Campaigners have been battling with the company for nearly a decade over the emissions from the ArcelorMittal plant in the industrial port zone of Fos-sur-Mer some 40km north-west of Marseille.

They say emissions contained benzene, lead and cadmium – all classified as carcinogens and mutagens. They claim the plumes of smoke from the plant also contained toxic agents such as nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide.

Following a report published by the investigative website Mediapart, the Marseille public prosecutor Nicolas Bessone told the French news agency AFP that ArcelorMittal faced charges of endangering the lives of others as well as forgery and use of forgeries. ArcelorMittal, which has been placed under judicial supervision, denies the charges.

“We welcome this good news,” Julie Andreu, a lawyer for the campaign group, told AFP.

“I’m satisfied that the courts have done their job and got to the bottom of it,” aded Daniel Moutet, president of the Association for the Defence and Protection of the Coastline of the Gulf of Fos (ADPLGF), which was behind the collective complaint filed in 2018.

In statements sent to AFP and Reuters,  ArcelorMittal said it would cooperate fully with the authorities. “The company has done everything possible to ensure that emissions from the Fos-sur-Mer site comply with the prescribed annual limit values,” the statement added. “There has been no falsification of data.”

ArcelorMittal has invested more than 735 million euros since 2014 to modernise its facilities in order to reduce emission levels.

“These actions have enabled the company to reduce atmospheric emissions at this site by 70 percent compared with 2002,” the company statement added.

After operating two blast furnaces at Fos, Arcelor, which in 2005 took over a steelworks dating back to 1974, shut down one of its blast furnaces in 2023, citing a fall in steel consumption.

According to a recent ArcelorMittal document, the site, which has a production capacity of more than 4 million tonnes of steel per year, produces between 2 and 3.5 Mt/year depending on market needs.

Its direct CO2 emissions have averaged 5.6 Mt/year over the last five years.

ArcelorMittal Méditerranée employs around 2,400 people and 1,100 subcontractors at Fos-sur-Mer, where it is the main employer.

(With news wires)

“As of March 24, 1,580 people have approached the organisation, and 1,235 are now being taken into account,” according to Inirr president Marie Derain de Vaucresson who presented the three-year activity report to the media.

Derain de Vaucresson said that on average, Inirr is approached by 10 people per month, with a peak earlier this year. 

“This is obviously a consequence of media coverage surrounding sexual violence in the church related to the Betharram affair and the revelations about Abbé Pierre last summer,” she added.

Shaken

According to Derian de Vaucresson, of the 50 or so requests made since the beginning of this year, the average age of those who contact the organisation with complaints of abuse is 56, meaning that they are “victims from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.”

At a time when Catholic education is shaken by the Betharram affair, the Inirr faced a similar “peak in requests” in February 2024, when details of this Catholic establishment in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques first came to light.

The Inirr, which aims to help victims within dioceses, was founded in 2021 by the French episcopate in the wake of the 353 page Ciase report on child sexual abuse in the church. It coincided with the creation of the Recognition and Reparation Commission (CRR,) set up for victims in congregations.

(With newsagencies)

“We talked about everything, it was an intense dialogue, not easy, but very useful for us and the Americans,” Grigory Karasin, told the state TASS news agency, adding that “lots of problems were discussed”.

“Of course we are far from solving everything, from being in agreement on all points, but it seems that this type of discussion is very timely,” he said.

“We will continue doing it, adding in the international community, above all the United Nations and certain countries,” Karasin said.

He spoke a day after the US and Russian teams held 12 hours of talks in a luxury hotel in Saudi Arabia.

President Donald Trump is pushing for a rapid end to the three-year war and hopes the latest round of talks in the Saudi capital will pave the way for a breakthrough.

Earlier, TASS cited a source saying that a joint statement on the talks would be published on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian negotiating team was staying in Riyadh for another day to meet with US representatives, a source in the delegation told Suspilne news, with another source also telling AFP a second meeting was likely — a sign that progress may have been made.

(With newswires)

Jordan Bardella, party leader of the National Rally (RN), and his fellow MEP Marion Marechal, who leads another far-right movement and is the niece of three-time RN presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, have been invited by the Israeli government to attend the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism on March 26 and 27.

Bardella will be the first RN leader to visit Israel while Marechal, also the granddaughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen who co-founded the RN as the National Front (FN), will be the first member of the Le Pen family to visit Israel.

This invitation “has come from Israel” and “does not involve the Jewish institutions of France”, said Yonathan Arfi, head of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), the main umbrella association of French Jewish groups.

Arfi told the RMC broadcaster on Monday that French Jewish institutions had traditionally held a position of “distrust towards the National Rally” motivated by “historical reasons”.

He stressed the need for “critical distance” towards the RN, and said the fight against anti-Semitism “cannot be exploited politically”.

“Today, we feel that this issue is being used to present a new RN in a strategy to take power,” he said.

French far-right leader’s presence at Israel anti-Semitism conference stirs controversy

‘Playing politics’

Since the attack led by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on 7 October, 2023, the RN has sought to portray itself as a bulwark against anti-Semitism.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, who died earlier this year, was known for his anti-Semitic remarks including declaring in 1987 that the Nazi gas chambers used to exterminate Jews were “just a detail in the history of World War II”.

Marine Le Pen, who is eager to stand for the presidency for a fourth time in 2027, has moved emphatically to distance the movement from her father’s legacy.

Paris university refuses to cut ties with Israel amid pro-Palestinian protests

But critics accuse it of remaining inherently racist.

Bardella, himself subsequently interviewed by RMC, in turn accused Arfi of “playing politics” and said his comments “ignore reality.”

Arguing that many French Jews had voted for the RN in 2024 legislative elections, he said that the RN is “no longer the National Front” whose co-founder Jean-Marie Le Pen was thrown out of the party by his daughter Marine for his anti-Semitism.

‘Stabbing jews in the back’

France is home to an estimated 500,000 Jews, making it the world’s third-largest Jewish population, after Israel and the United States, according to the World Jewish Congress.

Meanwhile, criticism is mounting on the Israeli government’s decision to invite figures from Europe’s extreme right.

According to the Jerusalem Post, diaspora Jewish leaders told a Knesset hearing that the Israeli government “had failed to coordinate with Jewish communities about the invitation of controversial right-wing European political leaders” to Thursday’s conference.

The Diaspora Ministry argued that it “had invited representatives from across the political spectrum” and had operated according to the foreign ministry’s diplomatic relations parameters.

But European Jewish Congress President Dr. Ariel Muzicant told the Knesset that “this [antisemitism] conference is stabbing Jews in the back,” adding that conference organiser, Diaspora minister Amichai Chicli is “helping our enemies, you are giving fuel to those criticising Israel. By joining with the extreme right, you help those who criticise Israel.”

(With newswires)

Orléans prosecutor Emmanuelle Bochenek-Puren said the youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will face a charge of voluntary violence committed due to the real or assumed belonging, or non-belonging, of the victim to a religion.

The youth denies the charge.

Arié Engelberg was assaulted as he walked from the synagogue on Saturday afternoon in the city, some 110 kilometres south of Paris.

He and his son were unharmed in the attack which was condemned by top politicians in France.

“The attack on Rabbi Arié Engelberg in Orléans shocks us all,” said President Emmanuel Macron on social media.

“I offer him, his son, and all our fellow citizens of the Jewish faith my full support and that of the nation … We will not give in to silence or inaction,” he added.

Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin also voiced his support on social media.

On Sunday, 300 people gathered at Place de la Bastille in Paris to express their solidarity with Engelberg. A silent march in support of the rabbi is planned for Tuesday evening in Orléans.

Spike in incidents

France is home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States, as well as the largest Muslim community in the European Union.

According to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, several EU nations have reported a spike in anti-Muslim hatred and anti-Semitism since 7 October 2023 when the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a cross-border attack in Israel, resulting in the death of 1,205 people.

Israel’s subsequent military offensive on Gaza has killed more than 50,000 people, the majority of them civilians, according to figures released by the health ministry in the Hamas-run occupied Palestinian territory and deemed reliable by the United Nations.

France witnessed some 1,570 anti-Semitic acts last year, the interior ministry says. They made up 62 percent of all acts of hatred on the basis of religion.

“No, antisemitism is not ‘residual,’” said Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), on social media.

“Those who minimise, relativise, or justify hatred of Jews by a conflict 4,000 km away bear an immense responsibility.”

(with AFP)

Klette was part of the radical anti-capitalist group also known as the Red Army Faction (RAF), which carried out a series of bombings, kidnappings and killings in the 1970s and 1980s.

She was arrested in February 2024 at her Berlin flat, where police found a Kalashnikov assault rifle, explosives and large sums of cash, after apparently hiding there in plain sight for two decades.

Weeks earlier, the creators of a German “most wanted” podcast had stumbled across photos on Facebook of Klette in Berlin attending classes on capoeira – an Afro-Brazilian martial art that includes elements of dance, acrobatics, music and spirituality.

The trial relates to robberies Klette allegedly committed with two other gang members to finance their life in hiding after the RAF disbanded in 1998.

According to the website of the court in Celle, Klette is accused of “having committed a total of 14 criminal offenses in Stuhr-Groß Mackenstedt and at other locations between 30 July 1999, and 26 February 2024.”

The offences include four attacks on money transporters and nine cash heists from shops in which the suspects fled with a total of €2.7 million, according to prosecutors.

Klette is said to have acted mainly as the getaway driver but also faces one charge of attempted murder.

Prosecutors said she carried a realistic-looking dummy bazooka during some of the heists.

The trial is set to last around two years and will hear from 12 witnesses, according to the court.

After she was detained, prosecutors also had Klette formally arrested on suspicion of involvement in three attacks in the 1990s, while the gang was still active.

Named after two of its early leaders, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, the Baader-Meinhof gang emerged out of the radical fringe of the 1960s student protest movement.

The group’s members took up arms against what they saw as US imperialism and a “fascist” German state that was still riddled with former Nazis.

Dummy bazooka

At the height of its notoriety in 1977, the group shot dead a German bank chief and kidnapped and killed industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer, a former SS officer.

Though the so-called German Autumn of 1977 marked the beginning of a long period of decline for the RAF, the group continued to operate for another two decades.

Klette was part of a notorious trio – along with fellow gang members Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg – who were active as part of the RAF’s “third generation” in the 1980s and 1990s.

After the RAF disbanded, Klette and the two men are believed to have financed their lives in hiding through armed robberies.

Police are still searching for Staub and Garweg, who would now be 71 and 56 if they are still alive.

Fake identity

Klette reportedly put up no resistance when she was arrested at her apartment in Berlin’s bohemian Kreuzberg neighbourhood.

According to German media reports, she had been using a fake Italian passport and going by the name of Claudia Ivone.

Neighbours told the Bild daily she had a partner about the same age as her and always said: ‘Hello’ when she went out walking with her dog.

Klette had no bank account and likely paid her rent in cash, possibly for several months or years at a time, according to Der Spiegel magazine.

The attacks Klette is accused of committing in the 1990s, which are being dealt with in separate proceedings, include an attempted assault on a Deutsche Bank building in Eschborn, near Frankfurt.

She is also accused of playing a role in a 1991 RAF attack on the US Embassy in Bonn, which was the German capital at the time.

A third accusation relates to a 1993 explosives attack against a prison then still under construction in Germany’s Hesse state.

(With newswires)

Chelle, 47, was drafted in as head coach in January with the sole mission of steering Nigeria to the quadrennial tournament after the squad missed out on the event in Qatar in 2022.

On Friday, in Chelle’s first game in charge, Victor Osimhen bagged a brace at the Amahoro Stadium in Kigali as Nigeria saw off Rwanda 2-0 to register their first win of the qualifying campaign.

“I’m proud of what the players did in Rwanda,” said Chelle aas Nigeria finished their preparations for the game at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo.

“It was difficult but they succeeded. It won’t be easy against Zimbabwe because they are a good team with good players and a good coach. So we need to be focused to do another good job.”

Change

Nigeria lie fourth in Group C with six points from their five ties. 

On Tuesday evening, leaders South Africa take on Benin who will go top with a win against Hugo Broos’ men.

The tie is being played in Abidjan because of the lack of a stadium conforming to international standards in Benin.

On the eve of the clash at the Stade Félix Houphouet Boigny, Broos hit out at the organisation after his side were denied the chance to practice at the venue as it was being prepared for Cote d’Ivoire’s Monday night game against Gambia.

“It is a Fifa rule that every team has the right to have a preliminary training of 60 minutes before the game at the stadium where the match will take place,” said the 72-year-old Belgian.

“I understand we coould not because there was another game. But this is bad when people who make the rules don’t follow the rules.

“So it’s all nice to say: ‘Oh, follow the rules! Follow this!’ We have to follow everything, but we have the right to train in the stadium where the match will take place, and we can’t, and that is not correct.”

In Group D, leaders Cape Verde face Angola while Cameroon, who were held to a 0-0 draw against Eswatini last Wednesday, entertain Libya.

Surge

On Monday, Cote d’Ivoire retook pole position in Group F with a 1-0 win over Gambia. Sebastian Haller struck the only goal of the game early in the first-half.

The African champions lead the way with 16 points after six games, one ahead of Gabon.

In Group I, Ghana followed up Friday night’s 5-0 thrashing of Chad with a 3-0 rout of second-placed Madagascar.

Thomas Partey gave Ghana the lead in the 11th minute. The Arsenal midfielder bagged his brace to double the advantage nine minutes into the second-half.

And his fellow English Premier League midfielder Mohamed Kudus added Ghana’s third on the hour mark.

Ghana boast 15 points after six games. Madagascar have 10 and Mali are third with nine points following their 0-0 draw with Central African Republic.

In Group H, pacesetters Tunisia left it late in Rades to take the spoils against Malawi who were reduced to 10 men mid way through the second-half following a red card for Lloyd Aaron for two bookable offences.

Seifeddine Jaziri broke the deadlock after 86 minutes and in stoppage-time, Elias Achouri converted a penalty to give the hosts a 2-0 victory and a four point cushion over second-place Namibia who drew 1-1 with Equatorial Guinea

Their cases are passed between institutions and the process can take months. In the meantime, they risk sleeping rough, being arrested or even deported before a final decision is made.

The recent police eviction of hundreds of youths occupying a Paris theatre has thrown a spotlight on this national challenge.

“We are not criminals, nor drug addicts. The only thing we are asking for is shelter, education and access to health. How can this be bad for France?” said Hamadou, a 16-year-old from Guinea who was among those evicted.

Each year, around 8,000 undocumented migrant minors arrive in Paris alone. Only about 2,500 are officially recognised as underage and immediately taken into care, according to Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

For those caught in administrative limbo, options are limited. Some, like Hamadou and 500 others, occupied La Gaîté Lyrique theatre in central Paris from 10 December 2023, before being forcibly removed by police on 18 March.

“I was so frightened, I could not find any sleep that night, before the police evicted us,” Hamadou told RFI.

“The policemen, a hundred of them, looked like they were geared up for war with their shields, helmets and batons. Up till the last minute, I was convinced that they would never use force, that the Paris municipality will come to the rescue with news of lodgings for us.”

Most of the youths at Gaîté Lyrique come from former French colonies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Many find themselves in a paradox: French law guarantees protection for unaccompanied minors under the International Convention on the Rights of the Child – but proving they qualify for that protection is increasingly difficult.

The X-ray bone examination is hardly ever carried out nowadays, the age assessment tests is mainly through interviews.

“This is problematic for us because it is not based on scientific evidence and it looks like the interviewer can decide whatever they choose to believe,” Hamadou said.

A hot potato

Mohamed Gnabaly, mayor of Ile-Saint-Denis and member of the Green party, told RFI that the Gaîté Lyrique case shows how different institutions bounce responsibility back and forth.

“It is fine as long as they remain invisible. The unaccompanied migrant minors became a problem because they were a sore sight right in the centre of the capital city,” he said.

“And this fed the racist speech we heard about them within both the ranks of the government and the far-right.”

Fousseni, from the Belleville park youth group which helped organise the occupation, said the delays and lack of shelter push the minors into impossible choices.

“By the time many have built up their case while trying not to get arrested, they have already reached 18,” he said.

The Municipality of Paris brought the case to court in January. A court then issued an order on 13 February for the theatre to be evacuated within one month. When the city failed to act by the deadline, police chief Laurent Nunes said he had to intervene.

“The Municipality of Paris [owner of the theatre] did not contact me by 13 March. I had to take my responsibilities and put an end to this occupation which was disrupting public order,” Nunes said on the TV programme C à vous.

“The Municipality of Paris asked for details on what accommodation would be given to the young people and how they were to be treated,” he added. “This to me implicitly meant that the Municipality of Paris did not want security forces to intervene.”

Caught in the clash

On 18 March, riot police used batons and tear gas to enter the theatre, pushing past human chains formed by activists, civilians and politicians.

“This show of force and attacking vulnerable black migrant minors is the first step of the military discourse the government and the far-right is currently using,” Danièle Obono, an MP from the left-leaning France Unbound party, told RFI.

Police evict migrants from Paris theatre after months-long occupation

Belleville parc youth group reported that around 60 people were arrested, including minors and adult supporters. Ten were injured. So far, 25 minors have been issued deportation orders – a move the group says violates their legal rights.

“This is illegal because they are minors and are currently being processed by the ministry of Justice to prove that they are under 18,” said Fousseni. “They cannot be thrown out of the French territory like used tissue papers.”

Differing perspectives

Government officials say the situation is not as clear-cut. Minister François-Noël Buffet told parliament that the youths were mostly over 18. The government and far-right groups blamed them for damage and losses to neighbouring businesses.

Mayor Hidalgo defended the eviction, saying the situation had become unsafe.

“There are around 8,000 young undocumented migrants who arrive in Paris every year. Approximately 2,500 of them are recognised as minors and are immediately taken care of,” she told France Inter.

“The situation was tensed, dangerous and very complicated.”

Hidalgo said accommodation had been offered, but turned down.

Fousseni said the offer was in Rouen – too far from Paris, where most of the young people are enrolled in school, receiving healthcare and attending legal appointments. Only six accepted the placement.

Billionaire Elon Musk commented on the case on X, writing: “Another case of suicidal empathy… it will end civilization. Game over.” He later added, “They’re exploiting a bug in Western civilisation which is the empathy response.”

Uncertain future

For Hamadou, the eviction had immediate consequences.

“I couldn’t breathe. I escaped with only the clothes I am now wearing,” he said. His suitcase, containing all the documents gathered to prove his age, was lost in the chaos.

Now, he and others like him try not to sleep in the same place twice, fearing police checks. They depend on charities for food.

“The greatest danger they now face is police violence,” said Fousseni. “Police in Paris are preventing the unaccompanied migrants to sleep in the streets of the city. They are being pushed to the outskirts of Paris.”

La Gaîté Lyrique management had supported the occupation at first, despite cancelling shows and taking financial losses.

“It is out of question to throw them out in the streets where it is freezing cold. We regret, however that we were taken over so suddenly,” it said in a communiqué last December.

The theatre later criticised the lack of coordination between the Paris Municipality and the national government, which left the minors in limbo for three months.

For thousands of unaccompanied minors across France, the system remains opaque, slow and unforgiving – and the stakes are growing by the day.

Since the start of the year, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has moved to drastically cut the country’s long-term aid commitments, aiming to save approximately $60 billion on overseas development and humanitarian assistance programmes.

The United Kingdom has also announced a deep cut in its budget for emergency and development aid, which it says it needs to do to develop its defence strategy. Other European countries have indicated that they might do the same.

France launches commission to evaluate overseas aid, amid far-right criticism

These decisions are already impacting emergency aid systems in many countries, including Sudan and Congo, as well as public health initiatives in nations such as Kenya and South Africa.

Sudan reels as US suspends aid amid ongoing war

Spotlight on Africa reached out to three experts involved in rethinking the future of aid.

Jeffrey Okoro is the executive director of the NGO CFK Africa in Kenya. He said that since the decision of the US government to freeze US Agency for International Development (USAID) spending in January, Kenyans working in healthcare have been hit hard. The decision has already disrupted efforts to stop the spread of diseases like HIV and tuberculosis.

“A sizeable portion of the Kenyan government funding for health counselling comes from international organisations from foreign governments,” Okoro told RFI from his office in Kenya.

US grant cuts could affect two million worldwide, disrupt HIV aid in Kenya

Meanwhile, Ivor Ichikowitz, chairman of the philanthropic Ichikowitz Family Foundation, based in Johannesburg, which focuses on growth and development across the African continent, says that the decrease in aid and the rise of European investment, as discussed at a conference in South Africa recently, could, in fact, have positive results.

EU flags stronger partnership with South Africa with €4.7bn investment

We also  talk to Patrick Gathara, a Kenyan columnist and senior editor at The New Humanitarian, a website covering conflicts and humanitarian issues. He argues that the aid industry has long reinforced imperial domination, and its collapse could create an opportunity to establish a new order. He explains how.

Episode mixed by Erwan Rome.

Spotlight on Africa is produced by Radio France Internationale’s English language service.

Aix-Marseille University launched the “Safe Space for Science” initative earlier this month, offering to take in American scientists fleeing the US after the Trump administration announced it would pull funding and putting restrictions on some areas of research.

Forty US scientists have “answered the call”, the university said in a press release this week.

They include academics from Stanford, Yale, NASA, the National Institute for Health (NIH), and George Washington University.

Most of the research topics are related to health  – LGBT+ medicine, epidemiology, infectious diseases, inequalities, immunology, etc.), the environment and climate change, plus the humanities, social science and astrophysics, the statement said.

Ex-NOAA chief: Trump firings put lives, jobs, and science in jeopardy

‘New brain drain’

“We are witnessing a new brain drain,” Benton said in the statement,issued on Wednesday.

“We will do everything possible to help as many scientists as possible continue their research.”

The first American scientist arrived at Aix-Marseille this week. Andrea, a specialist in infectious diseases and epidemics, was working on the African continent.

“The main impact of Donald Trump’s policies on my work is that it’s created a climate of utter uncertainty and fear,” she told France Info. “And even if I still have a job, and we receive funds, there is no information on whether the financing will continue.”

Aix-Marseille says it can raise €15 million to support around 13 US scientists, but insisted it would not be able to meet all the requests on its own. Benton has called on the French and other European governments to help.

French scientists join US protests in face of Trump administration’s ‘sabotage’

The Trump administration’s cuts have already had an impact. On Tuesday, UMass Chan – a public medical school in Massachusetts – announced a freeze on hiring citing “ongoing uncertainties related to federal funding of biomedical research”. Students who had already been accepted were informed by email that their admissions for autumn 2025 term were rescinded.

In a bar in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, Maya orders an espresso. Five years ago, during the first Covid-19 lockdown, meeting like this in a café would have been impossible. 

“I think it’s crazy that we went through that, and now, I don’t think about it anymore. I love going out. I’m definitely not a homebody,” the 24-year-old told RFI. 

However, she does still have painful memories of that period. Her mother worked at the Regional Health Agency (ARS) and came home with news of terrible statistics every day. 

But the worst, for Maya, came after that first lockdown. “I moved into an apartment on my own, but there I was much more isolated, I think. My studies were bothering me,” she explains.

“Honestly, I kind of fell into depression during that time. It was weird because, at the same time, it was nice not to be confined anymore, in the sense that I was doing a lot of things in my apartment. But I wasn’t stimulated at all. I enjoyed my day itself, but I didn’t see the point of having a second one.” 

Maya is feeling better now and doesn’t miss an opportunity to go out. For her, it’s a way to reclaim some of the youth that was stolen from her.

Five years on from the Covid-19 pandemic, what legacy has the virus left?

For other young people, however, the outside world has become threatening since the lockdowns. “I’m not necessarily going to walk around, visit Paris, go to museums or things like that alone,” says Élisa, 28. “I’d like to do it more, but I don’t feel capable of it.”

She has always been a bit of a homebody – she likes being in her tidy, cosy apartment, with a book in hand or watching a good TV series. But it was after the lockdown that her anxiety began.

“For example, going grocery shopping takes huge mental preparation. Or if I arrive in a place where I don’t know many people and I’m going to have to socialise, my body reacts, my body can’t breathe, without knowing why,” she said.

“It really annoys me to be like this when I’m in Paris, I’m young, I’m 28. I have so many things to live for and I’m actually getting anxious about things that, objectively, aren’t a big deal.” 

Social media, eco-anxiety and international conflicts

According to a study of 20 million young people in France, published on 7 January in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “a significant increase in mental health consultations, hospitalisations, and prescriptions for antidepressants, mood stabilisers, and antipsychotics was found among young people, particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic”.

The findings continued: “This trend aligned with studies indicating that Covid-19 infection and lockdowns have had biological and societal impacts on the mental health of the youth.” 

The study also found that this change was particularly marked among females 

But while the lockdown has left scars on France’s young people, five years on it is not the sole cause of their distress. 

“It’s true that these particular circumstances did weaken students, isolated them, and may have anticipated this decline in their mental health,” says Melissa Macalli, a researcher at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) who studies the mental health of young adults.

She added: “It’s also true that the causes are probably multiple: worsening instability, feelings of loneliness, the impact of social media. But also collective environmental factors that have been added – especially eco-anxiety, international conflicts and the global political situation, which worries them a lot.”

This report was adapted from the RFI podcast Reportage en France produced by Lou Ecalle.

“You know, everything in this life passes at an incredible speed. I didn’t see the time go by,” Salgado said, upon opening the exhibition at the Franciscaines cultural centre. “I’ve done a lot of things, I’ve travelled, I’ve captured images. And this morning, when I arrived here, I felt a summary of my life and it moved me deeply.”

The photographer, who has spent much of his life in Paris and in 2019 was given a place in France’s prestigious institution for artists, the Academy of Fine Arts, explained that he was feeling “a bit battered” due to medical reasons.

“The happiest day of my life was when I turned 80. I’ve lost so many friends. We were all together in Goma [Democratic Republic of Congo] for four years, four photographers were murdered, and I was there. So being alive at 80 is an immense privilege.”

For this exhibition, supported by the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP), Salgado took part in selecting the photos, which are being displayed in smaller formats to offer a better vision of his work.

It is a body of work spanning more than 40 years, in which he travelled to all corners of the world, capturing themes as diverse as the precarious nature of manual labour amid the transformation of the industrial world – as seen in “The Hand of Man” – and human migration, as seen in “Exodus”.

‘An immense universe’

“As a photographer, we ask ourselves questions […] about security, legitimacy, ethics, and more generally about the world,” Salgado explained.

His work has taken him to more than 130 countries, photographing gold mines, oil fields in Kuwait during the Gulf War and the genocide in Rwanda. This, he says, was his most difficult assignment, and he eventually had to stop covering it on the advice of his doctor.

After this, he returned to Brazil with his family for three months and began reconsidering his work as a photographer.

“Before, I believed in one species: mine. What made me completely lose hope in my species was discovering that we are a terrible, violent, horrible species, that we are destroying our planet. And discovering other species, I fell that I was part of an immense universe of species.”

In 1998, he created the non-profit organisation Instituto Terra with his wife Lélia Wanick Salgado to restore the ecosystem in the Rio Doce Basin in Brazil.

‘The Amazon is paradise on earth’

For his series “Genesis” (2004-2011), Salgado traveled from the Galapagos to the Amazon, via Africa and the Arctic. “It’s perhaps one of the most interesting journeys of everything I’ve done in my life. Because the Amazon is paradise on earth,” he said.

“These Amazonian populations are the prehistory of humanity. They are us from 10,000 years ago. They live in such a pleasant, gentle way, in communion with nature. There are no lies, there is no repression.”

However, contemplating what he had learned from these trips, Salgado said: “I travelled for eight years across 32 countries or regions of the world, but the greatest journeys I’ve made are within myself.”

The exhibition Sebastião Salgado: The MEP Collection runs until 1 June, 2025 at the Franciscaines venue in Deauville.

All three teams advanced on Tuesday and Wednesday to the quarter-finals of the Champions League to continue the projection of the RDB’s “Visit Rwanda” logo in European club football’s most prestigious competition.

PSG progressed at the expense of Liverpool following a penalty shoot-out at Anfield. Bayern cruised past Bundesliga rivals Bayer Leverkusen 5-0 on aggregate and Arsenal spanked the Dutch outfit PSV Eindhoven 9-3 over two legs.

In the last eight, PSG will play Aston Villa, Bayern will take on Inter Milan and Arsenal will face defending champions Real Madrid.

While the clubs battle for supremacy, their association with the RDB is coming under increasing scrutiny due to rows over the involvement of Rwandan troops in the M23 group which is fighting soldiers from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Human rights groups as well as the United Nations say they have evidence that Rwanda is actively bolstering the M23 in its sweep through Goma and Bukavu in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.

Authorities in Kigali deny providing arms and troops to M23 rebels. They say Rwandan forces are acting in self-defence against the Congolese army and militias hostile to Rwandans, especially Tutsi.

Possible deal

But as Angolan officials attempt to broker a peace deal between the Congolese president Félix Tshisekedi and M23 leaders, campaigners in Europe have called on the football clubs to terminate their contracts with a brand that they claim has become tarnished.

“Ideally, the contract should end immediately,” said Jordan Madiande who launched a petition in January with his cousin Lionel Tambwe calling for PSG’s deal with the RDB to be severed.

Arsenal’s association with “Visit Rwanda” began in May 2018. Its logo appears on the shirt sleeves of Arsenal’s men’s, women’s and youth teams and can be seen on boards at the Emirates Stadium in north London and on interview backdrops.

PSG signed its initial contract with the RDB in 2019. It was renewed in May 2023 and is scheduled to end after the 2025 season.

Under the PSG deal with the RDB, the logo “Visit Rwanda” appears on the training and warm-up kits of the men’s teams. Rwandan tea and coffee is also served at kiosks and in the suites at the PSG stadium. In both instances current and former players travel to Rwanda for promotional tours.

“If it’s not renewed, that will be acceptable,” added Madiande whose parents came to France from the DRC in the 1980s. “It will still be a victory.”

The 32-year-old social worker’s petition states that as an internationally respected club, PSG has an important role to play in promoting positive values.

It adds: “However, by maintaining this partnership with “Visit Rwanda”, our club could be perceived as ignoring the geopolitical and humanitarian realities of this situation, and risk giving the impression that it is turning a blind eye to human rights violations.”

Comment

PSG has yet to comment publicly on the petition which has amassed 73,000 signatures nor has there been a response to a letter from the DRC’s minister of foreign affairs, Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner.

In January, she called on PSG’s bosses as well as their counterparts at Arsenal and Bayern Munich to review their sponsorship deals.

“At a time when Rwanda is waging war, Rwanda’s guilt in this conflict has become indisputable,” wrote  Kayikwamba Wagner. “Your sponsor is directly responsible for this misery.”

Arsenal have maintained their links with the RDB so too Bayern Munich who dispatched a fact-finding team to Rwanda.

Congo’s government says at least 7,000 people have died in the fighting since January. According to the UN humanitarian affairs office (Ocha), at least 600,000 people have been displaced by the fighting since November.

“Maybe before, PSG’s executives didn’t really know what was going on or they didn’t understand the scale of it,” said Madiande.

“But new things are happening. Bukavu was taken since the petition began. There are the UN reports that say what is happening and there are international reports from human rights organisations. We didn’t invent it. So the question is now, can PSG go on with this?”

Contract

The controversy surrounding the 15 million-euro a year contract has also illuminated the extent and depth of Rwanda’s footprint in the world of sport.

Rwanda and South Africa are both bidding to stage a Formula 1 grand prix in 2027 – potentially the continent’s first such race since 1993. A state-of-the-art track is being built to F1 standards close to Kigali’s new Bugesera airport in the case of success.

In September, Rwanda will welcome the world cycling championships – the first time since its inception in 1921 that the planet’s elite operators will compete in Africa.

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame was also one of the strongest advocates for the establishment in 2021 of the Basketball Africa League. Critics say such promotion is sportswashing –  using sporting events to gloss over official clampdowns on political opponents and human rights abuses. 

“It is very much part of Kagame’s toolkit,” said Michela Wrong, author of several books on the region including Rwanda Assassins sans frontierès. “He does sportswashing superbly well.

“And it’s because it works in his favour, He’s also genuinely an Arsenal fan, so he likes to go and watch the matches himself.

“Rwanda is managing to get its its message out to a very particular audience. It’s a young audience. It’s a trendy audience. It’s an audience that possibly isn’t that well informed about the niceties of African politics over the last 30 years and one that can’t really be bothered to read up on that sort of detail.

“So it’s a way of sort of going over the heads of people like me and journalists. Rwanda goes over our heads and reaches a young audience that really doesn’t want to engage with those issues. So I think it’s a very effective way of marketing a certain kind of message.

“This is sportswashing taken to quite a very high level, a level that I don’t think you can see anywhere else in Africa.”

In February, the RDB, responded to queries about its sponsorship deals on social media. It claimed the DRC was undermining its international partnerships through misinformation and political pressure.

“These efforts threaten regional peace, stability, and economic cooperation,” said the message on X. “These collaborations transcend borders, inspire millions across Africa, and contribute to the continent’s socioeconomic progress.”

Madiande, a life-long PSG fan, said he would wait to see if the PSG sponsorship deal were to be renewed before deciding if the campaign should be escalated.

“We think that clubs are intelligent and that they will understand that this is serious,” he said. 

“We think that with the values defended by PSG, Arsenal and Bayern Munich and especially with their histories, that it’s going to stop. But if it doesn’t, there will be further action. It will be more visible.”

 Ligue 1 pacesetters PSG host arch rivals Marseille at the Parc des Princes on Sunday night. Victory over the visitors, who occupy second place, would extend PSG’s lead to 19 points with eight games remaining.

“I’ve been a PSG fan for as long as I can remember,” said Madiande. “But if their approach doesn’t change, I’ll have to ask myself lots of questions. That will be hard. I’ve supported them when they nearly went down to the second division and I’m still a supporter now when things are going better.

“They really can’t need this money from this source. There must be many organisations out there willing to be associated with the club.”

The United States has historically been the world’s biggest donor of humanitarian assistance, but President Donald Trump has slashed international aid since returning to the White House two months ago, putting the entire humanitarian community into a tailspin.

UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima said that if the US funding is not reinstated or others do not step in to fill the gap, “there will be an additional… 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths”, a 10-fold increase, in the next four years alone.

“You’re talking of losing the gains that we have made over the last 25 years. It is very serious,” she told reporters in Geneva.

“It is reasonable for the United States to want to reduce its funding over time, but the sudden withdrawal of life-saving support is having a devastating impact,” she said.

“The US cuts mean that today, 27 countries in Africa and Asia are experiencing shortages of staff, disruptions of diagnostics treatment and surveillance systems are collapsing.”

Tale of how French experts became the first to discover HIV virus

Global resurgence risk

Looking beyond the next four years, if aid funding is not restored, “we see the AIDS pandemic… resurging globally”, growing in Eastern Europe and Latin America, Byanyima said.

“We’ll see it come back, and we’ll see people die the way we saw them in the ’90s and in the 2000s.”

She hailed US leadership in the fight against AIDS as “the greatest acts of humanity in global health”.

She highlighted the US anti-HIV initiative PEPFAR, which is considered one of the world’s most successful public health efforts, having saved an estimated 26 million lives over two decades.

Now, thanks to US innovations, the world is “at the cusp of another revolution in prevention treatment”, Byanyima said, pointing to a new drug called lenacapavir, developed by US pharmaceutical giant Gilead.

Spotlight on Africa: Is the future of aid at risk and ready for change?

Trials have showed the drug to be 100 percent effective, and Byanyima said tests were under way towards providing it as a single injection per year – far more afforable for low-income countries.

“That is almost like a flu vaccine,” she said. “If this could be rolled out ambitiously … we could cut down new infections to close to zero. We could see the end of AIDS.”

Byanyima appealed to the “deal-maker” Trump directly, insisting that rescuing the global HIV response was “an amazing deal”: lenacapavir is able to “make profits for Gilead, to create good jobs for Americans and to save lives”.

She suggested that when PEPFAR is brought back online, UNAIDS could work with the United States and other donors to help low-income countries become self-sufficient in the fight against HIV.

(With newswires)

The demonstrations began in Istanbul after Ekrem Imamoglu’s arrest last week on charges of “corruption” and “supporting a terrorist organisation”.

The protests have since spread to more than 55 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, sparking clashes with riot police and drawing international condemnation.

The popular 53-year-old Imamoglu has been widely seen as the only politician who could defeat Turkey’s longtime leader Erdogan at the ballot box.

Erdogan’s local election defeat reshapes Turkey’s political landscape

In just four days he went from being the mayor of Istanbul – a post that launched Erdogan‘s political rise decades earlier – to being arrested, interrogated, jailed and stripped of the mayorship as a result of a graft and terror probe.

On Sunday, he was overwhelmingly voted in as the main opposition CHP’s candidate for the 2028 presidential run, with the ballot – that was opened beyond the party’s 1.7 million members – attracting 15 million votes.

A party spokesman on Monday confirmed his election as the party’s candidate.

‘Serious attack on democracy’

The developments in Turkey drew sharp condemnation from France and Germany.

The jailing of Ekrem Imamoglu and other political figures “constitutes a serious attack on democracy”, a spokesman for France’s foreign ministry said Sunday.

Noting that Turkey had said it would protect the rights of opposition politicians, the spokesman added: “The respect of these commitments is a central element of our relations as well as relations between Turkey and the European Union.” 

Germany said it was following developments with “great concern”.

“The arrest and suspension of the mayor of Istanbul is totally unacceptable. This must be clarified very quickly and transparently,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told a press conference.

Deepfake videos used in local elections in Turkey as Erdogan battles for Istanbul

He said Germany had made “great efforts” to promote good ties between Turkey and the European Union.

“The latest developments are a bad sign for democracy in Turkey but also for the future development of these relations,” Hebestreit said.

A foreign ministry spokesman said German officials had held talks with Turkey’s envoy to Berlin.

“I can confirm… that a meeting with the Turkish ambassador took place this morning,” Christian Wagner told the press conference.

Journalists among those arrested

Police have detained more than 1,133 people over “illegal activities” since the protests began Wednesday, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X, saying they included “individuals affiliated with 12 different terrorist organisations”.

Early Monday, Istanbul governor Davut Gul accused demonstrators of “damaging mosques and cemeteries”, warning: “Any attempt to disrupt public order will not be tolerated,” he wrote on X.

Faced with the massive protests, Turkey’s authorities sought to shut down more than 700 accounts on X, the online platform said Sunday.

Early on Monday, police detained 10 Turkish journalists at home, including an AFP photographer, “for covering the protests”, the MLSA rights group said in a statement.

It said most of them were covering the mass demonstrations outside City Hall, where tens of thousands rallied late Sunday, a move denounced by Imamoglu’s wife.

“What is being done to members of the press and journalists is a matter of freedom. None of us can remain silent about this,” wrote Dilek Kaya Imamoglu on X.

(with AFP)

The Angolan president, Joao Lourenço was named mediator by the AU in 2022 in an attempt to end the conflict involving the M23 which stepped up its offensives in January and seized large swathes of land in mineral-rich eastern DRC.

Rwanda denies providing the M23 with military assistance. President Paul Kagame’s administration says it faces a threat in the region from the FDLR group, founded by ethnic Hutu leaders involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsis.

“Angola recognises the need to free itself from the responsibility of mediating this conflict … in order to more comprehensively focus on the general priorities established by the continental organisation,” the presidency said in a statement.

“Angola has always believed in the need for direct negotiations between the DRC government and the M23,” the presidency added.

Since the end of 2021, several ceasefires and truces have been agreed before being broken. 

Angola, which took up the rotating presidency of the AU two months ago, said that it would work with the AU Commission to find another mediator.

‘Fruitful meeting’

The announcement comes less than a week after talks scheduled to be held in Angola’s capital, Luanda, were cancelled after the M23 pulled out following the imposition of EU sanctions on some of its top brass.

Referring to the cancelled Luanda talks, the Angolan presidency said the negotiations had been aborted “due to a combination of factors, including some external elements unrelated to the ongoing African process”.

On the same day as the scheduled meeting in Luanda, the government of Qatar announced it had hosted Kagame and his Congolese counterpart, Felix Tshisekedi, for talks.

After the meeting, Qatari officials released a statement. It said the presidents reaffirmed their commitment to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire as agreed at an African summit in February.

“The fruitful meeting helped build confidence in a shared commitment to a secure and stable future for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region,” the statement added.

Despite the recent attempts to broker a ceasefire, the M23 last week took control of the mining hub of Walikale, the farthest west the group has advanced into the interior of the DRC since 2012.

The hearing was postponed in October because Depardieu was too unwell to appear in court, according to his lawyer.

The names of the two women who have accused him of the assaults have not been made public.

Both worked with Depardieu on the film Les volets verts (The green shutters), filmed in a private house in Paris in 2021.

Depardieu, 76, has denied the charges, and his lawyer said he would provide “witnesses and evidence that will show he has simply been targeted by false accusations”.

Since his debut in the late 1960s, Depardieu has featured in more than 200 films and won a clutch of domestic and international awards to become a giant of French cinema.

He is also facing allegations of sexual harassment and assault from more than a dozen women, but enjoys the support of many in the film industry, who say he is the subject of a witch hunt.

Dozens of French actors denounce ‘lynching’ of Depardieu

A Paris court is still deciding whether to go ahead with a second trial for his alleged rape and sexual assault of Charlotte Arnould, the first woman to file a criminal complaint against Depardieu in 2018.

Depardieu is also under investigation for alleged tax fraud. French tax investigators suspect him of falsely declaring his tax residency as Belgium since 2013 to avoid paying taxes in France.

Financial crime prosecutors opened a probe in February, which resulted in raids in France and Belgium as well as police interviews, although the actor has not been questioned.

‘Fall of the ogre’: Depardieu sparks #MeToo moment in French cinema

In 2012 Depardieu said he would move to Belgium to protest a wealth tax introduced by then-president François Hollande.

His move to Nechin, a small town near the French border known as a haven for wealthy French people, sparked criticism in France, with Depardieu then threatening to give up his citizenship.

He acquired Russian citizenship in 2013 from President Vladimir Putin, who Depardieu has praised, calling him “the man Russia needs”.

The Airbus A320 belonging to Lufthansa’s low-cost carrier Germanwings met its end on 24 March, 2015 near the small Alpine village of Le Vernet while on its way from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.

The crash killed all 144 passengers and six crew – a group of people from 20 countries, among them 72 Germans and 50 Spaniards.

Families of the victims in Vernet on Monday marked a minute of silence at 10:41 am (09:41 GMT), the exact moment a decade earlier when their loved ones died.

Several French, German and Spanish officials laid wreaths in Le Vernet’s cemetery, where unidentified victims were buried in a mass grave.

Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr said the tragedy still haunted the company and guided its thinking on “responsibility”.

Former mayor Bertrand Bartolini told French news agency AFP that visiting the crash site, where rescuers retrieved thousands of body parts amid the wreckage, had deeply scarred him.

It was a “place of absolute horror,” he said. “I saw things there that I will never be able to talk about.”

Grief-stricken families and media soon poured into the remote community, and Bartolini found himself having to sign death certificates for 150 people in multiple copies.

He said he still remembers the German couple who died with their 18-month-old son and the recently married Moroccan couple who had planned to board an earlier flight but were delayed for bureaucratic reasons.

Students among the victims

The victims also included 16 students and two teachers from a high school in the western German town of Haltern am See.

The teenagers and staff were heading home after a week-long school exchange in Spain.

But as flight 4U 9525 cruised above France, 27-year-old Andreas Lubitz, who had depression, took the decision that sealed the fate of everyone aboard.

When the pilot, Captain Patrick Sondenheimer, left the cockpit for a bathroom break, Lubitz locked the door behind him and set the autopilot into a steady descent.

In the flight’s last minutes, the voice recorder only picks up Lubitz’s breathing as he ignores calls from air traffic controllers while the screaming pilot tries to pry open the door with a crowbar.

Germanwings A320 crash: pilot locked out of cockpit

Nina Theaudin, a German who runs a nearby campsite, helped interpret for the families of the victims when they arrived in Le Vernet afterwards.

She told AFP she had developed long-term relationships with some of those relatives over the years as they returned to the area to hike up to the crash site.

She became friends with the family of a teenage girl from Haltern am See who died in the crash, and her own daughter went to stay with them in 10th grade.

(with AFP)

European countries including France have been seeking to boost defence spending and increase weapons production in the face of possible US security disengagement and Russian aggression linked to the war in Ukraine.

Macron said on Tuesday that France was going to “increase and accelerate Rafale orders”.

Dassault Aviation chief executive Eric Trappier said the company had increased output from one war plane a month in 2020 to more than two per month this year, and was working with suppliers to be able to produce combat planes even faster.

“We are planning to deliver three per month next year, and four from 2028-2029,” he told Sunday weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

Macron says France to ‘increase’ orders for Rafale warplanes

“We have heard the president’s call and are studying the possibility of ramping up to five Rafale per month. There are no concrete orders yet, but we want to be ready,” he said.

However, he did not say when this might be possible.

Trappier said that, if the French government approved, the company would also be “ready to provide its services” to any country reviewing its orders for US-made F-35 combat planes since President Donald Trump took office.

Over reliance on US supplies

Germany on Friday said it was committed to buying F-35 fighter jets despite reports that it was reconsidering due to worries about an over-reliance on US defence supplies.

But Canada said last week it was reviewing a major purchase of F-35s amid serious tensions over tariffs and Trump threatening to annex the country.

That announcement came two days after Portugal said it, too, was re-examining a possible purchase of F-35 fighter jets.

France’s Macron visits Serbia with sights on Rafale jet deal

Trappier said that Portugal had not yet reached out to his company.

Last year, France’s air force had 108 Rafale jets, and the navy had 41. France was due to receive 56 additional aircraft before Macron’s announcement.

The defence minister last month said the air force needed 20 to 30 more Rafales to face a crisis scenario.

(with AFP)

France advanced to a clash with Spain following a penalty shoot-out win over Croatia on Sunday night at the Stade de France.

Croatia, who won the first leg 2-0 last Thursday at the Stadion Poljud in Split, were under the cosh from the outset.

But despite the domination, the hosts, led by Real Madrid striker Kylian Mbappé, could not find a way past the Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Likakovic.

The breakthrough came just after the pause from a set piece. Referee Michael Oliver penalised Duje Caleta-Car’s rugged hack on Mbappé 20 metres outside the Croatia penalty area.

And from the resulting free-kick, Michael Olise lifted a sumptuous strike over the wall and into the net past a stricken Likakovic.

Olise followed up his first goal for the national team by laying on the pass for Ousmane Dembélé to score France’s second in the 80th minute and level the score on aggregate.

Surge

Though France pushed for a winner, the tie went into extra-time and eventually to penalties.

In the ensuing shoot-out, France’s Theo Hernandez had the chance to win the encounter with his side’s fifth penalty but the AC Milan defender blasted his shot over the bar.

That failure made it 3-3 after the regulation five strikes and the shoot-out moved into sudden death.

Caleta-Car converted for Croatia and Désiré Doué responded for France.

After France goalkeeper Mike Maignan saved Josip Stanisic’s effort, Dayot Upamencano thumped his penalty high to the right of Likakovic’s despairing dive to send France into the semis.

“We know that with Mike, we start a shoot-out with an advantage,” said Mbappé after the drama. “He makes a difference.”

In Stuttgart on 5 June, France will play Spain who also needed penalties to see off the Netherlands. The game in Valencia on Sunday night started at 2-2 on aggregate and ended 3-3 after extra-time.

Spain claimed the shoot-out 5-4.

Leading 2-1 from the first leg in Milan, Germany struck three times in the first-half in Dortmund to boast a 5-1 aggregate advantage over Italy.

Though the visitors levelled on the night, the Germans progressed 5-4 on aggregate to a rendez-vous with Portugal who swept past Denmark 5-2 in Lisbon for a 5-3 aggregate victory.

Portugal will play the Germans in the semi-final on 4 June in Munich.

The two defeated semi-finalists will compete for third place on 8 June in Stuttgart before the final in Munich.

Relations between Paris and Algiers have been strained over immigration and since Macron recognised Moroccan sovereignty of the disputed territory of Western Sahara in July last year.

“We will keep President Macron as our sole point of reference,” Tebboune said in an interview broadcast on Algerian television late Saturday night.

“He remains the French president, and all problems must be resolved with him or with the person he delegates.”

The Algerian leader said he had “complete confidence” in his foreign minister Ahmed Attaf, whose ministry has described Algiers as a victim of a “vengeful and hateful French far right”.

Algeria freezes ties with French Senate in latest salvo in Western Sahara dispute

Tensions worsened after Algiers refused to accept the return of undocumented Algerian migrants from France.

One of them, a 37-year-old man went on a stabbing rampage in the eastern city of Mulhouse in February, killing one person and wounding several others.

Hardline French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau threatened a response if Algeria continues to refuse to admit its expelled nationals.

He has led the verbal attacks on Algeria in the media, fuelling tensions between the countries.

Relations were also damaged after the arrest of Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal in November, as he was accused of undermining the country’s territorial integrity and held in Algeria on national security charges.

Global outrage grows over Franco-Algerian writer’s detention in Algeria

Algerian prosecutors have requested a 10-year prison sentence for Sansal, local media reported Thursday. A verdict in the case is expected on March 27.

Macron voiced fears about the health of the author.

The French President also said Sansal — known for his strong support of free speech — was being held in “arbitrary detention” and that resolving the matter would help restore confidence in diplomatic ties.

 (AFP)

Several scuffles between police officers and demonstrators took place in Paris.

The rallies took place amid the rightward shift in French politics, with the government pledging to tighten immigration policies and border controls. Around 62,000 people protested across France, according to police.

Many pointed to the growing strength of reactionary political forces, in France but also in the United States.

In the French capital, thousands of people took to the streets.

“Fascism is gangrene from Washington to Paris,” read one placard.

“The far right is on the rise everywhere in Europe, it’s scary because in France we see far-right ideas becoming more and more commonplace, even among ministers in this government,” said Evelyne Dourille, a 74-year-old pensioner.

One American protester said similar demonstrations should be taking place in the United States.

“America is sliding towards fascism,” said the 55-year-old woman.

Aurelie Trouve, a lawmaker for the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, pointed to the growing popularity of the far-right party of Marine Le Pen in France.

“Far-right ideas are contaminating even the government,” she said.

(link)

In the southern port city of Marseille, some 3,300 people took to the streets, while 2,600 protested in Lille in the north, according to police.

“Against state Islamophobia” and “Tesla is the new swastika,” said some of the placards.

Family’s ‘relief’ as riot officer charged over death of 80-year-old in Marseille

Ines Frehaut, a student who took part in her first demonstration, said some of the statements of France’s hardline interior minister worried her.

“When you see what has said about Islam, Algeria and the wearing of the veil, it’s serious!” she said.

The protests took place a day after the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

“The situation is serious,” the Human Rights League (LDH) said, pointing to an “alarming increase” in racist acts.

“There is a global reactionary offensive against foreigners and their children, against Muslims,” added Dominique Sopo, head of of SOS Racisme, also pointing to increasing racist and anti-Semitic acts.

French far-right leader’s presence at Israel anti-Semitism conference stirs controversy

In the run-up to the rallies the LFI party caused an uproar in France by publishing the image of Cyril Hanouna, one of the most influential stars of right-wing media in the country, as part of a campaign calling on people to turn out for the anti-racism protests.

The image pictured Hanouna, who was born into a Jewish family that had immigrated to France from Tunisia. Critics accused the LFI of imitating the anti-Semitic tropes of the Third Reich. Key LFI figures admitted publishing the image was a “mistake” and it was withdrawn.

 (AFP)

Wifredo Lam, Beauford Delaney, Ernest Breleur, Skunder Boghossian, Christian Lattier, Demas Nwoko, Edward Glissant, Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Grace Jones… These are just some of the artists whose paintings, film and audiovisual works have gone on display at the Pompidou Centre.

And then there are the American creators famed for their work produced in Paris, including Faith Ringgold, Josephine Baker and author James Baldwin. Countries from Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica to Martinique, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal are also among those represented.

An exhibition like ‘Paris Noir‘ has been long awaited at Paris’s flagship modern art museum, despite a strong black, African and Caribbean presence in the French capital, for centuries.

It includes displays on the creation of the seminal magazine Présence Africaine (now also a publishing house) and that of Revue noire, which chronicled the presence and influence of black artists in France between the 1950s and 2000s.

The Pompidou Centre has also included new works by contemporary artists from Transatlantic African American and European communities, such as Jon One, Valérie John, Nathalie Leroy Fiévee, Jay Ramier and Shuck One. 

Black consciousness

Eva Barois De Caevel is one of the exhibition curators. “This in-depth work, a historiographical challenge, is now presenting more than 300 works and even more objects and artefacts,” she told RFI.

The event is the result of two years of work by the Pompidou Centre’s contemporary and prospective creation department, led by Alicia Knock.

Contemporary African culture centre to open in Paris after four-year delay

Knock was particularly insistent on including the works of artists who came to Paris in the 1950s, during the period of anti-colonial struggle which was “organised through alliances between the Americas and Africa”, thanks to methods of resistance born in the Caribbean since the Haitian revolution.

“We could have called the show ‘Paris, Dakar’, ‘Paris, Lagos’, ‘Paris, Johannesburg’, ‘Paris, Havana’, ‘Paris, Fort-de-France’, or ‘Paris, Port-au-Prince’… But this would have been a bias that didn’t interest us,” De Caevel added.

Instead, the museum sought to focus on the idea of a black consciousness, referencing The Black Atlantic, the seminal book by British sociologist and cultural studies academic Paul Gilroy, published in 1993, an exploration of the “double consciousness” of black people in the western world during the modern period.

The curators have included artistic representations of the experience of enslavement and the slave trade, which De Caevel called “unprecedented in the history of humanity, which gives us a common base”.

Equally vital to include was the experience of racism, including institutional racism. “This means that these artists were ignored,” added De Caevel, “and not considered by institutions – until very recently, or even until today.”

Political context

The show is an archive of an immensely rich part of Paris’s history, according to the British photographer Johny Pitts, who worked for more than a decade documenting “black Europe” in his book Afropeans.

“It reminds us that, as well as the art, it is important to show the conditions of production of the art, the politics behind the art, the intellectual movements that have helped to spearhead many black artistic traditions,” he told RFI. “And I’m really glad because sometimes I feel like that gets lost.”

Beyond appreciating the visuals, for him the exhibition helps to highlight the political context in which the art was made.

Post-colonial artists reimagine the future in new Pompidou exhibition in Metz

“I think it’s a very important intervention,” he added. “I loved seeing the collection of Présence Africaine, the books all displayed, and also the work of photographers like Haitian Henri Roy, who’s one of my favourite photographers and has been going for a long time: here, finally, he gets his credit. There’s a lot of work in here that I have seen for the first time, and then artists whose work I actually didn’t know. It’s just so powerful.”

Pitt’s photographs were recently exhibited in the French capital by Little Africa, an art space in Paris’s Goutte d’or neighbourhood founded by a group of African cultural players.

Curated with Little Africa, numerous art, cultural and educational shows have been scheduled in venues across Paris and the Île-de-France region as parallel events reflecting “black Paris” to run intended with the Pompidou Centre’s exhibition.

‘Paris Noir’ is at the Pompidou Centre in Paris until 30 June, 2025. 

Discovered in 2000 by an amateur cave explorer, the Grotte de Cussac holds ancient human remains, traces of long-extinct bears and stunning, fragile artworks. Deep inside this labyrinthine cave, ancient humans who lived around 30,000 years ago carved horses, mammoths and rhinoceros into the walls, creating a prehistoric menagerie that has rarely been seen – until now.

A team of journalists from French news agency AFP has been granted access to the cave, a privilege usually reserved for researchers for just four weeks each year.

After passing through the iron access gate, the group donned white suits, hairnets and gloves and disinfected the soles of their shoes, before crawling through a narrow corridor that crosses a rockfall which has partitioned the area for millennia.

Then, using headlamps, they walked through vast galleries of stalactites and stalagmites on a narrow clay path, carefully following the route taken by caver Marc Delluc, who discovered the cave in September 2000.

Delluc had noticed a draft blowing from within the rocks. After removing several limestone slabs, he uncovered a path which, after following it for around 100 metres, led him to the engravings.

He described experiencing an “adrenaline rush” upon seeing the intertwining shapes and curves above his head. “I realised the privilege granted to me: to enter a place that has been sacred since time immemorial,” Delluc, who passed away in 2017, later recalled.

‘A sanctuary’

The 1.6-kilometre cave contains more than 1,000 carved figures, both animals and stylised feminine forms, drawn on the soft rock during the so-called Gravettian period – between 26,000 and 35,000 years ago, several millennia before the famous Lascaux cave.

“The Grotte de Cussac is exceptional for its well-preserved state. It was probably closed off very soon after it was occupied, which protected the soil and vestiges inside,” said Emeline Deneuve, chief heritage conservationist for the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region’s cultural affairs department.

Archaeological findings on France’s Ile de Ré reveal North Sea trade links

Claw marks and signs of burrowing also attest to the presence of the cave bear, a distant relative of the brown bear. It is in their dens, which they dug for hibernation, that human remains, contemporaneous with the cave art, were found. Six individuals have been identified.

According to Jacques Jaubert, an archaeologist responsible for the multidisciplinary research project, the cave was a “sanctuary” rather than a dwelling. “The group lived outside, in the open or in shelters under the rocks,” he explained.

‘A passage between worlds’

To explain the presence of humans, he believes the cave may have been used for initiation ceremonies – “a rite of passage for adolescents to join the adult world”, which was a practice often observed in primitive hunter-gatherer groups.

The Gravettians may have also perceived the cave “as a passage between the world of the living and the world of the dead,” said Jaubert.

World’s oldest artwork discovered in Indonesian cave

The engravings, which he calls “fragments of mythology,” were made using sharp tools of flint, wood, and bone. They depict bison, ibex, geese and other animals, as well as women, often with giant heads and tiny feet.

Researcher Valerie Feruglio, who uses 3D imaging to study the artworks, said: “After testing the wall with their hands, leaving finger trails, the engraver began with initial animal figures, on which others would overlap,” to illustrate a narrative “told by the artist or the viewer, mainly featuring bisons in friezes, others obscured by horses, or mammoths associated with female silhouettes.”

Strict measures

Researchers in the partially explored cave must adhere to strict measures to preserve this fragile site, which has been listed as a historical monument since 2002 and is protected under environmental law. To ensure the preservation of the site, the French state has also acquired the land above the cave.

“We are the guardians responsible for preserving and documenting the site,” said Deneuve, the conservation chief. “We support the research carried out there, as long as it is in line with conservation and heritage requirements. Documenting the cave and digitising it in 3D is also part of our goal to bring it to the public.”

In October, the Dordogne department opened a free exhibit on the cave in the town of Buisson-de-Cadouin, displaying reproductions of its artworks.

Funding for dinosaur fossil digging falls, as French interest rises

But authorities say there are no plans to open the cave to the public. The state does not want to repeat the mistakes of the Lascaux cave in the same region, which was contaminated by micro-organisms due to an influx of visitors, before its closure in 1963.

(with AFP)

“Critical funding gaps are severely hampering humanitarian efforts in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and beyond, leaving thousands without lifesaving aid and pushing an already dire humanitarian situation closer to catastrophe”, Eujin Byun from UNHCR told reporters in Geneva on Friday.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been internally displaced, while more than 100,000 people have fled to neighbouring countries in less than three months due to fighting between the M23 group and Congolese army, according to the UNHCR.

Shelters that previously housed some 400,000 people forced to flee the fighting in and around the city of Goma in North Kivu province have been destroyed, leaving families stranded without shelter or protection, UNHCR added.

“Due to funding cuts, humanitarian partners are struggling to rebuild shelters, leaving displaced people with few options for survival”, the agency said.

No ceasefire

The leader of a rebel alliance that has seized swathes of east Congo told Reuters on Thursday that insurgents were not bound by a ceasefire call from Congo and Rwanda’s presidents and cast any minerals-for-security deal with the US as “treachery”.

Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame met in Doha on Tuesday for the first time since the latest M23 advance that has seen the rebels seize more territory than ever before.

Tshisekedi and Kagame meet in Qatar for crisis talks on eastern DRC

The meeting came one day after M23 pulled out of direct talks with Tshisekedi’s government that were expected to take place in Angola, and as its fighters pushed deeper into Congolese territory.

Rwanda says cutting diplomatic ties with Belgium, as EU announces sanctions

The conflict in Congo’s east is rooted in the fallout from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and competition for mineral riches. It has spiralled since January, raising fears of a regional conflict akin to those between 1996-2003 that left millions dead.

“We have nothing more to lose. We will fight until our cause is heard,” Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance (AFC) that includes M23, told Reuters on Thursday when asked about the group’s plans.

“We are defending ourselves. So if the threat continues to come from (DR Congo capital) Kinshasa, unfortunately, we will be forced to go and eliminate the threat because the Congo deserves better,” he said during an interview in Goma, eastern Congo’s main city.

“In the meantime, what happened in Doha, as long as we don’t know the details, and as long as it doesn’t solve our problems, we’ll say it doesn’t concern us.”

Rwanda has denied supporting M23 and said its military has been acting in self defence against Congo’s army and militias hostile to Kigali.

 (Reuters)

Sitting on the left bank of the Seine River in Paris, the Musée d’Orsay was originally a railway station, erected for the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition to show off France’s first fleet of electric trains.

This was a period marked by great transformation and development in society, celebrating machinery, transport, medicine and invention.

It was also the heyday of Impressionism, a movement in which artists painted outdoors from life, rather than in a studio from sketches, capturing the fleeting effects of light and colour.

This period also coincided with the origin of atmospheric measurements, which continue to inform scientists today about the pace of global warming, which has increased considerably in recent decades.

Saved from demolition in the 1970s, the Gare d’Orsay was transformed into a temple of art, focused on work produced between 1850 and 1914. 

Today, the Musée d’Orsay’s project “100 works that tell the story of the climate” invites the public to take a closer look at artworks from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the stories they tell, from both an artistic and scientific perspective.

“The battle for the climate is now a cultural one” Servane Dagnies-de Vitry, curator of the project, told RFI.

Climatologists, she says, are aware that facts and figures don’t always drive home the urgency of the environmental message – and that’s where art and culture come into the picture.

Beyond the beauty of the landscapes and the technical rendering of human endeavour, these works represent a certain fragility and ephemeral quality in the face of change and progress, she said.

Artists join scientists at sea to unveil mysteries of marine life

“Artists, by definition, could not have been aware of the greenhouse effect we know so well today,” she added. “Nevertheless, the artists sensed that the world was changing,”

Dagnies-de Vitry gave the example of the painter Théodore Rousseau, who fought to preserve part of the Fontainebleau forest, south east of Paris, where he often set up his easel to paint the landscape.

“He believed that too much logging was being done in this forest for industry, which led to the creation of the world’s first nature reserve,” she explained.

From Brest, to Tulle, Avignon and Pont-Aven, the project sees 49 paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures loaned to smaller museums in 12 different regions around France, from March until July. The 51 other works are on display around the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, with a specially designed guide available for visitors.

Each museums has organised public conferences, guided tours and workshops covering the environmental themes evoked by the artworks, such as deforestation, loss of biodiversity, pollution and the use of fossil fuels.

French climatologist Jean Jouzel is one of four experts interviewed by the Musée d’Orsay in a book published in parallel to the project.

Environmental art project immerses Avignon audiences in the great outdoors

A specialist in greenhouse gases, he was behind the first study demonstrating the link between atmospheric CO2 concentration and global warming, published in 1987.

Using ice samples from the 1980s that came from the Soviet-run Vostok station in Antarctica, his team was able to reconstruct carbon dioxide levels over the last 10,000 years.

Their findings showed that “the concentration of carbon dioxide had never been so high as after the 19th century… undeniably marking the influence of the industrial revolution,” he said.

In partnering with regional museums over several months, the Musée d’Orsay is bringing a focus to the very regions that inspired the artworks, and which are directly affected by climate change, Dargnies-de Vitry explained.

Global temperatures exceeded 1.5C warming limit in 2024

The town of Ornans, whose museum is borrowing “The Trout” by the painter Gustave Courbet, who was from the town in the eastern region of Franche-Comté-Bourgonge. Once abundant, the species is now dying out and its habitat, the Loue River, is under threat. 

Elsewhere, the Girodet Museum in Montargis, central France, will play host to “Flood at Port-Marly” by Alfred Sisley, painted in 1876. The museum’s own collection was severely damaged by an episode of flooding in 2016.

“Art, literature and cinema can arouse emotions, shape stories to transform consciousness,” Dargnies-de Vitry said, adding that she wonders whether such emotional responses can give rise to more ambitious action when it comes to protecting the environment. Time will tell.

“100 works that tell the story of the climate” can be seen at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and 12 regional museums around France until July.

French alcohol consumption has dropped for three decades in a row. Its major export markets are contracting – China’s interest in the French wines hit its high five years ago and US President Donald Trump is threatening to continue his brutal tariffs regime on French-wine imports which he started in his first term.

Already last year, wine industry monitor portal Decanter observed that French wine exports are slumping and that wine region Bordeaux is struggling.

Enter Rosa, a wine consultant from Lagos in Nigeria, who runs a high-end wine consultancy in Bordeaux.

“Will you stop focusing on China? Will you stop focusing on the US?” she asks. “All of France’s marketing is concentrated on these places.”

Rosa, 49, started working in the wine industry in her home city in 2008, buying a wine shop.

She moved to Bordeaux in 2015 with her French husband, creating the Bordeaux Business Network and, more importantly, ‘Vines by Rosa’, a wine marketing, export and events business, of which she is the CEO. 

Today, she divides her time between France and Africa, spreading her knowledge of French wines at high-end events, hosting gala dinners that are attended by France’s top diplomats and members of local groups of entrepreneurs. 

Trump’s tariffs

Unlike many French wine and champagne producers, Rosa is not too worried about Trump’s threats of slamming 200 percent tariffs on wine and champagne products. 

The first Trump administration imposed a 25 percent tariff on French wine on 18 October 2019, as part of a broader trade dispute related to subsidies for the Airbus group, a major rival to US aircraft manufacturer Boeing. 

At the time, the tariffs significantly impacted French wine exports to the US, causing a substantial decline in imports, which dropped from $130 million in October 2019 to $57.1 million in November 2019.

At the end of that year, Trump threatened to impose another 100 percent, this time after the Office of the US Trade Representative published results of an investigation that concluded that France was discriminating against US tech companies.

These tariffs were never imposed. Incoming president Joe Biden cancelled Trump’s 25 percent, after which French exports grew again. 

But still, the 200 percent tariffs Trump is now toying with could prove catastrophic for the French wine industry. 

China’s slump

And then there is China.

Its potential 1.4 billion strong market has long been a magnet for French wine makers, who went there to create joint-ventures or exported their products.

Over the decades, France became the leading supplier of wine to China. But since 2018, China’s wine imports have been declining as a result of the sluggish economy, aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Is Chinese passion for French wine a threat to its future?

Meanwhile, in the 2022 book Le Vin, Le Rouge, La Chine (“Wine, Red, China”) by wine watcher Laurence Lemaire still counted 165 vineyards that were bought up by Chinese investors, 153 of which in the Bordeaux region alone, which shipped much of their produce back to China to high-end users happy to enjoy an imported glass of Bordeaux.

But this number is declining fast with many Chinese investors currently withdrawing from the Bordeaux region due to lack of profitability.

In December last year, the wine magazine Wein Plus reported that Chinese investors are fleeing Bordeaux, and that 50 chateaux left by them are now for sale. 

Ignored

But Rosa thinks French wine exporters have to think out of the box.

It’s time to find alternatives, she says, in countries such as Brazil, India and Africa. 

“These are places that were ignored by the Bordeaux wines in the past. It can’t be that way anymore,” she says. “You have to embrace every market possible, You cannot rely on the old.”

But there’s work to be done. In the past, Bordeaux wines depended solely on their name, assuming that the brand “Bordeaux” would guarantee good sales.

But, according to Rosa, attitudes have changed, and the Bordelais are more engaged into marketing, and selling the brand.

But that may be not enough. 

“I don’t believe you can sell the product to people, just because you think you are the best,” she says. She urges wine sellers who want to enter the African market to hop in a plane and travel there in person. 

“You meet the people. You need to learn the taste of the people. Then you fine-tune yourself to their taste. And when you’re making wine, whether you like it or not, it will affect your decisions about how you make the wine that you want to sell there.”

In her native Nigeria, she already sees that French wine is growing in popularity, even in the face of stiff competition from South African wines, and, more importantly, beer. 

“Beer will always be number one in Nigeria,” says Rosa. “We are in a hot climate, people want something refreshing.

“But wine is getting there, we have about 20 percent of our wine being sold in Nigeria, and every year there’s an increase,” she says. 

Imamoglu’s opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has denounced the detention as a “coup” and vowed to keep up the demonstrations, which by Thursday night had spread to at least 32 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, according to a count by French news agency AFP.

Opposition leader Ozgur Ozel told supporters: “This is not the time for politics in rooms and halls but on the streets and squares.”

Imamoglu was arrested in a pre-dawn raid on Wednesday, on corruption and terror charges, ahead of his expected election on Sunday as the CHP’s candidate for Turkey’s presidential elections in 2028. 

According to political analyst Mesut Yegen of the Reform Institute, an Istanbul-based think tank, Imamoglu is more than just a mayor. 

“Imamoglu is now [Erdogan’s] main rival, it’s obvious,” Yegen told RFI, adding that as Istanbul‘s mayor he has a unique opportunity. “Istanbul is important for the resources it has, it’s the biggest municipality. Here in Turkey, municipalities are important to finance politics.”

Popular appeal

Opinion polls give Imamoglu – who defeated Erdogan’s AK party three times in mayoral elections – a double-digit lead over Erdogan. This is because he is widely seen as reaching beyond his secular political base to religious voters, nationalists and Turkey’s large Kurdish constituency. 

Some observers see Imamoglu’s arrest as a sign that Erdogan is reluctant to confront the mayor in presidential elections.

“If Erdogan could beat him politically with regular rules, he would love that. But he cannot be doing that. Erdogan wants to take him out of the political sphere one way or the other,” explained Sezin Oney, a commentator on Turkey‘s independent Politikyol news outlet. 

“The competitive side has started to be too much of a headache for the presidency, so they want to get rid of the competitive side and emphasise the authoritarian side, with Imamoglu as the prime target,” she said.

Erdogan’s local election defeat reshapes Turkey’s political landscape

Turkey’s justice minister Yilmaz Tunc has angrily rejected claims that Imamoglu’s prosecution is politically motivated, insisting the judiciary is independent. 

Erdogan sought to play down the protests, saying on Friday that Turkey “will not surrender to street terror” and discouraged any further demonstrations.

“We, as a party and individuals, have no time to waste on the opposition’s theatrics. We are focused on our work and our goals,” Erdogan declared. 

Imamoglu’s arrest comes as Turkey’s crisis-ridden economy took another hit, with significant falls on the stock market and its currency falling by more than 10 percent as international investors fled the Turkish market.

‘Out of sight, out of mind’

However, Oney suggests Erdogan will be banking on a combination of fear and apathy eventually leading to the protests dissipating, and that Imamoglu, like other imprisoned political figures in Turkey, will be marginalised.

“The government is counting on the possibility that once Imamoglu is out of sight, [he will be] out of mind,” she predicts. “So he will just be forgotten, and the presidency will have its way [more easily].”

Turkey is no stranger to jailing politicians, even leaders of political parties. However, Oney warns that with Imamoglu facing a long prison sentence if convicted, the significance of such a move should not be underestimated.

“It’s going to be extremely detrimental to Turkish democracy. You have jailing of politicians, but someone on the scale of Imamoglu will be unique,” she said.

Despite Imamoglu’s detention, the CHP vowed it would press ahead with its primary on Sunday, at which it would formally nominate him as its candidate for the 2028 race.

The party said it would open the process to anyone who wanted to vote, not just party members, saying: “Come to the ballot box and say ‘no’ to the coup attempt!”

Observers said the government could seek to block the primary, to prevent a further show of support for Imamgolu.

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.

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!

This week’s quiz: On 22 February, I asked you a question about the French sculptress Camille Claudel. That week, after an incredible find, her lost-for-over-100-years sculpture The Mature Age was sold at auction for 3.1 million euros.

You were to re-read our article “Claudel bronze sculpture found by chance fetches €3 million at France auction”, and send in the answer to this question: Aside from The Mature Age, what are the other names of Claudel’s sculpture?

The answer is: To quote our article: “Also known as Destiny, The Path of Life, or Fatality, the work was originally a commission from the state but was never completed.”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Mogire Machuki from Kissi, Kenya: “What is the one thing you can’t do without?”

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

The winners are: Amir Jameel, the president of the RFI Online Visitors Club in Sahiwal, Pakistan. Amir is also the winner of this week’s bonus question. Congratulations, Amir, on your double win !

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Sultan Sarkar, president of the Shetu RFI Fan Club in Naogaon, Bangladesh; Muhammed Raiyan, a member of the RFI International DX Radio Listeners Club in Murshidabad, India as well as Sharifun Islam Nitu, a member of the RFI Amour Fan Club in Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Last but not least, RFI Listeners Club member Jayanta Chakrabarty from New Delhi, India.

Congratulations, winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: The first movement from Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96, (“American”), performed by the Cleveland Quartet; “First Sextet” from the film Claudel scored by Gabriel Yared; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “La Mauvaise Reputation” by Georges Brassens, performed by the composer.

Do you have a music request? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. After you’ve listened to the show, re-read Paul Myers’ article “Zimbabwe’s aspiring Olympics supremo Coventry targets development of athletes”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 14 April to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 19 April 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

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Click here to learn how to win a special Sound Kitchen prize.

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Since the start of the year, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has moved to drastically cut the country’s long-term aid commitments, aiming to save approximately $60 billion on overseas development and humanitarian assistance programmes.

The United Kingdom has also announced a deep cut in its budget for emergency and development aid, which it says it needs to do to develop its defence strategy. Other European countries have indicated that they might do the same.

France launches commission to evaluate overseas aid, amid far-right criticism

These decisions are already impacting emergency aid systems in many countries, including Sudan and Congo, as well as public health initiatives in nations such as Kenya and South Africa.

Sudan reels as US suspends aid amid ongoing war

Spotlight on Africa reached out to three experts involved in rethinking the future of aid.

Jeffrey Okoro is the executive director of the NGO CFK Africa in Kenya. He said that since the decision of the US government to freeze US Agency for International Development (USAID) spending in January, Kenyans working in healthcare have been hit hard. The decision has already disrupted efforts to stop the spread of diseases like HIV and tuberculosis.

“A sizeable portion of the Kenyan government funding for health counselling comes from international organisations from foreign governments,” Okoro told RFI from his office in Kenya.

US grant cuts could affect two million worldwide, disrupt HIV aid in Kenya

Meanwhile, Ivor Ichikowitz, chairman of the philanthropic Ichikowitz Family Foundation, based in Johannesburg, which focuses on growth and development across the African continent, says that the decrease in aid and the rise of European investment, as discussed at a conference in South Africa recently, could, in fact, have positive results.

EU flags stronger partnership with South Africa with €4.7bn investment

We also  talk to Patrick Gathara, a Kenyan columnist and senior editor at The New Humanitarian, a website covering conflicts and humanitarian issues. He argues that the aid industry has long reinforced imperial domination, and its collapse could create an opportunity to establish a new order. He explains how.

Episode mixed by Erwan Rome.

Spotlight on Africa is produced by Radio France Internationale’s English language service.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s already strong support for the militant group Hamas has strained relations with Israel.

Now, Syria is threatening to become a focal point of tension.

Earlier this month, Erdogan issued a widely interpreted warning to Israel to stop undermining Damascus’s new rulers.

“Those who hope to benefit from the instability of Syria by provoking ethnic and religious divisions should know that they will not achieve their goals,” Erdogan declared at a meeting of ambassadors.

Erdogan’s speech followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer to support Syria’s Druze and Kurdish minorities.

“We will not allow our enemies in Lebanon and Syria to grow,” Netanyahu told the Knesset. “At the same time, we extend our hand to our Druze and Kurdish allies.”

Gallia Lindenstrauss, an Israeli foreign policy specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv told RFI that Israel view is not very optimistic about the future of Syria, and sees it as a potential threat to Israel.

Success of rebel groups in Syria advances Turkish agenda

“The fact that Turkey will be dominant in Syria is also dangerous for Israel,” adds Lindenstrauss.

“Turkey could build bases inside Syria and establish air defences there. This would limit Israel’s room for manoeuvre and could pose a threat. Israel wants to avoid this and should therefore adopt a hard-line approach.”

Deepening rivalry

Ankara and Jerusalem’s deepening rivalry is shaping conflicting visions for the future of Syria.

Selin Nasi, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics’ Contemporary Turkish Studies Department, “Turkey wants to see a secure and stabilised unitary state under Ahmad al-Sharaa’s transitional government.

“Israel, on the other hand, wants to see a weak and fragmented Syria. Its main concern has always been securing its northern border,” added Nasi.

Israeli forces are occupying Syrian territory along their shared northern border, which is home to much of Syria’s Druze minority.

However, Israeli hopes of drawing Syria’s Kurds away from Damascus suffered a setback when the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls part of Syria, signed an agreement on 10 March to merge part of its operations with Syria’s transitional government.

Mutual distrust

As Damascus consolidates control, analysts suggest Israel will be increasingly concerned about Turkey expanding its military presence inside Syria.

“If Turkey establishes military posts in the south of the country, close to the Israeli border, presumably with the permission of the government in Damascus,” warns Soli Ozel, a lecturer in international relations at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, “then the two sides would be in close proximity, with military forces on both sides. That, I believe, would create a highly dangerous, volatile, and incendiary situation.”

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

Analysts warn that if Turkey extends its military presence to include airbases, this could threaten Israel’s currently unchallenged access to Syrian airspace.

However, some observers believe that opportunities for cooperation may still exist.

“Things can change,” says Israeli security analyst Lindenstrauss.

“Israel and Turkey could resume cooperation and potentially contribute to Syria’s reconstruction in a way that does not threaten Israel. However, this does not appear to be the path the Erdogan regime is currently taking, nor does it seem to be the direction chosen by Netanyahu and his government.”

With Erdogan and Netanyahu making little secret of their mutual distrust, analysts warn that their rivalry is likely to spill over into Syria, further complicating the country’s transition from the Assad regime.

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.

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!

This week’s quiz: On 15 February, I asked you a question about Paul Myers’ article “Namibian independence leader Sam Nujoma dies aged 95”. Sam Nujoma was Namibia’s first democratically elected president; he led Namibia’s fight for independence from South Africa.

You were to send in the answer to this question: Namibians have just elected a new president, who will be inaugurated on the 21st of this month. What is the name of their president-elect? 

The answer is: Namibia’s president-elect is Dr. Ndemupelila Netumbo Nandi – Ndaitwah. Born in 1952, Dr. Nandi – Ndaitwah will be Namibia’s fifth president and the first woman to hold the position. 

Speaking of Sam Nujoma, she, as Paul wrote in his article: “… paid tribute to Nujoma’s visionary leadership as well as his dedication to liberation and nation-building. ‘It laid the foundation for our free, united nation,’ she added. ‘Let us honour his legacy by upholding resilience, solidarity, and selfless service.’”

In addition to the quiz question, there was the bonus question, suggested by Hans Verner Lollike from Hedehusene, Denmark: “Describe a cultural monument or a nature site in your country that is not known to the world at large.”

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

The winners are: RFI English listener Debashis Gope from the Dakshin Dinajpur district in West Bengal, India.  Debashis is also this week’s bonus question winner. Congratulations, Debashis, on your double win !

Also on the list of lucky winners this week are Rasheed Naz, the chairman of the Naz Radio France Listeners Club in Faisal Abad, Pakistan; RFI Listeners Club member Father Steven Wara from Bamenda, Cameroon, and last but not least, two RFI English listeners from Bangladesh: Nargis Akter from Dhaka, and Sakila Musarrat from Chapainawabganj. 

Congratulations, winners!

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s programme: “Sari” by George Fenton and Tom Leach; “Gnawa Funk Rhythm”; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov; “The Cakewalk” from Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy, performed by the composer, and “Mulatu” by Mulatu Astatke, performed by the composer and his ensemble.

Do you have a music request? Send it to thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

This week’s question … you must listen to the show to participate. 

After you’ve listened to the show, re-read our article “Macron hosts European military chiefs to discuss Ukraine security guarantees”, which will help you with the answer.

You have until 7 April to enter this week’s quiz; the winners will be announced on the 12 April 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.   

There are some explanations for France’s 22 percent gender pay gap – women work fewer hours on average and in lower-paid jobs. But even doing the same job and putting in the same hours, women still earn 4 percent less than men, and a barrage of legal measures hasn’t managed to change that. We look at what’s going on with economist Anne Eydoux and lawyer Insaff El Hassani – founder of a company helping women negotiate salaries. El Hassani highlights negative images around wealthy women and how France’s “female wage”, dropped in 1946, still impacts the way some employers view women’s salaries. (Listen @0′)

France has downsized its ambitions to increase the amount of organic agriculture after a drop in consumer demand for organic food . After years of growth, especially during the Covid pandemic, inflation and a distrust in labelling have turned consumers away from buying organic produce, even as new farmers are drawn to the prospect of working in a different way. At the recent annual agricultural fair in Paris, farmers and others working in the organic sector talk about how they are adapting to the new economic reality, and the need to raise awareness of the value of organic food, beyond the price tag. (Listen @17′)

France is marking the 150th anniversary of the birth of composer Maurice Ravel, whose most famous piece, Boléro, is considered an avant-garde musical expression of  the machine age. (Listen @9’50”)

Episode mixed by Cecile Pompeani. 

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

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.