, including 7.4 million inside Sudan and 4.2 million who have fled to neighbouring countries.

While the army retook Khartoum and other areas in central Sudan, the RSF captured El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, on 26 October after a siege that began in May 2024.

There were immediate reports and images of RSF extrajudicial killings and other serious violations against civilians trying to flee, Human Rights Watch said.

Race to save Sudan’s plundered heritage as museums fall victim to war

Killings, torture, mass graves

In Khartoum, the army uncovered evidence of serious abuses by the RSF as it regained control of the capital in March, particularly in Omdurman, Human Rights Watch said. The army then carried out retaliatory attacks against local volunteers accused of collaborating with the RSF.

Local medical authorities and activists said RSF shelling killed 54 people and wounded more than 100 at a market in Omdurman in February.

Media reported in March that around 500 people may have been buried in mass graves near an RSF base in northern Khartoum, where detainees reported torture and starvation.

The UN Human Rights Office said there were credible reports that RSF and allied forces looted houses in eastern Khartoum and carried out summary killings and arbitrary detentions. It also said SAF-allied fighters were reported to have carried out similar abuses.

Local volunteers said in January that the army carried out indiscriminate airstrikes in southern Khartoum, including on a market, killing and injuring dozens of civilians, Human Rights Watch reported.

The group also said the army bombed a mosque in West Kordofan on June 21, killing 41 and wounding dozens.

Drone attacks shock city in central Sudan as war inches closer

Darfur under siege

The fall of El Fasher followed relentless RSF attacks that triggered famine in displacement camps in and around the city, Human Rights Watch said. It said the RSF carried out mass killings of people fleeing as well as sexual violence.

The UN fact-finding mission reported that the RSF damaged water facilities and supply lines in February and that mid-April attacks on Zamzam killed between 300 and 1,500 people and injured more than 157, the majority women and children.

Human Rights Watch said the army shelled and bombed residential areas, including a market north of El Fasher on March 24. It also said the army killed scores of civilians in early February in attacks on residential and commercial neighbourhoods in Nyala, South Darfur.

Both warring parties continue to wilfully obstruct aid despite desperate needs, the report said, and have detained and harassed humanitarian workers and local volunteers.

The UN fact-finding mission concluded that the RSF and allied forces used starvation as a method of warfare, a war crime.

Sudan’s El-Fasher ‘an epicentre of human suffering’, UN says

Aid blocked, women and girls targeted

In June, a World Food Programme convoy was attacked in North Darfur, killing five staff members. A drone strike also hit another UN convoy in the same region in August.

An armed attack in August forced Doctors without Borders to suspend operations at Zalingei hospital in central Darfur in the midst of a cholera outbreak.

At least 330 cases of conflict-related sexual violence have been documented, primarily against women and girls, UN experts said in May. The UN Population Fund said cuts to aid funding have forced it to withdraw from more than half of the 93 health facilities it was supporting.

The UN’s top humanitarian official, Tom Fletcher, urged donors and diplomatic partners to act at a donor conference in Washington on Tuesday.

“The horrific humanitarian crisis in Sudan has endured more than 1,000 days – too long,” he said. “Too many days of famine, of brutal atrocities, of lives uprooted and destroyed.”

Fletcher warned that funding alone would not be enough. “The money is not enough,” he said.

“We need the air assets, the security, the medical support for our teams, and the mediation work that has to underpin the access.”

He said the UN was pushing for visible progress toward a humanitarian truce ahead of Ramadan.

In October, ICC judges convicted former Janjaweed militia leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur in 2003-04 and 2013, the first trial arising out of the court’s Darfur investigation, Human Rights Watch said.

The group said the ICC’s mandate remains limited to Darfur, leaving no independent judicial mechanism to prosecute grave crimes committed elsewhere in Sudan.

Libyan television channel Libya al-Ahrar said people close to Saïf al-Islam had also confirmed his death without revealing the circumstances.

His adviser and representative to the national dialogue committee, Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim, also announced the passing of the 53-year-old in a Facebook post, without further details.

Media reports said Saïf al-Islam was killed south of the city of Zintan, in western Libya. He was alone at home when four armed men broke into the residence and opened fire.

Libya al-Ahrar said the attackers disabled surveillance cameras before storming the house and killing him, citing comments by Abdullah Othman Abdurrahim.

Saïf al-Islam’s lawyer later confirmed to the French news agency AFP that “a commando of four people” had killed him at his home.

Lebanon frees Hannibal Kadhafi, son of Libya’s ex-leader, held for a decade

First reactions

His cousin, Hamid Kadhafi, described the killing as a martyrdom. “Doctor Saïf al-Islam fell as a martyr,” he told Libya al-Ahrar by telephone.

Saïf al-Islam’s lawyer, Abdallah Zaydi, condemned what he called a “cowardly assassination” and an “odious crime that adds to the series of crimes committed against the Libyan people”.

Photos circulating on social media showed Saïf al-Islam’s body lying in the back of a vehicle.

His political adviser said the body had been taken to a private hospital in Zintan and that four judges had arrived in the city to open an investigation.

“He will not be buried before the end of the investigation,” the adviser said.

Kadhafi’s son breaks silence on Sarkozy Libya funding

Denials and past charges

Some sources accused Brigade 444, an armed group led by Mahmoud Hamza, of carrying out the assassination.

The brigade denied any involvement. “We affirm that no force is deployed in Zintan and we deny the existence of any decision to pursue Saïf al-Islam Kadhafi,” the group said in a statement.

Long seen as a potential successor to his father, Saïf al-Islam was wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

He was arrested in 2011, sentenced to death in 2015 and later released under an amnesty.

Nick Checker, the newly appointed head of the US State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, arrived in Bamako on Monday for an official visit, where Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop welcomed him.

The leaders focused their discussions on two main issues: resuming bilateral cooperation, particularly in the fight against terrorism, and strengthening economic and trade relations between Mali and the United States.

Trade, not aid   

Diop told news agencies that no official statement would be issued concerning Checker’s visit, but it coincides with US President Donald Trump’s pivot to a “trade, not aid” foreign policy approach.

Trump has slashed foreign assistance, including dismantling the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Mali is known to be mineral-rich, with substantial reserves in gold, lithium and uranium. 

According to the official statement from Malian authorities, both sides view the reactivation of their relations as a “win-win” partnership.

Mali’s economy near standstill amid JNIM fuel attacks

Fighting jihadism

Checker emphasised his country’s respect for Mali’s sovereignty, and added that the American desire to revitalise bilateral cooperation with Bamako came without any form of interference.

A diplomat at the US embassy in Bamako told news agencies on condition of anonymity that the “United States sees how the jihadists are settling in the Sahel” and wants to prevent escalations.

A Malian diplomat, also on condition of anonymity, said that Washington’s envoy had “come to make an offer of services to AES countries [Alliance of Sahel States, comprising Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso] to see under what conditions the United States can get involved in the fight against jihadists in the Sahel“.

Niger faces multiple crises three months after military coup

“Among the conditions of US involvement are the return to constitutional order and the end of the Africa Corps contract,” the Malian diplomat said. 

Mali has been gripped by a security crisis since 2012, fuelled notably by violence pitting the military against groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, and the actions of criminal gangs.

The visit also comes at a time when Russia is exerting greater influence in the region, including supplying mercenaries from its Africa Corps to help combat jihadists.

Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have cultivated closer relations with Russia since their military leaders took power in a series of coups between 2020 and 2023, cutting ties with the West.

France halts counter-terrorism cooperation with Mali after diplomat’s arrest

Resuming security cooperation

The US Bureau of African Affairs, which is part of the State Department, said last week it also planned to consult other governments in the  region, including military-run Burkina Faso and Niger, “on shared security and economic interests”.

While welcoming this approach, Malian Foreign Minister Diop nevertheless emphasised that this dynamic would have to take into account the regional context, and in particular the establishment of the Alliance of Sahel States.   

US security cooperation with the three countries had been curtailed since the coups, but last month, the deputy commander of US Africa Command (Africom), Lieutenant General John Brennan, told French news service AFP that Washington wanted to collaborate further.

“We have actually shared information with some of them to attack key terrorist targets,” Brennan said.

“We still talk to our military partners across the Sahel states, even though it’s not official.”

(with newswires)

“It’s a relief because we had to stop operations for three months after the attack of the EU-funded Libyan Coast Guard against the Ocean Viking in August” Claire Juchat said. “People are still leaving Libyan shores because they have no other choice.”

A hostile operating zone

The Ocean Viking resumed rescue operations in late December, following the attack in late August 2025. According to the NGO, the vessel was fired upon with 100 bullets for around 20 minutes while carrying survivors and searching for another boat in distress. No one was injured, but the ship was damaged and remained docked for several months. She compared the operating environment to “a war zone”.

Italy confines Ocean Viking migrant rescue ship for 20 days

Despite the risks, Juchat says returning to sea was necessary. “We rescued 120 people in the past few weeks,” she said. “Of course, it’s a bit scary to be back at sea because we know that the Libyan Coast Guard are still very active.”

The Libyan coast guard, which is organisationally part of the Libyan navy, acts as a proxy force for the European Union to prevent migrants from reaching Europe’s borders.

The EU has financed Libya‘s  migration policy through the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, which provided €465 million between 2015 and 2021, and through the NDICI-Global Europe instrument, which allocates €65 million for the 2021-2027 period. It remains unclear how much of that funding reaches the Libyan coast guard.

The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights says evidence indicates the vessel that attacked the Ocean Viking was handed over by Italy through an EU-funded programme. Following the incident, SOS Méditerranée filed a complaint with French prosecutors in Marseille, southern France.

The EU’s response

Critics argue that the EU’s policy enables abuse. Libya is not considered a “place of safety” for disembarkation by the United Nations, due to a lack of security and human rights violations.

SOS Méditerranée and 42 other humanitarian and civil society groups have previously urged the European Commission to suspend cooperation with Libya on search and rescue, accusing the EU and Italy of funding of legitimising a “culture of impunity for violence.”

Ocean Viking migrant rescue ship back in the water after 10-day stoppage

The European Commission has said it would maintain its approach. “This is what we have been doing and we keep on doing at different level, and this is our policy for now,” Commission spokesperson Guillaume Mercier responded last year to the concerned parties.  

Juchat also criticized Italian policies that require rescue ships to disembark rescued people in distant northern ports.

“Sometimes up to Genova or Ravenna,”  Juchat said, noting how this removes rescue vessels from the central Mediterranean for days and increases fuel costs, further limiting the NGO’s ability to operate.

Anses, France’s public health and food safety agency, said vaping is often seen as an alternative to smoking but is “not without risks” for health.

About 6 percent of people in France vape daily, or more than three million people, according to 2024 figures from Santé publique France, the national body responsible for monitoring population health.

While the harms of tobacco are well documented, Anses said the health effects of vaping are less well known, particularly in the medium and long term.

Scientific studies suggest vaping “is associated with possible health effects in the medium and long term”, notably for the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, it said – adding the risks are linked to repeated inhalation of toxic substances.

This included aldehydes, which were described as irritants with cancer-related effects.

“The absence of combustion does not mean absence of exposure to dangerous substances,” Anses warned.

The work drew on nearly 3,000 scientific publications, international reports and industry declarations, with 14 experts involved.

“Our aim is to look at everything science says and assess the strength of the evidence,” said Carole Leroux, one of the coordinators of the Anses analysis, speaking to the press ahead of its publication.

Psychedelic therapy gains ground in Europe, under strict conditions

Harms over time

Anses said nicotine-containing vaping products carry a probable risk of cardiovascular effects, such as increases in blood pressure and heart rate. It said studies also point to possible effects on the respiratory system, including chronic lung disease and lung inflammation.

On cancer, several studies showed biological changes compatible with early stages of cancer development, but Anses said these do not allow it to conclude that e-cigarettes have a cancer-causing effect at this stage.

The agency also flagged possible risks during pregnancy. Vaping, particularly when nicotine is used, has “possible harmful cardiovascular and respiratory effects” on children exposed before birth, including changes to heart and respiratory cells as they develop.

Anses stressed that vaping’s effects are not as severe as those caused by tobacco.

Tobacco use is France’s leading cause of avoidable early death, killing about 75,000 people each year, including 45,000 from cancer.

Benoît Labarbe, who heads the Anses unit that evaluates tobacco and related products, said that e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking but “must remain a transitional option”.

French gut study explores how microbes influence health over time

Youth uptake

Anses warned about how long people keep vaping. In 2023, 32 percent of vapers in France had been using e-cigarettes for more than four years, up from 24 percent in 2022.

“This trend reflects a stabilisation and growing loyalty to e-cigarettes among regular users,” the agency said, adding that longer use is often seen among former smokers.

A 2023 Anses study also looked at teenagers and said adolescent users have “their own dynamics and motivations”, different from adults.

Among 510 teenagers aged 13 to 17 who were surveyed, 32 percent had never smoked or had only tried a cigarette once, a “much higher proportion” than among adults, where the figure is 2 percent.

This “reflects entry into vaping without prior tobacco use, often driven by curiosity, taste or a fashion effect,” Anses said.

There was not sufficient hindsight on cancer risks because vaping products only emerged in the early 2010s.

The agency said the question is also harder to study because most adult vapers are current or former smokers and it recommended an in-depth study of those who have never smoked.

If the court upholds last year’s bombshell ruling by a lower tribunal, Le Pen would be banned from running in France’s 2027 presidential election, widely seen as her best chance at the top job.

The prosecution also sought a four-year prison term with three years suspended and a €100,000 fine for the figurehead leader of the National Rally (RN) party, which has been riding high in the opinion polls.

Le Pen had hoped her appeal against her ban over a fake jobs scam at the European parliament – an accusation the 57-year-old has denied – would clear the way for her to run in the election after Emmanuel Macron stands down.

But during closing arguments lasting nearly six hours, attorney general Stephane Madoz-Blanchet told the court that “Marine Le Pen was the instigator, following in her father’s footsteps, of a system that enabled the party to embezzle €1.4 million”.

The first trial found Le Pen, along with 24 former European lawmakers, assistants and accountants as well as the party itself, guilty of operating a “system” from 2004 to 2016 using European parliament funds to employ RN staff in France.

Le Pen, the RN and 11 others are appealing the March 2025 ruling, which also sentenced her to four years in jail, with two suspended.

Macron visits eastern France following far-right win in Alpine by-election

Presidential race at stake

Le Pen made it to the second round in the 2017 and 2022 presidential polls, losing to Macron both times. But he cannot run again next year after two consecutive terms in office.

During the appeal trial, she has denied that the RN had any “system” to embezzle European parliament funds and has said her party acted in “complete good faith”.

The appeal ends in February, with a verdict expected within months.

If she then appeals to the supreme court, its judges will rule before the 2027 presidential elections, they have said.

Le Pen has said she will decide whether to run after the ruling in the appeal trial, and has indicated that her lieutenant – 30-year-old RN president Jordan Bardella – could be the party’s candidate instead.

French magistrate says US officials sought to sway Le Pen conviction

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

During Tuesday’s hearing, prosecutor Thierry Ramonatxo pushed back at claims that the judiciary had in any way aimed to “block a party leader’s ascent to the highest executive office” in the initial ruling.

“To suggest that the judiciary could oppose the will of the sovereign people is inaccurate,” he said.

“A judge is the guardian of the law and merely applies it.”

A French court last year handed an eight-month suspended jail sentence to a 76-year-old man over a death threat against the judge who convicted Le Pen.

The warrants, issued in July last year, target Nili Kupfer-Naouri, linked to Israel is Forever, a pro-Israel advocacy group, and Rachel Touitou, associated with Tsav 9, an activist group opposing the delivery of aid to Gaza.

They require both women to appear before an investigating magistrate but do not order their arrest.

Lawyers for the non-governmental organisations that filed the complaint said the case is the first time a national legal system has examined whether blocking humanitarian aid could qualify as complicity in genocide under international law.

The allegations relate to actions said to have taken place between January and November 2024, including a specific incident in May.

Investigators believe the two activists tried to block aid trucks heading to Gaza at the Nitzana and Kerem Shalom crossings, which are key entry points for humanitarian supplies.

UN investigation labels Gaza violence as genocide prompting Israeli backlash

Legal threshold tested

The warrants followed complaints filed by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights along with rights groups Al-Haq and Al-Mezan.

Their lawyer, Clémence Bectarte, said the investigation is unprecedented in genocide law and argued that deliberately preventing aid from reaching civilians in a war zone could meet the legal threshold for criminal responsibility.

In addition to the main allegation of complicity in genocide, both activists are also suspected of public provocation to commit genocide after allegedly calling for aid to be stopped from entering Gaza.

Investigators may expand the case, with warrants potentially issued for around 10 other individuals.

‘Recognition brings obligation’: How declaring genocide could reshape war in Gaza

Accused deny wrongdoing

Lawyers for the two activists reject the accusations and say their actions have been misrepresented.

Olivier Pardo, who represents Kupfer-Naouri, said she took part in pacifist protests against what she believes is the diversion and resale of humanitarian aid by Hamas and other groups.

Kupfer-Naouri has described the investigation as “anti-semitic madness.” She is currently in Israel and has said she is ready to speak to French investigators.

Touitou has also denied the allegations, writing on social media that peacefully protesting against a terrorist organisation’s handling of aid should not be criminalised.

The case is part of a wider series of legal actions in France linked to the Gaza war.

These include complaints over alleged war crimes and over the Hamas attack that triggered the conflict on 7 October 2023.

(with newswires)

The knife attack took place at La Guicharde secondary school in Sanary-sur-Mer, a town near the southern city of Toulon. The stabbing occurred at around 2pm inside the teacher’s classroom.

The pupil stabbed the 60-year-old art teacher three to four times, according to the prosecutor of the city of Toulon, Raphaël Balland.

No ideological motive

The 14-year-old boy was arrested shortly afterwards on suspicion of attempted murder. “There are no religious or political connotations to the attack at this stage,” Balland told reporters during a press briefing.

He added that investigators were aware of recent tensions between the pupil and the teacher, and that the student “was angry with her” over reports she had filed concerning him.

The prosecutor also said the teenager was facing difficulties at home, but had not previously been known to be violent.

French PM calls for tighter security in schools after deadly knife attack

Minister heads to scene

France’s education minister, Édouard Geffray, said he was heading to the school following the incident. “My thoughts immediately go out to the victim, her family and the entire educational community, whose deep shock I share,” he wrote on X.

The French president is also reportedly being kept informed of the situation.

Emergency medical services evacuated the teacher to Sainte-Anne hospital in Toulon, where she was undergoing surgery, local authorities said.

Series of school attacks

The stabbing comes amid a series of violent incidents in French schools in recent years.

Last June, a 14-year-old boy was charged with the murder of a teaching assistant after allegedly stabbing her to death during a bag search in the eastern town of Nogent. The victim, 31, was the mother of a young boy.

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

In another case in April 2025, a student killed a girl and wounded several other pupils in a stabbing attack in the western city of Nantes.

Many teachers say they continue to be haunted by the killing of history teacher Samuel Paty in 2020, after he showed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in class. His appeal trial is currently under way in Paris.

(with newswires)

French investigators carried out a search on Tuesday at the Paris headquarters of social media platform X, as part of a widening judicial investigation into the platform’s content moderation and use of artificial intelligence.

The Paris public prosecutor’s office also confirmed that Elon Musk, who has owned the platform since 2022, has been formally summoned.

The operation was conducted at X’s French offices by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office, working alongside a specialised unit of the national gendarmerie and Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency.

The authorities confirmed the search in a brief statement published on X itself.

X – formerly known as Twitter – did not immediately respond to requests by French news agency AFP for comment

Last July, however, Musk had publicly criticised the French investigation, describing it as “politically motivated”.

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

Investigation into Grok AI

According to the public prosecutor’s office, the investigation was initially opened following two reports received in January 2025.

Since then, it has been broadened after additional reports linked to Grok, the AI assistant developed and offered by X.

Grok is alleged to have contributed to the dissemination of illegal content, including Holocaust denial material and sexually explicit deepfakes. Prosecutors say these concerns prompted investigators to expand the scope of their inquiries.

As part of the next phase, summonses have been issued for voluntary interviews in Paris on 20 April 2026.

Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino, X’s chief executive, have both been called to give evidence about their respective roles in managing the platform at the time of the alleged offences.

X employees have also been summoned to appear as witnesses between 20 and 24 April 2026.

Prosecutors said the voluntary interviews would allow executives to present their account of events and, where appropriate, outline any compliance measures they intend to put in place.

A voluntary interview differs from police custody under French law – those questioned may leave at any time. At its conclusion, an individual may be released, summoned again, or placed in police custody, depending on the circumstances.

EU accuses Meta and TikTok of breaching social media transparency rules

European, UK scrutiny gathers pace

The Paris prosecutor’s office listed several alleged offences under investigation, including complicity in the possession of child sexual abuse images, denial of crimes against humanity, and administering an illegal online platform as part of an organised group.

French MP Éric Bothorel, who initiated one of the original reports, welcomed the authorities’ action.

In a post on X, he said the case underlined that in Europe – and particularly in France – “no one is above the law”, and that European regulations, as transposed into French legislation, apply equally to all actors.

The European Commission said it was in contact with the French authorities over the investigation.

Macron, Starmer join forces to tackle Musk ‘interference’ in European affairs

Regulatory scrutiny is also mounting in the UK, where the Information Commissioner’s Office has opened an inquiry into the collection of personal data and the alleged generation of explicit images by Grok.

The investigation targets xAI, which operates the chatbot, as well as X Internet Unlimited Company, the Dublin-based entity responsible for processing X’s data in the EU.

In a statement, the ICO said Grok had allegedly been used to create explicit images of individuals, including children, warning that such practices could breach UK data protection law and pose a risk of significant harm to the public.

Separately, UK media regulator Ofcom confirmed on Tuesday that it was continuing its own investigation into X, adding to the regulatory pressure facing the platform on both sides of the Channel.

(with newswires)

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.

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 access to 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.