Rescue teams and medical personnel have been sent to the island off the east coast of Africa from France and from the nearby French overseas territory of Réunion, as well as tonnes of supplies. 

The authorities in Mayotte fear hundreds – possibly thousands – of people have died in Cyclone Chido.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has arrived in Mamoudzou, the capital of Mayotte, where he told French media: “It will take days and days to establish the human toll”.

French authorities say more than 800 more personnel are expected to arrive in the coming days as rescuers comb through the devastation caused by Chido when it hit the densely populated archipelago of around 300,000 people on Saturday. 

‘Thousands’ feared dead

Mayotte’s Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville – the top French government official in Mayotte – told local TV station Mayotte la 1ere on Sunday that the death toll was several hundred people and could even be in the thousands. 

He said Mayotte’s poor slums of metal shacks and other informal structures had suffered terrible damage and authorities were struggling to get an accurate count of the dead and injured after the worst cyclone to hit Mayotte since the 1930s.

Bieuville added that it would be extremely hard to count all the dead and many might never be recorded, partly due to the Muslim tradition of burying people within 24 hours of their deaths and also because of many undocumented migrants living on the island.

‘Definitely several hundred’ killed as Cyclone Chido devastates Mayotte

Electricity cut, infrastructure destroyed

Entire neighbourhoods have been flattened, while public infrastructure like the main airport and hospital have been badly damaged and the electricity supply has been knocked out.

The damage to the airport control tower means only military aircraft can fly onto the island, further complicating the emergency response.

Mayotte is France’s poorest department and is regarded as the poorest territory in the European Union, but it is a target for economic migration from even poorer countries like nearby Comoros and Somalia because of a better standard of living and the French welfare system.

How overseas Mayotte became ‘a department apart’ within France

Chido ripped through the south-western Indian Ocean on Friday and Saturday, also affecting the nearby islands of Comoros and Madagascar.

The president of the Comoros has declared a week of national mourning following the passage of Chido over the archipelago.

However, Mayotte was directly in the cyclone’s path and took the brunt of the storm, with Méteo France recording winds in excess of 220 kph, making it a category 4 cyclone – the second strongest on the scale.

Chido hits African mainland

The cyclone made landfall in Mozambique on the African mainland late Sunday, where authorities and aid agencies have said more than 2 million people may be impacted.

Further inland, Malawi and Zimbabwe have also made preparations for possible evacuations because of flooding as Chido continues its trajectory over the continent, although the cyclone has weakened as it passes over land.

December through to March is cyclone season in the south-western Indian Ocean and southern Africa has been pummelled by a series of strong storms in recent years.

In 2019, Cyclone Idai killed more than 1,300 people, mostly in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

Last year, Cyclone Freddy left more than 1,000 dead across several countries in the Indian Ocean and southern Africa last year.

Out of the Bundestag deputies, 394 voted against Scholz while only 207 expressed confidence in the chancellor, with 116 abstentions.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier can now move to dissolve the legislature and formally declare the agreed 23 February election date.

Friedrich Merz – the top candidate of the conservative CDU-CSU opposition alliance of ex-chancellor Angela Merkel – is well ahead in opinion polls.

The political contest comes at a time when Europe’s top economy is struggling to revive its stuttering export-led industrial sector amid high energy prices and tough competition from China.

Berlin also faces major geopolitical challenges as it confronts Russia over the Ukraine war and as Donald Trump’s looming return to the White House heightens uncertainty over NATO and trade ties.

Minority government

Merz, a former corporate lawyer, has persistently attacked the alliance of the chancellor’s Social Democrats (SPD), the left-leaning Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP).

Coalition bickering over fiscal and economic woes came to a head when Scholz fired his rebellious FDP finance minister Christian Lindner on 6 November, the very day Donald Trump was re-elected.

The departure of Lindner’s FDP left Scholz at the helm of a minority government with the Greens of Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

Unable to pass major bills or a new state budget without opposition support, the government is now limping along, with all sides in election mode.

Germany’s political turmoil comes as France has also been roiled by crisis and gridlock which saw President Emmanuel Macron on Friday asking centrist politician François Bayrou to try to form a new government.

Uncertainty looms over Germany as Scholz navigates political crisis

Politics ‘in crisis’

German politics in the post-war era was long staid, stable and dominated by the two parties, the CDU-CSU and the SPD, with the small FDP often playing kingmaker.

The Greens emerged in the 1980s, but the political landscape has been further fragmented over the past decade by the rise of the the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), a shock for a country whose dark World War II history had long made far-right parties taboo.

Formed as a Eurosceptic fringe party, the AfD grew into a major political force when it protested against Merkel’s open-door policy to migrants, and now has around 18 percent voter support.

While other parties have committed to a “firewall” of non-cooperation with the AfD, some of them have borrowed from its anti-immigration and anti-Islam rhetoric.

Following the fall of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, some CDU lawmakers were quick to demand that the around one million Syrian refugees in Germany return to their home country.

Germany’s Scholz says EU must not be daunted by Russia, but urges reform of the bloc

‘Plagued by doubt’

The winter election is all the more heated as it comes at a time “the German model is in crisis,” said Berlin-based political scientist Claire Demesmay of Sciences Po Paris.

According to Demesmay, Germany’s prosperity “was built on cheap energy imported from Russia, on a security policy outsourced to the USA, and on exports and subcontracting to China”.

She added that the country was now in a sweeping process of reorientation which is “feeding fears within society that are reflected on the political level”. 

“We can see a political discourse that is more tense than a few years ago. We have a Germany plagued by doubt”.

The landmark decision was announced on Sunday at an Ecowas summit of regional heads of state in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.

The The Special Tribunal for Gambia will cover alleged crimes committed under military dictator Yahya Jammeh, whose rule from 1996 to 2017 was marked by arbitrary detention, sexual abuse and extrajudicial killings.

Gambian court sentences five former spies to death for Jammeh-era murder

Jammeh lost a presidential election in 2016 to current President Adama Barrow and went into exile in Equatorial Guinea after initially refusing to step down.

Calls for justice for the victims of the dictatorship had been growing for years in Gambia, a country surrounded by Senegal except for a small Atlantic coastline.

Crimes against humanity

In 2021, a truth commission in the country wrapped up its hearings with strong recommendations, urging the government to try perpetrators.

In May, Jammeh’s former interior minister was sentenced to 20 years in jail by a Swiss court for this crimes against humanity.

US moves to seize Gambia ex-leader Yahya Jammeh’s $3.5 million mansion

In November, a German court convicted a Gambian man, Bai Lowe, of murder and crimes against humanity for involvement in the killing of government critics in Gambia.

The man was a driver for a military unit deployed against opponents of Jammeh.

Gambia’s Justice Ministry described the move as a “historic development” that “marks a significant step forward for Gambia, the region, and international community” in a statement.

The Cinémathèque, a film archive and cinema partly funded by the French state, announced the decision to cancel the 15 December screening of Last Tango in Paris in order “to calm tensions and in light of potential security risks”.

“We are a cinema, not a fortress. We cannot take risks with the safety of our staff and audience,” said Cinémathèque director Frédéric Bonnaud.

“Violent individuals were beginning to make threats and holding this screening and debate posed an entirely disproportionate risk. So, we had to let it go,” he added.

Last Tango in Paris, directed by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci in 1972, was scheduled to be shown Sunday evening as part of a retrospective of work by American actor Marlon Brando.

Actress Judith Godrèche, a prominent figure in France’s #MeToo movement, led criticism of the decision to screen the film without providing context to viewers, which she said disrespected the memory of Maria Schneider, who died in 2011.

“It’s time to wake up, dear Cinémathèque, and restore humanity to 19-year-old actresses by behaving humanely,” she wrote on Instagram.

French actress dominates Césars with calls for reckoning on sexual violence

The film delves into the complex relationship between a widowed American man in Paris and a much younger woman, culminating in a disturbing, non-consensual sodomy scene.

While the sex was simulated, it later emerged that Schneider had been kept in the dark about what was to happen by Brando and Bertolucci, who were both later nominated for Oscars. 

Public discussion

Schneider later revealed she was in tears during the filming, and Brando did not console her afterwards.

Schneider’s allegations, first made in the 1970s, were largely dismissed at the time, a topic explored in the recent documentary “Maria.”

The 50/50 collective, a group advocating for gender parity in cinema, called on the Cinémathèque to provide a “thoughtful and respectful” space for Schneider’s testimony alongside the screening.

The Cinémathèque promised last week to hold a “discussion with the audience” to address the issues raised by the film. 

Bonnaud pointed out that the film had been screened “without incident” at the Cinémathèque in 2017 – before the #MeToo era brought violence against women to the fore. 

(with AFP)

“I would like to start by hailing the courage of my ex-wife” Gisèle Pelicot, her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot said in his final statement to the court ahead of the verdict later in the week.

“I regret what I did, making (my family) suffer… I ask them for forgiveness,” he said, asking the family to “accept my apologies”.

In a trial that has shocked the country, Dominique Pelicot, 72, has admitted to drugging his then wife Gisèle Pelicot for almost a decade so he and strangers he recruited online could rape her.

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, has become a feminist hero at home and abroad for refusing to be ashamed and standing up to her aggressors in court.

Alongside her ex-husband, 50 other men aged 27 to 74 are on trial, including one who did not abuse her but instead raped his own wife with Dominique Pelicot’s help.

Sitting in the glass defendants’ box, Dominique Pelicot reaffirmed that he had told “the whole truth” since the beginning of the trial on 2 September in the southern French city of Avignon.

France gets new helpline amid trauma of mass rape trial

He also thanked the court for allowing him to remain seated on a special chair because of his fragile state of health, which “could have been interpreted as nonchalance” but which was not, he added.

He added that “I have been called many things” but “I rather intend to be forgotten,” saying he felt an “inner shame”.

“I can tell my whole family that I love them,” he said.

Turning to the five judges who will issue the verdict, he said: “There you go, you have the rest of my life in your hands.”

Mass rape trial revives question of consent within French law

On 25 November, prosecutors requested the maximum possible sentence – 20 years behind bars – against him for aggravated rape.

Shortly after the closing statements, the presiding judge announced that the delivery of the verdict was scheduled for Thursday morning.

“We will head to the deliberation chamber and will not leave until we have made our decision,” Roger Arata told the court, warning that the timing was “theoretical” and it could be postponed to Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.

(with AFP)

Laurent Bonadei’s charges will kick off their campaign for a first international title on 5 July against England. Their other Group D games follow on 9 July and 13 July.

The tournament, which will be played at eight venues across Switzerland, will be the first major test for 55-year-old Bonadei who took over from Hervé Renard last summer after France were eliminated in the quarter-finals at the Olympic Games in Paris.

Hosts Switzerland, who will feature in Group A, will open the football fest on 2 July against Norway at St Jakob-Park in Basel. They will also play Finland and Iceland.

Germany, who lost to England in the final in 2022, will take on Poland, Denmark and Sweden in Group C. In Group B, world champions Spain will face Portugal, Belgium and italy.

The top two from each of the four pools advance to the last eight knockout stages where penalty shoot-outs kick in if the scores are level after 30 minutes of extra-time.

The semis are scheduled for Geneva and Zurich respectively on 22 and 23 July and the final will be played on 27 July at St Jakob-Park.

Before the draw at the Swiss Tech Convention Centre in Lausanne, the executive committee of the organisers Uefa approved a 41 million euro prize fund for the competition.

Uefa handed out 16m euros to the teams competing at the 2022 tournament in England which was delayed by a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ahead of the Paris’s Arcurial auction house an exhibition showcased a remarkable collection of historical documents, including private correspondences with Charles de Gaulle and figures like Winston Churchill and Josephine Baker.

“This is the most historic collection I’ve ever handled,” Stéphane Aubert, an auctioneer at Artcurial, told public broadcaster franceinfo.

“These documents offer a rare glimpse into the life of General de Gaulle, from his childhood through to his death in Collombey-les-Deux-Eglises.”

Among the items is a notebook filled with visionary stories from de Gaulle’s youth, including the manuscript of his first book from 1924, La Discorde chez l’ennemi (The Enemy’s House Divided).

“What’s extraordinary is that he already saw himself as a general. He refers to himself as General de Gaulle, commanding an army of 300,000 men, ready to fight the Germans,”explains Aubert.

Other items up for sale include a tiny lead soldier, a collection of youth poems, and de Gaulle’s high school diploma.

Also featured is an electric train with Cyrillic inscriptions, a gift from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to de Gaulle’s grandchildren in 1960.

“We were born just after the war!” says Jacques, a collector. “These items really take us back to our childhood. We lived through that whole era.”

Remembering France’s Oradour-sur-Glane massacre, one heirloom at a time

Manuscript

The auction was organised by De Gaulle’s descendants who inherited a trove of personal items from his brother, Philippe, who died at the age of 103 in March.

However, not everything is being sold. One key piece – a document from 1940 – remains off-limits.

It was de Gaulle’s Appeal of 18 June was broadcast by the BBC from London in which De Gaulle urged French people to fight on, laying the foundation for the underground resistance movement.

“Has the last word been said? Should hope disappear? Is defeat final? No! Believe me… nothing is lost for France,” De Gaulle said.

For Aubert, this is “the most important manuscript in French history”.

“It’s the 18 June manuscript, with dense, fine handwriting, full of crossings-out and corrections. That’s how de Gaulle wrote,” Aubert says.

Macron marks 84 years since de Gaulle’s call to resist Nazi occupation

Modern French state

Many visitors have expressed surprise that the family is parting with such significant items.

“I feel like a whole part of history is going to be scattered among private collectors,” says a visitor. “Perhaps all these documents should have been preserved in a single place of memory.”

Actually, much of Charles de Gaulle’s archive has already been donated to the French National Library (BNF).

A portion of the revenue from this sale will go to the Anne de Gaulle Foundation, a place founded in 1945 to take in young mentally handicapped women.

The French state and private institutions are expected to be among the buyers of the memorabilia from a man considered the father of the modern French state.

The service will run daily between Berlin Hauptbahnhof and Paris Gare de l’Est, stopping in Strasbourg, Karlsruhe and Frankfurt Sud, with the journey taking about eight hours in total.

Until now, journeys between the two capitals involved several connections, taking anywhere up to 10 hours. 

Named “ICE 3”, the high-speed train offers 444 seats, including 111 in first class.

There will initially be just one service each day, leaving Paris at 9.55am and arriving in Berlin just after 6pm. The return trip will leave Berlin at 11.54am, arriving in Paris just before 8pm.

Seats went on sale in October, with fares starting from €59 for a one-way second-class ticket and €69 for first class.

Prices will fluctuate according to demand and passengers will now able to pre-book 12 months ahead, up from the current six.

German-owned Deutsche Bahn and France’s SNCF began cooperating in 2007, and since then ICE and TGV trains have run between Frankfurt and Paris, and Stuttgart and Paris.

Wheels in motion for railway strike action across France

Cleaner transport push

The new Berlin-Paris route has been highly anticipated for years, with train operators across Europe under pressure to increase their services amid a political push to persuade people to use greener transport options.

Deutsche Bahn board member Michael Peterson says the partnership sends a strong signal of the development of European rail travel. “With our cooperative partners, we continue to fully focus on growth to enable more quality international rail connections. This is the only way for Europe to achieve its climate goals.”

France seeks end to cut-price air fares to fight environmental dumping

CEO Alain Krakovitch of SNCF welcomed the initiative as proof of the Franco-German commitment to a more connected and greener Europe.

SNCF points out that only 2kgs of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are generated by the new Paris-Berlin journey, compared to 200kgs of emissions for the same distance by plane.

With the addition of the new high-speed line, the rail operators will provide 26 daily connections between France and Germany, including links such as Paris-Stuttgart/Munich, Paris-Frankfurt, Frankfurt-Marseille and the seasonal summer service between Frankfurt and Bordeaux.

Night and day

The Paris-Berlin daytime link complements a night-time connection between the two capitals, managed by Austrian rail company OBB in partnership with SNCF and Deutsche Bahn.

The OBB Nightjet takes around 13 hours and 15 minutes but only departs three times a week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. It was relaunched last year but has been beset by numerous technical problems.

French rail company looks to greener future with zero emission hydrogen trains

A study published by Transport and Environment, which advocates for cleaner transport across Europe, last week revealed performance rankings for 27 European rail operators.

The research looked at eight criteria on medium and long-distance routes. Price was the most important of these, but the study also considered reliability, discount programmes, compensation in the event of delays, passenger experience and the existence of night trains and bicycle spaces.

Deutsche Bahn, the largest train operator in Europe, ranked 25th in reliability and 16th overall. SNCF was fifth just behind OBB, while Italy’s Trenitalia topped the list.

Referee Benoît Bastien stopped play eight minutes into the second-half with PSG leading 2-1 after hearing the abusive din.

PSG skipper Achraf Hakimi approached supporters in the Auteuil stand behind one of the goals pleading for them to stop.

A message was also displayed on the stadium’s giant screens warning spectators that such chants are forbidden.

“The match could be stopped and the game awarded to Lyon,” the announcement added.

Play eventually resumed after a few minutes and substitute Gonçalo Ramos sealed the victory in the closing stages for the hosts. The Portugal international slotted home after Lyon goalkeeper Lucas Perri parried Bradley Barcola’s shot into his path.

PSG boast 37 points after 15 of the season’s 34 games. Marseille, who drew 1-1 with Lille on Saturday afernoon, lie in second with 30 points along with Monaco, who were held to a goalless draw at Reims on Saturday night.

“It was a fantastic weekend,” said PSG boss Luis Enrique. “Out of the top nine teams, only PSG won and we’ve opened up a gap. We played against a very confident Lyon side who hadn’t lost in 10 matches and I think we performed at a very high level.”

However, off the field, the homophobic chanting – less than two months after similar abuse during the game at the Parc des Princes against Strasbourg – is likely to have far-reaching consequences for PSG.

France’s Interior Minister, Bruno Retailleau, who has vowed to crackdown on bad behaviour in football grounds, could turn up the pressure on football authorities to sanction clubs that fail to bring their supporters into line.

Action

In the wake of the Strasbourg encounter, the Ligue de Football Professionnel, (LFP), which organises the top two divisions, ordered PSG to partially close one of the stands at the Parc des Princes for the match against Toulouse on 22 November.

PSG said in a statement that it reaffirmed its commitment against all forms of discrimination, including homophobia.

“PSG is taking all necessary measures, before and during matches, to ensure that the Parc des Princes remains an inclusive venue for all,” the statement added.

Under French law, those found guilty of making anti-gay remarks in public can face up to one year in prison and fines reaching €45,000.

Last season, several PSG players received a one-match suspended sentence from the league’s disciplinary committee for their involvement in offensive chants directed at Marseille supporters following a 4-0 victory. Ousmane Dembélé, Hakimi, Randal Kolo Muani, and Layvin Kurzawa were caught on video using derogatory language during their celebrations.

They later issued public apologies for their actions. 

For 20 years, a schooner named Tara has been sailing the world’s oceans to study and protect marine ecosystems, supported by the Tara Ocean Foundation.

The organisation was founded in 2003 by French fashion designer Agnès Troublé, better known as agnès b, with the aim of raising public awareness about protecting the ocean and its biodiversity in the face of climate change and pollution.

During its 13 expeditions around the globe, artists regularly joined scientists on board, and now a new exhibition – “La Grande Expédition” (“The Great Expedition”) – is displaying their works, examining the intersection between art and science. 

More than 40 artists have explored “the environmental and societal issues linked to the ocean, through an exhibition that reveals the preciousness and fragility of the largest ecosystem on Earth,” according to the foundation.

“The foundation asked if I wanted to undertake the 20th anniversary expedition, giving me the freedom to make my own choices,” José-Manuel Gonçalves, director and curator at the Centquatre-Paris, the venue for the exhibition, told RFI.

“I selected works to ensure it truly reflects a contemporary art exhibition and to fully engage the imagination of the public.”

“The Great Expedition” highlights the artistic creations emerging from these expeditions: paintings, sculptures, photographs, video installations and sound pieces.

“These artistic works allow us to become aware of the beauties of the world, but also of our deadly interventions [into it],” said Gonçalvès. 

“They truly reveal to us an unknown world, but in forms, with materials and through mediums that are each time extremely different.”

Art and science

In addition to the artworks, scientific elements are incorporated in the exhibition to deepen the understanding of the issues faced by marine life, via a dialogue between art and science.

“When Darwin embarked on [his voyage on] the HMS Beagle, he was a naturalist, and it was through his drawings that he introduced new species,” explains Myriam Thomas, director of the Ocean Culture department at the Tara Foundation.

“He ultimately told the story of this expedition and exploration. The artists who board Tara have the exact same idea.”

Tara sails back to France after global voyage checking plankton and pollution

The work of French biologist Christian Sardet, the co-founder and scientific coordinator of the Tara Oceans expedition (2009-2013), is an example of this intersection between science and art.

Sardet initiated the Plankton Chronicles project – a series of short videos focusing on plankton and combining art and science – in collaboration with Sharif Mirshak and Noé Sardet.

“We address topics and scientific themes that are, for some, very complex [and] that also involve issues and challenges related to the ocean, such as pollution and climate change,” said Thomas.

“The work of artists helps shed light on these subjects, by offering a different perception. We hope to light that little spark which will make us look at the ocean in a different way, not just as a vast expanse of water, but as a truly living place that must be protected.”

“Tara: Art and Science to Reveal the Ocean” runs until 2 March, 2025, from Wednesday to Sunday, at the Centquatre-Paris.

Capturing light has long been an obsession for artists, from Impressionist painters to photographers. The artworks on display in Dans(e) la lumière (“Dancing in the Light”) provide both inspiration for and a backdrop to a series of dance performances that explore the interplay between light, movement and human perception.

The exhibition, hosted by the EDF Group Foundation in Paris, juxtaposes static art with movement, blurring the lines between performer and audience. Among those performers is renowned Franco-American choreographer Carolyn Carlson, who brings her signature blend of improvisation and poetic exploration.

“Light creates the space, the ambiance, whether it’s mysterious or bright,” Carlson, 81, told RFI, explaining that her fascination with light is a core element of her art. “It’s as important as choreography, music or costumes in my work. It creates poetry and mystery.”

She chose to dance beside “Lunatique neonly” – a bright blue light installation by François Morellet, because of its simplicity and sensual geometry. “It attracted me because of the circles,” she noted. “I like the idea of many half-circles that are not quite closed. It’s very sensual and close to my work in calligraphy.”

The EDF group, France’s state-owned electricity supplier, has built up an impressive art collection – with light being a central theme.

Also on display are several photographs by American Surrealist Man Ray, from his 1931 series entitled “Electricity”. Using a technique he called “rayograph”, he pays homage to electricity not only as an energy source but as an artistic subject in itself.

There are also several lithographs made by French artist Raoul Dufy in 1953 – detailed studies inspired by his giant panorama of Paris, “The Electricity Fairy”. This 600 square-metre work was commissioned by the Paris Electricity Distribution Company (EDF’s previous name) for an international exhibition in 1937.

The fresco pays tribute to more than a hundred historical and scientific figures, including Pierre and Marie Curie and French physicist André-Marie Ampère – the founder of electrodynamics and electromagnetism.

The EDF Foundation’s hybrid exhibition also aims to bring modern art and dance to an audience that wouldn’t necessarily see these kinds of performances, be that young school children or community groups for people with disabilities.

Carlson believes this kind of proximity brings about a more profound connection to art in general. “When I performed here, I could see the smiles on people’s faces,” she says. “In a museum, the interaction is much closer, unlike on a big stage where energy has to travel far.”

World’s largest painting, Dufy’s “Electricity Fairy”, gets a spruce up in Paris

This inclusivity extends to the exhibition’s accessibility, as entry is free – a deliberate choice to make art available to all.

Agnès Chemama, artistic director of the exhibition’s choreography programme, says it’s about reaching out to different audiences, especially young people – “To light a spark, give them confidence in expressing themselves, perhaps help them to exist fully in their bodies,” as she explains.

Visitors can expect to encounter a variety of dance styles, from contemporary to urban, performed by both established and emerging artists. These include celebrated names such as Angelin Preljocaj, Raphaëlle Delaunay and Mourad Merzouki, alongside rising talents, like the teenagers from Groupe Grenade with an interpretation of the song Room with a View by Rone.

“This exhibition isn’t so much about stories,” Carlson emphasises. “Dance and light are languages everyone can understand,” she says. “It’s about perception, about seeing light. It’s for everyone – children, poets, philosophers. Everyone takes away something unique.”

Paris museum takes breakdance off the streets, and into the spotlight

“Dans(e) la lumière” is on until 31 January 2025 at the EDF Group Foundation in Paris.

Before the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) meeting, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger reaffirmed as “irreversible” their decision a year ago to quit the group, which they condemned as subservient to ex-colonial ruler France.

The imminent departure of the three Sahel states could have a major impact on free trade and movement as well as on security cooperation in a region where jihadists tied both to Al Qaeda and Islamic State are gaining ground.

Among those attending the summit in the Nigerian capital Abuja will be Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who was appointed as a mediator with the breakaway states by the 15-member Ecowas in July.

Faye said last week he was “making progress” in talks with the three and said there was no reason for them not to maintain relations, especially given the security situation.

Togo’s President Faure Gnassingbe has also been mediating with the Sahel states.

“While the impending exit of Burkina, Faso, Mali and Niger from Ecowas is disheartening, we commend the ongoing mediation efforts,” Ecowas commission president Omar Touray said at the opening of the summit.

The departure of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger will become effective next month, one year after their initial announcement, in January 2024, according to the bloc’s regulations.

The three states have also formed their own confederation, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), after severing ties with France, and pivoting towards Russia.

New Sahel Confederation challenges regional order as ECOWAS seeks dialogue

The three breakaways did not announce plans to attend the Abuja summit, but they held a separate ministerial-level meeting Friday in Niger’s capital, Niamey.

“The ministers reiterate the irreversible decision to withdraw from Ecowas and are committed to pursuing a process of reflection on the means of exiting in the best interests of their peoples,” they said in a joint statement.

The three states have all gone through military coups and jihadist insurgencies in recent years. Ecowas member state Guinea is also run by a military government after a 2021 coup.

Intervention threat

Tensions with Ecowas spiked after the group threatened a military intervention over a July 2023 coup in Niger, the region’s sixth in three years, and imposed heavy sanctions on the country.

That position has since softened, though Ecowas states are split over the best course of action to deal with the military governments.

In March, Ecowas lifted some of the sanctions imposed on Niger in a bid to restart dialogue, especially over the fate of deposed President Mohamed Bazoum, who has been detained since the coup.

Earlier this year, Nigeria‘s top military commander met Niger’s army chief to strengthen security cooperation, especially communication between the two militaries and participation in a multi-national task force along the border area.

Since a coup in 2021, Ecowas member Guinea has also been led by a military chief, General Mamady Doumbouya, who has since been sworn in as president.

Under pressure from Ecowas, Guinea’s military-led leaders had agreed to organise elections by the end of 2024. But they have since admitted they will not live up to that commitment.

 (AFP)

Talks due Sunday between the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to end conflict in the eastern DRC were called off, the Angolan presidency said.

“Contrary to what we expected, the summit will no longer be held today,” the presidency’s media officer Mario Jorge told journalists.

Joao Lourenco, the African Union mediator to end the conflict, was meeting alone with DRC leader Felix Tshisekedi, Jorge said.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame had been expected at the meeting but it was not clear if he was in Angola.

There had been hopes the talks would reach an agreement to end conflict in the eastern DRC, where the Rwanda-backed M23 militia has seized swathes of territory, displacing thousands and triggering a humanitarian crisis.

The Congolese presidency said that negotiations had hit deadlock over a Rwandan demand that DRC hold direct dialogue with the M23 rebels.

Ongoing conflict

Since its reemergence in 2021 the Kigali-backed M23 militia, which claims to defend ethnic Tutsis, has seized swathes of DRC territory, displacing thousands and triggering a humanitarian crisis.

In early August, Angola mediated a fragile truce that stabilised the situation at the front line, but both sides continued to exchange fire and clashes have intensified since late October.

Angolan President Joao Lourenco, appointed by the African Union as a mediator, voiced hope Thursday that the summit in Luanda could lead to a peace deal.

“We are optimistic that this meeting eventually will produce all the signing or the decision for soon signing a long-lasting peace agreement between the two neighbouring countries,” Lourenco said during a visit to South Africa.

Kigali confirmed that Rwandan President Paul Kagame would attend the summit on Sunday, joined by his foreign minister Olivier Nduhungirehe.

The Congolese presidency also confirmed that Felix Tshisekedi would participate, despite the DRC’s previous refusals to negotiate with Rwanda and its calls for international sanctions against its neighbour.

“Our country continues to face persistent rebellions, including the aggression by the Rwandan army and the M23 terrorists,” Tshisekedi said in parliament Wednesday, calling the militants and Rwanda “enemies of the Republic”.

The capital of DRC’s North Kivu province Goma, home to about one million people and another million displaced by war, is now nearly surrounded by M23 rebels and the Rwandan army.

Ninety days

Early in November, the two central African neighbours launched a committee to monitor ceasefire violations, led by Angola and including representatives from both the DRC and Rwanda.

Kinshasa and Kigali a few weeks later approved a concept of operations document setting out the terms by which Rwandan troops will disengage from Congolese territory.

A previous draft dated in August listed the dismantling of a militia created by ethnic Hutus involved in the Rwandan genocide in 1994 as a precondition for Rwanda’s withdrawal.

Often portrayed by Kigali as a threat to its security, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) is one of various disparate militias fighting alongside the Congolese army against the M23.

The August draft was rejected by the DRC, which demanded that the withdrawal occur at the same time as the FDLR’s dismantling.

The final strategic document, seen by AFP, plans for a period of 90 days to “conclude the neutralisation of the FDLR and the lifting of Rwanda’s defensive measures”.

The two presidents last saw each other in October in Paris but did not speak, though they have maintained dialogue through the mediation of Luanda.

Home to a string of rival armed groups, the mineral-rich eastern DRC has been plagued by internal and cross-border violence for the past three decades.

 (AFP)

The French ambassador, Stephane Romatet, was “informed of the firm disapproval of the highest Algerian authorities in the face of the numerous French provocations and hostile acts,” the government-owned daily El Moudjahid reported.

According to Le Soir d’Algerie, the Algerian officials “made a point of clearly identifying the origin of these malicious acts, the French DGSE” intelligence service.

El Moudjahid said the French spy services were seeking to recruit “former terrorists” to “destabilise” the North African country.

Le Soir d’Algerie said French diplomats and agents had organised a series of meetings with people showing a “declared and permanent hostility towards Algerian institutions”.

The heightened tensions between Algiers and Paris come while French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal has been in detention for nearly a month in Algeria, accused of “attacking territorial integrity”.

Franco-Algerian writer Sansal held in Algeria on state security charges

According to Paris-based newspaper Le Monde, his November 16 arrest in Algiers could be due to his statements on a far-right French media outlet where he repeated Morocco’s claims that its territory had been truncated in favour of Algeria under French colonial rule.

Algeria had already withdrawn its ambassador to France over the summer after the French government supported a Moroccan plan for the Western Sahara that allows the contested region some autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty.

Algeria recalls ambassador after France backs Moroccan plan for Western Sahara

Algeria has historically supported the region’s Polisario separatist movement.

 (AFP)

The blockade, enforced by the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), began on 29 November. 

Léré, roughly 60 kilometres from the Mauritanian border, now faces restricted access, with the effects rippling through the region. 

JNIM‘s strategy mirrors tactics used against other population centres, including a major blockade of Timbuktu city one year ago. 

Supply routes cut 

“Trucks were stuck at the town’s entrance, and eventually turned back,” said several residents of Lere and the surrounding area. 

A regional transporter said the road connecting Léré’s to Niono and further south to the capital, Bamako, had been completely severed.  

Vehicles from Mauritania face the same issue.  

“Goods must be transported by pinasse boats from Mopti via the river,” said the transporter, adding that rising water levels have further complicated the situation. 

Multiple local sources confirmed the severity of what they described as a “total blockade”. 

Mali junta slammed for ‘atrocities’ against civilians one year after UN withdrawal

Market impact 

While the city has avoided complete shortages, residents report scarcities of essential items including milk, pasta and fuel, along with rising prices.  

Some trucks from Algeria have reportedly managed to enter the city, according to certain sources. 

The blockade’s effects extend to the regional capital Timbuktu, particularly affecting civilians.  

“It has greatly reduced bus movement,” said a Timbuktu community leader.

Vehicles travelling to southern Mali must now take a lengthy detour via Douentza and Mopti. 

Mali cuts ties with Ukraine following deadly clashes near Algerian border

Official silence 

Local and national authorities have remained silent on the crisis.  

“They’re treating it as a non-event,” said one Timbuktu resident. 

Despite the official silence, at least one military escort was organised last week to secure vehicles, according to multiple witnesses.  

The blockade follows an earlier JNIM attack on 23 November, when militants destroyed the Dabi bridge connecting Lere to Niafunke. 

Neither the Malian army nor the Timbuktu governorate responded to RFI’s requests for comment. 

This story was translated from the original version in French by David Baché

The project, overseen by Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi, includes 22 short films spanning documentary, animation, and drama.

The films aim to share the voices of people living through the conflict in Gaza, offering a glimpse into their fears, dreams and hopes.

“The idea for From Ground Zero came immediately, in the second month of this ongoing war, to try to pick up films and stories from Gaza,” Masharawi told RFI.

He explained that the goal was to give filmmakers in Gaza the chance to make their own films.

As a recent report from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) underlines the toll of the war on Palestinian journalists, RFI spoke with him and his team in Paris.

RSF says Israel responsible for one-third of journalist deaths in 2024

The shorts, ranging from three to six minutes, are “a mix between fiction, documentaries, video art and even experimental films,” he said.

“We are filmmakers, we are dealing with cinema. Even if it’s a catastrophe, it’s very tough with all the massacres. But we were also trying to make cinema, to add life, to be optimistic and to add hope.”

The 112-minute collection is presented as a feature film in two parts. Contributors include Reema Mahmoud, Muhammad Al Sharif, Tamer Nijim and Alaa Islam Ayou.

From film festivals to the Oscars

After premiering at the Toronto Film Festival in September, From Ground Zero toured film festivals across Europe, North Africa and South West Asia in November and December.

Screenings have taken place at the French Arab Film Festival near Paris, the Bristol Palestine Film Festival and in London. Additional showings are scheduled for Morocco and Egypt.

Earlier this year, Masharawi held an outdoor screening of the film during the Cannes Film Festival to protest its exclusion from the event.

Now, the collection has been selected to represent Palestine at the Oscars in March 2025, with hopes of a wider release in the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

UN rapporteur says Israel’s war in Gaza is ’emptying the land completely’

Emerging voices

The project was made possible by the Masharawi Fund for Gaza Filmmakers, launched in November 2023 to support creative talent from the territory.

Masharawi, who is from Gaza, is one of the first Palestinian filmmakers to have directed cinema projects in the occupied Palestinian territories.

His first film, Travel Document, was released in 1986, followed by The Shelter in 1989 and Long Days in Gaza in 1991.

The executive producer of the film, Laura Nikolov, who is French and based in France, is travelling with Masharawi to promote the film around the world.

“It’s a very unique project,” she told RFI. “We have now translated it into 10 different languages. We made this to allow the voices of the Gazan people [to be heard] and it’s working. I think we’ve reached more than 60, perhaps 80 screenings and festivals.”

With its selection for the Oscars, Nikolov is hopeful that the film will reach even wider audiences.

“This means it will be shown in cinemas in the United States,” she said, adding that they hope to expand its reach across Europe and the Middle East.

Since Sunday, 8 December, several European countries have suspended the processing of asylum claims from Syrians – the largest group of asylum seekers in Europe. 

Sweden, Norway, Italy, Denmark and Germany – which has taken in more than 712,000 Syrian refugees and asylum seekers since the war began in 2011 – are among those that have paused applications.  

For Syrians already in these countries, applications will not be processed until Syria’s new leadership and security conditions become clearer.

Austria, the United Kingdom, Greece and Belgium have also suspended the process, arguing that since the majority of Syrian asylum seekers were fleeing Assad’s regime, there is no longer justification for not returning to Syria. 

France’s support for Syrian transition hinges on respect for minority rights

France cautious

France, however, is taking a more measured approach.

While the Interior Ministry says it is working on suspending Syrian asylum applications, the decision ultimately lies with Ofpra, an asylum seekers’ protection agency which is under the financial and administrative supervision of the ministry but operates independently of the government.

The organisation is currently reviewing 700 cases, with 45,000 Syrians having sought refuge in France since 2011. 

For many long-term Syrian residents in Europe, return seems impossible, despite the changing situation in Syria.

“For me personally, I believe it’s too late. I have a good business, I am engaged to a French woman and I have already applied for naturalisation. At my age, I know France better than Syria,” Iyad Alzorkan, who arrived in France in 2010, told RFI. 

Spainhas chosen to maintain its existing asylum policy, confirming that it will continue processing Syrian applications. 

Syrians hold rallies in Paris and across Europe to celebrate fall of Assad

Political divisions 

Europe’s far-right political parties are pushing for more aggressive measures. Germany’s AfD party argues that Syrians in Germany celebrating Assad’s fall have no reason to stay and should return to Syria. The CDU, Germany’s conservative party, has proposed offering €1,000 to those willing to go back. 

In Denmark, far-right leader Morten Messerschmidt said he hoped Syrians living in the country would soon return home, which he said “will improve rape statistics in Denmark”.

Meanwhile, the government in Vienna announced plans to review the cases of 40,000 Syrians granted asylum in the last five years, aiming to prepare for potential deportations.

For many refugees, this is an alarming prospect.

“Many Syrians are well integrated here, they work here. I myself have two daughters who were born in Austria, they can’t even read Arabic,” said Abdulhkeem Alshater, a 43-year-old who fled Homs and was granted asylum in Austria in 2015. 

“And this announcement comes too early, Syria is not yet safe, not yet stable. I find it inhumane to announce this. People are desperate and angry today.” 

What’s driving France’s sudden deportation of Kurdish activists?

Lukas Gahleitner-Gertz of the NGO Asylkoordination criticised the Austrian government’s decision as politically motivated, rather than practical.  

“If the situation in Syria becomes stable, there could be processes to revoke refugee status. But right now, this is premature and misleading,” he said. 

EU response 

The European Commission is urging member states to coordinate their approaches. 

While asylum policies remain under national jurisdiction, the European Union is working with the United Nations’ refugee agency to organise voluntary returns. 

“Most Syrians in the diaspora dream of returning home, but the decision must be an individual one,” said Commission spokesperson Anouar El Anouni. 

Interior ministers from across the EU are set to meet in Brussels this week, with further discussions scheduled for 16 December among foreign ministers. 

France welcomes fall of Syria’s Assad, calls for peaceful transition

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

France’s news agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP), was founded 80 years ago on 20 August, 1944, just a few days before the liberation of Paris.

In October last year, AFP journalist and photo editor Laurent Kalfala was looking for ideas for ways to mark the anniversary.

Leafing through a history of the agency from the 1990s, he came across a small photograph of a young woman in uniform standing in front of a vehicle with the Cross of Lorraine – symbol of the French resistance and Charles de Gaulle’s Free French movement. The caption read: “1944, Marcelle Poirier, from AFP, first French female war correspondent.”

“There were two or three lines in the book saying that she was with de Gaulle when he entered Paris in August 1944, and she also reported from Adolf Hitler‘s Eagle’s Nest in the Bavarian Alps,” said Kalfala. “I found it strange I’d never heard of her before.”

Apparently neither had the organisers of the Bayeux War Correspondents awards, which in 2023 devoted an exhibition to the journalists who covered the Normandy Landings.

Kalfala recalls one of his journalism students returning from the exhibition and telling him she had done a report on female WWII correspondents. “I can picture her saying, you know what? There weren’t any French women.”

“So I took out my phone and showed her the photo of Poirier from the book and asked her if she was in the exhibition. She said no. I realised she had disappeared, something had happened.”

He decided it was time to correct this injustice and put Poirier back in the picture.

Listen to an interview with Laurent Kalfala in the Spotlight on France podcast

‘Equal in heroism’

His initial enquiries with older AFP journalists failed to deliver. Likewise, delving into the agency’s extensive archives proved complicated since most agency journalists signed with their initials rather than their full name, and some of the archives from 1944 had been lost.

He trawled through AFP’s in-house magazines, but while there was “a lot about all the men who came from London, there was nothing about a woman. At one point, I said, OK, maybe she never existed”.

Turning to the archives of the BNF – France’s national library – he finally began to come across articles by Poirier from 1944 and 1945. One in particular, dated September 1944, convinced him she was no ordinary journalist.

Entitled “Equal in heroism, women will now play a major role in French politics”, it was written just a few weeks after Paris was liberated and only five months after French women won the right to vote.

Women’s long battle to vote in France and the generations who fought it

“I was really blown away,” Kalfala recalls. “She was somebody – really tough, a feminist.”

The internet proved to be a dead end but Kalfala was convinced that Poirier, as a journalist, must have written the story of de Gaulle’s arrival in Paris at some point, somewhere.

The discovery that she had been married to a Welsh journalist – who had been AFP’s bureau chief in Beijing, Hong Kong and Sydney – provided a pointer on the trail, and in December 2023 he found her story in a magazine in Australia.

‘Into Paris with de Gaulle’

The article, Into Paris with de Gaulle, had been published in 1984 for the 40^th anniversary of the liberation of Paris.

Poirier describes following de Gaulle’s plush vehicle in an old van, from Brittany all the way to Paris. 

“450 kilometres of crowds who flung flowers, kissed us, hugged us and wept over us. I kissed more babies than any political candidate has ever been called upon to do, and I could not stir without being mobbed, as I was the first French woman in uniform in these parts.”

She describes church bells ringing out in each village, farm labourers running across newly liberated fields to see the General pass. “Crowds blocked the roads to stop the cars and force the General to get out and walk down village streets, where flags were hung out and the road was carpeted with flowers.”

“After a few words he would start the Marseillaise and there was not a dry eye anywhere – including his.”

Kalfala explains that while there were many correspondents in the press cortege, Poirier wrote about de Gaulle from a far more personal perspective. “She was a woman and she was telling things differently, she was talking about de Gaulle as a man, as very human,” he said.

She also described how dangerous the situation remained upon arriving in Paris on 25 August.

“The roar that went up as de Gaulle reached the place [near les Tuileries] was so loud that no one heard that first sniper’s shot from the Hotel Crillon. But Rob Reid [the BBC’s correspondent] saw the smoke and pulled us down to the ground where we wriggled under a van.”

France remembers heroic liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation, 80 years ago

‘Smuggled into France’

So how did Poirier come to take part in “the triumphal drive from Rennes to Paris as official reporter attached to General de Gaulle’s cortege”?

Born to French and English parents, she grew up in the northern English city of Leeds and as a young journalist worked in both France and England.

When France capitulated to Germany in 1940, she took the last boat out of Le Havre and returned to Leeds to work for the respected daily newspaper The Yorkshire Post. A few days after D-Day she joined Gaulle’s Free French movement and began working in London as his press officer.

In August 1944, as de Gaulle was preparing to return to France via Algiers, three French Independent Agency war correspondents left London to join him. But a few days later, their Jeep was found empty with dark stains on the seats. It was presumed the men had been ambushed and killed.

It was essential to have a French reporter to replace them so Poirier, as head of the press office of the Military Administrative London Mission, was the obvious choice.

“It was a good try, but no luck,” she writes. “SHAPE [the Allied Command] rules did not allow women journalists within 50 miles of the front line. Not much good for an agency reporter.”

It was decided to incorporate Poirier into the French Army as an observer-officer, and she was promptly “smuggled into France” to join de Gaulle, but with no official role. 

No sooner had she landed than she was arrested by the military police, and locked up in a convent in Bayeux, Normandy.

She escaped, hitched a lift with some female ambulance drivers and caught up with de Gaulle’s cortege.

Women War Photographers celebrated in key Paris exhibition

An eye for a human story

Poirier continued working for AFP after the liberation, becoming an official war correspondent.

She followed French troops to Germany, Vienna and Trieste, bringing out the human side to war stories, with a particular focus on women.

“I found quite a few articles about women,” Kalfala says. “She was really telling the life of German women, of the French resistance. In Vienna, she wrote a very moving article about how people were getting into prostitution just to get a bit of food. And nobody cared.  She describes Germany and Austria in a very human way.”

There were many female war correspondents – around 200 of the 500 correspondents reporting on the Normandy landings were women – Kalfala explains. “But they were at the back, in the hospitals. They had the human stories. But the difference is that Marcelle Poirier was on the front line.”

Poirier wrote other unusual war-related stories, including a 1946 portrait of Hitler’s wife Eva Braun, through the eyes of her butler.

But after 1946, the trail went cold. Until Kalfala landed on two articles published in a women’s magazine – one about how ladies in the future will no longer be chained to the kitchen sink.

“It was also a bit feminist, because she said new inventions shouldn’t be about building weapons, but to help women in the home,” he said. “But it was a bit weird, after reporting on all these [war] stories, why did she work for a women’s magazine?”

‘Men took the power’

Poirier had no children – had she been a mother this might have explained why she turned her back on war reporting. But Kalfala suggests that, instead, she may have been pushed aside. 

A footnote to her Australian-published article noted that the three AFP war correspondents she had replaced had in fact “not been killed and the bloodstains in the Jeep were wine stains from bottles offered by people in the villages they had passed through. They had been ambushed, captured and transported to Germany by train”.

The three men returned to AFP, and took up where they left off. Some then became directors. “The men took the power at AFP, like everywhere,” Kalfala says. “So I think Marcelle Poirier was a bit pushed away, sidelined.”

Older AFP journalists also told Kalfala that since Poirier had married a bureau chief, there would probably have been pressure on her to sacrifice her career. 

Kalfala’s documentary on Poirier, who died in 1992, has restored her name to the ranks of war-time reporters in France. But for him the real injustice is that “there was this trace of her, in the book. She wasn’t forgotten. Nobody cared, that’s the thing. And that’s worse than being forgotten”.

According retired Australian navy admiral Peter Briggs, the Aukus submarine plan is flawed, and the only chance Australia has to sustain its submarine fleet is to buy French vessels after all.

“The solution being pursued under the current Aukus plan is not going to work,” said Briggs, former head of the Submarine Institute of Australia.

In the article published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), he paints a bleak future for Australia’s submarine fleet.

The Australian navy’s six current Collins-class conventional submarines – which are Australian-built – are to be replaced by eight nuclear attack submarines (Submersible Ship Nuclear or SSNs) of the United States-made SSN Virginia and the SSN Aukus class.

The latter will be jointly made by Britain’s BAE Systems and Australia’s ASC.

The plan is part of the Aukus alliance hammered out in 2021 between Australia, the United Kingdom and the US.

Pending construction of the new fleet, UK and US nuclear subs will increase their visits to Australia.

“The reality is that the US is unable to build enough submarines,” Briggs told RFI.

He added that, given that Australia is a ‘three ocean continent” it needs 12 submarines in order to properly defend itself, rather than the eight specified under the Aukus agreement.

France could build submarines for Australia, after all

No submarines available

In September 2023, the US Congress introduced the “Aukus Undersea Defense Act” providing “for the transfer of not more than two Virginia class submarines” to Australia.

In December, Congress confirmed this in its 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.

But according to Briggs, the US won’t be able to sell these subs. “The US are 17 short of submarines now. They haven’t ordered any extra to provide a surplus to allow the sale of some of their older submarines to us. So, the Virginias won’t be available for sale. And our submarine capability will die with the Collins class”.

On top of that, Briggs says, the projected SSN Aukus is “too big, too expensive”. Manning an SSN Aukus requires some 130 people. “We cannot afford to operate 12 of these large submarines, which is the minimum we need for an effective deterrent”.

His solution? Go back to the French, who were left high and dry by the Aukus deal.

France snubbed

In 2016, the Australian government and the French naval defence company Naval Group – which is majority state-owned – signed a €34 billion contract for the supply of 12 conventional Barracuda submarines, beating Japanese and German competition to the deal.

French commentators hailed it as “the contract of the century,” which would provide thousands of jobs in France alone.

But in 2021, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that he was terminating the contract, without notice – and that the US and the UK would supply the submarines instead, under the Aukus alliance.

His argument was that Australia would be better served by eight nuclear-powered submarines than the 12 conventional vessels ordered from the French.

Will Australia turn to France for backup amid Pacific arms race?

Room for manoeuvre

“The idea was cooked up by a very small team in Australia, not the normal defence process looking at requirements and how you might solve it,” says Briggs. “The prime minister of the day, Mr. Morrison, got it wrong. There was never a chance that it was going to work.”

He believes that Canberra should renege on the Aukus submarine plan, saying: “It remains in both countries’ interests to reverse and overcome the issues of the past and get on and build additional Barracuda/Suffren-class submarines for Australia.”

There may yet be room for manoeuvre for French and Australian policy makers.

In a meeting with current Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in July 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron – who was furious over the collapse of the previous deal – reportedly offered to supply Australia with four submarines.

Meanwhile, the Australian government agreed to pay €550 million in a settlement with Naval Group over the decision to scrap the French attack class submarine project.

India speeds up imports of French jets as part of Indian Ocean defence build-up

Paris – Canberra ties renewed

In September 2022, Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles then travelled to France and met with France’s Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu.

“[The] ministers [are] committed to developing projects that will further enable the French-Australian defence relationship,” Defence Australia said in a statement on the visit.

By December 2023, Canberra and Paris appeared to have buried the hatchet entirely, cutting a deal to grant reciprocal access to military bases, training facilities and increase intelligence sharing, with Australia given “enhanced” access to France’s defence facilities in the Indo-Pacific region. 

For Briggs, Australia needs to capitalise on this renewal of friendly relations in order to procure the subs it needs.

“We now need some political fortitude and courage on both sides to move past the bad decisions of the past and produce a winning project for France and Australia”.

A veteran centrist, Bayrou raises hackles on the left – which is wary of him continuing the president’s policies – and on the right, where he is disliked by influential former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Macron has been under mounting pressure to choose a candidate capable of uniting a deeply divided parliament, and securing the passage of a budget to address France’s growing debt.

Bayrou will need to forge a consensus on how to tackle the country’s rising budget deficit, now at 6.1 percent – far above the 4.4 percent projected for the end of 2024.

His appointment follows two days of talks at the Élysée Palace, at which Macron met with party leaders to find a candidate capable of bridging divides and passing next year’s budget.

The far-right National Rally (RN) and hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) parties were not included in the discussions.

Macron had been widely expected to name the new prime minister on Thursday evening.

The delay underscores the political challenges posed by the fractured lower house of parliament, a result of July’s snap elections.

France unveils emergency budget law to prevent state shutdown

Divided parliament

The parliament remains split between a leftist alliance, the centrists and the conservatives, with the far-right RN complicating efforts to secure a stable government capable of surviving no confidence votes.

Speaking in a televised address last week, Macron rejected mounting calls for his resignation and vowed to serve his full term until 2027. 

Former prime minister Michel Barnier, whose government had support only from Macron’s centrist camp and his own conservative political family, was felled last week in a confidence vote over his cost-cutting budget.

His caretaker administration on Wednesday reviewed a bill designed to keep the lights of government on without a formal financial plan for 2025, allowing tax collection and borrowing to continue.

Lawmakers are expected to widely support the draft law when it comes before parliament on Monday.

An electoral college, controlled by the ruling Georgian Dream party and boycotted by the opposition, elected Mikheil Kavelashvili with 224 votes as the country’s next figurehead leader for a five-year term, central election commission chair Giorgi Kalandarishvili said.

The sitting president Salome Zurabishvili has declared the vote “illegitimate” and refused to step down.

Protests

The Black Sea nation has been in turmoil since the governing Georgian Dream party claimed victory in contested October parliamentary elections.

Its decision last month to delay European Union membership talks ignited a fresh wave of mass rallies.

The opposition has denounced Saturday’s election as “illegitimate” and said sitting President Salome Zurabishvili remains the country’s sole legitimate leader.

Pro-Western Zurabishvili, who is at loggerheads with Georgian Dream, has refused to step down and is demanding new parliamentary elections, paving the way for a constitutional showdown.

On Saturday morning, protesters began gathering outside the parliament building, which was cordoned off by police forces.

“Georgia never loses its sense of humour, celebrating the election of a footballer as president,” Zurabishvili wrote on social media.

She shared video footage of protesters playing football in the snow — a clear jab at Kavelashvili.

One of the protesters, 40-year-old Natia Apkhazava, said she arrived early “to protect our European future”.

“Our (parliamentary) election was rigged. We need new elections,” she said.

“We have been protesting here for 16 days… and we’ll keep fighting for our European future.”

Protests are scheduled to take place at a dozen of different locations in Tbilisi.

Thousands of pro-EU demonstrators filled the streets of the capital Tbilisi on Friday, before gathering outside parliament for the 16th consecutive day.

A former diplomat, Zurabishvili is a hugely popular figure among protesters, who view her as a beacon of Georgia’s European aspirations. 

Germany, France and Poland condemn use of force against protesters in Georgia

‘Unprecedented constitutional crisis’ 

“What will happen in parliament tomorrow is a parody. It will be an event entirely devoid of legitimacy, unconstitutional and illegitimate,” Zurabishvili told a press conference on Friday.

Opposition groups accuse Georgian Dream of rigging the October 26 parliamentary vote, backsliding on democracy and moving Tbilisi closer to Russia — all at the expense of the Caucasus nation’s constitutionally mandated bid to join the European Union.

Kavelashvili, 53 — the sole candidate for the largely ceremonial post — is known for his vehement anti-West diatribes and opposition to LGBTQ rights.

Georgian Dream scrapped direct presidential elections in 2017.

With Zurabishvili refusing to leave office, opposition lawmakers boycotting parliament and protests showing no signs of abating, Kavelashvili is likely to see his presidency undermined from the onset.

One author of Georgia’s constitution, Vakhtang Khmaladze, has argued that all decisions by the new parliament are void.

This is because it ratified the mandates of newly elected lawmakers before the outcome of a court case filed by the incumbent president contesting the elections, he explained.

“Georgia is facing an unprecedented constitutional crisis,” Khmaladze told AFP.  

It remains unclear how the government will react to Zurabishvili’s refusal to step down after her successor is inaugurated on December 29.

Western hesitation

Police have fired tear gas and water cannons during more than two weeks of demonstrations and arrested more than 400 protesters, according to the Social Justice Centre NGO.

On Friday, Amnesty International said protesters had faced “brutal dispersal tactics, arbitrary detention and torture.”

There have also been raids on the offices of opposition parties and arrests of their leaders.

As international condemnation of the police crackdown mounted, French President Emmanuel Macron told Georgians their “European dream must not be extinguished”.

“We are by your side in supporting your European and democratic aspirations,” he said in a video address.

Earlier this week, Macron called Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili — the tycoon widely considered to be Georgia’s real power broker.

His decision to call Ivanishvili rather than Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze is indicative of the West’s hesitancy to recognise the legitimacy of Georgian Dream’s new government.

Washington has also imposed fresh sanctions on Georgian officials, barring visas for around 20 people accused of “undermining democracy in Georgia”, including ministers and parliamentarians.

(AFP)

The project, overseen by Palestinian filmmaker Rashid Masharawi, includes 22 short films spanning documentary, animation, and drama.

The films aim to share the voices of people living through the conflict in Gaza, offering a glimpse into their fears, dreams and hopes.

“The idea for From Ground Zero came immediately, in the second month of this ongoing war, to try to pick up films and stories from Gaza,” Masharawi told RFI.

He explained that the goal was to give filmmakers in Gaza the chance to make their own films.

As a recent report from Reporters Without Borders (RSF) underlines the toll of the war on Palestinian journalists, RFI spoke with him and his team in Paris.

RSF says Israel responsible for one-third of journalist deaths in 2024

The shorts, ranging from three to six minutes, are “a mix between fiction, documentaries, video art and even experimental films,” he said.

“We are filmmakers, we are dealing with cinema. Even if it’s a catastrophe, it’s very tough with all the massacres. But we were also trying to make cinema, to add life, to be optimistic and to add hope.”

The 112-minute collection is presented as a feature film in two parts. Contributors include Reema Mahmoud, Muhammad Al Sharif, Tamer Nijim and Alaa Islam Ayou.

From film festivals to the Oscars

After premiering at the Toronto Film Festival in September, From Ground Zero toured film festivals across Europe, North Africa and South West Asia in November and December.

Screenings have taken place at the French Arab Film Festival near Paris, the Bristol Palestine Film Festival and in London. Additional showings are scheduled for Morocco and Egypt.

Earlier this year, Masharawi held an outdoor screening of the film during the Cannes Film Festival to protest its exclusion from the event.

Now, the collection has been selected to represent Palestine at the Oscars in March 2025, with hopes of a wider release in the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

UN rapporteur says Israel’s war in Gaza is ’emptying the land completely’

Emerging voices

The project was made possible by the Masharawi Fund for Gaza Filmmakers, launched in November 2023 to support creative talent from the territory.

Masharawi, who is from Gaza, is one of the first Palestinian filmmakers to have directed cinema projects in the occupied Palestinian territories.

His first film, Travel Document, was released in 1986, followed by The Shelter in 1989 and Long Days in Gaza in 1991.

The executive producer of the film, Laura Nikolov, who is French and based in France, is travelling with Masharawi to promote the film around the world.

“It’s a very unique project,” she told RFI. “We have now translated it into 10 different languages. We made this to allow the voices of the Gazan people [to be heard] and it’s working. I think we’ve reached more than 60, perhaps 80 screenings and festivals.”

With its selection for the Oscars, Nikolov is hopeful that the film will reach even wider audiences.

“This means it will be shown in cinemas in the United States,” she said, adding that they hope to expand its reach across Europe and the Middle East.

This dramatic end to the Assad family’s half-century rule over Syria marks a significant shift in the region’s balance of power, with analysts predicting that Turkey’s influence in Syria could now grow at the expense of its regional rivals.

“Turkey emerged… by proving its relevance, importance and its strength… out of these latest developments in Syria… as the clean, clear winner,” says Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat who served in the region and is now a foreign policy analyst for Turkey’s independent Medyascope news outlet.

“And Iran is definitely the loser. And Russia also is pushed aside.”

Success of rebel groups in Syria advances Turkish agenda

The Turkish-backed Syrian National Army played a role in the overthrow of Assad. However, it was the radical Islamist group Hayat Tahir Al Sham – or HTS – that led the offensive. And that, analysts say, will be a cause for apprehension in Ankara.

“Despite all the jubilation of the Turkish press and the government and the circles that support the government about the collapse of the Assad regime in general, I would think there is some uneasiness,” says Hasan Unal, professor of international relations at Ankara’s Baskent University.   

“I can see it through lots of problematic issues that would be coming out of what’s going to happen,” he added, “because of the ideological Islamist leanings of the incumbent government and… the Islamic jihadist terrorist groups associated with it.”

Support and protection

However, Turkey may not be entirely without influence over Syria’s new Islamist leaders. For years, it provided support and protection to the Idlib region of Syria, where HTS was based. 

Analyst Aydin Selcen suggests Ankara could retain significant influence if recent statements by HTS leadership calling for an inclusive Syrian government are honoured.  

“If pragmatism prevails, that’s perhaps where Turkey and Ankara may come in. And also Ankara definitely will be viewed as a positive outside contributor by these new Syrian rulers, because of the fact that we here in Turkey are hosting over 5 million Syrians and also that Turkey helped protect Idlib.”

Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan, addressing an international conference in Doha last Sunday, 8 December, said that Turkey is committed to helping secure a politically inclusive new Syria. 

Turkey’s Syrian refugees 

A stable Syria is also key to Ankara’s goal of sending home millions of Syrian refugees now living in Turkey. Public resentment over their presence has grown, as the country has grappled with an economic crisis over the past few years.

However, such a return may not be simple, predicts Sezin Oney, a commentator on Turkey’s independent Politikyol news site.

“The refugees, the Syrians you have in Turkey, are mostly women and children. So it has to be a [new Syrian] government, an administration, friendly to women and children, especially women.”

“But we don’t know if these Islamic jihadist groups will be really friendly towards these groups,” he added.

“There might be a Taliban 2.0 arising just across the border; we don’t know what kind of administration HTS and surrounding groups will be. It’s a big security risk; I don’t see Syria settling down to become a safe clash-free place.” 

‘Imperative’ to work against IS in Syria, Blinken tells Turkey

For now, Erdogan is celebrating the overthrow of Assad as a Turkish triumph, with European leaders and Washington queuing up to speak to him as Turkey positions itself as a key player in shaping Syria’s future.

But the sudden demise of the Assad regime underscores how quickly fortunes can change in the region, and the future of Syria – and Turkey’s role in it – are today more uncertain than ever. 

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.

The RFI English team is pleased to announce that Saleem Akhtar Chadhar, the president of the RFI Seven Stars Listening Club in District Chiniot, Pakistan, won the RFI / Planète Radio ePOP video contest, in the RFI Clubs category. Bravo Saleem! Mubarak ho!

There are just two days left for you to be a part of our New Year’s Day show – get your New Year’s resolutions and/or wishes to me by this coming Monday, 16 December. Send them to me at thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

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 9 November, I asked you a question about the American composer and musician Quincy Jones, who died earlier that week.

You were to re-read our article “Tributes roll in for beloved musician and producer Quincy Jones, who died at 91”, and send in the answer to this question: What is the name of the legendary Frenchwoman with whom Jones studied in Paris in 1957?

The answer is: Nadia Boulanger, arguably the single most important composition teacher of the 20th century.  

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question: What is the best way to flatter a mother-in-law?

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Pradip Chandra Kundu from West Bengal, India. Pradip is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations, Pradip!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are RFI Listeners Club members Zenon Teles, the president of the Christian – Marxist – Leninist – Maoist Association of Listening DX-ers in Goa, India, and Ataur Rahman Ranju, the president of the Alokito Manush Cai International Radio Listeners Club in Rangpur, Bangladesh. Rounding out the list of this week’s winners are RFI English listeners Shatrudhan Sharma from Rajasthan, India, and Mahfuz from Cumilla, Bangladesh.

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Tamasha” by Aamer Shafiq, Farhan Bogra, Shiraz Khan, and Sparlay Rawail, performed by Khumaariyan; “No Bones at All” by Quincy Jones, performed by the Quincy Jones Ensemble conducted by the composer; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and the traditional Mexican huasteco “La Huasanga”, performed by Xochicanela.

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 our article “France’s support for Syrian transition hinges on respect for minority rights”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 20 January to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 25 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.   

Kolawole Osinowo, CEO of Baobab Plus in Nigeria – a French-Nigerian energy distribution company – highlighted the challenges of energy access in the country.

“A lot of people in Nigeria don’t have access to electricity, so we’re supporting the government by bridging the gap,” Osinowo told RFI.

“There’s a connection in terms of technological and financial support that is key.”

Osinowo said he hopes to shift Africa-Europe relations from being aid-driven to investment-focused, aiming to boost Nigeria’s economy and create jobs.

“This is essential so that people don’t have to migrate and cause different migration issues around the world,” he said.

Creative partnerships

Uchenna Pedro, founder of the lifestyle platform Bella Naija and named one of Forbes Africa’s 50 Most Influential Women, emphasised France’s potential as a partner in Nigeria’s creative industries.

“French industries in my domains bring high value, and France’s belief in the arts makes it a great partnership,” said Pedro. Her platform already collaborates with French companies like L’Oréal in the beauty and fashion sectors.

Pedro is also a member of the French Africa Foundation’s young leaders group, which supports initiatives connecting France with African nations.

Nigerian businesses court French investors during Tinubu’s landmark visit

France as a cultural hub

Singer-songwriter and activist Chioma Ogbonna, known as Cill, also praised France’s prioritisation of the arts and its thriving creative industry.

“Because of how the arts and the creative industry thrive here in France and how it is prioritised, it is an important destination for Africans and Nigerians especially,” she said.

Tinubu’s visit underscored the potential for deeper collaboration between Nigerian businesses and French investors, particularly in energy, culture, and creative sectors.

Episode recorded and mixed by Erwan Rome.

Spotlight on Africa is a podcast from Radio France Internationale.

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.   

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.