“We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably,” Zelensky wrote on X after arriving in Washington.

“Russia must end this war that it started. I hope that our joint strength with the US and our European allies will force Russia to make real peace.”

“Russia should not be rewarded for its participation in this war…. And it is Moscow that must hear the word: Stop,” Zelensky said in a Facebook post early Monday.

The Ukrainian leader said he will discuss securing Western security guarantees for Ukraine during a meeting Monday with President Donald Trump and top European leaders.

“We will have time to speak about the architecture of security guarantees. This is, really, the most important,” Zelensky said after speaking with Trump’s special envoy on Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.

Macron says Russia does not want peace, stresses security for Ukraine

The meeting will be attended by Vice President JD Vance, before a larger gathering attended by Nato Chief Mark Rutte and European leaders, including Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of Britain, Finland, Germany and Italy.

Ahead of the White House meetings, the EU leaders and Zelensky will hold a preparatory meeting, according to the European Commission.

European leaders are concerned that Trump will pressure Ukraine to accept Russia’s terms, which include giving up Crimea and withdrawing from two eastern regions.

Trump, who dropped his insistence on a ceasefire in favour of a final peace deal after meeting Putin, said Sunday that Zelensky could end the war “almost immediately, if he wants to” but that, for Ukraine, there was “no getting back” Crimea and “NO GOING INTO NATO.”

Quest for lasting peace

Zelensky, who has repeatedly rejected any territorial concessions, said that any peace deal must avoid setting up a situation where Russia might again invade Ukraine, referring to Russia’s taking of Crimea and parts of the Donbas region in 2014, before its full invasion in 2022.

“Peace must be lasting,” Zelensky wrote. “Not like it was years ago, when Ukraine was forced to give up Crimea and part of our East – part of Donbas – and Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack. Or when Ukraine was given so called “security guarantees” in 1994, but they didn’t work.”

When Zelensky last went to Washington, Trump shouted at him, accusing him of not being “thankful” and slamming his refusal to accept truce terms that would involve compromises with Russia.

Trump-Putin summit ends without Ukraine deal

Zelensky has said he is ready to join a trilateral summit with Trump and Putin – a possible meeting evoked by Trump, but which Russia has downplayed.

Meanwhile, Russia kept up its attacks on Ukraine ahead of the new talks, firing at least 140 drones and four ballistic missiles at the country between late Sunday and early Monday, the Ukrainian air force said.

A Russian drone attack on a five-storey apartment block in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv just before dawn killed at least seven people, including a one-and-a-half year old girl, authorities said.

Zelensky called the strikes an attempt to “humiliate diplomatic efforts.”

(with newswires)

Malians welcomed the coup that overthrew President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta on 18 August 2020.

General Assimi Goita promised to root out jihadists in the north of the country, which Mali had been unsuccessfully trying to do for nearly a decade with the support of the French military and a United Nations peacekeeping mission.

Then Mali experienced its second coup in 2021 and Goita, as interim president, promised “credible, fair and transparent elections” and a handover to civilian rule by June 2022.

But this never came to pass. 

Instead, Mali shifted allegiances away from France – from which it severed ties in 2022 – to Russia, which sent mercenaries from its Wagner group to fight with the army.

Rights abuses

In 2023, the Malian army regained control of Kidal, a Tuareg separatist stronghold, but Wagner has been unable to help Mali take back full control of its territory.

Many Malian towns are still controlled by jihadists, and the army and its Russian allies are regularly accused of abuses against civilians.

Earlier this year, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger quit Ecowas to form their own confederation, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), dealing a blow to the credibility of the grouping.

The AES accuses Ecowas of being a tool for what it sees as former colonial ruler France’s neo-imperialist ambitions and has created a unified army that conducts joint anti-jihadist operations.

In July 2025, Mali’s military-appointed legislative body granted Goita a five-year presidential mandate, renewable “as many times as necessary” without election.

Mali’s promise of democracy fades as junta extends Assimi Goita’s rule

With the military still in power, the situation for civilians is getting worse, according to Alioune Tine a former UN expert on human rights in Mali and the founder of the Senegalese think tank Afrikajom Center.

“They came for security, but today security is deteriorating,” he told RFI. “Now, the most serious thing from my point of view is that the promises of an 18-month transition have not been kept,” he explains.

Furthermore, the junta announced in May the dissolution of all political parties and organisations, as well as a ban on meetings.

“We are witnessing a kind of authoritarian rule, with increasingly restricted civic space, making it virtually impossible for the press, civil society or the opposition to express themselves,” Tine says.

Destabilisation plot

On top of the ongoing security and economic issues,  Malian authorities are searching for possible accomplices in what they say is a “foreign government-backed plot” to destabilise the country.

This follows the arrest of a French national suspected of working for French intelligence services along with over 50 Malian soldiers last week.

In a separate move, Mali’s civilian former prime minister Choguel Maiga and a number of his former colleagues were taken into custody as part of an investigation into claims of “misappropriation of public funds”.

UN mission in Mali officially ends after 10 years

Maiga, a former junta heavyweight, was appointed prime minister in 2021 before being dismissed at the end of last year after criticising the military government.

He had criticised being excluded from decisions about the continued leadership of the generals, who had initially promised to hand power back to elected civilians in March 2024.

No connection has been made between his arrest and those of the soldiers accused of wanting to overthrow the government.

France has voiced its “dismay” at Russia’s decision to outlaw the press freedom NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF).  

The French Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the move formed part of a broader campaign of repression against critical voices, carried out in “flagrant disregard for freedom of expression and press freedom.”

Paris also renewed its call for the “immediate and unconditional release of all those prosecuted for political reasons” and urged Russia to honour its international commitments on the right to information and free access to news.

Russian journalist exiled in Paris has ‘no regrets’ over criticising Ukraine war

‘Undesirable organisations’

On 14 August, Russia’s Ministry of Justice announced that RSF had been added to its list of so-called undesirable organisations.

The designation effectively bans the group’s activities inside Russia, placing staff, supporters and funders at risk of prosecution and possible prison sentences.

The Paris-based NGO, campaigns globally for press freedom, documenting violations and providing practical support to journalists working in hostile environments. 

In Russia, the group has consistently denounced attacks on independent reporting, censorship, and the targeting of reporters who investigate sensitive topics such as corruption, abuses of power and the war in Ukraine.

Global decline in freedom of expression over last decade, watchdog warns

Decade-long clampdown

This is not the first time Moscow has sought to muzzle international organisations. Over the past decade, Russian authorities have tightened restrictions on foreign NGOs through laws branding them as “foreign agents” or “undesirable.”

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Memorial – one of Russia’s most prominent human rights groups – have all faced severe curbs or outright bans.

Such measures typically criminalise normal organisational activity, exposing staff and even supporters to fines or prison terms, and are widely seen as part of a strategy to isolate Russian society from international scrutiny.

The clampdown has grown sharper since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

RSF has pledged to continue its work despite the ban, insisting that it will not abandon the Russian journalists it supports.

The regulation, adopted in 2023 as a key pillar of the European Green Deal, is part of the European Union’s drive to reduce imports of critical raw materials, such as lithium and cobalt and instead use its own, whether from new mines or recuperated from old devices.

Implemented in stages, the regulation requires as of Monday manufacturers to finance the recycling of electric batteries, which will ensure that their critical metals can be reused.

Until now, only small batteries up to 5kg were covered by the rules; now all batteries are concerned – from tiny watch batteries, to those in smartphones, electric scooters and electric cars and buses. 

Beyond the costs to companies required to finance the recycling, the impact will be felt by battery recycling companies, which will see a massive increase in the amount of material to be treated – from about 30,000 tonnes to 600,000 tonnes

Every year, one and a half billion new batteries are placed on the European market. Recycling them is an environmental issue, but also one of economic sovereignty.

Will lithium become the oil of the 21st century?

Europe lagging

“There is a desire to keep strategic metals in France and Europe,” Emmanuel Toussaint Dauvergne, director of Batribox, a French organisation that collects used batteries, told RFI.

“If the French government wants to promote batteries, it must be able to produce them or have them produced in Europe. To do this, it must be able to own the metals essential to their design. It is important that there be coordination of the flow so that they remain on European territory and can be used by battery manufacturers.”

European legislation requires a quarter of critical metals to come from recycled materials in Europe by 2030.

And yet, Europe lags behind the rest of the world in battery manufacturing, so most critical metals are currently being sent mainly to China for processing.

But there is time for the system to catch up, as recently-imported batteries will only be recyclable in ten or fifteen years’ time, giving time to adjust.

Strips of bare land scar the lush and green mountainsides towering above Mutsamudu, the capital of the Indian Ocean island of Anjouan.

“We lost 80 percent of our natural forests between 1995 and 2014,” Abubakar Ben Mahmoud, environment minister of the country off northern Mozambique, told French news agency AFP in a recent interview.

The clearing of the forest for cultivation has compounded damage caused by the production of ylang-ylang essential oil, used in luxury perfumes, and the manufacture of traditional carved wooden doors for which the island is renowned.

With a high population density of more than 700 residents per square kilometre, “Deforestation has been intensified as farmers are looking for arable land for their activities,” the minister said.

The brown and barren patches on the slopes are starkly visible from the headquarters of Dahari, a leading organisation in the fight against deforestation, based in the hills of Mutsamudu.

Water guardians

The NGO last year launched a reforestation programme, working hand-in-hand with local farmers who are called “water guardians”.

Under a five-year conservation contract, the farmers commit to replanting their land or leaving it fallow in exchange for financial compensation, said one of the project’s managers, Misbahou Mohamed.

The first phase has included 30 farmers, with compensation paid out after inspection of the plots.

Another significant contributor to deforestation on Anjouan, the ylang-ylang essential oil industry, has in recent years heeded calls to limit its impact.

The Comoros is among the world’s top producers of the delicate and sweet-smelling yellow flower, prized for its supposed relaxing properties and widely used in perfumes like the famous Chanel No 5.

Protected areas offer hope for Africa’s vanishing forests and wildlife

The production of ylang-ylang, vanilla and cloves makes up a large part of the archipelago’s agricultural output, which represents a third of its GDP.

The country has around 10,000 ylang-ylang producers, most based on Anjouan, according to a report commissioned by the French Development Agency for a project to support Comoran agricultural exports.

Burning wood is the cheapest source of fuel for the distillation process, the report highlighted, with 250 kilogrammes (550 pounds) needed to produce one litre of essential oil.

Some producers are trying to limit their use of wood, such as Mohamed Mahamoud, 67, who said he halved consumption by upgrading his equipment.

“I now use third-generation stainless steel alembics, with an improved oven equipped with doors and chimneys,” said Mahamoud, who has grown and distilled ylang-ylang near the town of Bambao Mtsanga for nearly 45 years.

To avoid encroaching on the forest, most of his wood now comes from mango and breadfruit trees he grows himself.

Anger flares in Comoros as residents endure cost of living and energy crises

Rivers drying up

Some producers have in recent years switched to crude oil to fuel their stills.

But that costs twice as much wood, said one ylang-ylang exporter, who asked to remain anonymous.

And high electricity prices in Comoros mean that using electrical energy would cost 10 times more, “not to mention the long periods of power cuts”, he said.

Part of the drive to reduce wood consumption comes from an alarming observation: not only is deforestation stripping Anjouan’s mountains, it is also drying up its rivers.

Children’s tale takes root in West Africa’s fight to regrow its forests

Forests are essential for “the infiltration of water that feeds rivers and aquifers… like a sponge that retains water and releases it gradually”, said hydroclimatologist Abdoul Oubeidillah.

“In 1925, there were 50 rivers with a strong year-round flow of water,” said Bastoini Chaambani, from the environmental protection NGO Dayima. “Today, there are fewer than 10 rivers that flow continuously.”

The Comoros government has meanwhile announced it also intends to take part in reforestation efforts.

“We will do everything we can to save what little forest we have left,” said the environment minister.

(with AFP)

New Caledonia is once again at a political turning point.

The Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) voted on 9 August to reject outright the Bougival agreement – a French plan signed last month to give the territory its own nationality and some powers, but no new independence referendum, which had been hailed as a potential breakthrough.

The FLNKS is calling instead for a new “Kanaky agreement” and elections this November.

Valls will fly to the Pacific archipelago this week, tasked with navigating a fraught political landscape and seeking an opportunity to restart dialogue.

The agreement, signed in mid-July in the Bougival suburb of Paris, had been presented as a historic step for the Pacific territory.

It proposed the creation of a New Caledonian nationality and envisaged the transfer of key sovereign powers to the territory, including over currency, justice and policing.

New Caledonia independence bloc rejects deal giving powers but no referendum

It was also the first concrete move towards a fresh constitutional settlement after years of tension following the 1998 Nouméa Accord.

Under that deal, France had pledged to steadily hand more political power to New Caledonia and its indigenous Kanak people, setting the stage for two decades of greater self-government.

But after an internal review, the FLNKS rejected the Bougival deal, with Dominique Fochi, secretary-general of the Caledonian Union, saying it clashed with the “foundations and achievements” of their struggle for independence.

FLNKS president Christian Tein described the accord as rushed and “humiliating” for the Kanak people, claiming the negotiators in Paris had no proper mandate.

This rejection has left the Bougival text in limbo, as no settlement is possible without the FLNKS on board.

‘The door remains open’

Valls had already announced plans to visit New Caledonia during the week of 18 August prior to the FLNKS’s formal withdrawal from the deal. 

In a social media post, he called the Bougival accord “an extraordinary and historic opportunity” but stressed that his “door remains open” in terms of understanding the reasons behind its rejection.

The challenge for Valls will be to break a political deadlock.

Relations between pro and anti-independence camps had shown tentative improvement in recent months – evidenced by a rare handshake between Loyalist MP Nicolas Metzdorf and independence leader Emmanuel Tjibaou in Bougival – but that goodwill has now all but evaporated.

Independence party walks away from French deal on New Caledonia

Election demands

The independence movement has made its conditions for talks clear.

It wants provincial elections to be held in November 2025, arguing that fresh mandates are needed to establish the legitimacy of both camps.

These elections were originally scheduled for May 2024, but were postponed twice due to last year’s deadly riots.

The Bougival agreement would have delayed them further, to mid-2026 – a move Valls and New Caledonia’s loyalists support, but which the FLNKS rejects outright.

The independence coalition is also demanding a new “Kanaky agreement”, to be signed on New Caledonia Day this year – 24 September. This agreement which would set a roadmap for New Caledonia to achieve “full sovereignty” before France’s 2027 presidential election.

It also insists that talks be held under the supervision of Tein, despite his ongoing legal troubles related to his arrest in 2024, when he was accused of instigating violence during the riots.

Loyalist counter-measures

The Loyalists – the coalition against independence – meanwhile, are working to keep the Bougival process alive, even without the FLNKS.

They’ve proposed an editorial committee to draft a legal framework for the accord, as well as an ad-hoc technical group including any independence supporters still on board.

The aim is to maintain momentum and isolate FLNKS hardliners.

Metzdorf has highlighted that two moderate independence parties – Palika and the Progressive Union of Melanesia – have already left the FLNKS, reducing its breadth of representation.

The pro-French bloc argues that the Bougival agreement remains the best way to secure political stability, warning that FLNKS demands amount to “blackmail” and could trigger more violence.

French deal on New Caledonia ‘state’ hits early criticism

Legal backdrop

The Nouméa Accord – the 1998 deal governing New Caledonia’s gradual decolonisation – states that until a new agreement is reached, its provisions remain in place.

It states that provincial elections must be held every five years, with November 2025 the next deadline. This could bring the election timetable closer to the FLNKS’s preference, but without their preferred early sovereignty clause.

Macron meets New Caledonian leaders to discuss future after riots

The scars of the 2024 riots, sparked by changes to the electoral roll, remain on both sides. 

Loyalists fear a repeat if talks collapse again, particularly if hardliners ramp up street pressure.

While for their part, independence supporters argue that the Bougival agreement’s delays and partial transfer of power risk entrenching the status quo indefinitely.

“Do I think President Putin wants peace? If you want my honest opinion, no. He wants the capitulation of Ukraine, that’s what he proposed,” Macron said about Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who met with Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday.

Following a videoconference meeting with other European leaders Sunday to coordinate their position before the meeting in Washington Monday, Macron said that a “robust, lasting peace” would respect Ukraine’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”, while Trump appears to be seeking just an end to fighting between Russia and Ukraine.

Any possible peace agreement must include security guarantees for Ukraine Macron said, to deter Russia from attacking again, and pushing farther into Europe.

“The security of Europeans and France is at stake,” he said, speaking from his summer residence at Fort de Brégançon in south-east France.

Macron and other leaders will accompany Zelensky to “present a united front between Europeans and Ukrainians”, he said, and ask the United States “to what extent” they are prepared to contribute to the security guarantees for Ukraine.

Macron was cautious about a suggestion that the US could contribute to a security guarantee that resembles Nato’s defence mandate

Sunday evening, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff told US broadcaster CNN that the US “is potentially prepared to be able to give Article 5 security guarantees, but not from Nato – directly from the United States and other European countries.”

“I believe that a theoretical article is not enough,” said Macron. “The question is one of substance.”

(with AFP)

The images of chaos and panic when the Taliban swept back to power on 15 August, 2021 provoked shock and outrage around the world, as thousands rushed to Kabul airport, desperate to evacuate alongside citizens of Western nations.

Afghans raced across the tarmac, some clinging on to departing planes, others passing their young children over barbed wire fences, pleading to have them evacuated. Seven people were crushed to death in the stampede.

The Taliban had been forced from power when a United States-led coalition of forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to hunt down Osama Bin Laden, who was responsible for the 9/11 bombing of the World Trade Centre in 2001.

Bin Laden, a Saudi national, had been given shelter in Afghanistan.

But, after two decades of Western presence, with dwindling public support, former US president Joe Biden announced he would pull American troops out of the country by the end of August 2021.

Facing mounting attacks from militants, the US began evacuating its nationals, triggering similar moves among Western allies, including France.

The turn of events sent shockwaves throughout Afghanistan and threw into question the future of Western involvement there on logistical and diplomatic levels.

Vivid memories

The memory of the Taliban takeover and the sudden exit by Western countries is still vivid four years on, particularly for those involved in the dramatic evacuations at Kabul airport. 

Their stories have been brought to the screen by French film director Martin Bourboulon in 13 jours, 13 nuits (“13 days, 13 nights”), which was screened as part of the official selection at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

The film is based on the book 13 jours, 13 nuits dans l’enfer de Kabul (“13 days, 13 nights in the hell of Kabul”), in which Mohamed Bida tells of his experience as the head of security, responsible for evacuating the French embassy.

As the last Western embassy to remain open in the country in August 2021, France was unprepared for the last-minute rush of people who arrived at its headquarters in Kabul, seeking refuge.

France, US have a ‘moral duty’ to help those in danger to leave Afghanistan

“The gate weighed 20 tonnes and we would only open it a little bit to let a few authorised individuals through, one at a time,” Bida recalls.

When a nearby explosion caused panic, he saw people – mainly women and children – at risk of getting trampled as they pushed at the gate.

“I phoned the ambassador to warn him a tragedy was about to unfold on our doorstep and he ordered me to open the gate to prevent it. About 500 people came in, and we sheltered them in our gymnasium.”

‘Moral responsibility’

Bida’s eyewitness account also tells of having to negotiate with the Taliban for the safe passage of a convoy of buses carrying civilians from the embassy to the airport.

He says he didn’t write the book to be seen as “the hero”, but rather as an ordinary man faced with an extraordinary situation.

Director Martin Bourboulon agreed that the film needed to be “rooted in reality,” without any exaggeration or invention around the events.

“The film’s main strength is that it’s a tale of collective heroism, diplomatic courage and moral responsibility,” he told RFI, adding that the film crew consulted hundreds of testimonials to recreate the scenes.

The French military evacuation, Operation Apagan, lasted for two weeks and saw nearly 3,000 people flown through Middle Eastern airbases.

More than 200,000 people were evacuated by the US, in what Biden described as “the largest, most difficult airlifts in history”.

Gender apartheid

Despite the Taliban’s assurances of a more tolerant and open brand of rule upon their return, many Afghans feared a repeat of their initial stint in power from 1996-2001, which was infamous for the treatment of girls and women, as well as a brutal justice system.

Over the past four years, women have become increasingly isolated – removed from public life by the Taliban authorities, who have banned them from universities, public parks and gyms, in what the United Nations has called a “gender apartheid“.

Since September 2021, girls in Afghanistan have been barred from education beyond primary level. Women have also been pushed out of public sector jobs and are forbidden to work with foreign NGOs and the UN.

In July 2023, the Taliban ordered that all hair and beauty salons – a source of income for many women – be closed down.

Women must cover themselves from head to toe outside their homes and are barred from raising their voices in public, and from travelling without a male relative. They are forbidden to look directly at men they are not related to.

A window into the hidden lives of Afghan women cut off from society

Forced returns

The UN says the human rights situation in 2025 is worse than ever, and has been compounded by a growing problem – that of forced returns of exiled Afghans.

Millions of Afghans who fled the country throughout decades of successive wars are now facing hardened immigration measures from neighbouring countries.

Pakistan renewed a deportation drive in April, after first launching it in 2023. It has rescinded hundreds of thousands of residence permits for Afghans, threatening to arrest anyone who did not leave.

The government has labelled Afghans “terrorists and criminals”, but analysts say the expulsions are designed to pressure Taliban authorities to control militancy in the border regions.

More than 2.1 million Afghans have returned from Pakistan and Iran so far this year, according to the UN refugee agency, and many more are expected.

Their return is adding pressure in an economy already brought to its knees due to foreign aid cuts, and many have faced reprisals by the Taliban authorities.

In a report published in July, based on interviews with victims, the UN said that Taliban authorities were committing human rights violations against Afghans returned from Pakistan and Iran, including torture and arbitrary detention.

France evacuates Afghan women over fears of becoming targets for Taliban

It said violations had been committed against Afghans “based on their specific profile”, including women, media workers and members of civil society, as well as those affiliated with the former foreign-backed government that fell in 2021.

The Taliban government rejected the findings, accusing the UN of spreading “propaganda”.

“The people cited in this report may have been inaccurate, may be opposed to the system, or may want to spread propaganda or rumours and are therefore using the UNAMA for this purpose,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told French news agency AFP.

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, two Caucasian countries embroiled in a territorial conflict since the fall of the USSR, met Friday and signed a peace treaty under the watch of US President Donald Trump.

In Yerevan, however, few of the people asked by AFP were enthusiastic.

‘Acceptable’

“It’s a good thing that this document was signed because Armenia has no other choice,” said Asatur Srapyan, an 81-year-old retiree.

He believes Armenia hasn’t achieved much with this draft agreement, but it’s a step in the right direction.

“We are very few in number, we don’t have a powerful army, we don’t have a powerful ally behind us, unlike Azerbaijan,” he said. “This accord is a good opportunity for peace.”

Maro Huneyan, a 31-year-old aspiring diplomat, also considers the pact “acceptable”, provided it does not contradict her country’s constitution.

“If Azerbaijan respects all the agreements, it’s very important for us. But I’m not sure it will keep its promises and respect the points of the agreement,” she added.

Armenians warn ethnic cleansing risks being forgotten – again

‘Endless concessions’

But Anahit Eylasyan, 69, opposes the agreement and, more specifically, the plan to create a transit zone crossing Armenia to connect the Nakhchivan region to the rest of Azerbaijan.

“We are effectively losing control of our territory. It’s as if, in my own apartment, I had to ask a stranger if I could go from one room to another,” she explains.

She also hopes not to see Russia, an ally of Armenia despite recent tensions, expelled from the region.”

Anahit also criticises Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for “making decisions for everyone” and for his “endless concessions to Azerbaijan”.

“We got nothing in exchange, not our prisoners, nor our occupied lands, nothing. It’s just a piece of paper to us,” she fumes.

Shavarsh Hovhannisyan, a 68-year-old construction engineer, agrees, saying the agreement “is just an administrative formality that brings nothing to Armenia.”

“We can’t trust Azerbaijan,” Hovhannisyan asserted, while accusing Pashinyan of having “turned his back” on Russia and Iran.

“It’s more of a surrender document than a peace treaty, while Trump only thinks about his image, the Nobel Prize.”

Azerbaijan flexes its muscles amid rising tensions with Russia

‘More stability… in the short term’

According to President Trump, Armenia and Azerbaijan have committed “to stop all fighting forever; open up commerce, travel and diplomatic relations; and respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

For Olesya Vartanyan, an independent researcher specialising in the Caucasus, the Washington agreement “certainly brings greater stability and more guarantees for the months, if not years, to come.”

But given the long-lasting tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, “I fear that we will have to plan only for the very short term,” she said.

 (AFP)

The catastrophe in Gaza shows no sign of ending. Under relentless bombardment and gripped by hunger, the territory is close to collapse. Amid the devastation, humanitarian workers – most of them ordinary civilians – fight each day to stay alive.

RFI spoke with Riyad, a Palestinian from Gaza City and a member of the NGO Secours Islamique France (SIF), which provides emergency aid and long-term support in crisis zones.

RFI: What is the situation in Gaza City since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he was taking control?

Riyad: The little aid entering Gaza is nowhere near enough. Gaza City has nearly one million residents, most displaced to the west – crammed into just 10 to 15 percent of the city’s territory. The rest has been emptied, declared red zones, and is now under Israeli army control.

Since Netanyahu’s announcement, we have been bracing for a new evacuation order and another complete cut-off. We are looking for safe places, but even the Mawasi area (a narrow coastal strip in southern Gaza designated as a humanitarian zone) is already overcrowded. There is no more space. We hope for a solution, but we must prepare for the worst.

Macron warns Israel that Gaza occupation plan risks ‘war without end’

RFI: Tell us about the shortages of medicine, food and water?

Riyad: It is now harder to find medicine than food. Nothing reaches the hospitals, many of which have been destroyed. Medical centres are overwhelmed with the wounded and malnourished, from north to south. Doctors and nurses cannot treat everyone – there are shortages of medicines, equipment and even staff.

Food is also scarce since the closure of the truck crossings. The media talk about aid entering Gaza, but it is desperately insufficient. This is the worst humanitarian crisis in our history. Sometimes we go two days or more without eating. When aid does arrive, more than 90 percent is seized by desperate, hungry people. Many risk their lives to reach these deliveries, knowing they may never return.

My own family has never received aid. Food in markets is exorbitantly priced. Two weeks ago, I paid €50 for a kilo of flour. Sometimes we find tins of chickpeas – expensive, but better than nothing. People are dying from hunger and malnutrition: more than 200 so far, half of them children. There is no milk for babies, no vitamins, nothing that could save Gaza’s children.

Water is no better. The main supply line was bombed a month ago. Those with solar panels keep some neighbourhood wells running, but drinking water still comes from tanker trucks. Every day, we queue for over an hour with small tanks. This is our daily routine.

Israeli plan for Gaza takeover must be halted immediately: UN rights chief

RFI: Can SIF work on the ground in such conditions?

Riyad: Despite closures and soaring prices, our duty at SIF is to support the most vulnerable in Gaza, including the displaced. Fresh vegetables are scarce, but we try to harvest and distribute what we can. Two weeks ago, we managed to deliver nearly 5,000 parcels of vegetables and hot meals, plus a little rice – despite its high price. If more aid could enter, we would expand our work. We also sponsor almost 6,000 orphaned children across the Gaza Strip.

RFI: Are you free to do your work?

Riyad: The problems are constant – logistical, security and those imposed by the Israeli army. Some media do not report the reality. In the past two weeks, only 112 trucks entered Gaza, compared to 8,400 that were supposed to. Ninety percent of those were attacked and looted. None reached the official UNRWA or World Food Programme warehouses.

RFI: Do the people still have hope?

Riyad: Everyone here feels desperate because of the international silence. We appreciate speeches, but words are not enough. We need real pressure to end this war and this catastrophe. We are waiting for the international community to say stop to the massacre.  

Netanyahu’s decision shows he does not want to stop. People will be pushed further south, then expelled to other countries. This will destroy the Palestinian cause – and the population.

I feel destroyed inside, but I try not to show it. We have to be strong for our families and our community. We are fighting against suffering and death. It is a fight for life.

(Adaped from this interview in French by RFI’s Anne Bernas)

Earlier this month, the leaders of Italy, Turkey and Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) met in a tripartite summit – the latest sign of growing cooperation between the three Mediterranean nations.

“Turkey and Italy have both differing interests, but interests in Libya,” explains international relations professor Huseyin Bagcı of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

“Particularly, the migration issue and illegal human trafficking are big problems for Italy, and most of the people are coming from there [Libya], so they try to prevent the flow of migrants.

“But for Turkey, it’s more economic. And Libya is very much interested in keeping the relations with both countries.”

Turkey and Italy consider teaming up to seek new influence in Africa

Migration, legitimacy concerns

Turkey is the main backer of Libya’s GNA and still provides military assistance, which was decisive in defeating the rival eastern-based forces led by strongman Khalifa Haftar. An uneasy ceasefire holds between the two sides.

Libya security analyst Aya Burweilla said Turkey is seeking Italy’s support to legitimise the Tripoli government, as questions grow over its democratic record.

“What it means for the Tripoli regime is very positive. This is a regime that has dodged elections for years,” she says.

“Their job was to have democratic elections, and one of their ways to make sure they stay in power was to get foreign sponsors, like Turkey… Now, with this rubber stamp from Meloni in Italy, they can keep the status quo going at the expense of Libyans.”

Years of civil war and political chaos have turned Libya into a major hub for people smugglers. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, elected on a pledge to curb irregular migration, sees stability in Libya as key to that goal.

“The migration issue has become very, very urgent in general for Europe, but of course for Italy too,” says Alessia Chiriatti of the Institute of International Affairs, a think tank in Rome.

Trump and Erdogan grow closer as cooperation on Syria deepens

Mediterranean ambitions

Chiriatti said Meloni’s partnership with Turkey in Libya also reflects broader foreign policy goals.

“There is another dimension – I think it’s directly related to the fact that Italy and Meloni’s government want to play a different role in foreign policy in the Mediterranean space,” she says.

“Italy is starting to see Africa as a possible partner to invest in … But what is important is that Italy is starting to see itself as a new player, both in the Mediterranean space and in Africa, so in this sense, it could have important cooperation with Turkey.”

She points out that both Italy and Turkey share a colonial past in Libya. That legacy, combined with the lure of Libya’s vast energy reserves, continues to shape their diplomacy.

Ending the split between Libya’s rival governments is seen as vital for stability. Moscow’s reduced military support for Haftar, as it focuses on its war in Ukraine, is viewed in Ankara as an opening.

“Russia is nearly out, and what remains are Turkey and Italy,” says Bagcı.

He added that Ankara is making overtures to the eastern authorities through Haftar’s son Saddam, a senior figure in the Libyan military.

“The son of Haftar is coming very often to Ankara, making talks. It’s an indication of potential changes… But how the deal will look like I don’t know, we will see later. But it’s an indication of potential cooperation, definitely.”

Turkey steps into EU defence plans as bloc eyes independence from US

Shifting alliances

Libya was discussed when Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo on Saturday.

Sisi backs Haftar’s eastern government. Libya had been a source of tension between Turkey and Egypt, but with relations thawing, both say they will work together on the country’s future.

Turkey’s position in Libya is strengthening, says Burweilla.

“Saddam is pro-Turkey – there is a huge difference between son and father – and the younger generation is pro-Turkey,” she says.

Such support, Burweilla said, stems from Ankara allowing Libyans to seek sanctuary in Turkey from fighting in 2011, when NATO forces led by France and the United Kingdom militarily intervened against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

“I think the Europeans underestimated the political capital that gave Turkey. Turkey is winning the game in Libya,” Burweilla says.

She adds that Ankara’s rising influence is also due to a shift in tactics towards the east.

“What they [Ankara] realised was that you can’t conquer the east of Libya by force; they tried and they failed. And the Turkish regime is very much motivated by business… They don’t care about anything else, and they’ve realised they want to make a business,” Burweilla says.

They’ve reached out more to the east, and the east, in turn, has realised that if they don’t want to be attacked by Turkey and its mercenaries, they need to make peace with Turkey as well.”

The Clean Cookstove Initiative is focused on cutting wood fuel demand and reducing the health risks linked to smoke inhalation – particularly among women and children. It also aims to help curb climate change and protect forests.

The programme is targeting smallholder farmers and rural households in five regions: Western, Central, Ashanti, Eastern and Upper West. There are plans to extend it to more parts of the country.

The stoves are designed to use around 60 percent less wood than traditional models. They are being developed and distributed in partnership with Envirofit International, a US-based clean energy company.

The project is one of six climate mitigation schemes in Ghana backed by the KliK Foundation, a Swiss organisation that has pledged about $850 million in funding.

Cleaner cooking could save 4.7 million lives in Africa by 2040, IEA says

Community impact

So far, more than 180,000 families have taken part in the programme. Many have reported saving money on fuel and noticing fewer health problems linked to smoke.

Aminatu Hakim, a mother of six from Pullima near Tumu, in the Upper West Region, says the savings she has made from using the new stove have allowed her to reinvest in her small business. 

“I’ve invested the savings in my onion business,” she told RFI. “The proceeds are now supporting my family’s daily needs.”

She described the clean cookstove as fast, efficient and significantly less reliant on charcoal than traditional cooking methods.

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Dr Daniel Tutu Benefoh, head of Ghana’s Carbon Market Office, said the cleaner cookstoves would ease pressure on household budgets and improve public health. “The technology reduces smoke and toxic emissions in individual households by as much as 80 percent,” he said.

The government plans to distribute another 500,000 clean cookstoves over the next three years, with a continued focus on rural and underserved areas.

Across Africa, around four in five people still cook with polluting fuels such as firewood, charcoal and kerosene – often over open flames in poorly ventilated spaces.

The World Bank estimates that this leads to around 600,000 premature deaths each year, making dirty cooking a bigger killer on the continent than malaria.

For the past three weeks, Epping – a market town of 11,000, north-east of London – has found itself at the heart of Britain’s simmering immigration debate.

What began with the arrest of a 38-year-old Ethiopian asylum seeker, accused of attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl, has spiralled into protests across England, far-right mobilisation and mounting fears of wider unrest.

The man was reportedly charged with three counts of sexual assault, one count of inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity, and harassment without violence, sparking immediate local backlash.

Within hours, far-right activists surrounded the hotel where the man was being housed, demanding an end to migrant accommodation in the area.

Since then, similar protests have erupted at other hotels across England, and at least 18 people having been arrested and eight police officers injured in clashes between anti-immigration protesters and anti-racist groups.

The Labour government, wary of a repeat of the violent scenes of the summer of 2024, put 3,000 riot police on standby last weekend.

Far-right, anti-immigration protests and riots broke out across England and Northern Ireland following a mass stabbing at a Southport dance class on 29 July, 2024, in which three children were killed.

Is identity-based rhetoric fuelling anti-immigrant violence in Europe?

Policy under fire

Local frustration is fuelled by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s asylum housing policy, which places arrivals in hotels for months, sometimes years, at a cost of £8.5 million a day (just under €10 million).

“Enough is enough,” said Holly Whitbread, Conservative regional councillor for Epping, speaking to RFI. “We don’t know who these people are being housed here, and many residents don’t feel safe or protected. It’s frankly irresponsible of the government to continue to ignore us.”

Several councils are now demanding the closure of such hotels, while the Home Office has begun relocating some asylum seekers.

UK says first migrants held under return deal with France

UK-France migrant returns pact

The unrest comes as the UK has implemented a new “one in, one out” migrant returns deal with France, aimed at curbing small boat crossings on the English Channel.

Under the pilot scheme, ratified last week, undocumented arrivals will be sent back to France, in exchange for Britain accepting the same number of legitimate asylum seekers with family ties in the UK.

Starmer says the plan will help “smash the gangs” of people smugglers, with French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau echoing this, saying the “clear objective” is to dismantle trafficking networks. 

The protests come more than a week after Israel’s security cabinet approved plans to capture Gaza City, following 22 months of war that have created dire humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian territory.

The war was triggered by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, during which 251 people were taken hostage.

Forty-nine captives remain in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

A huge Israeli flag covered with portraits of the remaining captives was unfurled in Tel Aviv’s so-called Hostage Square — which has long been a focal point for protests throughout the war.

Demonstrators also blocked roads, including the highway connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem where they set tires on fire, according to local media footage.

Israeli police said more than 30 protesters were arrested for disturbing public order.

Organisers also called for a general strike on Sunday — the first day of the week in Israel.

France condemns israel’s west bank settlement plan as serious breach of international law

“I think it’s time to end the war. It’s time to release all of the hostages. And it’s time to help Israel recover and move towards a more stable Middle East,” said Doron Wilfand, a 54-year-old tour guide, at a rally in Jerusalem.

Nentanyahu slammed the protesters, saying their actions “not only harden Hamas’s position and draw out the release of our hostages, but also ensure that the horrors of 7 October will reoccur”.

‘Shut down the country’

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group said in a statement that protesters would “shut down the country today (Sunday) with one clear call: Bring back the 50 hostages, end the war”.

Their toll includes a soldier killed in a 2014 war whose remains are held by Hamas.

Recent videos released by Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad showing two weak and emaciated captives have heightened concern for the fate of the hostages.

“If we don’t bring them back now — we will lose them forever,” the forum said.

Egypt said in recent days mediators were leading a renewed push to secure a 60-day truce that would include hostage release, after the last round of talks in Qatar had ended without a breakthrough.

Some Israeli government members who oppose any deal with Hamas slammed Sunday’s demonstrations.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich decried “a perverse and harmful campaign that plays into the hands of Hamas” and calls for “surrender”.

Culture Minister Miki Zohar, of Netanyahu’s Likud party, said on X that blocking roads and disrupting daily life was “a reward to the enemy”.

Benny Gantz, an opposition leader, condemned the government “attacking the families of the hostages” while “bearing responsibility for the captivity of their children by Hamas for nearly two years”.

AFPTV footage showed protesters at a rally in Beeri, a kibbutz near the Gaza border that was one of the hardest-hit communities in the Hamas attack, and Israeli media reported protests in numerous locations across the country.

Famine warnings

The Israeli plans to expand the war into Gaza City and nearby refugee camps have sparked an international outcry as well as domestic opposition.

Israel’s Army Radio reported on Sunday that military chief Eyal Zamir was due to review the “plans to conquer Gaza City” in a meeting later in the day.

Defining famine: the complex process behind Gaza’s hunger crisis

According to the report, residents would be evacuated before troops encircle the city and finally seize it, beginning “in the coming weeks”.

Tens of thousands of reserve soldiers would be called up for the mission, the report added.

Israel on Saturday said it was preparing “to move the population from combat zones to the southern Gaza Strip for their protection”.

UN-backed experts have warned of widespread famine unfolding in the territory, where Israel has drastically curtailed the amount of humanitarian aid it allows in.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire on Sunday killed at least seven Palestinians waiting to collect food aid near two sites.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 61,944 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza which the United Nations considers reliable.

(With newswires)

During the Paralympic Games last August and September, French Para athletes won 75 medals including 19 golds to register the best haul at the Paralympics since the 86 prizes harvested at the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney.

A delegation of Para athletes will go to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium aiming to emulate that flourish of medals gathered in front of adoring partisans at venues around Paris.

However, at the Handisport Open de Paris (HOP) in June, one of the last major meetings before New Delhi, Timothée Adolphe, a silver medallist in Paris in the 100m T11 for visually impaired athletes, sounded a warning.

Though the 35-year-old won the race in 11.30 seconds, a problem with the starting block at the Stade Charléty in southern Paris, caused his guide, Charles Renard, to slip.

“Eight months ago, we had the Paralympic Games and everything was new for the Games,” Adolphe told RFI. “But now we’re back to amateurism.

“We could have set a great time,” Adolphe rued after registering his best performance of the season.

“Frankly, I’m disgusted. The blocks on the warm-up track are almost better than those on the competition track.”

Disappointment since Paralympics

The lament resounds into the nooks and crannies of the French sporting landscape. In January, the Prime Minister, François Bayrou, announced that the sport budget would be slashed from €1.7 billion to €1.4bn, as part of general cutbacks in public spending.

As France’s sports budget faces cuts, are Olympic promises being broken?

A petition signed by 400 leading athletes hit out at the plans. In a statement to sports newspaper L’Equipe President Emmanuel Macron said that he agreed with the athletes.

“Since 2017, I have ensured that the sports budget has increased every year,” he added. ‘We must keep our commitments and provide the necessary resources for our athletes so that the legacy of the Games benefits everyone.”

Change of tack

In June, the government came under further attack when it announced changes to the Pass Sport scheme, established in 2021 under Macron’s aegis to help children from low-income families join sports clubs. 

Nearly 1.7 million youngsters between six and 17 were benefitting from the €50 payment when Sports Minister Marie Barsacq outlined the amendments.

Under the new system, which is set to start in September, only young people aged 14 to 17 whose families receive the means-tested ARS back-to-school allowance, will receive €70.

How exoskeleton suits are breaking barriers for athletes with disabilities

Children and teenagers between six and 19 with disabilities, whose guardians get the AEEH disabled child education allowance will also be able eligible for the €70, as will young people aged 16 to 30 who receive the AAH disabled adult allowance.

Students under the age of 28 who receive CROUS university scholarships and bursaries will also be allowed to claim the cash.

“At the age of 14, nearly one in five secondary school students does not participate in regular sports activities, mainly due to cost constraints,” said Barsacq. “Pass Sport is an essential tool for overcoming this obstacle.”

All levels feel pinch

Cost is also hitting athletes at the higher level, said veteran long jumper Dimitri Pavadé.

The 35-year-old, who has been competing for France for nearly a decade, said that it is becoming increasingly difficult to benefit from training camps.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this before,” the 2020 Paralympics silver medallist told RFI.

“There are young people coming in who are forced to pay the full price for their training camp even though they don’t necessarily have any financial support, they’re students and are just starting to work. It’s very complicated.”

But with less money coming in from the government and firms cutting back on their marketing and sponsorship budgets, sports administrators face a battle to support talented individuals.

Arnaud Litou, Paralympic performance manager at the National Sports Agency, told RFI: “For athletes with medal potential, we are committed to ensuring a minimum annual income of €40,000 gross per year, which requires us to seek out partners or use state funds to ensure that this threshold is reached.

“That’s the whole process we have to go through to get there, where we have to support athletes according to their level of practice and their needs as well.””

Paralympics legacy spurs push for inclusive sports in Paris

The private sector has to play its part too, Gaël Rivière, boss of the French Handisport Federation told RFI.

“They will find it worth their while,” added the 35-year-old who took over last December from Guislaine Westelynck after featuring in the squad that won gold in the blind football at the 2024 Paralympics.

“What we say in general terms is that Para sport conveys values and messages. There are many wonderful stories to tell and support.

“We continue to appeal to our partners, telling them: ‘Don’t stop the efforts, thinking that you can come back a year or two before the Games.

“If we want to reap the rewards of our work tomorrow, we have to start now.”

The Team Visma – Lease a Bike rider suggested one Tour was enough this year after putting herself through a gruelling training regime to prepare for the nine-stage race.

Her sacrifices paid off in front of home fans. The 33-year-old, who had faced criticism over her lean frame, dominated the final two days to claim the race on 3 August and confirm her place as one of the biggest stars of her generation.

A year after winning Olympic gold in mountain biking and a few months after taking the Paris–Roubaix, she claimed cycling’s most prestigious women’s road race at her first attempt. She became the first Frenchwoman to win the reconfigured event since it replaced the Tour de France féminine in 2022.

“I want to fight again to win it,”  Ferrand-Prévôt told reporters during a victory celebration reception at the Team Visma – Lease a Bike headquarters in Den Bosch, in the Netherlands.

Ruling out the world championships in Kigali on 27 September – the first to be held in Africa – she said: “I had to make a smart decision. 

“I also wanted to enjoy the post-tour success. If I had wanted to be in Rwanda, I would already have started preparing for it and would already be at altitude.

“But in fact, I also need to take a break, to enjoy myself so that I can be better in the years to come. It’s important to savour the moment and start preparing a little later.”

Relaxed and tanned after a holiday with family and friends, Ferrand-Prévot said she will return to competition on 30 August in Morbihan in Brittany at the Classic Lorient Agglomération.

She plans to race the six stages of the Tour de l’Ardèche from 10 September before targeting the European road championships in Drôme–Ardèche between 1 and 5 October.

National pride at Tour de France

Frenchwoman Maeva Squiban took the sixth and seventh stage of the 2025 race to send the locals wild as Kimberley Le Court Pienaar from Mauritius wore the yellow jersey of the overall race leader.

But in the mountains of south-eastern France, it turned into the Ferrand-Prévot show. 

She outwitted her rivals during the 111.9km course between Chambéry Saint-François Longchamp and Col de la Madeleine to win a stage for the first time and take the yellow jersey with a two-and-a half minute lead over Sarah Gigante.

There were no slip-ups in the dénouemont. She displayed dash and panache between Praz-sur-Arly and Châtel to cross the finish line unchallenged and enter French cycling legend.

In the afterglow of her success, Ferrand-Prévot was asked to talk to her younger self.

Time to talk

“I want to tell her that you need to believe in your dreams,” she said. “You need to work hard to make it happen – you don’t get things for free in life.

“When you work hard, it pays off. Even when you have doubts and low moments, you need to persevere and keep going. That’s what I’d say.”

After retiring from mountain biking, Ferrand-Prévot returned to road racing this season with the aim of winning the Tour de France within three years and she lost weight as part of the plan to realise her goal.

During the celebrations in Den Bosch, she again tackled the controversy over her weight. “We have chefs, we have everything,” she told journalists.

“It’s our job to be the best possible for that day. Everyone can think what they want, and everyone is able to speak loud and say what they want to say. For me, I don’t feel like I’m sick. I just prepared for the biggest race of the calendar in the best way possible.

“It’s up to the parents to educate kids and to explain. We are professional athletes, so it’s our job to be the best possible. You have to find a way to do that. The last two days of the tour were very difficult and the watts per kilogram were very important.”

Eleven years ago, Ferrand-Prévot won the road race at the world championships in Ponferrada in Spain. A world title in the mixed mountain bike relay followed.

In 2015, she amassed world titles in cyclo-cross and mountain bike cross-country to become the first cyclist to hold world crowns in all three disciplines simultaneously.

Ten years on, This year, she became the first woman to win both the Paris-Roubaix and the women’s Tour de France in the same season.

A first European championships crown would simply add another page to her legend.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit gets underway in Antananarivo on Sunday, with Madagascar taking the bloc’s rotating presidency for the first time.

Leaders from 16 countries will set the course for the region’s future, discussing how to boost trade from within and cut dependence on outside partners.

The theme this year is clear: remove barriers, move goods faster and keep more value at home.

Opening the SADC Council of Ministers on Tuesday, executive secretary Elias Magosi said the region is being squeezed by higher customs tariffs, shrinking aid and political unrest abroad.

“It is becoming increasingly evident that we are more likely to succeed when we depend more on our own resources than on external support over which we have absolutely no control,” he said.

“To achieve this, we must strengthen intra-regional trade, remove trade barriers and invest in essential infrastructure.”

Southern African bloc decides to end military mission in DRC

Building up manufacturing

SADC wants manufacturing to make up 30 percent of its GDP by 2030, nearly triple today’s 11 percent. The aim is to build an economy that can keep going when the global market stumbles.

Madagascar’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rafaravavitafika Rasata – who chairs the Council of Ministers – said all member states need to be part of the plan.

“By combining the maritime, economic, environmental and cultural potential of the islands with the resources and agricultural and industrial power of the continental member states, we can build the autonomous and competitive SADC we want,” she said.

Southern African forces set to deploy in eastern DRC to quell M23 rebel militia

Political tensions

The summit comes at a time of political strain in Madagascar. Former presidents Marc Ravalomanana and Hery Rajaonarimampianina have criticised holding the event in Antananarivo.

In a joint statement, they accused President Andry Rajoelina’s government of presiding over a worsening political and economic climate.

They cited alleged restrictions on peaceful protests, what they called the “llack of real independence” of the electoral commission, and a situation in which 80 percent of the population live below the poverty line.

They warned that pressing ahead without tackling these issues “would undermine the credibility of the SADC”.

Rajoelina rejected their accusations, saying his predecessors were trying to discourage SADC leaders from attending. He called the summit an historic opportunity for both Madagascar and the region as the island takes the bloc’s leadership for the first time.

Made by grilling fish from the mighty River Congo wrapped in a banana-leaf parcel with spices, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and chillies, liboke enjoys cult status across the central African country.

But liboke‘s inclusion in one of France’s top dictionaries has upset Congolese intellectuals, who say its compilers have failed to capture the full meaning of a word derived from the local Lingala language and closely associated with national identity.

The Petit Larousse dictionary – an encyclopaedic tome considered a foremost reference on the French language – announced in May it was including liboke in its 2026 edition.

Its definition: “a dish made from fish or meat, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked over charcoal.”

Tucking into a plate on the terrace in the city centre, civil servant Patrick Bewa said it was a “source of pride” that liboke had made it into the leading French dictionary.

“We love it, it’s really a typically African and Congolese meal,” he said. “With the smoky flavour which takes on the aroma of the leaf, it’s an inimitable taste. You have to taste it to believe it.”

But some scholars argue that the definition was compiled in Paris by the Academie Francaise (French Academy), the chief arbiter on matters pertaining to the French language, without doing justice to liboke‘s original meanings.

Bridging the French and English languages with Cotgrave’s dictionary

‘United and undivided’

Referring only to liboke as food is “very reductive”, argued Moise Edimo Lumbidi, a cultural promoter and teacher of Lingala, one of scores of languages spoken in the DRC where French remains the official language.

Under dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, whose rise to power was helped by former colonial master Belgium and whose kleptocratic rule was backed by the United States as a bulwark against Cold War communism, liboke was even part of the national slogan.

“Tolingi Zaire liboke moko, lisanga moko,” was a rallying cry, meaning: “We want a united and undivided Zaire”, the former name for the DRC during Mobutu’s 32 years in power.

“I’m not happy about restricting this precious word, so essential to our culture… liboke moko, it’s above all that communion, that national unity,” writer and former international cooperation minister Pepin Guillaume Manjolo told AFP.

From Goma to Cape Town, the young Congolese athlete pedalling for peace

“Limiting it to its culinary aspects may be all very well for the French, but for us it will not do.”

The Petit Larousse should have drawn up the definition by consulting the literary academies of the DRC and its neighbour the Republic of Congo, as the region where the word originated, he said.

AFP contacted the publishers of the Petit Larousse dictionary for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Edimo, the language teacher, explained that in Lingala, liboke means “a little group”.

While liboke‘s inclusion in the dictionary is a good thing, Edimo said, Larousse’s compilers should “deepen their research so as to give us the true etymology of the word”.

That would be “a way for them to express their respect for our culture”, he added.

At her restaurant in Kinshasa’s upscale Gombe district, 41-year-old Mother Aembe was unaware of liboke‘s newfound literary status, but said she just hoped it would bring in more customers.

In a statement read on national television, Security Minister General Daoud Aly Mohammedine announced the arrests of what he described as a small group of marginal members of the Malian armed forces for criminal offences.

“Military personnel and civilians, with the help of foreign states, wanted to break up the rebuilding of Mali,” he said.

Mali’s ruling junta seized power in back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021. Since then, President Assimi Goita’s administration has distanced itself from Western partners, especially former colonial power France, and strengthened political and military ties with Russia in the name of national sovereignty.

The country has faced a security crisis since 2012, driven by violence from groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, along with local criminal gangs.

The Malian army and its Russian allies have been tasked with fighting these armed groups, but are regularly accused of abuses against civilians.

‘Arrest of two generals’

The junta confirmed the arrests of two generals – Néma Sagara and Abbas Dembélé. Dembélé, formerly in command in northern Mali, was later appointed governor of the central Mopti region before being dismissed recently without official explanation.

Sagara, a brigadier general in the air force staff, is one of the few women in the Malian army to have reached that rank.

On Tuesday, Mali’s civilian former prime minister Choguel Maiga and a number of his former colleagues were taken into custody as part of an investigation into claims of “misappropriation of public funds”.

Maiga, a former junta heavyweight, was appointed prime minister in 2021 before being dismissed at the end of last year after criticising the military government.

He had hit out at being excluded from decisions about the continued leadership of the generals, who had initially promised to hand power back to elected civilians in March 2024.

“Discussions are underway to clear up any misunderstanding” and obtain the “immediate release” of the French embassy employee in Bamako, the ministry said.

Mali authorities said Thursday that the French national had been arrested on suspicion of working for the French intelligence services, and accused “foreign states” of trying to destabilise the country.

The West African country’s ruling junta, which came to power after back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, also said that dozens of soldiers had been detained for allegedly seeking to overthrow the government.

Mali arrests French national and generals accused of foreign-backed plot

France’s foreign ministry said the arrested employee was covered by the Vienna convention on consular relations, meaning he should be released.

Impoverished Mali has been gripped by a security crisis since 2012, fuelled notably by violence from groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State jihadist group, as well as local criminal gangs.

The junta, led by President Assimi Goita, has turned away from Western partners, notably former colonial power France, to align itself politically and militarily with Russia in the name of national sovereignty.

(With newswires)

The French foreign ministry insisted the so-called E1 settlement, east of Jerusalem, threatens to cut the West Bank in two, undermining prospects for Palestinian statehood.

The French foreign ministry spokesperson said France “condemns with the utmost firmness” the project and reiterated calls for Israel to halt all settlement activity, which “systematically erode the viability of a Palestinian state.”\

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right figure, openly boasted that the construction would make a Palestinian state impossible. The plan, expected to receive final approval later this month, has been frozen for years amid international pressure but is now moving forward.

Former Israeli ambassador and French historian urge Macron to sanction Israel

The area is critical as one of the last geographic links between the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem; its development would force Palestinians to take long detours through numerous checkpoints, adding hours to travel.

France, along with many other countries, has strongly condemned the plans and warned the settlements contravene international law and jeopardise the prospects for peace.

The French government’s sharp criticism comes amid growing concerns over escalating tensions and violence in the West Bank and Gaza, where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to deepen. France remains a strong advocate for a two-state solution, warning that settlement expansion risks making that goal impossible and fuelling further unrest in the region.

(With newswires)

Sudan’s conflict has claimed more than 150,000 lives, displaced over 10 million people and left millions more trapped without aid as deliveries are blocked by both sides.

As al-Burhan and Boulos consider their next moves, Marchal told RFI that battlefield gains are unlikely to give either al-Burhan or Rapid Support Forces paramilitary leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – known as Hemedti – a decisive advantage at the negotiating table.

He says any talks must open humanitarian access and push for a political process that includes civilians, not just the rival generals.

RFI: What do we know about this plan for a comprehensive ceasefire that was reportedly proposed by the United States during their meeting?

RM: Firstly, discussions are taking place with only one of the two parties, with al-Burhan. We do not know whether other discussions are taking place in parallel or will take place with Hemedti.

What we think we know is that American diplomacy is trying to facilitate humanitarian access and that there is work to be done on both sides.

In other words, humanitarian access is being hampered by both the RSF and the Sudanese army. And so this is undoubtedly of crucial importance in the discussions on facilitating the removal of a whole series of pseudo-bureaucratic obstacles to allow aid to reach where it needs to go.

UN urges action on Sudan’s ‘forgotten war’ as humanitarian crisis takes hold

The second problem is obviously what kind of ceasefire and political revival can take place.

The information we have about the meeting does not shed any light on this. We know that al-Burhan will undoubtedly advocate for the total exclusion of the RSF and that is probably the professional judgment of all those who have been closest to him. But it is certain that in confidential discussions, al-Burhan may outline a path that has not yet been taken.

RFI: And why did al-Burhan agree to meet the Americans this time? Could this be explained by the advances made by Sudanese forces on the ground?

RM: Yes and no. Yes, the Sudanese government is no longer in the weak position it was in a year ago. But on the other hand, there is growing criticism of al-Burhan.

There are sanctions because apparently chemical weapons have been used by the Sudanese army against the population, and also because, at least from a military point of view, we are well aware that on both sides, there has been an escalation in the technology being used and that it will take more than just military superiority to resolve this conflict.

And then there is also concern that al-Burhan may be aware that it is difficult to control the militias within his own troops, so this may also be a good time for him to try to score diplomatic points by emphasising how much evidence there is against the RSF regarding the killing of civilians and massacres.

RFI: But aren’t there any concessions that could be demanded of al-Burhan, such as his departure or the establishment of a civilian government? 

RM: We don’t really know what expertise the American envoy claims to have. So we don’t know if these are high-level discussions or whether the American special envoy has an extremely precise view of the forces involved. It’s important to remember that there are civilian forces that opposed Omar al-Bashir in 2019, and also civilian forces that aspire to govern, that aspire to change.

Could al-Bashir profit from South Sudan’s ceasefire?

So the question is whether the Americans will ultimately settle for negotiations with the two armed parties, or whether they will go much further towards a genuine civilian transitional regime that may or may not include figures close to the two parties currently in conflict. 

RFI: With these discussions, can we hope that humanitarian aid will flow more freely in Sudan, and more specifically to El Fasher?

RM: On the Sudanese government side, things are at the same time simple as there is an authority and a chain of command. It is also more complicated because there is also the army’s chain of command. But there are also many militias on the roads, with their own checkpoints.

It is a truly Kafkaesque process to obtain all the authorisations for the UN to leave Port Sudan, where humanitarian aid arrives, in order to reach places that are, it should be remembered, controlled by the government in some cases, and in other cases by forces more sympathetic to the RSF. 

And in this case, there is very strong opposition. The US special envoy may find ways and arguments to convince al-Burhan to act a little more decisively, to enforce the chain of command, since the government claims to be in charge.

This will undoubtedly be much more complicated from the point of view of the RSF, insofar as, although there is the image of a central command, there is still a very weak chain of command, which means that the militias on the ground can set up checkpoints and do not care about papers, even if they are signed by Hemedti or his second in command.

(This interwiew has been adapted from the original version in French and lightly edited for clarity.

Prime Minister François Bayrou first touted the idea during the announcement of his 2026 budget plan on 15 July.

Bayrou said that France had to borrow each month to pay pensions and salaries of civil servants, a state of affairs he called “a curse with no way out”.

By cutting two public holidays – Easter Monday and 8 May, Victory in Europe Day – from a list of 11, France could save €4.2 billion next year, he added.

This corresponds to just under 10 percent of the €43.8bn in savings he wants to achieve in the 2026 budget.

So far, the government has proposed to make €21bn in savings for 2026 through reductions in state, local and social spending, with another €7bn expected from freezing social benefits and income tax brackets.

French PM unveils radical plan to tackle ‘deadly danger’ of national debt

September deadline 

The measure to remove public holidays has sparked a clash between workers and bosses over work-life balance, wages and how to respond to the government’s austerity drive.

Bayrou has given unions and employers groups until 30 September to find a consensus. While he said he was open to other options on the choice of days, he stressed that he will not hesitate to act if talks fail.

In a letter addressed to unions and employers groups last Friday, Bayrou said that companies would pay the state part of their earnings generated from these two days. This figure has yet to be announced.

French PM turns to YouTube to sell budget cuts and calm public anger

Unions have reacted angrily, saying they won’t negotiate on holidays just to boost company profits.

Denis Gravouil, a leaders of the CGT union, told RFI that the government has given them no room for negotiation on this point.

“We do not want the abolition of public holidays which would only serve to increase the profits of certain companies and to make public employees work two more days,” he said.

Michel Picon, of the Union of Local Businesses (U2P), said that smaller companies may be penalised by the measure.

“These two working days will not automatically bring businesses more profitability or more turnover,” he told Franceinfo, adding the measure risks “causing chaos in the country”.

Some sectors which are highly dependent on public holidays, such as tourism, could also be affected by lower activity linked to the cancellation.

The summer France got its first paid leave and learned to holiday

“Easter Monday is one of the days with the highest consumption rate in our country,” Cyril Chabanier, president of the CFTC union, told BFM-TV.

According to him, there would be “losses in terms of VAT” on these days, a tax that brought in more than €200bn for the state in 2024. “It will cause a lot of noise for very little revenue.”

Employers’ groups are more open to the idea, with the Paris CPME saying they could even consider cutting up to three public holidays to boost productivity – “as long as the measure doesn’t create direct conflict between workers and managers,” its president Bernard Cohen-Haddad told RFI.

Solidarity Day

This would not be the first time France has converted a public holiday into a revenue-generating measure.

Pentecost Monday, or Whit Monday, now known as “Solidarity Day“, was put in place after the deadly heatwave in 2003.

Employees work this one day a year without being paid and in return, companies pay 0.3 percent of their annual gross payroll to finance social security to benefit the elderly and people with disabilities.

Although it began as a fixed day, usually in June, from 2008 the government allowed companies more flexibility to choose another date on the calendar.

In 2025, the Solidarity Day contribution represents approximately €2.5bn, €2.1bn of that from the private sector.

Defence spending

After years of overspending, France is on notice to bring its public deficit back under control, as required under European Union rules.

Bayrou said the government aims to bring the deficit down to 4.6 percent next year, from an estimated 5.4 percent this year, and would reach the target of below 3 percent required by the EU by 2029.

France has ‘one of the worst deficits’ in its history, minister says

Meanwhile, France’s debt currently stands at 114 percent of GDP, compared to the 60 percent allowed under EU rules – the third-largest in the bloc after Greece and Italy.

Despite government savings across the board, France’s defence budget is expected to increase in the coming years. President Emmanuel Macron has said defence spending will rise from €50.5bn in 2025 by €3.5bn in 2026, and then by a further €3bn in 2027.

(with newswires)

Local authorities in Montpellier have urged residents to seek out cooler places such as community centres for the elderly, swimming pools, museums, and administrative buildings to escape the intense heat.

This marks the second major heatwave of the summer in France and the 51st since 1947, events that experts say are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change.

Residents are adapting as best they can. In Montpellier, 80-year-old retiree Marie Couture opens her windows early in the morning to bring in cooler air and is considering installing air conditioning after advice from her family.

Meanwhile, 78-year-old Annie Hugot in Nîmes opts for a simple bucket of ice in front of a fan to manage the heat, citing environmental and economic concerns about air conditioning.

The heatwave is worsening fire risks across southern and central France, especially in the Aude, Vaucluse, and Drôme regions, where red alerts are in place for fire danger.

Around 330 firefighters remain deployed tackling a major fire in the Aude that has consumed 16,000 hectares and is not yet contained. Due to these conditions, mountain access in Vaucluse has been restricted, and popular tourist sites like Pic Saint-Loup near Montpellier are closed.

In addition to heat, the Bouches-du-Rhône region faces high ozone pollution levels, leading to continued road traffic restrictions in Marseille.

France registers a record 480 excess deaths during early summer heatwave

Meanwhile, thunderstorms are expected over parts of eastern France and southern Corsica on Saturday, offering some relief in those areas.

The heatwave is projected to ease from the north and west by Sunday and Monday, aided by incoming storms that should bring cooler temperatures and potentially end this prolonged spell of intense heat.

Across Europe, Spain is also enduring a 14th consecutive day of extreme heat, with forecasts warning of fire risks and multiple active wildfires in the region. Recent fires in Spain and Portugal have claimed several lives, underscoring the harsh impact of these soaring temperatures exacerbated by climate change.

(With newswires)

After an abrupt ending to three hours of talks with aides, Trump and Putin offered warm words but took no questions from reporters — highly unusual for the media-savvy US president.

“We’re not there yet, but we’ve made progress. There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Trump said.

He called the meeting “extremely productive” with “many points” agreed, although he did not offer specifics.

“There are just a very few that are left, some are not that significant, one is probably the most significant,” Trump said without elaborating.

Putin also spoke in general terms of cooperation in a joint press appearance that lasted just 12 minutes.

Trump and Putin to meet for Ukraine war talks where ‘Ice Curtain’ once fell

“We hope that the understanding we have reached will… pave the way for peace in Ukraine,” Putin said.

As Trump mused about a second meeting, Putin smiled and said in English: “Next time in Moscow.”

The former KGB agent quickly tried to flatter Trump, who has voiced admiration for the Russian leader in the past.

Putin told Trump he agreed with him that the Ukraine war, which Putin ordered, would not have happened if Trump were president instead of Joe Biden.

Trump for his part again complained of a “hoax” that Russia intervened to help him the 2016 election — a finding backed by US intelligence.

Before the summit, Trump had warned of “severe consequences” if Russia did not accept a ceasefire.

But when asked about those consequences during a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity after the talks, Trump said that “because of what happened today, I think I don’t have to think about that now.”

Putin warns Western allies

The friendly reception contrasted with Trump’s berating of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when he met him at the White House in February.

Trump earlier said he sought a three-way meeting with Zelensky but did not announce one at the summit.

Trump said he would now consult Zelensky as well as NATO leaders, who have voiced unease about the US leader’s outreach to Putin.

“Now it’s really up to President Zelensky to get it done,” Trump said in the Fox News interview after the summit.

 Putin warned Ukraine and European countries to “not create any obstacles” and not “make attempts to disrupt this emerging progress through provocation or behind-the-scenes intrigues.”

Trump invited Putin just a week ago and ensured there was some carefully choreographed drama for their first in-person meeting since 2019.

The two leaders arrived in their respective presidential jets and descended on the tarmac of an air base, with Trump clapping as Putin appeared.

US military might was on display with a B-2 stealth bomber flying overhead, as a reporter shouted audibly to Putin, “Will you stop killing civilians?”

Putin, undaunted, grinned widely as Trump took the unusual step of escorting him into “The Beast,” the secure US presidential limousine, before a meeting in a room before a screen that said — in English only — “Pursuing Peace.”

Putin smiled and joked with Russian reporters on the visit, a landmark for a leader who is facing an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court related to the Ukraine war, which has killed tens of thousands of people.

Battlefield gains

Russia in recent days has made battlefield gains that could strengthen Putin’s hand in any ceasefire negotiations, although Ukraine announced as Putin was flying in that it had retaken several villages.

Trump had insisted he would be firm with Putin, after coming under heated criticism for appearing cowed during a 2018 summit in Helsinki.

While he was traveling to Alaska, the White House announced that Trump had scrapped a plan to see Putin alone and he instead held the talks alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his roving envoy Steve Witkoff.

Zelensky was not included and has refused pressure from Trump to surrender territory seized by Russia.

“It is time to end the war, and the necessary steps must be taken by Russia. We are counting on America,” Zelensky said in a social media post.

(With newsagencies)  

In Gaza City, where al-Shifa is located, none of the public hospitals are fully operational. While some are still offering limited services, they are overwhelmed.

Only half of hospitals in the Gaza Strip as a whole, and just over a third of its primary health care centres, are functioning – and only partially.

More than half of essential medicines are out of stock, and infections are treated without antibiotics and surgeries performed without anaesthesia.

Bed occupancy rates have soared to 240 percent at al-Shifa and 300 percent at al-Ahli hospital in the north of the enclave.

According to al-Shifa’s director, Dr Mohamad Abu Sulmeyeh, three children currently at the hospital with paralysis are at risk of dying.

In Gaza as a whole, 55,000 pregnant women are suffering from malnutrition, and heart patients have no treatment options. Gastroenteritis cases too are soaring.

Hunger, disease and no escape: Gaza aid worker’s account of life under siege

Health supplies blocked

United Nations experts have describe the targeted dismantling of Gaza’s healthcare system as “medicide” and are urging the international community to intervene to allow humanitarian aid to enter the enclave.

“The overall health situation remains catastrophic,” Dr Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said during a press briefing.

“We must be able to deliver all essential medicines and medical equipment,” he said. “We want to build up reserves and we are hearing talk of more humanitarian supplies being allowed in – but this is not yet the case, or is happening at far too slow a pace.”

Peeperkorn described “cumbersome procedures” that block many essential health products from entering the enclave, and are the subject of constant negotiation with the Israeli authorities

NGOs accuse Israel of ‘weaponising’ aid to Gaza as France readies airdrop

Malnutrition has escalated to crisis level. As of 5 August, 148 people – many of them children – had died from its effects this year.

Nearly 12,000 children under five were identified as suffering acute malnutrition in July, the highest monthly figure yet recorded, according to the WHO. This number includes 2,562 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, 40 of whom were hospitalised in stabilisation centres.

The war has taken a heavy toll on health workers too, with more than 1,500 Palestinian medical staff killed in Gaza since May. They go to work each day not knowing whether they will be able to return to their families in the evening.

Many others have been “abducted, detained in Israeli prisons, and even tortured” and are now “starving like the rest of the population”, the UN said in its statement.

Macron warns Israel that Gaza occupation plan risks ‘war without end’

Occupation fears

This crisis is unfolding as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signalled his intent to maintain long-term security control after the war – a position that reopens old wounds.

Two decades ago, Israel dismantled 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and withdrew its troops, a move then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon framed as a step towards peace.

But the unilateral withdrawal, carried out without coordination with the Palestinian Authority, strengthened Hamas politically and did not end Israel’s control over Gaza’s borders, airspace and economy.

For many Palestinians, the “disengagement” brought hope that soon evaporated. Hamas’s takeover in 2007 led to an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that choked movement and trade.

Now, after nearly two years of war, Israeli forces control more than 75 percent of Gaza and fears of direct Israeli occupation are returning.

Meanwhile, in al-Shifa’s overcrowded wards, food for patients is in short supply and ambulances face long delays navigating streets obstructed by rubble and military checkpoints.

This article was adapted from this story by RFI’s French service.

Negotiators from 185 countries went through the night Thursday in a bid to find common ground between nations, but they failed to come up with a deal.

Some countries wanted bolder action such as curbing plastic production, while oil-producing states wanted any treaty to focus more narrowly on waste management.

French Minister for Ecological Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher expressed her “disappointment” and “anger” on Friday at the end of the summit in Geneva.

“A handful of countries, driven by short-term financial interests and not by the health of their populations and the sustainability of their economies, have blocked the adoption of an ambitious treaty against plastic pollution,” she said in a statement.

She blamed the lack of progress on a handful of fossil-fuel producing countries, notably Gulf nations, but she also accused the United States of not having been “helpful” in the negotiations.

Pannier-Runacher said lessons would need to be learned so that negotiations could resume.

UN talks on plastic pollution treaty end without a deal

Wake-up call

The reaction from environmental groups such as Greepeace was more scathing, saying that the failure to reach a deal should be a “wake-up call for the world”.

Graham Forbes, Greenpeace head of delegation to the Global Plastics Treaty representing the US, said the time for hesitation was over and that the future of the planet was in jeopardy.

“The call from all of civil society is clear: we need a strong, legally binding treaty that cuts plastic production, protects human health, provides robust and equitable financing, and ends the plastic pollution from extraction to disposal,” he said.

“And world leaders must listen. The future of our health and planet depends on it.”

David Azoulay, representing the Centre for International Environmental Law at the summit, called the lack of consensus “an abject failure”, adding that some countries came with the objective to “block any attempt at advancing a viable treaty”.

Toxic convenience: what science tells us about plastic’s hidden costs

In his statment, issued on Friday, he said the whole structure of negotiations needed to be overhauled to avoid future pitfalls.

“It’s impossible to find a common ground between those who are interested in protecting the status quo and the majority who are looking for a functional treaty that can be strengthened over time.”

Azoulay suggested that countries that wanted a treaty “must now leave this process and form a treaty of the willing” with options for voting.

“The world does not need more plastic. The people know it, doctors know it, scientists know it, and the markets know it. The movement to end plastic pollution goes beyond just the treaty, and it does not end here,” he said.

The World Wide Fund for Nature said the talks exposed how consensus decision-making “had now “outplayed its role in international environmental negotiations”.

Red lines

Countries voiced anger and despair as the talks unravelled, but said they wanted future negotiations – despite six rounds of UN talks over three years now having failed to find agreement.

Talks chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso said the session had merely been adjourned rather than ended.

He told French news agency AFP that countries and the secretariat “will be working to try to find a date and also a place” for resuming the talks.

The negotiations were hosted by the UN Environment Programme.

Land pollution is drowning the oceans in plastic, French experts warn

UNEP chief Inger Andersen told AFP that the Geneva talks had fleshed out the deeper details of where countries’ red lines were.

“They’ve exchanged on these red lines amongst one another – that’s a very important step,” she said.

The plastic pollution problem is so ubiquitous that microplastics have been found on the highest mountain peaks, in the deepest ocean trench and scattered throughout almost every part of the human body.

On current trends, annual production of fossil-fuel-based plastics will nearly triple by 2060 to 1.2 billion tonnes, while waste will exceed one billion tonnes, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear three different versions of a song requested by Jayanta Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India.

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

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” by Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Frank Wilson, Berry Gordy, in three versions: Brenda Holloway, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Alton Ellis.

The ePOP video competition is open!

The ePOP video competition is sponsored by the RFI department “Planète Radio”, whose mission is to give a voice to the voiceless. ePOP focuses on the environment and how climate change has affected “ordinary” people.

The ePOP contest is your space to ensure these voices are heard.

How do you do it?

With a three-minute ePOP video. It should be pure testimony, captured by your lens: the spoken word reigns supreme. No tricks, no music, no text on the screen. Just the raw authenticity of an encounter, in horizontal format (16:9). An ePOP film is a razor-sharp look at humanity that challenges, moves, and enlightens.

From June 12 to September 12, 2025, ePOP invites you to reach out, open your eyes, and create a unique bridge between a person and the world.

Join the ePOP community and make reality vibrate!

Click here for all the information you need.

We expect to be overwhelmed with entries from the English speakers!

Earlier this month, the leaders of Italy, Turkey and Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) met in a tripartite summit – the latest sign of growing cooperation between the three Mediterranean nations.

“Turkey and Italy have both differing interests, but interests in Libya,” explains international relations professor Huseyin Bagcı of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

“Particularly, the migration issue and illegal human trafficking are big problems for Italy, and most of the people are coming from there [Libya], so they try to prevent the flow of migrants.

“But for Turkey, it’s more economic. And Libya is very much interested in keeping the relations with both countries.”

Turkey and Italy consider teaming up to seek new influence in Africa

Migration, legitimacy concerns

Turkey is the main backer of Libya’s GNA and still provides military assistance, which was decisive in defeating the rival eastern-based forces led by strongman Khalifa Haftar. An uneasy ceasefire holds between the two sides.

Libya security analyst Aya Burweilla said Turkey is seeking Italy’s support to legitimise the Tripoli government, as questions grow over its democratic record.

“What it means for the Tripoli regime is very positive. This is a regime that has dodged elections for years,” she says.

“Their job was to have democratic elections, and one of their ways to make sure they stay in power was to get foreign sponsors, like Turkey… Now, with this rubber stamp from Meloni in Italy, they can keep the status quo going at the expense of Libyans.”

Years of civil war and political chaos have turned Libya into a major hub for people smugglers. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, elected on a pledge to curb irregular migration, sees stability in Libya as key to that goal.

“The migration issue has become very, very urgent in general for Europe, but of course for Italy too,” says Alessia Chiriatti of the Institute of International Affairs, a think tank in Rome.

Trump and Erdogan grow closer as cooperation on Syria deepens

Mediterranean ambitions

Chiriatti said Meloni’s partnership with Turkey in Libya also reflects broader foreign policy goals.

“There is another dimension – I think it’s directly related to the fact that Italy and Meloni’s government want to play a different role in foreign policy in the Mediterranean space,” she says.

“Italy is starting to see Africa as a possible partner to invest in … But what is important is that Italy is starting to see itself as a new player, both in the Mediterranean space and in Africa, so in this sense, it could have important cooperation with Turkey.”

She points out that both Italy and Turkey share a colonial past in Libya. That legacy, combined with the lure of Libya’s vast energy reserves, continues to shape their diplomacy.

Ending the split between Libya’s rival governments is seen as vital for stability. Moscow’s reduced military support for Haftar, as it focuses on its war in Ukraine, is viewed in Ankara as an opening.

“Russia is nearly out, and what remains are Turkey and Italy,” says Bagcı.

He added that Ankara is making overtures to the eastern authorities through Haftar’s son Saddam, a senior figure in the Libyan military.

“The son of Haftar is coming very often to Ankara, making talks. It’s an indication of potential changes… But how the deal will look like I don’t know, we will see later. But it’s an indication of potential cooperation, definitely.”

Turkey steps into EU defence plans as bloc eyes independence from US

Shifting alliances

Libya was discussed when Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo on Saturday.

Sisi backs Haftar’s eastern government. Libya had been a source of tension between Turkey and Egypt, but with relations thawing, both say they will work together on the country’s future.

Turkey’s position in Libya is strengthening, says Burweilla.

“Saddam is pro-Turkey – there is a huge difference between son and father – and the younger generation is pro-Turkey,” she says.

Such support, Burweilla said, stems from Ankara allowing Libyans to seek sanctuary in Turkey from fighting in 2011, when NATO forces led by France and the United Kingdom militarily intervened against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

“I think the Europeans underestimated the political capital that gave Turkey. Turkey is winning the game in Libya,” Burweilla says.

She adds that Ankara’s rising influence is also due to a shift in tactics towards the east.

“What they [Ankara] realised was that you can’t conquer the east of Libya by force; they tried and they failed. And the Turkish regime is very much motivated by business… They don’t care about anything else, and they’ve realised they want to make a business,” Burweilla says.

They’ve reached out more to the east, and the east, in turn, has realised that if they don’t want to be attacked by Turkey and its mercenaries, they need to make peace with Turkey as well.”

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear musical requests from your fellow listeners Hossen Abed Ali from Rangpur, Bangladesh and a composition written by SB Leprof from Winneba, Ghana.

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

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Epitaph” by Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald, Greg Lake and Michael Giles, to lyrics by Peter Sinfield, performed by King Crimson, and “Ginger Milk” by SB Leprof.

The ePOP video competition is open!

The ePOP video competition is sponsored by the RFI department “Planète Radio”, whose mission is to give a voice to the voiceless. ePOP focuses on the environment and how climate change has affected “ordinary” people.

The ePOP contest is your space to ensure these voices are heard.

How do you do it?

With a three-minute ePOP video. It should be pure testimony, captured by your lens: the spoken word reigns supreme. No tricks, no music, no text on the screen. Just the raw authenticity of an encounter, in horizontal format (16:9). An ePOP film is a razor-sharp look at humanity that challenges, moves, and enlightens.

From June 12 to September 12, 2025, ePOP invites you to reach out, open your eyes, and create a unique bridge between a person and the world.

Join the ePOP community and make reality vibrate!

Click here for all the information you need.

We expect to be overwhelmed with entries from the English speakers!

“I am going to make a new deadline of about 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump declared at a press conference on 28 July during his visit to Scotland.

“There is no reason to wait 50 days. I wanted to be generous, but we don’t see any progress being made.” 

The American president admitted his efforts to end the Ukraine war had failed and that his patience with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was at an end.

Turkish President Erdogan ready to rekindle friendship with Trump

Trump later confirmed 8 August as the date for the new measures. With US-Russian trade down 90 percent since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Trump warned that other countries importing Russian goods would also be hit by secondary sanctions.

“If you take his [Trump] promises at face value, then he should look at all countries that import any Russian commodities that is of primary importance to the Russian budget – this includes, of course, crude oil, and here you have China and India mostly,” explained George Voloshin of Acams, a global organisation dedicated to anti-financial crime, training and education.

Voloshin also claims that Turkey could be a target as well. “In terms of petroleum products, Turkey is one of the big importers. It also refines Russian petroleum in its own refineries,” Voloshin added.

“Turkey imports lots of Russian gas through the TurkStream pipeline. Turkey is very much dependent on Russian gas and Russian petroleum products.”

Turkey’s rivalry with Iran shifts as US threats create unlikely common ground

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ankara insists it is only bound by United Nations sanctions.

Last year, Turkey was Russia’s third-largest export market, with Russian natural gas accounting for more than  40 percent of its energy needs.

Putin has used Turkey’s lack of meaningful domestic energy reserves and dependence on Russian gas to develop a close relationship with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

“Putin knows that no matter what Trump wants, Turkey is not going to act in any military or sanctions capacity against Russia and Iran. You know, these are Turkey’s red lines. We can’t do it,” said analyst Atilla Yeşilada of Global Source Partners.

“Trump is 10,000 miles away. These people are our neighbours,” added Yeşilada. “So Putin doesn’t think of Turkey as a threat, but as an economic opportunity, and perhaps as a way to do things with the West that he doesn’t want to do directly.”

Ankara is performing a delicate balancing act. While maintaining trading ties with Russia, Erdoğan remains a strong supporter of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Turkey is a major arms seller to Ukraine, while at the same time, Erdoğan continues to try and broker peace between the warring parties.

Last month, Istanbul was the venue for Russian–Ukrainian talks for the second time in as many months. Such efforts drew the praise of Trump.

Trump and Erdogan grow closer as cooperation on Syria deepens

Trump’s pressure mounts on energy and trade

The American president has made no secret of his liking for Erdoğan, even calling him a friend. Such close ties, along with Turkey’s regional importance to Washington, analysts say, is a factor in Ankara’s Western allies turning a blind eye to its ongoing trade with Russia.

“I think Turkey has got a pass on several levels from Russian sanctions,” observed regional expert Sinan Ciddi of the Washington-based think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

However, Ciddi cautions that Trump remains unpredictable and that previous actions are no guarantee for the future.

“Past experience is not an indicator of future happenings. We just don’t know what Trump will demand. This is not a fully predictive administration in Washington,” Ciddi said.

“We do know right now that he [Trump] is very unhappy with Putin. He blames Putin for prolonging the Ukraine war,” added Ciddi.

Change of stance

“And if he feels sufficiently upset, there is a possibility that no waivers will be granted to any country. Turkey will be up against a very, very unappetising and unenviable set of choices to make.”

Trump has successfully lobbied the European Union to increase its purchases of American liquefied natural gas (LNG), replacing Russian imports. Similar demands could put Ankara in a difficult position.

“If Trump pressures Turkey not to buy Russian natural gas, that would definitely be a huge shock,” warned Yeşilada.

“Trump might say, for instance: ‘Buy energy from me or whatever.’ But I don’t think we’re there yet. There is no way Turkey can replace Russian gas.”

However, Trump could point to Turkey’s recent expansion of its LNG facilities, which now include five terminals and have excess capacity to cover Russian imports, although storage facilities remain a challenge.

Turkey’s energy infrastructure is also built around receiving Russian energy, and any shift to American energy would likely be hugely disruptive and expensive, at a time when the Turkish economy is in crisis.

Putin retains another energy card over Erdoğan. A Russian company is building a huge nuclear power plant in Turkey, which could account for 20 percent of the country’s energy needs.

Ciddi argues Erdoğan is now paying the price of over-relying on Russia.

Turkey’s Erdogan sees new Trump presidency as opportunity

“There is no need to have resorted to making Ankara this dependent on natural gas, nuclear energy, or for that matter bilateral trade. This was a choice by Erdoğan,” said Ciddi.

“The fact it is so dependent on so many levels in an almost unique way is something that Turkey will have to rethink.”

But for now, Erdoğan will likely be relying on his expertise in diplomatic balancing acts, along with his close ties to Trump and Turkey’s importance to Washington’s regional goals, to once again escape the worst of any sanctions over Russian trade – although Trump may yet extract a price for such a concession.

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 ePOP video competition is open!

The ePOP video competition is sponsored by the RFI department “Planète Radio”, whose mission is to give a voice to the voiceless. ePOP focuses on the environment and how climate change has affected “ordinary” people.

The ePOP contest is your space to ensure these voices are heard. 

How do you do it?

With a three-minute ePOP video. It should be pure testimony, captured by your lens: the spoken word reigns supreme. No tricks, no music, no text on the screen. Just the raw authenticity of an encounter, in horizontal format (16:9). An ePOP film is a razor-sharp look at humanity that challenges, moves, and enlightens.

From June 12 to September 12, 2025, ePOP invites you to reach out, open your eyes, and create that unique bridge between a person and the world.

Join the ePOP community and make reality vibrate!

Click here for all the information you need. 

We expect to be overwhelmed with entries from the English speakers!

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” and 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. 

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!

This week’s quiz: On 5 July, I asked you a question about an article written by RFI English journalist Amanda Morrow: “Ocean campaigners hail French move to snuff out cigarette butt pollution”. In her article, we learned that cigarette ends, or butts, are filled with microplastics and that when they break apart, they leach chemicals into soil and water.

France has banned smoking on beaches, in public parks, and at bus stops, as well as near schools, libraries, swimming pools, and sports grounds.

You were to re-read Amanda’s article and send in the answer to this question: How many liters of water can a single cigarette butt contaminate?

The answer is, to quote Amanda’s article: “According to the French Ministry of Ecological Transition, a single cigarette butt can contaminate up to 500 liters of water.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by long-time RFI Listeners Club member Nasyr Muhammad from Katsina State, Nigeria: “What is your favorite prize you’ve received from RFI, and why?”

Do you have a bonus question idea? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Kanwar Sandhu from British Columbia in Canada, who is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations on your double win, Kanwar.

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Karobi Hazarika, a member of the United RFI Listeners Club in Assam, India, and RFI Listeners Club member Mahfuzur Rahman from Cumilla, Bangladesh. Last but not least, there are two RFI English listeners from Bangladesh: Laila Shantu Akhter from Naogaon and Labanna Lata from Munshiganj.

Congratulations, winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: The piano sonata in B flat, K.529, by Domenico Scarlatti, played by Ivo Pogorelich; the “Trout” Quintet in A major, D. 667, by Franz Schubert, performed by the Endes Quartet with pianist Rolf Reinhardt; “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 a medley in honor of Ozzy Osbourne, arranged by Vincent Pora Dallongeville:

“Paranoid”, by Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward;

“Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads, and Bob Daisley;

“No More Tears” by Ozzy Osbourne, Zak Wylde, Randy Castillo, Mike Inez, and John Purdell;

“Bark at the Moon” by Ozzy Osbourne, Jake E. Lee, and Bob Daisley.

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 “UN gathers to advance two-state solution to Israel-Palestine conflict”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 6 October to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 11 October 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.   

In a highly publicised move, Azerbaijani security forces in Baku recently paraded seven arrested Russian journalists – working for the Russian state-funded Sputnik news agency – in front of the media. Their detentions followed the deaths last month of two Azerbaijani nationals in Russian custody, which sparked public outrage in Baku.

“That was quite shocking for Baku, for Azerbaijani society – the cruelty of the behaviour and the large-scale violence,” Zaur Gasimov of the German Academic Exchange Service, a professor and expert on Azerbaijani-Russian relations told RFI.

“And the Russian-wide persecution of the leaders of Azerbaijani diasporic organisations took place (this month),” he added.

Tit-for-tat tactics

Tensions between Russia and Azerbaijan have been simmering since December, when Russian air defences accidentally downed an Azerbaijani passenger aircraft. Baku strongly condemned Moscow’s lack of an official apology.

The deaths in custody, which Moscow insisted were from natural causes, and the broader crackdown on Azerbaijan’s diaspora are being interpreted in Baku as deliberate signals.

“This kind of news had to frighten Azerbaijani society, which is aware of the fact that around two million ethnic Azeris with Azerbaijani and Russian passports are living in the Russian Federation,” explained Gasimov. “So the signal is that we can oust them, and they would come to Azerbaijan. That should be an economic threat.”

Gasimov noted that while Baku may have previously backed down in the face of Russian pressure, this time appears different. “The reaction of Azerbaijan was just to react, with tit-for-tat tactics,” he said.

Shifting power in Caucasus

Baku’s self-confidence is partly attributed to its military success in 2020, when it regained control over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region and adjacent territories from Armenian forces after a six-week war.

“The South Caucasus is changing,” noted Farid Shafiyev, Chairman of the Baku-based Centre for Analysis of International Relations.

Shafiyev argues that the era of Moscow treating the region as its backyard is over. “Russia cannot just grasp and accept this change because of its imperial arrogance; it demands subordination, and that has changed for a number of reasons. First of all, due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, and second, due to the trajectory of events following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The third very important factor is Turkey,” added Shafiyev.

Turkey, a long-standing ally of Azerbaijan, has significantly increased military cooperation and arms sales in recent years.

Turkish-made drones played a key role in Azerbaijan’s 2020 military campaign. In 2021, the Shusha Declaration was signed, committing both nations to mutual military support in the event of aggression. Turkey also plans to establish one of its largest overseas military bases in Azerbaijan.

“A very strong relationship with Ankara, marked by strong cooperation in the economic and military fields for decades, as also outlined in the Shusha Declaration several years ago, is an asset and one of the elements of Azerbaijan’s growing self-confidence,” said Gasimov.

Azerbaijan and Turkey build bridges amid declining influence of Iran

Strategic rivalries 

Turkey’s expanding influence in the South Caucasus – at Russia’s expense – is the latest in a series of regional rivalries between the two powers. Turkish-backed forces countered a Russian-aligned warlord in Libya, and Turkey-supported factions have contested Russian influence in Syria.

These confrontations have strained the once-close ties between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“No doubt that the Putin-Erdogan relationship is not as good as it used to be because we’ve either instigated or become participants in events in the South Caucasus and Syria,” said analyst Atilla Yeşilada of Global Source Partners.

Growing military buildup in Azerbaijan and Armenia a concern for peace talks

Nevertheless, Yesilada believes pragmatism will prevail – for now – given Turkey’s dependence on Russian energy and trade.

“The economic interests are so huge, there is a huge chasm between not being too friendly and being antagonistic. I don’t think we’ve got to that point. If we did, there would be serious provocations in Turkey,” he warned.

Until now, Turkish and Russian leaders have largely managed to compartmentalise their differences.

However, that approach may soon face its toughest test yet, as Azerbaijan remains a strategic priority for Turkey, while Russia has long considered the Caucasus to be within its traditional sphere of influence.

“We don’t know what will be Russia’s next target. We cannot exclude that Russia might be quite assertive in the South Caucasus in the future,” warned Shafiyev.

“I think the easiest way is to build friendly relationships and economic partnerships with the countries of the South Caucasus. Unfortunately, Moscow looks like it’s not ready for a partnership. But if it’s ready, we would welcome it,” he added.

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.