Maintaining a 35-year tradition which sees China’s top diplomat visit Africa on the first overseas trip of the year, Wang Yi – who is also a member of the all-powerful Standing Committee of China’s Communist Party – will this week visit Namibia, the Republic of the Congo, Chad and Nigeria. 

“This is a pillar of the relationship between China and Africa,” said Eric Olander, CEO of the China-Global South Project, an NGO which monitors China’s relations with the African continent. “It is surprising that other countries like the United States, France, the UK, and others have not emulated this tradition, because it’s so easy and it is so effective.”  

Currently, China is at loggerheads with the European Union. After Brussels imposed high tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, Beijing took measures to restrict the activities of foreign car makers in China, hitting EU car giants such as Volkswagen, which have massive joint-venture operations in the country.

• Beijing accuses EU of slapping unfair restrictions on Chinese firms

US tariffs

Beijing is also anxiously awaiting the upcoming second US presidency of Donald Trump.

The US has imposed 100 percent tariffs on some Chinese products, while Trump fulminates against US companies that have outsourced their operations to the country, criticising the massive China-US trade deficit and claiming repeatedly that China is “ripping off” the US. 

African relations may help ease China’s worries. “China’s relationship with Nigeria is pivotal,” says Olander. The latter competes with South Africa for the position of Africa’s biggest economy.

“Nigeria is a 200 million plus super-market, like Brazil and Indonesia,” Olander added. “They are going to be increasingly important for China as they get shut out of the US and Europe, as well as Japan and the G7 markets.”

Nuclear energy

Namibia too is interesting for China, as a source of uranium, which is essential to feeding China’s growing nuclear energy industry.

“China has made climate commitments, and it is going to be very difficult for them to meet those without nuclear energy,” explained Olander. 

Beijing’s Africa trips, however, are primarily based on continental geography, rather than targeting specific countries.

“If they went to the east last time, they will focus more on the west this time. There is always the idea to have a mix of large and small countries. They also make sure that they visit as many countries as possible over the course of the years. Chad hasn’t come up before, so they went there,” Olander told RFI. 

Political support

While the focus is off the multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative – a Chinese infrastructure project that aims to connect Asia, Africa and Europe through land and sea routes – due to China’s internal economic problems, over the past 10 years Beijing has looked more to Africa for political support, according to Olander. 

“Africa, more than any other region in the world, votes as a bloc in the United Nations,” he said. “African countries have been very enthusiastic supporters of China’s new alternative international governance architecture, the Global Civilization Initiative, the Global Defence Initiative and the Global Development Initiative.”

In addition, most African countries support China in major international forums such as the United Nations Human Rights Council. They have signed up alongside China on sensitive issues including the autonomous region of Xinjiang and disputes over the South China Sea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Tibet.

Mutual interest

“It is consistency, building up a long-term relationship, which is what the Chinese have always insisted on,” said Michael Dillon, a history professor affiliated with the Lau China Institute at King’s College London.

“The Africans don’t like people who come in and make promises and then go out again. They want people who are prepared to take the rough with the smooth and to accept that a long-term relationship is the only way of developing mutual interest.”

This is in contrast to the old model under colonial powers such as the UK and France. Wang’s visit includes former French colonies the Republic of Congo and Chad, with the Chinese targeting countries where they perceive the West is pulling out.

“France is having particular difficulty maintaining a presence” in Africa, said Dillon. “It is moving its military out of Chad. And [China is] looking to be targeting the Francophone African areas, and they will want to be able to push out European sales.”

• Chad orders French troops to leave within six weeks as relations sour

But China will not send its troops to Africa, unless it is under the auspices of the UN. During his visit, Wang Yi announced military aid to Nigeria, but this will not involve sending troops.

“You will never see Chinese troops replace French or American troops in the Sahel,” said Olander. “But first and foremost, we can expect a pretty robust diplomatic presence and engagement, the continuation of Chinese financial engagement with many of the West African countries.”

Beijing deftly handled the political transition in Guinea and Niger, while Western powers had issues with the new governments.

According to Olander: “The Chinese went in there and they said, we’re not interested in telling you what to do. We just want to make sure that our investments stay stable, and also that Chinese nationals in the country are not targeted for attack.

“And for the most part, the different junta leaders across the Sahel said, if you stay out of our business, we’ll stay out of yours. And that’s what’s happened. And it allowed the Chinese a certain level of continuity in the Sahel that the Europeans and the Americans have not had.”

Disruption versus stability 

Meanwhile, Russian influence has been growing in several African countries from which Western – predominantly French – forces are departing, with Russian state-funded private military company the Wagner Group taking a prominent position in their place.

But Western fears about a possible association between Russia and China in Africa are misplaced, according to Olander. 

“In many respects Russia is a disruptive power in Africa and elsewhere,” he said. “That does not benefit the Chinese in places like Africa. China prefers stability. China wants to do business and trade.”

“China does support Russia when it comes to challenging the Western-led international system,” Olander said, adding that Chinese interests are not served by the disruption caused by the Wagner Group or by Russian disinformation campaigns.

“Russia’s presence in Africa is quite minimal. Their main exports are oil and minerals. You’re not going to sell oil and minerals to Africa. Russia wants to sell nuclear power stations, weapons, but for the most part, Russian economic engagement is a mere fraction of [that of] the Chinese.”

• Former Wagner media operative lifts the lid on Russian disinformation in CAR

Algerian influencer “Doualemn” was arrested on Tuesday, 7 January in the southern French city of Montpellier, after posting a video on social media platform TikTok allegedly calling for violence against an Algerian anti-regime protester.

Doualemn was put on a plane to Algiers on Thursday afternoon, according to his lawyer Jean-Baptiste Mousset.

However, the French interior ministry said on Thursday evening that Algiers had “refused entry” to the 59-year-old, who is now in an administrative detention centre near Paris.

Three other influencers supportive of the Algerian authorities have also been arrested in recent days, over videos allegedly calling for violent acts in France.

Algerian social media influencers arrested in France for calling for violence

Paris and Algiers were already at loggerheads over the fate of French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who has been in detention since mid-November in Algeria, accused of “attacking territorial integrity”.

“Algeria is seeking to humiliate France,” Retailleau said on Friday. “Algeria is currently holidng a great writer – Boualem Sansal – who is not only Algerian but also French. Can a great country, a great people allow itself to keep in detention for the wrong reasons someone who is old and sick?”

On the matter of the influencers, Retailleau said it was “out of the question to give a free pass to these individuals who spread hatred and anti-Semitism,” adding that he believed France had reached an “extremely worrying threshold with Algeria”.

Algeria summons French ambassador over accusations of interference

Influencers in the crosshairs

French authorities accuse Doualemn of “calling for the torture of an opponent of the current regime in Algeria“. This led to the withdrawal of his French residence permit and his expulsion from the country, the Hérault department prefect said on Thursday.

His lawyer Mousset claims the French government “precipitated his expulsion” to prevent its examination by a judge. He denounced the expulsion as an exceptional measure used to “gag” his client, who was due to stand trial for the offence in Montpellier on 24 February.

The three other Algerians recently arrested over posting content online calling for violent acts, often against opponents of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s regime, include French-Algerian Sofia Benlemmane, who has more than 300,000 followers on TikTok and Facebook.

She was taken into custody on Thursday for “death threats and public incitement to hatred” as well as making insulting statements about France, according to police.

Diplomatic relations between France and its former colony Algeria have been strained in recent years, but worsened considerably in October when President Emmanuel Macron sided with Morocco over the long-disputed territory of Western Sahara, also claimed by Algeria.

One month ago, Cyclone Chido wreaked havoc on the French overseas territory of Mayotte, with 39 people confirmed dead and more than 5,000 injured in the most devastating cyclone to hit the island in 90 years.

Thousands of families were left homeless after high winds flattened the shanty towns where between 100,000 and 200,000 of the population of 300,000 lived – among them many undocumented migrants from neighbouring Comoros.

On Monday, volunteers in Marseille and Toulon were busy preparing donations to ship to Mayotte.

“We’re heading toward Toulon. We’re going to pick up food supplies,” said Naer Abdallah from the Ambre organisation.

“We’re currently loading water and milk. After that, we’ll load other food items like pasta, rice, canned goods and couscous.”

Cyclone-hit Mayotte reopens airport but displaced families remain in limbo

French PM Bayrou unveils ‘Mayotte standing’ reconstruction plan

With one truck already packed with more than 60 large boxes, Abdou Ouirdani, president of the Mahoran union of Toulon, said they were looking for a second truck to transport the remaining supplies.

“We’re going to try to find a second truck to fit everything in. We have a lot of food, a lot of clothing, but there’s everything, really. Toys, hygiene products, toothpaste… you name it,” Ouirdani said.

Donations have been steadily arriving in Toulon for weeks. Kassim, a volunteer, said the aid will continue for as long as necessary.

“The crisis won’t end today. If we need to organise donations once a month, we will. Mayotte’s reconstruction won’t happen overnight.”

At a warehouse in Marseille, volunteers are taking stock of the collected items.

“We have almost seven to eight tonnes of food, along with clothing and medical supplies,” Abdallah said.

The latest shipment of donations from Marseille and Toulon is set to leave for Mayotte on 24 January.

The FPOe won parliamentary elections in September for the first time ever, with almost 29 percent of the vote.

While other parties initially refused to form a cabinet with the FPOe, the conservative People’s Party (OeVP) reversed its position this week and agreed to negotiations.

The talks begin Friday, with the FPOe holding a strong bargaining position.

Fears for democracy

In Vienna, thousands gathered late Thursday to oppose the potential coalition. Protesters held signs reading “Fight fascism” and “Nazis out”.

Authorities estimated the crowd at 25,000, while organisers said it was closer to 50,000. Some demonstrators formed a human chain around the chancellery and shone their mobile phone lights at the building.

“I find it very dangerous to see that right-wing extremism has reached the centre of our society,” retiree Veronika told RFI, adding she worried about the normalisation of the far right.

“Nobody is ashamed anymore, people get used to it so quickly. I’m afraid for our democracy, I don’t want things to turn out like they did in Hungary.”

Hungary’s populist leader Viktor Orban has been criticised for rolling back democratic freedoms and aligning with Russia.

EU launches punitive measures against Hungary over ‘anti-democratic’ laws

The far right has been a member of Austria‘s government several times but has never led the country’s nine million inhabitants.

Student Ines is horrified by such a prospect.

“I believe many individual freedoms are under threat. It’s the case for people from the LGBTQ+ community, for anyone from an immigrant background, for women, but also for all disadvantaged social groups,” she said.

Racism towards black people is growing in Europe, report finds

Others underlined the radicality of FPOe leader Herbert Kickl, who has tapped into voter anxieties over migration, the war in Ukraine and the Covid pandemic. 

“Kickl spoke of keeping refugees in centres in a ‘concentrated’ way – it brings back one of the most terrible chapters in our history,” said Felix, another demonstrator.

“Someone who is prepared to polarise and provoke using words like that is prepared to do a lot of things.”

The rallies, which also took place in Innsbruck, Salzburg and Graz, were called by more than 30 organisations including anti-racism groups and Greenpeace.

The far right has had a strong presence in Austrian politics since the 1980s. In 2000, the FPOe, under Joerg Haider, joined a coalition government – a first in the European Union.

Today the party leads one regional government and participates in four others.

But just months after being created, it finds itself fighting two enemies – Russians across the battlefield and an internal scandal that has shocked the Ukrainian military establishment.

Kyiv has been rocked by reports that hundreds of troops deserted the unit – most before being sent into conflict and a handful while undergoing training in France.

The controversy is being seen as a snapshot of familiar issues that have plagued Ukraine‘s army since Russia invaded three years ago, and comes at a critical political and military juncture for Kyiv.

“Yes, there are problems, we are aware of them,” Land Forces Commander Mykhailo Drapaty said of the 155th Mechanised Brigade, the brigade’s official name, in comments to media including AFP during a press tour to the unit.

“There are problems and there have been problems with staffing, training, and partly with the command staff,” Drapaty said, referring to “the negative things that came out in the public domain”.

Russians who refuse to fight in Ukraine see hope of sanctuary in France

‘Unique’

French President Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of the Anne of Kyiv brigade – named after a Middle Ages Kyiv princess that married into the French royal family – during last year’s commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings.

Paris hailed it as a “unique” initiative and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he wanted to form a dozen other NATO-trained and equipped units.

But that image was shattered in December, when military blogger Yuri Butusov alleged that 1,700 of the brigade’s soldiers had deserted, including 50 while training in France.

Paris has confirmed that “several dozen” desertions took place during the training but called it a “marginal” phenomenon.

Butusov also said the unit suffered losses and “organisational chaos” in its first days of a deployment near Pokrovsk, a vital frontline city that Russian forces are trying to capture.

He alleged they had too few drones and that some artillery had been transferred to other units to plug equipment shortages.

The revelations were an embarrassing setback for the army, struggling to hold back Russia’s forces, and for Zelensky’s ambitions for deeper cooperation with NATO.

During a press tour to the brigade in early January – hastily organised by the army amid the scandal — commander Taras Maksimov appeared tense.

“Everything that is said in the media is false,” he claimed.

Speaking a few hours later, Drapaty, his superior, acknowledged the problems.

But they were not “on the scale” that had been alleged and he said the army was taking “measures” to ensure the Anne of Kyiv’s fighters were “ready to complete missions.”

France says Ukraine using missiles inside Russia an ‘option’ after US authorisation

‘Systemic’

Desertions and morale are sensitive topics for the Ukrainian army, facing manpower shortages and controversy around unpopular recruitment tactics.

Citing the State Bureau of Investigation, local media reported Thursday that more than 7,000 soldiers who left their units without authorisation had voluntarily returned.

Drapaty said the problems faced by the Anne of Kyiv brigade were “systemic for other brigades” in a military that has historically been plagued by corruption.

“This is not a secret,” he said.

Amid the Russian invasion, civilian officials have long complained of communication problems with the army, lamenting the style of Soviet-trained generals.

In November, Pavlo Palisa – a highly respected Ukrainian commander trained at a US military academy – was appointed deputy head of Zelensky’s cabinet, largely to help the presidency get first-hand real-time information from the front.

Analyst Franz-Stefan Gady told AFP such problems were a hangover of the Soviet system, with its “highly centralised command where decision-making power rests firmly and almost totally with high-ranking commanders, often far removed from the battlefield.”

Kyiv had been trying to bring its army up to NATO standards since Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and fomented civil war in the east with pro-Moscow separatists.

While a new generation of officers has been trained, the system itself has not been radically changed. Reports of corruption scandals and abuse of power by senior army officials are routine.

“The higher your rank is, the less the law applies to you,” soldier and influencer Valery Markous said in a recent video on social media.

Even commander Drapaty admitted that Ukraine’s soldiers are often “scared” of their superiors.

“The post-Soviet spirit must be eradicated,” he said.

Abou Sangaré won rave reviews as the lead actor in last year’s film L’Histoire de Souleymane (Souleymane’s Story) in which he played a food delivery cyclist in Paris who is preparing for an immigration interview.

He won the prize for best male performance in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, for a role that mirrored many of his own experiences as an undocumented migrant living in France.

After making three unsuccessful requests for work visas and being subject to a deportation order, he succeeded on Monday, 6 January in obtaining a one-year permit for the first time, according to his lawyer Claire Perinaud, having been offered a job as a mechanic.

“He will ask for renewals and will be able to move to longer-term visas at a later date,” she said.

‘I can’t wait to start working in the garage’

Sangaré told the newspaper Libération that he intended to take up the mechanic’s job, rather than pursue a career in film.

“There might be offers but I’m a mechanic, that’s my trade,” he said. “I can’t wait to start working in the garage.”

Despite having no acting experience, Sangaré was picked by director Boris Lojkine after he attended a casting call in his hometown of Amiens in northeast France, in between off-the-books jobs fixing cars and helping out at a local education charity.

The double life of Abou Sangaré, undocumented migrant and Cannes award winner

He left Guinea as a teenager, seeking to make enough money to pay for medical care for his mother, who has epilepsy.

His journey took him across the Sahara to Algeria and Libya, then across the Mediterranean in an inflatable boat to Italy and finally France.

“When we chose Sangaré to play the main role in the film, it was a big responsibility,” Lojkine said in October, when his film was released in France. “It’s only when he has his papers that I will [feel like I have] finished my film.”

(with AFP)

The milestone was confirmed by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), which said climate change is pushing the planet’s temperature to levels never before experienced by modern humans.

The planet’s average temperature in 2024 was 1.6 degrees Celsius higher than in 1850-1900, the “pre-industrial period” before humans began burning CO2-emitting fossil fuels on a large scale, C3S said.

This breaks the record set in 2023 by just over 0.1C.

Last year was the world’s hottest since records began, and each of the past ten years are now the ten warmest on record.

2024 ‘certain’ to be hottest year ever as emissions continue to drive climate change

Climate change impacts

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, world leaders promised to try to stop average temperatures exceeding 1.5C, to avoid more severe and costly climate disasters.

The first year above 1.5C does not breach that target, which measures the longer-term average temperature, but it does take the world a step closer to doing so as fossil fuel emissions continue to heat the atmosphere.

Paris agreement climate goals ‘in great peril’, warns UN

The impacts of climate change are now visible on every continent. 

Raging wildfires in California this week have killed at least five people and destroyed hundreds of homes. In 2024, Bolivia and Venezuela also suffered disastrous fires, while torrential floods hit Nepal, Sudan and Spain, and heatwaves in Mexico and Saudi Arabia killed thousands.

Climate change is worsening storms and torrential rainfall, because a hotter atmosphere can hold more water, leading to intense downpours. The amount of water vapour in the planet’s atmosphere reached a record high in 2024.

While the costs of such disasters are spiralling, political will to invest in curbing emissions has waned in some countries.

US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on 20 January, has called climate change a hoax, despite the global scientific consensus that it is human-caused and will have severe consequences if not addressed.

US scientists will also publish their 2024 climate data on Friday.

Trump attacks Paris climate agreement, cites France protests

(with Reuters)

Ponga was named on Wednesday, 8 January, following the collapse of New Caledonia’s first pro-independence government in December.

Like his predecessor Louis Mapou, Ponga is an indigenous Kanak. But unlike the majority of Kanaks, he’s also a French loyalist.

New Caledonia government falls, headache for Manuel Valls

Hailing from the Le Rassemblement party – which is affiliated to the French conservative party, Les Republicains – his political family is in favour of keeping New Caledonia within France. 

“What I feel above all is the weight of responsibility,” Ponga said on Wednesday, after receiving the support of six of the newly installed government’s 11 members.

“We all know the situation New Caledonia has been in for the past seven months,” he said, referring to the deadly riots that broke out in May 2024, following a deeply contested electoral reform increasing the number of French nationals eligible to vote.

“What Caledonians now expect is for us to be able to work together and give a signal of hope.”

Family heritage

Ponga, 49, comes from Kouaoua, a mining village in the north of the archipelago.

He was born into a prominent Kanak family – his mother served in local government and his uncle was an MEP. His grandparents were involved in fighting for Kanak rights, but supported remaining part of France.

He studied political science in mainland France and made a career in the nickel industry before going into politics in 2014 when he became mayor of Kaouaoua – the first non-independence candidate in a largely pro-independence region.

New Caledonia’s mining sector is in crisis, but remains the largest employer on the archipelago.

Key dates in New Caledonia’s history

Challenges ahead

Ponga is charged with trying to restore some political stability to the Pacific territory following the deadly violence that broke out in May.

The constitutional reform that sparked this unrest was viewed by many Kanaks – who make up just over 40 percent of the population – as a way for Paris to dilute their electoral clout, and threaten decades of work towards independence.

The legislation was abandoned following the dissolution of the National Assembly in June last year.

Deadly unrest in New Caledonia tied to old colonial wounds

During the violence, 13 people were killed – mainly Kanaks, along with two police officers – and almost 3,000 arrested. An estimated €2 billion of damage was caused.

Ponga faces major challenges in trying to get the archipelago’s economy back on track, and the health sector is also in crisis. Close to 40 percent of hospital beds have been lost, mainly due to staff departures, health professionals said on Thursday.

Oil exports make up 80 percent of Nigeria’s revenue, with current production at 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd), placing the country among the world’s largest oil producers.

The Niger Delta, where most of the country’s oil is extracted, has long been a hotspot for illegal refineries and theft, costing Nigeria millions each month.

Chief of defence staff General Christopher Musa said security forces have been relying on technology, in land and air operations, to monitor and protect the region.

“We have drones and helicopters that fly [over], [and] patrols that go on water,” Musa said.

The government has also been tackling illegal operations that, in 2022, cost an estimated $23 million per day, according to Nigeria’s Senate. Losses continued into 2023, with $1.43 billion reported in the first quarter alone.

The country suffers frequent blackouts due to load shedding – the interruption of the electricity supply to avoid excessive load on its electricity plants. 

“We have the challenge of energy security in Nigeria… We must increase electricity generation and distribution throughout the country,” President Bola Tinubu said in June 2024.

“As a nation, it is so shameful that we are still generating 4.5 gigawatts of electricity.”

Institutional criminality

“The issue of theft would have been far more successfully tackled decades ago, had so many people not been profiting from it,” said Jon Marks, editorial director of energy consultancy and news service African Energy.

He told RFI that criminality has become embedded in Nigeria’s regional and national politics, as well as its business world.

“Oil theft has become institutionalised, with gangs tapping into pipes and often exporting via small ships that offload to bigger ships. This has been achieved by local gangs becoming very powerful, but even more so by the connivance of local politicians and the military – who, in turn, have become very rich.”

He believes that nothing much has changed since a 2013 report by think tank Chatham House, carried out under Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency, which concluded that no concerted action against illegal oil operations could be expected soon.

Change within the military

“The big potential change under Tinubu – who desperately needs more formal revenue for an ailing economy – comes with changes within the army. He has appointed new top brass, more in tune with his thinking and factional alliances,” added Marks.

In June 2023, following a meeting with Tinubu, Asari Dokubo, Ijaw leader of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, declared that: “The military is at the centre of oil theft in Nigeria.”

Prominent Nigerian businessman Tony Elumelu, chairman of Heirs Holdings and a member of the Presidential Economic Coordination Council, has also chimed in, saying that the government should be able to tell Nigerians who is stealing the country’s crude oil. “Our security agencies should tell us who is stealing our oil. You bring vessels into our territorial waters, and we don’t know?”

Foreign interference

According to Marks, the authorities may be “looking the other way” because they are in on the deal. He also claims that the Russians too have become involved in the oil theft business.

“By providing more ships, the Russian shadow fleet and other players – who use unregistered carriers – transport illegally obtained crude oil offshore where bigger ships wait to pick it up,” he said.

Any action taken by Tinubu and the military chiefs he has recently appointed may be limited, Marks argued, by their concern not to upset existing power balances within Nigeria, where powerful factions would suffer from any disturbance to the oil theft business, and other sectors where reform is vital.

The ceremony took place outside the Hypercacher store at Porte de Vincennes where Yohan Cohen, Philippe Braham, Yoav Hattab and François-Michel Saada died on 9 January 2015.

The attacker, Amedy Coulibaly, was killed when police stormed the building to free hostages. Coulibaly was linked to the Kouachi brothers who killed 12 people at Charlie Hebdo magazine two days earlier.

Relatives and politicians lit 10 candles on a specially constructed altar to remember the victims, including teachers Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard, killed by extremists in 2020 and 2023.

Additional candles honoured victims of anti-Semitism in France, global terrorism and the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023.

Michel Gugenheim, the chief rabbi of Paris, read The Kaddish – the Jewish prayer for the dead. Rabbi Haïm Korsia and Christophe Le Sourt, of the conference of French bishops, followed with a prayer for the republic.

The 30-minute service was organised by the Crif, an umbrella group representing French Jewish institutions, and will be followed on Thursday night by a debate staged in tandem with Charlie Hebdo on freedom of expression, Islamism and anti-Semitism. 

Tributes honour victims a decade after Charlie Hebdo attack shook France

Ongoing cycle of anti-Semitism

Thursday’s commemoration ceremony was marred after Stars of David and the word “Jew” were found tagged on buildings near the store and at a local synagogue.

“We’re commemorating Islamist terror attacks of extreme gravity,” said Elie Korchia, head of the Consistoire Central des Israelites de France – the religious organisation of French Jewry.

“But we see that through these tags, insults, through the daily anti-Semitic acts … that the cycle of anti-Semitism has not ended,” he told RFI.

Anti-Semitic acts rose by 192 percent in early 2023 compared to 2022. Crif documented just over 1,670 incidents throughout 2023. The French ministry fighting discrimination reported 1,500 attacks in November 2024 alone.

Anti-Semitism in France ‘quadrupled’ on back of Israel-Hamas war

An editorial by French daily Liberation headlined “The solitude of France’s Jews” highlighted the vulnerability felt by the community in the wake of the rising number of attacks.

Korchia expressed particular concern about the rise in assaults following the Hamas attack on Israel.

“We cannot accept that in France we can be stigmatised simply because we are Jewish. Of course Jews in France feel isolated because we see these daily anti-Semitic acts continue and increase,” he said.

“It’s not enough to just be aware of this, we also have to reflect on what causes this increase in anti-Semitism in 2025 and fight against it in all its forms, including anti-Zionism.”

France steps up protection for Jewish sites after Hamas attack

The Tutsi-led rebels, active in North and South Kivu provinces, have seized key towns since April 2024 – allegedly with support from Rwandan forces, though Kigali denies involvement and says it is committed to a ceasefire and peace talks.

A report by the UN Security Council’s Group of Experts accuses M23 of setting up shadow administrations to explot strategic mines and trade routes.

“This constitutes the most important contamination of supply chains with ineligible minerals recorded in the Great Lakes region over the last decade,” they said in their report, released Wednesday.

The rebels are also accused of using forced labour to expand roads, and patrolling mining areas to make sure minerals were only sold to authorised Congolese and Rwandan traders.

The UN said M23 was financing its operations by exporting minerals from areas under its control, including coltan, a resource used in electronics like smartphones and computers.

It added that M23 had created a “mining ministry” to oversee coltan exports from Rubaya, home to one of the world’s largest deposits of the mineral.

“In this way, the militants collected at least $800,000 per month in taxes on coltan production and trade in Rubaya”, the report said.

The ongoing territorial expansion has continued despite agreed ceasefires, suggesting M23’s true aim is long-term occupation and exploitation of conquered areas, the UN experts added.

Macron urges Rwanda to end support for DRC M23 rebels, withdraw troops

A global issue

The UN report highlights concerns about how M23’s actions could affect global electronics manufacturers, which face pressure to ensure conflict-free supply chains.

Congo has filed criminal complaints against Apple subsidiaries in France and Belgium, accusing the tech firm of using conflict minerals in its supply chain.

Apple disputes the claims, saying it requires its suppliers to avoid sourcing from the region.

Conflict-mineral laws in the US and EU require companies to trace the origins of minerals from regions like eastern Congo. However, a 2022 Global Witness report said such regulations have failed to stop irregular trade.

Meanwhile the renewed violence has displaced more than 100,000 people in North Kivu since early 2025, reaching levels not seen in over a decade. This adds to the millions already displaced since M23’s resurgence in 2021.

DRC case against Apple brings new hope in conflict minerals crisis

Protests

Meanwhile, several hundred people demonstrated in Bukavu, South Kivu, on Wednesday to protest illegal mining in the country’s east, where authorities are investigating claims of widespread illicit Chinese involvement.

The gathering followed the announcement on Sunday of the arrest of three Chinese nationals found in possession of gold bars and large sums of cash, according to South Kivu Governor Jean-Jacques Purusi.

Local authorities in the resource-rich province say hundreds of mining companies, mainly Chinese, extract gold without declaring profits and often without valid operating permits.

“South Kivu minerals should serve the development and well-being of communities,” read one banner held aloft at the demonstration, called by pro-democracy movements and unions.

(with newswires)

“The speaker announces that the president is Joseph Aoun,” speaker Nabih Berri said, reporting that Aoun received 99 out of 128 votes after failing to get a required majority in a first round earlier in the day.

A source close to Hezbollah and ally Amal said representatives of the blocs met with Aoun after the first round.

The Mediterranean country has been without a president since the term of Michel Aoun – not related – ended in October 2022, with tensions between the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and its opponents scuppering a dozen previous votes.

But international pressure had mounted for a successful outcome with just 17 days remaining in a ceasefire to deploy Lebanese troops alongside UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon after a Hezbollah-Israel war last autumn.

Lebanon’s divided political elite usually agrees on a consensus candidate before any successful parliamentary vote is held.

US, Saudi and French envoys have visited Beirut to increase pressure in the run-up to the vote.

From protector to onlooker: how France lost its influence in Lebanon

Reduced powers

Aoun, who will turn 61 on Friday, was widely seen as the preferred pick of army backer the United States, as well as regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia.

In the commander’s home village of Aishiyeh in south Lebanon, residents had gathered from the morning in front of the church, adorned with several Lebanese flags and his portrait.

The president’s powers have been reduced since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war.

But filling the position was key to overseeing consultations towards naming a new prime minister to lead a government capable of carrying out reforms demanded by international creditors.

Under Lebanon’s constitution, any presidential candidate must have not held high office for at least two years.

Aoun faces daunting challenges, with the truce to oversee on the Israeli border and bomb-damaged neighbourhoods in the south, the east and the capital to rebuild.

Since 2019, Lebanon has been gripped by the worst financial crisis in its history.

The Hezbollah-Israel war has cost Lebanon more than $5 billion in economic losses, with structural damage amounting to billions more, according to the World Bank.

The Commerce Ministry launched the inquiry in July after the EU began looking into whether Chinese government subsidies were undermining European competition.

It said that the implementation of the EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) discriminated against Chinese businesses and constituted trade and investment barriers.

However, ministry officials did not mention whether Beijing planned to take action in response.

The EU and China are in dispute over several issues most notably over Beijing’s support for its renewables and electric-vehicle sectors.

EU actions against Chinese firms have come as the 27-nation bloc seeks to expand renewable energy use to meet its target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

But Brussels also wants to move away from what it views as an over-reliance on Chinese technology.

Complained filed

When announcing the probe, the ministry said its national chamber of commerce for importing and exporting machinery and electronics had filed a complaint against the FSR measures.

The 20-page document detailing the ministry’s conclusions said their selective enforcement had resulted in Chinese products being treated more unfavourably during the process of export to the EU than products from third countries.

It added that the FSR had vague criteria for investigating foreign subsidies and placed a severe burden on the targeted companies.

The ministry said EU measures such as surprise inspections exceeded the necessary limits, while investigators were subjective and arbitrary on issues such as market distortion.

It added that companies deemed not to have complied with the inquries of EU officials had also faced severe penalties.

Beijing has consistently denied that its industrial policies are unfair and has threatened to take action against the EU to protect the legal rights as well as the interests of Chinese companies.   

The ministry said FSR investigations had forced Chinese firms to abandon or curtail projects, causing losses of around 2 billion euros.

“The measures have damaged the competitiveness of Chinese enterprises and products in the EU market,” the ministry said. 

Extra tariffs

The EU’s first probe under the FSR in February targeted a subsidiary of Chinese rail giant CRRC, but closed after the company withdrew from a tender in Bulgaria to supply electric trains.

A second inquiry looked at Chinese-owned solar panel manufacturers seeking to build and operate a photovoltaic park in Romania, partly financed by European funds.

In October, Brussels imposed extra tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars after an anti-subsidy investigation under a different set of rules concluded Beijing’s state support was unfairly undercutting European automakers.

In response, Beijing announced provisional tariffs on brandy imported from the EU, and later imposed temporary anti-dumping measures on the liquor.

(with newswires)

Bathily was 24 and stacking shelves when gunman Amedy Coulibaly stormed the Hypercacher store at Porte de Vincennes on 9 January 2015, two days after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

The narrative of a Muslim saving Jews from a jihadist made him a strong symbol of fraternity in a traumatised France.

“I’m just a good, simple citizen who reacted at the right time,” Bathily told RFI, denying he’s a hero.

However, a decade on, he’s still “scarred” by what was the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in modern French history.

Huddled in a cold store

Bathily was winding up his shift in the late afternoon, unpacking frozen items in the basement, when he heard shots fired upstairs.

Coulibaly, who claimed to be working in the name of Islamic State, had shot dead three shoppers and taken 17 others hostage.

He threatened to kill them unless the Kouachi brothers – who had carried out the Charlie Hebdo attacks two days earlier and were holed up in a printworks outside Paris – were allowed to go free.

“At first I thought it was an accident outside. But when the shots were repeated and then I saw all these customers, about 20 people, coming down towards me, I started to understand what was happening,” Bathily said.

He ushered them into the cold store, holding the door. After a few minutes he suggested they try and escape by using the goods lift to reach the emergency exit.

“They didn’t want to, they said it would put our lives in danger. I told them our lives were already in danger and we had to try something, but they didn’t want to follow me,” Bathily added.

So he cut off the motor, told them to put their phones on silent mode, and took the delivery lift alone.

Looking back, Bathily said the hostages had made the right decision. Colleagues later told him that Coulibaly had heard a noise near the emergency exit and went to investigate.

He would almost certainly have fired on a crowd.

Paris terror attacks trial recalls ‘terror’ and ‘cruelty’ of kosher store rampage

Seen as an accomplice

Outside, police mistook Bathily for an accomplice.

“They thought I had explosives on me so they shot at me,” he said. “They treated me badly in the beginning. They kept me handcuffed for an hour and a half.”

Once they realised he was a supermarket employee, Bathily used his knowledge of the store to map out the layout, helping police to prepare their raid.

Elite forces stormed the supermarket, killing Coulibaly and rescuing 15 hostages. Four hostages were found dead.

French police kill suspects in Charlie Hebdo attack and hostage taker

A reluctant hero

Bathily’s actions drew national attention, and the media celebrated him as a hero. A BFMTV video of him went viral.

“It was very difficult because I gave my first interview at 2 or 3 in the morning,” the now 34-year-old said. “Then the next day my face was everywhere and everyone was talking about me. People started criticising me, too.”

Some said that media and politicians in need of a feel-good story after three days of terrorist violence had exaggerated Bathily’s role.

“The media and officials wanted to paint this pretty picture, that he helped us escape downstairs, that he hid us, and so on,” one of the hostages told the daily Liberation a year after the attacks.

“It wasn’t really true, but that’s not Lassana’s fault.”

Bathily maintains he “didn’t invent anything” but was out of his depth and overwhelmed. 

“A Muslim working with Jews, who saved Jews, became a strong symbol,” he said. “No one was expecting it. I’ve always said Jews are my brothers.”

He had practised his faith freely at work, praying daily and observing Ramadan. One of the victims who died, Yohan Cohen, had been his good friend.

“I always say I saved human beings, whether Jews, atheists, or whatever. We’re all human beings, and we have to help one another when needed,” he added.

Pain endures for French Jews a decade after Toulouse shootings

‘Long live France’

Eleven days after the supermarket siege, Bathily was granted French nationality by then president François Hollande.

Having arrived in France in 2006 aged 16 as an unaccompanied minor, he had become, in the words of Hollande, “my favourite Frenchman”.

‘Long live freedom, long live friendship, long live France’, Bathily said in his acceptance speech.

The recognition has helped Bathily to build a normal life.

He now works at Paris city hall organising events, and goes into schools to talk about his experience and the importance of fighting against both Islamophobia and anti-Semitism.

“I’ll continue to tell my story, to talk about how we can continue to live together, whatever our religion,” Bathily said – though his hope to become an ambassador for fraternity remains unfulfilled.

Back in his home region of Kaï in southern Mali, some still speak of his actions. “They say: ‘Oh it’s Bathily the guy who saved people in France’,” he said.

“But in my own village we’ve moved on. I’m just Lassana. Lassana of the past, Lassana of the present. Still the same.”

Security forces barred supporters from going to Maputo‘s international airport to meet Venancio Mondlane as he landed, with at least one person shot and wounded at one of the barricades, an AFP photographer said.

But thousands gathered later at a market in the centre of the city, chanting “Venancio” and blowing whistles and vuvuzelas as Mondlane, flanked by security guards, stood on the top of a car and waved and pointed to the crowd.

His vehicle was thronged by large crowds as it left the area. Riot police fired tear gas that dispersed the gathering, an AFP reporter said.

Mondlane’s return comes a week before the inauguration of the next president, Daniel Chapo, the candidate of the ruling Frelimo party who was proclaimed winner of the vote.

Mondlane claims the vote was rigged in favour of Frelimo, which has held power for 50 years. He says a separate count showed that he won the vote, which he repeated at the airport.

Raising a hand as if taking an oath, Mondlane said in front of journalists that he was the “president… elected by the genuine will of the people”.

The dispute over the election results has unleashed waves of violence that have left around 300 people dead, including protesters killed in a police crackdown, according to a tally by a local rights group.

Via regular and widely followed social media addresses, Mondlane directed the demonstrations from an unknown location abroad.

Post-election chaos in Mozambique sparks mass exodus to Malawi

Uncertainty

The unrest has caused major losses to Mozambique‘s economy, stopping cross-border trade. Shipping, mining and industry have also been affected, while thousands of people are reported to have fled to neighbouring countries.

Soon after exiting the terminal, Mondlane knelt on the ground, a bible in his hand.

“I’m here in the flesh to say that if you want to negotiate… I’m here,” he told reporters, in a message for the authorities.

The government has called for dialogue to end the dispute but ignored Mondlane’s request for the talks to be held virtually while he was out of the country.

The opposition leader said he had also returned to “witness” what he said were attacks and the kidnapping of his supporters and to face any criminal charges the authorities had laid against him.

There had been no political agreement, Mondlane said. “I came to make history, I didn’t come to have a position, I didn’t come to have a role, I didn’t come to have perks.”

There were fears ahead of his arrival that Mondlane could be arrested, including on charges related to the weeks of protests by his supporters, many of them young Mozambicans desperate for change.

Mozambique’s highest court confirms Frelimo election victory

Any government action against Mondlane could send Mozambique — still scarred by years of civil war — into a major crisis, analysts said.

“If the government arrests Venancio, there will be an international outcry and potentially very dangerous demonstrations,” said Eric Morier-Genoud, an African history professor at Queen’s University Belfast.

“If they don’t arrest him, he will occupy the centre and Frelimo will be weakened just a few days before the inauguration of the deputies and the president,” he told AFP on Wednesday.

Back in Mozambique, Mondlane will “reclaim the political initiative”, Morier-Genoud said.

Mondlane’s return “will either destabilise or resolve the current political crisis”, said Tendai Mbanje, analyst at the Johannesburg-based African Centre for Governance.

“He is the current hope and future of the youths: if his life is at risk or tampered with, that will be a source of unending instability,” he said.

“On the other hand, if Frelimo would like to unite the country, it is time that they take his return as an opportunity for dialogue.”

The assault came after President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno returned to his compound following talks with China’s Foreign Minister Wang-Yi.

Playing down Wednesday night’s assault, government spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah said on social media: “It was a little incident … everything is calm. This whole attempt at destabilisation has been thwarted.”

Eighteen assailants were killed in the gunfight and six wounded, the government said. One soldier from the presidential guard also died in the exchanges with the commando unit and three were injured as tanks moved onto the city’s streets. 

Earlier security sources described the incident as an attempted terrorist attack. But Koulamallah described the gunmen as  drunken “Pieds Nickelés” – a reference to a French comic strip featuring hapless crooks.

Change

Chad faces regular attacks by the terrorist group Boko Haram, especially in the western Lake Chad region that borders Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger.

On 20 December, Chad gave France six weeks to clear out its military personnel. The order came less than a month after Chad said it wanted to terminate the security and defence agreements that have linked it with France since the end of the colonial era. 

The declaration caught French diplomats off guard, but Déby stressed the move was not intended to strain ties with France, which has also been asked to withdraw troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger in recent years. Senegal and Ivory Coast have also asked France to vacate military bases on their territory.

“The decision in no way constitutes a rejection of international cooperation or a calling into question of our diplomatic relations with France,” Déby said. “It is not a question of replacing one power with another.”

In an interview broadcast on Wednesday, she insisted, however, that he has no intention of resigning before the end of his term.

France has been mired in political deadlock since Macron gambled on snap elections last summer in a bid to bolster his authority and combat the rise of the far right.

Macron admits snap elections created more instability for France

The move backfired, with voters electing a parliament fractured between three rival blocs, while Macron’s approval ratings have hit record lows.

The 47-year-old French leader has been weakened by months of political crisis, with some opposition politicians urging him to resign.

 

‘More divisions than solutions’

Speaking to TF1 television, Brigitte Macron said: “Sometimes what he hears hurts him. It’s very difficult. But he doesn’t say it. He keeps it to himself,” in what were rare public comments about her husband’s political standing.

“Before, he spoke much more easily. Now he doesn’t say it. And that I understand. Because if there’s one thing Emmanuel deserves, it’s respect”.

During the interview, France’s 71-year-old first lady was asked about Macron, his relationship with the French, the dissolution of parliament and his desire to see his term of office through to the end.

Addressing French people in a televised address on New Year’s Eve, the French head of state admitted that dissolving parliament had “for now brought more divisions to the National Assembly than solutions”.

2024: The French president’s annus horribilis

History will judge

Brigitte Macron maintains that history will judge his decision.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” she said. “It’s not for me to say what I think, I’ve never said it and I never will”.

However, she admitted that the dissolution affected French people who she said were “anxious” and “a little lost“.

“Everyday life is very difficult”, Brigitte Macron added. “From abroad, France seems like a land of plenty, where you have health care, education, help, everything”.

Regarding any suggestion that Macron might step down before the end of his mandate in 2027, she underlined: “He said he would go all the way because that was the mission given to him by the French people,” adding he cared “so much” about the French.

“He cares about everything and he puts all his intelligence, all his heart at the service of the French people”. 

(With AFP)

Blinken, on a farewell tour less than two weeks before Trump takes office, visited Paris where President Emmanuel Macron was presenting him with the Legion of Honor, France’s highest order of merit.

Blinken on Trump

“I would like to tell you that you show the face of the America that we love,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told Blinken before the ceremony.

But as Blinken looked to highlight President Joe Biden’s efforts to nurture alliances, the secretary of state was asked to address threats by Trump against Greenland.

France warns Trump over military threats to take control of Greenland

The president-elect has made clear his designs on oil-rich and strategically placed Greenland, an autonomous territory of European Union member Denmark, and refused to rule out military action.

Asked about the remarks at a news conference with Barrot, Blinken, without using Trump’s name, said: “The idea expressed about Greenland is obviously not a good one, but maybe more important, it’s obviously one that’s not going to happen.”

“So we probably shouldn’t waste a lot of time talking about it,” Blinken said.

Blinken to receive France’s top honour in final diplomatic mission

Musk is ‘private citizen’ 

Blinken, a longtime Democratic Party policymaker and aide to Biden who generally has steered clear of electoral politics, also played down statements by Elon Musk, the technology entrepreneur joined at the hip with Trump for months.

The South African-born billionaire, who has been tasked by Trump with an initiative to curb government spending, has rattled European politicians by championing the far right in Germany and Britain.

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

“Private citizens in our country can say what they want,” Blinken said. “He, like any American, has the right to express his views.”

Barrot, however, took direct aim at Musk and regretted the direction of Trump’s Republican Party, which championed more traditional security partnerships with Europe under Ronald Reagan.

“Everyone has the right to express their opinions, but obviously when you’re participating or aspiring to participate in a government, opinions take on a particular meaning,” Barrot said.

Barrot said Musk was making alliances with “parties of the far right that flirt with neo-Nazi currents, as is the case with the AfD” in Germany.

“The Republican Party will have to take responsibility for linking its destiny to parties that represent what the Republican Party always fought against,” he said.

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

Hoping for French leadership

Blinken also visited South Korea and Japan on the tour and will head Thursday to Italy, where he will consult European allies on Syria and join Biden in an audience with Pope Francis.

But the visit to France, including the private ceremony for the Legion of Honor award, is especially poignant for Blinken, a fluent French speaker who spent part of his childhood in Paris and has spoken of France’s role in forming his worldview.

The decision to recognise Blinken also illustrates the full turnaround in relations since the start of Biden’s term in 2021, when France was infuriated after the United States forged a new three-way alliance with Britain and Australia that resulted in the rescinding of a lucrative contract for French submarines.

(With AFP)

JANUARY 

50 years since France’s abortion law passed 

In a watershed moment for women’s rights in France, parliament passed the Veil Law on 17 January 1975, decriminalising abortion. Coming eight years after the Neuwirth Law legalised contraception, the legislation followed campaigns where 343 women publicly declared having had abortions and 331 doctors admitted performing them. The law, championed by Health Minister Simone Veil, was made permanent in 1979. 

80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz  

On 27 January 1945, Soviet soldiers reached Auschwitz concentration camp, home to just a few thousand surviving prisoners, including future writer Primo Levi. The soldiers stumbled upon the camp by chance, and its immense scale shocked them. In the following days, filmmakers and investigators documented the survivors’ harrowing experiences. For years, the Jewish identity of most victims remained underacknowledged, often overshadowed by broader references to “victims of fascism”. 

FEBRUARY 

80 years since the Yalta Conference  

The future of post-war Europe was decided at the Yalta Conference in Crimea, opening on 4 February 1945. With Nazi Germany’s impending defeat, the meeting between Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to divide Germany into zones of occupation and shift Poland‘s borders eastward. General Charles de Gaulle of France, however, was excluded from the talks, underscoring France’s precarious position as it recovered from years of occupation and collaboration. His absence from the famous photographs long remained a sore point in France. 

35 years since Mandela’s release  

Nelson Mandela walked free after 26 years in prison on 11 February 1990, raising his fist in victory alongside his wife Winnie. His party, the African National Congress, was unbanned days later. The apartheid system, in place since 1948, was abolished the following year. Mandela and President Frederik de Klerk shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize before Mandela became South Africa‘s first black president in 1994. 

MARCH 

80 years since Anne Frank’s death  

Around 1 March 1945, Anne Frank died aged 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Born in Frankfurt, she had lived in Amsterdam since 1933 when her family fled Nazi persecution. From 1942 to 1944, while hiding in a secret apartment, she wrote her famous diary. Her father Otto, the family’s sole survivor, published it in 1947. 

60 years since first spacewalk  

Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov made history on 18 March 1965 as the first human to conduct a spacewalk. Floating 200 kilometres above Earth for precisely 12 minutes and nine seconds, he had prepared with 1,000 kilometres of cycling, 150 practice sessions and 117 parachute jumps. He risked gas embolism during re-entry, and his spacecraft landed 400 kilometres off target. 

APRIL 

50 years since Lebanon’s civil war began  

On 13 April 1975, attacks between Palestinian fighters and Christian militias launched Lebanon into 15 years of civil war. The violence began when Palestinian fedayeen attacked a Maronite church, followed by Christians targeting a bus carrying Palestinian fighters and civilians. The country, once nicknamed the “Switzerland of the Middle East” for its prosperity and stability, emerged from the conflict devastated and under the influence of Syria and Israel.

50 years since the Khmer Rouge takeover  

After five years of civil war, the Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on 17 April 1975, overthrowing General Lon Nol‘s US-backed government. They immediately forced the population to leave the capital as part of their rural revolution. In under four years, their genocidal regime killed one in four Cambodians. 

MAY 

80 years since VE Day and the Setif massacre  

Nazi Germany formally surrendered to the Allied forces on 8 May 1945, marking the end of World War II in Europe. The same day, French colonial forces violently suppressed protests in Sétif, Guelma and Kherrata, killing thousands of Algerians. These massacres are now seen as precursors to the Algerian war of independence, which began nine years later. 

70 years since the Warsaw Pact  

On 14 May 1955, the Soviet Union and its eastern European allies signed the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance formed in response to NATO. The pact symbolised the division of Europe during the Cold War. 

JUNE 

80 years since Germany was divided  

On 5 June 1945, the four victorious Allied powers formalised the division of Germany into four occupation zones controlled by the US, the UK, the Soviet Union and France. Berlin sat within the Soviet sector. This laid the groundwork for the Cold War and Germany’s later split into East and West. 

700 years since Ibn Battuta’s pilgrimage 

On 14 June 1325, Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta, hailed “the greatest medieval Muslim traveller”, embarked on a pilgrimage to Mecca. His voyage spanned 24 years and over 120,000 kilometres, taking him across Africa, the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia. Ibn Battuta’s detailed accounts remain invaluable records of medieval life and cultures.  

50 years since Mozambique’s independence 

Mozambique declared independence from Portugal on 25 June 1975 after a decade-long war of liberation. The end of Portuguese colonial rule across Africa was hastened by Portugal’s Carnation Revolution in 1974. 

JULY 

30 years since Srebrenica massacre 

Bosnian Serb forces overran the town of Srebrenica, a UN-designated safe zone, on 11 July 1995. Over the following days, they carried out the systematic massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys, making it Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II. About 30,000 people fled to Potocari seeking protection at the Dutch UN base, but found little safety. The victims’ bodies were buried in mass graves across the region, and the International Criminal Court later ruled the killings a genocide. It became a symbol of the world’s failure to prevent mass atrocities in the Bosnian War. 

80 years since first nuclear test  

The first nuclear weapons test took place on 16 July 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico, as part of the Manhattan Project. Los Alamos scientists developed the plutonium fission device nicknamed “Gadget”. Project leader J Robert Oppenheimer chose the codename Trinity from a John Donne poem. The blast, equal to 20 kilotons of TNT, was heard 160 kilometres away. 

AUGUST 

80 years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs 

At 8:15am on 6 August 1945, a US B-29 bomber dropped “Little Boy“, the first atomic bomb used in warfare, on Hiroshima. Exploding 500-600 metres above ground, it generated power equivalent to 15,000 tonnes of TNT. Nearly one-third of the city’s 245,000 residents died instantly, while thousands more perished in the following months from radiation exposure. Three days later, on 9 August, a second atomic bomb named “Fat Man” devastated Nagasaki, instantly killing an estimated 40,000 people. 

SEPTEMBER 

80 years since the end of World War II 

Japan formally surrendered aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945, bringing World War II to an official close.  

80 years since Vietnam’s independence 

Also on 2 September 1945, Vietnam declared independence from French colonial rule. This followed a brief period of Japanese occupation during World War II. The declaration by Ho Chi Minh marked the start of Vietnam’s struggle to achieve full sovereignty, which would take decades to realise. 

OCTOBER 

90 years since the Italian invasion of Ethiopia  

Benito Mussolini‘s forces invaded Ethiopia from Italian Somalia and Eritrea on 3 October 1935. It took seven months to conquer Emperor Haile Selassie‘s empire. This colonial war, seen as anachronistic by other European powers, exposed the failure of the League of Nations, the world’s first international peacekeeping body, to prevent conflict. It also saw the widespread use of poison gas against civilians. 

80 years since the UN’s founding  

The United Nations was established on 24 October 1945 after China, the US, France, Britain, the Soviet Union and 45 other member states ratified its charter. The global body was created to promote peace and prevent conflicts after the devastation of World War II. 

NOVEMBER 

100 years since France’s first radio news  

On 3 November 1925, French journalism entered the modern era when Maurice Privat delivered the country’s first regular radio news bulletin from the Eiffel Tower. This historic broadcast came just three years after Radio Tour Eiffel began transmitting as France’s pioneering radio station. The station, which operated until the Nazi occupation in June 1940, revolutionised how French citizens received their news. In a significant shift toward media independence, the government had already begun separating state control of radio frequencies from programme content in 1924, allowing independent associations to shape what went on air. This early commitment to editorial freedom helped establish France’s enduring tradition of public broadcasting.

10 years since the Paris attacks  

On 13 November 2015, coordinated terrorist attacks by Islamic State struck Paris and its suburb of Saint-Denis, killing 130 people and hospitalising 413. The attackers targeted the Bataclan concert hall, several busy cafes and restaurants, and the national stadium during a France-Germany football match. The Bataclan suffered the heaviest toll, with 90 people killed during a two-hour hostage situation. The attacks remain the deadliest in modern French history. They marked the tragic peak of a year that began with January attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher supermarket, which killed 17 people. 

80 years since the Nuremberg trials  

The Nuremberg trials of 24 top Nazi leaders opened on 20 November 1945, establishing the first international criminal court. Eleven defendants were hanged on 16 October 1946, while Hermann Göring committed suicide the night before. Three were acquitted, one died before trial and another was deemed medically unfit. 

50 years since Franco’s death  

Spanish dictator Francisco Franco died in Madrid on 20 November 1975, aged 82, ending his 36-year grip on power. His death followed a month-long illness that gained international attention. His son-in-law helped extend Franco’s survival through artificial means to delay the inevitable succession crisis. Known as El Caudillo (the Leader), Franco made his final public appearance on 12 October. His death marked the end of Western Europe’s longest-running dictatorship and paved the way for Spain‘s return to democracy. 

DECEMBER 

10 years since the Paris climate agreement  

On 12 December 2015, 196 nations adopted the Paris Agreement to combat climate change. While legally binding, the agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to “well below” 2C remains increasingly challenging. The US withdrew in 2020 but rejoined the following year. The UN has warned the world is on track for far higher temperature increases by the end of the century. 

40 years of Les Restos du Coeur  

French comedian Coluche founded Les Restos du Coeur (Restaurants of the Heart) on 21 December 1985, creating what is today one of France’s most vital food charities. It was launched during a period of harsh economic austerity, when many French families struggled to afford food. Inspired by singer Daniel Balavoine, who sponsored the first campaign, the charity began by offering free meals to those in need. Four decades later, it has grown into a national institution. In 2022-23, amid rising living costs and inflation, the organisation set a new record by distributing 170 million meals to France’s most vulnerable citizens.  

80 years since establishment of the CFA franc  

On 26 December 1945, France officially established the CFA franc as the currency for its African colonies, though it had been in use since 1939. Originally the “French Colonies in Africa” franc, the currency survived decolonisation and is still used today in 14 African nations. France’s ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements brought the currency into the International Monetary Fund’s parity system, pegging it first to the French franc and later to the euro. The arrangement has sparked ongoing debate, with critics seeing it as a tool of French economic control in Africa, while supporters argue it provides monetary stability. The currency stands as one of the most enduring legacies of French colonialism in Africa. 

80 years since founding of the IMF and World Bank  

Two institutions that would shape the post-war economic world opened their doors in Washington on 27 December 1945: the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Created at the Bretton Woods Conference in July 1944, the IMF emerged as the guardian of global financial stability, helping countries manage currency crises and economic challenges. On the same day, its sister institution, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), began its mission to rebuild war-torn economies. The IBRD later evolved into today’s World Bank Group, becoming the world’s largest development bank.

The government struck a measured tone in response to the death of Le Pen, who was expelled from his own party after repeatedly denying the Holocaust – with Prime Minister François Bayrou describing him as a “fighter” and a “figure of French political life”. 

Impromptu parties that broke out in several cities quickly drew sharp criticism. 

“Nothing, absolutely nothing justifies dancing on a corpse,” said Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau. “The death of a man, even if he is a political opponent, should inspire only restraint and dignity. These scenes of jubilation are deeply disgraceful.”  

Scenes in Paris, Lyon, Marseille 

In the French capital, several hundred demonstrators converged on Place de la République, with some climbing the square’s central statue and chanting anti-fascist slogans and lighting smoke bombs.  

One placard in the crowd read: “That filthy racist is dead.” 

Around 200 to 300 gathered in Lyon, reportedly at the invitation of extreme-left groups, where fireworks were set off, while in Marseille protesters displayed signs reading “Finally” as they opened bottles of champagne.  

While those gatherings were mostly peaceful, police in Strasbourg intervened to disperse around 200 demonstrators. 

Far-right National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen dies aged 96

Reactions were more nuanced in Marseille’s Saint Barnabé neighbourhood, a National Rally stronghold – an indication of the deep divisions over Le Pen’s legacy. 

“May he rest in peace. He lived 96 years. You have to admit he was a character – although there were some some slip-ups that I didn’t like,” Jeannot, 64, told RFI at a local cafe. 

Forty-year-old National Rally voter Vincent, who lives in the neighbourhood, said: “He’s a man who left his mark on my youth and my adult life because he shaped the political landscape. Even if we don’t agree with him, we have to acknowledge that he had the strength of character to defend France as he saw it.” 

Defining figure

Le Pen, who founded the National Front in 1972 and led it until 2011, became a defining figure of the far right in France.

Convicted multiple times for hate speech, including comments dismissing the Holocaust as “merely a detail of history”, his political career was marred by controversy.  

Le Pen’s rhetoric often attracted fierce opposition and widespread protests, particularly during his surprise run-off in the 2002 presidential election. 

After taking over the party’s leadership, his daughter Marine Le Pen expelled him in an effort to rebrand the movement and distance it from his extremist image. The party was renamed the National Rally.

Jean-Marie Le Pen passed away on Tuesday in a health facility near Paris.

A private service is planned in the capital, followed by burial on Saturday in his hometown of La Trinité-sur-Mer, in Brittany.  

Jean-Marie Le Pen’s involvement with Algeria began in the mid-1950s.

Freshly elected to parliament, he left France at the age of 27 to fight as a paratrooper against the country’s struggle for independence from France.

“I felt that it was my duty to go there with the contingent since, deep down, I agreed to preserve this part of France,” he said of this period.

There, he was accused of torture. While he would later deny these accusations he did not deny that this type of practice took place.

“If it is necessary to torture one man to save a hundred, torture is inevitable, and therefore, in the abnormal conditions in which we are asked to act, it is just,” Le Pen was quoted as saying in Le Monde, in 1957. 

RFI correspondent Fayçal Metaoui cites the eyewitness accounts of Mohamed and Dahmane, two Algerian veterans, who testified against Le Pen in a documentary broadcast in 2017.

“They removed the mattress, tied me and my father to the box spring… and then they started the electricity. And it was Jean-Marie Le Pen who flipped the switch. It was Jean-Marie Le Pen! He was the leader of the torturers at Fort l’Empereur!”, the men said.

France called to fully recognise use of torture during Algerian war

Painful memories

Farida, a pharmacist, also evokes Le Pen’s presence in Algeria‘s war years. “Jean-Marie Le Pen was a person reviled and hated by Algerians because of his dark past. During the French occupation, he practiced torture against Algerians in a horrific manner,” she says. “He tried not to admit to his crimes, but testimonies and evidence exist that confirm his actions.”

Kamel, a teacher, accuses the founder of the National Front of promoting racism. “These heinous practices during the national liberation war are remembered by today’s generations and it does not stop there. Since then, Le Pen has greatly contributed to building an opinion hostile to migrants in France and to spreading hatred against foreigners in this country.”

Le Pen’s time in Algeria would be key to the rest of his political career. It was with supporters of French Algeria and former collaborators with the German Nazis that he created the National Front in 1972.

France to consider foundation for Algerian harki fighters and their descendants

For French historian Benjamin Stora, “Le Pen is fundamentally a man of the Fourth Republic, and this is the moment when the colonial empire falters.”

Arriving too late for the Indochina War, Le Pen intended to make up for it in Algeria, Stora explains in an interview on FranceInfo on Tuesday.

“The whole political memory [of Jean-Marie Le Pen] is that of nostalgia, of a great France of the empire, which according to him would have been betrayed and abandoned by the various French political leaders”.

Anti-immigration

Le Pen’s party’s obsession was immigration, particularly from Algeria – a subject he brought to the fore in French political debate from the 1980s onwards.

Le Pen earned numerous condemnations for his racist and discriminatroy comments over the years.

In 2005, for example, he was sentenced on appeal to a €10,000 fine for inciting racial hatred after comments in an interview with the newspaper Le Monde on 19 April, 2003.

“The day we have in France, no longer 5 million but 25 million Muslims, they will be in charge. And the French will creep along beside the walls, get off the sidewalks and lower their eyes,” he said in the interview.

Anti-Semitic hate trial opens for French far-right veteran Jean-Marie Le Pen

He was ordered to pay €10,000 in damages to the Union of Jewish Students of France for comments he made in 1996: “I believe in racial inequality. Yes, of course, it’s obvious. All history demonstrates this. They do not have the same capacity nor the same level of historical evolution,” he declared.

Elsewhere in Africa, Le Pen had mixed reviews and found himself at odds with most leaders.

He never hid his admiration for South Africa’s system of aparteid and was accused of receiving money from Gabon’s president Omar Bongo in 1987, a charge he denied.

In the end, it was only with Jean-Bedel Bokassa that Jean-Marie Le Pen maintained a semblance of a relationship. He met the deposed Central African leader in France in the early 1980s. The two men shared a common past, that of fighting in the Indochina war within the French army.

This week, we focus on the fight against the exploitation of ‘blood minerals’ or ‘conflict minerals’ in Central Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Conflic minerals is the term used by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to describe minerals sourced from conflict-affected and high-risk areas, such as tantalum, tin, tungsten (referred to as the ‘3Ts’), gold, cobalt, coltan, and lithium.

These minerals are essential for high-tech applications, including smartphones, electric batteries, and other advanced technology such as appliances, cars, and even wind turbines. They are predominantly found in the African Great Lakes region, especially in eastern DRC.

In an effort to combat the illegal and exploitative trade of these minerals, the NGO Global Witness established a transition team several years ago.

The May 2022 a report from Global Witness revealed that these minerals are used in products by international brands such as Apple, Intel, Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, and Tesla.

Now, with a trial underway in France and Belgium accusing Apple, many observers are hopeful that it could bring about meaningful change.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has filed a criminal case against European subsidiaries of the tech giant Apple, alleging the company has illicitly used conflict minerals in its supply chain.

The American company claims it no longer sources conflict minerals from Central Africa, but is it doing enough?

DRC case against Apple brings new hope in conflict minerals crisis

The complaints filed against Apple have been described by lawyers involved as a matter of significant public interest.

European countries, consumers, and non-governmental organisations are increasingly scrutinising the international supply chains of minerals, with calls for highly profitable companies to be held accountable.

This complaint could mark the beginning of a broader wave of legal actions targeting technology companies linked to the sourcing of conflict minerals.

To examine the implications of this trial, this week’s guest is Gregory Mthembu-Salter, a researcher specialising in Africa’s political economy and a former consultant to the UN Group of Experts on the DRC on due diligence regarding conflict minerals. He is based in South Africa.

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Episode mixed by Erwan Rome.

Spotlight on Africa is a podcast from Radio France Internationale.

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Be Our Guest” by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman; “Auld Lang Syne”, performed by the Glenn Miller Orch, and “New Year Resolution” by M. Cross, R. Catron, and W. Parker, performed by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas.

The quiz will be back next Saturday, 11 January, with the answer to the question about the legislative elections in Senegal. Be sure and tune in! 

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear what Helmut Matt, your fellow RFI English listener, has found to be true in his life. Don’t miss it!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Butterfly Lovers” by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang, performed by the National Cinema Symphony Orchestra.

Next week, be sure and tune in for a special program featuring your New Year Resolutions and Wishes for 2025.

 

   

The Syrian National Army, supported by Turkish air power, is pushing against the US-supported People’s Defense Units (YPG), which Ankara claims is linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK, which has been fighting Turkey for decades. 

The YPG controls a large swathe of Syria bordering Turkey, which Ankara says poses a security threat.

Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan says Turkey is determined to prevent the YPG and its affiliate the PKK from exploiting a power vacuum following the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

As Erdogan celebrates Turkish role in ousting Assad, uncertainty lies ahead

“We are in communication with the groups to make sure that terrorist organisations, especially Daesh [Islamic State] and the PKK, are not taking advantage of the situation,” he said. “Turkey is committed to continuing the fight against terrorism. All minorities – non-Muslims, Christians, non-Arabs, Kurds – should be treated equally.”

Opportunity for Ankara

Ever since the YPG took over control of the Syrian territory at the beginning of the Syrian civil war, Ankara has been seeking to remove it. 

With the ousting of the Assad regime and the withdrawal of its Iranian and Russian backers, which had in the past blocked Turkish military interventions, analysts say Ankara now sees an opportunity to finally remove the YPG threat.

“The current situation creates an opportunity for its [Turkey’s] fight against PKK and YPG because there is now no Russia, there is no Iran,” explains Bilgehan Alagoz, a professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Marmara University.

“Turkey was facing the Russian forces, the Iranian forces, and Assad’s regime forces while it was combatting the PKK and YPG,” she added. “We can name it as an opportunity for its fight against PKK and YPG.”

Success of rebel groups in Syria advances Turkish agenda

However, the YPG is still being supported by a small US military force, as part of the war against the Islamic State (IS). The YPG is also detaining thousands of IS militants.

‘The Euphrates is a line’

With the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army now approaching the Euphrates River, analysts say further eastward advances could put Ankara on a collision course with both Washington, and Syria’s new rulers – Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. 

“The Euphrates now is like a line perhaps for the US military,” explains Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat who served in the region and is now a foreign policy analyst for Turkey’s independent Medyascope news outlet.

“If that [military advance] goes on as such, it could bring Turkey indirectly head to head with the US, with even perhaps HTS, and it could put Ankara in a delicate diplomatic position again,” warned Selcen.

Tensions with Israel

The Israeli military’s advance into Syria is adding to Ankara’s concerns over the threat posed by the PYG and its political wing, the Democratic Union Party (PYD). Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar last month described the Kurds as a “natural ally” of Israel, a comment that came amid growing Israeli-Turkish tensions.

Turkey seeks Gaza ceasefire role despite US criticism over Hamas ties

“Israel is now carving out a corridor [in Syria] between the PKK/PYD-controlled territories, and its own territories,” explained Hasan Unal, a professor of international relations at Ankara’s Baskent University.

“That suggests that this is what they [Israel] are trying to do – [to create] a Kurdish puppet state east of the Euphrates. And this is something that is likely to create lots of problems with Turkey,” he added.

With Israel’s presence in Syria, Ankara is likely to step up pressure on the YPG, and on the incoming Trump administration to end US military presence in Syria.

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts. You’ll hear the winner’s names announced and the week’s quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you’ve grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

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

Erwan and I are busy cooking up special shows with your music requests, so get them in! Send your music requests to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr  Tell us why you like the piece of music, too – it makes it more interesting for us all!

Facebook: Be sure to send your photos to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr for the RFI English Listeners Forum banner!

More tech news: Did you know we have a YouTube channel? Just go to YouTube and write “RFI English” in the search bar, and there we are! Be sure to subscribe to see all our videos.

Would you like to learn French? RFI is here to help you!

Our website “Le Français facile avec RFI” has news broadcasts in slow, simple French, as well as bilingual radio dramas (with real actors!) and exercises to practice what you have heard.

Go to our website and get started! At the top of the page, click on “Test level”. According to your score, you’ll be counselled to the best-suited activities for your level.

Do not give up! As Lidwien van Dixhoorn, the head of “Le Français facile” service told me: “Bathe your ears in the sound of the language, and eventually, you’ll get it.” She should know – Lidwien is Dutch and came to France hardly able to say “bonjour” and now she heads this key RFI department – so stick with it!

Be sure you check out our wonderful podcasts!

In addition to the news articles on our site, with in-depth analysis of current affairs in France and across the globe, we have several podcasts that will leave you hungry for more.

There’s Spotlight on France, Spotlight on Africa, The International Report, and of course, The Sound Kitchen. We also have an award-winning bilingual series – an old-time radio show, with actors (!) to help you learn French, called Les voisins du 12 bis. 

Remember, podcasts are radio, too! As you see, sound is still quite present in the RFI English service. Please keep checking our website for updates on the latest from our journalists. You never know what we’ll surprise you with!

To listen to our podcasts from your PC, go to our website; you’ll see “Podcasts” at the top of the page. You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our podcasts from your mobile phone, slide through the tabs just under the lead article (the first tab is “Headline News”) until you see “Podcasts”, and choose your show. 

Teachers take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is english.service@rfi.fr  If you would like to donate stamps and postcards, feel free! Our address is listed below. 

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

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

We have a new RFI Listeners Club member to welcome: Himangshu Mukharjee from West Bengal, India. Welcome, Himangshu! So glad you have joined us!

This week’s quiz: Paris Photo – the largest international art fair dedicated to photography – is held every November at the magnificent Grand Palais. RFI English journalist Isabelle Martinetti wrote an article about it: “Paris Photo fair focuses on photo books and their publishers”.

You were to re-read Isabelle’s article and send in the answers to these questions: What is the name and nationality of the photographer who won the First Book prize at this year’s Paris Photo fair?

The answer is, to quote Isabelle: “The first book prize was awarded to Taiwanese photographer Tsai Ting Bang for “Born From the Same Root”, a self-published work, awarded with a $10,000 cash prize.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question:  “What do you like to eat in the winter? Why?” The question was suggested by Liton Hissen Mia from Naogaon, Bangladesh.

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

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club member Dipita Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India. Dipita is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations, Dipita!

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Ferhat Bezazel, the president of the Butterflies Club Ain Kechera in West Skikda, Algeria, and Zaheer Ayiaz, a member of the Naz Radio France and Internet Fan Club in Faisal Abad, Pakistan. There’s also RFI Listeners Club member Shaira Hosen Mo from Kishoreganj, Bangladesh, and last but not least, RFI English listener Sadman Shihabur Rahaman, from Naogaon, Bangladesh.

Congratulations, winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, performed by Johnny Bregar; “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, performed by the Dexter Gordon Quartet; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Un flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle”, attributed to Nicolas Saboly and Emile Blémont, performed by Les Petits Chanteurs de Mont-Royal.

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, listen to Melissa’s 15 December International Report podcast – “Gaza’s powerful war narratives make their way to the Oscars”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 27 January to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 1 February podcast. When you enter be sure to send your postal address with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:

english.service@rfi.fr

or

Susan Owensby

RFI – The Sound Kitchen

80, rue Camille Desmoulins

92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux

France

Click here to 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.   

Tibetans and Tibetan scholars are alarmed at how Paris’ Guimet museum of Asian art has categorised its art and artefacts from Tibet. Tenam and other Tibetans in exile, who have been demonstrating regularly outside the museum, talk about the importance of using the name Tibet, and scholar Katia Buffetrille questions the role of China in putting pressure on a French public institution. (Listen @2’48”) 

Like many residents in the town of Malakoff, just south of Paris, Vincent Chévrier had an olive tree in his garden but wasn’t doing much with it. So he federated a group of fellow local olive tree owners and together they’ve made Born to be Olive – the first olive oil “made in Ile de France”. Their collective project isn’t just about making a locally grown, organic product, it’s brought people together in a unique way. (Listen @17’37”)

On 22 December 1974, the people of the Comoros in the Indian Ocean voted overwhelmingly for independence from France. But the island of Mayotte did not, and became France’s 101st department. It’s created an immigration conundrum, straining the island’s already sparse resources  which were laid bare by Tropical Cyclone Chido last week. Listen @13’40”)

Episode mixed by Hadrien Touraud. 

Spotlight on France is a podcast from Radio France International. Find us on rfienglish.com, Apple podcasts (link here), Spotify (link here) or your favourite podcast app (pod.link/1573769878).

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.