RFI

African Heads of State convened for the 2026 African Union Summit last month at a critical time for the continent, amid escalating conflicts and democratic backsliding. This episode examines the AU's relationship with the United Nations, the European Union and the United States, and its place within a fractured global order. At the 39th African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capit...

In this episode of Spotlight on Africa, we're looking at the race for critical minerals on the continent. In the first week of February, around forty African delegations were invited to Washington DC for a summit dedicated to the issue. The leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo appear keen to sign deals, but much of the rest of Africa has been calling for better proposals and more robust mec...

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear your fellow listeners from around the world offering their World Radio greetings. There’s the answer to the question about France’s voluntary military service, The Sound Kitchen Mailbag, your answers to the bonus question on “The Listeners Corner” with Paul Myers, and a tribute to our Magic Mixer Erwan Rome on “Music FOR Erwan”. All that and the new quiz...

Community meals for students in France, who are increasingly facing hardship. Kids react to France's proposed social media ban for the under-15s. And the French explorer who became the first Western woman to travel to deepest Tibet.  Recent data shows one in two university students in France are skipping a meal each day and relying on food handouts. In response, the government is extending a 1-eur...

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear the answer to the question about the knockout tie in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations. There’s the Sound Kitchen Mailbag, your answers to the bonus question on “The Listeners Corner”, Ollia Horton’s “Happy Moment”, and a tasty musical dessert on Erwan Rome’s “Music from Erwan”. All that and the new quiz and bonus questions too, so click the “Play” button a...

In the episode, we examine recent US strikes in northern Nigeria and explore the experiences of the US African diaspora in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Nigeria has endured years of violence from extremist groups such as Boko Haram, but there is growing debate over whether a US intervention is the appropriate response. Meanwhile, in the US, many immigrants say they feel under threat as enforcement actio...

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear the answer to the question about the difference in “freedom of expression” between the US and the EU. There are your answers to the bonus question on “The Listeners Corner”, and a tasty musical dessert on Erwan Rome’s “Music from Erwan”. All that and the new quiz and bonus questions too, so click the “Play” button above and enjoy!  Hello everyone! Welcom...

How France negotiates drug prices and the impact of US President Donald Trump's pressure to raise them. The Paris bar celebrating sobriety as more people embrace Dry January. And the radioactive legacy of nuclear testing in French Polynesia. Saying he wants to lower the price of medication in the United States, President Donald Trump has been putting pressure on French President Emmanuel Macron to...

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear the answer to the question about Romanian defence strategy. There are your answers to the bonus question on “The Listeners Corner” with Paul Myers, and a tasty musical dessert on Erwan Rome’s “Music from Erwan”. All that and the new quiz and bonus questions too, so click the “Play” button above and enjoy!  Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen wee...

In this first episode of Spotlight on Africa for 2026, we look back at a very eventful first three weeks of January. We focus on the recent general elections in Uganda, Israel's recognition of Somaliland, and how both could have implications for the entire East Africa region and beyond. Over 21 million Ugandan citizens were called to the polls last Thursday in the country's general elections. Incu...

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear the answer to the question about the pandas in the Beauval Zoo. There are your answers to the bonus question on “The Listeners Corner” and a tasty musical dessert on Erwan Rome’s “Music from Erwan”. All that and the new quiz and bonus questions too, so click the “Play” button above and enjoy!  Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast,...

An alternative to a retirement home in a mansion near Toulouse, where residents have invented a new way of living together and contributing to society. The real-life David and Golliath story of the Parisian independent cinema that's reopening after years of fighting eviction. And the story behind France's annual census.  Scandals over abuse of the elderly in French care homes, combined with growin...

This week on The Sound Kitchen, it’s the answer to the question about the recently closed gallery in the Louvre Museum. You’ll hear about my recent trip to Copenhagen, where I met listener Hans Verner Lollike, there are your answers to the bonus question on “The Listeners Corner”, Ollia Horton’s “Happy Moment”, and it’s all topped off with a tasty musical dessert on Erwan Rome’s “Music from Erwan”...

This week on The Sound Kitchen you’ll hear our annual listener New Year’s Resolution show, co-hosted by my daughter Mathilde (as always!) There’s plenty of good music, too, to keep you in the holiday mood. Just click on the “Play” button above and enjoy!  Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday – here on our website, or wherever you get your podcasts....

Feast your ears on listener Rasheed Naz’s “My Ordinary Hero” essay. All it takes is a little click on the “Play” button above! Hello everyone! This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear a “My Ordinary Hero” essay by listener Rasheed Naz from Faisal Abad, Pakistan.  I hope you’ll be inspired to write an essay for us, too! If your essay goes on the air, you’ll find a package in the mail from The So...

This week on The Sound Kitchen, there’s a special Christmas programme from us to you.  Just click on the “Play” button above and enjoy! Hello everyone! Merry Christmas! This is Alberto Rios’ poem, which you heard him read on the programme. Christmas on the Border, 1929 1929, the early days of the Great Depression. The desert air was biting, but the spirit of the season was alive. Despite hard time...

France's largest Braille publisher struggles to continue producing embossed books in the digital age. Researchers delve into people's guts with a large-scale study on the French population's microbiome. And Louise Bourgeois, the French midwife who in 1609 became the first woman in Europe to publish a book about medicine. As France marks 200 years since Louis Braille invented his system of raised d...

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear the answer to the question about the water hyacinths in Ghana. There’s The Sound Kitchen mailbag, your answers to the bonus question on “The Listeners Corner” with Paul Myers, and a tasty musical dessert on Erwan Rome’s “Music from Erwan”. All that and the new quiz and bonus questions too, so click the “Play” button above and enjoy!  Hello everyone! Welc...

In this new episode of Spotlight on Africa, we explore perspectives on African history - from across the continent with UNESCO, which has just released the final three volumes of its General History of Africa, and from the Congo, through the insights of artist and filmmaker Sammy Baloji. For this final episode of 2025, we look back at the full sweep of the African continent’s history. Sixty years...

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear the answer to the question about women’s concerns in Côte d’Ivoire. There are your answers to the bonus question on “The Listeners Corner”, Ollia Horton’s “Happy Moment”, and a tasty musical dessert on Erwan Rome’s “Music from Erwan”. All that and the new quiz and bonus questions too, so click the “Play” button above and enjoy!  Hello everyone! Welcome t...

What France can learn from Italy's fight against the mafia as it tackles its growing problem with drug-related organised crime. A look at France's new military service. And wrapping Paris's oldest bridge, 40 years after it was transformed by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The recent murder in Marseille of 20-year-old Mehdi Kessaci, the younger brother of a well-known anti-drugs campaigner, has...

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear the answer to the question about the OTHER famous theft from the Louvre Museum. There are your answers to the bonus question on “The Listeners Corner”, and a tasty musical dessert on Erwan Rome’s “Music from Erwan”. All that and the new quiz and bonus questions too, so click the “Play” button above and enjoy!  Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen...

In this new episode of Spotlight on Africa, we hear from Sudanese people fleeing the atrocities in El Fasher. We also reflect on a year of South Africa’s presidency of the G20, which held its final major summit of the year this weekend in Johannesburg. And, in the final segment of the episode, we turn to the world of the arts. In Sudan, the UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, said last week tha...

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you’ll hear the answer to the question about the Gen Z demonstrations in Morocco. There are your answers to the bonus question on “The Listeners Corner” with Paul Myers, and a tasty musical dessert to wrap it all up.  All that and the new quiz and bonus questions too, so click the “Play” button above and enjoy!  Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly po...

A decade after the 2015 Paris terror attacks, France continues to pass security laws, sometimes to the detriment of civil liberties. A feminist journalist's take on the Pelicot mass rape trial. And the auction of the Pascaline, one of the world's earliest calculators, is halted. Immediately following the Paris attacks on 13 November, 2015, the French government put in place a nationwide state of e...