Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have stalled once again, with Moscow announcing a “pause” in negotiations and Kyiv warning that President Vladimir Putin still harbours ambitions of conquering the entire country.

The Kremlin confirmed on Friday that discussions had ground to a halt, even as US President Donald Trump signalled his patience with Moscow was wearing thin.

Meanwhile NATO pledged to reinforce its eastern flank after Russian drones strayed into Polish airspace this week, sparking fresh alarm across Europe.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that communication channels between negotiators remained open, but expectations should be tempered.

“You can’t wear rose-tinted glasses and expect that the negotiation process will yield immediate results,” he told reporters, describing the process as effectively on hold.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky struck a much tougher note at a conference in Kyiv, urging Western allies not to take Putin at his word. “Putin’s goal is to occupy all of Ukraine,” he declared, insisting that only a fundamental change in Moscow’s objectives could bring peace.

Russia hits seat of Ukraine government in war’s biggest air attack

Trump’s dwindling patience

Trump, who has already hosted Putin in Alaska and pressured both sides into direct dialogue, voiced exasperation over the lack of progress. “It’s sort of running out and running out fast, but it does take two to tango,” he told Fox News.

The US leader said he was ready to get “very, very strong” if Russia refused to budge, though Ukraine remains frustrated that repeated threats of tougher sanctions have yet to materialise.

Kyiv continues to call for a direct summit between Zelensky and Putin, but the Kremlin has ruled it out, warning it would target any Western troops deployed as peacekeepers without Russian approval.

Ukraine has held firm in refusing to cede territory, while Russia insists any deal must include more land concessions. That fundamental clash leaves diplomacy stuck in neutral.

France sends jets to Poland and summons Russian envoy over drone raid

Drones over Poland

If the diplomatic front is faltering, the military one is heating up. Warsaw said 19 Russian drones had entered Polish airspace on Wednesday, three of which were shot down after NATO allies scrambled fighter jets.

Poland and some 40 allies condemned the incursion as a deliberate provocation, with Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Bosacki warning it represented a “destabilising escalation.”

The incident prompted NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to announce fresh deployments from Britain, France, Denmark and Germany to reinforce the alliance’s eastern defences.

The UK went further still, unveiling new sanctions targeting Russia’s weapons suppliers and so-called “shadow fleet” of sanction-dodging ships. The EU also extended its sanctions regime, affecting more than 2,500 Russian officials and entities.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk flatly rejected Trump’s suggestion that the drone overflights might have been accidental.

“It was not a mistake,” he said, warning that his country now faced its gravest threat of open conflict since the Second World War. Moscow has denied responsibility and accused Warsaw of failing to provide evidence.

Russia and Belarus war games fuel European fears over Ukraine conflict

War games with Belarus

Adding to the sense of unease, Russia kicked off large-scale joint drills with Belarus on Friday, including exercises near the Polish and Lithuanian borders and in northern waters.

The defence ministry released footage of tanks, helicopters and warships in action, insisting the manoeuvres were defensive in nature.

Poland is unconvinced, announcing it would deploy 40,000 troops to its eastern frontier for the duration of the drills.

The deal, announced in the Egyptian capital Cairo earlier this week, comes three months after a brief but intense 12-day conflict with Israel left several Iranian nuclear facilities damaged by Israeli and US strikes.

Since then, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors have been largely locked out of Iran.

IAEA director general Rafael Grossi struck a cautiously optimistic tone on Wednesday, telling the agency’s board of governors that the new “technical document” covers all Iranian nuclear sites and lays out clear procedures for inspections.

It also requires Tehran to report on the facilities that were hit in June, including the nuclear material that was present at the time.

“We now have a clear understanding of what must be done,” Grossi said.

“Iran and the agency will resume cooperation in a respectful and comprehensive way. There may be difficulties and issues to be resolved, for sure, but we now know the path ahead.”

Iran nuclear sites suffered ‘enormous damage’, IAEA chief tells RFI

No guaranteed access

Tehran, however, stressed that it had not yet agreed to open its doors to international monitors. 

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told state television on Thursday that IAEA inspectors currently have no access beyond the Bushehr nuclear power plant, where a team returned briefly last month to supervise fuel replacement.

Access to other key sites – including the heavily fortified Fordo and Natanz enrichment facilities – will be the subject of “future negotiations”.

“This agreement itself does not create any access,” Araghchi said. “Based on the reports that Iran will provide later, the type of access should be negotiated in due course.”

Iran has also warned it will tear up the deal if hostile actions are taken against it, including the re-imposition of UN sanctions that were lifted under a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.

Last month Britain, France and Germany triggered the so-called “snapback” process, arguing that Tehran had long since abandoned its commitments.

Iran denounced the move as “illegal”, threatening to exclude the Europeans from future diplomacy.

Iran says Europeans have no right to reimpose sanctions for nuclear programme

Details unclear

For now, the specifics of this week’s deal – which has not been published in full – remain murky. 

There was no joint press conference or detailed outline of what Grossi diplomatically called the “modalities” of inspection.

The uncertainty is compounded by questions over Iran’s uranium stockpile.

While June’s strikes crippled key enrichment sites, it is unclear what has become of the material already enriched – some of it to 60 percent purity, not far off weapons grade.

Western governments continue to suspect Tehran of edging towards an atomic bomb, an accusation Iran has repeatedly denied, insisting its programme is purely civilian.

Still, even a partial framework represents progress after months of stalemate. As Grossi put it: “An important step in the right direction was taken.”

More than 2,200 people were killed after the magnitude-6.0 earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan just before midnight on 31 August, making it the deadliest quake to hit the country in decades.

Thousands of people remain displaced or homeless across Nangarhar and Kunar provinces and many isolated villages in mountainous areas are difficult to access, according to Laura Chambrier, of the French NGO Première Urgence Internationale (PUI). 

“The main needs are temporary shelter, primary healthcare, mental health and psychological support, and water and sanitation services,” she said.

She added that thanks to supplies already in place, their teams were able to respond with some autonomy, but that reaching remote areas is becoming “more and more complicated” as winter approaches.

The United Nations’ call for $139.6 million in aid remains unmet, and the consequences are plain to see.

“Afghanistan is facing a lot of funding gaps because donors are reducing humanitarian and development aid,” said Chambrier.

She added that the cut in US foreign aid earlier this year had resulted in PUI stopping activity in 60 healthcare facilities and almost 400 people losing their jobs – before the earthquake.

“Now with the earthquake, we have even more people in need,” she said.

Rescue efforts underway as Afghan earthquake leaves hundreds dead

Foreign aid cuts

“The funding coming in these days for [disaster] response is limited compared to a year ago,” Hans Johansen, the Kabul-based Afghanistan co-director of the French NGO Acted, told RFI.

He too cited the US government’s slashing of funding for USAID and other Western countries taking similar steps. “The earthquake response has attracted around $10 million, whereas in the early years, you would have seen a much higher number,” he said.

Western governments’ hesitancy to step in is also being shaped by their refusal to recognise the Taliban.

Aid typically bypasses national authorities by funding NGOs directly, but, as Johansen points out, the “hesitancy towards the de facto authorities means there is less attention on this crisis” in general.

According to a 10 September policy note from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs – traditionally a large donor – the EU “announced it would free [up] €1 million for aid by humanitarian organisations on the ground”, but this note does not include any mention of cooperation with the Taliban government directly. 

Women left behind

Humanitarian workers also cite Taliban decrees as creating unique risks for women in the aftermath of the disaster.

“Taliban edicts bar women from moving freely without a male guardian, ban them from many forms of work and strictly limit access to healthcare,” according to a report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. 

To reach female survivors, NGOs must navigate Taliban policy. “We have the authorisation to work with female medical staff [but] they have to be accompanied [by] a male relative,” says Chambrier.

For agencies without female staff, or where access is further restricted, there are fears women will be left behind or go untreated for days, as male aid workers are not allowed to touch them. 

‘All they dream of is leaving’: the reality of life for women under the Taliban

“Women and girls will again bear the brunt of this disaster, so we must ensure their needs are at the heart of the response and recovery,” warned UN Women Afghanistan Special Representative Susan Ferguson in a statement.

She pointed out that during the country’s last major earthquake in Herat in 2023, “nearly six out of 10 of those who lost their lives were women, and nearly two-thirds of those injured were women”.

“As a medical organisation, we are able to have female staff because of the medical activities. And we are adapting our activity to be sure so we can reach the women,” Chambrier says.

“But it is not easy for the ones that are not [able to move freely],” she said, referring to women without male relatives at hand to act as guardians. 

France has been dealt a fresh economic blow after Fitch downgraded the country’s credit rating, just as Emmanuel Macron’s government wrestles with political turmoil and the daunting task of getting the public finances back in order.

The US ratings agency lowered France’s sovereign rating from AA- to A+ on Friday, warning that without swift action, the nation’s debt pile will continue to swell until at least 2027.

For Paris, it’s an unwelcome development at a moment of deep political uncertainty.

The downgrade landed only days after François Bayrou dramatically resigned as prime minister, toppled by a parliamentary no-confidence vote over his austerity-leaning budget plans.

Bayrou had sought sharp spending cuts to tame the deficit, but his proposals failed to win over a fractured parliament.

On social media, Bayrou didn’t mince his words, blasting France as “a country whose elites lead it to reject the truth [and] is condemned to pay the price”.

France risks credit downgrade as new PM tackles budget

‘Fragmentation and polarisation’

Now the burden falls on new Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who is expected to lead a minority government.

Lecornu must now craft a 2026 budget palatable to MPs from across the political spectrum, while convincing international investors that France can get its house in order.

Fitch was blunt in its assessment, saying the defeat of Macron’s government in the confidence vote was a “sign of increased fragmentation and polarisation” in French politics, warning this instability was undermining the state’s ability to deliver meaningful fiscal reform.

The agency also poured cold water on the idea that France could hit its previous target of cutting the deficit to 3 percent of GDP by 2029.

Still, outgoing economy minister Éric Lombard tried to steady nerves, insisting the French economy remained fundamentally “solid” despite the downgrade.

What’s behind France’s current political crisis?

Rising costs, rising risks

A lower credit rating often means investors demand higher returns to lend money – and France’s borrowing costs were already climbing. This week, yields on 10-year government bonds rose to 3.47 percent, brushing levels usually associated with Italy, the eurozone’s problem borrower.

Bayrou had already sounded the alarm on debt servicing costs, calling them “unbearable”. France’s debt stood at 113 percent of GDP last year – nearly double the EU’s 60 percent ceiling – while the deficit was 5.8 percent, well above the bloc’s three percent limit.

Fitch now expects debt to climb further, reaching 121 percent of GDP by 2027, with no clear point at which it will level off. That could leave France dangerously exposed to any future shocks, whether economic, geopolitical, or climate-related.

France’s debt: how did we get here, and how dangerous is it?

A little light in the gloom

There are, however, glimmers of hope. The INSEE national statistics bureau nudged up its growth forecast for 2025 this week, from 0.7 to 0.8 percent.

It’s hardly a boom, but it does suggest the French economy isn’t stalling entirely – and growth, however modest, could help ease some of the fiscal pressure.

Markets, too, may not panic. Analysts note that bond traders had long anticipated a downgrade, meaning much of the bad news may already be “priced in”. In other words, the sky isn’t about to fall just yet.

And France isn’t alone in facing the wrath of the rating agencies. Rivals such as S&P Global are set to update their own assessments in November, and many eurozone governments are under scrutiny as they juggle recovery spending with Brussels’ budget rules.

The competition will feature the 12 clubs from the top-flight Arkema Première Ligue and the 12 from the second-tier Seconde Ligue.

It starts a week after the outfits played their opening games of the league season, and will culminate in a final in Côte d’Ivoire next March.

“We wanted to increase the number of matches for clubs not playing in Europe by offering more competitive matches throughout the season,” said a spokesperson for the Women’s Professional Football League (LFFP), which is organising the tournament.

“It will also provide the platform for new players to emerge by giving them an additional competitive framework in which to prove themselves.”

Teams will be divided into five regional groups and play round-robin matches from this weekend until January. The winner of the each pool will advance to the quarter-finals.

At that stage, the three French sides involved in the 2025/26 Champions League – OL Lyonnes, Paris FC and Paris Saint-Germain – will enter the competition.

Opportunity to test skills

“It’s simply a great opportunity to compete against Première Ligue teams,” said Jose da Silva, president of Seconde Ligue Toulouse Football Club.

“It’s interesting because we have a squad of 20 to 27 players, which will allow us to rotate and give our youngest players a chance to play.

“Knowing that Toulouse’s DNA is all about training for both boys and girls, it’s a way for us to get as many players out onto the field as possible so that they can gain experience.”

Toulouse kick off their Group C campaign at Seconde Ligue counterparts Rodez AF. They will also play Montpellier and Olympic de Marseille from the top flight.

Toulouse striker Louna Lapassouse said she was relishing the chance to test her skills against Première Ligue squads.

“We’ve been able to play our game against teams that have been above us and that has allowed us to beat those teams at times,” said the 23-year-old. “So we have to stay true to ourselves and play our game.

“As the Coupe LFFP is brand new, we don’t really know yet what it’s going to be like but we’re very competitive so obviously when we join a competition like this we want to do something in it.

“We’re going to enjoy playing all these big matches and we’re certainly going to give it our all.”

Da Silva, who has been the Toulouse supremo for nearly 10 years, hailed the decision to carve up the teams into regional pools.

“It’s certainly going to create some buzz,” he beamed. “There’s Marseille, who we played when they were in the second division last season. They’ve been promoted and have reinforced their squad, and we have Montpellier, which is our neighbour.

“It’s always interesting to compete against a neighbour like that which has been in the top flight for many years and are well established there, so there’ll be a battle for regional domination.

“I’m certain people are going to come along to watch these games.”

France’s top women’s football clubs begin battle to end Lyon’s supremacy

Tournament rules

Under the rules of the competition, the winner of a match in 90 minutes earns three points and the loser zero points.

If a match were to finish in a draw, a penalty shootout ensues to determine the winner, who claims two points while the loser receives one point.

“This is an opportunity for us to build confidence in our game,” said Saint-Etienne coach Sébastien Joseph on the eve of his team’s Group B clash against Nice.

Saint-Etienne, who lost their first match of the Première Ligue season to Nantes, will also play second-tier Grenoble Foot 38 and Thonon Évian in the Coupe LFFP. 

“We want to finish top of the group,” added Joseph. “We’ve prepared well and we mustn’t start doubting everything just because we lost the first game of the Première League season.

“We were up against a Nantes team that has been working on a project for three years and at this point is a bit further along the road than we are.”

Team to beat

Following this weekend’s ties, further pool matches are scheduled for 11 October, 15 November, 10 December and 7 January.

The quarter-finals and semis will be in February and the final will be played on 14 March in Abidjan.

OL Lyonnes will be favourites to lift the inaugural trophy. The club has won 18 of the last 19 top-flight championships.

“It’s true that Lyon, PSG and Paris FC are way ahead of the pack at the moment,” said Da Silva. “And they will be expected to be there in the semis and final. But in a one-off match, anything can happen.

“It’s clear that on paper, it may seem unbalanced. But you know, a cup match is a cup match and if it goes to penalties … everything is possible.”

Presenting his new cabinet on Thursday following a big election victory in May, Rama introduced the new team member, named “Diella” – which means “sun” in Albanian.

“Diella is the first [cabinet] member who is not physically present, but virtually created by artificial intelligence,” Rama said at a meeting of his Socialist Party.

Diella will be entrusted with all decisions on public tenders, making them “100-percent corruption-free and every public fund submitted to the tender procedure will be perfectly transparent”, he added.

Diella was launched in January as an AI-powered virtual assistant – resembling a woman dressed in traditional Albanian costume – to help people use the official e-Albania platform that provides documents and services.

So far, it has helped issue 36,600 digital documents and provided nearly 1,000 services through the platform, according to official figures.

Albania election a litmus test for EU accession amid deep divides

Albania hopes that fighting corruption, particularly in public administration, will put it in good stead as it prepares its bid to join the European Union.

Rama aspires to lead the Balkan nation of 2.8 million people into the political bloc by 2030.

Fears of meddling, fakes

Other countries, including France, are also turning to artificial intelligence to help with running public services.

A French programme called “Albert” will be used by tax agents, for example, to deal with the approximately 16 million queries they receive each year.

The AI tool will also be programmed to transcribe legal hearings and medical reports, track forest fires and manage HR for civil servants.

Polish radio experiment replaces journalists with AI presenters

However, the advent of artificial intelligence – notably its power to generate convincing text and images – has renewed concerns about disinformation and the potential harm the technology could cause during elections.

The EU called on Facebook, TikTok and other social media giants to crack down on deepfakes and other AI-generated content by using clear labels ahead of the Europe-wide polls held last June.

(with newswires)

Macron announced the deployment on Thursday, saying the jets would help defend Europe’s eastern flank alongside NATO allies.

“Following Russian drone incursions into Poland, I have decided to deploy three Rafale fighter jets to help protect Polish airspace and Europe’s eastern flank alongside our NATO allies,” Macron said on social media platform X.

“I made this commitment yesterday to the Polish prime minister. I also discussed this matter with the NATO secretary general and the British prime minister, who is also involved in protecting the eastern flank. We will not give in to Russia’s increasing intimidation.”

Poland calls NATO talks after downing Russian drones in airspace breach

France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Friday said that Russia’s firing of drones over Poland was “absolutely unacceptable”, adding that the Russian ambassador would be summoned over the incident.

“We will tell him that we will not be intimidated… Whether intentional or not, whether accidental or not, this is very serious, this is absolutely unacceptable,” Barrot told France Inter radio.

‘Unprecedented’ attack

On Wednesday, Poland called urgent NATO talks after saying Russian drones crossed its airspace during an attack on Ukraine.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Polish airspace had been violated 19 times and at least three drones were shot down after jets were scrambled. He described the breach as an “unprecedented” attack on Poland, NATO and the European Union.

Moscow denied responsibility and said there was no evidence the drones were Russian.

US President Donald Trump, who has sought to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine, told reporters on Thursday the incident may have been a “mistake”.

NATO countries raise spending as Germany expands weapons output

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier Thursday discussed the drone incident with Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, his office said.

“In both calls, the leaders condemned the shocking Russian violation of NATO and Poland’s airspace,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.

“Discussing how the UK and France could bolster Poland’s defences, the prime minister said the UK stood ready to support any further NATO deployments to the region.”

Germany said it would “extend and expand” its participation in NATO’s Air Policing programme. The defence ministry said it would double the number of Eurofighter jets deployed to four and keep them in place until the end of the year.

The UN Security Council will meet on Friday after Slovenia, Denmark, Greece, France and Britain requested talks on the drone incident.

(with newswires)

The bombing was attributed by Russian and Hungarian officials to Ukrainian drone forces, with Ukraine justifying the strike as part of its broader campaign against Russia following the latter’s invasion in 2022.

The strike resulted in oil flows to Hungary and Slovakia being cut off, and also exposed political divides at the heart of Central Europe’s energy security, sparking a diplomatic fallout between Kyiv, Budapest and Bratislava.

“The bombing drives home the point that Russian energy supplies remain a point of contest, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, which remains dependent on [oil] coming from the east,” said Andreas Goldthau, director of the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy at the University of Erfurt in Germany.

Pipeline dispute shows Central Europe’s struggle to cut ties with Russian oil

‘Not a matter of supply’

Despite EU-wide efforts to reduce reliance on Russian energy – which Goldthau acknowledges is “no longer a big issue for Europe as a whole” – Hungary and Slovakia stand as outliers, locked into long-term contracts and dependent on the Druzhba line.

When the pipeline was struck multiple times in August and September, forcing a halt to crude deliveries, both governments were forced to draw on strategic reserves.

But how Hungary and Slovakia are coping, is “more a political choice than anything else,” Goldthau told RFI.

“It is not a matter of supply, but a matter of price and transport logistics, because it could eat into the margins of refineries if you have to source it from other parts and other geographies.”

Central Europe, he added, “could source through ports in Croatia, and they could have done this already by now, but they chose not to”.

‘A political decision’

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government responded to the strike angrily, calling it “an attack on Hungary’s sovereignty”.

The country’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, said: “Ukraine knows very well that the Druzhba pipeline is vital for Hungary’s and Slovakia’s energy supply, and that such strikes harm us far more than Russia.”

Both Budapest and Bratislava have demanded EU intervention and accused Kyiv of jeopardising their security, just as reserves were being tapped to keep refineries running.

From Washington to Warsaw: how MAGA influence is reshaping Europe’s far right

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested the attacks might hinge on Hungary lifting its EU accession veto, warning: “The existence of the friendship depends on what Hungary’s position is.”

Ukrainian officials also say that Hungary and Slovakia have failed to diversify away from Russian oil, despite ample opportunity and EU support.

According to Goldthau, Russian leverage over the EU “is gone, by and large”. He explained: “The EU’s main suppliers are now the United States and Norway. Kazakhstan comes into play, but Russia no longer plays a role.”

Ukraine, he noted, “no longer gets any Russian oil or any Russian gas, it merely functions as a transit country”.

The attack and subsequent diplomatic spat might have provided Hungary and Slovakia “a perfect occasion to pivot and seek alternative supplies, but it’s a purely political decision to do that or not,” Goldthau said. “Whatever changes that [decision] lies at home, and not abroad.”

Lecornu has been a constant, if discreet, presence in the French government since Macron came to power in 2017. 

He joined the president’s first cabinet as a secretary of state in the ministry of ecology, before being promoted to minister – initially in charge of local authorities (2018-2020), then of overseas territories (2020-2022), and for the past three years, of France’s defence.

Few other figures have survived as long, a testament to Lecornu’s knack for building tactical alliances. RFI’s defence correspondent Franck Alexandre calls him “a political animal” through and through.

Political prodigy

Lecornu, 39, has two decades of political experience behind him.

The grandson of a French Resistance fighter, he grew up in a modest working family in Normandy and studied law at university.

After flirting with a career in the army – or even, according to Le Monde, life as a Benedictine monk – Lecornu was soon drawn to rightwing politics.

An activist for the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) in his teens, by 20 he was a parliamentary assistant to one of the party’s MPs.

Within two years he was advising a junior minister for European affairs, before taking office himself as mayor of his hometown Vernon and then president of the surrounding department of Eure – at 29, younger than anyone else before him.

‘Practical approach’

Lecornu’s first national post came two years later, when he joined other conservatives in switching allegiance from traditional rightwing parties to Macron’s new centrist movement and was handed the ecology portfolio.

He cemented his position in 2019 when, with the “Yellow Vest” protests at their height, he helped Macron organise a series of town hall debates around France aimed at defusing demonstrators’ anger at out-of-touch politicians.

The president promptly praised Lecornu for his “practical approach”.  

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

Lecornu reached across the divide again as defence minister, when he succeeded in convincing parliament to massively boost the military budget.

Appointed a few months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he also oversaw France’s support for Kyiv – something that has remained relatively constant despite more than a year of political upheaval. 

Man in the background

Throughout his rise, Lecornu has kept a low public profile. He rarely speaks about his personal life and maintains a sober presence on social media.

For Macron, that might be part of the appeal.

Unlike other recent PMs Gabriel Attal and François Bayrou, who have both been tipped as potential candidates to replace Macron as president, Lecornu is seen as unlikely to seek the top job.

As one unnamed ministerial adviser told news agency AFP, Lecornu is “a loyal soldier who doesn’t have too much charisma or presidential potential”.

‘Macron’s shield’

Now Macron is relying on Lecornu’s reputation as a dealmaker to establish a working government despite deep divisions in parliament. 

The president has instructed him to hold talks with different factions with a view to agreeing on a 2026 budget, the task that proved impossible for Lecornu’s predecessors.

France’s debt: how did we get here, and how dangerous is it?

But as a member of the president’s inner circle – Lecornu is rumoured to have frequent lunches with First Lady Brigitte Macron – he may struggle to convince his opponents to work with him.

Figures from the far right and left have denounced his appointment, calling him a stooge and accusing Macron of seeking to cling on to power. 

Meanwhile after the “Block Everything” protests on Wednesday,  and a strike planned for next week it is likely voters, too, want a more radical break with the status quo. 

According to RFI’s chief political correspondent Valérie Gas, Lecornu now finds himself acting as “Macron’s shield” – a loyalist tasked with preventing a dissolution and shoring up the president against pressure from both parliament and the public.

National Rally (RN) – France’s largest opposition party, with 123 seats in parliament – threw its weight behind Bayrou when he was nominated in December 2024, following the ousting of Michel Barnier.

In January, its decision to abstain in a vote of no confidence brought against Bayrou by left-wing parties allowed him to fight another day.

But after nine months of entente cordiale, RN leaders Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella have thrown Bayrou under the bus.

“We don’t have confidence [in Bayrou],” Le Pen told reporters following a meeting with the prime minister last Tuesday, and announced that all RN MPs would vote against him in Monday’s confidence vote.

Defeated by 364 votes to 194, the veteran centrist politician had no choice but to tender his resignation, which he did on Tuesday.

Former defence minister Sébastien Lecornu has been named as his successor.

What’s behind France’s current political crisis?

Disagreements over budget

Behind this change of heart is disagreement over how to rein in France’s ballooning deficit – almost €169 billion, or 5.8 percent of its GDP.

Bayrou’s proposed budget for 2026 aimed to save €44 billion, largely through cuts to public spending and slashing two public holidays.

The RN, whose support base is largely working class, says cutting back on public holidays is one example of France’s elites making workers pay.

“The abolition of two public holidays,… is a direct attack on our history, our roots and working-class France,” said party president Bardella on 15 July. “No RN MP will accept this measure, which is nothing short of provocation.”

In August, Le Pen addressed an open letter to Bayrou laying out the party’s proposed budget priorities, amounting to up to €100 billion in savings. These included capping contributions to the European Union, disinvesting in renewable energy, limiting welfare payments to migrants and massive cuts in state bureaucracy.

“We’ve always been ready to improve the proposals made when it came to supporting purchasing power, measures in favour of security or controlling our migratory flows,” said party spokesperson Gaëtan Dussausaye.

“But when Marine Le Pen sent a letter telling Bayrou his plan was a bad one and that she was at his disposal, the prime minister ignored her. That’s not respectful,” he told RFI.

France’s debt: how did we get here, and how dangerous is it?

Growing unpopularity

The tide of public opinion too has turned against Bayrou. A recent poll put his satisfaction rate at 20 percent – an all-time low.

Anger is mounting, and one out of two people in France supports the “block everything” movement and its call to bring France to a standstill on Wednesday, 10 September, according to Matthieu Gallard of pollsters Ipsos France.

He cited social issues, the feeling that purchasing power is declining, issues of social protection and public services and anger over Bayrou’s plan to tackle the deficit as fuelling the growing discontent.

“There’s very strong anger against the outgoing prime minister and the president of the Republic,” he told RFI.

France hit by ‘Block Everything’ protests as new PM Lecornu takes office

For political scientist Erwan Lecoeur, Le Pen was eager to distance herself and her party from an unpopular leader.

“She saw that her electorate was becoming very angry with the government and was no longer in line with the idea of supporting François Bayrou,” he said. “It was dangerous and out of the question to appear too close to Bayrou and to Macronism. She had to regain her independence.”

Lecoeur, an expert on the far right, also argues that Le Pen’s support for Bayrou waned after it became obvious she wouldn’t receive any leniency over her five-year ban from running for public office, handed down in March for misuse of EU funds, and which she will appeal at the beginning of next year.

“Marine Le Pen wanted to negotiate her support for François Bayrou in exchange for greater, I would say, indulgence on the part of judges and the political system for the next presidential election,” he says. “But she saw over the last few months that there was nothing to be done on that front.”

Does ‘politically dead’ Marine Le Pen still have a path to power?

Back to the ballot box

The hard-left France Unbowed party is calling for the president to resign, while the Socialists want Macron to choose a left-leaning prime minister. The RN, however, is pushing for Macron to dissolve parliament and call new elections. 

“We call for an ultra-quick dissolution [of parliament], so that the new majority that will come out of these elections can build a budget,” said Le Pen ahead of Monday’s vote.

On Tuesday, Macron ignored them all and chose his close ally, former defence minister Lecornu, as prime minister.

Le Pen said the president was firing “the final cartridge of Macronism, from his bunker along with his little circle of loyalists”.

The president needs to get a budget drafted before 7 October and reportedly acted quickly to avoid further instability ahead of the 10 September day of action and trade union calls for strike action on 18 September.

Pollster Gallard said a “clear majority” of the public wanted the president to dissolve the government, with the latest survey showing 61 percent in favour. 

“While they didn’t understand last year’s dissolution – because even if there wasn’t a solid majority in the National Assembly, there was a feeling that government could work and hold – the situation is obviously very different now,” he noted.

However, despite RN voters hoping that snap polls could usher in a far-right government, he doubts any such elections would give the party an outright majority.

“A new dissolution would probably not radically change the political balance in the National Assembly. We would still have three blocs, none of which would be close to obtaining an absolute majority.”

Lecoeur, however, is more sceptical. “In many constituencies, more than 50, the RN came within a few points of 50 percent in the second round [of the 2024 legislatives]. The RN is hoping – and they have good reason to hope – that they will do better this time.”

Legal battle

Le Pen also has personal reasons to push for early elections.

Her bar on standing for public office means she’s unable to run in the 2027 presidential or any other elections.

She has appealed the verdict, claiming it was “politically motivated” and on Monday a Paris court confirmed the appeal would take place from 13 January to 12 February, 2026.

Paris court sets January appeal date that could decide Le Pen’s political future

Dussausaye says Le Pen, as an MP for the Pas de Calais region, would be a candidate in such snap elections.

“Of course she will be a candidate because she is innocent. She will submit her candidacy to the Pas de Calais prefecture and if it’s not accepted we will use all the administrative and legal remedies available.”

These include appealing to the constitutional council – which Lecoeur argues would be a way of rallying her camp against France’s institutions and fuelling the idea that she has been wronged.

“Her objective is to wage a political battle within the political-legal arena,” he explains. “There had to be a campaign in which she could run in order to force the courts to take a position on whether or not she has the right to run.

“The judges will prevent her from standing. It will show once again how ‘politically unfair’ it is for Marine Le Pen not to be able to stand for election. It’s important to show this in order to influence public opinion and politicians before her appeal trial.”

France has not run a budget surplus in over fifty years. The last time was before the 1973 oil crisis.

“Since then, our deficit has not stopped increasing, and so our debt has not stopped increasing,” François Ecalle, a former member of France’s high council on public finance and an honorary senior adviser to the Cour des Comptes public auditors, told RFI.

France’s debt at the end of the first semester of 2025 was €3,345 billion, according to the Insee statistics institute, and it has grown over the last two decades to reach 113.9 percent of GDP this year.

“Each year the public debt goes up because we have a deficit: overall, the state and local authorities and the social security system have revenue that is less than what they spend,” Ecalle says.

Crises feed the debt

That deficit – the difference between revenue and spending – comes from yearly spending, but has also gone up with various crises, most recently the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid pandemic, when the government spent money to bail out businesses and support the healthcare system and other public services.

Like many states, France borrows money to cover the deficit, which costs more money, as there is interest to pay – the cost of servicing the debt.

Retirement benefits – which continue to rise, with an ageing population – are the largest item in the 2026 budget, but they are followed by the cost of servicing the debt, which Bayrou said is expected to cost €75 billion – more than the cost of healthcare or education.

Servicing the debt

Because interest rates have been on the rise, Bayrou said the cost of servicing the debt could become the single largest line item in the budget by 2029, which he says represents a serious and immediate danger.

“An immediate danger weighs on us, which we need to face, not tomorrow or after tomorrow, but today, without any sort of delay, without which our future will be denied us and the present will be made severely worse,” the Prime Minister said during the press conference on 25 August in which he announced the confidence vote he would put to parliament on 8 September.

Movement calls for September shutdown across France to protest budget cuts

The Cour des comptes public auditor agrees that reducing the debt is necessary. In July last year, the head of the institution, Pierre Moscovici, called it a “burning obligation”.

Keeping France’s yearly deficit within the European Union’s limit of 3 percent of GDP is “imperative to the sustainability of the debt”, the auditor wrote this July – if the deficit goes up, lenders will no longer trust France to pay back its loans.

Debate over how to reduce the debt

The debate – and subsequent vote in parliament – will focus on “the overall plan, its necessity and usefulness,” Bayrou said, even as the political disagreements are more on the substance of Bayrou’s particular proposals, rather than the concept of the deficit itself.

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

“There is a growing consensus among experts, politicians, and the French people, particularly around the idea that something must be done to reduce deficits and regain control of the debt,” said Ecalle.

“But there is no consensus on how to get there. And when one government starts saying how to do it, the response is to look elsewhere.”

What to tax, what to cut?

Bayrou’s draft budget has €21 billion in spending cuts, plus a pension freeze and a cap to all social benefits to 2025 levels.

Taxation is a red herring – French President Emmanuel Macron’s governments have promised no new taxes on households.

Ecalle says at some point the government needs to find new sources of revenue, through taxes – on inherited property or high pensions – but he recognises the difficulty in getting people to support such measures: taxes, like budget cuts, are never popular.

Why does France want to scrap two of its public holidays?

“The debates we are having today over how to balance the books – whether they involve spending cuts or tax increases – are debates that we have been having for decades. When I was at finance ministry 30 years ago, these were the same debates,” he says, adding that his not optimistic that the current period will be any different.

“We put off these the conflicts over taxes and public spending that we are unable to resolve today, to some point in the future.”

From 8 to 10 September, 45 heads of state and government, alongside more than 25,000 campaigners, business leaders and institutional representatives, are gathering at the African Union’s international conference centre in Addis Ababa.

The meeting is seen as a vital moment for Africa to set its priorities ahead of major international milestones later this year – including the UN General Assembly, the G20, and the upcoming Cop 30 climate negotiations in Brazil.

Climate change is already hitting Africa hard. The World Meteorological Organization estimates that the crisis costs African economies between 2 and 5 percent of GDP annually.

By 2030, as many as 118 million of the continent’s poorest people could face severe droughts, flooding, and extreme heat.

Yet leaders and thinkers are keen to underline that Africa is not simply a victim. The continent holds 60 percent of the world’s solar potential and nearly 40 percent of global renewable energy resources. Its soils are rich in critical minerals essential for the green transition.

“Africa could benefit enormously and even become a global leader in the transition,” argues Iskander Erzini Vernoit, director of the Moroccan think tank, the IMAL Initiative for Climate and Development, speaking to RFI. “But Africa cannot remain passive. It must act in a coordinated way – and that is one of the goals here in Addis Ababa.”

UN court rules countries must treat climate change as an ‘existential threat’

A fairer financial system

Despite this promise, Africa currently attracts only 2 percent of international green investment. High interest rates and the crushing burden of debt remain major barriers.

For Vernoit, this summit offers a chance to demand change, telling RFI: “Africa will continue to press for reform of the international financial architecture. This meeting is a moment to call for a fairer, more equitable system that supports the continent’s climate action efforts.”

African leaders are expected to conclude the summit with a joint declaration, signalling unity and ambition to investors and the international community.

At the first Africa Climate Summit in 2023, leaders committed to scaling up renewable energy capacity from 56 to 300 gigawatts by 2030, and pledges of more than $23 billion in renewable energy investments were announced.

Heavy rains in Guinea capital Conakry cause multiple deaths and destroy homes

Challenge of resilient infrastructure

But climate change is also eroding progress. A new report from the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), released during the summit, highlights the costs of climate damage to African infrastructure – estimated at nearly $13 billion each year.

“Most of these losses come from damage to housing, municipal facilities, schools and hospitals, with flooding accounting for 70 percent of the destruction,” Ramesh Subramaniam, CDRI’s director, explained to RFI. Earthquakes account for a further 28 percent.

The solution, he argues, is not to prevent disasters – which is impossible – but to build smarter and stronger. “If a road is built to the right quality standards, it will resist when disaster strikes. The embankments, the protections – all of it will remain in place,” he says.

According to CDRI, adapting infrastructure to withstand climate impacts typically adds only 5 to 15 percent to a project’s cost.

Yet many African countries face infrastructure funding gaps of up to 50 percent, leaving them unable to invest sufficiently in resilience.

Africans less likely to blame rich nations for climate crisis, survey shows

Stronger voice for Africa

Against this backdrop, the Addis Ababa summit is more than a technical discussion – it is a statement of intent.

Africa’s leaders want to showcase the continent’s potential as a clean energy powerhouse, a hub for innovation, and a driver of global solutions – provided that the international community steps up with fair financing and real partnerships.

By the close of the meeting, a united African position is expected to emerge, sending a message ahead of the world’s next big climate gathering: Africa is ready to lead, but it needs the means to do so.

A “record” 37.5 tonnes of cocaine were seized in France in the first six months of this year, compared to 47 tonnes in the whole of 2024 – an increase of 45 percent.

These figures – revealed in a confidential note from late July from the national anti-drug trafficking agency (Ofast) – prompted Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau to describe the proliferation of cocaine in France as a “white tsunami”.

More than half of those 47 tonnes came from, or was intercepted in, the French Caribbean territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique – whose combined population is little more than 750,000. 

“It’s easy to imagine the impact this has on the local population,” says investigative journalist Jerome Pierrat, an expert on organised crime. “An explosion in violence, in the use of firearms and in local drug use… it’s a major destabilisation of society.”

According to a recent report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Martinique and Guadeloupe have become major gateways for cocaine and marijuana entering mainland France.

Cocaine and synthetic drugs power new era of global trafficking

From South America to Europe

The reasons for the French Caribbean becoming a key entry and transit point for South American cocaine en route to Europe are largely geographical.

The French Antilles are on the doorstep of South America’s cocaine-producing countries of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, and close to Venezuela – one of the two exit countries for cocaine, along with Brazil.

Global production continues to increase, with the Andean countries producing 2,700 tonnes in 2022, more than double the amount produced in 2010.

Yet the traditional North American market has plateaued, Peirrat explains, with some users there turning to synthetic drugs such as fentanyl. The United States’ anti-drug trafficking measures have also forced cartels to look elsewhere – notably further south.

“Traffickers are looking for people with money to sell cocaine to, so they tend to turn to Europe, Australia, Asia, Japan and a part of China. The second biggest market in terms of purchasing power is Europe,” explains Pierrat.

In addition, because they are part of France the Antilles are not subject to extra customs checks when transporting goods to the mainland. And Guadeloupe, with its 700 kilometres of coastline and small islands, is particularly difficult to monitor.

More than 2 tonnes of cocaine washes up on shores of northern France

Record seizures

In late February, the French Navy seized 8.3 tonnes of cocaine from a cargo ship off the coast of Martinique. In March, 1.2 tonnes were seized near Martinique.

In June, 2.4 tonnes were seized on a “go-fast vessel” – a type of a small, fast powerboat favoured by smugglers – near the US Virgin Islands, while in July, French Armed Forces intercepted close to five tonnes on two ships in the Caribbean.

On the French mainland, authorities made a major haul in January – two tonnes of cocaine, valued at €130 million – in the northern port of Le Havre, France’s main maritime gateway.

Further along the chain, Pierrat highlights a recent haul on the Balzac housing estate in Vitry-sur-Seine, a working class suburb of Paris: “160kg of pure cocaine that had come over from Guadeloupe in a fake removals vehicle.”

While some drugs are still transported by plane, the cartels prefer to use sea routes for ever-larger quantities. Shipments are dispatched from Colombia’s and Venezuela’s Caribbean coasts and routed via islands such as Dominica, before landing on the many beaches of the French Antilles aboard fast boats.

Once in the Antilles, cocaine is stored locally and then shipped on to ports in northern Europe such as Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg, and Le Havre.

Belgian port of Antwerp says record volume of cocaine seized in 2022

Surge in violence

In the fight against trafficking, French authorities are facing criminal networks capable of changing their strategies regularly.

“They are now highly structured, no longer work with intermediaries, deal directly with South American drug producers and are capable of exporting cocaine to Europe,” Guadeloupe’s Attorney General Eric Maurel recently told France Info. 

He has also warned that criminal gangs in Guadeloupe “seem to be evolving towards mafia-style structures”.

Pierrat says local officials in the Antilles have been “sounding the alarm for two or three years now,” – but to little effect.

In June this year, Maurel, alongside another judge, Michael Janas, gave a press conference warning that drug trafficking and the proliferation of firearms was driving an unprecedented surge in violence in Guadeloupe.

“All warning lights are flashing red. We are facing a wall of crime,” they told reporters. “We are at a tipping point. It’s now or never.”

The judges said that between January and June this year, Guadeloupe recorded 28 violent homicides, along with 111 attempted murders and 300 armed robberies.

Neighbouring Martinique has also seen a rise in violence, with 16 homicides since January, 13 involving firearms.

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“This is no longer a series of isolated incidents; it is a spiral of death taking root in our daily lives. And yet, the State looks the other way,” wrote Serge Letchimy, president of the executive council of Martinique, in an op-ed published in Le Monde in June. 

According to Letchimy’s figures, only 1,400 of the 188,000 containers passing through Martinique’s port in Fort-de-France in 2024 were inspected by customs – the result of chronic understaffing.

On 19 August, four MPs from Guadeloupe published a letter to the Interior and Economy ministers, demanding immediate reinforcement to fight the growing instability fuelled by drug trafficking.

Cocaine use in France doubles as workplace pressures drive demand

New measures

The French government appears to have heard their call. On a recent visit to the Antilles, Retailleau announced a raft of measures, including 13 additional investigators to bolster the ranks of Ofast.

A local ballistics lab will be opened, meaning forensic samples will no longer have to be sent to the mainland, and two mobile gendarmerie squads and two marine units are to be deployed.

Paris will also provide radar systems to monitor the strategic Dominica and Les Saintes channels and a drone to survey Guadeloupe’s coastline. Checks at ports and airports are to be reinforced.

While acknowledging that France’s planned budget cuts meant it was limited in what it could provide, Retailleau insisted: “The Republic will not give an inch on public order. We will not let these territories become a lawless zone.”

France to build supermax prison to isolate drug lords and Islamists in Amazon

‘No quick fix’

Guadeloupe MPs Olivier Serva and Max Mathiasin, two of the authors of the open letter, expressed their “relative satisfaction” after months of lobbying for reinforcements.

“I heard announcements, not empty words,” Serva told local radio. “I’m satisfied. But we expect more on regional cooperation and faster implementation.”

Mathiasin called the measures “a step in the right direction” but warned they’d have to see them in action.

In Pierrat’s opinion, given the size of the territory and its waters, 13 more investigators may not make much difference. He added that there is no quick fix for the situation, and suggesting otherwise is political posturing.

“The problem is Retailleau doesn’t have time. Elections are fast approaching, all this stuff has to be visible, talked about, it has to look like they’re doing something. But if you really want to curb trafficking you’d lay on 200 more investigators, 200 drones, you’d throw in a billion euros. And it will still take time,” he says.

Another concern is the expansion of the main ports in Guadeloupe and Martinique as part of the “Antilles Hub” project, which aims to transform them into a major regional logistics and maritime centre. 

An additional 300,000 containers are expected to transit through the ports each year. While this is intended to give the region a much needed economic boost, Pierrat fears it will also boost trafficking.

“Traffickers are very happy,” he says “It’ll be very hard to monitor all the extra containers, even with a couple of extra radars or mobile scanners. And even if you could afford to install loads more scanners that would slow traffic down, [which] makes no commercial sense when you’re trying to attract new business.”

Acknowledging these concerns, Retailleau said a mission from the General Secretariat of the Sea will be conducted within the coming weeks to “audit all port processes” both in Guadeloupe and Martinique.

France transfers first drug traffickers to be isolated in ultra-secure prison

Forgotten territories

With unemployment in the Antilles more than double that on the French mainland – 15.7 percent in Guadeloupe and 12.8 percent in Martinique, compared to the national average of 7.4 percent – plus a far higher cost of living and lower wages, the economic conditions are ripe for spreading corruption.

“The French overseas departments have the highest corruption rates in France, including civil servants,” says Pierrat. “But that’s the corollary of drug-trafficking – corruption and violence.”

He also points out that the French Antilles are no longer just a transit hub for cocaine, but indeed a growing local market for it – spurred on by the fact local traffickers are paid in cocaine. 

“I’ve been writing and making documentaries about drug trafficking for 30 years now,” he says. “It’s been growing for decades. We saw it coming. And yet all of a sudden you get the impression it sprung up over the last couple of years.

“For years it was a forgotten corner of France. The guys in French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe… nobody really gives a damn. So I’m not very hopeful or optimistic that the situation in the French Antilles will change any time soon, unfortunately for them.”

The “Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill” passed after a second reading, with 330 votes to 174 on 9 September – thus ratifying Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos archipelago.

However, Diego Garcia island will remain under an Anglo-American military lease for 99 years with an annual payment of £101 million (€120 million), or £3.4 billion pounds (more than €4 billion) in total.

Based on an agreement signed by a British court in May, the bill also provides significant financial support to the Mauritian government and the Chagossian community.

UK High Court clears deal to return Chagos Islands to Mauritius

Chagos Refugee Group spokesperson Olivier Bancoult expressed relief after the vote, which puts the dream of returning home within reach. “This vote shows that everything is moving in the right direction,” he said.

The announcement came as the Mauritian prime minister began his first state visit to India.

Navin Ramgoolam hopes to secure New Delhi’s support to organise a visit by Mauritian leaders and Chagossian representatives to the archipelago. The trip is expected to take place before the end of the year, with a highlight being a Mauritian flag-raising ceremony.

Colonial history

Tuesday’s vote marks a new chapter in the long story of Mauritian efforts to have Chagos returned.

Located several hundred kilometres south of the Maldives, the Chagos Islands were colonised by France in the 18th century, ceded to the UK in 1814 and merged with Mauritius in 1903.

In 1965, three years before Mauritius gained independence from the UK, London detached the Chagos from Mauritian territory.

At Washington’s request, the British then emptied the archipelago of its inhabitants to establish a military base on Diego Garcia, in the heart of the Indian Ocean.

More than 2,000 Chagossians were uprooted and expelled to Mauritius, the Seychelles and the UK.

Dispersed for half a century, they now hope for a return to their roots.

Chagos Islands sovereignty case – the end of the end of British colonial rule in Africa?

‘A betrayal’

However, for some Chagossians, such as the group Lalit, Mauritius is “selling its sovereignty” over the Chagos.

The group’s spokesperson Ragini Kistnasamy, who took part in a protest in front of the Mauritian parliament on Tuesday, told Le Mauritien website the bill was “a betrayal” after years of struggle.

“This bill stipulates that the king can, at any time, make Orders in Council, which he deems important for the base, concerning Diego Garcia and the other islands. It is clear that Great Britain and the United States will have total control over the Chagos.”

Handover of Chagos Islands to Mauritius ‘not an outright win’

For Mauritius’s Attorney General Gavin Glover, while this is a significant step forward, he says the biggest battle will remain in the House of Lords, the UK’s upper house of parliament.

Indeed, the bill must pass five stages in the House of Commons and the House of Lords respectively (first reading, second reading, committee stage, postponement stage, and third reading), then the final stage of Consideration of Amendments before Royal Assent.

“It will be a real test,” Glover told Mauritian news portal L’express.

Glover says this is because the anti-treaty lobby in the UK remains powerful, and the political composition of the House of Lords could lead to difficult debates.

“We must remain mobilised to… prepare for the future, because implementation will also be a long-term project.”

A Foreign Office director from the UK is expected in Mauritius from 29 September to 1 October to finalise technical aspects of the process. 

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear musical requests from your fellow listeners Ali Shahzad, Jocelyne D’Errico, and a composition by B. Trappy.  

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

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Love is Stronger”, written and performed by B. Trappy; “Coups et Blessures” written by Adrien Gallo and performed by BB Brunes, and “Misty”, by Erroll Garner and Johnny Burke, performed by Sarah Vaughan with Quincy Jones and His Orchestra.

The ePOP video competition is open!

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

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

How do you do it?

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

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

Join the ePOP community and make reality vibrate!

Click here for all the information you need.

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

From a small-scale security-building mechanism to a heavyweight bloc showcasing China’s geopolitical ambitions, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has evolved dramatically since its inception in 1996.

Originally known as the Shanghai Five, the group was initially formed of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and aimed to resolve border disputes and bolster security cooperation.

“It was really concerned with China’s internal borders with countries like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and looking at things like drug misuse, gun running and political opposition,” explains Michael Dillon of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London.

Uzbekistan joined in 2001, prompting the rebranding to SCO, and India and Pakistan later became full members, with Iran the most recent addition, two years ago.

Over time, the SCO’s agenda expanded well beyond border security to include economic cooperation, cultural exchange and coordinating their political message.

The organisation now has 10 member states (with observer states such as Afghanistan and dialogue partners including Turkey), highlighting its growing global footprint.

Last month’s much-publicised SCO summit, held in the Chinese port city of Tianjin alongside China’s grand military parade marking 80 years since the end of the Second World War, provided a vivid demonstration of the organisation’s expanded role.

President Xi met with almost 30 world leaders – including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, India’s Narendra Modi and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un – projecting the image of a China-led alliance of mainly authoritarian regimes challenging Western influence.

Putin and Modi in China for Shanghai Cooperation summit hosted by Xi

“Xi Jinping is using this to shape perceptions of China and of himself,” Dillon told RFI. The optics of Xi flanked by Putin and Kim symbolised an assertive bloc willing to counterbalance NATO and the US-led liberal international order.

But how far does the SCO truly stand as a counterweight to NATO?

On this, Dillon is cautious. “It’s beginning to look like it,” he said, but added: “There isn’t any [military coordination], apart from the policing functions across the border with Central Asia … it doesn’t seem to have any military functions outside of China.”

Internal rivalries complicate the picture and prevent the SCO from acting as a fully cohesive bloc, such as the strained relationship between India and Pakistan – both members.

Meanwhile, relations between Europe and the SCO also reveal divisions within the former. While few European Union leaders engage with the organisation, countries such as Turkey and Hungary have shown willingness.

“The EU really does need to respond to China’s increasing influence,” says Dillon.

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But Europe faces challenges due to China’s growing economic leverage and the United States’ diminished credibility in some quarters. “Trump thinks of himself as the great strong man, but it’s clear to seasoned diplomats in China and elsewhere that Washington is incredibly weak,” said Dillon.

According to him, Trump’s actions have inadvertently contributed to China’s rise within Eurasia’s power vacuum. This environment has allowed Beijing to position the SCO as an alternative framework – even attracting traditionally Western-facing countries such as India and Turkey into the fold.

But the summit also exposed underlying tensions within the bloc. Russia’s invitation to Kim Jong-un to Moscow shortly after the Tianjin meeting showcased Putin’s rivalry with Xi for influence over North Korea. Meanwhile, Modi’s absence from the military parade suggested caution among SCO members in fully endorsing China’s military bravado.

Tanks and missiles roll through Beijing as China commemorates 1945 victory

Western observers remain divided on how seriously to take the SCO – both as symbolic political theatre and as a potentially strategic challenge.

Looking ahead, Dillon is sceptical about the SCO transforming into a formal military alliance akin to NATO anytime soon.

“I haven’t seen anything from China recently to suggest they’re trying to turn the SCO into something more permanent and as a counterweight to NATO,” he says. But he acknowledges that institutionalisation of the SCO is likely to be the next “obvious move” if China continues to consolidate its Eurasian coalition.

The five-day Zapad 2025 manoeuvres begin on Friday across Belarusian territory. They are officially described as defensive drills to safeguard the Russia-Belarus Union State.

Belarus insists the exercises are routine and preventative. Defence official Valery Revenko said Zapad 2025 is designed to “check the readiness of both states to repel potential aggression” and stressed that Minsk is pursuing “a peaceful policy”.

But NATO countries are unconvinced.

With Russian and Belarusian troops training close to Poland and Lithuania – both NATO members – officials fear a miscalculation on Europe’s fault line.

Germany has been particularly outspoken. General Carsten Breuer, the German Armed Forces chief, confirmed NATO units would stay on heightened alert during Zapad.

While he admitted there was no intelligence pointing to an imminent attack disguised within the drills, he stressed caution.

“We want deterrence, not escalation,” Breuer told journalists in Berlin. “But we would be naïve to assume President Putin’s ambitions stop at Ukraine.”

Airspace breach

Those concerns were sharpened this week after at least 19 drones believed to be Russian entered Polish airspace, some via Belarus. One drone strike caused minor damage to a house in the Lublin region.

Poland scrambled fighter jets and closed parts of its civilian airspace. The government also invoked Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty, triggering consultations with allies.

Analysts said the incursion may have been a test of NATO’s readiness ahead of Zapad 2025.

Poland calls NATO talks after downing Russian drones in airspace breach

At the same time, Berlin launched its own NATO exercise, Northern Coasts, which began on 29 August and ended on Thursday.

Around 8,000 troops from 14 nations, backed by 40 warships, 30 aircraft and 1,800 vehicles, are training across the Baltic Sea region.

Military planners concede that parallel exercises always carry some risk, especially so close to NATO’s eastern frontier. But Northern Coasts and Zapad 2025 are not scheduled at the same time.

NATO headquarters said this week it would “closely monitor” Zapad 2025 and has deployed additional surveillance planes and drones to Poland and the Baltic states.

Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nauseda called the drills “a deliberate show of intimidation” and confirmed his country had stepped up border patrols.

Poland also announced that extra units had been deployed along its Belarus frontier.

Moscow dismissed the concerns as “hysteria” and insisted the exercises were routine.

NATO backs defence hike as Trump claims victory, but doubts linger

French hospitals on alert

France has taken a different approach.

Documents uncovered by Le Canard Enchaîné on 26 August show Paris has ordered hospitals nationwide to prepare for the arrival of thousands of wounded soldiers by March 2026.

The Ministry of Health directive, issued in July, sets out plans for France to serve as Europe’s medical rear base. Hospitals must be ready to treat large numbers of casualties if conflict spreads.

The instructions call for new military-dedicated hospital wings near ports and airports, stockpiling of supplies, and training of staff in war medicine and trauma psychology.

Officials estimate between 10,000 and 50,000 casualties could need treatment within weeks of a conflict, requiring rapid medical evacuation through French infrastructure.

Health Minister Catherine Vautrin told BFMTV the preparations are about foresight, not panic. “Hospitals prepare for epidemics and natural disasters,” she said. “In the current climate, preparing for conflict is part of our responsibility.”

The same unease is felt at NATO headquarters. Secretary-General Mark Rutte has warned of the danger of simultaneous crises – a Russian attack on NATO and Chinese aggression against Taiwan.

He said such a scenario could bring the world to the brink of global war and urged allies to boost defence spending and weapons production.

French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing for the creation of a military force to secure any peace deal made between Russia and Ukraine.

Turkey, which boasts NATO’s second-largest army, is seen as a key player in any such move – especially given that Washington has ruled out sending US troops.

For its part, Ankara has said it is open to joining a peacekeeping mission.

“Macron finally came to terms [with the fact] that Turkey is an important player, with or without the peace deal. Turkey will have an important role to play in the Black Sea and in the Caucasus,” said Serhat Guvenc, professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.

Macron last month held a lengthy phone call with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, focused on the Ukraine conflict, and thanked him for his diplomatic efforts to end the war.

Turkey eyes Ukraine peacekeeping role but mistrust clouds Western ties

Turning point

For Professor Federico Donelli of Trieste University, this marks a dramatic turnaround. Previously, the two leaders have frequently exchanged sharp words, especially over Turkey’s rising influence in West Africa and the Sahel.

“In Paris, public opinion and the press criticised this move by Turkey a lot,” said Donelli. “At the same time, the rhetoric of some Turkish officers, including President Erdogan, was strongly anti-French. They were talking a lot about the neocolonialism of France and so on.”

Donelli added that cooperation over Ukraine has pushed France to reconsider its Africa stance.

“As a consequence of Ukraine, the position of France has changed, and they are now more open to cooperating with Turkey. And they [understand] that in some areas, like the Western Sahel, Turkey is better than Russia, better than China,” he said.

Analysts also see new openings in the Caucasus. A peace agreement signed in August between Azerbaijan, which was backed by Turkey, and Armenia, which was supported by France, could provide further common ground.

Macron last month reportedly pressed Erdogan to reopen Turkey’s border with Armenia, which has been closed since 1993. Turkish and Armenian officials met on the countries’ border on Thursday to discuss the normalisation of relations.

Turkey walks a tightrope as Trump threatens sanctions over Russian trade

‘Pragmatic cooperation’

But clear differences remain, especially when it comes to Syria. The rise to power of Turkish-backed President Ahmed al-Sharaa is seen as undermining any French role there.

“For Erdogan, the victory of al-Sharaa in Damascus on 24 December is the revenge of the Ottoman Empire, and Ankara doesn’t want to see the French come back to Syria,” said Fabrice Balanche, a professor of international relations at Lyon University.

Balanche argued that France is losing ground to Turkey across the region.

“It’s not just in Syria, but also in Lebanon – the Turks are very involved, and in Iraq, too. We [the French] are in competition with the Turks. They want to expel France from the Near East,” he said.

Despite this rivalry, Guvenc predicted cooperation will continue where interests align.

“In functional terms, Turkey’s contributions are discussed, and they will do business, but it’s going to be transactional and pragmatic cooperation, nothing beyond that,” he said.

One such area could be the Palestinian territories. Both Macron and Erdogan support recognition of a Palestinian state and are expected to raise the issue at this month’s United Nations General Assembly.

For now, shared interests are likely to outweigh differences – even if only temporarily.

A fragile power-sharing agreement between President Salva Kiir and Machar has been unravelling for months in the world’s youngest country.

In early March, a militia from Machar’s ethnic Nuer community known as the White Army attacked a military base in Nasir County, Upper Nile State in the northeast of the country.

The government says Machar was responsible and has now charged him and 20 others with murder, conspiracy, terrorism, treason, destruction of public property and crimes against humanity.

“These crimes were marked by gross violations of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, including the desecration of corpses, persecution of civilians, and attacks on humanitarian workers,” Justice Minister Joseph Geng Akech said, according to a read-out provided to reporters in Juba.

South Sudan risks return to war after opposition leader’s arrest, UN warns

Kiir soon after issued a presidential decree stripping Machar of his government position, along with another co-accused, petroleum minister Puot Kang Choi, according to a statement on state television.

The military base in Nasir was overrun by the White Army between 3 – 7 March.

Several senior officers including a general died and a United Nations helicopter came under fire while attempting to rescue soldiers at the base, leading to the death of a pilot.

‘Alarming regression’

“This case sends a clear message: those who commit atrocities against the people of South Sudan, against our armed forces, and against humanitarian personnel will be held accountable, no matter their position or political influence,” the minister said in the statement.

The UN, which operates a major peace-building mission in South Sudan, said at the time that the country was “witnessing an alarming regression that could erase years of hard-won progress”.

Kiir had already been moving for months to consolidate power and sideline Machar, who was placed under house arrest a few weeks after the attack, while many of his allies have also been detained.

UN Security Council extends South Sudan arms embargo

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 but was quickly plunged into a devastating five-year civil war between Kiir and Machar that left some 400,000 dead.

The war ended with a power-sharing agreement in 2018 but attempts by the international community to ensure a democratic transition have failed.

Elections that were due to take place in December 2024 were once again postponed for two years.

South Sudan has also made headlines after the United States deported eight convicted criminals to the country in July, only one of whom was South Sudanese.

(with AFP)

Mahama said 14 deportees – among them Nigerians and one Gambian – had arrived in Ghana before being sent on to their home countries.

“We were approached by the US to accept third-party nationals who were being removed from the US and we agreed with them that West African nationals were acceptable because all our fellow West Africans don’t need a visa to come to our country,” Mahama told journalists at a press conference.

He did not say how many people Ghana would ultimately agree to take in.

The deal comes as Washington raised tariffs on Ghanaian goods from 10 to 15 percent and limited visas for Ghanaians to single-entry permits valid for three months.

Ghana is now the fifth African nation to reach such an agreement with the US.

In August, Uganda’s foreign ministry said it would take deported migrants as long as they had no criminal records and were not unaccompanied minors. Rwanda also confirmed a deal with Washington in August.

Last week, South Sudan said it had repatriated a Mexican man who was deported from the US in July.

In July, men from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Cuba were flown to Eswatini.

Uganda strikes deal with Washington over migrants deported from the US

Deportation from US

US President Donald Trump has said he wants to step up removals of illegal immigrants and increase deportations to third countries.

At a rally in Arizona before the US presidential elections in November, Trump attacked the immigration record of his predecessor Joe Biden.

“We’re a dumping ground,” Trump told Republican supporters. “We’re like a garbage can for the world. That’s what’s happened.

“Every time I come up and talk about what they’ve [Biden] done to our country I get angry and angrier. First time I’ve ever said garbage can. But you know what? It’s a very accurate description.”

In February, hundreds of people were deported from the US to Panama, including some removed before their asylum claims could be heard.

Hundreds more were sent to El Salvador after the US government invoked an 18th century law to expel people it accused of being Venezuelan gang members. Some were deported despite judges in the US ordering planes to turn back.

(with newswires)

The recommendations follow a six-month inquiry into the psychological effects of TikTok on minors.

Laure Miller, who led the investigation, said the app’s addictive design and algorithm “has been copied by other social media”.

“Of course, banning children under 15 from social media should not be the tree that hides the forest,” Miller told fellow MPs before the report’s publication. “This is one measure among many, not a panacea.”

The committee was set up in March to examine TikTok’s effects on young people after a 2024 lawsuit against the platform. Seven families accused it of exposing their children to content encouraging suicide.

One of those parents, Géraldine, whose 18-year-old daughter took her own life last year, spoke to the French news agency AFP. After her daughter’s death, she discovered self-harm videos her daughter had shared and watched on TikTok.

“TikTok didn’t kill our little girl, because she wasn’t well in any case,” said the 52-year-old, who declined to give her last name.

But she accused the company of failing to moderate harmful content and pushing her daughter further into her struggles.

TikTok said the safety of young users was its “top priority”.

French parliament passes law regulating ‘jungle’ of social media influencers

TikTok testimony

Executives for TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDace, told the parliamentary committee that the app used AI-enhanced moderation that last year caught 98 percent of content infringing its terms of service in France.

But lawmakers deemed those efforts insufficient, and concluded TikTok’s rules were “very easy to circumvent”.

It also found that harmful content continued to proliferate on the app, and TikTok’s algorithm was effective in drawing young users into loops reinforcing such content.

The committee’s report suggested that the ban on under-15s using social media could be broadened to everyone under 18 if, within the next three years, the platforms did not respect European laws.

Its recommendation for a “digital curfew” for users aged 15 to 18 was for social media to be made unavailable to them between the hours of 10pm and 8am.

President Emmanuel Macron’s office has already indicated it wants to see a ban for children and young adolescents, after Australia last year started drafting its own law with a ban for those under 16.

France to sue Australian platform for ‘negligence’ after livestream death

‘Dopamine slot machine’

The move to set up the commission received cross-party support.

“TikTok is a dopamine slot machine,” said Socialist lawmaker Arthur Delaporte when the inquiry was established.

Although the commission was unable to investigate ongoing cases, it looked at whether or not the application proposed more dangerous content to vulnerable groups.

In 2022, a US study suggested that young users who expressed distress on the platform were shown, on average, 12 times more videos related to suicide and self-harm.

Last February, the European Union opened an investigation into whether TikTok does enough to protect minors.

(with newswires)

For many critics of French President Emmanuel Macron, his nomination of close ally Sebastien Lecornu to replace François Bayrou as prime minister is a slap in the face, and further proof that the government is ignoring people’s wishes.  Participants in a movement to shut down the country on Wednesday talk about feeling unheard, and draw comparisons with the anti-government Yellow Vest movement from 2018-2019. (Listen @0′)

Tourists have long been drawn to the “village” of Montmartre, with its famed Sacre Cœur basilica, artists’ square, winding cobbled streets, vineyards and pastel-shaded houses. But the rise of influencers and instagrammers who post picture-postcard decors, as featured in hit films and Netflix series, have turned it into a must-see destination. With tourists now outnumbering residents by around 430 to one, the cohabitation is under strain. Béatrice Dunner, of the Association for the Defence of Montmartre, is calling on local authorities to follow the example of Amsterdam and tackle overtourism before it’s too late. (Listen @13′)

On 15 September 1635, a group of French colonists claimed the Caribbean island of Martinique, establishing a plantation economy reliant on slavery. Its economic and cultural legacy continues to shape the island today as an overseas department. (Listen @6’35”)

Episode mixed by Cécile 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).

The African Union (AU) gathered all 54 member states at its headquarters in Ethiopia’s capital. The aim was to agree a common position ahead of Cop30 in Brazil this November.

The summit closed with the Addis Ababa Declaration – a plan that AU leaders say should reframe Africa not as a victim of climate change, but as a source of solutions.

Three pillars

Ethiopia’s President Taye Atske Selassie outlined the three main pillars of the Addis Ababa Declaration – with the first being to accelerate the development of renewable energy to make Africa “a green industrial power”.

“First, we will put our future into motion. We are committed to accelerating the development of renewable energy and infrastructure. This will not only make energy accessible, but it will also position Africa as a green industrial power,” he said.

The second pillar is the forming of a coalition of countries possessing key minerals, in order to ensure greater transparency and a fair share of the benefits, while the third is the protection of natural heritage.

Debates at the summit focused on reforming global climate finance to better serve African needs. Panelists spoke about the urgency of moving from a system driven by the priorities of donors, to one that addresses the needs of those impacted by climate change.

The AU’s Bankoye Adeoye told RFI he felt proud of the outcomes of the summit, saying: “We did not shy away from difficult conversations.” According to him, the goal is to open a new chapter in climate negotiations at COP30 in Brazil.

Africa Climate Summit puts financing and resilience under the spotlight

$50 billion a year

Africa emits just 4 percent of greenhouse gases but suffers disproportionately from the impact of global warming, so is calling for more funding towards climate change adaptation – in the name of what Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, chair of the AU Commission, called “climate justice”.

According to the Addis Ababa Declaration, Africa is aiming to secure $50 billion a year “to champion climate solutions”, with the establishment of the Africa Climate Innovation Compact and the African Climate Facility, sponsored by Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Abiy said the initiative should aim to deliver 1,000 solutions to tackle climate challenges by 2030.

But according to Professor Carlos Lopes, the African continent’s representative at COP30, these plans lack focus.

“In my opinion, it’s too broad. It covers too many topics that don’t have the same importance, and therefore it loses some of the will to influence and create the opportunity for a unified African voice,” he told RFI.

Africa Climate Summit 2023 ends on high, but huge challenges remain

‘Rich nations set the planet on fire’

According to a 2024 report by the World Meteorological Organisation, 48 of Africa’s 54 countries are at risk of flooding and 40 are at risk of drought, worsened by climate change. These hazards caused a loss of 2 to 5 percent of GDP each year. 

Given that industrialised nations have polluted the planet for more than 150 years, the promised funds to help Africa adapt to the effects of this fall far short of the required amount, said AU Commission chair Youssouf in his opening remarks.

Ghana unveils West Africa’s largest floating solar project, boosting renewable energy ambitions

“Today, the link between climate and underdevelopment is no longer in doubt,” he added. “Climate, rural exodus, migration and instability in all its forms are intertwined. The vulnerability of our member countries caused by climate change… must be redressed through climate justice… by providing financial resources, technology and expertise.”

“Rich polluting nations set the planet on fire, then sit back and send water droppers” to the developing world, Oxfam’s Africa director Fati N’Zi-Hassane echoed in a statement.

“They must take responsibility for the damage they are causing and adequately fund climate action in countries where climate change is wreaking havoc on communities that are least responsible for the crisis.”

(with newswires)

European Commission President von der Leyen used her annual speech to argue that the EU must “fight” for its position and defend “every inch” of its territory, after more than ten Russian drones violated Polish airspace overnight.

“Battlelines for a new world order based on power are being drawn right now,” she told MEPs at the European Parliament in Strasbourg in a crisp address.

“This must be Europe’s independence moment,” she said – a shift for the EU from market superpower to a strategic actor that can protect its borders, project stability and set rules others follow.

Poland calls NATO talks after downing Russian drones in airspace breach

Russian reparations

The incursion over Poland underscores that Russia’s war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year, is not contained neatly at the EU’s edge. 

Von der Leyen’s answer was blunt: bolster the bloc’s eastern flank “from the Baltic to the Black Sea”, invest in air defence and munitions, and treat territorial integrity as the bedrock of European security.

“We must invest in real-time space surveillance so that no movement of forces goes unnoticed. We must heed our Baltic friends and build a drone wall,” von der Leyen said, referring to the idea of deploying aerial vehicles along borders to monitor threats from Russia.

Von der Leyen pledged that EU support for Kyiv would endure and that Moscow should ultimately foot the bill. Brussels, she said, aims to channel frozen Russian assets into a new “reparations loan” to help rebuild Ukraine.

She also announced an international summit in Brussels focused on returning abducted Ukrainian children.

EU summons Russian envoy after mission damaged in Kyiv strike

Tougher sanctions for Gaza

Meanwhile on Gaza, the EU has struggled to define a common line even as public anger has surged.

Here von der Leyen signalled tougher action, in the form of proposed sanctions on “extremist” Israeli ministers and “violent settlers”.

The European Commission will also put bilateral support to the Israeli state on hold – while continuing to work with civil society and the Yad Vashem Holocaust remembrance centre.

“Man-made famine can never be a weapon of war. For the sake of the children, for the sake of humanity – this must stop,” von der Leyen said.

Free from unanimity

The measures on Israel will require the backing of member states, and von der Leyen acknowledged it would be “difficult to find majorities”.

More broadly, she called for the EU to “break free from the shackles of unanimity” in areas such as foreign policy, moving instead to “qualified majority”.

“We need to make sure our Union is faster and can deliver for Europeans,” she said.

Under fire from some quarters for a trade deal with US President Donald Trump, von der Leyen argued the agreement helped avert the “chaos” of a transatlantic trade war.

“The deal provides crucial stability in our relations with the US at a time of grave global insecurity,” she insisted.

(with newswires)

At the official handover ceremony in Paris, Lecornu, 39, promised a “profound break” in substance “and not just in form” as he took office from outgoing prime minister François Bayrou.

“There is a gap between real life and the political situation,” he said, adding that his government “will succeed” because “nothing is impossible”.

Bayrou, who resigned after losing a confidence vote in parliament, told the ceremony his team would “do everything to help the new government” as he left office.

Protests overshadow ceremony

Clashes broke out in several cities as police moved in to clear road blockades and sites occupied by demonstrators.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said 80,000 police and gendarmes had been deployed nationwide, including 6,000 in Paris, with orders of zero tolerance.

In the early hours, Retailleau told reporters that nearly 200 people had been detained. By mid-afternoon, the Interior Ministry reported nearly 300 arrests nationwide, including 183 in the Paris region.

Authorities said 430 protest actions had been recorded across France, ranging from roadblocks and demonstrations to attempts to occupy schools and transport hubs.

Later in the day, Paris police ordered the closure of the Châtelet-Les Halles complex after calls for looting circulated on social media. Metro and RER services there were suspended.

Thousands of protesters gathered at Place du Châtelet and Place de la République, joined by far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon and several of his deputies.

School blockades

Other blockades were carried out at several secondary schools, including Henri-IV and Lavoisier in the 5th arrondissement, Lamartine in the 9th, Voltaire in the 11th, Claude-Monet in the 13th and Hélène-Boucher in the 20th.

Around a hundred young people, some wearing hoods, gathered in front of Lavoisier with placards reading “We are blocking because we care about our mental health” and “To fill their coffers, Bayrou is picking our pockets”.

“We’re fed up because we feel like we’re the sacrificed generation,” Yonah, 17, a final-year student, told the French news agency AFP.

Bus depots and parts of the ring road were briefly occupied before being cleared by police using tear gas. An attempted intrusion at Gare du Nord was also stopped by police.

The RATP said metro and bus traffic was running nearly normally, though regional trains and RER services were heavily disrupted.

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said forces “will not tolerate any damage or blockades” and “will intervene systematically”.

Protesters accused Lecornu of being too close to President Emmanuel Macron and of planning to continue what they called the same austerity policies of previous governments.

“Block Everything” actions were organised via social media and included strikes, roadblocks and boycotts.

“This is a citizens’ initiative,” CGT secretary general Sophie Binet told RFI. She explained that union-led protests planned for 18 September would add to Wednesday’s mobilisation.

Will France’s ‘block everything’ movement jump from social media to the streets?

Elsewhere in France

In Lyon, Montpellier and Nantes, police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds. At Nantes prefecture, projectiles were thrown at officers.

In Marseille, thousands marched, with turnout estimates ranging from 8,000 by police to 30,000 by organisers and 80,000 claimed by the CGT. Police reported minor damage and used tear gas after a group tried to enter a shopping centre. A handful of arrests were also reported.

SNCF reported track occupations in Cherbourg and Valence Ville, along with overnight cable damage in the Bordeaux–Toulouse area that caused disruption before repairs were made.

Authorities also reported roadblocks around Rennes, Nantes, Poitiers, Aix-en-Provence and Toulouse.

Opposition support

Mélenchon, leader of the far-left party La France Insoumise, urged supporters to take part. “On the 10th, we will block everything to bring down Mr Macron himself, because he is responsible for the crisis,” he said.

Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure called for restraint, warning the movement risked sliding into chaos. On the right, National Rally spokesman Gaëtan Dussausaye said the protests had been “hijacked by the far left”.

Martin Garagnon, a national adviser for Macron’s Renaissance party, also voiced concern, saying: “Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants the convergence of struggles. The French will get the convergence of destruction.”

What’s behind France’s current political crisis?

Budget woes

Lecornu, a close ally of Macron who has served as defence minister since 2022, must now steer a national budget through a divided parliament. France has until 31 December to adopt its 2026 budget.

His team has promised “a change of method” in politics, though details have not been given.

But the balance of power in the National Assembly remains unchanged. Macron’s party lacks a majority, leaving Lecornu reliant on opposition support to pass legislation.

Socialist deputy Hervé Saulignac said Macron was sticking to “a path that no socialist will join”. Jordan Bardella, leader of the National Rally, wrote on X that Macron’s choice showed he was unwilling to change course, adding that his party would judge Lecornu “on results”.

Mathilde Panot, parliamentary leader of La France Insoumise, called the appointment “a provocation” and vowed: “We will censure him.”

‘Discreet’ new PM

Lecornu has held ministerial posts since 2017, including at the environment ministry, local government and overseas territories before becoming defence minister. He is viewed as loyal to Macron and not a political rival.

“He is discreet, loyal and measured. He will do things differently and has already started his consultations,” said a member of his team, quoted by FranceInfo.

The national health agency, Santé Publique France, reported this week that 382 infections had been confirmed across 38 clusters by 8 September, including 81 new cases in the previous seven days.

The mosquito-borne virus, which causes fever and severe joint pain, has been reported in southern regions for several years.

But this summer marks the first time a locally acquired case has been detected in Paris, where health officials have launched an overnight spraying campaign in the 11th arrondissement to contain the spread.

While several earlier clusters have now been declared over, the scale of this year’s outbreak is without precedent.

The largest hotspots remain in the south, with 71 cases in Antibes on the French Riviera, 54 in the Dordogne region and 97 across the Var and Bouches-du-Rhône departments.

Reunion Island on health alert after spike in chikungunya disease

Imported cases and climate links

Experts say the surge in infections is partly linked to a major chikungunya epidemic earlier this year in Réunion and the Indian Ocean region.

Travellers brought the virus back to mainland France, where the presence of the tiger mosquito – Aedes albopictus – allowed local transmission to take off.

Since May, authorities have logged 966 imported cases of chikungunya, alongside nearly 900 cases of dengue and seven of zika.

The spread also reflects a longer-term trend. Once absent from Europe, the tiger mosquito is now established in 81 French departments.

Its advance has been fuelled by warmer summers, urbanisation and increased international travel, which together create ideal conditions for both the insect and the viruses it can transmit.

Measuring the cost of mosquito bites

Other viruses in play

Chikungunya is not the only concern, as dengue, which is carried by the same mosquito, has caused 11 local clusters totalling 21 cases so far this season – well below the record 66 cases recorded last year.

The West Nile virus – transmitted by Culex mosquitoes – has been detected in 23 locally acquired cases, with infections beginning to appear beyond the traditional Mediterranean belt.

Chikungunya typically begins with sudden fever, intense joint pain, headache and fatigue.

Most patients recover fully, though symptoms can persist for weeks. Officials urge anyone who develops these symptoms within two weeks of a mosquito bite to seek medical advice and, crucially, to protect themselves from further bites to halt onward transmission.

Although a study published in The Lancet Planetary Health in May warned that chikungunya and dengue could become endemic in Europe, health authorities in France are keen to stress that swift intervention can keep outbreaks limited.

“This summer shows that rapid detection and targeted vector control remain highly effective tools,” an official at Santé Publique France noted.

(with newswires)

“On 28 September 2025, Moldova will hold the most consequential election in its history,” Sandu said in a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

“Today we face an unlimited hybrid war on a scale unseen before the full invasion of Ukraine – the Kremlin’s goal is clear, to capture Moldova through the ballot box, to use it against Ukraine and to turn us into a launch pad for hybrid attacks in the European Union.”

Sandu and her European allies have repeatedly accused Moscow of attempting to destabilise the former Soviet republic of 2.6 million people that lies between war-torn Ukraine and EU and NATO member Romania.

A vocal critic of Russia, in particular since the start of its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Sandu has steered Moldova to official EU accession talks that started in June 2024.

“Our European path is not just a matter of values, it is a matter of survival, and precisely because we have advanced greatly on this path, Russia has unleashed its arsenal of hybrid attacks against us,” Sandu said.

‘Unprecedented interference’: how Russia is attempting to shape Moldova’s future

“The battlefield is our elections.”

The Moldovan leader detailed a raft of alleged Russian tactics from illicit cryptocurrency financing, through disinformation campaigns on social media to direct vote buying.

“Moldova is not alone in protecting its democracy. The European Union has stood with us financially, technically and politically, and we are deeply grateful,” she said.

The EU has thrown its weight behind Moldova ahead of the election, with the leaders of Germany, France and Poland making a highly symbolic joint visit last month.

(with newswires)

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear musical requests from your fellow listeners Ali Shahzad, Jocelyne D’Errico, and a composition by B. Trappy.  

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

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Love is Stronger”, written and performed by B. Trappy; “Coups et Blessures” written by Adrien Gallo and performed by BB Brunes, and “Misty”, by Erroll Garner and Johnny Burke, performed by Sarah Vaughan with Quincy Jones and His Orchestra.

The ePOP video competition is open!

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

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

How do you do it?

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

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

Join the ePOP community and make reality vibrate!

Click here for all the information you need.

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

French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing for the creation of a military force to secure any peace deal made between Russia and Ukraine.

Turkey, which boasts NATO’s second-largest army, is seen as a key player in any such move – especially given that Washington has ruled out sending US troops.

For its part, Ankara has said it is open to joining a peacekeeping mission.

“Macron finally came to terms [with the fact] that Turkey is an important player, with or without the peace deal. Turkey will have an important role to play in the Black Sea and in the Caucasus,” said Serhat Guvenc, professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.

Macron last month held a lengthy phone call with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, focused on the Ukraine conflict, and thanked him for his diplomatic efforts to end the war.

Turkey eyes Ukraine peacekeeping role but mistrust clouds Western ties

Turning point

For Professor Federico Donelli of Trieste University, this marks a dramatic turnaround. Previously, the two leaders have frequently exchanged sharp words, especially over Turkey’s rising influence in West Africa and the Sahel.

“In Paris, public opinion and the press criticised this move by Turkey a lot,” said Donelli. “At the same time, the rhetoric of some Turkish officers, including President Erdogan, was strongly anti-French. They were talking a lot about the neocolonialism of France and so on.”

Donelli added that cooperation over Ukraine has pushed France to reconsider its Africa stance.

“As a consequence of Ukraine, the position of France has changed, and they are now more open to cooperating with Turkey. And they [understand] that in some areas, like the Western Sahel, Turkey is better than Russia, better than China,” he said.

Analysts also see new openings in the Caucasus. A peace agreement signed in August between Azerbaijan, which was backed by Turkey, and Armenia, which was supported by France, could provide further common ground.

Macron last month reportedly pressed Erdogan to reopen Turkey’s border with Armenia, which has been closed since 1993. Turkish and Armenian officials met on the countries’ border on Thursday to discuss the normalisation of relations.

Turkey walks a tightrope as Trump threatens sanctions over Russian trade

‘Pragmatic cooperation’

But clear differences remain, especially when it comes to Syria. The rise to power of Turkish-backed President Ahmed al-Sharaa is seen as undermining any French role there.

“For Erdogan, the victory of al-Sharaa in Damascus on 24 December is the revenge of the Ottoman Empire, and Ankara doesn’t want to see the French come back to Syria,” said Fabrice Balanche, a professor of international relations at Lyon University.

Balanche argued that France is losing ground to Turkey across the region.

“It’s not just in Syria, but also in Lebanon – the Turks are very involved, and in Iraq, too. We [the French] are in competition with the Turks. They want to expel France from the Near East,” he said.

Despite this rivalry, Guvenc predicted cooperation will continue where interests align.

“In functional terms, Turkey’s contributions are discussed, and they will do business, but it’s going to be transactional and pragmatic cooperation, nothing beyond that,” he said.

One such area could be the Palestinian territories. Both Macron and Erdogan support recognition of a Palestinian state and are expected to raise the issue at this month’s United Nations General Assembly.

For now, shared interests are likely to outweigh differences – even if only temporarily.

For many critics of French President Emmanuel Macron, his nomination of close ally Sebastien Lecornu to replace François Bayrou as prime minister is a slap in the face, and further proof that the government is ignoring people’s wishes.  Participants in a movement to shut down the country on Wednesday talk about feeling unheard, and draw comparisons with the anti-government Yellow Vest movement from 2018-2019. (Listen @0′)

Tourists have long been drawn to the “village” of Montmartre, with its famed Sacre Cœur basilica, artists’ square, winding cobbled streets, vineyards and pastel-shaded houses. But the rise of influencers and instagrammers who post picture-postcard decors, as featured in hit films and Netflix series, have turned it into a must-see destination. With tourists now outnumbering residents by around 430 to one, the cohabitation is under strain. Béatrice Dunner, of the Association for the Defence of Montmartre, is calling on local authorities to follow the example of Amsterdam and tackle overtourism before it’s too late. (Listen @13′)

On 15 September 1635, a group of French colonists claimed the Caribbean island of Martinique, establishing a plantation economy reliant on slavery. Its economic and cultural legacy continues to shape the island today as an overseas department. (Listen @6’35”)

Episode mixed by Cécile 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).

The bombing was attributed by Russian and Hungarian officials to Ukrainian drone forces, with Ukraine justifying the strike as part of its broader campaign against Russia following the latter’s invasion in 2022.

The strike resulted in oil flows to Hungary and Slovakia being cut off, and also exposed political divides at the heart of Central Europe’s energy security, sparking a diplomatic fallout between Kyiv, Budapest and Bratislava.

“The bombing drives home the point that Russian energy supplies remain a point of contest, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, which remains dependent on [oil] coming from the east,” said Andreas Goldthau, director of the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy at the University of Erfurt in Germany.

Pipeline dispute shows Central Europe’s struggle to cut ties with Russian oil

‘Not a matter of supply’

Despite EU-wide efforts to reduce reliance on Russian energy – which Goldthau acknowledges is “no longer a big issue for Europe as a whole” – Hungary and Slovakia stand as outliers, locked into long-term contracts and dependent on the Druzhba line.

When the pipeline was struck multiple times in August and September, forcing a halt to crude deliveries, both governments were forced to draw on strategic reserves.

But how Hungary and Slovakia are coping, is “more a political choice than anything else,” Goldthau told RFI.

“It is not a matter of supply, but a matter of price and transport logistics, because it could eat into the margins of refineries if you have to source it from other parts and other geographies.”

Central Europe, he added, “could source through ports in Croatia, and they could have done this already by now, but they chose not to”.

‘A political decision’

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government responded to the strike angrily, calling it “an attack on Hungary’s sovereignty”.

The country’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, said: “Ukraine knows very well that the Druzhba pipeline is vital for Hungary’s and Slovakia’s energy supply, and that such strikes harm us far more than Russia.”

Both Budapest and Bratislava have demanded EU intervention and accused Kyiv of jeopardising their security, just as reserves were being tapped to keep refineries running.

From Washington to Warsaw: how MAGA influence is reshaping Europe’s far right

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested the attacks might hinge on Hungary lifting its EU accession veto, warning: “The existence of the friendship depends on what Hungary’s position is.”

Ukrainian officials also say that Hungary and Slovakia have failed to diversify away from Russian oil, despite ample opportunity and EU support.

According to Goldthau, Russian leverage over the EU “is gone, by and large”. He explained: “The EU’s main suppliers are now the United States and Norway. Kazakhstan comes into play, but Russia no longer plays a role.”

Ukraine, he noted, “no longer gets any Russian oil or any Russian gas, it merely functions as a transit country”.

The attack and subsequent diplomatic spat might have provided Hungary and Slovakia “a perfect occasion to pivot and seek alternative supplies, but it’s a purely political decision to do that or not,” Goldthau said. “Whatever changes that [decision] lies at home, and not abroad.”

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. This week, you’ll hear musical requests from your fellow listeners Eric Mbotji, Hossen Abed Ali, and Jayanta Chakrabarty. 

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

Here’s the music you heard on this week’s program: “Seven Seconds” by Youssou N’Dour, Neneh Cherry, Cameron McVey, and Jonathan Sharp, performed by Youssou N’Dour and Neneh Cherry; “Babe” by Gary Barlow, played by Take That, and “Never Let You Go” written and performed by Klaus Waldeck and Patrizia Ferrara.

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In a move steeped in symbolism, Turkey’s leader chose recent celebrations marking the Ottoman Turks’ defeat of the Byzantine Christians at the Battle of Malazgirt in 1071 to issue an ultimatum to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

“Those who turn to Ankara and Damascus will win,” Erdogan bellowed to thousands of supporters on 26 August. “If the sword is unsheathed, there will be no room left for pens and words.”

Turkey, a strong ally of Syria, has a military presence in the country and the two governments recently signed a defence training agreement.

But Turkey is unhappy with the presence of the SDF, a coalition of Kurdish and Arab forces, which controls a large swathe of Syria bordering Turkey’s own predominantly Kurdish region.

Peace or politics? Turkey’s fragile path to ending a decades-long conflict

Buying time

The SDF is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has for years been fighting Turkey for greater Kurdish minority rights.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the European Union and the United States. But Ankara is engaged in a peace process with the Kurdish militants, who have committed to disbanding.

However, Kurdish analyst Mesut Yegen, of the TIM think tank in Istanbul, says the disarmament process would be limited to Kurds from Turkey, and doesn’t include SDF forces in Syria.

Erdogan is now ramping up pressure on the SDF to honour an agreement its leader Mazloum Abdi signed in March with Syria’s new President, Ahmed Al Sharaa, to merge his military forces with the new regime in Damascus.

The deal is backed by the US, which has a military force in the SDF-controlled region as part of its war against the Islamic State.

But, according to Fabrice Balanche from Lyon University: “The SDF has no intention of implementing the agreement made in March. Mazloum just wanted to gain time.”

Balanche points out that Abdi’s SDF is a staunchly secular organisation and remains deeply suspicious of Sharaa’s jihadist connections.

Recent attacks on Syria’s Druze minority by forces linked to Sharaa appear to confirm the SDF’s fears over merging with the Damascus regime, says Balanche.

Syria’s interim president vows justice for Druze after deadly clashes

‘Israel would like a weak Syria’

At the same time, Erdogan is aware that the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish state on its border could be exploited by its rival Israel, which is looking for non-Arab allies in the region.

Aydin Selcen, a former senior Turkish diplomat and an analyst for Turkey’s Mediyascope news outlet, said: “Strategically, Israel would like a weak Syria, a weak Damascus, a weak Beirut and a weak Tehran.”

Turkey has carried out military incursions against the SDF, and its forces remain massed on the border.

But Balanche says American presence there will likely deter any new Turkish military action. However, he warns that Ankara could seek to fuel Kurdish Arab rivalries within the SDF, with the fall of former ruler Bashar al-Assad last December.

Turkey walks a fine line as conflict between Israel and Iran cools

“It is different now, you have a Sunni leader in Damascus, and many [Arab] tribes, many people, prefer to join Damascus,” he explained.

“So the risk is a proxy war. Of course, for the new regime, it would be a disaster. If you have no peace, you have no investment, you have no trust.”

The dilemma facing Ankara is that any new conflict against the SDF would likely weaken the Sharaa regime – a key ally.

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.