Director Christophe Ruggia is accused of sexually assaulting Haenel in the early 2000s when she was under 15 and he was in his mid to late 30s.

Haenel, star of films “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and “120 Beats Per Minute” went public in 2019 with a description of the sexual assault she allegedly suffered at the hands of Ruggia.

The two met working on the movie “The Devils” in 2001 when she was 12 and he was 36.

Ruggia has denied all the charges against him, although he admits to committing “errors”. He has suggested that Haenel’s accusations stem from wanting “revenge” for not casting her in other projects.

‘Complacency’ towards abusers

In a court document seen by the AFP news agency, the investigating magistrate said Haenel’s accusations were “precise and consistent” and that she had suffered psychological consequences from the assaults.

She accused Ruggia of isolating her from her family and crewmembers, while also forcing her and co-star Vincent Rottiers into filming scenes that they were uncomfortable with.

Several crew members told investigators of their “unease” with Ruggia’s behaviour towards the young actor on set, calling it “invasive” and “inappropriate”.

If found guilty of sexual assault of a minor, Ruggia faces up to ten years in prison and a €150,000 fine.

#MeToo in French cinema

Haenel became an icon for speaking out, credited with launching a #MeToo movement in French cinema that has prompted others to speak up.

“I believe I have done something good for the world and my integrity,” Haenel said after coming forward in 2019. “It doesn’t matter if it harms my career.”

In 2020, Haenel made a noisy exit at the Cesars award ceremony to protest against a prize given to veteran director Roman Polanski, who is wanted by the US over statutory rape allegations.

However, disillusioned with her attempts to change the industry from inside, in 2022 she said she was stepping away from acting because of what she said was French cinema’s “complacency” towards sexual predators.

In 2024, actress Judith Godrèche received a standing ovation at Cesars after she spoke out against sexual violence in the French film industry.

Gerard Depardieu, one of France’s leading actors, is due to go on trial next year on accusations of sexually assaulting two women on a film set in 2021.

(with AFP, Reuters)

The fall of Bashar-al-Assad, “one of the worst dictators of our time” is “good news for freedom”, Jean-Noel Barrot told France Info radio Monday.

“It is good news for the Syrian people who from now on must take their destiny into their own hands,” after 13 years of civil war.

France, which welcomed the fall of Assad, will support for Syria’s political transition, but that support “will depend on the respect of our requirements”, Barrot said, pointing to the need to respect women’s and minority rights and international law.

Keeping terrorism at bay

Syrian rebels, lead by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), seized the capital, Damascus , Sunday after an advance that caused Assad to flee to Russia, ending his family’s six decades of rule.

HTS, which cut ties with Syria’s branch of Al-Qaeda, is “an Islamist movement”, Barrot insisted.

The group must “demonstrate its sincere desire to rid the transition of extremism, Islamism and Jihadism, and to organize a transition that allows for all Syrian minorities, towards which we are very attached, to fully take part”.

Barrot said that only a state that “respects Syrians in their ethnic, political and religious diversity is without a doubt the best guarantee we can have against the risk of terrorism and waves of migration,” making reference to the hundreds of thousands of Syrians who arrived in Europe in 2015, fleeing the Islamic State armed group, which had taken over large parts of the country.

The transition in Syria must “leave no room for extremism and no room for terrorism”, he said.

The United States has conducted several air strikes in the centre of Syria, aimed at Islamic State targets, according to the Centcom command for the Middle East.

French pressure

France cut ties with Syria in 2012, after the regime cracked down on peaceful demonstrators, but Paris has maintained a special envoy for Syria, who Barrot says visits regularly and has been communicating “with all parties”.

France has economic clout to make sure its demands are met, Barrot said, “because we will have to participate in the reconstruction, and we will not do it unless the conditions that were evoked are not respected”.

Assad, who Russian media said fled to Moscow, must be held accountable for his acts, Barrot said.

France has an international arrest warrant out for Assad, for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes.

“France’s position remains constant,” Barrot said. “International justice must be applied, everywhere and all the time. And I wish – not in a spirit of vengeance or revenge – that Bashar al-Assad be found guilty of his acts.”

The United Nations Security Council will convene Monday afternoon to address the situation in Syria in a meeting called by Russia.

For Barrot, Assad’s fall is a “clear defeat for Moscow”, as Russia now could lose access to military bases in Syria which allowed to conduct operations in the Magreb and elsewhere on the African continent.

(With newswires)

The desperate hunt for a new prime minister to replace Michel Barnier continues on Monday.

Macron will receive representatives of the Liot independent group, Communists and Ecologists. 

The hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party has refused to take part and the far-right National Rally has not been invited.

The President is looking for elusive allies to ensure a working majority in parliament after his pick, Michel Barnier, lost a no confidence vote last week, just three months into office. 

Macron’s own camp piled on the pressure on Sunday when the President of the lower house, Yael Braun-Pivet, asked him to appoint a new prime minister “in the next few hours”.

François Bayrou of the centre-right MoDem party, and one of the few names circulating to take over from Barnier, said he was ready to help.

“We can’t go on like this. If I can help us get out of all this, I’ll do it,” the former minister and mayor of the southern French town of Pau told his local radio. 

France faces deadline to ward off financial turmoil as PM resigns

Reaching out to the Socialists 

France’s new premier will need the support of at least 289 of the Assembly’s 577 MPs if he or she is able to govern and get legislation passed without recourse to the constitutional tool that Barnier was forced to use to pass the 2025 budget, and which led to his demise.

Braun-Pivet, a member of Macron’s Renaissance party, is campaigning to form an enlarged central bloc ranging from the rightwing Republicans (LR) to the Socialists (PS).

“If you add up our common base, Liot and the PS, you have 299 MPs,” she said in an interview on Sunday. “You’ll have a majority, so there’s no longer any possibility of censure.”

The head of the PS met Macron last Friday to discuss “reciprocal concessions”.

Braun-Pivet called for “a joint action programme” between those political groups, focusing on healthcare, agriculture, simplification, decentralisation and possibly proportional representation.

Far right excluded

The far-right National Rally, which along with LFI voted to bring down the Barnier government, has not to been invited to Monday’s talks.

Party leader Jordan Bardella is nonetheless knocking on the Elysée door.

“You can’t pretend we’re not here,” he warned in an interview with France 3 television, adding that reaching out to the left was designed to “prevent millions of people who voted for the RN from seeing their ideas expressed”.

Where did France’s culture of political compromise go, and is it coming back?

Divided left

Meanwhile the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition that came out on top in the snap parliamentary elections in June is increasingly divided. 

The Socialists, Ecologists and Communists are calling, to varying degrees, for discussion, while the hard-left LFI refuses to “betray its voters” by taking part in a Macron government.

“If the Socialists join the future government, the NFP will continue without them,” said LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “We refuse to govern with this right-wing bloc.” 

LFI lawmaker Eric Coquerel, chairman of the assembly’s Finance Committee, said he believed Macron was “fooling everyone” and wouldn’t appoint a left-wing prime minister.”

The president’s strategy was aimed solely at “dividing” the NFP, Coquerel said. 

“There can be no compromise,” fellow LFI MP Mathilde Panot told Franceinfo.

Meanwhile the right-wing Republicans have their own red lines: “No LFI in government, no NFP programme,” Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the LR party in the Assembly, told Le Figaro. 

“At this point, it is effectively certain that 2024 is going to be the warmest year on record,” the Copernicus Climate Change Service said in its monthly bulletin.

This year is sure to eclipse 2023 as the hottest yet, and it will be the first time the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit agreed under the Paris climate accord intended to limit warming.

Scientists have warned that that exceeding 1.5C over a long period would greatly imperil the planet.

A single year above 1.5C “does not mean that the Paris Agreement has been breached,” said Copernicus deputy director Samantha Burgess, “but it does mean ambitious climate action is more urgent than ever”.

Rising temperatures bring disaster

In October, the United Nations said the current trajectory of fossil fuel emissions, despite a global pledge to move away from coal, oil and gas, would result in a catastrophic 3.1C of warming.

Even at present levels, climate change is taking its toll, with countries – rich and poor – hammered this year by floods, droughts and fires that scientists have directly linked to it.

Developing countries are particularly vulnerable, and by 2035 will need $1.3 trillion a year in assistance to cope with the impacts of climate change.

At UN climate talks in November, wealthy countries committed $300 billion annually by 2035, an amount decried as woefully inadequate.

Why is this happening?

Even if scientists have linked increased temperatures with fossil fuel emissions, the extraordinary heat over the last 1.5 years has sparked debate.

The El Nino – a natural phenomenon that moves around warm water – peaked at the start of 2024, and while it explains some of the temperature rise, scientists it could not alone explain the record-breaking heat in the atmosphere and seas.

Last week, a study published in the journal Science suggested a lack of low-lying clouds could be causing less heat to bounce back into space.

A separate paper in May explored the possibility that cleaner-burning shipping fuels were releasing less mirror-like particles into clouds, dimming their reflectivity.

The recent years were “clearly exceptional”, Copernicus climate scientist Julien Nicolas told the AFP news agency.  “As we get more data, we will hopefully better understand what happened.”

(with AFP)

In January this year, the three Sahel countries announced they were leaving the Economic Community of West African States, which they accused of being subservient to former colonial ruler France and failing to support them in their fight against jihadist violence.

According to the bloc, the departure of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger becomes effective one year after the announcement, in January 2025.

The trio have formed the Alliance of Sahel States after severing ties with France and pivoting towards Russia.

In July, Ecowas appointed Senegal’s Faye as a “facilitator” to try to get them to remain in the bloc.

“I am making progress with this mission,” Faye said on Sunday at the Doha Forum for political dialogue in Qatar.

“There is nothing today to prevent the Alliance of Sahel States from being maintained, since it is already there and is a response to the security situation facing these countries in particular,” he said.

“At the same time, this should not, in my view, mean the disintegration of Ecowas”, he added.

• Senegal unveils 25-year development plan aiming for economic sovereignty

Ecowas reform

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are all battling jihadist violence that erupted in northern Mali in 2012 and spread to Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.

Faye spoke ahead of an Ecowas summit scheduled for next Sunday, according to an official from the regional bloc.

He has also called for the reform of the organisation.

The progress made by the bloc – such as improved movement of people and goods – “must not be masked by problems of governance which, like many multilateral institutions, require reform to adapt them to the challenges of our time”, Faye said.

• Senegal’s new leader calls for a rethink of the country’s relationship with the EU

The 15-member Ecowas has been shaken by a series of coup d’états since 2020.

President Faye – who swept to victory in March on a platform of radical change – was in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to shore up investment support for his plan for economic transformation.

“Senegal is nobody’s preserve but that of the Senegalese people,” he said.

“We are open to all other countries” provided that they respect Senegal’s sovereignty and its “social standards”, and that the partnerships are “mutually beneficial,” he added.

(With newswires)

Eight years later, during her second six-year mandate in 2013, she made a dramatic turnaround, dubbing the country’s education system a “mess”.

By the time she ended her second term in 2019, stakeholders noted that the system remained at the same level as when she first took office.

Benjamin Wehye, a prominent Liberian educator and president of Licosess College of Education  in the suburbs of Monrovia, reflected on the state of education during President Sirleaf’s tenure.

He recalled that in 2013, when the ex-president criticised the education system, an estimated 25,000 Liberian students who sat for the West African Examination Council (WAEC) exams and the University of Liberia entrance exams failed to obtain a passing grade. 

Poor standards

This dismal performance prompted President Sirleaf to convene a cabinet retreat aimed at overhauling the system. However, these efforts failed to yield significant results.

In 2013, Liberia participated in the WAEC exams for the first time. The WAEC, established in 1952 in collaboration with British universities, administers standardized exams for middle and high school students in its five member countries: Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, The Gambia, and Liberia.

Since that time, stakeholders in Liberia’s education sector have grappled with challenges ranging from outdated teaching modules and untrained teachers to low salaries and policy issues, all in an effort to improve the sector.

Wehye attributs the nation’s struggling education system to the “flawed educational foundation” introduced in the Liberian school curriculum from the country’s independence in 1847.

During a program at his institution in November, he justified his claim by pointing to the historical use of Liberian Pidgin English as a language of instruction in early schools. These schools were run by freed slave schoolmasters, many of whom were themselves barely literate.

Literacy rates

Liberia’s first higher education institution, Liberia College, was founded in 1862 and later became the University of Liberia in 1951. Despite this early start, Liberia now has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world.

 According to the latest statistics from global education and population think tanks, the country’s adult literacy rate stands at 48.3 percent, compared to a global average of 84.7 percent. The youth literacy rate is 77.46 percent, significantly below the global average of 91.68 percent.

The latest statistics show that 434,475 students attend public schools in Liberia, while 518,865 are enrolled in private schools, 33,065 in community schools, and 347,305 in faith-based schools. Of this total, 51.3 percent are male, and 48.7 percent are female.

Benjamin Wehye pointed out another significant flaw in Liberia’s education system: the failure of policy designers to adopt modern teaching methods, including the introduction of science laboratories and contemporary technologies such as computers in schools.

A recent official report highlights that there are 640 junior and senior public and community secondary schools nationwide. However, only 15 percent of these schools report having functional science laboratories, with wide disparities in equipment availability across counties.

The Zambian-trained educator attributed Liberia’s “mediocre education standard” to the “lack of political will to allocate significant budgets to stimulate positive change through human capital development.”

His observation aligns with remarks by Jarso Maley Jallah, Liberia’s minister of Education, who presented a budget performance report to the Liberian Senate.

Her report covered the purchase and distribution of school supplies, disbursements to schools under the ministry’s authority, the status of volunteer teachers, and enrollment and procurement programs for public and private schools.

For fiscal year 2024, Liberia allocated 108.4 million euros to the education sector, accounting for 15 percent of the total recast budget for the year. Jallah disclosed that out of the 32 institutions receiving government subsidies through the ministry, only 11 have received disbursements, with a total of 370,381 euros disbursed so far.

Teaching Staff

Jallah also revealed that Liberia has 6,192 volunteer teachers, with 80% being male and the remainder female. These teachers are responsible for teaching over 1.3 million students across the country.

Of these, 3,213 volunteer teachers possess only high school credentials and “C” certificates. Meanwhile, 31 volunteers hold master’s degrees, and 1,521 have associate or bachelor’s degrees but lack teaching experience.

Before her appointment as Minister earlier this year, the total number of volunteer teachers and their qualifications were unknown. The ministry has since prioritized transitioning teachers with “C” certificates onto the government payroll.

Some of these teachers now receive a monthly salary of 175 euros per month, in accordance with Civil Service Agency (CSA) standards. Most of the volunteer teachers identified are from primary schools.

“It will also interest you to note that these ‘C’ certificate instructors are teaching higher grades up to 9th grade, which they are not certified to teach. That’s the problem we are working to solve,” Jallah explained. She also noted that 10.5 million euros is required to train 1,521 volunteer teachers to obtain “C” certificates.

Possible solutions

Stakeholders agree that addressing disparities between urban and rural schools is critical to improving Liberia’s literacy rate.

According to the 2022 Liberia Population and Housing Census, 40.7 percent of students attend school in urban areas, compared to only 27.2 percent in rural areas. The dropout rate in rural areas stands at 15.6 percent, compared to 13 percent in urban areas.

In response, Minister Jallah stated that her ministry has launched an enrollment drive focused on rural areas, distributing bags and books directly to students to encourage attendance.

“We aim to keep the communities informed and ensure kids stay in school,” she said. The minister emphasized that Liberia’s education system requires “small, smart, and scalable solutions” and leadership that transcends partisan politics to address systemic gaps and inequities.

Local stakeholders also advocate for partnerships with international education organizations to provide technical support and resources.

They believe such partnerships, supported by funding from local businesses, could help build libraries, equip science labs, and enhance extracurricular programs, making these aspirations a reality.

What’s in a word? In France, plenty.

So much so that since 1635 the Académie Française has been solemnly watching over the purity and eloquence of the language, and deliberating which words can or cannot be admitted to its official dictionary. 

First published in 1694, there have been around two editions per century ever since. The ninth edition, published in mid-November, is the fruit of nearly four decades of painstaking deliberation by the academy’s language commission.

Its ten members meet every Thursday to work their way through the alphabet, at the rate of around one letter every 18 months. 

“You ensure that language is used properly,” President Emmanuel Macron told the members of the academy – known as immortels – as he was ceremoniously handed a copy of the dictionary on 14 November. “The pace at which you produce your dictionary prevents you from giving in to the temptations of fads and trends. You strike a subtle balance in being of your time without giving in to your era.”

French Academy says ‘stop speaking franglais, s’il vous plaît!’

But for some, that steady pace means the dictionary is already outdated. “The effort is praiseworthy, but so excessively tardy that it is perfectly useless,” a group of linguists wrote in an open letter on the day the four-volume tome was published.

“The first volume is obsolete and in the second volume, published in 2000, you still read that the euro is the prospective currency of the European Union and that the franc is the currency used in France,” said Florent Moncomble, a member of the group Les Linguistes Atterrés (“The Appalled Linguists”). “So it can’t be relevant for somebody who wants to learn what French is at the moment of reading the dictionary.”

Listen to a report on the dictionary in the Spotlight on France podcast

Legitimacy in question

The dictionary commission consults lexicographers, but counts none among its ranks. 

Moncomble says this means it lacks legitimacy in compiling a dictionary, but the academy defends its methodology.

“It’s a collaborative effort,” said writer and journalist Frederic Vitoux, immortel number 15 and a member of the language commission since 2003. “Linguists are not necessarily the best placed to make a dictionary. What’s important is to love the French language. We’re writers, historians, doctors, scientists… working together to find the best possible definition of a word.”

Vitoux recognises that the definition of euro is outdated and is one of “around 60 words” that will need to be updated in the tenth edition, which they’ve already started working on.

Academie Francaise, guardian of French language, gets new leader

The ninth edition has 21,000 more entries than the previous one, with new terms including zapping, top model and risotto – but not smartphone or web. 

Moncomble, who, along with his colleagues, has been combing through the new edition, says there are major issues not just with outdated definitions but with the choice of entries.

“They say that it’s a dictionary based on usage. So how do we explain that words that are very current in today’s French, such as le web are absent. But they’ve decided to include woke and wokisme, which are probably less frequent in people’s day to day usage of the language.”

And while wokisme is flagged as “sometimes pejorative”, woke is not.

“So what do they base their choices on? Certainly not objective observation of usage, but more probably subjective choices, impressions. And I don’t know, perhaps ideological,” added Moncomble.

For Vitoux, the controversy is a “pointless quarrel”.

“The French language is evolving, but not through the diktat of a few progressives,” he said. “New ideas, for example gender theory, will give rise to new words and the academy is attentive to that. But the French language doesn’t belong to the Académie Française, nor to the Appalled Linguists, it belongs to no one, it belongs to us all.”

Why fighting ‘franglais’ is not just a war of words

Gender bias

French is a gendered language, and the academy long resisted the move towards the feminisation of professions.

The new dictionary does include feminine forms of job titles such as professeur and ambassadeur but, as Moncomble points out, “an ambassadrice is the wife of an ambassador, and certainly not a female ambassador, and préfète is similarly the wife of a préfet“.

However others, such as sénatrice, do not have their own entries and are simply “bundled in with senateur. And if you look for chirurgienne [female surgeon] you’ll end up on the page chirurgien, and there’s a footnote saying that following the Académie’s decision to accept feminine words in 2019, the word is now in use.”

It wasn’t until the eighth edition that a femme (woman) became a human being rather than a man’s counterpart. And the current definition still links her to child-bearing, leaving infertile and post-menopausal woman out of the loop.

France’s foreign ministry unveils two-year gender equality strategy

Then there’s the word fellation, which features in the latest edition, but not the term cunnilingus.

Vitoux says he has “no idea” why the male form of oral sex was prioritised, but considers his predecessors were “wrong” not to have included both terms.

“In my opinion the word cunnilingus will feature in the 10th edition. And when it does, we will see that the term only entered the dictionary in the early 21st century, whereas fellation appeared earlier. It’s interesting – it’s as if there was a sort of macho ideology in the  intellectual conscience of the French in not recognising the word cunnilingus.”

‘Downright problematic’

Vitoux emphasises the unique nature of a dictionary which charts the evolution of the French language since the 17th century to the present day. “It’s an incredible resource, all nine editions are available online, for free, and accessible by anyone all over the world,” he enthused.

Moncomble acknowledges the dictionary is of historical interest to people who are interested in the history of language in France, but says that “it’s a historical document about the Académie itself, not so much about the French language”.

Académie Française denounces French ID card’s ‘unconstitutional’ use of English

Browsing the nine dictionaries online is certainly eye-opening. “You find out that a word such as mongolisme was actually introduced in the ninth edition, with a definition linked with mental retardation,” Moncomble noted. “They actively put it there, in the 21st century, with no mention about mongolisme being obsolete and offensive.”

He also points to the definition of heterosexual pertaining to the “natural” sexuality between people of opposite sexes, and jaune (yellow) being attributed strong racial connotations with no mention of these now being considered offensive.

“You might say some definitions may be a bit obsolete in a quaint way, but this is downright problematic,” he said.

The group of linguists are calling for such terms to be modified in the online version and that the publisher of the print version should include an addendum indicating terms that are now considered obsolete or offensive.

Crowds of people from France’s Syrian diaspora braved the cold drizzle in Paris, chanting “Free Syria” and waving the flag of the Syrian opposition.

“I can breathe for the first time. It’s a special day,” a female student told RFI at Paris’s Place de la République.

“I hardly dared imagine we’d reach this point. We didn’t know if it would happen one day.”

Ares, a political refugee, recalled the years spent protesting on this same square.

“It reminds us of the first demos we held at the beginning of the war,” he said. “We’re still struggling to believe what’s happened, but it leaves a path open for the Syrian people to win this war. That’s a source of pride.”

Russia, an Assad ally, said Bashar al-Assad left the country on Sunday after negotiations with rebel groups, and gave “instructions” to “transfer power peacefully”.

He and his family are reportedly in Moscow, a Kremlin source told Russian news agencies.

“It’s the first time we can say ‘Assad is no longer here’, I can’t even describe the joy,” said a Syrian woman, her voice hoarse from shouting. “But for once we can say Assad no longer rules over us. The Assad family is no more.”

Syria’s Assad: the president who led a bloody crackdown

A desire to return

There were similar sentiments in Germany, home to more than a million Syrians – the largest diaspora in the European Union.

Most of them are asylum seekers who fled the civil war that began in 2011 when Assad crushed a peaceful, pro-democracy uprising.

More than half a million people have been killed since then and close to 12 million others forced to flee their homes.

“Finally we are free!” said a smiling Bassam Al-Hamada, among 5,000 people at a rally in Berlin.

Some flashed the “V” for victory sign, sang and shouted “Allahu Akbar!” (God is Greatest!).

There was cautious hope they would soon be able to return to their home country.

“Like many Syrians, I would like to return to my country to help rebuild it,” Bassam Al-Hamada, a social worker who arrived in Germany in early 2016, told France’s AFP news agency.

His compatriot Sabreen, an architect, said that for now she planned to “help from Germany”.

“They mainly need expertise and money. All of that, we can gather here for the moment.”

Syrian refugees agree to stay in France, despite negative reputation

Uncertain future

Whether on demos in Paris, Berlin or other cities like Madrid, Athens and London, many Syrians insist Assad must be held accountable for killing and torturing his own people. 

The Revivre association helping refugees and political prisoners in Syria, and that organised the demonstration in Paris, said there should be no impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Syria.

“This is the best guarantee for a future of peace” it said in a statement.

French court finds three Syrian officials guilty of war crimes

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel faction that spearheaded the offensive to topple Assad, has expressed a willingness to ensure a peaceful transition of power and work with Syrian minorities.

But the future remains deeply uncertain.

“Of course, we are worried about what the next step will be, what kind of government will be put in place. But for now, we are just happy,” Noura Bittar told Danish local television during a gathering in Copenhagen.

Who is the Syrian rebel group which toppled Assad, HTS?

France has said it welcomes the fall of Assad’s government “after more than 13 years of violent repression against its own people”.

The Foreign Ministry has called for a peaceful political transition that respects the diversity of the Syrian people and protects civilians and minorities.

Along with its international partners, France said it wants to help the Syrian people move towards “reconciliation and reconstruction,” and is ready to “play its full part” in the process.

Islamist-led rebels announced “the liberation of the city of Damascus and the fall of the tyrant Bashar al-Assad” on state television on Sunday, after advancing on the capital in the early hours of the morning. 

Rebel commander Abu Mohammed al-Golani said in a statement there was no room for turning back and the group was determined to continue the path they started in 2011 during the Arab Spring – a movement against authoritarian rule that began in Tunisia and spread across much of the Arab world.

“The future is ours,” the statement said.

President Bashar al-Assad has reportedly fled the country. Russia, a Syria ally, claims he left after giving instructions to transfer power “peacefully”. His whereabouts remain unknown for the moment.

“On this historic day for Syria and the Syrian people, France welcomes the fall of Bachar al-Assad’s regime after more than 13 years of very violent repression against its own people,” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday.

“Now is the time for unity in Syria,” it read, calling for an end to fighting and a peaceful political transition in the country.

President Emmanuel Macron said he welcomed the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s “barbaric” state.

“The barbaric state has fallen. At last,” Macron wrote on X. “I pay tribute to the Syrian people, to their courage, to their patience. In this moment of uncertainty, I send them my wishes for peace, freedom, and unity.”

He added that France remained committed to the security of all in the Middle East.

Rebels declare end of Assad rule in Syria

Risk of new wave of instability

Crowds gathered in Damascus on Sunday to celebrate the fall of Assad’s government with chants, prayers and the occasional gunfire. Thousands of prisoners, released from jail, reportedly wandered the streets in disbelief at their new-found freedom.

It was the first time opposition forces had reached Damascus since 2018 when Syrian troops recaptured areas on the outskirts of the capital following a siege lasting several years.

On Saturday, opposition forces took the central city of Homs, Syria’s third largest, as government forces abandoned it. 

The rapidly developing events have stunned Arab capitals, raising concerns about a new wave of instability in a region already in turmoil following the spread of conflict after the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Lebanon said it was closing all its land border crossings with Syria except for one that links Beirut with Damascus.

Jordan has also closed a border crossing with Syria.

(with newswires)

The Paris monument nearly burned down in 2019, but has been fully renovated inside and fitted with a new roof and spire during a frenzied five-year refit.

The inaugural mass was led by Paris archbishop Laurent Ulrich with 150 bishops and more than 100 priests from the capital in attendance, as well as French President Emmanuel Macron.

The archbishop led prayers and consecrated a new altar which replaced the old one that was destroyed five years ago.

“Whether you are here in person in the cathedral or in front of a screen, including perhaps under the rain, I greet you with intense emotion,” Ulrich told the congregation, referring to the small rain-drenched crowds outside watching events on public screens.

In a nod to France’s ongoing political turmoil, he added that he “prayed also for our country that is looking to the future with worry”.

A second mass in the evening at 6:30 pm (1730 GMT) will be open to the public, with roughly 2,500 people who secured free tickets this week expected to attend.

The cathedral will open fully to visitors on December 16 via an online reservation system.

‘For Jesus’ 

During a re-opening service on Saturday attended by world leaders including US President-elect Donald Trump, Macron expressed the “gratitude of the French nation” for the restoration work since 2019.

“We have rediscovered what great nations can do – achieve the impossible,” he said.

Macron is under intense political pressure having called snap elections in June that led to a hung parliament, with the main parties now struggling to form a stable government.

One of the most moving moments on Saturday came when firefighters in their protective gear walked through the congregation to thunderous applause as the word “Merci” (“Thank you”) was beamed on the intricate facade and famous belltowers of the Gothic masterpiece.

The architectural wonder had been in danger of collapsing during the April 2019 blaze and was saved only by firefighters pumping vast quantities of water onto the flames from the nearby River Seine.

Groups of worshippers huddled under umbrellas on Sunday beyond a strict security perimeter set up outside Notre Dame.

“Beyond the reconstruction work, it’s beautiful because it shows that the church still has a role, discreet and small, but it still has a role to play in France,” 21-year-old engineering student Jacques told AFP.

Monique Kashale, a 75-year-old from the Democratic Republic of Congo, said she was “very cold but for Jesus Christ I can put up with it, for the Virgin Mary it is bearable”.

Mahamudu Bawumia conceded defeat Sunday to opposition candidate and former president John Dramani Mahama in the West African nation’s tightly contested presidential election.

Ahead of the official announcement, Bawumia addressed a press conference from his residence.

“The people have voted for change at this time, and we respect that decision with all humility.

“I’ve just called His Excellency John Mahama to congratulate him as president-elect of the Republic of Ghana,” he said, adding that Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC) party had also won the parliamentary election.

Official results have not yet been announced by the electoral commission, but the NDC said its internal review showed Mahama had won 56.3 percent of the vote against 41.3 percent for Bawumia.

Bawumia said he conceded before the official results to ease tensions after scuffles were reported in several local constituency centres.

“I am making this concession speech before the official announcement by the Electoral Commission to avoid further tension and preserve the peace of our country.”

Economic woes

Ghana‘s struggling economy dominated the election, after the west Africa gold and cacao producer faced a debt default, devaluation and high inflation, a crisis that ended in a $3 billion IMF bailout.

The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has struggled to resolve the economic crisis under outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo, who steps down after serving the maximum of two four-year terms.

Ghana voters carry economic pain to the polls

Mahama, 65, was president of Ghana between July 2012 and January 2017. During his campaign, he promised to “reset” the country on various fronts and tried to appeal to young Ghanaians who saw the vote as a way out of the country’s economic crisis.

Saturday’s voting was largely peaceful, although one person was shot dead in the north and another was shot and killed in the central region, Ghana police said.

(with newswires)

The organisation’s first Escales Solidaires festival, running until 7 January in Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis, aims to show the human faces behind migration statistics through photography, film and performance.

The NGO, which operates rescue ships in the central Mediterranean, has saved more than 40,000 lives since its founding in 2015. It needs €24,000 per day to maintain its rescue operations.

Italy confines Ocean Viking migrant rescue ship for 20 days

Individual stories

An outdoor exhibition along the Seine features work by some 30 photographers documenting a decade of missions by the organisation’s rescue vessels, Aquarius and Ocean Viking.

“I asked crew members and survivors to share a treasured object and narrate its significance”, said photographer Jérémie Lusseau.

Belgian photographer Johanna de Tessières reflected on her poignant portrait of an eight-year-old boy named Ali, saying: “It was shocking to witness that at such a young age, he had already endured imprisonment in Libya and was now attempting the journey alone.”

‘Ocean Viking’ saves over 400 migrants on Mediterranean in two days

Beyond the statistics

At the heart of the festival are the human stories behind the statistics.

“We want to continually emphasise that behind the statistics and the label ‘migrants’ are individual children, women and men,” said Sabine Grenard, head of events for SOS Méditerranée.

“Onboard, the realisation is immediate; it’s about people, not a collective.”

The festival comes as Mediterranean crossings grow deadlier. In October 2024, 125 people died or went missing at sea – marking a significant increase from 83 in the same month last year.

The summer of 2023 saw the highest number of casualties since 2016, with 831 lives lost or unaccounted for in June alone.

A daily essential in much of West Africa, the fermented semolina is often paired with fish, meat or stews. The news that it had made it on to Unesco’s prestigious heritage list came this week during a meeting of the UN’s cultural agency, held in Paraguay. 

Making attiéké involves peeling, grating, fermenting and cooking the cassava tubers, a process that takes two to three days. 

Distinctive taste

In Anono, a village in the heart of Abidjan, women gathered around piles of cassava roots, carrying on a tradition that’s been passed down for centuries, discussed the news.

“Ebrié and Adioukro, we are the ones who make good attiéké,” says Dorothée, an elder of the Ebrié ethnic group. “But we often hear that Burkina Faso is first or China is first in attiéké production. And we who created attiéké are last. We also want our attiéké to evolve. We’ve created something special, and now the world knows.” 

Congolese rumba and Senegalese fish dish join Unesco heritage list

The distinctive taste of Ivorian attiéké comes from a special fermentation process called magnan. 

Anne-Marie, another producer, explains the intricate process: “The magnan normally takes three days. We pass it through a machine that grinds it and then we move to the second stage: the paste. We drain it with presses to obtain grains. And then we move on to cooking.” 

It is this method that gives Ivorian attiéké its unique taste, she explained.

Growing exports 

Just a few kilometres away in the Abobo Akeikoi district, the Cotravi company ships 40 tonnes of dehydrated attiéké to Europe and the United States each year. 

Manager Tapé Clément. sees the move by Unesco as a chance to better organise the sector. “We need to trace attiéké and give it a clear specification. With the strong demand in Europe, the government must help us connect with European distributors, particularly through trade fairs.” 

France submits the baguette for Unesco heritage status

The UN recognition comes as attiéké also gains “collective brand” status – meaning only fermented cassava semolina produced in Cote d’Ivoire can be marketed under the name “attiéké”, protecting its authenticity on the global market. 

Attiéké joins Senegalese thiéboudiène, a fish and rice dish, on Unesco’s intangible cultural heritage list – another win for the culinary traditions of West Africa. 

This story was adapted from RFI’s original version in French

The United Nations has strongly condemned this week’s airtsrikes on the Zamzam camp for displaced people in western Sudan’s Darfur region, calling for the protection of innocent civilians who have fled the camp to seek refuge south of the regional capital El-Fasher.

The town has been besieged by paramilitaries engaged in conflict with the country’s regular army since April of last year – more than 230 days.

The rocket and artillery strikes by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the Zamzam camp began on Sunday, 1 December and continued until Thursday, resulting in the deaths of at least 11 civilians – in a camp already affected by severe famine.

According to Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the UN coordinator for Sudan, the escalating violence is causing “unacceptable human suffering”.

She reiterated the need to protect civilians and emphasised that the UN and its humanitarian partners vehemently condemn the violence, describing the camp as being close to breaking point. It is home to more than 500,000 displaced individuals.

• ‘Barely anyone left’: Sudan’s El-Fasher devastated by fighting

Situation ‘chaotic’

Prince Djuma, medical manager of NGO Médecins Sans Frontière’s emergency unit responsible for Sudan, has also called on warring parties to refrain from attacking health facilities and civilians.

Zamzam – the largest camp for displaced persons in Sudan – has been grappling with numerous challenges, with the population already afflicted by malnutrition, famine and disease, making the situation desperate.

“In addition to the humanitarian disaster, since Sunday there has been shelling in the Zamzam camp, particularly in the south-eastern part and in the markets,” he told RFI. “At the hospital, we have begun receiving injured people, including children. So the situation, as I said, is chaotic, and our teams in Zamzam don’t feel safe.”

He continued: “The population is fleeing here and there. So there are also patients who have fled because they were afraid of the bombs, despite their illness. So all the sick people who were under outpatient care and the children with malnutrition, we can’t keep track of them today because of the bombings.”

• Sudan rejects UN’s call for ‘impartial’ force to protect civilians

Eleven million displaced

Since April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in a brutal conflict between the regular army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF militia, commanded by his former ally and deputy Mohamed Hamdane Daglo.

This war has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and displaced more than 11 million people, creating what the UN has called the worst humanitarian crisis in recent history.

Both sides of the conflict have been accused of war crimes, including targeting civilians, shelling residential areas and blocking or looting aid.

In recent weeks, the RSF has tightened its grip on El-Fasher, launching attacks on multiple fronts against Sudan’s military and allied armed groups.

Sudan at ‘cataclysmic breaking point’ amid multiple crises, UN warns

Thousands of protesters marched in the Georgian capital Tbilisi Saturday for the 10th day of rallies sparked by the government’s decision to suspend negotiations on joining the European Union following a disputed election.

Georgian police said they arrested 48 people during a crackdown on pro-EU protesters on Friday. Police chased demonstrators through the streets of Tbilisi until the early morning hours of Saturday and violently detained some of them.

In a joint statement on Saturday, the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland called on the ruling Georgian Dream party “to deescalate tensions and open an inclusive dialogue with all political forces and representatives of civil society”. 

“We underscore our determination to support the democratic and European aspirations of the Georgian people,” the statement said. 

They also called for the immediate release of opposition members, and demanded that “fundamental rights, including freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, must be upheld and protected as per Georgia’s constitution and international commitments”.

Georgian president calls for new elections to resolve political crisis

The crackdown has also drawn strong condemnation from the United States.

Speaking at a ministerial conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday denounced what he described as a brutal “repression of those calling for their country to stay on the path to closer ties with Europe”.

Georgian Dream retained control of parliament in a disputed election on 26 October – a vote widely seen as a referendum on Georgia’s EU aspirations.

The opposition and the pro-Western president, Salome Zourabichvili, have accused the governing party of rigging the vote with neighboring Russia’s help and have boycotted parliament sessions.

France joins calls for inquiry into alleged irregularities in Georgia election

(with newswires)

Led by Franco-Tunisian company Selt Marine, the project involves turning the algae into plant-based gelatine, offering a sustainable alternative for the global food industry.  

It took three decades to launch due to ongoing research and environmental impact studies. Now it spans 80 hectares of marine concessions and is set to grow, with plans to invest €8 million over the next two years. 

Inside a small workshop overlooking the lagoon, a group of women meticulously wash the freshly harvested algae in large water tanks.  

“I clean them thoroughly, then they are dried. Once that’s done, the fishermen bring us a new batch, and we start over,” said 55-year-old Mongia Thabet, who has performed this task daily for almost seven years.  

Sun-bleached algae

The algae is laid out to dry under the Tunisian sun on large tables, a natural process that distinguishes Selt Marine from competitors who use chemical bleaching.  

“Most of our rivals, if not all, use peroxide to whiten the algae,” company founder Mounir Boulkout told RFI. “We rely on the Tunisian sun to whiten ours, and that whiteness is a mark of quality for our clients.” 

On their vast marine concessions, algae grows on ropes and tubes submerged in the sea, allowing controlled reproduction. The harvested algae – nearly 10,000 tonnes annually – is then processed into plant-based gelatine or emulsifiers, catering to industrial giants worldwide. 

“Boulkout in Arabic means ‘the one who gives food’ so I have a bit of an obligation,” joked Boulkout. “In many processed products, you’ll find additives that are neither healthy nor plant-based. We create a product with ecological virtues.” 

Plastic-eating mealworms found in Kenya offer hope for waste crisis

Impact of climate change

Beyond food production, the algae farms are helping restore marine biodiversity, attracting fish and shellfish to an area that has been badly affected by overfishing and climate change – which has also had an impact on the company’s operations.  

“When I arrived in 1995, we collected and found enormous amounts of algae in July and August. That’s no longer the case. There’s nothing left because about three or four years ago, the Mediterranean warmed 5C during summer,” said Boulkout. 

To adapt, the company now operates mainly from October to June and has expanded to include operations in Mozambique and Zanzibar to ensure year-round production. 

This article was adapted from the original version in French by Lilia Blaise

A two-hour service attended by incoming US president Donald Trump among other world leaders began with the archbishop of Paris knocking on the doors of the cathedral three times.

“Notre Dame, model of faith, open your doors to bring together the far-flung children of God in joy,” archbishop Laurent Ulrich commanded, banging with a wooden staff crafted from a roof beam that survived the inferno five years ago.

Trump was seated on the front row as guest of honour next to French President Emmanuel Macron, with he and other invitees marvelling at the freshly cleaned walls, new furniture and state-of-the-art lighting installed as part of the overhaul.

In a short speech, Macron expressed the “gratitude of the French nation” for the restoration work, achieved at frenzied speed over the last five years.

France had “rediscovered what great nations can do – achieve the impossible”, he said.

‘Merci’

One of the most moving moments came when firefighters in their protective workwear walked through the congregation to thunderous applause as the word “Merci” (“Thank you”) was beamed on the intricate facade and famous belltowers of the Gothic masterpiece outside.

Small crowds of Parisians and tourists braved wet weather and high winds on the banks of the River Seine to witness the renaissance of a monument which came close to collapsing due to the intensity of the flames that toppled its roof and spire.

“I find it really beautiful, even more so now that the spire has been restored,” Marie Jean, a 27-year-old dentist from southwest France, told AFP outside.

Workers had to overcome problems with lead pollution, the Covid-19 epidemic, and the army general overseeing the project falling to his death while hiking in the Pyrenees last year.

Work on Notre Dame halted as concerns rise over lead pollution

Saturday’s service featured classical music, the cathedral’s choir as well as some frenetic organ-playing during the “re-awakening” of the 8,000-pipe instrument which is considered the voice and soul of the cathedral.

‘World going crazy’

Held up as an example of French creativity and resilience by Macron, Notre-Dame’s renaissance comes at a difficult time for the country.

The sense of national accomplishment in restoring a symbol of Paris has been undercut by political turmoil that has left France without a proper government since last week when prime minister Michel Barnier lost a confidence vote in parliament.

Macron is hoping the re-opening might provide a fleeting sense of national pride and unity – as the Paris Olympics did in July and August.

He scored a major coup by attracting Trump along with around 40 heads of state and government, including Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who was given a round of applause as he entered Notre-Dame.

Macron hosted three-way talks with Zelensky and Trump at the presidential palace shortly before the ceremony, with future US military support for Ukraine‘s war effort against Russia‘s invasion expected to have been discussed.

Trump has vowed to end the nearly three-year Ukraine war when he takes office on January 20, sparking fears in Kyiv that he will force Ukraine to make territorial concessions to Russia.

“We all want peace. But it is very important for us… that the peace is just for all of us and that Russia, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin or any other aggressor has no possibility of ever returning,” Zelensky said according to the presidential website.

One surprising absentee on Saturday was Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church.

The “immense” numbers set to visit Notre-Dame should be welcomed “generously and free of charge”, he said, clearly opposing a proposition from the French culture ministry to charge for entry.

France mulls charging tourists to enter Notre-Dame cathedral

On Sunday, the first mass with hundreds of bishops and priests will take place at 10:30 am (0930 GMT), followed by a second service in the evening at 6:30 pm which will be open to the public.

It is Trump’s first trip abroad since winning the presidential election a  month ago.

He reportedly arrived at Orly airport in the south of Paris aboard a private plane just before 0700 GMT and is to hold talks at the Elysee Palace with President Emmanuel Macron at 1500 GMT.

Trump will attend the Notre-Dame opening ceremony this evening, joined by dozens of other leaders – a unique chance for them to rub shoulders with the president-elect before he takes office in January.

No agenda for talks between Macron and Trump has been announced, but European leaders are concerned that Trump could withdraw US military aid to Ukraine at a crucial phase in the war with Russia.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who is due to meet Macron later this afternoon, may also meet Trump, a Ukrainian official said on Friday.

Such a meeting would be of great importance given the fears in Kyiv that Trump, who once boasted he could end Russia’s war on Ukraine in 24 hours, may urge concessions to Moscow.

‘Worry’ in Ukraine at Trump victory at critical moment in war

Fence-mending

Macron invited both Trump and outgoing President Joe Biden. Trump accepted the invite, while the current administration will be represented by First Lady Jill Biden.

Trump posted on his Truth Social page that Macron had “done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so. It will be a very special day for all!”

Macron welcomed Trump in 2017, after his first election, with the glamour of dinner at the Eiffel Tower and the pomp of watching a Bastille Day military parade down the Champs-Elysees – which Trump later said he wanted to emulate in Washington.

But Trump’s relationship with Macron gradually soured.

In 2019, Trump said the French leader was “very, very nasty” and lashed out at his economic record after Macron criticised the US level of commitment to the NATO alliance.

EU leaders chart independent future as Trump takes White House

However, when Trump won again a month ago, Macron was one of the first world leaders to phone and congratulate him.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has decided not to make the trip, after her presence was initially announced by Brussels.

She is in the throes of a major spat with Macron after going to Montevideo on Friday to announce the conclusion of the Mercosur free trade agreement between the EU and four South American countries, which is opposed by France and some other European countries.

(with newswires)

Between 2018 and 2023, the number of apprentice carpenters in France rose by 44 percent, while apprenticeships in traditional masonry and roofing nearly doubled, according to a report this week from the Institut Supérieur des Métiers (ISM), a resource and training centre for artisanal small businesses.

Niche trades such as organ builders and stained-glass artisans have also seen their apprentice numbers double, or more, over the past five years.

This rise in apprenticeships in artisanal trades is part of a larger trend. Following a major reform in 2018 and the introduction of significant recruitment subsidies, the number of apprentices across all fields in France has increased – from 317,000 in 2017 to 853,000 in 2023.

Notre-Dame reborn: the epic quest that saved France’s sacred heart

‘Notre-Dame effect’

However, the Institut Supérieur des Métiers also points to the “Notre-Dame effect” as having had a significant influence. The cathedral’s reconstruction, which began in 2019, has sparked new interest in heritage trades.

“Notre-Dame has sparked a lot of conversations about creative and artistic trades,” said Catherine Elie, director of the Institut Supérieur des Métiers.

The number of apprentices in trades such as roofing (an increase of 23 percent between 2018 and 2023), cabinet making (an increase of 31 percent), and stone carving (40 percent) has seen substantial growth.

Notre-Dame reopening backed by $62m from American donors

Subsidy cuts

“There’s a labour crisis in France, and these meaningful and passionate professions align with new aspirations,” said Elie. She adds that these often demanding fields are drawing many young people towards new careers.

However, many artisans are concerned about a government proposal to reduce hiring subsidies for apprenticeships, which they argue would make recruitment difficult, as apprenticeships remain a key part of the artisanal sector. 

In early November, Joël Fourny, president of the Chambres de Métiers et de l’Artisanat (CMA), the French body representing trades and craftsmanship, warned of the risk of “having young people who can’t find jobs, which would then create social costs instead of saving money by cutting subsidies”.

Notre-Dame cathedral reopens on Saturday, 7 December with a ceremony attended by 50 world leaders. 

Trump to join Macron and world leaders at reopening of Notre-Dame cathedral

(with AFP)

The lightning offensive of Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, which has seen the rebels capture several major Syrian cities in less than two weeks, gives Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan leverage over his Syrian counterpart President Bashar al-Assad.

“Turkey can easily stop both [rebel] entities and start a process. Turkey does have this strength, and Assad is well aware of it,” said Murat Aslan of the SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, a Turkish pro-government think tank. 

Until now, Assad has rejected Erdogan’s overtures for dialogue to end the civil war peacefully. “The Turkish intention politically is not to escalate in Syria [but to] start a political, diplomatic engagement with the Assad regime, and come to the terms of a normal state, and that all Syrians safely return to their homes,” Aslan noted.

Syrian rebels surround Hama ‘from three sides’, monitor says

Syrian refugees an issue

Erdogan is seeking to return many of the estimated 4 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey, amid growing public unease over their presence in the country.

“According to the opinion polls here, yes, the Syrian refugees [are] an issue. For any government, it would be a wonderful win to see these Syrians going back to Syria of their own will,” explained Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat who served in the region and is now a foreign policy analyst for Turkey’s Medyascope news outlet.

However, Moscow has a lot to lose in Syria, as a key military backer of Assad, who in turn has granted Russia use of a key Syrian naval base. “For Moscow, it’s of crucial importance that the personality of Assad remains in power,” said Zaur Gasimov, a professor of history and a Russia specialist at the University of Bonn.

Syria rebel leader says goal is to overthrow Assad

Gasimov warns that Turkey could be facing another humanitarian crisis. “Russia would definitely use the military force of its aerospace forces, that can cause a huge number of casualties among civilians. Which means a new wave of migrants towards Turkish eastern Anatolia.”

With more than a million Syrian refugees camped just across the Turkish border in the rebel-controlled Syrian Idlib province, analysts warn a new exodus into Turkey is a red line for Ankara.

“If they refresh their attacks on the captured areas by indiscriminate targeting… well [we can] expect further escalations in the region,” warned Aslan of the pro-government SETA think tank. “And for sure there is a line that Turkey will not remain as it is, and if there is a development directly threatening the interests or security of Turkey, then Turkey will intervene.”

Pushing back the YPG

With the Syrian rebel offensive also making territorial gains against the US-backed Kurdish militant group, the YPG, Ankara is poised to secure another strategic goal in Syria. Ankara accuses the YPG of having ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is fighting the Turkish state.

France joins Germany, US and Britain in call for de-escalation in Syria

“Without putting up a fight, and without getting directly involved, they [Ankara] have achieved one of their goals – for YPG to pull back from the Turkish frontier towards the south,” explained Selcen. “I think Ankara now is closer to that goal.”

With Syrian rebel successes appearing to advance Ankara’s goals in Syria, some analysts are urging caution, given the rebels’ links to radical Islamist groups. “The crashing down of the Assad regime is not in the interest of Turkey, because there will be chaos,” warned international relations professor Huseyin Bagci, of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

“Who is going to rule? What type of [governing] structure are we going to have?” he asked. “They are radicals, and another Daesh-style territory would not be in the interest of Turkey – in Turkish prisons, there are thousands of Daesh people.”

This week, the French navy rescued some 85 people attempting to cross the dangerous waters of the English Channel, highlighting the perils faced by those using this route to reach the United Kingdom.

Despite the dangers, tens of thousands have made the journey so far this year, underlining the ongoing Channel migrant crossings crisis, as authorities grapple with increasingly sophisticated trafficking operations.

On Wednesday, France’s maritime authorities reported that one migrant vessel – which ran aground on a sandbank off the Pas-de-Calais – prompted a rapid rescue response by naval forces.

Rescuers pulled 80 passengers from the stranded boat and five more from another vessel, transporting them back to France for medical attention.

With more than 70 recorded fatalities in Channel crossings this year alone, the urgency of addressing human trafficking has intensified.

• Cross-Channel migrant crossings top 25,000 as UK government vows to ‘smash the gangs’

Transnational cooperation

Also this week, German police targeted an alleged Iraqi-Kurdish smuggling network in sweeping pre-dawn raids, coordinated with Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, and French security services. More than 500 officers conducted searches across multiple cities in western Germany.

Authorities believe the network facilitated the smuggling of undocumented migrants from the Middle East and East Africa to France and the UK using low-quality inflatable boats.

Search and arrest warrants issued by a French court highlighted France’s central role in the combat of what is a transnational crime.

Last year, approximately 30,000 migrants reached the UK via small boats, prompting both France and the UK to enhance their border security efforts in response to growing activity from such trafficking syndicates.

• Interpol says over 2,500 arrests made in human trafficking crackdown

Asia smuggling ring dismantled

In a significant crackdown at the end of November, French authorities arrested 26 individuals involved in a smuggling ring believed to have transported thousands of migrants from South Asia into France since 2021.

The smugglers charged exorbitant fees – ranging from €15,000 to €26,000 per person – while laundering their profits through various illicit channels.

The operation shed light on the extensive criminal networks that span well beyond France’s borders, with the smugglers often facilitating travel through complex routes involving third countries including the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Libya. 

The lightning offensive of Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, which has seen the rebels capture several major Syrian cities in less than two weeks, gives Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan leverage over his Syrian counterpart President Bashar al-Assad.

“Turkey can easily stop both [rebel] entities and start a process. Turkey does have this strength, and Assad is well aware of it,” said Murat Aslan of the SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, a Turkish pro-government think tank. 

Until now, Assad has rejected Erdogan’s overtures for dialogue to end the civil war peacefully. “The Turkish intention politically is not to escalate in Syria [but to] start a political, diplomatic engagement with the Assad regime, and come to the terms of a normal state, and that all Syrians safely return to their homes,” Aslan noted.

Syrian rebels surround Hama ‘from three sides’, monitor says

Syrian refugees an issue

Erdogan is seeking to return many of the estimated 4 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey, amid growing public unease over their presence in the country.

“According to the opinion polls here, yes, the Syrian refugees [are] an issue. For any government, it would be a wonderful win to see these Syrians going back to Syria of their own will,” explained Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat who served in the region and is now a foreign policy analyst for Turkey’s Medyascope news outlet.

However, Moscow has a lot to lose in Syria, as a key military backer of Assad, who in turn has granted Russia use of a key Syrian naval base. “For Moscow, it’s of crucial importance that the personality of Assad remains in power,” said Zaur Gasimov, a professor of history and a Russia specialist at the University of Bonn.

Syria rebel leader says goal is to overthrow Assad

Gasimov warns that Turkey could be facing another humanitarian crisis. “Russia would definitely use the military force of its aerospace forces, that can cause a huge number of casualties among civilians. Which means a new wave of migrants towards Turkish eastern Anatolia.”

With more than a million Syrian refugees camped just across the Turkish border in the rebel-controlled Syrian Idlib province, analysts warn a new exodus into Turkey is a red line for Ankara.

“If they refresh their attacks on the captured areas by indiscriminate targeting… well [we can] expect further escalations in the region,” warned Aslan of the pro-government SETA think tank. “And for sure there is a line that Turkey will not remain as it is, and if there is a development directly threatening the interests or security of Turkey, then Turkey will intervene.”

Pushing back the YPG

With the Syrian rebel offensive also making territorial gains against the US-backed Kurdish militant group, the YPG, Ankara is poised to secure another strategic goal in Syria. Ankara accuses the YPG of having ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is fighting the Turkish state.

France joins Germany, US and Britain in call for de-escalation in Syria

“Without putting up a fight, and without getting directly involved, they [Ankara] have achieved one of their goals – for YPG to pull back from the Turkish frontier towards the south,” explained Selcen. “I think Ankara now is closer to that goal.”

With Syrian rebel successes appearing to advance Ankara’s goals in Syria, some analysts are urging caution, given the rebels’ links to radical Islamist groups. “The crashing down of the Assad regime is not in the interest of Turkey, because there will be chaos,” warned international relations professor Huseyin Bagci, of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

“Who is going to rule? What type of [governing] structure are we going to have?” he asked. “They are radicals, and another Daesh-style territory would not be in the interest of Turkey – in Turkish prisons, there are thousands of Daesh people.”

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 winners’ 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.

Mark your calendars now for 12 December, 6 PM Paris time – that’s when the winners of the ePOP video competition will be announced, live on the ePOP Facebook page. My good pals Max Bale and Gaël Flaugère, who run the Planète Radio department that sponsors ePOP, invited me to come on the show and talk to you, in English. So plan to stay up late or get up early on 12 December, beloved listeners! And we are so pleased that “one of our own” has made it into the running: Saleem Akhtar Chadhar, the president of the RFI Seven Stars Listeners Club, is one of the 10 nominees in the RFI Clubs category! 

It’s time for you to get your New Year’s resolutions – or wishes – in the mail for our annual New Year’s Day show. We need your resolutions and/or wishes by 15 December.

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 to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr for the RFI English Listeners Forum banner!

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”. According to your score, you’ll be counselled to the best-suited activities for your level.

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 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 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. 

Another idea for your students: Br. Gerald Muller, my beloved music teacher from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, has been writing books for young adults in his retirement – and they are free! There is a volume of biographies of painters and musicians called Gentle Giants, and an excellent biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., too. They are also a good way to help you improve your English – that’s how I worked on my French, reading books that were meant for young readers – and I guarantee you, it’s a good method for improving your language skills. To get Br. Gerald’s free books, click here.

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

We have a new RFI Listeners Club member to welcome: Zahurul Islam Joy from Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Welcome, Zahural!

This week’s quiz: On 2 November, I asked you a question about Ghana – Melissa Chemam had just published her Spotlight on Africa podcast, where she shined the light on textile waste in Africa from fast fashion – and how Ghana has become a dumping ground for the world’s unwanted textiles, with devastating consequences for local ecosystems.

You were to send in the answer to these questions: How much second-hand clothing arrives in Ghana each week, and what happens to the unsellable clothes?

The answer is, to quote Melissa: “About 15 million items of second-hand clothing arrive in Ghana each week. Nearly half cannot be resold. The unsellable clothes end up in informal dumps or are burned in public washhouses, contaminating the air, soil and water.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question:  “Which of the 13 overseas French territories would you visit, if you had the chance?”, which was suggested by Hans Verner Lollike from Hedehusen, Denmark.

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Radhakrishna Pillai from Kerala State in India. Radhakrishna is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations, Radhakrishna, on your double win.   

Also on the list of lucky winners this week is a long-lost RFI Listeners Club member: Arne Timm from Harjumaa, Estonia. Welcome back to the Kitchen, Arne – don’t be such a stranger!

There’s also Ekbal Hossain, who’s a member of the RFI International DX Radio Listeners Club in West Bengal, India, and our brand-new RFI Listeners Club member Zahurul Islam Joy from Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Rounding out the list of lucky winners this week is RFI English listener Kadija Akter, also from Rajshahi, Bangladesh.

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Set Me Free” by Dominique Guiout and Manu Vergeade; “Life is Just a Party” by Kiala Pepple, performed by Ghetto Blaster; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer; “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, and “Motor Head Baby” by Johnny “Guitar” Watson and Mario Delagarde, played by Johnny “Guitar” Watson.

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 Myer’s article “Small island nations lead fight for climate justice at UN’s top court”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 13 January to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 19 January 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 learn how to 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.   

A few days before General Charles de Gaulle was due to make his triumphant entry into Paris, the three French war correspondents lined up to cover the event were captured. A young French-British journalist was chosen, in extremis, to replace them. Her name was Marcelle Poirier but despite being de Gaulle’s official reporter and AFP’s first female war correspondent, she and her work somehow fell into oblivion. When AFP journalist and photo editor Laurent Kalfala stumbled on a photo of her in military uniform, he embarked on a long paper-trail to dig up her fascinating story. His documentary reveals a feminist with a flair for strong human stories, and who mysteriously waited 40 years to tell her own. (Listen @1’50”)

Warmer summers in France’s wine-growing regions have pushed up the sugar content in grapes, which is leading to more alcoholic wine. Wines that used to be 11 or 12% alcohol even a decade ago are now pushing 15% today, and customers are taking notice. Winemakers and visitors to a recent wine fair talk about the tension between the impacts of global warming on wine and a trend towards drinking less alcohol. (Listen @21’30”)

As Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral reopens to the public, five years after the 2019 fire that destroyed much of its wooden and metal roof and toppled the spire, Ollia Horton meets local residents and business owners who are looking forward to things going back to normal. (Listen @14’15”) 

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompéani. 

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).

US President Joe Biden signalled this week that Turkey could have a role in mediating peace in the Middle East.

“The United States will make another push with Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and others to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza,” Biden told reporters.

However, US officials have downplayed Turkey’s mediating role due to Ankara’s ties to Hamas.

“We don’t believe the leaders of a vicious terrorist organisation should be living comfortably anywhere, and that certainly includes in … a major city of one of our key allies and partners,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said earlier.

Hamas tensions

Hamas leaders reportedly relocated to Turkey after the collapse of ceasefire efforts in November.

Erdogan, a staunch supporter of Hamas, has described the group as a “liberation movement”. Following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Erdogan declared a national day of mourning.

“There are rumours, and I don’t know how true they are, that many of those people have actually received Turkish citizenship as well,” Soli Ozel, a lecturer at the Institute for Human Studies in Vienna told RFI.

In a move seen as an attempt to placate Washington, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stated that there are no plans for Hamas to open a political bureau in Turkey.

Turkish presidential adviser Mesut Casin defended the policy: “Ankara will continue its position hosting Hamas number one. Number two, they will continue dialogue with Hamas in order to establish peace”.

Turkish President Erdogan ready to rekindle friendship with Trump

Complex ties

Despite tensions between Turkey and Israel, they maintain back-channel communication.

In November, the head of Israel’s intelligence agency Shin Bet met his Turkish counterpart in Ankara. The meeting reportedly centred on the plight of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

“We have 101 hostages that are still, we don’t know their fate,” says Gallia Lindenstrauss, an Israeli foreign policy specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies.

“There are attempts to at least receive information about who’s alive, who’s dead, who’s holding them – Hamas or Islamic Jihad.”

Lindenstrauss cautioned that Israel remains sceptical of Turkey’s ability to act as a neutral mediator.

“It would be very hard for Israel in general and specifically Prime Minister Netanyahu to trust Turkey to be a mediator that will be respectful to both sides,” she said.

While Erdogan’s public rhetoric often inflames tensions, analysts say Turkish-Israeli relations are shaped more by pragmatism than politics.

“Turkey and Israel have one way of dealing with one another in public and another way of dealing with one another diplomatically and in security cooperation,” Ozel explains.

In a possible effort to build trust, Turkish authorities recently extradited three Uzbek suspects linked to the murder of an Israeli rabbi in the United Arab Emirates.

Egypt and Turkey’s closer ties spark hope for peace among Libya’s rival factions

Challenges remain

As Israel intensifies its military campaign against Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a Gaza ceasefire for now.

“The reason for having a ceasefire is to separate the fronts and isolate Hamas,” Netanyahu said Tuesday.

“From day two of the war, Hamas was counting on Hezbollah to fight by its side. With Hezbollah out of the picture, Hamas is left on its own. We will increase our pressure on Hamas.”

Despite Ankara’s overtures, Israel has warned that Hamas leaders are not safe from targeting, even in Turkey.

“They will find these Hamas leaders and target them wherever they find them,” Lindenstrauss maintains.

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear musical requests from your fellow listeners Jayanta Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India, Alan Holder from Isle of Wight, England, and Karuna Kanta Pal from West Bengal, India.

Be sure you send in your music requests! Write to me at thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Nunca es Suficiente” written by Natalia Lafourcade, Daniela Azpiazu, and Anthony Lopez, sung by Natalia Lafourcade; “Lake Como” by Giselle Galos, performed by Sweet People, and “Dance Little Lady, Dance” by Gerry Shury and Ron Roker, sung by Tina Charles.

The quiz will be back next Saturday, 7 December. Be sure and tune in! 

“Negative narratives about Africa have real consequences for people’s lives and futures,” said Abimbola Ogundairo, campaign lead for the NGO Africa No Filter, which produced the report and works to promote balanced storytelling about the continent.

The organisation’s latest research found these biases cost African economies $4.2 billion annually in lost investment opportunities.

It found that persistent portrayals of poverty, conflict and corruption have far-reaching consequences, from deterring investment to increasing borrowing costs for African nations.

Stories of success, innovation, and resilience were overlooked.

Investors deterred

Using case studies and data analysis, the report examined how media narratives influence investment, particularly during election periods. It compared African countries to their global peers and quantified the costs of misrepresentation.

The report also quantified how biased media coverage correlates with sovereign bond yields – a critical financial indicator.

It found that even nations with strong democratic institutions are often framed through lenses of instability and corruption – reinforcing negative stereotypes and overshadowing progress.

The Spotlight on Africa podcast explores this issue, featuring interviews with both Ogundairo, who is from Nigeria, and the acclaimed filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako, from Mauritania.

Both emphasise the need for African voices to take control of the continent’s narrative.

Episode mixed by Vincent Pora.

Spotlight on Africa is a podcast from Radio France Internationale.

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.